Prism Central Guide Prism VPC - 2022 - 4 - Compressed
Prism Central Guide Prism VPC - 2022 - 4 - Compressed
Prism Central Guide Prism VPC - 2022 - 4 - Compressed
Welcome.......................................................................................................................... 8
Help Organization........................................................................................................ 9
Main Dashboard......................................................................................................... 68
Main Dashboard Display...................................................................................................................................... 70
Widgets on a Dashboard..................................................................................................................................... 72
Creating a New Dashboard.................................................................................................................................77
Adding Dashboard Widgets............................................................................................................................... 78
Modifying a Dashboard........................................................................................................................................ 83
Entity Exploring..........................................................................................................85
Compute and Storage Entities.......................................................................................................................... 89
VMs Summary View...................................................................................................................................90
VM Template Summary View.................................................................................................................113
OVAs View..................................................................................................................................................... 117
Images Summary View........................................................................................................................... 120
Catalog Items View.................................................................................................................................. 124
Storage Containers Summary View................................................................................................... 125
ii
Storage Policies Summary View..........................................................................................................137
Volume Groups Summary View...........................................................................................................143
vCenter Datastores Summary View................................................................................................... 153
Catalog Items View.................................................................................................................................. 160
Categories Summary View..................................................................................................................... 161
OVAs View....................................................................................................................................................164
Network and Security View...............................................................................................................................167
Subnets.......................................................................................................................................................... 167
Virtual Private Clouds.............................................................................................................................. 172
Floating IPs...................................................................................................................................................177
Connectivity................................................................................................................................................. 177
Security Policies Summary View.........................................................................................................185
Policies........................................................................................................................................................................188
Affinity Policies Summary View.......................................................................................................... 189
NGT Policies View.....................................................................................................................................190
Image Placement Policies Summary View....................................................................................... 191
Bandwidth Throttling Policies Summary View.............................................................................. 193
Security Policies Summary View........................................................................................................ 194
Data Protection and Recovery Entities........................................................................................................ 196
Protection Policies View......................................................................................................................... 197
Recovery Plans View................................................................................................................................198
VM Recovery Points View......................................................................................................................199
Hardware Entities.................................................................................................................................................200
Clusters Summary View........................................................................................................................ 200
Hosts Summary View..............................................................................................................................220
Disks Summary View.............................................................................................................................. 230
GPUs Summary View.............................................................................................................................. 237
Activity Entities.....................................................................................................................................................240
Audits Summary View............................................................................................................................. 241
Tasks View...................................................................................................................................................244
Operations Entities...............................................................................................................................................247
Reports View.............................................................................................................................................. 248
Administration Entities....................................................................................................................................... 249
Users Summary View..............................................................................................................................249
Roles Summary View.............................................................................................................................. 253
Projects Summary View.........................................................................................................................258
Availability Zones View..........................................................................................................................264
LCM View..................................................................................................................................................... 265
Services Entities.................................................................................................................................................... 265
iii
DR (Prism Central)...................................................................................................................................368
License (Prism Central)......................................................................................................................... 426
Guest VM (Prism Central).....................................................................................................................427
Hardware......................................................................................................................................................436
Node (Prism Central)..............................................................................................................................438
Network (Prism Central)....................................................................................................................... 444
Nutanix Files...............................................................................................................................................455
Other (Prism Central).............................................................................................................................480
Prism Central VM.......................................................................................................................................491
Storage (Prism Central)..........................................................................................................................491
System Indicator (Prism Central)...................................................................................................... 502
VM...................................................................................................................................................................503
iv
Storage Management (Prism Central).......................................................................................................... 616
Storage Components (Prism Central)...............................................................................................617
Storage Container Management........................................................................................................ 626
Creating a Volume Group..................................................................................................................... 642
Modifying a Volume Group..................................................................................................................646
Managing Volume Group Connections............................................................................................647
Managing Volume Group Virtual Disks.............................................................................................651
Storage Policy Management............................................................................................................................ 652
Storage Policy Based Encryption......................................................................................................654
Creating or Updating a Storage Policy........................................................................................... 655
Managing Associations...........................................................................................................................658
Deleting a Storage Policy.....................................................................................................................660
Catalog Management.......................................................................................................................................... 662
Adding a Catalog Item.......................................................................................................................... 663
Deleting a Catalog Item........................................................................................................................ 665
Image Management............................................................................................................................................. 666
Requirements............................................................................................................................................. 667
Limitations................................................................................................................................................... 667
Creating an Image................................................................................................................................... 667
Modifying an Image.................................................................................................................................683
Importing Images to Prism Central.................................................................................................. 684
Image Policy Management................................................................................................................... 685
OVA Management................................................................................................................................................ 694
Exporting a VM as an OVA..................................................................................................................695
Uploading an OVA................................................................................................................................... 696
Concatenating Upload using APIs.....................................................................................................702
Deploying an OVA as VM..................................................................................................................... 704
Downloading an OVA.............................................................................................................................. 710
Renaming an OVA.....................................................................................................................................710
Deleting an OVAs....................................................................................................................................... 711
Performing Other Administrative Tasks........................................................................................................712
vCenter Server Integration.................................................................................................................................713
Registering vCenter Server (Prism Central)................................................................................... 715
Managing vCenter Server Registration Changes (Prism Central).......................................... 718
Category Management..........................................................................................742
v
Creating a Category............................................................................................................................................ 742
Modifying a Category......................................................................................................................................... 743
Assigning a Category......................................................................................................................................... 744
Operations Management......................................................................................746
Performance Monitoring.................................................................................................................................... 746
Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central).................................................................................................746
Sessions Dashboard.................................................................................................................................772
Closing the Session..................................................................................................................................778
Switching Between Sessions................................................................................................................778
Application Discovery......................................................................................................................................... 778
Application Discovery View................................................................................................................. 779
Enabling Application Discovery..........................................................................................................788
Connecting to the Cloud...................................................................................................................... 794
Adding (Removing) Clusters to Monitor.........................................................................................795
Configuring vCenter Authentication.................................................................................................797
Discovering Applications.......................................................................................................................798
Publishing Applications..........................................................................................................................799
Creating Discovery Policies..................................................................................................................799
Cost Management (Xi Beam).......................................................................................................................... 802
Application Monitoring.......................................................................................................................................803
Application Monitoring Summary View.......................................................................................... 803
Configuring Application Monitoring.................................................................................................. 816
Modifying Application Monitoring...................................................................................................... 819
Operations Policy Management..................................................................................................................... 820
Operations Policies View...................................................................................................................... 820
Modifying an Operations Policy.......................................................................................................... 821
Enabling an Operations Policy............................................................................................................823
Resource Planning................................................................................................................................................824
Capacity Runway View...........................................................................................................................825
Scenarios View...........................................................................................................................................827
Updating Capacity Configurations....................................................................................................845
Behavioral Learning Tools.....................................................................................................................846
Task Automation................................................................................................................................................... 849
Overview...................................................................................................................................................... 850
Action Gallery............................................................................................................................................ 850
Plays...............................................................................................................................................................850
Playbook Actions.......................................................................................................................................851
X-Play Integrations...................................................................................................................................863
Creating Playbooks using Triggers................................................................................................... 874
Running a Playbook (Manual Trigger).............................................................................................884
Configuring Manual Parameters......................................................................................................... 884
Exporting or Importing Playbooks....................................................................................................888
PagerDuty Integration with Prism.....................................................................................................889
Reports Management..........................................................................................................................................892
Creating a New Report..........................................................................................................................893
Managing a Report..................................................................................................................................894
Viewing Report Instances..................................................................................................................... 897
Views in the Reports.............................................................................................................................. 907
Scheduling a Report............................................................................................................................... 939
Downloading Reports.............................................................................................................................. 941
Configuring Report Settings................................................................................................................942
Role Based Access Control..................................................................................................................945
vi
Services Enablement............................................................................................. 947
Enabling Calm........................................................................................................................................................ 947
Enabling Files......................................................................................................................................................... 947
Enabling Foundation Central...........................................................................................................................948
Enabling Karbon................................................................................................................................................... 948
Enabling Objects.................................................................................................................................................. 948
Copyright.................................................................................................................... 976
vii
WELCOME
You can monitor and manage entities across Nutanix clusters through a web console called
Prism Central. This documentation describes how to use Prism Central.
• For a list and description of major topics, see Help Organization on page 9.
• For help with viewing this documentation, see Accessing Online Help (Prism Central) on
page 967.
• To access other Nutanix documents, see Nutanix support portal.
Prism | Welcome | 8
HELP ORGANIZATION
This documentation is organized as follows:
• Prism Central Overview on page 10 provides an overview of Prism Central including menu
options and navigation tools.
• Prism Central Administration on page 31 describes how to install and manage Prism
Central; how to upgrade Prism Central, NCC, and individual clusters through Prism Central;
and how to manage licenses.
• Main Dashboard on page 68 describes the main (home) dashboard and how to customize
it.
• Entity Exploring on page 85 describes how to use the entity browser to view detailed
information about VMs, containers, disks, and other entities across the registered clusters.
• Resource Planning on page 824 describes how to review and analyze current and potential
resource needs in a Nutanix cluster.
• Performance Monitoring on page 746 describes how to monitor and analyze performance
in a cluster.
• Services Enablement on page 947 describes how to enable certain applications (Calm,
Karbon, and Objects) through Prism Central.
• Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) on page 266 describes how to monitor alerts
and events across the registered clusters and how to configure alert policies and notification.
• System Management on page 504 describes how to configure various system settings
(NTP, SMTP, and so on) for Prism Central.
• Security and User Management (Prism Central) on page 533 describes how to configure
user authentication, manage local user accounts, control user access using roles, install SSL
certificates, and control remote (SSH) access.
• Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration on page 534 describes how to administer
individual clusters through Prism Central such as how to create and manage VMs.
• Prism Self Service Administration on page 719 describes how to implement self-service
features through Prism Central.
• Policies on page 188 describes how to create and apply policies to manage and control
access and operations in a cluster.
• Reports Management on page 892 describes how to create and run reports about
infrastructure resources.
• Task Automation on page 849 describes how to automate routine administrative tasks
through Prism Central by using the X-play feature.
• Customer Support Services on page 950 describes how to configure Pulse (system
diagnostics reporting feature), access the Nutanix customer support portal, and create a
support ticket through Prism Central when you need help.
• Help Resources on page 967 describes how to use the online help to find what you need
and how to access the Nutanix Next Community portal.
Viewing Choices
Clicking the collapse menu button (also know as a "hamburger" button) in the far left of the
main menu displays the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The Main dashboard
is the first screen that appears after logging into Prism Central (see Main Dashboard on
page 68).
• A field with a magnifying glass icon appears on the left of the main menu. Enter a string in
this field to search for relevant content in Prism Central (see Searching for Information on
page 20).
• An alerts icon appears on the right of the main menu when there are current critical (red),
warning (yellow), or informational (gray) alert messages. The number of active alerts is
displayed in the icon. Click the alert icon to display information about those alerts in the
Alerts dashboard (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
• A tasks icon appears to the right of the alerts when there are current tasks (running or
completed within the last 48 hours). The icon is blue when all the tasks are running properly
or have completed successfully. If one or more of those tasks do not complete successfully,
the icon turns yellow (warning) or red (failure) . Click the tasks icon to see a drop-down
list of the current tasks; click View All Tasks at the bottom of the list to display the tasks
dashboard (see Tasks View on page 244).
Name Description
Learn about search Displays search guidelines (see Searching for Information on
page 20).
Help with this page Opens the online help at the page that describes this screen (see
Accessing Online Help (Prism Central) on page 967).
Online Documentation Opens the online help at the introduction page (see Accessing
Online Help (Prism Central) on page 967).
Support Portal Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix Support
portal logon page (see Accessing the Nutanix Support Portal
(Prism Central) on page 962).
Nutanix Next Community Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix Next
Community entry page (see Accessing the Nutanix Next
Community on page 969). The portal is an online community
site for customers and partners to exchange ideas, tips, and
information about Nutanix technologies and related data center
topics.
Create Support Case Opens the Create a new support case page to view or create
support cases with Nutanix customer support (see Creating a
Support Case on page 955).
Name Description
Change Password Opens the Change Password window to update your password
(see Updating My Account in Security Guide).
Update Profile Opens the Update Profile window to update your user name and
email address (see Updating My Account in Security Guide).
Download Cmdlets Downloads the PowerShell installer for the Nutanix cmdlets. For
Installer information about installing the cmdlets locally and for cmdlet
descriptions, see Powershell Cmdlets Reference.
REST API Explorer Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix REST API
Explorer web page (see Accessing the REST API Explorer on
page 965).
About Nutanix Opens the About Nutanix window that displays Nutanix operating
system (AOS) and other version information (see Finding the
Prism Central Version on page 45).
Nothing To Do? Opens a game that is strictly for entertainment. To quit the game,
click the "X" at the upper right of the screen.
Sign Out Logs you out of Prism Central (see Logging Out of Prism Central
on page 35).
Adjust Contrast (Chrome Displays a contrast setting box at the bottom of the screen where
only) you can set the Prism Central display to Normal (default) or High
contrast. This option is available only when using the Chrome
browser.
Entities Menu
Clicking the collapse menu (hamburger) button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism
Central) on page 10) displays a menu of entities on the left. The following table describes
each entity in the menu.
• The primary menu options are Dashboard, category names (Compute & Storage, Network
& Security, Data Protection, Hardware, Activity, Operations, Administration, and Services),
and Global Settings. Clicking a category name displays a submenu of entities in that
category.
• Clicking the entity name displays a dashboard or other appropriate page for that entity.
• For quicker access to one or more submenu entities, you can promote a submenu option
to the primary menu by bookmarking that entity (clicking the star icon to the right of the
name). This displays that entity name below the Dashboard entry. You can remove the
bookmarked entry by clicking the star again.
• The entity menu pane closes automatically when you click in the display area to the right.
To keep the entity menu pane open all the time, click the Lock Navigation Bar button at the
bottom. The button is a toggle; to unlock the navigation bar, click the button again.
• When the entities menu is displayed, the collapse menu button changes to an X button. Click
the X button to hide the menu.
Compute & Storage VMs Displays the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary
View on page 90).
Network & Security Subnets Displays the subnets dashboard (see Subnets on
page 167).
Prism Central Settings Displays the settings menu (see Settings Menu
(Prism Central) on page 17).
• Click the gear icon in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism Central) on page 10).
• Click the collapse menu (hamburger) button and then select Prism Central Settings from the
entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).
The Settings page displays a menu of tasks (on the left) you can perform. Click the task to open
the window or page for that option in the pane to the right. The following table describes each
menu option.
Prism Central Opens the Manage Prism Central page for viewing
Management information about Prism Central and optionally
expanding (scale out) Prism Central across multiple
VMs (see Managing Prism Central on page 35).
Flow ID Based Security Opens the ID Based Security page to add Active
Directory domain services configurations and to
import user groups for identity-based security
policies. For more information, see Nutanix Flow
Guide.
Alerts and Alert Email Opens the Alert Email Configuration window,
Notifications Configuration which allows you to configure rules and templates
that apply to the alert messages from selected
clusters (see Configuring Alert Emails (Prism
Central) on page 280).
Search Basics
An entity is an object type such as a VM, cluster, node, security policy, project, report, event,
alert, or audit. The search field is context-sensitive, which means it is populated automatically
based on where you are in Prism Central. The first screen after logging on is the main
dashboard, so "Dashboard" appears in the search field initially.
As you go to different Prism Central screens, the search string changes automatically to match
the current location, as illustrated in the following example from the clusters page.
When you enter a string in the search field, a drop-down list appears with relevant matches
across Prism Central. (Search strings are case insensitive.) For example, entering the string
"VM" displays the following results:
• "Category Value". Click this option to display the Category page with any VM-related entries.
• "VM Type=User VM". Click this option to display the VMs summary page filtered for user
VMs.
• [blank]. Click this option to display the VMs summary page (unfiltered).
• "VM Type=User VM > List". Click this option to display the List tab of the user VMs page.
• "VM Type=User VM > Alerts". Click this option to display the Alerts tab of the user VMs page.
• "Search in Prism". Click this option to search across Prism Central for any information about
the target entity. In the following example, two tables appear in the results, a list of the top
VMs and a list of the top VM-related alerts. The top VMs list includes a link to the full list of
Search provides intelligent responses based on whatever you enter in the field. For example,
entering "scale out" returns a link to the Manage Prism Central page from which you can scale
out Prism Central. If you enter a more generic string such as "version", the search engine returns
results with links to pages across entities with version information.
On some pages, applied filters are not reflected in the main menu search field. For those pages,
a local filters field appears. When you select one or more filters on such a page, the applied
filters appear in the local filters field. You can do the following from this field:
• [entity|metric]: Enter an entity or metric type such as "cluster", "vm", or "alerts" to return
information about the instances of that entity or metric across the registered clusters.
• <entity> <metric>: To refine an entity search, add a metric to the query. For example, "vm iops"
returns IOPS information for the VMs.
• <entity> <attribute> <metric>: To further refine the search, add an attribute for the metric.
For example, "node failure alerts" returns any failure alerts about the nodes.
• [metric|attribute] operator <value>: Enter an expression for a metric or attribute to return
instances that match the expression. For example, ""block model"=1050" returns information
about the NX-1050 nodes. See the following "Filter Expressions" section for the supported
expression operators.
• <complex expression>: Combine the syntax forms to create complex queries. For example,
"clusters hypervisor = AHV "cpu usage" < 30" returns information about clusters running the AHV
hypervisor with CPU usage below 30%. Complex expressions have an implied AND so only
instances that satisfy all conditions are returned.
• <action expression>: In addition to search queries, you can initiate certain actions from the
query bar. For example, "<vm_name> launch console" launches a console window for the specified
VM (if you are allowed to do so).
The following table describes the syntax rules for search queries.
Rule Example
entity type + filters + alerts + (alert filters) vm “power state”=on alerts severity=critical
Keywords
The following table lists the keywords or phrases you can use when formulating a query.
• Entities: Lists the entities you can specify. The list is limited. For example, you cannot
search for information about remote sites or network switches.
• Fields: Lists the parameters (fields) you can specify.
• Alerts: Lists the alert conditions you can specify.
• Events: Lists the event conditions you can specify.
• Actions: Lists the actions you can specify.
• The Entity column specifies the entities for which you can use that keyword in a query. For
example, Alert queries can apply to any entity, but Fields has multiple rows broken down by
entity type (such as cluster, VM, and disk) because there are select keywords that apply to
each entity type.
Fields (not specified) cpu usage, memory usage, disk usage, free
physical storage, storage logical usage, saving
ratio, savings, iops, read iops, write iops,
io bandwidth, read io bandwidth, write io
bandwidth, io latency, read io latency, write io
latency, memory capacity, hypervisor
Filter Expressions
You can use any of the following operators in an expression.
Description Operator
contains ~
equal to =
not equal to !=
a metric range, for example CPU usage between 10 and =[10 to 30]
30
• In most cases, an AND is applied to all filters in an expression. For example, "hypervisor=AHV
iops>100" means the hypervisor is AHV and IOPS are over 100.
• If the filters are on the same attribute, an OR is applied. For example, “hypervisor=AHV
hypervisor=ESXi” means the hyperviosr is either AHV or ESXi.
• If the filters are on the same metric, an AND is applied to create a range. For example,
"iops>100 iops<500" means IOPS in the range 100-500.
• If multiple range filters are defined in a single query, an OR is applied across the ranges. For
example, "iops>100 iops<500 cpu>20 cpu<40" means IOPS in the 100-500 range or CPU in
the 20-40 range.
Search Units
The data for search queries comes from the following parameters.
Example Queries
Here are examples of various query types.
• Entity queries:
<cluster_name>
<cluster_ip_address>
<disk_serial#>
VMs "Power State"=On List
VMs Hypervisor=AHV List
powered on vms "memory capacity" > 32
• Performance queries:
clusters running out of cpu
clusters hypervisor = AHV "cpu usage" < 30
vm iops
• Alert queries:
node failure alerts
<cluster_name> alerts
<cluster_name> critical availability alerts
<alert title>
Alerts "Create Time"="08-Nov-2018 9:46 AM to 08-Nov-2018 10:46 AM" Severity=Critical
• Action queries:
<vm_name> launch console
<cluster_name> launch prism element
create vm
• Exploration queries:
clusters hypervisor=AHV
vm os=Linux
<cluster_name> vms
"block model"=1050
"cpu model"=Intel
containers Rf > 2
clusters version=4.6.2
hosts iops < 1000
<cluster_name> powered off vms
disks tier=ssd
vms "cpu usage"
vms “power state”
s Settings Menu
f Spotlight (search bar)
u User Menu
h Help menu (? menu)
p Recent tasks
You can use the arrow keys to select a particular menu option.
Note: Most displayed statistics appear in 30 second intervals. The values in the tables represent
the most recent data point within the last 30 seconds. Prism Central collects the statistical data
from each registered cluster, so the process of collecting that data could result in a longer lag
time for some statistics displayed in Prism Central.
1. Hypervisor. When the hypervisor can provide usage statistics, those figures appear where
appropriate. ESXi provides such statistics, but Hyper-V and AHV do not. Getting the
statistics from ESXi means numbers displayed in the Prism display screens (both Prism
Central and Prism Element) should match the corresponding ones in vCenter.
2. Controller (Stargate). When hypervisor statistics are unavailable or inappropriate, the
Controller VM provides statistics from Stargate. Controller-reported statistics might differ
from those reported by the hypervisor for the following reasons:
• An NFS client might break up large I/O requests into smaller I/O units before issuing them
to the NFS server, thus increasing the number of operations reported by the controller.
• The hypervisor might read I/O operations from the cache in the hypervisor, operations
not counted by the controller.
3. Disk (Stargate). Stargate can provide statistics from both the controller and disk perspective.
The difference is that the controller perspective includes read I/O operations from memory
and disk I/O operations, while the disk perspective includes just the disk I/O operations.
Note: The distinction between hypervisor, controller, and disk statistics applies only to storage-
related statistics such as IOPS, latency, and bandwidth.
Field labels in the Prism display screens help identify the information source:
• A field name that does not include either Controller or Disk indicates that statistic derives
from the hypervisor (for example IOPS).
• A field name that includes the word Controller indicates that statistic derives from the
controller (for example Controller IOPS).
• Installing Prism Central and then upgrading Prism Central and registered clusters (see
Installing or Upgrading on page 31)
• Managing licenses (see Licensing on page 31)
• Accessing Prism Central, managing the Prism Central instance (VM or set of VMs), and
registering clusters with Prism Central (see Prism Central Management on page 31)
Installing or Upgrading
A Prism Central instance consists of either a single VM or a set of VMs that functions as a
multi-cluster monitoring and control interface. For information about the maximum tested and
supported values for entities in Prism Central, see Nutanix Configuration Maximums.
You can install a Prism Central instance in either a Nutanix cluster or a non-Nutanix
environment, although there are some limitations when you choose a non-Nutanix environment.
• To install or upgrade a Prism Central instance, see Prism Central Upgrade and Installation
topic in Acropolis Upgrade Guide.
Note: Do not add any additional vDisks or NICs to a Prism Central VM above what is specified
in the installation or upgrade instructions.
• To scale out an existing single VM Prism Central to multiple VMs, see Expanding (Scale Out)
Prism Central on page 55.
• To upgrade Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) through Prism Central, see Upgrading NCC on
Prism Central in Acropolis Upgrade Guide.
• To upgrade one or more managed clusters through Prism Central, see Prism Central-
Managed Clusters Upgrade in Acropolis Upgrade Guide.
• If you use a proxy server, see Configuring Prism Central When a Cluster Uses Proxy Servers.
Licensing
Nutanix provides licenses you can apply to enable a variety of features. See the Nutanix License
Manager Guide for information about how to license your cluster, apply add-on licenses, and
manage your licenses in a variety of situations.
• Log in and out through any supported browser (see Logging Into Prism Central on
page 32 and Logging Out of Prism Central on page 35).
• Monitor the status of this Prism Central instance (see Managing Prism Central on
page 35).
• Check version information (see Finding the Prism Central Version on page 45).
• Modify login page and automatic log off settings (see Modifying UI Settings (Prism Central)
on page 524).
Procedure
1. Open a web browser, enter http://management_ip_addr in the address field, and press Enter.
Replace management_ip_addr with the Prism Central VM IP address.
Note: Prism Central supports the latest version, and the two preceding major versions of
Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge browsers. The browsers must support TLS 1.2.
The browser redirects to the encrypted port (9440) and may display an SSL certificate
warning. Acknowledge the warning and proceed to the site. If user authentication is enabled
and the browser does not have the correct certificate, a denied access message may appear.
For the complete list of required ports, see Port Reference.
2. If a welcome screen appears, read the message and then click the Accept terms and
conditions bar at the bottom.
» Enter your Nutanix login credentials and press Enter or click the right arrow icon.
Note: If LDAP authentication is used, enter the user name in username@domain format; the
domain\username format is not supported. The user principle name [UPN] attribute is used to
find the user account in Active Directory, so your user name must be in that format.
Note: The login page includes background animation that is enabled by default. Click the
Freeze space time continuum! link at the bottom right of the login screen to disable the
animation (or the Engage the warp drive! link to enable the animation). To permanently
disable (or enable) the animation, see Modifying UI Settings (Prism Central) on
page 524).
4. If you are logging in as an administrator for the first time (user name admin and default
password Nutanix/4u), which requires that the default password be changed, enter a new
Note:
• The password expiration age for the admin user is 60 days. You can configure
the minimum and maximum password expiration days based on your security
requirement.
• After you upgrade from an AOS earlier version and then attempt to log in to the
Prism web console as the admin user, you are prompted to create a new admin
user password.
• When you change the admin user password, update any applications and scripts
using the admin user credentials for authentication. Nutanix recommends that
you create a user assigned with the admin role instead of using the admin user for
authentication. For more information about authentication and roles, see Prism
Web Console Guide.
Procedure
To log off from Prism Central, click the user icon in the main menu and then select the Sign Out
option from the pull-down list. You are logged out immediately after selecting the option (no
prompt or message).
Note: This page is not available if Prism Central is hosted in a non-Nutanix environment, that is
not hosted in a Nutanix cluster.
• A Prism Central Summary pane on the upper left that displays fields for
Note: Verify that the prerequisites in Expanding (Scale Out) Prism Central on page 55 are
satisfied before adding a Prism Central VM.
To add or change the Prism Central domain name or virtual IP, click the Edit link in the Prism
Central Summary pane. The Cluster Details window appears. Do the following:
1. In the Cluster Name field, enter a name for the cluster (default "Unnamed"). After naming
the cluster, the field no longer appears when subsequently opening the window. Naming the
cluster is optional.
2. In the FQDN field, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the Prism Central
cluster. For a multi-VM Prism Central, specifying a domain name allows balancing of requests
across the Prism Central VMs to improve performance and resiliency. (This requires an
administrator configure the domain name in the DNS server as the set of IP addresses
associated with the Prism Central VMs.) When an FQDN is specified, it is the first choice for
IP address resolution. If the FQDN fails to resolve in DNS, the existing Prism Central VM IP
addresses are used.
3. In the Virtual IP field, enter an IP address that will be used as a virtual IP for the cluster. This
is relevant if you have a multi-VM Prism Central.
Note: FQDN and virtual IP settings in Prism Central are mutually exclusive. Do not enter
a virtual IP in this field if you specified a FQDN in the previous field. A virtual IP provides
resiliency but not load balancing. A FQDN does both.
4. When the fields are correct, click the Update button to save the changes and close the
window.
• The microservices infrastructure is supported on clusters running AHV or ESXi only. For
ESXi, clusters you may need to enter your vCenter credentials (user name and password)
and a network for deployment.
• The host cluster must be registered with this Prism Central instance (see Registering
(Unregistering) Cluster with Prism Central on page 48).
• The host cluster virtual IP address and ISCSI data services IP address must be configured
(see Modifying Cluster Details section in the Prism Web Console Guide).
• Name servers and NTP servers must be configured in both the host cluster (Prism Element)
and Prism Central.
• The Prism Central instance is deployed with a minimum Prism Central version of
pc.2022.1
• The host Prism Element with a minimum AOS version of 6.1 or 5.20.2
If the AOS version of the host Prism Element is not 6.1 or later STA version, or 5.20.2 or later
LTS version, then a failure message is displayed with the following text:
The host Prism Element of this Prism Central runs an AOS version that
does not support this feature. Upgrade the PE to a compatible version
before setting up trust.
To establish trust you need the following: (Step 3.a on page 41)
Caution: Once enabled, the microservices infrastructure cannot be disabled. The following
limitations apply after enabling the microservices infrastructure:
• Scaleout three-node Prism Central VMs deployment: Small, large, or x-large Prism
Central VMs are supported. Reverting this deployment to a single Prism Central VM
deployment is not supported.
• Single Prism Central VM deployment: Small, large, or x-large Prism Central VM is
supported. You can expand a single PCVM deployment to a scaleout three-node PC
deployment.
• Changes to any of the following IP addresses are not supported: Prism Central
virtual IP address, host cluster virtual IP address, host cluster iSCSI data services IP
address
• Unregistering the host cluster from Prism Central is not supported. However,
unregistering other clusters is still supported.
• Ensure that the IP addresses in subnet that you configure for microservices
infrastructure do not conflict with the IP addresses in the management subnet.
Note: Do not use the IP addresses in the subnet 10.100.0.0/24 for operational
purposes like DNS.
1. Go to the Manage Prism Central page (see Managing Prism Central on page 35).
2. In the Prism Central on Microservices Infrastructure box, click the Enable Now button.
a. [first screen, no fields] Read the information and then click the Continue button.
The following sample window is displayed if you need to establish trust relationship
between the Prism Central instance and the host Prism Element:
The following sample window is displayed if the Prism Central instance is already
registered with the host Prism Element:
• This value refers to the Prism Central Service Domain, and should not exactly match
any FQDN currently in use, as this will complicate configuration of forwarding or
redirection of queries.
• The top-level domain cannot exceed 6 characters.
• The top-level domain cannot end with "test".
• The subdomain cannot exceed 16 characters.
• The selected FQDN must contain at least three labels.
• All labels within the FQDN must be at least two characters long.
• If Prism Central has a proxy configuration, then ensure that the domain
name is added to the allow-list with a * preceding the domain name (
*.defined_domian_name).
For example, if you use the domain name test.nutanix.com, then allow-list
*.test.nutanix.com.
The following are examples of valid domain configurations:
• my.cluster.domain
• my.test.cluster.test.domain
• test.nutanix.com
The following are examples of domains not supported:
• my.cluster.test
• my.cluster.domain.test
• Internal Network: Select the network to use for Prism Central micro services
communication from the pull-down list.
The default selection Private Network [default] is a pre-configured private VxLAN
network. Instead, if you want microservices infrastructure to use a different network,
you can select the network (managed or unmanaged) from the drop-down list. If the
network you want microservices infrastructure to use does not appear in the list, you
must first configure it (see Network Connections on page 729).
• Retain the check mark for the Use default settings (recommended) checkbox and
click Validate. (Go to step 4 on page 44.)
Retaining the check mark for the Use default settings (recommended) checkbox
allows Prism Central to use the Private Network [default] with the default values for
Subnet Mask, Gateway IP Address and IP Address Range.
• Clear the Use default settings (recommended) checkbox, if you want Prism Central
to use the Private Network [default] setting with specific (non-default or custom)
values for Subnet Mask, Gateway IP Address and IP Address Range.
c. To configure the internal network for microservices infrastructure, enter the values for
Subnet Mask, Gateway IP Address and IP Address Range fields.
You can configure the internal network for microservices infrastructure by entering the values
for the Subnet Mask, Gateway IP Address and IP Address Range fields if you did one of the
following:
• Selected a managed or unmanaged network other than Private Network [default] for
Internal Network.
If you selected a managed network, the values in the Subnet Mask, Gateway IP Address and
IP Address Range fields are already configured. If you selected an unmanaged network, you
must enter the necessary values in the respective fields.
• Cleared the Use default settings (recommended) checkbox with the Private Network
[default] selection for Internal Network.
Parameter Description
4. After you check that the values entered for all the fields are correct, click the Validate
button.
The system checks the settings. When the settings are confirmed, a Validation was successful
message appears and the Validate button changes to an Enable button.
What to do next
After the tasks are completed, including the IAM Migration & Bootstrap task, log out of Prism
Central. Wait at least 15 minutes before logging on to Prism Central.
Enabling the Microservices Infrastructure when there is no Internet access (dark site) requires
some extra steps from the standard procedure.
Procedure
1. From a device that has public Internet access, log on to the Nutanix support portal, select
Downloads > LCM from the entity menu (hamburger icon), and then download the LCM Dark
Site Bundle tar file.
2. Set up a local web server, upload LCM Dark Site Bundle to the server, and extract the files in a
directory in the base of the web server.
See the Setting Up a Local Web Server section in the Life Cycle Manager Dark Site Guide for
more information. Set the following mime types in the LCM web server when you are using
Windows Web Server: .json, .xz, .qcow2, .sign, .gz
3. In the Nutanix support portal Downloads page, select Microservices Platform (MSP),
download the Upgrade (Darksite) bundle to the web server base directory you used in step
2, and extract the files.
4. Now follow the standard procedure for enabling the Microservices Infrastructure through
Prism Central (see Enabling Microservices Infrastructure on page 38).
1. Click the user icon in the main menu and then select the About Nutanix option from the pull-
down list.
An About Nutanix window appears that includes the AOS version number. It also includes a
link to Nutanix patent information.
Procedure
3. Click the host you want to see the hypervisor version for.
4. The Host detail view page displays the Properties widget that lists the Hypervisor Version.
Procedure
2. Click the entities menu (hamburger menu) near the search field and then select Hardware >
Clusters to view the cluster dashboard.
• If you have never logged into Prism Central as the user admin, you need to log in and change
the password before attempting to register a cluster with Prism Central.
• Do not enable client authentication in combination with ECDSA certificates on a registered
cluster since it causes interference when communicating with Prism Central.
• Ports 9440 and 80 need to be open in both directions between the Prism Central VM and
all the Controller VMs (and the cluster virtual IP address if configured) in each registered
cluster. For the complete list of required ports, see Port Reference.
• A cluster can register with just one Prism Central instance at a time. To register with a
different Prism Central instance, first unregister the cluster.
Procedure
1. Log in to the Prism web console on the target cluster as the user admin.
2. In the Health dashboard, from the Actions drop-down menu, select Run Checks. to run
Nutanix Cluster Checks.
» On the Home dashboard, click Register or create new from the Prism Central widget.
» Click the gear icon and select Prism Central Registration from the Settings menu.
4. In the first screen of the Prism Central dialog box, click the Connect button.
This screen includes two options, Deploy and Connect. This procedure describes how to
connect to an existing Prism Central instance. For more information about how to deploy
a. Prism Central IP: Enter the IP address of the Prism Central VM.
b. Port: The default port number is 80. This is an optional field. For the complete list of
required ports, see Port Reference.
c. Username: Enter admin as the Prism Central user name.
d. Password: Enter the Prism Central admin user password.
7. When all the fields are correct, click the Connect button to save the values and close the
window.
This registers the cluster on the specified Prism Central VM and allows the passing of
information between the cluster and Prism Central.
Note: The user credentials provided when registering a cluster (Prism Element) with Prism
Central are only used once. After registration, modifying the admin password would not
impact any communication between Prism Element and Prism Central.
Note: Unregistering a cluster through the Prism GUI is no longer available. This option was
removed to reduce the risk of accidentally unregistering a cluster because several features
Procedure
2. Run the cluster status command and verify that all services are in a healthy state.
Replace pc-name-or-ip with the Prism Central name or IP address and pc-username and pc-password
with the login credentials for your Prism Central administrator account. This step can
take some time (though typically just a few seconds). To check if the unregistration has
completed, run the following command.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli multicluster get-cluster-state
5. Log on to the Prism Central VM through an SSH session (as the nutanix user) and do the
following:
Replace uuid with the value you obtained in step 4. This script removes all remaining
registration information about that cluster and completes the unregistration process for
the Prism Central VM.
b. Get the UUID for Prism Central.
nutanix@pcvm$ ncli cluster info
Find the Cluster UUID value in the displayed information (see step 4), which in this case is
the UUID for Prism Central.
6. Go back to the Controller VM and run the unregistration_cleanup.py script to complete the
unregistration process on the cluster.
nutanix@cvm$ python /home/nutanix/bin/unregistration_cleanup.py uuid
In this case the uuid is the Prism Central UUID obtained in step 5b.
What to do next
After performing these steps you can re-register the cluster with a new or re-created Prism
Central instance.
If the clean up process does not complete successfully, try the following:
• Check the logs to indicate if there are any input errors when calling the script. The logs for
the unregistration cleanup script can be found under ~/data/logs/unregistration_cleanup.log.
• If errors occur during script execution, run the cluster status command and check that the
cluster services are up and running. Rerun the script and check if it succeeds.
• vCenter and ESXi cluster must be configured properly. For more information about
vCenter and ESXi configuration, see the vCenter Configuration topic in vSphere
Administration Guide for Acropolis.
• vCenter must be registered in Prism.
• DRS must be enabled in vCenter.
• vCenter is up and reachable during the deployment.
Note:
• Scale out Prism Central is supported on AHV and ESXi clusters only. If you are
expanding a pre-AOS 5.17 Prism Central "large" VM that contains just a single vDisk,
the upgrade process adds three new vDisks to each VM. This allows Prism Central to
shard Cassandra metadata to improve performance. While the listed disk capacity
of a Prism Central VM includes all the vDisks, the additional vDisks do not impact
overall capacity. During the scale out you can monitor progress ("VM disk attach"
tasks) from the Tasks dashboard.
• All scale out Prism Central VMs must run on the same cluster. For example, running
two VMs in cluster_1 and one VM in cluster_2 is not supported.
1. Click the gear icon and then select Prism Central Management from the Settings menu (see
Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
The Manage Prism Central page appears. This page provides information about this Prism
Central instance.
2. To expand this Prism Central instance from one to three VMs, click the Scale Out PC button
to display the Scale Out PC page and do the following:
Note: A pop-up window appears explaining that scale out is a one-way process. Click the
Continue button to display the Scale Out PC page. Once you scale out a Prism Central
Note: The Prism Central VM image is deployed from the target cluster. If the required image
cannot be accessed, typically because there is no Internet access (such as at a dark site), a
pop-up error message appears. In this case you have the option to manually download and
deploy the image as follows:
1. Log on to the Nutanix customer support portal, click Downloads > Prism Central,
and click the download link for the target version to save the Prism Central
binary .TAR and metadata .JSON files on your local media.
2. Log on (using SSH) to any Controller VM in the cluster specified in the error
message and copy the Prism Central binary .TAR and metadata .JSON files to the
Controller VM.
3. Run the following command to deploy the Prism Central image:
nutanix@cvm$ ncli software upload software-type=PRISM_CENTRAL_DEPLOY file-path=file_path meta-
file-path=metadata_file_path
The file_path is the full (absolute) path to the .TAR file, and the metadata_file_path is the
full path to the .JSON file. After this step completes, you can continue the scale
out procedure.
a. Review the Network, Subnet Mask, and Gateway fields, which display the network name,
subnet mask value, and gateway IP address applied to this Prism Central instance.
The values in these three fields are read-only and cannot be changed.
Note: The scale-out process uses the IP addresses from the network configured. If you
used the default network configuration being the Private Network [default] while enabling
b. [optional] To specify a virtual IP address for Prism Central, click the Add Virtual IP link.
This displays the Add PC Virtual IP window. A virtual IP can be used as a single point of
access for Prism Central. Enter the IP address in the Virtual IP field and then click the
Update button.
c. Specify IP addresses for the two new Prism Central VMs.
1. Click the pencil icon for one of the new VMs. (The VM names are set automatically.)
The IP field opens for editing. Enter the IP address and then click the green check mark
icon to save that address.
What to do next
In some cases, especially when using Calm, a version mismatch with a linked product could
occur after expanding Prism Central. To fix this situation, perform a life cycle manager (LCM)
inventory after completing the Prism Central expansion procedure. See the LCM documentation
for instructions on how to perform an LCM inventory.
Note:
Prism Central supports features that could be damaged by shutting down the PC VM
abruptly. You must follow the steps carefully to avoid any issues.
Procedure
The command output should show the following three services still running: Zeus, Scavenger,
and VipMonitor.
4. To shut down a PC VM, log on to the web console of the host and go to the VM dashboard
(see VM Dashboard in Web Console Guide). In the VM Table view, select the PC VM you
want to shut down (one at a time), and then select Power Off Actions >> Power Off or
Power Off Actions >> Guest Shutdown from the action links.
Alternatively, you can SSH to the IP address of the PC VM and run the command to shut
down the PC VM.
nutanix@pcvm$ sudo shutdown -h now
You must run this command for each PC VM that you want to shut down.
5. To power on a PC VM, log on to the web console of the host and go to the VM Dashboard
(see VM Dashboard). In the VM Table view, select the PC VM you want to power on (one at a
time), and then select Power On.
6. Once all the PC VMs are powered on, check the status of the services from any one of the PC
VMs.
nutanix@pcvm$ cluster status
In the command output, verify that all the three services (Zeus, Scavenger, and VipMonitort) are
running.
7. Once all the three services start running, start the cluster from any one of the PC VMs.
nutanix@pcvm$ cluster start
• Leap
• Flow microsegmentation
• Prism Pro (AIOps)
• VM management
• Cluster management
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Flow networking (Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and Virtualized Networking based Advanced
Networking Controller (ANC))
• Calm
• LCM
• Karbon
• Objects
• Files
• Catalog
• Images
• VM templates
For Leap Recovery Jobs in progress, see this Note.
You can protect a Prism Central deployment either with the CLI-based Prism Central disaster
recovery solution or the GUI-based Prism Central disaster recovery solution described in this
document. For information about CLI-based Prism Central disaster recovery solution, contact
Nutanix Support.
Note: Nutanix does not recommend testing 1-Click Prism Central Disaster Recovery. Prism
Central Disaster Recovery must be manually triggered only when the Prism Central VM becomes
unavailable due to an unplanned event like a natural calamity, network outage, or power failure.
2. Click the settings button (gear icon) at the top-right corner of the window.
3. Click Prism Central Management in the General section on the left pane.
5. Click Continue, select one or more clusters to back up Prism Central, and then click Proceed.
Clicking Proceed starts synchronizing Prism Central configuration data to the selected
clusters. Creating the first backup on the selected clusters takes at least 30 minutes. After
the first backup, the system keeps synchronizing Prism Central configuration data with the
selected clusters every 30 minutes.
6. (optional) After the configuration, if you want to back up Prism Central to more clusters,
click + Add Backup. However, the number of clusters backing up Prism Central must not
exceed three.
7. (optional) After the configuration, if you want to remove a cluster from backing up Prism
Central, click Remove.
• The cluster used to recover Prism Central must be registered to the protected Prism Central.
• The ESXi cluster used to recover Prism Central must be registered to the vCenter Server.
• The cluster used to recover Prism Central must be running AOS 6.0 or newer.
• The cluster used to recover Prism Central must have ISCSI data service IP address for
efficient recovery of Leap or Calm service configurations.
Procedure
1. Log on to any Prism Element registered to Prism Central that you want to recover.
The Prism Element dashboard shows Prism Central widget. Prism Central information (IP
address and connection status) is available in the widget.
a. Select the cluster where you want to recover the Prism Central deployment.
b. Verify the version of Prism Central that would recover on the selected cluster.
c. Select the network where you want to recover and install Prism Central.
The Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS Address(s) fields show the relevant information
associated with the selected network.
d. Enter details (name, IP address) for the Prism Central deployment you want to recover
and click Save.
e. Review the summary and click Recover.
Prism Central recovers in at least 1 to 2 hours depending upon the configuration data that it
hosts. For example, CMSP enabled Prism Central recovers in at least 2 hours. The recovered
Prism Central takes additional 30 to 40 minutes to show all the guest VMs, disks, and
metrics. Do not perform any actions on the recovered Prism Central until all the recovery
tasks are completed on the cluster. You can see the status of recovery and the related
processes in the Tasks window.
What to do next
Consider the following after Prism Central recovery.
Note: Reconfiguring the IP address and gateway of Prism Central VMs does not require
additional steps when using Leap-based disaster recovery.
Procedure
1. Coordinate Prism Central downtime, because the features and functionality of Prism Central
will be unavailable for the entire duration of the IP address reconfiguration procedure.
2. Create a table to map the existing IP addresses with the new IP addresses of the Prism
Central VMs for your reference.
3. Use SSH to log on to any running Prism Central VM in the PC cluster or the single PC VM if
you do not have a PC cluster.
This command is valid even if you only have a single PC VM and do not have a PC cluster.
5. Run the NCC health checks to make sure that the PC cluster is in a healthy state.
6. If you want to reconfigure the IP addresses of the entities in the AOS clusters (such as IP
addresses of CVMs and hypervisor hosts), on which the PC is hosted, reconfigure those IP
addresses first before you reconfigure the IP addresses of the PC VMs.
This command is valid even if you only have a single PC VM and do not have a PC cluster.
Wait to proceed until an output showing all the services as DOWN is displayed, except the
Zeus and Scavenger services.
Procedure
2. Follow the prompts to type the new netmask, gateway, and external IP addresses.
A message similar to the following is displayed when the procedure begins:
External IP reconfig started
The message indicates that you must restart the CVMs. In this case, you are reconfiguring
the IP addresses of the PC VMs, so you must restart the PC VMs and not the CVMs.
Note:
If your PC VMs are running in a managed network of an AHV cluster, do not start the
PC VMs yet but proceed to step 3.
If your PC VMs are in an unmanaged network of an AHV cluster or are in an ESXi
cluster, skip steps 3, 4, and 5, and proceed to step 6 directly.
Perform steps 3, 4, and 5 only if the new IP address is in a different IP address range
than the previous IP address range and your PC VM is in a managed network of an
AHV cluster.
If the procedure fails, run the following command to check the log for troubleshooting
purposes:
nutanix@pcvm$ cat ~/data/logs/ip_reconfig.log
3. (Optional) Use SSH to log onto any CVM of the AOS cluster that is hosting the PC cluster or
PC VM.
Note: Perform this step only if the new IP address is in a different IP address range than the
previous IP address range and your PC VM is in a managed network of an AHV cluster.
Note: Perform this step only if the new IP address is in a different IP address range than the
previous IP address range and your PC VM is in a managed network of an AHV cluster.
5. (Optional) Log on to the Prism Element web console and modify the IP address range in the
IP pool for the PC network to work with the modified IP address of Prism Central VMs. In the
Prism Element web console, perform the following:
Note: Perform this step only if the new IP address is in a different IP address range than the
previous IP address range and your PC VM is in a managed network of an AHV cluster.
6. Restart each Prism Central VM in the PC cluster or the single PC VM if you do not have a PC
cluster.
7. Once the PC VMs are powered on, use SSH to log on to each PC VM or the single PC VM
if you do not have a PC cluster and verify if the output of the following verification script
displays the new IP addresses:
nutanix@pcvm$ python cluster/bin/external_ip_reconfig_verify.py
a. Log on to the Prism Element web console of every cluster attached to the PC VM whose
IP address you changed.
b. On the Home page, verify if the PC Registration status is displayed as OK. This might take
a few minutes after the PC VM or PC cluster is powered on.
Procedure
2. Click the hamburger icon at the top-left corner of the window. Go to Administration > AZs in
the left pane.
4. Click Connect.
Important: Nutanix recommends using Google Chrome web browser to access Prism Central.
The display of dashboard and widgets is optimized for Google Chrome browser.
• Main Dashboard tab. Click this tab to display the main dashboard. Additional tabs appear for
any custom dashboards you create.
• Manage Dashboard button. Click this button to create a custom dashboard, edit the name
of a custom dashboard, or delete a custom dashboard (see Creating a New Dashboard on
page 77).
• Reset Dashboard button. Click this button to reset the main dashboard to the default set of
widgets.
• Add Widget button. Click this button to add a widget to the displayed dashboard (see
Adding Dashboard Widgets on page 78).
• Light—The information is lightly packed in the widget with more spacing between the
elements.
• Default—The information is moderately packed with sufficient spacing between the
elements. This scheme of data density is based on user research by Nutanix.
• Dense—The information is densely packed with minimal spacing between the elements for
essential legibility.
Note: Manage Dashboards and Add Widget are Prism Pro license features. If Prism Pro is
disabled, these buttons disappear, and you cannot customize or add dashboards. Any custom
dashboards created before Prism Pro was disabled remain, but clicking the Reset All button
(which replaces the Reset Dashboard button) deletes all custom dashboards and returns the
main dashboard to the default state.
The following figure displays the sample view of a widget with a period (time) selection:
• Alerts. This widget displays colored bar graph representing the alerts raised in the period
selected. You can select the period on the drop down list at the top right corner of the
widget. Each category of alerts is represented as a colored bar. Click any bar on the graph
to see a list of the alerts represented in the bar. Click the View All Alerts link below the list to
see all the alerts on the Alerts page.
The Alerts categorized as Critical, Warning and Info are represented as red, yellow and blue
bars respectively in the graphs.
• Cluster Quick Access. This widget displays a list of the clusters managed by the Prism
Central. It allows you to open the Prism Element for a registered cluster in a new tab or
window by simply clicking the line for that cluster. The cluster name appears on the left of
each line while current health and alert icons (as appropriate) appear on the right.
• Cluster Storage. This widget displays storage and resiliency information for the highest
usage clusters. Each line includes the cluster name, a usage column with a bar that visually
indicates how much capacity is used currently, and a data resiliency column that displays
the current status (critical, warning, OK, or unknown). The cluster list is ordered by data
resiliency status with critical clusters at the top of the list. Click the cluster name to see
the cluster details page. Hovering the cursor over the usage bar displays a box with
usage details including data reduction ratio, usage percentage, used space, total space,
fault domain (disk, node, or rack), and fault tolerance level (0, 1, or 2). The data reduction
ratio indicates the data savings due to data reduction techniques such as deduplication,
Widgets on a Dashboard
Resize the Widgets
You can vertically resize of a widget by clicking and dragging down the resize handle at the
bottom of the widget. You cannot resize a widget horizontally.
The following figure provides an example of the resize handle.
When you click and drag up or down the resize handle to resize a widget, the widget placed
below the resized widget shifts upward or downward.
You can resize a widget in multiples of half the default length of the widget, such as half, one-
and-half, twice, two-and-half times the default length. Therefore, you can reduce the length to
half or expand it to one-and-half times or twice the default length. Even if you attempt to resize
it in any other variation of the default length, the widget auto-sizes itself to the nearest half
length.
Note: Creating a dashboard requires a Prism Pro license. The Manage Dashboards button does
not appear if Prism Pro is disabled.
Procedure
1. In the Main dashboard (see Main Dashboard on page 68), click the Manage Dashboards
button.
4. Click the tab for the new dashboard (to display that dashboard) and then click the Add
Widgets button.
The new dashboard is empty (no widgets) initially.
5. In the Add Widgets screen, select a widget and add it to the dashboard (see Adding
Dashboard Widgets on page 78).
Repeat this step until all the desired widgets have been added to the dashboard.
Note: Adding a widget to a dashboard requires a Prism Pro license. The Add Widgets button
does not appear if Prism Pro is disabled.
1. Go to the target (main or custom) dashboard and click the Add Widgets button on the far
right.
The following table describes the widgets that you can add to a dashboard.
Custom Widgets
Custom Alerts Displays a custom list of Widget Name - Enter a (user entered
Widget alerts. name for the widget. A name or settings-
name (which you can keep based name)
or overwrite) is provided
after selecting the other
options.
Top Lists Widget Displays a list of the top Widget Name - Enter a (user entered
performers for a selected name for the widget. A name or settings-
metric. name (which you can keep based name)
or overwrite) is provided
after selecting the other
options.
Compute & Storage Widgets - This widget appears on the Main dashboard by default (see
Main Dashboard on page 68).
Hardware Widgets - All these widgets (except Performance) appear on the Main dashboard
by default (see Main Dashboard on page 68).
Activity Widgets - The Tasks widget appears on the Main dashboard by default (see Main
Dashboard on page 68).
Operations Widgets - These widgets appear on the Main dashboard by default (see Main
Dashboard on page 68).
Disaster Recovery Widgets - These widgets appear on the Main dashboard by default (see
Main Dashboard on page 68).
Modifying a Dashboard
About this task
The Main dashboard provides a default view into the registered clusters, but you can customize
that view at any time. To modify the Main dashboard or any other dashboard you create, do the
following:
Note: Customizing a dashboard requires a Prism Pro license. The Add Widgets and Manage
Dashboards buttons do not appear if Prism Pro is disabled.
Procedure
1. Go to the Main dashboard (see Main Dashboard on page 68) and click the tab of the
dashboard to modify (main or previously added custom dashboard).
2. To add a widget to the displayed (main or custom) dashboard, click the Add Widgets
button, select a widget from the Add Widgets screen, and add it to the dashboard (see
Adding Dashboard Widgets on page 78).
3. To delete a widget, click the X icon in the upper right of the displayed tile.
A prompt appears to verify the delete; click the OK button. The widget then disappears from
the dashboard.
4. To reset the Main dashboard to the default set of widgets (after you have previously added
or deleted widgets), click the Reset Dashboard button.
A prompt appears to verify the reset; click the OK button. The main dashboard returns to its
default view.
6. To delete a custom dashboard, click the Manage Dashboards button and then click the X
icon for that dashboard.
A prompt appears to verify the delete; click the OK button. The tab for that dashboard
disappears from the screen.
Note: This section describes common dashboard elements and how you can customize the view.
See the appropriate <entity> Summary View section for a description of the specific fields and
options applicable to each entity view. The Entities menu is organized into group categories,
and the <entity> Summary View sections are located under one of the following group category
headings:
• Compute and Storage Entities on page 89 (VMs, OVAs, images, catalog items,
storage containers, storage policies, volume groups, vCenter datastores)
• Network and Security View on page 167 (subnets, virtual private clouds, floating
IPs, network connectivity with VPNS and VTEPS, and security policies)
• Policies on page 188 ( NGT policies, image placement policies)
• Data Protection and Recovery Entities on page 196 (protection summary,
protection policies, recovery plans, VM recovery points)
• Hardware Entities on page 200 (clusters, hosts, disks, GPUs)
• Activity Entities on page 240 (alerts, events, tasks, audits)
• Operations Entities on page 247 (analysis, cost management, app discovery,
monitoring integrations, operations policies, planning, playbooks, reports)
• Administration Entities on page 249 (categories, LCM, projects, roles, users,
availability zones)
• Services Entities on page 265 (Calm, Files, Foundation Central, Karbon, Objects)
These views reflect that Prism Central retains alerts and events for 90 days and hourly data for a
year by default.
Screen Layout
Common display elements in many dashboards include the following:
• A selection pane on the left that lists the entity type and number at the top.
• For hardware and virtual infrastructure entity types like clusters and VMs, the pane
includes five tabs: Summary, List, Alerts, Events, Metrics. Click the desired tab to display
that content in the main section of the screen.
• For most other entity types, the pane is blank (no tabs), and the relevant content appears
automatically in the main section of the screen.
• For some entity types, the pane does not appear.
• A menu bar with (left to right) selection options, action options (if any), grouping options,
and display options for the list, and a Filters button on the far right that when clicked
displays the Filters pane (hidden by default).
• A query field that identifies the filters (if any) being applied to the list. This field displays
all filter options that are currently in use. It also allows for basic filtering on the entity
name.
• A table (list) of entities. What is included in the table is determined by the grouping,
display, and filter options. Entities are displayed 20 per page by default (use the scroll
bar to scroll a page), but you can specify a different number per page (10 to 60) from the
pull-down list above the table (click "X - XX of XXX" to display list).
• A download icon (just above the table on the right); click the icon to download the table
contents in CSV format. You can download a maximum of 1000 rows.
Filter Options
When the main section displays a list of entities, you can filter the list by clicking the far right
icon in the menu bar to display the Filters pane. This pane includes a set of fields that vary
according to the type of entity. Select the desired field values to filter the list on those values.
An entry appears in the search field (see Searching for Information on page 20) for each value
you select. You can save a filter by clicking the start icon in the search field, or you can remove
a filter by clicking the X for that value.
Numeric filters have To/From fields to specify a range. These fields can take numeric values
along with units. For example, the filter adjusts the scale accordingly when you type in "10 K" or
"100 M".
Grouping Options
There are three (or four) drop-down menus on the right of the menu bar that allow you to
organize the entity information in several ways.
• The View by menu allows you to specify the type of displayed information.
Note: A general focus is available for all entities, but the other options are available only when
appropriate for that entity.
1. Select the Add Custom button at the bottom of the Focus menu.
2. In the <entity> Column window, do the following:
1. Enter a name for the custom display in the first (top) field.
2. Select (click the blue + circle for) each entity property in the left column you want in
your display. The selected entity properties appear in the right column. You can filter
the entity-property list by entering a string in the search field above the left column.
You can select a maximum of 10 columns in one custom display including the Name
column.
The <entity> Column window disappears and the new custom display appears (by name)
in the Focus menu. To view that display at any time, select it from the menu.
Note: Only the user that created a custom display can view that custom display. Other
users and the administrative user cannot view that custom display.
• The Color menu allows you to color code the entries based on a selected parameter, as
illustrated in the Circles View figure.
• The Group menu allows you to group the entries based on a selected parameter, as
illustrated in the Circles View figure.
• The Sort menu allows you to sort the entries based on a selected parameter. This
menu appears for the Tiles and Circles views only; ordering in the Grid (tabular) view is
accomplished by clicking on a column header.
