Connecting an existing ESXi to a Hosted vCenter

[Homdax]

So after some initial tribulations I have a vCenter. it's a VMUG license.

Connecting my ESXi to the vCenter seems to be a different matter. All I can find is that you should be able to "right-click" the ESXi Host and a "Connect" dialogue should sprout. Well it doesn't. Bot are on the same physical server with ample resources.

So two potential issues come to mind...

1. Should the ESXi be in Maintenance Mode for this to sprout a "Connect" dialogue?
2. Could it be a license key issue, since I am currently using the Free licensing of the ESXi, maybe I should get the VMUG license key and copy in instead?

Any other potential issue?

[Kinnison]

Hello,

Comment edited to remove its content as it no longer serves the context of this discussion.

Regards.

[Homdax]

License changed. Lets see what happens.

[scott28tt]

Here's the process: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-CCE2AEC1-FE9F-...

[Homdax]

Yeah, don't have a datacenter.

1. Verify that a data center or a folder exists in the inventory.
2. Obtain the user name and password of the root user account for the host.
3. Verify that hosts behind a firewall are able to communicate with the vCenter Server system and all other hosts through port 902 or another custom-configured port.
4. Verify that all NFS mounts on the host are active.
5. Verify that you have the proper privileges. Different sets of privileges apply when you add multiple hosts to a cluster and a single host to a cluster or a data center. For more information, see Required Privileges for Common Tasks in the vSphere Security documentation.
6. If you want to add a host with more than 512 LUNs and 2,048 paths to the vCenter Server inventory, verify that the vCenter Server instance is suitable for a large or an x-large environment.

---

1. What inventory?

2. Yes.

3. Should be true.

4. No NFS

5. No cluster

6. No luns.

---

So what were you saying again?

[Homdax]

Still no "Connect" menu.

What else, any service missing perhaps?

[scott28tt]

You have to start with a Datacenter - that is the "root" object for your inventory: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-7FDFBDBE-F8AC-...

[Kinnison]

Hello,

Comment edited to remove its content as it no longer serves the context of this discussion.

Regards.

[Homdax]

I get that. I did however not plan to create an entire infrastructure to host 4-5 vm's, or to test out some functionality using vCenter that may or may not be useful to me in my environment.

If I need to create a logical datacenter so be it, I should be able to do that, between my three physical servers I have space, cpu cores and ram to setup a little forest of vmachines, but I will of course need to read up on how and if that is enough for any requirements. 

[scott28tt]

A datacenter is just an object in the vCenter inventory, it contains hosts, VMs, networks, and datastores.

You have no choice but to create one even if you then only add a single ESXi host to the inventory within that datacenter.

This is no big deal, it’s just what you have to do based on how vCenter Server works.

[Homdax]

Ok, maybe i should make a new thread, but I do have ESXi 7.03c (vsphere I presume) installed as hypervisor and VMware vCenter Server Management 7.0.3.00600 installed as guest on the ESXi. VMUG license, yet I see nothing about licenses in the vCenter and no menus anywhere about creating datacenter as per the docs you linked to.

There are a number of different VMWare products with confusing names I could still install. What do I need to get? This is from what we have available at VMUG: 

1. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
2. VMware Fusion 12 Pro
3. VMware Horizon Advanced Edition 8
4. VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer
5. VMware Site Recovery Manager
6. VMware Tanzu
7. VMware VMUG Online Exam Discount Code
8. VMware VMUG VCAP Exam Discount Code
9. VMware VMUG VCP Exam Discount Code
10. VMware vRealize Suite 2019
11. VMware vRNI
12. VMware vSAN 7
13. VMware Workstation 16.x Pro
14. VMware vSphere 6.x (ESXi)
15. VMware vCenter Server v6.x Standard
16. VMware vCloud Director
17. VMware vCloud Suite Standard
18. VMware Horizon Advanced Edition 7
19. VMware NSX-T
20. VMware vCenter Server 7
21. VMware vSphere 7 (ESXi)
22. VMware vSAN 6.x
23. VMware vRealize Orchestrator
24. VMware vRealize Operations for Horizon

AFAIK I have options 14, 15, 20, 21, installed or rather can not fathom how they are different from what I have installed.

I guess I am just trigger happy oversimplifying this, but I have little time to be anything else.

[scott28tt]

This is essential vSphere administration with vCenter Server, create a datacenter and add a host.

I would recommend you look to take some vSphere training - how to license, build out your vCenter inventory, setup networks and datastores, then VM administration - at a minimum.

[Homdax]

I guess I need this, but what product is that, because half of the product references states ESXi, but my ESXi does not look this way.

My ESXi look like this:

[Homdax]

Never mind, port 443. 

[scott28tt]

You need to point your web browser at the vCenter Server FQDN/IP in order to create the datacenter and add the ESXi host (even though the vCenter Server itself is a VM sitting on the ESXi host)

"vSphere" is a combination of vCenter Server and 1 or more ESXi hosts.

[Homdax]

Next issue to resolve:

Troubleshooting permissions errors when connecting to vCenter Server with the vSphere Client (100387...

[Homdax]

And solved.

Thanks to a Facebook group of homelabbers.

[Homdax]

And now i have a connected host, my ESXi hypervisor.

[scott28tt]

Hurrah, glad we got there in the end.