How to add VMWare ESXi Host to vCenter 6

How to add VMWare ESXi Host to vCenter 6

In this post, we’ll learn the steps to add VMWare ESXi Host to vCenter 6. We have already learned the steps to create VMWare ESXi 6.0 and steps to install vCenter Server 6.0. vCenter Server can be used as a single console to manage multiple ESXi Servers. By adding all the VMWare ESXi hosts to vCenter Server it would be easier to manage all the Hosts from the single console.

VMWare has decided to discontinue vCenter Server from the next version onwards and only use Webclient for all the administrative tasks. We’ll publish some of the articles related to Webclient for your reference.

Steps to add VMWare ESXi Host to vCenter 6

Step 1:
To add VMWare ESXi host to vCenter 6, login to vCenter Server
Click on “Create a datacenter” and define the name of Datacenter.

Step 2:
To add the VMWare ESXi Host, either click on “Add a host” to add the VMWare ESXi or right click on the Datacenter and click on “Add a host”.
You can also use Keyboard shot-cut and press “Ctrl + H”.

Step 3:
On the “Specify connection Settings”, enter the Name of IP Address of the Host to add to vCenter Server.
Also enter the Administrative account information of the host. Root is the default username, password you must have defined while installing VMWare ESXi host.
Click on Yes when asked for the Security alert, which is required to verify the authenticity of the specified host.

Step 4:
On the “Host Summary” window you’ll see detailed summary. Moreover it would show list of all the Virtual Machines hosted on this server.
Click on next to continue.

Step 5:
On the “Assign License” Window, select “Assign a new license key to this host”.
Select “Enter Key” and add the License key.
As we don’t have any license key therefore in this practical we’ll use the Evaluation mode.

Step 6:
You can also “Enable Lockdown Mode” by selecting the box.
Enabling the lockdown mode would prevent remote users from login directly into this Server. The server would only be accessible through local console or an authorized centralized management application.
For this practical, we’ll not enable the lockdown mode.

Step 7:
To add VMWare ESXi Host to vCenter 6, select a location for this host’s virtual machines. This is the same datacenter that we created in the earlier steps.

Step 8:
Review the summary, if any changes required then click on back to make the changes else click on Finish to close the console.

These steps would add VMWare ESXi host to vCenter 6. Hope you understood all the steps. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in the comment section.