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brian_plank
Contributor
Contributor

Adding an ESX to a Cluster - Walk Thourgh

Hello everyone.I'm new here, so go easy on me.

I will have to add a new host in an existing DRS & HA cluster, and i was wondering wich steps i'll have to do:

  • Unplug fibre channel cables (Not required, but recommended, I think)

  • Install ESX following the partition schema bellow that I found on some discussion page (Or should I leave the recommended settings by installer and edit a couple partitions?In this case, which ones?)

Mount Point Primary? Size

=========== ======== ====

/ (root) Yes 5120MB

/boot Yes 250MB

swap Yes 1600MB

/var No 4096MB

/tmp No 1024MB

/opt No 2048MB

/home No 1024MB

vmkcore No 100MB

VMFS No (Any remaining space)

  • Plug the fibre channel cables back and boot ESX. (Will ESX understand it as a new hardware or something? I know that when you add a new hardware you need to run a command,right?....is that the case?)

  • "Add new host" in the virtual center

  • License the new host, pointing it to a license server.

  • Configure networking, by creating and naming the same switches and port groups that are present in the other ESX's. (Do I need to configure something else than switches and portgroups in networking?)

  • Configure storage, by adding the same storage LUN's that are presented to the other ESX's. (Do I need to configure something else in storage?)

  • Drag and Drop the host to the cluster.If everything goes fine, its done. (When you add a host to a cluster, it checks if the host complies the necessary configurations, right?)

I appreciate any suggestions/additions/corrections.

Thanks in advance.

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java_cat33
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

  • Unplug fibre channel cables (Not required, but recommended, I think)

Yes definitely do this - removes the ability to accidentally wiping a vmfs SAN lun (the lun would have to be presented at this point if this was going to be the case)

  • Install ESX following the partition schema bellow that I found on some discussion page (Or should I leave the recommended settings by installer and edit a couple partitions?In this case, which ones?)

Mount Point Primary? Size

=========== ======== ====

/ (root) Yes 5120MB

/boot Yes 250MB

swap Yes 1600MB

/var No 4096MB

/tmp No 1024MB

/opt No 2048MB

/home No 1024MB

vmkcore No 100MB

VMFS No (Any remaining space)

Looks good. Take a look at Duncan's site for other suggestions...

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/10/23/partitioning-your-esx/

  • Plug the fibre channel cables back and boot ESX. (Will ESX understand it as a new hardware or something? I know that when you add a new hardware you need to run a command,right?....is that the case?)

You can just site back and wait - nothing else required.

  • "Add new host" in the virtual center

Yep

  • License the new host, pointing it to a license server.

Within VC - if the VC is also the license server there is an option to select a radio button from memory so that all ESX hosts use the same license server as VC - if this is your case you wont need to change the licensing model - just make sure you have enough licenses (within your license file).

  • Configure networking, by creating and naming the same switches and port groups that are present in the other ESX's. (Do I need to configure something else than switches and portgroups in networking?)

No - what you are planning is correct.

  • Configure storage, by adding the same storage LUN's that are presented to the other ESX's. (Do I need to configure something else in storage?)

You only need to present the luns with the same lun id's - then rescan your storage adapters - nothing else.

  • Drag and Drop the host to the cluster.If everything goes fine, its done. (When you add a host to a cluster, it checks if the host complies the necessary configurations, right?)

Yes that is correct.

Make sure all your hosts can ping each other.

Another suggestion is to test the memory for several days before putting important VM's on the new host. You may want to only add the host to the cluster after you are satisfied the hardware is ok.

brian_plank
Contributor
Contributor

java_cat33, Thank you very much for your answers and suggestions and for pointing me to Duncan's site.

I'm more comfortble now to do this, as I was wondering that I need to configure something else, mainly in networking.

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java_cat33
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Not a problem - the main thing with networking as you are aware is to make sure the port groups have the same name (E.G VM Network) on all hosts. As long as the naming and configuration is identical you shouldn't come across any problems.

You will also need to enable vmotion on the vmkernel portgroup on the new host.

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depping
Leadership
Leadership

Take the physical switch in account. you'll probably need to disable STP or set it to PortFast. Your walk through looks fine to me!



Duncan

Blogging: http://www.yellow-bricks.com

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

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brian_plank
Contributor
Contributor

ok, vmotion configuration was in the plan too.

Does the number of ports of the switches, speed, load balancing policies etc need to be exactly the same too?

depping, and why is that?

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