How It works

Have you ever wanted to view or change the network configuration of an AHV host but thought that working directly with Open vSwitch seemed daunting or overwhelming? Don’t worry! Nutanix developers have produced an AHV-specific tool that allows for the management of Open vSwitch via a simple interface called “manage_ovs”. This interface has the following features (among others) and even maintains a built-in help system:Viewing current network interfaces statuses Viewing/changing the uplink interfaces configuration Viewing/changing the uplinks bonding configurationThe “manage_ovs” interface is available (as a command) while connected to any of the CVMs of an AHV cluster via CLI. You can find more information about the “manage_ovs” interface as per the AHV NETWORK MANAGEMENT section of the AHV Networking Guide.

Nutanix Flow is a security feature which allows for firewall-type protection at the VM layer. However, flow goes another step further in allowing the configuration of “Security Policies” which can govern individual VMs or “Categories” of VMs or (grouped into convenient application-specific domains).Flow is a function of Prism Central and is disabled by default. To enable it, simply access the “Microsegmentation” option from within the “Prism Central Settings” options, tick the “Enable Microsegmentation” check box and click “OK”. To note, you may first want to review the capability checks that Prism Central automatically performs on all registered clusters prior to enablement, which is also possible right from within the “Enable Microsegmentation” dialog box.You can find more information regarding Nutanix Flow as per the FLOW MICROSEGMENTATION GUIDE found on the Nutanix Support Portal.

Do I need to arrange for a downtime for an upgrade? How long does the process takes? If you are planning for an upcoming upgrade and have these questions, look no more:At Nutanix, upgrades are always designed to be done without needing any downtime for User VMs. Before every upgraded it is recommended to go through the Prerequisitesto avoid any issues in upgrades. This document is intended to explain a bit about how each upgrade work and to share some useful best practices for administrators.Is downtime required?No. Is there performance impact?Nutanix recommends performing upgrades during your scheduled maintenance window or outside your normal business hours. Otherwise, users might experience latency during the upgrade process. This latency may be especially noticeable for clusters that use only 1GB-speed network uplinks due to the limited bandwidth available on this configuration.How long does it take?From 15 minutes to one hour depending on number of nodes and type of upgrade For in

Hi allI use the v2 Prism Elements API to clone a VM from a Protection Domain Snapshot.It seems to work and the VM is created (cloned) correctly.However: The new VM always has the Prefix “Nutanix-Clone-”.The values i pass via vg_name_prefix and vm_name_prefix are simply ignored. In the Web UI (using the v1 API internally) it works fine.Please see the attached screenshots of the Web UI and the API call. Thanks in advance!

I find that the simplest things in life are the most complicated. Snapshot is one of those things, I believe. It is something we, administrators, do not hesitate to use and yet, not many undersand what it is or how it works. Below are a few things out of many. What is a snapshot? A snapshot is a difference. When a snapshot is created its initial size is zero. That is because initially there is no change to capture. Original data is locked. It can be read but it can’t be altered. All the changes are written to the snapshot. That is why and how you can recover the data before the snapshot - because it is still there and is still intact. What is a VM snapshot for? It is a recovery point that is meant to be kept for a brief period of time as opposed to backups that can be stored for months, years or even decades. Why does a VM snapshot file grow in size? Because the changes to the original data keep coming in. Files on the VM are edited or deleted, new files are created. The longer the

STARTING A NODE IN A CLUSTER (AHV)   Basic workflow on how to start an AHV node-    Log on to AHV host with SSH. Find the name of Controller VM (cvm) Determine if CVM is running. If the CVM is shut off, start it. If the node is in maintenance mode, Log on to the CVM of this host and take the node out of the maintenance mode. Log on to another CVM of this cluster with SSH and check if all services are up on all the CVMs.   For the commands and outputs of the above steps, please refer to the AHV Portal Guide:   https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=AHV-Admin-Guide-v5_17:ahv-node-start-ahv-t.html   PERFORMING POWER OPERATIONS ON VMS   You can initiate safe and graceful power operations such as soft shutdown and restart of the VMs running on the AHV hosts by using the aCLI. The soft shutdown and restart operations are initiated and performed by Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) within the VM thereby ensuring a safe and graceful shutdow

I have a VM UUID 33ac3949-beba-401e-a114-6ccd48ebf237 I use POST to /vms/{uuid}/nics/ to create a NIC. The successful task returns UUID 46e8ac39-5dba-460a-afb6-f65bf1b7b43c { "uuid": "46e8ac39-5dba-460a-afb6-f65bf1b7b43c", "meta_request": { "method_name": "VmNicCreate" }, "meta_response": { "error_code": 0 }, "create_time_usecs": 1596037035354721, "start_time_usecs": 1596037035378557, "complete_time_usecs": 1596037035579435, "last_updated_time_usecs": 1596037035579435, "entity_list": [ { "entity_id": "33ac3949-beba-401e-a114-6ccd48ebf237", "entity_type": "VM", "entity_name": null } ], "operation_type": "kVmNicCreate", "message": "", "percentage_complete": 100, "progress_status": "Succeeded", "parent_task_uuid": "3b61a2df-4fe4-46aa-bd18-a9f87086f723", "cluster_uuid": "0005883b-67db-3e76-0000-000000015db3"} Notice that the entity list refers back to the VM, not to the newly created NIC.  I would expect the operation to return the ‘nic_uuid’

