Installation & Configuration

In modern IT Infrastructure, data is critical and having a copy of your data from where you can recover from has become an important pre-requisite for system design. To achieve this we use a technology known as Snapshot.So is it possible to even save your system running state while taking a snapshot in Nutanix environment?Absolutely YesIn Nutanix, we provide a technology known as application-consistent snapshot which can be selected when configuring Data Protection Domain.Want to know more about Data Protection with Prism elementGive the following article a readData Protection Guide So Nutanix have some guidelines with regards to Application consistent Snapshot?Absolutely yesNutanix recommends installing NGT on the VMs. Microsoft VSS service should be enabled. The workload running must be able to support to quiesce I/O operations. You must configure one consistency group for each VM. For the protection of VAAI clones with application consistency, each VAAI clone should be in its own pr

Reliable and Accurate Time Sync is mandatory for distributed services to work in a reliable / efficient manner.Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used across different devices and services on a network to maintain reliability and integrity of services, data and other critical functions.Nutanix - AOS, built on web-scale engineering principles, distributes roles and responsibilities to all nodes within the system to form a large cluster of services working together. Accurate time sync becomes a vital requirement for all the different components to work reliably and help keep up system integrity.Accurate time sync, not just offers integrity and smooth operations but offers a lot of value even when things don’t work as they should. During troubleshooting of any service, timestamps are used to understand and co-relate root-cause, impact of the problem.In order for a distributed system such as Nutanix AOS to work smoothly - NTP is of critical importance. CVMs (Controller Virtual Machine) that co

NCC check giving you warning that /home space usage is above the threshold(75%) and now you’re worried how will it affect your production and what all files and directories can you safely delete. Let us guide you through the steps to safely reduce the space usage of /home directory in the CVM. Before let us understand why you’re receiving this warning.Nutanix reserves space in the SSD under /home for its infrastructure and is capped at 40GB, and sometimes it is possible to run low on the space usage and triggering an alert.IMPORTANT NOTE → DO NOT treat the Nutanix CVM (Controller VM) as a normal Linux machine. DO NOT perform "rm -rf /home" on any of the CVMs. It could lead to data loss scenarios. Contact Nutanix Support in case you have any doubts.Now that we got that warning noted on a serious note, let us answer the question :  How can we reduce space usage? First, you need to get an idea of space usage.You can run the following script to parse the usage of /home partition and give u

We have shared a post on upgrade preparations and considerations. What now? When mapping upgrades it is only sensible to account for Nutanix Files as part of the process. What really happens once you click that button?First, the pre-upgrade checks will run to make sure that the cluster is able to be upgraded. If any of the pre-upgrade checks fail, you will see information about this in Prism and the actual File Server upgrade will not start. Users will have to click "Back to Versions" and start the upgrade again after the issue reported by the pre-checks is resolved. Once the File Server upgrade beings, each File Server VM is upgraded one-at-a-time onto the new Nutanix Files version. While an FSVM is down for the upgrade, users connected to shares hosted by this node may experience a loss of connectivity for a duration of roughly 20-30 seconds. After this short period, another FSVM will pick-up on hosting those shares, and users will regain access to their files. After each FSVM comple

While much is shared and posted about LACP configuration in AOS* the questions “How?” remains open. Let’s take a look at the workflow:Connect to CVM via SSH. Make sure you are connected to correct CVM by checking its name and IP. Follow steps from KB 2852 to verify cluster health. Do not proceed if cluster cannot tolerate failure of at least 1 node. Put the node and CVM in the maintenance mode. Connect to host via IPMI, as LACP configuration process might cause network disconnect. Perform required configuration steps (enable/disable LACP). Once configuration is completed, make sure both host and CVM are accessible via network. Please also make sure that all NICs in bond are operational, by shutting down links one by one and verifying connectivity. If all tests are successfully completed remove CVM and node from maintenance mode.For detailed instructions as well as commands examples please refer to KB-3263.For complete command reference Acropolis Command-Line Interface (aCLI).* For more

Is there a KB or documentation providing the JSON format and any additional things that may be coded in? For example, in going through the install.nutanix.com portal to generate the JSON file it doesn't ask for NTP server of the hypervisor. In looking at the file, though, there's this line: "hypervisor_nameserver": "8.8.8.8", I'd like to have our Nutanix deployments in code as much as possible (right now we're looking to various scripts for vSphere configurations). Being able to configure as much as possible up front and possibly make this a template for future deployments.

