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Prism pc.2022.

Prism Central Guide


February 3, 2023
Contents

Welcome.......................................................................................................................... 8

Help Organization........................................................................................................ 9

Prism Central Overview........................................................................................... 10


Main Menu (Prism Central).................................................................................................................................. 10
Entities Menu..............................................................................................................................................................13
Settings Menu (Prism Central)............................................................................................................................17
Searching for Information................................................................................................................................... 20
Keyboard Shortcuts in Prism Central..............................................................................................................29
Understanding Displayed Statistics (Prism Central)................................................................................. 29

Prism Central Administration................................................................................. 31


Installing or Upgrading.......................................................................................................................................... 31
Licensing...................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Prism Central Management.................................................................................................................................. 31
Logging Into Prism Central.....................................................................................................................32
Logging Out of Prism Central............................................................................................................... 35
Managing Prism Central........................................................................................................................... 35
Finding the Prism Central Version.......................................................................................................45
Finding the AHV Version on Prism Central..................................................................................... 46
Finding the AOS Version Using Prism Central................................................................................47
Registering (Unregistering) Cluster with Prism Central.............................................................. 48
Expanding (Scale Out) Prism Central................................................................................................ 55
Shutting Down (Starting Up) Prism Central VM............................................................................ 58
Prism Central Disaster Recovery.......................................................................................................... 59
IP Address Reconfiguration.................................................................................................................... 63
Pairing AZs (Nutanix Disaster Recovery)..................................................................................................... 66

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

Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central).................................................266


Alerts Summary View (Prism Central).........................................................................................................266
Alert Details................................................................................................................................................ 274
Events Summary View (Prism Central)........................................................................................................277
Event Details...............................................................................................................................................279
Configuring Alert Emails (Prism Central)...................................................................................................280
Configuring Alert Policies (Prism Central)................................................................................................. 283
Modifying System Alert Policies........................................................................................................ 284
Adding Custom Alert Policies............................................................................................................. 285
Viewing External Alert Policies.......................................................................................................... 300
Prism Central Logs............................................................................................................................................... 301
Audit Log Events..................................................................................................................................... 304
Alerts/Health checks (Prism Central).......................................................................................................... 306
Cluster (Prism Central).......................................................................................................................... 306
Controller VM (Prism Central).............................................................................................................357

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

System Management............................................................................................. 504


Configuring Prism Central When a Cluster Uses Proxy Servers........................................................504
Who Needs to Use the Whitelist Method...................................................................................... 505
Configuring an HTTP Proxy................................................................................................................. 506
Whitelisting Prism Central and Its Managed Clusters (nCLI)....................................................511
Configuring Name Servers (Prism Central).................................................................................................512
Configuring NTP Servers (Prism Central)....................................................................................................512
Configuring an SMTP Server (Prism Central).............................................................................................513
Configuring SNMP (Prism Central).................................................................................................................514
Configuring Syslog Monitoring....................................................................................................................... 520
Syslog Modules...........................................................................................................................................521
Modifying UI Settings (Prism Central)......................................................................................................... 524
Configuring a Banner Page (Prism Central).............................................................................................. 529
Internationalization (i18n) (Prism Central)..................................................................................................529
Localization (L10n) (Prism Central).............................................................................................................. 530
Changing the Language Settings (Prism Central)......................................................................530

Security and User Management (Prism Central)........................................ 533

Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration......................................... 534


VM Management................................................................................................................................................... 534
Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV)................................................................................535
Creating a VM (Self Service)............................................................................................................... 545
Creating a VM from Catalog Items (Self Service).......................................................................546
Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV)............................................................................. 552
Managing a VM (Self Service)............................................................................................................ 560
Adding Multiple vGPUs to the Same VM....................................................................................... 568
Live Migration of vGPU-enabled VMs..............................................................................................570
Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)................................................................................574
Managing a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)............................................................................. 579
Exporting a VM as an OVA.................................................................................................................. 585
Nutanix Guest Tools................................................................................................................................ 586
Storage Quality of Service (QoS)......................................................................................................596
Memory Overcommit Management.................................................................................................. 599
VM Policy Management.........................................................................................................................604
VM Template Management...............................................................................................................................609
Limitations of VM Template Feature.................................................................................................610
Creating a VM Template........................................................................................................................ 610
Deploying VM from a Template...........................................................................................................612
Managing a VM Template...................................................................................................................... 614

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

Prism Self Service Administration..................................................................... 719


Prism Self Service Overview............................................................................................................................. 719
Configuring Prism Self Service....................................................................................................................... 720
Migrating Prism Self Service................................................................................................................ 722
Project Management........................................................................................................................................... 724
Creating a Project.................................................................................................................................... 724
Modifying a Project..................................................................................................................................727

Network and Security Management................................................................ 729


Network Connections..........................................................................................................................................729
Configuring Network Connections..................................................................................................... 731
Creating or Updating Virtual Switch................................................................................................ 734
Enabling LACP and LAG (AHV Only).............................................................................................. 739
Modifying Network Connections.........................................................................................................741
Security Policies..................................................................................................................................................... 741
Flow Networking....................................................................................................................................................741

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

Customer Support Services................................................................................950


Pulse Health Monitoring.................................................................................................................................... 950
Configuring Pulse..................................................................................................................................... 952
Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data.................................................................................................. 955
Creating a Support Case................................................................................................................................... 955
Viewing Case Status................................................................................................................................ 961
Accessing the Nutanix Support Portal (Prism Central)........................................................................ 962
Accessing the REST API Explorer................................................................................................................. 965

Help Resources........................................................................................................ 967


Accessing Online Help (Prism Central)....................................................................................................... 967
Accessing the Nutanix Next Community....................................................................................................969
Glossary.................................................................................................................................................................... 970

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.

Prism | Help Organization | 9


PRISM CENTRAL OVERVIEW
Nutanix provides an option to monitor and manage multiple clusters through a single web
console. This multi-cluster view, known as Prism Central, is a centralized management tool
that runs as a separate instance comprised of either a single VM or a set of VMs. Prism Central
provides the following features:

• Single sign on for all registered clusters.


• Customizable main dashboard that displays summary information across the registered
clusters (see Main Dashboard on page 68).
• Virtual infrastructure dashboards with drill-down options to manage VMs, storage
containers, catalog items, images, categories, recoverable entities, and subnets across the
registered clusters (Compute and Storage Entities on page 89).
• Dashboards to manage security policies, protection policies, recovery plans, Nutanix Guest
Tools (NGT) policies, and image placement (see Policies on page 188).
• Hardware component dashboards with drill-down options to view detailed information
about individual clusters, hosts, disks, and GPUs across the registered clusters (see Hardware
Entities on page 200).
• Activity monitors for alerts, events, audits, and tasks (see Activity Entities on page 240).
• Tools to analyze system activity, plan for resource needs, create usage reports, and
automate routine administrative tasks (see Operations Entities on page 247).
• Dashboards to manage inventory (LCM), projects, roles, users, and availability zones (see
Administration Entities on page 249).
• Service connection pages to enable Calm, Karbon, and Objects (see Services Entities on
page 265).
• Settings menu from which you can configure Prism Central functions (see Settings Menu
(Prism Central) on page 17).

Main Menu (Prism Central)


The main menu at the top of every screen provides access to the features of Prism Central. This
section describes each of the main menu options.

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).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 10


Figure 1: Prism Central Main Menu

Search, Alert, and Task Options


The main menu provides status information about active alerts and tasks plus access to
advanced search capability:

• 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).

Help Menu ("?" Icon)


A question mark icon appears on the right side of the main menu. Clicking the question mark
displays a list of help resource options that you can select. The following table describes each
option in the pull-down menu.

Table 1: Help Menu Options

Name Description

Learn about search Displays search guidelines (see Searching for Information on
page 20).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 11


Name Description

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).

Settings Menu (Gear Icon)


A gear icon appears on the right side of the main menu. Clicking the gear icon launches the
Settings page and displays a menu of tasks you can perform (see Settings Menu (Prism
Central) on page 17).

User Menu (<user_name> Icon)


A user icon appears on the far right side of the main menu with the current user logon name.
Clicking the user icon displays a list of options to update your user account, log off from Prism
Central, and other miscellaneous tasks. The following table describes each option in the pull-
down menu.

Table 2: User Menu Options

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.

Download nCLI Downloads the Nutanix command-line interface (nCLI) as a zip


file to your local system. The download occurs immediately
after clicking this option (no additional prompts). For more
information about installing the nCLI locally and for nCLI command
descriptions, see Command Reference.

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 12


Name Description

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.

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 13


Figure 2: Entities Menu

Table 3: Entities Menu Options

Category Name Description

Dashboard Displays the main dashboard (see Main Dashboard


on page 68).

Compute & Storage VMs Displays the VMs dashboard (see VMs Summary
View on page 90).

Templates Displays the Templates dashboard (see VM


Template Summary View on page 113).

OVAs Displays the OVAs dashboard (see OVAs View on


page 117).

Images Displays the Images dashboard (see Images


Summary View on page 120).
Catalog Items Displays the Catalog dashboard (see Catalog Items
View on page 124).

Storage Containers Displays the Storage Containers dashboard (see


Storage Containers Summary View on page 125).

Volume Groups Displays the Volume Groups dashboard (see


Volume Groups Summary View on page 143).

Storage Policies Displays the Storage Policies dashboard( see


Storage Policies Summary View on page 137).

vCenter Datastores Displays the vCenter Datastores dashboard (see


vCenter Datastores Summary View on page 153).

Network & Security Subnets Displays the subnets dashboard (see Subnets on
page 167).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 14


Category Name Description

Virtual Private Displays the virtual private clouds dashboard (see


Clouds Network and Security View on page 167).

Floating IPs Displays the floating IPs dashboard (see Network


and Security View on page 167).

Connectivity Displays the VPNs dashboard (see Network and


Security View on page 167).

Security Policies Displays the Security Policies dashboard (see


Security Policies Summary View on page 194).

Data Protection Protection Displays the protection summary dashboard.


and Recovery Summary

Protection Policies Displays the Protection Policies dashboard (see


Protection Policies View on page 197).

Recovery Plans Displays the Recovery Plans dashboard (see


Recovery Plans View on page 198).

VM Recovery Displays the VM Recovery Points dashboard (see


Points VM Recovery Points View on page 199).

Hardware Clusters Displays the Clusters dashboard (see Clusters


Summary View on page 200).

Hosts Displays the Hosts dashboard (see Hosts Summary


View on page 220).

Disks Displays the Disks dashboard (see Disks Summary


View on page 230).

GPUs Displays the GPUs dashboard (see GPUs Summary


View on page 237).

Activity Alerts Displays the Alerts dashboard (see Alerts Summary


View (Prism Central) on page 266).

Events Displays the Events dashboard (see Events


Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).

Audits Displays the Audits dashboard (see Audits


Summary View on page 241).

Tasks Displays the Tasks dashboard (see Tasks View on


page 244).

Operations Analysis Displays the Analysis dashboard (see Analysis


Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746).

Cost Management Provides access to the Xi Beam site (see Cost


Management (Xi Beam) on page 802).

Discovery Displays the App Discovery dashboard or the


enable wizard if application discovery is not
enabled (see Application Discovery on page 778).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 15


Category Name Description

Monitoring Displays the Monitoring Integrations dashboard


Configurations or the enable wizard if monitoring integrations
is not enabled (see Application Monitoring on
page 803).

Ops Policies Displays the Operations Policies dashboard (see


Operations Policy Management on page 820)>.

Planning Displays the capacity Planning dashboard (see


Resource Planning on page 824).

Playbooks Displays the list of playbooks (see Task Automation


on page 849).

Reports Displays the Reports dashboard (see Reports View


on page 248).

Administration Categories Displays the Categories dashboard (see Categories


Summary View on page 161).

LCM Displays the life cycle manage (LCM) dashboard


(see LCM View on page 265).

Projects Displays the Projects dashboard (see Projects


Summary View on page 258).

Roles Displays the Roles dashboard (see Roles Summary


View on page 253).

Users Displays the Users dashboard (see Users Summary


View on page 249).

Availability Zones Displays the Availability Zones dashboard (see


Availability Zones View on page 264).

Services Calm Displays the Calm feature page or the enable


wizard if Calm is not enabled (see Enabling Calm on
page 947).

Files Displays the Files dashboard or the enable wizard


if Files is not enabled (see Enabling Files on
page 947).

Foundation Central Displays the Foundation Central dashboard or the


enable wizard if Foundation Central is not enabled
(see Enabling Foundation Central on page 948).

Karbon Displays the Karbon feature page or the enable


wizard if Karbon is not enabled (see Enabling
Karbon on page 948).

Objects Displays the Objects feature page or the enable


wizard if Objects is not enabled (see Enabling
Objects on page 948).

Prism Central Settings Displays the settings menu (see Settings Menu
(Prism Central) on page 17).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 16


Settings Menu (Prism Central)
Prism Central includes a Settings page from which you can configure various system services.
You can access the Settings page by doing either of the following:

• 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.

Figure 3: Settings Page

Table 4: Settings Menu

Category Name Description

General Capacity Opens the Update Capacity Configurations


Configurations window, which allows you to configure sizing
rules for cluster runway analysis and alerting (see
Updating Capacity Configurations on page 845).
This menu option does not appear if Prism Pro is
disabled.

Entity Sync Opens the Force Entity Sync window, which


synchronizes entities with the specified
availability zones. For more information, see Leap
Administration Guide.

Licensing Opens the Licensing page to install or update the


Prism Central license that enables entitled Nutanix
features (see Licensing on page 31).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 17


Category Name Description

Migrate SSP Opens the Migrate Prism Self Service to Prism


Central window to migrate a pre-AOS 5.5 Prism Self
Service (hosted in Prism Element) to Prism Central
(see Migrating Prism Self Service on page 722).

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).

Upgrade Prism Opens the Upgrade Prism Central window to


Central upgrade the Prism Central VM to a newer version
(see Installing or Upgrading on page 31).

Xi Cloud Services Opens the Xi Cloud Services windows, which allows


you to log in to the Xi portal. See the Xi Cloud
Services Administration Guide for more information.

Setup Connect to Frame Opens the Connect to Frame page to connect


to Xi Frame. For more information, see Xi Frame
documentation.

Enable App Opens the Enable App Management page to


Management enable the Nutanix Calm features (see Enabling
Calm on page 947).

Enable Leap Opens the Leap page to enable the Disaster


Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) capability. For more
information, see Leap Administration Guide.

Pulse Opens the Pulse page to enable (disable)


the Nutanix automated support system (see
Configuring Pulse on page 952).

Self-Service Admin Opens the Self-Service Admin Management page


Management to modify the self-service configuration (see
Configuring Prism Self Service on page 720).
This menu option does not appear until a directory
service is configured.

vCenter Opens the vCenter Registration window to


Registration register (or unregister) clusters with vCenter (see
Registering vCenter Server (Prism Central) on
page 715).

Network HTTP Proxy Opens the HTTP Proxies window to configure


an HTTP proxy to which the Nutanix software
can connect (see Configuring an HTTP Proxy on
page 506).

Name Servers Opens the Name Servers window to configure


name servers (see Configuring Name Servers
(Prism Central) on page 512).

NTP Servers Opens the NTP Servers window to specify which


NTP servers to access (see Configuring NTP
Servers (Prism Central) on page 512).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 18


Category Name Description

SNMP Opens the SNMP Configuration window to


configure SNMP (see Configuring SNMP (Prism
Central) on page 514).

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.

Microsegmentation Opens the Microsegmentation page to enable this


feature, which is disabled by default. Before you
can configure and use application security policies,
isolation environment policies, and quarantine
policies, you must enable the feature. For more
information, see Nutanix Flow Guide.

Security Cluster Lockdown Opens the Cluster Lockdown window, which


allows you to delete (or add) public authentication
keys used for SSH access into Prism Central.
Removing all public keys locks down Prism Central
from external access. For more information, see
Controlling Remote (SSH) Access in Security Guide.

SSL Certificate Opens the SSL Certificates window to create a


self-signed certificate. For more information, see
Installing an SSL Certificate in Security Guide.

User and Roles Authentication Opens the Authentication Configuration window


to configure Prism Central authentication. For more
information, see Configuring Authentication in
Security Guide.

Local User Opens the Local User Management window. This


Management window lists current users and allows you to add,
update, and delete local user accounts. For more
information, see Managing Local User Accounts in
Security Guide.

Role Mapping Opens the Role Mapping window to configure role


mappings that apply in the user authentication
process. For more information, see Configuring
Role Mapping in Security 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).

SMTP Server Opens the SMTP Server Settings window to


configure an SMTP server (see Configuring an
SMTP Server (Prism Central) on page 513).

Syslog Server Opens the Syslog Servers window to configure a


syslog server (see Configuring Syslog Monitoring
on page 520).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 19


Category Name Description

Appearance Language Settings Opens the Language Settings window to localize


the Prism Central screen text (see Changing the
Language Settings (Prism Central) on page 530).

UI Settings Opens the UI Settings window to configure Prism


UI background themes, disable (or re-enable)
the login screen background video and configure
the automatic logout timeout (see Modifying UI
Settings (Prism Central) on page 524).

Welcome Banner Opens the Edit Welcome Banner window to create


a welcome banner message that appears before
users login to Prism Central (see Configuring a
Banner Page (Prism Central) on page 529).

Searching for Information


The main menu includes a search field on the left (see Main Menu (Prism Central) on
page 10) that allows you to find information about selected entities in various ways. If you
need help at any time to navigate Prism Central or apply a search filter, you can click the
question mark icon in the main menu and select Learn about search. This displays the Search
Guidelines page that explains the search rules and options.

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.

Figure 4: Search Field (initial screen)

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.

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 20


Figure 5: Search Field (from a different screen)

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:

Figure 6: Search Results (for an entity type)

• "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

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 21


VMs, and the top alerts list includes a link to the full list of alerts (which in this case is the
same). Clicking the VM or alert name takes you to the details page for that VM or alert.

Figure 7: "Search in Prism" Results


Because search is context-sensitive, you can do a quick search from your current location
without entering an explicit string. For example, if you are on the user VMs summary page,
clicking in the search field (or clicking the forward slash [/] character) displays the search
results for user VMs. In the following example, clicking the List, Alerts, or Events entry is the
same as clicking those tabs on the page. Clicking "Memory Swap" displays the Memory Swap
metrics page, and "Search in Prism" displays a results page for user VMs.

Figure 8: Search Results (for the current location)

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.

Figure 9: Search Results (for generic string)

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 22


You can bookmark a filtered page (see Entity Exploring on page 85) by clicking the star icon
in the search field. This adds a bookmark for that page (including any applied filters) to the
entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

Figure 10: Bookmark Entry

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:

• Remove a filter by clicking the X for that filter.


• Remove all filters by clicking Clear (on the right).
• Save the filter list by clicking the star icon. You can save a maximum of 20 filter lists per
entity type.
• Use a saved filter list by selecting from the pull-down list.

Figure 11: Local Filters Field

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 23


Query Syntax
The search field supports a range of simple and more complex query options in the following
syntax forms:

• [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.

Table 5: Syntax Rules

Rule Example

RULES THAT GO TO WELL DEFINED PAGES

entity type vms

entity type + metric perspective (io, cpu, vms io


memory)

entity type + alerts vm alerts

entity type + alerts + alert filters vm alerts severity=critical

entity type + events vm events

entity type + events + event filters vm events classification=anomaly

entity type + filters (both metric and attribute) vm “power state”=on

entity type + filters + metric perspective (io, vm “power state”=on io


cpu, memory)

entity type + filters + alerts vm “power state”=on alerts

entity type + filters + alerts + (alert filters) vm “power state”=on alerts severity=critical

entity type + filters + events vm “power state”=on events

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Rule Example

entity type + filters + events + event filters vm “power state”=on events


classification=anomaly

entity instance (name, ip address, disk vm1, 10.1.3.4, BHTXSPWRM


serial, ...)

entity instance + metric perspective (io, cpu, vm1 io


memory)

entity instance + alerts vm1 alerts

entity instance + alerts + alert filters vm1 alerts severity=critical

entity instance + events vm1 events

entity instance + events + event filters vm1 events classification=anomaly

entity instance + pages vm1 nics, c1 capacity

parent instance + entity type c1 vms

alert title search disk bad alerts

page name search analysis, tasks

RULES THAT ONLY GO TO SEARCH RESULT PAGES (exclusively)

entity type + metric vm iops

entity type + attribute vm power state

entity instance + metric vm1 iops

entity instance + attribute vm1 power state

entity type + filters + metric vm “power state”=on iops

entity type + filters + attribute vm “power state”=on hypervisor

help text search upgrade cluster

Keywords
The following table lists the keywords or phrases you can use when formulating a query.

• The Object column identifies the type of object.

• 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.

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 25


• The Keywords column is a comma-separated list of the keywords or phrases you can use in
a query for the specified object/entity type.

Table 6: Search Keywords

Object Entity Keywords

Entities (n/a) vm, cluster, node, container, disk

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

Cluster cluster name, ip address, version, number of


hosts, cpu count, memory capacity, runway,
storage runway, cpu runway, memory runway

VM vm name, ip address, host ip, virtual cpus


count, power state, reserved memory, os,
virtual hardware version

Disk serial, tier, mode, iops

Container container name, rf, on disk deduplication,


perf-tier deduplication, compression, erasure
coding

Node host name, ip address, service vm, hypervisor


name, cpu capacity, cpu model, cpu sockets
count, cpu cores count, cpu thread count,
serial number, block model

Alerts (any) alert, alert title

• Severity levels: critical, warning, info


• Categories (impact types): capacity,
performance, configuration, availability,
system indicator
• Dispositions types: resolved, unresolved,
acknowledged, unacknowledged

Events (any) event type, title

Actions VM clone, migrate, delete, power on, power off,


suspend, create vm, launch console, create
network config, resume, snapshot, update,
configure vm host affinity

Cluster launch prism element, unregister

Filter Expressions
You can use any of the following operators in an expression.

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 26


Table 7: Query Operators

Description Operator

contains ~

does not contain !~

starts with (“starts with” x) =x*

ends with (“ends with” x) =*x

equal to =

not equal to !=

greater than >

greater than or equal to >=

less than <

less than or equal to <=

a metric range, for example CPU usage between 10 and =[10 to 30]
30

The following implicit operator rules apply to expressions:

• 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.

Table 8: Data Parameters

Data Type Unit Parameter

bytes usage related GiBiBytes memory_capacity_bytes,


properties storage.usage_bytes, storage.free_bytes,
storage.logical_usage_bytes,
data_reduction.saved_bytes,
storage.usage_bytes,
storage.user_container_own_usage_bytes,
data_reduction.saved_bytes,
memory_size_bytes

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 27


Data Type Unit Parameter

runway properties days capacity.runway, capacity.storage_runway,


capacity.cpu_runway,
capacity.memory_runway

disk capacity related TebiBytes storage.capacity_bytes,


properties storage.user_capacity_bytes

CPU/memory usage percent hypervisor_cpu_usage_ppm,


properties hypervisor_memory_usage

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”

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 28


Keyboard Shortcuts in Prism Central
You can use the following keyboard shortcuts to invoke important menu options or views in
Prism Central:

Table 9: Keyboard Shortcuts for Prism Central Menu Options

Shortcut Key Menu Option/View

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.

Understanding Displayed Statistics (Prism Central)


Various statistics are displayed in the web console and Prism Central screens. There are three
possible sources for a statistic:

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).

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 29


• A field name that includes the word Disk indicates that statistic derives from the disk (for
example Disk IOPS).
The following table identifies the information source for various statistics. Overview, VM, and
storage statistics come from either the hypervisor or controller. IFor VM statistics in a mixed
ESXi/AHV cluster, the source depends on the hypervisor hosting that VM (hypervisor for
ESXi-based VMs and controller for AHV-based VMs). Hardware statistics come from the disk.
Metrics in the analysis page can come from any of the sources (hypervisor, controller, or disk)
depending on the type of metric.

