vSphere endpoint - use singular host not cluster?

[5mall5nail5]

Hey all - I have one environment that has all standalone hosts.  When I created a vSphere/vCenter endpoint for that I managed to pick the host(s) I want available for reservations.  On another setup, I have 2 hosts in a cluster that I'd like to put vRA deployments on but 5 that I do not.  However, it allowed me to select only the Cluster as a whole in the vSphere endpoint config.  Anyway to select more granular?

[poorem · Accepted solution]

That sort of defeats the point of having a cluster in the first place.

To answer your question though, I don't believe that it's possible to select only specific hosts from the cluster.

That said, there may be another way to do it. You could create a DRS affinity group in vSphere that keeps member VMs on those specific two hosts. You would then need to create an event broker subscription workflow that adds the newly provisioned VMs to that group in vCenter. You'd need a way to make sure that only the VMs provisioned to that cluster get added to the DRS group though.

[daphnissov]

Or create clusters with one host in each. Not sure why you'd want to do this exactly, but it should work.

[5mall5nail5]

I understand what you mean about defeating the point of clusters.  The reason is just in this very specific case, an internal department has purchased their own host(s) and I'd like to be able to keep other department reservations off.  I have this working in another vCenter by moving the hosts out of the clusters, but then obviously I lose the other features.

I am find with the answer being "You kind of can't" and will just have to do DRS rules.  Thanks!