Maintenance Mode Activity
Applies To: System Center 2012 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator, System Center 2012 SP1 - Orchestrator
The Maintenance Mode activity is used in a runbook to enter and exit maintenance mode for an ESX host controlled by the VMware vSphere vCenter server. Entering maintenance mode prevents VMs powering up or failing over to the host if it is taking part in a high availability cluster. This allows the runbook to enable Maintenance mode before powering off the host for hardware maintenance.
The following tables list the required and optional properties and published data for this activity.
The activity publishes all of the data from the required and optional properties into published data. Additional published data is generated based on the class that you select when you define the activity.
Maintenance Mode Activity Required Properties
| Element | Description | Valid Values | Look up |
|---|---|---|---|
Host |
The path of the managed host controlled by the vSphere VMware server. |
String |
Yes |
Operation |
The action that is to be performed, selected from a drop-down list. |
Enter causes the host to enter maintenance mode. Exit causes the host to exit maintenance mode. |
Yes |
Maintenance Mode Activity Optional Properties
| Element | Description | Valid Values | Look up |
|---|---|---|---|
Evacuate Powered Off VMs |
If true, the activity will not succeed on a non-DRS cluster unless all powered-off virtual machines have been manually reregistered. On a DRS-enabled cluster, vCenter will automatically reregister powered-off virtual machines. |
Boolean |
Yes |
Timeout (Seconds) |
The time in seconds for the operation to complete |
Integer |
No |
Maintenance Mode Activity Published Data
| Name | Description | Value Type |
|---|---|---|
Host |
The path of the managed host controlled by the vSphere VMware server. |
String |
Operation |
The action that is to be performed, selected from a drop-down list. |
String |
Evacuate Powered Off VMs |
If true, the activity will not succeed on a non-DRS cluster unless all powered-off virtual machines have been manually reregistered. On a DRS-enabled cluster, vCenter will automatically reregister powered off virtual machines. |
Boolean |
Timeout (Seconds) |
The time in seconds for the operation to complete. |
Integer |
Configuring the Maintenance Mode Activity
The following procedure describes the steps required to configure a Maintenance Mode activity.
To configure the Maintenance Mode Activity
From the Activities pane, drag a Maintenance Mode activity to the active runbook.
Double-click the Maintenance Mode activity icon. The Properties dialog box opens.
Configure the settings in the Properties tab as follows:
In the Configuration section, click the ellipsis button (...), and then select the VMware vSphere server connection that you want to use for this activity. Click OK.
In the Properties section, enter a value for each of the required properties and the applicable optional properties. If the property is Lookup-enabled, you can click the ellipsis (…) button next to the text box to browse for a value.
You can also use published data to automatically populate the value of the property from the data output by a previous activity in the workflow.
Click Finish.