The

vSphere Lifecycle Manager

provides a default global policy configuration that must be applied on each cluster and standalone host during remediation. Through the

vSphere Automation

API, you can change the global policies and create some cluster-and host-specific policies. Before remediating a cluster and standalone host, you can use the API to determine the effective global and cluster-and host-specific remediation policies. The following graphic describes how the mechanism of the policy overrides works.

All clusters and standalone hosts in a

vCenter Server

instance inherit the default or the overridden global policy settings unless the global policy is explicitly overridden on a cluster and host level.

To view the currently set global remediation policy, call the

get(cluster_ID)

or

get(host_id)

method of the

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.clusters.policies.Apply

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.hosts.policies.Apply

interface. You receive a default

ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

instance that contains the configuration settings of the global remediation policy. To edit a global remediation policy, call the

set(policy_spec)

method of the respective

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.clusters.policies.Apply

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.hosts.policies.Apply

interface. Pass as an argument an

ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

instance and define new values to the global policy settings. To view the effective global remediation policy settings for a cluster and host, call the

get()

method of the respective

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.clusters.policies.apply.Effective

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.hosts.policies.apply.Effective

interface. The method returns an

EffectivePolicySpec

instance that contains the effective global policies applicable for all clusters and hosts in your

vCenter Server

environment.

To view the cluster- and host-specific remediation policies, call the

get(cluster_ID)

or

get(host_id)

method of the respective

com.vmware.esx.settings.clusters.policies.Apply

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.hosts.policies.Apply

interface. The method returns an instance of the

com.vmware.esx.settings.clusters.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.hosts.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

class which contain the cluster- and host-specific policies to be applied during remediation. To change the cluster- and host-specific policy, call the

set(cluster_ID,policy_spec)

or

set(host_ID,policy_spec)

method of the respective

Apply

interface. Pass as argument an

ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

instance and describe the cluster- and host-specific remediation policies. To view the effective cluster- and host-specific policies, call the

get(cluster_ID)

or

get(host_id)

method of the

com.vmware.esx.settings.clusters.policies.apply.Effective

or

com.vmware.esx.settings.hosts.policies.apply.Effective

interface. The method returns an

EffectivePolicySpec

instance that describes the effective cluster- and host-specific policies.

To describe a global or cluster-specific remediation policy, use

the

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.clusters.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

and

com.vmware.esx.settings.clusters.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

classes

. For the vSphere 8.0 release, VMware provides the following methods to configure a global or cluster-specific policy.

