Product Updates

Nutanix Move (Move) is a cross-hypervisor mobility solution to move VMs with minimal downtime.What's New in Release 4.7.0This release includes the following new features and enhancements:Upgrade to Move 4.7.0Move can be upgraded to version 4.7.0 from the Move versions 4.5.0, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, and 4.6.0.Important: Upgrade will reboot the Move appliance. IP address of the Move appliance (if DHCP configured) may change after that. If Move is unreachable, find the new IP address from Prism or vCenter to access Move.Selection of target Prism Central (PC) projectYou have the option to select a target PC project while creating a migration plan. This option is available for all migrations environments where AHV is the target.Configuration of incremental snapshot intervalYou have the option to configure the duration of incremental snapshot interval for each migration environment.Support for VirtIO 1.2.1VirtIO 1.2.1 support for Windows virtual machine (VM) migrations is available.Support for migrating NSX-network backed VMsMove now supports migrations of VMs with NSX configuration from ESXi to AHV and ESXi to ESXi.VM ConfigurationYou have the option to view the source and target VM configuration in a migration plan.Retain user dataYou have the option to retain AWS user-data scripts on the target VM.Bug fixes and improvementsSome issues were resolved and improvements were made.Please review the release notes before deployment for all products

AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.Please review the release notes before deployment for all productsAOS 6.5 is a long-term supported (LTS) release that builds upon a mature and proven AOS codebase that contains the new and updated features from the following AOS 6.0 and AOS 6.1 (short-term supported (STS)) releases since the previous LTS release and the bug fixes from all the releases in the AOS 6.0 and AOS 6.1 branches:New and Updated Features | AOS 6.0 New and Updated Features | AOS 6.0.1 New and Updated Features | AOS 6.0.2 New and Updated Features | AOS 6.1 New and Updated Features | AOS 6.1.1Requirements and Considerations | AOS 6.5Requirements for Virtual Switch Migration During UpgradeThe AOS upgrade process initiates the virtual switch migration. The virtual switch migration is successful only when certain requirements are fulfilled. Before you upgrade to AOS, read the Virtual Switch Migration Requirements in the Virtual Switch Requirements topic in the AHV Administration Guide.Requirements and Limitations for Clusters with NVIDIA GPUsNutanix supports the NVIDIA GPU cards based on the compatible AOS and AHV versions. See KB 8727 for details on GRID driver support and compatibility limitations for the current AOS and AHV versions.Nutanix Compatibility and Software InteroperabilityThe Nutanix support portal includes a variety of compatibility matrices. Nutanix recommends that you consult the matrix before installing or upgrading your cluster's software.Upgrade Paths. Filter supported upgrade paths based on current and target release versions. Hardware model Compatibility Matrix. Filter compatibility by Nutanix NX model, Software-only model (Cisco UCS, Dell PowerEdge, and so on), AOS release, hypervisor, and feature (platform/cluster intermixing). Supported AHV guest OS compatibility matrix. Filter compatibility of the latest supported AHV guest VM OSes. Software Product Operability matrix. Check "what works with what" for selected Nutanix software products, including version compatibility. Software Bundled in This Release AOS NCC NGT Foundation AHV AOS 6.5 NCC 4.6.0 NGT 2.3.1 Foundation 5.2.1 AHV-20201105.30398  Please review the release notes before deployment for all products 

AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.Please review the release notes before deployment for all productsHere are some highlights from the AOS 6.1 release.New and Updated Features | AOS 6.1Improved Single vDisk PerformancePreviously, the vDisk controller employed just a single thread for each vDisk. Now, the vDisk controller can spawn multiple sharded controllers (up to 4) to create a multithreaded environment for processing application requests (reads and writes). From the application perspective, there is still a single vDisk controller, but the actual workload is multithreaded. The multithreading can result in substantial performance improvements for applications that use a single large vDisk, such as certain database applications. The multithreading can also provide performance improvement for multiple vDisk applications.Enhanced Security with Restricted Shell AccessRestricted Shell Access improves the security posture of Nutanix AOS with the following controls:Added ability to freeze the security configuration and settings through Nutanix Command-Line Interface (nCLI). You must contact Nutanix Support to unlock the security configuration to allow for changes. Added an optional feature that imposes certain restrictions on the "nutanix" account access to the nCLI. The added restrictions encourage the usage of "admin" account for basic administrative workflows..Dark Theme on Prism UIThis feature extends the Prism themes feature to support a darker theme. Selection of the Dark Theme in the UI sets a dark background with high contrast view of the Prism UI background. The UI changes cosmetically to reflect the selection. See Modifying UI Settings in the Prism Web Console Guide for more information.Whole Node Maintenance ModeThis feature