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Nutanix network port diagram

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Nutanix network port diagram

I spent some time to produce small Visio with Nutanix ports diagram to visualize interaction between Nutanix software components (CVM, Prism Central), hardware (SuperMicro IPMI – it is remote management console like HP iLO, Dell DRAC) and hypervisor (in this case VMware ESXi and Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor AHV). Some of you might ask, where is vCenter or SCVMM ? Well, Nutanix don’t need to “talk” to vCenter or SCVMM in order to run :-), we do not relay on vCenter or SCVMM at all. What we need is, talk to hypervisor, in this case ESXi, AHV and Hyper-V – all three supported by Nutanix. Communication between CVM and VMware ESXi, Nutanix AHV fly over SSH that’s why when you run Nutanix you can’t disable SSH on either ESXi or AHV.

Components on the diagram:

  • CVM – controller VM – the distributed brain of Nutanix solution, the core of the web-scale.
  • Foundation – Nutanix provisioning tool. It does provision and configure automatically CVM and hypervisor as well as create Nutanix cluster, create storage pool, container and mount container into ESXi as datastore. check my two-part series about Nutanix Foundation
  • Prism Central –  customers can manage many Nutanix clusters across many locations from a single pane of glass using the simple and intuitive Nutanix Prism Central interface. Read more about Prism Central.
  • IPMI – remote management console like HP iLO, Dell DRAC but for SuperMicro servers. I used to work with iLO and DRAC and must say IPMI is far faster form those two mentioned.
  • ESXi – hypervisor
  • AHV – Acropolis Hypervisor
  • Azure and AWS – Nutanix supports public cloud providers as target for backup and DR
  • Administrator – it is Admin workstation
  • AFS – Acropolis File Server

Nutanix network port diagram with VMware ESXi  – infrastructure services included.

Nutanix network port diagram with VMware ESXi

Nutanix network port diagram with VMware ESXi

Download Nutanix ESXi network port diagram in PDF

For full list of vCenter and ESXi ports check out VMware documentation and KB articles:

Nutanix network port diagram with Acropolis (AHV)  – infrastructure services included.

Nutanix AHV port diagram

Nutanix AHV port diagram

Port Description

  • 22 – SSH
  • 443 – SSL
  • 2074 – NGT (Nutanix Guest Tools) to CVM
  • 8000 – Nutanix foundation page
  • 9440 – PrismUI (including RestAPI calls, PoSH, remote ncli)

Download Nutanix Acropolis network port diagram in PDF

Nutanix network port diagram with Microsoft Hyper-V  – infrastructure services included.

Nutanix ports diagram with Hyper-V

Nutanix ports diagram with Hyper-V

Download Nutanix and Hyper-V network port diagram in PDF

Nutanix network port diagram for Disaster Recovery between two Nutanix clusters as well as backup from Nutanix cluster to Azure and AWS

Nutanix DR port diagram

Nutanix DR and backup port diagram

Read more about Nutanix Data Protection and Nutanix backup to cloud support

Download Nutanix DR and backup, network port diagram in PDF

Nutanix network port diagram for Acropolis File Server

Acropolis File Server port diagram

Acropolis File Server port diagram

Port Description

  • 2100 – genesis operation on AFS
  • 3205, 3260 – stargate iscsi access
  • 7501 – access AFS services on CVM
  • 7502 – access minerva service running on AFS
  • 9440 – send rest calls to CVM
ChangeLog:
  • Sep. 19 2014 – initial version
  • Jul. 17 2015 – added Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor – AHV
  • Jul. 21 2015 – updated Nutanix and VMware ports diagram v 0.4
  • Aug. 04 2015 – removed ports 80 and 443 (communication from Admin WS to CVM) on AHV and ESXi diagrams
  • Aug. 04 2015 – added port 2220 on AHV diagram
  • Aug. 22 2015 – added IPMI ports to all diagrams and Nutanix and Hyper-V diagram
  • Dec. 08 2015 – added DR ports diagram
  • May. 03 2016 – update Nutanix port diagram with Hyper-V, SCVMM communication ports has been added
  • May 27 2016 – Acropolis File Server diagram added
  • June 23 2016 – added port 2074 for NGT (nutanix guests tools) communication to CVM

The post Nutanix network port diagram appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.


