Team Leader - Nutanix Technology Champion - Nutanix NTC Storyteller

Julien DUMUR
Infrastructure in a Nutshell

Nutanix AHV EN

Nutanix Move – Part 3: Prerequisites

Published: 23 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
nutanix move

Before starting the process that will allow you to migrate all of your virtual machines to your new Nutanix AHV environment, a quick overview of the prerequisites is required.

General prerequisites

In terms of general prerequisites, there are a few things to respect and check before starting the migration of your infrastructure.

You can migrate everything, with 2 exceptions

The first thing to know is the types of machines to migrate. You can migrate all of your virtual machines with Nutanix Move, except:

  • domain controllers
  • Exchange servers

These are the only 2 restrictions of the software. It is recommended to install a new domain controller, migrate the FSMO roles to it, promote it to a primary domain controller and depromote the old one. Regarding Exchange, you will have to reinstall a server and transfer all of the data from the old server.

Network Flows

Obviously, since we are talking about a migration via the network, it is imperative that the flows are open to allow Nutanix Move to reach the source and destination clusters:

An upcoming update of my flow matrix is ​​planned to integrate the Move part.

Administrator account with privilege

For Nutanix Move to perform the operations required for migrations on the different source and destination clusters, it is imperative to have accounts with administrator rights on these clusters.

Prerequisites specific to VMware ESXi clusters

Supported operating systems

To date, the majority of operating systems used in a professional environment on ESXi are supported by Move.

You can find the supported operating systems for a migration from ESXi directly in the official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-v5_4:top-migration-considerations-c.html

If one of your virtual machines is not compatible for a Nutanix Move migration (I invite you to carry out tests, unsupported does not mean non-functional), you will then have to consider carrying out a complete and up-to-date reinstallation on the new cluster.

VMware Tools

It is important that VMware tools are deployed on all of your virtual machines so that Nutanix Move can manage the virtual machines hosted on the source ESXi cluster optimally. This will avoid warnings or failures when you launch the migration processes.

All ESXi prerequisites are available here: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-v5_4:top-migration-considerations-c.html

Specific prerequisites for Microsoft Hyper-V clusters

Supported operating systems

To date, the majority of operating systems used in a professional environment on Hyper-V are supported by Move.

You can find the operating systems supported by Move for a migration from Hyper-V directly in the official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-v5_4:top-hyperv-vm-migration-c.html

If one of your virtual machines is not compatible for a Nutanix Move migration (I invite you to carry out tests, not supported does not mean non-functional), you will then have to consider carrying out a complete and up-to-date reinstallation on the new cluster.

Nutanix Move Agent

On the Hyper-V cluster, for this to work, it will be imperative to deploy the Nutanix Move Agent. I will detail the agent installation procedure in the following articles.

It’s here in the official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-v5_4:top-deploy-nt-service-t.html

All the Hyper-V prerequisites are here: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-v5_4:top-migration-considerations-hyperv-ahv-c.html

Linux Azure

For Linux VMs, you also need to install an add-on on each of them using the following command:

sudo apt install linux-azure

Linux Azure is a kind of VMware tools for Hyper-V and reserved for Linux machines.

In the next blog post, we will deploy the Move machine on our Nutanix AHV cluster.

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Nutanix Move – Part 2: My migration environments

Published: 23 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
nutanix move

In my previous article, I presented Move, the Nutanix software that facilitates migration to AHV or any other supported hypervisor.

In order to write this series of posts, I set up the most representative environments of what we currently find at our customers. Let me introduce them to you so that you have the migration context.

The source clusters

I set up 2 separate clusters on 2 different hypervisors. The first cluster is a VMWare ESXi cluster on which I deployed 8 virtual machines: 4 Windows Server and 4 Linux.

The second cluster is a Microsoft Hyper-V cluster on which I also deployed 8 virtual machines with the same distribution as the first cluster: 4 Windows Server and 4 Linux.

For convenience, the configuration of the VMs is very succinct. I have carried out default installations of the operating systems.

The Linux VMs are Ubuntu Server 20.04 while the Microsoft ones are Windows Servers 2022.

For local accounts, the Linux VMs have logins in “nutanix” and the Windows VMs in “administrator”. The password for all VMs is “nutanix/4u”.

The only difference in configuration between the virtual machines concerns those hosted on ESXi. Indeed, I deployed the VMWare tools on the latter.

The target cluster

The target cluster will be my Nutanix cluster under AOS 6.8.1 and AHV el8.nutanix.20230302.101026.

All migrations will be carried out via Nutanix Move in its version 5.1.1 which we will deploy in the next article.