• While some administrative tasks for a cluster must be done through Prism Element (see
the Prism Web Console Guide), you can perform other administrative tasks directly from
Prism Central. Action buttons for such tasks appear in the menu bar when an entity type is
selected. For example, buttons for creating a VM and configuring the network appear in the
VMs view. (No buttons appear when there are no relevant actions available for the selected
entity type.)
• When one or more entities are selected from the list, an Actions menu appears in the menu
bar. The menu includes actions that you can do to the selected entities. For example, the
VMs menu includes actions such as power on or clone which will be executed on all the
selected VMs. (Only currently valid actions are available; other menu options are inactive and
appear gray.)
• When one or more entities are selected from the list, a label icon appears (next to the
Actions menu). Labels allow you to create custom groupings for the entities. To add a label,
click the icon and enter the label name in the field. The label is applied to all the selected
entities in the list.
• Select all entries in the list by checking the box or choosing Select all from the pull-down
list.
• Unselect all by unchecking the box or choosing Clear selections from the pull-down list.
• Show just the selected entries by choosing Show selected entities from the pull-down list.
Note: These views reflect that Prism Central retains alerts and events for 90 days and hourly
data for a year by default.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the VMs dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in various ways.
• See VM Management on page 534 for information about creating and managing
VMs.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following four widgets:
• Suggested: Displays a list of the VMs with the highest usage of the parameter you select
from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The options are CPU Usage, IO Latency,
Memory Usage, and IOPS. Click the View All XX VMs link at the bottom to display the List
tab (following section).
• Alert: Displays a list of VM-related alerts that occurred during the specified interval. Select
either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu. When an alert
appears, you can click the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts. Clicking an alert
displays the details page for that alert.
• Anomalies: Displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk anomalies that
occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week
from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click the graph, which then
displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking an anomaly displays the event page for that
anomaly.
• VM Efficiency: Displays the number of VMs that are considered inefficient broken down by
category (overprovisioned, inactive, constrained, and bully). This widget is the same that
appears in the main dashboard (see Main Dashboard on page 68). See Behavioral Learning
Tools on page 846 for more information about VM efficiency.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a
list of the VMs across the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields that
appear in the VMs list. The fields vary based on the View by menu selection, which is General,
Performance, Efficiency, or GPU. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available
or applicable.
Note: Create your own customized view and add the necessary columns to that view.
vCPU Displays the virtual CPU count of the VM. (vCPU count)
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
VM resides.
Hypervisor Displays the hypervisor type on which the VM AHV, ESX, or Hyper-V
is running.
Project Displays the name of the project to which this (project name)
VM belongs.
Owner Displays the owner (user name) of this VM. (user name)
Controller Read IOPS Displays read I/O operations per second (number)
(IOPS) for this VM.
Controller Write IOPS Displays write I/O operations per second for (number)
this VM.
Controller I/O Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
Bandwidth this VM.
Controller I/O Latency Displays the average I/O latency for this VM. xxx [ms]
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
VM resides.
Project Displays the name of the project to which this (project name)
VM belongs.
Owner Displays the owner (user name) of this VM. (user name)
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
VM resides.
GPU Configuration Displays the GPU board (in case of (GPU board/software-
Passthrough mode), vGPU software, type and type name)
number of vGPU instances in brackets (in case
you configured the vGPU mode). Example: Passthrough
- Nvidia Tesla M60
Example: vGPU -
Nvidia GRID M60-8Q
(2)
You can filter the VMs list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table describes
the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select a parameter
and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a filter. You can
apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require additional context such
as a constraint string or a range. Click the plus (+) sign to the right of the parameter name to
expand the fields for that parameter; click the minus (-) sign to contract those fields.
Host Filters on the host name. Select a condition (host name string)
from the pull-down list and enter a string in
the field. It will return a list of VMs that satisfy
the host name condition/string.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Select a condition (cluster name string)
from the pull-down list and enter a string in
the field. It will return a list of VMs that satisfy
the cluster name condition/string.
Hypervisor Filters on the hypervisor type. Check one AHV, ESX, HyperV
or more of the boxes to filter on those
hypervisors. The number of VMs currently on
each hypervisor type is displayed on the right
of the line.
Power State Filters on the VM power state. Select one On, Off, Suspended,
or more states to return a list of VMs in that Paused, Unknown
state(s). The number of VMs currently in each
state is displayed on the right of the line.
VM Type Filters on the type of VM. Select either user User VM, AHV
VM or Controller VM (or both). The number of Controller VM
VMs of each type is displayed on the right of
the line.
Memory Usage Filters on the amount of memory capacity ([xx] to [yy]% range)
being used. Check the box for the desired
percentage range or enter a percentage range
in the "from <low> to <high> %" field. It will
return a list of VMs utilizing memory in that
range.
Read IOPS Filters on the read IOPS. Check the box for the ([xx] to [yy] range)
desired range or enter a range in the "from
<low> to <high> iops" field. It will return a list
of VMs with read IOPS in that range.
Write IOPS Filters on the write IOPS. Check the box for ([xx] to [yy] range)
the desired range or enter a range in the "from
<low> to <high> iops" field. It will return a list
of VMs with write IOPS in that range.
I/O Bandwidth Filters on the I/O bandwidth used. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> bps" field. It will
return a list of VMs with I/O bandwidth usage
in that range.
I/O Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It will
return a list of VMs with average I/O latency in
that range.
Constrained Filters for constrained VMs. Check the box(es) High, Moderate
for the desired type (high and moderate).
Efficiency Filters for certain VM profiles. Check the boxes Bully, Over
for the desired profile types. There is one for Provisioned,
efficient VMs (good) and four for inefficient Constrained, Inactive
VMs (bully, over-provisioned, constrained, VM, Good
inactive).
GPU Configuration Filters for GPU configuration information such (configuration info)
as model name. Enter the GPU configuration
information in the field and then check the
box. As you type a pull-down list appears
to help you select the correct configuration
information.
GPU Type Filters for GPU operational mode. Check the vGPU, Passthrough,
box for one or more of the GPU types. Passthrough(Compute)
GPU Usage Filters on the amount of GPU capacity being ([xx] to [yy]% range)
used. Enter a percentage range in the "from
<low> to <high> %" field. It will return a list of
GPUs in that range.
GPU Framebuffer Filters on the amount of GPU framebuffer ([xx] to [yy]% range)
Usage (RAM) capacity being used. Enter a
percentage range in the "from <low> to
<high> %" field. It will return a list of GPUs in
that range.
vGPU Guest driver Filters on the guest driver version. Enter the (guest driver version
Version guest driver version number in the field. number)
Export VM information. You can export the table containing the list of VMs and their
information to a file in a CSV format by clicking the export icon on the right.
You can group the VM list in the following ways:
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group the VM entries by cluster, hypervisor, power
state, virtual CPU count, or health state. (You can only choose one.)
• To assign an existing label (if there are existing labels), select the desired label and then
click Apply changes.
• To assign a new label, enter a meaningful label in the blank text field and then click Create
new label.
You can now perform any actions available on this labeled group from the Actions menu
(see following section). You can edit or delete the label by clicking the Label icon and
selecting Manage Labels.
The VMs view includes two action buttons:
• To create a VM, click the Create VM button. You can create a VM on a cluster running AHV
or ESXi (see Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535 or Creating a VM
through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 574).
• To configure the network, click the Network Config button (see Configuring Network
Connections on page 731).
The Actions menu appears when one or more VMs are selected. It includes the following
actions:
Policies Tab
The Policies tab displays Affinity Policies (see Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central on
page 604) and NGT Policies (see NGT Policies on page 607).
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just VM-related alerts across the registered
clusters (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just VM-related events across the
registered clusters (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view performance metrics across the VMs. Clicking the
Metrics tab displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant
performance information to the right. The following table describes the available metrics.
(Some metrics are not available on all hypervisors.)
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays a CPU usage table listing current values and total
VMs (number). The current values are split into percentile
intervals (for example, less than 25%, 25-50, 50-75, more than
75%). Clicking a percentile interval displays the Summary tab
filtered to just those VMs.
CPU Ready Time Displays a CPU ready time percentage usage table.
IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.
I/O Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.
Working Set Size Displays total, snapshot, and shared working set size tables.
Working set is the amount of memory that a VM requires in a
given time interval.
Network packets dropped Displays tables for the number of transmitted and received
packets dropped.
Network bytes Displays tables for the amount of transmitted and received
bytes (in GiB).
Disk Usage Displays a disk usage table listing current values and total VMs
(number). The current values are split into percentile intervals
(for example, l3.68% - 4.1%, more than 4.93%). Clicking a
percentile interval displays the Summary tab filtered to just
those VMs.
VM Details View
To access the details page for a VM, go to the VMs List tab (see VMs Summary View on
page 90) and click the VM name. You can also access the details page by clicking the VM
name wherever that name appears, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The VM name and the following set of tabs appear on the left: Summary, Console, Data
Protection, Alerts, Events, Metrics, NICs, Disks, Snapshots, Categories, and Apps &
Relationships. Click a tab to display that information on the right. (Click the Back to VMs link to
return to the VMs summary view.)
Note: VirtIO must be installed in a VM for AHV to display correct VM memory statistics.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the VM (see following table).
• An Alert widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default)
or Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking an anomaly displays the event page for
that anomaly.
• A Storage Properties - Associations widget that displays the storage properties of the VM
as defined in the storage policy associated with the VM and the other entities like Virtual
The widget displays the actual values for Encryption and Compression that is applied to
the VM. For the values that are displayed in the Storage Policy dashboard as Inherited from
Cluster also the Storage Properties Association widget displays the actual inherited values.
• Action button (above the widgets). Click the appropriate button to run that administrative
action on the VM. The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. The
available actions depend on the current state of the VM. See Managing a VM through Prism
Central (AHV) on page 552 for instructions on how to perform each action.
Note: You can perform administrative actions on VMs in Acropolis-managed clusters only.
Unavailable actions are grayed out.
Efficiency Displays the efficiency state for this VM. Bully, Over
If the efficiency is not good, an additional Provisioned,
field may appear that specifies the problem. Constrained, Inactive
For example, if the VM is constrained, a VM, Good
Constrained field appears that identifies the
constrained resource such as the CPU or
memory.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
VM resides.
Host Displays the host name. This field may be (host name)
blank if the VM is powered off and a host is
not assigned.
Virtual CPU Count Displays the number of virtual CPUs assigned (number)
to this VM.
Disk Capacity Displays the total disk capacity available to xxx [GB|TB]
this VM.
NGT Status
Services Enabled Displays the services enabled for this VM. Calm, Karbon
GPU Configuration Displays the vGPU profile used. (vGPU profile name)
Virtual Slice Displays the virtual slice applied. The "virtual (slice amount)
slice" reflects the approximate amount of
physical GPU resources that the vGPU can
receive.
vGPU Guest Driver Displays the version number of the vGPU (version number)
Version guest driver.
The following table describes the fields in the Storage Properties widget. A dash (-) in a
field indicates that there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned. For more
information about the parameters, see Storage Policy Details View on page 139.
The following table describes the fields in the Associations widget. A dash (-) in a field indicates
that there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned.
Note:
• The Recent label indicates the last accessed entity instances. The widget displays a
maximum of three recently accessed entity instances.
• The filtered list of VMs display only the powered-on VM instances.
• If the VMs are not filtered on a host instance, all VMs on the selected cluster are
displayed.
Console Tab
The Console tab displays the VM console screen. There are three icons above the console
display (on the right).
• Click the left (three small boxes) icon to send a Control-Alt-Delete command to the console.
• Click the middle (camera) icon to take a screen shot of the console display.
• Click the right (box with an arrow in it) icon to open the console in a new window.
You can restore or replicate a VM from a recovery point. Select the recovery point and click the
required action from the Actions menu:
• Click Replicate to replicate a VM from the selected recovery point either locally or remotely
in a state of a chosen recovery point.
• Click Restore to restore the VM from the selected recovery point.
• Click Delete to delete the recovery point.
Snapshots Tab
The Snapshots tab displays information in tabular form about backup snapshots of the VM
taking from Prism Element. Each line represent a snapshot, and the following information is
displayed for each snapshot:
• Click the Details link to open a window that displays the snapshot details.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this VM (see Alerts Summary
View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the VM. Click the Metrics tab and then the
desired metric name (see following table) to display a graph for that metric on the right. The
graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage monitor. The baseline range appears as a
blue band in the graph.
Note: The baseline range and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-learning
capabilities (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846). The machine-learning algorithm
uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance. A graph or baseline band may not
appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week, last 21 days).
• [I/O-based metrics] Check one or more appropriate boxes to have the graph display total,
read, or write usage (or any combination of the three).
• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).
The following table describes the available metrics. (Some of these metrics are not available on
all hypervisors.)
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the VM (0–100%).
CPU Ready Time Displays the current, high, and low percentage of CPU wait
time (0–100%).
IOPS Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
operations per second (IOPS) for the VM.
IO Latency Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read average I/O
latency (in milliseconds) for physical disk requests by the VM.
IO Bandwidth Displays separate graphs for total, write (only), and read
(only) I/O bandwidth used per second (MBps or KBps) for
physical disk requests by the VM.
Working Set Size Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read storage
usage (in GiBs) for the VM working set size.
Network Packets Dropped Displays separate graphs for the number of transmitted and
received packets dropped.
Network Bytes Displays separate graphs for the amount of transmitted and
received bytes (in GiBs).
NICs Tab
The NICs tab displays information in tabular form about the virtual NICs in the VM. Each line
represent a virtual NIC, and the following table describes the fields.
MAC Address Displays the virtual NIC MAC address. (MAC address)
Disks Tab
The Disks tab displays information in tabular form about the virtual disks in the VM. Each line
represents a virtual disk, and includes the following fields.
Categories Tab
The Categories tab displays the categories and image placement policies associated with the
VM. Each VM can have a one-to-many relationship with categories and the categories can have
a many-to-one relationship with image placement policies.
For more information about categories management and image placement policies, see
Category Management on page 742 and Image Placement Policies on page 685.
Note: In case of dual NIC VMs, click and expand the App listing to view the specific IP that is
being used by the application.
Incoming List: Displays a list of entities having incoming communication with this VM. Each line
represents an incoming communication and includes the following fields.
Source Entity Name Displays the name of the communicating (VM name), Unknown
entity. If the entity is not identified by Prism
Central (through registered PE or through
vCenter using monitoring configurations
feature), the name is displayed as unknown.
Destination App Displays the name of the application that is (application name),
being communicated to. If the application is Unknown
not an identified one, the Destination App is
displayed as Unknown.
Destination Port Displays the port used by the application for (port number)
communication.
You can filter this list by opening the Filter pane to select a filter option. The following table
describes the filter options for Incoming List. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Source Entity Name Filters on the source entity name. Select a (source entity name
condition from the pull-down list (Contains, string)
Equal to, Not equal to, Doesn't contain,
Starts with, Ends with) and enter a string in
the field.
Destination App Filters on the destination app (same options (Destination App
as Source Entity Name). string)
TCP Port Filters on the TCP port number. (TCP port number)
UDP Port Filters on the UDP port number. (UDP port number)
Outgoing List: Displays a list of entities having outgoing communication from this VM. Each line
represents an outgoing communication and includes the following fields.
Destination Entity Displays the name of the entity this VM (entity name),
Name is communicating to. If the entity is not Unknown
identified by Prism Central (through registered
PE or through vCenter using monitoring
configurations feature), the name is displayed
as unknown.
Destination IP Address Displays the IP Address of the entity this VM is (IP address)
communicating to.
You can filter this list by opening the Filter pane to select a filter option. The following table
describes the filter options for Outgoing List. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
The filters fetch the latest discovery and communication data and accordingly display the result
set, to the maximum of 20 results.
Destination Entity Filters on the destination entity name. Select (destination entity
Name a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, name string)
Equal to, Not equal to, Doesn't contain,
Starts with, Ends with) and enter a string in
the field.
TCP Port Filters on the TCP port number. (TCP port number)
UDP Port Filters on the UDP port number. (UDP port number)
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the templates
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in various ways.
Compute Displays the virtual CPU count of the VM that (vCPU count)
is deployed using this template.
Updated On Displays the last date and time when the (date and time)
template has been updated.
Active Version Displays the name of the active version of the (version)
template. An active version is the version of
the template that by default gets deployed
when you click the Deploy VMs button.
You can filter the template list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use
as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require
additional context such as a constraint string or a range. Click the plus (+) sign to the right of
the parameter name to expand the fields for that parameter; click the minus (-) sign to contract
those fields.
You can sort the list of templates by clicking on Name and Updated On columns.
The templates view includes an action button Deploy VMs along with the Actions menu. To
deploy VMs using the VM template, click the Deploy VMs button. By default the active version
of the template gets deployed.
The Actions menu appears when one or more templates are selected. It includes the following
actions:
Summary View
The Summary view includes an action button Deploy VMs along with the Actions menu. There
are only two options available in the Actions menu under this view: Set as Active and Delete.
You can select a version and set it as active, or delete a selected version. You cannot delete an
active version of the template.
The following set of widgets appears on the details page: Template, Active Version, VM
Properties, and VM Resources. Click the Back to Templates link to return to the template
summary view.
• Compute: Compute resources of the VM such as CPU, core per CPU, and memory
• Boot Type: Boot type of the VM such as legacy or UEFI
• Guest OS: Guest OS of the VM. If the source VM of the template does not have NGT
installed on it, then this field is displayed as unknown.
• Guest Customization: Status of the guest customization application (applied/not applied)
• NGT Status: Status of the NGT installation
• VM resources: The widget displays the following:
Versions View
The Versions view includes an action button Deploy VMs along with the Actions menu. There
are only two options available in the Actions menu under this view: Set as Active and Delete.
You can select a version and set it as active, or delete a selected version. You cannot delete an
active version of the template.
Name Displays the version name. This column also (template name)
indicates if the version is an active version.
Compute Displays the virtual CPU count of the VM that (vCPU count)
gets deployed using this version.
Network Displays the NIC count of the VM that gets (NIC count)
deployed using this version.
Added On Displays the last date and time when the (date and time)
version was added.
You can sort the list of versions by clicking on Name and Added On columns.
OVAs View
To access the OVAs dashboard, select Compute & Storage > OVAs from the entities menu
(see Entities Menu on page 13). The OVAs dashboard allows you to view information about the
OVAs available in the cluster.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the OVAs dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See OVA Management on page 694 for information about the OVA operations.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the catalog items list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
OVA Name Displays the name of the OVA file. (file name)
Date added Displays the date and time when the (date in mm/dd/yyyy
OVA was added. format, time in hr:min:sec
[AM|PM] format)
Example: 07/30/20,
3:00:20 PM
You can filter the catalog items list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
For each filter, select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with,
Ends with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the field.
OVA Name Filters on the OVA file name. It returns a list of (OVA file name string)
OVAs that satisfy the name condition/string.
Disk Format Filters on the disk format. Check the box(es) VMDK, QCOW2
for the OVAs of the required disk format.
The Actions menu appears when a OVA is selected. It allows you to:
Note: The resume upload action is not available in case the concatenate process of the
upload is interrupted. In such a case, you need to run the Concatenate API from the REST API
Explorer to resume the upload.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the images dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Image Management on page 666 for information about adding and managing
images through Prism Central.
• See Image Placement Policies on page 685 for information on AHV affinity policies.
• See Bandwidth Throttling Policies on page 690 for information on how to create
and apply NGT-related policies.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the Images.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the images list. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
You can filter the images list based on several parameter values. The following table describes
the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select a parameter
and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a filter. You can
apply filters across multiple parameters.
Type Filters on the image type. Check the box(es) Disk, ISO
for the desired image types.
• Add Image Click to add an image (see Creating an Image on page 667).
• Import Images Click to import images from registered clusters to Prism Central (see
Importing Images to Prism Central on page 684.
The Actions menu appears when one or more images are selected. It includes delete, update,
and add image to catalog options (see Modifying an Image on page 683). The available
actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip
explaining the reason is provided.)
Policies Tab
The Policies tab displays the Placement Policies (see Image Placement Policies on page 685)
and Bandwidth Throttling Policies (see Bandwidth Throttling Policies on page 690).
• Image name (upper left). You can switch from one image to another by selecting a different
image name from the pull-down list.
• Image information (middle left). The information includes the image description, type, size,
and creator name (see Creating an Image on page 667).
• Tab options (lower left). Select the Location (default) or Policies tab to display that tab
content to the right.
Location Tab
The following table describes the information displayed in the Location tab, which appears by
default when you first open the page.
Name Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
image is stored. Each row represents another
cluster that contains the image.
AOS Version Displays the AOS version running in the (AOS version number)
cluster.
Hypervisor Displays the name of the hypervisor running in AHV, ESXi, Hyper-V
the cluster.
Policies Tab
The Policies tab lists the policies that apply to the image (see Image Placement Policies on
page 685). The following table describes the information displayed in the Policies tab.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the catalog items
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Catalog Management on page 662 for information about the catalog service
and how to add (or delete) items.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the catalog items list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
Description Indicates which user added this item to the (text string)
catalog.
You can filter the catalog items list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the item name. Select a condition (image name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It returns a list of
catalog items that satisfy the name condition/
string.
Type Filters on the item type. Check the box(es) for Vm, Image
the desired item types.
You can group the catalog items list in the following ways:
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group by type (VM and image).
• The View by pull-down menu allows you to view by name, description, message, percent,
reason, state, and type.
The Actions menu appears when one or more catalog items are selected. It allows you to delete
the selected catalog items (see Deleting a Catalog Item on page 665).
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following three widgets:
• Highlighted Entities: Displays a list of the storage containers with the highest usage of the
parameter you select from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The options are
IO Latency, IOPS, and IO Bandwidth. Click the name to display the details page for that
storage container. Click the View all XX Storage Containers link at the bottom to display the
List tab (following section).
• Alert: Displays a list of storage container-related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu.
• Anomalies: Displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk anomalies that
occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week
from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click the graph, which then
displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking an anomaly displays the event page for that
anomaly.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the storage containers across the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields
that appear in the storage containers list. The fields vary based on the Focus menu selection,
which is either General or Performance. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not
available or applicable.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
storage container resides. Click the name to
display the cluster details (see Cluster Details
View on page 208).
Free Space Displays the amount of free space available in xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container.
Used Space Displays the amount of used space in the xxx [GB|TB]
storage container.
Total Space Displays the total amount of storage space in xxx [TB]
the storage container.
I/O Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
for Controller VM-serviced requests in this
storage container.
I/O Latency Displays the average I/O latency for Controller xxx [ms]
VM-serviced requests in this storage
container.
Data Reduction Ratio Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1
that results from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.
Effective Free Space Displays the amount of logical free space xxx [GB|TB]
after data reduction (logical free space x data
reduction ratio).
You can filter the storage containers list based on various parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the storage containers view Filter pane. To
apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require more context such as a constraint string or a range.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Select a condition (cluster name string)
from the pull-down list (same options as for
name) and enter a string in the field. It returns
a list of storage containers in the clusters that
satisfy the name condition/string.
Cache Deduplication Filters on the cache deduplication setting. On, Off, None, Inline,
Select one or more settings to return a list of Post Process
storage containers with those settings. The
number of storage containers currently in
each setting is displayed on the right of the
line.
Capacity Filters on the capacity deduplication setting. On, Off, None, Inline,
Deduplication Select one or more settings to return a list of Post Process
storage containers with those settings. The
number of storage containers currently in
each setting is displayed on the right of the
line.
Erasure Coding Filters on the erasure coding setting. Select On, Off
one or both settings to return a list of storage
containers with those settings. The number of
storage containers currently in each setting is
displayed on the right of the line.
Free Space Filters on the available storage space for ([xx] to [yy] GiB
a storage container. Check the box for the range)
desired range or enter an amount range in the
"from <low> to <high> GiB" field. It returns
a list of storage containers with available
capacity in that range.
Used Space Filters on the used storage space for a storage ([xx] to [yy] GiB
container. Check the box for the desired range range)
or enter an amount range in the "from <low>
to <high> GiB" field. It returns a list of storage
containers with used storage in that range.
Total Space Filters on the total available capacity for a ([xx] to [yy] GiB
storage container. Check the box for the range)
desired range or enter an amount range in the
"from <low> to <high> GiB" field. It returns
a list of storage containers with maximum
capacity in that range.
IOPS Filters on the current IOPS. Check the box for ([xx] to [yy] range)
the desired range or enter a range in the "from
<low> to <high> iops" field. It will return a list
of storage containers with IOPS in that range.
I/O Bandwidth Filters on the I/O bandwidth used. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> bps" field. It will
return a list of storage containers with I/O
bandwidth usage in that range.
I/O Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It returns
a list of storage containers with average I/O
latency in that range.
You can group the storage containers list in the following ways:
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just storage container-related alerts across the
registered clusters (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just storage container-related events
across the registered clusters (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics across the storage containers. Clicking the
Metrics tab displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant
information to the right. The following table describes the available metrics.
Metric Description
IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS graphs listing current
values and total containers (number). The current values are
split into intervals (for example, less than 700, 700-1400,
1400-2000, more than 2000).
I/O Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate graphs.
I/O Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate graphs.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the storage container (see
following table).
• A Usage widget that displays usage data for the storage container (see following table).
• An Optimization & Performance widget that displays optimization and performance data for
the storage container (see following table).
• An Alerts widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select Last week (default), Last 1 Hours, or Last 24 hours from the pull-down menu.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default)
or Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking an anomaly displays the event page for
that anomaly.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties, Usage, and Optimization &
Performance widgets. A dash (-) in a field indicates that there is not enough data to evaluate or
a value is not assigned. The displayed fields vary by hypervisor.
"Properties" Widget
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
storage container resides. Click the name to
display the cluster details (see Cluster Details
View on page 208).
Filesystem Whitelists Displays the IP addresses for file systems that [IP addresses]
are whitelisted.
Thick Provision Displays the reserved storage capacity for xxx [GB|TB]
thick provisioned VMs.
Effective Free Space Displays the amount of logical free space xxx [GB|TB]
after data reduction (logical free space x data
reduction ratio).
"Usage" Widget
Free Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical (effective) free xxx [GB|TB]
space available in the storage container.
Used Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical used space in xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container.
Reserved Space Displays the amount of logical reserved space xxx [GB|TB]
(Logical) in the storage container.
Total Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical total space in xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container.
Free Space (Physical) Displays the amount of physical free space xxx [GB|TB]
available in the storage container.
Used Space (Physical) Displays the amount of physical used space in xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container.
Total Space (Physical) Displays the amount of physical total space in xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container.
Data Reduction Ratio Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1
that results from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.
I/O Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
for Controller VM-serviced requests in this
storage container.
I/O Latency Displays the average I/O latency for Controller xxx [ms]
VM-serviced requests in this storage
container.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this storage container (see Alerts
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just events for this storage container (see
Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the storage container. Click the Metrics
tab to display graphs for nine metrics: Storage Controller IOPS, Storage Controller Read IOPS,
Storage Controller Write IOPS Storage Controller Latency, Storage Controller Read Latency,
Storage Controller Write Latency, Storage Controller IO Bandwidth, Storage Controller Read
IO Bandwidth, Storage Controller Write IO Bandwidth. Each graph is a rolling time interval
performance or usage monitor. The baseline range (when established) appears as a blue band
in the graph.
Note: The baseline range and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-learning
capabilities (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846). The machine-learning algorithm
uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance. A graph or baseline band may not
appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week).
• Click Add to Analysis to add an active monitor for the metric on the Analysis dashboard.
• Click Select Analysis Session to assign the metric to a target session.
• Click the filter button to display the filter panel; check (uncheck) the desired boxes to display
(hide) those metrics.
• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).
• The Usage Summary graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of storage container
storage usage that can vary from one to several hours depending on activity moving from
right to left. Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that
time. For more in-depth analysis, you can add the monitor to the analysis page by clicking
the blue link in the upper right of the graph.
• The Tier-wise Usage graph displays a pie chart divided into the percentage of container
storage space used by each disk tier (SSD and DAS-SATA).
Note: Storage Policies dashboard is not available if you log on as a view-only user.
Figure 91:
The Storage Policies dashboard summary view displays information about the storage policies
configured in Prism Central for the registered clusters and allows you to access detailed
information about each storage policy. The dashboard has List tab with a display area below
the selected tab that displays a list of the storage policies.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Storage Policies
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in various ways.
List Tab
The List tab appears by default when you first open the Storage Policies dashboard, displays a
list of the security policies across the registered clusters.
• Create Storage Policybutton: Click this button to open the Create Storage Policy page. See
Creating or Updating a Storage Policy on page 655 for more information about creating a
storage policy.
• Actions drop down menu: This menu includes two actions - Update and Delete.
Click Update to open the Update Storage Policy page. The Update Storage Policy has the
same fields as the Create Storage Policy page. See Creating or Updating a Storage Policy on
page 655 for more information about creating a storage policy.
Click Delete to delete a storage policy.
Note: If there are any categories or entities like VMs that are associated with the storage
policy, Prism Central displays a message box that says the following:
This will remove the enforcement of the storage policy ‘tp-test1’ on all 1
associated entities across 2 Categories. Any policy overridden by tp-test1
You can preview the changes by clicking the Preview Changes link. The Change Preview
dialog box provides details of the categories and entities that are affected by the deletion.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the security policies list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
For more information about Storage Policies, see Storage Policy Management on page 652.
• Summary—displayed by default when you open the storage policy details page. This tab
provides information about the storage policy summarized into widgets.
• Categories—displays a list of Categories associated with the storage policy.
• Entities—displays the list of entities including VMs associated with the storage policy.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab displays the following:
• Update button: Click this button to open the Update Storage Policy page and modify the
storage policy. This page has the same parameters as the Create Storage Policy page. See
Creating or Updating a Storage Policy on page 655 for more information about creating a
storage policy.
• Delete button: Click this button to delete the storage policy. When you delete a storage
policy, the categories and entities associated with the policy are governed by any other
policy that is applied to the category or entity.
The Summary tab displays information about the storage policy in following widgets:
Properties Description
• Inline
• Post Process
• Off to disable compression.
• Inherit from Cluster where the entity inherits the
compression configuration from the container.
Properties Description
Categories Tab
The Categories tab displays the following:
• Manage Associations button: Click this button to add or delete category associations.
• The list of categories associated with the storage policy. The following table provides the
details of the categories associated.
Properties Description
Entities Tab
The Entities tab displays the following:
• Manage Categories button: Click this button to add or delete category associations. You
can only associate entities to a storage policy if the entities are associated with one or more
categories.
Note: Storage policies use categories to associate with entities like VMs. For more
information about the requirements and limitations for storage policies, see Storage Policy
Management on page 652.
• The list of entities (VMs) associated with the storage policy. The following table provides the
details of the entities associated.
Properties Description
Note:
• This section describes the information and options that appear in the volume groups
dashboard. See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and
organize that information in various ways.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following two widgets:
• Highlighted Entities: Displays a list of the volume groups with the highest usage of the
parameter you select from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The options are
IO Latency, IOPS, and IO Bandwidth. Click the name to display the details page for that
volume group. Click the View all XX Volume Groups link at the bottom to display the List tab
(following section).
• Alert: Displays a list of storage container-related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list
of volume groups across the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields that
appear in the volume groups list. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available
or applicable.
I/O Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
Controller VM-serviced requests in this volume
group.
I/O Latency Displays the average I/O latency for Controller xxx [ms]
VM-serviced requests in this volume group.
Cluster Name Displays the name of the cluster in which (cluster name)
the volume group resides. Click the name to
display the cluster details (see Cluster Details
View on page 208).
You can filter the volume groups list based on various parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the volume groups view Filter pane. To
apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require more context such as a constraint string or a range.
Name Filters on the volume group name. Select a (volume group name
condition from the pull-down list (Contains, string)
Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or
Equal to) and enter a string in the field. It
returns a list of volume groups that satisfy the
name condition/string.
Usage Filters on the used storage space for a volume ([xx] to [yy] GiB
group. Check the box for the desired range range)
or enter an amount range in the "from <low>
to <high> GiB" field. It returns a list of volume
groups with used storage in that range.
Cluster Name Filters on the cluster name. Select a condition (cluster name string)
from the pull-down list (same options as for
name) and enter a string in the field. It returns
a list of volume groups in the clusters that
satisfy the name condition/string.
IOPS Filters on the current IOPS. Check the box for ([xx] to [yy] range)
the desired range or enter a range in the "from
<low> to <high> iops" field. It returns a list of
volume groups with IOPS in that range.
I/O Bandwidth Filters on the I/O bandwidth used. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range
in the "from <low> to <high> bps" field.
It returns a list of volume groups with I/O
bandwidth usage in that range.
I/O Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range
in the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It
returns a list of volume groups with average I/
O latency in that range.
The volume groups view includes two action buttons and an actions menu:
• To create a volume group, click the Create Volume Group button (see Creating a Volume
Group on page 642).
• To update or delete a volume group, click the Update or Delete button (see Modifying a
Volume Group on page 646).
• To manage external client connections for a volume group, select the volume group and
then select Manage Connections from the Actions menu (see Managing Volume Group
Connections on page 647).
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just volume group-related alerts across the
registered clusters (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Metric Description
IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS graphs listing current
values and total containers (number). The current values are
split into intervals (for example, less than 700, 700-1400,
1400-2000, more than 2000).
I/O Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate graphs.
I/O Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate graphs.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the storage container (see
following table).
The following table describes the fields in the Properties and Usage and Performance widgets.
A dash (-) in a field indicates that there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not
assigned. The displayed fields vary by hypervisor.
"Properties" Widget
Flash Mode Displays whether Flash Mode is enabled for [Enabled, Disabled]
the volume group.
iSCSI Target Name Displays the name of the iSCSI target. (ISCSI name)
Free Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical (effective) free xxx [GB|TB]
space available in the volume group.
Used Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical used space in xxx [GB|TB]
the volume group.
Total Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical total space in xxx [GB|TB]
the volume group.
I/O Latency Displays the average I/O latency for Controller xxx [ms]
VM-serviced requests in this volume group.
I/O Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
Controller VM-serviced requests in this volume
group.
• To update or delete the volume group, click the Update or Delete button (see Modifying a
Volume Group on page 646).
• To manage external client connections for the volume group, click the Manage Connections
button (see Managing Volume Group Connections on page 647).
Storage Container Displays the name of the storage container in (container name)
which the virtual disk is located.
Used Space Displays the amount of used space in the xxx [GB|TB]
virtual disk.
Total Space Displays the total amount of storage space in xxx [GB|TB]
the virtual disk.
Read IOPS Displays the current read I/O operations per [0 - unlimited]
second (IOPS) for the virtual disk.
Read Latency Displays the average read I/O latency for the xxx [ms]
virtual disk.
Read Bandwidth Displays read I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
for the virtual disk.
Write IOPS Displays the current write IOPS for the virtual [0 - unlimited]
disk.
Write Latency Displays the average write I/O latency for the xxx [ms]
virtual disk.
Write Bandwidth Displays write I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
for the virtual disk.
You can filter the virtual disks list based on various parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the virtual disks view Filter pane. To apply
a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require more context such as a constraint string or a range.
storage container Filters on the storage container name. Select (storage container
a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, name string)
Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or
Equal to) and enter a string in the field. It
returns a list of volume groups that satisfy the
name condition/string.
[Total|Used] Space Filters on the total or used storage space for ([xx] to [yy] GiB
a virtual disk. Check the box for the desired range)
range or enter an amount range in the "from
<low> to <high> GiB" field. It returns a list of
virtual disks with total or used storage in that
range.
[Read|Write] IOPS Filters on the current read or write IOPS. ([xx] to [yy] range)
Check the box for the desired range or enter
a range in the "from <low> to <high> iops"
field. It returns a list of virtual disks with IOPS
in that range.
[Read|Write] Filters on the read or write I/O bandwidth ([xx] to [yy] range)
Bandwidth used. Check the box for the desired range or
enter a range in the "from <low> to <high>
bps" field. It returns a list of virtual disks with
I/O bandwidth usage in that range.
[Read|Write] Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It returns
a list of virtual disks with average I/O latency
in that range.
• To add a virtual disk to the volume group, click the Add Virtual Disk button (see Managing
Volume Group Virtual Disks on page 651).
• To update or delete a virtual disk, select the target disk and then click the Update or Delete
button (see Managing Volume Group Virtual Disks on page 651).
Connections Tab
Clicking the Connections tab displays a list of external client connections to the volume group.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the list. A dash (-) is displayed in a field
when a value is not available or applicable.
Connection Displays the IP address or IQN of the external (IP or IQN address)
client.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this volume group (see Alerts
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the volume group. Click the Metrics tab
to display graphs for 10 metrics: Usage, Controller IOPS, Controller Read IOPS, Controller
Write IOPS Controller Average I/O Latency, Controller Average Read I/O Latency, Controller
Average Write I/O Latency, Controller I/O Bandwidth, Controller Read I/O Bandwidth,
Controller Write I/O Bandwidth. Each graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage
monitor. The baseline range (when established) appears as a blue band in the graph.
Note: The baseline range and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-learning
capabilities (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846). The machine-learning algorithm
uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance. A graph or baseline band may not
appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week, last 21 days).
• Click the Actions pull-down menu (upper right of any graph) to monitor the metric
performance in greater detail (see Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746):
• Click Add to Analysis to add an active monitor for the metric on the Analysis dashboard.
• Click Select Analysis Session to assign the metric to a target session.
• Click the filter button to display the filter panel; check (uncheck) the desired boxes to display
(hide) those metrics.
• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).
Note:
• This section describes the information and options that appear in the vCenter
datastores dashboard. See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to
view and organize that information in a variety of ways.
• The vCenter datastores dashboard appears only when at least one vCenter instance
has been registered. See Application Monitoring on page 803 for more information.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following three widgets:
• Highlighted Entities: Displays a list of the datastores with the highest usage of the
parameter you select from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The only option is
Vsphere Datastore Numberreadaveraged Average. Click the View All XX vCenter Datastores
link at the bottom to display the List tab (following section).
• Alerts: Displays a list of datastore-related alerts that occurred during the specified interval.
Select Last 1 hours, Last 24 hours or Last week (default) from the pull-down menu. When an
alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts. Clicking
on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• Anomalies: Displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk anomalies that
occurred during the specified interval. Select Last 1 hours, Last 24 hours or Last week
(default) from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page
for that anomaly.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the registered vCenter datastores. The following table describes the fields that appear in the
datastores list. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Container Name Displays the name of the datastore container. (container name)
Click the name to display the details for that
container (see vCenter Datastore Details View
on page 156).
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
datastore resides.
You can filter the datastores list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the datastores view Filters pane. To apply
a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require additional context such as a constraint string or a range.
Storage Usage Filters on the amount of used storage space. ([xx] to [yy] range)
Check the box(es) for the desired range or
enter a range in the "from <low> to <high>
TiB" field. The number of containers in each
range is displayed on the right of the line.
Free Space Filters on the amount of free storage space. ([xx] to [yy] range)
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
You can group the datastore containers list in the following ways:
• The View by pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default)
or a custom view.
• The Group by pull-down menu allows you to group the datastore entries by cluster or type.
(You can only choose one.)
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just datastore-related events across the
registered clusters (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view performance metrics across the datastores. Clicking the
Metrics tab displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant
performance information. The following table describes the available metrics.
Metric Description
IOPS Displays the number of read and write IOPS for the listed
number of containers. (Clicking an IOPS value redisplays the
Summary tab filtered for those containers.)
Disk Usage Displays the disk usage amount for the listed number of
containers. (Clicking the usage value redisplays the Summary
tab filtered for those containers.)
Disk Capacity Displays the disk capacity for the listed number of containers.
(Clicking the capacity value redisplays the Summary tab
filtered for those containers.)
Disk Provisioned Displays the provisioned disk space for the listed number
of containers. (Clicking the provisioned value redisplays the
Summary tab filtered for those containers.)
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the VM (see following table).
• A Metrics widget that displays average metrics for the past 15 minutes (IOPS reads and
writes, and disk usage, disk capacity, and disk provisioned amounts).
• An Alerts widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select Last 1 hours, Last 24 hours or Last week (default) from the pull-down menu.
When an alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts.
Clicking on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select Last 1 hours, Last 24 hours or
Last week (default) from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on
the graph, which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the
event page for that anomaly.
•
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
datastore resides. Click on the cluster name to
displays details about that cluster.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this vCenter data store (see Alerts
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just events for this vCenter data store (see
Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab displays a set of graphs for various metrics. Each graph is a rolling time interval
performance or usage monitor for that metric.
• Select Add to Analysis to add the metric to the analysis page (see Analysis Dashboard
(Prism Central) on page 746).
• Select Select Analysis Session, which opens the Select A Session window, to add the
metric to an existing or new analysis session. Choose an option from the pull-down list
and then click the Add to Session button.
Metric Description
Average read requests per Average number of read commands issued per second to the
second datastore during the collection interval.
Average write requests per Average number of write commands issued per second to the
second datastore during the collection interval.
Space actually used Amount of space actually used by the virtual machine or
the datastore. May be less than the amount provisioned at
any given time, depending on whether the virtual machine is
powered-off, whether snapshots have been created or not,
and other such factors. Available from datastore and virtual
machine target entities.
Space potentially used. Amount of storage set aside for use by a datastore or a
virtual machine. Files on the datastore and the virtual machine
can expand to this size, but not beyond it. Available from
datastore and virtual machine target entities.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the catalog items
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Catalog Management on page 662 for information about the catalog service
and how to add (or delete) items.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the catalog items list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
Description Indicates which user added this item to the (text string)
catalog.
You can filter the catalog items list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the item name. Select a condition (image name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It returns a list of
catalog items that satisfy the name condition/
string.
Type Filters on the item type. Check the box(es) for Vm, Image
the desired item types.
You can group the catalog items list in the following ways:
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group by type (VM and image).
• The View by pull-down menu allows you to view by name, description, message, percent,
reason, state, and type.
The Actions menu appears when one or more catalog items are selected. It allows you to delete
the selected catalog items (see Deleting a Catalog Item on page 665).
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the categories
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Category Management on page 742 for information on how to create, modify,
and apply categories.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the categories list. A dash (-) is displayed
in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Value Displays the values defined for the category. (value names)
Click Show more (right of line) to see a line for
each value. (ClickShow fewer to collapse the
list.) You may see an icon with a "showing X
of Y" message to indicate there are additional
values; click the icon to display the full list.
You can filter the category list based on several parameter values. The following table describes
the options available when you click the Filter button, which displays the Categories view Filter
pane. To apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple
values) you want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Entities Filters on the entity type. Check the box for VM, Host, App,
one or more entity types. Blueprint, Cluster,
Image, Marketplace
Item, Reports, Subnet
Policies Filters on the policy type. Check the box for Security Policy,
one or more entity types. Affinity Policy, Image
Placement Policy,
NGT Policy, Protection
Policy, QoS Policy
There is a New Category action button to create a new category (see Creating a Category on
page 742). The Actions menu appears when one or more categories are selected and includes
the following options:
• Category name (upper left). You can switch from one category to another by selecting a
different category name from the pull-down list in the upper left of the screen.
• Click the Update button to update the category definition (see Modifying a Category on
page 743); click the Delete button to delete the category. The button is grayed out if
that action is not allowed. For example, you cannot delete system categories.
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
• Policies (left), Values (middle), and Entities (right) columns that list the values defined
for the category plus the policies and entities associated with that category. Placing the
cursor over a policy, value, or entity displays lines that graphically indicate the association
among the three parameters. For example, in the following figure placing the cursor over the
Forensics value shows that it is associated with the Quarantine-Forensics security policy,
but it is not associated with any entities currently.
OVAs View
To access the OVAs dashboard, select Compute & Storage > OVAs from the entities menu
(see Entities Menu on page 13). The OVAs dashboard allows you to view information about the
OVAs available in the cluster.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the OVAs dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See OVA Management on page 694 for information about the OVA operations.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the catalog items list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
OVA Name Displays the name of the OVA file. (file name)
Date added Displays the date and time when the (date in mm/dd/yyyy
OVA was added. format, time in hr:min:sec
[AM|PM] format)
Example: 07/30/20,
3:00:20 PM
You can filter the catalog items list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
For each filter, select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with,
Ends with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the field.
OVA Name Filters on the OVA file name. It returns a list of (OVA file name string)
OVAs that satisfy the name condition/string.
Disk Format Filters on the disk format. Check the box(es) VMDK, QCOW2
for the OVAs of the required disk format.
The Actions menu appears when a OVA is selected. It allows you to:
Note: The resume upload action is not available in case the concatenate process of the
upload is interrupted. In such a case, you need to run the Concatenate API from the REST API
Explorer to resume the upload.
• Gateways: This tab provides a list of network gateways that you have created and
configured, and the operations you can perform on the network gateways. You can check
and upgrade the Gateway bundle in Administration > LCM > Inventory.
• VPN Connections: This tab provides a list of VPN connections that you have created and
configured, and the operations you can perform on VPN connections.
• Subnet Extensions: This tab provides a list of subnets that you have extended at the
Layer 2 level using VPN (point-to-point over Nutanix VPN) or VTEP (point-to-multi-point
including third party).
5. Security Policies: This dashboard provides a list of security policies you configured
using Flow Segmentation. For more information about Security Policies, see the Flow
Microsegmentation Guide.
See "Network Connections" section for information on how to configure network connections.
Subnets (Overlay IP subnets), Virtual private clouds, floating IPs, and Connectivity are Flow
Networking features. These features support flexible app-driven networking that focuses on
VMs and applications instead of virtual LANs and network addresses. Flow Networking powers
network virtualization to offer a seamless network experience with enhanced security. It is
disabled by default. It is a software-defined network virtualization solution providing overlay
capabilities for the on-premises AHV clusters.
Security policies drives the Flow Segmentation features for secure communications. See Flow
Microsegmentation Guide.
Subnets
Manage subnets in the List view of Subnets dashboard in the Network and Security section.
To access the Subnets dashboard, select Subnets from the entities menu in Prism Central.
The Subnets dashboard allows you to view information about the subnets configured for the
registered clusters.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Network and
Security dashboard. See Entity Exploring for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the subnets list. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available or applicable.
VPC Displays the name of the VPC that the Subnet (Name of VPC)
is used in.
Virtual Switch Displays the virtual switch that is configured (virtual switch name)
for the VLAN you selected. The default value
is the default virtual switch vs0.
IP Prefix Displays the IPv4 Address of the network with (IPv4 Address/Prefix)
the prefix.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster for which this (cluster name)
subnet is configured.
To filter the list by network name, enter a string in the filter field. (Ignore the Filters pane as it is
blank.)
To view or select actions you can perform on a subnet, select the subnet and click the Actions
dropdown.
Action Description
Update Click this action to update the selected subnet. see Updating a
Subnet in the Flow Networking Guide.
Manage Extension Click this action to create a subnet extension. A subnet
extension allows VMs to communicate over the same broadcast
domain to a remote Xi availability zone (in case of Xi-Leap
based disaster recovery) via the extension.
Manage Categories Click this action to associate the subnet with a category or
change the categories that the subnet is associated with.
Delete Click this action to delete the selected subnet. See Deleting
Subnets, Policies, or Routes in the Flow Networking Guide.
You can also filter the list of subnets by clicking the Filters option and selecting the filtering
parameters.
The Summary page provides buttons for the actions you can perform on the subnet, at the
top of the page. Buttons for the following actions are available: Update, Extend, Manage
Categories, and Delete.
The subnet Summary page has the following widgets:
You can configure the table columns for the VPC list table. The available column list includes
Externally Routable IP Addresses that provides address space within the VPC that is reachable
externally without NAT.. For the list of columns that you can add to the list table, see
Customizing the VPC List View on page 172.
Note:
Ensure that the externally routable IP addresses (subnets with external connectivity
without NAT) for different VPCs do not overlap.
Configure the routes for the external connectivity subnets with next hop as the Router
or SNAT IP address. Also configure the routes on the router for the return traffic to
reach the VPC. See External Connectivity panel in VPC Details View on page 175.
To view or select actions you can perform on a VPC, select the VPC and click the Actions drop
down.
You can also filter the list of VPC by clicking the Filters option and selecting the filtering
parameters.
Procedure
To arrange the order of the selected columns, hover on the column name and click the up or
down arrow button as appropriate.
3. Click Save.
• Summary
• DNS Servers—Provides more information about the DNS Servers used by the VPC.
• External Connectivity—Provides the name of the external subnet, NAT Gateway host
details, router/SNAT IP address and the IP address spaces or ranges configured for the
VPC.
• Floating IP Addresses—Provides details of the floating IP addresses that the VPC uses.
• Subnets
The Subnet tab provides the following information for the subnets:
The Policies tab maps the following information about the security-based traffic shaping
policies you configure:
The Routes tab provides the following information about the routes:
The VPC details view has the following configuration options for the VPC:
• Update: Use this option to update the VPC. For more information, see Updating Virtual
Private Cloud.
• Add Subnet: Use this option to add a subnet to the VPC. For more information, see Creating
a Subnet.
• Create Static Routes: Use this option to create a static route. For more information, Creating
Static Routes.
• Update Static Routes: Use this option to update static route configurations that you already
created. For more information, see Updating Static Routes.
Floating IPs
You can access floating IPs on the Floating IPs dashboard or list view in the Network and Security
section.
For information about floating IP addresses and their role in Flow Networking, see SNAT and
Floating IP Address.
Go to the Floating IPs dashboard by clicking Network and Security > Floating IPs on the left
side-bar.
To view or select actions you can perform on a floating IP address assigned, select the floating
IP address and click the Actions drop down. The following actions are available for a selected
floating IP address:
• Update—Assign or change the assignment of the floating IP address. You can assign the
floating IP address to a IP address such as a private IP address in a VPC or the primary IP
address of a VM or a secondary IP address created on a VM.
• Delete—Delete the floating IP address. The deleted IP address returns to the IP address pool
as unused. Before you delete, ensure that it is not assigned to a private IP address or a VM.
Change the assignment to None if it is already assigned, using the Update action.
Note: Floating IP addresses are not reachable (Pings fail) unless you associate them to primary
or secondary IP addresses of VMs. For more information about assigning floating IP addresses to
secondary IP addresses of VMs, see Assigning Secondary IP Addresses to Floating IPs.
To filter the list of floating IP address assignments, click the Filters option and select the
appropriate filtering parameters.
To request floating IP addresses, see Requesting Floating IPs.
Connectivity
You can access network Gateways, VPN connections and subnet extensions on the Connectivity
dashboard.
Click Network & Security > Connectivity to see the Connectivity dashboard.
The Gateway summary list view provides the following details about the gateway.
Service Displays the service that the gateway uses. (VPN or VTEP)
Attachment Type/ Displays the type of subnet associated with (VLAN or Overlay-VPC
Vendor the gateway. name)
You can click the name of a gateway to open the gateway details page that presents the
information about the gateway in widgets.
You can click the name of a gateway in the Gateway dashboard list to open the gateway details
page that presents the information about the gateway in widgets.
The gateway details page displays the name of the gateway on the top left corner.
• On the top right corner, the close button (X) allows you to close the details page.
• The Update button opens the Update Gateway page. For more information, see Updating a
Network Gateway in Flow Networking Guide.
• The Delete button allows you to delete the gateway. For more information, see Deleting a
Network Gateway in Flow Networking Guide.
Properties widget
Attachment Type Displays the network entity like VLAN or (VLAN or VPC)
VPC that the gateway is attached to.
VPC or Subnet Displays the name of the attached VPC or (Name of VLAN or VPC)
(VLAN) VLAN subnet.
Floating or Private IP Displays the Floating (for VPC) or Private (IP Address)
Address (for VLAN) IP address assigned to the
gateway.
Service Configuration
External Routing Displays the type of routing associated with (Static or eBGP with
the gateway for external traffic routing. ASN)
Internal Routing Displays the type of routing associated with (Static or eBGP with
the gateway for internal traffic routing. ASN)
EBGP Status Displays the status of the EBGP gateway (Established or Not
connection. Established)
Local Gateway Displays the name of the local gateway used (Name of local gateway)
for the connection.
Remote Gateway Displays the name of the remote gateway (Name of remote
used for the connection. gateway)
Dynamic Routing Displays the dynamic routing priority (Number in the range
Priority assigned to the connection for throughput of 100-1000. User
management. You can assign any value in assigned.)
the range of 100-1000. Flow networking
assigns the first VPN connection the value
500 by default. Thereafter, subsequent
VPN connections are assigned values
decremented by 50. For example, the first
connections is assigned 500, then the
second connection is assigned 450, the third
one 400 and so on.
You can click the name of a VPN connection in the VPN Connections dashboard list to open
the VPN connection details page that presents the information about the VPN connection in
widgets.
The VPN connection details page displays the name of the VPN connection on the top left
corner.
• On the top right corner, the close button (X) allows you to close the details page.
The details about the VPN connection are organized in widgets as follows:
• Summary tab—See the VPN Connection Summary Tab Details table below.
• Throughput tab—See the VPN Connection Throughput Tab Details table below.
• IPSec Logging tab—Provides logs for the IPSec tunnel.
• Routing Protocol Logging tab—Provides logs for the routing protocol used in the VPN
connection.
EBGP Status Displays the status of the EBGP gateway (Established or Not
connection. Established)
Dynamic Routing Displays the dynamic routing priority (Number in the range
Priority assigned to the connection for throughput of 100-1000. User
management. You can assign any value in assigned.)
the range of 100-1000. Flow networking
assigns the first VPN connection the value
500 by default. Thereafter, subsequent
VPN connections are assigned values
decremented by 50. For example, the first
connections is assigned 500, then the
second connection is assigned 450, the third
one 400 and so on.
Gateway Name Displays the name of the local gateway used (Name of local gateway)
for the connection.
Attachment Type Displays the network entity like VLAN or (VLAN or VPC)
VPC that the gateway is attached to.
VPC or Subnet Displays the name of the attached VPC or (Name of VLAN or VPC)
(VLAN) VLAN subnet.
Connection Type Displays the connection type you selected (Initiator or Acceptor)
while creating the VPN connection. The
connection type may be Initiator or
Acceptor of a VPN connection between the
local and remote gateways. T
External Routing Displays the type of routing associated with (Static or eBGP with
the gateway for external traffic routing. ASN)
Internal Routing Displays the type of routing associated with (Static or eBGP with
the gateway for internal traffic routing. ASN)
Floating or Private IP Displays the Floating (for VPC) or Private (IP Address that you
Address (for VLAN) IP address assigned to the assigned to the local
gateway. gateway with /30 prefix
when you configured
the VPN connection.)
Gateway Name Displays the name of the remote gateway (Name of remote
used for the connection. gateway)
Connection Type Displays the connection type you selected (Initiator or Acceptor)
while creating the VPN connection. The
connection type may be Initiator or
Acceptor of a VPN connection between the
local and remote gateways. T
External Routing Displays the type of routing associated with (Static or eBGP with
the gateway for external traffic routing. ASN)
External IP Displays the IP address assigned to remote (IP Address that you
the gateway. assigned to the remote
gateway with /30 prefix
when you configured
the VPN connection.)
Protocol Details
Gateway Routes Displays the status of the routes used by the (Sent)
gateways.
Procedure
What to do next
You can also see which subnets are extended, in the Subnets dashboard. The List tab displays
the list of configured subnets. The subnets that are extended have the Extended Subnet tag
alongside their name.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the security policies
dashboard.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the security policies list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Name Displays the policy name. The policy is one (name), Application,
of three types: application, quarantine, or Quarantine, Isolation
isolation.
Policy Displays (high level) what the policy does. (boxed text)
Last Modified Displays the date the policy was last modified (date)
(or the creation date if the policy has never
been modified).
You can filter the security polices list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Security Policies view Filter pane. To
apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the item name. Select a condition (policy name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It will return a
list of security policies that satisfy the name
condition/string.
Type Filters on the policy type. Check the box for Application,
one or more of the policy types (application, Quarantine, Isolation
quarantine, isolation). It will limit the list to just
those policy types.
Status Filters on the policy status. Check the box for Applied, Monitoring
applied or monitoring.
The security policies dashboard includes a Create Security Policy action button with a drop-
down list to Secure an Application or Isolation Environments.
The Actions menu appears when one or more policies are selected. It includes options to
update, apply, monitor, and delete. The available actions appear in bold; other actions are
grayed out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip explaining the reason is provided.)
• The policy name appears in the upper left. You can switch from one policy to another by
selecting the policy name from the pull-down list.
• The rule status appears below the name and indicates whether the policy is being applied
currently or is in monitoring mode.
• Three columns appear that specify the Inbound policy (on the left), the affected entities (in
the middle), and the Outbound policy (on the right).
• There are three action buttons (upper right).
• Click the appropriate button to update, apply, monitor, or delete the policy (see Nutanix
Security Guide for details). The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed
out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip explaining the reason is provided.)
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
For more information about Security Policies, see Flow Microsegmentation Guide.
Policies
You can access dashboards for the following policy types from the VM, Images, Storage, and
Network & Security entities.
Note: See the Leap Administration Guide for information about creating and applying
protection policies and recovery plans.
VM Policies
Image Policies
• Image Placement Policies (see Image Placement Policies Summary View on page 191)
Storage Policies
Storage Policies (see Storage Policies Summary View on page 137)
Security Policies
Storage Policies (see Security Policies Summary View on page 194)
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the affinity policies
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in various ways.
• See Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central on page 604 for information on how
to create or modify the affinity policies.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the affinity policies list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
VMs Displays the count of VMs associated with this (number of VMs)
policy.
VM Compliance Status Displays the compliance status of the VMs (number of VMs
associated with this policy. If the policy is Compliant/Non
being applied and the compliance status is not Compliant/Pending)
yet known, the status is displayed as Pending.