Install Windows Server 2016 on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor

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Windows Server 2016 is just around a corner. Acropolis Hypervisor will be on the list as supported hypervisor for new flagship server operating system from Microsoft. As of today (11’th April 2016), Windows Server 2016 is in Technical Preview version 4 and it is not on the list of supported virtual machine OS by Nutanix. Nutanix Mobility drivers pack does not contain drivers for Windows Server 2016 either. However you can deploy Windows Server 2016 TP4 on Nutanix AHV. You have to have lasted build of Fedora virtIO drivers ISO.

Requirements.

  • Acropolis Base Software 4.6.X or newer
  • Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 20160217 or newer
  • Fedora VirtIO drivers latest – I have use 0.1.117 – you can download from official Fedora project page
  • Windows Server 2016 TP4 iso

ATTENTION: When you create VM for Windows Server 2016 on AHV, make sure you follow below device order:

  1. IDE:0 – CDROM with VirtIO drivers ISO
  2. SCSI:0 – OS disk drive
  3. IDE:1 – CDROM with Windows server 2016

Step #1 – Create an images in Image service with virtIO drivers and Windows 2016 ISO

Upload Fedora virtIO ISO with driver to Acropolis Image Service. It is needed to load drivers during installation. Of course you have to have image with Windows 2016 media to install OS from 🙂

Step #2 – deploy new VM on Acropolis

Deploy new VM on Acropolis, make sure you create empty disk with SCSI controller and add 2 new CDROMs. One with Windows 2016 ISO and one with virtIO drivers.

Step #3 – Install Windows Server 2016 on Nutanix Acropolis

Start VM and open console. At first in available disks for installation you will see no disks. It is normal as none of the Windows servers ISO contains VirtIO drivers. You have to load drivers for Windows 10 from second CDROM.

2016-04-25_19h01_32

After few seconds installer should “see” SCSI drive available for install

60GB drive available

60GB drive available for Windows Server 2016

Step #4 – load additional drivers

After installation you have to load driver for two unknown devices, Ethernet Controller and PCI device (balloon driver). Use have to use again drivers for Windows 10.

2016-04-11_17h57_43

For Ethernet controller go to NetKVM  folder and for PCI device go to Balloon folder.

Device manager in Windows 2016

Device manager in Windows 2016

Below you can find How-To from Install Windows Server 2016 on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor

The post Install Windows Server 2016 on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

Can I run Windows 2003 server on Nutanix AHV ?

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Recently I’m getting more and more questions from field and from social channels about Windows 2003 server on Nutanix AHV.  Can I tun Windows 2003 on Nutanix AHV? Answer is – yes you can. Technically you can run Windows 2003 on Nutanix AHV without any issues but.. There is always but when we talking about ancient operating systems, see below:

NOTE:Windows 2003 (any flavor) is not supported by Nutanix on AHV. If you decide to run Windows 2003 on Nutanix, you are taking risk to run unsupported configuration.

Why would I “waste” my time and show how to run unsupported system on Nutanix Acropolis. There are several reasons but one of them, the most important in my opinion, is migration from Windows 2003 to latest supported version from Microsoft. I know many companies running legacy application on either physical environments and are afraid to migrate. Virtualizing such environment will make migration much smoother and easier due to features which are not available “physical server” world.

To run Windows 2003 on Nutanix AHV with most optimal configuration takes a bit of time. First things first.

Requirements:

  • AOS 4.6.1 or newer
  • AHV 20160217.2 or newer
  • VirtIO drivers from Fedora in versions:
  • Windows 2003 ISO

Step #1 – Create images for both virtIO drivers ISO and Windows 2003 ISO in image services.

Step #2 – create VM on Acropolis and install windows

Create new virtual machine with following devices:

  • IDE:0 – CDROM – mount Windows 2003 ISO
  • IDE:1 – boot disk
  • SCSI:0 – additional disk
  • network adapter
VM disk configuration for Windows 2003 on Acropolis AHV

VM disk configuration for Windows 2003 on Acropolis AHV

Fist you will install windows 2003 on IDE disk. Once is done, install missing drivers as follows:

  • Ethernet device – from latest virtIO drivers
  • PCI device -from latest virtIO drivers
  • SCSI adapter – from version 0.1-81 – this is very important as newest vitrtIO drivers does not provide support for SCSI on Windows 2003.  Drivers for SCSI adapter are located on /WHL directory
VirtIO SCSI drier for Windows 2003

VirtIO SCSI drier for Windows 2003

NOTE: mouse pointer doesn’t work, you have to be keyboard master in Windows :-). For keyboard hint – see section at the end of this post

Step #4 – Create disk image from existing VM

Log in to CVM over SSH and run image.crete command. Command clones existing virtual machine disk to image services.