Hello,   Is it possible to provide for a group of VMs a Metro-Availability (stretched cluster) solution using ESXi (since this feature for AHV isn’t available yet) to obtain 24x7 availability and downtime+disaster avoidance capabilities for certain services) and also provide for the VMs in the stretched cluster or a subset of those VMs async replication to a 3rd site (DR site)?   Understanding that the stretched containers are sync replicated at the container level, would that 3rd site async replication be based at the container or VM level?   Thanks!

Hi all, I have almost 200 Virtual machine in my AHV environment . Is there anyway to summary operating system in each virtual machine, Does it have any tool like rvtool in vmware ?

I’m receiving a 401 Unauthorized error when trying to access our cluster to retrieve snapstop information. I’m passing a valid VM UUID and have used credentials from one of our local user accounts which has both cluster and admin roles assigned. I can access most other methods of the API using these credentials, but not this one. What am I doing wrong?https://{prism_element_ip}:9440/api/nutanix/v2.0/flr/{vm_uuid}/snapshots

This article's purpose is to shed some light on the rarely discussed, yet a crucial alert that you may come across on the cluster, that is, the HardwareClockFailure alert. Let us not confuse it with the system time. The system time is maintained by the OS (For example, Linux, Microsoft Windows etc.). The initial value of the system clock is typically retrieved from the real-time clock at power up or is set by the user. The hardware time is maintained by a real clock powered by a battery, which means it will persist a reboot.  The alert is generated when the hardware clock time differs from the system clock time. This check is scheduled to run every 10 minutes, by default.   To learn more about what causes a hardware clock to fail and how to resolve it, head over to this KB article: KB 4120 in the Nutanix Support Portal.

This is one of the questions that do not exist on AHV. It is, however, a moderately important one for ESXi environment Nutanix or not. Why it is so and what does work best for ESXi on Nutanix – this is what I intend to unfold if you care to read. Without going into nitty-gritty details but still explaining the essential differences between the formats provisioning types for VM disks define how the storage space is allocated for the VM disk. The tree options ESXi provides are: Allocate space when required. No guarantees for the space available on the datastore for the data of the disk to grow to the extent of the disk size configured. This is a Thin Provisioned disk. Location of data on physical storage is written in fragments. Accessing these fragments when reading and allocating space for new data is what may create additional latency for sensitive applications such as databases, for example. Allocate storage section for the entire VM disk file contiguously. Guarantee space availab

To enable VM management feature we can install NGT on user VM’s  To use the NGT feature, you must do the following: Enable the NGT feature for a VM in the Prism Element web console.  When you enable NGT for a VM, Prism Element prepares the VM so that NGT can be successfully installed and used in that VM.               Mount the NGT installer (ISO disk file) in a VM. Install NGT in a user VM. Few requirements we need to take care of: The following ports must be open between the Controller VMs and guest VMs on which NGT is installed: Controller VM: 2074. TCP port 2074 must be open in the Controller VM, so that user VMs can communicate with the Controller VM. User VM: TCP port 23578 if you want to use the VSS service.   For further details about NGT and its working please refer following links https://next.nutanix.com/how-it-works-22/nutanix-guest-tools-37346 https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Web-Console-Guide-Prism-v55:m

Below are new knowledge base articles published on the week of July 19-25, 2020. KB 9064 - NCC Health Check: hpe_bootdrive_raid_check KB 9261 - NCC Health Check: dimm_size_reduction_check KB 9627 - AHV | VM IP address may be intermittently shown on VM page KB 9653 - [Performance] Benchmarking storage with Microsoft Diskspd KB 9657 - LCM: LCM 2.3.2 and later does not support AOS upgrade for AOS version 5.5.x KB 9684 - Prism Central stops generating reports at random times KB 9685 - Users added to a Role on Prism Central RBAC unable to view Prism Element cluster alerts KB 9688 - X-Ray Reset Local Secret Store Passphrase KB 9694 - Upgrade stuck due to Genesis not able to start services after Cassandra service KB 9715 - LCM: Satadom upgrade fails with "Update failed with error: ['unicode' object has no attribute 'tell']" KB 9734 - AHV | NIC speed has incorrect values on Prism and ovs-ofctl for 25 Gbps / 40 Gbps cards KB 9738 - How to wget a release bundle from Portal directly t

Hi! I’m trying to find a way to create automatically expiring snapshots via API. I know I can use v2 api to create normal snapshots, and with Playbooks I can create snaphots which have an expiry time. Is there a way to create recovery points (on-demand) or run playbooks via API? Thanks!  

How to get SATADOM firmware Version on Nutanix AHV Hosts. We are planning to upgrade Hardware Firmware and need to upgrade SATADOM firmware before that. Also, it;s not showing under LCM. We are using AOS 5.15.1 and having latest NCC, Foundation installed.