I'm running 3 node cluster, based on 5.10 version (2019-02-11) There are some alerts for each node: Detected Incompatible AHV Version Detected older AHV Version I've checked the Settings-Upgrade menu - there it nothing available to upgrade for AHV and AOS.

You have a Nutanix cluster with ESXi as a hypervisor, configured with Virtual Distributed Switch and you have a need to configure restriction on bandwidth for different network types, like vMotion, Management, iSCSI etc in the event of contention. VMware provides a feature known as Network I/O Control(NIOC).Want to know more about NIOC and how it works in our environment? NIOC Guide in Nutanix So how many versions of NIOC are there and which is compatible with Nutanix?There are two versions of NIOCVersion 2 Version 3 NIOC version 2 was introduced after vSphere 5.5.VMware vSphere version 6.x introduced.NIOC v3, which provided additional features like artificial features limits and reservation on system traffic. In vSphere 6.0x, we recommend using NIOC v2 with vDS, instead of NIOC v3  due to CPU overhead and some abnormal behaviour during our internal testing and evaluation.  In vSphere 6.5 Update 1, Nutanix fully supports vDS in combination with NIOC v3.Want to know in-depth about our c

Should there be a need to change IP address settings of an existing vCenter Server registered with Prism Element or Prism Central, the goal can be achieved in three steps:Unregister the vCenter Server from the cluster before changing the IP address of the vCenter Server. After you change the IP address of the vCenter Sever, you should register the vCenter Server again with the new IP address with the cluster. Instructions for Prism Element Instructions for Prism Central Change vCenter Server IP address settings. Register your cluster with the new vCenter Server following instructions below: Managing vCenter Server Registration Changes in Prism Element Managing vCenter Server Registration Changes in Prism Central Optional steps:run NCC Health Check: check_vcenter_connection troubleshoot if necessary following KB-4492

Migrating a Nutanix cluster between vCenter servers is one of those tasks that are not executed that often but when they are it is vital that everything goes as smooth as possible. Ensure the cluster is in excellent health by executing NCC health check. Presence of a distributed vSwitch must be addressed in advance.From there it is relatively straightforward:Create a new vSphere cluster in the new vCenter Server. Set the vSphere cluster settings on the new vCenter Server to the Nutanix recommended configuration (Configuring HA, DRS, and EVC). Unregister the Nutanix cluster from the old vCenter Server. Move the hosts from the old vCenter Server to the new vCenter Server. Register the Nutanix cluster to the new vCenter Server.For more details please see KB-4876.

Let’s say you are running AOS version 5.10.7, and want to upgrade to a different Nutanix Files version or confused regarding which Prism Central version you should install or upgrade to?Nutanix gives you a feature, Software Product Interoperability, to easily identify the compatible versions between software like Prism Central and Nutanix files with the AOS.All we need to do is first select the Software Type(AOS, Nutanix Files or Prism Central) and then the target software type and then we can find the AOS version compatible.Points to be taken into consideration Prism Central does not follow the Long Term Support Release (LTS) and Short Term Support Release (STS) tracks. Nutanix Files (formerly known as AFS) does not follow the Long Term Support Release (LTS) and Short Term Support Release (STS) tracks. Refer to the following link to know more about LTS and STS tracksLTS/STS InformationInterested to know more?How upgrades happen in Nutanix environment  Let’s learn about upgrades Prism

Let say for example you're running ESXi 6.5 U1 and want to upgrade to the latest ESXi version but confused whether the current hardware and AOS will support the latest ESXi version.Nutanix gives you a feature to identify the compatability of different Hypervisors with NX environment easily using the Compatibility Matrix. You just need to visit the compatibility matrix page, filter by using your hardware and AOS and you will see the hypervisors which are supported.Still confused before the hypervisor upgrade?Refer the following document regarding general guidelines before the hypervisor upgrade.Hypervisor-upgrade-guidelines

Not every environment opts for VMware DRS license. While LCM upgrades rely on resource scheduler it is still possible to achieve success in hypervisor upgrades without DRS feature.Things to consider as part of preparation for the upgrade:Compatibility matrix. Redundancy factor (must be at least RF-2 for a non-disruptive upgrade). Third party applications dependencies. For example, where Zerto Z-VRAs are present, additional tasks may be necessary to avoid disruption to live replication.Refer to vSphere Administration Guide for Acropolis (using vSphere FLEX Client): ESXi Host Upgrade Process  for detailed process guide.

