NA> As I run my own Email server... I take the UPS-emails generated from the
NA> APC daughtercard when power goes to battery-state and execute a simple
NA> DOS batchfile which just creates a dummy file in an SMB share.
NA> 
NA> All of the VM's check every 15 minutes to half-hour for the presence of
NA> that dummy file. If it exists, they shutdown. Call it a simple
NA> "heartbeat" event.

That is very creative!  I actually do something similar to kickoff mail tossing
events for my classic WWIV BBS using a Windows program called AutoMate.  You can
create events to check for a file to exist in a directory, modified file, etc,
and then kickoff batch files.  It all works really well.  Never came to mind
that a similar process could be used for UPS/system shutdowns.

For ESXi, I believe there are command line actions that would perform shutdowns
that could be added to batch files.  Mainly because not all my VMs are Windows,
they are all sorts of stuff that I would want to have ESXi perform a graceful
shutdown.

Then the issue becomes the power-on when power is restored.  Mainly because I
would need at least one of my domain controllers to come up first or some other
systems would boot up and have issues and need to be rebooted again.  

Of course I could just do all this manually like I do today in the event power
it out for an extended time.  That has not happened here for years, fortunatly. 

I do remember running my ESXi cluster and everything all 100% from a gasoline
generator after we had a hurricane when the power was out for two days.  I was
back feeding the entire house from the gas generator and was able to run all
types of stuff.  Microwave, furnace, servers, refrigerators, etc.  All on a 5k
watt unit.  It stuggled at times and the lights would dim sometimes, but it
worked.  

- Mark

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