Do you have a VM that you suspect may have been compromised or infected by malicious software (i.e. ransomware) and want to have a means to quickly remove it from your network (so as to not infect other entities)? Do you also want to be able to inspect and work on this VM from a “safe distance” using available forensic tools? Using Flow Microsegmenation, you can accomplish both of these objectives through the use of Quarantine Policies. When configuring Quarantine Policies, you can specify the “Quarantine Method” as either “Strict” or “Forensic”. The “Strict” option isolates the VM from all inbound/outbound traffic entirely. The “Forensic” option allows the limitation of inbound/outbound traffic to that which is specified from the “Add Forensic Tools” tab. For example, this could allow the infected VM to communicate only with another entity that maintains tools for further analysis of the VM. You can find more information regarding Quarantine Policies within the “QUARANTINE POLICY CO

Are you still facing DIMM Errors which cause Un-Expected Node Reboots / PSOD and Degraded Node Situations ? And your answer to above question is : YES   Solution: Nutanix has further improved the ability to detect problematic DIMMs and prevent unnecessary service disruption as a result of uncorrectable memory errors (UECC).Whats are DIMM Errors ? A Memory Error is an event that leads to the logical state of one or multiple bits being read differently from how they were last writtenAll About DIMM Errors Nutanix has rolled out a Field Advisory for early detection and error handling related to memory DIMMsNutanix Field Advisory #71

I need to get the iSM and PTAgent versions from AHV clusters running on the Dell XC platform using PowerShell cmdlets. Does anyone know if this is possible? I can’t figure it out and do not think it is possible at this point.

Want to know how to change the default credentials on the cluster? On Nutanix cluster’s if you have the default credentials you will receive an INFO message (default_password_check) in NCC health check informing you the same, you can change your CVM, Hypervisor and IPMI password using the guides below, you can also use script to change it on all nodes at once. Nutanix portal document  

Want to check all the alerts on the cluster? Need to resolve them all at once?On the Nutanix web console, you can view a large number of alerts (up to 1000) AND resolve them by navigating to the alerts page from the drop-down on the home screen. But do you want to go the old school way?The Nutanix CLI is designed to display a max number of 100 alerts. You can modify it to show as many alerts as you like and choose how you want to resolve them. For details on how to count the total number of alerts and how to resolve them all in just one command, see KB 1402 in the Nutanix Support Portal.

Authorization configuration is enabled in two clusters and directed to same Domain controller, which is a VM in one those clusters After that when I use prism API to get stats information of various VMs (I invoked it repeatedly for each VM) it is resulting in 100 % CPU usage in Domain Controller to confirm the same I changed the DC to another VM then the first DC device CPU usage got reduced and second DC device CPU usage raised to 100% API used : /PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/vms/<uuid>  

Hi, I have built up a Darksite LCM running in my own local network and have Internet access to download necessary Darksite bundles for upgrading. In my testing evironment, the server works flawlessly with Dell XC cluster and Nutanix cluster as well but with DX cluster, it cannot provide any firmware update at this time though currently at least 1 node in our cluster is running on an old SPP version (2019.03.01). For our DX environment: Node1: 2020.03.0 SPP Node2: unverified? (LCM cannot detect the SPP version) Node3: 2019.03.01 SPP Does anyone have any idea on this case?  

There are two ways of  checking certificate revocation in client authentication: Using OSCP (nCLI) Using CRL- Certificate revocation lists (nCLI)   OCSP is the recommended method for checking certificate revocation in client authentication. You can enable certificate revocation checking using the OSCP method through the command line interface (nCLI).   What is OCSP ? The Online Certificate Status Protocol is an Internet protocol used for obtaining the revocation status of an X.509 digital certificate.   How does OCSP Work?  When a user requests the validity of a certificate, an OCSP request is sent to an OCSP Responder. This checks the specific certificate with a trusted certificate authority and an OCSP response is sent back with a response of either 'good', 'revoked' or 'unknown'   To enable certificate revocation checking using OCSP for client authentication, do the following. Procedure Set the OCSP responder URL. ncli authconfig set-certificate-revocati

It enables administrators to take inventory of the firmware and software in their Nutanix environment and perform updates in a simple, cluster-aware, fashion. LCM adds a management layer and logic that deploys firmware/software upgrades taking into account upgrade paths and potential conflicts between versions.  LCM performs two operations: Inventory: Detects what can be managed on a cluster. Update: Performs an update to a certain version. With Release of LCM 2.3.2 we have introduced a new page which shows best practices guide and redirect you to FAQ’s troubleshoot guide     it introduces two new FEAT’s along with several others AOS upgrade FEAT-10222 PC upgrade FEAT-10223 List of supported Firmware updates Nutanix (NX) Dell XC / XC Core Lenovo HX / HX Ready HPE DX Fujitsu XF Intel DCB HPE DL (G10) Inspur InMerge Please follow the links to check out additional information https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?tar