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Nutanix Move – Part 1: solution overview

Published: 22 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
2 Comments
Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
nutanix move

Nutanix Move is a software solution designed by Nutanix to facilitate the migration of virtual machines (VMs) from a virtualization environment to a Nutanix infrastructure in a simple, secure way and with minimal downtime.

Key features of Nutanix Move

Nutanix Move allows you to move virtual machines from traditional hypervisors, such as VMware vSphere or Hyper-V, to Nutanix AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) or other supported hypervisors. It supports various hypervisor environments such as VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, AWS, and Nutanix AHV. It is possible to migrate workloads from public or private cloud environments to Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructures.

Nutanix Move ensures a migration by minimizing the downtime of services and applications, thus allowing continuity of operations during the entire transition process. In addition, you will not have to reconfigure anything once the virtual machine is migrated.

Thanks to an intuitive interface, Nutanix Move simplifies the migration process by automating many manual tasks, which reduces the risk of human error and improves efficiency. However, certain prerequisites must be respected for the migration to take place in the best conditions

Nutanix Move allows you to evaluate workloads before migration, identifying potential issues in order to avoid any negative impact on application performance after migration. It also allows you to simulate your scenarios before executing them.

Use Cases

The use case we have encountered most often in recent months is that of companies seeking to reduce costs related to the explosion in the price of VMware licenses following the acquisition by Broadcom by migrating to Nutanix AHV.

For my part, I was also able to experiment with it on a remote desktop server migration from Hyper-V to Nutanix AHV and I must say that with each migration I am amazed by the simplicity and efficiency of the solution.

Having implemented it several times in a professional context, I can affirm that Nutanix Move is an essential tool for anyone wishing to modernize their IT infrastructure and facilitate their transition to a Nutanix hyperconverged environment.

See you in the next article to discover how to deploy the solution on Nutanix AHV.

Official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Move-

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Nutanix: Simplified flow matrix

Published: 21 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN

For those who have already had to implement it, the flow matrix presented on the Nutanix website is not always easy to read.

Many customers ask us during the pre-deployment preparation phase to assist them in opening the flows necessary for the proper functioning of their future Nutanix cluster.

Based on this observation, I took the initiative to create a simplified flow matrix to allow rapid implementation on network filtering equipment.

You can find the full version on my Github: https://github.com/Exe64/NUTANIX/blob/main/nutanix-hci-matrice-flux.xlsx

The document will evolve over time, particularly with the addition of various Nutanix software components.

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Nutanix AHV : post-install operations – Part 3

Published: 20 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
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After installing a cluster, changing passwords and performing basic configurations, there are still a few operations to be carried out…

Rename the default container

Connect to a CVM in your cluster and list all the existing containers on the cluster:

nutanix@CVM: ncli container list

All the containers and their associated details will then be displayed. Search the list for the container you want to rename and type the following command (WARNING: do not modify “NutanixManagementShare” or “SelfServiceContainer”):

nutanix@CVM: ncli container edit name=CURRENT_NAME new-name=NEW_NAME

Replace “CURRENT_NAME” with the name automatically generated by the system when creating the container, and NEW_NAME with the name you want to assign to this container, without putting any spaces or special characters other than the – and the _

Then check that your container has been correctly renamed with the command:

nutanix@CVM: ncli container list

Activate the data optimization mechanisms

Go to “Storage”, find the container you just renamed, select it and click on “Update”.

In the window that appears, click on “Advanced settings” and check the “Compression” box.

Click “Save” to validate your changes.

It is not recommended to enable ALL data optimization mechanisms on a single container.

The best practice is to create different containers with data optimization mechanisms adapted to the disks of the VMs that you will position on them.

Compression can be enabled in almost all use cases, except on:

  • containers containing encrypted data
  • containers containing compressed data

Erasure Coding is recommended in the following use cases:

  • Nutanix Object
  • Backups
  • Archives
  • File servers
  • Log servers
  • Mail servers (depending on usage)

Finally, deduplication should be reserved for the VDI part (virtual desktops).

Official documentation: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=TN-2032-Data-Efficiency:data-reduction.html

Enable “Rebuild Capacity Reservation”

Enabling this feature allows you to reserve enough storage so that your cluster can continue to operate normally even if a node fails. This automatically excludes clusters of 1 or 2 nodes.

To enable this option, go to “Settings > Rebuild Capacity Reservation” and check the box:

Official documentation : https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Web-Console-Guide-Prism-v6_8:wc-storage-rebuild-capacity-reserve-wc-c.html

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Nutanix AHV : post-install operations – Part 2

Published: 19 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
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After a successful installation of a Nutanix cluster, we saw in the previous article that it was imperative to modify the default passwords of your cluster. But that’s not the only thing to do…

Configuring Name Servers

Among the things to do after installing a Nutanix cluster, there is configuring DNS servers.