Table 10: Source for Displayed Statistics

Hypervisor Type Overview, VM, and Hardware Analysis


Storage
ESXi hypervisor (controller disk metric dependent
for some storage
stats)
Hyper-V controller disk metric dependent
AHV controller disk metric dependent
Citrix Hypervisor controller disk metric dependent
Mixed (ESXi + AHV) hypervisor disk metric dependent
Prism Central cluster dependent disk metric dependent
(hypervisor or
controller)

Prism | Prism Central Overview | 30


PRISM CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION
Administering Prism Central includes the following:

• 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.

Prism Central Management


After installing Prism Central (see Installing or Upgrading on page 31), you can

• 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).

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 31


• Register clusters with this Prism Central instance (see Registering (Unregistering) Cluster
with Prism Central on page 48).
• Expand Prism Central from a single VM to a multi-VM instance (see Expanding (Scale Out)
Prism Central on page 55).
• Shutdown or Start Up a Prism Central VM (see Shutting Down (Starting Up) Prism Central
VM on page 58).
• Protect Prism Central to upto three AHV or ESXi clusters registered to it (see Protecting
Prism Central on page 60).
• Recover Prism Central from Prism Element running on the registered AHV or ESXi cluster
(see Recovering Prism Central (1-Click Disaster Recovery) on page 61.

Logging Into Prism Central

About this task


To log in to Prism Central, do the following. Knowledge base article KB 1661 lists default cluster
credentials.

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 32


3. In the login screen, do one of the following: enter your Nutanix login credentials and press
Enter or click the right arrow icon.

» Enter your Nutanix login credentials and press Enter or click the right arrow icon.

Figure 12: Login Screen

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.

» If SAML authentication is enabled (see Configuring Authentication in Security Guide),


enter your user name according to the configured identify provider in the indicated field.
(This field appears on the login page only when SAML authentication is enabled.)

Figure 13: Login Screen (SAML)

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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 33


password in the password and re-type password fields and then press Enter or click the
right arrow icon.

Figure 14: Login Screen (first admin login)

The password must meet the following complexity requirements:

• At least 8 characters long


• At least 1 lowercase letter
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 1 number
• At least 1 special character ( allowed special characters are: "#$%&amp;'()*
+,-./:;&lt;=>@[]^_`{|}~! )
• At least 4 characters different from the old password
• Should not be among the last 10 passwords
After you have successfully changed the password, the new password is synchronized
across all Controller VMs and interfaces (Prism web console, nCLI, and SSH).

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.

• nutanix@cvm$ sudo chage -M <MAX-DAYS> admin

• nutanix@cvm$ sudo chage -m <MIN-DAYS> admin

• 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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 34


5. If a license agreement screen appears (typically on the first login or if the EULA changed
since the last login), which indicates the current EULA has not been acknowledged yet, do
the following:

a. Read the license agreement (on the left).


b. Enter appropriate information in the Name, Company, and Job Title fields (on the right).
c. Check the I have read and agree to the terms ... box.
d. Click the Accept button.

Figure 15: EULA Screen

Logging Out of Prism Central

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).

Managing Prism Central


Prism Central consists of one or more VMs treated as a single instance that monitors and
manages registered clusters. You can view information about the Prism Central VMs by clicking
the gear icon in the main menu and then selecting Prism Central Management from the
Settings menu (see Settings Menu (Prism Central) on page 17). This displays the Manage Prism
Central page.

Note: This page is not available if Prism Central is hosted in a non-Nutanix environment, that is
not hosted in a Nutanix cluster.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 35


Figure 16: Manage Prism Central Page (1-VM instance)

The Manage Prism Central page contains the following:

• A Prism Central Summary pane on the upper left that displays fields for

• Cluster name, which is Unnamed by default.


• Domain name. A dash appears if a domain name is not specified.
• Version. This is the Prism Central version number.
• ID number. Click the copy link to copy the ID number so you can paste it elsewhere.
• A Prism Central Capacity pane on the lower left that displays fields for

• Number of VMs monitored currently by this Prism Central instance.


• Number of additional VMs (remaining capacity) this Prism Central instance can monitor.
• Number of clusters registered to this Prism Central instance; click the number to display
the clusters page (see Clusters Summary View on page 200).
• Number of VMs that comprise this Prism Central instance; click the number to display the
VMs page (see VMs Summary View on page 90).
• A Prism Central VMs pane in the middle that displays network address information (network
name, subnet mask, and default gateway address) at the top and information below about
each VM in the Prism Central instance (VM name and name of storage container in which it
is located, IP address, number of vCPUs, and memory size). In addition, single VM instances
include a Scale Out PC button to scale out this Prism Central instance (see Expanding (Scale
Out) Prism Central on page 55).
• An Alerts pane on the right that displays a list of Prism Central-related alerts broken into
Critical, Warning, and Info sections.
When the Prism Central instance consists of three VMs, the display changes slightly. The Scale
Out PC button disappears, and a new Add PCVM button appears (top right). Prism Central
instances are limited to a maximum of three VMs, but if you lose one of those VMs for any

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 36


reason, you can add a replacement by clicking the Add PCVM button. This displays the Add PC
VMs page (similar to the Scale Out PC page) from which you can add the new VM.

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 37


Figure 17: Cluster Details Window

Enabling Microservices Infrastructure


Some Prism Central services are packaged in containers as microservices, and the control
plane for microservices platform (sometimes referred to as CMSP) enables the microservices
infrastructure. The microservices infrastructure is disabled by default, but you can enable it at
any time. Other services like IAM run on microservices infrastructure.

Before you begin


Address the following before enabling the microservices infrastructure:

• 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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 38


• You may need to increase the Prism Central VM memory size before enabling the
microservices infrastructure. The requirements are listed in KB 8932. If your Prism Central
VM resources are below the recommended amount, manually increase the memory to the
recommended amount.
• If you do not want to register the Prism Central instance with the host Prism Element, then
you must complete the trust establishment procedure to enable microservices infrastructure.

Note: Ensure that

• 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)

• Virtual IP Address or FQDN of the host Prism Element.


• Admin user name to be used to log on to the host Prism Element.
• Password for the admin user name provided to log on to the host Prism Element.

About this task

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.

To enable the Microservices Infrastructure, do the following:

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 39


Procedure

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.

Figure 18: Enable box (in Manage Prism Central page)

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 40


3. In the Enable Microservices Infrastructure window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. [first screen, no fields] Read the information and then click the Continue button.

Figure 19: Before Enabling

The following sample window is displayed if you need to establish trust relationship
between the Prism Central instance and the host Prism Element:

Figure 20: Enable Microservices Infrastructure - Trust setup

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 41


Note:
Provide the following information:

• Virtual IP Address or FQDN of the host Prism Element.


• Admin user name to be used to log on to the host Prism Element.
• Password for the admin user name provided to log on to the host Prism
Element.

The following sample window is displayed if the Prism Central instance is already
registered with the host Prism Element:

Figure 21: Enable Microservices Infrastructure - Main dialog box


b. Provide the following information in the Enable Microservices Infrastructure box.

• Prism Central Service Domain Name.


During the Microservices Infrastructure deployment process, a DNS service is deployed
within Prism Central. This DNS service is utilized for discovery of available Prism
Central Microservices. Nutanix recommends that the DNS infrastructure of the
customer's domain be updated to forward or redirect all queries for records within
the Prism Central Service Domain to the DNS server deployed during Microservices

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 42


deployment. This ensures future scalability by avoiding any future need for duplication
of these service location records on your primary DNS infrastructure.
Ensure that the following caveats are considered when selecting a Prism Central
Domain Name:

• 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).

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 43


• The Use default settings (recommended) checkbox is available only when you have
retained the default selection (Private Network [default]) for Internal Network in the
preceding step. This checkbox is checked by default. Do one of the following:

• 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

Subnet Mask Enter the subnet mask.

Gateway IP Address Enter the IP address for the gateway.

IP Address Range Enter a range of IP addresses that the


network can use.
Enter a range of at least 10 available
(unreserved) addresses for a 3-VM (scale
out) Prism Central instance or at least 5
addresses for a 1-VM Prism Central instance.
The addresses must be consecutive or
sequential. For a managed network, the range
of addresses for microservices infrastructure
must be outside the range of reserved IP
addresses (for example, DHCP IP Pool) in the
selected network.

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 44


5. Click the Enable button.
The process begins, which takes some time (around 45 minutes). You can monitor progress
from the tasks dashboard (see Tasks View on page 244). When the microservices
infrastructure is enabled, the contents of the enable box in the Manage Prism Central
page changes to display configuration information such as the domain name, the used IP
addresses, and the service domain’s DNS IP address.

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 Microservices Infrastructure (dark site)

Enabling the Microservices Infrastructure when there is no Internet access (dark site) requires
some extra steps from the standard procedure.

About this task


To enable the Microservices Infrastructure at a dark site, do the following:

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).

Finding the Prism Central Version

About this task


You can check the version of your Prism Central instance using the Prism Central user interface
or by running the following command.

Figure 22: Finding the Prism Central Version

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275778971001 on Brightcove.

nutanix@cvm$ ncli cluster info

Do the following to check the Prism Central version in the UI.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 45


Procedure

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.

Figure 23: Example About Nutanix Window

2. Click Close to close the window.

Finding the AHV Version on Prism Central


You can see the installed AHV version in the Prism Central console.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 46


About this task
To view the AHV version installed on any host in the clusters managed by the Prism Central, do
the following.

Figure 24: Finding the AHV Version on Prism Central

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275777446001 on Brightcove.

Procedure

1. Log on to Prism Central.

2. In side bar, select Hardware > Hosts > Summary tab.

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.

Figure 25: Hypervisor Version in Host Detail View

Finding the AOS Version Using Prism Central


To view the Nutanix AOS version running in the Prism Central, do the following:

Procedure

1. Log on to Prism Central.

2. Click the entities menu (hamburger menu) near the search field and then select Hardware >
Clusters to view the cluster dashboard.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 47


3. In the List tab (default), the AOS version of the cluster is listed against the cluster name.

Figure 26: AOS Version in a Cluster

Registering (Unregistering) Cluster with Prism Central

Before you begin

• 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.

About this task


To register a cluster with Prism Central, do the following:

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 48


3. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 27: Home Dashboard

Figure 28: 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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 49


a new Prism Central instance, see Installing Prism Central (1-Click Method) in the Acropolis
Upgrade Guide.

Figure 29: Prism Central Dialog Box (deploy/connect screen)

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 50


5. A screen appears outlining what services are available through Prism Element and Prism
Central. After reviewing the message, click the Next button.

Figure 30: Prism Central Dialog Box (services screen)

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 51


6. In the registration screen, do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

Figure 31: Prism Central Dialog Box (registration screen)

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.

Unregistering from Prism Central

About this task


To unregister a cluster from an existing Prism Central instance, do the following:

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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 52


(including role-based access control, application management, micro-segmentation policies, and
self-service capability) require Prism Central to run your clusters. If a cluster is unregistered from
Prism Central, not only will these features not be available but the configuration for them may
also be erased. Therefore, only the following procedure is available to unregister a cluster. See
KB 4944 for additional details if you have enabled Self Service, Calm, or other special features in
Prism Central.

Procedure

1. Log on to any Controller VM of the registered cluster through an SSH session.

2. Run the cluster status command and verify that all services are in a healthy state.

Figure 32: Cluster Status Command

3. Unregister the cluster from Prism Element.


nutanix@cvm$ ncli multicluster remove-from-multicluster external-ip-address-or-svm-ips=pc-name-or-ip username=pc-
username password=pc-password force=true

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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 53


4. Get the UUID for the cluster.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli cluster info

Find the Cluster UUID value in the displayed information.

Figure 33: Cluster Info Output

5. Log on to the Prism Central VM through an SSH session (as the nutanix user) and do the
following:

a. Run the unregistration clean-up script.


nutanix@pcvm$ python /home/nutanix/bin/unregistration_cleanup.py uuid

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 54


Note: If Prism Self Service is enabled and the unregistered cluster is set as the default cluster,
you must update the default project to select a new (registered) cluster. For more information,
see Modifying A Project in the Prism Central Guide.

Expanding (Scale Out) Prism Central

Before you begin


The following requirements must be met before you can expand Prism Central or add a Prism
Central VM:

• The specified gateway must be reachable.


• No duplicate IP addresses can be used.
• The container used for deployment is mounted on the hypervisor hosts.
• When installing on an ESXi cluster:

• 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.

About this task


If Prism Central is just a single VM currently, you can expand it to three VMs. This increases both
the capacity and resiliency of Prism Central (at the cost of maintaining two additional VMs). To
expand this Prism Central instance across multiple VMs, do the following:

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 55


Procedure

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.

Figure 34: Manage Prism Central Page

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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 56


instance from a single VM to multiple VMs, you cannot revert back. Deleting any of the Prism
Central VMs may result in data loss.

Figure 35: Scale Out PC Page

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

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 57


microservices infrastructure, Prism Central displays and uses Private Network [default]
details in this section.

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.

Figure 36: Edit IP Field


2. Repeat this step for the second new VM.
The vCPU count and memory size in the new VMs are fixed and match the current Prism
Central VM values; you cannot change these values.
d. When all the parameters are correct, click the Expand button.
This starts the process of creating the new VMs and deploying this Prism Central instance.
You can monitor progress from the Tasks page (see Tasks View on page 244).

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.

Shutting Down (Starting Up) Prism Central VM

About this task


A Prism Central VM (PC VM) is managed like any other VM in a cluster through the Prism web
console (Prism Element) for the cluster in which the Prism Central VM is running. However,
shutting down a PC VM requires extra caution.

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

1. SSH to the IP address of the PC VM that you want to shut down.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 58


2. Stop the cluster.
nutanix@pcvm$ cluster stop

3. Check the status of the services running on the cluster.


nutanix@pcvm$ cluster status

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

Prism Central Disaster Recovery


You can protect your Prism Central deployment (including scaleout deployment) and recover
it when an event like a natural calamity, network outage, or power failure occurs and makes
Prism Central unavailable. This feature enables you to automate continuous backup of your
Prism Central VM (and various service configurations within it) to up to three AHV or ESXi
clusters registered to Prism Central. The seamless 1-Click recovery restores important service
configurations along with your Prism Central deployment.
The following services can be protected and data associated with them recovered.

• Leap
• Flow microsegmentation
• Prism Pro (AIOps)
• VM management
• Cluster management
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Note: IAM is recovered only after you enable microservices infrastructure.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 59


• Categories
• Networking
• Licensing
• Reporting templates
Although the following services continue to run, they are not protected and therefore data
associated with them not recovered.

• 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.

Protecting Prism Central


You can protect a Prism Central deployment to up to three clusters running AHV or ESXi.
Clusters running Hyper-V are not supported.

Before you begin


Ensure that you meet the following requirements before you can protect your Prism Central.

• Prism Central must be running on version pc.2021.7 or newer.


• Prism Central must have NTP configuration to synchronize time between Prism Central and
the registered clusters.
• The clusters used to protect (back up) Prism Central must be registered to Prism Central
you want to protect.
• The clusters used to protect (back up) Prism Central must be running AOS 6.0 or newer.

About this task

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 60


Procedure

1. Log on to Prism Central.

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.

4. Click Protect Now in the Disaster Recovery widget.


The Protect Now option is available only when one or more AHV or ESXi clusters are
registered to Prism Central.
The Protect Prism Central window displays the services that will be protected and the
services that will not be protected.

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.

Recovering Prism Central (1-Click Disaster Recovery)


If you have protected your Prism Central deployment, you can use any registered AHV or ESXi
cluster to recover Prism Central.

Before you begin


Ensure that you meet the following requirements before you can recover your Prism Central.

• 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.

About this task

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.

2. Click Recover Now in the Prism Central widget.


The Recover Now option is available only when Prism Central is Disconnected.
The Recover Prism Central window displays the services that will be recovered and the
services that will not be recovered.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 61


3. Click Continue and specify the following information.

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.

• Use the newly recovered Prism Central only.


If the old Prism Central becomes available, shut down or delete the old Prism Central
deployment because running the old Prism Central can cause data corruption.
• Reset the credentials.
Prism Central recovers with the default credentials. Nutanix recommends changing the
default credentials.
• Reconfigure the proxy server.
If the old Prism Central had a proxy server, reconfigure the proxy server so that the
recovered Prism Central maps to the correct IP address.
• Reconfigure the fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
If the old Prism Central had an FQDN, reconfigure the FQDN so that the recovered Prism
Central maps to the correct IP address.
• Leap Recovery Plan Jobs (RPJ) in progress: Perform the steps mentioned in KB-10962.
If the old Prism Central had a failover task running (Leap) or protection policy with guest
VMs protected with synchronous replication schedule, perform the steps mentioned in
KB-10962 to ensure that all the failover tasks stuck in the running state are terminated and a
script is executed for efficient recovery of Prism Central.
• Re-enable Microservices Infrastructure.
If the old Prism Central had Microservices infrastructure enabled, see Enabling Microservices
Infrastructure for information about how to enable microservices infrastructure on the
recovered Prism Central.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 62


IP Address Reconfiguration
You can use the following procedure to reconfigure the IP address and gateway of single Prism
Central instances as well as Prism Central VMs in a Scale out Prism Central (clustered PC VMs or
PC cluster).

Note: Reconfiguring the IP address and gateway of Prism Central VMs does not require
additional steps when using Leap-based disaster recovery.

Preparing to Reconfigure the IP Address and Gateway of PC VMs


Perform the tasks described in this topic before you start the IP address reconfiguration
procedure.

About this task


You must perform the following tasks while the Prism Central VMs are still on the existing IP
addresses.

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.

4. Verify if the PC VM or PC cluster is in a stable state.


nutanix@pcvm$ cluster status

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.

7. Stop the PC VM or PC cluster.


nutanix@pcvm$ cluster stop

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.

Reconfiguring the IP Address and Gateway of Prism Central VMs

Before you begin


Ensure that you have completed the tasks described in Preparing to Reconfigure the IP
Address and Gateway of PC VMs on page 63.

About this task


The procedure to reconfigure the IP addresses of PC VMs differs depending on whether or not
IP Address Management (IPAM) is enabled in an AHV cluster. The procedure to reconfigure the

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 63


IP addresses of PC VMs in an ESXi cluster is the same as the procedure of an AHV cluster in
which IPAM is disabled.
IP Address Management (IPAM) is a feature of AHV that allows it to assign IP addresses
automatically to VMs by using DHCP. For more information, see IP Address Management
section in the AHV Administration Guide.
In this document, managed network refers to an AHV network that has IPAM enabled, and
unmanaged network refers to an AHV network that does not use IPAM.

Note: Reconfiguration of PC VM IP addresses is not supported for Prism Central scale-out


deployments used in Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS or Azure environment.

Perform the following procedure to reconfigure the IP address of a single PC VM or PC VMs in a


PC cluster.

Procedure

1. Log on as nutanix user and run the external_ip_reconfig script.


nutanix@pcvm$ external_ip_reconfig

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

A message similar to the following is displayed if the procedure is completed successfully:


External IP reconfig finished successfully. Restart all the CVMs and start the cluster.

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.

A message similar to the following is displayed if the procedure fails:


External IP reconfig Failed

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.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 64


4. (Optional) Update the NIC attached to the PC VM with the new IP address of the 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.

nutanix@cvm$ acli vm.nic_update pc-vm-name pc-vm-mac request_ip=true ip=pc-vm-ip

Replace the variables with their appropriate values as follows:

• pc-vm-name: Name of the Prism Central VM whose IP address you modified.


• pc-vm-mac: MAC address of the Prism Central VM whose IP address you modified (press Tab
after you type the name of the PC VM to automatically populate the MAC address).
• pc-vm-ip: New IP address of the Prism Central VM.

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.

a. In the VM dashboard, click the Table view.


b. Select a PC VM and click Update.
c. In the Update VM dialog box, scroll down to the Network Adaptors (NIC) section.
d. In the VLAN Name column, note the names of the networks attached to your PC VM.
e. Click Close.
f. Click the gear icon in the top-right corner, and under Settings, click Network
Configuration.
g. In the Network Configuration dialog box, identify the network names you noted in step d.
h. Select each network and click the pencil icon next to the network.
i. Under IP Address Pools, modify the IP address range if the new IP address of the PC VM
is in a different IP address range than the previous IP address range.

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

8. Start the PC cluster.


nutanix@cvm$ cluster start

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 65


9. Perform the following verification steps:

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.

Pairing AZs (Nutanix Disaster Recovery)


To replicate entities (protection policies, recovery plans, and recovery points) to different on-
prem AZs (AZs) bidirectionally, pair the AZs with each other. To replicate entities to different
Nutanix clusters at the same AZ bidirectionally, you need not pair the AZs because the primary
and the recovery Nutanix clusters are registered to the same AZ (Prism Central). Without
pairing the AZs, you cannot perform DR to a different AZ.

About this task


To pair an on-prem AZ with another on-prem AZ, perform the following procedure at both the
AZs.

Procedure

1. Log on to the Prism Central web console.

2. Click the hamburger icon at the top-left corner of the window. Go to Administration > AZs in
the left pane.

Figure 37: Pairing AZ

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 66


3. Click Connect to AZ.
Specify the following information in the Connect to Availability Zone window.

Figure 38: Connect to AZ

a. AZ Type: Select Physical Location from the drop-down list.


A physical location is an on-prem AZ (AZ). To pair the on-prem AZ with Xi Cloud
Services, select XI from the drop-down list, and enter the credentials of your Xi Cloud
Services account in step c and set d.
b. IP Address for Remote PC: Enter the IP address of the recovery AZ Prism Central.
c. Username: Enter the username of your recovery AZ Prism Central.
d. Password: Enter the password of your recovery AZ Prism Central.

4. Click Connect.

Prism | Prism Central Administration | 67


MAIN DASHBOARD
The main dashboard is the opening screen that appears after logging into Prism Central. It
provides a dynamic summary view across the registered clusters. To view the main dashboard
at any time, select Dashboard from the Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13 section).

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 Screen Layout


In addition to the main menu options (see Main Menu (Prism Central) on page 10 section), the
main dashboard includes a menu bar and a display section for a collection of widgets that
appear as tiles with targeted information about the registered clusters in each tile. The menu
bar includes the following options:

• 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).

Prism | Main Dashboard | 68


• Data Density button. Click this button to select the density of data representation in the
widgets. Select one of the following three options:

• 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.

Figure 39: Data Density

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.

Figure 40: Main Dashboard

Prism | Main Dashboard | 69


Main Dashboard Display
The main dashboard displays thirteen information tiles (widgets) by default. You can customize
this view by adding or deleting widgets as desired (see Modifying a Dashboard on page 83).
The widgets are lined up in rows of four widgets per row. The default widgets are described
in this section as they appear from left to right, top to bottom on the Main Dashboard page. A
sample view of the Main Dashboard with the default widgets is displayed in the figure.