<acropolis> image.create win2k3R2Sp2_boot clone_from_vmdisk=vm:Win2k3R2Sp2:ide.1 image_type=kDiskImage wait=true
win2k3R2Sp2_boot: complete
<acropolis> image.list
Image name                  Image UUID
Ubuntu 16.4 Desktop         c0e22756-9a89-49fe-87c6-6d183c352368
VMTurbo OperationManager    0ca5ee06-cc71-4e0b-b8f5-926fa2a769ef
Win2012R2                   3b6e16f3-3057-41d7-9809-17d1ad8dd8f6
Win2K3R2EntSP2              7204484b-a831-40c2-a72d-0dccd5cda07a
virtIO-0.1.117              f1915cc6-6d48-4008-89d0-5847d770254b
virtio-win-0.1-81           71e54211-cf57-40a7-85bb-b452b5072aaf
win2k3R2Sp2_boot            56b0f67e-77b9-4b57-a0b4-9af3bb17d5d5

Step #5 – Create new VM with boot disk on SCSI adapter.

2016-06-02_13h30_21

Power VM on and that’s it. Now you can open console and log in.

NOTE: as you’ve noticed, mouse pointer doesn’t work from AHV console. Here you can find very useful page with most (if not all) Windows commands.

The post Can I run Windows 2003 server on Nutanix AHV ? appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

Migrate Windows 2012R2 from Citrix XenServer to Nutanix AHV – Update

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With new version of Acropolis 4.6.1 there is quicker way for migrate virtual machines from Citrix XenServer platform to Nutanix Acropolis. Thanks to one of my colleagues from Nutanix, I can share procedure he tested and validated.

Requirements:

  • AOS 4.6.1
  • AHV 20160217.2
  • Citrix XenSever 6.1 or 6.5
  • mounted Nutanix container as NFS storage to Citrix XenServer
  • installed Nutanix VM Mobility 1.0.1 for Windows – download it from portal.nutanix.com

Step #1: Remove all Citrix\Xen related devices.

In device manager, check in Show hidden devices and remove all devices when you can see XEN or Citrix in the name

Remove XenServer hardware from VM

Remove XenServer hardware from VM

Step #2 – Uninstall all drivers and software which are related to Citrix and reboot virtual machine.

Uninstall all drivers and software

Uninstall all drivers and software

Step #3 – Move VM disks to Nutanix Acropolis

Move VM disks from legacy storage to Nutanix container. Which was mounted before as NFS datastore.

Step #4 – Shutdown VM

Step #5 – Create image

There are two ways of doing it. Command line or through Prism UI.

Command line – log in to CVM, start acli and run image.create with parameters.

<acropolis> image.create Win2k12R2XC-Cdrive source_url=nfs://127.0.0.1/transfer/c289fb7a-8f11-2299-db5c-065bad2717fb/8853ebcb-330a-4c3a-b0be-de022e88a2e6.vhd container=transfer image_type=kDiskImage wait=true

List all images.

<acropolis> image.list
Image name                  Image UUID
Win2012R2                   3b6e16f3-3057-41d7-9809-17d1ad8dd8f6
Win2k12R2XC-Cdrive          b4c6a67c-8cca-4544-ae34-1b2077eaf9ad
Win2k16TP4                  9f1d048c-010a-4cf3-8df6-f73d3247ef54
virtIO-0.1.117              f1915cc6-6d48-4008-89d0-5847d770254b
<acropolis>

Prism Element 

  • Log in Prism Element, From right top
Prism Element

Prism Element

Step #6 – Create VM

Create VM with:

  • Name the image, set image type to Disk, select the Container to upload image to, and under “From URL” select nfs://127.0.0.1/’container name’/’VHD file name’
  • choose SCSI bus adapter
  • do not forget avout network card
  • Select Save
  • Power VM on.

 

The post Migrate Windows 2012R2 from Citrix XenServer to Nutanix AHV – Update appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

Nutanix AOS 4.7.2 is available fro download

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Last week Friday (30 Sep 2016) Nutanix released new version of Acropolis Operating System – version 4.7,2.  AOS 4.7.2 is a minor update. As usual, there are many bug fixes, even more improvements and security fixes. There are few new features as well:

  1. With Nutanix AOS 4.7.2 you can establish Asynchronus replication between Nutanix NX\SX hardware platform and Lenove HC or Dell XC
    NOTE: MetroAvailability and synchronus replication are not supported between Nutanix NX/SX Series and other non-NX clusters
  2. All Nutanix 1065 series platforms and the Dell XC430 platform can now form a cluster of two ESX nodes and one AHV node. When you select only these nodes, the Foundation user interface gives you an option to create such a heterogeneous cluster.
  3. Acropolis File Service – Tech Preview

You can download new AOS version from portal.nutanix.com and read release notes here.

