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Like many others I have jumped on the VMware bandwagon. We are hosting all of our data on an Equalogic SAN and need a "gracefull" way to shut down the VMs and the SAN if the battery backups reach a certain level. (similar to what PowerChute did for physical windows boxes). Has anyone out there run into this issue or have a possible solution?

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I posted this question on Experts-Exchange.com and user hanccocka provided the best response to my question.

The APC software installs in the vMA.

The software is called PowerChute Network Shutdown v3.0.0 for VMWare ESXi

this is the link to the free download

http://www.apc.com/tools/download/software_comp.cfm?sw_sku=SFPCNS300&id=127&family=&part_num=&swfam=127&tsk=##

you will need to login to APC to download.

Once you have download and extracted the pcns300ESXi.tar.gz, there is a Installation.pdf document which guides you through the installation.

You must have a supported APC Smart UPS and APC Network Management card.

For ESXi:

  • You need to install PCNS on a VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA, also known as (vMA) instance running on the ESXi server.

  • You must add the ESXi server as a fastpass target for that VIMA/ vMA using the command - vifp addserver. (See the VMware guide for administrators and developers for information on adding a target server to VIMA).

vMA is a Linux-based vSphere virtual machine that is pre-installed with a command-line interface and select third-party agents needed to manage your vSphere infrastructure.

Download here for vMA

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vima/

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I don't see anything that gracefully shuts down the EQL, you could do this remotely via SSH and a script that is kicked off at the end of the vmware guest powerdown processes. – SpacemanSpiff Oct 27 '11 at 20:11
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The EQL HIT kit / Scripting Kit includes a script for restarting an array; I think it can be extended to halt an array as well. You'll want to add it into a script, called by whatever monitors the APC, do stop the VMs happily, poweroff the ESX hosts, and then shutdown the array. Ideally you'd be able to test how long the whole process takes, so you know if you have enough battery runtime for it to complete.

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