Figure 41: Main Dashboard with Default Widgets

The following figure displays the sample view of a widget with a period (time) selection:

Prism | Main Dashboard | 70


Figure 42: Sample Widget

• 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,

Prism | Main Dashboard | 71


compression, and erasure coding. (A 1:1 ratio indicates none of these data reduction
techniques are in use currently.)
• Cluster Latency. This widget displays the total (read and write) IO latency average for the
highest latency clusters. Clicking on a cluster name displays the summary page for that
cluster.
• Cluster Memory Usage. This widget displays the percentage of total memory in use currently
for the highest usage clusters. Clicking on a cluster name displays the summary page for that
cluster.
• Cluster CPU Usage. This widget displays the percentage of total CPU in use currently for the
highest usage clusters (or all clusters if there are fewer than five). Clicking on a cluster name
displays the summary page for that cluster.
• Controller IOPS. This widget displays the total (read and write) controller IOPS for the
highest volume clusters. Clicking on a cluster name displays the summary page for that
cluster. The IOPS number comes from the controller when the hypervisor is AHV or Hyper-V
and from the hypervisor when the hypervisor is ESXi.
• Cluster Runway. This widget alerts you to potential storage, CPU, or memory resource
constraints across the clusters and provides an estimated runway (time remaining) before
the resources are maxed out based on current usage. Clicking on a cluster name displays the
capacity page for that cluster.
• VM Efficiency. This widget displays the number of VMs that are considered inefficient broken
down by category: overprovisioned, inactive, constrained, and bully. It includes a link to the
VMs dashboard for details about these VMs (see VMs Summary View on page 90). For
more information about VM efficiency, see Behavioral Learning Tools on page 846.
• Plays. This widget displays a list of the Plays running on the cluster. The list is categorised to
completed, failed and paused plays. The completed plays are displayed in the center widget.
The number for each category is linked to the Plays dashboard page.
• Tasks. This widget displays a list of recent tasks with the current status of each task. Click on
the View All Tasks(s) link to view the Tasks page.
• Reports. This widget displays a table that lists the number of total and scheduled reports
with a link to the reports dashboard (see Reports Management on page 892).
• Protection Status. This widget displays the protection plan status if one has been created. If
not, it displays a set of recommended steps to create a protection plan.
• Recovery Plan Status. This widget displays the recovery plan status if one has been created.
If not, it displays a set of recommended steps to create a recovery plan.

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 72


Figure 43: Vertically Resizing the Widget

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 73


Figure 44: Widget Resize to One-and-half Times the Default Length

Prism | Main Dashboard | 74


Figure 45: Widget Resize to Twice the Default Length

Drill-down or Expanding Data Elements in a Widget


You can expand or drill-down the data presented in the widgets by clicking on the data
element. The following conditions are applicable:

• Expanding a data element in a widget is not possible in all widgets.


• In widgets that provide a list, clicking the list item or row opens an entity page in Prism
Central or another application such as Prism Web Console in a new browser tab. For
example, in the Cluster Quick Access widget, clicking the cluster name in the list opens the
Prism Element Web Console for that cluster in a new browser tab. In the Cluster Storage
widget, clicking a cluster name opens the cluster details view for that cluster.
• In widgets that provide numbers, clicking a number opens the respective entity page
in Prism Central. For example, in the Reports widget, clicking the Total Reports or the
Scheduled Reports number opens the Reports page. Similarly, clicking

Prism | Main Dashboard | 75


• If the widget presents charts, click on the chart to display an expanded or drill-down view
of the chart. Do not click on the entity (such as cluster name). If you do so, instead of
displaying the drill-down view of the chart, the entity details page is displayed.
The figure displays an example of expanding a chart in a widget.

Figure 46: Widget Data Drill-down


At the bottom of the drill-down view, you can click Full View to open the details page of the
entity(cluster or VM). Click Add To Analysis to add the chart to the Analysis dashboard (See
Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746.

Hover Details in Drill-down Views


After you click on a chart in a widget, the drill-down view of the chart is displayed. You can
hover on any poin on the time chart to display the parameters at that point.
In the same example as presented in the Drill-down or Expanding Data Elements in a Widget on
page 75, if you hover over the chart, the following sample details are displayed:

Prism | Main Dashboard | 76


Figure 47: Hover Details

Creating a New Dashboard


About this task
The Main dashboard provides a default view into the clusters, but you can add custom views by
creating custom dashboards. To create a custom dashboard, do the following:

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 77


2. In the Manage Dashboards window (see Modifying a Dashboard on page 83), do the
following:

a. Click the New Dashboard button.


b. Enter a name for the dashboard in the displayed field.
c. Click the Save button.

Figure 48: Manage Dashboards Windows (new dashboard)

3. Click the Close button to close the Manage Dashboards window.


A tab for the new dashboard appears next to the Main Dashboard (or other custom
dashboard) tab.

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.

Adding Dashboard Widgets


Prism Central provides a selection of widgets that can be added to the home or a custom
dashboard. Each widget provides information about a specific resource or usage topic that is
displayed in a tile on the dashboard.
To add a widget to a dashboard, do the following:

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 78


2. In the Add Widgets page, select the desired widget in the left column. (To find a particular
widget, enter the name in the search field.) A preview of the selected widget appears in the
middle column.
3. Enter values for the configurable parameters in the right column. The parameters vary by
widget; some widgets do not have any configurable parameters.
4. Click the Add to Dashboard (or Add & Return to Dashboard) button to add the widget to
the dashboard.

Figure 49: Add Widget Screen

The following table describes the widgets that you can add to a dashboard.

Table 11: Widget Parameters

Widget Description Parameter Values

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.

Select a Cluster - Select All Clusters,


the cluster(s) to monitor <cluster name>
from the pull-down list. The
default is all clusters.

Choose Size - Select 1 x 1, 2 x 1, 2 x 2, 2


the size (width/height x 3, 2 x 4, 4 x 4
dimensions) of the widget.
The default is 1 x 1.

Severity. The default is Critical, Warning,


critical. Info

Prism | Main Dashboard | 79


Widget Description Parameter Values

Entity. Select the entity Cluster, Storage,


of interest. The default is VM, Hardware,
cluster. DR

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.

Select a Cluster - Select All Clusters,


the cluster(s) to monitor <cluster name>
from the pull-down list. The
default is all clusters.

Choose Size - Select 2 x 1, 2 x 2, 2 x 3


the size (width/height
dimensions) of the widget.
The default is 2 x 1.

Entity. Select the entity of host, VM


interest. The default is host.

Metric. Select the metric IOPS, Memory


of interest. The default is Usage,
IOPS. CPU Usage,
Bandwidth,
Latency

Custom Chart Displays a performance Widget Name - Enter (name)


Widget graph for a selected entity a name for the widget.
and metric pair. The default is "New Chart
Widget".

Entity Type. The default is Host, Disk,


host. Storage
Pool, Storage
Container, Virtual
Machine, Virtual
Disk

Entity. (There is no default (entity name)


value.)

Metric. (There is no default (metric name)


value.)

Cluster Info Displays cluster summary Widget Name - Enter a (n/a)


Widget information about alerts, name for the widget. The
anomalies, runway, and default is "New Widget".
inefficient VMs.
Select a Cluster. Select (registered
the target cluster from the cluster names)
pull-down list.

Compute & Storage Widgets - This widget appears on the Main dashboard by default (see
Main Dashboard on page 68).

Prism | Main Dashboard | 80


Widget Description Parameter Values

VM Efficiency Displays a four-cell table (no customizable (n/a)


that lists the number of parameters)
overprovisioned, inactive,
constrained, and bully VMs
in the cluster with links to
the details.

Hardware Widgets - All these widgets (except Performance) appear on the Main dashboard
by default (see Main Dashboard on page 68).

Cluster CPU Displays the percentage of (no customizable (n/a)


Usage total CPU in use currently parameters)
for the highest usage
clusters.

Cluster Latency Displays the total (read (no customizable (n/a)


and write) IO latency parameters)
average for the highest
latency clusters.

Cluster Memory Displays the percentage (no customizable (n/a)


Usage of total memory in use parameters)
currently for the highest
usage clusters.

Cluster Quick Displays a list of registered (no customizable (n/a)


Access clusters. Health and parameters)
alert icons appear for
each cluster. Clicking the
cluster line opens Prism
(element) for that cluster in
a separate tab or window.

Cluster Runway Displays storage, CPU, and (no customizable (n/a)


memory runway estimates parameters)
(time remaining before the
resource reaches capacity).
See the Capacity Runway
Tab section in Resource
Planning for more runway
information.

Cluster Storage Displays storage statistics (no customizable (n/a)


for the highest usage parameters)
clusters.

Controller IOPS Displays the total (read (no customizable (n/a)


and write) controller IOPS parameters)
for the highest volume
clusters.

Impacted Cluster Displays information (no customizable (n/a)


about any clusters that are parameters)
impacted (performance,
capacity, or other potential
issues) and may need
attention.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 81


Widget Description Parameter Values

Performance Displays latency, (no customizable (n/a)


bandwidth, and IOPS parameters)
statistics for the highest
usage clusters.

Alerts Displays colored bar (no customizable (n/a)


graph representing the parameters)
alerts raised in the period
selected. Clicking the View
All Alerts link below the list
to see all the alerts on the
Alerts page.

Activity Widgets - The Tasks widget appears on the Main dashboard by default (see Main
Dashboard on page 68).

Tasks Displays a list of recent (no customizable (n/a)


tasks with the current parameters)
status of each task
and a link to the Tasks
dashboard.

Discovered Apps Displays the number of (no customizable (n/a)


applications discovered parameters)
in a specified set of
monitored clusters. Click
the App instances number
to display the application
discovery dashboard.
Click the Identified or
Unidentified number to
display the application
discovery dashboard
filtered for that condition.
This widget displays
the discovered apps
information only if you
enable App Discovery.

Operations Widgets - These widgets appear on the Main dashboard by default (see Main
Dashboard on page 68).

Plays Displays a list of the Plays (no customizable (n/a)


running on the cluster. parameters)
The list is categorised
to completed, failed
and paused plays. The
completed plays are
displayed in the center
widget. The number for
each category is linked to
the Plays dashboard page.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 82


Widget Description Parameter Values

Reports Displays a table that (no customizable (n/a)


lists the number of total parameters)
and scheduled reports
with a link to the Reports
dashboard.

Disaster Recovery Widgets - These widgets appear on the Main dashboard by default (see
Main Dashboard on page 68).

Protection Status Displays the protection (no customizable (n/a)


plan status if one has been parameters)
created. If not, it displays a
set of recommended steps
to create a protection plan.

Recovery Plan Displays the recovery plan (no customizable (n/a)


Status status if one has been parameters)
created. If not, it displays a
set of recommended steps
to create a recovery plan.

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 83


5. To rename a custom dashboard, do the following:

a. Click the Manage Dashboards button.


b. Click the pencil icon for that dashboard.
c. Enter a new name in the displayed field.
d. Click the Save button.

Figure 50: Manage Dashboards Window

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.

Prism | Main Dashboard | 84


ENTITY EXPLORING
The entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13) provides access to dashboards that allow you
to view statistics about a range of entities across clusters and to organize that information in
a variety of ways. An entity is an object type such as a VM, cluster, security policy, project, or
report. Many of the entity dashboards include common elements in a summary view with drill-
down options to view detailed information about individual entities of that type.

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.

Prism | Entity Exploring | 85


• When a list appears in the main section, the display may include:

• 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.

Figure 51: Dashboard Layout (example)

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".

Prism | Entity Exploring | 86


Figure 52: Filter Pane

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.

• Select General to display a set of general information parameters, as illustrated in the


Explore Dashboard figure.
• Select Performance to display a set of performance-specific parameters.
• Select Efficient to display a set of efficiency-related parameters. "Efficiency" is
determined through the VM behavioral learning engine (see Behavioral Learning Tools on
page 846).
• Select GPU to display a set of GPU-specific parameters.
• Select Data Protection to display a set of data protection-related parameters.
In addition to the preset View by displays, you can create one or more custom displays as
follows:

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.

Prism | Entity Exploring | 87


3. When the entity-property list in the right column is correct (you can remove an entity
property from this list by clicking the red - circle for that entity), click the Save button.

Figure 53: VM Column Window (example)

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.

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Action (and Selection) Options
The dashboard provides options to administer and categorize the entities. Actions are applied
to selected entities that are currently visible. You can select a set of entities (rows) by selecting
the first one and then using <Shift> select to select the last one.

• 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.

Note: Labels are available for VMs and clusters only.

• Use the selection menu to

• 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.

Figure 54: Action Options

Compute and Storage Entities


You can access dashboards for the following virtual infrastructure entities from the Compute
and Storage category of the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):

• VMs (see VMs Summary View on page 90)


• OVAs (see OVAs View on page 117)

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• Images (see Images Summary View on page 120)
• Catalog Items (see Catalog Items View on page 124)
• Storage Containers (see Storage Containers Summary View on page 125)
• Volume Groups (see Volume Groups Summary View on page 143)
• vCenter Datastores (see vCenter Datastores Summary View on page 153)

Note: These views reflect that Prism Central retains alerts and events for 90 days and hourly
data for a year by default.

VMs Summary View


To access the VMs dashboard, select Compute & Storage > VMs from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13). The VMs dashboard summary view displays information about VMs
across the registered clusters and allows you to access detailed information about each VM.
The dashboard includes five tabs on the left (Summary, List, Alerts, Events, and Metrics) with a
display area below the selected tab.

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.

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Figure 55: VMs Summary Tab (Nutanix)

Figure 56: VMs Summary Tab (Non-Nutanix)

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.

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Figure 57: VMs List Tab

Table 12: VMs List Fields

Parameter Description Values

"General" Focus fields

Name Displays the VM name. Clicking the name (VM name)


displays the details page for that VM (see VM
Details View on page 100).

vCPU Displays the virtual CPU count of the VM. (vCPU count)

Memory Displays the total amount of memory available xxx [MB|GiB]


to this VM.

IP address Displays one or more VM IP addresses. (IP address)

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.

OS Displays the guest operating system of the (OS)


VM.

NGT Displays whether Nutanix Guest Tools is Installed, Not Installed


installed on the VM.

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)

"Performance" Focus Fields

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Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the VM name. (VM name)

Memory usage Displays the percentage of allocated memory 0 -100%


capacity currently being used by this VM.

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.

"Efficiency" Focus Fields

Name Displays the VM name. (VM name)

Efficiency Displays the assessed efficiency of the VM. If Good, Constrained,


a VM is performing in an expected range, the Overprovisioned,
efficiency is listed as "Good". If not, the type of Inactive, Bully;
inefficiency is displayed as determined by the ("NA" if insufficient
VM behavioral learning engine (see Behavioral baseline data for
Learning Tools on page 846). categorization, which
is typically 21 days)

Efficiency Detail Displays why a VM is considered inefficient. A (text message)


dash (-) appears for a "Good" VM.

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" Focus Fields

Name Displays the VM name. (VM name)

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)

GPU Type Displays the GPU configuration made as [Passthrough|vGPU|-]


Passthrough or vGPU or if you did not
configure GPU then "-"

Prism | Entity Exploring | 93


Parameter Description Values

GPU Usage Displays the percentage of GPU capacity (percentage)


being used by the VM.

GPU Framebuffer Displays the percentage of GPU framebuffer (percentage)


Usage (RAM) capacity being used by the VM.

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.

Table 13: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Labels Filters on label name. Select one or more (label names)


labels from the pull-down list. (If there are
no labels currently, a message about how to
create labels is displayed.)

Name Filters on the VM name. Select a condition (VM name string)


from the pull-down list and enter a string in
the field. It will return a list of VMs that satisfy
the VM name condition/string.

Note: In this and the following two fields,


the condition menu options are Contains,
Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends with,
and Equal to.

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.

Categories Filters on category names. Enter a category (category name)


name in the field and then check the box.
As you type a pull-down list appear to help
you select the correct category. A new field
appears where you can add more categories
to the filter. The number of VMs tagged to
each selected category is displayed on the
right of the line.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Health Filters on the VM health state (good, warning, Critical, Warning,


or critical). Select one or more states to return Good
a list of VMs in that state(s). The number of
VMs currently in each state 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.

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Parameter Description Values

Over Provisioned Filters for over-provisioned VMs. Check High, Moderate


the box(es) for the desired type (high and
moderate).

Note: This and the following two fields


filter based on a VM efficiency algorithm,
which is part of the VM behavioral learning
capabilities (see Behavioral Learning
Tools on page 846).

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.)

Prism | Entity Exploring | 96


• When you select one or more VMs, the Label icon appears (to the left of the Actions menu).
To assign the selected VMs a group label, click the Label icon and do one of the following:

Figure 58: Label Icon

• 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:

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• These actions can be applied to multiple VMs: Delete, Power on, Power off, Pause/Suspend,
Resume, Protect, UnprotectManage Categories, Quarantine VMs, Unquarantine VMs, Enable
NGT, Disable NGT, Manage Ownership
• These actions can be applied to only one VM at a time: Update, Clone, Create VM Template,
Launch console, Create Recovery Point, Migrate, Configure VM Host Affinity, Add to
Catalog
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 current state
of the selected VM(s). See Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 552 or
Managing a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 579 for instructions on how to perform
these 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).

Figure 59: VMs Policies Tab

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.)

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Figure 60: VMs Metrics Tab

Table 14: Metrics Tab Fields

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.

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table with either percentile or quantity intervals.

CPU Ready Time Displays a CPU ready time percentage usage table.

Memory Usage Displays a memory percentage usage table.

Memory Swap Displays memory swap-out and swap-in rate tables.

IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS tables.

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.

Usage Displays total, snapshot, and shared storage size 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).

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Metric Description

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.

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table with either percentile or quantity intervals.

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

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Disks, Storage Containers, Categories and Storage Policies associated with the VM. See the
Storage Properties Fields and the Associations Fields tables.

Figure 61: VM Storage Properties - Associations Widget

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.

Figure 62: VM Summary Tab


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.

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Table 15: VM Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Note: The Anomalies, Efficiency, Over


provisioned, and Constrained parameters
relate to the VM behavioral learning
feature. See Behavioral Learning Tools
on page 846 for a description of each
parameter.

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.

Host IP Displays the host IP address. (IP address)

Virtual CPU Count Displays the number of virtual CPUs assigned (number)
to this VM.

Memory Capacity Displays the amount of memory available to xxx [MB|GB]


this VM.

IP Addresses Displays one or more IP addresses assigned to (IP address)


the VM.

Power State Displays whether the VM is powered on or On, Off


powered off

Network Adapters Displays the number of network adapters (# of adapter ports)


available 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

NGT Installed Version

NGT Cluster Version

(the following fields appear when the VM is allocated to a GPU)

GPU Type Displays the GPU operational mode. If it is vGPU, Passthrough,


vGPU, the following fields also appear. None

GPU Configuration Displays the vGPU profile used. (vGPU profile name)

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Parameter Description Values

Framebuffer Displays the size of the GPU framebuffer xxx GiB


(RAM).

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.

Note: The Virtual Slice and vGPU Guest


Driver Version fields do not appear for
passthrough GPUs.

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.

Table 16: Storage Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

Defined via Displays the name of the Storage policy name


storage policy that the VM is
associated with.
Encryption Displays the status of Enabled or Inherit from
encryption that the storage Cluster
policy applies to the VM.
Compression Displays the status and type Inline, Post Process, Off or
of compression that the Inherit from Cluster
storage policy applies to the
VM.
QOS Metric Displays the type of QOS Throttled Throughput value in
metric that the storage policy IOPS or MBps.
applies to the VM with the
throttled throughput value.

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.

Table 17: Associations Fields

Parameter Description Values

Virtual Disks Displays the number of virtual (number)


disks associated with the VM.

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Parameter Description Values
Storage Containers Displays the number of (number)
storage containers associated
with the VM.
Categories Displays the number of (number)
categories associated with the
VM.
Policies Displays the number of (number)
policies like storage policies
and Image Placement policies
that are associated with the
VM.

Entity Relationship Widget


The entity relationship widget shows the relationship between related entities like clusters,
hosts, and VMs instances. The widget allows quick access between the related entities. You
can directly navigate to a target cluster, host, or VM instance through the respective pull-down
menus.
Example: Displaying Relationship between Entities
The following image indicates that VM auto_pc_611cd08373101ab68d756c9a0 resides on host
cool-07-2 and cluster auto_cluster_prod_rohan_bajaj_1ab68d756c98.

Figure 63: VM Summary: Entity Relationship Widget

Example: Viewing VMs on a Cluster


Click the VM pull-down menu to view the list of VM instances on the selected cluster.
Alternatively, you search the VM instance name residing on the target cluster.

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Figure 64: VMs on a Cluster

Example: Viewing VM Instances on a Host


Click the VM pull-down menu to view the list of VM instances on the selected host.
Alternatively, you can search the VM instance name belonging to the target host.

Figure 65: VMs on a Host

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.

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Recovery Points
The Recovery Points tab displays a list of recovery points (backup snapshots) when backups
have been enabled. (The list is blank if there are no snapshots available.) The total number
of recovery points and the latest and oldest recovery points are listed on the left. A list of all
recovery points appears in a table on the right with the create time, location, expiry time, and
recovery point type provided for each recovery point.

Figure 66: Recovery Points Tab

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:

Figure 67: Snapshot Tab

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• Create Time. Displays the time the backup snapshot was created (completed).
• Name. Displays a name for the backup if one was created.
• Action. Displays four action links:

• Click the Details link to open a window that displays the snapshot details.

Figure 68: Snapshot Details Window


• Click the Clone link to clone a VM from the snapshot.
• Click the Restore link to restore the VM from the snapshot. This restores the VM back to
the state of the selected snapshot.
• Click the Delete link to delete the snapshot.

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).

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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 VM. (see Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).

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.)

Table 18: Metrics Tab Fields

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%).

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory capacity currently being


used by the VM (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.

Usage Displays separate graphs for current, snapshot, and shared


storage usage (in GiBs) by the VM.

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Metric Description

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).

Figure 69: Metrics Tab: CPU Usage

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.

Table 19: NIC Fields

Parameter Description Values

VLAN ID Displays the VLAN name for this NIC. (VLAN ID

MAC Address Displays the virtual NIC MAC address. (MAC address)

Network Connection Displays whether the NIC is connected to the Connected,


State network currently. Disconnected

Requested IP Address Displays the virtual NIC IP address (IP address)

Action Displays the available actions you can execute Delete


on this NIC.

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.

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• Disk Address: Displays the disk address (such as ide.0 or scsi.1).
• Capacity: Displays the disk capacity (in MiB or GiB).

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.

Figure 70: Categories Tab

For more information about categories management and image placement policies, see
Category Management on page 742 and Image Placement Policies on page 685.

Apps & Relationships Tab


The Apps & Relationships tab displays a pull-down menu with two menu options: Discovered
Apps and App Relationships.
The Discovered Apps menu option displays (up to) the top 20 applications that are
communicating with other entities (usually client VMs). The discovered applications are sorted
based on the number of clients communicating with the application. This menu option provides
similar information as the application discovery dashboard, except it is filtered to display the
details only for this VM (see Application Discovery View on page 779).
The App Relationships option displays three tabs: Visualization, Incoming List, and Outgoing
List. All the three tabs display (up to) the top 20 results with respect to the incoming or
outgoing client communication.
Visualization: Displays a visual representation of the VM and the applications running on it,
along with its incoming and outgoing communication with other entities. Data for last 24 hours
is fetched to display the information on the visualization tab. You can hover on an entity to
see the applications it is communicating with. Hover on an application to see the application's
incoming communication with external entities and outgoing communications of the VM on
which the application is running.

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.

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Figure 71: Visualization Tab

Incoming List: Displays a list of entities having incoming communication with this VM. Each line
represents an incoming communication and includes the following fields.

Table 20: Incoming List Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Source IP Address Displays the IP Address of the communicating (IP Address)


entity.

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 IP Address Displays the IP Address of the VM. (IP address)

Destination Port Displays the port used by the application for (port number)
communication.

Destination App Indicates whether the application is an Identified, Unidentified


Identification Status identified application type. An identified
application is one that is a known type.

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.

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The filters fetch the latest discovery and communication data and accordingly display the result
set, to the maximum of 20 results.

Table 21: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Entity Type Filters on the entity type. A VM belongs to a VM, Unknown


cluster managed by Prism Central or vCenter
(only if using monitoring configurations
feature). An Unknown entity is one that is not
identified by Prism Central.

Source IP Address Filters on the source IP address.(same (source IP address


options as Source Entity Name). string)

Destination App Filters on the destination app (same options (Destination App
as Source Entity Name). string)

Destination IP Address Filters on the destination IP address (same (destination IP


options as Source Entity Name). address string)

TCP Port Filters on the TCP port number. (TCP port number)

UDP Port Filters on the UDP port number. (UDP port number)

Time Range Filters on the time range. Last 30 Mins, Last 1


Hour, Last 12 Hours,
and Last 24 Hours

Outgoing List: Displays a list of entities having outgoing communication from this VM. Each line
represents an outgoing communication and includes the following fields.

