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”