provides the ability to gracefully handle the node maintenance for planned outages. With this feature, the existing node maintenance procedure from the Acropolis Command-Line Interface (aCLI) is now extended to the Prism Element web console. When a host is placed in the maintenance mode, the CVM is placed in the maintenance mode as part of the node maintenance operation. The non-migratable VMs (for example, pinned or RF1 VMs which have affinity towards a specific node) are powered-off while live migratable or high availability (HA) VMs are moved from the original host to other hosts in the cluster. After exiting the maintenance mode, all non-migratable guest VMs are powered on again and the live migrated VMs are automatically restored on the original host.VM Centric Storage PolicyStorage Policies in Prism Central let you manage the storage attributes like encryption, compression, and QoS for VMs running on AHV clusters. Prism Central allows you to apply storage policies on a per VM basis using Category, so that the VM uses the storage configuration defined in the storage policy. Using a storage policy, you can manage parameters of VMs, such as encryption, type of or lack of data compression, and IOPS or Throughput throttling values to be applied to the entities.Prism Central supports storage policies only for VMs. Storage policy is not supported for Volume Groups (VGs). Prism Central supports storage policies only for entities running on the AHV hypervisor. You can associate one storage policy with multiple categories. However, you can associate one category with only one storage policy.Support for Microsoft Windows Server 2022AOS 6.1 supports guest VMs running Microsoft Windows Server 2022.Note: Since Intel NIC adapters do not have compatible async drivers (third-party vendor drivers certified by VMware) for Hyper-V 2022, NX Series platforms do not currently support Hyper-V 2022 deployments.Removing Multiple Nodes from a ClusterAOS allows you to remove multiple nodes from a cluster. The multi-node removal process is sequential. That is, you can request to remove only one node at a time. However, you can mark other nodes for removal one after the other while data is being evicted in background from other nodes marked for removal.Please review the release notes before deployment for all products

Prism Central is the native control plane user interface unified across multiple Nutanix clusters.Please review the release notes before deployment for all productsHere are some highlights from the Prism Central release.New and Updated Features | pc.2022.1Category-based Host affinity policyThis release introduces the support for defining the VM-Host affinity policy in Prism Central using categories. This feature enables you to easily manage affinities for a large number of VMs. In case of any change (addition or removal) to the list of affined hosts, you only need to update the category of the host and this internally updates the affinity rule for all the affected VMs. The minimum supported versions for VM-Host affinity policy are version 6.1 for AOS and version 2022.1 for Prism Central.AHV VM templatesThis release introduces the VM templates feature for AHV VMs. The feature enables you to create and manage a master copy of a VM that you can use to deploy multiple VMs across clusters. A template includes the guest operating system, VM configuration (that may include multiple disks), and all the applications installed on the VM. You can maintain multiple versions of a template. The feature also enables you to upgrade the guest operating system of the template.The minimum supported versions for AHV VM template feature are 5.19.2 for AOS and 2022.1 for Prism Central. See Prism Central Guide for more information about the feature.Dark Theme on Prism UIThis feature extends the Prism themes feature to support a darker theme. Selection of the Dark Theme in the UI sets a dark background with high contrast view of the Prism UI background. The UI changes cosmetically to reflect the selection. See Modifying UI Settings in the Prism Web Console Guide for more information.Storage Container ManagementThis feature extends the existing storage container management in Prism Element to Prism Central. The functionality helps the users to create, update, delete the Storage Container through Prism Central. The storage containers in Prism Central operate on all instances of the Prism Element registered to the Prism Central, requiring the user to select a cluster during the create operation. See Storage Management in the Prism Central Guide for more information.Please review the release notes before deployment for all products

It’s been a busy week of product updates and improvements. Here is what has been released last week.Please review the release notes before deployment for all productsAOS (STS) 6.0.2.2AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.The release resolves the following critical issue:Prism GatewayResolved an issue where attempts to upgrade to AOS 6.0.2 might stall as the Controller VM eth0 network interface is not available after the Controller VM restarts as part of the upgrade process.AOS (LTS) 5.20.2.1 The release resolves the following critical issues:Cluster ConversionImproved network validation to ensure that the networks that do not have any VMs attached are, by default, retained after an ESXi to AHV cluster conversion. Contact Nutanix Support if you do not wish to retain networks without any VMs. Resolved an issue where during cluster