Table 22: Outgoing List Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Destination Port Displays the port on which this VM is (port number)


communicating with the destination entity.

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Parameter Description Values

Source IP Address Displays the IP Address of the VM. (IP address)

Source App Indicates whether the communicating Identified, Unidentified


Identification Status application is an identified application type.
An identified application is one that is a known
type.

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.

Table 23: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Entity Type Filters on the entity type. A VM belongs to a VM, Unknown


cluster managed by Prism Central or vCenter
(only if using monitoring configurations
feature). An Unknown entity is one that is not
identified by Prism Central.

Destination IP Address Filters on the destination IP address. (same (destination IP


options as Destination Entity Name). address string)

TCP Port Filters on the TCP port number. (TCP port number)

UDP Port Filters on the UDP port number. (UDP port number)

Source IP Address Filters on the source IP address (same (source IP address


options as Destination Entity Name). string)

Time Range Filters on the time range. Last 30 Mins, Last 1


Hour, Last 12 Hours,
and Last 24 Hours

VM Template Summary View


To access the templates dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Templates from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The templates dashboard summary view displays
information about templates across the registered clusters and allows you to access detailed
information about each template.

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.

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• See Creating a VM Template on page 610 for information about creating the
templates.
• See Managing a VM Template on page 614 for information about managing the
templates.

Figure 72: Templates View

Table 24: Template fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the template name. Clicking the (Template name)


name displays the details page for that
template (see VM Template Details View on
page 115).

Compute Displays the virtual CPU count of the VM that (vCPU count)
is deployed using this template.

Memory Displays the total amount of memory xxx [MB|GiB]


available to the VM that is deployed using this
template.

Storage Displays total amount of storage available to xxx [MB|GiB]


the VM that is deployed using this template.

Network Displays the NIC count of the VM that is (NIC count)


deployed using this template.

Updated On Displays the last date and time when the (date and time)
template has been updated.

Updated By Displays the user who most recently updated (user)


the template.

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.

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Table 25: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Filters on the template name. Select a (template name


condition from the pull-down list and enter string)
a string in the field. It will return a list of
templates that satisfy the template name
condition/string.
In this field, the condition menu options are
Contains, Doesn't contain, Starts with, Ends
with, and Equal to.

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:

• Actions that can be applied to multiple templates: Delete Template.


• Actions that can be applied to only one template at a time: Update Guest OS, Complete
Guest OS Update, Cancel Guest OS Update, Update Configuration, and Delete Template.
The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed out. The available actions depend
on the current state of the selected template. See Managing a VM Template on page 614 for
instructions on how to perform these actions.

VM Template Details View


To access the details page of a template, go to the templates view (see VMs Summary View on
page 90) and click the template name. You can also access the details page by clicking the
template name wherever that name appears, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The templates details page includes two views: Summary view and Versions view.

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.

• Template: The widget displays the following:

• Available Versions: Number of versions available


• Description: User-provided description of the template
• Last Updated by: User who has last updated the template
• Last Updated on: Date and time of last update to the template

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• Active Version Configuration: The widget displays the following:

• Version Name: Name of the currently active version of the template


• Change Notes: User-provided change notes for the active version
• VM Properties: The widget displays the following:

• 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:

• GPU: Number of GPU assigned to the VM


• Disks: Number of disks and total disk capacity assigned to the VM
• Network: Number of NICs assigned to the VM

Figure 73: Summary View of a Template

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.

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Table 26: Versions Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Memory Displays the total amount of memory available xxx [MB|GiB]


to the VM that gets deployed using this
version.

Storage Displays total amount of storage available to xxx [MB|GiB]


the VM that 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.

Added By Displays the user who added the version. (user)

Notes Displays the user-specified change note for (version)


the version.

Figure 74: Versions View of a Template

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.

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Figure 75: OVAs Dashboard

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.

Table 27: OVA List Fields

Parameter Description Values

OVA Name Displays the name of the OVA file. (file name)

Source VM Displays the name of source VM that was (file name)


exported as an OVA.
The alert indicators for the task status are
displayed beside the source VM for which
the task is run. See the Alert indicator
table for more information.

Disk Format Displays the format of the disks in the [QCOW2|VMDK]


OVA.

Added by Indicates which user added this OVA. (text string)

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

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Table 28: OVA Alerts

OVA Alerts Status Message sample Indicates...

Incorrect file uploaded. That the upload process


Multiple OVA files present in OVA. failed during validation.
You must fix the issue in
Figure 76: the OVA file or upload the
correct, compatible OVA
file.

Upload for OVA file has not started. That there is an


Please start OVA file upload using Resume Upload interruption in one of the
option. three sub-tasks in the
Figure 77: Uploaded OVA file has not been verified. upload process.
Please start verification using Resume Upload option.
You can resume the
upload. See the Resume
Upload action procedure.

OVA file upload is in progress. That the OVA upload is in


progress without any error
or interrupts.
Figure 78: Check the Tasks page after
some time to verify the
successful upload.

A sample of the error hover message is as follows:

Figure 79: Sample error hover message

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.

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Table 29: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

OVA Name Filters on the OVA file name. It returns a list of (OVA file name string)
OVAs that satisfy the name condition/string.

Source VM Filters on the Source VM name. It returns a (Source VM name


list of OVAs for which the Source VM field string)
satisfies the 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:

• Deploy an OVA file as a VM.


• Download an OVA file to your local machine.
• Rename an OVA file.
• Delete an OVA file.
• Resume upload when an upload is interrupted and shows an error.

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.

Images Summary View


To access the images dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Images from the Entities menu
(see Entities Menu on page 13). The images dashboard allows you to view information about
images available from this Prism Central instance.

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.

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Figure 80: Images List View

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.

Table 30: Image List Fields

Parameter Description Values


Name Displays the image name. Clicking the name (name)
displays the details page for that image (see
Image Details View on page 122).

Description Indicates which user uploaded this image. (text string)

Type Displays the image type. ISO, Disk

Size Displays the image size. xxx [MB|GB]

Creator Displays who created the image. (name)

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.

Table 31: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values


Name Filters on the storage container name. Select (image name string)
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
returns a list of storage containers that satisfy
the name condition/string.

Description Filters on the description. Select a condition (description string)


from the pull-down list (same options as for
name) and enter a string in the field. It will
return a list of images whose description field
satisfy the condition/string.

Type Filters on the image type. Check the box(es) Disk, ISO
for the desired image types.

You can group the images list in the following ways:

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• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group by type (disk or ISO).
• The View by pull-down menu allows you to view the entries by categories, creator,
description, size, and type.
The images dashboard includes the following action buttons:

• 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).

Figure 81: Images Policies Tab

Image Details View


You can view the detailed information about an image by going to the details page for that
image.
To access the details page for an image, go to the images dashboard (see Images Summary
View on page 120) and click the image name. An image details page includes the following:

• 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.

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• Action buttons (upper right). When the window size is not large enough, some actions
appear under a More menu button.

• To delete the image, click the Delete button


• To modify the name, description, or type, click the Update Image button (see Modifying
an Image on page 683).
• To add the image to the catalog, click the Add Image to Catalog button (see Adding a
Catalog Item on page 663).
• To assign the image to a category, click the Manage Categories button (see Assigning a
Category on page 744).
• To open a help page in a separate tab or window, click the question mark icon.
• To close the details page, click the X icon.

Figure 82: Image Details View (Location Tab)

Location Tab
The following table describes the information displayed in the Location tab, which appears by
default when you first open the page.

Table 32: Location Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Host Count Displays the number of hosts in the cluster. (integer)

VM Count Displays the number of VMs in the cluster (integer)

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.

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Table 33: Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

Policy Name Displays the policy name. (cluster name)

Status Indicates whether the image is compliant compliant,


according to the policy. noncompliant

Details Lists the clusters in which the policy is (cluster names)


enforced.

Figure 83: Image Details View (Policies Tab)

Catalog Items View


To access the catalog items dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Catalog Items from the
Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The catalog items dashboard allows you to view
information about the images and VMs in the catalog.

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.

Figure 84: Catalog Items Dashboard

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.

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Table 34: Catalog Items List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the item name. (item name)

Type Displays the type of item (image or VM). Image, Vm

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.

Table 35: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Description Filters on the description. Select a condition (description string)


from the pull-down list (same options as for
name) and enter a string in the field. It returns
a list of catalog items whose description field
satisfy the 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).

Storage Containers Summary View


To access the storage containers dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Storage Containers
from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The storage containers dashboard
summary view displays information about storage containers across the registered clusters
and allows you to access detailed information about each storage container. The dashboard
includes five tabs at the top (Summary, List, Alerts, Events, and Metrics) with a display area
below the selected tab.

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Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the storage containers
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 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.

Figure 85: Storage Containers Summary Tab

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.

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Figure 86: Storage Containers List Tab

Table 36: Storage Containers List Fields

Parameter Description Values

"General" Focus Fields

Name Displays the name of the storage container. (name)


Click the name to display the details page for
that storage container (see Storage Container
Details View on page 132).

Usage Displays the amount of used storage space. xxx [GB|TB]


A bar also appears that graphically indicates
the amount of used and free storage space
available in the storage container. Hovering
the cursor over the bar displays a window
listing the used space, free space, and total
space in the storage container.
Replication Factor Displays the replication factor, which is the [2-3]
number of maintained data copies. The
replication factor is specified (2 or 3) when the
storage container is created.

Compression Displays whether compression is enabled. [Off|On]

Cache Deduplication Displays whether "fingerprint on write" [None, On, Off]


is enabled, which allows data duplication
compression when data is read. Data
duplication (commonly referred to as dedup)
is a specialized data compression technique
for eliminating duplicate copies of repeating
data. Setting this parameter to On causes
dedup compression to be applied to data both
in memory and in solid state storage (SSD).

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Parameter Description Values

Capacity Displays whether capacity deduplication is [On, Off]


Deduplication enabled, that is deduplication compression
applied to data on hard disks (HDD).
Performance tier deduplication is a
prerequisite for capacity deduplication.

Erasure Coding Displays whether erasure coding is enabled or [On, Off]


not.

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).

"Performance" Focus Fields

Name Displays the name of the storage container. (name)


Click the name to display the details page for
that storage container (see Storage Container
Details View on page 132).

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.

IOPS Displays the current I/O operations per [0 - unlimited]


second (IOPS) for the storage container.
The controller IOPS, I/O bandwidth, and I/O
latency fields record the I/O requests serviced
by the Controller VM. The I/O can be served
from memory, cache (SSD), or disk.

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.

"Optimization" Focus Fields

Name Displays the name of the storage container. (name)


Click the name to display the details page for
that storage container (see Storage Container
Details View on page 132).

Data Reduction Ratio Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1
that results from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.

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Parameter Description Values

Data Reduction Displays the amount of storage capacity xxx [GB|TB]


Savings saved from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.

Compression Delay Displays the time delay to perform xx [m]


compression on the data.

Effective Free Space Displays the amount of logical free space xxx [GB|TB]
after data reduction (logical free space x data
reduction ratio).

Overall Efficiency Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1


that results from the combined effects of data
reduction (deduplication, compression, and
erasure coding), cloning, and thin provisioning.

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.

Table 37: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name 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 storage containers that satisfy
the name condition/string.

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.

Replication Factor Filters on the replication factor. Check the 1, 2, 3


box for the desired replication factor (1, 2, 3).
Only existing RF values appear. For example,
if all containers are at RF 2, just a single
box for RF 2 would appear. The number of
storage containers currently in each setting is
displayed on the right of the line.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Health Filters on the storage container health state. Critical, Warning,


Select one or more states to return a list Good
of storage containers in those states. The
number of storage containers currently in
each state is displayed on the right of the line.

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:

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• The Group pull-down menu allows you to group the host entries by replication factor,
compression, erasure coding, cluster, or health setting. (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,
Performance, or Optimization focus. (You can only choose one parameter.) You can also use
the + Add custom entry to create a custom view.
There are no action options available from the storage containers view (no action buttons and
no Actions menu options when a storage container is selected).

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.

Figure 87: Storage Containers Metrics Tab

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Table 38: Metrics Tab Fields

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).

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table.

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.

Storage Usage Displays storage usage graph.

Optimization Displays replication factor, data reduction ratio, and overall


efficiency graphs.

Storage Container Details View


To access the details page for a storage container, go to the storage container dashboard List
tab (see Storage Containers Summary View on page 125) and click the storage container
name. You can also access the details page by clicking the storage container name wherever
that name appears, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The storage container name and the following set of tabs appear at the top: Summary, Alerts,
Events, Metrics, and Usage. Click a tab to display that information. (Click the arrow at the upper
left 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 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.

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Figure 88: Storage Container Summary Tab

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.

Table 39: Storage Container Widget Fields

Parameter Description Values

"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).

Replication Factor Displays the replication factor, which is the [2-3]


number of maintained data copies. The
replication factor is specified (2 or 3) when the
storage container is created.

Compression Displays whether compression is enabled. [Off|On]


Cache Deduplication Displays whether "fingerprint on write" [None, On, Off]
is enabled, which allows data duplication
compression when data is read. Data
duplication (commonly referred to as dedup)
is a specialized data compression technique
for eliminating duplicate copies of repeating
data. Setting this parameter to On causes
dedup compression to be applied to data both
in memory and in solid state storage (SSD).

Capacity Displays whether capacity deduplication is [On, Off]


Deduplication enabled, that is deduplication compression
applied to data on hard disks (HDD).
Performance tier deduplication is a
prerequisite for capacity deduplication.

Erasure Coding Displays whether erasure coding is enabled or [On, Off]


not.

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Parameter Description Values

Filesystem Whitelists Displays the IP addresses for file systems that [IP addresses]
are whitelisted.

Compression Delay Displays the delay (number of minutes) before xx min


data changes are compressed. A zero value
indicates that compression is immediate (not
delayed).

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.

Note: Logical space accounts for the


storage container replication factor. RF1
means the logical and physical spaces are
the same, RF2 means the logical space is
half the physical space, and RF3 means
the logical space is a third of the physical
space.

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.

"Optimization & Performance" Widget

Data Reduction Ratio Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1
that results from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.

Data Reduction Displays the amount of storage capacity xxx [GB|TB]


Savings saved from the combined effects of
deduplication, compression, and erasure
coding.

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Parameter Description Values

Overall Efficiency Displays the capacity optimization (as a ratio) xx:1


that results from the combined effects of data
reduction (deduplication, compression, and
erasure coding), cloning, and thin provisioning.

IOPS Displays the current I/O operations per [0 - unlimited]


second (IOPS) for the storage container.
The controller IOPS, I/O bandwidth, and I/O
latency fields record the I/O requests serviced
by the Controller VM. The I/O can be served
from memory, cache (SSD), or disk.

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.

Erasure Coding Displays whether erasure coding is enabled for [On|Off]


the 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).

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• 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).

Figure 89: Storage Container Metrics Tab

Storage Usage Tab


The Storage Usage tab displays the following graphs:

• 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).

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Figure 90: Storage Container Usage Tab

Storage Policies Summary View


To access the Storage Policies dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Storage Policies from
the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

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.

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• See Storage Policy Management on page 652 for information about storage
policies, creating and managing storage policies.

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.

Figure 92: Storage Policy List Tab

The List tab displays the following:

• 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

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might get enforced on the entities.
The message box also provides a check box that seeks your confirmation before you proceed
to delete the storage policy without dissociating the associated categories and entities from
the policy:
I understand the impact of this action.

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.

Table 40: Storage Policies List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the (Name of storage policy)


Storage Policy. Clicking the
name displays the details page
for that storage policy.
Encryption Displays the encryption mode Enabled or Inherit from
selected. Cluster
Compression Displays the compression Inline or Post Process (if
mode selected. enabled), Disabled or Inherit
from Cluster
Throttled Throughput (IOPS) Displays the throttled (Integer number)
throughput value in terms of
IOPS.
Throttled Throughput (MBps) Displays the throttled (Integer number)
throughput value in MBps.
Total Categories Displays the total number of (Integer number)
Categories that are associated
with the storage policy.
Total Entities Displays the total number of (Integer number)
entities that the storage policy
is applied to.

Note: A single storage


policy can be applied to
multiple entities. Multiple
storage policies cannot
be applied to a single
entity.

For more information about Storage Policies, see Storage Policy Management on page 652.

Storage Policy Details View


To access the details page for a storage policy, go to the storage policy List tab (see Storage
Policy Management on page 652) and click the name of the storage policy you want to view
the details of. You can also access the details page by clicking the name of the storage policy
wherever that name appears, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.

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The storage policy details page includes the following tabs:

• 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.

Figure 93: Storage Policy Details Summary Tab

The Summary tab displays information about the storage policy in following widgets:

• Configuration: This widget provides the following information.

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Table 41: Configuration Properties

Properties Description

Encryption Indicates whether the storage policy involves encryption of


the data. The possible values are:

• Enabled where the encryption is enabled.


• Inherit from Cluster where the entity inherits the
encryption configuration from the cluster.

Compression Indicates whether the storage policy involves compression of


the data. The possible values are:

• Inline
• Post Process
• Off to disable compression.
• Inherit from Cluster where the entity inherits the
compression configuration from the container.

Throttled IOPS Provides the throttled throughput value in IOPS.


Throughput Provides the throttled throughput value in MBps.

• Association: This widget provides the following information.

Table 42: Association Properties

Properties Description

Categories Indicates the number of categories associated with the


storage policy.
VMs Indicates the number of entities or VMs associated with the
storage policy.

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.

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Figure 94: Storage Policy Details Categories Tab

Table 43: Categories List Fields

Properties Description

Name Displays the name of the category.


Total VMs Displays the total number of VMs associated with the
category.

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.

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Figure 95: Storage Policies Details Entities Tab

Table 44: Entity List Fields

Properties Description

Name Displays the name of the category.


Associated via Displays the categories that the entity and the storage
policy are concurrently associated with. The storage
policy is associated with the entity because the storage
policy is associated with this category that is associated
with the entity. For example, StoragePolicy1 is associated
with CategoryA which is in turn associated with VM1. The
category displayed in Associated via is CategoryA. The
other categories associated with VM1 but not associated with
StoragePolicy1 are not displayed here.
Cluster Displays the name of the cluster that the entity is configured
on.
IP Addresses Displays the IP addresses configured on the entity.

Volume Groups Summary View


To access the volume groups dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Volume Groups from
the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The volume groups dashboard summary view
displays information about volume groups across the registered clusters and allows you to
access detailed information about each volume group. The dashboard includes five tabs at the
top (Summary, List, Alerts, and Metrics) with a display area below the selected tab.

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.

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• See Storage Management (Prism Central) on page 616 for information about
creating and managing volume groups.
• Some volume group details and actions are unavailable for clusters running a pre-6.0
AOS version.

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.

Figure 96: Volume Groups Summary Tab

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.

Figure 97: Volume Groups List Tab

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Table 45: Volume Groups List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the volume group. Click (name)


the name to display the details page for that
volume group (see Volume Group Details
View on page 147). An exclamation point
icon appears if the cluster is running a pre-6.0
AOS version, which indicates the available
information and actions are limited.

Usage Displays the amount of used storage space. xxx [GB|TB]


A bar also appears that graphically indicates
the amount of used and free storage space
available in the volume group. Hovering the
cursor over the bar displays a window listing
the used space, free space, and total space in
the volume group.

Disks Displays the number of virtual disks in the (integer)


volume group. Clicking the number displays
the Virtual Disks tab of the details view (see
Volume Group Details View on page 147).

Connections Displays the number of external client (integer)


connections to the volume group. Clicking the
number displays the Connections tab of the
details view (see Volume Group Details View
on page 147).

IOPS Displays the current I/O operations per [0 - unlimited]


second (IOPS) for the volume group. The
controller IOPS, I/O bandwidth, and I/O
latency fields record the I/O requests serviced
by the Controller VM. The I/O can be served
from memory, cache (SSD), or disk.

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.

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Table 46: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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).

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Metrics Tab
The Metrics tab allows you to view usage metrics across the volume groups. 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.

Figure 98: Volume Groups Metrics Tab

Table 47: Metrics Tab Fields

Metric Description

Usage Displays volume group usage graph.

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).

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table.

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.

Volume Group Details View


To access the details page for a volume group, go to the volume groups dashboard List tab
(see Volume Groups Summary View on page 143) and click the volume group name. You can
also access the details page by clicking the volume group name wherever that name appears,
such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The volume group name and the following set of tabs appear at the top: Summary, Virtual
Disks, Connections, Alerts, and Metrics. Click a tab to display that information. (Click the arrow
at the upper left 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 storage container (see
following table).

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• A Usage and Performance widget that displays usage 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.

Figure 99: Volume Group Summary Tab

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.

Table 48: Volume Group Widget Fields

Parameter Description Values

"Properties" Widget

Flash Mode Displays whether Flash Mode is enabled for [Enabled, Disabled]
the volume group.

Virtual Disks Displays the number of virtual disks in the (integer)


volume group. Clicking the number displays
the Virtual Disks tab.

Connections Displays the number of external client (integer)


connections to the volume group. Clicking the
number displays the Connections tab.

iSCSI Target Name Displays the name of the iSCSI target. (ISCSI name)

Cluster 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).

"Usage and Performance" Widget

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Parameter Description Values

Free Space (Logical) Displays the amount of logical (effective) free xxx [GB|TB]
space available in the volume group.

Note: Logical space accounts for the


replication factor. RF1 means that the
logical and physical spaces are the same,
RF2 means that the logical space is half
the physical space, and RF3 means that
the logical space is a third of the physical
space.

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.

IOPS Displays the current I/O operations per [0 - unlimited]


second (IOPS) for the volume group. The
controller IOPS, I/O bandwidth, and I/O
latency fields record the I/O requests serviced
by the Controller VM. The I/O can be served
from memory, cache (SSD), or disk.

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.

The Summary tab includes three action buttons:

• 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).

Virtual Disks Tab


Clicking the Virtual Disks tab displays a list of virtual disks for 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.

Figure 100: Volume Group Virtual Disks Tab

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Table 49: Virtual Disks Fields

Parameter Description Values

Index Displays the index number assigned to the (integer)


virtual disk.

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.

Table 50: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

[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.

The Virtual Disks tab includes three action buttons:

• 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.

Figure 101: Volume Group Connections Tab

Table 51: Connections Fields

Parameter Description Values

Connection Displays the IP address or IQN of the external (IP or IQN address)
client.

Type Displays the type of connection. external client

The Connections tab includes three action buttons:

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• To add an external client connection, click the Add Connection button (see Managing
Volume Group Connections on page 647).
• To update or remove a connection, click the Update or Remove button (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 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).

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Figure 102: Volume Group Metrics Tab

vCenter Datastores Summary View


To access the vCenter datastores dashboard, select Compute & Storage > vCenter Datastores
from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The vCenter datastores dashboard
summary view displays information about datastores across the registered vCenter instances
and allows you to access detailed information about each datastore. The dashboard includes
five tabs at the top (Summary, List, Alerts, Events, and Metrics) with a display area below for
the selected tab.

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.

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Figure 103: Summary Tab

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.

Figure 104: List Tab

Table 52: Datastores Fields

Parameter Description Values

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).

Type Displays the file system type. VMFS, NFS

Uncommitted Displays the amount of uncommitted disk xx [GiB|TiB]


space.

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Parameter Description Values

Storage Usage Displays the amount of used storage space. xx [GiB|TiB]

Free Space Displays the amount of free storage space. xx [GiB|TiB]

Capacity Displays the total amount of storage capacity. xx [GiB|TiB]

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.

Table 53: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Container Name Filters on the container name. Select a (name 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
returns a list of containers that satisfy the
name condition/string.

