I have used a batch script to shut down a ESXI host from a remote Windows computer using Plink.exe. The script is
start c:/plink.exe -v -ssh <adminuser>@<ipaddress of server> -pw<password> poweroff -p
The script above works perfectly from my computer, but when scheduling the batch script to run from our scheduling software it appears to run (both command prompt and plink run) but no command is sent to poweroff.
The sequence is the scheduling software runs the batch file on the remote Windows computer which runs plink to shutdown the ESXi host.