If a VM is part of multiple VM-Host affinity
policies, the oldest policy is applied on the VM.
For rest of the policies, the VM is displayed as
non-compliant.
Last Modified Displays the date and time when the policy (date & time)
was modified last time.
• Summary: On the Summary tab, you can view the Overview, Associations, and Compliance
Status sections. All the three sections display information related to the policy.
The Summary tab view also includes options to Update, Delete, and Re-Enforce the policy. If
any of the VMs become non-compliant, you can use this option to re-enforce the policy after
fixing the issue for the non-compliance.
• Entities: On the Entities tab, you can view the details of the VMs and Hosts entities that are
associated with the policy. The details displayed on the Hosts tab include the host name,
cluster name, and the category used to associate, while the details displayed on the VMs
tab include the VM name, host name, cluster name, category used to associate, and VM
compliance status. If a VM is non-compliant, the cause of non-compliance is also displayed
along with the status.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the NGT policies
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See NGT Policies on page 607 for information on how to create or modify NGT
policies.
To filter the list, click the Filters button (upper right). This displays a pane for selecting filter
values. Check the box for each value to include in the filter. You can include multiple values. You
can filter the search on the following parameters and values.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the image placement
policies dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Image Placement Policies on page 685 for information about how to create
and apply image placement policies.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the image placement policies list. A dash
(-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
You can filter the image placement polices list by opening the Filter pane. To apply a filter,
check the box and enter a text string in the Contains field for the Name or Description
parameter. You can apply filters across both parameters.
The image placement policies dashboard includes a Create Image Placement Policy action
button (see Configuring an Image Placement Policy on page 687).
The Actions menu appears when one or more policies are selected. It includes options to
Update and Delete. The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. (For
grayed out options, a tool tip explaining the reason is provided.)
• The policy name appears in the upper left. You can switch from one policy to another by
selecting the policy name from the pull-down list.
• The policy enforcement status appears below the name and indicates whether the
enforcement is hard or soft.
• Two columns appear that specify the images in question (on the left) and the target clusters
(on the right). Click Expand all (or Collapse all) to display (or hide) the list of images or
clusters.
• Click the Update or Delete button to update or delete the policy (see Updating an Image
Placement Policy on page 688). The available actions appear in bold; other actions are
grayed out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip explaining the reason is provided.)
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the bandwidth throttling
policies dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in various ways.
• See Bandwidth Throttling Policies on page 690 for information about how to create
and apply bandwidth throttling policies.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the image bandwidth throttling policies
list. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or not applicable.
Parameter Description
Bandwidth Throttle Limit Describes the bandwidth throttle limit configured for the
policy.
Last Updated On Describes the date and time when the bandwidth throttling
policy was created or updated.
Click the check box associated with the policy name to update or delete the bandwidth
throttling policy.
Select specific policies and click Actions > Update to update the selected bandwidth throttling
policies.
Select Actions > Delete to delete the selected bandwidth throttling policies.
You can filter the bandwidth throttling polices list by opening the Filter pane. To apply a
filter, check the box and enter a text string in the Contains field for the name or description
parameter. You can apply filters across both parameters.
The bandwidth throttling policies dashboard includes a Create Policy action button (see
Creating Bandwidth Throttling Policy on page 691).
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the security policies
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Flow Microsegmentation Guide for information about how to create and apply
security policies.
Name Displays the policy name. The policy is one (name), Application,
of three types: application, quarantine, or Quarantine, Isolation
isolation.
Policy Displays (high level) what the policy does. (boxed text)
Last Modified Displays the date the policy was last modified (date)
(or the creation date if the policy has never
been modified).
You can filter the security polices list based on several parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Security Policies view Filter pane. To
apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the item name. Select a condition (policy name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It will return a
list of security policies that satisfy the name
condition/string.
Type Filters on the policy type. Check the box for Application,
one or more of the policy types (application, Quarantine, Isolation
quarantine, isolation). It will limit the list to just
those policy types.
Status Filters on the policy status. Check the box for Applied, Monitoring
applied or monitoring.
The security policies dashboard includes a Create Security Policy action button with a drop-
down list to Secure an Application or Isolation Environments.
The Actions menu appears when one or more policies are selected. It includes options to
update, apply, monitor, and delete. The available actions appear in bold; other actions are
grayed out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip explaining the reason is provided.)
• The policy name appears in the upper left. You can switch from one policy to another by
selecting the policy name from the pull-down list.
• The rule status appears below the name and indicates whether the policy is being applied
currently or is in monitoring mode.
• Three columns appear that specify the Inbound policy (on the left), the affected entities (in
the middle), and the Outbound policy (on the right).
• There are three action buttons (upper right).
• Click the appropriate button to update, apply, monitor, or delete the policy (see Security
Policies configuration in Flow Microsegmentation Guide for details). The available actions
appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. (For grayed out options, a tool tip explaining
the reason is provided.)
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
• Protection Summary
• Protection Policies (see Protection Policies View on page 197)
• Recovery Plans (see Recovery Plans View on page 198)
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the protection policies
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See the Leap Administration Guide for information about how to create and use
protection policies.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the protection policies list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Source Displays the replication source name for the (source name)
protection policy
Remote Retention Displays the number of retention points at the xx Recovery Points
remote availability zone.
Local Retention Displays the number of retention points at the xx Recovery Points
local availability zone.
To filter the list by name, click the Filters button (upper right) and enter a name string in the
field.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the recovery plans
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See the Leap Administration Guide for information about how to create and use
recovery plans.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the recovery plans list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Source Displays the primary availability zone for the (zone name)
recovery plan.
Destination Displays the recovery availability zone for the (zone name)
recovery plan.
Last Test Status Displays the status of the most recent test
performed on the recovery plan.
To filter the list by name, click the Filters button (upper right) and enter a name string in the
field.
Click the Create Recovery Plan button to create a new recovery plan. The Actions menu
appears when one or more recovery plans are selected and includes the following options:
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the recoverable entities
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See the Leap Administration Guide for information about recoverable entities and
how to use them.
Latest Recovery Point Displays the time at which the most recent (time and date)
on Local AZ snapshot was taken. This is specific to the
local availability zone.
Oldest Recovery Point Displays the time at which the oldest available (time and date)
on Local AZ snapshot was taken. This is specific to the
local availability zone.
Total Recovery Points. Displays the total number of recovery points (integer)
available locally.
Owner Displays the owner who created the recovery (user name)
points
To filter the list by name, click the Filters button (upper right) and enter a name string in the
field.
The Actions menu appears when one or more recoverable entities are selected and includes the
following options:
• Clone (Previously Restore): Clone a VM entity from the snapshot taken at the recovery
point.
• Revert: Revert a VM entity to the snapshot taken at the recovery point. You can perform
Revert operation only if you have admin role assigned to your local user or directory user via
role mapping.
• Replicate: Replicate the snapshot to a paired availability zone.
Hardware Entities
You can access dashboards for the following hardware components from the Hardware
category of the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following three widgets:
• Highlighted Entities: Displays a list of the clusters with the highest usage of the parameter
you select from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The options are CPU Usage,
IO Latency, IOPS, and Aggregate Hypervisor Memory Usage Pp. Click the View all XX
Clusters link at the bottom to display the List tab (following section).
• Alerts: Displays a list of cluster-related alerts that occurred during the specified interval.
Select either Last 24 hours (default), Last 1 Hours, or Last week from the pull-down menu.
When an alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts.
Clicking on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• Anomalies: Displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk anomalies that
occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) , Last 1 Hours, or
Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page
for that anomaly.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields that appear in the clusters list.
AOS Version Displays the version number of AOS running (version number)
on the cluster.
Upgrade Status Displays the current upgrade status. There are Pending,
various stages from scheduled to succeeded Downloading,
(or failed). Queued, PreUpgrade,
Upgrading,
Succeeded, Failed,
Cancelled, Scheduled
Hypervisors Displays the hypervisor type running in the AHV, ESX, Hyper-V
cluster. In the case of a mixed cluster such
as one running ESXi or Hyper-V that also
includes NX-6035C nodes running AHV, both
hypervisor types are listed.
Host Count Displays the number of hosts (nodes) in the (number of nodes)
cluster.
VM Count Displays the total number of VMs in the cluster (number of VMs)
(in any state).
Cluster Runway Displays the predicted runway (time period) (number of days)
before the cluster requires additional
resources (see "Capacity Tab" section in
Cluster Details View on page 208 for more
information).
IO Bandwidth Displays total I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
in this cluster.
Cluster Runway Displays the predicted runway (time period) (number of days)
before the cluster requires additional
resources (see "Capacity Tab" section in
Cluster Details View on page 208 for more
information).
CPU Runway Displays the predicted CPU runway (time (number of days)
period) before the cluster requires additional
resources.
Memory Runway Displays the predicted memory runway (time (number of days)
period) before the cluster requires additional
resources.
KMS Type Displays the key management system (KMS) Not Set, Native
type. (Local), Native
(Remote), External
Host Count Displays the number of hosts (nodes) in the (number of nodes)
cluster.
You can filter the cluster list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Clusters view Filter pane. To apply
a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require additional context such as a constraint string or a range.
Name Filters on the cluster name. Select a condition (cluster name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It will return a
list of clusters that satisfy the name condition/
string.
AOS Version Filters on AOS version. Select one or more (Acropolis version
versions to return a list of clusters running numbers across
those version(s). The number of clusters clusters currently)
currently running each version is displayed on
the right of the line.
Hypervisors Filters on the hypervisor type. Select one or AHV, ESXi, HyperV
more hypervisors to return a list of clusters
running those hypervisor(s). The number of
clusters currently running each hypervisor is
displayed on the right of the line.
CPU Usage Filters on the amount of total CPU being used. ([xx] to [yy]% range)
Check the box for the desired range or enter
a percentage range in the "from <low> to
<high> %" field. It will return a list of clusters
utilizing total CPU in that range (0-100%).
Memory Usage Filters on the amount of total memory being ([xx] to [yy]% range)
used. Check the box for the desired range
or enter a percentage range in the "from
<low> to <high> %" field. It will return a list of
clusters utilizing total memory in that range
(0-100%).
IOPS Filters on the total (both read and write) IOPS. ([xx] to [yy] range)
Check the box for the desired range or enter a
range in the "from <low> to <high> iops" field.
It will return a list of clusters with total IOPS in
that range.
IO Bandwidth Filters on the total I/O bandwidth used. Check ([xx] to [yy] range)
the box for the desired range or enter a range
in the "from <low> to <high> bps" field. It
will return a list of clusters with total I/O
bandwidth usage in that range.
IO Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range
in the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It
will return a list of clusters with average I/O
latency in that range.
Categories Filters on the category type. Search for the (category name
category name. For example, ADGroup: string)
$Default
Encryption Type Filters on the encryption type. Check the Not Encrypted,
box for the desired encryption type. It will Software, Hardware,
return a list of clusters with the corresponding Software and
encryption type applied. Hardware
Encryption Scope Filters on the encryption scope. Check the box Cluster, Entity
for the entities where encryption is applied
on. It will return a list of clusters with the
corresponding encryption scope applied.
KMS Type Filters on the key management system (KMS) Not Set, Native
type. (Local), Native
(Remote), External
• To assign an existing label (if there are existing labels), select the desired label and then
click Apply changes.
• To assign a new label, enter a meaningful label in the blank text field and then click Create
new label.
You can now perform any actions available on this labeled group from the Actions menu
(see following section). You can edit or delete the label by clicking the Label icon and
selecting Manage Labels.
The Actions menu appears when a cluster is selected. The pull-down list includes the following
actions:
• Select Launch Prism Element to launch Prism element for that cluster in a separate tab or
window (depending on your browser settings).
Note: When you access a cluster from Prism Central, you are logging in through your Prism
Central user account, not a cluster user account. As a result, the cluster user configuration
options are different (more limited) than when logging directly into the cluster. The options
that appear in the Prism Element main menu user drop-down list are REST API Explorer,
About Nutanix, Support Portal, Help, Nutanix Next Community, and Sign Out.
•
• Select Upgrade Software to upgrade the AOS version on that cluster (see Installing or
Upgrading on page 31).
• Select Rack Configuration to configure the rack awareness feature. This option appears only
for clusters that satisfy the conditions for rack awareness. See Rack Fault Tolerance in Prism
Web Console Guide for instructions on configuring rack awareness.
• Select Manage Categories to configure cluster categories.
• Select Disable Efficiency Measurement to disable efficiency measurement for the cluster.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just cluster-related alerts (see Alerts Summary
View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just cluster-related events (see Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics across the clusters. Clicking the Metrics tab
displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant information
below the tab. The following table describes the available metrics. (Some metrics are not
available on all hypervisors.)
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays a CPU usage table listing current values and total
clusters (number). The current values are split into percentile
intervals (for example, less than 25%, 25-50, 50-75, more than
75%). Clicking on a percentile interval displays the Summary
tab filtered to just those clusters.
IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.
IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.
Note:
For Non-Nutanix clusters, the cluster name and the following set of tabs appear on
the top: Summary, Alerts, Events, Metrics, and Capacity. Click a tab to display that
information below the tab. (Click the Back to Clusters link to return to the summary
view.)
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the cluster (see following
table).
• An Alert widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default), Last 1 Hours, or Last week from the pull-down
menu. When an alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those
alerts. Clicking on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default),
Last 1 Hours, or Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can
click the graph, which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking an anomaly displays
the event page for that anomaly.
• A VM Efficiency widget that displays the number of VMs, which are considered inefficient
broken down by category (overprovisioned, inactive, constrained, and bully). See Behavioral
Learning Tools on page 846 for more information about VM efficiency.
• Action buttons (only the applicable ones appear):
• Launch Prism Element: Click this button to launch Prism Element for this cluster in a new
tab or window.
Note: When you access a cluster from Prism Central, you are logging in through your
Prism Central user account, not a cluster user account. As a result, the cluster user
configuration options are different (more limited) than when logging directly into the
cluster. The options that appear in the Prism Element main menu user drop-down list are
REST API Explorer, About Nutanix, Support Portal, Help, Nutanix Next Community, and
Sign Out.
• Upgrade Software: Click this button to upgrade the AOS version on this cluster. See
Installing or Upgrading on page 31 .
The following table describes the fields in the Properties widget. A dash (-) in a field indicates
that there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned. The displayed fields vary by
hypervisor.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used in the xxx [GiB|TiB]
cluster
Storage Capacity Displays the total amount of storage capacity xxx [GiB|TiB]
in this cluster.
Cluster Runway Displays the predicted runway (time period) (number of days)
before the cluster requires additional
resources (see the "Capacity Tab" section
below).
AOS Version Displays the version number of AOS running (version number)
on the cluster.
Host Count Displays the number of hosts (nodes) in the (number of hosts)
cluster.
Upgrade Status Displays the status of the last (or current) (status condition)
upgrade attempt.
IP Address Displays the virtual IP address for the cluster (IP address)
(if defined).
Hypervisors Displays the hypervisor type running in the AHV, ESX, or Hyper-V
cluster. In the case of a mixed cluster such
as one running ESXi or Hyper-V that also
includes NX-6035C nodes running AHV, both
hypervisor types are listed.
Note:
• The Recent label indicates the last accessed entity instances. The widget displays a
maximum of three recently accessed entity instances.
• The filtered list of VMs display only the powered-on VM instances.
• If the VMs are not filtered on a host instance, all VMs on the selected cluster are
displayed.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this cluster (see Alerts Summary
View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the cluster. Click the Metrics tab and then
the desired metric name (see following table) to display a graph for that metric below the tab.
The graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage monitor. The baseline range appears
as a blue band in the graph.
Note: The baseline range and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-learning
capabilities (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846). The machine-learning algorithm
uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance. A graph or baseline band may not
appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week, last 21 days).
• [I/O-based metrics] Check the appropriate box(es) to have the graph display total, read, or
write usage (or any combination of the three).
• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).
The following table describes the available metrics. Some metrics are not available on all
hypervisors.
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the cluster (0–100%).
IOPS Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
operations per second (IOPS) for the cluster.
I/O Latency Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read average I/
O latency (in milliseconds) for physical disk requests by the
cluster.
I/O Bandwidth Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
bandwidth used per second (MBps or KBps) for physical disk
requests by the cluster.
Usage Tab
The Usage tab displays the following graphs:
• The Cluster-wide Usage Summary graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of total
storage usage across the cluster that can vary from one to several hours depending on
activity moving from right to left. Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays
the value at that time. For more in-depth analysis, you can add the monitor to the analysis
page by clicking the blue link in the upper right of the graph.
• The Tier-wise Usage graph displays a pie chart divided into the percentage of storage space
used by each disk tier (SSD and DAS-SATA) across the cluster.
Capacity Tab
The Capacity tab displays current and historical usage information and provides resource
planning tools. It includes the following sections:
Note:
• The capacity planning feature requires a Prism Pro license. If Prism Pro is disabled,
the Capacity tab is grayed out and not available.
• A <cluster_name> Runway area (upper left) that displays the current cluster runway overall
and broken down by CPU, memory, and storage. Runway refers to how long the cluster
can continue to run normally, based on the current consumption rate, before the existing
resources are used to capacity. The overall runway value is the same as the lowest value for
any single resource (storage, CPU, or memory). For example, if the storage runway is 14 days
while the CPU and memory runways are 45 days, the overall runway is 14 days (the storage
value).
Note: A plus sign in any runway value, for example the "89+" in the Cluster Capacity Tab
figure, indicates that the predicted runway is more than that number of days, but the
estimation stopped at that number.
• Clicking Storage Runway displays a storage usage graph and table (to the right).
• Clicking CPU Runway displays a CPU usage graph and table.
• Clicking Memory Runway displays a memory graph and table.
• Table of "inefficient" (over-provisioned, inactive, constrained, and bully) VMs based on the
VM behavioral learning engine (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846). Click the
appropriate link to see a list of the VMs in that state.
• An add node recommendation. The recommendation is based on the current (historical)
CPU, memory, and storage usage demand across the cluster.
Click the Get Report link to run the Cluster Efficiency report (see Reports Management on
page 892).
• Click the By Usage button to see cluster-wide storage information (see previous figure).
• Click the By Storage Container button to see storage information per storage container.
You can select all storage containers from the pull-down list (upper left of graph) or a single
Current Storage Displays the amount of used storage space in xxx [GB|TB]
Usage the cluster or storage container.
Storage Container Displays the name of the storage container. (storage container
Name name)
Current Usage Displays the amount of storage space used by xxx [GB|TB]
the storage container currently.
Current Storage Displays the amount of used storage space in xxx [GB|TB]
Usage the cluster or storage container.
"Overall" tab
VM Name Displays the VM name. There is a line for each (VM name)
VM in the cluster.
CPU Usage (%) Displays the percent of CPU capacity used by (0–100%)
the VM currently.
Average CPU Usage Displays the average host CPU usage during xxx [GHz]
over last 1 hour the last hour.
Current CPU Capacity Displays the CPU capacity of the host. xxx [GHz]
VM Name Displays the VM name. There is a line for each (VM name)
VM in the cluster.
CPU Usage (%) Displays the percent of CPU capacity used by (0–100%)
the VM.
"Overall" tab
VM Name Displays the VM name. There is a line for each (VM name)
VM in the cluster.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by the xxx [GiB]
VM.
Average Memory Displays the average host memory usage xxx [GiB]
Usage over last 1 hour during the last hour.
Current Memory Displays the memory capacity of the host. xxx [GiB]
Capacity
VM Name Displays the VM name. There is a line for each (VM name)
VM in the cluster.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by the xxx [GiB]
VM.
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view performance metrics for the cluster, both for actual past
performance and for predicted future performance. The Metrics tab displays a section on the
left with a list of metrics.
Note: The predicted metrics and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-
learning capabilities. See Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846 for information about these
capabilities and how they are used.
• Clicking a metric displays a graph on the right. (Some metrics have multiple graphs.) The
graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage monitor. The baseline range (based
on the machine-learning algorithm) appears as a blue band in the graph. Placing the cursor
anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that time. To set the time interval (last
24 hours, last week, last 21 days), select the duration from the pull-down list on the right.
Note: The machine-learning algorithm uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict
performance. A graph may not appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• To display predicted performance, check the Prediction box. This displays projected
performance for the next week.
• To create an alert for this cluster based on either behavioral anomalies or status thresholds,
click the Set Alerts link above the graph (see Creating Custom Alert Policies on page 286).
The following table describes the available metrics.
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the VM (0 - 100%).
I/O Bandwidth Displays separate graphs for total, write (only), and read
(only) I/O bandwidth used per second (MBps or KBps) for
physical disk requests by the VM.
I/O Latency Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read average I/O
latency (in milliseconds) for physical disk requests by the VM.
IOPS Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
operations per second (IOPS) for the VM.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Hosts dashboard.
See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following three widgets:
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the hosts across the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields that appear
in the hosts list. The fields vary based on the Focus menu selection, which is either General or
Performance. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Name Displays the name of the host. Clicking on the (host name)
name displays the details page for that host
(see Host Details View on page 225).
Hypervisor Displays the hypervisor type running on the AHV, ESX, or Hyper-V
host.
Memory Capacity Displays the memory capacity of the host. xxx [MB|GB]
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
host resides.
Disk IO Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
this host.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
host resides.
You can filter the hosts list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Hosts view Filter pane. To apply a
filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want
to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require additional context such as a constraint string or a range.
Name Filters on the host name. Select a condition (host name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It will return a
list of hosts that satisfy the name condition/
string.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Enter a string in (cluster name string)
the field. It will return a list of hosts that reside
in the clusters which satisfy the name string.
Hypervisor Filters on the hypervisor type. Select one or AHV, ESXi, HyperV
more hypervisors to return a list of clusters
running those hypervisor(s). The number of
clusters currently running each hypervisor is
displayed on the right of the line.
Memory Capacity Filters on the host memory capacity. Check ([xx] to [yy] GiB
the box for the desired range or enter an range)
amount range in the "from <low> to <high>
GiB" field. It will return a list of hosts with
memory capacity in that range.
CPU Usage Filters on the amount of CPU being used. ([xx] to [yy]% range)
Check the box for the desired range or enter
a percentage range in the "from <low> to
<high> %" field. It will return a list of hosts
utilizing CPU in that range (0-100%).
Memory Usage Filters on the amount of total memory being ([xx] to [yy]% range)
used. Check the box for the desired range
or enter a percentage range in the "from
<low> to <high> %" field. It will return a list of
clusters utilizing total memory in that range
(0-100%).
IOPS Filters on the IOPS. Check the box for the ([xx] to [yy] range)
desired range or enter a range in the "from
<low> to <high> iops" field. It will return a list
of hosts with IOPS in that range.
IO Bandwidth Filters on the I/O bandwidth used. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> bps" field. It will
return a list of hosts with I/O bandwidth usage
in that range.
IO Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Check the ([xx] to [yy] range)
box for the desired range or enter a range in
the "from <low> to <high> ms" field. It will
return a list of hosts with average I/O latency
in that range.
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group the host entries by cluster, hypervisor type,
or health state. (You can only choose one.)
• The View by pull-down menu allows you to group the host entries by the information
parameters (fields), which vary depending on whether you selected the General or
Performance focus. (You can only choose one parameter.)
The Actions menu appears when one or more hosts are selected. It includes a Manage
Categories option (see Assigning a Category on page 744).
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just host-related alerts across the registered
clusters (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just host-related events across the
registered clusters (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics across the hosts. Clicking the Metrics tab
displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant information to
the right. The following table describes the available metrics. (Some metrics are not available on
all hypervisors.)
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays a CPU usage table listing current values and total
hosts (number). The current values are split into percentile
intervals (for example, less than 25%, 25-50, 50-75, more than
75%). Clicking on a percentile interval displays the Summary
tab filtered to just those hosts.
IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.
IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the host (see following table).
• An Alert widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu. When
an alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts.
Clicking on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or
Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page
for that anomaly.
• A Manage Categories button to manage (set) categories for the host. See Category
Management on page 742.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties widget. A dash (-) in a field indicates
there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned. The displayed fields vary by
hypervisor.
Memory Capacity Displays the total memory capacity for this xxx [MB|GB]
host.
Disk Capacity Displays the total amount of disk capacity on xxx [GB|TB]
this host.
Block Model Displays the block model number. (model series number)
Serial Number Displays the block serial number. (block serial number)
CPU Capacity Displays the total CPU capacity for this host. xxx [GHz]
Host Type
Node Serial Displays the node serial number. The node (manufacturer serial
serial is a unique number passed through from number)
the manufacturer. (The form can vary because
it is determined by each manufacturer.)
Oplog Disk Size Displays the current size of the operations xxx [GB]
log. (The Oplog maintains a record of write
requests in the cluster.) A portion of the
metadata disk is reserved for the Oplog, and
you can change the size through the nCLI.
GPUs Displays the number and type of GPUs in the (GPU type and
host. For example, if the host contains four number)
Tesla M10 GPUs, this field displays "Tesla M10
(4)".
Note:
• The Recent label indicates the last accessed entity instances. The widget displays a
maximum of three recently accessed entity instances.
• The filtered list of VMs display only the powered-on VM instances.
• If the VMs are not filtered on a host instance, all VMs on the selected cluster are
displayed.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this host. See Alerts Summary
View (Prism Central) on page 266 .
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just events for this host. See Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277 .
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the host. Click the Metrics tab and then
the desired metric name (see following table) to display a graph for that metric on the right.
The graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage monitor. The baseline range appears
as a blue band in the graph.
Note: The baseline range and identified anomalies are based on sophisticated machine-learning
capabilities. See Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846. The machine-learning algorithm
uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance. A graph or baseline band may not
appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week, last 21 days).
• [I/O-based metrics] Check the appropriate box(es) to have the graph display total, read, or
write usage (or any combination of the three).
The following table describes the available metrics. Some metrics are not available on all
hypervisors.
Metric Description
CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the host (0 - 100%).
IOPS Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
operations per second (IOPS) for the host.
IO Latency Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read average I/O
latency (in milliseconds) for physical disk requests by the host.
IO Bandwidth Displays separate graphs for total, write, and read I/O
bandwidth used per second (MBps or KBps) for physical disk
requests by the host.
Usage Tab
The Usage tab displays the following graphs:
• The Usage Summary graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of host storage usage
that can vary from one to several hours depending on activity moving from right to left.
Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that time. For more
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Disks dashboard. See
Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that information in
a variety of ways.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following three widgets:
• Suggested: Displays a list of the disks with the highest usage of the parameter you select
from the pull-down menu on the right of the widget. The options are IO Bandwidth, IOPS,
IO Latency, and Disk Usage. Click the View all XX Disks link at the bottom to display the List
tab (following section).
• Alert: Displays a list of disk-related alerts that occurred during the specified interval. Select
either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu.
• Anomalies: Displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk anomalies that
occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week
from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph, which then
displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page for that
anomaly.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
the disks across the registered clusters. The following table describes the fields that appear
in the disks list. The fields vary based on the Focus menu selection, which is either General or
Performance. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Host Displays the name of the host in which this (host name)
disk resides.
Tier Displays the disk type (tier name). Nutanix [SSD-PCIe | SSD-
models can contain disk tiers for PCIe solid SATA | DAS-SATA]
state disks (SSD-PCIe), SATA solid state disks
(SSD-SATA), and direct attach SATA hard
disk drives (DAS-SATA) depending on the
model type.
Disk Usage Displays the percentage of disk space used [0 - 100%] of xxx [GB|
and total capacity of this disk. TB]
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
host resides.
Disk Usage Displays the percentage of disk space used [0 - 100%] of xxx [GB|
and total capacity of this disk. TB]
Disk Capacity Displays the total physical space on the drive. xxx [GB|TB]
IO Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
this disk.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
disk resides.
You can filter the disks list based on a variety of parameter values. The following table
describes the filter options available when you open the Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require additional
context such as a constraint string or a range.
Serial Number Filters on the disk serial number. Select a (serial number string)
condition from the pull-down list (Contains,
Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or
Equal to) and enter a string in the field. It
will return a list of disks that satisfy the serial
number condition/string.
Host Filters on the host name. Enter a string in the (host name string)
field. It will return a list of disks in the hosts
that satisfy the host name condition/string.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Enter a string (cluster name string)
in the field. It will return a list of disks in
the clusters that satisfy the cluster name
condition/string.
Tier Filters on whether the disk is in the solid state DAS-SATA, SSD-
(SSD-SATA) or hard disk (DAS-SATA) tier. SATA
Check the box for one or both of these modes.
The number of disks currently in each tier is
displayed on the right of the line.
Health Filters on the disk health state (good, warning, Critical, Warning,
or critical). Select one or more states to return Good
a list of disks in that state(s). The number of
disks currently in each state is displayed on
the right of the line.
Disk Usage Filters on the used capacity. Enter a ([xx] to [yy]% range)
percentage range in the "from <low> to
<high> %" field. It will return a list of disks with
used capacity in that range (0-100%).
Disk Capacity Filters on the total capacity. Enter an amount ([xx] to [yy] GiB
range in the "from <low> to <high> GiB" field. range)
It will return a list of disks with total capacity
in that range.
IOPS Filters on the IOPS. Enter a range in the "from ([xx] to [yy] range)
<low> to <high> iops" field. It will return a list
of disks with IOPS in that range.
IO Bandwidth Filters on the I/O bandwidth used. Enter a ([xx] to [yy] range)
range in the "from <low> to <high> bps" field.
It will return a list of disks with I/O bandwidth
usage in that range.
IO Latency Filters on the average I/O latency. Enter a ([xx] to [yy] range)
range in the "from <low> to <high> ms" field.
It will return a list of disks with average I/O
latency in that range.
• The Color pull-down menu allows you to color code the disk entries by tier type, mode, or
health state. (You can only choose one.) A legend appears at the bottom to indicate what
each color means in that grouping.
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group the disk entries by host, tier type, mode,
cluster, or health state. (You can only choose one.)
• [Tiles and Circles views only] The Sort pull-down menu allows you to group the disk entries
by the information parameters (fields), which vary depending on whether you selected the
General or Performance focus. (You can only choose one parameter.)
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just disk-related events across the
registered clusters (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics across the hosts. Clicking the Metrics tab
displays a list of available metrics; click the metric name to display the relevant information to
the right. The following table describes the available metrics.
Metric Description
IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS tables listing current
values and total disks (number). The current values are split
into intervals (for example, less than 20, 20-40, 40-60, more
than 60). Clicking on an interval displays the Summary tab
filtered to just those disk.
IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.
IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the disk (see following table).
• An Alert widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, or disk
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or
Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page
for that anomaly.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties widget. A dash (-) in a field indicates
there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned. The displayed fields vary by
hypervisor.
Disk Usage Displays the amount of used space on the xxx [GB|TB]
drive.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
disk resides.
Host Displays the name of the host in which the (host name)
disk resides.
Tier Displays the disk type (tier name). Nutanix [SSD-PCIe | SSD-
models can contain disk tiers for PCIe solid SATA | DAS-SATA]
state disks (SSD-PCIe), SATA solid state disks
(SSD-SATA), and direct attach SATA hard
disk drives (DAS-SATA) depending on the
model type.
Disk Capacity Displays the total physical space on the drive. xxx [GB|TB]
Self Encryption Drive Displays whether this is a self-encrypted drive. Not Present, Present
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard, except it is filtered to display just alerts for this disk (see Alerts Summary
View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options
as the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just events for this disk (see Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics for the disk. Click the Metrics tab and then
the desired metric name (IOPS, IO latency, and IO Bandwidth) to display a graph for that
metric on the right. The graph is a rolling time interval performance or usage monitor. The
baseline range (based on the machine-learning algorithm) appears as a blue band in the graph.
Note: The machine-learning algorithm uses 21 days of data to monitor and predict performance.
A graph or baseline band may not appear if less than 21 days of data is available.
• Check the appropriate box(es) to have the graph display total, read, or write usage (or any
combination of the three).
• Place the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis to display the value at that time.
• Select the duration (time interval) from the pull-down list on the right (last 1 hour, last 24
hours, last week, last 21 days).
Usage Tab
The Usage tab displays the following graph:
• The Usage Summary graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of disk storage usage that
can vary from one to several hours depending on activity moving from right to left. Placing
the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that time. For more in depth
analysis, you can add the monitor to the analysis page by clicking the blue link in the upper
right of the graph.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the GPUs dahsboard. See
Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that information in
a variety of ways.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the GPUs list. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available or applicable.
Type Displays the GPU model type. Tesla M10, Tesla M60,
Tesla M60 compute
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
GPU resides.
Allocation Indicates the number of VMs allocated to the "No VM allocated", "x
GPU. of y VMs allocated"
You can filter the GPUs list based on a several parameter values. The following table describes
the filter options available when you open the GPUs view Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require additional
context such as a constraint string or a range.
Type Filters on the GPU model type. Select a Tesla M10, Tesla M60,
condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Tesla M60 compute
Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or
Equal to) and enter a string in the field. It
will return a list of GPUs that satisfy the type
condition/string.
Host Filters on the host name. Enter a string in the (host name string)
field. It will return a list of GPUs in the selected
hosts.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Enter a string in (cluster name string)
the field. It will return a list of GPUs in the
selected clusters.
• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group the GPU entries by cluster, host, or mode.
(You can only choose one.)
• The Sort pull-down menu allows you to group the GPU entries by type, cluster, mode, or
allocation. (You can only choose one parameter.)
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab, which appears by default, displays the following:
• A section on the left that displays summary information about the GPU (see following table).
• A section of the right that displays GPU performance metrics. The graphs are rolling time
interval performance monitors that can vary from one to several hours depending on activity
moving from right to left. Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the
value at that time. This section includes the following graphs:
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
The following table describes the GPU summary information fields. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available or applicable.
GPU Type Displays the GPU type for this entry. Tesla M10, Tesla M60,
Tesla M60 compute
Cluster Name Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
GPU resides.
Host Displays the name of the host in which the (host name)
GPU resides.
Allocation Displays the number of VMs allocated to this "x of y VMs allocated"
GPU. This field does not appear if no VMs are
allocated.
Framebuffer (RAM) Displays the framebuffer (RAM) size per GPU. xx GiB
Per GPU
VMs Tab
Clicking the VMs tab displays a table of VMs allocated (attached) to the GPU. The table includes
the following fields:
• Name: Displays the VM name. Click the name to display the details page for that VM (see VM
Details View on page 100).
• GPU Usage: Displays the percentage of GPU capacity used by this VM.
• GPU Framebuffer Usage: Displays the percentage of GPU framebuffer (RAM) capacity used
by this VM.
Activity Entities
You can access dashboards for the following activity monitors from the Activity category of
the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):
Note:
• This section describes the information and options that appear in the audits
dashboard. See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and
organize that information in a variety of ways.
• Audit information appears only for those registered clusters running AOS 5.10 or
later.
• Audit logs with default values are generated when updates to VMs are initiated,
either by Prism Central Self Service users or by using Nutanix v3 API calls for the
first time.
• The retention period for audit entries is four weeks by default.
• See Prism Central Logs on page 301 for all Prism Central related events.
Additionally, you can refer to the Audit Log Events on page 304 for the complete
list of captured audit events.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the audits list. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available or applicable.
Action Description Describes the action taken such as "deleted (action description)
VM vm-name" or "added disk disk-name"
User Name Displays the name of the user who requested (user name)
the action.
Target Entity Displays the entity name. Click the name to go (entity name)
to the details page for that entity.
Entity Type Displays the entity type such as VM or host. (entity type)
Operation Type Displays the type of operation that took place. (operation type)
The possible operation types depend on the
entity type and can include create, update,
delete, and power state change.
Request Time Displays the time the user requested the (time and date)
action.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
action took place. Click the cluster name to
display the details page for that cluster.
To filter the list, click the Filters button (upper right). This displays a pane for selecting filter
values. The following table describes the filter options available. You can apply multiple filters.
User Name Enter a name string in the field to filter for (user name)
users who requested an action.
Entity Type Check the boxes of one or more entities to VM, Storage
filter for actions on those entity types. Container, Catalog
Item, Image, Cluster,
Host, Disk, GPU,
Security Policy, NGT
Policy, Project, Role,
User, Category,
Availability Zone,
Protection Policy,
Recovery Plan,
Recoverable Entity,
Report
Operation Type Check the boxes of one or more operations to Create, Update,
filter on those operations. Delete, Power State
Change
Request Time Check an interval box to filter for actions that Last 1 hour, Last 24
were requested during that time period. For hours, Last week,
the custom interval option (from xxx to xxx), From xxx to xxx
click in each field and select a date from the
pop-up calendar.
Cluster Enter a cluster name in the field to filter for (cluster name)
actions in the cluster.
User IP Enter a user IP address and then click the Add (IP address)
button to filter for actions requested by that
user. You can add multiple user IP addresses.
• The action description (upper left). You can switch from one action details page to another
by selecting from the pull-down list.
• A section on the left that displays summary information about the action (see following
table).
• A section on the right that displays a table of information specific to that action. The table
shows the attributes that were changed during the action and the current value that is set
for the attribute. The attributes vary depending on the specifics of the action (see following
examples).
The following table describes the action summary information fields. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available or applicable.
User Name Displays the name of the user who requested (user name)
the action.
Target Entity Displays the name of the entity that was the (entity name)
action target. Click the entity name to display
the details for that entity.
Affected Entities Displays the names of the entities that were (one or more entity
affected by the action. Click an entity name to names)
displays the details page for that entity.
Operation Type Displays the type of operation that took place. (operation type)
The possible operation types depend on the
entity type and can include create, update,
delete, and power state change.
Request Time Displays the time the user requested the (time and date)
action.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
action took place. Click the cluster name to
display the details page for that cluster.
In the first example the action is adding more categories for the cluster, so the details simply
include the names of the attached categories.
In the second example the action is adding a disk, so the details include the VM name, disk
address, size, and source disk UUID.
In the third example the action is creating a VM, so the details include a variety of information
about that VM.
Tasks View
An icon appears in the main menu when there are current tasks (running or completed within
the last 48 hours). The icon appears blue when a task runs normally, yellow when it generates
a warning, or red when it fails. Clicking the icon displays a drop-down list of current tasks. You
can see the Tasks dashboard, which displays information about all tasks across the registered
clusters, by doing one of the following:
Entity Affected Lists the entity name or describes the (name or description)
operation. If this is a live link, click it to either
see more details or go to the entity details
page.
Duration Displays how look the task has been running xx [seconds| minutes|
or took to complete. hours| days]
Sub-Tasks
Operations Entities
You can access dashboards for the following tools from the Operations category of the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):
• Analysis: Analyze cluster activity (see Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746)
• Cost Management: Analyze and manage costs (see Cost Management (Xi Beam) on
page 802)
• App Discovery: Discover applications running in a cluster (see Application Discovery on
page 778)
• Monitoring Configurations: Monitor select applications in a cluster (see Application
Monitoring on page 803)
• Operations Policies: Manage operations policies (see Operations Policy Management on
page 820)
• Planning: Plan for resource capacity and usage (see Resource Planning on page 824)
• Playbooks: Create playbooks for task automation (see Task Automation on page 849)
• Reports: Generate resource and activity reports for Nutanix and Non-Nutanix environments
(see Reports View on page 248)
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Reports dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Reports Management on page 892 for detailed information on how to create,
configure, and run reports.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the reports list. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Owner Displays the name of the user who created the (user name)
report.
Last Updated Time Displays the last updated data and time of the mm/dd/yy, hh:mm:ss
report. AM/PM
You can filter the reports by report name. To apply a filter, click the Filter button to open the
Filter pane. Enter a string in the report name field. It will return a list of reports that satisfy the
name string.
You can group the reports by predefined status, that is the predefined reports appear as one
group while the custom reports appear as a separate group.
The Reports view includes two action buttons: + New Report and Report Settings.
• Click the New Report button to create a new custom report (see Creating a New Report on
page 893).
• Click the Report Settings button to configure the report appearance, e-mail, and retention
settings (see Configuring Report Settings on page 942).
The Actions menu appears when one or more reports are selected. It includes the following
actions (see Managing a Report on page 894):
The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. (For grayed out options, a
tool tip explaining the reason is provided.) The available actions depend on the selected report.
Administration Entities
You can access dashboards to manage the following objects from the Administration category
of the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the users dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Managing Local User Accounts in Security Guide for information about creating
and maintaining local user accounts.
The Users view displays a list of local users and project-assigned Active Directory users. You
can order the list alphabetically (A-Z or Z-A) by clicking (toggling) the Name column header.
Clicking on a user name displays the details page for that user.
From theFilter pane you can filter the users list by name. Check the name box, select a
condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal
to), and enter a string in the field. It will return a list of users that satisfy the name condition/
string.
• The user name (upper left). You can switch from one user details page to another by
selecting from the pull-down list.
• A set of tabs (upper left). Click the tab (Summary, Trends, VM, Project) to display that tab
contents below.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A section on the left that displays summary information about the user (see following table).
• A section of the right that displays vCPU, storage, and memory usage graphs for the top five
VMs for this user. Place the cursor in a metric graph to see which VM is using that portion of
the resource (vCPU, storage, or memory).
The following table describes the project summary information fields. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available.
Display Name Displays the name that appears in the Prism (user display name)
Central displays. This might be a truncated
version of the name (next parameter) when
that name is long.
Total VMs Displays the number of VMs assigned to this (user name)
user.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by this xxx [GiB]
user.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used by this xxx [GiB]
user.
Trends Tab
The Trends tab displays the following graphs.
• The Total VMs graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of VMs owned by this user.
Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the number at that time.
• The vCPU Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of user vCPU usage. Placing
the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that time.
• The Memory Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of user memory usage.
• The Storage Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of user storage usage.
VM Tab
The VM tab displays a table of VMs owned by the user. You can filter the table list in the
table by entering a string in the search field (upper right above the table). The following table
describes the VM information fields.
Project Name Displays the name of the project associated (project name)
with this VM.
Virtual CPU Count Displays the number of vCPUs allocated to the (number)
VM.
Disk Capacity Displays the amount of disk capacity allocated xxx [GiB]
to the VM.
Project Tab
The Project tab displays a table of projects to which the user is a member. You can filter the
list by entering a string in the search field (upper right above the table). The following table
describes the users information fields.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by this xxx [GiB]
project.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used by this xxx [GiB]
project.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the roles dashboard.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the Roles list. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available or applicable.
View by General
Assigned Users Count Displays the number of users assigned this (number)
role.
Description Describes the role (if a description was (number)
provided when the role was created or
updated).
You can create other custom views by adding other data columns, in addition to the Name
column, to such custom views.
• Click View by > + Add Custom to open the Role Columns window.
• Enter a name for your custom view, click the + icon for each column that you want to see in
your custom view, and click Save.
View by <custom>
Assigned User Groups Displays the number of user groups assigned (number)
this role.
You can filter the roles list based on several parameter values. The following table describes the
filter options available when you open the roles dashboard Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the role name. Select a condition (project name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field. It will return a
list of role that satisfy the name condition/
string.
Assigned Users Count Filters on the number of assigned users. Enter ([xx] to [yy] range)
a range in the "from <low> to <high>" field. It
will return a list of roles that have an assigned
user count within that range.
The dashboard includes a Create Role button (see Creating a Custom Role). The Actions
menu appears when one or more roles are selected. It allows you to manage assignments for,
duplicate, update, or delete a role (see Role Details View on page 256).
• The role name (upper left). You can switch from one role details page to another by
selecting from the pull-down list.
• A set of tabs (upper left). Click the tab (Summary, Users, User Groups, Role Assignment) to
display that tab contents below.
• Manage Assignment: Click this button to assign the role to users, groups, and entities
(see Assigning a Role). This button does not appear for certain default roles such as Prism
Admin that you are not allowed to assign.
• Duplicate: Click this button to duplicate the role. It opens the role configuration screen
preconfigured with the same permissions as this role (see Creating a Custom Role).
• Delete: Click the button to delete the role. You cannot delete or modify the default roles.
• Update Role: Click this button to modify the role permissions (see Modifying a Custom
Role).
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A section on the left that displays summary information about the role (see following table).
• A section in the middle which displays a list of actions that the role is permitted to execute.
Click the Actions header to display additional actions for those roles with more than a single
page of permitted actions. You can filter the actions list by entering a string in the search
field (upper right above the list).
The following table describes the role summary information fields. A dash (-) is displayed in a
field when a value is not available.
Assigned User Groups Displays the number of user groups assigned (number)
this role.
Users Tab
The Users tab displays a list of users assigned to the role. You can filter the list by entering a
string in the search field (upper right above the table).
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the projects view.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See Project Management on page 724 for information on how to create and
manage projects.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the Projects list. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by the xxx [GiB]
project.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used by the xxx [GiB]
project.
You can filter the projects list based on several parameter values. The following table describes
the filter options available when you open the Projects view Filter pane. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters.
Name Filters on the project name. Select a condition (project name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal
to) and enter a string in the field. It will
return a list of projects that satisfy the name
condition/string.
vCPU Usage Filters on the number of vCPUs. Enter a range ([xx] to [yy] range)
in the "from <low> to <high>" field. It will
return a list of projects within that range of
vCPU usage.
Memory Usage Filters on the amount of memory used. Enter a ([xx] to [yy] GiB
range in the "from <low> to <high> GiB" field. range)
It will return a list of projects within that range
of memory usage.
Storage Usage Filters on the amount of storage space used. ([xx] to [yy] GiB
Enter a range in the "from <low> to <high> range)
GiB" field. It will return a list of projects within
that range of storage usage.
VM Count Filters on the number of VMs. Enter a range in ([xx] to [yy] range)
the "from <low> to <high>" field. It will return
a list of projects within that range of total
number of VMs.
When the Tiles view is selected, the Sort pull-down menu allows you to group the entries by
name, vCPU usage, memory usage, storage usage, or VM count. (You can only choose one
parameter.) This is the only grouping option available in the Projects view.
The Projects view includes a Create Project button (see Creating a Project on page 724).
The Actions menu appears when one or more projects are selected. It allows you to update or
delete the project (see Modifying a Project on page 727). You can update only one project at
a time, but you can select multiple projects when deleting.
• The project name (upper left). You can switch from one project details page to another by
selecting from the pull-down list.
• A set of tabs (upper left). Click the tab ( Summary, Usage, VMs, Users) to display that tab
contents below.
• Delete: Click the button to delete the project. You cannot delete or modify the default
project.
• Update Project: Click this button to modify the role
permissions (see Modifying a Custom Role in the Security Guide).
• Click the question mark icon to open a help page in a separate tab or window.
• Click the X icon to close the details page.
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A section on the left that displays summary information about the project (see following
table).
• A section of the right that displays vCPU, storage, and memory usage graphs for the top five
users and top five VMs in the project. Place the cursor in a metric graph to see which user or
VM is using that portion of the resource (vCPU, storage, or memory).
The following table describes the project summary information fields. A dash (-) is displayed in
any table field when a value is not available or applicable.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by the xxx [GiB]
project.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used by the xxx [GiB]
project.
Usage Tab
The Usage tab displays the following graphs. Set the graph time period by selecting the
duration (1 day or 1 week) from the Show drop-down menu.
• The vCPU Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of project vCPU usage.
Placing the cursor anywhere on the horizontal axis displays the value at that time.
• The Memory Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of project memory usage.
• The Storage Usage graph displays a rolling time interval monitor of project storage usage.
VMs Tab
The VMs tab displays a table of VMs assigned to the project. You can filter the table list in the
table by entering a string in the search field (upper right above the table). The following table
describes the VMs information fields.
Power State Displays whether the VM is currently on or off. On (green circle), Off
(red circle)
Owner Displays the name of the user who owns this (user name)
VM.
Virtual CPU Count Displays the number of vCPUs allocated to the (number)
VM.
Disk Capacity Displays the amount of disk space allocated to xxx [GiB]
the VM.
Users Tab
The Users tab displays a table of users (individuals and group members) assigned to the
project. You can filter the table list in the table by entering a string in the search field (upper
right above the table). The following table describes the users information fields.
Total VMs Displays the number of VMs owned by this (user name)
user.
Memory Usage Displays the amount of memory used by this xxx [GiB]
user.
Storage Usage Displays the amount of storage used by this xxx [GiB]
user.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the availability zones
dashboard.
• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
• See the Leap Administration Guide for information about availability zones and how
to connect to them.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the availability zones list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
To filter the list based on the type of zone (local, physical, or Xi), click the Filters button and
select the desired type(s) in the Filters pane.
Click the Connect to Availability Zone button to connect to a new availability zone. The Actions
menu appears when one or more zones are selected. It allows you to disconnect from the
selected zones.
LCM View
To access the LCM dashboard, select Administration > LCM from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The life cycle manager (LCM) tracks software and firmware versions of the
various components in a cluster. It allows you to view information about the current inventory
and update the versions as needed. See the Life Cycle Manager Guide for more information.
Services Entities
You can enable the following services from the Services category of the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13):
• The Alerts and Events dashboards, which you can access from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13), allow you to view and monitor alert and event activity across the
registered clusters.
• The Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266 displays a list of alerts that you
filter in various ways. You can also drill down for detailed information and corrective
actions for an alert (see Alert Details on page 274)
• The Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277 displays a list of events that you
filter in various ways. You can also drill down for detailed information for an event (see
Event Details on page 279).
• You can configure rules for who should receive email alerts and customize the alert
messages (see Configuring Alert Emails (Prism Central) on page 280).
• You can customize the list of events that generate an alert (see Configuring Alert Policies
(Prism Central) on page 283).
• You can review event log files when necessary (see Prism Central Logs on page 301).
Note: These views reflect that Prism Central retains alerts and events for 90 days and hourly
data for a year by default. (Some DR events are retained for just 7 days by default.)
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Alerts dashboard.
See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that information
in a variety of ways. See Alerts/Health checks (Prism Central) on page 306 for a list of alert
messages and corrective actions.
List Tab
Clicking the List tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a list of
active alerts across the registered clusters. The following figure is a sample view, and the table
describes each field in this view. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or
applicable.
• To order the alerts, click a column header, which toggles the alerts alphabetically or
chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• To download the table of alerts in CSV format, click Export. The maximum number of alerts
you can export is 1000.
• To display the details page for an alert, click the alert title (see Alert Details on page 274).
• To enable alert emails and specify email addresses to which alerts should be sent, click the
Email Configuration button (see Configuring Alert Emails (Prism Central) on page 280).
• To create a custom view, select Add custom from the Focus pull-down menu (see Entity
Exploring on page 85).
• To group the alerts, select an option from the Group pull-down menu. You can group the
alerts by cluster, severity, or impact type. (You can only choose one.)
• To filter the list, click the Filters button (upper right). This displays a pane for selecting filter
values. Check the box for each value to include in the filter. You can include multiple values.
You can filter the search on the following alert parameters and values.
• Click the check box on the far left for each alert to select. (Click the check box again to
unselect that alert.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the alerts in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all (or Clear selections) to select
(unselect) all the alerts in the list.
• When one or more alerts are selected, Resolve and Acknowledge appear in the menu; click
one or both to resolve and/or acknowledge the selected alerts. The user name and time
appears in the appropriate field when an alert is acknowledged or resolved.
(selection box) Click this box to select the message for n/a
acknowledgement or resolution.
Title Displays the name of the alert. Click the name (alert name)
to displays the details page for that alert.
Source Entity Displays the entity (such as a cluster, host, (entity names)
or VM name) to which the alert applies. A
comma separate list appears if it applies to
multiple entities. If there is an associated
details page, the entity is a live link; clicking
the link displays the details page.
Impact Type Displays the category in which the alert is Availability, Capacity,
classified. Configuration,
Performance, System
Indicator
Create Time Displays the date and time when the alert (date and time)
occurred.
Last Occurred Displays the date and time when the alert last (date and time)
occurred (before this occurrence). If this is the
first occurrence, both Create Time and Last
Occurred display the same date and time.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
alert was issued. Click the name to display
the details page for that cluster (see Cluster
Details View on page 208).
• To create a custom policy, click the Create Alert Policy button (see Adding Custom Alert
Policies on page 285).
• To view or modify a custom policy, click the policy name (see Modifying Custom Alert
Policies on page 290).
• To delete a custom policy, select the policy and then select Delete from the Actions pull-
down menu.
• To order the polices, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically or
chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• To download the table of policies in CSV format, click the Export link.
• To create a custom view, select Add custom from the Focus pull-down menu (see Entity
Exploring on page 85).
• To filter the list, either enter a string in the search field or click the Filters button (upper
right). This displays a pane for selecting filter values. Check the box for each value to include
in the filter. You can include multiple values. You can filter the search on the following alert
parameters and values.
• Name: Select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with,
Ends with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the field.
• Provider: Select a condition from the pull-down list (same as Name) and enter a string in
the field.
• Impact Type: Availability, Capacity, Configuration, Performance, System Indicator
• Auto Resolve: Enabled, Disabled
• To select (or unselect) policies in the list:
• Click the check box on the far left for each alert to select. (Click the check box again to
unselect that alert.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the alerts in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all, Show Selections (or Show Selected
Entities), or Clear selections) to select (unselect) that set of policies.
Name Displays the name of the policy. Click the (policy name)
name to displays the policy definition page
(see Modifying Custom Alert Policies on
page 290).
Impact Type Displays the category in which the policy Availability, Capacity,
applies. Configuration,
Performance, System
Indicator
Entity Type Displays the entity type such as a cluster, host, (entity names)
or VM to which the policy applies.
Last Updated Displays the date and time when the policy (date and time)
was last updated. (This is the creation date if
the policy has never been updated.)
• To view or modify a system policy, click the policy name (see Modifying System Alert
Policies on page 284).
• To order the polices, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically, numerically,
or chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• To download the table of policies in CSV format, click the Export link.
• Name: Select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with,
Ends with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the field.
• ID: Select a condition from the pull-down list (same as Name) and enter a string in the
field.
• Provider: Select a condition from the pull-down list (same as Name) and enter a string in
the field.
• Impact Type: Availability, Capacity, Configuration, Performance, System Indicator
• To select (or unselect) policies in the list:
• Click the check box on the far left for each alert to select. (Click the check box again to
unselect that alert.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the alerts in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all, Show Selections (or Show Selected
Entities), or Clear selections) to select (unselect) that set of policies.
Name Displays the name of the policy. Click the (policy name)
name to display the Update Policy window
(see Modifying System Alert Policies on
page 284).
Impact Type Displays the category in which the policy Availability, Capacity,
applies. Configuration,
Performance, System
Indicator
Entity Type Displays the entity type such as a cluster, host, (entity names)
or VM to which the policy applies.
Last Updated Displays the date and time when the policy (date and time)
was last updated. (This is the creation date if
the policy has never been updated.)
• To view an external policy, click the policy name (see Viewing External Alert Policies on
page 300).
• To order the polices, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically or
chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• To download the table of policies in CSV format, click the Export link.
• To create a custom view, select Add custom from the Focus pull-down menu (see Entity
Exploring on page 85).
• To filter the list, either enter a string in the search field or click the Filters button (upper
right). This displays a pane for selecting filter values. Check the box for each value to include
in the filter. You can include multiple values. You can filter the search on the following alert
parameters and values.
• Name: Select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with,
Ends with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the field.
• Provider: Select a condition from the pull-down list (same as Name) and enter a string in
the field.
• Impact Type: Availability, Capacity, Configuration, Performance, System Indicator
• Auto Resolve: Enabled, Disabled
• To select (or unselect) policies in the list:
• Click the check box on the far left for each alert to select. (Click the check box again to
unselect that alert.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the alerts in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all, Show Selections (or Show Selected
Entities), or Clear selections) to select (unselect) that set of policies.
Name Displays the name of the policy. Click the (policy name)
name to display the policy_name window
(see Viewing External Alert Policies on
page 300)..
Impact Type Displays the category in which the policy Availability, Capacity,
applies. Configuration,
Performance, System
Indicator
Entity Type Displays the entity type such as a cluster, host, (entity names)
or VM to which the policy applies.
Last Updated Displays the date and time when the policy (date and time)
was last updated. (This is the creation date if
the policy has never been updated.)
Alert Details
Clicking on an alert message in the dashboard (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on
page 266) or anywhere else the alert title appears, such as in a search list, displays detailed
information about that alert. The alert details appear in the left column. Possible causes for the
alert appear to the right. The most likely cause appears first with other possible causes (if any)
appearing below in the order of likelihood. Each cause includes a Recommendation section that
describes the recommended corrective action and in many cases a Details section that provides
additional context and instructions.
• To switch among alert details pages, select the desired alert from the pull-down list in the
upper left of the screen.
• To acknowledge or resolve the alert, click the Resolve or Acknowledge button in the upper
right.
• To open a help page in a separate tab or window, click the question mark icon.
• To close the details screen, click the X icon in the upper right.
Cluster Name Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
alert was issued. Click the name to display
the details page for that cluster (see Cluster
Details View on page 208).
Cluster Version Displays the AOS version running on the (version number)
cluster.
Created Time Displays the date and time when the alert first (time and date)
occurred.
Last Occurred Displays the date and time for the most recent (time and date)
occurrence of the alert.
Impact Type Displays the impact type to which the alert is Availability, Capacity,
classified. Configuration,
Performance, System
Indicator
Policy Displays the name of the alert policy. (alert policy name)
Acknowledged By Indicates whether the alert has been (blank), N/A date_time),
acknowledged. user date_time
Resolved By Indicates whether the alert has been resolved. (dash), N/A date_time),
The options (blank, N/A, or user) are the same user date_time
as for Acknowledged. To manually resolve an
alert, click the Resolve button (upper right).
The field value changes from blank to the user
name and date/time the alert was resolved.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the Events dashboard.
See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that information
in a variety of ways.
• To display the details page for an event, click the event title (see Event Details on
page 279).