Cluster Filters on the cluster name. Enter a string in (cluster name)


the field to display a list of clusters that satisfy
the name string.

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.

Capacity Filters on the amount of total storage ([xx] to [yy] range)


capacity.

Free Space Filters on the amount of free storage space. ([xx] to [yy] range)

Uncommitted Filters on the amount of uncommitted storage ([xx] to [yy] range)


space.

Type Filters on file system type. VMFS, NFS

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.)

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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 datastore-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 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.

Figure 105: Metrics Tab (IOPS)

Table 54: Metrics Tab Fields

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.)

vCenter Datastore Details View


To access the details page for a vCenter datastore, go to the vCenter datastores Summary tab
(see vCenter Datastores Summary View on page 153) and click the datastore name. You can

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also access the details page by clicking the datastore name wherever that name appears, such
as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The datastore name and the following set of tabs appear at the top: Summary, Alerts, Events,
and Metrics. Click a tab to display that information below the tabs. (Click the Back to vCenter
Datastores link to return to the datastores 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 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.

Figure 106: Summary Tab


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.

Table 55: Datastore Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

Capacity Displays the total amount of storage capacity. xx [GiB|TiB]

Storage Usage Displays the amount of used storage space. xx [GiB|TiB]

Free Space Displays the amount of free storage space. xx [GiB|TiB]

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Parameter Description Values

Uncommitted Displays the amount of uncommitted disk xx [GiB|TiB]


space.

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.

Type Displays the file system type. VMFS, NFS

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.

Figure 107: Metrics Tab

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• Each graph includes a pull-down actions menu with some or all of the following options:

• 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.

Figure 108: Session Window


• Select Alert Settings to create a custom alert policy for the metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).
• To view a subset of the graphs, click the Filters button and check (uncheck) the desired
metrics.
• To specify a view format for the graphs, click the tile (default) or stack icon.
• To specify a time interval for the graphs, select Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours (default), or Last
Week from the pull-down list.
• Click the Back to vCenter Datastores link to return to the vCenter datastores dashboard.
The following table describes the metric graphs.

Table 56: Metric Performance Graphs

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.

Capacity Configured size of the datastore. Available from a datastore


entity only.

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Metric Description

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.

Catalog Items View


To access the catalog items dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Catalog Items from the
Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The catalog items dashboard allows you to view
information about the images and VMs in the catalog.

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.

Figure 109: Catalog Items Dashboard

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.

Table 57: Catalog Items List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the item name. (item name)

Type Displays the type of item (image or VM). Image, Vm

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.

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Table 58: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Description Filters on the description. Select a condition (description string)


from the pull-down list (same options as for
name) and enter a string in the field. It returns
a list of catalog items whose description field
satisfy the 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).

Categories Summary View


To access the categories dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Categories from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The categories dashboard allows you to view summary
information about existing categories and access detailed information about each category.

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.

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Figure 110: Categories Dashboard

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.

Table 59: Categories List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the category. (category name)

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.

Assigned Entities Lists the number of entities assigned to this (number)


category.

Assigned Policies Lists the number of policies assigned to this (number)


category.

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.

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Table 60: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Filters on the category name. Select a (name string)


condition from the pull-down list and enter
a string in the field. It will return a list of
categories that satisfy the name condition/
string.

Note: In this and the Value field, the


condition menu options are Contains,
Does not contain, Starts with, Ends with,
and Equal to.

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:

• This action can be applied to multiple categories: Delete


• This action can be applied to only one category at a time: Update
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
category. See Modifying a Category on page 743 for instructions on how to perform these
actions.

Category Details View


You can view detailed policy, value, and entity associations for a category by going to the
details page for that category. To access the details page for a category, go to the categories
dashboard (see Categories Summary View on page 161) and click the category name.
A category details page includes the following:

• 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.

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• Action buttons (upper right).

• 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.

Figure 111: Category Details View

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.

Figure 112: OVAs Dashboard

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.

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Table 61: OVA List Fields

Parameter Description Values

OVA Name Displays the name of the OVA file. (file name)

Source VM Displays the name of source VM that was (file name)


exported as an OVA.
The alert indicators for the task status are
displayed beside the source VM for which
the task is run. See the Alert indicator
table for more information.

Disk Format Displays the format of the disks in the [QCOW2|VMDK]


OVA.

Added by Indicates which user added this OVA. (text string)

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

Table 62: OVA Alerts

OVA Alerts Status Message sample Indicates...

Incorrect file uploaded. That the upload process


Multiple OVA files present in OVA. failed during validation.
You must fix the issue in
Figure 113: the OVA file or upload the
correct, compatible OVA
file.

Upload for OVA file has not started. That there is an


Please start OVA file upload using Resume Upload interruption in one of the
option. three sub-tasks in the
Figure 114: Uploaded OVA file has not been verified. upload process.
Please start verification using Resume Upload option.
You can resume the
upload. See the Resume
Upload action procedure.

OVA file upload is in progress. That the OVA upload is in


progress without any error
or interrupts.
Figure 115: Check the Tasks page after
some time to verify the
successful upload.

A sample of the error hover message is as follows:

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Figure 116: Sample error hover message

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.

Table 63: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

OVA Name Filters on the OVA file name. It returns a list of (OVA file name string)
OVAs that satisfy the name condition/string.

Source VM Filters on the Source VM name. It returns a (Source VM name


list of OVAs for which the Source VM field string)
satisfies the 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:

• Deploy an OVA file as a VM.


• Download an OVA file to your local machine.
• Rename an OVA file.
• Delete an OVA file.
• Resume upload when an upload is interrupted and shows an error.

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.

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Network and Security View
The Network and Security category in the Entities Menu expands on-click to display the
following networking and security entities that are configured for the registered clusters:
1. Subnets: This dashboard displays the subnets and the operations that you can perform on
subnets.
2. Virtual Private Clouds: This dashboard displays the VPCs and the operations that you can
perform on VPCs.
3. Floating IPs: This dashboard displays a list of floating IP addresses that you are using in the
network. It allows you to request for floating IP addresses from the free pool of I addresses
available to the clusters managed by the Prism Central instance.
4. Connectivity: This dashboard allows you to manage the following networking capabilities:

• 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.

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Figure 117: Subnets Dashboard

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.

Table 64: Subnets Dashboard Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the subnet name. (subnet name)

External Connectivity Displays whether or not the subnet has (Yes/No)


external connectivity configured.

Type Displays the subnet type. VLAN

VLAN ID Displays the VLAN identification number. (ID number)

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.

Note: The virtual switch name is displayed


only if you add a VLAN ID in the VLAN ID
field.

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.

Hypervisor Displays the hypervisor that the subnet is (Hypervisor)


hosted on.

To filter the list by network name, enter a string in the filter field. (Ignore the Filters pane as it is
blank.)

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To view focused fields in the List, select the focus parameter from the Focus drop down list.
You can create your own customised focus parameters by selecting Add custom from the drop
down list and selecting the necessary fields after providing a Name, in the Subnet Columns.
There is a Network Config action button to configure a new network (see Configuring Network
Connections
The Actions menu appears when one or more networks are selected and includes a Manage
Categories option (see Assigning a Category).
Go to the Subnets list view by clicking Network and Security > Subnets on the left side-bar.

Figure 118: Subnets Page

To view or select actions you can perform on a subnet, select the subnet and click the Actions
dropdown.

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Figure 119: Subnet Actions

Table 65: Subnet Actions

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.

Subnet Summary View


View the details of a subnet listed on the Subnets page.
To view the details of a subnet, click the name of the subnet on the subnet list view.

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Figure 120: Subnet Summary Page

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:

Widget Name Information provided


Subnet Details Provides the following:

• Type — Displays the type of network like VLAN or Overlay.


• VLAN ID — Displays the VLAN ID. This parameter is displayed only
for VLAN networks.
• VPC — Displays the VPC name. This parameter is displayed only
for Overlay networks.
• Cluster — Displays the cluster that the VLAN network is
configured on. This parameter is displayed only for VLAN
networks.
• IP Prefix — Displays the IP address prefix configured for the
network. This parameter is displayed for both VLAN and Overlay
networks.

IP Pool Provides the IP address Pool Range assigned to the network.

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Widget Name Information provided
External Connectivity Provides the following:

• NAT — Displays whether NAT is enabled or disabled for VPCs


connecting to the network. When you hover on the Enabled/Disabled
status, the hover message displays details of VPCs connected to
the external subnet.
• Associated VPCs — Displays the VPCs associated with this
external subnet.

Virtual Private Clouds


You can manage Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) on the Virtual Private Clouds dashboard.
Go to the Virtual Private Clouds dashboard by clicking Network and Security > Virtual Private
Clouds on the left side-bar.

Figure 121: Virtual Private Clouds dashboard

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.

Customizing the VPC List View

About this task


You can customize the columns in the table. Click the View by drop down and select + Add
custom.

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In the Virtual Network Columns dialog box, do the following.

Procedure

1. Enter a name for the view.

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2. Select the columns you want displayed in the table.
During the column selection, the columns you select are moved under the Selected Columns
list. The Name (of the VPC) column is the default column already selected. You can add a
maximum of 10 columns (including the Name column) to the Selected Column list.

Figure 122: Customizing Columns in VPC View

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.

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VPC Details View
To view the details of a VPC, click the name of the VPC on the VPC list view.
The VPC details view has the following tabs:

• Summary

Figure 123: Summary Tab

The Summary tab provides the following panes:

• 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

Figure 124: Subnet Tab

The Subnet tab provides the following information for the subnets:

• Name—Displays the name of the subnet.


• IP Range—Displays the IP address range configured for the subnet.
• DHCP IP Pool—Displays the DHCP IP address pool configured for the subnet.
• Default Gateway IP—Displays the IP address used as the default gateway by the entities
in the subnet.
• Actions—Displays the actionable links to Edit or Delete the subnet.

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• Policies

Figure 125: Policies Tab

The Policies tab maps the following information about the security-based traffic shaping
policies you configure:

• Priority—The traffic priority.


• Rule—The Allow or Deny rule set for the priority.
• Traffic—The traffic type that the priority and rule should be applied to.
• Actions—Actions you can take on the policy. You can perform three actions: Clear
counters, Edit the policy or Delete the policy.
• Routes

Figure 126: Routes Tab

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.

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• Create Policy: Use this option to create traffic policies in addition to the pre-configured
default policy. When you create a VPC, there is one default policy that Advanced
Networking creates for the VPC. This policy is pre-configured and cannot be edited. For
more information, see Creating a Policy.
• Clear All Counters: Allows you to clear all the counters for the VPC.
• Delete: Allows you to delete the VPC. For more information, see Deleting a Virtual Private
Cloud.

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.

Figure 127: Floating IPs dashboard

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.

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The Connectivity dashboard opens on the Gateways tab. To see the VPN connections, click the
VPN Connections tab. To see the subnets extended across AZs, click the Subnet Extensions
tab.

Gateways Summary View


The Connectivity dashboard opens on the Gateways dashboard or summary view.
The Gateway dashboard provides a list of gateways created for the clusters managed by the
Prism Central.
The Gateways dashboard provides a Create Gateway dropdown menu that lets you create
a Local or a Remote gateway. You can create a local or remote gateway with VPN or VTEP
service. For more information, see Creating a Network Gateway.
You can select a gateway from the list (select the checkbox provided for the gateway) and
then perform an action provided in the Actions dropdown list. The Actions dropdown list allows
you to Update or Delete the selected gateway.

Figure 128: Gateways dashboard

The Gateway summary list view provides the following details about the gateway.

Table 66: Gateway List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the gateway. (Name of gateway)

Type Displays the gateway type. (Local or Remote)

Service Displays the service that the gateway uses. (VPN or VTEP)

Service IP Displays the IP address used by the service. (IP address)

Status Displays the operational status of the (Up or Down)


gateway.

Attachment Type/ Displays the type of subnet associated with (VLAN or Overlay-VPC
Vendor the gateway. name)

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Parameter Description Values

Connections Displays the number of service connections (number)


(such as VPN connections) configured and
operational on the gateway.

You can click the name of a gateway to open the gateway details page that presents the
information about the gateway in widgets.

Gateway Details View

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.

Figure 129: Gateway Details View

The details about the gateway are organized in widgets as follows:

Table 67: Gateway Details

Parameter Description Values

Properties widget

Type Displays the gateway type. (Local or Remote)

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Floating or Private IP Displays the Floating (for VPC) or Private (IP Address)
Address (for VLAN) IP address assigned to the
gateway.

Status Displays the operational status of the (Up or Down)


gateway.

Gateway Version Displays the version of the Nutanix gateway (Version)


appliance deployed.

Cluster Displays the name of the cluster on which (Cluster name)


the gateway is created.

Gateway VM Displays the name of the VM on which the (Name of VM -


gateway is created. actionable link. Click the
name-link to open the
VM details page of the
gateway VM.)

Service Configuration

Service Displays the service used by the gateway. (VPN or VTEP)

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)

VPN Connections Displays the total number of VPN (Number - actionable


connections associated with the gateway. link. Click the link
to open the VPN
connection details page
for the associated VPN
connection.)

View VPN Click this link to open the VPN Connections -


Connections tab.

VPN Connections Summary View


The Connectivity dashboard allows you to open the VPN Connections dashboard or summary
view.
VPN Connection: Represents the VPN IPSec tunnel established between local gateway and
remote gateway. When you create a VPN connection, you need to select two gateways
between which you want to create the VPN connection.
The VPN Connections dashboard provides a list of VPN connections created for the clusters
managed by the Prism Central.
The VPN Connections dashboard provides a Create VPN Connection button that opens
the Create VPN Connection. For more information, see Creating a VPN Connection in Flow
Networking Guide.
You can select a VPN connection from the list (select the checkbox provided for the VPN
connection) and then perform an action provided in the Actions dropdown list. The Actions
dropdown list allows you to Update or Delete the selected VPN connection.
The VPN Connections summary list view provides the following details about the VPN
connection.

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Figure 130: VPN Connections dashboard

Table 68: VPN Connections List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the connection. (gateway name)

IPSec Status Displays the connection status of IPSec (Connected or Not


tunnel. Connected)

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.

VPN Connections Details View

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.

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• The Update button opens the Update VPN Connection page. For more information, see
Updating a VPN Connection in Flow Networking Guide.
• The Delete button allows you to delete the VPN connection. For more information, see
Deleting a VPN Connection in Flow Networking Guide.

Figure 131: VPN Connection Details

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.

Table 69: VPN Connection Summary Tab Details

Parameter Description Values

VPN Connection widget

IPSec Status Displays the connection status of IPSec (Connected or Not


tunnel. Connected)

EBGP Status Displays the status of the EBGP gateway (Established or Not
connection. Established)

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Local Gateway Properties

Gateway Name Displays the name of the local gateway used (Name of local gateway)
for the connection.

Type Displays the type of gateway. (Local)

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.

Tunnel IP Displays the Tunnel IP address of the local (IP Address)


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)

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.)

Status Displays the operational status of the (Up or Down)


gateway.

Cluster Displays the name of the cluster on which (Cluster name)


the gateway is created.

Gateway VM Displays the name of the VM on which the (Name of VM -


gateway is created. actionable link. Click the
name-link to open the
VM details page of the
gateway VM.)

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Parameter Description Values

Remote Gateway Properties

Gateway Name Displays the name of the remote gateway (Name of remote
used for the connection. gateway)

Type Displays the type of gateway. (Remote)

Tunnel IP Displays the Tunnel IP address of the (IP Address)


remote 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)

ASN Displays the ASN of the EBGP route. (Number)


This information is only displayed if you
configured EBGP as the External Routing
protocol.

Vendor Displays the name of the vendor of the (Name of vendor of


gateway appliance at the remote site. gateway appliance)

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.)

Status Displays the operational status of the -


gateway.

Protocol Details

Service Displays the service used by the gateway. (VPN or VTEP)

Gateway Routes Displays the status of the routes used by the (Sent)
gateways.

Viewing an Extended Subnet


The Connectivity dashboard opens on the Subnet Extensions dashboard or summary view.

About this task


Perform the following procedure to view an extended subnet at the on-prem site.

Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon in the top-left corner of the Dashboard.


The main feature list appears.

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2. Click Network & Security > Connectivity > > Subnet Extensions.
The Subnet Extensions tab displays a list of the extended subnets.

Figure 132: Extended Subnet

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.

Figure 133: Subnet List View - Extended Subnets

Security Policies Summary View


To access the security policies dashboard, select Policies > Security Policies from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu). The security policies dashboard allows you to view summary
information about defined security policies.

Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the security policies
dashboard.

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• See Entity Exploring 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.

Figure 134: 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.

Table 70: Security Policies List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the policy name. The policy is one (name), Application,
of three types: application, quarantine, or Quarantine, Isolation
isolation.

Purpose Describes (briefly) the policy's purpose. (text string)

Policy Displays (high level) what the policy does. (boxed text)

Status Displays the current status of the policy Applied, Monitoring


(either applied currently or in monitoring
mode).

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.

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Table 71: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.)

Security Policy Details View


To access the details page for a security policy, click on the desired security policy name in
the list (see Security Policies Summary View on page 185). The Security Policy details page
includes the following:

• 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.

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Figure 135: Security Policy Details View: Monitoring Rule Example

Figure 136: Security Policy Details View: Applied Rule Example

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

• Affinity Policies (see Affinity Policies Summary View on page 189


• NGT Policies (see NGT Policies View on page 190)

Image Policies

• Image Placement Policies (see Image Placement Policies Summary View on page 191)

• Bandwidth Throttling Policies (see Bandwidth Throttling Policies Summary View on


page 193)

Storage Policies
Storage Policies (see Storage Policies Summary View on page 137)

Security Policies
Storage Policies (see Security Policies Summary View on page 194)

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Affinity Policies Summary View
The affinity policies dashboard displays a list of current policies that includes the name and
type for each policy. To access the affinity policies dashboard:
1. Select Compute & Storage > VMs from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The
VMs dashboard page opens.
2. Select Policies > Affinity Policies from the drop-down menu.

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.

Figure 137: Affinity Policies Dashboard

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.

Table 72: Affinity Policies List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the policy name. (name)

VMs Displays the count of VMs associated with this (number of VMs)
policy.

Hosts Displays the count of hosts associated with (number of hosts)


this 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.

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Parameter Description Values

Modified By Displays the name of the user who modified (user)


the policy last time.

Last Modified Displays the date and time when the policy (date & time)
was modified last time.

Affinity Policies Details View


To access the details page for an Affinity policy, click the desired policy name in the list (see
Affinity Policies Summary View on page 189). The affinity policy details page includes the
following tabs:

• 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.

Figure 138: Affinity Policies Details view

NGT Policies View


The NGT policies dashboard allows you to view information about existing NGT policies and
create new policies. To access the Nutanix guest tools (NGT) policies dashboard:
1. Select Compute & Storage > VMs from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The
VMs dashboard page opens.
2. Select Policies > NGT Policies from the drop-down menu.

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.

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The NGT dashboard displays a list of current policies that includes the name and type for each
policy.

Figure 139: NGT Policies Dashboard

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.

• Name: Enter name in search field.


• Created By: System, User
There is a New VM Reboot Policy action button to create a new reboot policy (see Creating a
New Restart Policy on page 608). The Actions menu appears when one or more policies are
selected and includes the following options:

• Update (see Modifying a Restart Policy on page 609)


• Delete

Image Placement Policies Summary View


The image placement policies dashboard allows you to view summary information about
defined image placement policies.
To access the image placement policies dashboard, select Images > Policies > Image
Placement from the Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

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.

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Figure 140: Image Placement Policies Dashboard

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.

Table 73: Image Placement Policies List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the policy name. (name)

Description Describes (briefly) the purpose of the policy. (text string)

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.)

Image Placement Policy Details View


To access the details page for an image placement policy, click on the desired policy name in
the list (see Image Placement Policies Summary View on page 191). The image placement
policy details page includes the following:

• 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.

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• There are four action buttons (upper right).

• 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.

Figure 141: Image Placement Policy Details View

Bandwidth Throttling Policies Summary View


The bandwidth throttling policy allows you to limit the bandwidth consumed during image
creation using the URL option in specific clusters. The bandwidth throttling policies dashboard
allows you to view summary information about user-defined bandwidth throttling policies.
To access the bandwidth throttling policies dashboard, select Images > Policies > Bandwidth
Throttling Policies from the Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

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.

Figure 142: Bandwidth Throttling Policies Dashboard

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.

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Table 74: Bandwidth Throttling Policies List Fields

Parameter Description

Policy Name Displays the policy name.

Description Describes (briefly) the purpose of the policy.

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).

Security Policies Summary View


To access the security policies dashboard, select Policies > Security Policies from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The security policies dashboard allows you to view
summary information about defined security policies.

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.

Figure 143: Security Policies Dashboard

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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.

Table 75: Security Policies List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the policy name. The policy is one (name), Application,
of three types: application, quarantine, or Quarantine, Isolation
isolation.

Purpose Describes (briefly) the policy's purpose. (text string)

Policy Displays (high level) what the policy does. (boxed text)

Status Displays the current status of the policy Applied, Monitoring


(either applied currently or in monitoring
mode).

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.

Table 76: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.)

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Security Policy Details View
To access the details page for a security policy, click on the desired security policy name in
the list (see Security Policies Summary View on page 194). The Security Policy details page
includes the following:

• 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.

Figure 144: Security Policy Details View: Monitoring Rule Example

Figure 145: Security Policy Details View: Applied Rule Example

Data Protection and Recovery Entities


You can access dashboards for the following data protection types from the Data Protection
category of the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13):

• Protection Summary
• Protection Policies (see Protection Policies View on page 197)
• Recovery Plans (see Recovery Plans View on page 198)

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• VM Recovery Points (see VM Recovery Points View on page 199)

Protection Policies View


To access the protection policies dashboard, select Policies > Protection Policies from the
entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The protection policies dashboard allows you to
view information about the current policies and create new policies.

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.

Figure 146: Protection Policies Dashboard

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.

Table 77: Protection Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the protection policy name. (item name)

Source Displays the replication source name for the (source name)
protection policy

Destination Displays the replication destination name for (destination name)


the protection policy.

RPO Displays the recovery point objective (RPO) (time interval)


for the 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.

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Click the Create Protection Policy button to create a new protection policy. The Actions menu
appears when one or more protection policies are selected and includes the following options:

• Update: Update the protection policy.


• Clone: Clone the protection policy.
• Delete: Delete the protection policy.

Recovery Plans View


To access the recovery plans dashboard, select Policies > Recovery Plans from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The recovery plans dashboard allows you to view
information about the current plans and create new plans.

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.

Figure 147: Recovery Plans Dashboard

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.

Table 78: Recovery Plans Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the recovery plan name. (name)

Source Displays the primary availability zone for the (zone name)
recovery plan.

Destination Displays the recovery availability zone for the (zone name)
recovery plan.

Entities Displays the number of VMs and snapshots (integer)


associated with the recovery plan in the
availability zone in which you are viewing the
recovery plan.

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Parameter Description Values

Last Validation Status Displays the status of the most recent


validation of the 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:

• Validate: Clone a recovery plan.


• Test: Test the recovery plan.
• Update: Update the recovery plan.
• Failover: Perform a failover operation.
• Delete: Delete the recovery plan.

VM Recovery Points View


To access the recoverable entities dashboard, select Data Protection & Recovery > VM
Recovery Points from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). A recoverable entity is
a VM that you can recover from a snapshot. The recoverable entities dashboard allows you to
view information about the entities for which snapshots exist in the availability zone.

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.

Figure 148: VM Recovery Points Dashboard

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The following table describes the fields that appear in the recoverable entities list. A dash (-) is
displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.