conversion the mapping of the target networks is not properly set to the default virtual switch vs0. Improved the cluster conversion process by running 20 VM conversions in parallel.Data Replication / ProtectionThe retry or backoff logic applied while waiting for stretch data interface resolution is improved to reduce latency and stun times for quiesced snapshots.FlowResolved an issue where stale cache, populated when VM migration happens while Flow is disabled, results in incorrect rules to be programmed. For further details, see KB 12200.Microservices Platform (MSP) 2.3.4MSP is a managed platform based on Kubernetes for managing containerized services running on PC. The lifecycle of MSP is controlled by a service running on Prism Central called MSP Controller. MSP supports various containerized services like IAMv2, ANC and Objects and more services will be on-boarded in future. You must upgrade MSP before upgrading any of these services.Following are the resolved issues in this release:Fixed the issue where Prism Central was not able to reach corp DNS server due to 127.0.0.1 entry in the /etc/resolv.conf file restricting the user to configure FQDN on Prism Central. Fixed the issue where external nameserver were erased from Object VMs post reboot. This could have caused connectivity issues to LDAP, external FQDN, and so on. Fixed the issue where MSP Controller upgrade through LCM darksite bundle failed; however, in the user interface upgrade was seen as successful. Fixed the issue where object data path had seen issue in case of eth0 network down or up case on Objects cluster running 1.0.8 or below versions.Life Cycle Manager Version 2.4.3.3The Life Cycle Manager (LCM) tracks and upgrades both software and firmware versions of all entities in the cluster, completely in-band with Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central.New Features:Change path for sudo commandFor all references to sudo, LCM 2.4.3.3 replaces the path /usr/bin/sudo with sudoResolved Issues:ESXi precheck failing with UEFIThe precheck test_esxi_bootbank_space verifies that the system has enough space to restart into the Phoenix ISO. Foundation 4.4.1 added the ability to mitigate low bootbank space, so systems that use Foundation 4.4.1 or later disable this precheck. However, if the system uses UEFI, Foundation's mitigation does not work. LCM now enables or disables test_esxi_bootbank_space depending on the detected boot mode.Inventory failing on IntelFixed an issue on Intel systems where inventory sometimes failed with the error Unable to get the fru details. Failed to run payload_info cmd.ESXi systems returning Failed to power on VMs error after updateFixed an issue where LCM treated vSphere cluster services (vCLS) VMs as pinned VMs that LCM needed to restart after an update. ESXi automatically restarts vCLS VMs after a host restart, so LCM was trying to start VMs that had already started, resulting in the observed error.Be sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.

Nutanix is excited to announce the release and general availability of Karbon® 2.3 Kubernetes management software! Karbon 2.3 is packed with exciting new features and enhancements, as well as a number of fixes to enhance the customer experience. We will be highlighting a couple of features in this article but for more detailed information check the release notes.Kubernetes 1.20 Support: Kubernetes version 1.20 is now officially supported by Karbon. Users can now deploy this version using the Nutanix® single-click approach and unlock all of the new features that come with this Kubernetes release. Existing Kubernetes clusters can also be upgraded to Kubernetes 1.20.  Nodepools: The resource requirements for workloads on Kubernetes clusters are constantly evolving. Karbon 2.3 allows users to add nodepools to deployed Kubernetes clusters. This allows for node pools to be added with different resource configurations offering more flexibility in scheduling pods on different node types (CPU heavy, memory heavy, etc.). New CSI Version: Karbon 2.3 by default installs the latest Nutanix CSI driver allowing users to consume the Nutanix platform (including Nutanix Volumes™ or Nutanix Files™ storage) immediately after deploying a Kubernetes cluster. The Nutanix CSI driver will use certificate based authentication (when used in conjunction with Karbon), removing the need to store credentials inside the Kubernetes cluster. Dedicated Network for Storage Traffic: Starting from Karbon 2.3 the Nutanix CSI storage traffic can be isolated on a dedicated network. This isolation can be VLAN or physical separation. UI Support for Kubernetes Upgrades: Prior to Karbon 2.3, Kubernetes upgrades were only possible via the Karbon command line interface (karbonctl). Karbon 2.3 now allows users to upgrade Kubernetes versions via the Prism Central™ UI. Security Fixes and CIS Benchmarks: In Karbon version 2.3, we also improved the overall security posture of the Kubernetes stack by meeting a greater number of CIS benchmarks. In addition we released a new Node OS (1.1) version fixing a large number of CVE’s.Sign up for a Karbon Test DriveIf you’re considering deploying Karbon Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix HCI, then take Karbon for a full test drive! The Nutanix Test Drive program puts you in the driver’s seat of Karbon on a live cluster, letting you experience how smooth and simple Karbon makes Kubernetes cluster deployment, storage configuration, and upgrades.Sign up to take a spin!

AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.Please review the release notes before deploymentSample of Resolved Issues | AOS 5.15.6AHV-ManagementResolved an issue where VMs running on clusters with AHV 20190916.x and AOS 5.15.4 or 5.15.5 show a flat "CPU Ready Time" graph in Prism even though VMs are waiting to be scheduled to run. The Open vSwitch kernel module data is now collected to help with troubleshooting degraded cluster performance caused by network traffic in AHV. The Lazan and Pithos service interaction is improved to avoid unexpected service restarts. Resolved an issue where during VM migration on PE, the migrate operation shows up on the audit page but the operation column for the audit is blank.Data ProtectionResolved an issue where the VM backup snapshots on ESXi fail and the VMs are powered off after the backup failure. Resolved an issue where certain internal failures result in missing or unprotected VM in the protection domain after a DR failover. Resolved an issue where the unmount CD-ROM operation for VMs on Xi fails after a new NGT leader is appointed.Infrastructure / ServicesResolved a CVM boot failure issue caused by a timing error in the NVMe driver of the svmboot. Resolved an issue where after cluster expansion if you enable domain fault tolerance to rackable unit while the new nodes are still being added, the Cassandra service starts failing repeatedly on all nodes across the cluster. Resolved an issue where attempts to perform an iterative ESXi hypervisor upgrade fail.Nutanix Guest ToolsResolved an issue where the unmount CD-ROM operation for VMs on Xi fails after a new NGT leader is appointed.Prism UIENG-338605 Resolved an issue where for logical backplane segmentation, selecting portgroups is not mandatory, but the UI did not allow it.Be sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Prism Central Version: pc.2021.5 Released.Prism Central is the native control plane user interface unified across multiple Nutanix clusters.Please review the releases notes before deploymentNew and Updated Features | PrismConnect to External Networks Without NAT This feature is an enhancement to Flow networking which is currently in technical preview. To participate in this technical review, contact your Nutanix account team to enable Flow networking. Refer to the Support FAQs for more details on support during technical preview.Note: Do not use technical preview features in a production environment.Prism Central now provides the NAT option under the External Connectivity option. You can enable or disable Network Access Translation (NAT) during creation or update of Subnets. This option allows you to connect VPCs to external networks without NAT by deselecting (thus, disabling) the NAT option.Secondary IP Addresses Support for Flow Networking This feature is an enhancement to Flow networking which is currently in technical preview. To participate in this technical review, contact your Nutanix account team to enable Flow networking. Refer to the Support FAQs for more details on support during technical preview.vCenter Capacity RunwayThis feature extends the Capacity Runway features to vCenter registered Non-Nutanix clusters. This feature allows you to monitor the current and historical usage information and utilize the resource planning tools to analyze current and potential resource requirements.PC UI using v3 APIs Prism Central web console uses the v3 APIs for the VM create and VM update actions. The existing VM create and VM update forms are overhauled for admin and non-admin users. This feature extends the VM clone functionality to non-admin users while optionally overriding select VM settings configured during VM creation. This feature also allows the cluster admin to enable the Flash Mode setting for VMs and VM disks during the VM Update action.Upload Images from a VM Disk to Clusters in Prism Central This feature extends the support to upload images from Prism Central to registered AHV clusters through a VM disk. This feature allows you to clone an existing VM disk to add it to the image list. You can browse and choose a powered-off source VM on a cluster and then select an attached disk corresponding to this source VM.Reporting Scalability in Prism Central This feature enhances the reporting scalability for entities in Prism Central for PDF and CSV output formats. Prism Central allows you generation of reports in PDF format for 2000 entities and generation of reports in CSV format for 25000 entities.Storage Management Through Prism Central Prism Central now includes a dashboard where you can view both summary and detailed information about volume groups across the registered clusters. In addition, you can now create and modify volume groups for any registered cluster directly from Prism Central.Expanded Microservices Infrastructure Support Microservices Infrastructure support in Prism Central is extended to ESXi clusters (as well as AHV clusters). For more information, see "Enabling Microservices Infrastructure" in the Prism Central Guide.DR Dashboard: Monitoring and Reporting You can now use a dashboard to monitor the operational readiness of disaster recovery (DR) deployments with Leap. The dashboard views granular information on all replication and recovery operations and enables you to create detailed reports on the health of your deployments.Enhanced NearSync Replication Schedules for VStore Protection You can now transition into NearSync replication schedules faster because the underlying engine driving the NearSync operation is enhanced to work autonomously. The slider enables you to recover the protected VStore protection domains with an RPO as low as 20 seconds to at most two recovery sitesBe sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Nutanix AHV Plugins for Citrix provides the means for creating and managing XenDesktop/Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, as well as enhanced reporting of Citrix VDI running on a Nutanix AHV cluster.The plug-in is compatible with Citrix Director on Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 versions 2103 and later.For Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops 7 1912 or previous versions, use Nutanix AHV Plug-in for Citrix Director version 1.1.3.0, available from the Nutanix Support portal Other Versions tab of the Downloads page.Resolved Issues in this