Nutanix Unified Storage

Hello,My boss is very interested in migrating our Server 2012 r2 file server to Files. One of the must haves is that we would have to keep our existing DFS namespace. I’m hoping someone can provide some pros, cons, benefits and pitfalls associated with this planned migration. Thanks.   

I am hoping to migrate files from our Windows server to Nutanix files. For backup purposes, Azure is our off-site location. I’ve hit some stumbling block in trying to accomplish this. This is what I’ve tried so far.Configure CloudConnect - Unfortunately, we subscribe to Azure through a CSP, so I’m unable to get the required certificate to set this up. -Failed Next idea was to sync Nutanix Files with a Windows File server through DFS-R and perform my Azure backups from the Windows mirror. Nutanix doesn’t support DFS-R -Failed Use our current backup solution “Microsoft Data Protection Manager” to backup Nutanix files. But, can’t install the DPM agent on Nutanix. -FailedIf anyone has a suggestion, I’m running out of ideas. Ideally, I’d like to not have to invest into a new backup solution. Thanks all!

In certain cases you might choose to reclaim space on the cluster by removing old snapshots. Nutanix files takes two types of snapshots.  External snapshots: The external snapshots are taken by the files protection domain (PD) which takes the snapshots of the whole Nutanix File server.   Internal snapshots: Internal snapshots are the snapshots taken at the share level which leverage ZFS directly. It can be the Self Service Restore snapshots or the third party backup snapshots using CFT API.  If need be, the external file server PD snapshots can be removed directly from the prism UI -> Protection Domain -> local snapshot page.The internal snapshots can be removed using the afs command line utility. If you choose to remove the internal snapshots the following KB article walks through the step by step process along with the afs commands needed. https://portal.nutanix.com/kb/000005851

Should I be concerned about File Analytics impacting data files? Specifically, is there any chance that it could lock a file for its analysis while a business application may attempt to access the file at the same time - causing negative impact?

File Analytics deployment & teardown is done via Prism UI. Logs for both - deployment & teardown process are in prism logs - /home/nutanix/data/logs/prism_gateway.log on the CVM leader. Errors are updated in ergon tasks as well.  Most common errors during deployment - Error Message Cause and fix Cannot connect to File Analytics VM from Prism. Please verify that network details for the VM are correct and the IP is reachable from Prism. The network details provided during deployment were incorrect [either wrong IP/subnet/gateway or wrong VLAN selected] or there was a genuine network connectivity issue. Please try deploying again with correct network settings. One or more services are not running, please check logs for more details During deployment, one or more services failed to start. Logs would be collected from File Analytics VM on CVM at /home/nutanix/data/logbay/bundles/NTNX-Log-***.zip. Need to check logs for root cause. Error

Hello Friends, Is it possible to tier a name space based on access time or file size or file type from nutanix files to nutanix object storage seamlessly by leaving stub on nutanix files ?

We are excited to announce that for the very first time, Nutanix will participate in DevOps at Cloud Expo in New York City from June 6-8, 2017. If you are in the big apple, you do not want to miss the great conversation around cloud computing and all it involves. Make the most out of your visit at Cloud Expo and take advantage of what Nutanix has to offer for DevOps, Containers and Microservices. Stop by Nutanix booth 301 and enjoy any of the following demos: Prism Central and Prism Pro, ACS, OpenStack. Attend our Day 3 Keynote to learn more about the benefits of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud for DevOps on Thursday, June 8 from 9:10am - 9:55am in the General Session Room 1A06. Attend any of our Technical Speaking Sessions and learn how to improve the overall ecosystemPersistent Storage for Containers: In recent years, containers have taken the world by storm. Companies of all sizes and industries have realized the massive benefits of containers, such as unprecedented mobility, higher ha

The objective of this post is to provide inputs on requirement of using NFS exports. Nutanix Files implemented NFSv4 Support from Files 3.0.0.1 and since then Nutanix Files has come as a long way. Along with the release of Files 3.5, it now supports NFSv3 as well. They are enabled by default and depends on the NFS Client. In order to configure and utilize NFSv4 exports minimum required files version is 3.0.x In order to configure and utilize NFSv3 exports minimum required files version is 3.5.x From 3.5 onward, V4 and V3 both are enabled by default. However, if you want to disable a specific version support based on requirement. It is achievable from UI. Self Service Restore is supported on NFS based exports from Files 3.5 onward for legacy and new exports. Protocol Management → “Directory Services” → “Use NFS Protocol” → “Show NFS Advanced Options” https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7yg_BcwLhX13xo-Ov00VdEnawasj637u521nCti6lzWGxyZQJNyfMJHxKXxjs4FcIzEOPVHf5azF2IGEwixQRnfK

