# Adding hosts

The process of adding hosts to a pre-existing cluster is very similar to the process of provisioning the cluster initially. The requirements for the new worker node will be identical to the nodes initially added when the cluster was first provisioned. See the earlier sections in this guide for additional details on configuring the worker nodes.

To add the host, begin from the Cluster detail page (selected from the list at Infrastructure > Clusters). From the Cluster detail page, click ACTIONS and select “Add Worker”. Configurations required are the same as those given when the cluster was first created. Refer to the section above on “Provisioning the Cluster” for a detailed description of each configuration.

Once VM Essentials has completed its configuration scripts and joined the new worker node to the cluster, it will appear in a ready state within the Hosts tab of the Cluster detail page. When provisioning workloads to this Cluster in the future, the new node will be selectable as a target host for new Instances. It will also be an available target for managing placement of existing VMs running on the cluster.

NOTE

It’s useful to confirm all scripts related to creating the new host and joining the new host to the cluster completed successfully. To confirm, navigate to the detail page for the new host (Infrastructure > Clusters > Selected Cluster > HostsTab > SelectedHost) and click on the History tab. Confirm all scripts, even those run on the pre-existing hosts, completed successfully as it’s possible the new host was added successfully (green status) but failed in joining the cluster. When such a situation occurs it may appear adding the new host was successful though it will not be possible to provision workloads onto it due to not joining the cluster successfully.