Method	Description
setDisableDpm(disableDpm)	Deactivate the VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM) feature for all clusters or for a specific cluster. DPM monitors the resource consumption of the virtual machines in a cluster. If the total available resource capacity of the hosts in a cluster is exceeded, DPM powers off (or recommends powering off) one or more hosts after migrating their virtual machines. When resources are considered underutilized and capacity is needed, DPM powers on (or recommends powering on) hosts. Virtual machines are migrated back to these hosts. During the cluster remediation, the vSphere Lifecycle Manager cannot wake up and remediate hosts that are automatically put into a stand-by mode by DPM. These hosts stay non-compliant when DPM turns them on. The vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is unable to migrate virtual machines to the hosts which are not remediated with the desired state for the cluster. To deactivate DPM during the cluster remediation, call the setDisableDpm(disableDpm) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance and pass as argument true . By default, the vSphere Lifecycle Manager temporarily deactivates DPM and turns on the hosts to complete the remediation. DPM is enabled again when the cluster remediation finishes.
setDisableHac(disableHac)	Deactivate the vSphere HA admission control. vSphere HA uses admission control to ensure that a cluster has sufficient resources to guarantee the virtual machines recovery when a host fails. If vSphere HA admission control is enabled during remediation, putting a cluster into maintenance mode fails because vMotion cannot migrate virtual machines within the cluster for capacity reasons. To allow the vSphere Lifecycle Manager to temporary deactivate vSphere HA admission control, call the setDisableHac(disableHac) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance and pass as argument true . By default, the vSphere HA admission control is enabled because DRS should be able to detect issues with the admission control and deactivate it to allow the remediation to complete.
setEvacuateOfflineVms(evacuateOfflineVms)	Migrate the suspended and powered off virtual machines from the hosts that must enter maintenance mode to other hosts in the cluster. To enable this remediation policy, call the setEvacuateOfflineVms(evacuateOfflineVms) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance and pass as argument true . By default, this setting is deactivated in the global remediation policy.
setFailureAction(failureAction)	Specify what actions vSphere Lifecycle Manager must take if a host fails to enter maintenance mode during the remediation. To configure this policy on a global or cluster-specific level, call the setFailureAction(failureAction) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance. Pass as argument an ApplyTypes.FailureAction instance . You can set the number of times that vSphere Lifecycle Manager tries to put a host into maintenance mode and the delay between the tries. When the threshold is reached and the host failed to enter maintenance mode, the cluster remediation fails. By default, vSphere Lifecycle Manager tries to put a host into maintenance mode three times with a five minute delay between each try before the cluster remediation fails.
setEnforceHclValidation(enforceHclValidation)	Prevents the remediation of vSAN clusters if vSphere Lifecycle Manager reports hardware compatibility issues during the hardware compatibility check performed as part of the remediation pre-check or the remediation tasks of the cluster. If you pass null as a parameter , detected hardware issues are reported as warnings and do not prevent the remediation of the vSAN cluster.
setParallelRemediationAction(parallelRemediationAction)	Enable simultaneous remediation of all hosts that are in maintenance mode with in the cluster. Pass an instance of the com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.clusters.policies.ApplyTypes.ParallelRemediationAction class to indicate the maximum number of hosts that can be remediated in parallel. If the hosts have NSX virtual distributed switches that are ready to be migrated to vSphere Distributed Switches, you must manually set the maximum number of parallel remediations to no more than 4. In cases when host switch migration is needed, if more than 4 hosts are remediated in parallel, the remediation might fail, because the host switch migration takes more time than the time vSphere Lifecycle Manager needs to complete the parallel remediation.
setPreRemediationPowerAction (preRemediationPowerAction)	Specify how the power state of the virtual machines must change before the host enters maintenance mode. If DRS is not enabled on a cluster or the automation level of a DRS cluster is not set to fully automated, the Coordinator module fails to remediate the cluster if the remediation requires a reboot or maintenance mode. You can set a policy that powers off or suspends the virtual machines on hosts that must be rebooted or must enter maintenance mode during remediation. The DRS takes care of changing the power state of the virtual machines when the host enters and exits maintenance mode. To set a policy for the power state of the virtual machines during the remediation, call the setPreRemediationPowerAction(preRemediationPowerAction) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance. Pass as a parameter an instance of the PreRemediationPowerAction enumeration class and specify one of the following values: DO_NOT_CHANGE_VMS_POWER_STATE . Indicates that the power state of the virtual machines must not be changes. POWER_OFF_VMS . Indicates that the virtual machines must be powered off before the hosts enter maintenance mode. SUSPEND_VMS . Indicates that the virtual machines must be suspended before the hosts enter maintenance mode. SUSPEND_VMS_TO_MEMORY . Indicates that the virtual machines must be suspended before the hosts enter maintenance mode. By default, the Coordinator must leave the power state of the virtual machines unchanged.
setEnableQuickBoot(enableQuickBoot)	Reduce the reboot time of an ESXi host by skipping all the hardware initialization processes and restarting only the hypervisor. This policy is applicable only if the host platform supports the Quick Boot feature. To enable the Quick Boot feature on the hosts during the remediation, call the setEnableQuickBoot(enableQuickBoot) method of the ConfiguredPolicySpec instance and pass as argument true . By default, this policy is deactivated.

To describe a global or cluster-specific remediation policy, use the

com.vmware.esx.settings.defaults.hosts.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

and

com.vmware.esx.settings.hosts.policies.ApplyTypes.ConfiguredPolicySpec

classes

. For the vSphere 8.0 release, VMware provides the following methods to configure a global or host-specific policy.

Method	Description
setEnableQuickBoot(enableQuickBoot)	Optimize the host patching and upgrade operations by reducing the reboot time of an ESXi host. Since the patching and upgrading operations do not affect the hardware of the host, the hardware initialization processes can be skipped. This policy is applicable only if the host platform supports the Quick Boot feature. For more information about which hosts are Quick Boot compatible, see the following KB article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52477.
setPreRemediationPowerAction (preRemediationPowerAction)	Specify how the power state of the virtual machines must change before the standalone host enters maintenance mode. You can choose between the following power actions: DO_NOT_CHANGE_VMS_POWER_STATE . Indicates that the power state of the virtual machines must not be changed. POWER_OFF_VMS . Indicates that the virtual machines must be powered off before the standalone host enters maintenance mode. SUSPEND_VMS . Indicates that the virtual machines must be suspended before the standalone host enters maintenance mode. SUSPEND_VMS_TO_MEMORY . Indicates that the virtual machines must be suspended before the standalone host enters maintenance mode.
setFailureAction(failureAction)	Specify what actions vSphere Lifecycle Manager must take if a standalone host fails to enter maintenance mode during the remediation. You can set the number of times that vSphere Lifecycle Manager tries to put a standalone host into maintenance mode and the delay between the tries. When the threshold is reached and the standalone host failed to enter maintenance mode, the host remediation fails.