release:For Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 versions 2103 and later, with the Nutanix AHV Plug-in For Citrix Director 1.1.4.0 installed, Citrix Director now shows VM statistics and correctly displays the Nutanix Virtual Machine Statistics pane.Please review the release notes before deploymentBe sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) is a framework of scripts that can help diagnose cluster health. To help maintain cluster health and take advantage of the latest NCC technology, Nutanix recommends that you keep your NCC version current. You can upgrade NCC through the web console, Life Cycle Manager, or command line.This version is not supported on clusters running AOS versions prior to 5.10 or any AOS Family for IBM CS Series platforms. NCC 3.10.1 and below is supported on clusters running AOS versions prior to 5.10. See Knowledge Base article 7796 on the Nutanix Support portal.Nutanix Cluster Checks help you identify configurations that Nutanix has qualified and recommends. Clusters running AOS or Prism Central 5.10 minimum version. AHV / Hyper-V 2016, and 2019 / ESXi All Nutanix NX and SX Series models Cisco UCS B-Series / C-Series Dell EMC XC Series hyperconverged appliances Dell PowerEdge Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) ProLiant servers Klas Voyager 2 Lenovo Converged HX Series Lenovo / Dell / Nutanix G6 Intel Skylake CPU-based platforms Nutanix G7 Intel CPU-based platforms Here are some new checks and alerts in this release:disk_usage_check warns if the allocated audit record storage volume reaches 75% of the repository maximum audit record storage capacity. marker_files_check checks the presence of .node_* files in the CVM, which can cause data loss in the system if CVM is rebooted in its presence. ExternalDatasourceStorageMigrationSuspendedAlert: Alerts if the external datasource storage migration is suspended due to unrecoverable errors. disk_power_check checks power settings for PM1643 drives on Lenovo nodes. ahv_file_integrity_check checks for any changes in the kernel configurations on AHV host on biweekly basis (every 3 days). ExternalDatasourceStorageMigrationSuspendedAlert: Alerts users about the suspension of storage migration for an external datasource disk. list_containers_with_conversion_to_aes_in_progress check, lists the storage containers that are converted to AES. FileServerRsyslogForwardingCheck checks if the rsyslog output is sent to a log aggregation server.Check out the release notes to learn more.Be sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.AOS 6.0 has various new features and notably enables advanced disaster recovery capabilities for organizations of all sizes and expands workload support for leading big data and analytics applications. Additionally, has other workload acceleration and enterprise grade features, such as resiliency improvements to gain insights and control over the self-healing process and ability to reserve capacity.Please review the release notes before deploying AOS 6.0Here is a sample of the latest features:Disaster RecoveryNear-Sync Autonomous Schedules: Native near-zero always-on data loss solution for applications running on Nutanix HCI. Available with Protection Domain DR Dashboard: Provides global visibility into DR landscape with LEAP. Gives team one place to monitor and manage their ability to keep business operations functional in the face of disaster. Brings observability to DR for meeting/maintaining RPO SLAs, Recovery Readiness and DR Reports DR Traffic Encryption: Encrypt DR traffic across WAN links without the need for dedicated encryption hardware or VPN.Native SSL based encryption is now integrated with Nutanix AOS, enabling secure replication even where VPN tunnels are unavailable. Available with Protection Domain DR Replication Performance: DR Replication Performance: Next gen architecture for data mobility across clouds with improved performance and tight SLAs Instant Restore for AHV: Instantly recover the workload even though the disk data for the workload are not locally available in the underlying AOS cluster. Migrate the disk data back to (seed) the AOS cluster without interruption to the recovered workloadCore Data PathOption to reserve rebuild(spare) capacity for a cluster: The Reserve Rebuild Capacity feature simplifies cluster resiliency management by allowing you to reserve storage capacity required to recover and rebuild from failures. AOS calculates, reserves, and dynamically manages capacity required for self-healing after a failure. Rebuild progress indicator and ETA: The new Rebuild progress indicator in Prism enables administrators to better manage cluster resiliency by providing additional insight into the self-healing process such as the rate of progress, expected time of completion and other details for rebuild operations Brownfield AES: Provides ability to convert existing pre-AES containers to AES Support mix storage capacity for HW Swap: This feature adds support mixing storage drive capacity for drive RMA and node capacity increase use-cases. Improve performance (e.g.: metadata re-warming) after failures/CVM restart/change of vdisk host: This feature helps mitigate potential application performance impact during certain CVM restarts or live migrations by proactively pre-filling the metadata cacheAHVP2P intra cluster VM live migration: While VM live migration is in progress if the migrate task restarts, VMs can be left in a paused state or killed in certain scenarios causing downtime, this feature overcomes these issues ADS vGPU Support: We now have Acropolis Dynamic Scheduling (ADS) support for VMs with virtual GPUs (vGPUs) Nvidia vGPU Console Support: Provide GPU support for our VM console (Also part of 5.20) Scale out PE Lazan: With this feature, cluster state capture phase is distributed among every Lazan slave to make it faster and more scalable. Each slave then sends the captured state to Lazan master making anomaly detection faster and the CPU usage to compute the cluster state is also distributed among the nodes. PC UI using v3 APIs: The goal was to upgrade the APIs used for VM operations for our Prism UI, while preserving the existing feature set and workflowsPlease take a moment to read the release notesBe sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

