AHV versions and compatibilty with AOS

Sergei Ivanov
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You might have noticed that the versions of AHV hypervisor have names starting from the year, such as 2017 and 2019. For example, AHV-20170830.434 and AHV-20190916.231. 

The difference between them is that the versions starting with 2017 are built on CentOS 6 image, while the ones starting with 2019 are based on CentOS 7. 

 

It is very important to note that all the 2019 AHV versions are only compatible with AOS versions 5.16 and newer. It means that the current LTS AOS versions 5.10.x and 5.15.x do not support AHV 2019. The AHV 2019 is currently supported only with STS AOS versions.

 

The cluster will not let you upgrade the AHV to 2019 version if you are below 5.16. But it is possible to manually image the node with the AHV 2019 ISO and install the earlier AOS there. Also, it is possible to upload the non-default AHV during the foundation procedure together with earlier AOS. Such configurations are unsupported. If you have already done that, you will have to go to the STS AOS to fix the situation or reimage the nodes with AHV 2017 if you want to stay on the LTS.

 

If you are already on AHV 2019 there is no way to go back to AHV 2017. The only way would be to reimage the node.

 

The next LTS AOS will support AHV 2019, but it will be released next year in 2021.

 

Please, check the compatibility matrix before creating the cluster or imaging the nodes to make sure that you use supported hypervisor: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/compatibility-matrix

Staff SRE | Nutanix Worldwide Support | NSS #464, NCAP, VCP6.5-DCV, RHCE, CCNA, EMCSA, 2xAWS and Google Cloud certified
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13 replies

I
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Hi Sergei,

 

From the compatibility matrix I understand that AOS 5.15.5.1 is compatible with AHV-20190916.410.

Does it mean that the limitation you mentioned is your post has been removed?

It is very important to note that all the 2019 AHV versions are only compatible with AOS versions 5.16 and newer. It means that the current LTS AOS versions 5.10.x and 5.15.x do not support AHV 2019. The AHV 2019 is currently supported only with STS AOS versions.

 

Are there similar limitations with the 2020 AHV versions?

 

Thanks,

pierre

T
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Hi Pierre,

 

To me it seems that it has been removed. 

I was a bit confused about the upgrade path also and got response from the Nutanix support that I can install 20190916.410 because I already had updated AOS to 5.15.5.1 LTS. 

And it is recommended update in LCM also if you are running 5.15.5.1 LTS:

 

S
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Sorry to bump an old thread, but at least it’s on topic.  I’m trying to upgrade AHV and AOS, but Prism doesn’t show any available compatible versions for either.  I’d like to manually upgrade, but want to make sure everything is compatible.  I’ve found several community posts(including this thread) pointing to support matrix, and a compatibility checking tool, but they point to URLs not accessible without a support contract. I have a one single node cluster so I’m not able to start from scratch on other cluster and migrate my VMs.  Is there any hope to upgrade in place, or will I need to start from scratch?  Here’s my details:  AOS:  2018.05.01,  AHV:  20190211.279, NCC:4.4.0, Foundation: 5.1.1-68a5cd93

 
T
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Sorry to bump an old thread, but at least it’s on topic.  I’m trying to upgrade AHV and AOS, but Prism doesn’t show any available compatible versions for either.  I’d like to manually upgrade, but want to make sure everything is compatible.  I’ve found several community posts(including this thread) pointing to support matrix, and a compatibility checking tool, but they point to URLs not accessible without a support contract. I have a one single node cluster so I’m not able to start from scratch on other cluster and migrate my VMs.  Is there any hope to upgrade in place, or will I need to start from scratch?  Here’s my details:  AOS:  2018.05.01,  AHV:  20190211.279, NCC:4.4.0, Foundation: 5.1.1-68a5cd93

 

 

Hi Sgt_rjp, did I get it right, that you don’t get any recommended updates from the list, when you follow by clicking in LCM → AHV hypervisor → Available version → Edit update version → Category: ‘Recommended’ ? 

