vCenter and Non-VxRail host

The VxRail manager will be unaware of this additional node but from vCenter you can still add host and provide the details. This will allow you to use vCenter to manage all hosts (VxRail and non VxRail) but the non VxRail host will not be covered under the VxRail support agreement and may need to be removed when troubleshooting any support of VxRail itself.

Hi,

Not sure I fully understand the ask.

When you say, "Add a new cluster" do you mean a new data center to the existing VxRail Data-Center?

Actually either way, a new datacenter or a new cluster within the marvin-datacenter. Essentially I just want to manage a couple of non-vxrail host, but obviously they can't be part of the vxrail cluster (marvin-virtual-san..).

Ok - so the short answer in either case is NO. We do not support adding non-VxRail hosts to a VxRail embedded vCenter, nor do we support creating a new cluster within the embedded VxRail vCenter.

However, you can install/deploy a separate vCenter as a user VM hosted on VxRail and then add any hosts on your network to that vCenter. It is not truely a 'single pane of glass' so to speak but it gets closter.

For what you are asking, you really would be better suited in having the VxRail connected to an external vCenter and managed from the external vCenter. This issue here is that this is only configurable at time of initial install. Once the VxRail appliance is installed and configured, to move to external VC would require a factory reset be performed and the system re-configured.

Hope this helps.

G

Is this how initial data migrations are typically handled? Move current host to the embedded vcenter and then cross-cluster svmotion/vmotion. That actually brings up another question around lowering EVC mode to SandyBridge with the vxrail cluster, would that be supported?

Hi,

What level of integration can be achieved between the external non-vxrail hosts and the vxrail cluster. For instance could the other servers be able to access  any resources e.g. storage provided by the VxRail cluster. This is assuming your suggestion is taken into consideration,"However, you can install/deploy a separate vCenter as a user VM hosted on VxRail and then add any hosts on your network to that vCenter."