• To order the events chronologically, click the Create Time column header, which toggles the
event list latest-to-earliest or earliest-to-latest.
• To download the table of alerts in CSV format, click the Export link.
• To filter the list, click the Filters button (upper right). This displays a pane for selecting filter
values. Check the box for each value to include in the filter. You can include multiple values.
You can filter the search on the following event parameters and values.
Title Displays the name of the event. Click the (event name)
name to displays the details page for that
event (see Event Details on page 279).
Source Entity Displays the entity (such as a cluster, host, (entity names)
or VM name) to which the event applies. A
comma separated list appears if it applies
to multiple entities. If there is an associated
details page, the entity is a live link; clicking
the link displays the details page.
Event Type Displays the category in which the event is System Action, User
classified. Action, Behavioral
Anomaly (see
Behavioral Learning
Tools on page 846),
DR
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
event was issued.
Create Time Displays the date and time when the event (date and time)
occurred.
Event Details
Clicking on an event message in the dashboard (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on
page 277) displays detailed information about that event. The event details appear in the left
column. Additional information, such as a description or performance graph, appears to the
right.
• To switch among event details pages, select the desired event from the pull-down list in the
upper left of the screen.
• To open a help page in a separate tab or window, click the question mark icon.
• To close the details screen, click the X icon in the upper right.
Cluster Name Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
alert was issued. Click the name to display
the details page for that cluster (see Cluster
Details View on page 208).
Cluster Version Displays the AOS version running on the (version number)
cluster.
Created Time Displays the date and time when the event (time and date)
occurred.
Event Type Displays the type of event. Three types are Behavioral Anomaly,
defined, and each event is assigned to one of System Action, User
these types. Action
Note:
• Alert emails sent by Prism Central are in addition to any alert emails you might
have configured on individual clusters through the Prism Element web console. You
will receive email from both entities in this case. Prism Central alert emailing is not
enabled by default; you must explicitly enable it and specify the recipients (Nutanix
customer support and/or supplied email addresses). If you enable alerts through
Prism Central and do not want to receive double email notifications for the same
alert, disable customer email notification for those alerts on the individual clusters
through Prism Element (but keep email notification for Nutanix customer support
enabled).
• Prism Central requires an SMTP server to send alert email messages (see Configuring
an SMTP Server (Prism Central) on page 513).
Procedure
» Click the gear icon and select Alert Email Configuration from the Settings menu (see
Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
» In the Alerts dashboard, click the Configure button and select Email Configuration from
the pull-down list.
The Alert Email Configuration window appears.
• Check the Every Single Alert box to send an email whenever the event occurs.
• Check the Daily Digest box to send a cumulative (24 hour) list of alerts once a day. (If
you click the Skip empty digest email box, an email is not sent for the days when no
alerts occur.)
You can check one or both boxes. If neither box is checked, no alert emails are sent by
Prism Central.
b. To send alert notifications to others, enter their email addresses in a comma separate list
in the Email Recipients field.
c. Click the Save button to apply the changes and close the window.
If you want to configure rules or an email message template, continue to the following
steps before clicking the Save button.
The Tunnel Connection section displays mail transport status information.
• Alert Severity: Select one or more of the severities from the pull-down list (Critical,
Warning, Info, All).
• Impact Type: Select one or more of the categories from the pull-down list (Availability,
Capacity, Configuration, Performance, System Indicator, All).
• Cluster: Select one or more of the clusters from the pull-down list (cluster_name, All).
• Alert Contains: Enter a key phrase or word that should generate an email notification
whenever the alert contains that phrase. For example, if you want to get an email
notification when an alert contains the phrase "low memory", enter low memory in the
field.
b. Specify who should receive the alert email by entering recipient email addresses as a
comma separated list in the Send Email To field.
c. Click the Save Rule button to save the rule.
d. Repeat these steps to create more custom rules.
Note: To help ensure that Prism Central and each managed cluster are taking advantage of NCC
features, ensure that:
Procedure
• System Defined Alert Policies. You can view and customize policies for any of the system
alerts (see Modifying System Alert Policies on page 284).
• User Defined Alert Policies. You have the option to create custom alert policies (see Adding
Custom Alert Policies on page 285).
Procedure
1. Go to the System Defined tab of the alerts dashboard and click the name of the target
system alert policy (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
a. Global Rule: Uncheck (or check) the box next to the severity to disable (or re-enable) this
as an alert.
All the alerts are enabled (box checked) by default. In most cases this field includes just a
single box with the word Critical, Warning, or Info indicating the severity level. Checking
the box means this event will trigger an alert of that severity. Unchecking the box means
an alert will not be issued when the event occurs. In some cases, such as in the example
figure about disk space usage, the event can trigger two alerts, a warning alert when one
threshold is reached (in this example 75%) and a critical alert when a second threshold
is reached (90%). In these cases you can specify whether the alert should be triggered
(check/uncheck the box) and at what threshold (enter a percentage in the box).
b. Auto Resolve These Alerts: Uncheck (or check) the box to disable (or re-enable)
automatic alert resolution.
Automatic alert resolution is enabled for all alert types (where applicable) by default.
When this is enabled, the system will automatically resolve alerts under certain conditions
such as when the system recognizes that the error has been resolved or when the
initiating event has not reoccurred for 48 hours. (Automatic resolution is not allowed for
some alert types, and this is noted in the policy window for those types.)
c. Exceptions: To exclude a cluster from this global rule, click the Add Exceptions link to
open an exceptions line and then select the target cluster from the pull-down list.
The same check boxes for severity and auto resolve appear. Create a custom rule for the
cluster by checking (unchecking) the boxes that should apply to that cluster. Repeat for
each cluster you want changed from the global rule.
Procedure
1. Go to the User Defined tab of the alerts dashboard and click the Create Alert Policy button
(see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
The Create Alert Policy page appears.
a. Entity Type: Select the entity type (Host, VM, or Cluster) from the pull-down list.
b. Entity: Select the target entity from the pull-down list. The choices allow you to specify a
single entity or a group of entity. For example, if the entity type is Host, you can specify
Note: The category option is available only if you select the VM entity type.
a. <Metric Name>: The top field displays an anomalies chart from the (machine learned)
expected behavior for the specified metric. Hovering over the data displays additional
information. Select the chart duration (last 12 hours, last 24 hours, or last week) from the
pull-down list on the right.
Note: The following fields allow you to specify that an alert should be generated when the
metric deviates from the expected behavior (Behavioral Anomaly fields), when the metric
Note the following maximum limit of Behavioral Anomaly policies for VMs:
• For a small Prism Central VM (4 vCPUs, 16 GB memory) with more than 4000 VMs, you
must not have more than 10 Behavioral Anomaly policies for VMs.
• For a large Prism Central VM (8 vCPUs, 32 GB memory) with more than 10,000 VMs,
you must not have more than 5 Behavioral Anomaly policies for VMs.
• For a Prism Central VM in general, the total number of alert policies must not exceed
50.
If the number of policies exceeds the recommended maximum limit, the user-created
alerts and behavioral anomaly alerts might be skipped.
b. Every time there is an anomaly, alert: Check this box to generate an alert when an
anomaly occurs. Select Critical or Warning from the pull-down list to set this as a critical
or warning level alert.
c. Ignore all anomalies between: Check this box to trigger the alert only when the anomaly
occurs outside a certain range (percentages or units). Select the operator and value for
the range.
d. Alert critical if: Check this box to generate a critical alert. Select the operator and value
for the critical alert.
e. Alert warning if: Check this box to generate a warning alert. Select the operator and value
for the warning alert. This option is only available if the behavioral anomaly threshold is
not set.
f. Trigger alert if condition persists for: Select the duration from the pull-down list (0-30
minutes) for which the alert condition must persist before the system generates an alert.
Note: The UDA policies are executed every 5 minutes after checking the data generated
during the last 5 minutes. Therefore, it might take up to 10 minutes for an alert generation,
even though the Trigger alert if condition persists for is set to 0 minutes.
Overlapping Policies
If you are creating an alert policy specific to only an entity (a VM, host, or cluster), but you
have earlier created a global policy with the same metric for all entities of that entity type (all
VMs, all hosts, or all clusters), the policy that you are creating becomes an overlapping policy.
For example, if you have created a policy (global-host-policy-1) that triggers a critical alert if
the memory usage of any host exceeds 95%. However, you are now creating a policy (host1-
policy) that triggers a critical alert if the memory usage (same metric) of host1 (a specific host)
exceeds 90%, host1-policy is now an overlapping policy for global-host-policy-1.
When you are creating a new policy (see Creating Custom Alert Policies on page 286), if
you select the same entity and metric as an existing policy but different values and you click
Save, Prism Central displays a message that a similar policy exists as shown in the following
screenshot:
Click View to display the overlapping policies and click Save to save the overlapping policy.
Procedure
1. Go to the User Defined tab of the alerts dashboard and click the name of the target custom
alert policy (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
The policy_name page appears. which includes the same fields as the Create Alert Policy page
(see Creating Custom Alert Policies on page 286).
2. Make the desired changes in the appropriate fields and then click Save.
Procedure
1. Go to the User Defined tab of the alerts dashboard and select the target custom alert policy
in the list (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266).
Alert Metrics
The following table describes the VM metrics.
Rollup Average
Unit Percentage (%)
Description Percentage of the time a virtual machine waits to use the
physical CPU out of the total CPU time allotted to the VM.
AHV: Ratio of the VM wait time to the total CPU time allotted
to the VM in percentage.
ESXi: Value of cpu.ready.summation for a VM in percentage.
Supported Hypervisors AHV and ESXi
CPU Usage
Metric hypervisor_cpu_usage_ppm
Rollup Average
Unit Percentage (%)
Description Percentage of the total CPU cycles currently in use by the VM
reported by the hypervisor.
Rollup Average
Unit Percentage (%)
Description Percentage of the memory used by the VM out of the total
configured memory reported by the hypervisor.
Rollup Average
Rollup Average
Unit Bytes
Description Target value in bytes for a VM’s memory balloon.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi
Memory Swap In Rate*
Metric hypervisor_swap_in_rate_kBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Description Rate of the memory swapped in from the disk to active
memory in kilobytes per second.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi
Memory Swap Out Rate*
Metric hypervisor_swap_out_rate_kBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Description Rate of the memory swapped out from active memory to the
disk in kilobytes per second.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi
Controller AVG Read I/O Latency
Metric controller_avg_read_io_latency_usecs
Rollup Summation
Unit Packets
Description Number of the network transmit packets dropped for the VM.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi and AHV
Network Receive Packets Dropped
Metric hypervisor_num_receive_packets_dropped
Rollup Summation
Unit Packets
Description Number of the network receive packets dropped for the VM.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi and AHV
Controller Disk Usage
Metric controller_user_bytes
Rollup Average
Unit bytes
Description Disk usage in bytes reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
I/O working set size
Metric controller.wss_3600s_union_MB
Rollup Average
Unit MB
Description Size of the I/O working set size in megabytes.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Write I/O working set size
Metric controller.wss_3600s_write_MB
Rollup Average
Unit MB
Rollup Average
Unit MB
Description Size of the I/O working set size reads in megabytes.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Snapshot usage
Metric controller.snapshot_usage_bytes
Rollup Average
Unit bytes
Description Snapshot usage in bytes reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Shared Data
Metric controller.shared_usage_bytes
Rollup Average
Unit bytes
Description Snapshot usage in bytes reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Network Bytes Received
Metric hypervisor_num_received_bytes
Rollup Summation
Unit bytes
Description Number of network bytes received reported by the hypervisor.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Network Bytes Transmitted
Metric hypervisor_num_transmitted_bytes
Rollup Summation
Unit bytes
Description Number of network bytes transmitted reported by the
hypervisor.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
* Experimental only. Might not be supported in the future releases.
Metric hypervisor_cpu_usage_ppm
Rollup Average
Metric hypervisor_swap_in_rate_kBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Metric hypervisor_swap_out_rate_kBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Memory Usage
Metric hypervisor_memory_usage_ppm
Rollup Average
Metric hypervisor_num_receive_packets_dropped
Rollup Summation
Unit Packets
Metric hypervisor_num_receive_packets_dropped
Rollup Summation
Unit Packets
Metric controller_avg_io_latency_usecs
Rollup Average
Unit Microseconds
Metric controller_avg_read_io_latency_usecs
Rollup Average
Unit Microseconds
Metric controller_avg_write_io_latency_usecs
Rollup Average
Unit Microseconds
Metric controller_num_read_iops
Rollup Average
Unit IOPS
Metric controller_num_write_iops
Rollup Average
Unit IOPS
Controller IOPS
Metric controller_num_iops
Rollup Average
Unit IOPS
Unit IOPS
Unit IOPS
Controller IOPS
Unit IOPS
Unit Microseconds
Unit Microseconds
Unit Microseconds
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
Rollup Average
Unit KBps
CPU Usage
Rollup Average
Unit PPM
Memory Usage
Rollup Average
Unit PPM
Note:
• The timestamps for all Nutanix service logs are moved to UTC (in ISO
8601:2020-01-01 T00:00:00Z) from Prism version 5.18.
• All operating system logs will not be moved to UTC, hence Nutanix recommends
that you set the server local time to UTC.
search.[out, FATAL]
Log Contents
iostat.INFO I/O activity for each physical every 5 sec sudo iostat
disk
Log Contents
num.processed Alerts that have been
processed
Log Contents
Table 142: Common port group between ESXi hosts is absent [6416] [A6416]
Table 146: Domain Fault Tolerance is low for Metadata [21016] [A21016]
Cause One or more partitions have lower domain fault tolerance than the desired
fault tolerance.
Impact Domain fault tolerance will be reduced.
Resolution Cassandra-domain-aware fixer has been triggered to re-arrange metadata and
improve the domain fault tolerance. No action is required from your side.
Severity Info
Cause One or more partitions have lower domain fault tolerance than the desired
fault tolerance.
Impact Domain fault tolerance will be reduced.
Resolution Please run Cassandra-domain-aware fixer operation using the nCLI command
'cluster cassandra-domain-aware-fixer-start'.
Severity Warning
Table 148: Domain Fault Tolerance is low for Metadata [21018] [A21018]
Cause One or more partitions have lower domain fault tolerance than the desired
fault tolerance.
Impact Domain fault tolerance will be reduced.
Resolution Please add more nodes to reduce the skew in number of nodes in each
domain. It is preferred to maintain almost equal number of nodes in all the
domains to achieve best domain fault tolerance.
Severity Warning
Table 152: Reset Current Passwords for admin and nutanix SSH accounts on {cluster_name}
[101081] [A101081]
Table 157: Checks if AOS version of the target site configured for synchronous replication is on
AOS version >= 5.17 [110021] [A110021]
Table 158: Round-trip travel (RTT) to target Prism Element(s) is greater than 5ms, the maximum
value allowed for synchronous replications. [110022] [A110022]
Table 159: NearSync Replication of Protection Domain has not progressed. [110264] [A110264]
Table 160: Stale secondary synchronous replication configuration found. [110456] [A110456]
Table 161: Check if a Recovery Plan with Witness configured has asynchronously protected VMs
or has VMs with Synchronous Replication paused [110458] [A110458]
Name Witness configured Recovery Plan has asynchronously protected VMs and
VMs with Synchronous Replication paused check
Description Check if a Recovery Plan with Witness configured has asynchronously
protected VMs or has VMs with Synchronous Replication paused
Alert message The Witness configured Recovery Plan 'recovery_plan_name' has asynchronously protected VMs
or has VMs with Synchronous Replication paused
Cause Recovery Plan with Witness configured has asynchronously protected VMs or
has VMs with Synchronous Replication paused
Impact The entities will not be managed by Witness
Table 162: Stale primary synchronous replication parameters found. [110460] [A110460]
Table 174: SW Encryption Keys from {kms_name} are unavailable [111075] [A111075]
Cause If a 3rd party KMS gets restored from a backup or other incorrect
management operation, it may have missing keys.
Impact Cluster will have data unavailability if rebooted.
Resolution Contact Nutanix and 3rd party key manager support.
KB Article 8223
Severity Critical
Table 177: Automatic Addition Of Node To Metadata Ring Disabled [130004] [A1079]
Table 179: Metadata Dynamic Ring Change Operation Stuck [130006] [A1117]
Cause Node addition or removal is not making progress. A node in the cluster is
unhealthy.
Impact Node addition and node removal operations will not proceed to completion.
Resolution If the alert persists, contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 8195
Severity Critical
Table 180: Metadata Dynamic Ring Change Operation Too Slow [130007] [A1116]
Table 183: Node Marked To Be Auto Added To Metadata Ring [130010] [A1078]
Name IP Configuration
Description Duplicate IP address is detected.
Alert message Detected IP address conflict for cluster virtual IP address duplicate_ip. IP found on NIC with
MAC address mac_address.
Cause The cluster virtual IP address may be configured on another host.
Impact The cluster is not accessible through the virtual IP address. Other services
that use the virtual IP address, such as remote replication or SCCM, may be
affected.
Resolution Either configure a different cluster virtual IP address or unconfigure the IP
address from the other host.
Severity Warning
Name RemoteSiteHighLatency
Description Latency to a Metro remote site is high.
Cause Various
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3827
Severity Critical
Table 196: Alert raised on cloud remote site {remote_name}: {alert_message} [130135]
[A130135]
Table 200: Two node cluster state change to stand-alone mode [130153] [A130153]
Table 201: State changed for two node cluster [130154] [A130154]
Table 204: Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone. [130173]
[A130173]
Table 205: Unable to communicate with the Data Center Manager [130175] [A130175]
Table 206: Data At Rest Encryption key backup warning [130184] [A130184]
Table 207: Local key manager master key rotation warning. [130185] [A130185]
Name ClusterJoinToDomainFailure
Description Failed to join AOS cluster to domain.
Alert message Failed to join AOS cluster to domain domain_name: reason
Cause Cluster could not be joined to domain because of incorrect login credentials or
other causes.
Impact Workflows such as backup service (volume shadow copy service) and
Kerberos for SMB will not work.
Resolution Please ensure that the specified domain account credentials are valid and that
the virtual computer object representing the AOS cluster does not already
exist.
KB Article 8080
Severity Critical
Table 211: Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking [130202] [A130202]
Cause Zookeeper server on one of the nodes has been unresponsive for a long time.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Follow KB1587 to troubleshoot reasons for Zookeeper server being
unresponsive.
Table 215: Detected iSCSI discovery or login through cluster external IP address [130346]
[A130346]
Table 216: MEM-NVMe Tiering Cluster Constraints Check Failure [130360] [A130360]
Table 217: Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint [140001] [A140001]
Table 222: Flow visualization statistics collector service restart detected [150003] [A150003]
Cause Flow visualization statistics collector service was restarted 10 times in the last
15 minutes.
Impact Flow visualization may not show real time data.
Resolution Review KB 8911.
KB Article 8911
Severity Warning
Table 225: IGMP Snooping needs to be re-configured on newly migrated virtual switch.
[150008] [A150008]
Table 227: IPFIX exporter cannot be enabled on the cluster [150010] [A150010]
Table 242: Some File server share(s) are unavailable [160098] [A160098]
Table 246: File server external network not functional. [160123] [A160123]
Table 247: File server persistent store volume-group unavailable [160124] [A160124]
Table 250: Platform is not reachable at required ports from the fileserver VM. [160134]
[A160134]
Table 263: Inadequate Resource Configuration for the Prism Central VM [200327] [A200327]
Cause The current feature capabilities of Prism Central require resource on the Prism
Central VM to be increased for optimum performance.
Impact Prism Central performance may be degraded.
Resolution Increase the resource of the Prism Central VM. Please refer KB-8932 for
guidance.
KB Article 8932
Severity Warning
Table 265: Prism Central Backup Sync has failed. [200331] [A200331]
Table 271: VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy [200608] [A200608]
Table 272: VMs with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy [200609] [A200609]
Table 277: Entity Sync Failure for the Recovery Plan [500103] [A500103]
Table 278: Entity Sync Failure for the Availability Zone [500104] [A500104]
Table 281: Data provider collector has violated sizing limits [650001] [A650001]
Table 285: ID Firewall unable to locate mapped Active Directory object [803004] [A803004]
Table 286: ID Firewall did not recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily unreachable
domain controller [803005] [A803005]
Table 290: CVM or Prism Central VM RAM Usage High [3023] [A1056]
Table 291: CVM/PCVM time not synchronized with external servers. [3026] [A3026]
Table 299: Core dumps are enabled on this CVM or Prism Central VM. [101069] [A101069]
Table 301: Reset Current Passwords for admin and nutanix SSH accounts on {cluster_name}
[101081] [A101081]
Table 302: Host time not synchronized with any external servers. [103090] [A103090]
Table 315: Prism Central VM platform disk space usage high [200328] [A200328]
KB Article 5228
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Table 319: VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy [200608] [A200608]
DR (Prism Central)
Table 321: Remote Replication is Lagging for Protection Domain Snapshot [110260] [A110260]
Table 322: NearSync Replication of Protection Domain has not progressed. [110264] [A110264]
Table 323: Availability Zone configured in Protection Policy is not accessible [110401] [A110401]
Table 324: Protection Policy Max entities per Category Check Failed. [110402] [A110402]
Cause Number of entities for the specified categories in the Protection Policy
exceeds the limit.
Impact Specified category will not be considered for the recovery as the Recovery
Plan supports categories with limited number of entities.
Resolution Reduce the protected entity count for the specified categories in the
Protection Policy.
KB Article 6306
Severity Warning
Name PD Active
Description Protection domain activation failed.
Alert message Unable to make protection domain 'protection_domain_name' active on remote site 'remote_name'
due to 'reason'.
Cause Various
Impact Protected VMs could not be started during failover to a remote site.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If issue persists, contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 8468
Severity Critical
Table 344: Skipped Replication Of Snapshot For Protection Domain [130047] [A1113]
Table 345: Failed to Receive Snapshot for the Protection Domain [130048] [A1127]
Table 351: Missing Network Mapping for the Remote Site. [130062] [A1156]
Table 352: Remote Site {remote_name} Network Mapping Invalid [130063] [A1157]
Cause VSS is enabled but Nutanix Guest Tools are not installed on the VM(s).
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken instead of application consistent snapshot.
Resolution Install Nutanix Guest Tools on the VM(s).
Severity Warning
Name EntityRestoreAbort
Description Entity restore aborted.
Alert message Restoring VMs failed for the snapshot snapshot_id protected by the protection_domain_name
because reason.
Cause Check the alert message for the reason of failure.
Impact Snapshot expiry is removed to prevent data loss, and you should remove it
manually.
Resolution Restart the restore process. Snapshot expiry is removed to allow subsequent
restore operations. Snapshot will need to be deleted manually to free up the
space if required. If this error persists, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning
Cause Snapshot replication was skipped because the remote is not fully upgraded.
Impact Snapshot is not present on the remote site.
Resolution (A) Wait for the completion of the upgrade process on the remote before
initiating snapshot schedules. (B) Manually replicate the snapshot from Prism
UI after the remote site upgrade process completes or wait for next scheduled
snapshot to replicate data.
Severity Info
Table 360: Nutanix Guest Tools Agent Is Not Reachable On The VM [130081] [A130081]
Table 363: VSS Software or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) Scripts Not Installed [130085] [A130085]
Table 366: Associated entities are not protected together. [130090] [A130090]
Table 369: Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools during VMs recovery for protection
domain [130095] [A130095]
Cause Virtual IP address of the cluster might not have been configured.
Cause Error in generating certificate for VM.
Cause Guest VM information could not be retrieved.
Impact VM
Resolution Configure the virtual IP address of the cluster (if not configured).
Resolution Enable and Mount Nutanix Guest Tools on the failed VM, and restart the
Nutanix Guest Agent service within the VM.
Resolution Resolve any issues on the Guest VM level to make sure NGT can communicate
to the VM.
KB Article 10077
Severity Warning
Table 371: Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for a VM in protection domain [130097]
[A130097]
Cause Virtual IP address of the cluster might not have been configured.
Cause Guest VM information could not be retrieved.
Cause NGT ISO could not be mounted.
Impact VM
Resolution Configure the virtual IP address of the cluster (if not configured).
Resolution Mount Nutanix Guest Tools ISO on the failed VM, and restart Nutanix Guest
Agent service within the VM.
Resolution Make sure there is at least one free CD-ROM slot on the Guest VM. If you
cannot resolve the error, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning
Table 378: Failed to update Metro Availability failure handling [130117] [A130117]
Table 379: Failed to update Metro Availability failure handling on the remote site [130118]
[A130118]
Table 383: VMs in the standby site of a Metro Availability protection domain are running at
suboptimal performance. [130129] [A130129]
Table 384: Protection domain contains more than the specified VMs [130130] [A130130]
Cause Replicating a protection domain with multiple VMs to a backup only remote
site.
Impact Selective retrieval of any VM will take more time as the snapshot will capture
all the VMs in the protection domain.
Impact Replications may be skipped because of a large snapshot size.
Resolution Protect each VM in a separate protection domain.
Severity Info
Table 385: Snapshot contains entities from the storage container that have deduplication
enabled. [130131] [A130131]
Table 387: vStore is being replicated to backup only remote site. [130134] [A130134]
Table 391: Failed to allocate snapshot reserve on the remote site [130141] [A130141]
Table 393: Protection Domain falling back to lower frequency replications to remote. [130143]
[A130143]
Table 395: Snapshot queued for replications to remote site [130145] [A130145]
Table 403: Failed to find the Target cluster for Replication [130163] [A130163]
Table 406: Recovery Point expired prior to start of replication. [130166] [A130166]
Table 407: VM Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO [130167] [A130167]
Table 410: Nutanix Guest Tools Not Installed on the VM [130170] [A130170]
Table 411: Nutanix VSS provider or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) Scripts Not Installed. [130171]
[A130171]
Cause Recovery Point for VM failed to capture associated policies and categories.
Table 414: Invalid Availability Zone details configured in Protection Policy. [130177] [A130177]
Table 416: Data Protection tasks are not progressing. [130179] [A130179]
Table 418: Snapshot has Entities from the Storage Container that have Deduplication Enabled
[130181] [A130181]
Table 423: Virtual IP Address not Configured on the Cluster. [130191] [A130191]
Cause Virtual hardware version of the VM is not compatible with the maximum virtual
hardware version supported by any of the nodes at the remote Availability
Zone.
Impact VM may not register properly on the remote Availability Zone on restore/
clone.
Resolution Upgrade the hypervisor version on the remote Availability Zone to support the
virtual hardware version of the VM.
Severity Warning
Table 429: VSS Snapshot is not supported for some VMs. [130200] [A130200]
Table 431: Entity Transition to a Higher Frequency Snapshot Schedule. [130204] [A130204]
Table 432: Entity is being transitioned to a lower frequency snapshot schedule. [130205]
[A130205]
Table 433: Subnet configured for Remote Site mis-matches with remote cluster subnet
[130206] [A130206]
Table 434: Hosting of Virtual IP of the Network Segmentation DR Service Failed. [130207]
[A130207]
Table 437: Cluster does not support Synchronous Replication. [130212] [A130212]
Table 438: Failed to transition to a higher frequency snapshot schedule. [130213] [A130213]
Table 439: Nearsync Replication is lagging for Protection Domain snapshot [130214] [A130214]
Table 441: Cluster does not support the planned failover of synchronously replicated entities.
[130339] [A130339]
Name The cluster does not support the planned failover of synchronously replicated
entities
Description Cluster does not support the planned failover of synchronously replicated
entities.
Alert message Synchronous Replication is enabled for the entity vm_name but cluster cluster_name does not
support planned failover.
Cause The cluster does not support the planned failover of synchronously replicated
entities.
Impact Planned failover of the entity will fail.
Resolution Please upgrade the source and target clusters to a version later than 5.17.1. It is
recommended to have source and target clusters on the same version.
Severity Warning
Table 444: Volume Group Recovery Point Creation Failed. [130343] [A130343]
Table 445: Cluster does not support the live migration of synchronously replicated entities.
[130345] [A130345]
Name The cluster does not support the live migration of synchronously replicated
entities
Table 449: Volume Group Protection Might Fail Post Recovery [130352] [A130352]
Table 452: Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Failed. [130355] [A130355]
Table 453: VM is part of multiple Recovery Plans configured with Witness [130356] [A130356]
Table 458: Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO [130362]
[A130362]
Cause Latest replication took more time than the RPO limit.
Impact Replications for the next snapshots will be delayed.
Resolution Please check your network.
KB Article 11745
Severity Warning
Table 460: Validation Warnings found during Recovery Plan Execution [300402] [A300402]
Table 461: Subnet Creation Failure for the Recovery Plan [300405] [A300405]
Table 462: Invalid Network Settings for the Recovery Plan [300407] [A300407]
Table 463: Recovery Plan Validation Failed With Errors [300408] [A300408]
Table 464: Recovery Plan Validation Failed with Warnings [300409] [A300409]
Table 465: Recovery plans have conflicting network mappings [300410] [A300410]
Table 466: Planned Failover or Unplanned Failover operations will fail. [300411] [A300411]
Name Delete the failed over entities from either the Primary or the Recovery
Location
Description Delete the failed over entities on either the primary or the recovery location.
Alert message Unplanned Failover for the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has completed successfully.
Validate and clean up the entities from the site where it is not required, for new unplanned or
planned failover operations for this recovery plan to succeed.
Cause Unplanned failover for the Recovery Plan completed successfully.
Impact Planned Failover and Unplanned Failover operations are not possible without
cleanup.
Resolution Post unplanned failover entities are now active on the recovery Availability
Zone. For synced entities, delete the entities on the primary Availability
Zone to avoid performance issues. For entities protected by asynchronous
replication, performance will not be affected and deletion can happen on
either Availability Zone as required.
Severity Warning
Table 467: Test Failover on Recovery Plan has not been executed recently [300412] [A300412]
Table 468: Multiple Recovery Plans associated with a Category [300413] [A300413]
Table 469: Number of entities in Recovery Plan exceeds the threshold [300414] [A300414]
Table 470: VMs are part of multiple stages in Recovery Plan [300415] [A300415]
Table 471: The same floating IP is associated with multiple VMs belonging to different Recovery
Plans [300416] [A300416]
Table 472: Some of the entities in the Recovery Plan are unprotected [300417] [A300417]
Table 473: Entities not cleaned up following the Test Failover for Recovery Plan [300418]
[A300418]
Name Recovery Plan Checks for Cleanup of Entities after Test Failover
Description Checks that entities recovered using Recovery Plan after Test Failover have
been cleaned up.
Alert message Entities recovered following the Test Failover of Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name have not
been cleaned up. Manual clean up of the entities is required.
Cause Entities recovered following the Test Failover of the Recovery Plan have not
been cleaned up.
Impact Subsequent recovery of the entities from Test Failover operation might get
affected.
Resolution Perform cleanup of the test entities for the Recovery Plan.
KB Article 5794
Severity Warning
Table 477: Recovery Plan Execution Failure due to Validation Errors [300422] [A300422]
Table 478: Recovery Plan has multiple Availability Zone Orders [300424] [A300424]
Table 479: Recovery Plan contains VMs with Unsupported CHDR VM configuration. [300425]
[A300425]
Table 480: Incompatible Recovery Availability Zones for some VMs in the Recovery Plan
[300426] [A300426]
Cause Target Availability Zone is running Prism Central version less than AOS 5.11
version and hence it does not support the recovery of VMware VMs.
Impact The VM recovery will fail.
Resolution Upgrade the Target Availability Zone to 5.11 or later version, or Remove the
entity mentioned in the description of the alert from the Recovery plan.
KB Article 6872
Severity Warning
Table 481: Floating IPs Deallocation Failed after Failback from Xi. [300427] [A300427]
Name Unassociated Floating IPs Deallocation Failure after Failback from Xi.
Description Failed to deallocate unassociated floating IPs after failback from Xi that were
earlier dynamically created.
Alert message Failed to deallocate unassociated floating IPs failed_floating_ips after failback from Xi that were
earlier dynamically created, for operation_type on the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Cause The floating IPs might be in use.
Impact Floating IPs will continue to remain reserved. Reserved floating IPs are billable.
Resolution If you are not using the floating IPs, deallocate them manually.
Severity Warning
Table 482: Recovery Plan contains VMs with special configuration and no empty CDROM
[300428] [A300428]
Name Recovery Plan Execution Exceeded the Maximum Expected Time Limit.
Description Recovery Plan execution exceeded the time limit.
Alert message Execution of Recovery Plan 'recovery_plan_name' exceeded the estimated completion time by
excess_time_taken.
Table 484: Entities in category(s) present in multiple fault domains. [300432] [A300432]
Name ObjectLicenseExpiry
Description Check if Nutanix Objects license is about to expire.
Alert message This cluster_type has expiring or expired Nutanix Objects license(s). Detailed license expiry info:
license_expiry_msg license_warning_msg
Name VM HA Status
Description High availability failure.
Alert message VMs are no longer protected against host failure. Reason: reason.
Cause Not enough memory/CPU resources within the cluster.
Impact VMs are no longer protected against host failure.
Resolution Shut down unneeded VMs to free cluster resources, expand the cluster to add
resources, or disable protection against host failures. VMs cannot be powered
on or migrated until the system has sufficient resources to protect against the
configured number of host failures.
Severity Warning
Table 495: VSS Snapshot is not supported for the VM. [130105] [A130105]
Table 499: Failed to take the application-consistent snapshot for the VM. [130127] [A130127]
Table 502: Removal of the Temporary Hypervisor Snapshot Failed for the VM [130150]
[A130150]
Table 503: Nutanix Guest Tools Failed to Initiate VM Reboot. [130190] [A130190]
Table 514: VM stored on RF1 container failed to start after host/CVM maintenance. [200405]
[A200405]
Hardware
Cause A drive on the node has failed and was marked offline.
Impact Cluster storage capacity will be reduced until the drive is replaced.
Resolution Replace the failed drive. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
KB Article 8453
Severity Critical
Table 525: Kernel mitigation configuration doesn't match current state. [111090] [A111090]
Table 526: Disk utilization for audit partition is more than 75%. [111092] [A111092]
Table 529: VM Group Snapshot and Current State Mismatch [130110] [A130110]
Cause Unable to communicate with one or more host(s) to apply the configuration
change.
Cause Lost connectivity while applying the Virtual Switch configuration.
Cause OVS did not accept or apply the requested configuration change.
Cause Unexpected error with service(s) required for Virtual Switch configuration
change (Acropolis, Genesis, IDF, Prism Gateway).
Impact Unable to apply Virtual Switch configuration on the host(s).
Resolution Ensure all hosts are up and reachable by all CVMs.
Resolution Ensure the external network is properly configured to retain connectivity using
the applied Virtual Switch configuration.
Resolution Review the alert message and affected host OVS log files for further details.
Resolution Review the alert message and related service Acropolis and Genesis log files
for further details.
KB Article 9406
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Table 541: Failed to configure host for Atlas networking [130201] [A130201]
Table 542: Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking [130202] [A130202]
Table 547: Maximum VPN BGP route limit reached [801001] [A801001]
Table 548: VPN IPSEC tunnel between VPN endpoints is down [801002] [A801002]
Table 549: eBGP session between VPN endpoints is down [801003] [A801003]
Table 551: Deletion of the Layer-2 subnet extension failed on the remote site. [801101] [A801101]
Table 552: ANC version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension. [801102] [A801102]
Table 553: VPN gateway version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension. [801103]
[A801103]
Name VPN gateway version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension
Description VPN gateway version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension.
Alert message VPN gateway version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@".
Cause VPN gateway version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension.
Impact ARP messages (and other unknown unicast messages) from peer AZ will be
dropped, causing reachability issues between VMs on the stretched subnet
across AZs.
Resolution Upgrade the VPN gateway to the right version that has support for Layer-2
subnet extension.
KB Article 10389
Severity Critical
Table 554: VPN connection associated with Layer-2 subnet extension not found. [801104]
[A801104]
Name VPN connection associated with Layer-2 subnet extension not found
Description VPN connection associated with Layer-2 subnet extension not found.
Alert message VPN connection associated with Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" not found.
Cause VPN connection associated with Layer-2 subnet extension was deleted.
Impact VMs across AZs on the stretched subnet cannot communicate with each
other.
Resolution Delete the Layer-2 subnet extension and create it again when VPN connection
is restored.
KB Article 10390
Severity Critical
Table 556: Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension not found. [801106] [A801106]
Table 557: CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension don't match. [801107]
[A801107]
Table 559: Local VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in peer AZ.
[801109] [A801109]
Name Local VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in peer
AZ
Description Local VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in peer
AZ.
Alert message Local VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" is in
use in peer AZ.
Cause A vNIC in peer AZ was assigned the same IP address as VPN interface IP used
in the local AZ.
Impact Some VMs in the subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension will be unable
to communicate with other VMs in peer AZ.
Resolution Resolve the IP conflict by ensuring the VPN interface IP is not used for any
user VMs in any of AZs involved in the Layer-2 subnet extension.
KB Article 10395
Severity Critical
Table 560: Remote VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in this AZ.
[801110] [A801110]
Name Remote VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in this
AZ
Description Remote VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is in use in this
AZ.
Table 561: Some IP address(es) are common across the subnets involved in the Layer-2 subnet
extension. [801111] [A801111]
Name Some IP address(es) are common across the subnets involved in the Layer-2
subnet extension
Description Some IP address(es) are common across the subnets involved in the Layer-2
subnet extension
Alert message Some IP address(es) are common across subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension
"#layer2_stretch_name@". Detailed error text: error_detail
Cause Some UVMs are allocated IP addresses that are in use in the peer AZ involved
in Layer-2 subnet extension.
Impact Some VMs in the subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension will be unable
to communicate with other VMs in peer AZ.
Resolution Resolve the IP conflict by ensuring the IP addresses allocated to UVMs are
unique across the AZs involved in the Layer-2 subnet extension.
KB Article 10604
Severity Critical
Name An Advanced Networking Controller service's DNS name was not resolvable
Description Atlas was unable to resolve an Advanced Networking Controller service's DNS
name.
Alert message The IP corresponding to url could not be resolved with the following DNS servers: dns_servers
Cause PC nameserver configuration is incorrect.
Impact Ability to make network-related configurations may be impacted.
Resolution Verify nameserver configuration on PC.
KB Article 9365
Severity Critical
Table 564: Unable to apply Virtual Private Cloud Routing Policy. [802003] [A802003]
Table 566: ID Firewall did not recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily unreachable
domain controller [803005] [A803005]
Cause Recovery failed because either too much time has passed since the domain
controller was last reachable, or the event log on the domain controller has
rolled over and the events necessary to recover are no longer present.
Impact The state enforced by ID Firewall may be inconsistent, and therefore applied
policies may not be properly enforced until action is taken.
Resolution In order to ensure security policies are properly enforced, all active Nutanix
VDI VM users should log out and log back into their VMs. Please refer
KB-10220 for further details.
KB Article 10220
Severity Warning
Table 573: File server could not join the AD Domain [160005] [A160005]
Cause File server has one or more nodes under extensive load.
Impact File server performance may be impacted and new client connections may be
refused.
Resolution Run 'Performance optimization' for the specified file server. Please refer
Nutanix Files 'System limits' section in the release notes for more details.
Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 7035
Severity Warning
Severity Info
Table 581: File Server failed to get updated CVM IP address. [160018] [A160018]
Table 582: Appropriate Site Not Found in Active Directory [160019] [A160019]
Table 590: Failed to correct File Server data and meta data inconsistencies [160034]
[A160034]
Table 593: Failed to add one or more file server administrator users or groups [160038]
[A160038]
Name Failed to add one or more file server admin users or groups
Description Failed to add one or more users or groups as file server administrators
Alert message File server file_server_name: failure_msg Update file server administrators on the file server page
Cause One or more users or groups could not be resolved on Active Directory.
Impact File server administrator users or groups may not function as administrators
Resolution Update file server administrators on the file server page
Severity Info
Table 594: Maximum connections limit about to reach on a file server VM [160039] [A160039]
Table 597: File Server AntiVirus - ICAP Server Down [160042] [A160042]
Table 598: File Server AntiVirus - All ICAP Servers Down [160043] [A160043]
Table 600: File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Full on FSVM [160045] [A160045]
Table 601: File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Piling Up on FSVM [160046] [A160046]
Table 602: File Server AntiVirus - Excessive Quarantined / Unquarantined Files [160047]
[A160047]
Table 603: File Server AntiVirus - Quarantined / Unquarantined Files Limit Reached [160048]
[A160048]
Table 604: File Server time is out of sync with the Active Directory [160049] [A160049]
Name File Server time is out of sync with the Active Directory
Description File server time is out of sync with the Active Directory domain controllers.
Alert message Time drift between the file server VMs and the Active Directory is at time_drift_secs seconds
on file server file_server_name. If the drift becomes more than 300 seconds, the clients may get
disconnected from the fileserver.
Cause NTP is not configured correctly or the NTP service is not functioning.
Table 605: File Server User Management Configuration Failed [160050] [A160050]
Table 606: /home partition usage on a file server VM higher than threshold [160051] [A160051]
Table 607: File server DNS records cannot be refreshed [160052] [A160052]
Table 608: File Server Share Backup diff path translation failed [160053] [A160053]
Table 609: File Server Partner Server Connectivity Down [160054] [A160054]
Table 610: File Server DNS resolver IP connectivity Failure [160055] [A160055]
Table 611: File Server PD action to incompatible Remote Site AOS [160057] [A160057]
Name File Server PD action warning for non compatible Remote Site AOS
Description Remote Site AOS version is not compatible with File Server version.
Alert message File server file_server_name protection domain protection_domain_name enabled on non-
compatible Remote site remote_site_name
Cause Remote Site AOS version is not compatible with File Server version.
Impact Migrate-to or Activate-on Remote Site would fail.
Resolution Upgrade Remote Site AOS version similar or above of primary site. Please
refer Software Product Interoperability page on portal for reference. Contact
Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Table 612: File Server NTP servers connectivity failure [160058] [A160058]
Table 615: Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint on File Server [160062] [A160062]
Table 617: Duplicate IP address detected for a File Server VM. [160068] [A160068]
Table 619: File Server VM Time Drift from NTP Servers [160072] [A160072]
Table 622: File Server Active Directory operation failed during Disaster Recovery [160103]
[A160103]
Name File Server Active Directory operation failed during Disaster Recovery
Table 623: File Server Disaster Recovery - target site not reachable [160105] [A160105]
Table 624: File Server Disaster Recovery - not able to meet RPO [160106] [A160106]
Cause An error on source or target file server can cause replication to proceed
slowly.
Impact Disaster Recovery related share replication may not be up to date as per the
RPO standard.
Resolution Please check the alert message for details.
KB Article 9872
Severity Warning
Name File Server Disaster Recovery - both source and target are active file servers
Description File server Disaster Recovery feature has both source and target file servers
set as active with read-write shares.
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery feature has both source and target file servers set
as active with read-write shares. message
Cause Configuration error during Disaster Recovery setup on source and/or target
file servers.
Impact Data inside shares may be modified on both source and target and may not
remain in sync.
Resolution Please make the target file server as standby with read-only shares.
KB Article 9873
Severity Warning
Table 626: File Server connected share path was not found [160108] [A160108]
Table 627: File Server Disaster Recovery - source file server has more nodes than target file
server [160110] [A160110]
Name File Server Disaster Recovery - source file server has more nodes than target
file server
Description File server Disaster Recovery - number of nodes on source and target file
servers must be the same.
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery - Target site expansion required. message
Cause Number of file server nodes on source and target has changed due to scale-
out operation.
Impact Data inside shares may not remain in sync.
Resolution Expand or reduce the node count on source and target file servers to make
the node count identical on both file servers.
KB Article 9858
Table 628: File Server Disaster Recovery - target file server has more nodes than source file
server [160111] [A160111]
Name File Server Disaster Recovery - target file server has more nodes than source
file server
Description File server Disaster Recovery - number of nodes on source and target file
servers must be the same.
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery - Source site expansion required. message
Cause Number of file server nodes on source and target has changed due to scale-
out operation.
Impact Data inside shares may not remain in sync.
Resolution Expand or reduce the node count on source and target file servers to make
the node count identical on both file servers.
KB Article 9858
Severity Warning
Table 629: File Server Disaster Recovery - failover operation failed [160112] [A160112]
Table 630: File Server Disaster Recovery - failback operation failed [160113] [A160113]
Table 631: File Server Disaster Recovery - Source and Target Have Mismatched Protocols
Configured [160114] [A160114]
Name File Server Disaster Recovery - Source and Target Have Mismatched Protocols
Configured
Description File server - failed to establish source and target relationship for shares due to
mismatched protocol configuration.
Alert message One or more shares are not protected for file_server_name. message
Cause Source and target file servers are not configured to support the same
protocols.
Impact One or more shares will not be protected.
Resolution Configure source and target file servers with the same protocols.
Severity Warning
Table 632: File Server Disaster Recovery - SSR snapshot schedule migration operation failed
[160116] [A160116]
Name File Server Disaster Recovery - SSR snapshot schedule migration operation
failed
Description File server - failed to migrate SSR snapshot schedule.
Alert message Failed to migrate SSR snapshot schedules on file_server_name. message
Cause The Alert message includes the cause and the details of the SSR schedule
migration failure.
Impact SSR snapshots will not be replicated to target.
Resolution Run the SSR snapshot migration via afs cli. Please refer to KB article 11593
for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance
needed.
KB Article 11593
Severity Warning
Table 634: File Server Domain Controller is detected slow. [160121] [A160121]
Table 635: AIDE Baselines configuration changes on File Server. [160130] [A160130]
Table 636: Remote syslog server forwarding failed on a File Server. [160131] [A160131]
Table 637: File Server Tiering Service is not healthy [160135] [A160135]
Table 638: File server Tiering Service failed to mark the bucket for cleanup [160136] [A160136]
Name File server Tiering Service failed to mark the bucket for cleanup
Description Tiering service failed to mark the bucket for garbage collection.
Alert message message
Cause The following causes are possible:File Server not in healthy stateProblems with
Object Store Connectivity
Impact Lifecycle policies are not accurately configured on the bucket and can retain
objects longer than intended.
Resolution Please cleanup the Object Store. Refer to KB11074 for more details. Contact
Nutanix support for assistance.
KB Article 11074
Severity Warning
Table 639: File Server/Share(s) are deleted; Object Store cleanup is required [160137] [A160137]
Table 640: Disk space usage for audit volume high on a file server. [160138] [A160138]
Table 642: Versioning is suspended for the bucket in the file server tiering profile. [160142]
[A160142]
Table 643: Detected recovery points on prism central managing clusters with high density
nodes [110452] [A110452]
Table 644: Detected protection policies on Prism Central managing clusters with high density
nodes [110453] [A110453]
Table 649: Prism Central VM type or annotation not set. [200307] [A200307]
Table 650: Unequal metadata partition size(s) across Prism Central VMs. [200308] [A200308]
Cause Metadata partition size(s) of one or more Prism Central VMs is inconsistent
with other Prism Central VMs.
Impact Manageability of the cluster may be lost. Cluster may be significantly
degraded and ultimately fail.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support to resize the Prism Central VM disks.
KB Article 6028
Severity Warning
Table 651: High time difference between Prism Central and registered Prism Elements.
[200309] [A200309]
Table 654: Prism Central Upgrades are disabled on {cvm_ip} [200314] [A200314]
Table 659: Recovery Plan has conflicting IP mappings with other Recovery Plan(s) [300430]
[A300430]
Cause IPs mapped in Recovery Plans are conflicting. Same IP from a subnet is
specified for multiple VMs.
Cause IPs mapped in Recovery Plans are conflicting. Different IPs are specified for
the same VM in different Recovery Plans.
Impact IP mapping will fail if a VM has been recovered with the same IP from a
different Recovery Plan.
Impact VM will come up without the specified IP after recovery.
Resolution Ensure that the same IP from a subnet is not specified for multiple VMs.
Resolution Ensure that different IPs are not specified for the same VM in different
Recovery Plans.
KB Article 7866
Severity Warning
Table 661: Recovery Plan has networks which are modified [300435] [A300435]
Table 662: Recovery Plan has VM(s) with iSCSI attached Volume Group(s) that do not have a
compatible NGT installed/enabled. [300436] [A300436]
Name Recovery Plan check for NGT version installed in VM(s) with iSCSI attached
Volume Group(s)
Description Checks if VM(s) with iSCSI attached Volume Group(s) specified in Recovery
Plan have a compatible NGT installed.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has VM(s) vm_list with iSCSI attached Volume Group(s) that
do not have a compatible NGT installed/enabled.
Table 663: Recovery Plan has VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) configuration that are
different from the live VM to Volume Groups(s) attachment(s). [300437] [A300437]
Table 664: Nucalm Internal Service has Stopped Working [400101] [A400101]
Table 665: Epsilon Internal Service has Stopped Working [400102] [A400102]
Table 668: Calm showback is unable to reach beam service [400107] [A400107]
Table 674: Calm Policy Engine Internal Service has Stopped Working [400114] [A400114]
Table 675: Threshold set for the quota has been crossed [400116] [A400116]
Prism Central VM
Cause A drive on the node has failed and was marked offline.
Impact Cluster storage capacity will be reduced until the drive is replaced.
Resolution Replace the failed drive. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
KB Article 8453
Table 693: Associated entities are not protected together. [130090] [A130090]
Table 696: System-Defined Flash Mode Usage Limit Exceeded [130120] [A130120]
Table 698: Guest Power Operation through NGT Failed [130149] [A130149]
Cause I/O to the external datasource failed with I/O error from the NFS server.
Cause Network connectivity issues between the AOS CVM subnet and the external
repository. This can be either intermittent or permanent.
Cause Write failed because of no disk space available or hitting quota limitation in
the NFS external repository.
Cause Write request is attempted while the external repository is configured in
READ_ONLY mode.
Cause The datasource within the NFSv3 external repository does not have the
correct access permission.
Cause The datasource is not available in the NFS server.
Impact IO to an data source within an external repository fails
Resolution Make sure the NFS server is in a good state.
Table 702: External datasource storage migration suspended due to unrecoverable errors
[130347] [A130347]
Table 703: Prism Central VM System Root Partition Space Usage High [200316] [A200316]
Table 704: Prism Central VM home partition disk usage high [200317] [A200317]
VM
Table 706: Non Compliance with Host Affinity policies. [200403] [A200403]
• You can configure an HTTP proxy, which can be used to communicate with a Nutanix service
center (see Configuring an HTTP Proxy on page 506
• You can specify one or more name servers (see Configuring Name Servers (Prism Central)
on page 512).
• You can specify one or more NTP servers for setting the system clock (see Configuring NTP
Servers (Prism Central) on page 512).
• You can configure SNMP (see Configuring SNMP (Prism Central) on page 514).
• You can configure a login banner page (see Configuring a Banner Page (Prism Central) on
page 529).
• You can change the language setting for displayed text (see Changing the Language
Settings (Prism Central) on page 530).
• Prism Central and its managed clusters are not supported in environments deploying
Network Address Translation (NAT).
• If you are planning to use Prism Central as a proxy for Pulse data transmitted by
each node in a Prism Element cluster managed by that Prism Central instance, see
Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data on page 955.
To communicate with the Nutanix service center directly, you need to configure the HTTP
proxy. See Configuring an HTTP Proxy on page 506 for information on how to configure
the HTTP proxy through Prism Central web console. After the HTTP proxy is configured, all
the HTTP or HTTPS communication initiated by Prism Element or the Prism Central is routed
through the proxy server.
The communication from Prism is routed through the proxy server until a whitelist target
entry indicates otherwise. See Who Needs to Use the Whitelist Method on page 505 for
information on who needs to whitelist the IP addresses. To overcome a communication failure
between a Prism Element and the registered Prism Central, you need to manually whitelist
the target entries from the Prism web console or nCLI. These options enable you to add Prism
Central and its managed/registered clusters to a whitelist, where any HTTP proxy settings are
ignored. This configuration allows network traffic between them, bypassing any proxy servers
configured in the cluster. The whitelist also enables you to register new clusters with Prism
Central successfully where clusters are using an HTTP proxy.
See Step 3 of Configuring an HTTP Proxy on page 506 for information on how to configure
the whitelist IP address through the Prism Central web console.
Alternatively, you can use the ncli http-proxy add-to-whitelist and ncli http-proxy delete-from-whitelist
nCLI command options. See Whitelisting Prism Central and Its Managed Clusters (nCLI) on
page 511 for information on how to configure the whitelist IP address through the nCLI.
Figure 219: Prism Central, Proxy Server with SSL Port 9440 Open
If you are implementing a proxy server in your cluster environment with this port closed as
shown in this simple graphic, you must allow direct communication between Prism Central
and its managed/registered clusters as described in Step 3 of Configuring an HTTP Proxy on
page 506 or alternatively in Whitelisting Prism Central and Its Managed Clusters (nCLI) on
page 511.
Note:
• If you are planning to use Prism Central as a proxy for Pulse data transmitted by
each node in a Prism Element cluster managed by that Prism Central instance, see
Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data on page 955.
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select HTTP Proxy in the Settings page.
The HTTP Proxies dialog box appears.
Note: You can configure only one HTTP proxy at a time. If one exists currently, you must first
delete it before creating a new one.
Note: To return to the HTTP Proxy window without saving, click the Cancel button.
• To add a whitelist target, click the + Create link. This step opens a line to enter a target
address. Enter the target IP address or the network address and the subnet mask and
then click the Save link in that field.
Prism Central sends traffic to the whitelist IP addresses directly rather than through the
HTTP or HTTPS proxy.
• To edit a whitelist target, click the pencil icon for that target and update as needed.
• To delete a whitelist target, click the X icon for that target.
Note: Where proxy whitelist configuration is needed, it is recommended that you add the
cluster virtual IP and all external CVM IPs of each registered cluster to the proxy whitelist for
Prism Central. The virtual IP of Prism Central and the IP of each Prism Central VM (PCVM)
should be added to the proxy whitelist on the registered Prism Element clusters. For easier
management, you can add the subnets instead of adding the individual IPs.
4. To delete an HTTP proxy entry, click the X icon for that entry.
A window prompt appears to verify the action; click the OK button. The entry is removed
from the HTTP proxy list.
Procedure
1. Open a SSH session to any Controller VM in the cluster to be managed by Prism Central.
2. In this example, add the Prism Central VM IP address to the whitelist, then ensure the Prism
Central VM IP address was added to the whitelist.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli http-proxy add-to-whitelist target-type=ipv4_address target=10.4.52.40
nutanix@cvm$ ncli http-proxy get-whitelist
Target Type : IPV4_ADDRESS
Target : 10.4.52.40
Note: Repeat this step for additional Prism Central VM IP addresses and the virtual IP address
in the case of scaleout Prism Central.
3. Open a SSH session to the Prism Central VM managing the cluster where you just modified
the HTTP whitelist.
4. Add the cluster virtual IP address to the whitelist, then ensure the IP address was added to
the whitelist.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli http-proxy add-to-whitelist target-type=ipv4_address target=10.4.52.10
nutanix@cvm$ ncli http-proxy get-whitelist
Target Type : IPV4_ADDRESS
Target : 10.4.52.10
Note:
The following is sample output of the get-whitelist command, which displays the
whitelisted network added above.
nutanix@CVM:~$ ncli http-proxy get-whitelist
In this case, Prism Central and its managed cluster can communicate, with network traffic
bypassing any proxy servers configured in the cluster.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select Name Servers in the Settings page.
The Name Servers dialog box appears.
2. To add a name server, enter the server IP address in the Server field and then click the Add
button to the right of that field.
The server is added to the IP Address list (below the Server field).
Note: Changes in name server configuration may take up to 5 minutes to take effect.
Functions that rely on DNS may not work properly during this time. You can configure a
maximum of three name servers.
3. To delete a name server entry, click the X icon for that server in the Host Name or IP
Address list.
A window prompt appears to verify the action; click the OK button. The server is removed
from the list.
Note: If Prism Central is running on Hyper-V, you must specific the IP address of the Active
Directory Domain Controller server, not the hostname. Do not use DNS hostnames or external
NTP servers.
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select NTP Servers in the Settings page.
The NTP Servers dialog box appears.
2. To add an NTP server entry, enter the server IP address or fully qualified host name in the
NTP Server field and then click the Add button to the right of that field.
The name or address is added to the Server list (below the NTP Server field).
3. To delete an NTP server entry, click the delete icon for that server in the Servers list.
A window prompt appears to verify the action; click the OK button. The server is removed
from the list.
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select SMTP Server in the Settings page.
The SMTP Server Settings dialog box appears.
a. Host Name or IP Address: Enter the IP address or fully qualified domain name for the
SMTP server.
b. Port: Enter the port number to use.
The standard SMTP ports are 25 (unencrypted), 587 (TLS), and 465 (SSL). For the
complete list of required ports, see Port Reference.
c. Security Mode: Enter the desired security mode from the pull-down list.
The options are NONE (unencrypted), STARTTLS (use TLS encryption), and SSL (use SSL
encryption).
d. User: Enter a user name.
The User and Password fields apply only when a secure option (STARTTLS or SSL) is
selected. The user name might need to include the domain (user@domain) depending on the
authentication process.
e. Password: Enter the user password.
a. From Email Address (optional): Enter an e-mail address that appears as the sender
address.
By default, alert and status information e-mails display "[email protected]" as the sender
address. You have the option to replace that address with a custom address by entering a
sender address in this field.
3. When all the fields are correct, click the Save button.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select SNMP in the Settings page.
The SNMP Configuration dialog box appears.
2. To enable SNMP for Nutanix Objects, check the Enable for Nutanix Objects box.
For more information about Nutanix Objects, see Enabling Objects on page 948.
