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Note: This tutorial involves adding an ESX4 host to vCenter. It’s performed on a fresh install of vCenter.

1. Login to your vCenter server. Once logged in you’ll be presented with the screen below.

2.Right click your vCenter server in the right pane and select New Datacenter. We must create a new Datacenter before we can add hosts. The Datacenter is one of the top level objects in vCenter. Permissions, Alarms and Tasks can be applied to a Datacenter. All objects under a Datacenter can inherit these settings.

3. Give your Datacenter a meaningfull name by right clicking on current Datacenter and selecting rename.

4. Right click your Datacenter and click on Add Host.

5. Enter in your hosts information. The name or IP address that you enter in the Host field will be displayed in your vCenter. It’s recommended to use the fully qualified name for easier reference. Make sure you can resolve the fully qualified name from the vCenter server before trying to add it here. Enter in the root username and password (or another user that has access to the host). Click Next.

6. When the wizard successfully connects you’ll be presented with the SHA1 thumbprint of the ESX host. Click Yes to accept or No if you wish to cancel.

7. In this screen you are presented with the host information including the fully qualified name and build version. Click Next.

8. You can assign a license key to this host now, add it later or continue running the host in evaluation mode. Click Next.

9. Select the Datacenter that you would like to add this host under. In some larger installations there would usually be multiple datacenters to seperate host by geographic location, different customers or different departments. Click Next.

10. This screen presents you with a basic summary of the host. If you are happy with the information click Finish and the host will be added to vCenter.

11. You will now see your host added in the right hand pane underneath the Datacenter you selected earlier.

Disclaimer:
All the tutorials included on this site are performed in a lab environment to simulate a real world production scenario. As everything is done to provide the most accurate steps to date, we take no responsibility if you implement any of these steps in a production environment.