How It works

Every architecture remains stable due to scheduled maintenance, in which we might need to shutdown the node or CVM to increase memory, replace network adapters or just some planned maintenance activity.    In Nutanix, we have heard the term “CVM maintenance mode”.   So what does it mean?  Why do we need to put the CVM in maintenance mode if we are thinking of bringing down the CVM?    All the CVMs in the cluster interact with each other using microservices handling the cluster stability, we need to inform the cluster if a CVM is going down and shutdown all the services in the CVM gracefully before shutting down the CVM.  To make a CVM not part of any active storage and metadata connection, we enable maintenance mode in the CVM.   So what is host maintenance mode?   Host maintenance mode is used to safely migrate all the User Virtual VMs in the host and make sure NO VMs are running on the Node. If a VM can’t be migrated to another host, you need to shutdown the VM for the host to ente

Let's say that you have purchased a new node and you wish to make it part of your existing cluster, how would you do that?   A cluster is a collection of nodes. You can add new nodes to a cluster at any time after physically installing and connecting them to the network on the same subnet as the cluster. The cluster expansion process compares the AOS version on the existing and new nodes and performs any upgrades necessary for all nodes to have the same AOS version.   The process for adding a node varies depending on the AOS version, hypervisor type (AHV, ESXi, Hyper-V, or Citrix Hypervisor), data-at-rest encryption status, and certain hardware configuration factors.   Here is the guide to expand a cluster that explains the expansion process and the pre & post checks: expanding a cluster   Before you start it's better to check this doc before attempting to add a node to the cluster since the process of adding a node varies depending on several factors considerations based on your A

Let’s say you run the NCC health check in your cluster from a cvm and it's clean, other than this one INFO check regarding default_password_check.  Running : health_checks system_checks default_password_check[==================================================] 100%/health_checks/system_checks/default_password_check [ INFO ]------------------------------------------------------------------------+Detailed information for default_password_check:Node x.x.x.x:INFO: One or more IPMI devices are still using the default passwordRefer to KB 6153 (http://portal.nutanix.com/kb/6153) for details on default_password_check or Recheck with: ncc health_checks system_checks default_password_check+-----------------------+| State | Count |+-----------------------+| Info | 1 || Total Plugins | 1 |+-----------------------+   Essentially, this check verifies if there are any CVMs (Controller VMs), hosts, IPMIs, or Prism Central (PC) instances with the default credentials.   You know it's not something to wo

Let’s take a moment here to accept that we all have had questions regarding the AOS or Hypervisor versions in the cluster and the node to be added during Cluster expansion. These questions arise if the new node is imaged before adding it to the cluster.   For us, we can say, “With great expansions, comes not so great dependencies”   There can be 3 common scenarios:- Same AOS and Hypervisor version:- All good, no action required... The node is just a click away from the cluster. AOS is same, Hypervisor is different:- Re-image the node before adding it to the cluster. AOS is different, Hypervisor is the same:- Two scenarios here:- Cluster AOS version < Node AOS version:- Upgrade AOS in the cluster and it becomes scenario 1. Cluster AOS version > Node AOS version:- You can upgrade the AOS in the node using the CLI command mentioned in the doc at the end.    To have a good idea of the above scenarios and things to consider while expanding the cluster, take a look at this document.  

We are about to buy and 4 node box with 8*16 core processors.  On top we are going to utilize AHV Here we are going to run 2 or 3 Microsoft Operating system only Now what version of microsoft license we need to buy?

In our environment we are currently hosting 2 HP Gen9 ESXi servers. Our plan is to purchase a single HP Gen 10 and having a 3 node cluster made out of it. To start with I want to create a single node (Gen 10) and slowly start moving VM’s from the esx host to that Nutanix host without interrupting the 2 esx servers. So my question here is, How is it possible for me to start with a Single host and start adding hosts to make up a cluster of 3 nodes (1 → Gen10, 2-Gen9)?

Let's say that you decided to adopt the Container Deployment approach by deploying a Kubernetes cluster, here is a brief explanation about Kubernetes and it's integration with Nutanix. Karbon orchestrates Kubernetes clusters to simplify the provisioning and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes packages applications in their own dedicated containers together with all of the required operational components for running the application. Containers , which run inside of pods on top of nodes, are the core building block of Kubernetes architecture. Containerized applications are simple to manage, easy to deploy, and portable as they are abstracted from the OS of the host. Since different containers share an operational kernel, they do not require as much compute capacity as a VM, making them "lightweight". Using Karbon to manage Kubernetes operations requires a basic familiarity with key Kubernetes concepts. I made this diagram to illustrate a Kubernetes-Nutanix flow: For more

Let’s say you need to increase the CVM memory depending on the workload or to enable certain AOS features. You can increase memory reserved for each Controller VM in your cluster by using the 1-click Controller VM Memory Upgrade available from the Prism web console.   To increase the memory, follow these steps:- Login into the Prism console. Click on the gear icon. Select “Configure CVM”. Select the target CVM memory allocation > Apply.   Be informed that resizing memory for a Controller VM requires a reboot as part of the process. But there’s nothing to worry as the reboot will be in a rolling way, which means, only 1 CVM will reboot at a time ensuring no production impact.   If a Controller VM was already allocated more memory than your choice, it remains at the same memory amount but the CVMs having lesser memory than the choice will get increased. Example:- Let’s say you have 4 CVMs with 2 having 20 GB memory and 2 with 32 GB. You want to increase the 20 GB ones to 28 GB