AOS integrates storage, compute and networking resources into a scalable, secure, resilient and easy-to-use software-defined infrastructure.LTS / STS Release TypesTo determine your cluster's current release type (LTS or STS) from the nCLI command line.Is LTS: true indicates an LTS release. Is LTS: false indicates an STS release.Acropolis 5.20 Software BundleAOS 5.20 NCC 4.0.1 NGT 2.1.2 Foundation 4.6.2 AHV-20201105.2030For a detailed listing please check out the product release notes in our support portal.Here are a brief summary of the updates to this release:AHV-managementResolved an issue where saving the VM configuration boot order set to network interface in the Prism UI resets the guest VM boot order to default. Resolved an issue where after an AOS upgrade to 5.19.1 and later releases, you are unable to use Prism Central to manage VMs created in AOS 5.15.x.Data ProtectionResolved an issue where no application consistent groups are available after crash consistent snapshots are taken during failover to Xi.Infrastructure / ServicesResolved an issue where pre-upgrade checks fail to progress due to incorrect handling of exceptions. Column name validation added to resolve an issue where silent disk or network corruption results in corruption of the stats and Pithos column family leading to cluster-wide degradation. Resolved an issue where during attempts to upgrade to Hyper-V 2019 through the web console Upgrade Software page, the page did not allow you to select the Hyper-V SKU type leading to the upgrade operation to either stall or install Hyper-V Datacenter Core incorrectly.Linux KernelThe latest kernel update resolves an issue where the mdadm raid value shows unrealistic numbers. Updated Linux Kernel to kernel version 3.10.0-1160.24.1.el7 that includes a fix for a kernel panic issue.NetworkingThe OVS rules limit increased to 32768.Security-AOSNew certificate regeneration script added to resolve an issue where attempts to restart the cluster fail due to an expired encryption certificate. The ctrl + alt + del option is not displayed in the GUI to avoid its usage while PC is in middle of first-boot-after-upgrade script as it might result in the PC to restart and break PC permanently.Be sure to share your upgrade experience in the community forums.Register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Nutanix Files is a software-defined scale-out file server. It can be used as the repository for unstructured data like home directories, user profiles, departmental shares, and application logs.Nutanix Files Release: 3.7.3.1 is out and available for download.The following are the resolved and updated in this release.Files 3.7.3.1 includes resolved issues and security-vulnerability fixes Updated sizing configurations to prevent certain workloads from overloading I/O operations, which caused mount issues and temporary unavailability of shares.Be sure to register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Nutanix Era enables you to provision complex database environments in a single click, incorporating your standard configurations with Nutanix best practices.Nutanix Era Version: 2.1.1.2 is out and available for download.Era is a database as a service (DBaaS) that automates and simplifies database administration, bringing one-click simplicity and invisible operations to database provisioning and life-cycle management.The following are the resolved issues in this release.Era Server: Resolved the issue wherein a replicated protection domain gets deleted when multiple databases are sharing the same protection domain. Resolved the Era Server IP issue that occurs when in spite of changing the IP address, Era still uses the old IP address to connect to a database server VM. Oracle: Era now supports Oracle databases having storage with nested mount points. SQL Server: Resolved the database server VM provisioning issue that occurs when special characters are used in the VM administrator password. PostgreSQL: Resolved the Postgres HA patching issue wherein one or more nodes are excluded from automatic failover.Be sure to register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Nutanix Move is a cross-hypervisor mobility solution to move VMs with minimal downtime. This release includes the following new features and enhancements.Download the latest release today.What's New in Release 4.0.0New platform support for migration: Azure to AOS (AHV and ESXi): Move now supports migration from Azure to AOS. Uninstall VMware Tools after migration: Move can automatically uninstall VMware tools from target VMs after migration. Real time logs on Move UI: You can now check real time logs directly from the Move user interface. Support for new RHEL version: You can now migrate RHEL 8.3 VMs from ESXi to AHV. Support for clusters (ESXi Hypervisor) having storage-only nodes: Move now supports clusters with storage-only nodes. Move memory updated to 8 GiB: The default memory of Move VM is updated from 4 GiB to 8 GiB.If you have questions or want to connect with others using Move, be sure to join the discussion on our Nutanix Move forum.Be sure to register for our annual .NEXT user conference happening September 20-23, 2021 online. It’s Cloud on your terms.

Life Cycle Manager (LCM) is out and ready for download!The Life Cycle Manager (LCM) tracks and upgrades both software and firmware versions of all entities in the cluster, completely in-band with Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central.Firmware Versus Software UpdatesLCM supports software updates for any platform running Nutanix software.LCM supports firmware updates only for platforms from the following vendors.Nutanix (NX) Dell XC / XC Core Lenovo HX / HX Ready HPE DX Fujitsu XF Intel DCB HPE DL (G10) Inspur InMerge   Table 1: Platforms That Support Firmware Updates Through LCMIndividual component firmware support differs among hardware vendors, so check the RIM bundle for your hardware vendor for details.New FeaturesStop Update button: LCM 2.4.0.3 adds the ability to stop most in-progress LCM updates by using the Stop Update button. When you click Stop Update, LCM automatically chooses a safe point to stop the update. Not all updates can stop after they have begun. Username logging: For security reasons, LCM 2.4.0.3 logs the username for every update attempt.Download LCM today and join the conversation in the How it works forums and find out how others are taking advantage of LCM. Be sure to tag you LCM posts with LCM.