3. To view the Nutanix MIB (NUTANIX-MIB.txt), click the View MIB link. To download NUTANIX-
MIB.txt, right-click and select the appropriate download action for your browser.
• Trap Username: This field is displayed if you select v3 in the SNMP Version. Select a
user from the pull-down list.
• Community: This field is displayed if you select v2c in the SNMP Version. The default
value for v2c trap community is public, or you can enter any other name of your
choice.
All users added previously (see step 4) appear in the pull-down list. You cannot add a
trap receiver entry until at least one user has been added.
d. Address: Enter the target address.
An SNMP target address specifies the destination and user that receives outgoing
notifications, such as trap messages. SNMP target address names must be unique within
the managed device.
e. Port: Enter the port number to use.
The SNMP trap receiver uses UDP port number 162. For the complete list of required
ports, see Port Reference.
f. Engine ID (optional): Enter an engine identifier value, which must be a hexadecimal
string between 5 and 32 characters long.
If you do not specify an engine ID, an engine ID is generated for you for use with the
receiver. Every SNMP v3 agent has an engine ID that serves as a unique identifier for the
agent. The engine ID is used with a hashing function to generate keys for authentication
and encryption of SNMP v3 messages.
g. Inform: Select True from the pull-down list to use inform requests as the SNMP
notification method; select False to use traps as the SNMP notification method.
SNMP notifications can be sent as traps or inform requests. Traps are one-way
transmissions; they do not require an acknowledgment from the receiver. Informs expect
a response. If the sender never receives a response, the inform request can be sent
again. Therefore, informs are more reliable than traps. However, informs consume more
resources. Unlike a trap, which is discarded as soon as it is sent, an inform request must
be held in memory until a response is received or the request times out. Also, traps are
sent only once, while an inform may be retried several times. The retries increase traffic
and add overhead on the network. Thus, traps and inform requests provide a trade-off
between reliability and resources.
h. Transport Protocol: Select the protocol to use from the pull-down list.
The options are TCP, TCP6, UDP, and UDP6.
i. When all the fields are correct, click the Save button (lower right).
This saves the configuration and redisplays the dialog box with the new trap entry
appearing in the list.
j. To test all configured SNMP traps, click the Traps tab, and then click Test All.
The Nutanix cluster sends test alerts to all the SNMP trap receivers configured on the
cluster.
7. To delete an SNMP entry, click the appropriate tab (Users or Traps) and then click the X icon
for that entry in the list.
A window prompt appears to verify the delete action; click the OK button. The entry is
removed from the list.
Note: The Prism Central method of syslog monitoring configuration propagates the
configuration to the Prism Element clusters. If you do not want the configuration to be
propagated to the clusters, you must use Nutanix command-line interface (nCLI) for syslog
monitoring configuration.
• You must have the IP address of the syslog server that is deployed in your environment.
• For forwarding Flow logs, the Flow feature must be enabled.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select Syslog Server in the Settings page.
Note: You can configure only one syslog server per cluster.
6. Optionally, click the check box to enable RELP (Reliable Logging Protocol).
• API Audit
• Audit
• Security Policy Hitlogs (policy hitlog files logs)
• Flow Service Logs (Flow processes logs)
Caution: Users recommend that you only configure rsyslog modules listed in Syslog
Modules on page 521. Configuration of other modules using ncli commands will be over-
written with any modifications done on the Prism Central web console.
9. Select the Severity Level from the following available options. See Syslog Modules on
page 521 for details.
Click Save to complete.
Syslog Modules
Refer to the following table to understand the information that is sent to the syslog server
based on the selected log modules and severity levels.
The following table provides information on the AUDIT fields of the Syslog Module.
The following table provides information on the different fields of the Security Policy Hit Logs.
Field Description
1. Click the gear icon and select UI Settings from the Settings > Appearance menu (see
Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
The UI Settings window appears.
2. To set different variations of the Prism UI background themes, select any of the following
options from the Prism Themes drop-down menu. The UI changes cosmetically to reflect the
selection.
Important:
• The Prism themes feature is currently in technical preview. You may encounter
visual anomalies in few settings or views where the prism themes are not applied.
• Select Light Theme for light background with high contrast view. This is the default Prism
background theme.
• Select Dark Theme for dark background with high contrast view. A pop-up appears
prompting you to click Continue to proceed.
3. To disable the logon page background animation, uncheck the Enable animated background
particles box (or check it to enable).
Unchecking the Enable animated background particles box in the Prism UI Settings dialog
box disables the creation or drawing of particles entirely. This action stops the drawing of
the particles on the Prism Element logon page.
Note: This setting is not persistent. In other words, if the Prism service restarts, this setting is
lost and must be disabled again.
Disabling the particles allows you to conserve critical CPU resources that are used in
creating and maintaining the particles.
Note: Disabling or enabling this setting in Prism Web Console does not propagate to Prism
Central or vice versa. The setting must be disabled in Prism Web Console and Prism Central UI
separately.
You can disable the particle animation from the logon page by clicking Freeze space-time
continuum! at the right bottom of the logon page. This action stores a setting in the local
browser to stop the animation. However, this action does not stop creation or drawing of the
particles itself.
Note: You can enable the particle animation by clicking Engage the warp drive! .
• Click on the top bar (displayed in the following image) in the UI Settings dialog box
and simultaneously press the option key on the MAC system or Alt key on the Windows
system. Options for customizing the theme, title text, and blurb text are displayed.
• Select the theme from the options displayed for Theme. You can change the HEX codes
to create your own custom gradient background color for the logon page.
• In the Title Text field, enter the text to create your custom title.
• In the Blurb Text field, enter the text to create your custom blurb text. This text is
displayed below the password field.
Figure 233: UI Settings Window for customizing the theme, title text, and blurb text
• Select the session timeout for the current user from the SESSION TIMEOUT FOR
CURRENT USER drop-down list.
• Select the default session timeout for all non-administrative users from the DEFAULT
SESSION TIMEOUT FOR NON-ADMIN USERS drop-down list.
• Select the appropriate option from the SESSION TIMEOUT OVERRIDE FOR NON-ADMIN
USERS drop-down list to override the session timeout for non-administrative users.
Note: The timeout interval for an administrator cannot be set for longer than 1 hour.
6. Clear the Disable 2048 game option to disable the 2048 game.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select Welcome Banner in the Settings page.
The Edit Welcome Banner dialog box appears.
2. Enter (paste) the desired content in HTML format in the pane on the left.
Only "safe" HTML tags are supported. Inline event handlers, scripts, and externally-sourced
graphics are not allowed.
3. Click the Preview button to display the banner in the pane on the right.
4. If the banner is not correct, update the HTML code as needed until the preview pane displays
the desired message.
5. When the preview is correct, check the Enable Banner box (lower left) and then the Save
button.
A live banner page includes an "Accept terms and conditions" bar at the bottom. Clicking on
this bar sends the user to the login page.
You can disable (or enable) the banner at any time by unchecking (checking) the Enable
Banner box.
First and last name under Update Profile Static widget name
Chart name
• Logical entities that do not have a contextual translation available in the localized language
are not translated.
• The AOS generated alerts and events are not localized to the selected locale language.
• Following strings are not localized: VM, CPU, vCPU, Language Settings, licensing details
page, hardware names, storage denominations (GB, TB), About Nutanix page, EULA, service
names (SNMP, SMTP), hypervisor types.
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select Language Settings in the Settings
page.
The Language Setting window appears. The English language is selected by default.
» To change the language setting of the cluster to Simplified Chinese, select Simplified
Chinese from the drop-down menu.
» To change the language setting of the cluster to Japanese, select Japanese from the
drop-down menu.
» To change the locale settings (date, time, calendar), select the appropriate region from
the Region drop-down menu.
By default, the locale is set to the language setting that you have set in the Language
drop-down menu. However, you can change the Region to display the date, time, or
calendar in some other format. This format for date, time, and calendar is applied for the
entire cluster.
3. Click Save.
The language and locale settings (date, time, calendar) is changed according to the
selection. For example, in the below screen shot, once you click Save the language setting
for the cluster is changed to Chinese and locale setting is changed to Russian. For more
information on the entities that are supported in Simplified Chinese, see Internationalization
(i18n) (Prism Central) on page 529. Also, the user interface is localized according to the
Note: If you are logged on as a Domain administrator and the language settings changes
are not saved, you might need to update the User logon name for the Domain administrator
account. For more information, see KB10166.
• Set the user authentication method to local, directory service, or both (see Configuring
Authentication)
• Add, edit, or delete local user accounts (see Managing Local User Accounts)
• AHV: Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535, Creating a VM (Self
Service) on page 545, Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 552, and
Managing a VM (Self Service) on page 560
• ESXi: Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 574 and Managing a VM
through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 579
• To upload disk or ISO images that can by applied when creating a VM, see Image
Management on page 666.
• To add images or VMs to a catalog that can be applied by a self-service portal administrator
to project users, see Catalog Management on page 662.
• To configure affinity polices for an AHV cluster, see Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central
on page 604
• To perform other administrative tasks for a cluster, see Performing Other Administrative
Tasks on page 712.
• To register (or unregister) an ESXi cluster with vCenter, see vCenter Server Integration on
page 713.
VM Management
You can create and manage VMs directly from Prism Central when the hypervisor is either ESXi
or AHV.
• ESXi
• To create a VM, see Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 574.
• To manage or modify a VM, see Managing a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on
page 579.
• AHV
• To create a VM, see Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535.
• To manage or modify a VM, see Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on
page 552.
• Prism Self Service (AHV)
Note: For instructions about how to install Nutanix VirtIO on Windows VMs, see Windows VM
Provisioning in the AHV Administration Guide.
Note: If you are logged in as the self-service administrator or a project member, see Creating a
VM (Self Service) on page 545.
Procedure
1. Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and click
the Create VM button.
The Create VM wizard appears.
a. Type: Select the type of storage device, Disk or CD-ROM, from the drop-down list.
b. Operation: Specify the device contents from the drop-down list.
• [ CD-ROM only] Select Empty CD-ROM to create a blank CD-ROM device. A CD-ROM
device is needed when you intend to provide a system image from CD-ROM.
• [Disk only] Select Allocate on Storage Container to allocate space without specifying
an image. Selecting this option means you are allocating space only. You have to
provide a system image later from a CD-ROM or other source.
• Select Clone from Image to copy an image that you have imported by using image
service feature onto the disk.
c. Bus Type: Select the bus type from the pull-down list.
The options displayed in the pull-down list varies based on the storage Type selected in
Step a.
• For type Disk the choices are SCSI, SATA, PCI, or SATA.
• For type CD-ROM the choices are IDE, or SATA.
d. Clone from Image: Select the image that you have created by using the image service
feature.
Note: If the image you created does not appear in the list, see KB-4892.
Note: The image transfer can trigger image bandwidth throttling if a bandwidth
throttling policy is associated with the image. For more information, see Bandwidth
Throttling Policies on page 690.
e. Storage Container: Select the storage container to use from the drop-down list.
This field appears only when Allocate on Storage Container is selected. The list includes
all storage containers created for this cluster.
f. Capacity: Enter the disk size in GiB.
g. When all the field entries are correct, click the Add button to attach the disk to the VM
and return to the Create VM dialog box.
h. Repeat this step to attach additional devices to the VM.
a. Subnet Name: Select the target subnet from the drop-down list.
The list includes all defined networks (see Network Configuration for VM Interfaces in
Prism Web Console Guide).
b. VLAN ID: This is a read-only field that displays the VLAN ID.
c. IPAM: This is a read-only field that informs you if the subnet is IPAM managed or not.
d. Virtual Switch: This is a read-only field that displays the name of the virtual switch
associated with the subnet.
e. Network Connection State: Select the state for the network that you want it to operate
in after VM creation. The options are Connected or Disconnected.
f. Network Address/Prefix: This is a read-only field that displays the network IP address
and prefix.
g. Assignment Type: Select the IP assignment type from the drop-down list. The options
are Assign with DHCP, Assign Static IP, and No Private IP.
h. IP Address: Enter an IP address for the VLAN.
This field appears only if the NIC is placed in a managed network. Entering an IP
address in this field is optional when the network configuration provides an IP pool. If
the field is left blank, the NIC is assigned an IP address from the pool.
i. When all the field entries are correct, click the Save button to create a network
interface for the VM and return to the Create VM dialog box.
» Legacy BIOS: Select legacy BIOS to boot the VM with legacy BIOS firmware.
» UEFI: Select UEFI to boot the VM with UEFI firmware. UEFI firmware supports larger
hard drives, faster boot time, and provides more security features. For more information
about UEFI firmware, see UEFI Support for VM section in the AHV Administration Guide.
a. GPU Mode: Click the radio button for the desired mode, either vGPU or Passthrough.
b. If you selected vGPU, do the following:
• NVIDIA Virtual GPU License: Select a license type from the drop-down list. This sets
(filters the list of) available profiles. Click the help link (circled question mark) for
information about the license types.
Note:
You can add multiple vGPUs to the VM only if you select the license for
NVIDIA Virtual GPU software version 10.1 (440.53) or later.
Before you add multiple vGPUs to the VM, see Multiple Virtual GPU Support
and Restrictions for Multiple vGPU Support in the AHV Admin Guide.
• vGPU Profile: Click the radio button for the desired profile. Click the help links (Virtual
Slice column and end of line) for more information about the profiles.
Note:
Multiple vGPUs are supported on the same VM only if you select the highest
vGPU profile type.
• After you add the first vGPU, to add multiple vGPUs, see Adding Multiple vGPUs to
the Same VM on page 568.
a. Categories: Search for the category to be assigned to the VM. The policies associated
with the category value are assigned to the VM.
b. Timezone: Select the local timezone to use from the drop-down list.
c. Use this VM as an agent VM: Select this option to make this VM as an agent VM.
You can use this option for the VMs that must be powered on before the rest of the
VMs (for example, to provide network functions before rest of VMs are powered on the
» If the file is available on your local computer, click the Upload Script button, choose and
upload the file.
» Create or paste the contents of the file in the text box below the Upload Script button.
• Sysprep: XML
• Cloud-init (Linux): YAML, JSON, or Shell.
10. In the Review step, when all the field entries are correct, click the Create VM button to
create the VM and close the Create VM dialog box.
The new VM appears in the VMs entity page list.
• You can create a VM through the usual workflow that an admin user follows to create a VM
(see Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535)
• You can also create a VM based on a source file stored in the Prism Central catalog (see
Creating a VM from Catalog Items (Self Service) on page 546).
Note: If you are not logged on as the self-service administrator or a project member or you are
creating a VM not based on a source file stored in the Prism Central catalog, see Creating a VM
through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535.
Procedure
1. Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90).
• For VM Template select the target VM template. The available VM templates from the
catalog are listed. If the target VM image does not appear in the list, you can search for it
by name in the search field.
• For VM Template the list is fixed. Click the radio button for the device to boot from.
• For Image there are + New Disk and + New CDROM links above the list.
• Click + New Disk to add a disk. This displays a new line at the bottom of the list.
Specify the disk size and then click Save at the end of line to add the disk. (The name
and type field values are entered automatically.)
• Click + New CDROM to add a CD-ROM. This displays a new line at the bottom of the
list. Click Save at the end of line to add the CD-ROM. (All field values are entered
automatically.)
Repeat this step until you have added all the desired disks and CD-ROMs. When the list
is complete, click the radio button for the device to boot from.
a. Subnet Name: Select the target subnet from the drop-down list.
The list includes all defined networks (see Network Configuration for VM Interfaces in
Prism Web Console Guide).
b. VLAN ID: This is a read-only field that displays the VLAN ID.
c. IPAM: This is a read-only field that informs you if the subnet is IPAM managed or not.
d. Virtual Switch: This is a read-only field that displays the name of the virtual switch
associated with the subnet.
e. Network Connection State: Select the state for the network that you want it to operate
in after VM creation. The options are Connected or Disconnected.
f. When all the field entries are correct, click the Save button to create a network interface
for the VM and return to the Create VM dialog box.
g. Repeat this step to create additional network interfaces for the VM.
» Legacy BIOS Mode: Select legacy BIOS to boot the VM with legacy BIOS firmware.
» UEFI BIOS Mode: Select UEFI to boot the VM with UEFI firmware. UEFI firmware
supports larger hard drives, faster boot time, and provides more security features. For
more information about UEFI firmware, see the UEFI Support for VM section in the AHV
Administration Guide.
a. Categories (optional): To assign the VM a category value, enter the category name or
select one from the drop-down list. The policies associated with the category value are
assigned to the VM.
This field acts like a search field; it provides a list of matching categories as you enter a
string. Select the desired category value when you see it in the list. You can repeat this
step for as many categories as desired.
12. To specify a user data file (Linux VMs) or answer file (Windows VMs) the script for
unattended provisioning, do one of the following.
» If the file is available on your local computer, click the Upload Script button, choose and
upload the file.
» Create or paste the contents of the file in the text box below the Upload Script button.
• Sysprep: XML
• Cloud-init (Linux): YAML, JSON, or Shell.
• Select the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on
page 90) and choose the required action from the Actions menu.
• Right-click on the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard and select the required
action from the dropdown list.
• Go to the details page of a selected VM (see VM Details View on page 100) and select the
desired action.
You can perform some of the available actions on a single VM at a time, while others can be
performed on multiple VMs simultaneously. The available actions appear in bold; the unavailable
actions are grayed out. The available actions depend on the current state of the VM and your
permissions.
Note: You can perform only those operations for which you have permissions from the admin.
Procedure
1. Select the target VM and choose the action that you want to perform. See the following
table for the actions and their descriptions.
Add to Recovery Add the VM to a recovery plan you created previously. Yes
Plan For more information, see the Adding Guest VMs
Individually to a Recovery Plan section in the Nutanix
Disaster Recovery Guide.
Run Playbook Run a playbook you created previously. For more Yes
information, see Running a Playbook (Manual Trigger) on
page 884.
Manage Assign the VM a category value. For more information, Yes
Categories see Assigning a Category on page 744.
Install NGT Install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT). For more information, Yes
see Installing NGT on page 590.
Manage NGT Enable or disable NGT. For more information, see Yes
Applications Managing NGT Applications on page 592.
Add to Catalog Add the VM to the catalog. For more information, see No
Adding a Catalog Item on page 663.
Manage Specify a project and user who owns the VM. In the No
Ownership Manage VM Ownership dialog box, select the target
project from the pull-down list and enter a user name as
owner of the VM.
Set QoS Configure quality of service (QoS) settings. For more Yes
Attributes information, see Setting QoS for an Individual VM on
page 598.
Export as OVA Export the VM as OVA. For more information, see OVA No
Management on page 694 and Uploading an OVA on
page 696.
2. You can check the status of the VM actions under tasks widget.
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(AHV) on page 552 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Caution: See the recommendations specified in KB-9832 before making changes to the
VM properties such as memory, vCPU, or storage. Any values other than the recommended
memory, vCPU, or storage values for a VM might cause discrepancies in the Prism Central
behavior.
3. Disks: You can add new disks to the VM using the Attach Disk option. You can also modify
the existing disk attached to the VM using the controls under the actions column. See
Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535 before you modify the disk or
a. To enable flash mode on the VM, click the Enable Flash Mode check box.
» After you enable this feature on the VM, the status is updated in the VM table view. To
view the status of individual virtual disks (disks that are flashed to the SSD), click the
update disk icon in the Disks pane in the Update VM window.
» You can disable the flash mode feature for individual virtual disks. To update the flash
mode for individual virtual disks, click the update disk icon in the Disks pane and
deselect the Enable Flash Mode check box.
Note: The flash mode setting is not supported for CD-ROM storage device.
4. Networks: you can attach new network to the VM using the Attach to Subnet option. You
can also modify the existing subnet attached to the VM. See Creating a VM through Prism
Central (AHV) on page 535 and Limitation for VNIC Hot-Unplugging topic in AHV Admin
Guide before you modify NIC network or create a new NIC for a VM.
6. GPUs: (For GPU-enabled AHV clusters only) You can add pass-through GPUs if a VM is
already using GPU pass-through. You can also change the GPU configuration from pass-
through to vGPU or vGPU to pass-through, change the vGPU profile, add more vGPUs,
and change the specified vGPU license. However, you must shut down the VM before you
perform these operations.
• Before you add multiple vGPUs to the VM, see Multiple Virtual GPU Support and
Restrictions for Multiple vGPU Support in the AHV Admin Guide.
• Multiple vGPUs are supported on the same VM only if you select the highest vGPU profile
type.
• After you add the first vGPU, to add multiple vGPUs, see Adding Multiple vGPUs to the
Same VM on page 568.
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(AHV) on page 552 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Note:
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(AHV) on page 552 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Note: A VNC client may not function properly on all browsers. Some keys are not recognized
when the browser is Chrome. (Firefox typically works best.)
Note: For enabling or disabling console support for a VM with one vGPU configured, see
Enabling or Disabling Console Support for vGPU VMs.
Note: You can perform only those operations for which you have permission.
You can perform these tasks by using any of the following methods:
• Select the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on
page 90) and choose the required action from the Actions menu.
• Right-click on the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard and select the required
action from the drop-down list.
• Go to the details page of a selected VM (see VM Details View on page 100) and select the
desired action.
Note: The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. The available actions
depend on the current state of the VM and your permissions.
• Before you add multiple vGPUs to the VM, see Multiple Virtual GPU Support and
Restrictions for Multiple vGPU Support in the AHV Admin Guide.
• Multiple vGPUs are supported on the same VM only if you select the highest vGPU profile
type.
• After you add the first vGPU, to add multiple vGPUs, see Adding Multiple vGPUs to the
Same VM on page 568.
Note:
Note: A VNC client may not function properly on all browsers. Some keys are not recognized
when the browser is Chrome. (Firefox typically works best.)
Note: If you clone a VM, by default NGT is not enabled on the cloned VM. You need to
again enable and mount NGT on the cloned VM. If you want to enable NGT on multiple VMs
simultaneously, see the Prism Web Console Guide.
If you eject the CD, you can mount the CD back again by logging into the Controller VM and
running the following nCLI command.
ncli> ngt mount vm-id=virtual_machine_id
Note:
• To upgrade NGT, select Upgrade NGT (see Upgrading NGT on page 593).
Important:
Before you add multiple vGPUs to the VM, see Multiple Virtual GPU Support and
Restrictions for Multiple vGPU Support in the AHV Administration Guide.
After you add the first vGPU, do the following on the Create VM or Update VM dialog box (the
main dialog box) to add more vGPUs:
Procedure
4. Repeat the steps for each vGPU addition you want to make.
• For vGPUs created with minimum NVIDIA Virtual GPU software version 10.1 (440.53).
• Minimum AOS version that supports live migration within the same cluster is 5.18.1.
• Minimum AOS version that supports live migration across cluster is 6.1.
Procedure
2. Select the VM you want to migrate live. Click Actions > Migrate
• Retain the System will automatically select a host default option if you want to migrate the VM to a
host selected by the system.
The system selects a host based on the GPU resources available with the host as
appropriate for the VM to be migrated live.
• Select the host listed in the drop-down list that you want to migrate the VM to.
5. Click Migrate.
Prism submits the task and displays the following message:
Successfully submitted migrate operation.
Task details
Task details is a link to the Tasks page. Click the Task details link to monitor the migration
task in the Tasks page.
The host name of the VM in the List view changes to the host name to which you migrated
the VM.
For limitations applicable to live migration of vGPU-enabled VMs, see Limitations for Live
Migration in AHV Administration Guide.
To migrate a vGPU-enabled VM to a host in another cluster, do the following.
Procedure
2. Select the VM you want to migrate live. Click Actions > Migrate
4. In the Select network attributes to migrate VM successfully section, select the parameters
for the following:
Note: If the VM is already configured in a recovery plan, then the network attribute fields are
already populated and in-actionable. You cannot modify or add any values in these fields.
6. Click Migrate.
Prism submits the task and displays the following message:
Successfully submitted migrate operation.
Task details
Task details is a link to the Tasks page. Click the Task details link to monitor the migration
task in the Tasks page.
The host name of the VM in the List view changes to the host name to which you migrated
the VM.
• See the requirements and limitations section in vCenter Server Integration on page 713
before proceeding.
• Register the vCenter Server with your cluster. For more information, see Registering vCenter
Server (Prism Central) on page 715.
Procedure
1. Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and click the
Create VM button.
The Create VM wizard appears.
a. Type: Select the type of storage device, Disk or CD-ROM, from the pull-down list.
b. Operation: Specify the device contents from the pull-down list.
• Select Clone from NDSF file to copy any file from the cluster that can be used as an
image onto the disk.
• [ CD-ROM only] Select Empty CD-ROM to create a blank CD-ROM device. A CD-ROM
device is needed when you intend to provide a system image from CD-ROM.
• [Disk only] Select Allocate on Storage Container to allocate space without specifying
an image. Selecting this option means you are allocating space only. You have to
provide a system image later from a CD-ROM or other source.
• Select Clone from Image to copy an image that you have imported by using image
service feature onto the disk.
c. Bus Type: Select the bus type from the pull-down list. The choices are IDE, SCSI, PCI, or
SATA.
d. Path: Enter the path to the desired system image.
e. Clone from Image: Select the image that you have created by using the image service
feature.
Note: If the image you created does not appear in the list, see KB-4892.
f. Storage Container: Select the storage container to use from the pull-down list.
This field appears only when Allocate on Storage Container is selected. The list includes
all storage containers created for this cluster.
g. Capacity: Enter the disk size in GiB.
h. When all the field entries are correct, click the Add button to attach the disk to the VM
and return to the Create VM dialog box.
i. Repeat this step to attach additional devices to the VM.
a. Subnet: Select the target virtual LAN from the pull-down list.
The list includes all defined networks (see Configuring Network Connections on
page 731).
b. Network Adapter Type: Select the network adapter type from the pull-down list.
For information about the list of supported adapter types, see vCenter Server Integration
on page 713.
c. Network Connection State: Select the state for the network that you want it to operate in
after VM creation. The options are Connected or Disconnected.
d. When all the field entries are correct, click the Add button to create a network interface
for the VM and return to the Create VM dialog box.
e. Repeat this step to create more network interfaces for the VM.
a. Categories: Search for the category to be assigned to the VM. The policies associated
with the category value are assigned to the VM.
b. Guest OS: Type and select the guest operating system.
The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of
virtual CPUs available for the virtual machine. The Create VM wizard does not install the
6. In the Review step, when all the field entries are correct, click the Create VM button to create
the VM and close the Create VM dialog box.
The new VM appears in the VMs entity page list.
• See the requirements and limitations section in vCenter Server Integration before
proceeding.
• Ensure that you have registered the vCenter Server with your cluster. For more information,
see Registering vCenter Server (Prism Central) .
• Select the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View) and
choose the required action from the Actions menu.
• Right-click on the target VM in the List tab of the VMs dashboard and select the required
action from the drop-down list.
• Go to the details page of a selected VM (see VM Details View) and select the desired action.
The available actions appear in bold; the unavailable actions are grayed out. You can perform
some of the available actions on a single VM at a time, while others can be performed on
multiple VMs simultaneously. The available actions depend on the current state of the VM and
your permissions.
Procedure
• Select the target VM and choose the action that you want to perform. See the following
table for the actions and their descriptions.
Add to Recovery Add the VM to a recovery plan you created previously. Yes
Plan For more information, see the Adding Guest VMs
Individually to a Recovery Plan section in the Nutanix
Disaster Recovery Guide.
Run Playbook Run a playbook you created previously. For more Yes
information, see Running a Playbook (Manual Trigger) on
page 884.
Manage Assign the VM a category value. For more information, Yes
Categories see Assigning a Category on page 744.
Install NGT Install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT). For more information, Yes
see Installing NGT on page 590.
Manage NGT Enable or disable NGT. For more information, see Yes
Applications Managing NGT Applications on page 592.
Upgrade NGT Upgrade NGT. For more information, see Upgrading NGT Yes
on page 593.
Add to Catalog Add the VM to the catalog. For more information, see No
Adding a Catalog Item on page 663.
Manage Specify a project and user who owns the VM. In the No
Ownership Manage VM Ownership dialog box, select the target
project from the pull-down list and enter a user name as
owner of the VM.
Set QoS Configure quality of service (QoS) settings. For more Yes
Attributes information, see Setting QoS for an Individual VM on
page 598.
Export as OVA Export the VM as OVA. For more information, see OVA No
Management on page 694 and Uploading an OVA on
page 696.
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(ESXi) on page 579 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Caution: See the recommendations specified in KB-9832 before making changes to the
VM properties such as memory, vCPU, or storage. Any values other than the recommended
memory, vCPU, or storage values for a VM might cause discrepancies in the Prism Central
behavior.
3. Disks: You can add new disks to the VM using the Attach Disk option. You can also modify
the existing disk attached to the VM using the controls under the actions column. See
Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 574 before you create a new disk for
a VM. You can enable or disable the flash mode settings for the VM. To enable flash mode on
the VM, click the Enable Flash Mode check box. After you enable this feature on the VM, the
status is updated in the VM table view.
4. Networks: You can attach new network to the VM using the Attach to Subnet option. You
can also modify the existing subnet attached to the VM. See Creating a VM through Prism
Central (ESXi) on page 574 before you modify NIC network or create a new NIC for a VM.
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(ESXi) on page 579 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Note:
Procedure
1. Follow any one of the navigation paths mentioned in Managing a VM through Prism Central
(ESXi) on page 579 for selecting a VM to perform an operation.
Note: A VNC client may not function properly on all browsers. Some keys are not recognized
when the browser is Chrome. (Firefox typically works best.)
Exporting a VM as an OVA
Note:
Procedure
4. Click Export.
You can check the progress of the Export as OVA task in Tasks.
The exported OVA is available on the OVA dashboard.
• A custom module that performs checks and fulfills all the prerequisites.
• For information about the supported OS for specific NGT features, see the NGT
Compatibility section in Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix.
• A virtual IP address must be configured for the Nutanix cluster. If you change the virtual IP
address of the cluster, the reconfiguration impacts all the VMs in your cluster on which NGT
is installed. For more information, see Virtual IP Address Impact in the Prism Web Console
Guide.
• Network access from the virtual IP address of the cluster to the guest VMs where Prism
Central-based management of NGT is required.
• Network access from the guest VM to the virtual IP address of the cluster where IP-based
connectivity is used for NGT.
• VMs must have at least one empty IDE or SATA CD-ROM to attach the ISO required for the
configuration and installation of NGT.
• The following ports must be accessible to use the specific NGT functionality:
• If IP-less communication is enabled, the TCP port 2074 in the CVM must be accessible
from the guest VMs so that the guest VMs can communicate with the CVM. For more
information, see Nutanix Guest Agent and Controller VM Communication.
• The TCP port 23578 in the guest VM must be accessible if you want to use the VSS
service.
For the complete list of required ports, see Port Reference.
Windows Requirements
In addition to the General Requirements, ensure that the following requirements are met so that
you can successfully install NGT in a Windows VM:
Note: Windows Remote Manager Service (winrm) is required to install NGT from Prism
Central only. It is not required when you upgrade NGT or install NGT manually by logging in to
the guest VM.
Linux Requirements
In addition to the General Requirements, ensure that the following requirements are met so that
you can successfully install NGT in a Linux VM:
• You must have a guest VM user account with password-based SSH, and root or
passwordless SUDO access enabled.
• Ensure that the user has write permissions for the /usr/local directory as NGT is installed at this
location.
• Ensure that the user has write permissions for the /mnt/nutanix/ngt directory to mount the NGT
ISO at this location.
• Ensure that a minimum available disk space of 550 MB is available in the /mnt/nutanix/dir
directory for copying the NGT installer when upgrading NGT.
• Ensure that the user has write access to /tmp directory for the duration of the installation.
General Notes
• NGT includes VirtIO drivers when you install it on a Windows VM. If these drivers are already
installed in your guest VM, they might be replaced during the installation of NGT, depending
on the version that is bundled with NGT. If the drivers were downgraded, you might need
to manually reinstall VirtIO and restart the VM if prompted. For information about how to
manually reinstall VirtIO, see Manually Installing or Upgrading Nutanix VirtIO in the AHV
Administration Guide. For more information, see the AOS - NGT - VM Mobility Matrix section
in the NGT tab of the Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix.
• If a VM is connected to a volume group (VG), NGT captures the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN)
of the VM and stores the information. If you change the IQN of the VM and take a snapshot
of the VM before the NGT refresh cycle (currently at 5 minutes) occurs, NGT does not
provide the auto restore capability because the snapshot operation cannot capture the VM-
VG connection.
Workaround:
• Linux VM: Restart the Nutanix Guest Agent (NGA) service by running the $ sudo service
ngt_guest_agent restart command.
• Windows VM: In the command prompt, run the net stop "Nutanix Guest Tools Agent" && net start
"Nutanix Guest Tools Agent" command.
• By default, NGT client certificates expire every 1,000 days. Regenerate the certificates before
they expire. For more information, see Regenerating NGT Certificates for Guest VMs in the
Prism Web Console Guide.
• Enable Nutanix Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and Self Service Restore (SSR)
applications as part of the install workflow
• Select multiple VMs in Prism Central from the VM Entity browser and upgrade NGT on these
VMs
• Defer restarting of the VMs to a specified later time and date after installing or upgrading
NGT
• Define policies that allow you to defer restarting of the VMs to a specified later time and
date
Installing NGT
The installation of NGT using Prism Central is fully automated. You do not need to manually
log in to the VM to install NGT. For large-scale deployments, Nutanix recommends using Prism
Central for installing NGT.
Procedure
2. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs from the Navigation Bar.
Tip: The NGT status column associated with a VM displays whether the NGT is installed in
the VM, whether it is the latest version, and whether an upgrade is available or not.
4. Select the checkbox associated with the VM in which you want to install NGT.
Note: If you select multiple VMs, this window displays the number of VMs on which you can
install NGT. For example, if you select a VM on which NGT is already installed, it is skipped
during this operation.
6. (Optional) To enable SSR and VSS applications, select the Enable Self Service Restore
(SSR) and Enable Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) checkboxes.
If you choose not to enable these features during the installation of NGT, you can do it later
by following the instructions in Managing NGT Applications.
• Skip restart: The VM does not restart after the installation completes.
• Restart as soon as the install is completed: The VM restarts after the installation
completes.
• Restart at specific date and time after the install is completed: The VM restarts at the
specific date and time that you configure in the Date and Time fields.
Note: Nutanix recommends that you restart the VM after the NGT installation completes.
Note: If you choose to install NGT on multiple VMs and the VMs do not have the same
username and password, you can add them to a JSON file and paste the file in the box
provided. Click Download sample json to download a sample of the JSON file.
Note: If the NGT requirements are not met or you experience any issue with the installation
process, the NGT installation fails and an alert message displays. Ensure that all the
requirements are met and perform the installation process again to install NGT in the VMs.
12. (Optional) If you do not want to install NGT automatically or cannot provide the username
and password of an account that meets the requirements, click Skip and Mount to
complete the installation manually.
Prism Central enables the NGT feature in the VM, mounts the NGT installer, and attaches
an ISO to the virtual CD drive with the volume label NUTANIX_TOOLS to the selected VMs.
You can then install NGT by logging in to the VM. For more information, see Installing NGT
in a Windows VM or Installing NGT in a Linux VM in the Prism Web Console Guide.
Note: If NGT is already installed in the VM, it detects the NUTANIX_TOOLS CD and
reconfigures itself. Once NGT is installed and the reconfiguration is successful, the system
automatically unmounts NUTANIX_TOOLS. For more information, see CD-ROM Eject
Functionality of NGT.
If you have cloned a VM or multiple VMs from a VM that had NGT installed, perform the
following steps to re-enable and configure NGT on the cloned VMs.
Note: After you perform the following steps, you do not need to separately install NGT on the
cloned VMs.
Procedure
1. Navigate to the Install NGT window by following the instructions mentioned in Steps 1
through 5 of Installing NGT.
2. Enable NGT and mount the NGT installer on the cloned VMs by following the instructions in
Step 12 of Installing NGT (choosing Skip and Mount).
NGT automatically identifies the ISO, update the configuration, and unmount the CD.
Prism Central allows you to enable or disable the Nutanix Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
and Self-Service Restore (SSR) applications even after NGT is installed in a guest VM.
Procedure
2. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs from the Navigation Bar.
4. Select the checkbox associated with the VM on which you want to enable or disable the SSR
and VSS applications.
5. Click Actions, and from the dropdown menu that appears click Manage NGT Applications.
6. From the Manage Applications window, enable or disable applications by selecting the
corresponding option.
Upgrading NGT
• Ensure that all the requirements specified in Nutanix Guest Tools Requirements are met.
• Unless you upgrade AOS, you cannot upgrade NGT.
• Upgrading NGT using Prism Central is supported on VMs that have NGT version 1.2.3 or later.
If the VM has an earlier version of NGT, upgrade NGT using the procedure in the Upgrading
NGT topic in the Prism Web Console Guide.
Note: You can upgrade NGT on a maximum of 60 VMs at the same time.
Procedure
2. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs from the Navigation Bar.
3. From the VMs dashboard that is displayed, select the List tab.
4. Select the checkbox associated with the VMs for which you want to upgrade NGT.
5. Click Actions, and from the dropdown menu that appears click Upgrade NGT.
6. From the Upgrade VMs window, select the restart schedule of the VMs by doing one of the
following:
• Skip restart: The VM does not restart after the installation completes.
• Restart as soon as the install is completed: The VM restarts after the installation
completes.
• Restart at specific date and time after the install is completed: The VM restarts at the
specific date and time that you configure in the Date and Time fields.
Note:
• If you select multiple VMs to upgrade, the Upgrade VMs window displays the
number of VMs on which you can upgrade NGT. For example, if you select a VM
on which the latest version of NGT is already installed, that VM is skipped during
this operation.
• Nutanix recommends that you restart the VM after upgrading NGT.
Note: If the Nutanix Guest Tools Requirements are not met or if you experience any issue
with the upgrade process, the NGT upgrade fails and an alert message displays. Ensure that all
the prerequisites are met and perform the upgrade process again to upgrade NGT.
Uninstalling NGT
• SSL certificates that ensure a secure TCP connection between the CVM and the guest VM
• Capability-based authorization that ensures only NGT features that are supported by the
cluster are enabled on the guest VM
• NGT ensures that the communication is established only if the system or BIOS UUID of the
guest VM and the UUID of the guest VM (provided by the hypervisor) stored in the CVM are
the same.
Communication is successful only if all the three conditions are met. For example, if a guest
VM that has NGT installed is cloned, the new VM cannot communicate with the CVM. You must
separately enable NGT, which includes mounting the NGT installation media on the cloned
VM. The installation media includes configuration specific to the VM, and when the VM is re-
configured and is able to communicate with the CVM, it automatically unmounts the installation
media. You do not need to separately install NGT again on the cloned VMs.
NGA also publishes information about the guest VM to the CVM. For example, guest OS type,
status of VM mobility, and VSS services.
Note:
• These operations can occur at different times. It is possible that the CD-ROM shows
up as empty inside a VM, but the status in the NGT-Controller VM service Tools
Mounted might display as true. If this situation occurs, unmount the CD-ROM using
the Prism Element web console..
• If the NGT software version in the ISO is more recent than the installed version in the
guest VM, the CD-ROM does not eject automatically. This functionality enables the
upgrade of the NGT software inside the VM.
Note:
• Storage QoS is applicable only if you have an AOS Pro or above license. See the
License Manager Guide for more information on AOS licenses.
• Setting storage QoS is not allowed while the AOS upgrade is in progress.
Limitations
Storage QoS has the following limitations:
• Storage QoS is not supported for an in-place restore, out-of-place restore, and snapshot
operation on VM.
Procedure
1. Go to the List tab of the VM dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and select the
target VM.
» IOPS (For more information about IOPS, see Throttled IOPS in Storage Quality of Service
(QoS).)
» Throughput (For more information about throughput, see Throughput in Storage Quality
of Service (QoS).)
4. If you selected IOPS, enter a value for the throttled IOPS in the Throttled IOPS.
6. Click Show Details to populate a table that describes the relationship between block size,
IOPS, and throughput.
Procedure
3. Click Next.
4. Provide other details necessary for the VM creation in the Resources and Management tabs,
and click Next.
For more information, see Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV).
5. In the Review tab, under Configuration ensure that the Memory Overcommit configuration is
displayed as Enabled.
If Memory Overcommit configuration is not displayed as Enabled, click Edit to go back to
the Configuration tab and select the Enable Memory Overcommit checkbox.
What to do next
The Tasks page displays the VM creation task. After it is successfully completed, check the VMs
dashboard to verify that the VM is created and the value in the Memory Overcommit column
displays Enabled.
Note: The default General list view does not provide the Memory Overcommit column. Create
your own customized view and add the Memory Overcommit column to that view. You can also
add other columns to your customized view.
Click the newly created VM to open the VM details page. In the Summary tab, the Properties
widget displays Enabled for the Memory Overcommit property.
1. On the VMs dashboard (List tab), select the VM or VMs for which you want to enable
memory overcommit.
You can select one VM and enable memory overcommit. You could also select multiple VMs
and enable memory overcommit in all the selected VMs as a bulk update.
2. In the Actions dropdown list, click the Enable Memory Overcommit action.
Note: For an individual VM, you can also select the VM, click Actions > Update and in the
Configuration tab of the Update VM page, select the Enable Memory Overcommit checkbox.
Click Next on the Configuration, Resources and the Management tabs, and Save on
the Review tab.
What to do next
You can check the update tasks in the Tasks page. If you selected multiple VMs to enable
memory overcommit on, the Task page displays the update for each VM as a separate Update
VM task.
You could verify the status as Enabled in the individual VM details page of each VM. You could
also verify the status in the List tab with customized view having the Memory Overcommit
column.
1. On the VMs dashboard (List tab), select the VM or VMs for which you want to disable
memory overcommit.
You can select one VM and disable memory overcommit. You could also select multiple VMs
and disable memory overcommit in all the selected VMs as a bulk update.
2. In the Actions dropdown list, click the Disable Memory Overcommit action.
Note: For an individual VM, you can also select the VM, click Actions > Update and in the
Configuration tab of the Update VM page, select the Disable Memory Overcommit checkbox.
Click Next on the Configuration, Resources and the Management tabs, and Save on
the Review tab.
What to do next
You can check the update tasks in the Tasks page. If you selected multiple VMs to disable
memory overcommit on, the Task page displays the update for each VM as a separate Update
VM task.
You could verify the status as Disabled in the individual VM details page of each VM. You could
also verify the status in the List tab with customized view having the Memory Overcommit
column.
VM Policy Management
In Prism Central, you can create and manage the following types of policies for the VMs:
• Affinity Policies (see Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central on page 604)
• NGT Policies (see NGT Policies on page 607)
Procedure
a. VMs
b. Hosts
For information about creating a category, see Creating a Category.
2. Apply the VM categories to the VMs and host categories to the hosts.
For information about associating categories with VMs, see Associating VMs with Categories.
For information about associating categories with hosts, see Associating hosts with
Categories.
Procedure
1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > VMs.
4. In the Search for a category field, type the name of the category or value that you want to
add, and then select the category and value from the list that is displayed.
5. Click the add button to add as many search fields and repeat this step for each category that
you want to add. To remove a category, click the remove button beside the field.
6. Click Save.
Procedure
4. In the Search for a category field, type the name of the category or value that you want to
add, and then select the category and value from the list that is displayed.
5. Click the add button to add as many search fields and repeat this step for each category that
you want to add. To remove a category, click the remove button beside the field.
6. Click Save.
• Configure the categories that you need to associate with the VMs. Associate this category
with all the relevant VMs. Alternatively, you can associate the category with the VMs after
creation of the affinity policy.
• Configure the categories that you need to associate with the hosts. Associate this category
with all the relevant hosts. Alternatively, you can associate the category with the hosts after
creation of the affinity policy.
Note: If you have configured any legacy affinity policy (non-category-based affinity policy)
associated with the VMs, you must first remove those legacy affinity policies to allow the creation
of category-based affinity policies associated with the same VMs.
Procedure
1. In the VMs Summary View, go to Policies > Affinity Policies, and then click Create.
3. Click inside the VM Categories search field and select the category you want to associate
with the VMs.
4. Click inside the Host Categories search field and select the category you associated with the
hosts.
5. Click Create.
You can update an affinity policy. Updates to an affinity policy can result in a policy violation.
Prism Central attempts to correct the violation by executing a series of actions.
Procedure
1. In the entity menu, go to Policies > Affinity Policies, and then click the affinity policy that
you want to update.
3. The Update Affinity Policy page that is displayed includes the same options and settings as
the Create Affinity Policy page.
4. Update the settings that you want, and then click Save.
NGT Policies
If a restart is required post installation or upgrade, you can define a policy on when the restart
should happen. You can use these policies when you have different set of VMs which you would
Procedure
1. Go to the VMs > Policies dashboard (see NGT Policies View on page 190) and click the New
VM Reboot Policy button.
• Restart as soon as the install/upgrade is completed: Select this option if you want to
restart the VMs of the selected category right after the install process is completed.
• Restart at specific day and time after the upgrade is completed: Select this option and
choose the date and time on which you want to the restart to happen.
Note: The VMs will be restarted depending on the Prism Element timezone settings.
5. Click Add Category and select the category that you want to apply this policy.
Note: You can select multiple categories and the application of policy is dependent on the
following rules.
• 1. If you choose to restart the VM by using the Restart as soon as the install/upgrade
is completed option either by using NGT install/upgrade workflow or by using this
procedure, it will always take precedence over other workflows. Also, if you select
either of these options, the policy will be created as a System policy and you will not
be able to modify this policy. Once these policies are applied, it is removed from the
user interface.
2. If you schedule a restart during the NGT install or upgrade workflow, it will take
precedence over other policies, for example, the policy that you have created by using
this procedure.
3. If there are multiple VM restart policies that are created at the same time by using this
procedure, an alert message will be displayed.
6. Click Save.
The policy is created and saved in the NGT Policies pane.
You can update and delete the restart policy that you have created by following this procedure.
Procedure
1. Go to the NGT policies dashboard (see NGT Policies View on page 190).
2. Check the box for the policy to update and then select Update from the Actions drop-down
menu.
3. To delete a policy, select the policy and from the Actions drop-down menu click Delete.
VM Template Management
In Prism Central, you can create VM templates to manage the golden image of a VM. A VM
template can be considered as a master copy of a virtual machine. It captures the virtual
machine configuration and the contents of the VM including the guest operating system and
the applications installed on the VM. You can use this template to deploy multiple VMs across
clusters.
• Templates do not copy the following attributes from the source VMs:
Creating a VM Template
Procedure
Note: Before selecting a VM for creating a template, ensure that the VM is powered off.
3. This displays the Create template from VM dialog box. In the Create Template from VM
window, do the following in the indicated fields:
• If you select Custom Script, you can either upload a script to customize the guest OS
of the VMs, or you can copy-paste the script in the text box.
• If you select Guided Setup , you must enter the authentication information such as
username, password, locale, hostname, domain join, and license key. The information
that you enter is used for customizing the OS of the VMs that are deployed using this
template.
You can also specify if you want to allow the template users to override the guest
customization settings of the template while deploying the VM. If you select a script
Note: If you opt for a guest customization script, ensure that the script is in a valid format.
The guest customization scripts are not validated, hence even though the VM deployment
might succeed, the guest customization script may not work as expected and it will be
apparent only by observing the VM after it gets deployed.
4. Click Next.
On the next page, you can review the configuration details, resource details, network details,
and management details. Except the name, description and guest customization options
that you chose on the previous page, you cannot modify any other setting while creating the
template.
Procedure
• Select the target template in the templates dashboard (see VM Template Summary
View on page 113) and click the Deploy VMs button. By default, the active version of the
template is used for deployment.
• Go to the details page of a selected template (see VM Template Details View on page 115)
and click the Deploy VMs button. By default, the active version of the template is used for
deployment.
• Go to the details page of a selected template (see VM Template Details View on page 115)
and then go to Versions view. Select the desired version that you want to use for VM
deployment, and click the Deploy VMs button. Here, you can choose any active or non-
active version for the deployment.
2. The Deploy VM from Template page appears. By default, you see the Quick Deploy page.
You can clickAdvanced Deploy button to access the Advanced Deploy page. In Advanced
Deploy option, you can view and modify some VM properties and network settings.
• Quick Deploy: To deploy VMs using the quick deploy method, provide inputs in the
indicated fields:
• Configuration: Provide inputs for name and description (optional) of the VM, cluster
where you want to deploy the VM, Number of VMs to be deployed, and starting index
number (only if deploying multiple VMs). In this tab, you can also view and modify the
VM properties such as CPU, core per CPU, and memory.
• Resources: Review the configuration settings for the VM resources such as disks,
networks, and boot configuration. Here, you can modify the network settings but
cannot modify any other settings.
• Management: If the template allows you to modify the settings for guest OS
customization, provide inputs for the same.
Managing a VM Template
• Select the target template in the templates dashboard (see VM Template Summary View on
page 113) and choose the required action from the Actions menu.
• Go to the details page of a selected template (see VM Template Details View on page 115)
and select the desired action.
Note: The available actions appear in bold; other actions are not available. The available actions
depend on the current state of the template and your permissions.
• To update the guest OS of the template, select Update Guest OS. Click Proceed.
This step deploys a temporary VM and gives you access to that VM. You can also access the
new VM from VM dashboard. You must start the VM, log on to the VM, and update the guest
OS of that VM.
Once you have updated the guest OS of the temporary VM, you must complete the guest
OS update from Prism Central UI. Alternatively, you can choose to cancel the guest OS
update, if you choose to discontinue the guest OS update process.
The temporary VM automatically gets deleted after completion or cancellation of the guest
OS upgrade process.
• To complete the process of guest OS update that you had earlier initiated, select Complete
Guest OS Update. You must select this option only after successful update of the guest OS
of the temporary VM.
• To cancel the process of guest OS update that you had earlier initiated, select Cancel Guest
OS Update.
• To modify the template configuration, select Update Configuration. You cannot modify the
configuration of the initial version of the template, but you can update the configuration
• Configuration: You can view the name of the base version that you want to update,
change notes for that version, cluster name, VM properties (CPU, cores per CPU), and
memory). In this section, you can modify only VM properties.
• Resources: You can view the information about disks, networks, and boot configuration.
In this section, you can modify only network resources.
• Management: In this section, you can modify the guest customization settings.
• Review: In this section, you can review and modify the configuration settings that you are
allowed to modify. You must provide a name and change notes for the new version. You
can also choose to set this new version as active version. An active version is the version
of the template that by default gets deployed when you click the Deploy VMs button.
Click Save to save the settings and create a new version of the template.
• The storage containers dashboard displays information about storage containers across the
registered clusters (see Storage Containers Summary View on page 125).
Note: Some actions are unavailable for clusters running a pre-6.0 AOS version.
• Create a storage container (see Creating a Storage Container (AHV) on page 627,
Creating a Storage Container (ESXi) on page 631, or Creating a Storage Container
(Hyper-V) on page 634 )
• Update or modify a storage container (see Modifying a Storage Container on page 638)
• Delete a storage container (see Deleting a Storage Container on page 642)
Storage Tiers
Each type of storage hardware (SSD-PCIe (NVMe), SSD (SATA SSD), and HDD) is placed in a
storage tier. You can determine the tier breakdown for disks in a storage pool through the web
console (see Storage Table View in the Prism Web Console guide).
Storage Pools
Storage pools are groups of physical disks from one or more tiers. Storage pools provide
physical separation because a storage device can only be assigned to a single storage pool at
a time. Nutanix recommends creating a single storage pool for each cluster. This configuration
allows the cluster to dynamically optimize capacity and performance. Isolating disks into
separate storage pools provides physical separation, but can create an imbalance of these
resources if the disks are not actively used. When you expand your cluster by adding new
nodes, the new disks can also be added to the existing storage pool. This scale-out architecture
allows you to build a cluster that grows with your needs.
When you create a cluster, a default predefined storage pool is available. This pool includes the
total capacity of all the disks on all the hosts in the cluster.
Storage Containers
A storage container is a subset of available storage within a storage pool. Storage containers
are created within a storage pool to hold virtual disks (vDisks) used by virtual machines. For
more information, see Creating a Storage Container. By default, storage is thinly provisioned,
Volume Groups
A volume group is a collection of logically related virtual disks (or volumes). A volume group
is attached to VM either directly or using iSCSI. You can add vDisks to a volume group, attach
them to one or more consumers, include them in disaster recovery policies, and perform other
management tasks. You can also detach a volume group from one VM and attach it to another,
possibly at a remote location to which the volume group is replicated.
You manage a volume group as a single unit. When a volume group is attached to a VM, the VM
can access all of the vDisks in the volume group. You can add, remove, and resize the vDisks in
a volume group at any time.
Each volume group is identified by a UUID, a name, and an iSCSI target name. Each disk in
the volume group also has a UUID and a SCSI index that specifies ordering within the volume
group. A volume group can be configured for either exclusive or shared access.
You can backup, protect, restore, and migrate volume groups. You can include volume groups
in protection domains configured for asynchronous data replication (Async DR), either
exclusively or with VMs. However, volume groups cannot be included in a protection domain
configured for metro availability, in a protected vStore, or in a consistency group for which
application consistent snapshots are enabled.
vDisks
A vDisk is created within a storage container or volume group to provide storage to the virtual
machines. A vDisk shows up as a SCSI device when it is mapped to a VM.
Note: Using a Nutanix storage container as a general-purpose NFS or SMB share is not
recommended. For NFS and SMB file service, use Nutanix Files.
NFS Datastores. The Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF) reduces unnecessary network chatter by
localizing the data path of guest VM traffic to its host. This boosts performance by eliminating
unnecessary hops between remote storage devices that is common with the pairing of
iSCSI and VMFS. To enable vMotion and related vSphere features (when using ESX as the
hypervisor), each host in the cluster must mount an NFS volume using the same datastore
name. The Nutanix web console and nCLI both have a function to create an NFS datastore on
multiple hosts in a Nutanix cluster.
To correctly map the local ESX datastore to the Nutanix container:
• Map the NFS share with 192.168.5.2 (internal IP address) and not the Controller VM IP address
or cluster virtual IP address.
• The name of the datastore should be same as the name of the container.
SMB Library Share. The Nutanix SMB share implementation is the Hyper-V equivalent of an NFS
Datastore with feature and performance parity with a vSphere configuration. The registration
of a Nutanix storage container as an SMB Library share can be accomplished through a single
powershell script, or through the Virtual Machine Manager GUI.
• Cluster
In the Storage dashboard, under Capacity Optimization, click the After bar, and hover your
mouse over Compression.
• Storage container
In the Storage dashboard Table view, on the Storage Container tab, click the storage
container for which you want to view the compression ratio. You can see the compression
ratio for the selected storage container under Storage Container Details.
Cache Deduplication
You can enable cache deduplication of read cache to optimize performance. Cache
deduplication means deduplication performed on the data in memory.
Capacity Deduplication
You can enable capacity deduplication of persistent data to reduce storage usage. Capcity
deduplication means deduplication performed on the data in hard disk storage (HDD). Capacity
deduplication is not enabled by default and is available if you have purchased a Pro or higher
license. Note that you can enable capacity deduplication only if cache deduplication is enabled.
Enabling Deduplication
Deduplication is enabled at the storage container level (the Cache property for cache
deduplication and the Capacity property for capacity deduplication). These storage container
properties can be set in the web console or nCLI.
Note: Deduplication enabled on storage containers having protected VMs lowers the replication
speed.
In addition, Controller VMs in clusters with deduplication enabled need to be configured with
more RAM:
When the data becomes cold, the erasure code engine computes parity P for the data by
performing an exclusive OR operation.
Once parity is computed, the data block copies are removed and replaced with the parity
information. Redundancy through parity results in data reduction because the total data on the
system is now a+b+c+d+P instead of 2 × (a+b+c+d).
Note: Each block in the stripe is placed on a separate node to protect from a single node failure.
Note: When the cluster is configured for the redundancy factor 3, two parity blocks are
maintained so that the erasure coded data has the same resiliency as the replicated data. An
erasure coded stripe with two parity blocks can survive the failure of two nodes.
The space savings from the erasure coding depends on the cluster size, redundancy setting,
and percentage of cold data. You can view the erasure coding usage savings from the storage
container summary.
In a 6-node cluster configured with redundancy factor 2, erasure coding uses a stripe size of 5.
4 nodes for data and 1 node for parity. The sixth node in the cluster ensures that if a node fails,
a node is available for rebuild. With a stripe of 4 data to 1 parity, the overhead is 25%. Without
erasure coding, the overhead is 100%.
Figure 304: Example of Space Saving from Erasure Coding on 20 TiB Nodes
The following are the recommended best practices and requirements for implementing Erasure
Coding:
• A cluster must have at least four nodes/blocks/racks to enable erasure coding. The cluster
can have all four flash nodes or a combination of flash and hybrid nodes, or all hybrid nodes.
If erasure coding is enabled on a storage container, a minimum of four blocks for RF2 or six
blocks for RF3 is required to maintain block awareness.
• The recommended minimum configuration for multiple node removal operations is:
Note: We recommend that you always maintain a cluster size that is at least one node greater
than the combined strip size (data + parity) to allow space to rebuild the strips if a node fails.
• AOS dynamically calculates the erasure coding strip sizes depending on the number of
nodes, blocks, and racks. The maximum supported and recommended strip sizes are (4,1)
or (4,2) depending on the nodes, blocks, and racks. We recommend that you should not
Inline erasure coding encodes and creates erasure coding strips inline by erasure coding data
without waiting for the data to become write cold as compared to the regular erasure coding
functionality. In inline erasure coding the erasure coded strips are created on the same vDisk
data, hence it is recommended to enable inline erasure coding for workloads that do not require
data locality.
