You can add an unmanaged host to a cluster. Such a host is not currently managed by the same vCenter Server system as the cluster and it is not visible in the vSphere Client.

Procedure

  1. Browse to the cluster in the vSphere Client.
  2. Right-click the cluster and select Add Host.
  3. Enter the host name, user name, and password, and click Next.
  4. View the summary information and click Next.
  5. Assign an existing or a new license key and click Next.
  6. (Optional) You can enable lockdown mode to prevent remote users from logging directly into the host.
    If you do not enable lockdown mode, you can configure this option later by editing Security Profile in host settings.
  7. Select what to do with the host’s virtual machines and resource pools.
    • Put this host’s virtual machines in the cluster’s root resource pool

      vCenter Server removes all existing resource pools of the host and the virtual machines in the host’s hierarchy are all attached to the root. Because share allocations are relative to a resource pool, you might have to manually change a virtual machine’s shares after selecting this option, which destroys the resource pool hierarchy.

    • Create a resource pool for this host’s virtual machines and resource pools

      vCenter Server creates a top-level resource pool that becomes a direct child of the cluster and adds all children of the host to that new resource pool. You can supply a name for that new top-level resource pool. The default is Grafted from <host_name>.

  8. Review settings and click Finish.

Results

The host is added to the cluster.