File Analytics 3.0 is out and ready for downloadFile Analytics provides data and statistics on the operations and contents of a file server.Once deployed, Nutanix Files adds a File Analytics VM (FAVM) to the Files cluster. A single File Analytics VM supports all file servers in the cluster; however, you must enable File Analytics separately for each file server. File Analytics protects data on the FAVM, which is kept in a separate volume group.Once you deploy File Analytics, a new File Analytics link appears on the file server actions bar. Use the link to access File Analytics on any file server that has File Analytics enabled.Features and Updates | File Analytics 3.0Nested Share Support: File Analytics supports data collection from nested shares and exports. Refer to the Nutanix Files Guide for information on the nested shares feature. Data Age Capacity Explorer: Clicking the explore link on "Data Age" widget in the main dashboard opens the data age details view, which includes a granular overview of data age and a data heat widget. Use the default data heat values for hot, warm, and cold data, or configure the levels to your preference. Generating Reports: Use the reports tab to configure, view, and generate reports. You can create a custom report template, or use one of the pre-canned report templates. View the reports in the reports dashboard or download them as JSON or CSV files. Ransomware Protection: File Analytics blocks files that include common ransomware extensions. Enable ransomware protection to initiate real-time ransomware scans and receive notifications of possible threats. You can add more extensions to the ransomware list of blocked file types. See "Ransomware" in the File Analytics Guide for more details. This feature requires Nutanix Files 3.8, AOS 5.19, and FSM 2.0.1. Caution: Ransomware protection helps detect potential ransomware. Nutanix does not recommend using the File Analytics ransomware feature as an all-encompassing ransomware solution. Graceful FAVM Shutdown: Gracefully shut down and bring up File Analytics VMs (FAVMs) to perform maintenance. Use the guest shutdown or guest reboot options in Prism Element (PE). Anomaly and File Operations Widget Updates: UI updates to the anomaly and file operations widgets include: a graph for viewing anomaly distribution by type in the anomaly dashboard and a donut chart for viewing file operation distribution by type for the file operations widget.Download and give File Analytics a try and join the conversation in the Nutanix Files discussion forum and learn how best to use File Analytics.

Nutanix Files 3.8 is out and ready for download.Nutanix Files (Files) lets you share files in a centralized and protected location to eliminate the requirement of a third-party file server.Files uses a scaleout architecture that provides file services to clients through the Server Message Block (SMB) or Network File System (NFS) protocol. Files consists of one or more file server VMs (FSVMs) combined into a logical file server instance sometimes referred to as a Files cluster. You can create multiple file server instances within a single Nutanix cluster.Files creates a volume group (VG) for every FSVM to provide stable storage for persistent states and audit events. During a service outage, the states, storage, and events of a VG fail-over to another FSVM.Features and Updates | Files 3.8Smart Disaster Recovery (DR): Smart DR is a share-level data protection service available through the Files Manager on Prism Central (PC). Smart DR includes an overview of protected file servers and shares, options to create and manage protection policies, and dashboards for reviewing replication jobs. The Files Manager User Guide provides a description of Smart DR capabilities and configuration procedures. Smart DR requires the Files Manager 2.0. Improvements to Load-Balancing Recommendations: Before initiating performance optimization, a dialog-box message prompts you to acknowledge the impact of load-balancing operations on existing client connections. When possible, perform load-balancing operations during maintenance windows, as scaleout and rebalancing disrupts existing connections. LCM Upgrade Support for the Files Manager: Upgrade the Files Manager using the Life-Cycle Manager (LCM). For upgrade instructions, refer to the Life-Cycle Manager Guide. Support for Solaris 10 with the NFSv3 Unmanaged Protocol: Nutanix has qualified the use of the Oracle Solaris 10 operating system with the NFSv3 protocol and unmanaged authentication. Support for NFS v4.1 and NFS v4.2: Nutanix has qualified the use of NFS versions 4.1 and 4.2 for Files. Support for SMB3 Directory Leasing: Directory leasing can improves performance on SMB sessions. SMB clients cache the directory content on the client side and reduce round-trips of SMB requests. File Name Pattern Blocking: The file blocking feature includes options to block files based on part of a file name or extension, a single-character match, or a multi-character match. See the "File Blocking" section in the Nutanix Files Guide for more details. Connected Shares Under Distributed and Nested Shares: You can submount shares under distributed or nested shares. Previously, connecting shares required submounts under standard shares. Connecting distributed shares distributes data across FSVMs.Download Nutanix Files today and join the discussion happening in the Nutanix Files discussion forums, it’s always best to learn from others in the community.

X-Ray 3.10.1 is out and ready for download.X-Ray is an automated testing framework and benchmarking application for enterprise-grade datacenters. The X-Ray testing framework is a downloadable virtual machine (VM) with a user interface and complete documentation. Once installed, X-Ray can test and analyze several different systems and report comparable information for your use.X-Ray provides test scenarios for hyperconverged platforms that demonstrate variations in areas such as performance, data integrity, and availability.This version is primarily a bugfix release with the following important updates:Nutanix systems with NVME devices target addition issue fixed. Setting IPMI to None no longer raises an issue on vSphere clusters that don’t have IPMI configured. User is now informed when the incorrect out of band management protocol is used. Occasional test hangs due to pulse data fixed. Version reporting in the UI is fixed.Download and give it a try today. Join the discussion in the X-Ray community forums and learn how others are using it.