In order to protect Nutanix files users from malware and viruses, you need to address both the client and the file server. Nutanix currently supports third party vendors that use Internet Content Adaptation Protocol ( ICAP ) servers.   ICAP, which is supported by a wide range of security vendors and products, is a standard protocol that allows file and web servers to be integrated with security products. Nutanix chose this method to give customers wide latitude in selecting the antivirus solution that works best for their specific environment.   Following is the workflow for an ICAP-supported antivirus solution:   An SMB client submits a request to open or close a file.   The file server determines if the file needs to be scanned, based on the metadata and virus scan policies. If a scan is needed, the file server sends the file to the ICAP server and issues a scan request.   The ICAP server scans the file and reports the scan results back to the file server.   Th

Assign domain permissions to users through Active Directory. Delegating permissions in Active Directory (AD) enables the administrator to assign permissions to unprivileged domain users and groups in the directory. Assigning a domain user an appropriate delegated permission ensures that the domain user can join a domain in Files. You can apply a Files account delegation to a single organizational unit (OU). Apply the account delegation where Files stores the computer objects. For information on delegating user permissions, see Delegating Administration of Account OUs and Resource OUs on the Microsoft technet website. Note: Do not delete or disable the active Files machine account from the Active Directory. Procedure Log into the Active Directory server as a domain administrator. Open Start > Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) window. From the list, select and right-click the organization unit that you are going to assign new permissions. Click Next. I

I’m attempting to deploy Files on my cluster and it fails stating the Default Gateway IP is not reachable however I can ping between systems on the desired networks. The only thing I can think of is that the DFW does not respond to ping, is that required?

The  content is dedicated to commonly asked questions on Nutanix Files portal documentation such as Nutanix Files Guide, Nutanix Files Release Notes, Nutanix Files Solution documentation.    1. Documentation Nutanix File Documentation is available on Portal and covers most of the common topics. Nutanix recommends reviewing these docs to understand the product workflow.  1.1 Setup Guide  Nutanix recommends referring Nutanix Files Setup Guide to  understand prerequisites and steps for creating a Nutanix Files Cluster.  1.2 Release Notes Nutanix recommends to refer Nutanix Files Release Notes for each Files version which contains the following information:  What's New? Features and Updates Resolved Issues Known Issues <if there are any> Installation and Upgrades Nutanix Files Software Compatibility Supported Configurations  SMB Protocol Versions Supported Client (SMB) NFS Protocol Versions Supported Client (NFS) Active Directory (Supported Windows AD Servers) Suppor

If no preferred_domain_controller is specified, we follow the usual discovery process (LDAP-PING and DNS lookup) to get the list of Site local DC.   However, if preferred_domain_controller is specified, we no longer do a  DNS lookup and use preferred_domain_controller instead. if it is not reachable, then the domain join operation will fail. Always have a choice to fall back to default domain join process where no preferred_domain_controller is specified.   If we look at Domain Join [DC discovery workflow {Default}] in log file - ~/data/logs/minerva_cvm.log   Domain Join [preferred_domain_controller]   After learning and feedback from Vodafone account, we made certain changes to the Configure NameServices Task. So now we no longer reply on Site local DC list returned by DNS query, instead preferred_domain_controller is used.   Before 3.1 and 2.2.3 even if a preferred DC is specified and it's not reachable due to some reason, we used to fall back to normal disc

Nutanix provides an option to recover the Files analytics data after a planned or unplanned (disaster) migration to the remote site.   To perform disaster recovery, we need to deploy and enable Files Analytics on the remote site. Once the Files Analytics virtual machine (FAVM) is deployed on the remote site we can restore the data using a snapshot of the volume group from the primary FAVM.   A brief summary of the steps is as follows: Create a protection domain on the primary site protecting the File_Analytics_VG (this is the Files Analytics volume group) and replicate to the remote site by creating a schedule depending on the requirements. Deploy a new Files Analytics instance on the remote site. The remote site requires an iSCSI data service IP address to configure FAVM on the remote site. On the remote site, create a new volume group by restoring the snapshot of the File_Analytics_VG. Configure the iSCSI so that the new FAVM connects to the new volume group.

