You can configure how vSphere Lifecycle Manager behaves before and during remediation against a baseline or a baseline group. The remediation settings help ensure that vSphere Lifecycle Manager puts ESXi hosts in maintenance mode before remediation.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager might behave differently during remediation against an image and against a baseline.

You cannot use vMotion to migrate virtual machines that run on individual hosts. If vCenter Server cannot migrate the virtual machines to another host, you can configure how vSphere Lifecycle Manager responds. You can also configure how vSphere Lifecycle Manager responds when a host fails to enter maintenance mode.

Hosts that are in a vSAN cluster can enter maintenance mode only one at a time. This behavior is a peculiarity of the vSAN cluster. For more information about the vSphere Lifecycle Manager behavior during the remediation of hosts in a vSAN cluster, see vSAN Clusters and vSphere Lifecycle Manager.

When you use vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines, you can configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to let other software initiate the remediation of PXE booted ESXi hosts. The remediation installs software modules on the hosts, but typically those host updates are lost after a reboot. To retain updates on stateless hosts after a reboot, use a PXE boot image that contains the updates. You can update the PXE boot image before applying the updates with vSphere Lifecycle Manager, so that the updates are not lost because of a reboot. vSphere Lifecycle Manager itself does not reboot the hosts, because it does not install updates requiring a reboot on PXE booted ESXi hosts.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager.Configure

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view.
    1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Lifecycle Manager.
    2. Select a vCenter Server system from the Lifecycle Manager drop-down menu.
      The drop-down menu is available only when multiple vCenter Server systems are connected by a common vCenter Single Sign-On domain. By selecting a vCenter Server system, you specify which vSphere Lifecycle Manager instance you want to administer.
  2. On the Settings tab, select Host Remediation > Baselines.
  3. Click the Edit button.
    The Edit Settings for Host Remediation dialog box opens.
  4. Configure the baselines remediation settings and click Save.
    Option Description
    VM power State You can configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to power off or suspend all running virtual machines before host remediation. Alternatively, you can configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager not to change the power state of the virtual machines.
    Maintenance mode failures You can configure how vSphere Lifecycle Manager behaves if a host fails to enter maintenance mode before remediation. If you enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager to retry to put the host in maintenance mode, you must specify the number of retries and the retry delay. vSphere Lifecycle Manager waits for as much time as you configure for the Retry Delay option, and retries to put the host in maintenance mode as many times as you indicate in the Number of retries text box.
    PXE booted hosts You can allow the installation of software for solutions on the PXE booted ESXi hosts in the vSphere inventory that you manage withvSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines.
    VM migration If you enable virtual machine migration by selecting the respective option, vSphere Lifecycle Manager migrates the suspended and powered off virtual machines from the hosts that must enter maintenance mode to other hosts in the cluster.
    Removable media devices vSphere Lifecycle Manager does not remediate hosts on which virtual machines have connected CD/DVD or floppy drives. All removable media drives that are connected to the virtual machines on a host might prevent the host from entering maintenance mode and interrupt remediation. So, you can disconnect all removable media devices to ensure that the respective host enters maintenance mode successfully. After remediation, vSphere Lifecycle Manager reconnects the removable media devices if they are still available.
    Quick Boot Quick Boot reduces the host reboot time during remediation. Before you enable Quick Boot, you must ensure that the ESXi host is compatible with the feature. For more information, see Quick Boot.
    Parallel remediation Enabling parallel remediation allows you to remediate multiple ESXi hosts simultaneously. By selecting the Parallel remediation option, you enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager to remediate all hosts that are in maintenance mode in parallel instead of in sequence. Alternatively, you can specify the maximum number of concurrent remediations manually.

    If the hosts have NSX-T virtual distributed switches that are ready to be migrated to vSphere Distributed Switches, you must manually set the maximum number of parallel remediations to no more than 4. In cases when host switch migration is needed, if more than 4 hosts are remediated in parallel, the remediation might fail, because the host switch migration takes more time than the time vSphere Lifecycle Manager needs to complete the parallel remediation.

Results

These settings become the default failure response settings with vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines. You can specify different settings when you configure individual remediation tasks.