I enabled ssh on my ESXi server to help me troubleshoot what appears to be a hardware problem. Hardware problems can be a real pain to troubleshoot and since this one involved the USB storage that was encapsulating my ESXi install, sometimes rebooting when it was broken didn’t really work. It would just hang and I would have to power cycle the server. Turns out that was an issue with ESXi trying to be responsible and syncing the filesystems before it goes into reboot and, when the Hypervisor1 and Hypervisor2 fileystems aren’t available, this turns into a dead lock. Not to fear! simply ssh into the server and, without using tab completion, type this entire command into the console and hit enter.
reboot -f -n
That tells ESXi to reboot without doing a sync/flush to disk and without going through init. Essentially pulling the power cord. It’s drastic and it can cause no shortage of issues on your VMs filesystems, but when you are remote and can’t reach the cord this is a good option to have!