Good Day! Regarding my nutanix’s file server data has been grown up very well. So I need to clear some non-moving file because Nutanix is quite expensive storage I need allow Nutanix to store for active file only. I would like to confirm with you as below Can we listed non-moving files via command line ? Can we manage non-moving files to another place ?          (ex. backup server, NAS, Arcserve)

As part of DR, Files automatically creates a protection domain for a file server and the entities within the file server (such as VMs and volume groups) during file server creation. By default, Files adds all of the entities on the file server to the protection domain. Files Async DR takes snapshots when the preceding snapshot is complete, and has a 60-minute recovery point objective (RPO). You must enable and setup the schedule for snapshots and replication, and set up the snapshot and replication schedule for the protection domain to ensure DR. You can provide custom names for the file server protection domains at the time of setting up the file server. If a file server does not have a specified protection domain name, the protection domain default name is NTNX-file_server_name. Note: You can restore all self-service restore (SSR) and Windows Previous Version (WPV) snapshots that exist at the time of the Protection Domain (PD) snapshot locally or remotely.   1.       Before Acti

Nutanix provides a number of options for you to backup your Nutanix Files data. Following modern data protection methodologies, Nutanix provides administrators and users quick restore access using a combination of some of the following methods:   Self Service Restore:  Administrators can enable SSR at any time for SMB or NFS shares. You can view and restore removed or overwritten files, which allows you to choose a share snapshot from the same file at different times during the file’s history. Administrators can configure a snapshot schedule at the file server level that applies to all shares in the file server.     Protection Domains and Consistency Groups:  Nutanix provides integrated, automated disaster recovery between Nutanix clusters. A Nutanix Files cluster can be protected with Prism and uses the same asynchronous replication with protection domains and consistency groups as any other Nutanix cluster. When you create a file server, Prism Automatically sets up a correspon

When using Nutanix Files network units if the user writes or erases data on the assigned disk, the capacity indication will not be displayed correctly. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes to display the capacity:     After 5-10 Minutes    The behaviour is expected and working by design. Deleted data blocks need around 5-10 min to be “trimmed” by sending SCSI unmap messages to underlying AOS to reclaim storage space.

Hello Team, How we will configure Storage only Block’s? Do we need to follow the same foundation procedure?  If that’s the case we will have two CVM’s ( CVM and FSVM). can someone please guide me how NX Storage block will configure?  

When adding a user account to Active Directory and connecting to a new account, quota capacity is not displayed for the share and the total capacity is available. In this situation, the user may go over the quota limit and our software does not detect it right away.    It takes between 10 to 15 minutes from user detection to quota policy application in the system.   This is because Nutanix Files software is only checking the quota usage at a 5-minute sampling interval. Reducing it further to lower value comes at a resource cost.   The behaviour is clearly explained in the Nutanix Files Guide here as a caution.  

Hi all, I’ve just recently deployed a couple of Nutanix files servers for a client without any serious problem. During the process I have read all the great official documentation that nutanix maintains (really, really useful) but it seems that i can’t find an answer for the following question: What is the purpose of that extra IP address that every file server requires on the storage network side? I’ve noticed that the address is held by one of the FSVM but I can’t figure out what is it used for. Curiosity is killing me.

Iam working on a development in which we are planning to provide a solution to audit nutanix files via web. Can someone tell what are the steps i need to do for testing the code?? Where do i start? what is the way to audit the nutanix files programatically as a developer?? Totally a beginner here ….. can someone help me with this???

If you've deployed a Nutanix Files server you may notice there is one set of numbers provided on the File Server dashboard to describe space usage. On the storage dashboard you may see noticeably different figures for space usage in the container, even though the Files server is the only thing residing in that container. The first thing to understand about this is that both sets of figures are valid. They differ because they represent different perspectives on storage space usage. It helps to keep in mind that the Files deployment is a set of virtual machines. The File Server VM (FSVM) cluster manages its own filesystem on top of the attached VGs, and the storage space details shown on the File Server dashboard are from that perspective. You might be thinking "well duh!" but this simple fact is essential to understanding the explanations that follow. We can set aside the fact that the FSVMs as a cluster use multiple volume groups made up of several vDisks. We can think of it as a sing

I’m standing-up a Nutanix File cluster and want to move an existing WIndows DFS Namespace to the cluster. The namespace needs to remain the same as it is used by web apps. I thought I could simply add the AFS cluster as a Namespace server, replicate the files, and then remove the old namespace servers. However, when I go to add the new namespace server, it wants a local folder location which isn’t available. I was sure I saw that Nutanix Files is compatible with Windows DFS but I don’t know what I’m missing. Suggestions?

I tested a planned failover of Nutanix Files v3.6 today from local site A to remote site B after reviewing the DR documentation. I successfully ‘migrated’ site A to site B however I expected the FSVM’s to migrate as well. Instead, they stayed at their original site A.     I assume that this is by design and my assumption is incorrect or did I miss a step somewhere?