Introduction
In this blog we will show how commission and decommission hosts with VMware Cloud Foundation.
Commissioning a host
In this section we start with commissioning a host. With host commissioning we need to have our ESXI host prepared with the correct ESXI version and config. The setup and configuration should be identical to the current hosts in the VMware Cloud Foundation cluster.
Prerequisites
Before we can commission the new host we need to make sure the host has the correct ESXI version installed. Sometimes the version is not available as a ISO, in that case we need to create a custom ESXI ISO.
I have a blog where I explain step-by-step how to create a custom ESXI ISO from a depot.
Click here to see the blog.
Another very important part is to assign the license to the ESXI host before commissioning the host to VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
1. Login to the ESXI host via the WEB GUI.
2. Go to “Manage” and “Licensing”.
3. Click “Assign License”.
4. Paste the license key and click “Check License”.
5. If you the message “License key is valid for …” you can click “Assign License”.
6. Your license has been assigned.
Add a host to VMware Cloud Foundation
1. Open VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
2. Under inventory go to “Hosts” and choose “Commission Hosts”.
3. You will see a checklist. Check all the boxes and click “Proceed”
4. Fill in all the fields and click on “Add”.
5. After the host has been added to the list. Check the “Confirm FingerPrint” icon and click on “Validate All”.
6. After the validation is complete you will see the “Validation Status” as “Valid”. Click “Next”.
If you run in to any errors, make sure to check the checklist again and solve the issues.
7. Make sure all the information is correct and click “Commission”.
8. You will see a task under “Tasks”. Wait until the task is finished.
9. After the task is “Successful” you have successfully added the new host to VMware Cloud Foundation.
Add a host to the cluster of VMware Cloud Foundation
Now we have commissioned the host to VMware Cloud Foundation, we can add the host to a cluster.
Add a host to the cluster of VMware Cloud Foundation via GUI
1. Open VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
2. Under inventory go to “Workload Domains” and choose the domain you want to add the host to.
3. Click on “Actions” and “Add Host”.
4. You can add the available hosts to the cluster.
5. After you have added the hosts, you will see a task running. Wait until the task is done.
6. Your host has been successfully added to the cluster.
Add a host to the cluster of VMware Cloud Foundation via API Explorer
In some cases it is necessary to use the API Explorer to add hosts to the cluster. This can be the case for example cluster with multiple VDS switches.
First we will need to obtain Host and Cluster ID’s, before we can add the host to the specific cluster.
1. Open VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
2. Under Developer Center go to “API Explorer”.
3. Open “APIs for managing Hosts” and open the “GET /v1/hosts”.
4. In the “Status” parameter we need to add a value named “UNASSIGNED_USABLE”.
The “UNASSIGNED_USABLE” will only show the unassigned available hosts.
5. Click on “Execute”. This will run the API query.
6. Under “Response” you will find the output of the API query. Click on “PageOfHost”, here you will see the available/useable hosts. Click on the host.
You will see all the information about the host. The “ID” is the important part for us.
Save the ID after “ID of the host”, it will look something like “d6259566a-9826-8845-98b9-9a0b445b803c”.
7. Now we will obtain the cluster ID.
Under “APIs for managing Clusters” choose “GET /v1/clusters”.
8. Click on “Execute”.
9. Click on “Execute”.
10. Under “Response” you will find the output of the API query. Click on “PageOfCluster”, here you will see all the clusters. Click on the cluster you want to add your host to.
You will see all the information about the cluster. The “ID” is the important part for us.
Save the ID after “ID of the cluster”, it will look something like
“d6259566a-9826-8845-98b9-9a0b445b803c”.
11. Now we have all the information we can validate our configuration.
Under “APIs for managing Clusters” choose “POST /v1/clusters/{id}/validations”.
For the “id” parameter fill in the cluster id copied from the previous step.
12. Now for the “clusterUpdateSpec” we need to create a JSON.
Below you will find a example of the JSON:
{
"clusterExpansionSpec": {
"hostSpecs": [
{
"id": "d6259566a-9826-8845-98b9-9a0b445b803c",
"licensekey": "00000-00000-00000-00000-00000",
"hostNetworkSpec": {
"vmNics": [
{
"id": "vmnic0",
"vdsName": "DASH-M-vds01",
"moveToNvds": false
},
{
"id": "vmnic1",
"vdsName": "DASH-M-vds02",
"moveToNvds": false
},
{
"id": "vmnic2",
"vdsName": "DASH-M-vds01",
"moveToNvds": false
},
{
"id": "vmnic3",
"vdsName": "DASH-M-vds02",
"moveToNvds": false
}
]
}
}
],
"interRackExpansion" : false
}
}
13. Copy and paste the JSON under “clusterUpdateSpec” Parameter and click “Execute”.
14. You will get a message “Are you sure?”. Click on “Continue”.
15. Under Response you will see the “Validation”. If you open the “Validation” you will see under “ResultStatus” the message “SUCCEEDED”. This means our JSON is working and the validation is successful.
16. Now we will execute this JSON to start adding the host to the cluster.
Under “APIs for managing Clusters” choose “PATCH /v1/clusters/{id}”.
For the “id” and “clusterUpdateSpec” parameters fill in the exact same information as the validation step and click on “Execute”.
17. You will again get a message “Are you sure?”. Click on “Continue”.
18. Under Response you will see the “Task”. If you open the “Task” you will see under “status” the message “IN_PROGRESS”. This means the task has been started and the host will be added to the cluster.
19. Under “Tasks” you will see a new task running.
20. Once the task is completed you will see the task with the status “Succesful”.
The host has successfully been added to the cluster.
Decommissioning a host
In this section we decommission a host. The host decommissioning can be done through the GUI.
Prerequisites
Before we can decommission the host we need to make sure the host is in maintenance mode.
We can perform this on the vCenter WEB GUI.
1. Login to the vCenter Server.
2. Put the host you want to decommission in maintenance mode and choose “Full data migration”.
This will make sure all the data will be moved from the host and redundancy will still be in place for vSAN.
The “Full data migration” can take some time depending on your environment.
Remove a host from VMware Cloud Foundation cluster
1. Open VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
2. Under inventory go to “Workload Domains” and choose the domain you want to remove the host from.
3. Click on “Hosts” and select the host you want to delete. After selecting the host choose “Remove Selected Hosts”.
4. If necessary check the “Force Remove Host” option. After that click on “Remove”.
5. A task under “Tasks” will start.
6. Once the task is “Successful” the host is removed from the cluster.
7. The host is now in a “Usable” state. This means you can put the host in another VMware Cloud Foundation Cluster if you want.
Decommission a host from VMware Cloud Foundation
To completely remove the host from VMware Cloud Foundation, we need to decommission the host.
1. Open VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC manager.
2. Under inventory go to “Hosts” and choose “Unassigned Hosts”.
3. Select the host you want to decommission and choose “Decommission Selected Hosts”.
4. You will get a message. Select the “Skip failed hosts during decommissioning” and choose “Confirm”.
5. The host will start decommissioning and you will see a task starting under “Tasks”.
6. Once completed the task will show “Successful”.
7. You have successfully decommissioned a host from VMware Cloud Foundation.
