Integrate host profiles of an ESXi host with NSX-T on stateful servers.
A stateful host is a host that retains all configurations and the installed VIBs even after it is rebooted. While an auto-deploy server is needed for stateless hosts because the boot up files required to bring up a stateless hosts are stored on the auto-deploy server, a stateful host does not need a similar infrastructure. Because the boot up files required to bring up a stateful host is stored on its hard drive.
In this procedure, the reference host is outside of the stateful cluster and the target hosts in the cluster. A target host can be within a cluster or a standalone host outside of the cluster. Prepare a cluster by applying host profile and transport node profile (TN profile) , so that any new target hosts joining the cluster is automatically prepared with NSX-T VIBs. Configure the target host as a transport node. Similarly, for a standalone host, apply the host profile and configure NSX-T to install NSX-T VIBs and when NSX-T configuration is complete, it becomes a transport node.
During the configuration of a target host into a transport node, VMkernel adapters and vmnics or physical network interfaces that are attached to the VSS or VDS switch can be migrated and get connected to the NSX-T virtual distributed switch, N-VDS switch.