In addition to AOS, there are new version for:

The post Nutanix AOS 4.7.2 is available fro download appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

How to speed up Windows XP installation on Nutanix AHV

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If for any reason you have to run Windows XP on Nutanix AHV, there is simple trick to speed up install process. When you create VM in Prism, DO NOT create network adapter. Instead, log in over SSH to Nutanix CVM and from acli create new network adapter with type e1000. With e1000 network adapter type, installation doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes. With default (virtIO 10Gb) takes about 30 minutes.

NOTE: e1000 adapter is only 1Gbps speed, if you need bigger pipe, see steps at the bottom of this post.

Requirements:

  • Nutanix AOS – 4.7.2 or newer
  • Nutanix AHV – 20160601.20

Steps

  • List VM fist and find your VM

<acropolis> vm.list
VM name                      VM UUID
NTNX-AHV-FS-1                ff36e745-9daf-44ff-a81a-926dc99f07f0
NTNX-AHV-FS-2                98f3fdad-00af-4b79-945c-00e40fc1991b
NTNX-AHV-FS-3                c8cf0f09-86fd-4a9d-b360-52eb0040c7ed
WinXpSP3                     240c97d9-979f-4fc7-9399-b373767c590d
WinXpSp3E1000                b214e12e-e8ae-4102-933d-2eb5b36807ae
<acropolis>

  • create new network adapter as e1000  with vm.nic_create

<acropolis> vm.nic_create WinXpSp3E1000 model=e1000 network=
VLAN88        VLAN92        afs-external  afs-internal  vlan.93
<acropolis> vm.nic_create WinXpSp3E1000 model=e1000 network=vlan.93
NicCreate: complete
<acropolis>

When you finish installation, you can add new network adapter via Prism, install Redhat virtIO network drivers on Windows XP, remove old adapter and have fun with 10Gbps pipe from VM.

If you do not know how to deploy Windows XP on Nutanix AHV, have a look at my blog post here 

The post How to speed up Windows XP installation on Nutanix AHV appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

How to mount Nutanix AHV container on Hyper-V hosts

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My migration blog series getting more and more popular. At the same time, I’m getting more and more questions related to migrations. Some of them are harder to answer, some of them are pretty basic. One of the most common is how do I mount Nutanix AHV container to existing Hyper-V or vSphere cluster. Storage on Nutanix platform is served by Nutanix CVM (Controller virtual Machine). In fact you can access Nutanix storage from non-Nutanix systems as long as those supports protocols offered by CVM and network connectivity, between legacy infrastructure and Nutanix.

In my example, I will show how to mount Nutanix AHV container on Hyper-V 2012R2. You can watch video on vmwaremine.com youtube channel or read about it below.

  • Create new container on Nutanix AHV cluster
  • In container Advance Settings, scroll down to the bottom and enter Hyper-V and SCVMM hosts IPs on container Whitelist
  • Log in to SCVMM, in cluster properties go to File storage tab and enter Nutanix Cluster IP with container name, example: \\gso-cad-ahv-c04.gso.lab\migration

    Add file share storage to Hyper-V cluster

    Add file share storage to Hyper-V cluster

  • Check in job tab if task finished successfully. If so, you should see new File share as new target when you do storage migration for VM

    new file share storage is visible in Migrate Storage SCVMM wizard

    new file share storage is visible in Migrate Storage SCVMM wizard

 

The post How to mount Nutanix AHV container on Hyper-V hosts appeared first on VMwaremine - Artur Krzywdzinski | Nutanix.

Migrate Ubuntu Generation2 VM from Hyper-V to Nutanix AHV


How to check host BIOS version on Nutanix cluster

Nutanix AHV basics – How to find VM disk

Migrate Windows XP from VMware vSphere to Nutanix Acropolis

Migrate Windows 2000 server to Nutanix AHV

Install Windows 2000 Advance Server on Nutanix Acropolis

Change boot order for Acropolis VM

How to put Nutanix Acropolis host into maintenance mode


Nutanix VirtIO drivers in version 1.1.0 available

Mount Nutanix Acropolis container on ESXi server

How to disable or enable HA on Nutanix Acropolis VM

Nutanix AOS 5.5.0.4 and NCC 3.5.0.1 released

Nutanix Basics – Nutanix Foundation – part 4

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