Lefthand P4000 VSA

[stant0sgsy]

I am trying to get my head round something, and would like a bit of input if possible!

I have a requirement to set up a controlled shutdown of my ESXi guests, (which include HP P4000 VSA's) - this is required in case of powerfailure...I already have APC's PCNS working lovely on a vMA but I specifically want my VSA's to shutdown through (HP P4000) SAN/iQ CLiQ command. (which HP advise to do...)

I can issue the shutdown command of the HP P4000 Management Group perfectly fine, but the problem is I can't seem to exclude the P4000 VSA guests from a VMware shutdown (which is initiated by the loss of power monitored by PowerChute Network Shutdown)

It results in the VSA's being shutdown through ESXi rather than SAN/iQ CLiQ command. With me so far?

I guess the question is; Can I exclude specific VM's from the shutdown priority list (that doesnt include removing VMTools from my VSA's) so I can then run my script to shutdown the P4000 Management Group once all 'allowed' guests have shutdown?

Also, as a side question, and I don't expect an answer. What risk, if any, is there if I just choose to (gracefully) shutdown the VSA's from ESXi and not directly from CMC or CLi. I guess I need see what is run on VSA when a 'shutdownGroup' command is run, and maybe script that in....??

Help would be apprciated!

Regards,

Steve