Need Help: Networking for VMs Inside AHV & Prism Central (Nutanix CE on ESXi) | Nutanix Community
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Need Help: Networking for VMs Inside AHV & Prism Central (Nutanix CE on ESXi)

  • February 13, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 68 views

Scenario:

I am setting up Nutanix CE inside an ESXi host that has a public IP. My goal is to ensure that VMs created inside AHV can access the internet and Prism central should also get installed and should be accessible through jump host for API testing

Current Setup:

  1. ESXi Host: Has a public IP.
  2. DHCP Network on ESXi: I created a DHCP network and set up a DHCP server inside ESXi.
  3. Nutanix CE VM:
    • Installed using Nutanix CE ISO inside ESXi.
    • Assigned to the DHCP network (no static IP set for AHV or CVM).
  4. Access to AHV & CVM:
    • Using a jump host (Windows VM) with a public IP, I can access AHV and CVM consoles.

What I Want to Achieve:

  • Install Prism Central (to use v4 APIs).
  • Create a VM inside AHV, assign it a DHCP IP, and ensure it can access the internet.

Questions:

  1. How should I configure networking so that AHV VMs get internet access?
  2. What network settings should I use for Prism Central?
  3. Should I create a NAT, bridge, or a different setup?
  4. How should I handle routing & external connectivity?
  5. How to add additional vNIC to nutanix VM and then bridge it for AHV and CVM

Any guidance, best practices, or configuration steps would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! 

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JeroenTielen
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This has not so much to do with Nutanix. This is networking. But lets give it a go. 

 

  1. Create a NAT router vm with 2 interfaces on vmware. (You can use pfsense for this) 
    1. First interface has a public IP;
    2. Second interface is attached to the internal lan;
  2. Keep the network for Prism Central in the same internal lan as where CE has his IP's and where the nat router has his internal lan;

JeroenTielen
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This has not so much to do with Nutanix but more with your network setup in general. But lets give it a go ;) 

 

  1. Make a vlan/subnet for the CVM/AHV/Nutanix VM's;
  2. In this VLAN make a virtual machine on VMWare which acts as a router;
    1. Give it 2 network interfaces;
      1. One with a public ip-address with NAT enabled;
      2. One on the vlan/subnet where the nutanix/nutanix vm's resides.
  3. Deploy Prism Central in the same vlan.