If I have a clustered environment and lose one host how do I power up the virtual machines that were off during the failure but associated with that host?
Two options:
(Assuming your using shared storage.)
One would be to create the new VM through Virtual Center on the new host and point to the existing vmdk on the shared storage.
The other is to run /usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s register on the new host.
Your virtual machines are on shared storage I assume,
Do you have HA or DRS enabled?
Do you get any error when attempting to power up the VMs?
Powered off VM's will be stuck on that host. You will need to re-register them on a new host to power them on.
How do I re-register the Virtual Machine to another host?
Two options:
(Assuming your using shared storage.)
One would be to create the new VM through Virtual Center on the new host and point to the existing vmdk on the shared storage.
The other is to run /usr/bin/vmware-cmd -s register on the new host.
You can also browse to the vmx file in the host's datastore in VC and right click to register.