How to Add ESXi Hosts to vCenter using PowerShell

There are quite a few clicks needed to add a host to vCenter. If you are deploying multiple hosts to your environment you have many clicks ahead. You should script it! This PowerShell script will make adding multiple hosts to vCenter easy!

Let’s see it in action!

In my environment I deployed three new ESXi hosts (ESXi01-03.virtuallyboring.com) and I want to add them to my cluster named Nested ESXi Cluster:

Open the script in PowerShell ISE as we need to update a few variables highlighted in yellow:

1. Update the vCenter name to your vCenter name
2. In the Variables section update $ESXiHosts to the names of the hosts you want to add
3. Update the $ESXiLocation to the name of the Data Center or Host Cluster you want the hosts added to

You are now ready to run the script! You should receive a popup requesting the root credentials of the ESXi hosts. The password never enters plain text and remains encrypted and secure (See screenshot below):

Popup requesting ESXi root credentials:

Over in vCenter you should see Add Host tasks with the hosts appearing under your specified location!

This script should make it very easy to add multiple hosts to your environment in one swoop!