You must shut down the system components in a strict order to avoid data loss and faults in the components.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have direct console access to the switches and ESXi hosts in the system.
  • Coordinate the shutdown in advance with business stakeholders to minimize any impact.
  • Verify that no VMs are running on snapshots.
  • Verify that you have saved the account passwords to a location external from the VMware Cloud Foundation system you are shutting down. See Look Up Account Credentials.
  • Verify that valid backups of all management VMs, tenant VMs, and switch configurations are available and saved to a location external from the VMware Cloud Foundation system you are shutting down.
  • If a data protection solution is running on any of the domains, verify that it is properly shut down according to the vendor instructions.
  • See Knowledge Base article 2142676 Shutting down and powering on a vSAN 6.x Cluster when vCenter Server is running on top of vSAN for information about verifying the state of the vSAN cluster before a shutdown.

Procedure

  1. Before starting the shutdown procedure, note down the following information:
    • The hostname and IP address of the ESXi hosts that are members of the management domain. To see the hosts in the management domain, navigate to the Hosts tab on the Domain Details page in SDDC Manager UI.
    • The hostname and IP address of the ESXi hosts that are members of each workload domain. To see the hosts in the VI workload domains, for each domain navigate to the Hosts tab on the Domain Details page in SDDC Manager UI.
  2. Shut down the VMs in each Horizon domain (if any).
    1. On the SDDC Manager Dashboard, navigate to the Horizon domain.
    2. Click the launch link (Launch link icon that indicates a link in the EVO SDDC Manager UI launches another web UI) for the vCenter Server instance that is displayed in the Service tabs in the domain details window for that Horizon domain.
      A new browser tab opens and displays the vSphere Web Client.
    3. Locate the VMs for that Horizon domain.
    4. Shut down these VMs.
    5. Perform the above steps for each Horizon domain.
  3. Shut down the workload VMs in each VI workload domain.
    1. On the SDDC Manager Dashboard, navigate to the workload domain.
    2. Click the launch link (Launch link icon that indicates a link in the EVO SDDC Manager UI launches another web UI) for the vCenter Server instance that is displayed in the Service tabs in the domain details window for that workload domain.
      A new browser tab opens and displays the vSphere Web Client.
    3. Locate the VMs for that workload domain.
    4. Shut down these VMs.
      Note: Each NSX for vSphere workload domain includes a three-node NSX Controller cluster. Shut down these VMs last.
    5. Perform the above steps for each VI workload domain.
  4. Place the hosts for each VI workload domain in maintenance mode.
    You must use the ESXCLI command, which supports setting the vSAN mode when entering maintenance mode.
    1. For each ESXi host, connect and log in to the ESXi console using SSH.
    2. Place each host into maintenance mode using the following command, with the noAction option included. 
      esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction
    3. After a few minutes, confirm each host is in maintenance mode by repeating the command. 
      esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction
      It should return the following: 
      Maintenance mode is already enabled.
    4. Shut down all the ESXi hosts in the VI workload domain. 
      # poweroff
    5. Repeat the above steps for each VI workload domain.
  5. Shut down the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance in the management domain.
  6. Shut down the vRealize Log Insight virtual appliances in the management domain in the following order:
    Important: Verify that the console of each virtual appliance and its services are fully shut down before proceeding to the next step.
    • All vRealize Log Insight Worker nodes.
    • The vRealize Log Insight Primary node.
  7. Shut down the vRealize Operations Manager virtual appliances in the management domain in the following order:
    Important: Verify that the console of each virtual appliance and its services are fully shut down before proceeding to the next step.
    • All vRealize Operations Manager Remote Collector nodes.
    • All vRealize Operations Manager Data nodes.
    • The vRealize Operations Manager Replica node.
    • The vRealize Operations Manager Primary node.
  8. Shut down the vRealize Automation virtual appliance and IaaS components in the management domain in the following order:
    Important: Verify that the console of each virtual appliance or VM and its services are fully shut down before proceeding to the next step.
    • All vRealize Automation IaaS Distributed Execution Management (DEM) VMs.
    • All vRealize Automation IaaS Proxy Agent VMs.
    • All vRealize Automation IaaS Manager Server VMs.
      Note:

      Shut down the secondary IaaS Manager Server VM first; shut down the primary IaaS Manager Server VM second.

    • All vRealize Automation IaaS Web Server VMs.
      Note:

      Shut down the secondary IaaS Web Server VM first; shut down the primary IaaS Web Server VM second.

    • All vRealize Automation virtual appliances.
    • The vRealize Automation IaaS SQL Server VM.
  9. Shut down the infrastructure management virtual appliances in the management domain in the following sequence.
    1. Shut down the following virtual appliances using the SSH console, verifying that the console of each virtual appliance and its services are fully shut down before proceeding to the next step.
      • All NSX Edge Service Gateway virtual appliances.
      • The NSX Manager virtual appliances for the VI workload domains.
      • The NSX Manager virtual appliance for the management domain.
      • All NSX Controller cluster virtual appliances for the management domain.
    2. Shut down the remaining virtual appliances or VMs from their hosts in the ESXi Host Client on each management ESXi host.
      • The vCenter Server virtual appliance for the management domain.
      • The SDDC Manager VM.
      • The Platform Services Controller virtual appliances.
  10. Place the management domain ESXi hosts in maintenance mode.
    You must use the ESXCLI command that supports setting the vSAN mode when entering maintenance mode.
    1. For each ESXi host, connect and log in to the ESXi console using SSH.
    2. Put each host into maintenance mode using the following command, with the noAction option included. 
      # esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction
    3. After a few minutes, confirm each host is in maintenance mode by repeating the command. 
      esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction
      It should return the following: 
      Maintenance mode is already enabled.
    4. Shut down all the ESXi hosts in the management domain. 
      # poweroff
  11. Shut down the unassigned ESXi hosts in the VMware Cloud Foundation system, if any.
    1. For each unassigned ESXi host, connect and log in to the ESXi console using SSH.
    2. Shut down each unassigned ESXi host. 
      # poweroff