This section describes how to remove a host from a cluster prepared for network virtualization. You might want to do this if, for example, you decide that the host is not going to participate in NSX.

Important: If the host has NSX 6.3.0 or later and ESXi 6.0 or later, you do not need to reboot a host to uninstall VIBs. In earlier versions of NSX and ESXi, a reboot is required to complete the VIB uninstall.

In NSX 6.4.0 and later, the vxlan.zip file contains a single VIB file VMware_bootbank_esx-nsxv.vib. For example, in ESXi 6.5, the name of the VIB file might be something similar to VMware_bootbank_esx-nsxv_6.5.0-0.0.13168956.vib.

To remove a host from an NSX-prepared cluster, you must ensure that this VIB file is not present on the host.

Procedure

  1. Place the host into maintenance mode and wait for DRS to evacuate the host, or manually vMotion running VMs from the host.
  2. Remove host from the prepared cluster by either moving it to an unprepared cluster or making it a standalone host outside of any cluster.
    NSX Data Center for vSphere uninstalls the network virtualization components and service virtual machines from the host.
  3. Verify that the VIB uninstall has completed.
    1. Check the Recent Tasks pane in the vSphere Web Client.
    2. In the Host Preparation tab, check that the Installation Status for the cluster from which the host was removed has a green checkmark.
      If the Installation Status is Installing, the uninstall is still in progress.
  4. After the uninstall is complete, remove the host from maintenance mode.

Results

The NSX Data Center for vSphere VIB is removed from the host. To verify, SSH to the host and run the esxcli software vib list | grep esx command. Make sure the esx-nsxv VIB is not present on the host.

If the VIB remains on the host, you can view the logs to determine why automated VIB removal did not work.

You can remove the VIB manually by running this command: esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-nsxv.