Esxi kill process 0u1. 要终止 ESXi 主机上挂起虚拟机的进程，请使用以下命令： esxcli vm process kill --type=[soft,hard,force] --world-id=WorldNumber VM进程的kill类型有3种： Soft - 终止VMX进程的最安全方法（类似于kill -SIGTERM）； 硬 - 立即终止VM进程（kill -9）； 强制 - 最难的虚拟机进程停止模式。 Feb 1, 2016 · Esxi commands; useful VMware Esxi commands#vim-cmd vmsvc/get. The process is running from our Backup server service account. I connect to the server via ssh and Mar 10, 2021 · I have a list of VMs running on ESXi. tasklist VMID To get information about the status of a particular task, run the command #vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info task_identifier We can also use ps command to find VM related running processes. 3 8. Thanks, WintelAdmin Facebook Comments Share this on WhatsApp VMware (ESX / vSphere) 2008 vm snapshot, cancel snapshot, snapshot hung, vm snapshot, VMWARE, vsphere snapshot Jun 29, 2017 · Its not recommended to kill the snapshot removal task as it may result in vmdk inconsistency or corruption. alternate power off command syntax is: esxcli vm process kill -t [ soft,hard,force] -w WorldNumber Repeat Step 2 and validate that the virtual machine is no longer running. Jul 30, 2023 · esxcli is a powerful command-line tool in VMware ESXi that allows you to manage various aspects of your virtual machines (VMs). WTF does esxi do to create a snapshot in 60 seconds and it takes an hour to delete. Jul 5, 2012 · Did you manage to kill the hostd process without reboot in the end? I have this exact issue, no connecticity in vcenter to esxi 5. After deploying a VM I am unable to cancel the clone operation. Jan 9, 2015 · Hello, try to connect to the ESXi host via SSH and do a lsof | grep linux. Aug 16, 2021 · esxcli vm process list #这条命令显示，如果没有在列表里面的则表示已经关闭了 2、运行以下命令，关闭此列表中指定虚拟机的电源： Nov 10, 2011 · Hi All, Does anyone know how to kill particular tasks that have been running for a while and are clearly stuck? I presume there is a process on the ESXi host which could be killed/stopped? I have several hosts on ESXi 5, i've tried to perform and HBA rescan on one and its been hanging for about an hour, with no option to cancel it. 1 shutdown using power button VMware ESXi is a hypervisor used to create and manage virtual machines on a host system. Adversaries may target ESXi processes like "vmware-vmx" to disrupt virtual environments, often using the "kill" command to terminate these processes. If not you can do the command kill PID to kill the installer daemon. We can do this by using the following ESXCLI 5. List the VMs running on the ESXi host, and copy the “ World ID ” of the specific virtual machine. If the offending process isn't something you've heard of, you probably shouldn't just go and kill it. You can vMotion all VMs of and reboot that hosts that the ghost VM is on. I couldn't power off / reset VM / kill VM. 0 702118 which is currently showing as not responding in our vCenter VM management services have been restarted using /sbin/services. In that case, you have to kill the VM through the ESXi command-line. It is probably the most useful utility to troubleshoot performance issues on an ESXi host. Apr 28, 2014 · Hi all,running cluster of 3 hosts with ESXi v5. The hang task should be canceled now. What’s really cool… May 21, 2025 · Detects execution of the "esxcli" command with the "vm" and "kill" flag in order to kill/shutdown a specific VM. IF the VM won't power off, kill the VM processes per Unable to Power off a Virtual Machine in an ESXi host If no tasks are found, then please look at the vmware log for the VM for more information. When I run "esxcli network connection list" I can see the host that is connected. Corruption on underlying Cheat-sheet for useful commands you can run via the ESXi shell. Dec 9, 2024 · Tag: ESXi process kill ransomwareWebAsha is an India based organization, specialized in Customized Software Development, Web Development & Website Designing with Interactive Flash & Multimedia Animation, Web Promotion, Corporate Training, IT Education and Digital Marketing Services. 1 Update 1. Login to esxi and kill the vm using world ID. Now when I am running follow command :Get-Task -Status "Running"it shows running tasks Name ; Jun 21, 2016 · The SSH client connection was disconnected when the process was only 70% complete (with several hours of estimated time remaining). In my case: kill 84695. Power off the virtual machine from the list by running this command: esxcli vm process kill --type= [soft,hard,force] --world-id= WorldNumber Power on Aug 19, 2016 · Common ESXI Commands August 19, 2016 8 minute read Description: I don’t use VMWare in my environment, but I have used it in home labs and it appears in most job listings so it’s definitely something worth taking your time to learn. Dec 11, 2020 · 之前有客户不小心将CPU资源限制为0导致虚拟机无法做任何操作，也无法关机。