5 Essential Tips for Maximizing Your Experience at Nutanix .NEXT for Bloggers
This is a common problem you'll often face with PowerShell.It's been covered in details in a lot of blog posts, but I guess you can have a look at this 2 parts post that resumes it nicely:[url=http://www.adminarsenal.com/admin-arsenal-blog/secure-password-with-powershell-encrypting-credentials-part-1/]http://www.adminarsenal.com/admin-arsenal-blog/secure-password-with-powershell-encrypting-credentials-part-1/[/url][url=http://www.adminarsenal.com/admin-arsenal-blog/secure-password-with-powershell-encrypting-credentials-part-2/]http://www.adminarsenal.com/admin-arsenal-blog/secure-password-with-powershell-encrypting-credentials-part-2/[/url]
I'm currently working of a Metro HA configuration for ~850 VDI, with goal to extend to virtual servers has well (another 800 or so VMs).Currently waiting for the POC hardware (8 nodes, with 2x1.2 Tb SSD and 4x2Tb HDD each...).Sylvain.
I think this value depend on the size of your Nutanix cluster.For example I have a NX-3360 (3 nodes) and the Disk Balance Threshold is set to 35% (you can see it on the curator master node status page, http://cvm-ip:2010/master/tierusage), and the "zone of balance", is set at 0 to 9 percent, because I don't have a lot of data in the SATA tier.Like everything in Nutanix, you can surely set this value yourself, but:1) I don't see why you would do such a thing?2) I don't know if Nutanix will support itSylvain.
I don't think so.As far as I can tell by looking as the scripts this option launch, this is more used to recreate the partitions on the first SSD and re-creating the CVM internal structure/data.If your CVMs were fine before you started re-installing everything, chances are they still are.I think this option is targeted for the cases where you lost the first SSD of a node or otherwise messed with a CVM to the point where it is not usable.Again, this is my opinion based on what I can see/read of the scripts. When in doubt and in need of an official answer, ask Nutanix in a case :)Sylvain.
The Nutanix setup book also ask you to disable HA for all CVMs, so the configuration goes like this: - Create the HA cluster - Add your Nutanix nodes - Disable HA for the CVMs in "vSphere HA -> Virtual Machine options" by setting "VM restart priority" to "Disabled" for the CVMs. - Re-enable VM automatic startup at the ESX level for each node. I currently have this setup and everything is working fine, with the CVM properly booting after a node is powered on. Sylvain.
I'm not from Nutanix, so you may still want to wait for an answer (though if you realy need one, I would raise a support case to have an official statement). But what I can tell you is that the version of libvirt deployed on the CVM does not seems to be impacted. The CVEs you mention and the Libvirt advisories both refers to versions 1.0.1 or later of libvirt. But the CVMs (as of the latest publicly available release, 3.5.3.1) uses the version 0.10.2: nutanix@cvm$ ls -la /usr/lib64/libvirt.so.0lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 17 Apr 3 15:14 /usr/lib64/libvirt.so.0 -> libvirt.so.[b]0.10.2[/b] nutanix@cvm$ virsh --version=longVirsh command line tool of libvirt [b]0.10.2[/b]See web site at http://libvirt.org/ Compiled with support for:Hypervisors: QEMU/KVM LXC ESX TestNetworking: Remote Network Bridging Interface netcf Nwfilter VirtualPortStorage: Dir Disk Filesystem SCSI Multipath iSCSI LVMMiscellaneous: Daemon Nodedev SELinux Secrets Debug DTrace Readline Edit: There is a dormant flaw start
If you want to store anything other than VM files on top of Nutanix, store it inside a VM that you will use as filer.If you want to access storage from another storage array, you can use iSCSI of NFS access from inside the guest to another storage array. And yes, you are right, Nutanix support SMBv3 for Hyper-V, but again, only to store VMs, not user files or backup, etc. Sylvain.
My pleasure :)Sylvain.
I'm not sure this is a supported scenario.The CVM (and the NDFS) is tailor made to host VMs (VMDK, VHD, etc.).It's not a regulat SMB/NFS server.While you may be able to store files this way onto a container, I would not expect to have them stored in way that will be relevant for a performance study.The NDFS take special measure to provide good performances to virtual disks, and storing something else will just confuse the system and may even break the carefully crafted Nutanix algorithms.For you needs I would use a regular server (or NAS) as storage target for a subset of the servers you wish to backup, then extrapolate the performance requirement.Sylvain.
Hello, Zeus is the Nutanix name for their wrapper around Apache Zookeeper. You will not find a specific "file" with the password in it. As far as I can tell, the passwords are stored encrypted in the znode "/appliance/physical/configuration". You can change them by using ncli:$ ncli managementserver edit name=host_name password='host_password'$ ncli host edit id=host_id hypervisor-password='host_password' Note: the host id can be retrived from the command below, and the host name is the "Hypervizor Key": $ ncli host list I think it's wise not to display the passwords as plain text, as it would be a security nightmare if you were able to easiliy retrive them by simply listing all the cluster configuration. Sylvain.
