The basic power operations for a virtual machine include powering on, powering off, suspending, reset, and hard stop. These power options are analogous to the power operations on a physical computer.

For information about how to change the virtual machine power states, see Configure the Virtual Machine Power States.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the following privileges:
  • VirtualMachine.Interaction.PowerOn
  • VirtualMachine.Interaction.PowerOff
  • VirtualMachine.Interaction.Suspend
  • VirtualMachine.Interaction.Reset

Procedure

  1. Navigate to a virtual machine in the inventory.
  2. Right-click the virtual machine or click Actions, and select Power.
  3. Select a power operation.
    Option Description
    A power on icon Power On Powers on a virtual machine when the virtual machine is stopped.
    A power off icon Power Off Powers off a virtual machine. Powering off a virtual machine might cause loss of data within the guest operating system.
    A suspend icon Suspend Suspends a running virtual machine and leaves it connected to the network. When you resume a suspended virtual machine, the virtual machine continues operating at the same point the virtual machine was at when it was suspended.
    A reset icon Reset Restarts the guest operating system. By using this operation, the virtual machine powers off and then powers on. By resetting a virtual machine, you might lose all unsaved information within the guest operating system.
    A hard stop icon Hard stop You can use this operation only when you cannot power off a virtual machine or if a virtual machine becomes unresponsive. When you hard stop a virtual machine, all processes are ended and the virtual machine is powered off. By using this operation, you might lose all unsaved information.