下面介绍几种强行关闭虚拟机的方式： 1、后台开启Troubleshooting options，使用Alt+F1登录，或者使用SSH工具登录，查看进程 ps | grep vmx | more # 如果知道虚拟机名可以直接grep vmname 杀死进程 kill -9 pid 2、获取所有虚拟机信息 (vimid Sep 30, 2020 · Got a lab PC setup with Esxi 6. And better have a backup at your hand. Mar 15, 2024 · Sometimes, the running virtual machine on the VMware ESXi host might freeze and not respond to the vSphere Client shutdown or restart command. To cancel a scheduled task that has not run, reschedule it. This pretty much leaves you with two options. Is there way to stop it? I find "esxcli vm process kill" can be used to kill process, but how to find that process? I also tried to export to ovf from a vcenter lab (nested) in the lab PC above, via selecting the VM | Template | Export OVF Sep 30, 2020 · Got a lab PC setup with Esxi 6. VirtualMachine. So I kill all running vms and reboot esxi using this command: # esxcli vm process kill --ty Aug 16, 2016 · Kill the parent process by running the command kill id_parent e. 1 8. I can't cancel it via normal GUI means but I do have access to the vCenter SSH shell. Apr 28, 2010 · Hi All, I’m having problem with my Windows Server 2003 x86 VM, in the middle of installing IIS server, What I did is that i insert the CD into the ESXi host and then from my VSphere client I point to use the host CD-ROM drive and it hangs, What I’ve done: Force restart the VM and it stuck in 95% of restart process. Keep in mind, these shell commands are to be ran at the host CLI, not from the VCSA command line. This issue occurs if vmware-watchdog thinks that hostd is no longer running and keeps respawning hostd. Is there way to stop it? I find "esxcli vm process kill" can be used to kill process, but how to find that process? I also tried to export to ovf from a vcenter lab (nested) in the lab PC above, via selecting the VM | Template | Export OVF Aug 4, 2012 · This article will explain 5 different ways to Troubleshoot Unresponsive virtual machine or hung virtual machine in ESXi host using command line options How to Terminate Unresponsive ESXi VMs Issue Sometimes virtual machines become unresponsive - they cannot be connected to via SSH or VMware's console, and attempting to shut them down or forcefully power them off in the ESXi web client also fails. Sep 8, 2011 · Kill a VM with ESXCLI As you can see from above, the structure has clearly changed from VSphere 4. , no RAM issues, nothing. log. Oct 17, 2019 · 2. I said retarded. As the name suggests, it allows you to terminate (kill) Windows processes on local or remote Windows systems. It is also possible just to reboot ESXi host (after doing vMotion of other VMs) to solve the issue. No, you can't live migrate them as long as the host is not connected to vCenter. ESXi 5 Unresponsive VM – How-to Power Off Step 1 – connect via SSH by using puty for example and enter esxtop. ESXTOP Guide The esxtop utility provides a detailed look at how ESXi uses resources in real time. 'force' should be used as a last resort attempt to kill the VM. Was the process terminated when the SSH client dropped its connection to the ESXi host? Is there any way to tell if the process is still running? Did you try to connect on the ESX (i) directly and kill the process with 15 signal or worst case scenario 9 ? I have a stuck vmotion process. Maybe the VM process is stuck in a uninterruptible sleep (kernel-side waiting), and so even kill can't do nothing. If all three fail then a reboot is required. 8k次。本文介绍了当远程登录ESXi服务器出现问题时，如何通过本地登录进行虚拟机进程管理的方法。包括使用ps和kill命令直接操作，以及利用vim-cmd与esxcli工具实现虚拟机的启动、关闭和重启等操作。 Mar 28, 2015 · Today I needed to shut down a virtual machine that was unresponsive. How to kill running processes on GPUs for a specific program (e. Nov 20, 2015 · > kill -9 12930750 sh: can't kill pid 12930750: No such process > kill -9 12930760 sh: can't kill pid 12930760: No such process > kill -9 12930751 sh: can't kill pid 12930751: No such process Finally I followed VMware KB: Collecting information about tasks in VMware ESXi/ESX /vmfs/volumes # vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms Vmid Name File Guest OS Jul 2, 2018 · 2. I then attempted to shut the VM down inside the guest itself. Command-line access grants you the ability to configure Jun 6, 2024 · Virtualization discussion , vmware 11 90 October 14, 2014 cannot power off linux vm with vSphere Virtualization discussion , vmware 5 103 October 14, 2016 Unable to reset, register or kill VM process in ESXi 4 Virtualization virtualization , question 10 1190 June 8, 2010 Problems deleting vMA Virtualization vmware , question 4 125 October 31, 2013 ESXi 5. How can I kill this