Note:
• Inline erasure coding can be enabled only for clusters running AOS version 5.18 or
higher.
• Erasure coding must be enabled on the container before you enable inline erasure
coding.
• If you want to use Inline erasure coding, contact Nutanix support.
Inline erasure coding can be enabled only using nCLI. Inline erasure coding is added as a
storage container parameter in Zeus. Note that erasure coding must be enabled on the
container to enable inline erasure coding.
Procedure
Replace container_name with the name of the storage container on which you want to enable
erasure coding.
Replace container_name and storage_pool_id with the storage container name and storage pool ID
on which you want to enable erasure coding.
ncli> container edit inline-ec-enabled=true id=container_id
• Reserve capacity for a storage container only if the storage pool has multiple storage
containers. Unless there is a specific reason to have multiple storage containers, Nutanix
recommends having a single storage pool with a single storage container.
• In total, reserve no more than 90% of the space in the storage pool.
• When setting an advertised capacity for a storage container, be aware that some extra
space should be allocated beyond the projected size of any VMs placed in the container
to allow room for data that has not yet been garbage collected, which can be substantial
depending on the workload (10% or more of the storage capacity in some cases).
•
• Create a storage container (see Creating a Storage Container (AHV) on page 627,
Creating a Storage Container (ESXi) on page 631, or Creating a Storage Container
(Hyper-V) on page 634 )
• Update or modify a storage container (see Modifying a Storage Container on page 638)
• Delete a storage container (see Deleting a Storage Container on page 642)
• For information about storage management tasks that are performed through Prism
Element, see the Storage Management chapter in the Prism Web Console Guide.
Note:
Procedure
a. Replication Factor: Displays the number of data copies to maintain in the cluster.
Nutanix supports a replication factor (RF) of 2 or 3. Setting the replication factor to 3
adds an extra layer of data protection at the cost of storing an additional copy of the
data.
Note: To change the storage container level setting to replication factor 3, the cluster
must be set to fault tolerance level 2. See the Increasing the Cluster Fault Tolerance Level
in the Prism Web Console Guide.
b. Reserved Capacity: To reserve storage space for this storage container, enter the
capacity (in GiB).
You can reserve space for a storage container to ensure a minimum storage capacity
is available. Reserving space for a storage container means that space is no longer
available to other storage containers even if the reserved space is unused. See Capacity
Reservation Best Practices (Prism Central) on page 626 for more information.
c. Advertised Capacity: To reserve the maximum storage space for this storage container,
enter the capacity (in GiB).
This sets an "advertised" capacity, which is the maximum storage size that the storage
container can use. This can be set to any value, but if a reserved capacity is configured,
it must be set greater than or equal to the reservation on the storage container. The
hypervisor ensures that the storage container storage does not go beyond the advertised
capacity.
d. Compression: Inline compression is enabled by default with the Delay (In Minutes) field
set to 0. A value of 0 indicates that the data is compressed immediately as it is written.
To configure the delay time between the write and compression, under Type, select Post
Process Compression from the drop-down menu. For post-process compression, where
data is compressed after it is written, Nutanix recommends settings a delay of 60 minutes.
Compression is delayed for 60 minutes after the initial write operation.
All data in the storage container is compressed when you select Compression. See
Compression (Prism Central) on page 619 for information about using compression.
e. Deduplication: Select the CACHE check box to perform inline deduplication of read
caches to optimize performance. If you enable this option, the Controller VMs must
be configured to have at least 24 GB of RAM. This feature is primarily recommended
f. Erasure Coding: Select the check box to enable erasure coding. Erasure coding increases
the effective or usable capacity on a cluster. For more information about erasure coding,
see Erasure Coding (Prism Central) on page 621.
Note: Erasure coding is supported on clusters with a minimum of 4 nodes when using RF2
and a minimum of 6 nodes when using RF3.
g. Filesystem Whitelists: Enter the comma-separated IP address and netmask value (in the
form ip_address/ netmask).
A whitelist is a set of addresses that are allowed access to this storage container.
Whitelists are used to allow appropriate traffic when unauthorized access from other
sources is denied.
Note: Setting a storage container level whitelist overrides any global whitelist for this
storage container.
7. When all the field entries are correct, click the Create button.
Procedure
Make default on all Hyper-V hosts Makes this storage container a default
location for storing virtual machine
configuration and virtual hard disk files on all
the Hyper-V hosts.
Make default on particular Hyper-V hosts Provides you with an option to select the
hosts on which you want to make this
storage container a default location for
storing virtual machine configuration and
virtual hard disk files on all the Hyper-V
hosts.
a. Replication Factor: Displays the number of data copies to maintain in the cluster.
Nutanix supports a replication factor (RF) of 2 or 3. Setting the replication factor to 3
adds an extra layer of data protection at the cost of storing an additional copy of the
data.
Note: To change the storage container level setting to replication factor 3, the cluster
must be set to fault tolerance level 2. See the Increasing the Cluster Fault Tolerance Level
in the Prism Web Console Guide.
b. Reserved Capacity: To reserve storage space for this storage container, enter the amount
(in GiB) to reserve in this field.
You can reserve space for a storage container to ensure a minimum storage capacity
is available. Reserving space for a storage container means that space is no longer
f. Erasure Coding: Select the check box to enable erasure coding. Erasure coding increases
the effective or usable capacity on a cluster. For more information about erasure coding,
see Erasure Coding (Prism Central) on page 621.
Note: Erasure coding is supported on clusters with a minimum of 4 nodes when using RF2
and a minimum of 6 nodes when using RF3.
g. Filesystem Whitelists: Enter the comma-separated IP address and netmask value (in the
form ip_address/ netmask).
A whitelist is a set of addresses that are allowed access to this storage container.
Whitelists are used to allow appropriate traffic when unauthorized access from other
sources is denied.
Note: Setting a storage container level whitelist overrides any global whitelist for this
storage container.
7. When all the field entries are correct, click the Create button.
Procedure
Make default on all Hyper-V hosts Makes this storage container a default
location for storing virtual machine
configuration and virtual hard disk files on all
the Hyper-V hosts.
Make default on particular Hyper-V hosts Provides you with an option to select the
hosts on which you want to make this
storage container a default location for
storing virtual machine configuration and
virtual hard disk files on all the Hyper-V
hosts.
a. Replication Factor: Displays the number of data copies to maintain in the cluster.
Nutanix supports a replication factor (RF) of 2 or 3. Setting the replication factor to 3
adds an extra layer of data protection at the cost of storing an additional copy of the
data.
Note: To change the storage container level setting to replication factor 3, the cluster
must be set to fault tolerance level 2. See the Capacity Reservation Best Practices
(Prism Central) on page 626 for more information.
b. Reserved Capacity: To reserve storage space for this storage container, enter the amount
(in GiB) to reserve in this field.
You can reserve space for a storage container to ensure a minimum storage capacity
is available. Reserving space for a storage container means that space is no longer
f. Erasure Coding: Select the check box to enable erasure coding. Erasure coding increases
the effective or usable capacity on a cluster. For more information about erasure coding,
see Erasure Coding (Prism Central) on page 621.
Note: Erasure coding is supported on clusters with a minimum of 4 nodes when using RF2
and a minimum of 6 nodes when using RF3.
g. Filesystem Whitelists: Enter the comma-separated IP address and netmask value (in the
form ip_address/ netmask).
A whitelist is a set of addresses that are allowed access to this storage container.
Whitelists are used to allow appropriate traffic when unauthorized access from other
sources is denied.
Note: Setting a storage container level whitelist overrides any global whitelist for this
storage container.
7. When all the field entries are correct, click the Create button.
Note: You cannot rename a storage container in an AHV cluster when modifying container
details through the Update Storage Container dialog box. You cannot rename a storage
container if it contains vdisks.
Procedure
4. To update the storage container, select the target storage container and then click the
Update link.
The Update Storage Container window appears, which includes the same fields as the
Create Storage Container window. Through this window you can specify NFS datastore
mounts, reserve storage capacity, enable (or disable) compression, enable or disable erasure
Note:
Procedure
Procedure
1. Go to the List tab in the volume groups dashboard (see Volume Groups Summary View on
page 143) and click the Create Volume Group button.
The Create Volume Group page appears.
• To add another disk to the volume group, click the Add Disk link above the table. This
action redisplays the Add Virtual Disk window. Repeat this step for the new disk.
• To change the size of a disk, click the pencil mark icon for that disk. An Edit Virtual
Disk window appears in which you can change the size (but not the storage container).
• To delete a disk, click the garbage can icon for that disk.
» Virtual Machines - Allows you to configure direct attachment to VMs on the same cluster.
» External Clients - Allows you to configure access to external clients or clients not residing
on the same cluster.
• Select Virtual Machines: Select one or more VMs using the drop-down menu.
• (Optional) Load Balance Volume Group: Check to enable load balancing between the
selected VMs. Virtual disks in the volume group are evenly distributed between the CVMs
instead of being hosted locally.
Note: You cannot change the load balance configuration once you attach the VMs.
a. CHAP Authentication: Check the box to enable the Challenge Handshake Authentication
Protocol (CHAP) and then enter the password in the indicated field.
b. Attached Client: Configure the clients as desired. The configured clients appear in the
table.
• To attach (unattach) a client, check (uncheck) the box for that client in the table.
• To add a client, click the Add Client link. In the Add External Client window, enter
the client IP address or IQN designator name in the indicated field, check the CHAP
» Go to the Summary tab in the details page of the target volume group (see Volume
Group Details View on page 147) and click the Update button.
» Select the target volume group in the List tab of the volume groups dashboard and
then click the Update button (see Volume Groups Summary View on page 143).
b. In the Update Volume Group page, update the target parameters and then click the Save
button.
The fields are the same as when creating the volume group (see Creating a Volume Group
on page 642).
• To delete a volume group, either select the volume group in the List tab of the dashboard
or go to the Summary tab in the details page and then click the Delete button. (In the
dashboard Delete is an option in the Action drop-down menu.)
If there are active connections, you must first remove the connections before deleting the
volume group.
» Go to the Summary tab in the details page of the target volume group (see Volume
Group Details View on page 147) and click the Manage Connections button.
» Select the target volume group in the List tab of the volume groups dashboard and
then select Manage Connections from the Actions pull-down menu (see Volume
Groups Summary View on page 143).
The Manage Connections page appears.
• To attach (unattach) a client, check (uncheck) the box for that client in the table.
• To add a client, click the Add Client link. In the Add External Client box, enter the
client IP address or IQN designator name in the indicated field, check the CHAP
Authentication box and enter the password to enable CHAP authentication, and then
click the Add button. The added client appears in the list.
• To change the CHAP authentication for a client, click the pencil icon for that client in
the table. The Edit External Client box appears. Check (uncheck) the box to enable
a. Go to the Connections tab in the details page of the target volume group (see Volume
Group Details View on page 147) and then click the Add Connection button.
b. In the Add External Client window, do the following in the indicated fields:
• Add External Client: Enter the client IP address or IQN designator name
• CHAP Authentication: Check the box to enable CHAP authentication and enter the
client password in the indicated field.
• Click the Add button.
The connection is added, and the new client appears in the list of connections for the
volume group.
Note: A separate CHAP authentication setting for an individual client is not allowed when
CHAP authentication is not enabled for the volume group, and you cannot change the client
address.
a. Go to the Connections tab in the details page of the target volume group, select the
target connection, and then click the Update button.
b. In the Edit External Client window, uncheck the CHAP Authentication box to disable or
check to enable. If you check the box, enter the client password in the indicated field.
Procedure
a. Go to the Virtual Disks tab in the details page of the target volume group (see Volume
Group Details View on page 147) and then click the Add Virtual Disk button.
b. In the Add Virtual Disk window, do the following in the indicated fields:
• Storage Container: Select the target storage container from the pull-down list.
• Size: Enter the desired size (in GiBs) for the virtual disk.
• Click the Add button.
The disk is created, and the new disk appears in the list of virtual disks for the volume
group.
Note: You can only change the disk size, not the storage container.
a. Go to the Virtual Disks tab in the details page of the target volume group, select the
target disk, and then click the Update button.
b. In the Edit Virtual Disk window, update the disk size (in GiBs) as desired and then click
the Save button.
Note: The storage policy engine completes the pre-checks in the same order as stated above.
For example, if you repeat an existing storage policy name for a new storage policy, the policy
engine fails the storage policy creation, generates the failure message stating Duplicate name and
stops other checks. The engine triggers the storage policy creation only after all the pre-checks
are validated.
Limitations
Important:
The storage policy engine takes 30 minutes or more to apply a newly created storage
policy to the associated entities like VMs. The time taken depends on the number of
VMs associated with the storage policy.
Any changes you make to values for the storage attributes, like compression,
encryption or throttling, for any storage policy that is already applied, take effect
immediately.
• Prism Central does not support storage policies for entities running on ESXi and Hyper-V.
• Prism Central does not support storage policies for Nutanix Disaster Recovery with on-prem
recovery AZ (on-prem recovery cluster managed by a Prism Central or Nutanix Disaster
Recovery with multiple Prism Central deployments, see Leap Administration Guide for more
information about on-prem AZ).
• Nutanix supports storage policies for Nutanix Disaster Recovery with single Prism Central.
However, the storage properties defined for the container are applied to the snapshots
replicated to the replication cluster. In other words, the snapshot data replicated to the
remote site is transformed based on the settings defined for the remote site containers. The
storage policies are applied only after the VM failover.
• Storage policies use categories to associate with entities like VMs. A storage policy cannot
associate directly with an entity like a VM. Add an appropriate category to the VM and then
associate the category with the storage policy.
Note: Prism Central does not support storage policies for volume groups (VGs).
When you associate a category with a storage policy, all the VMs that are associated with
that category are associated with the storage policy. The storage policy, thus, applies to all
the VMs associated with that category.
• You can create a maximum of 100 storage policies irrespective of the type of Prism Central
deployed (whether XLarge, Large or Small PC with Scale-out or Single Instance).
• You cannot create a storage policy for a snapshot. A storage policy applies to a live vDisk
and the entire chain of snapshots of that vDisk.
• The snapshots of the vDisk that are in the storage are not encrypted if the live vDisk is
deleted before AOS applies the storage policy to the vDisk.
• Storage policies support entity-centric encryption only if you did not already enable
encryption on the underlying clusters in the deployment.
• After you enable encryption using storage policies, you cannot disable it.
You can, however, delete the storage policy that has encryption enabled. In such cases, any
new data written into the entities is not encrypted. The data that was written prior to the
deletion of the storage policy remains encrypted.
• If two VMs share data and one or both the VMs have a storage policy with encryption
enabled, then the shared data is encrypted.
• If two VMs share data and one of the VMs have a storage policy with compression enabled,
even then the shared data may not be compressed.
• If you associate a VM with multiple storage policies associated, the policy engine sorts the
storage policy list using a method based on the policy name and applies the highest ranking
policy from the sorted list to the VM. The highest ranking storage policy is the one with the
lexicographically smallest name in the list. If you add another storage policy later and this
newly added policy becomes the highest ranking policy in the newly sorted list, the engine
continues to apply the previously applied storage policy. To apply the newly added storage
policy to the VM, remove the association of the VM with the previously applied storage
policy.
• Storage policy inheritance is supported for operations on VMs performed using API v3. This
support is not available for operations performed using other API versions like API v2.
For information about Storage Policy summary and detailed views, see Storage Policies
Summary View on page 137.
Note: Prism Central does not support Policy based encryption storage containers on which
Erasure Coding or Deduplication is enabled.
Important:
• When you select the cluster, you can manage the KMS type by clicking Actions >
Manage KMS Type.
• From Prism Central, if you try to configure storage policy based encryption for any
single VM or Category entity without enabling Entity Encryption on that cluster,
Prism Central does not transform the entity data to be encrypted.
Log on to Prism Central and do the following:
• Go to Hardware > Clusters, select the cluster and click Actions > Enable Data-at-
Rest Encryption.
• In the Data-at-Rest Encryption window, under Select Encryption Type, select
Entity Encryption and click Save Encryption Type.
• In the Data-at-Rest Encryption window, under Select Key Management Server
(KMS), select Native KMS (Local) and click Enable Encryption.
• In the Data-at-Rest Encryption window, under Type SET to Confirm, enter SET
and click Set Encryption.
When Storage policy is used, AOS data for the VM is encrypted on the disk for all the vDisks
attached to the VM. The main features include:
• Once encryption is enabled in a policy, it cannot be disabled. If the VM moves out of the
policy or the policy is deleted, then the new writes to the VM are unencrypted and existing
data remains encrypted.
• The system automatically generates a unique key for each storage container.
• Multi-tenant requirements having a unique key per tenant can be fulfilled by ensuring
that the set of VMs belonging to each tenant is mapped to its own container. Nutanix
recommends having only 50 tenants or less per cluster.
• Encryption can be enabled for new and existing VMs.
• Storage policies do not support Volume Group. For any VM with a Policy with encryption
enabled, the data stored in the VG is not encrypted.
• Unencrypted VM needs to remain unencrypted during the cloning process.
• Shared data between the encrypted VMs and unencrypted VMs is encrypted.
For information about containers, see the Storage Management section in the Prism Web
Console Guide.
For information about configuring key manager, see the Security Guide.
Procedure
Configure the following properties in the Configuration tab. Select a defined (non-default)
value for a least one of the properties.
Data Security
Data Reduction
Compression Select one of the following values from the drop-down list.
Value
• On—to enable compression. If you select On then you must
select the type of compression that you want to apply. You
can select Inline compression (default) or Post Process
compression.
If you select Post Process, the data is compressed with some
delay (up to 3600 seconds) that is set by the system default.
• Off—to disable compression.
• Inherit from Cluster (default)—the category or entity inherits
the compression configuration from the cluster. This is the
default value for Encryption.
IO Performance
Quality Metric Select one of the following values from the dropdown list.
• Throughput
• IOPS
2. Click Next.
If you did not select or enter an appropriate value and the pre-checks failed, the relevant
error is displayed below the field that failed the pre-check. Select or enter an appropriate
value and click Next again.
3. On the Association tab, in the Add Category field, click the category or categories you want
to associate with the storage policy.
Enter the first 2-3 characters of the category name you want to associate with in the Add
Category field. This opens a drop-down list of categories that you can select from. Click
Note: When you associate a category with one storage policy, you cannot associate the same
category with another storage policy.
For information about managing category associations like associating more categories
during an update of the storage policy or removing a category association, see Managing
Associations on page 658.
The category is added to the Associated Categories list when you click the category.
Managing Associations
You can update a storage policy to add or remove a category association.
Note: You can associate multiple categories for one storage policy. When you associate a
category with one storage policy, you cannot associate the same category with another storage
policy.
Add or remove associations of categories with the storage policy in the Categories or Entities
tabs of the storage policy details page. You could also select the storage policy in the storage
policy summary List and click Update in the Actions menu, then add or remove the associations
in the Associations tab of the Update Storage Policy page.
To add or remove associations through the storage policy details page, do the following:
1. Click the name of the storage policy. On the storage policy details page, click the Categories
(or Entities) tab.
3. In the Add Category field, click the category or categories you want to associate with the
storage policy.
Enter the first 2-3 characters of the category name you want to associate with in the Add
Category field. This opens a drop-down list of categories that you can select from. Click the
plus icon of the categories you want to add to the Associated Categories list.
The plus icon changes to a check mark icon indicating that the category is added to the
Associated Categories list.
The category is removed from the Associated Categories list, thus removing the association
of the category with the storage policy.
1. Click the name of the storage policy. On the storage policy details page, click Delete.
The Delete <storage-policy-name> dialog box is displayed as follows:
Tip: If you have already removed all the associations of the storage policy, then the list of
categories and entities is empty.
After you preview the impact, click Back to go back to the Delete <storage-policy-name>
dialog box.
4. Click Delete.
Catalog Management
Prism Central includes a catalog service for storing VM snapshots and images. A Prism Central
or self-service administrator creates this catalog of objects so that self-service users who have
permissions to create a VM can use them.
Note:
• The catalog service is a self-service feature that appears in Prism Central only when
Prism Self Service is enabled (see Prism Self Service Overview on page 719).
• You can manage the Catalog Item entity permissions by enabling or disabling the
Marketplace Item permissions while creating a custom role. For example, if you
Note: Nutanix recommends that you power off the VM before adding a snapshot of it to the
catalog.
Procedure
» Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard and select the VM that you want to add to the
catalog (see VMs Summary View on page 90).
» Go to the images dashboard and select the image that you want to add to the catalog
(see Images Summary View on page 120).
3. To add a VM, select Add to Catalog from the Actions menu and do the following in the Add
VM to Catalog page in the indicated fields:
• Authentication: Check the box to allow the user deploying the VM to set a username
and password.
• SSH Key [Cloudinit (Linux) only]: Check the box to allow the user deploying the VM to
provide an SSH key.
• Locale: Check the box to allow the end user to specify the locale (language).
• Hostname: Check the appropriate radio button to specify the host name source: the
deployed VM name, a name provided by the person deploying the VM, or restricted
hostname access.
• License Key: Specify the license key source. Check the Enter License Key radio button
and enter the key in the field to set the license key, check the Allow end user to input
License Key radio button to let the user do it, or check the No License Key radio
button to not require a license key.
d. Click the Save button.
» Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard and select the VM that you want to delete from
the catalog (see VMs Summary View on page 90).
» Go to the images dashboard and select the image that you want to delete from the
catalog (see Images Summary View on page 120).
Image Management
Prism Central provides a centralized location to manage the images you require on registered
AHV clusters. Prism Central enables you to upload images to the clusters and maintains an
inventory of the images on them.
Note: You can configure policies that govern which clusters receive the images that you upload
(see Image Placement Policies on page 685).
• If you have specific target clusters in mind, you can select those clusters when uploading the
images.
• If you have image placement policies in place, you can associate one or more categories
with the images. Prism Central uploads the images to the clusters identified by the image
placement policies. For information about image placement policies, see Image Placement
Policies on page 685.
Requirements
The image management feature in Prism Central has the following requirements:
• The version of both Prism Central and the version of AOS on registered clusters must be 5.8
or later.
• Clusters must be registered with Prism Central and must have AHV installed.
• The image service uses port 2007, so that port must be open.
Limitations
Image management from Prism Central has the following limitations:
• Prism Central cannot update images that another Prism Central instance managed earlier.
However, the images are displayed in Prism Central, and you can use the images to create
VMs or delete the images you no longer need.
• You cannot choose a container when uploading images from Prism Central. Prism Central
uploads images to the container named SelfServiceContainer.
• When uploading images from a workstation, If multiple clusters are selected during the initial
image upload then the uploaded image becomes active (in Prism Element) on only one of
the selected clusters and is inactive on the other clusters registered to Prism Central.
• If an image is not active on a cluster, as an admin user it is possible that you are unable to
use Prism Central to create that VM on that cluster. The cluster on which you want to create
the VM cannot check out the image from a remote cluster. In this scenario, you must upload
the image manually to the cluster on which you want to create the VM.
When you create a VM, Prism Central uses API v2 workflows. API v2 does not have the
check-out workflow. The image checkout workflow is used to copy an image on demand
from cluster B to cluster A if the image does not exist or is inactive on cluster A.
Note:
This limitation is removed by applying an image placement policy and a category to
the image that is available on multiple remote clusters. When you apply an image
placement policy to an image, Prism Central propagates the image to all the clusters
that are included in the image placement policy and category. Prism Central can
then check-out the image from the remote cluster where the image is active and
create the VM.
Prism Central can take up to 15 minutes to switch the image propagation from
an alternative cluster. For example, if an image is located on clusters A and B. As
a result of an image placement policy you applied to that image, cluster A starts
copying the image to cluster C. During the copy operation, cluster A becomes
unavailable. In such a case, Prism Central takes up to 15 minutes to switch to cluster
B and start copying the image from cluster B to cluster C.
Creating an Image
You can add an image in one of two ways.
Procedure
Note: Most modern browsers impose file size limitations that affect this upload method. If you
must upload images larger than 2 GB, upload the images from a remote server instead. Also, the
browser type and CPU and RAM utilization on the workstation limit the number of concurrent
uploads. Concurrent uploads exceeding the default limit of the browser are queued or throttled
by the browser and can take more time. Large file uploads and high CPU and memory utilization
can slow down the browser.
Procedure
1. In the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images, and then click the Add Image
button (see Images Summary View on page 120).
The Add Images page appears.
a. Browse to the location of the image file, and then click Open.
Prism Central adds the image file to a list on the page.
b. In Image Name, make sure that the name of the image is unique across all the images in
Prism Central.
The name defaults to the name of the file you selected, but you can change that name
here.
c. In Image Type, select the type of image.
d. In Image Description, describe the image file.
e. In Checksum, select the hashing algorithm.
Repeat this step to add as many image files as you want.
4. To remove an image file entry, locate the entry and click Remove.
• To manually select the target clusters, click Place image directly on clusters, and then do
one of the following in the Cluster Details section:
• If you want to upload the images to all registered clusters, make sure to select All
clusters, and then click Save.
• If you want to upload to only a subset of the registered clusters, clear All clusters,
select the clusters you want from the list, and then click Save.
• To delegate image placement decisions to configured policies and assign categories to
the images, click Place image using Image Placement policies, and then do the following
in the Categories section:
1. Click inside the Categories search box and select the category you want from the
list. You can also start typing the name of the category to reduce the list to matching
names.
2. To specify another category, click the add icon beside the search box. Repeat this step
to add as many categories as you need.
Prism Central uploads the image files in batches and takes some time to enforce the image
placement policies.
Procedure
1. In the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images, and then click the Add Image
button (see Images Summary View on page 120).
The Add Images page appears.
a. In Enter Image URL, enter the appropriate URL address in the field using the following
syntax for either NFS or HTTP, and then click Upload File. (NFS and HTTP are the only
supported protocols.)
nfs://[hostname|IP_addr]/path
http://[hostname|IP_addr]/path
Enter either the name of the host (hostname) or the host IP address (IP_addr) and the path to
the file. If you use a hostname, the cluster must be configured to point at a DNS server that
can resolve that name (see Configuring Name Servers (Prism Central) on page 512). A file
uploaded through NFS must have 644 permissions.
Prism Central adds the URL to a list on the page and clears the Enter Image URL text box
for another URL.
b. In Image Name in the list entry, make sure that the name of the image is unique across all
the images in Prism Central.
The name defaults to the name of the file you selected, but you can change that name
here.
c. In Image Type, select the type of image.
d. In Image Description, describe the image file.
Repeat this step to specify as many URLs as you want.
4. To remove an image file entry, locate the entry and click Remove.
• To manually select the target clusters, click Place image directly on clusters, and then do
one of the following in the Cluster Details section:
• If you want to upload the images to all registered clusters, make sure to select All
clusters, and then click Save.
• If you want to upload to only a subset of the registered clusters, clear All clusters,
select the clusters you want from the list, and then click Save.
• To delegate image placement decisions to configured policies and assign categories to
the images, click Place image using Image Placement policies, and then do the following
in the Categories section:
1. Click inside the Categories search box and select the category you want from the
list. You can also start typing the name of the category to reduce the list to matching
names.
2. To specify another category, click the add icon beside the search box. Repeat this step
to add as many categories as you need.
Prism Central uploads the image files in batches.
• Place the image on the cluster corresponding to where the source VM resides.
• Associate relevant categories to the image so that the corresponding clusters are internally
selected based on categories and associated policies.
Procedure
1. In the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images, and then click the Add Image
button (see Images Summary View on page 120).
The Add Images page appears.
a. In Search by VM Name, click this field to populate the list of VMs from which you intend to
clone the disk. The list displays all the powered-off VMs on the cluster. Alternatively, you
can enter the VM name from which you intend to clone the disk.
Prism Central adds the VM to a list on the page and populates the attached disks to this
VM in the Disks pull-down list.
b. In Disk, select the disk from the pull-down list and click the + button.
The name defaults to the name of the file you selected, but you can change that name
here.
Prism Central displays the disk, and cluster information of the VM source.
a. In Image Name, you can optionally change the auto-generated image name that defaults
to the combination of the selected VM and disk name.
b. In Image Type, Prism Central displays the type as Disk by default. You cannot modify this
field.
c. In Image Description, enter a description for the image.
5. To remove an image file entry, locate the entry and click Remove.
» To select the source VM cluster, click Place image on source VMs cluster .
» To delegate image placement decisions to configured policies and assign categories to
the images, click Place image using Image Placement policies, and then do the following
in the Categories section.
9. Click Save.
Prism Central uploads the image files in batches.
Modifying an Image
• To delete an image, select (check the box for) the target image and then select Delete from
the Action pull-down menu.
• To update an image, select the target image and then select Update Image from the Action
pull-down menu. In the Edit Image page, update the name, description, or type as desired,
and then click the Save button.
Procedure
1. In the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images, and then click the Import Images
button (see Images Summary View on page 120).
» To import all images from all registered clusters, click All Images.
» To import all images from a selection of registered clusters, click Images On a Cluster,
and then, in the list of clusters, select the clusters.
» To import specific images from a given cluster, click the Select Images link provided for
the cluster. In the dialog box that is displayed, select the images that you want to import,
and then click Done.
Repeat this step for all the clusters from which you want to import images.
Procedure
3. Configure the image placement policy. See Configuring an Image Placement Policy.
Procedure
4. In the Search for a category field, type the name of the category or value that you want to
add, and then select the category and value from the list that is displayed.
5. Click the add button to add as many search fields and repeat this step for each category that
you want to add. To remove a category, click the Remove button beside the field.
6. Click Save.
Procedure
1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images.
5. Click the add button to add as many search fields and repeat this step for each category that
you want to add. To remove a category, click the Remove button beside the field.
6. Click Save.
• Configure the categories that you need to associate with the images.
• Configure categories for the clusters to which you want Prism Central to upload images, and
then associate the categories with the clusters.
• Review existing image placement policies to avoid causing conflicts. For information about
issues caused by conflicting policies, see How Prism Central Handles Conflicting Policies.
Procedure
1. In the entity menu, go to Policies > Image Placement Policies, and then click Create Image
Placement Policy.
2. On the Create Image Placement Policy, enter a name and description for the policy.
3. Click inside the Assign Images From The Following Categories search field and select the
category you want to associate with the images.
To associate additional categories with the images, click the add icon beside the search field,
and select the categories you need.
4. Click inside the To The Clusters From The Following Categories search field and select the
category you associated with the target clusters.
To specify additional cluster categories, click the add icon beside the search field, and select
the categories you need.
5. In the Policy Enforcement section, from the Enforcement list, select one of the following:
» Soft. The images are uploaded to the set of clusters identified by the image placement
policy. In addition, no restriction is placed on using those images on clusters outside the
identified set. For example, if clusters A, B, and C are registered with Prism Central, and
an image placement policy with a soft enforcement policy uploads an image to clusters A
and B, you can use the image to create a VM on cluster C. The checkout to cluster C is not
blocked.
» Hard. The images are uploaded to the set of clusters identified by the image placement
policy. You cannot use the VM on any cluster outside the identified set. For example, if
clusters A, B, and C are registered with Prism Central, and an image placement policy with
6. Click Save.
You can update an Image Placement policy. Updates to an image placement policy can result
in a policy violation. Prism Central attempts to correct the violation by executing a series of
actions.
Procedure
1. In the entity menu, go to Policies > Image Placement Policies, and then click the image
placement policy that you want to update.
3. The Edit Image Placement Policy page that is displayed includes the same options and
settings as the Create Image Placement Policy page.
4. Update the settings that you want, and then click Save.
Policies are said to be in conflict if they identify the same category of images but their resulting
cluster placements are different.
For example, the following policies are conflicting policies if they apply to the same category of
images:
• Policy P1, which identifies clusters C1 and C2 as target clusters, and the policy enforcement
setting is Soft.
• Policy P2, which identifies clusters C3 and C4 as target clusters, and the policy enforcement
setting is Hard.
Prism Central handles such conflicts in the following manner:
• Prism Central ignores conflicting policies and does not perform any action on the images. If
policy P1 was configured first, Prism Central stops enforcing P1 as soon as P2 is configured,
The following table describes how to configure image management policies to achieve a
desired result. The examples use a Prism Central instance to which three clusters A, B, and C
and registered (possibly among other clusters).
The images must be available only on cluster Create an image placement policy that
A and cannot be checked out to clusters B identifies cluster A as the target cluster (by
and C now, and the images also cannot be the use of categories) and set the policy
checked out to any other clusters that are enforcement to Hard.
registered with Prism Central in the future.
The bandwidth throttling policy feature in Prism Central has the following requirements:
Note: The bandwidth throttling policy is not supported on ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors.
• Prism Central enforces bandwidth throttling policy only for new images created by using the
URL option on clusters registered with Prism Central.
• You cannot enforce a bandwidth throttling policy if you create an image directly from a
Prism Element.
• The least applicable bandwidth throttling policy on the source and destination cluster is
enforced when you transfer an image from one cluster to another cluster.
Create a new bandwidth policy and associate it with a cluster. This ensures that the new
bandwidth throttling policy is implemented on the cluster when it creates or adds a new image.
1. In the Entity menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images > Policies > Bandwidth Throttling
Policies, and then click Create Policy.
2. In the Policy Name text box, type a name for the bandwidth throttling policy.
3. In the Cluster Categories drop-down box, select the categories for which you want to apply
this new bandwidth throttling policy.
For more information about Categories, see Category Management on page 742 .
Note: In a scenario, where you have to add multiple cluster categories in the same policy,
then the bandwidth throttling policy is enforced on the Prism Element that has all the
specified categories.
Note: The bandwidth limit task is serialized on each cluster to strictly enforce the bandwidth
limit on each cluster. For example, when you create a new image, only one image create
task runs on the cluster at a time. The second image creation task configured with another
bandwidth limit can start only after completion of the first image creation task.
5. Click Save to create a new bandwidth throttling policy for the selected category.
6. Add a cluster and associate it with the same categories used with the bandwidth throttle
policy.
For more information, see Associating Images with Categories on page 686 .
7. In the Entity menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images > Policies > Bandwidth Throttling
Policies to view the list of bandwidth throttling policies.
8. Click on a bandwidth throttling policy to view the cluster associated with it.
The selected cluster uses the Effective Bandwidth Limit configured to add a new image next
time.
Note: In a scenario where multiple bandwidth throttling policies are applied to the same
cluster, the minimum of all the applicable bandwidth throttling policies is enforced on the
cluster.
For example, you have a cluster named PE-123, and you have created multiple
bandwidth throttling policies with different Bandwidth Limit, then during the cluster
association with the bandwidth throttling policy ( step 6), the cluster is associated
with the bandwidth throttling policy which has the least Bandwidth Limit configured
on it.
You can update the bandwidth throttling limit on a cluster to ensure faster or more controlled
image downloads using the URL operation.
Procedure
1. In the entity menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images > Policies > Bandwidth Throttling
Policies to view the list of bandwidth throttling policies.
2. Click on a bandwidth throttling policy in the table to view the clusters associated with the
bandwidth throttling policy.
Note: For image create operation, you cannot update the bandwidth limit during image
creation process.
Note: For image copy operation, you can update the bandwidth limit during the image
transfer process.
Deleting a bandwidth throttling policy removes the bandwidth limit enforced on an image
associated with cluster and category.
Procedure
1. In the entity menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images > Policies > Bandwidth Throttling
Policies to view the list of bandwidth throttling policies.
2. To delete a bandwidth throttling policy, select the checkbox associated with policy and
select Actions > Delete.
Select the checkbox in the table header to delete all the bandwidth throttling policies
configured.
OVA Management
You can export a VM as an OVA, upload and manage OVAs only from Prism Central.
The minimum supported versions for performing OVA operations are AOS 5.18, Prism Central
2020.8, and AHV-20190916.253.
Of the following OVA operations, you can export a VM only from the VMs dashboard (see VMs
Summary View on page 90). You can perform the other actions from the OVAs dashboard (see
OVAs View on page 117).
Note:
The Actions menu appears only if you select an OVA in the list. If the OVAs list is
empty, then the Actions menu is available only after you create an OVA by uploading it
or exporting an existing VM as an OVA.
Exporting a VM as an OVA
Note:
Procedure
4. Click Export.
You can check the progress of the Export as OVA task in Tasks.
The exported OVA is available on the OVA dashboard.
Uploading an OVA
• From a local folder: When you upload an OVA from a local source, you can upload it to only
one target cluster.
• From a URL: When you upload an OVA from a URL, you can upload it to multiple clusters.
The upload operation runs concurrently on all the selected clusters.
Select the appropriate upload source considering the multiple-cluster upload option.
Note:
Prism Central processes up to three OVA file uploads concurrently for OVA file uploads
from local folders. Prism Central queues other OVA files that you upload until one or
more of the concurrent uploads are completed.
There is no restriction on the number of concurrent uploads for OVA uploads from
URL.
Note:
If the upload process is interrupted due to any reason, you can resume the process.
If the validation operation is interrupted due to a concatenation error, you must run
the concatenate API to resume concatenation and validation. See Concatenating
Upload using APIs on page 702.
• You can also check the status of the upload in Tasks. Prism Central displays the following
three subtasks in tasks:
• OVA Create
• OVA Upload
• OVA Validate
• Prism Central uses indicators to display the status of OVAs that you may have tried to
upload. The status message is displayed when you hover the mouse or pointing device
cursor on the indicator. See OVA Alerts table in OVAs View on page 117.
To upload an OVA, do the following:
Procedure
1. In the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > OVA, and then click the Upload OVA
button.
a. Select the OVA Source. As an example, select OVA Fileto upload from a local folder.
Enter either the name of the host (hostname) or the host IP address (IP_addr) and the path to
the file. If you use a hostname, the cluster must be configured to point at a DNS server that
can resolve that name (see Configuring Name Servers (Prism Central) on page 512). A file
uploaded through NFS must have 644 permissions.
Note:
Ensure that the URL that you provide is not redirected to another URL. The
upload fails for redirected URLs.
Prism Central adds the URL to a list on the page and clears the Enter Image URL text box
for another URL.
f. Click Upload.
Note: The Continue in Background button is not displayed for uploads from URL.
4. When the upload task is successfully completed, the following message is displayed:
Upload of the file is successfully completed. Verification of file is progressing in background. Please track it from Tasks page.
5. To resume an upload process that was interrupted, select the OVA in the OVAs dashboard.
In the Actions menu and click the Resume Upload option.
The status message that appears when you hover the mouse over the status icons for each
OVA indicates whether you can use the Resume Upload option to resume the upload.
Note:
Check the reason for failure of OVA Validate task in the Tasks page. When the
upload process is interrupted because of a concatenation and validation failure due
Procedure
1. Click the user icon in the upper-right corner of the web console, and click REST API Explorer.
The REST API Explorer displays a list of the objects that can be managed by the API.
2. In the REST API Explorer browser tab, select ovas in the list and click List Operations.
4. Enter the name of the OVA in the get_entities_request parameter field in the following
format and click Try it out!:
{
“filter”:”name==<name of ova>”
}
5. In the Response Body box, the UUID of the queried OVA is listed. Note or copy the UUID.
Note:
In case of OVAs that are not created from AHV, ensure that the OVA has pre-installed
VirtIO drivers.
Procedure
Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.
Note:
You can add new disks, NICs and GPUs.
Note:
You can add multiple vGPUs to the same VM. Addition of multiple vGPUs is
based on the installed GPU resources. See Multiple Virtual GPU Support in AHV
Admin Guide.
f. Select Next.
Downloading an OVA
Note:
You can download upto five OVAs in parallel.
Procedure
Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.
Renaming an OVA
Procedure
Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.
2. In the Name field of the Rename dialog box, delete the current name and enter the new
name for the OVA.
Deleting an OVAs
Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.
The Delete action deletes the OVA permanently. You cannot recover a deleted OVA.
Therefore, in the Delete dialog box, confirm if you want to delete the OVA <name>.
Procedure
» Check the box for the target cluster and then select Launch Prism Element from the
Action pull-down menu (located above the list of clusters). The Action menu appears only
after selecting the target cluster.
» Click the target cluster name to display the details page, and then click the Launch Prism
Element button (top right of screen).
The Prism Element web console for that cluster appears in a new tab or window. You can
now perform any administrative task for that cluster. See the Prism Web Console Guide for
more information.
What to do next
When you access a cluster from Prism Central, you are logging in through your Prism Central
user account, not a cluster user account. As a result, the cluster user configuration options
are different (more limited) than when logging directly into the cluster. The following table
describes the user icon options when accessing a cluster from Prism Central.
Name Description
REST API Explorer Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix REST API
Explorer web page.
About Nutanix Opens a window that displays the AOS version running on the
cluster.
Support Portal Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix support
portal login page.
Nutanix Next Community Opens a new browser tab (or window) at the Nutanix Next
Community entry page.
Sign Out Logs out the user from the web console.
Note: Managing VMware guest tools is not supported through Prism Central.
Note:
• You can perform the power operations and launching of VM console even when
vCenter Server is not registered.
• If you are creating VM through Prism, configuration changes to the VM when it is
powered on is enabled by default and it depends on the guest operating system that
is deployed on the VM.
• Ensure that all the hosts in the cluster are managed by a single vCenter Server.
• Ensure that DRS is enabled on all the vCenter Server instances.
• Ensure that you are running ESXi and vCenter Server 5.5 or later releases.
• Ensure that you have homogeneous network configuration for all the vCenter Server
instances. For example, network should have either 1G or 10G NICs.
• Ensure that you unregister the vCenter Server from the cluster before changing the IP
address of the vCenter Server. After you change the IP address of the vCenter Sever, you
must register the vCenter Server again with the new IP address.
• The vCenter Server Registration page displays the registered vCenter Server. If for some
reason the Host Connection field changes to Not Connected, it implies that the hosts are
being managed by a different vCenter Server. In this case, there will be new vCenter entry
with host connection status as Connected and you need to register to this vCenter Server.
For more information about registering vCenter Server again, see Managing vCenter Server
Registration Changes (Prism Central) on page 718.
Caution: If multiple vCenter Servers are managing the hosts of a single Nutanix cluster, you will
not be able to perform the VM management operations. Move all the hosts into one vCenter
Server.
• The E1000, E1000e, PCnet32, VMXNET, VMXNET 2, VMXNET 3 network adapter types
(NICs) are supported.
• Only SCSI and IDE disks are supported. SATA and PCI disks are not supported.
• Creating a VM by using a template is not supported.
• Creating a VM by using image service is not supported.
• If a VM is deleted, all the disks that are attached to the VM get deleted.
• Network configuration (creation of port groups or VLANs) is not supported.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and select vCenter Registration from the Settings menu
(see Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
• The vCenter Registration window lists all the vCenter Server instances that are registered
or not registered with the clusters.
• If you have not registered the vCenter Server in Prism Element, you can register the
clusters to the vCenter Server instances directly from Prism Central.
• You also have an option to de-select any ESXi clusters that you do not want to manage
using Prism Central.
• The vCenter Server that is managing the hosts in the cluster is auto-discovered and its IP
address is auto-populated in the Address field.
• The port number field is also auto-populated with 443. Do not change the port number.
For the complete list of required ports, see Port Reference.
3. Type the administrator user name and password of the vCenter Server in the Admin
Username and Admin Password fields.
During the registration process a certificate is generated to communicate with the vCenter
Server. If the registration is successful, a relevant message is displayed in the Tasks
dashboard. The Host Connection field displays as Connected, which implies that all the hosts
are being managed by the vCenter Server that is registered.
5. Click Register.
• Ensure that you unregister the vCenter Server from the cluster before changing the IP
address of the vCenter Server. After you change the IP address of the vCenter Sever, you
should register the vCenter Server again with the new IP address with the cluster.
• The vCenter Server Registration page displays the registered vCenter Server. If for some
reason the Host Connection field changes to Not Connected, it implies that the hosts are
being managed by a different vCenter Server. In this case, there will be new vCenter entry
with host connection status as Connected and you need to register to this vCenter Server.
For more information about registering vCenter Server again, see Managing vCenter Server
Registration Changes (Prism Central) on page 718.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and select vCenter Registration from the Settings menu
(see Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
The list of vCenter Server instances already registered to one or more vCenter Server
instances are displayed.
2. To unregister a cluster from a particular vCenter Server, click the edit icon under Action field.
3. Clear the check box of the clusters that you want to unregister from the vCenter Server.
4. Type the administrator user name and password of the vCenter Server in the Admin
Username and Admin Password fields.
5. Click Unregister.
If the credentials are correct, the vCenter Server is unregistered from the cluster and a
relevant message is displayed in the Tasks dashboard.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and select vCenter Registration from the Settings menu
(see Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17).
The vCenter Server that is managing the hosts in the cluster is displayed along with the
vCenter Server that you must unregister.
Note: This chapter describes how to configure and administer Prism Self Service. See the Prism
Self Service Administration Guide for instructions on the role and functions of a self-service
administrator. See the Prism Self Service User Guide for information about the self-service
capabilities available to a project user.
There are three roles to consider when configuring Prism Self Service:
1. Prism Central administrator. The Prism Central administrator adds an Active Directory
that includes the pool of self-service users and (optionally) creates one or more self-
service administrators. Prism Central administrators also create VMs, images, and network
configurations that may be consumed by self-service users.
2. Self-service administrator. The self-service administrator performs the following tasks:
• Creates a project for each team that needs self service and adds users and groups to the
projects.
• Configures roles for project members. A project member can access only the entities or
perform only the actions defined in the role assigned to that project member.
• Publishes VM templates and images to the catalog.
• Monitors resource usage by various projects and its VMs and members, and then adjusts
resource quotas as necessary.
It is optional to configure a separate self-service administrator because a Prism Central
administrator can perform any of these tasks. However, if you would like to authorize users
to administer end-user VM or application provisioning, you can use this role to give them
access to virtual infrastructure without giving them access to physical infrastructure.
Caution: Self-service administrators have full access to all VMs running on the Nutanix cluster,
including infrastructure VMs not tied to a project. Self-service administrators can assign
infrastructure VMs to project members, add them to the catalog, and delete them even if they
do not have administrative access to Prism Central. Consider these privileges when appointing
self-service administrators, and make sure to communicate to self-service administrators the
need to exercise caution when working with infrastructure VMs.
After a Prism Central administrator has designated a user as a self-service
administrator, the Prism Central administrator cannot limit the user's privileges.
Therefore, if you plan to delegate self-service administration responsibilities to an
3. Project user. These are the users assigned to a project by a self-service administrator. They
can perform any action that the self-service administrator grants them. The permissions are
determined by the roles assigned to the users and groups in the project. When project users
log in, they see a custom self-service GUI interface that shows only what the role permissions
allow. Project users create and manage only what they need.
To configure Prism Self Service, perform the following tasks:
• Specify an Active Directory for self service and (optionally) add one or more self-service
administrators (see Configuring Prism Self Service on page 720).
• Create a project for each team that needs self service and add users and groups to the
projects (see Project Management on page 724).
• Configure roles for project members (see Controlling User Access (RBAC) in Security Guide).
Note: RBAC is an independent feature, so you can configure RBAC without configuring self
service or creating projects. However, projects allow you to enforce RBAC in a more granular
way.
• Publish VM templates and images to the catalog (see Catalog Management on page 662).
• Monitor resource usage for the projects and adjust resource quotas as needed. You can view
resource usage across and within projects through the Explore tab (see Projects Summary
View on page 258 and Project Details View on page 260).
• Create VMs as needed and assign them to project members as appropriate (see VM
Management on page 534). You can also allow project members to create their own VMs.
Note: Prism Self Service was hosted through Prism Element (the single-cluster Prism interface)
prior to AOS 5.5. However, starting with AOS 5.5 Prism Self Service is hosted through Prism
Central only. If your current Prism Self Service is on Prism Element, see Migrating Prism Self
Service on page 722.
Procedure
1. Configure the Directory Services (Active Directory or Open LDAP) that includes the pool of
self-service users if one is not already configured.
For more information, See Configuring Authentication in Security Guide.
Note: The Self-Service Admin Management option does not appear in the Settings menu
until you configure a directory service (step 1).
a. Select the desired Directory Services (Active Directory or Open LDAP) from the pull-
down list.
b. Enter the user name and password of the Directory Services (Active Directory or Open
LDAP) user with administrator permissions.
Note: To prevent future access problems, it is recommended that you use an administrator
account with no time limit.
4. Do one or more of the following in the Configure Self Service tab and then click the Save
button.
• To add an administrator, click the Add Admins link. This displays a line to specify a
self-service administrator. In the Name field, enter an individual or group name (in the
directory service) that you want to give self-service administrator privileges and then
click Save in the Actions field. To add additional self-service administrators, click the Add
Admins link and repeat this process.
• To change an existing self-service administrator, click the pencil icon in the Actions field
for that user, update the user name in the Name field, and then click Save in the Actions
field.
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and select Migrate SSP from the Settings menu.
The Migrate Prism Self Service to Prism Central window appears.
2. Select the cluster that hosts the Prism Self Service instance to migrate from the pull-down
list.
If there is only one cluster with a Prism Self Service instance to migrate, that cluster is
selected automatically (no pull-down list). If no cluster is found that has a Prism Self Service
instance to migrate, a message to that effect appears.
3. Enter the credentials (username and password) for an Active Directory user with
administrator permissions.
Creating a Project
Procedure
1. Go to the projects dashboard (see Projects Summary View on page 258) and click the
Create Project button.
The Create Project page appears.
d. Users, Groups and Roles: Click the + Users link to open a blank row in the table. Enter the
Active Directory name of a user or group (typically in the form name@domain) in the Name
field, select the role for that user from the pull-down list in the Role field, and then click
Save in the Actions field.
If multiple Active Directory domains are configured, you can specify the Active Directory
to use by clicking the gear icon next to the + Users link. This displays a Search Directories
window. Select the radio button for the Active Directory to use and then click the Save
button.
Repeat this step for each user or group that you want to add. You can assign one of
the predefined roles or a custom role that you previously created (see Controlling User
Access (RBAC) in Security Guide). Nested groups (groups within a group) are not
supported, that is if a selected group includes a group name (instead an individual name)
within that group, the group name is not expanded so those group members are not
included in the project.
Note:
• Local users are not supported in a project. You can only add users from your
configured directory service.
e. Allow collaboration: Check the box to allow any group member to see the VMs,
applications, and other objects created by other members of the group. If this box is not
checked, group members can see only the objects they create. The role assigned a group
member determines the permissions that user has on objects created by other group
members.
f. Network: Select (check the Name field box for) the usable network(s) and select (check
the Default field star icon for) the default network for the project.
g. Quotas (optional): Check the box to specify usage limits for compute, storage, and
memory in the displayed vCPUs, Storage, and Memory fields.
A quota specifies a usage limit on an infrastructure resource (compute, memory, or
storage) for the project. Project members cannot use more than the specified limit.
A quota does not guarantee the project a certain amount of infrastructure resources.
Instead, it ensures that a single project or a small number of projects do not overrun the
infrastructure. If the Nutanix cluster runs out of a resource, project members might not be
Important: Enabling the Nutanix Calm feature alllows you to define Quotas only from the
Calm projects. You can set the usage restrictions for quota policy enabled Calm projects
for Nutanix (AHV) and non-Nutanix (ESXi) clusters.
For information on managing the Policies for Calm projects, see the Nutanix Calm
Administration and Operations Guide.
Figure 363: Create Project Page (with Nutanix Calm Policies Enabled)
h. Click the Save button (lower right) to add the project. The page closes and the new
project appears in the Projects view list.
Modifying a Project
1. Go to the projects dashboard (see Projects Summary View on page 258) and select (check
the box for) the target project.
» To modify that project, select Update Project from the Actions pull-down menu. The Edit
Project page appears, which includes the same fields as the Create Project page (see
Creating a Project on page 724). Update the field values as desired and then click the
Save button.
» To delete that project, select Delete from the Actions pull-down menu. You are prompted
to verify the delete (click the OK button). The project is then deleted and removed from
the list.
Note: Before you can delete a project, you must first remove any VMs and networks, in
that order, from the project. You cannot delete the default project.
Network Connections
Each VM network interface is bound to a virtual network, and each virtual network is bound
to a single VLAN. Information about the virtual networks configured currently appears in the
Network Configuration page. To display the Network Configuration page, click the Network
Config button in either the VMs or Subnets dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90 or
Subnets on page 167).
The Network Configuration page includes three tabs.
Networks Tab
Virtual Switch Displays the name of the virtual switch in the (vs<number>)
form vs#, for example vs0 for virtual switch 0
which is the default virtual switch.
Subnet (Gateway IP / Displays the subnet that the internal interface (IP Address/prefix
Prefix Length) belongs to in the form <IP Address>/<number number)
(prefix)>
Virtual Switch
Name Displays the name of the switch in the form vs# (vs<number>)
MTU (bytes) Displays the MTU set for the virtual switch in (number)
bytes. The default MTU is 1500.
Bond Type Displays the uplink bond type associated with (<bond_type>)
the virtual switch. See the Bond Type table in .
For example, Active-Backup
Procedure
» Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and click
the Network Config button.
» Go to the Network and Security dashboard (see Subnets on page 167 and click the
Network Config button.
Note: If no pool is provided, the user must assign IP addresses to VMs manually.
a. Enter the starting IP address of the range in the Start Address field.
b. Enter the ending IP address of the range in the End Address field.
c. Click the Submit button to close the page and return to the Create Network page.
5. To configure a DHCP server, check the Override DHCP server box and enter an IP address in
the DHCP Server IP Address field.
This address (reserved IP address for the Acropolis DHCP server) is visible only to VMs on
this network and responds only to DHCP requests. If this box is not checked, the DHCP
Server IP Address field is not displayed and the DHCP server IP address is generated
automatically. The automatically generated address is network_IP_address_subnet.254, or if the
default gateway is using that address, network_IP_address_subnet.253.
6. Click the Save button to configure the network connection, close the Create Subnet page,
and return to the Network Configuration page.
Procedure
2. On the Network Configuration window, click the Virtual Switch > Create VS link.
1. In the Create Virtual Switch dialog box, provide the necessary information on the General
tab.
Field Description
Description Provide a description for the virtual switch that helps identify the
virtual switch.
Physical NIC MTU (bytes) MTU must be a value in the range 1280 to 9216 inclusive.
Select Configuration Select one of the two methods that you can use to implement
Method the VS configuration:
• Standard (Recommended):
This method ensures no disruptions occur to the workloads
by putting the hosts in maintenance mode and migrating the
VMs out of the host before applying the configuration. This
process requires a longer duration of time to complete. The
time required depends on the number and configuration of
VMs.
In this method, the VS configuration is deployed in the rolling
update process.
• Quick:
This method interrupts the workloads running on the hosts.
Use this method only if you are not running production
workloads because it may result in network interruptions.
In this method, the VS configuration is deployed in a rolling
update process but the nodes are not put in maintenance
mode before modifying the VS configuration on the node.
Bond Type Select an appropriate bond type. See the Bond Types table for
details about the bond types.
Select Uplink Ports Select the criteria that need to be satisfied for the uplink ports.
The available uplink ports that satisfy the criteria are displayed in
the (Host port) table at the bottom of this tab.
Uplink Port Speeds Select a speed to display the ports that have the selected speed.
You can select speeds such as 1G, 10G or both (All Speeds). The
speeds displayed depend on the NIC type that is installed on the
host.
Based on your selection the columns in the (Host Port) table
change dynamically to display the ports with the speeds you
selected.
(Host Port) table Based on the Selections you made in this Select Uplink Ports
section, a table displays the hosts that have the uplink ports that
satisfy the selected criteria. Select the ports you need for this
configuration from the list. Click the down arrow on the right
side of the table to display the ports listed for each host.
Click Select All to select all the ports available and listed.
Click Clear All to unselect all the ports available and listed.
• Speed—Fast (1s)
• Mode—Active fallback-
active-backup
• Priority—Default. This is not
configurable.
Note: The Maximum VM NIC Throughput and Maximum Host Throughput values are not
restricted to the value provided in this table. The values in the table are indicated for an
assumption of 2 x 10 Gb adapters.
For more information about uplink configuration, see the Virtual Switch Workflow topic in the
AHV Administration Guide.
Important:
You can migrate or convert the bridges other than br0 in the cluster to virtual switches
after you upgraded the minimum or compatible version of AOS and AHV. You can
convert the other bridges only on Prism Web Console or using aCLI. You can convert
only one bridge at a time. You need to repeat the workflow for every bridge that you
want to convert to a virtual switch.
For more information about converting the bridges other than br0, see Migrating
Bridges after Upgrade in Prism Web Console Guide.
• If you select the Active-Active NIC-teaming policy, you must enable LAG and LACP on the
corresponding ToR switch for each node in the cluster one after the other.
For information about enabling LAG and LACP, see Enabling LACP and LAG (AHV Only) on
page 739
Procedure
» In Prism Central, open Network & Security > Subnets > Network Configuration >
Virtual Switch.
» In Prism Element or Web Console, open Settings > Network Configuration > Virtual
Switch
b.
Click the Edit icon of the virtual switch you want to configure LAG and LACP.
c. On the Edit Virtual Switch page, in the General tab, ensure that the Standard option is
selected for the Select Configuration Method parameter. Click Next.
The Standard configuration method puts each node in maintenance mode before
applying the updated settings. After applying the updated settings, the node exits from
maintenance mode. See Virtual Switch Workflow.
d. On the Uplink Configuration tab, in Bond Type, select Active-Active.
e. Click Save.
The Active-Active bond type configures all AHV hosts with the fast setting for LACP speed,
causing the AHV host to request LACP control packets at the rate of one per second from
the physical switch. In addition, the Active-Active bond type configuration sets LACP
fallback to Active-Backup on all AHV hosts. You cannot modify these default settings after
you have configured them in Prism, even by using the CLI.
This completes the LAG and LACP configuration on the cluster.
3. Change the settings for the interface on the ToR switch that the node connects to, to match
the LACP and LAG setting made on the cluster in step 1 above.
This is an important step. See the documentation provided by the ToR switch vendor for
more information about changing the LACP settings of the switch interface that the node is
physically connected to.
What to do next
Do the following after completing the procedure to enable LAG and LACP in all the AHV nodes
the connected ToR switches:
• Verify that the status of all services on all the CVMs are Up. Run the following command and
check if the status of the services is displayed as Up in the output:
nutanix@cvm$ cluster status
• Log on to the Prism Element of the node and check the Data Resiliency Status widget
displays OK.
Procedure
» Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and click
the Network Config button.
» Go to the Networks dashboard (see Subnets on page 167 and click the Network Config
button.
2. To modify a network configuration, in the Subnets tab, select the target network, and click
Edit under the Actions column.
The Update Subnet window appears, which contains the same fields as the Create Subnet
page (see Configuring Network Connections on page 731).
Do the following:
3. To delete a network configuration, in the Subnets tab, select the target network, and click
Delete under the Actions column.
A window prompt appears to verify the action; click the OK button. The network
configuration is removed from the list.
Note:
You can also select the target network on the Networks dashboard and select
Delete in the Actions drop-down list.
Security Policies
For information on Security Policies, see Flow Microsegmentation Guide.
Flow Networking
For information on how to configure Virtual Private Cloud, see Virtual Private Cloud topic in
Flow Virtual Networking Guide.
For information on how to set up the Network Gateway, VPN connection, and Subnet
extension, see Connections Management topic in Flow Virtual Networking Guide.
Creating a Category
About this task
To create a category, do the following:
1. Go to the categories dashboard (see Categories Summary View on page 161) and click the
Create Category button.
The Create Category page appears.
Modifying a Category
About this task
To update or delete an existing category, do the following:
1. Go to the categories dashboard (see Categories Summary View on page 161) and select
(check the box for) the desired category from the list.
» To modify that category, select Update from the Actions pull-down menu. The Update
Category page appears, which includes the same fields as the Create Category page (see
Creating a Category on page 742). Update the field values as desired and then click the
Save button.
» To delete that category, select Delete from the Actions pull-down menu. You are
prompted to verify the delete (click the OK button). The category is then deleted and
removed from the list.
Note: You cannot delete a category if it is used in an existing policy. All associations with
existing policies must be removed before a category can be deleted.
Assigning a Category
About this task
You can assign a category value to an entity of the following types: cluster, VM, host, volume
group, catalog, image, report, subnet, blue print, app, and marketplace item. To assign a
category value to one or more entities, do the following:
Procedure
1. Go to the entity type dashboard and select all the entities of that type you want to tag with
the same category value(s).
• Cluster: Go to the List tab in the Clusters dashboard (see Clusters Summary View on
page 200) and select (check the boxes for) the target clusters.
• VM: Go to the List tab in the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and
select the target VMs.
• Host: Go to the List tab in the hosts dashboard (see Hosts Summary View on page 220)
and select the target hosts.
• Volume group: Go to the List tab in the volume groups dashboard (see Volume Groups
Summary View on page 143) and select the target volume groups.
• Catalog: Go to the catalogue items dashboard (see Catalog Items View on page 124) and
select the target catalog items.
• Image: Go to the List tab in the Images dashboard (see Images Summary View on
page 120) and select the target images.
• Report: Go to the reports dashboard (see Reports View on page 248) and select the
target reports.
• Subnet: Go to the Subnets dashboard (see Subnet Summary View on page 170) and
select the target subnets.
• Blue Print, App, or Marketplace Item: See the Marketplace Manager section of the Calm
Administration and Operations Guide.
a. Enter a category name in the Set Categories field, select the target value from the list,
and then click the plus sign (+) to the right of the field to assign that category value to the
selected entities.
The Set Categories field acts like a search field; it provides a list of matching categories
as you enter a string. Select the desired category value when you see it in the list. Any
policies associated with the selected category value appear in the Associated Polices
section to the right.
b. Repeat the first step to assign a value for a second category.
You can repeat this step for as many categories as desired. To illustrate, in the figure
above the VMs are assigned two values, "AV" from the "Cluster" category and "Default"
from the "Quarantine" category. In this example "Cluster:AV" has no policies associated
with it currently, but "Quarantine:Default" is associated with the Quarantine security
policy.
Note: Categories support multi-cardinality, which means you can assign multiple category
values to the same entity. In this case you can assign multiple values to the same VM.
Performance Monitoring
Prism Central allows you to monitor performance across the registered clusters.
• You can view performance graphs for selected elements from the Analysis dashboard (see
Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746).
• You can create custom entity and metric performance charts (see Chart Management on
page 756).
Note: These views reflect that Prism Central retains alerts and events for 90 days and hourly
data for a year by default.
Note:
The updated Analysis dashboard and Sessions dashboard are available only with the
Prism Pro and Prism Ultimate licenses. With the Prism Starter license, only the system-
generated session is available.
The Analysis dashboard elements are described in the table starting with the elements in the
top left corner to the right side of the dashboard.
Field Description
Changes saved status The status whether the changes made to the
session are saved.
Alerts and Events monitor Displays the alerts and events that occurred.
The alerts and events occurring at any specific
point of time are displayed as a stacked bar
with three colored segments. The hover image
of the stacked bar displays the following:
(Defined chart monitors) Displays the monitors for the charts that you
defined for the session.
Field Description
Group by field in Alerts tab Provides the grouping criteria that you can
use to group the alerts. You can group the
alerts by:
• Entity Type
• Impact
• Severity
• System Action
• User Action
(Time range for the stacked bar) The time range considered for the stacked bar
plotted on the Alerts and Events monitor.
The time range is specifically displayed only
when you open the Alerts and Events List
panel by clicking a stacked bar in the Alerts
and Events monitor.
Note: The time range selection affects the whole session and all the charts added to the session.
You can select a predefined time range or customize a range. You can customize a range by
moving the start and end time selectors on the time-line or you can set a range in the Select a
Time Range dialog box.
To select a predefined time range for the session, do the following:
Procedure
a. Select the date and time in the From section to define the start of the range.
b. Select the date and time in the To section to define the end of the range.
c. Click Select.
Figure 378:
If you selected Custom Range, you can also select the range dynamically on the time-line by
sliding the range start and end sliders.
There is no minimum time range for Custom Range, and the maximum range is one year.
• Displayed on the Alerts and Events monitor available below the time-line.
• By clicking the Alerts and Events List option at the top right of the Analysis dashboard
Procedure
1. Click the stacked bar to see the details of the alerts and events in the Alerts and Events List
panel.
Point to a stacked bar on the monitor to see the hover image. The hover image provides
more information about the alerts and events that occurred in the time range that the
stacked bar depicts.
• The Alerts tab provides the details of the alerts. The alerts can be filtered.
Use the filters provided in the Group by drop down list to filter the category of alerts.
• The Events tab provides the details of the events. The events cannot be filtered.
Chart Management
On the Analysis dashboard, you can:
Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of a chart to see the
aforesaid options, except Add Chart. The following sample figure shows the options.
Adding Charts
Note:
You cannot define a single chart to monitor multiple metrics for multiple entities.
Procedure
Note:
In one chart, select metrics that use the same unit of measurement. Add a metric
with a different unit of measurement to a separate chart.
See the step to add another chart below.
When adding a metric for multiple entities hosted on different hypervisors, select
a metric only if it is supported on the hypervisors that are hosting the selected
entities. Prism validates the list of available metrics provided for the Metric field.
Prism removes from the list any metric that is not supported by all the hosting
hypervisors for the selected entities. For example, for two entities hosted on
ESXi and AHV hypervisors respectively, the list includes only the metrics that are
supported on both ESXi and AHV.
» Click Actions > Add to Analysis to add the metric to the current session in the Analysis
dashboard.
» Click Actions > Select Analysis Session to add the metric to any available session or a
new session.
Editing a Chart
Procedure
1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.
3. In the Edit Chart dialog box, make the necessary changes in the fields.
4. Click Update.
The changes are displayed in the chart on the Analysis dashboard.
Deleting a Chart
Procedure
1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.
Cloning a Chart
Procedure
1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.
2. Click Clone.
The cloned chart is the last chart in the row of charts in the Analysis dashboard.
Exporting a Chart
Procedure
1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.
4. Browse to the location you want to save the file in the local folder and click Save.
Chart Metrics
Note: The mapping between a metric and an entity type is hypervisor dependent.
Content Cache Logical Logical memory (in bytes) used to cache data
Memory Usage • Host without deduplication.
• Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_LOGICAL_MEMORY_USAGE_BYTES
Content Cache Logical Logical SSD memory (in bytes) used to cache data
SSD Usage • Host without deduplication.
• Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_LOGICAL_SSD_USAGE_BYTES
Content Cache Real memory (in bytes) used to cache data by the
Physical Memory • Host content cache.
Usage • Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_PHYSICAL_MEMORY_USAGE_BYTES
Content Cache SSD Real SSD usage (in bytes) used to cache data by
Usage • Host the content cache.
• Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_PHYSICAL_SSD_USAGE_BYTES
Content Cache SSD SSD usage (in bytes) saved due to content cache
Usage Saved • Host deduplication.
• Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_SAVED_SSD_USAGE_BYTES
Disk IOPS - Read Input/Output read operations per second from disk.
• Host
ID: STATS_NUM_READ_IOPS
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool
GPU video decoder Virtual Machine GPU video decoder usage in percentage.
Usage
ID: DECODER_USAGE_PPM
GPU video encoder Virtual Machine GPU video encoder usage in percentage
usage
ID: ENCODER_USAGE_PPM
Hypervisor CPU Ready Virtual Machine Percentage of time that the virtual machine was
Time (%) ready, but could not get scheduled to run.
ID: STATS_HYP_CPU_READY_TIME
Network Tx Bytes Virtual Machine Write data transferred per second in KB/second.
ID: HYPERVISOR_NUM_TRANSMITTED_BYTES
Storage container own Storage Storage container's own usage + Reserved (not
usage Container used).
ID: NEW_CONTAINER_OWN_USAGE_LOGICAL
Swap Out Rate Virtual Machine Rate of data being swapped out.
ID: STATS_HYP_SWAP_OUT_RATE
Virtual NIC bytes Virtual Machine Virtual NIC bytes received packets with error.
received packets with
STATS_NETWORK_ERROR_RECEIVED_PACKETS
error.
Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
ESXi hypervisor.
Virtual NIC bytes Virtual Machine Virtual NIC bytes received rate in kbps.
received rate.
STATS_NETWORK_RECEIVED_RATE
Virtual NIC bytes Virtual Machine Virtual NIC bytes transmitted rate in kbps.
transmitted rate.
STATS_NETWORK_TRANSMITTED_RATE
Virtual NIC dropped Virtual Machine Number of dropped transmitted packets by the
transmitted packets. Virtual NIC.
STATS_NETWORK_DROPPED_TRANSMITTED_PACKETS
Virtual NIC receive Virtual Machine Number of receive packets dropped by the Virtual
packets dropped. NIC.
STATS_NETWORK_DROPPED_RECEIVED_PACKETS
Sessions Dashboard
You can view the Sessions dashboard by selecting Switch Sessions > View All Sessions in the
Analysis dashboard. You can also view the Sessions dashboard by closing the current session.
The Sessionsdashboard provides a list of sessions including the system-generated session. After
an upgrade, the old sessions are also available in the Sessions dashboard.
Note:
Prism saves all session changes and new sessions automatically including Session
Name changes, except changes made using specific options that open respective
dialog boxes to facilitate the changes.
For example, when you edit a chart using the Edit option and the Edit Chart dialog box on
the Analysisdashboard, you need to click the Update button to save the changes made in the
dialog box. When you modify the session name or description in the Sessionsdashboard using
the Edit Session Details action, you need to click the Update button to save the changes made
in the dialog box. However, if you change the name of the session in the Analysis dashboard,
then the change is automatically saved.
Note:
The updated Analysis dashboard and Sessions dashboard are available only with the
Prism Pro and Prism Ultimate licenses. With the Prism Starter license, only the system-
generated session is available.
1. Click Switch Session in the Analysis dashboard and select View All Sessions.
This switches the view to the Sessions dashboard.
Procedure
1. In the Analysis dashboard, click Switch Session > Create New Session.
Note: To create a new session from the Sessions dashboard, click Create Session in the
Sessions dashboard.
2. In the new session displayed in the Analysis dashboard, change the Session Name and add a
Description help quickly identify the session.
To change the Session Name and add a Description, see Editing Session Details on
page 777.
What to do next
You can add charts to the new session.
3. Click Save.
Deleting a Session
Procedure
2. Provide appropriate Session Name and Description to help quickly identify the session.
3. Click Update.
Procedure
Click Actions > Close.
Procedure
2. From the drop-down list, select the session you want to view.
3. If you do not find the session you want to switch to in the list, do the following:
a. Click Switch Session > View All Sessions to go to the Sessions dashboard.
b. Select the session you want to open in the Analysis dashboard.
Application Discovery
Application discovery provides the capability to discover applications in a specified set
of clusters, identify in which VM each application runs and what ports it uses, and publish
that data to an internal database which is accessible through an external API call. You can
monitor applications in Nutanix, non-Nutanix (vCenter managed), or mixed (cluster with mixed
hypervisors) environment.
Note: When you add a mixed cluster for application discovery, only ESXi hypervisor nodes are
enabled for discovery.
Application discovery sends data about the VM network traffic stats to a SaaS-like service in
the cloud for analysis. The information sent to the cloud includes network flow data (source IP,
destination IP, destination port, protocol, packet count, byte count) and VM data (cluster UUID,
source VM name, UUID, VLAN ID, and IP addresses).
Note:
• This section describes the information and options that appear in the application
discovery dashboard. For instructions on how to view and organize that information
in a variety of ways, see Entity Exploring on page 85 .
• If application discovery is not enabled, an enablement page appears instead of the
dashboard. See Enabling Application Discovery on page 788 .
Summary Tab
Clicking the Summary tab displays the following four widgets:
• Discovered Highlights: Displays the total number of application instances, the number of
identified (known application to port mapping) and unidentified instances, the number of
application types, and the number of ports.
• Status & Settings: Displays the number of monitored clusters, the number of discovery
policies, and the status (active or inactive) of the discovery process, vCenter authentication,
vCenter monitoring, and cloud connection. Click either View Details to see the vCenter
authentication and monitoring details (see Configuring vCenter Authentication on
page 797 ) or click Manage to see the cloud connection details (see Connecting to the
Cloud on page 794 ). If vCenter monitoring is not configured, an Add vCenter link appears
(instead of the View Details link); click the link to add clusters from any configured vCenter
instances. See Adding (Removing) Clusters to Monitor on page 795 .
• Top Discovered Apps: Lists the applications with the most instances.
• Top Discovered Ports: Lists the ports with the most instances.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the discovered applications list. A dash
(-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
App Instance Displays the application name for the instance. (app name)
Click the name to display the Application Info
window. The window displays the application
name, VM name, TCP ports, and UDP ports.
TCP Ports Displays one or more TCP ports used by the (port numbers)
application.
UPD Ports Displays one or more UDP ports used by the (port numbers)
application.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
application runs. Click the name to view the
details for that cluster (see Cluster Details
View on page 208). See Configuring vCenter
Authentication on page 797 .
You can filter the list either by entering a string in the search field or by opening the Filter pane
(open by default) to select a filter option. The following table describes the filter options. To
apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you
want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters
require additional context such as a constraint string or a range.
App Instance Filters on the application instance name. (app instance name
Select a condition from the pull-down list string)
(Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends
with, or Equal to) and enter a string in the
field.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Select a condition (cluster name string)
from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to)
and enter a string in the field.
TCP Ports Filters on the TCP port numbers. Enter a range ([xx] to [yy] range)
in the "From <low> to <high>" field.
UDP Ports Filters on the UDP port numbers. Enter a ([xx] to [yy] range)
range in the "From <low> to <high>" field.
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
You can group the list in the following ways:
• The Focus pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default) or
a custom view.
• To group the list by application name, select App Instance from the Group By pull-down
menu.
The discovered apps tab includes the following action buttons:
• Click the Discover button to start a discovery search. See Discovering Applications on
page 798 .
• Click the Publish button to publish application information. See Publishing Applications on
page 799 .
• An Actions menu appears when one or more instances are selected. The menu allows
you to set the selected instances to [Identify|Unidentify] or [Ignore|Unignore] status (as
appropriate). The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out.
• The listed information for published applications is the same as for discovered applications,
except there is no status field.
• Click the Get API Link button to copy the API link to your clipboard. The link is the access
point to consume the published applications through the API.
• An Actions menu appears when one or more instances are selected; select Delete from the
pull-down list to delete the selected instances from the published list.
Policies Tab
Clicking the Policies tab displays a list of application discovery policies. The policies define the
application types.
Note: Existing discovered applications are remapped whenever there is a policy action change,
based on the existing VM traffic statistics.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the policies list. A dash (-) is displayed in
a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Policy Name Displays the name of the policy. Click the (policy name)
name to display the Edit Discovery Policy
window for user-defined policies or the View
Discovery Policy window for system-defined
policies. See Modifying (Viewing) Discovery
Policies on page 801 .
TCP Ports Displays one or more TCP ports used by the (port numbers)
application.
UPD Ports Displays one or more UDP ports used by the (port numbers)
application.
VMs Displays the scope of the policy, that is to All, (VM names)
which VMs the policy applies. A value of "All"
indicates it applies to all VMs. One or more
names indicates that the policy applies to the
named VMs only.
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
You can filter the list either by entering a string in the search field or by opening the Filter pane
to select one or both of the filter options.
• Policy Name: Check the box, select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to), and enter a string in the field to filter the list for
policies with that string in the name.
• Status: Check the Enabled or Disabled box to filter the list for enabled or disabled policies.
The Focus pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default) or a
custom view.
The policies tab includes the following action buttons:
• Click the New Policy button to create a custom discovery policy. See Creating Discovery
Policies on page 799 .
• An Actions menu appears when one or more policies are selected. The menu allows you to
Enable, Disable, or Delete the selected policies (as appropriate). You can only delete user-
defined policies (not system policies).
The following table describes the fields that appear in the app relationships list.
Dependent Entities Displays the number of entities that are (number of dependent
communicating with the application. entities)
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which the (cluster name)
application runs. Click the name to view the
details for that cluster (see Cluster Details
View on page 208). See Configuring vCenter
Authentication on page 797 .
You can filter the list by opening the Filter pane to select a filter option. The following table
describes the filter options. To apply a filter, select a parameter and check the box of the
desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a filter. You can apply filters across
multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require additional context such as a constraint
string or a range.
Note: When you use filters for information displayed on the App Relationships tab, the filters
fetch the latest discovery and communication data and accordingly display the result set.
App Name Filters on the application name. Select a (app name string)
condition from the pull-down list (Contains,
Equal to, Not equal to, Doesn't contain, Starts
with, Ends with) and enter a string in the field.
Cluster Filters on the cluster name (same options as (cluster name string)
App Name).
IP Address Filters on the IP address (same options as App (IP address string)
Name).
TCP Port Filters on the TCP port number. (TCP port number)
UDP Port Filters on the UDP port number. (UDP port number)
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the monitored clusters list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Cluster Name Displays the cluster name. Click the name to (cluster name)
displays the details page for the cluster. See
Cluster Details View on page 208 .
vCenter IP Displays the IP address of the vCenter for this (IP address)
cluster.
Monitored Hypervisor Displays the monitored hypervisor in the ESXi, AHV, vCenter
cluster.
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
You can filter the list either by entering a string in the search field or by opening the Filter pane
to select a filter option. The following table describes the filter options. To apply a filter, select
a parameter and check the box of the desired value (or multiple values) you want to use as a
filter. You can apply filters across multiple parameters. Some parameter filters require additional
context such as a constraint string or a range.
Health Status Filters on the selected health status. Check the Deploying, Deployed,
box for each status to include. Running, Stopped,
Failed
The Focus pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default) or a
custom view.
The monitored clusters tab includes the following action buttons:
• Click the Add Cluster button to add a cluster for monitoring. See Adding (Removing)
Clusters to Monitor on page 795 .
• Click the vCenter Authentication button to authenticate application discovery on the
monitored clusters with vCenter. See Configuring vCenter Authentication on page 797 .
• A Remove button appears when one or more clusters are selected; click the button to
remove the selected clusters from application discovery monitoring.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Alerts dashboard (List tab), except it is filtered to display just application discovery-related
alerts. See Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266 .
Procedure
1. Select Operations > App Discovery from the entities menu. See Entities Menu on page 13 .
If application discovery is not enabled, a "Welcome to App Discovery" screen appears.
3. In the "App Discovery Setup: Cloud Connection" screen, enter your API key and key
authentication values in the indicated fields and then click the Next button.
» If the clusters to select are in a Nutanix environment, continue with this step.
» If the clusters to select are in a non-Nutanix (vCenter managed) or mixed environment,
click the Configure vCenter Monitoring link and then skip to step 5.
a. Check the boxes for the target clusters from the pull-down list.
b. Enter the vCenter administrator credentials (user name and password) in the indicated
fields. The administrator must have write permission.
An entry for each registered vCenter appears here. See Registering vCenter Server (Prism
Central) on page 715.
c. Click the Discover Apps button.
This starts a discovery search. When it completes, the App Discovery window and
dashboard appear (see Application Discovery View on page 779). This completes the
setup for a Nutanix environment.
5. [vCenter only] select vCenter in the External Entity Type field and then click the Enable
button.
7. [vCenter only] Click the Test Connection button to verify (test) the connection.
A "Test connection success" message appears after a successful test. After a successful test,
click the Next button.
9. [vCenter only] After the vCenter configuration completes, click the Back to App Discovery
button.
Clicking this button takes you to the monitored clusters page and opens a cluster selection
window. The vCenter clusters specified in step 8 appear in the list for you to select.
Prerequisites
Address the following before enabling application discovery:
1. Go to the Summary tab of the application discovery dashboard and click Manage in the
Cloud Connection line of the Status & Settings widget (see Application Discovery View on
page 779).
a. Go to the Monitored Clusters tab of the application discovery dashboard and click the
Add Cluster button (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
b. In the Add Cluster to App Discovery window, check the boxes for the target clusters from
the pull-down list.
If you add a cluster from a vCenter server, you must enter the vCenter administrator
credentials (user name and password) in the indicated fields. The administrator must have
write permission.
Click the Add button. Network data collection begins immediate and may take some time
to complete when multiple clusters are added.
Note: Removing a cluster stops application monitoring for that cluster. You can effectively
disable application monitoring by removing all clusters, which means no data is sent between
Prism Central and the Nutanix cloud.
Procedure
1. Go to the Monitored Clusters tab of the application discovery dashboard and click the
vCenter Authentication button (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
a. User Name: Enter the user name for a vCenter administrator or any user with write
permission to the clusters.
b. Password: Enter the user password.
c. Click the Save button.
An entry for each registered vCenter appears here. See Registering vCenter Server (Prism
Central) on page 715.The authentication and monitoring status for each vCenter is displayed.
Discovering Applications
You can check for the current applications on the monitored clusters at any time.
Procedure
1. Go to the Discovered Apps tab of the application discovery dashboard and click the
Discover button (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
The search begins immediate and may take a few minutes to complete depending on the
number and size of the monitored clusters. When the search completes, the App Discovery
window appears. The window displays the search status (successful, unsuccessful); number
Publishing Applications
You can publish the application discovery findings to a database.
Procedure
1. Go to the Discovered Apps tab of the application discovery dashboard and click the Publish
button (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
Information for the identified applications is published immediately.
Procedure
1. Go to the Policies tab of the application discovery dashboard and click the New Policy
button (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
» If you want the policy to apply to all VMs, click the All VMs radio button.
» If you want the policy to apply to a limited set of VMs, click the Specific VMs radio
button and then select the target VMs from the pull-down list.
e. TCP Ports: Enter the TCP port number(s) used by the application. Enter a comma
separated list for multiple port numbers.
f. UDP Ports: Enter the UDP port number(s) used by the application. Enter a comma
separated list for multiple port numbers.
g. Click the Save and Apply button.
Information about existing discovered applications is refreshed, reflecting any changes from
the new policy.
Procedure
1. Go to the Policies tab of the application discovery dashboard, find the target policy in the
list, and click the name (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
If it is a system policy, the View Discovery Policy window appears. If it is a user-defined
policy, the Edit Discovery Policy window appears. The displayed information is the same, but
the view window is read-only.
2. To modify one or more parameters in a user-defined policy (see Creating Discovery Policies
on page 799), change the entry in the appropriate field(s) and then click the Save and
Apply button.
3. To enable, disable, or delete a policy, select the target policy in the list and then select the
desired option (Enable, Disable, or Delete) from the Actions pull-down menu. You can only
delete user-defined policies (not system policies).
1. Enable Pulse if it is not already enabled (see Configuring Pulse on page 952).
3. Click the collapse (hamburger) menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism
Central) on page 10) and then select Operations > Cost Management from the entities menu
(see Entities Menu on page 13).
4. In the Welcome to Cost Management page, click the Manage Cost button.
The Xi Beam site appears. See the Beam User Guide for information about setting up a Xi
Beam account and using Xi Beam to configure and monitor cost governance and security
compliance in your environment.
Application Monitoring
Application monitoring provides visibility into integrated applications by collecting application
metrics using Nutanix and third-party collectors, providing a single pane of glass for both
application and infrastructure data, correlating application instances with virtual infrastructure,
and providing deep insights into applications performance metrics.
Application monitoring provides visibility into the following application:
• VMware vCenter Server: When you configure a vCenter Server for monitoring, the
Monitoring Configurations page lists the vCenter Server. You can also view the vCenter
Server listed on the Non-Nutanix page (Compute & Storage > VMs > Non-Nutanix). The
vCenter details are also available on the Hardware > Clusters > Non-Nutanix page.
See Application Monitoring Summary View on page 803 and Application Instance Details
View (vCenter) on page 814.
• Microsoft SQL Server: When you configure a Microsoft SQL Server for monitoring, only the
Monitoring Configurations page lists the SQL Server.
See Application Monitoring Summary View on page 803 and Application Instance Details
View (SQL Server) on page 805.
Note:
• This section describes the information and options that appear in the application
discovery dashboard. See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to
view and organize that information in a variety of ways.
• If monitoring integrations is not enabled, a "Welcome to Monitoring Integrations"
page appears instead of the dashboard. Click the Get Started button. This
enables monitoring integrations, after which the dashboard appears. However, the
dashboard is blank until you configure monitoring. See Configuring Application
Monitoring on page 816 .
The following table describes the fields that appear in the list of application instances. A dash
(-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Type Displays what type of application the instance Microsoft SQL Server,
is. vCenter
Health Status Displays the current health status of the Active, Failed
instance.
To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.
You can filter the list by opening the Filter pane to select one or more of the filter options.
• Name: Check the box, select a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't contain,
Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to), and enter a string in the field to filter the list for
instances with that string in the name.
• Type: Check the Microsoft SQL Server or vCenter box to filter the list for that application
type.
• Health Status: Check the Active or Failed box to filter the list for active or failed application
instances.
The Focus pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default) or a
custom view.
The dashboard includes the following action buttons:
• Select Update from the pull-down list to update the instance configuration. See Modifying
Application Monitoring on page 819 .
• Select Delete from the pull-down list to stop monitoring the instance. The instance entry
disappears from the list.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays the
following:
• A Properties widget that displays summary information about the cluster (see following
table).
• A Metrics widget that displays capacity and performance metrics (see following table).
• An Alert widget that displays a list of related alerts that occurred during the specified
interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or Last week from the pull-down menu. When
an alert appears, you can click on the graph, which then displays a list of those alerts.
Clicking on an alert displays the details page for that alert.
• An Anomalies widget that displays a graph of memory, I/O, CPU, networking, disk or other
anomalies that occurred during the specified interval. Select either Last 24 hours (default) or
Last week from the pull-down menu. When an anomaly appears, you can click on the graph,
which then displays a list of those anomalies. Clicking on an anomaly displays the event page
for that anomaly.
• Click the Back to External Entity Instances link to return to the monitoring applications
dashboard.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties and Metrics widgets. A dash (-) in a
field indicates there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned.
Properties
SQL Version Displays the SQL server version number for (version number)
the instance.
Metrics
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio Displays the buffer cache hit rate for the past 0-100%
15 minutes.
Alerts Tab
The Alerts tab displays a table of alerts. This tab provides the same features and options as the
Alerts dashboard (List tab), except it is filtered to display just SQL Server-related alerts. See
Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266 .
Events Tab
The Events tab displays a table of events. This tab provides the same features and options as
the Events dashboard, except it is filtered to display just SQL Server-related events. See Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277 .
Databases Tab
The Databases tab displays a list of databases supported by this SQL Server instance. The
following figure is a sample view, and the table describes each field in this view. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
• To order the rows, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically or numerically
(as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• To download the table in CSV format, click the Export link.
• To create a custom view, select Add custom from the Focus pull-down menu (see Entity
Exploring on page 85 ).
• To filter the list by database name, open the Filter pane, select a condition from the pull-
down list (Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to), and enter a string
in the field.
• Click the check box on the far left for each database to select. (Click the check box again
to unselect that database.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the databases in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all, Show Selections (or Show Selected
Entities), or Clear selections) to select (unselect) that set of databases.
Availability Group Displays the name of the availability group to (availability group
which the database belongs. name)
IOPS Rate Displays the average number of combined <number> Per Hour
disk read and write read operations per hour.
Log File Used Displays the percentage of the log file used for 0-100%
Percentage the database.
Effective Free Space Displays the amount of space on disk that is xxx [MiB|GiB]
usable by the database. This includes the free
space of the entire disk and any space being
used by the database.
Clicking a database name displays the details page for that database. The following figure is a
sample view. The page displays four graphs. Each graph is a rolling time interval performance
or usage monitor for a metric. The metrics are IOPS rate, space available, log file utilization, and
effective free space.
• Select Add to Analysis to add the metric to the analysis page (see Analysis Dashboard
(Prism Central) on page 746 .
• Select Select Analysis Session, which opens the Select A Session window, to add the
metric to an existing or new analysis session. Choose an option from the pull-down list
and then click the Add to Session button.
Queries Tab
The Queries tab displays a list of SQL query statements. The following figure is a sample view,
and the table describes each field in this view. A dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is
not available or applicable.
• To order the rows, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically, numerically,
or chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.
• Click the check box on the far left for each query to select. (Click the check box again to
unselect that query.)
• Click the check box in the header row to select (unselect) all the queries in the list.
• In the check box pull-down menu, select Select all, Show Selections (or Show Selected
Entities), or Clear selections) to select (unselect) that set of queries.
Query Text Displays the query statement text. Click on (query text)
the text to display details about that query
statement (described below).
Avg Execution Time Displays the average amount of time it took to xxx secs
run the query.
Last Execution Displays the amount of time it took to run the xxx secs
Duration last query.
Last Execution Time Displays the date and time when the query (date and time)
was last executed.
Clicking a query text displays details about that query, including a Properties widget that
includes the Execution Count, Last Execution Duration, and Query text fields.
Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab displays a set of graphs for various metrics. Each graph is a rolling time interval
performance or usage monitor for that metric.
• Select Add to Analysis to add the metric to the analysis page. See Analysis Dashboard
(Prism Central) on page 746 .
• Select Select Analysis Session, which opens the Select A Session window, to add the
metric to an existing or new analysis session. Choose an option from the pull-down list
and then click the Add to Session button.
Metric Description
CPU Utilization Displays the CPU bandwidth usage by all requests in all
workload groups belonging to all related resource pools.
Total Memory / Target Displays the percentage of total server memory divided by
Memory target server memory. When the total server memory and
target server memory values are similar (close to 100%), there
is no memory pressure on the server. Total server memory
significantly lower than target server memory during normal
SQL Server operations indicates there is memory pressure
on the server, so SQL Server cannot get as much memory as
needed.
IOPS Rate Displays the total amount of disk write and read operations.
This is a calculated metric displaying the IOPS that occurred
per second since the previous collection.
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio Displays the percentage of pages found in the buffer cache
without having to read from disk. The ratio is the total number
of cache hits divided by the total number of cache lookups
over the last few thousand page accesses. Because reading
from the cache is much less expensive than reading from disk,
you want this ratio to be high. Generally, you can increase the
buffer cache hit ratio by increasing the amount of memory
available to SQL Server or by using the buffer pool extension
feature.
Batch Request Rate Displays the rate of transact-SQL command batches received.
This statistic is affected by all constraints (such as I/O, number
of users, cache size, complexity of requests, and so on). High
batch requests mean good throughput. This is a calculated
metric displaying the batch requests that occurred per second
since the previous collection.
SQL Compilations Rate Displays the rate of SQL compilations of the instance. This
is a calculated metric displaying the SQL compilations that
occurred per second since the previous collection.
SQL Recompilations Rate Displays the rate of statement recompiles. Counts the number
of times statement recompiles are triggered. Generally, you
want the recompiles to be low. This is a calculated metric
displaying the SQL Recompilations that occurred per second
since the previous collection.
Buffer Page Life Expectancy Displays the number of seconds a page will stay in the buffer
pool without references.
Checkpoint Pages Rate Displays the number of pages flushed to disk by a checkpoint
or other operation that requires all dirty pages to be flushed.
This is a calculated metric displaying the checkpoint pages
that occurred per second since the previous collection.
Buffer Pool Size Displays the total size of the buffer pool.
Lock Wait Time Displays the total wait time for locks in the last second.
User Connections Displays the number of connections that are currently being
used for user sessions.
Read Operations Rate Displays the total amount of disk read operations. This is
a calculated metric displaying the write operations that
occurred per second since the previous collection.
Write Operations Rate Displays the total amount of disk write operations. This is
a calculated metric displaying the write operations that
occurred per second since the previous collection.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab, which appears by default when you first open the page, displays a
Properties widget that shows summary information about the instance. Click the Back to
External Entity Instances link to return to the monitoring applications dashboard.
The following table describes the fields in the Properties widget. A dash (-) in a field indicates
there is not enough data to evaluate or a value is not assigned.
• To view information about VMs managed by vCenter, select Compute & Storage > VMs from
the entities menu and then click the non-Nutanix tab. See VMs Summary View on page 90 .
The Summary, Alerts, and Events tabs display the same information as for Nutanix-managed
VMs. The Metrics tab displays a subset of the full list (10 of the 12 metrics). The List tab
displays fields for name, node name, hypervisor, memory, IP addresses, power state, and
cluster name.
Procedure
1. Go to the monitoring integrations dashboard and click the Configure Instance button (see
Application Monitoring Summary View on page 803).
a. External Entity Type: Select the target type from the pull-down menu.
The options are Microsoft SQL Server or vCenter. If this is the first time configuring
an instance, an Enable button appears. Click the Enable button to provision instance
monitoring. You need to log in as a user with super admin role to perform this operation.
When the provisioning is complete (which can take a few minutes), the following fields
appear.
» SQL Server: Click the Save button. The instance configuration and data collection
begins. When it completes (which can take a few minutes), click the Close button
to close the page. The monitoring integrations dashboard reappears with the new
instance in the list.
» vCenter: Click the Next button.
i. [vCenter only] Select the clusters to monitor.
A list of discovered clusters for the vCenter instance appears. Select (check the boxes for)
the clusters you want to monitor from the list and then click the Save button.
Note: Nutanix clusters monitored by vCenter that are also registered with this Prism
Central instance do not appear in the discovered clusters list. Conversely, non-registered
Nutanix clusters selected here but later registered with Prism Central appear in both the
Nutanix and non-Nutanix tabs of the clusters dashboard (see Application Instance
Details View (vCenter) on page 814).
The instance configuration and data collection begins. When it completes (which can
take a few minutes), a "vCenter Configuration Successful" screen appears. Either click
the Close button to close the page or click the App Discovery link (if present) to enable
application discovery for the selected clusters (see Enabling Application Discovery on
page 788).
• Sufficient access permissions to create and view monitoring configurations for vCenter
Servers and Microsoft SQL Servers.
• Microsoft SQL Server-specific requirements:
• Each SQL Server instance port must be accessible through your network, but no other
special network configuration is required.
• Create a read-only login to connect to your server:
CREATE LOGIN <username> WITH PASSWORD = '<PASSWORD>';
CREATE USER <username> FOR LOGIN <username>;
GRANT SELECT on sys.dm_os_performance_counters to <username>;
GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE to <username>;
After creating the login make sure that your SQL Server instance supports SQL
Server authentication by enabling SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode
in the Server Properties (Server Properties > Security > SQL Server and Windows
Authentication mode).
• Active Directory users and Windows authentication are not supported for SQL Server
monitoring.
• To view the Microsoft SQL Servers you have configured for monitoring, you need the
following user permissions configured:
• Roles > Monitoring Configurations: Select View Only. You can provide Update
Access or Full Access (Create, Update, Delete, View instance configuration and
View MSSQL instance) permissions if required. Monitoring Configurations > View
Only permissions are minimum required permissions to View MS SQL Servers that
are already configured for monitoring.
• Roles > SQL Server: Select View Only.
Note: You cannot provide SQL Server > View Only permission without providing
Monitoring Configurations > View Only or greater permissions for Monitoring
Configurations.
Therefore, ensure that you have a minimum of Monitoring Configurations > View
Only and SQL Server > View Only permissions to view the monitored SQL Servers on
the Monitoring Configurations page.
1. Go to the monitoring integrations dashboard, select the target instance in the list, and then
select Update from the Actions menu pull-down list (see Application Monitoring Summary
View on page 803).
The Configure external entity for monitoring page for that instance appears (see Configuring
Application Monitoring on page 816).
2. To modify one or more parameters, change the entry in the appropriate field(s), click the
Test Connection button to verify the changes, and then click the Save button.
Note: [vCenter] Modifying the cluster selection occurs after testing the connection.
3. To remove application monitoring for an instance, select the target instance in the list, and
then select Delete from the Actions menu pull-down list.
The entry for that instance disappears from the list.
Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the operations policies
dashboard. See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize that
information in a variety of ways.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the operations policies list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.
Name Displays the application name for the instance. (app name)
Click the name to display the Application Info
window. The window displays the application
name, VM name, TCP ports, and UDP ports.
Policy Type Describes what type of policy this is. (type name)
Last Updated Displays the date and time when the policy (date and time)
was last updated.
You can filter the list either by entering a string in the search field or by clicking the Filters
button, checking the Name box, selecting a condition from the pull-down list (Contains, Doesn't
contain, Starts with, Ends with, or Equal to), and entering a string in the field.
The Focus pull-down menu allows you to select a view for the list, either General (default) or a
custom view.
To modify a policy, select that policy and then select Update from the Actions pull-down menu
(see Modifying an Operations Policy on page 821).
1. Go to the operations policy dashboard, select the desired policy, and then select Update
from the Actions pull-down menu (see Operations Policies View on page 820).
3. In the Add window, enter a category name and then click the plus icon. Repeat this step for
all categories you want to add.
» Go to the List tab of the VMs dashboard, select the target VMs, and then select Disable
Efficiency Measurement or Disable Anomaly Detection from the Actions pull-down menu
(see VMs Summary View on page 90).
» Go to the List tab of the clusters dashboard, select the target clusters, and then select
Disable Efficiency Measurement or Disable Anomaly Detection from the Actions pull-
down menu (see Clusters Summary View on page 200).
This immediately disables the specified operation (enables the exclusion policy) for the
target VMs.
2. To re-enable the operation, select the target VMs or clusters, and then select Enable
Efficiency Measurement or Enable Anomaly Detection from the Actions pull-down menu.
This immediately enables the specified operation (disables the exclusion policy) for the
target VMs.
Resource Planning
You can review and analyze current and potential resource needs through the planning
dashboard.
To access the planning dashboard, perform the following.
1. Click the hamburger icon.
2. Select Operations from the entities menu. (See Entities Menu on page 13).
3. Select Planning from the Operations menu.
Note: You must have a Prism Pro license to use the resource planning tools.
• The Capacity Runway tab allows you to view current resource runway information across
the registered Nutanix and Non-Nutanix clusters (see Capacity Runway View on page 825).
• The Scenarios tab allows you to create "what if"scenarios to assess the future resource
requirements for potential work loads that you specify (see Scenarios View on page 827).
• All resource capacity in a cluster is considered by default when estimating the runway.
To reserve some capacity before doing any runway analysis, see Updating Capacity
Configurations on page 845.
Prism Central includes machine-learning capabilities that analyze resource usage over time and
provide tools to monitor resource consumption, identify abnormal behavior, and guide resource
planning (see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846).
Note:
• Click a column header to order the rows by that value (alphabetically or numerically as
appropriate).
• Click the cluster name to display the Capacity tab of the details page for that cluster (see
Cluster Details View on page 208).
The following table describes the fields that appear in the Capacity Runway view.
Name Displays the cluster name. Clicking the name (cluster name)
displays the Capacity tab of the details page
for that cluster. This tab displays current,
historical, and projected usage information.
(see Cluster Details View on page 208).
Cluster Runway Displays the overall runway for the cluster. xxx [days]
The "cluster" runway is the shortest CPU,
memory, or storage runway; that is, how long
will it be before one of these resources runs
out of capacity?
CPU Runway Displays the cluster runway for CPU usage. xxx [days]
Memory Runway Displays the cluster runway for memory xxx [days]
usage.
Storage Runway Displays the cluster runway for storage usage. xxx [days]
Scenarios View
Click the Scenarios tab in the planning dashboard (see Resource Planning on page 824)
to create "what if" scenarios to assess the future resource requirements for potential work
loads that you specify. The Scenarios view displays a list of the previously created and saved
scenarios.
Note: If there are no saved scenarios, a "Welcome to capacity planning" message appears with
a Get Started button. Clicking the Get Started button is the same as clicking the New Scenario
button.
• Click the New Scenario button (upper right) to create a new scenario (see Creating a
Scenario on page 828).
• Click a scenario name to display the details for that scenario.
• Click the appropriate pencil icon to modify that scenario, or click the X icon to delete that
scenario.
• Enter a string in the search field to filter the list for scenarios with that string in the name.
The following table describes the fields that appear in the Scenarios view.
Last Cluster Displays the name of the cluster to which the (cluster name)
scenario applies. (The column title is "Last
Cluster" because you can change the target
cluster when modifying a scenario.)
Target Runway Displays the target runway duration for this xxx [days]
scenario, that is how many days am I planning
for. This is specified when the scenario is
created or modified ("Target" parameter).
Last Saved Displays the time and date for the last (most (time and date)
recent) time the scenario was saved.
Actions (n/a)
• To edit the scenario, click the pencil icon
(see Modifying a Scenario on page 844).
• To delete the scenario, click the X icon.
Creating a Scenario
1. Go to the Scenarios tab of the planning dashboard (see Scenarios View on page 827) and
click the New Scenario button.
The Scenario configuration page appears.
2. In the top left field, select New Scenario (to start with a blank scenario configuration) or the
name of an existing scenario (to start with that scenario configuration) from the pull-down
list and do the following in the indicated fields:
Note: If there are no existing scenarios (see Scenarios View on page 827), the only option
is New Scenario.
a. Cluster: Select either New Cluster or an existing cluster from the pull-down list.
Selecting an existing cluster means you start with the resources and workloads currently
in that cluster; selecting New Cluster means you start with a blank slate (no resources or
workloads).
Note: You can select a cluster at any time to see the runway for that cluster using this
scenario.
Note: Continue to the next step (e) to add a workload to the scenario. To remove the
impact of selected VMs in an existing workload from the scenario, skip to the following
step (f).
e. To add a workload, click the Add/Adjust link in the Workload section, which opens the
Add/Adjust Workload window, and then click the New Workload radio button.
This displays fields for adding a workload. In the Workload field, select the desired
workload from the pull-down list, enter appropriate information in the remaining fields,
and then click the Save button to add that workload to the scenario. You can choose from
Note: If you want to include multiple workloads in the scenario, repeat this step as many
times as needed.
Xen App Vendor Select (click the radio button for) Citrix (XenApp),
the vendor, either Citrix (default) Microsoft
(This emulates
or Microsoft
a XenApp
workload for Operating Select the operating system Windows
a specified System to run. The default is Windows 2012R2,
configuration.) 2012R2. Windows
2008R2
MCS Diff Per VM Enter a size (in GB) for the MCS xxx [GB]
difference disk per VM. The default
is 20.
User Profile Enter a size per user (in MB) xxx [MB]
Data for the user profile data, which
includes the Windows profile and
registry settings. The default is 20.
The size is typically in the 20-100
MB range.
PVS Write Enter a size (in GB) for the PVS xxx [GB]
Cache Size Per write cache per VM. The default is
VM 15.
Adding a workload creates demand reflected in the Runway chart. Red indicates one
or more of the resources are insufficient to support the scenario; blue indicates current
resources are sufficient. In the case of a new cluster, the chart is red initially because no
resources have been added yet. A scenario based on an existing cluster may or not be red
for the applied workload(s) running on the current resources. See Analyzing a Scenario on
page 841 for more information.
f. To remove the impact of selected VMs from an existing workload, click the Add/Adjust
link in the Workload section and then click the Disregard Existing Workloads radio button
(in the Add/Adjust Workload window).
Select the category of VMs you want excluded from the workload in the VMs To
Disregard field, enter the starting date in the Disregard From field, and then click the Save
button. Note the following:
• If the selected category contains VMs from multiple clusters, only those VMs from the
current cluster are considered for removal.
• If a VM is a member of multiple categories, it is removed just once even when both
categories are selected. For example, if VM1 is a member of both Category1 and
Category2 and both categories are marked for removal, VM1 is considered only for the
Note: To use this option, you must first create a category to select (see Category
Management on page 742).
• Click the Recommend button in the Resources section of the screen. The system
automatically analyzes the scenario and then adds one or more models to the Resources
list. The Runway chart turns all blue indicating sufficient resources are now available. (The
Recommend button is active only when at least one resource is red in the Runway chart.)
• Model: Select the model type from the pull-down list. The models match the selected
vendor.
Note: The options for the following fields are adjusted to match the selected model
type.
• CPU: Select the amount of CPU (in GHz) from the pull-down list.
• Memory: Select the amount of memory (in GB) from the pull-down list.
• HDD: Select the amount of HDD capacity (in GB) from the pull-down list.
• SSD: Select the amount of SSD capacity (in GB) from the pull-down list.
• # of Nodes: Enter the number of nodes to include (1-4 depending on the model type).
• On: Enter the starting date for this resource. Clicking in the field displays a calendar
from which you can select the date.
Note: You can make changes at any time to the allocated resources and any of the
configuration fields to try various scenarios.
5. To save a scenario, click the Save Scenario button (upper right). The saved scenario appears
in the Scenarios view list (seeScenarios View on page 827).
Analyzing a Scenario
The scenario screen provides a simple interface to configure and analyze a variety of scenarios.
Example Analysis
To illustrate this process, consider the following example. In this case an existing cluster
consists of a NX8150-G4 with four nodes. It has total CPU, memory, and storage capacity that
easily handles the current workload.
For this example let's make the target runway six months and add a VDI workload for 100 full
clone users that will start in two months. When that workload is added, the runway (previously
blue for all) shows that while the current CPU capacity is adequate for the added workload
(blue), the memory and storage capacity (red) will not be when the workload starts in two
months.
In order to meet the VDI workload demand, more resource capacity is required. You can
experiment with how to address this deficit by clicking the + Add Resource button and
adding a model of your choice, but the simplest approach is to let the planning algorithm
determine what to add by clicking the Recommend button. The result in this example is a
recommendation to add a two node NX-1065-G5. Adding it turns the overall runway blue for all
resources.
You can evaluate a variety of scenarios without leaving the configuration screen. For example,
you can change the target runway duration, change the demand by adding or deleting
workloads (check/uncheck the box for a workload or resource to add/remove from a scenario
without deleting it), modify the workload parameters, or change the allocated resources. In
each case the projected runway is updated immediately to reflect the changes you make. This
provides a quick and robust method for testing out a variety of scenarios.
Viewing Options
The runway view, which you display by clicking the runway view icon, provides a view of the
projected runway overall and by each resource (CPU, memory, and storage). You can also view
the usage of each resource by clicking the usage view icon. The following three figures display
the storage, CPU, and memory usage views for the example before adding the recommended
resource.
• The first two months of each graph (from the left) shows the current workload usage.
• The red dot indicates when the VDI workload begins and the corresponding impact on the
resource usage.
• The dotted line indicates the current capacity for each resource. In this case the graphs show
that the added workload does not exceed the current CPU capacity but does exceed the
storage capacity (by a little) and the memory capacity (by a lot).
• You can use the cursor to move the select point line anywhere on the graph to display the
projected usage at that point in time.
Modifying a Scenario
Procedure
1. In the Scenarios view (see Scenarios View on page 827), click the pencil icon for the target
scenario to display the screen for that scenario.
Note: The following steps are brief. See Creating a Scenario on page 828 for details and
screen shots.
2. To change the target cluster (or start with a new cluster), select the desired cluster from the
Cluster field pull-down list.
3. To change the runway duration, select the desired length (1-12 months) from the Target field
pull-down list.
4. To change the reserved capacity, check (or uncheck) the Capacity configuration box and
click the associated pencil icon to modify the parameters as desired.
• To add a new workload, click the Add/Adjust link to open the Add/Adjust Workload
window, click the click the New Workload radio button, select the desired workload from
the pull-down list in the Workload field, enter appropriate information in the remaining
fields, and then click the Save button.
• To remove the impact of selected VMs from an existing workload, click the Add/Adjust
link to open the Add/Adjust Workload window, click the click the Disregard Existing
Workloads radio button, select the category of VMs you want excluded from the
workload in the VMs To Disregard field, enter the starting date in the Disregard From
field, and then click the Save button.
• To modify an existing workload, click the associated pencil icon to open the Add/Adjust
Workload window to that workload and make the desired changes.
Note: The Recommend button is active only when at least one resource is red in the
runway chart.
• To add a new (specified) resource manually, click the Add/Adjust button, click the New
Nodes radio button in the Add/Adjust Resource window, enter appropriate information in
the displayed fields, and then click the Save button.
• To remove a resource, click the Add/Adjust button, click the Disregard Existing Nodes
radio button in the Add/Adjust Resource window, select the node(s) to remove from the
displayed list, and then click the Save button.
• To modify an existing resource, click the associated pencil icon to open the Add Resource
window to that resource and make the desired changes.
• To delete an existing resource, click the associated X icon.
Procedure
1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select Capacity Configurations in the Settings
page.
The Update Capacity Configurations window appears.
a. Reserve Capacity For Failure: Click the appropriate radio button to specify whether
runway analysis should account for the impact of a node failure.
• Click Auto Detect to account for a node failure in the runway estimates. In this case
the reserved capacity percentages (following three fields) refer to the amount of CPU,
memory, or storage resources in the cluster minus the largest single node. This means
the runway values are computed with enough cushion to account for a single node
failure.
• Click None to ignore failure scenarios in the runway estimates. In this case no capacity
is reserved for a potential node failure.
b. Reserve CPU Capacity (%): Enter the percentage of cluster CPU to reserve (0-100).
Note: The default is 0% of the cluster total for CPU, memory, and storage capacity.
Settings a higher value in one or more of these three fields means leaving out that
amount of the total cluster CPU, memory, or storage capacity from the runway analysis.
For example, setting this field to "10" means10% of the total available CPU capacity is
subtracted before doing the runway analysis.
c. Reserve Memory Capacity (%): Enter the percentage of cluster memory to reserve
(0-100).
d. Reserve Storage Capacity (%): Enter the percentage of cluster storage to reserve (0-100).
3. When all the entries are correct, click the Save button to apply the values and close the
window.
• VM "right sizing" where VMs are analyzed and those that exhibit inefficient profiles are
identified.
• Anomaly detection to record when performance or resource usage is outside an expected
range based on learned VM baseline behavior.
• "Smart" alerts that trigger when specified anomalies are recorded.
• Reports that summarize cluster efficiency.
VM Right Sizing
It is useful to look at the profile of your VMs when analyzing problems in a cluster or assessing
future resource needs. This can help you identify VMs that are not optimally configured such as
ones that consume too many resources, are constrained, are over provisioned, or are inactive.
The right sizing feature identifies inefficient VMs that fit one of the profiles described in the
following table.
Type Description
Bully VM A "bully" VM is one that consumes too many resources and causes
other VMs to starve. A VM is considered a bully when it exhibits
one or more of the following conditions for over an hour:
• CPU usage < 50% (moderate) or < 20% (severe) and CPU ready
time < 5%
• Memory usage < 50% (moderate) or < 20% (severe) and
memory swap rate = 0 Kbps
To prevent host resource wastage, resize (decrease) the over-
provisioned VMs.
You can also use a search filter from the VMs Summary View on page 90 to identify inefficient
VMs.
Anomaly Detection
The system predicts a normal behavior band for various metrics based on historical data. The
anomaly detection module monitors a predefined set of metrics on a daily basis and publishes
baseline values for each of the metrics.
Smart Alerts
You can create custom policies to generate alerts when behavioral anomalies occur. You
can generate a critical or warning alert when a behavioral anomaly occurs for the following
conditions:
Task Automation
You can automate routine administrative tasks through Prism Central by using the X-Play
feature.
Note: X-Play is a Prism Pro feature. If you disable the Prism Pro features, you can still create
playbooks and actions, but you can't enable or run the playbooks..
X-Play is an easy to use automation tool that helps you to automate routine administrative
tasks, and auto-remediate issues that may occur in your system. You can achieve this
automation by creating Playbooks.
Playbook allows you to define a trigger that results in the execution of an action or a series of
actions. A trigger may be an event that occurs in the system, such as an alert or a request made
by you. The resultant actions that you configure can be VM actions, communication actions,
alert actions, or report actions.
To get started, you can clone one of the predefined playbooks or create a playbook based on
your requirement. You can create playbooks based on predefined alert triggers or you can
create a manual trigger (see Creating Playbooks using Triggers on page 874).
You can view the instances of playbook execution using the Plays on page 850 menu. You
can see a snapshot view of the executed plays from the Plays widget in the Dashboard.
Additionally, you can view the plays executed in the last 24 hours in the Impacted Cluster
widget.
Roles
You can perform the following X-Play operations if you have the Prism Admin or the Super
Admin role.
Action Gallery
Action gallery provides you a wide range of actions that can be used in Playbooks.
The actions available within the action gallery serve the most common IT automation use cases,
see the Playbook Actions on page 851 table for details on the available system actions.
To view the action gallery, go to Operations > Playbooks > Action Gallery.
You can clone system actions from the action gallery, to create custom actions to use in your
Playbooks.
Note: You can not clone actions with any password filled in the action parameter.
Plays
Plays are the execution instances of playbooks that you can use to monitor the status of all the
playbooks that you have executed.
To view Plays, go to Operations > Plays. Alternatively, you can view plays from the Plays tab in
the playbook details page.
You can view the following information within plays.
Playbook Actions
This section provides information on the playbook actions.
You can switch between the Tiles or List views by clicking the respective icons.
Note: The VM actions configured in playbooks have certain prerequisites based on the
hypervisor (AHV or ESXi) and the AOS version, see Prerequisites for VM Actions in
Playbooks on page 861 for details.
Lookup VM Details
• VM Name
• VM Capacity
• Hosting Cluster VIP
• VM IP Address
• VM Hypervisor Type
• Host IP
• vCPU Count
• Hosting CVM IP
• VM UUID
• Power State
• Memory Size
• Core per vCPU
Conditional Actions
Utility Actions
Lookup Cluster Details Captures cluster details Select the cluster from the
Target Cluster drop-down
menu.
Lookup Host Details Captures host details Select the host from the
Target Host drop-down menu.
VM Actions
Note: Guest
shutdown requires
NGT to be installed
on the VM.
Communication Actions
Microsoft Teams Send a message to Microsoft Enter the Webhook URL that
Teams you configured in Microsoft
Teams and the Message.
See Microsoft Teams
documentation for
information about creating the
Webhook URL for a Teams
user or channel. For more
information, see Integrating
MS Teams Action in Playbooks
on page 864.
Alert Actions
Resolve Alert Mark an Alert as resolved. Select the alert from the
Target Alert drop-down menu.
Send Alert to Webhook Send a JSON Alert Object to a Enter the Alert, Method,
REST API endpoint. and URL for the outgoing
webhook. Optionally, select
the Username, Password, and
Request Headers.
Report Actions
Generate Forecast Report Generate a just in time Select the cluster for which
forecast report. you want to generate the
report and enter the days for
the runway period.
Wait Actions
Wait for Some Time Wait for a specified number of Enter the time period in
minutes. Minutes in the Wait for field.
Select the action to be taken
at the end of the entered time
period.
• Resume - automatically
resume the play once the
wait time is up.
• Stop - requires the play to
be manually resumed.
Wait until Day of Month Wait until the next occurrence Select the date in the Wait
of a specified day and time of until field and set the Time.
the month. Select the action to be taken
at the end of the entered time
period.
• Resume - automatically
resume the play once the
wait time is up.
• Stop - requires the play to
be manually resumed.
If a play is not resumed before
the wait time is up, then it
will be aborted. Optionally,
check to enable Check trigger
validity when the Playbook
is resumed. If this option is
enabled, the system checks
if the alert that caused it to
run is still valid or if it has been
resolved already.
Wait until Day Of Week Wait until the next occurrence Select the day in the Wait
of a specified day and time of until field and set the Time.
the week. Select the action to be taken
at the end of the entered time
period.