Hello, I am looking for a link to find all versions of Nutanix products. Thanks for your help

What if one day you wake up and decided to give AHV a shot? But wait… you are running ESXi.  Hmm… If only there was a way to convert ESXi to AHV. Well… there is a feature called “In-place hypervisor conversion” to save the day.   But what about the VMs?  All the VMs that are running in the ESXi cluster are converted so that they can run on the AHV cluster.    Following are the enhancements to this feature are:- Decreased VM downtime. The state of the VM is preserved and the VM is brought back into the same state post-conversion. Preservation of the MAC addresses of the VM NICs after conversion The Prism console is responsive during the conversion process. However, the Prism goes into Read-Only state.   You can check out the requirements and limitations for In-place hypervisor conversion here.   Finally ready to give AHV a run after going through the requirements? To start the conversion, follow the document here   Have any questions? Drop a comment and let us start a discussion

Receiving emails about EOL, but no clue what it means? Once a product is EOL (end of life), then there will be no further upgrades/updates released for it and will no longer be supported by Nutanix.   This may include the AOS version, Prism central, Nutanix files or Supported hardware platforms.   To view the EOL information, navigate as follows:-   Login into Nutanix Support Portal. Menu > Documentation. EOL Information. Select the entity you want to see the information for.   Don’t want to follow the above steps and like shortcuts?… Click here then.   Have any questions? Drop a comment and let us start a discussion.

So you are planning to configure VM-VM anti-affinity policy in your AHV environment to ensure critical VMs run on different hosts. That’s thoughtful thinking right there and it makes sense.   Now if you create this policy when the VMs are off... when you power them on, you’ll see the policy kick in and the VMs will be running on different hosts.   But… what if the VMs were powered on when you applied the policy? Do you have to restart the VMs?   The answer is No.   After the policy is created, Acropolis Dynamic Scheduling  (ADS) will migrate the VMs running on the same hosts to different ones.  This will not happen immediately though. It takes a while for ADS to start migrating these VMs.   So sit relaxed, you created the policy… ADS will take care of it.   Want to know how to configure VM-VM anti-affinity policy or how to delete it. Check it out here   Have any questions? Drop a comment and let's start a discussion.

Below are new knowledge base articles published on the week of February 9-15, 2020. KB 5512 - REST API: Alerts data placeholders are not populated KB 8803 - How to change ESXi Host TLS version running on Nutanix cluster KB 8812 - Moving Nutanix nodes to chassis of different generation KB 8855 - How to change Virtual Machine video card memory in AHV KB 8897 - Nutanix Collector "We couldn't find this IP address or host name" KB 8916 - LCM operation may timeout when performing upgrades in ESXi environments KB 8924 - How to map Nutanix Volumes disk from Linux VM to vdisk KB 8942 - karbonctl commands with --pc-username and --pc-password flags fail with 'no consumer: "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"' error KB 8951 - Alert - A160068 - AFSDuplicateIPDetected KB 8955 - RMA: Return Instructions (APAC) KB 8962 - Unable to browse containers using WinSCP when it contains files name with non-English characters KB 8963 - PRISM displays the wrong speed for the NICs faster than 10G Note: You may need to

Every modern architecture solution requires data saving and optimization techniques to manage their workload efficiently and optimally. Nutanix HCI provides various techniques for storage optimization based on your workloads. Let us take a look around regarding the techniques to understand the working and best practices.      1. Compression  There are two types of compression available   Post-process compression Inline compression Want to know how compression works and how to enable it in your cluster?  Compression Guide   2. Deduplication   Deduplication reduces space usage by consolidating duplicate data blocks on Nutanix storage.  Want to know more about different types of Deduplication and the best practices of using Deduplication? Deduplication    3. Erasure Coding Erasure coding increases the usable capacity on a cluster. Instead of replicating data, erasure coding uses parity information to rebuild data in the event of a disk failure. The capacity savings of erasure codin

Hi, NCC is reporting that I’m missing the cpupower command. Seems strange. I’m using a i7-2600k processor in each node. Should I install the package using yum repositories?  Where does it run, host or CVM?   Detailed information for host_cpu_frequency_check: Node 192.168.0.127: ERR : Error while getting host CPU frequency range. bash: cpupower: command not found   Node 192.168.0.121: ERR : Error while getting host CPU frequency range. bash: cpupower: command not found   Node 192.168.0.125: ERR : Error while getting host CPU frequency range. bash: cpupower: command not found   Node 192.168.0.123: ERR : Error while getting host CPU frequency range. bash: cpupower: command not found

