VMware ESXi 6.7 & 7.0: Autostart VMs

Have your shiny new Virtual Machine all set up in ESXi? Wondering how to make it Autostart in case of power failure or other host restart scenarios? This mini guide is for you!

Making ESXi auto boot VMs is very simple, these tools are designed for us dumb humans after all.

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  1. On the VMware ESXi web management page, go to “Manage“.
  2. Under the “System” tab, click on “Autostart“.
  3. Click “Edit Settings“.
  4. Tick “Yes” for the “Enabled” box, then “Save
  5. Below that, select the Virtual Machines you want to auto start and click “Enable” above them.
  6. (Optional) Configure the start/stop timer and stop action by going to “Configure
  7. You’re done, sit back and enjoy your coffee… or keep working.

It’s a good idea to schedule a test reboot to confirm they fire back up as intended. Obviously if it’s your home lab or a non production server this is much easier!

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This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Basse

    Even tho I selected “shutdown host” as policy, when I try to reboot ESXI I get this:
    “Shutting down or rebooting a host that is not in maintenance mode will not safely stop the running virtual machines on this host.”

    So I’m confused, how can I do a shutdown or reboot of ESXI host that automatically stops the VM’s?

    1. John Keen

      Hi, I haven’t seen this one. My only thought is did you add a stop delay as shown in the screen shot? Mines set to 120 there.

      Good luck!

  2. Todor

    Thank you!

    1. John Keen

      No Problem!

  3. Joe

    Does this work even if the esxi hosts are part of an HA cluster?

    Thanks,
    Joe

  4. Paras

    Thanks. It really helped

  5. md irfan

    Autostart option only used for ESXI

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