Nutanix AOS supports multiple hypervisors and supports a variety of hardware components. Nutanix qualifies hardware components to ensure optimal performance and minimal disruption. 

Nutanix AOS with ESXi supports Intel’s 10Gb (ixgbe) Ethernet Network Adapters. It is important to ensure that all network related components are working optimally to ensure reliable cluster operations. 

If you are running Nutanix AOS with ESXi 5.5 or 6.x and have the following Intel Network Cards installed in your host systems:

Intel Ethernet Controllers 82599 and x540

You might receive an NCC alert, pointing to an upgrade required for ixgbe nics or an older firmware detected. This is to ensure optimal networking performance amongst the hosts and to avoid any errors due to NIC driver issues.

You can upgrade the firmware for the above Intel NICs (ixgbe) with the following Nutanix KB:

Updating the ixgbe Driver Version to the 4.5.1 Release

The above KB outlines all the pre and post steps required for a smooth driver upgrade on ESXi hosts.

Always check Nutanix cluster health before performing any upgrades, which require host reboots.