Out today Foundation Central Release 1.1Foundation Central is the Nutanix service used to create clusters from factory-imaged nodes remotely from Prism Central.Foundation Central Release 1.1Foundation Central can create clusters with reimaging the factory-imaged nodes that are running Foundation 4.5.1 or higher. You can image the nodes with any version of AOS and hypervisor. Foundation Central supports imaging and creating clusters out of factory nodes shipped with DiscoveryOS version 4.5.2 or higher. Supported AOS versions on the remote nodes are AOS 5.15 or higher. These AOS versions have Foundation 4.5.1 or higher bundled with it.New Features and EnhancementsThis release includes the following enhancements:Imaging nodes on a VLAN is now supported via Foundation Central. VLAN is supported only for nodes with CVMs installed on it and not supported for nodes installed with DiscoveryOS. The Foundation Central UI has several fixes and improvements. Some major changes are: Improvements to the discovered node details: Grouping nodes by API key, block serial or host subnet. Grouping nodes that are being discovered and those that are already discovered and available for cluster creation. The node attributes that have to be displayed can be configured. Improvements to the Deployment History page: Improved UX experience and additional details for the cluster creation request are displayed. Foundation Central now supports RDMA NIC passthrough. IAMv2 is now supported on Foundation Central 1.1. Foundation Central does not allow the creation of more than 50 API keys and hence minimizing any security vulnerabilities. Foundation Central allows the creation of only one API key per second to avoid any Denial of Service (DOS) attack.Get it now in the support portal Foundation Central and read the release notes along with the user guide.

We are happy to announce that AOS 5.19 (STS), along with AHV-20201105-12, NCC 3.10.1.2, Foundation 4.6, and LCM 2.3.4.2 are all available for download on the Nutanix Portal. Please refer to the release notes in the portal for a deeper explanation.Some new and notable updates and features:Note: Nutanix highly recommends updating NCC to version 3.10.0.5 or later versions for updated checks compatible with AOS 5.19 and later versions.New and Updated Features | AOS 5.19Support for Multi-Site Replication with Leap: You can now create protection policies to replicate the recovery points to one or more recovery availability zones. You can replicate the recovery points to at most two different AHV or ESXi clusters at the same or different availability zones. Support for Cross cluster live migration with Leap: You can now perform live migration of the guest VMs protected with Synchronous replication schedule. Live migration offers zero downtime of your protected guest VMs during a planned failover event to the recovery availability zone License Manager / Licensing as a Service: License Manager introduces licensing as a service for Prism Element and Prism Central clusters. It is updated independently from Nutanix software such as AOS, Prism Central, Nutanix Cluster Check, and so on. Storage Capacity Reporting Enhancement: Storage Over-provisioning widget enhancement- The Storage Provisioning Ratio Widget is now enhanced with color-coded alerts. See "Storage Overview View" in the Web Console Guide for details. Native Key Manager Support for ROBO Clusters: The Native KMS (remote) option allows you to secure your encryption keys with a registered remote Prism Central. This feature is available for clusters of all sizes for software encryption, in addition to ROBO clusters.New and Updated Features | AHVWindows Defender Credential Guard Support in AHV: AHV enables you to use the Windows Defender Credential Guard security feature on Windows guest VMs. Live vDisk Migration Across Storage Containers: vDisk migration allows you to change the container of a vDisk. You can migrate vDisks across storage containers while they are attached to guest VMs without the need to shut down or delete VMs (live migration). Virtual Network Switches Management: Virtual switches are used to manage multiple bridges and uplink ports. The VS configuration is designed to provide flexibility in configuring virtual bridge connections. A virtual switch defines a collection of AHV nodes and the uplink ports on each node. Support for Cross cluster live migration with Leap: You can now perform live migration of the guest VMs protected with Synchronous replication schedule. Live migration offers zero downtime of your protected guest VMs during a planned failover event to the recovery availability zone.Technical Preview | Flow NetworkingThis feature is currently in technical preview. You need to enter a secret passphrase to enable Flow networking. To participate in this technical review, contact your Nutanix account team to enable Flow networking.Do not use technical preview features in a production environment.Flow Networking delivers the following benefits:Simplified workflow to deploy App-driven network virtualization with turnkey built into Prism Central. Secure multi-tenancy with per-tenant isolation using virtual private cloud (VPC) based network segmentation and namespace isolation. VPN-based seamless connectivity across multiple sites with an automated VPN lifecycle. IP Address retention and policy based routing for stretched subnets. NAT-based secure egress to networks external to a VPC. Self-service networking services for applications through REST APIs. Enhanced networking to facilitate more effective disaster recovery.Detail information can be found in the following Release Notes:Acropolis 5.19 Family Release Notes AOS 5.19 Release Notes AHV-20201105.12 Release NotesI would love to hear what you think once you upgrade. If you have written a blog post the link in the comments below and lets helps others in the community grow and learn.