When you remove a host from Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), the host and all associated virtual machines are removed from the VMM database and from the Administrator Console views. However, for a Windows Server-based host, both the host computer and its virtual machines remain, and you can again add the computer as a host to VMM and manage its virtual machines.

Warning
If you remove a VMware ESX Server host from VMM, it is removed immediately from VMM and from the VirtualCenter Server.

After you remove a host, it is no longer managed by VMM. If a single computer is serving as both a host and a library server, and you remove the host role from the computer, the VMM agent remains on the computer until the library server role is also removed.

To remove a host

  1. In Hosts view, navigate to the host group that contains the host you want to remove, and then select the host in the results pane.

  2. In the Actions pane, click Remove host.

    If the host is on a perimeter network, it is removed immediately. If the host is in a trusted Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain, the Remove Hosts dialog box opens and prompts you for credentials.

    Note
    • The credentials must be for a domain account that has administrative rights on the host.

    • The credentials cannot be for the same domain account that is used as the VMM service account. For more information, see Hardening Virtual Machine Hosts (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=145057).

To remove a virtual machine host from VMM when you do not have the credentials for that host or when the VMM server can no longer communicate with that host, you can use the Remove-VMHost cmdlet with the Force parameter. When you specify the Force parameter, VMM does not prompt for or check credentials, and VMM does not attempt to connect to the host and uninstall the VMM agent. Thus, using the Force parameter is recommended only when removing stale host records from the VMM database. For more information, open the Windows PowerShell for VMM command shell and type Get-Help Remove-VMHost -detailed.

See Also

For the most up-to-date Help information, go to the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Help Online. To find additional Virtual Machine Manager 2008 documentation, go to the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 TechCenter Library.