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vCenter forgot my ESX is in standby mode. What now ?

I used VirtualCenter (vCenter) to put an ESX in standby mode. I restarted VirtualCenter for Windows patches, and now VirtualCenter says the ESX host is "not responding", and doesn't give me the option to wake it from standby mode. Fortunately, the solution is right there under your fingertips: do manually what VirtualCenter would have done for you:
Log on to another ESX on the same network, get the MAC address(es) of the sleeping ESX host, and run:
# ether-wake -i vswif0 aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff
You could optionally repeat this for every interface you know of the sleeping ESX. Remember to use the real MAC addresses of the real NICs, not the virtual MAC addresses of service console ports, vmkernel ports, or virtual machines.
After a couple of minutes, VirtualCenter will notice that the host is responding, and will connect it again. If you wish, you can put it in standby mode again using the VI-Client.

If you don't know the MAC address of the host in standby mode, you would need to look for it in the VC database, but you can also find it in /etc/vmware/esx.conf, if you happen to have a backup (such as a vm-support dump). Look for /net/pnic/child[*]/mac values.

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