• Resume - automatically
resume the play once the
wait time is up.
• Stop - requires the play to
be manually resumed.
Execution Actions
Add to Category Add an entity like a VM, Host Select an Entity Type such
or Cluster to one or more as VM, Host or Cluster, select
Categories. the target entity in the Target
<entity> field and select the
Category or categories you
want to add the entity to.
Remove from Category Remove an entity like a VM, Select an Entity Type such
Host or Cluster from one or as VM, Host or Cluster, select
more Categories. the target entity in the Target
<entity> field and select the
Category or categories you
want to remove the entity
from.
Note:
The String Parser action is categorized under the Utility Actions.
VM Add CPU (Hot AHV AOS 5.6 and above The VM has a guest
Add) operating system that
supports CPU hot add
functionality.
VM Add Memory AHV AOS 5.6 and above The VM has a guest
(Hot Add) operating system that
supports Memory hot
add functionality.
ESXi None
• The VM has a guest
operating system
that supports
Memory hot add
functionality.
• You cannot
increase the
memory to above 3
GB due to vSphere
restrictions.
ESXi None
VM Power Off (Guest AHV Nutanix Guest Tools Nutanix Guest Tools
shutdown or ACPI (optional power if you select Guest
shutdown) functions) Shutdown.
ESXi None
• The VM snapshot
action creates
recovery points for
all ESXi VMs.
• Maximum Time to
Live value allowed
is 365 days.
• Snapshot can
not be created
for VMs which
are protected by
protection domain
of legacy DR.
ESXi
• PCI disk type is not
supported.
• AOS 5.15 or above
X-Play Integrations
This section provides information about integrating the various tools such as MS Teams, Ansible
and Slack.
Note: You can follow these steps in an already existing workspace, however you will require
permission from the workspace administrator to complete the installation steps.
Procedure
1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps.
4. Set the app permissions - In the Basic Information menu, do the following.
1. Click Add features and functionality.
2. Go to Permissions > Scopes and Add chat:write or chat:write.public permission
according to where you expect the application to post messages.
Note: This copied webhook URL is used to send information to Microsoft Teams.
8. Click Done.
• More information about job templates and how to create them, see Ansible documentation.
• For information about workflow templates and how to create them, see Ansible
documentation.
• More information about how to create application in Ansible Tower, see Configuring
Application (Ansible Tower) on page 865
• More information about how to create application token in Ansible Tower, see Configuring
Application Token (Ansible Tower) on page 867
Note:
• The X-Play Ansible action internally uses the following Tower APIs to launch the job
and workflow templates respectively.
• If you need to pass extra variables to your job or workflow template, ensure that you
select PROMPT ON LAUNCH for EXTRA VARIABLES while creating your template
from the Tower UI.
• /api/v2/job_templates/{id}/launch/
• /api/v2/workflow_job_templates/{id}/launch/
Procedure
1. In the Ansible Tower User Interface, click the Applications icon from the left navigation bar.
The Applications window opens.
a. Name (required): Enter a name for the application you want to create.
b. Description (optional): Provide a short description for your application.
c. Organization (required): Provide an organization for which this application is associated.
d. Authorization Grant Type (required): Select resource owner password-based as the
grant type.
e. Client Type (required): Select the level of security of the client device as ‘Confidential’.
What to do next
For information on adding a token, see Configuring Application Token (Ansible Tower) on
page 867
Procedure
1. In the Ansible Tower User Interface, access the Users list view by clicking the Users icon from
the left navigation bar.
4. Click the (+) button, which opens the Create Token window.
a. Application: Enter the name of the application with which you want to associate your
token. Alternatively, you can search the application name by clicking the search button.
This opens a separate window that allows you to choose from the available options. Use
the Search bar to filter by name if the list is extensive.
b. Description (optional): Provide a short description for your token.
c. Scope (required): Select write so that the token can be used to launch job or workflow
templates.
What to do next
• Copy the TOKEN field and save it so that you can provide it while creating a playbook in X-
Play that uses the Ansible action.
Note: To integrate Prism Central with ServiceNow, enable the Event Management plug-in on
your ServiceNow instance .
The ServiceNow Event Management plugin requires a separate subscription and can be
activated by installing it from the ServiceNow store. . See ServiceNow documentation at
https://docs.servicenow.com to enable the plugin for your production instance.
Procedure
4. Once instance is provisioned, select Action > Activate Plugin for your instance.
5. On the dialog box that appears, enable the Event Management plug-in.
Procedure
1. In Prism Central, click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations >
Playbook.
2. Click Create Playbook, then click Select in the Alerts Matching Criteria (option) card.
• Alert: Allows you to select an alert policy as a trigger. When an alert is generated from
this policy, the action configured in the playbook is triggered. For more information, see
Creating Playbooks Using Alert on page 875.
• Alerts Matching Criteria: Allows you to trigger playbook on any alert matching specified
criteria such as severity levels, impact type, and so on. For more information, see Creating
Playbooks Using Alerts Matching Criteria on page 877.
3. Click Add Action. Click Select in the Send to ServiceNow in the actions deck.
Note: This action requires the Event Management Plug-in to be enabled on the ServiceNow
instance.
a. Click Parameters and select Alert Matching Criteria: Alert in the Alert dropdown menu.
b. Enter any additional information in the Additional Info (Optional)
c. Select the appropriate ServiceNow instance based on the ServiceNow deployment for the
Send to parameter.
Select Cloud Instance, Private Instance or MID Server .
If you select MID Server, you need to provide the MID Server IP address and Port details in
next sections
Note: The option to send the alert to ServiceNow is a default action in X-Play that calls the
ServiceNow Event Collection API when a Nutanix alert matches the criteria specified.
d. Enter the ServiceNow Instance Name in case of Cloud Instance or Private Instance. Enter
the MID Server IP Address and MID Server Port details in case you selected MID Server in
previous step.
Note: Do not enter the complete URL of your ServiceNow instance in the ServiceNow
Instance Name field. If your instance URL is https://foo.servicenow.com, the ServiceNow
Instance Name you must enter is foo.
Ensure that you have imported Nutanix event rules to ServiceNow after you setup the alert
playbook.
Procedure
3. Browse and select the Nutanix Event Rule Creation xml file that you downloaded. Click Upload.
4. On the Update Sources page, click the uploaded Update Set to open update set details
page.
What to do next
Go to Event Management > Event Rules, Select Source in the search dropdown and type
Nutanix in the Search box. The Nutanix Event Rules are now displayed.
2. Click the rule named Create Incident. Click (to check) the Active status checkbox below the
rule name to set the Create Incident rule status to active.
X-Play now supports a webhook feature to invoke a playbook through REST calls. You can
create webhook based playbooks for all the actions that you want ServiceNow to initiate on
Prism Central for the alerts sent to ServiceNow.
Note: You can add one or more actions that you want SNOW to perform on Prism in one
playbook.
Procedure
1. In Prism Central, click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations >
Playbook.
The Webhook page displays a message informing you to return to this playbook and review
the instructions configured for this trigger.
When you click Select on a X-Play action card, the action page opens. Provide all the
necessary values for the parameters on the action page.
What to do next
Open the playbook you just created. Notice that the Webhook section is populated with the
URL details and the body of the webhook. The URL of the webhook points to Prism Central;
each webhook has a unique ID. Call this URL with the requisite parameters to trigger the
playbook.
• Alert Trigger - The Alert trigger allows you to select an alert policy as a trigger. When an
alert is generated from this policy, the action configured in the playbook is triggered.
• Alerts Matching Criteria - The Alerts Matching Criteria trigger allows you to trigger playbook
on any alert matching specified criteria.
• Event - The Event trigger allows you to trigger playbook when an event of a certain type is
generated.
Note: Alert as trigger allows you to select only a specific alert that can be used in a playbook.
To select multiple alerts based on a matching criteria, see Creating Playbooks Using Alerts
Matching Criteria on page 877.
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
4. In the search text field, enter the name of an existing alert policy.
5. Configure the filter criteria to target the most relevant alerts and the entities associated with
the alert.
» All Applicable Clusters - The alerts from all the applicable clusters AND matching the alert
criteria are used as trigger.
» Clusters in Categories - The alerts from only the clusters (or entity type) within the
specified categories AND matching the alert criteria are used as trigger.
» Specific Clusters - The alerts from only the specified clusters AND matching the alert
criteria are used as trigger.
• Branch
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
The Parameters option allows you to select certain inputs based on the Trigger that you
have selected. Parameters also allows you to select any available input based on the
previous actions in the series of actions that you have configured.
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions on page 851 table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the
attributes. For each action, you must define the one of the following setting that you want to
do in the event of action failure.
• Stop - Stop any further execution of the playbook when the action fails.
• Continue - Continue the execution of playbook when the action fails.
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action. You can also add actions before or after a particular action.
The Autopilot feature allows you to control the execution playbooks and automate the
optimization of plays by adding specific metrics like key performance indicator (KPI) and
optimal threshold for your automation tasks. You can use the autopilot to runs playbooks in the
autopilot mode until the specified KPI is met.
Note: The autopilot feature is only applicable for playbooks that have metric-based alerts as
triggers.
Procedure
2. Select the KPI Metric from the drop-down menu. For example, for a VM Memory
Constrained alert, select Memory Usage (%) as the KPI metric.
3. In KPI Target Range, select the Range option and specify the KPI target range value. Or,
you can select < (less than) or > (greater than) options and specify a fixed value for the KPI
target.
5. For Max # Attempts, enter the number of attempts that the playbook must run in the
autopilot mode to achieve the KPI target.
6. (Optional) Check Wait for approval for every attempt to get an alert (INFO level) for every
execution attempt of the playbook.
If you select this option, you will have to resume the playbook after each run from the Plays
page. The playbook remains in a suspended state until it is manually resumed after each run.
7. Click the Autopilot Status toggle-button to enable or disable the Autopilot. Click Save.
What to do next
You can view the details of the autopilot enabled playbooks from the Plays on page 850 page.
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
4. Select the following for either All Alert Policies or Specific Alert Policies from the following
options.
• Impact Type - Choose Any to select all impact types; or choose a single value or a
combination of values from Capacity, Performance, Configuration, Availability, and
System Indicator impact types.
• Severity - Choose Any to select alerts having any severity levels; or choose a single value
or combination of values from Critical, Warning, and Info severity levels.
• Cluster - Choose All Clusters for alerts from from all clusters or Specific Clusters for alerts
from only the specified clusters.
For Specific Alert Policies, the available options are Policies, Severity, and Cluster.
The actions defined in this playbook will be available for the selected entity type in the
entities view.
5. Click Add Action to view the list of all the available actions on the deck. Click the action type
filter to filter from a list of following action categories.
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the attributes. For
each action, you must define the required setting that you want to do in the event of action
failure (Stop/Continue)
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action.
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
Note: VM related event triggers are applicable only to VMs running on AHV cluster. Event
triggers for VM events for ESXi or HyperV VMs are not supported.
5. Select the target entity type by choosing one of the following options.
• All Applicable VMs - The selected event type for all the applicable VMs is used as the
trigger.
• VMs in Categories - The selected event type for the VMs in the specified categories is
used as the trigger.
• Specific VMs - The selected event type for the specified VMs is used as the trigger.
6. Click Add Action to view the list of all the available actions on the deck. Click the action type
filter to filter from a list of following action categories.
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the attributes. For
each action, you must define the required setting that you want to do in the event of action
failure (Stop/Continue)
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action.
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
5. Click Add Action to view the list of all the available actions on the deck. Click the action type
filter to filter from a list of following action categories.
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the attributes. For
each action, you must define the required setting that you want to do in the event of action
failure (Stop/Continue)
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action.
What to do next
Once you create and enable a playbook with time trigger, you can go to the list view and click
on the playbook to see the next time it will be executed.
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
• VM
• Host
• Cluster
The actions defined in this Playbook will be available for the selected entity type in the
entities view.
5. Click Add Action to view the list of all the available actions on the deck. Click the action type
filter to filter from a list of following action categories.
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the attributes. For
each action, you must define the required setting that you want to do in the event of action
failure (Stop/Continue)
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action.
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
• VM Actions
• Communication Actions
• Alert Actions
• Report Actions
• Wait Actions
• Execution Actions
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the attributes. For
each action, you must define the required setting that you want to do in the event of action
failure (Stop/Continue)
Note: You can select multiple actions for a trigger. To add another action, click Add Action
and select the action.
6. Once saved, open the playbook to view and copy the webhook parameters.
Using the parameters (API Method, URL, ID, and Body) and values shown to create an
incoming webhook for the external application to trigger playbook.
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
• Alert Trigger
• Alerts Matching Criteria
• Event
• Manual Trigger
• Time
• Webhook
• Branch - Click the pencil icon to add a description for the conditional branch.
• Condition - Select either If, Else, or Else If depending on the condition context that you
want to set.
Note:
5. Click Add Action to view the list of all the available actions on the deck.
To configure an action, set the action attributes based on your requirement. Refer to the
Playbook Actions on page 851 table for action attributes and instructions on how to set the
attributes.
Note: For each action branch condition, you must add at least one action.
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Compute & Storage > VMs.
To run playbooks with manual trigger for other entities like Clusters or Hosts, go to
Hardware > Clusters or Hardware > Hosts.
2. Select a VM, host, or cluster from the list and click Actions.
4. In the Run Playbook dialog box, select the playbook that you want to run for the selected
entity.
Note: This task demonstrates the usage of configuring parameters manually with a scenario on
cloning the default Emailaction.
Procedure
7. In the Message field, enter Alert, {{trigger[0].alert_entity_info.name}}, has been addressed. Action has been taken
on {{trigger[0].source_entity_info.name}}.
What to do next
The parameters are dynamically recognized when the cloned action is selected while
configuring a Playbook.
• Not all fields accept parameters. The fields with a Parameters hyperlink in the
Playbook creation workflow accept parameters as inputs.
• If you enter a parameter string into a field that does not accept a parameter, it is
read as a string and no value is filled in dynamically.
• Validation errors arise if a parameter of incorrect data type is supplied to a field
that is expecting another data type. See Parameters for Triggers and Actions on
page 887 for the complete list of supported parameters, accepted data type and
parameter format.
Entity Parameter
Playbook
Playbook Name (string) {{playbook.playbook_name}}
Alert Trigger
Source Entity Name (string) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info.name}}
Source Entity UUID (string) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info.uuid}}
Source Entity (object) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info}}
Alert Name (string) {{trigger[0].alert_entity_info.name}}
Alert UUID (string) {{trigger[0].alert_entity_info.uuid}}
Alert (object) {{trigger[0].alert_entity_info}}
Creation Time (long) {{trigger[0].creation_time}}
Severity (string) {{trigger[0].severity}}
Manual Trigger
Source Entity Name (string) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info.name}}
Source Entity UUID (string) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info.uuid}}
Source Entity (object) {{trigger[0].source_entity_info}}
Playbook UUID (string) {{trigger[0].action_rule_uuid}}
Action
Generate Forecast Report Report PDF (file) {{action[index].report}
Report Name (String) {{action[index].report.fileName}}
Report Data (bytes) {{action[index].report.fileData}}
IP Address Powershell Return Code (long) {{action[index].ret_code}}
Standard Output (string) {{action[index].stdout}}
Procedure
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.
2. Select one or more playbooks by clicking the check-box against the playbook name
1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook and click
Import.
2. Click Browse to select the previously exported playbook backup file and click Import.
Procedure
1. Log in to PagerDuty
• Step 1: Name
• Step 2: Assign
• Step 3: Alert Grouping
• Step 4: Integrations
Follow the instructions outlined in Create a New Service section of PagerDuty
documentation until the Step 3: Alert Grouping.
3. In the Integrations step, select Events API V2 as the integration type, and click Create
Service.
Note: The integration type ‘Nutanix Prism’ is not yet available in the PagerDuty instance.
Therefore, you must select Events API V2 as the integration type until the Nutanix Prism name
is added in the PagerDuty.
4. You will be redirected to the Integrations tab of your newly created service.
An Integration Key will be available on this screen. Keep this key saved in a safe place, as it
will be used when you configure the integration with Prism.
Procedure
1. In Prism Central, click the hamburger icon and go to Operations > Playbook.
» Select All Alerts Policies to send alerts coming from all existing alert policies, or select
Specific Alert Policies to send alerts coming from one or more specific alert policies. You
can type in the alert policy name and search, or scroll the list of existing alert policies and
select multiple alert policies.
» Specify the Impact Type.
You can specify more than one Impact Type.
Impact type is the category in which the alerts are classified such as Availability,
Configuration, Capacity, Performance, and System Indicator alerts.
» Specify the Severity of the alerts.
» Specify the cluster, either choose All Clusters or Specific Clusters.
If you choose a specific cluster, then only alerts coming from that cluster trigger the
action specified in Step 6.
Every time there is an alert raised by the selected alert policy, the system will trigger actions
defined in this Playbook.
5. Configure the filter criteria to target the most relevant alerts and the entities associated with
the alert. The filter criteria options that appear depend on the type of alert policy that you
have selected in the Step 4.
The filter options can be any of these:
• Severity
• Target VM
• Target Cluster
• Target Host
8. Select Parameters.
The Parameters option allows you to select certain inputs based on the trigger that you have
selected. Parameters also allows you to select any available input based on the previous
actions in the series of actions that you have configured.
Reports Management
The report management feature provides you with an ability to configure and deliver the
historical reports containing information about the infrastructure resources across Nutanix
managed and Non-Nutanix managed environments. This feature provides the operational
insights of your infrastructure into your mailbox according to the schedule that you have
configured.
A generated report can be divided into three main components.
• Style: Defines the way to represent the report, for example background color, logos, and so
on.
• Representation of data: Defines the way that you want to represent the data. You can
accomplish this by including different views (pre-defined and customizable).
• Data: Defines the actual data depending on your selection, for example information about
different metrics; CPU usage, memory usage, IOPS bandwidth, VM count, host count, cluster
count, license summary, and so on.
By default the Reports dashboard displays the Cluster Efficiency Summary and Environment
Summary reports. The cluster efficiency summary report provides a detailed information
about the predictive utilization and runway information of all the resources. The environment
summary report provides information about the summary configuration of each cluster (host
count, VM count, license information, CPU usage information, IOPS bandwidth, Controller VM I/
O bandwidth) along with the licensing information that is registered to Prism Central.
Note:
• All the built-in roles except the Prism Viewer role can manage the reports (create,
update, share, and delete). Users with Prism Viewer privileges can only view the
reports.
• You cannot modify or delete the pre-defined or factory-shipped reports such as the
cluster efficiency summary and environment summary reports. However, you can
clone the report and then modify the cloned reports. For more information about
creating a custom reports, see Creating a New Report on page 893.
• When cluster-based licensing is in use, data from an unlicensed cluster (where
cluster-based license is not applied) is filtered out from the report. For more
information, refer to the License Manager Guide.
Internationalization in simplified Chinese and Japanese is supported. The generated report can
have English, Chinese, and Japanese characters.
Some of the salient features of report management are as follows.
Requirements
Limitations
The report management feature in Prism Central has the following limitations.
• The report management feature currently only supports generation of reports in PDF format
for 2000 entities. Nutanix recommends generating reports in CSV format for such scenarios.
• Generation of a report in CSV format supports a maximum of 25000 entities.
• Generation of a report in PDF format can only consist of a maximum 10 columns for a data
table.
• The entire process of report generation fails if either of the report formats (PDF or CSV) fails
to generate. This behavior is observed when both the formats are selected during report
generation.
Alerts Generation
Alerts are generated during following failure scenarios.
• Generating a report
• Sending of a scheduled Email
Procedure
1. In the Reports dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click New Report.
3. Configure a schedule for the report. For more information about scheduling, see Scheduling
a Report on page 939.
4. Configure the settings specific for this report. For more information about configuring report
settings, see Configuring Report Settings on page 942 .
• Click Save.
This option saves the report and does not generate the report.
This option saves and generates the report. A Run Report window appears. For more
information, see Generating a Report on page 894 .
The report appears in the Report dashboard.
For example, in the following image, a new report is configured with different views (for
example, bar chart, a metric summary, and a data table).
Managing a Report
After you create a report, you can generate the report, edit the report, view instances of the
report, clone the report, or delete the report.
Generating a Report
You can generate a report instance while creating a new report or on an existing report.
1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report on the list.
3. Enter the name of the report (new instance of the report) in the Report Instance Name field.
4. Select the duration of data that you want to display in the report from the Report Time
Period drop-down menu.
You can display the data for the last 24 hours, last week, or last month. You also have an
option to select the date range.
Note: If you select Custom Date Range from the Report Time Period, you need to select the
date range from the From and To option. If you do not specify the date and time period, the
data is selected from the configured report.
You can display the data for the last 24 hours, last week, or last month. You also have an
option to select the date range.
5. Under Report Format, select the format of the report that you want to download later.
• If you select either PDF or CSV check box, you can download the report in either of the
two formats that you select.
• If you select both PDF and CSV check box, you can select the recipient format by clicking
PDF or CSV check box or both.
Note:
• With recipient format, the email recipient can download the report in the
format that you have selected.
• If you do not select any format of the report, by default you can download the
report in only the PDF format. Also, by default, the email recipient receives the
report in the PDF format.
6. Under Email Report, enter recipients (comma-separated) in the Additional Recipients text
box.
Note: Email is sent to the recipients specified in this field along with the recipients that were
configured during the report configuration. For more information about configuring Email
settings, see Configuring Report Settings on page 942 .
7. Click Run.
A report is generated.
1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.
3. Edit the report by updating the desired fields as described on the Creating a New Report on
page 893 topic.
To update the views that are added to the report, perform the following procedure.
• 1. Select the check box of the view that you want to edit and click the drop-down menu
in the right.
You can edit the view, move the view into a group (if group already exists), or remove
the view.
2. To edit the view, click Edit.
3. To move the view inside a group view, click the name of the group view. The view is
moved into the group view.
Note: This option only appears if you have a group view that is already configured and
if you have adhered to hierarchical nature of the group view. For more information, see
Adding a Group View on page 932.
4. To remove the view from a group, select the view and click Remove from Group.
Cloning a Report
Cloning a report creates a new copy of the report and at the same time you can add new views
to the report.
Procedure
1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.
Procedure
1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 )), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.
Procedure
1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the report you want to view.
All the instances of the report with timestamp information is displayed.
Note: An instance of the report is generated only if you have manually generated the report
or the report has been generated according to the configured schedule.
You can perform the following operations on the report under the Actions drop-down menu.
Note: If the report generation fails then the Status column displays the status as Failed and if
you hover on the field, you can view the reason for the failure.
a. Resend Report:
• Select this option to send the report again to all the Email recipients that you have
configured.
• Select the format of the report (PDF or CSV or both) before you send an email, under
Report Format.
You also have an option to send the report to additional recipients by clicking + Add
Additional Recipients link. If you do not add any additional recipients, the report is sent to
the recipients that are already configured in the Report Settings flow.
b. Delete: Select this option to delete the selected report instance.
• Stylistic information: The first page of the report is used to represent this kind of information.
The stylistic information includes the name of the report, time it was generated, any logo
Addition of Views
You can add following views to a report.
• To add a bar chart, line chart, or histogram view, see Adding a Bar Chart or a Line Chart or a
Histogram View to a Report (Nutanix) on page 910 and Adding a Bar Chart or a Line Chart
or a Histogram View to a Report (vCenter) on page 913.
• To add a data table view, see Adding a Data Table View to a Report (Nutanix) on page 916
and Adding a Data Table View to a Report (vCenter) on page 920.
• To add a configuration summary view, see Adding Configuration Summary View on
page 922.
• To add a metric summary view, see Adding Metric Summary View (Nutanix) on page 925
and Adding Metric Summary View (vCenter) on page 927.
• To add an entity count view, see Adding Entity Count View (Nutanix) on page 929 and
Adding Entity Count View (vCenter) on page 930.
• To add a title and description view, see Adding Title and Description View on page 932.
• To add a group view, see Adding a Group View on page 932.
• To add a predefined view, see Adding a Predefined View on page 936.
Note:
• After you add the views to a report, the report displays the dummy data for the view
that you have added. Only when you generate the report, the data for the view is
updated and you can download the report to view its information.
• Collecting some VM data requires that NGT is installed. As a result reports include
such data only from NGT-enabled VMs.
You can use the bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view to represent the historical data in a
graphical format. Perform the following procedure to add these views to the report.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the type of view (bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view)
that you want to add from the Custom view pane.
a. Select Nutanix Entities and the entity type (VM, Disk, Storage Container, Host, Cluster,
Virtual Disk, or Virtual Group) from the Entity Type drop-down menu for which you want
to configure the view.
e. Enter the number of entities that you want to include in the report from the Number of
Entities text box.
Note: This field does not appear for the Histogram view.
f. Select how you intend to represent the entities (Ascending or Descending) from the Sort
Order drop-down menu.
g. (Only for Histogram view) Enter number of buckets in the Number of Objects field.
You can define the frequency distribution for all the entities in the entity type for the
selected metric by using this field. For example, for a selected metric if the minimum value
is 10 and maximum value is 100 and you have entered number of buckets as 5 then you
will have 18 buckets configured (100-10/5). Depending on the value of the metric, different
metrics will fall in the appropriate buckets.
h. Select the entities that you want to add.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select specific
VMs option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple
such rules by clicking the + icon.
i. To configure advanced setting, click the Show Advanced Settings link. Select the Group
Data check box to select the entities based on which the data in the view should be
grouped and the views should be repeated.
You can use the bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view to represent the historical data in a
graphical format. Perform the following procedure to add these views to the report.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the type of view (bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view)
that you want to add from the Custom view pane.
a. Select vCenter Entities and the entity type (External vCenter Cluster, External vCenter
Host, or External vCenter VM) from the Entity Type drop-down menu for which you want
to configure the view.
e. Enter the number of entities that you want to include in the report from the Number of
Entities text box.
Note: This field does not appear for the Histogram view.
f. Select the Limit entities in the chart option to limit the number of entities that you want
to include in the view and how you represent the entities (Ascending or Descending).
g. (Only for Histogram view) Enter number of buckets in the Number of Objects field.
You can define the frequency distribution for all the entities in the entity type for the
selected metric by using this field. For example, for a selected metric if the minimum value
is 10 and maximum value is 100 and you have entered number of buckets as 5 then you
will have 18 buckets configured (100-10/5). Depending on the value of the metric, different
metrics will fall in the appropriate buckets.
h. Select the entities that you want to add.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select specific
VMs option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple
such rules by clicking the + icon.
i. To configure advanced setting, click the Show Advanced Settings link. Select the Group
Data check box to select the entities based on which the data in the view should be
grouped and the views should be repeated.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
The data table view provides you with the point in time data of a particular entity. To include a
data table view to the report, perform the following procedure.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Data Table view from the Custom view pane.
category
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view.
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you
have selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select
entity type as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can
select specific VMs option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can
specify multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.
e. For an entity that you have selected in the Entity Type drop-down menu, you can select
a list of metrics and each of these metrics are displayed as columns in the table.
The metric columns are further divided in to General or Performance depending on the
entity that you have selected. Depending on your selection, pre-defined columns are
displayed that will be included as part of the view. However, you can create your own
custom column.
f. To create your own custom column, click the Custom Columns link.
Select the columns that you want to add by click the + icon. You can select maximum of
10 metrics. Depending on your selection the focus area is updated.
Note: If any metric has time-series data, you can define the aggregation parameter also.
If you do not define the aggregation, by default Average is configured for the metric.
g. Define the sorting by selecting the entity and order on which sorting should be
performed by selecting the entity from the Sort Based On drop-down menu and Sort
Order drop-down menu.
Note: You can define sorting only on selected entities from the entity list.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for all the entities.
» Specific Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for selected
entities depending on your selection from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For
example, if you select entity type as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50
powered on VMs, you can select specific VMs option and define the rule Power State
> Equal to > On . You can specify multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.
For example, if you want to perform grouping for all the VMs at the cluster level and you
have three clusters registered, you will get three tables and each table will have VMs for
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
The data table view provides you with the point in time data of a particular entity. To include a
data table view to the report, perform the following procedure.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Data Table view from the Custom View pane.
a. Enter the title of the data table view in the Title field.
b. Enter the description of the view in the Description field.
c. Select vCenter Entities and the entity type (External vCenter Cluster, External vCenter
Host, or External vCenter VM) from the Entity Type drop-down menu for which you
want to configure the view.
d. Select the entities that you want add.
Note: If any metric has time-series data, you can define the aggregation parameter also.
If you do not define the aggregation, by default Average is configured for the metric.
g. Define the sorting by selecting the entity and order on which sorting should be
performed by selecting the entity from the Sort Based On drop-down menu and Sort
Order drop-down menu.
Note: You can define sorting only on selected entities from the entity list.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for all the entities.
» Specific Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for selected
entities depending on your selection from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For
example, if you select entity type as External vCenter VM and desire to limit the view
for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select Specific external vcenter cms option and
define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple such rules by
clicking the + icon.
For example, if you want to perform grouping for all the VMs at the cluster level and you
have three clusters registered, you will get three tables and each table will have VMs for
that particular cluster. You can define multiple such views. The entire set of views as a
group will be repeated for each of the registered cluster.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add this view to include the static cluster configuration information, for example,
cluster IP address, hardware model, license information, etc.
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Configuration Summary view from the Custom View
pane.
a. Select the configuration information that you want to include from the Configuration
Information drop-down menu.
You can include the configuration information for the Cluster IP, Prism Central IP, PC
Version, Cluster Version, Cluster Hypervisor, Number of Blocks, Hardware Model, Cluster
License, or Prism Central License.
Specific information is included depending on the cluster information that you have
added. For example, if you have selected Cluster IP, the IP addresses of all the clusters
that are registered is included in the view.
b. Enter the title of the report in the Title field.
c. Select the entities that you want to to add.
» All Clusters: Select this option if you want to include this view for all the clusters that
are registered.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add the metric summary view to get information on a metric for a defined aggregation
value.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Metric Summary view from the Custom View pane.
a. Select Nutanix Entities and entity type (Cluster, Container, Disk, Host, or VM) for which
you want to define the metric summary.
b. For an entity that you have selected in the Entity Type drop-down menu, you can select a
metric for which you want to add the information in the metric summary view.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view.
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select Specific
VMs option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple
such rules by clicking the + icon.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add the metric summary view to get information on a metric for a defined aggregation
value.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Metric Summary view from the Custom View pane.
a. Select vCenter Entities and the entity type (External vCenter Cluster, External vCenter
Host, or External vCenter VM) from the Entity Type drop-down menu for which you want
to configure the view.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view.
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as External vCenter VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you
can select Specific external vcenter vms option and define the rule Power State >
Equal to > On . You can specify multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add the entity count view to get the number of entities for all the clusters or a
particular cluster.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Entity Count view from the Custom View pane.
a. Select Nutanix Entities and the entity type (Cluster, Container, Disk, Host, or VM) for
which you want to get the count information.
b. Enter the title of the view in the Title field.
c. Select the entities that you want to add.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view.
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select Specific
VMs option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple
such rules by clicking the + icon.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add the entity count view to get the number of entities for all the clusters or a
particular cluster.
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Entity Count view from the Custom View pane.
a. Select vCenter Entities and entity type (External vCenter Cluster, External vCenter Host,
or External vCenter VM) from the Entity Type drop-down menu for which you want to
configure the view.
b. Enter the title of the view in the Title field.
c. Select the entities that you want to add.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to include all the entities that you have
selected in the view.
» Specific Entities: Select this option to define rules on a particular entity that you have
selected from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For example, if you select entity type
as External vCenter VM and desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you
can select Specific external vcenter vms option and define the rule Power State >
Equal to > On . You can specify multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
You can add the title and description view to add any miscellaneous information, for example,
disclaimer etc.
Procedure
1. In the New Report wizard, select the Title and Description view from the Custom View pane.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.
Procedure
1. Select the Group view from the Custom view pane in the new report wizard.
a. Enter the title of the data table view in the Title field..
b. Enter the description of the view in the Description field.
c. Select the Repeat views in this group check box to select the entities based on which the
data in the view should be grouped and the views should be repeated.
d. Select the entity type from the Entity Type drop-down menu.
» All Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for all the entities.
» Specific Entities: Select this option if you want to perform the grouping for selected
entities depending on your selection from the Entity Type drop-down menu. For
example, for Nutanix entities, if you select entity type as VM and desire to limit the view
for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select specific VMs option and define the rule
Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify multiple such rules by clicking the +
icon. Similarly, for vCenter entities, if you select entity type as External vCenter VM and
desire to limit the view for the 50 powered on VMs, you can select Specific external
vcenter vms option and define the rule Power State > Equal to > On . You can specify
multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.
3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report. Depending on the entity type that you have
configured, you can create grouping of the views. For example, if you have created the
What to do next
You can add only the group view by following this procedure. If you want to add any views to
this group, see Adding Views into a Group View on page 935
Perform the following procedure to add views to a already created group view.
Procedure
1. If you have created the group view, perform the following procedure. For more information
on creating the group view, see Adding a Group View on page 932
a. Select the check box of the view that you want to add to the group view, and click the
drop-down menu in the extreme right of the view.
The group to which you can add this view is displayed in the drop-down menu. You
can perform the group only in an hierarchical manner. For example, if you have created
group for the cluster entity, you can add all the views to this group. However, if you have
created the group for the VM entity, you cannot add a view to this group that you have
created at the cluster level.
b. Select the group that you want to move this view.
For example, in the following figure, the bar chart view with title Cluster CPU Usage can
be moved to the group named Cluster Group.
a. Select the check box of the view that you want to add to the group view, and click Create
Group button at the top.
b. Create the group by following the procedure Adding a Group View on page 932.
The view is added to the newly created group.
Depending on the grouping, the data in the view is grouped and the views are repeated.
For example, if you want to perform grouping for all the VMs at the cluster level and you
have three cluster registered, you will get three tables and each table will have VMs for that
particular cluster. You can define multiple such views. The entire set of views as a group is
repeated for the each cluster.
In addition to adding and configuring views according to your requirements, you an also add
some pre-defined views. You cannot modify these views.
Note:
• You can only include the License Details Table view as part of the group view.
• You can only view DR specific widgets when a DR report is edited.
Procedure
Select the view that you want to add from the Predefined Views pane.
You can add the both detailed and summary licensing information and block summary
information.
• License Details Table: Provides detailed information about the Prism Central licenses and
includes information about license ID, model that are using the licenses, type of licenses,
displays whether the licenses are used or not, and displays when the licenses are going to
expire.
• Prism Central License Summary: Provides summary information of the Prism Central licenses
and includes information about the type of licenses, number of used licenses, and number of
licenses that are available.
• Alerts Histogram: Provides distribution of alerts over a specific time interval as configured
during the execution of the report. X-axis plots the time period of the report as configured
in the Time Period of Report field. Y-axis plots the number of alerts generated in the specific
time period.
• Blocks Summary: Provides summarized information about the different block models,
number of nodes, and number of VMs running in the Prism Central.
• CPU Runway: Provides visualized information about the historical CPU usage, predicted CPU
usage, and predicted runway of the cluster.
• Memory Runway: Provides visualized information about the historical memory usage,
predicted memory usage, and predicted runway of the cluster.
Scheduling a Report
After you add all the views to the reports, you have an option to run the report at a custom
generated time. This scheduling is applicable only for the specific report for which you are
configuring the schedule.
Procedure
4. Select the duration for the data that you want to display in the report from the Report Time
Period drop-down menu.
You can display the data for last 24 hours, last week, or last month. You also have an option
to select a custom data range.
a. If you select a Custom Date Range from the Report Time Period, you need to select the
date range from the From and To option.
If you a select a date range from 10 a.m. (Monday) to 10 a.m. (Tuesday), the data for this time
is displayed in the report. For example, in a line chart, the X-axis will display the time range
from 10 a.m. (Monday) to 10 a.m. (Tuesday) and the Y-axis will display the variation in data.
6. Click Add.
The schedule for the report gets added.
7. After report is saved, you can also edit or delete the schedule by clicking Edit Schedule.
a. To edit the schedule, make the desired changes to the schedule and click Add.
b. To delete the schedule, click Remove Schedule.
Downloading Reports
You can download a report in the PDF format or CSV format or both.
• 1_1_View_Cluster_1.csv
• 1_2_View_Cluster_2.csv
• 1_3_View_Cluster_3.csv
• If a group has a view repeating over a cluster or VM entity, the folder of the group consists
a folder for every cluster and that cluster contains a CSV file for the view. For example, a
group named Group having view named View on clusters Cluster_1, Cluster_2, Cluster_3, the CSV
folder structure is displayed as follows:
Procedure
1. On the Reports dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click a report you want to
download.
Note: You can set the output format of the report, see Creating a New Report on
page 893.
Note: If you apply the report settings both the global level (for all the reports) or for report level
(when you are creating a new report), the setting applied at the report level takes precedence.
Procedure
» To configure the report settings at the global level, click Report Settings on the Reports
dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ).
» To configure the report settings at the report level, in the New Report wizard, click
Report Settings.
Note: The copyright information will not be displayed in the footer section, therefore the
ability to customize copyright information is not allowed.
a. To upload the logo for the report, click the Upload button.
b. To change the background color of the report, select the background color from the
Background Color field.
a. Enter the subject of the Email in the Prepend Content to the Email Subject text box.
You can view the preview of the subject that you are adding in the Preview pane and is
prepended to the subject subject_email Prism Report report_name.
b. Enter the body of the Email in the Append Content to the Email Body text box.
You can view the preview of the body that you are adding in the Preview pane and is
appended to the body Please find attached the generated report email_body.
c. Enter the recipients (comma-separated) of the report in the Email Recipients text box.
The recipients that you have configured will get the report with the subject and body of
the Email that you have entered.
Note: You cannot retain more than 25 instances of a report. If you have 25 instances of
a report and you generate a new instance of the same report, the first instance that was
generated gets deleted.
c. To configure the retention policy in duration form, click the Time Duration option and
enter the desired number and duration in terms of Days, Weeks, or Months from the drop-
down menu.
For the time-based retention, you can retain a report for maximum of 3 months.
Note: If you do not define any retention policy, by default 10 instances of a report are
retained.
a. Click the PDF check box or CSV check box or both to set a report format.
A PDF generated report displays a graphical representation of infrastructure resources. A
CSV generated report contains information separated by commas. You can use this CSV
file to load CSV data into other systems.
b. If you select the PDF format and CSV format in Report Format, you can select the
Recipient Format. Select the format of report in which you want to send an e-mail.
Note: You cannot set the report format at the global level. You can only set the report
format at the report level while creating a new report or editing an existing report.
6. Click Save.
The report configuration is saved and next time you generate the report, the report
generation follows the configured setting. If you apply the report settings both the global
level (for all the reports) or for report level (when you are creating a new report), the setting
applied at the report level takes precedence.
Enabling Calm
About this task
You can select, provision, and manage your business applications across all your infrastructure
for both private and public clouds through the Nutanix Calm feature. Nutanix Calm provides
automated application life cycle management, custom blueprints for the setup and
management of enterprise applications, a marketplace to publish the blueprints to end users,
and automated hybrid cloud management to provision your hybrid cloud architecture. See the
Nutanix Calm Administration and Operations Guide for information about configuring and using
Calm.
To enable Calm, do the following:
Procedure
» Click the collapse menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism Central) on
page 10) and then select Services > Calm from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on
page 13).
» Select Enable App Management from the Settings menu (see Settings Menu (Prism
Central) on page 17).
Enabling Files
About this task
Nutanix Files provides file services to clients for file sharing across user work stations from a
centralized and protected location.
To enable Files, do the following:
1. Click the collapse (hamburger) menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism
Central) on page 10) and then select Services > Files from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13).
Procedure
1. Click the collapse (hamburger) menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism
Central) on page 10) and then select Services > Foundation Central from the entities menu
(see Entities Menu on page 13).
2. In the Nutanix Foundation Central page, click the Enable Foundation Central button.
After Foundation Central is enabled, the Foundation Central dashboard appears. See the
Foundation Central Documentation for information about configuring and using Foundation
Central.
Enabling Karbon
About this task
Nutanix Karbon is a curated turnkey offering that provides simplified provisioning and
operations of Kubernetes clusters. Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration
system for deploying and managing container-based applications.
To enable Karbon, do the following:
Procedure
1. Click the collapse (hamburger) menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism
Central) on page 10) and then select Services > Karbon from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13).
Enabling Objects
Nutanix Objects is a feature that allows you to create and manage object stores in a cluster.
Procedure
1. Click the collapse menu button in the main menu (see Main Menu (Prism Central) on page 10)
and then select Services > Objects from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).
• Nutanix customer support can monitor your clusters and provide assistance when problems
occur through the Pulse mechanism (see Pulse Health Monitoring on page 950 and
Configuring Pulse on page 952).
• Nutanix customer support maintains a portal that you can access to request assistance,
download various product updates, and view documentation (see Accessing the Nutanix
Support Portal (Prism Central) on page 962).
• If you need help, you can create a support ticket directly from Prism Central (see Creating a
Support Case on page 955).
Note: Pulse sends messages through ports 80/8443/443 or through your mail server (see
Configuring an SMTP Server (Prism Central) on page 513). For the complete list of required
ports, see Port Reference.
Note: When logging in to Prism Central the first time after installation or an upgrade, the system
checks whether Pulse is enabled. If it is not, a message appears recommending that you enable
Pulse.
• To enable Pulse, click the Continue button in the message and follow the prompts.
• To continue without enabling Pulse, check the Disable Pulse (not recommended)
box and then click the Continue button.
• [first choice] Enable Pulse and use Prism Central as a proxy for the Pulse data transmitted
by each node (for clusters registered with Prism Central). Advantages: The configuration is
automatic (as described in Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data on page 955), and no new
firewall configurations are required when you add a node to the cluster or remove a node
from the cluster.
• [second choice] Enable Pulse and configure an HTTP proxy server (see Configuring an HTTP
Proxy on page 506). Advantage: No new firewall configurations are required when you add a
node to the cluster or remove a node from the cluster.
Remote Diagnostics
Remote Diagnostics is a service that enables Nutanix Support to request granular diagnostic
information from Pulse-enabled clusters. Pulse streams configuration data, metrics, alerts,
events, and select logs back to Nutanix Support, but this information is aggregate in nature. The
Pulse information is designed to provide a high-level state representation of the cluster. When
the aggregate data is not detailed enough to diagnose a specific issue, Nutanix Support often
needs to collect more diagnostic data from the cluster. Remote Diagnostics allows Nutanix
Support to remotely collect the following data (and only the following data):
• To check the Remote Diagnostics status, SSH into a Controller VM and enter the following
command:
nutanix@cvm$ zkcat /appliance/logical/nusights/collectors/kCommand/override_config
• To disable Remote Diagnostics, SSH into a Controller VM and enter the following command:
nutanix@cvm$ /home/nutanix/ncc/bin/nusights/set_remote_diagnostics_status --enable=false --reason="text"
The --reason argument is optional. Use it to enter a text string describing the reason for
disabling Pulse.
• To enable Remote Diagnostics, SSH into a Controller VM and enter the following command:
nutanix@cvm$ /home/nutanix/ncc/bin/nusights/set_remote_diagnostics_status --enable=true --reason="text"
The --reason argument is optional. Use it to enter a text string describing the reason for
enabling Pulse.
• See Pulse Health Monitoring on page 950 for Pulse configuration recommendations.
• Pulse sends messages through ports 80/8443/443, or if this is not allowed, through your
mail server (see Configuring an SMTP Server (Prism Central) on page 513). For the complete
list of required ports, see Port Reference.
• When logging in to Prism Central the first time after installation or an upgrade, the system
checks whether Pulse is enabled. If it is not, a message appears recommending that you
enable Pulse. To enable Pulse, click the Continue button in the message and follow the
prompts; to continue without enabling Pulse, check the Disable Pulse (not recommended)
box and then click the Continue button.
You can enable (or disable) Pulse at any time. To configure Pulse, do the following:
Procedure
1. Go to the Settings menu (see Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17) and select Pulse.
2. To enable (disable) this feature, check (uncheck) the Enable box. Nutanix recommends
enabling Pulse to allow Nutanix Support to receive system data and deliver proactive and
context-aware support.
When you enable Pulse, Pulse periodically sends data for troubleshooting purposes to
Nutanix Insights tool and support team. Pulse is the underlying technology that securely
transmits system-level diagnostic data to the Insights platform, enabling predictive health
and context-aware support automation workflows. Nutanix Insights is an integrated service
that utilizes this data to augment product support, reducing customer case volume and
expediting issue resolution time.
Nutanix does not share any data that Pulse sends, with any third parties unless permitted
by your agreement with Nutanix or by the Nutanix Privacy Statement. Certain Nutanix
• To obfuscate (mask) entity names and IP addresses, and update the PII scrub level for all
registered Prism Element clusters from Prism Central, use the following command on a
Prism Central cluster:
nutanix@cvm$ curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT -H "X-Nutanix-Preauth-User:admin" --data
'{"identificationInfoScrubbingLevel": "ALL"}' http://localhost:9080/PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/pulse?
proxyClusterUuid=all_clusters
• Status: Displays the transport mechanism status, which is Success when the HTTP client
can access the Pulse server successfully or Failure when it cannot (or Unknown when the
status is not known).
• Last Checked Time: The last time Pulse sent data and checked the connectivity with the
Pulse server.
6. To send the cluster information to additional recipients, enter one or more e-mail addresses
in the Comma Separated Email List field.
In addition to (or instead of) sending the cluster information to Nutanix customer support,
you can e-mail the information to yourself or others by entering recipient e-mail addresses in
this field. Use a comma to separate multiple addresses.
7. Click the Save button to save the new setting and close the window.
• You enable Pulse on Prism Central and each registered Prism Element cluster.
• Prism Central and each Prism Element cluster node are running NCC 3.5.2 or later.
• You have not configured an HTTP proxy on Prism Central or, if you have configured an HTTP
proxy on Prism Central, it does not require basic authentication (a user name and password).
• You have not configured an HTTP proxy on Prism Element clusters registered to this Prism
Central instance. If your Prism Element clusters are configured to use an HTTP proxy, the
cluster nodes bypass the Prism Central Pulse proxy and transmit Pulse data to Nutanix
Support.
If your Prism Central deployment is not available, the cluster nodes bypass the Prism Central
Pulse proxy and transmit Pulse data to Nutanix Support.
For a Prism Central scale out deployment, each Prism Element node selects a Prism Central VM
at random to act as its proxy.
Can I Use This Feature If I Have Configured an HTTP Proxy on Prism Central and Prism
Element?
If you have configured an HTTP proxy on Prism Central, you can use this feature automatically
if you satisfy these requirements:
• You have configured an HTTP proxy on Prism Central but it does not require basic
authentication (a user name and password). Configuring an HTTP Proxy on page 506
describes setting up an HTTP proxy on Prism Central.
• Your Prism Element clusters are not configured to use a proxy. If your Prism Element
clusters are configured to use a proxy, data is transmitted from each node to Nutanix
support, bypassing the Prism Central Pulse proxy for pulse data.
Note: A support portal connection is required before you can create a case (see Licensing on
page 31). In addition, at least one cluster must be registered with Prism Central. Also, this feature
is available only to customers who get support directly from Nutanix (such as NX and SX model
customers), not customers who get initial support from third parties.
1. Click the question mark icon in the main menu and select Create Support Case from the pull-
down list.
The Create new support case page appears. One of the following appears on this page:
• If there are no open cases currently, a blank page with fields for creating a case appears.
• If you have one or more open support cases, summary information about those cases
appears (see Viewing Case Status on page 961). To create a case from this page, click
• P1 - Emergency. System is not available and productivity has been halted. Product is
unusable in its current state.
• P2 - Critical. System is available but experiencing issues which have a direct impact on
productivity. Major inconvenience.
• P3 - Normal. System is having an occasional issue that has been identified as
needing to be resolved, but the issue has not greatly affected productivity. Minor
inconvenience.
• P4 - Low. Questions about documentation, processes, or procedures. General requests
about information.
• RFE - Request for Enhancement. Feature requests for the product which would
improve the experience or functionality for the customer.
d. Cluster: Select the target cluster from the pull-down list.
e. Block Serial Number: Select the serial number of the asset (node) in question from the
pull-down list.
If you need more information, see the "Installed Base" page on the Nutanix support portal
for a list of your assets and the corresponding serial numbers.
f. Tell Us More: Enter a description of your issue in the text box.
Include any relevant details that might help Nutanix customer support analyze and resolve
your issue.
g. Attach log bundle (for last 4 hours): Check this box to attach log files from the last four
hours to the case. If you want the attached logs to be anonymized (personally identifiable
information removed), check the Anonymize log bundle box.
• For PC: Check this box to attach Prism Central log files from the last four hours to
the case. If you want the attached logs to be anonymized (personally identifiable
information removed), check the Anonymize log bundle box.
• For PE: Check this box to attach Prism Element log files from the last four hours to
the case. If you want the attached logs to be anonymized (personally identifiable
information removed), check the Anonymize log bundle box.
Note: If the target cluster is not connected to the Internet, such as in a dark site, a log
bundle or NCC summary report (following step) cannot be attached to the case through
this method.
Figure 502: Tasks Dashboard for Prism Central (create case tasks)
Figure 503: Tasks Dashboard for Prism Element (create case tasks)
• Open Cases column (on the left). There is an entry (line) for each open case that includes the
case name and number; click the desired case entry to displays summary information about
that case in the main section of the page.
• Main section (in the middle). This section displays the creation date, description, attachments
(if any), and other information related to the selected case. This is an abridged version of the
full case details available from the Nutanix support portal (see below).
• Key Insights column (on the right). This section includes the following fields:
Procedure
1. To access the Nutanix support portal from Prism Central, select Support Portal from the user
icon pull-down list of the main menu.
The login screen for the Nutanix support portal appears in a new tab or window.
Note: Some options have restricted access and are not available to all users.
Documentation Software Displays a page from which you can view the Nutanix
Documentation software manuals.
Hardware Displays a page from which you can view the Nutanix
Replacement hardware replacement manuals.
Documentation
Knowledge Displays a page from which you can view the knowledge
Base base (KB) articles.
EOL Displays a page from which you can view the end of life
Information policy and bulletins.
Field Advisories Displays a page from which you can view field
advisories.
AOS Upgrade Displays a page where you can see the supported AOS
Paths release upgrade paths.
View Cases Displays a page from which you can view your current
support cases.
Terms & Displays a page from which you can view various
Conditions warranty and terms and conditions documents.
Downloads AOS (NOS) Displays a page from which you can download AOS
releases.
Acropolis File Displays a page from which you can download the
Services (AFS) Acropolis File Services.
Prism Central Displays a page from which you can download the Prism
Central installation bundle. There are separate bundles
for installing on AHV, ESXi, or Hyper-V.
1. Log on to the web console, click the user icon in the upper-right corner of the web console,
and click REST API Explorer.
The REST API Explorer displays a list of the objects that can be managed by the API. Each
line has four options:
2. Find the line for the object you want to explore and click Expand Operations.
For example, click alerts.
4. Click Try it out! to test the API call when used with your cluster.
• Prism Central help documentation (see Accessing Online Help (Prism Central) on
page 967).
• Nutanix customer support portal (see Accessing the Nutanix Support Portal (Prism Central)
on page 962).
• Nutanix community forum (see Accessing the Nutanix Next Community on page 969).
• Glossary of terms (see Glossary on page 970).
Procedure
1. To open the online help, choose one of the following from the question mark icon pull-down
list of the main menu:
» Select Help with this page to display help documentation that describes the current
screen.
Note: In a task window click the question mark icon in the upper right to display the help
documentation for that window.
2. To select a topic from the table of contents, click the collapse menu icon (also know as a
"hamburger" button) in the upper left.
A table of contents pane appears on the left. Click a topic in the table of contents to display
that topic.
3. To display all the help contents as a single document, click the epub or pdf button in the
upper right.
You can view the Prism Central Guide in either ePUB or PDF format by selecting the
appropriate button. If your browser does not support the selected format, you can download
the PDF or ePUB file.
• To access the Nutanix next community forum from Prism Central, select Nutanix Next
Community from the question mark icon pull-down list of the main menu (see Main Menu
(Prism Central) on page 10.
The Nutanix Next Community main page appears in a new tab or window. From this page
you can search existing posts, ask questions, and provide comments.
Glossary
aCLI
Acropolis command-line interface.
Acropolis
The Nutanix converged software fabric for virtualization and storage management. It consists
of the Acropolis base software, Acropolis Distributed Storage Fabric, AHV, App Mobility Fabric,
Prism, and Acropolis APIs.
block
A set of Nutanix nodes contained in a single enclosure.
clone
A writeable copy of a vDisk.
Cloud Connect
A feature that enables you to back up and restore copies of virtual machines and files to
and from an on-premise cluster and a Nutanix Controller VM located on the Amazon Web
Service (AWS) cloud. The cloud-based cluster is managed as a remote site from the Prism Web
Console or nCLI.
cluster
A group of nodes contained in one or more Nutanix blocks.
cold data
Data that did not have many rewrites or overwrites for a long time. For example, snapshots, file
servers, archives, or backups.
compression
An optional storage container setting that enables one of two types of compression.
compression, inline
Data is compressed as it is written. This type of compression is recommended for workloads
that perform batch processing.
compression, post-process
Data is compressed after it is written. The delay time between write and compression is
configurable. Nutanix has recommends a delay value of 60. However, every workload has
a different I/O profile, so you might require a different delay value otherwise. This type of
compression is recommended for most workloads.
Consistency Group
A subset of VMs in a Protection Domain. All VMs within a Consistency Group for that Protection
Domain will be snapshotted in a crash-consistent manner. For all VMs in a Consistency Group, a
snapshot creates one snapshot for all VMs in the group.
Controller VM
A Nutanix VM that manages storage and other cluster functions on a node.
datastore
A logical storage container for files necessary for VM operations.
deduplication
The sharing of identical guest VM data on premium tiers (RAM and Flash) for improved
performance or on capacity tiers (HDD) for storage space savings. Enabled by properties of a
storage container or vDisk.
erasure coding
Optional algorithm included in the Acropolis base software to help reduce the storage used for
fault tolerance. It helps to increase the effective or usable capacity on a cluster, depending on
cluster size and data coldness.
failback
Planned failover initiated from recovery site.
failover
Moving VMs from a primary site to a recovery site.
failover, disaster
Failover when the primary site is down.
failover, planned
Failover when both sites are up.
guest VM
A VM running on a Nutanix cluster that executes a workload, such as VDI or Exchange, as
opposed to a VM that is involved in cluster operations, such as a Controller VM.
host
An instance of the hypervisor that runs on a Nutanix node.
image service
A workflow in the Prism web console that enables a user to upload ISO or disk images (in ESXi
or Hyper-V format) to a Nutanix AHV cluster by specifying a remote repository URL or by
uploading a file from a local machine.
local snapshot
Snapshots stored on the same cluster where they originated.
nCLI
Nutanix command-line interface.
node
A physical server contained in a Nutanix block; runs a hypervisor host.
oplog
A write cache on a faster, more expensive storage tier.
Prism
Web-based management interface for managing Nutanix clusters.
Prism Central
Centralized management tool that runs as a separate VM configured as a single-node cluster to
monitor and manage multiple clusters through a single web console.
Prism Element
A single cluster being managed by and available through the Prism Central web console.
Protection Domain
A group of VMs to be backed up locally on a cluster or replicated on the same schedule to one
or more clusters. Protection Domains may be associated with remote sites. Protection Domain
names must be unique across sites. A VM can be in at most one Protection Domain.
redundancy factor
The number of nodes plus 1 that the cluster can tolerate being down at one time. By default,
Nutanix clusters have a redundancy factor of 2, which means that they can tolerate 1 node
being down. They are configurable to redundancy factor 3 to enable tolerating 2 nodes being
down.
remote snapshot
A snapshot copied asynchronously from one cluster to another.
replication factor
The number of copies of data kept by a storage container. The default is 2. Storage Containers
on clusters with redundancy factor of 3 can have replication factor of 3.
reserved capacity
A property of a storage container or vDisk that guarantees that a certain amount of storage
space is available.
schedule
A property of a Protection Domain that specifies the intervals to take snapshots and how long
the snapshots should be retained. A schedule optionally specifies which remote site to replicate
to.
Self-Service Restore
Allows a user to restore a file within a virtual machine from the Nutanix protected snapshot
with minimal Nutanix administrator intervention.
shadow clone
A cache of a vDisk on all the nodes in the cluster. When a vDisk is read by multiple VMs (such
as the base image for a VDI clone pool), the cluster creates shadow clones of the vDisk.
snapshot
A read-only copy of the state and data of a VM at a point in time. Snapshots for a VM are crash
consistent, which means that the VMDK on-disk images are consistent with a single point in
time. That is, the snapshot represents the on-disk data as if the VM crashed. The snapshots
are not, however, application consistent, meaning that application data is not quiesced at the
time of snapshot, unless the Protection Domain is configured to use application-consistent
snapshots.
storage container
A subset of available storage within a storage pool.
storage pool
A group of physical disks from one or more tiers.
tier
A type of physical storage in a Nutanix node.
vDisk
Data associated with a VM represented as a set of files on a datastore.
VM mobility
The ability to export your existing VMs from one non-AHV cluster to an AHV cluster. This
option requires that you install the Nutanix VM Mobility installer on all the VMs. The Nutanix VM
Mobility installer deploys the drivers that are required at the destination AHV cluster. After you
prepare the source VMs, they can be exported to the AHV cluster.
vStore
A separate mount point within a storage container which has its own NFS namespace. This
namespace maps to a Protection Domain. Each vStore is exported as a device through the
Nutanix SRA.