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Adding ESXi servers to Flexible instances

Adding ESXi servers to Flexible instances

You can expand the capacity of your VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Flexible instance according to your business needs by adding VMware ESXi™ servers.

Before you add ESXi servers to Flexible instances

For all Flexible instances

Review the following information applicable to all Flexible instances:

  • You can add up to 59 ESXi servers to a Flexible instance.
  • You can add ESXi servers either with vSphere 7.0u3 or vSphere 8.0u2.
  • For existing instances with VMware vSphere® 6.5 or 6.7, you cannot add ESXi servers. To add ESXi servers, upgrade your vSphere® software to 7.0. For more information, see Upgrading VMware vSphere software from vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 to 7.0.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL) is no longer supported except for migrations or upgrades of existing BYOL clusters. Add a host to a BYOL cluster only if you are upgrading or migrating an existing BYOL cluster.

For Flexible instances with vSAN storage

Review the following additional information applicable to Flexible instances with vSAN™ storage:

  • If you are adding ESXi servers to instances provisioned after 24 August 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives.
  • If you are adding ESXi servers to instances provisioned before 24 August 2023, the servers are provisioned with mirrored M.2 boot drives only if you select a new bare metal server configuration.

Procedure to add ESXi servers to Flexible instances

  1. From the IBM Cloud® for VMware Solutions console, click Resources > VCF for Classic from the left navigation pane.

  2. In the VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic table, click the Flexible instance for which you want to expand capacity.

  3. Click the Infrastructure tab.

  4. In the ESXi servers section, click Add.

  5. On the Add ESXi server side panel, enter the number of bare metal servers that you want to add.

  6. Complete the bare metal server configuration.

    • From the list, you can select a bare metal server configuration that is being used by the existing ESXi servers in the cluster. Then, click Next. This option is not available under the following conditions:
      • The bare metal configuration that is used by the existing ESXi servers in the cluster is Broadwell.
      • The storage type of the cluster is Local disks.
    • You can also choose a new bare metal server configuration by selecting the option from the list and clicking Next. Select the CPU model, the vSphere version, the amount of RAM, and vSAN if you have vSAN storage type.

  7. Click Next and complete the network settings.

    • You can use the previously selected primary subnets.
    • You can specify different primary subnets. Then, use the list to select the Private primary subnet.
    • If you want to customize the hostnames prefix individually, toggle the Configure hostnames individually switch on and enter the hostname prefix.

  8. In the Details section, review the estimated pricing, ensure that the account to be charged is correct, and review and accept the terms. Then, click Add.

Results after you add ESXi servers to Flexible instances

  1. You might experience a slight delay on the console while the instance status changes from Available to Modifying. Allow the operation to complete before you make more changes to the instance.
  2. You are notified by email that your request to add ESXi servers is being processed. On the console, the status of the instance is changed to Modifying.
  3. If you do not see the new ESXi servers added to the instance, check your email or console notifications for more details.