Nutanix Era provides Database as a Service (DBaaS) that simplifies database provisioning and management. Nutanix Era automates and simplifies the operations such as provisioning of databases and copy data management.An administator may wish to decommission Era. Essential workflow would be:Remove all DB’s from Era from Databases page. Remove all Database Servers from Era. Delete all Software Profiles from Era. Wait for all the database and database server removal operations to finish. From Prism, delete the Era VM from the cluster.More detailed instructions are outlined in Era Uninstallation Guide.More about Era can be found in Era User Guide.Coffee reading Tech Note: Nutanix Era Time Machine: Under the Hood.Nutanix University has entire playlist of educational videos on Nutanix Era.

Are the MAC addresses assigned to a VM at creation static - as with other hypervisors the MAC address can be changed at reboot.

Hey all, Does anyone have, by any chance, a disk descriptor file for the new CE image file? I am installing CE as a single node and when performing the upgrade by uploading the binaries it fails constantly. Most likely due to NTP restrictions because my lab admin has NTP blocked on this network. I also don't have access to VMFS on the hosts to make a descriptor file. Hopefully someone out there has one similar to the last version. Thanks

Can anybody provide detailed steps or some info on how to deploy Nutanix AHV on cisco UCS in domain mode. Im getting multiple errors, some of errors: https://pastebin.com/JjYm3pqy I have FI setup as recommended in field installation guide for cisco ucs.

Hello, We are running out of network ports in our datacenter so we thinking of reclaiming the existing Nutanix IPMI network cables and instead use KVM dongles for those. I want to check with everyone here to make sure that there are no functional issues with loosing IPMI connectivity or does Nutanix need IPMI connectivity all the time. Let me know your recommendations.

Hi, Has anybody tried to run a Metro Witness under any hypervisor / virtualisation platform other than AHV / ESX, I have imported the VM into Oracle Virtualbox, Sorted IP addressing and created the cluster but all the cluster services wont start and there is nothing clear in the logs why the services wont start. Regards, Pete

Hi Can I install vmware 6.7 into Nutanix hardware below is nutanix specification https://www.adn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Hersteller/Nutanix/Datenblaetter/SB_Nutanix_Xpress_1_.pdf

I downloaded ce-2019.02.11-stable.img.gz but it fails to extract. I tried 7zip, Winrar and Winzip.

Does node restarts while AOS upgrade or its just CVM ? upgrade from 5.5 to 5.10

Hi guys, I can't seem to perform an inventory on LCM any more. It fails on the check: Check 'test_upgrade_in_progress' failed with 'Failure reason: Another Upgrade operation is in progress. Please wait for that operation to complete before starting an LCM operation.' However after running progress_monitor_cli --fetchall This does not show anything in progress. host list - All 3 hosts show: false (life_cycle_management) - Which is as expected. ~/data/logs$ upgrade_status 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO zookeeper_session.py:131 upgrade_status is attempting to connect to Zookeeper 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO upgrade_status:38 Target release version: el7.3-release-euphrates-5.10.6-stable-294f5f671ba8982a0199e18b756e8ef3a453af9a 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO upgrade_status:43 Cluster upgrade method is set to: automatic rolling upgrade 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO upgrade_status:96 SVM 10.x.x.x is up to date 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO upgrade_status:96 SVM 10.x.x.x is up to date 2019-09-04 14:47:32 INFO

Hi, I am just wondering if you could answer whether Hyper-V clusters should have a quorum disk for the failover-cluster. I cannot find anything with a definitive answer on this - the documentation does not mention it in any way. If it is required or suggested, what is the best way to implement this? Many thanks

Hi All I have been asked by my dev team for Windows NLB to be enabled, I have had problems with this in a VMware environment, are there any gotchas, alternatives or tips to get this to work? Many thanks E.