connection? May 31, 2024 · Below we list over 120+ common and useful CLI commands (including esxcli) for VMware ESXi Host and VM management. Apr 9, 2025 · This article provides information related to the VMware "snapshot deletion" process, both Delete all snapshots and Delete snapshot process. Manually modify the process table, eg. Jan 26, 2015 · vmware: esxi kill vmUsers should always attempt 'soft' kills first, which will give the VMX process a chance to shutdown cleanly (like kill or kill -SIGTERM). The hardware specs are absolutely immense compared to the task Nov 3, 2025 · To exit from a hung maintenance mode, try one of these 4 options: Log into the ESXi host UI as the root user and select exit maintenance mode. 1 esxcli vm process kill --type=force --world-id=14767058 On ESXi 4. My department have now moved to ESXi and I am copying the VM images from one server to another. Restart Management Agents – Run services. Any ideas? I could ssh into the box to kill the process if that's the only way. The detection rule identifies such terminations by monitoring for specific process events, helping to uncover potential threats to virtualized infrastructures. Here is how to recover when hostd is unresponsive. On the 7. Since the parent is init (pid 1), that would also take down your system. 1, the process of killing a stuck VM meant you had to use a variety of methods and tools that included vmware-cmd, vm-support, vmkload_app and ps/kill and required the use of either Service Console on ESX or Tech Support Mode for ESXi. esxcli <conn_options> vm process list Stop the virtual machine by running the following command. Soft is the most graceful, hard performs an immediate shutdown, and force should be used as a last resort. Yes, if the ESXi hosts are in an HA cluster, the VMs will automatically start on another host. 1 esxcli vms process kill --type=force --world-id=14767058 Kill a Vmware Guest via Local Shell If all you have is access to the local shell you must enable ESXi Shell Access directly via the Sep 5, 2012 · To kill a process you need the pid from the pslist command. We believe in Simple, Creative & Flexible Design Standards. There doesn't seem to have been any ill effects so far. 0 example: May 7, 2021 · Hi everyone, I've cancelled a Storage vMotion + vMotion task on a VM yesterday and now the task is stuck in a "Cancel Requested" status. The guest pretended to go into a shutdown state. 0. Esxi 7 Host Not Responding - Restart Management Network I have one of 4 hosts that is not responding this morning, VM's on it are all still functional. Run esxcli vm process list to check running VMs and esxcli vm process kill -t soft -w <WorldID> to terminate stuck processes. Sep 12, 2025 · Check the list of running VMs and display their World IDs: esxcli vm process list You can kill the unresponsive virtual machine with ESXi shell commands. Quite dangerous, and you may have to manually clean up . make sure that it is not a vmx process that is running the VM via grep ps | PID. 0 1024429. x and above, you can use the k command in esxtop to send a signal to, and kill, a running virtual machine process. Dec 21, 2020 · The following post details how to view task information via CLI on an ESXi host. The actual list of commands depends on the system that you are running on. sh restart however it shows; watchdog-hostd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 4920 sh: cannot kill pid 4920: No such process However a ps shows the PID should exists; /var/log # ps | grep hostd 8547 4920 List all running virtual machines on the system to see the World ID of the virtual machine that you want to stop. It provides a wide range of commands to query and configure VM-related settings. How to kill a process on esx host that keeps the vmdk and swap file open Recommend spham68 Posted Jun 04, 2008 03:35 AM Yo, so often times you can go into the esxi host running the VM, and find "vmx" process being run (it'll be like vmx:vmname) and then kill -9 the parent process. Restarting Management Agents in ESXi Check if it is allowing to kill these tasks. This cmdlet stops the virtual machines specified by the VM parameter. Hostd itself doesnt seem to be doing anything. Get the name of the Virtual Machine Login with SSH to the ESXi host its on. Jun 22, 2020 · Hi, You need to restart the VM client daemon service on esxi host to stop the progress. Working in technical support you often get cases where let’s name it: “something went wrong”. It is running a backup job on the VM and it first takes a snapshot of the vm and then consolidates. I can still log in to iLO and select Restart Management Network. ESXI is a linux based distro modified by VMWare as a hypervisor to host virtual machines on. Jun 16, 2025 · This article provides detailed steps to resolve the issue where the VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) upgrade process is stuck in an "Update is not staged" loop. I'm new to VMWare and I'm not liking what is happening. Oct 13, 2024 · The vmware-watchdog process watches over hostd and restarts it if it detects that hostd is no longer running. 