- Connect to the vCenter Server using the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client or vSphere Client.
- Create a new empty cluster which does not contain any ESXi/ESX hosts.
- Enable EVC on this new empty cluster.
- Migrate all virtual machines off of one ESXi/ESX host in the existing cluster.
- Put the host into Maintenance Mode.
- Drag and drop the ESXi/ESX host into the EVC cluster.
- Exit Maintenance Mode.
- Using the vSphere Client, directly connect to the ESXi/ESX host that is hosting the vCenter Server virtual machine.
- Right-click the vCenter Server virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
- Click the Options tab.
- Click General Options.
- Note the host that the vCenter virtual machine was running on as well as location and name of the virtual machine configuration file (
.vmx) on the datastore. This information is required in step 17 and afterward. - Power off the vCenter Server virtual machine.
- Connect to the host (that was running the vCenter Server virtual machine) noted in Step 12 using the vSphere Client.
- Right-click the vCenter Server virtual machine and click Remove from Inventory.
- Using the vSphere Client, connect directly to the ESXi/ESX host that is in the EVC cluster.
- Browse the datastore that contains the virtual machine configuration file for the vCenter Server virtual machine (as noted in step 13 above).
- Right-click the virtual machine configuration file and click Add to Inventory.
This action adds the vCenter Server virtual machine to the Inventory of the ESXi/ESX host that is in the EVC cluster. - Power on the vCenter Server virtual machine.
- Using the vSphere Client, connect to the vCenter Server.
You now have vCenter Server running in a virtual machine on an ESXi/ESX host that is in an EVC cluster. All other virtual machines are running on ESXi/ESX hosts that are outside of the EVC cluster. - To add the ESXi/ESX hosts that are outside the EVC cluster into the EVC cluster, the virtual machines must be moved from each of those hosts. You can attempt to migrate those virtual machines (while powered on) to an ESXi/ESX host that is already in the EVC cluster.
If this migration fails (for example, due to the EVC baseline configuration), power off the virtual machines and then migrate them to an ESXi/ESX host in the EVC cluster. - After all of the virtual machines are moved from the ESXi/ESX host, right-click the host and click Disconnect to disconnect it from the vCenter Server Inventory.
- Drag and drop the disconnected host into the EVC cluster.
- Right-click the ESXi/ESX host and click Connect to connect it to the vCenter Server Inventory.
- Repeat steps 21-24 for each ESXi/ESX host in turn until all hosts are part of the EVC cluster.