You can add a host to any site or site cluster. A minimum number of hosts are required for each site type to function. A Cell Site Group requires minimum one host and a Compute Cluster requires minimum three hosts.

Note: If a cell site domain has multiple Distributed Virtual Switches in it, then the switch to which the management network is associated should also be mapped to use the vmnic that has the vmk0 VMKernel network interface attached.

Prerequisites

  • A site type for which you want to add a host is already added in Domains.

  • When adding a host to a cell site group, ensure that the parent vCenter domain is PROVISIONED with the latest version. You cannot add a host to a cell site group that has its parent vCenter domain status as anything other than PROVISIONED.

    Parent Site Status

    Cell Site Group Status

    Host Addition

    Provisioned

    Any

    Allowed

    Not Provisioned

    Any

    Not Allowed

    Failed

    Any

    Not Allowed

    In Progress

    Any

    Not Allowed

    Provisioned*

    Any

    Not Allowed

    Failed*

    Any

    Not Allowed
Note:

'*' suffix in the status of vCenter Domain denotes that it needs to be re-synced.

  • Ensure that the certificate is generated with the server hostname as SAN by performing the following:
    1. Log in to the ESXi host using an SSH client, Putty, or any other SSH client.
    2. Regenerate the self-signed certificate by running the following command: 
      /sbin/generate-certificates
    3. Restart the hostd and vpxa services by running the following command: 
      /etc/init.d/hostd restart && /etc/init.d/vpxa restart

Procedure

  1. Click the Domains tab under Infrastructure Automation.
  2. Select the site for which you want to add a host.
  3. Click Edit to modify the site details.
  4. On the Host tab, click Add Host.
  5. Configure the network for the host.

    Fields

    Description

    Host Address (FQDN)

    The associated FQDN of the host.

    User Name

    User name to access the host.

    Password

    Password corresponding to the user name to access the host.

    vSAN Cache Device

    Name of the vSAN device used as cache.

    You can add the IPMI information for the sites that have host profiles configured with BIOS and firmware details.

    • IPMI Username - User name to access the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI).

    • IPMI Password - Password to access the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI).

    • IPMI Address(FQDN) - Address of the IPMI interface. You must provide the fully qualified domain name.

    • Datastore Prefix - Enter a string value which is used for naming datastore by appending given value at the beginning of generated datastore name. It is recommended to keep string value same as host name.

    Note:

    The Enable datastore customizations field is available only for non pre-deployed cell site groups.

    If you provide a value for datastore prefix:

    • The datastores for the hosts are created in below format

      • Case 1: datastore-prefix is different from short-host-name

        <datastore-prefix>-<short-host-name>{-localDS}{-<integer>}-<integer> #{-localDS}{-<integer>} are based on conditions on host.

        examples: for given datastore prefix as 'dsPrefix' and short hostName as 'host201'

        possible datastore names are dsPrefix-host201-localDS-0, dsPrefix-host201-1, dsPrefix-host201-0-1

      • Case 2: datastore prefix is same as short-host-name <datastore-prefix>{-localDS}{-<integer>}-<integer> #{-localDS}{-<integer>} are based on conditions on host.

        examples: for given datastore prefix as 'dsPrefix' and short hostName as 'host201'

        possible datastore names are dsPrefix-localDS-0, dsPrefix-1, dsPrefix-0-1

    If you leave datastore prefix empty:

    • The datastores for the host will use short host name as a prefix to generate datastore names

      • The datastores for the hosts are created in below format

        <short-host-name>-localDS-<integer>

        example: For short host name as host201 datastores created will be host201-localDS-0 host202-localDS-1 and so on

    Note:

    • When adding a host to a pre-deployed cell site group, you must add only the pre-deployed host.

    • A pre-deployed host means a host already added to the vCenter and configured as required.

    • Any hosts to be added to a pre-deployed Cell Site Group domain must be present in a Host Folder with the same name as this domain under the relevant datacenter (as mentioned in the parent domain of the Cell Site Group) in vCenter.

    • Use Above credentials for all hosts - If you want to use same user name and password for each host, select the checkbox.

    • Use above IPMI credentials for all hosts - If you want to use same user name and password to access IPMI for each host, select the checkbox.

  6. Click Save.