S
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T_Masuda,

Unfortunately, LCM isn’t available to me since I have a single node cluster.  I’m using “upgrade software” in Prism.  Within that, I’m at the latest version shown for NCC and Foundation.  There’s just nothing available under AOS and Hypervisor.  Since I don’t have access to the support matrix, I was hoping that I would be safe trying to keep with the latest offered for each one.  I hadn’t checked in a while, and even before that, I didn’t verify that I was actually being presented with the latest.  

S
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I have an additional problem, I think from being downreved on AOS.  Since I upgraded NCC and Foundation, I get an error that an NGT Cert has/is expired.  I’ve tried to walk through the process to renew the cert, but if fails because the parameters given aren’t correct.  I’m hoping if I can get everything upgraded, I’ll be able to renew the license.  Otherwise, I may have to clone the VM and blow another windows license.

 

T
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T_Masuda,

Unfortunately, LCM isn’t available to me since I have a single node cluster.  I’m using “upgrade software” in Prism.  Within that, I’m at the latest version shown for NCC and Foundation.  There’s just nothing available under AOS and Hypervisor.  Since I don’t have access to the support matrix, I was hoping that I would be safe trying to keep with the latest offered for each one.  I hadn’t checked in a while, and even before that, I didn’t verify that I was actually being presented with the latest.  

 

If I filtered the matrix correctly, the interoperability and compability matrix did not give anything with these specs: AOS:  2018.05.01,  AHV:  20190211.279. 

Can you clarify, if AOS 2018.05.01 is known as 5.0.1 ? If it is, then 5.0.1 could be upgraded to 5.6.2, but I’m not sure if that is supported with AHV:  20190211.279, because when trying to filter with AHV:  20190211.279, I didn’t get anything. 

S
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I’m assuming it’s 5.0.1, but I really don’t know.  I had wondered the same thing.  I may try to upgrade to 5.6.2.  At this point I don’t have much to loose.  My CE license is set to expire at the beginning of the month.  Hopefully that gives me some time to figure this out.  

 

S
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I guess I need some clarification around these versions.  I found this article that says that 5.5 was released in 2017, so that doesn’t jive with my 5.01 being from 2018.  https://www.nutanix.com/blog/nutanix-aos-5-6-along-afs-3-0

 

S
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I tried a bunch of ways to upgrade, but was not successful.  So, I finally got my second single node cluster built and migrated the problem VM over there.  I then rebuilt the original cluster with the same version I used to build the new one.  The VM license alert went away once migrated to the other cluster, but now the original cluster shows the license expiring in 29 days.  I don’t see a licensing section under settings on these community edition clusters so I have no idea how to renew this license.

S
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I found a post from last year saying the license expiry messages are false and can be ignored.  Hopefully that’s still the case.

T
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I found a post from last year saying the license expiry messages are false and can be ignored.  Hopefully that’s still the case.

 

Oh, you are using CE version, maybe that’s why the compability matrix did not match... 

Have you tried to search the answer from Nutanix Community Edition | Nutanix Community or if you cannot find any, make a new topic?

Sergei Ivanov
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For the CE i would recommend to open a separate thread, because the versioning is defferent there.

Starting from AOS 5.15.4 and newer, the el6 AHV versions AHV-20170830.xxx are no longer compatible and the el7 versions are used. So, if the AOS versions is 5.15.4 or newer, you should choose the AHV version that the LCM is recommending and it will be starting from either 2019 or 2020 depending on the AOS version.

When the topic was originally created, there were only early versions of 5.15.x available and they go with the el6 AHV, but after 5.15.4 we dropped the el6 AHV, because el6 Linux is EOL and it is hard or impossible to get maintenance updates to it.

Staff SRE | Nutanix Worldwide Support | NSS #464, NCAP, VCP6.5-DCV, RHCE, CCNA, EMCSA, 2xAWS and Google Cloud certified
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