Thankfully with VMware vSphere 6.7 we now have ESXi Quick Boot, and as it's name suggests, it allows ESXi hosts to boot quickly.
Quick Boot is a vSphere feature that speeds up the upgrade process of an ESXi server.
Let's start with the the features.
- ESXi Quick Boot allows ESXi to reboot without re-initialising physical server BIOS
- Reboots can now be performed in 1 through 2 minutes
- ESXi Quick Boot dramatically speeds up patch and maintenance operations that require ESXi reboot.
- ESXi Quick Boot is integrated in the VMware Update Manager workflow during remediation operations.
There are however some requirements.
- Requires compatible hardware and device drivers. Check the VMware Compatibility Guide
- The instalation of ESXi 6.7 must run native drivers only, this means that no VMKLinux drivers can be in use.
- ESXi Secure Boot must not be enabled.
If you wish to check your hosts compatibility from the command line (ESXi Shell) type the following:
/usr/lib/vmware/loadesx/bin/loadESXCheckCompat.py
As a heads up, attempting to force ESXi Quick Boot on an unsupported system or unsupported configuration will fail back to a normal reboot, and a PSOD (purple diagnostic screen) can occur.
To enable Quick Boot:
1) In the Home view of the vSphere Web Client, select the Update Manager icon.
2) From the Objects tab, select an Update Manager instance. The Objects tab also displays all the vCenter Server system to which an Update Manager instance is connected.
3) Click the Manage tab.
4) Click Settings, and select Host/Cluster Settings.
5) Click Edit. The Edit Host/Cluster Settings dialog box opens.
6) Select Enable Quick Boot check box to allow Update Manager to reduce the host reboot time during remediation.
7) Click OK.
Here's a nice little demo from VMware.
With that, I can't use, "Yep, I'm going for a coffee, the Hosts rebooting"
