Enable vSphere DPM on a cluster to save power in a VMware vSphere 6.7 infrastructure

6. Test sleeping and waking up a host (with VMs powered on)

As stated previously, each host's sleep and wake should be tested for all hosts in the cluster.
Of course, there will come a day when vSphere DPM will want to sleep a host with one or more virtual machines powered on to save power.
To do this, it will automatically migrate the virtual machines from this host to one or more hosts in your cluster.

You can therefore test the standby of a host with powered-on virtual machines without migrating the VMs manually before the test.
To do this, select this host and click: Actions -> Power -> Enter Standby Mode.

Again, a warning is displayed telling you that the last sleep attempt failed or that it never exited sleep mode.
You will also see a warning that the hibernation will be performed once all virtual machines on this host are shut down or migrated to another host (depending on the choice made at the top of the window).

Plain Text

Virtual machines must be powered off or migrated.
There are one or more virtual machines enabled on host [host name].
The requested operation will continue after all virtual machines are powered on or migrated to another host.

Check the box "Move powered off and suspended virtual machines to other hosts in the cluster" to automatically migrate VMs from this host to another in this cluster before putting this host to sleep, then click OK.

Several tasks will be launched:

Migrate the virtual machine - Migration of the active state of the virtual machine: priority tasks concerning the migration of VMs from the host to be put to sleep to another host in the cluster.
Enter Standby Mode: primary task that will put the host to sleep once all virtual machines have been migrated or powered off (depending on your choice above).

In our case, our virtual machine "VCSA" is currently on host "esxi2" which we are trying to put to sleep.

Once the migration of this virtual machine is complete, we can see that it is now running on our host "esxi1".
Which frees our host "esxi2".

Wait while your host goes to sleep.

As expected, this host was put to sleep without shutting down the virtual machines located there.

To test waking up this host, click: Actions -> Power -> Power On.

The task "Exit Standby Mode". This can last several minutes (4-5 minutes).

As expected, your host is back online and functional.

Note that the VM will not be migrated the other way again. Unless DRS thinks it is necessary.

If you re-select your cluster and go back to "Configure -> Configuration -> Host Options", you will see that a date will appear in the "Last woken from sleep mode" column for all your hosts.
If this is not the case for you, test this sleep and wake on the other hosts in your cluster as well.

7. Enable vSphere DPM (Distributed Power Management)

Now that everything is configured and tested according to VMware recommendations, you can enable power management for your hosts using vSphere DPM.
To do this, select your cluster and go to: Configure -> Services -> vSphere DRS.
Then, click on the button: Edit.

In the "Edit Cluster Settings" window that appears, enable vSphere DRS (if it is not already done).
This is because vSphere DPM cannot be enabled alone, as it depends on vSphere DRS.
Otherwise, the "DPM - Enable" box will be grayed out.

Then, in the "Power Management" tab, you will find settings regarding vSphere DPM:

DPM: allows you to enable or not the DPM (Distributed Power Management) feature which saves energy or frees one or more hosts which will be put on standby automatically.
Automation level:
- Manual: only recommendations will be made regarding host power operations and virtual machine migration.
- Automatic: host power operations and VM migration will be performed when necessary.
DPM threshold: allows you to control the number of recommendations that will be made by DPM.
If you place the slider to the left, only very important recommendations will be offered or executed (depending on the level of automation selected above).
If you place the slider a little further to the right, important recommendations will be offered or executed.
If you move the slider to the far right, DPM will make many more recommendations, including less important recommendations.
By default, the cursor is placed in the center.

At least check the "Enable" box and click OK.

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In the "vSphere DRS" section, you will see the desired power management mode appear.

If you expand the "Power Management" section, you will see:

its automation level (DPM) and what this implies.
the selected DPM threshold and what this implies. In our case, we left the default value.

In the "Summary" tab of your cluster, you will also find a "vSphere DRS" section where you can find out the power management automation (DPM) level selected previously.