A decommissioned host must be cleaned up before it can be assigned to a workload domain. You can use the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) on the host to perform host cleanup.

Prerequisites

  • You must have access to Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) on the host.
  • Gather the following information for the decommissioned host:
    • IP address
    • root password
    • network configuration - netmask, gateway, and DNS
    • VLAN ID

Procedure

  1. Log in to the DCUI.
  2. Navigate to the Troubleshooting Options page and enable ESXI shell.
  3. Press Alt-F1 to get to the prompt to run command line steps.
  4. Clean up vSAN with the following command. 
    #vdq -i
#esxcli vsan storage remove -s SSD Device Name
    For example: 
    [root@esx-6:/tmp] vdq -i
[
  {
     "SSD" : "naa.55cd2e414dc36b15",
      "MD" : [
             "naa.55cd2e414d7abb5d",
             "naa.55cd2e414d7aa215",
             "naa.55cd2e414d7abb46",
             ]
  },
  {
     "SSD" : "naa.55cd2e414dc36d53",
      "MD" : [
             "naa.55cd2e414d705c35",
             "naa.55cd2e414d7aa1eb",
             "naa.55cd2e414d7abb10",
             ]
  },
]
[root@esx-6:/tmp] esxcli vsan storage remove -s naa.55cd2e414dc36b15
[root@esx-6:/tmp] esxcli vsan storage remove -s naa.55cd2e414dc36d53
[root@esx-6:/tmp] vdq -i
[
]
  5. Reset the system configuration and the root password by running the commands below.
    /bin/firmwareConfig.sh --reset
    When you reset the configuration, the software overrides all your network configuration changes, deletes the password for the administrator account (root), and reboots the host.
  6. Press Alt-F2 to return to the DCUI.
  7. Reset the root password. This password was deleted during step 5.
  8. Configure the following network details to the same values that were set on the host before the factory reset.
    • VLAN
    • Set static IPv4 address
    • IP address
    • netmask
    • gateway
  9. Apply the changes.
  10. Restart the management network by selecting the Restart Management Network option on the main DCUI page.
  11. On the Troubleshooting Options page, enable SSH on the host.
  12. Turn off ESXi shell.

What to do next

You can now commission the host to the VMware Cloud Foundation inventory and add it to a workload domain.