Question

Adding NGT with missing CD-ROM


Userlevel 1

We migrated many guests from vmware esx to Nutanix sans cd-rom. They are all in production now. But we find that many of them need NGT for better backups. The bus type is SCSI. To add NGT you need CD-ROM but we have none. The NGT install looks to be unique per guest with special certificates injected into the CD-ROM. We dont want the extra CD-ROM hardware always lingering so we remove it after NGT install.

Consider this a plea for help, a gripe and a feature request.

To add NGT, we must shutdown the guest. Add CD-ROM (because it wont let us hot-add). Boot, install NGT. Shutdown, remove CD-ROM and boot.

Why no hot-add capability?

Can someone offer a simpler workflow that only involves one reboot?

Why not make the ISO available to the guest in additional ways like a SMB share or Web\SSL download link.

Why not add a feature to the NGT install that allows any guest to negotiate the needed certificates with the cluster on the fly?

If any of these problems have a solution, please update the kb’s and documentation to reflect that, I have searched high and low.

This install process is unacceptable, please do better with the next release of NGT by adding additional features to support other install media access and a feature that does not require pre-made certificates.


2 replies

We recently migrated to Nutanix coming from ESXi, just like OP. The best practice for VMs (on VMWare) is to remove unused and uncessary devices. We ran into the same issues during NGT installation. Also, having to shut down a VM to add a CD/DVD drive is absolutely bonkers. 

Userlevel 6
Badge +8

To be honest, it is best practice to keep the cd-rom attached to the vm. It doesnt make any differences (performance wise) to remove the cd-rom player. And when there is a NGT update you need to do it all over again ;) 

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