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I wondered if it is possible to access some functions of a ESXi Server over the network, while the server has a PSOD. The Server is running ESXi 5.1.

The server cannot be pinged, but is there some kind of network debug function?

mario.schlipf
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4 Answers4

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You can debug from the console and generate a crash dump.

Ideally, you have some sort of out-of-band management of your physical ESXi host like IPMI, DRAC or ILO. If not, you should :)

Otherwise, you would need to physically be in front of the system to get out of your PSOD state.

In general, VMware should not PSOD. There have been some specific and dangerous issues that impacted certain builds of ESXi, but most VMware issues can be traced back to a need for updates/patching.

Can you provide more detail on your real issue? Version and build of ESXi, hardware, etc.

Community
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ewwhite
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You'll need to use the server's out of band management interface (IPMI, iDRAC, ILO, etc.) to reboot the server.

Michael Hampton
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is there some kind of network debug function?

No - you need to iLO/DRAC/send-someone to restart the machine.

Chopper3
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Good answer & additional ones suggesting sending someone else to reboot the server! / iLO / DRAC / IPMI

For those not wanting a Production server down for any time at all, recommend turning ESXi PSOD Auto Reboot ON as by default it is OFF:

Web console > Select 'Host' > Actions > Services > Enable Secure Shell (turn OFF SSH afterwards)

Bitwise SSH / Putty client to connect to the Host CLI (if user does not work try root) type:

esxcfg-advcfg -s 60 /Misc/BlueScreenTimeout

For those who insist it is a required debugging measure, 60 seconds or more should be long enough to take a screenshot remotely / photo for debugging later on to fix a reoccurring problem... Otherwise a non-production dev server should be available as a clone of hardware & settings for testing in the lab in parallel. That server can have the default of -s 0 instead which leaves the PSOD on screen forever and the entire Host Server down with no operational Guest VMs!

social
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