Go to “Settings > Names Servers” to display the field to add DNS servers:

For my part I would recommend configuring at least 2 to ensure redundancy in case of failure of one of the 2 servers, the limit imposed by Nutanix being 3. I chose Google DNS for my lab for convenience.

Add your DNS servers one by one by entering their address and clicking on “Add”.

Reference document: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Web-Console-Guide-Prism-v6_8:wc-system-name-servers-wc-t.html

Configuring NTP Servers and Time Zone

Among the things to do after installing a Nutanix cluster, there is also configuring NTP servers and time zone.

Go back to “Settings > NTP Settings” to see the field to add NTP servers.

Nutanix recommendations are as follows:

  • If possible, synchronize the time of Nutanix clusters with an internal source
  • If you do not have an internal NTP server, synchronize with recognized national servers
  • Specify at least 5 reliable and stable time sources with the lowest possible Stratum (3 offers no redundancy, 4 is the minimum to have redundancy, 5 is the publisher recommendation)
  • Do not use servers that are rate limited
  • Do not use a Windows time server

My recommendation is therefore to use an internal time server, but if you do not have one, I advise you to use the site: https://www.ntppool.org/

Then, select your geographic area then your country to display the servers closest to your cluster (in my case, France) :

All you have to do is add them one by one by adding their DNS address and clicking on “Add”.

To set the time zone, connect to one of the CVMs via SSH and type the command:

ncli cluster set-timezone timezone=cluster_timezone

You can find your timezone here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

In my case, the command to run would be:

ncli cluster set-timezone timezone=Europe/Paris

To verify that your cluster is in the correct time zone, you can type the following command which will return the information about your cluster’s timezone:

ncli cluster info | egrep "Timezone"
    Timezone                  : Europe/Paris

Reference documents:

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Web-Console-Guide-Prism-v6_8:wc-ntp-server-time-sync-recommendations-c.html

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008SNvCAM

Configuring Cluster Details

At the top left of the Prism Element interface, you will see the default name of your cluster “Unnamed”:

Click on it to view your cluster details:

On this window, you must fill in:

  • the name of your cluster
  • its FQDN (optional, if you have created a DNS record)
  • the Virtual IP
  • the Data Service IP
  • The Data Service IP is now required for the deployment of Prism Central

Once you have filled in all the fields, click on “Save”

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Nutanix: Remove Stuck Tasks

Published: 18 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
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Sometimes tasks may be stuck indefinitely on your cluster without ever completing or failing. In this case, you need to take manual action to resolve the issue.

Be careful, this operation is not without risks, which is why I strongly advise you to contact Nutanix support if you are not sure.

The first step is to check how long the task has been running. To do this, go to the tasks page and filter on the tasks currently running:

In this case, we can see that the task has been running for more than 10 months. No doubt, it is crashed and must be canceled manually.

To do this, you must connect to one of the CVMs and type the following command:

nutanix@CVM:~$ ecli task.list include_completed=false

You should have a return that looks like this:

Task UUID Parent Task UUID Component Sequence-id Type Status
37a430d3-b80b-4ae7-bfaf-9df5247e9ce7 Nutanix Guest Tools 282 MountGuestTools kQueued

Retrieve the UUID of the affected task and type the following command:

ergon_update_task –task_uuid='TASK_UUID' –task_status=aborted

In my case, that’s the command is need to execute:

ergon_update_task –task_uuid='37a430d3-b80b-4ae7-bfaf-9df5247e9ce7' –task_status=aborted

This will force the currently running task to be canceled.

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Nutanix AHV : post-install operations – Part 1

Published: 10 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
1 Comment
Categories: Community Edition EN, Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
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After a successful installation of Nutanix AHV, all passwords configured on the cluster are the default passwords “nutanix/4u” and it is imperative to change them for maximum security.

Recommendations regarding passwords complexity

You must choose strong passwords to secure your infrastructure and that they are unique!

The minimum complexity required by Nutanix is:

  • 8 characters
  • 1 lowercase letter minimum
  • 1 uppercase letter maximum
  • 1 number minimum
  • 1 special character

Some cluster passwords will also require you to respect certain constraints related to the password history.

Generally speaking, I would recommend that you use a password generator often integrated into your password management software to create your passwords and apply a length of at least 16 characters while respecting the complexity rules indicated above.

Prism Element admin password

This step is essential and you cannot bypass it. If this is your first time logging in, the login is “admin” and the password is “nutanix/4u”. You will be ask to configure a new password respecting the complexity criteria.

CVM “Nutanix” password

If you leave the default password, you will have critical alert messages on your Prism Element interface.

