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Adding ESXi servers to Automated instances

Adding ESXi servers to Automated instances

You can expand the capacity of your VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated instance according to your business needs by adding VMware ESXi™ servers.

Before you add ESXi servers to Automated instances

  • For existing instances with VMware vSphere® 6.5 or 6.7, you cannot add ESXi servers. To add ESXi servers, upgrade your vSphere® software to 7.0. For more information, see Upgrading VMware vSphere software from vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 to 7.0.
  • For existing instances with vSphere 7.0u2, you can add only ESXi servers with vSphere 7.0u3.
  • For the gateway cluster, you cannot add or delete ESXi servers.

Whenever possible, add ESXi servers by using the IBM Cloud® for VMware Solutions console because changes that you make on the VMware vSphere® Web Client are not synchronized with the IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions console. Therefore, add ESXi servers to vCenter Server only for on-premises ESXi servers or ESXi servers that you don't manage in the IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions console.

  • An Automated instance with NFS storage must have at least 3 ESXi servers. An Automated instance with vSAN™ storage must have at least 4 ESXi servers.
  • If your initial cluster has vSAN storage, SED SSD disks are not available. Non-SED SSD disks are ordered.
  • You can add up to 51 ESXi servers to a consolidated cluster and up to 59 ESXi servers to a workload or gateway cluster.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) is no longer supported except for migrations or upgrades of existing BYOL clusters. Add a host to a BYOL cluster only if you are upgrading or migrating an existing BYOL cluster.

For Automated instances with vSAN:

  • If you are adding ESXi servers to clusters provisioned after 24 August 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives.
  • If you are adding ESXi servers to clusters provisioned before 24 August 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives only if you select a new bare metal server configuration.

For Automated instances with NFS storage:

  • If you are adding ESXi servers to clusters provisioned after 18 October 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives.
  • If you are adding ESXi servers to clusters provisioned before 18 October 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives only if you select a new bare metal server configuration.

Procedure to add ESXi servers to Automated instances

  1. From the VMware Solutions console, click Resources > VCF for Classic from the left navigation pane.

  2. In the VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic table, click the instance for which you want to expand capacity.

  3. Click the Infrastructure tab.

  4. In the Clusters table, click the cluster to which you want to add ESXi servers.

  5. In the ESXi servers section, click Add.

  6. On the Add ESXi server side panel, enter the number of bare metal servers that you want to add. You can toggle the Maintenance mode switch on to add servers during maintenance mode.

    When you provision new ESXi servers, virtual machines (VMs) are immediately migrated to the new servers if you do not toggle the Maintenance mode switch on. You do not receive a confirmation message before the migration begins.

  7. Complete the bare metal server configuration.

    1. Enter the number of bare metal servers.
      • For the consolidated cluster, you can order 1-51 servers in total, taking into account the existing number of hosts in the cluster.
      • For the workload cluster, you can order 1-59 servers in total, taking into account the existing number of hosts in the cluster.
    2. From the list, you can select a bare metal server configuration that is being used by the existing ESXi servers in the cluster. Then, click Next. This option is not available for existing ESXi servers with Broadwell CPU or if the storage type of the cluster is Local disks.
    3. You can also choose a new bare metal server configuration by selecting the option from the list and clicking Next. Select the CPU model, the amount of RAM, and vSAN if you have vSAN storage type.

  8. Click Next and complete the network settings.

    • You can continue to use the previously selected primary subnets.
    • You can specify different primary subnets. Then, use the lists to select the Public primary subnet and Private primary subnet.
    • If you want to customize the hostnames prefix individually, toggle the Configure hostnames individually switch on.

  9. In the Details section, review the estimated pricing, ensure that the account to be charged is correct, and review and accept the terms. Then, click Add.

Results after you add ESXi servers to Automated instances

  1. You might experience a slight delay on the console while the instance status changes from Available to Modifying. Allow the operation to complete before you make more changes to the instance.
  2. You are notified by email that your request to add ESXi servers is being processed. On the console, the status of the cluster that is associated with the ESXi servers is changed to Modifying.
  3. If you do not see the new ESXi servers added to the list in the cluster, check your email or console notifications for more details.

If you are adding ESXi servers during maintenance mode, VMs are not migrated to the new servers until you remove maintenance mode.