Table 79: VM Recovery Points List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the recoverable entity name. (item name)

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):

• Clusters (see Clusters Summary View on page 200)


• Hosts (see Hosts Summary View on page 220)
• Disks (see Disks Summary View on page 230)
• GPUs (see GPUs Summary View on page 237)

Clusters Summary View


To access the clusters dashboard, select Hardware > Clusters from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13). The clusters dashboard allows you to view summary information
about registered clusters and access detailed information about each cluster. The dashboard
includes five tabs on the left (Summary, List, Alerts, Events, and Metrics) with a display area
below the selected tab.

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Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the clusters 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:

• 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.

Figure 149: Clusters Summary Tab (Nutanix)

Figure 150: Clusters Summary Tab (Non-Nutanix)

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.

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The fields vary based on the View by menu selection, which is either General or Performance. A
dash (-) is displayed in a field when a value is not available or applicable.

Figure 151: Clusters List Tab (Nutanix)

Figure 152: Clusters List Tab (Non-Nutanix)

Table 80: Clusters List Fields

Parameter Description Values

View by "General" Fields

Name Displays the cluster name. Clicking on the (cluster name)


name displays the details page for that cluster
(see Cluster Details View on page 208).

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).

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Parameter Description Values

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).

Inefficient VMs Displays the number of inefficient VMs in the (number)


cluster (see Behavioral Learning Tools on
page 846 for more information).

View by "Performance" Fields

Name Displays the cluster name. (cluster name)

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity in 0 -100%


the cluster currently being used.

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory capacity 0 -100%


in the cluster currently being used.

IOPS Displays total (both read and write) I/O (number)


operations per second (IOPS) for this cluster.

IO Bandwidth Displays total I/O bandwidth used per second xxx [MBps|KBps]
in this cluster.

IO Latency Displays the average I/O latency in this xxx [ms]


cluster.

View by "Capacity" Fields

Name Displays the cluster name. (cluster name)

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.

Storage Runway Displays the predicted storage memory (number of days)


runway (time period) before the cluster
requires additional resources.

View by "Encryption" Fields

Name Displays the cluster name. (cluster name)

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Parameter Description Values

Encryption Type Displays the cluster encryption type. Not Encrypted,


Software, Hardware,
Software and
Hardware

Encryption Scope Displays the encryption scope. Cluster, Entity

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.

Table 81: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Labels Filters on label name. Select one or more (label names)


labels from the pull-down list. (If there are
no labels currently, a message about how to
create labels is displayed.)

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.

Health Filters on the cluster health state (good, Critical, Warning,


warning, or critical). Select one or more states Good
to return a list of clusters in that state(s). The
number of clusters currently in each state is
displayed on the right of the line.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Upgrade Status Filters on the current upgrade status. Pending,


There are various stages from scheduled to Downloading,
succeeded (or failed). Queued, PreUpgrade,
Upgrading,
Succeeded, Failed,
Cancelled, Scheduled

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

You can group the clusters list in the following ways:

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• The Group by pull-down menu allows you to group the cluster entries by AOS version, host
count, or health state. (You can only choose one.)
• When you select one or more clusters, the Label icon appears (to the left of the Actions
menu). To assign the selected clusters a group label, click the Label icon and do one of the
following:

Figure 153: Label Icon

• 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.

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• Select Disable Anomaly Detection to disable anomaly detection for the cluster.
• Select Run Playbook to run or create a new playbook for the cluster entity type.
• Select Manage & Backup Keys to download the encryption keys for the cluster. If the cluster
goes down, you can access your data with the backup key.

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.)

Figure 154: Clusters Metrics Tab

Table 82: Metrics Tab Fields

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.

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table with either percentile or quantity intervals.

Memory Usage Displays a memory percentage usage table.

IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS tables.

IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.

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Metric Description

IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.

Cluster Details View


To access the details page for a cluster, go to the clusters dashboard List tab (see Clusters
Summary View on page 200 for more information about VM efficiency) and click the cluster
name. You can also access the details page by clicking the cluster name wherever that name
appears, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The cluster name and the following set of tabs appear on the top: Summary, Alerts, Events,
Metrics, Storage Usage, Hardware, Virtual Entities, and Capacity. Click a tab to display that
information below the tab. (Click the Back to Clusters link to return to the summary view.)

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 .

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• Rack Configuration: Click this button to configure the rack awareness feature (see Rack
Fault Tolerance in Prism Web Console Guide).
• Select Manage Categories to configure cluster categories (see Category Management on
page 742).
• Select Disable Efficiency Measurement to disable efficiency measurement for the cluster.
• Select Disable Anomaly Detection to disable anomaly detection for the cluster.
• Select Run Playbook to run or create a new playbook for the cluster entity type (see
Creating Playbooks using Triggers on page 874).
• Select Manage & Backup Keys to download the encryption keys for the cluster. If the
cluster goes down, you can access your data with the backup key.

Figure 155: Cluster Summary Tab

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.

Table 83: Cluster Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

Health Displays the cluster health state (good, Critical, Warning,


warning, or critical). Good

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).

VM Count Displays the number of VMs in the cluster. (number of VMs)

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.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Entity Relationship Widget


The entity relationship widget shows the relationship between related entities like clusters,
hosts, and VMs instances. The widget allows quick access between the related entities. You
can directly navigate to a target cluster, host, or VM instance through the respective pull-down
menus.
Example: Viewing Cluster Instances
Click the Cluster pull-down menu to view the list of cluster instances. Alternatively, you search a
cluster name.

Figure 156: Clusters

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).

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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 cluster (see Events
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277).

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).

Figure 157: Cluster Metrics Tab

The following table describes the available metrics. Some metrics are not available on all
hypervisors.

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Table 84: Metrics Tab Fields

Metric Description

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the cluster (0–100%).

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory 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.

Figure 158: Cluster Usage Tab

Hardware and Virtual Entities Tabs


Clicking these tabs displays a list of hardware and virtual entity types that exist in this cluster.
Clicking a hardware entry such as Hosts or a virtual entity such as Containers displays the
information you would see on the List tab summary page for that the specified hardware or
virtual entity except filtered to just those in this cluster. See Hardware Entities on page 200
and Compute and Storage Entities on page 89 for more information.

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.

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• Capacity planning requires a minimum of 21 days of data from a cluster to calculate
the baseline runway estimates. No estimates appear when insufficient data is
available. In addition, it takes a day after registering a cluster for the data to appear
in Prism Central.
• Capacity planning checks the past 90 days of data for monthly seasonality, it also
uses up to 365 days of past data (when available) for calculating and adjusting the
baseline accordingly if it finds a seasonality pattern.
• For a Non-Nutanix cluster, the vCenter datastores dashboard appears only when
at least one vCenter instance has been registered. See Application Monitoring on
page 803 for more information.

• 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.

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• An Optimize Resource button (middle left). Clicking this button opens the Optimize
Resources window, which identifies areas to improve cluster resource allocation or capacity.
Recommendations might include

• 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).

Figure 159: Optimize Resources Window


• A Get Started button (lower left). Clicking this button opens the resource planning scenario
page. From this page you can create "what if" scenarios to test future workloads against
current or hypothetical storage, CPU, and memory resource capacity (see Creating a
Scenario on page 828).
• A usage history graph (upper right). The graph displays storage, CPU, or memory usage
depending on which is selected in the left column. Placing the cursor anywhere on the
horizontal axis displays the value(s) at that time. A (solid red) maximum capacity line

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appears near the top of the graph, and an additional (dotted red) effective capacity line
appears on the storage graph. A (vertical) "Today" line is displayed to indicate where the
current date is located on the graph. When there is an alert or event, a bell icon appears
either on the Today line or at the starting point of the alert. Clicking the bell icon (red for
critical alert, orange for warning alert, or gray for event) displays more information about
that alert or event.
• A table (lower right) that displays usage information. The information in the table varies
depending on which runway (storage, CPU, or memory) is selected.

Figure 160: Cluster Capacity Tab (Nutanix Cluster)

Figure 161: Cluster Capacity Tab (Non-Nutanix Cluster)

Capacity Tab: Storage View


When Storage Runway is selected, the graph and table display storage usage information.
The maximum and effective storage capacity values (in TiBs) for the cluster appear above the
graph. Effective capacity of a cluster is computed based on the configured reservations (from
the capacity configurations settings) and the replication factor for all the containers in the
cluster.
The storage view includes two tabs:

• 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

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storage container from the pull-down list or by clicking the storage container name in the
table.

Figure 162: Storage Container View (Nutanix Cluster)

Figure 163: Storage Container View (Non-Nutanix Cluster)


The following table describes the fields in the storage table.

Table 85: Capacity Tab: Storage Fields

Parameter Description Values

"By Usage" tab (cluster-wide)


Name Displays a descriptive name for a type of Live Usage, Reserved
storage. There are four types: Usage, Snapshot
Usage, System Usage
• Live Usage: The amount of live storage.
• Snapshot Usage: The amount of storage
used for snapshots.
• System Usage: The amount of storage for
everything else (total usage - (reserved +
snapshot + live)). System usage includes
garbage, parity, and other miscellaneous
uses.
• Reserved Usage: The amount of storage
reserved for thick provisioned VMs (ESXi).

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Parameter Description Values

Current Storage Displays the amount of used storage space in xxx [GB|TB]
Usage the cluster or storage container.

"By Storage Container" tab: All Storage Containers

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.

Capacity Displays the total amount of storage capacity xxx [TB]


available to the storage container.

"By Storage Container" tab: <storage container name>

Storage Container Displays one of the following: (storage container


Name name) OR Live Usage,
• If "All Storage Containers" is selected, the Reserved Usage,
storage container names are displayed. Snapshot Usage,
Click a name to see the details for that System Usage
storage container.
• If a single storage container is selected, it
displays the four storage types described
for the Name field in the "By Usage" tab
(Live Usage, Reserved Usage, Snapshot
Usage, and System Usage).

Current Storage Displays the amount of used storage space in xxx [GB|TB]
Usage the cluster or storage container.

Capacity Tab: CPU View


When CPU Runway is selected, the graph and table display CPU usage information. The
maximum and effective CPU capacity values (in GHz) for the cluster appear above the graph.
The CPU view includes two tabs:

• Click the Overall button to see cluster-wide CPU information.


• Click the By Host button to see CPU information per host. You can select all hosts from the
pull-down list (upper left of graph) or a single host from the pull-down list or by clicking the
host name in the table.
The following table describes the fields in the CPU table. Entries for (up to) the top 10 VMs
(overall tab) or hosts appear in the CPU table.

Table 86: Capacity Tab: CPU Fields

Parameter Description Values

"Overall" tab

VM Name Displays the VM name. There is a line for each (VM name)
VM in the cluster.

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Parameter Description Values

CPU Usage (%) Displays the percent of CPU capacity used by (0–100%)
the VM currently.

Num vCPUs Displays the number of vCPUs allocated to the (1-max)


VM.

"By Host" tab: All Hosts

Host Name Displays the name of the host. (host name)

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]

Runway Displays the current runway (estimated time (number of days)


interval that current CPU capacity is sufficient
for the workload).

"By Host" tab: <host name>

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.

Num vCPUs Displays the number of vCPUs allocated to the (1-max)


VM.

Capacity Tab: Memory View


When Memory Runway is selected, the graph and table display memory usage information.
The maximum and effective memory capacity values (in GiBs) for the cluster appear above the
graph. The memory view includes two tabs:

• Click the Overall button to see cluster-wide memory information.


• Click the By Host button to see memory information per host. You can select all hosts from
the pull-down list (upper left of graph) or a single host from the pull-down list or by clicking
the host name in the table.
The following table describes the fields in the memory table. Entries for (up to) the top 10 VMs
(overall tab) or hosts appear in the memory table.

Table 87: Capacity Tab: Memory Fields

Parameter Description Values

"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.

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Parameter Description Values

Memory Usage (%) Displays the percentage of memory capacity (0–100%)


used by the VM.

"By Host" tab: All Hosts

Host Name Displays the name of the host. (host name)

Average Memory Displays the average host memory usage xxx [GiB]
Usage over last 1 hour during the last hour.

Runway Displays the current runway (estimated time (number of days)


interval that current memory capacity is
sufficient for the workload).

Current Memory Displays the memory capacity of the host. xxx [GiB]
Capacity

"By Host" tab: <host name>

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.

Memory Usage (%) Displays the percentage of memory capacity (0–100%)


used by the VM currently.

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.

Note: Some of these metrics are not available on all hypervisors.

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Table 88: Metrics Tab Fields

Metric Description

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the VM (0 - 100%).

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory 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.

Figure 164: Metrics Tab: CPU Usage metric

Hosts Summary View


To access the hosts dashboard, select Hardware > Hosts from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The hosts dashboard allows you to view summary information about hosts
across the registered clusters and access detailed information about each host. The dashboard
includes five tabs on the left (Summary, List, Alerts, Events, and Metrics) with a display area to
the right for the selected tab.

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:

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• Suggested: Displays a list of the hosts 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, Memory
Usage, IO Latency, and IOPS. Click the View all XX Hosts link at the bottom to display the
List tab (following section).
• Alert: Displays a list of host-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.

Figure 165: Hosts Summary Tab

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.

Figure 166: Hosts List Tab

Table 89: Hosts List Fields

Parameter Description Values

"General" Focus Fields

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).

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Parameter Description Values

Host IP Displays the IP address assigned to the (IP address)


hypervisor running on the host.

CVM IP Displays the IP address assigned to the (IP address)


Controller VM.

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.

"Performance" Focus Fields

Name Displays the name of the host. (host name)

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity 0 - 100%


currently being used by this host.

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory capacity 0 -100%


currently being used by this host.

IOPS Displays I/O operations per second (IOPS) for [0 - unlimited]


this host.

Disk IO Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
this host.

IO Latency Displays the average I/O latency (in xxx [ms]


milliseconds) for 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.

Table 90: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Health Filters on the host health state (good, Critical, Warning,


warning, or critical). Select one or more states Good
to return a list of hosts in that state(s). The
number of hosts currently in each state is
displayed on the right of the line.

Categories Filters on category names. Enter a category (category name)


name in the field and then check the box.
As you type a pull-down list appear to help
you select the correct category. A new field
appears where you can add more categories
to the filter. The number of hosts tagged to
each selected category is displayed on the
right of the line.

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%).

GPUs Filters for GPU configuration information such (configuration info)


as model 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. As you type a pull-down
list appears to help you select the correct
configuration information. It will return a list of
hosts that satisfy the GPU condition/string.

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.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

You can group the hosts list in the following ways:

• 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.)

Figure 167: Hosts Metrics Tab

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Table 91: Metrics Tab Fields

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.

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table with either percentile or quantity intervals.

Memory Swap Displays memory swap-out and swap-in rate tables.

Memory Usage Displays a memory percentage usage table.

IOPS Displays total, read, and write IOPS tables.

IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.

IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.

Host Details View


To access the details page for a host, go to the hosts dashboard List tab. See Hosts Summary
View on page 220 and click the host name. You can also access the details page by clicking
the host name wherever that name appear, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.
The host name and the following set of tabs appear on the left: Summary, Alerts, Events,
Metrics, Usage, Hardware, and Virtual Entities. Click a tab to display that information on the
right. (Click the Back to Hosts 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 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.

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Figure 168: Host Summary Tab

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.

Table 92: Host Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Cluster Displays the name of the cluster in which (cluster name)


the host resides. Clicking the name displays
the details page for that cluster (see Cluster
Details View on page 208).

Host IP Displays the host IP address. (IP address)

Hypervisor Displays the hypervisor name. (hypervisor name)

VM Count Displays the number of VMs running on this (number)


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]

CVM IP Displays the IP address assigned to the (IP address)


Controller VM.

Host Type

IPMI Address Displays the IP address of the Intelligent (IP address)


Platform Management Interface (IPMI) port.
An IPMI port is used for the hypervisor host
console.

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.)

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Parameter Description Values

Oplog Disk % Displays the percentage of the operations log [0 - 100%]


(oplog) capacity currently being used. The
oplog resides on the metadata disk.

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.

Monitor Enabled Displays whether the host is high availability [Yes|No]


(HA) protected. A Yes value means HA is
active for this host. A No value means VMs
on this host are not protected (will not be
restarted on another host) if the host fails.
Normally, this value should always be Yes. A
No value is likely a sign of a problem situation
that should be investigated.

Disks Displays the number of disks in each storage DAS-SATA: (number),


tier in the host. Tier types vary depending on SSD-SATA: (number),
the Nutanix model type. SSD-PCIe: (number)

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)".

Datastore(s) Displays the names of any datastores. (names)

Figure 169: Host Summary Tab

Entity Relationship Widget


The entity relationship widget shows the relationship between related entities like clusters,
hosts, and VMs instances. The widget provides quick access between the related entities. You
can directly navigate to a target cluster, host, or VM instance through the respective pull-down
menus.
Example: Viewing Hosts on a Cluster
Click the Host pull-down menu to view the list of host instances on the selected cluster.
Alternatively, you can search the host instance name belonging to the target cluster.

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Figure 170: Hosts

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).

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• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric. See Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286.

Figure 171: Host Metrics Tab

The following table describes the available metrics. Some metrics are not available on all
hypervisors.

Table 93: Metrics Tab Fields

Metric Description

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity currently being used
by the host (0 - 100%).

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory 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

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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 host storage
space used by each disk tier (SSD and DAS-SATA).

Figure 172: Host Usage Tab

Hardware and Virtual Entities Tabs


Clicking these tabs displays a list of hardware and virtual entity types that exist on this host.
Clicking a hardware entry such as Disks or a virtual entity such as VMs displays the information
you would see on the List tab summary page for that the specified hardware or virtual entity
except filtered to just those on this host. See Hardware Entities on page 200 and Compute
and Storage Entities on page 89 for more information.

Disks Summary View


To access the disks dashboard, select Hardware > Disks from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The disks dashboard allows you to view summary information about disks
across the registered clusters and access detailed information about each disk.

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.

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Figure 173: Disks Summary Tab

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.

Figure 174: Disks List Tab

Table 94: Disks List Fields

Parameter Description Values

"General" Focus Fields

Serial Number Displays the disk serial number. (serial number)

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Mode Displays the operating state of the disk. online, offline

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.

"Performance" Focus Fields

Serial Number Displays the disk serial number. (serial number)

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]

IOPS Displays I/O operations per second (IOPS) for [0 - unlimited]


this disk.

IO Bandwidth Displays I/O bandwidth used per second for xxx [MBps|KBps]
this disk.

IO Latency Displays the average I/O latency (in xxx [ms]


milliseconds) for 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.

Table 95: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Mode Filters on whether the disk is online or offine. Online, Offline


Check the box for one or both of these modes.
The number of disks currently in each state is
displayed on the right of the line.

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.

You can group the disks list in the following ways:

• 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.)

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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 disk-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 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.

Figure 175: Disks Metrics Tab

Table 96: Metrics Tab Fields

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.

Note: The same format also applies to the other metrics in


this table.

IO Latency Displays total, read, and write I/O latency rate tables.

IO Bandwidth Displays total, read, and write I/O bandwidth rate tables.

Disk Details View


To access the details page for a disk, go to the disks dashboard List tab (see Disks Summary
View on page 230) and click the disk name. You can also access the details page by clicking
the disk name wherever that name appear, such as in a dashboard widget or search result.

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The disk name and the following set of tabs appear on the left: Summary, Alerts, Events,
Metrics, and Usage. Click a tab to display that information on the right. (Click the Back to Disks
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 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.

Figure 176: Disk Summary Tab

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.

Table 97: Disk Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Host IP Displays the IP address of the host. (IP address)

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.

Mode Displays whether the disk is currently online or [online|offline]


offline.

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Parameter Description Values

Disk Capacity Displays the total physical space on the drive. xxx [GB|TB]

Status Displays the operating status of the disk. Normal; Data


Possible states include the following: migration initiated;
Marked for removal,
• Normal. Disk is operating normally. data migration is in
progress; Detachable
• Data migration initiated. Data is being
migrated to other disks.
• Marked for removal, data migration is
in progress. Data is being migrated in
preparation to remove disk.
• Detachable. Disk is not being used and can
be removed.

Self Encryption Drive Displays whether this is a self-encrypted drive. Not Present, Present

Figure 177: Disk Summary Tab

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).

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• Click the Alert Settings button to configure an alert for this metric (see Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286).

Figure 178: Disk Metrics Tab

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.

Figure 179: Disk Usage Tab

GPUs Summary View


To access the GPUs dashboard, select Hardware > GPUs from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The GPUs dashboard allows you to view summary information about GPUs
across the registered clusters and access detailed information about each GPU.

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.

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Figure 180: GPUs Dashboard

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.

Table 98: GPU List Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Mode Displays the mode in which the GPU is None, vGPU,


operating. passthrough

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.

Table 99: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Mode Filters on the GPU operation mode. Check None, vGPU,


the box for one or more of these modes. The Passthrough
number of GPUs currently in each mode is
displayed on the right of the line.

You can group the GPUs list in the following ways:

• 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.)

GPU Details View


To access the details page for a GPU, click on the desired GPU type entry in the list (see GPUs
Summary View on page 237). You can also access the details page by clicking the GPU name
wherever that name appear, such as in a dashboard widget or search result. The GPU details
page includes Summary and VMs tabs.

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:

• GPU Usage: Displays the percentage of GPU capacity being used.


• GPU Framebuffer Usage: Displays the percentage of GPU framebuffer (RAM) capacity
being used.
• Action button on the upper right (which appears regardless of which tab is selected):

• 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.

Table 100: GPU Summary Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

Host Displays the name of the host in which the (host name)
GPU resides.

Mode Displays the GPU operational mode. If it is None, vGPU,


vGPU, an additional field appears that displays Passthrough
the vGPU profile used.

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

ID Displays the GPU ID number. (ID number)

Figure 181: GPU Summary Tab

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):

• Alerts (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266)


• Events (see Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277)
• Audits (see Audits Summary View on page 241)
• Tasks (see Tasks View on page 244)

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Audits Summary View
To access the audits dashboard, select Activity > Audits from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The audits dashboard allows you to view a list of actions performed across
the registered clusters.

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.

Figure 182: Audits Dashboard

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.

Table 101: Recovery Plans Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Table 102: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

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Audit Details View
To access the details page for an action, go to the audits dashboard (see Audits Summary View
on page 241) and click the action description. The details page includes the following:

• 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.

Table 103: Action Summary Fields

Parameter Description Values

Action Description Displays the action description. (description)

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.

User IP Displays the IP address of the user. (IP address)

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.

Status Displays the status of the action. Succeeded, Failed

In the first example the action is adding more categories for the cluster, so the details simply
include the names of the attached categories.

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Figure 183: Audit Details Page (example 1)

In the second example the action is adding a disk, so the details include the VM name, disk
address, size, and source disk UUID.

Figure 184: Audit Details Page (example 2)

In the third example the action is creating a VM, so the details include a variety of information
about that VM.

Figure 185: Audit Details Page (example 3)

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:

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• Clicking the View All Tasks link at the bottom of the current tasks drop-down list.
• Clicking the View All Tasks link in the Tasks widget in the main dashboard (see Main
Dashboard on page 68).
• Selecting Activity > Tasks in the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

Figure 186: Tasks Screen

You can do the following in the Tasks dashboard:

• Filter the list by entering a name in the "filter by" field.


• Filter the list by clicking the Filters button. This displays a filter pane on the right of the
screen. Click on one or more of the states to filter the list to just tasks in those states. The
states are Aborted, Canceled, Failed, Queued, Running, Paused, Skipped, Succeeded, and

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Scheduled. The number of tasks in each state currently appear to the right of the state name.
Click the X icon (upper right) to close the filter pane.

Figure 187: Filter Pane


• Download the task list in CSV format by clicking the download icon (on the right above the
table).
The following table describes the fields in the tasks list. Each task appears in the list for a
minimum of one hour after completion, but how long that task remains in the list depends on
several factors. In general, the maximum duration is two weeks. However, tasks are rotated off
the list as new tasks arrive, so a task might disappear from the list much sooner when activity
is high. In some cases a task appears for longer than two weeks because the last task for each
component is retained in the listing.

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Table 104: Tasks List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Task Specifies which type of operation the task is (name of operation


performing. such as "upgrade")

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.

Cluster Specifies the cluster name(s) on which the (cluster names)


task is running. A dash (-) appears when the
task applies to Prism Central rather than one
of the registered clusters.

Progress Indicates the current percentage complete for 0%-100%


the task.

Status Indicates the task status, which can be Succeeded,


pending, running, completed, or failed. Running,Failed,
Queued

Created On Displays when the task began. xx [seconds| minutes|


hours| days] ago

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)

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Reports View
The Reports dashboard allows you to create and run reports about the Nutanix and vCenter
entities and metrics of your choice. To access the Reports dashboard, select Operations >
Reports from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

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.

Figure 188: Reports Dashboard

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.

Table 105: Reports List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Report Name Displays the name of the report. (report name)

Note: The SYSTEM label appears against


the report name for pre-defined reports.

Owner Displays the name of the user who created the (user name)
report.

Scheduled Indicates whether this report is scheduled to Yes, No


run at specified times.

• "Yes" means the report is scheduled to


run automatically at specified times (see
Frequency).
• "No" means the report is not scheduled
to run. To run the report you must either
manually run it or update the report to
specify a schedule.

Frequency Displays when (how frequently) the report is Daily, Weekly,


scheduled to run. Monthly, Yearly

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Parameter Description Values

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):

• This action can be applied to multiple reports: Delete


• These actions can be applied to only one report at a time: Run, Edit, Clone

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):

• Users (see Users Summary View on page 249)


• Roles (see Roles Summary View on page 253)
• Projects (see Projects Summary View on page 258)
• Availability Zones (see Availability Zones View on page 264)
• LCM (see LCM View on page 265)

Users Summary View


To access the users dashboard, select Administration > Users from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13). The users dashboard allows you to view a list of local and Active
Directory-specified users.

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.

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Figure 189: Users Dashboard

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.

User Details View


To access the details page for a user, go to the users dashboard (see Users Summary View on
page 249) and click the user name. The details page includes the following:

• 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.

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Table 106: User Summary Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Name Displays the user name. (user name)

Projects Count Displays the number of projects to which this (number)


user is a member.

Total VMs Displays the number of VMs assigned to this (user name)
user.

vCPU Usage Displays the number of vCPUs used by this (number)


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.

Figure 190: User Summary Tab

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.

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Figure 191: User Trends Tab

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.

Table 107: User VM Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the VM. (VM name)

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.

Memory Capacity Displays the amount of memory capacity xxx [GiB]


allocated to the VM.

Disk Capacity Displays the amount of disk capacity allocated xxx [GiB]
to the VM.

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Figure 192: User VM Tab

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.

Table 108: User Project Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the project. (project name)

vCPU Usage Displays the number of vCPUs used by this (number)


project.

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.

Figure 193: User Project Tab

Roles Summary View


To access the roles dashboard, select Administration > Roles from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13). The roles dashboard allows you to view summary information about
built-in (default) and custom (created) roles and to access detailed information about each role.

Note: This section describes the information and options that appear in the roles dashboard.

Prism | Entity Exploring | 253


• See Entity Exploring on page 85 for instructions on how to view and organize this
information in a variety of ways.
• See Controlling User Access (RBAC) in Security Guide for information on how to
create, manage, and apply roles.

Figure 194: Roles Dashboard - View by General

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.

Table 109: Roles List Fields

Parameter Description Values

View by General

Name Displays the role name. (role name)

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.

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Figure 195: Roles List Fields - Custom Views

Table 110: Other Roles List Fields

Parameter Description Values

View by <custom>

Assigned User Groups Displays the number of user groups assigned (number)
this role.

Message Displays specified message for this role. (string)

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Parameter Description Values

Percent Displays the percentage of users. (number up to


maximum of 100 or
"-")

Reason Displays the reason. (string)

State Displays the state of the role. (string)

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.

Table 111: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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).

Note: You cannot delete or modify the default roles.

Role Details View


To access the details page for a role, go to the roles dashboard (see Roles Summary View on
page 253) and click the role name. The details page includes the following:

• 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.

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• Action buttons (upper right). The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed
out. For more details, see the relevant topic in Security Guide.

• 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.

Table 112: Role Summary Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the role name. (role name)

Assigned Users Displays the number of users assigned this (number)


role.

Assigned User Groups Displays the number of user groups assigned (number)
this role.

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Figure 196: Role Summary Tab

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).

User Groups Tab


The User Groups tab displays a list of user groups assigned to the role. You can filter the list by
entering a string in the search field.

Roll Assignment Tab


The Roll Assignment tab displays the relationship between the users, groups, and entities
assigned to this role. This tab does not appear for certain default roles such as Prism Admin
that you are not allowed to assign.

Figure 197: Role Assignment Tab

Projects Summary View


To access the projects dashboard, select Administration > Projects from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13). The projects dashboard allows you to view summary information
about projects that have been created and access detailed information about each project.

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.

Prism | Entity Exploring | 258


Figure 198: Projects Dashboard

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.

Table 113: Projects List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the project name. (project name)

vCPU Usage Displays the number of vCPUs used by the (number)


project.

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.

Users Displays the number of users in the project. (number)

User Groups Displays the number of user groups in the (number)


project.

VM Count Displays the number of VMs in the project. (number)

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.

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Table 114: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Note: You cannot delete the default project.

Project Details View


To access the details page for a project, go to the projects dashboard (see Projects Summary
View on page 258) and click the project name. The details page includes the following:

• 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.

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• Action buttons (upper right). The available actions appear in bold; other actions are grayed
out.

• 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.

Table 115: Project Summary Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the VM. (VM name)

VM Count Displays the number of VMs in the project. (number)

Users Displays the number of users in the project. (number)

User Groups Displays the number of user groups in the (number)


project.

Networks Displays the networks that the project is (network names)


allowed to access.

vCPU Usage Displays the number of vCPUs used by the (number)


project.

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.

Description Displays a project description, which is (description)


typically who created the project.

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Figure 199: Project Summary Tab

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.

Figure 200: Project Usage Tab

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.

Table 116: VMs Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the VM. (VM name)

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Memory Capacity Displays the amount of memory allocated to xxx [GiB]


the VM.

Disk Capacity Displays the amount of disk space allocated to xxx [GiB]
the VM.

Figure 201: Project VMs Tab

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.

Table 117: Users Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the VM. (VM name)

Total VMs Displays the number of VMs owned by this (user name)
user.

vCPU Usage Displays the number of vCPUs used by this (number)


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.

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Figure 202: Project Users Tab

Availability Zones View


To access the availability zones dashboard, select Administration > Availability Zones from
the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The availability zones dashboard allows you
to view information about the availability zones connected to Prism Central currently and to
connect to other zones.

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.

Figure 203: Availability Zones Dashboard

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.

Table 118: Catalog Items List Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the zone name. (zone name)

Region Displays the region in which the zone is (region name)


located.

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Parameter Description Values

Type Displays the type or zone. The availability Local, Physical, Xi


zone that you are logged in to is shown as
a local availability zone. Availability zones
that are backed by on-premises Prism
Central instances are shown as type physical.
Availability zones in Xi Cloud Services are
shown as type Xi.

Connectivity Status Indicates whether Prism Central can access Reachable,


the zone currently. Unreachable

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):

• Calm (see Enabling Calm on page 947)


• Files (see Enabling Files on page 947)
• Foundation Central (see Enabling Foundation Central on page 948)
• Karbon (see Enabling Karbon on page 948)
• Objects (see Enabling Objects on page 948)

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ALERT AND EVENT MONITORING
(PRISM CENTRAL)
Prism Central provides several mechanisms to monitor and configure cluster alerts and events.

• 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.)

Alerts Summary View (Prism Central)


The Alerts dashboard allows you to view summary information about alert messages across the
registered clusters, access detailed information about each alert, and view alert policies from
any source (user defined, system defined, or external defined).
To access the Alerts dashboard, select Activity > Alerts from the entities menu (see Entities
Menu on page 13). The top pane includes List and Alert Policies tabs with User Defined, System
Defined, and External Defined tabs under Alert Policies. Click the tab to display that content
below the tab.

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.

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Figure 204: Alerts List Tab

• 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.

• Cluster: Enter name in search field.


• Provider: 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.
• Severity: Critical, Warning, Info
• Resolved: Yes (Manual), Yes (Auto), No
• Acknowledged: Yes, No
• Impact Type: Availability, Capacity, Configuration, Performance, System Indicator
• Create Time: Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours, Last week, From XXX to XXX
• Last Occurred: Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours, Last week, From XXX to XXX
• Title: Enter a string in the field.

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• To select (or unselect) alerts in the list, do one of the following:

• 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.

Table 119: Alerts List Fields

Parameter Description Values

(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

Severity Displays the severity level of this condition. Critical, Warning,


There are three levels: Informational
Critical
An actionable critical situation has
been detected, and action is required
immediately. The cluster may have the
potential to stop running, or it could run
into irreparable issues.
Warning
An actionable issue has been detected,
and user intervention is required. A more
serious issue may develop if this is not
resolved soon.
Info (Informational)
An actionable minor problem has been
detected. It should be resolved relatively
soon and not ignored.

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Parameter Description Values

Status Indicates whether the alert has been resolved. (blank),


Resolving an error means you set that error Acknowledged By
as fixed. (The alert may return if the condition user (date_time), Auto
is scanned again at a future point.) If you do Resolved (date_time),
not want to be notified about the condition Resolved By user
again, turn off the alert for this condition (see (date_time)
Configuring Alert Policies (Prism Central) on
page 283).

• A blank value means the alert is not


resolved.
• An "Acknowledged By" value means this
alert was acknowledged manually by the
specified user at that date and time. To
manually acknowledge an alert, check
the box for that alert and then select the
Acknowledge button.
• An "Auto Resolved (date_time)" value means
this alert was resolved automatically at the
specified date and time. This requires that
auto alert is enabled for this alert type.
• A "Resolved By user (date_time)" value means
this alert was resolved manually by the
specified user at that date and time. To
manually resolve an alert, check the box
for that alert and then select theResolve
button.

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).

Alert Policies: User Defined Tab


Clicking the User Defined tab displays a list of the custom (user defined) alert policies. 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.

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Figure 205: Alert Policies: User Defined Tab

• 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.

Table 120: Alert User Defined Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

(selection box) Click this box to select the policy. n/a

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Parameter Description Values

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).

Provider Displays the name of the provider (provider name)


(organization, feature, or external source) that
defined the policy.

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.

Auto Resolve Displays whether auto resolved is enabled. Enabled, Disabled

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 Policies: System Defined Tab


Clicking the System Defined tab displays a list of the default (system defined) alert policies. 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.

Figure 206: Alert Policies: System Defined Tab

• 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.

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• 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.
• 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.

Table 121: Alert System Defined Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

(selection box) Click this box to select the policy. n/a

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).

ID Displays the identification number assigned to (ID number)


the policy.

Provider Displays the name of the provider (provider name)


(organization, feature, or external source) that
defined the policy.

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.)

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Alert Policies: External Defined Tab
Clicking the External Defined tab displays a list of the alert policies defined by external entities,
typically an application through the API. 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.

Figure 207: Alert Policies: External Defined Tab

• 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.

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Table 122: Alert System Defined Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

(selection box) Click this box to select the policy. n/a

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)..

Provider Displays the name of the provider (provider name)


(organization, feature, or external source) that
defined the policy.

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.

Auto Resolve Displays whether auto resolved is enabled. Enabled, Disabled

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.

Table 123: Alert Details Fields

Parameter Description Values

Alert Title Displays the title of the alert. (alert title)

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Parameter Description Values

Source Entity Displays a list of source entities or a dash if (entity names)


no specific entity is the source of the alert.
Clicking an entity link opens the detail page
for that entity.

Severity Displays the severity level of this condition. Critical, Warning,


There are three levels: Informational
Critical
An actionable critical situation has
been detected, and action is required
immediately. The cluster may have the
potential to stop running, or it could run
into irreparable issues.
Warning
An actionable issue has been detected,
and user intervention is required. A more
serious issue may develop if this is not
resolved soon.
Informational (Info)
An actionable minor problem has been
detected. It should be resolved relatively
soon and not ignored.

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)

Status (for manually Displays the current alert status: (blank),


resolved alerts) acknowledged, resolved, or neither (blank). Acknowledged,
Resolved

Status (for auto Displays the current alert status: (blank),


resolved alerts) acknowledged, resolved, auto resolved, or Acknowledged, Auto
neither (blank). Resolved

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Parameter Description Values

Acknowledged By Indicates whether the alert has been (blank), N/A date_time),
acknowledged. user date_time

• A blank (dash) value means the alert is not


acknowledged.
• An "N/A date_time)" entry indicates this alert
was acknowledged automatically at the
specified date and time. This requires that
auto alert is enabled for this alert type (see
Configuring Alert Policies (Prism Central)
on page 283).
• A "user date_time" entry indicates this alert
was acknowledged manually by the
specified user at that date and time. To
manually acknowledge an alert, click the
Acknowledge button (upper right). The
field value changes from blank to the
user name and date/time the alert was
acknowledged.

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.

Description Describes the reason for the alert. (event description)

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Figure 208: Alert Details Screen

Events Summary View (Prism Central)


The Events dashboard summary view displays a list of event messages across the registered
clusters. Event messages describe cluster actions such as adding a storage pool or taking
a snapshot. Unlike alerts, event messages are simply informational without the need to
acknowledge or resolve. The following figure is a sample view, and the table describes each
field in this view. To access the Events dashboard, select Activity > Events from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

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.

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Figure 209: Events Dashboard

• 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.

• Event Type: Behavioral Anomaly, System Action, User Action


• Cluster: Enter name in search field.
• Create Time: Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours, Last week, From XXX to XXX

Table 124: Events View Fields

Parameter Description 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.

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Parameter Description Values

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.

Figure 210: Event Details Screen

• 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.

Table 125: Event Details Fields

Parameter Description Values

Event Title Displays the title of the event. (alert title)

Source Entity Displays a list of source entities or a dash if (entity names)


no specific entity is the source of the event.
Clicking an entity link opens the detail page
for that entity.

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).

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Parameter Description Values

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

Configuring Alert Emails (Prism Central)


About this task
Prism Central allows you to configure the alert messages sent by Prism Central. To configure
alert settings, reporting rules, and message templates, do the following:

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

1. Do one of the following:

» 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.

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2. Click the Settings tab and do the following:

a. Enable Prism Central to sent alert emails.

• 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.

Figure 211: Alert Email Configuration Window (Settings tab)

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3. To create a custom alert email rule, click the Rules tab and the New Rule button, and then
configure the rule as follows:

a. Specify the conditions for generating the alert:

• 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.

Figure 212: Alert Email Configuration Window (Rules tab)

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4. To create a template for the email messages, click the Email Content tab and do the
following:

a. In the Prepend Subject field, enter the desired text.


This text appears at the beginning of the subject field in each alert email. If the field is left
blank, no prepended text appears in the subject.
b. In the Append Body field, enter the desired text.
This text appears at the end of the message body in each alert email. If the field is left
blank, no appended text appears in the message body.
c. Click the Save button to apply the changes and close the window.

Figure 213: Alert Email Configuration Window (Template tab)

Configuring Alert Policies (Prism Central)


About this task
The system monitors a variety of conditions and sends an alert whenever one of the alert
conditions is detected (when alerting is enabled). There are default policies for these alerts, but
you have the option to modify the default policies and add new policies.

Note: To help ensure that Prism Central and each managed cluster are taking advantage of NCC
features, ensure that:

• Each node in your cluster is running the same NCC version.


• Prism Central and each cluster managed by Prism Central are all running the same
NCC version.

There are three categories of alert policies:

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).

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• External Defined Alert Policies. There is an API that external sources can use to define alert
policies. These are policies you can view (but not modify) through the alerts dashboard (see
Viewing External Alert Policies on page 300).

Modifying System Alert Policies

About this task


There are default policies for system alerts, but you can customize which system events should
trigger an alert. To modify the system alert policies, do the following:

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).

2. In the Update Policy window, do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

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d. Click the Save button to save the changes and return to the alerts dashboard.

Figure 214: Update Policy Window (example)

Adding Custom Alert Policies


Prism Central provides a mechanism to define alert policies to monitor the entities with respect
to the metrics that are critical to your virtual infrastructure. You can define alert policies to

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 285


monitor entities such as VMs, hosts, and clusters. You can also define a single alert policy for
either all VMs, all hosts, or all clusters that share some common criteria. You can create, update,
delete, enable, and disable the alert policies. Each enabled alert policy is executed every five
minutes. You can also configure an alert policy so that Prism Central can automatically resolve
the alert after the condition causing the alert is resolved.
For a complete description of the metrics available to create custom alert policies, see Alert
Metrics on page 290.

Creating Custom Alert Policies

About this task


To create a custom alert policy, do the following.

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.

Figure 215: Create Alert Policy page (example)

2. In the left pane, do the following in the indicated fields:

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

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All Hosts, One Host, or All Hosts in a Cluster. For all options except All Hosts, a search
field appears to select the target host, category, or cluster.

Note: The category option is available only if you select the VM entity type.

c. Metric: Select the desired metric from the pull-down list.


The list of metrics varies depending on the entity type. When the metric is selected, more
fields appear in the right pane to specify the conditions for the policy.
d. Policy Name: Enter a name for the policy.
The system automatically generates a name for this field based on the policy criteria you
have selected, but you can edit the name as desired.
e. Description (optional): Enter a description for the policy.
f. Impact Type: Select the type of impact the alert condition causes to the entity
(Performance, Capacity, Configuration, or Availability) from the pull-down list. The
default impact type is Performance.
g. Auto resolve alerts: Check this box to automatically resolve the alert generated by the
policy after the condition causing the alert no longer persists (the condition must not
occur again for 48 hours).
h. Enable Policy: Check this box to enable (or uncheck to disable) the policy.

3. In the right pane, do the following in the indicated fields:

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

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crosses a set limit (Static Threshold fields), or both. See Behavioral Learning Tools on
page 846 for more information about behavioral anomalies.

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.

4. Click Save to save the alert policy.

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:

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Figure 216: Overlapping Policy

Click View to display the overlapping policies and click Save to save the overlapping policy.

Figure 217: Overlapping Policies List

Precedence of Overlapping Polices


If an overlapping policy exists (policy that applies to a specific entity) for a global policy (policy
that applies to all the entities of that entity type), the overlapping policy takes precedence over
the global policy.
If multiple policies apply to an entity during policy execution (that is overlapping policies exist),
the policy with the highest precedence for that entity is evaluated and all other policies that
apply to that entity are ignored. Even if a policy is disabled, the policy might still overlap other

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policies. If the policy that has the highest precedence is disabled, that policy is not applied and
all other policies that apply to that entity are also ignored.
Policies are evaluated in the following order of precedence (highest precedence policy at the
top):
1. Policy applied to a specific entity
2. Policy applied to an entity type in a category
3. Policy applied to an entity type in a cluster
4. Policy applied to all entities of an entity type

Precedence of Overlapping Polices in a Category


A category policy (policy that applies to all VMs in a category) takes precedence over a global
policy (a policy that applies to all VMs in the cluster). However, a VM can belong to multiple
categories. In this case, the category policy that is most recently updated takes precedence
over any other category policy that applies to a VM.
For example, consider that you have created a global policy (global-policy-1) for all VMs in the
cluster. You have VM-1 that belongs to both the categories: category-1 and category-2. You
have created the category-1-pol policy for all VMs in category-1 and the category-2-pol policy
for all VMs in category-2. In this case, all three policies apply to VM-1, but only one policy can
be applied to a single VM. Because category-1-pol and category-2-pol are category policies,
category-1-pol and category-2-pol take precedence over global-policy-1. However, you still have
two policies (category-1-pol and category-2-pol) that apply to the same VM (VM-1). In this case,
the policy that is updated most recently takes precedence over the other.

Modifying Custom Alert Policies

About this task


To modify a custom alert policy, do the following:

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.

Deleting Custom Alert Policies

About this task


To delete a custom (user-created) alert policy, do the following:

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).

2. Select Delete from the Actions pull-down menu.

Alert Metrics
The following table describes the VM metrics.

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Table 126: VM Metrics

CPU Ready Time


Metric hypervisor.cpu_ready_time_ppm

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.

Note: This metric identical to the system created alert


policy A3040.

ESXi: Value of cpu.usage.average reported by ESXi for a VM.


Hyper-V: Value of AvgCpuUtilizationPercent reported by Hyper-V for
a VM.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Memory Usage
Metric hypervisor_memory_usage_ppm

Rollup Average
Unit Percentage (%)
Description Percentage of the memory used by the VM out of the total
configured memory reported by the hypervisor.

Note: This metric is identical to the system created alert


policy A3021.

AHV: Memory usage is always 100% because AHV does not


support overcommit.
ESXi: Value of mem.usage.average reported by ESXi for a VM.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi and AHV
Memory Balloon*
Metric hypervisor_memory_balloon_reclaimed_bytes

Rollup Average

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Unit Bytes
Description Total guest memory in bytes reclaimed through ballooning.

Note: This metric is similar to the system created alert


policy A3024.

Supported Hypervisors ESXi


Memory Balloon Target*
Metric hypervisor_memory_balloon_reclaim_target_bytes

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 Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit microseconds
Description Average of the read I/O latency of the VM in microseconds
reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller AVG Write I/O Latency
Metric controller_avg_write_io_latency_usecs

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit microseconds
Description Average of the write I/O latency of the VM in microseconds
reported by the controller.

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Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller AVG I/O Latency
Metric controller_avg_io_latency_usecs

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit microseconds
Description Average of the read and write I/O latency of the VM in
microseconds reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller Read IOPS
Metric controller_num_read_iops

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit IOPS
Description Rate of the VM reads in IOPS reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller Write IOPS
Metric controller_num_write_iops

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit IOPS
Description Rate of the VM writes in IOPS reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller IOPS
Metric controller_num_iops

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit IOPS
Description Rate of the VM read and writes in IOPS reported by the
controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller Read IO Bandwidth
Metric controller_read_io_bandwidth_kBps

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit KBps
Description Read IO bandwidth of the VM in kilobytes per second reported
by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller Write IO Bandwidth
Metric controller_write_io_bandwidth_kBps

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit KBps

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Description Write IO bandwidth of the VM in kilobytes per second
reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Controller IO Bandwidth
Metric controller_io_bandwidth_kBps

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.


Unit KBps
Description Read and write IO bandwidth of the VM in kilobytes per
second reported by the controller.
Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V
Network Transmit Packets Dropped
Metric hypervisor_num_transmit_packets_dropped

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

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Description Size of the I/O working set size writes in megabytes.
Supported Hypervisors All hypervisors
Read I/O working set size
Metric controller.wss_3600s_read_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.

Table 127: Host Metrics

The following table describes the host metrics.

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CPU Usage

Metric hypervisor_cpu_usage_ppm

Rollup Average

Unit Percentage (%)

Description Percentage of the total CPU cycles currently in use by


the host.

Note: This metric is identical to the system


created alert policy A6414.

AHV: Ratio between the sum of kernal, user, and


iowait and the sum of kernal, user, iowait, and idle
over all the CPUs. For hosts with hyperthreads
enabled, the host CPU usage is 10% more than the
total value.

ESXi: Value of cpu.usage.average for a host in percentage.

Hyper-V: Value of LogicalProcessorTotalRuntimePercent from


the output of the command Get-LocalHostPerformance |
Convertto-Json -Depth 5 -Compress.

Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V

Memory Swap In Rate*

Metric hypervisor_swap_in_rate_kBps

Rollup Average

Unit KBps

Description Rate of the swap-in memory in kilobytes per second.

Note: This metric is similar to the system created


alert policy A6413.

ESXi: Value of mem.swapinRate.average for the host.