To fix this, connect to the IP of one of the CVMs in your cluster in SSH with the nutanix identifier and the default password nutanix/4u. Then, a simple “passwd” will allow you to configure a new password:

nutanix@NTNX-99110c89-A-CVM:~$ passwd
Changing password for user nutanix.
Current password:
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
nutanix@NTNX-99110c89-A-CVM:~$

Enter the current password, then the new password twice in a row and that’s it!

Hosts passwords

Just, after an installation the passwords of the Nutanix hosts are always the default ones and this will generate critical alerts on the cluster.

To change the “root” password of the hosts, connect to one of the CVMs and type the associated command:

nutanix@NTNX-99110c89-A-CVM:192.168.2.200:~$ echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin root"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi

The system will then ask you to enter the new password twice:

CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.
Please input new password:
Confirm new password:
Host 192.168.2.199
Nutanix AHV
Changing password for user root.

To change the “admin” password of the hosts, connect to one of the CVMs and type the associated command:

nutanix@NTNX-99110c89-A-CVM:192.168.2.200:~$ echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ADMIN PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin admin"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi

The system will then ask you to enter the new password twice:

CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ADMIN PASSWORDS.
Please input new password:
Confirm new password:
Host 192.168.2.199
Nutanix AHV
Changing password for user admin.
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

To change the “nutanix” password of the hosts, connect to one of the CVMs and type the associated command:

nutanix@NTNX-99110c89-A-CVM:192.168.2.200:~$ echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST NUTANIX PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin nutanix"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi

The system will then ask you to enter the new password twice:

CHANGING ALL AHV HOST NUTANIX PASSWORDS.
Please input new password:
Confirm new password:
Host 192.168.2.199
Nutanix AHV
Changing password for user nutanix.
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Official resources

Passwords modifications : https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA00e000000LKXcCAO

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Nutanix CE 2.1 : Deploy Prism Central PC.2024

Published: 8 September 2024
Written by Julien D.
8 Comments
Categories: Community Edition EN, Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
Nutanix Prism Central PC.2024

After reinstalling my cluster with the latest version of Nutanix Community Edition, I ran into a problem deploying Prism Central.

Indeed, no compatible version is offered as standard for installation:

Problematic you might say! Indeed, and to solve it we will have to recover the binaries to continue the installation manually…

Downloading Prism Central binaries

To recover the Prism Central binaries, you must go to this page: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/downloads?product=prism and identify yourself with your MyNutanix account.

Then, look for the package “Prism Central 1-click deploy from Prism Element

( Version: pc.2024.1.0.2 )”:

Click “Download” and “Metadata” to retrieve the installation package and associated metadata.

Deploying Prism Central

Before starting the deployment of Prism Central, the “Data Service IP” of your cluster must be configured!

Once the download is complete, on the Prism Element home page, click “Register or create new” on the Prism Central widget:

Then click on “Deploy” on the window that appears:

Click on “Upload Installation Binary”:

Select the metadata and binary files you just downloaded and click “Upload”:

Please wait while the transfer is taking place:

Once the transfer is complete, select the package and click “Next”:

Then select the size of Prism Central you want to deploy and click “Next”:

For more information on the X-Small version, do not hesitate to consult my dedicated article: https://juliendumur.fr/nutanix-aos-6-8-ests-et-prism-central-x-small/

Enter the network configuration then click on “Next”:

The last window is new in the latest versions, I advise you to leave the default settings and click on “Deploy”:

A little patience during the deployment:

Once the deployment is complete, go to your Prism Central address and authenticate yourself with the usual default pair of identifiers:

The very first time you log in, you will be asked to set a new password:

Then log in with the new password you just configured. Then validate the conditions of use:

Keep Pulse enabled:

If, like me, you then notice that your cluster is still not registered on Prism Central, return to Prism Element and restart the procedure, this time selecting “Connect”:

Fill in the connection details for your Prism Central and validate to start the recording:

Congratulations, your Prism Central in PC.2024 version is now operational on your Nutanix cluster under AOS 6.8

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Nutanix: post-install test plan

Published: 15 August 2024
Written by Julien D.
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Categories: Nutanix AHV EN, Nutanix EN
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During my Nutanix cluster deployments, I often came across the question of the test plan to be carried out after each installation.

As I sometimes forgot certain things, I ended up creating a complete, readable and understandable test plan that I am making available to you today.

The test plan presented allows you to check and ensure that all configurations have been set up, that the network and electrical redundancy of your cluster comply with best practices.

As usual, the file is available on my GitHub: https://github.com/Exe64/NUTANIX/blob/main/nutanix-cluster-test-plan.xlsx

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