ESXi Shutdown Manager

A lightweight web dashboard for managing scheduled shutdowns of a VMware ESXi host. Provides a clean UI to control shutdown schedules, skip specific nights, trigger manual shutdowns, and monitor VM power states — all without touching the ESXi host directly.

Features

• Weekly Schedule — Set shutdown times per day of the week, enable/disable individual days
• Skip Tonight — One-click skip for the next scheduled shutdown (doesn't change the recurring schedule)
• Shut Down Now — Manual trigger with confirmation modal; gracefully shuts down all VMs then powers off the host
• VM Dashboard — Real-time view of all VMs and their power states (auto-refreshes every 60s)
• Activity Log — Timestamped log of all events: scheduled shutdowns, skips, manual triggers, errors
• SSH Error Reporting — Connection failures and per-VM shutdown errors appear directly in the activity log

How It Works

The app runs on a separate machine (or a VM on the ESXi host itself) and communicates with ESXi over SSH using key-based authentication.

Shutdown sequence:

1. SSH into the ESXi host
2. Enumerate all VMs via vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
3. Send graceful shutdown (vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown) to each powered-on VM
4. Wait for VMs to power off (configurable, default 180s)
5. Power off the ESXi host (/sbin/poweroff)

Scheduling: APScheduler checks every minute if the current time matches the schedule for today. If the day is marked as "skipped," the shutdown is skipped and the skip entry is cleared.

Architecture

+------------------+         SSH (key auth)        +------------------+
|   Shutdown Mgr   | ---------------------------> |    ESXi Host     |
|   (Docker)       |                               |                  |
|                  |   vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown |   VM 1 (off)    |
|  Flask + SQLite  |   vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms     |   VM 2 (on)     |
|  APScheduler     |   /sbin/poweroff              |   VM 3 (on)     |
|  Paramiko        |                               |   ...            |
+------------------+                               +------------------+
    :8080 (web UI)

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• SSH access to the ESXi host (password or key-based)
• ESXi Shell enabled on the host

Quick Start

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/pipzer0/esxi-shutdown-manager.git
cd esxi-shutdown-manager

2. Run the deploy script

chmod +x deploy.sh
./deploy.sh

This will:

• Install Docker if not present
• Generate an SSH key pair for ESXi access
• Display the public key with instructions to add it to your ESXi host
• Build and start the Docker container

3. Configure

Edit docker-compose.yml with your ESXi host details:

environment:
  - ESXI_HOST=rack1.springfield   # Your ESXi hostname or IP
  - ESXI_USER=root                # SSH username (usually root)
  - TZ=America/Los_Angeles        # Timezone for schedule display and execution

Then restart the container:

docker compose up -d

4. Add the SSH key to ESXi

The deploy script generates a key pair in ./ssh/. Add the public key to your ESXi host:

# SSH into your ESXi host, then:
cat >> /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys << 'EOF'
<paste contents of ./ssh/id_rsa.pub>
EOF

# Persist across reboots:
/sbin/auto-backup.sh

5. Access the dashboard

Open http://<your-host-ip>:8080 in a browser.

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables (set in docker-compose.yml):

Variable	Default	Description
ESXI_HOST	rack1.springfield	ESXi hostname or IP address
ESXI_USER	root	SSH username for ESXi
ESXI_KEY_PATH	/app/ssh/id_rsa	Path to SSH private key (inside container)
ESXI_PASSWORD	(empty)	Fallback password if no SSH key (not recommended)
TZ	America/Los_Angeles	Timezone for schedule and logs
SHUTDOWN_WAIT	180	Seconds to wait after sending VM shutdown commands before powering off host
DB_PATH	/app/data/shutdown_manager.db	SQLite database path (inside container)

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/vms	List all VMs with power states
GET	/api/schedule	Get the weekly shutdown schedule
POST	/api/schedule	Update the weekly schedule
GET	/api/next	Get the next scheduled shutdown time
POST	/api/shutdown	Trigger immediate graceful shutdown
POST	/api/skip	Skip shutdown for a specific date
DELETE	/api/skip	Remove a skip for a specific date
GET	/api/skips	List all scheduled skips
GET	/api/logs	Get activity log (default: last 50 entries)
GET	/api/test	Test SSH connection to ESXi

Data Persistence

• Schedule and logs are stored in SQLite at ./data/shutdown_manager.db (mounted as a Docker volume)
• SSH keys are stored in ./ssh/ (mounted read-only into the container)

Running on the Same ESXi Host

If this app runs as a VM on the ESXi host it manages, the shutdown sequence still works correctly:

1. The app triggers the shutdown sequence via SSH
2. All VMs (including this one) receive graceful shutdown commands
3. The app VM shuts down, but the ESXi-side process continues
4. After the wait period, the ESXi host powers off

When the ESXi host is powered back on and this VM starts, the schedule resumes automatically.

ESXi Host Setup Notes

• Enable SSH: Host > Actions > Services > Enable Secure Shell (SSH)
• Persist SSH keys: After adding the public key, run /sbin/auto-backup.sh on the ESXi host to save the config to the boot bank. Otherwise, keys are lost on reboot.
• VMware Tools: Guest VMs need VMware Tools installed for graceful shutdown (power.shutdown) to work. Without it, the shutdown command will fail for that VM.

License

MIT