3 7. And while I'm ranting, snapshot deletion. "Something strange happened here as I could find the world ID but while running the command to kill the vm it displays "couldn't find the world ID number" 3. I've seen this a lot and I've always been able to kill the VM by SSH'ing into the host server and using the ESXCLI vm process kill command with the "type=force" switch. Well, it turns out, it can be! Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by VMware, use at your own risk. shutdown <your_vm_number> 3. 1. x or later. (Stil the VM is pingable) 4. vmx configuration file: esxcli vm process list Power off the virtual machine from the list by running one of these commands: esxcli vm process kill -t soft -w WorldID or esxcli vm process kill -t hard -w WorldID or esxcli vm process Oct 20, 2016 · This blog article is about how to kill a frozen VM. 7 u3 which I test vSphere implementation, nested setup. Aug 12, 2014 · Hi, as others says don't try to kill the task instead using ESXTOP try to check snapshot deletion activity using method from KB below: Monitoring throughput for only the snapshot consolidation process VMware KB: Estimating the time required to consolidate snapshots for VMware ESX and VMware ESXi If there is no activity check for existence of redo logs in VM folder on datastore and also in Jan 9, 2015 · When a Virtual Machine crashed it might happen that you cannot power it off with the vSphere Client. create a dummy process, link the defunct process as a child of the dummy, then kill them off. 0u2 server, when I attempt to "Guest -> Shutdown" or simply "Power off" 10 VMs at once, the VMs get eternally stuck in the power off mode, and is completely unresponsive. I am now unable to manage the VM as the actions are greyed out (power off, migrate, snapshot, ect) but it's still responding. I restarted management agents, vCenter, nothing helped. #ps |grep VM_name this command will give you process id and if you want to kill the process, then #kill process_id wait for some time, if May 16, 2016 · ESXi 6. Command-line access grants you the ability to configure Jul 30, 2025 · If won't power off in the vCenter UI, try to do so in the ESXi UI. This blog article is structured in the way that I start with the different ways how Apr 10, 2023 · Unable to power off virtual machine on an ESXi host. In ESXi 4. The "Power On Virtual Machine" task is still "In Progress". The file copy performance was very poor, and due to time constraints I decided to cancel the copy task. Oct 20, 2019 · I can’t do anything with the VM from vCenter or local UI for the ESXi host. do the following command: ps | grep vmx | grep Then you get a list of all processes. So I thought the vpxa ist Oct 22, 2016 · Hi Guys, Another busy weekend, another tip to make the life of a VMware admin easier. 1 and ESXi 5. in the SSL console of ESXi: services. Knowing how to work with ESXi CLI commands is an underappreciated skill as a system administrator or infrastructure engineer. Jul 30, 2023 · I need to get this VM back online and I don't know if the stuck snapshot process is the culprit for me not being able to reboot the VM but I'd love some help here as I need to get this machine back online before Monday am!! Options I've considered - rebooting the hypervisor and rebooting vsphere! Are any of those viable? Feb 9, 2023 · Using the top utility is pretty awesome. On the ESXi console, enter Tech Support mode and log in as root. This issue occurs when discrepancies or missing files prevent the update from being properly staged, causing the VAMI (vCenter Appliance Management Interface) to continue showing the old version, despite the update logs Oct 19, 2012 · I see, so when tools like "vm-support" and "esxcli" talk about killing the world id (vmid), where as the "kill" command talks about killing the process id, it's because the "kill" command is a standard unix command line utility which doesn't understand things like VMware world id's, where as the other two utilities are specific to VMware and understand those things? Jul 1, 2013 · 7. /etc/init. See Stopping, Starting or Restarting appliance services Exit maintenance mode: vim-cmd /hostsvc/maintenance_mode_exit Restart the management agents on the Warning: This procedure is potentially hazardous to the ESXi host. Since the last 24 hours I am waiting for the task to timeout but it's still stuck in this state "Cancel Requested" Have you guys Jun 6, 2014 · KB1005566 - deleted vmware-hostd. 2 cannot restart the process vpxa. Other locks may be created by hot-adding disks to snapshot-based backup appliances during the backup process. 1 host. Canceling a scheduled task does not cancel subsequent runs. x, you can use the k command in esxtop to send a signal to, and kill, a running virtual machine process. off <vmid>。 使用esxcli命令 获取正在运行的虚拟机的信息： esxcli vm process list。 强制关闭虚拟机： esxcli vm process kill --type=hard --world-id=<World ID>。注意 Feb 5, 2025 · Adversaries may target ESXi processes like "vmware-vmx" to disrupt virtual environments, often using the "kill" command to terminate these processes. 0 hosts (latest patches installed) and when attempting to restart hostd it advises " cannot kill pid 2901: No success process" I really cannot reboot these hosts, they are running approx 40 cusomter VM's. 0 Update 1 (Build 6765664)) and has been going on for half a day. 5 embedded host client. To isolate the task, follow these steps for the appropriate host. Feb 16, 2010 · You can kill vms, but this is like a hard poweroff, and may harm your system. list () However, once I have my list of processes and decided which ones I need to kill, what powecli command can i run to actually kill the identified process? Mar 28, 2014 · 5. Do you know what I can grep in the ps x list to find/kill the vmotion process? Hello, I have a lab ESXi 7. Aug 16, 2016 · Kill the parent process by running the command kill id_parent e. Nov 6, 2022 · I want force stop or kill running tasks in vcenter . Using ESXCLI, in this case, can be helpful when a VM cannot be shut down by using GUI, such as the GUI of VMware vSphere Client, VMware Host Client, or VMware Workstation. 0 . Is it because I don't have sufficient privileges over the VCenter Management Server or is there any other way out? I tried looking for a process ids in the esx by logging in to Intended Audience This book is for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with vSphere administration tasks and data center operations and know how to use commands in scripts. May 31, 2024 · Below we list over 120+ common and useful CLI commands (including esxcli) for VMware ESXi Host and VM management. PID and tried to forcefully kill hostd with kill -9 KB1003494 KB1002849 - No other process seems to be keeping hostd busy as far as I can see, and the host is very quiet. List all running virtual machines on the system to see the World ID of the virtual machine that you want to stop. 2) 使用esxi主机的esxcli命令来关闭vm # esxcli vm process list #获取正在运行的虚拟机的信息 关闭虚拟机： # vm process kill --type=hard --world-id=245735 注意有三种关闭虚拟机的模式：soft程度最低，hard为立即执行，如果依然不能关机那么就只能用force模式。 May 26, 2018 · esxcli vm process kill --type= [soft,hard,force] --world-id= WorldNumber Notes: Three power-off methods are available. ” Jul 30, 2024 · Connect to this host via SSH using the putty client and run the esxcli command to kill vm process. Dec 11, 2020 · Wondering how to kill an unresponsive virtual machine? We can manually kill it on ESXi host from the ESXi Shell or PowerCLI command prompt. 5 embedded host even though esxcli vm process list works and esxcli vm process kill -help confirms i'm running the correct command for my system. The only way you could remove the zombie/defunct process, would be to kill the parent. Apr 18, 2021 · I'm running ESXi 6. Take SSH and run the following command /etc/init. d/hostd restart The ESXCLI command set allows you to run common system administration commands against vSphere systems from an administration server of your choice. process. Forcibly Stop a Virtual Machine with ESXCLI Aug 14, 2010 · Prior to vSphere 4. Trying to cancel the task in CLI won't kill it. First number is the process itself I also used powercli : get-task directly on the ESXi host which showed no tasks running. Feb 14, 2025 · 在 ESXi 中强制关闭虚拟机，可以通过以下方法进行： 使用 vim -cmd命令 获取所有虚拟机的vmid信息： vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms。 强制关闭虚拟机： vim-cmd vmsvc/power. I wanted know is there a way to cancel a copy task in vsphere client once its in progress? I noticed that when I select the task the opion to cancel the task is greyed out. Aug 24, 2020 · Hi gurus I had a hung task Migrate virtual machine, that got stuck on 13%, that was the only machine to get stuck all other VM migrated correctly, I ssh to the esxi and found the vmx process not to hard as it was the only VM, Kill the parent process, but vcenter after logoff and back on and refresh and kick , it still shows the vm stuck as 13% and cant do anything to it am I missing something Jun 12, 2018 · Hi guys, we had some issues, restarting and migrating vm's on one esx-host. It didn't happen right away, but within a few hours after killing the VMs the tasks finally failed. In this article, we will find out how to force a VMWare virtual machine to power off when it becomes unresponsive (stuck). Nov 7, 2022 · Warning: Interupting certain tasks, for example snapshot consolidations or Storage vMotions, can lead to issues or corrupted VMs. esxcli <conn_options> vm process kill --type <kill_type> --world-id <ID> The command supports three --type options. vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms 2. d/vpxa restart I got following output (after a long time): watchdog-vpxa: Terminating watchdog process with PID 35024 vpxa stopped. This could be a great variety from storage issues or other process running on the particular ESXi which still hold on a lock file as well as many other reasons. I tried to issue the Power off command from the vSphere client but after some minutes it was still in progress … The solution was to kill the process that runs the VM directly on the server where the VM is located, let’s see how to do it: 1) connect to the server via SSH 2) type the command: esxcli vm process list 3) take Jun 3, 2019 · To explore the available options to force kill some of the stuck VM processes on the ESXi, after we list them with the list command. To be able to shutdown VMs, unfortunately hostd process should be working ok, does not matter if you are on ESX classic or ESXi. It's difficult to tell. python) in terminal? For example two processes are running with python in the top picture and kill them to see the bottom picture in Jun 21, 2024 · Kill the Session: Once you've identified the SSH session to terminate, you can use the esxcli vm process kill command. Aug 14, 2013 · Note: In ESXi 4. 0 (Latest) 8. Check the Task information: vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info “haTask…. (required). List all the VMs on the currently logged on host and note down the vmid (1st column) of the unresponsive VM. Restart the vSphere Web Client (vsphere-client). screenshot Sep 27, 2024 · 我们有新旧两套ESXi命令都可以实现通过命令行对虚拟机进行关机，推荐第一个 esxcli vm process kill 命令行的办法，因为这个方法比较快捷，而且不要求VM有装VMware Tools. I know you don't want to kill consolidation in the middle of it but we want to delete this VM complete and let it replicate over. Cannot stop/cancel a "Consolidate virtual machine disk files" Process in VCenter The option to cancel is grayed out. If that does not work move to 'hard' kills which will shutdown the process immediately (like kill -9 or kill -SIGKILL). What it is telling is that even VmWare suggest to reboot the ESX host Hello, we have a Dell Blade running VMware ESXi 5. I’ve used top for years on *nix boxes, both at home and on the job to monitor and troubleshoot system performance and issues. This article also describes the impact on the delta disks of the "Delete all snapshots" process also known as the "Consolidation process". The tool is available either on the ESXi host itself (#esxtop), or from remote systems like the vMA (#resxtop). My VCSA has a If using PowerCLI you can use Stop-VM -Kill to stop the VM by killing all associated processes on the host. When i ssh into the system I can run esxcli vm process list and get the expected output: testserver1 World ID: 67909 Process ID: 0 VMX Cartel ID: Feb 9, 2011 · Sometimes a VM is stuck and can’t be killed with vSphere Client (or from within the VM). Dec 21, 2017 · 11 I started copying a file from one datastore to another using the ESXi Web interface (version 6. consolidateDisks-101880 TIA Jul 26, 2021 · Is there a way to list all currently running command/processes on ESX host something like this esxcli process list I need this to see which commands still running on ESX host. Unable to access or unlock files on a virtual machine. But it is stuck Dec 26, 2022 · PsKill is a command-line tool that is part of the Sysinternals suite. Here is a small list of commands you can run: To Resolve: First a Jun 4, 2008 · 1. g. Jun 7, 2011 · I have a server connected to my esxi 4. Canceling a vSphere task stops a running task from occurring. The log file is found in: vmfs/volumes/<virtual machine datastore path>/vmware. I could reboot the host as a last resort but id prefer to try Mar 4, 2020 · A. It looks like it’s powered off but in fact, it’s still running in a sort of ghost state. So only do this if you don’t have any alternatives and need the task to be canceled. On ESX, you could login and perform the famous kill –9 <PID> to kill the VM. Is there a better way to kill the running task other than this command? vim-cmd vimsvc/task_cancel haTask-68-vim. Jun 1, 2023 · If you cannot connect to an ESXi host, restart virtual machines, or synchronize hosts with vCenter, you should try to restart VMware management agents on ESXi. sh restart on the ESXi host. Oct 15, 2025 · To kill one of the virtual machine processes, Press " K " and copy the LWID from the unresponsive VM. I issued the "service mgmt-vmware restart" command again and it restarted the service, however, I noticed that it did not kill the vmware-hostd process it just created a new one. The script gets stuck when stopping the service. sh restart re-register the VM from It looks like killing the VM world wide process did eventually kill these tasks. 2 8. system. A virtual machine is unresponsive and cannot be forced off or stopped. It is unpingable at this point. Sep 17, 2025 · Restart the vsphere-ui service with this command: service-control --stop vsphere-ui && service-control --start vsphere-ui Once the vsphere-ui service has been restarted log back into the vCenter Web client and check the status of the task. In case none of the above methods work, it might be necessary to reboot the ESXi host to get rid of the stale vm process. warning, this is the equivalent to yanking the power out of the back of a server. I want to gracefully stop the copying process but it does not seem to let me. After shutting down a virtual machine, vCenter Server shows the virtual machine as running. Oct 26, 2020 · 文章浏览阅读2. This weekend was all bout VM cloning (We're updating one of our test enviroments (around 50 VMs)), everything Oct 22, 2016 · Hi Guys, Another busy weekend, another tip to make the life of a VMware admin easier. I have used vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms to get a list of VMs running and also esxcli vm process list to get the World ID of VMs. Again I tried to get the vm list using ESXCLI vm process list and then I am unable to find the particular VM. Jul 22, 2024 · The World ID can be used with other ESXCLI commands to carry out various tasks related to VMs. Using the VMWare console, I suspended the errant virtual machine. Very few processes should be so mission critical that they can't be stopped. You will need the World ID of the session, which you can get from the output of the connections list. Is there a way to just kill the task? Jul 1, 2012 · I shut-down a virtual machine and using the data-store browser did a copy/paste to copy the VM to a new datastore with additional space. This weekend was all bout VM cloning (We're updating one of our test enviroments (around 50 VMs)), everything Jan 19, 2024 · To kill unresponsive VM esxcli vm process kill --type=soft --wordld-id=<WorldID> If this does not help: esxcli vm process kill --type=hard --wordld-id=<WorldID> If all os so bad then as a last resort: esxcli vm process kill --type=force --wordld-id=<WorldID> See also Power on a virtual machine from ESXi cli Category: ESXi Sep 9, 2021 · my node esxi 7. Thanks. if you restart the hostd agent that should kill and ongoing vm related task including snapshot removal task. VMWare console shows that the VM is still in a running state though. Method 1: Use the vmware-cmd command in the vSphere command-line interface (CLI) Mar 4, 2013 · Thinking about the question for a bit, a virtual machine is just a VMX process running in ESXi and I wondered if this process could be paused like a UNIX/Linux process using the "kill" command. sh restart" but the vxpa isn't restart Now. Try the types sequentially - soft before hard , hard before force Mar 4, 2016 · The hostd service is the life-blood of your ESXi host. If the task is still present then restart the vmware-vpxd service with this command: Jul 25, 2025 · Resolution Note: For more information on resolving the symptoms described above, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host. kill 859467 The hang task should be canceled now and will reflect in the Tasks and Events in the vCenter. 7 nested VM, but the task stuck at 50%. So I tried starting the management agents, like described in KB1003490 (VMware Knowledge Base ). If you do not identify the appropriate process ID (PID) and kill the wrong process, it may have unexpected results. Jul 14, 2010 · Hi folks, Greetings! I use a VCenter to manage a couple of ESX4 hosts in a particular Datacenter and I have administrative privileges over this Datacenter. VMware ESXi is a hypervisor used to create and manage virtual machines on a host system. When I resumed it, I could then identify the vmware-vmx process that corresponded to my machine and could kill it. However the copy task showing in the vsphere client can not be cancelled; the cancel option is disabled. Try to shutdown gracefully if possible vim-cmd vmsvc/power. If the problem is re-occurring, attempt to determine which task the ESXi host is taking a long time to process. 0u2 as well as an ESXi 7. Try the types sequentially - soft before hard , hard before force Feb 7, 2023 · Here, it shows the process to force kill a VMware VM for example. Mar 26, 2019 · There is a "Consolidate Virtual Machine Disk Files process that is stuck and i need to kill it ASAP. Kill your VM process if necessary If your VM is stuck in a funky state, it may be necessary to kill it. (If a virtual machine crashed in a cluster and you cannot identify where it is running, you have to identify the ESXi Hosts where the VM is running) Locate the World ID with esxcli vm process Wait for the task to complete – Sometimes, the system just needs time. iso - you should get a PID of a process that holds the VMware tools iso locked. In ESXi 5 it is possible to kill a running VM, the process of the VM concerned, by using the esxtop command. There is no CPU activity, no disk IO activity, queue, wait times, etc. Sometimes its standalone hosts and then killing the VMs world with esxcli is easier. Failure to create a lock / start a virtual machine can occur if an unsupported disk format is used or if a lock is already present. 0 7. First, connect directly to the ESX (i) host. First you need to determine on which ESXi host the hung virtual machine is running. Read Our WebAsha Blog for Latest Info on May 7, 2007 · The VM state is still off so there is no process to kill. I've tried stopping the mgmt-vmware service, which say's it works, however, it doesn't kill the process and will create a new one when you start the service back. Because hostd is involved in so much of the behind-the-scenes work of ESXi it can be easily affected by changes in storage or network topology. d/hostd restart seemed to work fine, but with /etc/init. Yes. Aug 8, 2014 · Kill the parent process by running the command kill id_parent. 1 7. Connect to the ESXi host with SSH. Click on this link for ESXi Commands – Basic Commands Jan 28, 2025 · Symptoms: The command service mgmt-vmware restart does not restart hostd. 1, lets take a look at an example, if we wanted to kill a stuck VM which has been documented as part of KB Article 1004340 which can be found here. Oct 30, 2025 · Option 3: Using ESXCLI to kill the Virtual Machine process Get a list of running virtual machines, identified by World ID, UUID, Display Name, and path to the . Most people don’t realize that this functionality has been added to PowerCLI in version 4. You will need to reference the computer in this command as well pskill \\mattbusche -t 344 That command would terminate pid 344 smss. Also tried: Feb 25, 2018 · ESXi を管理する場合は基本的に vCenter や vSphere Client から操作することが多いと思いますが、トラブルや不具合対処などでコマンドラインからの操作を余儀なくされる場合があります。今回は仮想マシンのプロセスを確認して、そのプロセスを強制終了することにより仮想マシンを停止する方法を Nov 11, 2025 · A powered-on virtual machine contains locks on all files in use by the owning ESXi host to facilitate read and write access. Dec 15, 2010 · Hi All I am pretty new to ESX but have bene using workstation, and server for some time. In such cases, the VMs must be terminated via CLI. 5. Next take the WORLD ID obtained in the previous step and kill the guest: On ESXi 5. Jul 13, 2022 · 通过 VMware ESXi 控制台导出虚拟机时出错，导致任务一直停在 99% 的进度，由于 ESXi 的控制台没有提供强行终止任务的方法，所以这时需要通过 SSH 进入服务器的后台进行操作。 Jan 19, 2021 · I can get the list easily enough with (Get-EsxCli). Note: Be very careful, killing different process can harm the ESX. I r 9. Power-off VM from ESXi ESXCLI command The esxcli command can be used locally or remotely to power off a virtual machine running on ESXi 5. Execute the command to kill the task kill *parent process ID* to end the process (excluding *). 0esxcli vm Commands Aug 3, 2015 · There are different ways to stop ( “kill” ) a VM by using the vCLI, PowerCLI or the console session. d/vpxa restart watchdog-vpxa: Unable to terminate watchdog: No running watchdog process for vpxa sh: can't kill pid 2100453: No such process the process 2100453 exist, but is not killable kill -9 2100453 sh: can't kill pid 2100453: No such process I used the command "services. For some reason i get Error: Unknown command or namespace vm process kill –t=soft –w=67909 when trying this on 6. Jan 21, 2021 · I have a script on ESXi that I need to be able to ssh into, execute the script, disown the process and exit ssh session, while keeping the process running? I have tried executing it the following Aug 31, 2012 · If you don’t want to reboot your ESXi host, here is how to forcefully kill the bastard leaving all other virtual machines peacefully running. 2 7. PID watchdog-hostd. I tried to export a ESX6. build-3620759When I power off one vm, the system hangs.