Moving a vCenter server into a EVC cluster.

June 17, 2011

It’s a catch 22 scenario, you want to run your vCenter server in a cluster with EVC enabled, but you can’t build/manage a cluster without vCenter running so here is how you do it.

1) Build vCenter on ESX server 1

2) Build a cluster in vCenter, enable EVC and place ESX Server 2 in that cluster.

3) Power down vCenter Server(s),. open vSphere client, connect to ESX server 1, remove the vCenter VM(s) from inventory (DO NOT delete from disk). close vSphere client

4) Open vSphere client, connect directly to ESX server 2. Browse the datastore for the vCenter VM(s). Connect to them, power them up.

5) You can now connect to the vCenter and move ESX server 1 into the EVC cluster.

ESX EVC vCenter Cluster vSphere

5 comments

Anonymous November 10, 2011

Nice tip, just been trying to think through how I was going to manage this and you've saved me the effort!

GregV February 9, 2012

Funny, I just worked my way right into this pickle as well. I got right to the point where I had two hosts, one in the cluster, one outside of it with the vsphere 5 server vm and the error "host cannot be admitted to the clusters current enhanced vmotion capability mode" - obviously because its powered on since i'm managing the cluster from it.
So, I nearly thought I was trapped, then found your article. I skipped the remove from inventory step because I was on shared storage. I shut down the vsphere vm, closed the client, connected to my second host already in the cluster, browsed the shared data store, clicked the vm file and inventoried it, powered on - told it I'd moved it, and then connected back to the vsphere server and added the first host to the cluster. Easy - after I read the article - Thank you ;)

Jeffery Davidson March 29, 2012

As a relative newbie, this was very helpful - especially GregV's followup. The only thing I'd add (because I'm a newbie) is how to browse the datastore from the single host interface - that took a while to figure out (And in case there's another seeker - go to the host Configuration page, select Storage, and then right-click on the datastore and select Browse.)

Anonymous October 1, 2012

You should mention, that in case DV Switch is being used, one should move the VM temporarily to a vSwitch, do all the tasks you mentioned, and then switch back from vSwitch to DV Switch once all is done. For some reason (at least on vSphere 4.1), when you add the VM to the inventory on the host, and start it up, the network will come as disconnected with no way of reconnecting it (even when VM is off). Switching to vSwitch, powering on the vCenter, and then switching back to DV Switch once vCenter is up and running will solve the problem. Thanks, P.

Anonymous February 13, 2013

Is it the same procedure where you need to migrate all production VMs from esx1 to new esx2 inside a drs cluster with EVC?