ShutdownPlus Standard

Contents
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart Power-Cycle Solution ……………………………………………… 2
How to Implement ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart for Power-Cycling ……………………. 3
Power-cycling / Restart Costs ………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
Server Restart / Power-Cycle Options ……………………………………………………………………… 9
Hardware and Software Requirements ………………………………………………………………….. 10
Power-Cycling VMware VMs automatically with ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart 1
Introduction
You already know the advantages of using VMware VMs on ESXi hosts. And, if you’re
using them with Independent and Nonpersistent disks, the VMs get restored to their
main image at each power off/power on cycle.
Additionally, if your VMs are used as terminal servers, you also know it’s an industry
standard practice to restart them periodically to clear issues and keep top performance.
But, in order to have minimal impact to end-users, administrators must babysit the
servers and/or schedule a “restart window” for the server restarts. This wastes both administrators’ time and company resources, and impacts end users through work interruptions and/or server downtime. Even with standard servers, you may have decided
there’s a benefit from doing a power-cycle periodically to restore the main servers’ image. Thinking of using a script to do all of this? Scripts can’t go near the levels that
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart goes into the operating system to ensure reliable and
clean restarts. And they all call (or internally call) shutdown.exe, tsshutdown.exe, or a
public common API to restart the server.
How, then, do you combine both of the benefits of power-cycling your ESXi VMs with
zero-impact to end users? By using ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart to automate powercycling for your VMs! Its patent-pending process enables administrators to automati automati automatically restore the VM’s main image without impact to ly restore the VM’s main image without impact to main image without impact toany end users any end users any end users!The software has been
in use worldwide for over 13 years, and from the beginning its core functionality has always been about refreshing terminal servers without impacting end-users.
Power-Cycling VMware VMs automatically with ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart 2
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart Power-Cycle Solution
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart (RR) communicates with ESXi hosts to power-cycle (power
off, then power on) VMs. The benefits of this configuration is that each VM’s master image is restored automatically, without impacting end-users.
The VMs and ESXi hosts must be configured as follows:
1. Each VM that is power-cycled in a group must be setup with an Independent Independent
and Nonpersistent disk. and Nonpersistent disk
2. Each VM must have the ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart client installed in its main
image.
3. Each ESXi host must have its SSH server enabled and running (ShutdownPlus
Rolling Restart uses both APIs and SSH commands to communicate with ESXi
hosts). By default, SSH is running and enabled on port 22, unless the administrator has modified these parameters.
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart must be configured as follows:
1. Each ESXi host must be setup within the ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart console.
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart dynamically queries for the location of the server
VM defined within ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart groups.
2. ESXi hosts can be verified for correct logon credentials and port from within the
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart console.
In ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart’s user processing method of “Silent Mode”, users are
unaware and not impacted as ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart waits for them to logoff on
their own or within 3rd party software idle timeout configuration settings. Once all users
are logged off, ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart powers off the server. After communicating with the ESXi host and checking various parameters, the ShutdownPlus Rolling
Restart powers on the VM, which uses its main image.
Now a perfectly ‘new’ VM image is available, and it all took place with no administrator with no administrator
intervention and with no user impact. intervention and with no user impact
Power-Cycling VMware VMs automatically with ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart 3
How to Implement ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart for Power-Cycling
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart is configured the same as a restart schedule, with just two
additional steps: 1) Define the ESXi hosts, and 2) Choose the power-cycle schedule option. Follow these steps to implement ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart for your ESXi VMs:
1) Prepare for rollout
ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart consists of two parts: a console and a client. The console
is where all configuration takes place, and the client software is required for the advanced functions needed to ensure a successful power off. Only one console is needed,
but there can be multiple consoles in complex environments, The console needs to be
installed on a management server/workstation that is available 24/7 because it manages
all of the clients and communicates with them to initiate actions. For flexibility, the console can be installed on any Windows server or workstation on the network.
2) Install the console
Once you have decided on a console computer, install the setup program on the console.
IMPORTANT: During installation, the setup will ask for logon credentials for the ShutdownPlus Rolling Restart service. These credentials are preferably from a Domain Administrator account, but they can be from any account that is a member of the client
computers’ Administrators group. This example uses the administrator logon from domain STJ: