Workflow for adding a new ESXi Host into an Amazon EVS environment

This article provides a step-by-step workflow for adding new ESXi hosts to an existing Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS) environment.

Prerequisites

Before adding a new ESXi host to your Amazon EVS environment, ensure the following requirements are met:

• Broadcom VCF Licensing: You have the appropriate Broadcom VMware Cloud Foundation licensing to support the additional CPUs and vSAN capacity for the hosts you plan to add
• AWS EC2 Quota: You have verified sufficient quota in your AWS account to provision the required number of EC2 metal instances in your target region. Find more information on service quotas for Amazon EVS here
• IAM Permissions: You have sufficient permissions in Amazon Identity and Access Management to add a new EC2 instance into your Amazon EVS environment

Tasks

1. Verify the ESXi Host Build Version in the Amazon EVS Environment
2. Create DNS records for new ESXi Hosts
3. Create Host within Amazon EVS console
4. Commission Host via SDDC Manager
5. Add Host to Cluster

Solution

Task 1: Verify the ESXi Host Build Version in the Amazon EVS Environment

Before proceeding, validate the Amazon EVS environment targeted for host expansion and note the ESXi build number currently in use.

1. Log into the Amazon EVS environment vCenter Server

2. Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters view and select the Cluster you wish to add a Host into.

3. Select an existing Host from the list.

4. Select Summary and view the version and build information next to Hypervisor.

In this example, our ESXi build number is 24859861

Figure 1: ESXi Host version

Task 2: Create DNS records for new ESXi Hosts

1. From the DNS Solution specified in the DHCP Option Set used by Amazon EVS, add new A Records and Reverse Pointer Records for the number of Hosts you wish to add. Ensure they are assigned unique and free IP addresses from your Host management VLAN subnet.

e.g. esxi-05.amazon.evs 10.255.0.15 15.0.255.10.in-addr.arpa

Task 3: Create Host within Amazon EVS console

Before adding a host in SDDC Manager to scale your Cluster, you must first provision a new host in the Amazon EVS console. This process deploys the ESXi AMI onto the selected EC2 metal instance type and prepares it for use within VCF.

1. From the AWS console, navigate to the Amazon Elastic VMware Service landing page. Select Environments from the left-hand pane.

2. Under the list of Amazon EVS environments, select the Environment ID of the environment you want add new ESXi Hosts into.

3. Under Hosts, select Create host.

Provide DNS hostname that matches what was created within your DNS solution.

From the ESXi host version, select the version which matches the ESXi build of the Hosts captured in task 1 e.g. ESXi-8.0U3g-24859861

Select the correct SSH key pair

Under Advanced Options, if you are using Dedicated Hosts and/or Placement Groups specify those here.

Once completed, choose Create host.

Figure 2: Create new EVS host

The process to create new Host will take some time, and the status of the deployment will be displayed in the Hosts section of the console.

Once the Host state shows as Created, you can proceed to task 4.

Figure 3: EVS hosts

Task 4: Commission Host via SDDC Manager

With ESXi now deployed on the EC2 metal instance, the next step is to commission the host within SDDC Manager. Once commissioned, it can be added to the appropriate cluster.

1. Log into the Amazon EVS environment SDDC Manager

2. From the SDDC Manager Dashboard, select Inventory > Hosts

3. Select the Commission Hosts button on the top right.

Figure 4: Commission host

4. Check the Select All button on the checklist and choose Proceed.

Note: When you create a new Host within the Amazon EVS environment, the deployment process ensures that all criteria are met to successfully commission the Host within a VCF environment.

5. Under Host Addition and Validation, complete the required fields:

Ensure the Host FQDN details match what was specific in task 2 e.g. esxi-05.amazon.evs.

Select vSAN as the Storage Type, vSAN HCI as the vSAN Type and check the box to enable vSAN ESA.

Under Network Pool Name, from the dropdown menu, select the network pool, which is prefixed with the Amazon EVS environment ID, followed by -np01. e.g. env-123456abcdef-np01

Specify the Username and Password for the Host.

Note: This will be the root account automatically created as part of the Amazon EVS Create Host workflow and is stored within AWS Secrets Manager to reference.

Select Add

Figure 5: Host addition and validation

6. The Host should now show in the Hosts Added section below. Check the switch to Confirm all Finger Prints and select Validate All.

Figure 6: Hosts added

Once the Host configuration is successfully validated, choose Next.

7. Under Review, validate the Network Pool, IP Address and Storage Type are all set correctly and then choose Commission.

Figure 7: Review

You can view the Host commissioning status within the Tasks and Subtasks section of the SDDC Manager console.

Figure 8: SDDC Manager task successful

Once the Host has been successfully commissioned, you will find it under Inventory > Hosts > Unassigned Hosts

Figure 9: Unassigned host

The next step will be to add the Host to the relevant cluster within your environment.

Task 5: Add ESXi Host to Cluster

1. Log into the Amazon EVS environment SDDC Manager

2. From the SDDC Manager Dashboard, select Inventory > Workload Domains

3. Select the Workload Domain you wish to add the new Host into

4. Select the Clusters tab. From the Clusters tab view, select the 3 dots next to the relevant cluster, and choose Add Host.

Figure 10: Add host to cluster

5. For Host Selection, ensure you select the L2 Uniform radio button. Then under Compatible Hosts, you will find the previously commissioned Host to add into the Cluster.

Check the checkbox to select the Host and choose Next.

Figure 11: Host selection

6. Next, under Switch Configuration, leave as default and choose Next.

7. Under License, you can choose either License Now by selecting the correct VMware vSphere License Key from the drop-down list with sufficient VCF Cores and vSAN Capacity for the Hosts you are adding. If you wish to apply licenses post deployment, choose to License Later. Select Next.

8. Review all options and choose Next.

9: SDDC Manager will validate the Host against the Cluster settings, Distributed Virtual Switch settings, etc., and once successful, you will be able to select Finish.

Figure 12: Add host validation

The Host will now be added to the cluster, and the cluster image will be applied installing any relevant Vendor Add-Ons and Other Components specified within that cluster image configuration.

Note: When a new host is added, VCF validates all hosts in the cluster against the configured Cluster image. Any hosts found to be out of compliance will be remediated during this operation.

Important: If you receive an error during the Remediate ESXi Host(s) to be Compliant with Cluster's Image step, you will need to follow this re:Post article to resolve.

Once the cluster image has been applied, the new Host will be rebooted and then removed from maintenance mode and will be ready for service.

Figure 13: vCenter hosts

Note: If you selected the option to License Later, ensure you correctly license the Host to remain in compliance.

Summary

You have successfully commissioned and added a new ESXi host to your Amazon EVS cluster.

The host is now:

• Fully integrated into your VCF workload domain and vSphere cluster

• Contributing compute, memory, and vSAN storage resources to the environment

• Ready to support workloads with vSphere HA and DRS providing automated placement and resource optimization

• Monitored and managed through both SDDC Manager and vCenter Server