On the other hand, if your host has changed and you need to update your host profile accordingly, you can click on COPY SETTINGS FROM HOST instead of EDIT HOST PROFILE from the screen above. When all changes are complete, make sure to click save!Įditing a VMware host profile is a great way to perform a uniform configuration change on a number of hosts. Configuration items can also be removed by clicking the red X next to them when you move move over them with your mouse. The same method can be used for adding additional attributes such as portgroups. In this example, I have created a new standard vSwitch.
If you mouse over a configuration object, you will see a green plus sign, click the green plus sign to add another configuration item of that type. You can then change the configuration of your ESXi host by editing the existing configuration which is displayed, or adding new configuration attributes. You can also expand your host profile settings to review from this screen before clicking EDIT HOST PROFILE. Then click the configure tab, and Edit Host Profile. To do this, first click on the vSphere host profile in the Host Profile menu, from the view above. You may want to edit a VMware host profile to change a configuration on your vSphere hosts. Now, let’s go through each of these and see what we can do with them. We can now do a number of things with this VMware host profile like:
Now we have a basic VMware vSphere host profile that reflects the settings of the host we used to create it. You can also find Host Profiles under Policies and Profiles in the vCenter navigation menu.
You could also right click a host, select Host Profile, and then Extract Profile to accomplish this. Be sure to give it a descriptive name so you know what it is to be used for. This is the host we are using to create our baseline, many times it is the first VMware vSphere host we build in a cluster or environment.Ĭlick EXTRACT HOST PROFILE, and select the host you would like to make a profile from. The first step is to extract the VMware host profile from what we call a reference host. Select Menu in the top navigation bar, then Shortcuts, and click on Host Profiles.Įxtract VMware Host Profile from Reference Host This of course goes for creating or extracting a VMware host profile too.
Remember, vSpehre comes with a 60 day evaluation license with all features unlocked. If you do not currently have vSphere Enterprise Plus licensing, it may make sense for you to test VMware host profiles in a nested vSphere environment to see how it can help your organization. A little up front configuration goes a long way, making VMware Host Profiles one of the most useful features of vSphere Enterprise Plus. Some shy away from VMware vSphere host profiles because they seem complicated, but the truth is they are not.
Ensuring ESXi hosts have a uniform configuration will remove a number of vSphere problems before they even start. If we are in a regulated environment, we may need to document host configuration, which becomes easy with VMware host profiles. We also need to make sure things like networks are named uniformly across hosts. vSphere host configuration is key to success, we want to make sure our ESXi hosts truly share reassures, like networking and storage. Managing the configuration of VMware vSphere ESXi hosts is important for a number of reasons, and host profiles makes it easy in vSphere 6.7.