As Nutanix add VIBs to the installation media, using the Nutanix supported installation media (and only this one) then patching when everything works makes perfect sense to me. A Nutanix node is not "a vSphere hypervisor on top of which you install a VM" it's a full bundle of hypervisor + CVM + all the bits and pieces needed for this to work. What I'm trying to say is that you should not try to install the hypervisor yourself then attempt to install the Nutanix CVM on top. Just use Nutanix installation procedure that will install all the needed pieces (Hypervisor, drivers, pyNFS & other VIBs) in one fell swoop, then upgrade with VMware patchs if they are supported. As there is no supported hardware other than what Nutanix offers, I belive Nutanix will provide new hardware drivers as they become available & have been tested by their QA team. Sylvain.
No problem, it is my pleasure. Do not hesitate if you need any more help on Nutanix. Sylvain.
According to this blog post: http://nutanix.blogspot.fr/2014/05/40-features-fault-domain-awareness.htmlYou may be able to use this feature to have the design you want.I'm not sure how it will be implemented though, because the 4.0 is still not publicly available.Sylvain.
You may have to contact your local Nutanix SE to discuss this, because as far as I know there is currently no public information about site locality.(Note: I'm not working for Nutanix, so maybe there is and I didn't see it).Sylvain.
Yes, in the scenario I described, all your workload will be on one physical site, and none on the other.I proposed this in order to avoid possible data inconsistencies as much as possible (but no, in this scenario, you don't have "one big cluster", you have 2 clusters, one on each site).For the moment (it may change in the future) Nutanix only offers 1H RPO, so that means that whichever of your site goes down may have data from the other site as much as 1H behind.Take 2 applications depending on each other for example. If you put the first application on site A and the other application on site B, if site B goes down, the local copy of the second application may be as far behind as 1H, thus you will have break the timeline between application 1 and application 2.For this reason and this reason only did I suggest this Active/Passive scenario.If this is not a problem for you, you can have half of your VMs on each site (that may be a good scenario if you already have application-level rep
There is still many options here, depending on your network configuration.Do you have the same subnets on each site?If not, you may need to change the IP adresses (perhaps also update your DNS records in this case)?One possible scenario here would be to setup replication between the two "4 nodes" sites (1h RPO is the current lowest option).You would then create 2 containers (1 on each site) setup replication, put all your VMs on one site (to ensure consistency across all your VMs, I would not suggest splitting you VMs in 2 halves and running half on one site and the other half on the other site).Depending on your needs and space availability on the third site, you can also setup replication from the two "4 nodes" sites to this one, or only for some VMs.Sylvain.
Hello, It would help to know about your workloads/VMs: - What's your actual design (How many VMs ? How big are they/how much VM data do you have on each site?, existing ESX/storage specs, replication already in place? etc.) - Do you want/need to replicate your VMs from one site to another? - If so, do you want to replicate all of your VMs between your 2 "4 nodes" sites? between each "4 nodes" site and the "3 nodes" site? Otherwise? How frequently do you want to replicate your VMs? Do you want to retain 1 or more previous versions of you VMs? - Do you already own the Nutanix nodes/block? if so, what models do you have? We can help you on your design, but we need basic information to do so! Sylvain.
Hello Darryl, Glad to see I'm not the only one with this request! You can add your voice to this topic I created in the Product Features request section: [url=http://next.nutanix.com/t5/Product-Features-Support/Distinct-VLANs-for-Management-amp-Replication/m-p/165#U165]http://next.nutanix.com/t5/Product-Features-Support/Distinct-VLANs-for-Management-amp-Replication/m-p/165#U165[/url] Sylvain.
Thanks, very clear. Too bad, we were to test the 5.5U1 just next week to rollout massively starting next month, guess we'll have to wait... Sylvain.
Great solution! I suggested a one liner that should work, too. I cannot test it (yet) but I plan to as soon as I upgrade to NOS4.0 But still, I would like something realy integrated at the Nutanix Cluster level, rather than automated/orchestrated from the outside. The thing is, this solution is really neat, but I will still depend on a script, that has to be monitored, and maybe upgraded. Another moving piece. My client that had this request already manage more that 4200 VMs, and they may double that number in the next 2 years. Having this integrated by default would really be helpful here. Sylvain.
Derek Seaman has posted a great entry in his blog, detailing Veeam Best Practices with Nutanix: http://www.derekseaman.com/2014/04/veeam-best-practices-vmware-nutanix.html Check it out! Sylvain.
Are you saying that the process described in the Plateform Administration Guide is not working as intended? (Page 22 and following, Platform Administration Guide) Sylvain.
It's part of the solution, but the main concern is to split CVM Management & CVM-to-CVM replication. As the first kind of traffic is management (often routed/remote) & the second is storage (most of the time L2 only, local), it will make a lot of sense to split them in 2 VLANs. Sylvain.
I don't know if I understand your post right, but if you mean that it would have to be setup at the protection domain level, yes. My idea in this case would be to have a default protection domain assigned to all new VMs created in the cluster or container. That way, you can configure the protection domain settings once (like replication frequency) and then have all new VMs inherit these settings. If you need specific settings for a VM, you would still have the ability to assign another protection domain to this VM and effectivly override the default settings. In my case, as we are replicating all VMs every hour from cluster A on site 1 to cluster B on site 2, we would be covered. In the futur if we create VMs that does not need replication (like vShield agent VM for exemple), we could either create a specific container for these VMs, or exclude them from the protection domain and achieve the desired result. Sylvain.
Databases were Oracle 11g, as I recall, size was in the 200-400Gb range. I don't know about the space savings, I'll have to check with them, but they were happy enough. I'll get back to you if/when I get the chance to see them. Sylvain.
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