Have you checked the licenses on VMware's License Portal to make sure the keys you have are the license keys you believe they should be?
Are you making use of any critical features (e.g. Service console on a distributed Switch) that might be disabled if the restrictions associated with your actual license were applied? Is your whole environment operating under eval licenses a the moment?
There doesn't seem to be a clean way to fully manage a cold start of a virtual infrastructure once HA is configured on the individual hosts. Enabling HA and DRS seems to disable the Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown options on the host servers. However, any ordering set before the host is moved into the cluster seems to stick. If the number of hosts is small or manageable, it's possible to set startup priority in the vSphere client by connecting to the hosts individually. Put your rules there. This actually works in the situation you describe.
![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VcFCU.png)
Storage comes first!
Once the shared storage is up, I work on the hosts... I've had partial outages where vCenter virtualized as well. What I do in this case is set automatic boot and ordering options for the most critical systems; typically a domain controller and DNS/DHCP. Remember, vCenter is not likely to be available in the cold-start scenario. If I can fit it in, then I will... otherwise it gets started manually.
From there, I make sure HA and DRS rules are intact. I usually have disaffinity rules set for terminal servers, application servers and domain controllers. Once vCenter comes up, most of this gets sorted out.
I had a lightning strike a few weeks ago that took part of my server room down, including the switch blade containing the storage network. VMWare HA brought everything back once the storage switch ports were relocated and reprogrammed.
So, this type of issue falls under a real emergency or a manual effort. I wouldn't expect a hands-off startup of the system environment in the scenario you describe.
Edit:
Two weeks ago, I had a brownout that tripped a UPS. Two hosts, VC and a SAN/NAS device. Everything came back on its own and I didn't have to intervene (I was actually on a plane and got the messages upon landing).
Best Answer
You should be fine.
To power everything off.
To start up again.