How to Reboot or Shut Down Your ESXi Host

You can power off or restart any ESXi host using the vSphere Client. Powering off a managed host disconnects it from vCenter Server, but does not remove it from the inventory.

To shut down or reboot an ESXi host, you can use the ESXCLI command set. See the Stopping and Rebooting Hosts with ESXCLI topic in the ESXCLI Concepts and Examples documentation at https://developer.vmware.com.

Prerequisites

• Power off all virtual machines that are running on the host, or migrate the virtual machines to a new host by using vMotion.
• Put the host in maintenance mode.

Procedure

1. In the vSphere Client home page, navigate to Home > Hosts and Clusters and select a host.
2. From the Actions menu, select Power.
3. Select the operation.
   • To power off and restart the ESXi host, click Reboot.
   • To power off the ESXi host, click Shut Down.
4. Provide a reason for the operation and click OK.
   This information is added to the log file.