Enabling a Standalone Host to Use a Software Specification

Starting with vSphere 8.0, you can use the vSphere Lifecycle Manager to manage the life cycle of standalone hosts in your vCenter Server system.

You can add a standalone host to a vCenter Server instance under a data center object or into a folder. See ESXi Hosts. If you remove a host from a cluster but leave it in the data center, the host is also considered a standalone host.

To manage a standalone host with a software specification, you must first enable the vSphere Lifecycle Manager on that host. You can run a preliminary check to establish whether the standalone host meets all requirements for enabling the vSphere Lifecycle Manager. Use the POST https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>/api/esx/settings/hosts/<host_id>/enablement/software?action=check&vmw-task=true request and submit the host ID as path parameter. The pre-checks that you can skip before enabling the vSphere Lifecycle Manager on a standalone host are the same as for a cluster.

To enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager on a standalone host, use the PUT https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>/api/esx/settings/hosts/<host_id>/enablement/software?vmw-task=true request and submit the host ID as path parameter. Optionally, to define whether you want to skip any checks during the feature enablement, you can add a Software.EnableSpec data structure to the request body. Currently, you can skip only the check for orphaned vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs).