Adding non vsan host to a vsan cluster

[therealhostman]

Hi,

I have an existing vsan cluster, all fine ... but I want to add another host to the cluster but not utilise it for vsan, for testing purposes, ideally I want it managed by the same vcenter, a standalone host effectively.

Is this possible to do?

Regards,

James

[diegodco31]

Why do not you create another cluster?

[vpradeep01]

Yes, you may add it technically with no issues; however, vSAN Health plugin on the vCenter server may report few health warnings. So just be ready.

Make sure you don't create a vmkernel for vSAN traffic.

Warnings which you see are

vSAN kernel is not enabled on "XYZ" Host

Drive status as unknown

New host may report has Not all hosts can communicate to each other

Also just curious, can you create a new test cluster and add the host here or may be you can add the host to the "Datacenter" object with no cluster.

Thanks

[GreatWhiteTec]

You should take into consideration the number of components, since you will be able to have more VMs.

Considerations for Compute-Only Hosts

Also, since this host is part of a vSAN cluster, it must have a vSAN license as well.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-67-licen...