How to join esxi server to windows Active Directory domain

1. How to join ESXi to AD Domain
As I am setting up my ‘home laptop lab’ for ESXi 5.5, I am learning new stuff and as with all
new setups, you learn a lot and you also come across errors and you try your best to fix it. I
am basically a HYPERV guy but to survive in IT you must also know VMware stuff. Hence, I am
now trying to devote much of my time in learning ESXi environment.
Lab setup:
Dell Laptop
Model: Inspiron 7537 | Price: with VAT 799 £
OS: Windows 8.1[64bit]
Memory: 16GB 2 DIMM (2x8GB) DDR3L 1600Mhz
Processor: 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4500U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
USB3.0 x 3 Ports
My computing resource looks good. Only drawback is the internal Harddisk that I had to
choose due to price factor. Internal Harddisk that came with this laptop: 1TB 5400 rpm SATA
Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB Cache.
In order to run ESXi 5.5 environment, 5400 RPM drive would/could be a bottleneck, hence I
invested in SATA SAMSUNG SSD PRO 256GB.
I Paid: 137£ [Just for the drive, excluding SATA to USB Adapter cable, which I bought for extra
27 £]
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Series-256GB-Solid-State/dp/B009LI7CTY
Most laptop models does not have external eSATA Ports [Only internal SATA port is provided],
but there are select range of laptops which do provide external eSATA ports.
Dell Inspiron that I have bought has 3 SS USB 3.0 Ports. These ports are labelled as SS, which
stands for SuperSpeed.
Difference between USB 2.0 & 3.0:
 USB 2.0 standard can theoretically transfer data at a very high 480 megabits per
second (mbps), or 60 megabytes per second (MBps).
 USB 3.0 can handle up to 5Gbps (640MBps)—over ten times as faster than 2.0
maximum.
Samsung’s SSD 840 PRO Series is capable of delivering up to 540MB/s and 520MB/s of
sequential read and write speeds so that's within the range of USB3.0 Port speed.

2. So, what am I running on this Dell Inspiron 7537
Host OS: Windows 8.1[64bit]
Desktop virtualization application: VMware 9.0 workstation
Inside VMware 9.0 workstation, following servers are installed
1. Windows 2012R2 DC [TEST.COM] – Running off the Internal 5400 RPM HD
2. ESXi 5.5 [esx5.test.com] - Running off the SSD
3. ESXi 5.5 [esx5dr.test.com] –Running off the SSD
4. Windows 2012R2 [vcenter.test.com] -Running off the SSD
5. NetApp ONTAP 8.2.1 7-mode simulator [FILER01.test.com] – as ESXi 5.5 datastore
[iSCSI LUN] – Running off the SSD
As I was cramped for space on SSD, I chose to run DC off the Internal Harddisk, but
that does not affect the performance, b’cos once it’s stabilized it’s really not doing
much so it works fine for me.
Now, let’s get back to the main objective of this article which is to show ‘How to join
ESXi to AD Domain.

3. How to join ESXi to AD Domain
1. Using vSphere client either connect to vCenter server or connect to individual ESXi
host.
[Difference between the two is: vCenter allows you to connect & manage multiple
ESXi servers from a single pane, whereas without it, you can only connect to single
ESXi server at a time.
2. Select the ESXi host | Click on 'Configuration | Click 'Authentication services':
3. Under 'Authentication services settings' click 'Properties':

4. 4. Under 'Directory services' select 'AD' | Enter your 'Domain Name' | Click 'Join Domain':
5. Enter the Domain Admin & Password:

5. 6. If you get no errors, then everything should be fine, and it should look something similar to
the figure given below.
7. Finally, you can login to AD, and go to 'AD users & computers' and click on 'computers' and
you should see the esxi servers added to the domain.
TIP: DNS lookups are required during the Active Directory join process. Verify that DNS is
functioning properly in the environment.
If you are running ESXi version prior to 5.0 Update 1, and the AD join is failing then it could be
due to Firewall preventing the UDP Port 53. To resolve this, either:
•Temporarily disable the ESXi firewall and join the ESXi host to the domain. This can be
disabled with the following command:
#esxcli network firewall unload
ashwinwriter@gmail.com
June, 2014