Let's say that you upgraded your cluster and noticed that the timezone of your AHV has changed, why and what is the recommended practice?  When running a health check, you will see a warning stating that "The AHV host's time zone was changed/set to something other than UTC." Nutanix recommends against making any configuration changes on the AHV hosts which includes changing timezone, from AHV version 20170830.58, the default timezone on AHV hosts is set to UTC upon upgrade or installation, for more information check out KB-6834 In this case, no further action is required from your side. To edit the timezone of a user VM, check out KB-3134 To edit the timezone of a CVM, check out KB-1050

Ever thought a lot about advantages of UEFI over legacy BIOS? No? Who does that anyway?   To start with, UEFI firmware is a successor to legacy BIOS firmware that supports larger hard drives, faster boot time and provides more security features. Creating and starting VMs with UEFI firmware provides the following advantages. Faster boot time Avoid legacy option ROM address constraints Include robust reliability and fault management Use UEFI drivers   AOS 5.11 onwards we have a functionality to see the Boot Configuration from Prism UI by following the steps below:-   Navigate to the VM page -> select your VM. Click on Update. Under boot configuration, you can see if its Legacy BIOS or UEFI.   Want to know more about UEFI Support for VM in Nutanix, click here   Have any questions? Drop a comment and let us start discussing.

Let's say that you are monitoring your cluster's performance or you received alerts regarding high CPU on a CVM.  Why high CPU utilisation on a CVM is a critical alert?  The CVMs are one of the most important components in a Nutanix cluster. It is crucial that CVMs are healthy and perform their tasks properly as they run Nutanix software and serve all of the I/O operations to the hypervisor and all VMs running on that host. To understand the reason behind the high utilization, begin by identifying patterns of the performance:  Is the high CPU constant or periodic?  How long has the high CPU been occurring?  Is there a similar behaviour on other CVMs?  Certain patterns may point towards a cause. For example, a periodic spike may be attributed to antivirus, backup or a similar scheduled task being run in the background. To view the live CPU utilization run top on a CVM. For historical "top" info, review the top logs based on each CVM under/home/nutanix/data/logs/sysstats/top.INFO

Can someone help me with a power shell script which can help us to build multiple VMs by using a Win10 template we have. The environment that I am trying to build the VDIs have Nutanix as the Hardware and ESX 6.5 as the Hypervisor. The script should able to build the machines with sequential number and put them under a specif folder in Hypervisor. I can get the different templates for different containers and with proper Vlan.

Let's say you had an issue in your cluster and you have worked with a Nutanix engineer.  If the issue needs deep investigation, we usually create a log bundle locally on the CVM and then we ask you to upload it to the portal, then we drop the remote session so the customer doesn’t have to wait online while we investigate. After generating the bundle, it will be saved locally on your CVM and it's not automatically removed.  You can delete the bundles if you don't need it anymore to free more space on the CVM, as the CVM is a very critical component in the Nutanix eco-system and it's very important to have enough space and memory for it to perform it's tasks.  Make sure that you do not remove a directory under "logbay" but simply a file or files inside a sub-directory.  Usually the two directories that gets populated the most are "/data/logbay/bundles" and "/data/logbay/taskdata", deleting the files inside these directory will free up some space.  Check out how to create a log bundle at 

There can be instances where one might forget the CVM password and is not able to access the command line.    Is there a way we can recover/reset the CVM password?   Well, there is a way to recover/reset your CVM nutanix password using the prism console. Of course for that, one needs to have the prism password in hand.   We can set up passwordless ssh by generating ssh keys from your pc/desktop and then adding your public key to the cluster through the prism. So when you try to login to the CVM from the same pc/desktop, it will not prompt you to enter the password and will directly log you in.   The article detailing the steps on how to do the above is KB-1895    Now once you’re in, you can change the password by simply following KB-2233   Have any questions? Drop a comment and let’s start a discussion.

3 Identical pc's P300 Lenovo running I-9900 Cpu's error back saying non intel CPU

can we replace an existing node with a better hardware,  that is with the latest processor?

Hello all, I just realize that it is available IBM HCI servers with Power9 processor together with Nutanix. As far as I can understand from the documentation it is only for AIX and Linux workloads? My question is: is it posible to run workloads with OS400-AS400 instead of AIX?   Thanks Best Regards Javier de Mingo AGROSEGURO

Hello All, Sami here, the 3rd party developer responsible for the current official Nutanix Visio stencils. I’ve been playing with few ideas how to make them better and came up with Dynamic Nutanix Visio stencils.    Why DPTPB Dynamic Nutanix Visio shapes?   Let's be frank: Documenting can be boring, all the exciting and fun stuff has been done and now you have to document what you've done or plan to do. The harder the tools used for documenting are to use, the less likely you are to produce quality documentation. My aim with the Nutanix Dynamic Visio shapes is to have ability to produce more detailed and accurate drawings of Nutanix environments in less time. This is accomplished by using intent based workflow and to have built-in automation to populate the drawing with desired elements based on your intent.   What are DPTPB Dynamic Nutanix Front and Rear View Shapes?   DTPPB Nutanix Dynamic Front & Rear View Shapes are Nutanix NX appliance product images / shapes in Microsoft Visi