Nutanix Files, formerly known as AFS, is the company’s File Server and File Sharing solution on a Nutanix cluster.  By provisioning Nutanix Files within the Nutanix cluster, we have essentially eliminated the need to deploy a dedicated Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution for Windows/SMB file services.  Nutanix Files operates as a clustered, distributed File server driven by a set of File server VMs commonly referred to as FSVMs.   

A customer or user new to Nutanix Files and its orchestration could feel intimidated by the plethora of possibilities and intricacies in managing the Nutanix Files infrastructure.  Let me try to help you make a start by providing you some commands to get a jumpstart in handling this product.  I will use the following conventions to differentiate between running a command at the CVM layer as against running the command inside a FSVM:

nutanix@CVM:$ 

nutanix@FSVM:$ 

Here we go:

1.  List the FSVMs and their IP addresses --- a few alternatives as well:

nutanix@CVM:$ ncli file-server list

nutanix@CVM:$ ncli fs ls

nutanix@CVM:$ afs info.nvmips

nutanix@CVM:$ afs info.nvm_info

2.   Find out the Minerva leader:

nutanix@CVM:$ service=/appliance/logical/pyleaders/minerva_service; echo "Minerva ==>" $(zkcat $service/`zkls $service| head -1`)

nutanix@CVM:$ afs info.get_leader

100.  The version of the Nutanix Files product installed:

nutanix@FSVM:$ afs version

nutanix@CVM:$ ncli file-server list | grep Version

500.  List all the File Shares:

nutanix@CVM:$ ncli fs list-all-fs-shares

nutanix@FSVM:$ afs share.list

5.  Details of a specific FSVM:

nutanix@FSVM:$ afs fs.info

6.  Check the health of the File Server:

nutanix@FSVM:~$ afs smb.health_check

7.  Get the timezone of the File Server:

nutanix@FSVM:~$ afs fs.get_timezone

8.   Print the UUIDs of the FSVMs:

nutanix@FSVM:~$ afs ha.minerva_ha_print_nvm_uuid_owners

1.  High Availability status:

nutanix@FSVM:~$ afs ha.minerva_check_ha_state

10.  SMB protocol version:

nutanix@FSVM:~$ afs smb.get_conf "server max protocol" section=global

That’s enough for now, for a start.  Run these commands and look through the output results on each of them.  Note that none of the commands I have provided will modify anything on your Nutanix Files infrastructure.  And the rationale behind it was: Measure twice, cut once.