Supported Hypervisors ESXi

Memory Swap Out Rate*

Metric hypervisor_swap_out_rate_kBps

Rollup Average

Unit KBps

Description Rate of the swap-out memory in kilobytes per


second.

Note: This metric is similar to the system created


alert policy A6413.

ESXi: Value of mem.swapoutRate.average for the host.

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Supported Hypervisors ESXi

Memory Usage

Metric hypervisor_memory_usage_ppm

Rollup Average

Unit Percentage (%)

Description Ratio of the total memory allocated to all VMs over


the total memory size on the host.

Note: This metric is identical to the system


created alert policy A6414.

AHV: Committed memory size from /proc/meminfo over


the total memory size. Memory usage is always 100%.

ESXi: Value of mem.usage.average for the host.

Hyper-V: Amount of used memory over the total


memory.

Supported Hypervisors ESXi, AHV, and Hyper-V

Network Transmit Packets Dropped

Metric hypervisor_num_receive_packets_dropped

Rollup Summation

Unit Packets

Description Number of the network transmit packets dropped.

ESXi: Value of net.droppedTx.summation for the host.

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.

ESXi: Value of net.droppedRx.summation for the host.

Supported Hypervisors ESXi and AHV

Controller AVG I/O Latency

Metric controller_avg_io_latency_usecs

Rollup Average

Unit Microseconds

Description Average read and write I/O latency of the host in


microseconds reported by the controller.

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Controller AVG Read I/O Latency

Metric controller_avg_read_io_latency_usecs

Rollup Average

Unit Microseconds

Description Average read I/O latency of the host in microseconds


reported by the controller.

Controller AVG Write I/O Latency

Metric controller_avg_write_io_latency_usecs

Rollup Average

Unit Microseconds

Description Average write I/O latency of the host in microseconds


reported by the controller.

Controller Read IOPS

Metric controller_num_read_iops

Rollup Average

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the host reads in IOPS reported by the


controller.

Controller Write IOPS

Metric controller_num_write_iops

Rollup Average

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the host writes in IOPS reported by the


controller.

Controller IOPS

Metric controller_num_iops

Rollup Average

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the host reads and writes in IOPS reported by


the controller.

* Experimental only. Might not be supported in the future releases.

Table 128: Cluster Metrics

The following table describes the host metrics.

Controller Read IOPS

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Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the controller reads in IOPS.

Controller Write IOPS

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the controller writes in IOPS.

Controller IOPS

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit IOPS

Description Rate of the controller reads and writes in IOPS.

Controller AVG Read I/O Latency

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit Microseconds

Description Average of the read I/O latency of the controller in


microseconds.

Controller AVG Write I/O Latency

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit Microseconds

Description Average of the write I/O latency of the controller in


microseconds.

Controller AVG I/O Latency

Rollup Derived from summary rollup type.

Unit Microseconds

Description Average of the read and write I/O latency of the


controller in microseconds.

Controller I/O Bandwidth

Rollup Average

Unit KBps

Description Read and write IO bandwidth in kilobytes per second


reported by the controller.

Controller Read I/O Bandwidth

Rollup Average

Unit KBps

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Description Read IO bandwidth in kilobytes per second reported by
the controller.

Controller Write I/O Bandwidth

Rollup Average

Unit KBps

Description Write IO bandwidth in kilobytes per second reported


by the controller.

CPU Usage

Rollup Average

Unit PPM

Description CPU usage of the cluster in PPM reported by the


hypervisor.

Memory Usage

Rollup Average

Unit PPM

Description Memory usage of the cluster in PPM reported by the


hypervisor.

Viewing External Alert Policies


External alert policies are those created by applications.
Nutanix provides an API that applications can use to define alert policies. The External Defined
tab displays a list of the application-defined alerts (see Alerts Summary View (Prism Central)
on page 266). You cannot modify an externally defined policy, but you can view the policy by
clicking the policy name in the list.

Figure 218: External Defined Policy Window (example 1)

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Prism Central Logs
This section lists the logs that reside in a Prism Central VM. These logs record Prism Central-
related events and actions. A Prism Central VM runs a subset of the services that run in a
Controller VM plus a service about VMs (Metropolis) that is unique to Prism Central. Prism
Central logs contain comparable information as the similarly named ones for a Controller VM.
For more information, see the Logs section in the Acropolis Advanced Administration Guide.

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.

Table 129: Location: /home/nutanix/data/logs

Log Contents Frequency

alert_manager.[out, ERROR, FATAL, INFO, Alert manager process output


WARNING]

aplos.out Aplos V3 gateway logs

aplos_engine.out Aplos V3 engine logs

athena.[out, ERROR, INFO, FATAL] Authentication and identity


management activity

cassandra_monitor.[out, ERROR, FATAL, Cassandra database monitor


INFO] process output

catalina.out Catalina/Tomcat for Prism


process output

connection_splicer.[out, ERROR, FATAL, Internal process connection


INFO, WARNING] status

consolidated_audit.log Audit logs for VM operations,


see Audit Log Events on
page 304 for details.

cron_avahi_monitor.log Avahi process status

cron_time_check.log Check time difference across every 1 min


Prism Central VMs when Prism
Central is a multi-VM instance.

disk_usage.log Disk and inode usage of all every 1 min


partitions on the Prism Central
VM

dynamic_ring_changer.[out, ERROR, FATAL] Metadata migration across


nodes activity

genesis.out Nutanix software start process


output

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Log Contents Frequency

hyperint_monitor.[out, ERROR, FATAL, INFO, Hypervisor integration activity


WARNING]

karbon_core.out (formerly acs_controller.out) Karbon controller output. This


file applies only when Karbon
is enabled (see Enabling
Karbon on page 948).

karbon_ui.out (formerly acs_ui.out) Karbon user interface output.


This file applies only when
Karbon is enabled.

metropolis.out Internal Prism Central service


about VMs (Metropolis) to
validate cluster choice with
scheduler, check out images
from the catalog service, and
forward fanout requests to
Prism Element

prism_gateway.[out, ERROR, FATAL, INFO] Prism leader activity

prism_monitor.[out, ERROR, FATAL, INFO] Prism (web console, nCLI,


REST API) monitor process
output

scavenger.out Log and core file clean-up


status

search.[out, FATAL]

search_monitor.[ERROR, INFO, WARNING]

send-email.log E-mail alerts sent from the every 1 min


Controller VM

ssh_tunnel.log Connect status to


nsc.nutanix.com for the
remote support tunnel

stats_aggregator.[out, ERROR, FATAL, INFO] Statistics aggregator process


output

support-info.log Daily automated support


(ASUP) alerts

using-gflags.log gflags status

zeus_config_printer.INFO Contents of cluster


configuration database

zookeeper_monitor.[out, ERROR, INFO] Cluster configuration and


cluster state activity

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Table 130: Location: /home/nutanix/data/logs/cassandra

Log Contents

system.log Cassandra system activity

Table 131: Location:/home/nutanix/data/logs/sysstats

Log Contents Frequency Command

df.info Mounted filesystems every 5 sec df -h

disk_usage.INFO Disk usage across disks every 1 hour du

interrupts.INFO CPU interrupts every 5 sec

iostat.INFO I/O activity for each physical every 5 sec sudo iostat
disk

iotop.INFO Current I/O in realtime every 5 sec sudo iotop

lsof.INFO List of open files and every 1 min sudo lsof


processes that open them

meminfo.INFO Memory usage every 5 sec cat /proc/


meminfo

metadata_disk_usage.INFO Disk usage for metadata every 5 sec


drives

mpstat.INFO CPU activities per CPU every 5 sec mpstat

ntpq.INFO NTP information every 1 min ntpq -pn

ping_gateway.INFO Pings to the default gateway every 5 sec ping

ping_hosts.INFO Pings to other Prism Central every 1 min ping


VMs (if Prism Central is a
multi-VM instance)

sar.INFO Network bandwidth every 5 sec sar -n DEV, -n


EDEV

top.INFO Real-time CPU and memory every 5 sec top


activity

Table 132: Location: /home/nutanix/data/serviceability/alerts

Log Contents
num.processed Alerts that have been
processed

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Table 133: Location: /var/log

Log Contents

dmesg OS start messages

kernel OS kernel messages

messages OS messages after starting

Audit Log Events


The following table provides the list of all the VM events that are audited and captured as part
of the audit logs.

Table 134: Audit Event List

Event Type Operation Description


VmCreateAudit Create Created VM
VmReplicateAudit Create Replicated VM
VmCloneAudit Create Cloned VM
VmDeleteAudit Delete Deleted VM
VmRestoreAudit Restore Restored VM from snapshot
VmNicAddAudit Update Added NIC to VM
VmNicUpdateAudit Update Updated NIC of VM
VmNicDeleteAudit Update Deleted NIC of VM
VmDiskAddAudit Update Added disk to VM
VmDiskDeleteAudit Update Deleted disk of VM
VmPowerOnAudit Power State Change Powered on VM
VmPowerOffAudit Power State Change Powered off VM
VmResetAudit Power State Change Reset VM
VmPowerCycleAudit Power State Change Power cycled VM
VmPauseAudit Power State Change Paused VM
VmSuspendAudit Power State Change Suspended VM
VmResumeAudit Power State Change Resumed VM
VmGuestShutdownAudit Power State Change Guest shutdown on VM
VmGuestRebootAudit Power State Change Guest rebooted on VM
VmAcpiShutdownAudit Power State Change ACPI shutdown VM
VmAcpiRebootAudit Power State Change ACPI rebooted VM
VmPowerStateReconcileAudit Power State Change Reconciled VM power state
HAFailoverStartAudit HA Started HA failover on host
HAFailoverCompleteAudit HA Completed HA failover on
host

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Event Type Operation Description
EnteringMaintenanceModeAuditUpdate Entering maintenance mode
on host
MaintenanceModeAudit Update Host in maintenance mode
ExitMaintenanceModeAudit Update Exited maintenance mode on
host
VmHostAffinityUpdateAudit Update Updated host affinity of VM
VmDiskResizeAudit Update Resized disk of VM
VmDiskUpdateAudit Update Updated disk of VM
VmUpdateAudit Update Updated VM
VmExportAudit Create VM exported to OVA
OvaCreateAudit Create OVA created
OvaDeleteAudit Delete OVA deleted
OvaUpdateAudit Update OVA name updated
OvaConcatenateAudit Update OVA parts concatenated
VmMigrateAudit Migrate Migrated VM from one host to
another host
VsCreateAudit Create Virtual switch created
VsUpdateAudit Update Virtual switch updated
VsDeleteAudit Delete Virtual switch deleted
MigrateBridgeToVirtualSwitchAudit
Migrate Migrated bridge to virtual
switch
IPAssignmentToVMAudit Update IP assigned to VM
IPUnassignmentToVMAudit Update IP unassigned from VM
SpanCreateAudit Create SPAN session created
SpanUpdateAudit Update SPAN session updated
SpanDeleteAudit Delete SPAN session deleted
VmHostAffinityPolicyCreateAudit
Create VM Host Affinity Policy
created
VmHostAffinityPolicyUpdateAudit
Update VM Host Affinity Policy
updated
VmHostAffinityPolicyDeleteAudit
Delete VM Host Affinity Policy
deleted
VmHostAffinityPolicyReEnforceAudit
Update VM Host Affinity Policy Re-
enforced
ImageCreateAudit Create Created Image
ImageDeleteAudit Delete Deleted Image
ImageUpdateAudit Update Updated Image

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 305


Alerts/Health checks (Prism Central)
Cluster (Prism Central)

Table 135: Cluster In Read-Only Mode [1058] [A1195]

Name Cluster In Read-Only Mode


Description Single-node cluster is in read-only mode.
Alert message Single node cluster with CVM service_vm_external_ip is running in read-only mode due to reason.
Cause One of the metadata SSDs has failed.
Impact Native backups are disabled.
Resolution Replace the failed SSD. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
KB Article 8156
Severity Warning

Table 136: CVM Time Difference High [3025] [A1017]

Name Time Drift Check


Description Checks whether CVM times match.
Alert message Time differs between Controller VMs.
Cause Timedrift between CVMs is high. NTP connectivity may be lost.
Impact The cluster may experience downtime.
Resolution Check NTP/network configuration or connectivity.
Time Drift Warning Threshold: 3 seconds
Threshold
KB Article 1512
Severity Warning

Table 137: Upgrade bundle available [3031] [A3031]

Name Upgrade Bundle Available


Description Bundle available for upgrade.
Alert message Bundle bundle_name is available for upgrade_type upgrade.
Cause Newer bundle available for upgrade
Impact Cluster is running on older version.
Resolution Upgrade the cluster with newer bundle. Refer to the Nutanix documentation
for instructions.
Severity Info

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Table 138: Cluster services are down [3032] [A3032]

Name Cluster Services Down Check


Description Check that no services are down in the cluster.
Alert message Cluster Service: service_name is down on the Controller VM ip_address.
Cause One or more services in the cluster are down.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
services with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to serve I/O
requests.
Resolution [If the reason for the service(s) being down is unknown, run "ncc
health_checks run_all", perform log collection covering the period of this alert
timestamp, and provide the results to Nutanix Support via case attachment for
further investigation. If due to planned maintenance or triage, please ensure
the service is started again using "cluster start" as soon as possible. Report
any reoccurring issues.]
KB Article 1518
Severity Critical

Table 139: Alert Manager Service Check [3033]

Name Alert Manager Service Check


Description Check if Alert Manager service is available.
Cause This check usually indicates that the Alert Manager service is not healthy, but
there could be other causes.
Impact Cluster issues may stay unnoticed.
Resolution If this alert occurs once or infrequently, no action is necessary. If it is frequent,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3377

Table 140: Cluster Service Restarting Frequently [3034] [A3034]

Name Cluster Services Status


Description Check if services have restarted recently across the cluster.
Alert message There have been multiple service restarts of services across all Controller VM(s). Latest crash of
these services have occurred at timestamps respectively.
Cause This alert indicates that one or more services in the cluster were restarted.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
services with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/
O requests.
Resolution If this alert occurs once or infrequently, no action is necessary. If it is frequent,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3378

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Severity Warning

Table 141: Multiple Vcenters discovered [6415] [A6415]

Name Multiple vCenter Servers Discovered


Description Multiple vCenter servers discovered
Alert message Discovered more than one vCenter servers : 'vcenter_ips'
Cause Nodes in the current Nutanix cluster are managed by multiple vCenters.
Impact You will not be able to perform VM Management related operations.
Resolution (A) Make sure all the nodes of this Nutanix cluster are moved to any one
vCenter. (B) Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 142: Common port group between ESXi hosts is absent [6416] [A6416]

Name No common port group among ESXi hosts


Description Common port group between ESXi hosts is not present
Alert message 'message'
Cause ESXi hosts does not have any common port group.
Impact You will not be able to perform network related operations.
Resolution Ensure that all the nodes of this cluster have at least one common port group
or all the nodes are in a single datacenter. If you are still not able to resolve the
issue, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 143: Cassandra service status check [21009]

Name Cassandra service status check


Description Check that all Cassandra nodes are online and and functioning normally
Cause Cassandra service is not running in one or more hosts.
Impact Cluster resilience might degrade.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 1547

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Table 144: Cassandra service is running out of memory [21011] [A21011]

Name Cassandra memory usage


Description Check if the Cassandra service is running out of memory.
Alert message Cassandra service is running out of memory. Contact Nutanix support for assistance.
Cause Cassandra has crossed memory threshold more than 5 times in the last 3
minutes.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 1576
Severity Critical

Table 145: Cassandra Waiting For Disk Replacement [21014] [A21014]

Name Cassandra Waiting For Disk Replacement


Description Metadata disk not replaced for Disk Replace Op
Alert message Disk disk_id for node service_vm_external_ip not replaced. Node performing disk replace:
ip_address_doing_ring_change
Cause Disk not replaced for Disk Replace Op.
Impact Disk Replacement operation will not proceed to completion.
Resolution Ensure that a replacement disk is present on the node undergoing disk
replace. If it is and the alert persists, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 146: Domain Fault Tolerance is low for Metadata [21016] [A21016]

Name Cassandra Domain Fault Tolerance Warning


Description Domain fault tolerance is low for metadata
Alert message domain fault tolerance is reduced from desired fault tolerance(desired_fault_tolerance) to
current_fault_tolerance for metadata.

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

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Table 147: Domain Fault Tolerance is low for Metadata [21017] [A21017]

Name Cassandra Domain Fault Tolerance Error


Description Domain fault tolerance is low for metadata
Alert message domain fault tolerance is reduced from desired fault tolerance(desired_fault_tolerance) to
current_fault_tolerance for metadata.

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]

Name Cassandra Domain Fault Tolerance Critical


Description Domain fault tolerance is low for metadata
Alert message domain fault tolerance is reduced from desired fault tolerance(desired_fault_tolerance) to
current_fault_tolerance for metadata.

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 149: Node detached from metadata ring [21019] [A21019]

Name Metadata Drive Detached With Fixer Check


Description Node detached from metadata ring
Alert message Metadata drive on CVM ip_address is now detached from ring due to reason.
Cause Node was removed from the metadata store as part of the ring fixer
operation.
Impact Cluster performance may be degraded till node gets added back.
Resolution No action required. Node will get added back to the metadata store
automatically.
Severity Info

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Table 150: Metadata service restarting frequently due to long GC pauses. [21022] [A21022]

Name Cassandra Restarting Due to Long GC Pauses


Description Metadata service restarting frequently due to long GC pauses.
Alert message Metadata service on node ip_address is restarting frequently due to long garbage collection
pauses.
Cause Metadata Service is undergoing long garbage collection pauses. This could
possibly be due to cluster overload.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Engage Nutanix Support to investigate why the Metadata service is
significantly overloaded.
Severity Warning

Table 151: Cluster In Override Mode [101057] [A101057]

Name Cluster In Override Mode


Description Single-node cluster is in override mode.
Alert message Single node cluster with CVM service_vm_external_ip is running in override mode due to reason.
Cause One of the metadata SSDs has failed.
Impact Cluster is not disk fault tolerant.
Resolution Replace the failed SSD. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
KB Article 8132
Severity Warning

Table 152: Reset Current Passwords for admin and nutanix SSH accounts on {cluster_name}
[101081] [A101081]

Name Password Strength Status


Description High-strength password policy has been enabled, please reset the password.
Alert message High-strength password was recently enabled, please reset current passwords for admin and
nutanix SSH accounts on cluster_name - cluster_uuid.
Cause High-strength password policy has been enabled.
Impact High-strength password policy has been enabled but low-strength passwords
may still be in use on the cluster.
Resolution Please reset the current passwords. Follow the Security Guide's Hardening
Instructions on Nutanix Support Portal for the password requirements.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 311


Table 153: Same timezone check [103085] [A103085]

Name CVM same timezone check


Description Check that all CVMs are in the same timezone
Alert message vm_types are not in the same timezone.
Cause Some of the Controller VMs in the cluster are not in the same timezone.
Impact It is recommended to have all the CVMs in the same timezone to avoid
potential issues.
Resolution Make sure all Controller VMs are in the same time zone. If they are not, then
set the timezone using KB 1050
KB Article 2044
Severity Warning

Table 154: Cluster NCC version check [103086]

Name Cluster NCC version check


Description Check that NCC version is consistent on the cluster
Cause NCC version is different across the CVMs.
Impact Some NCC checks can not be executed on all CVMs.
Resolution Upgrade NCC to the desired version to keep it consistent across CVMs.
KB Article 3640

Table 155: CVM IP address is unreachable [103088] [A103088]

Name Inter-CVM connectivity check


Description Check that all CVMs are reachable via ping.
Alert message CVM dest_ip is unreachable
Cause The Controller VM is down or there is a network connectivity issue.
Impact Storage may be unavailable and/or performance issues may be observed.
Resolution If the Controller VM does not respond to ping, turn it on. Ensure that physical
networking, VLANs, and virtual switches are configured correctly.
KB Article 1635
Severity Warning

Table 156: Host same timezone check [103092]

Name Host same timezone check


Description Check that all hosts are in the same timezone
Cause Not all hosts in the cluster are in the same timezone.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 312


Impact Ensure all hosts in the cluster are in the same timezone to help ensure all
guest VMs share the same timezone and log messages are timestamped
consistently.
Resolution Ensure that all hosts are in the same timezone by following the instructions in
KB 1050
KB Article 2044

Table 157: Checks if AOS version of the target site configured for synchronous replication is on
AOS version >= 5.17 [110021] [A110021]

Name Remote AOS Version Check


Description Checks if the target site configured is on AOS version >= 5.17 to support
Synchronous Replication
Alert message For protection rule: protection_rule_name, target cluster(s): remote_site_list have version older than
5.17
Cause Target site is on AOS version < 5.17
Impact Synchronous Replication will not be supported.
Resolution Upgrade the cluster on the target site to AOS version >= 5.17. It is
recommended to have both the source and target sites at the same version.
KB Article 7364
Severity Warning

Table 158: Round-trip travel (RTT) to target Prism Element(s) is greater than 5ms, the maximum
value allowed for synchronous replications. [110022] [A110022]

Name Remote Site Latency Check


Description Check if the Round-trip travel (RTT) is less than 5ms, the maximum supported
for Synchronous Replication
Alert message Round-trip travel (RTT) to target Prism Element(s) err_msg is greater than max_permitted_latency
Cause Target cluster is unreachable or Round-trip travel (RTT) to target cluster is
greater than 5ms.
Impact Synchronous Replication will be affected.
Resolution Ensure that the target cluster is reachable and the RTT is less than 5ms or
choose another target cluster.
KB Article 7366
Severity Warning

Table 159: NearSync Replication of Protection Domain has not progressed. [110264] [A110264]

Name Nearsync Replication Stuck


Description Nearsync replication of the protection domain has not progressed.

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Alert message NearSync replication of the protection domain protection_domain_name to the remote site
remote_name for the snapshot snapshot_id has not made any progress in the last time_string.

Cause Network outage, saturated network or unavailability of services like Stargate,


Cerebro on the remote site. Snapshots of the protection domain will not be
available on the remote site.
Cause SSD snapshot reserve on the remote site does not have enough free disk
space.
Impact Protection domain may transition out of NearSync.
Impact Snapshots of the protection domain will not be available on the remote site.
Resolution Check the network connection and status of the remote site.
Resolution Ensure that the remote site has enough disk space available in the SSD
snapshot reserve.
KB Article 10249
Severity Warning

Table 160: Stale secondary synchronous replication configuration found. [110456] [A110456]

Name Stale secondary Synchronous Replication configuration check


Description Check if there are any stale secondary synchronous replication configurations
present on Prism Central.
Alert message Stale secondary synchronous replication configuration found for vms err_msg.
Cause Stale secondary synchronous replication configuration left behind.
Impact Stale entries could cause unwanted tasks to be generated and they cannot be
cleaned up automatically on the secondary as it could affect the VM stretch
state hence require a manual cleanup.
Resolution Cleanup the stale secondary synchronous replication configuration left behind
on Prism Central.
KB Article 9716
Severity Warning

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 314


Resolution Ensure all the VMs that are part of the Witness configured Recovery Plan are
Synchronously protected
KB Article 11000
Severity Warning

Table 162: Stale primary synchronous replication parameters found. [110460] [A110460]

Name Stale primary Synchronous Replication configuration check


Description Check if there are any stale primary synchronous replication configurations
present on Prism Central.
Alert message Stale primary synchronous replication parameters found for vms err_msg.
Cause Stale primary synchronous replication configuration left behind probably
because of a restore operation.
Impact Stale configurations could cause unwanted tasks to be generated and they
cannot be cleaned up automatically on the primary as it could affect the VM
stretch state hence require a manual cleanup.
Resolution Delete the stale VM(s) on primary site.
KB Article 11002
Severity Warning

Table 163: Cassandra nodes up [111002]

Name Cassandra nodes up


Description Check that all Cassandra nodes are running
Cause One or more Cassandra nodes are down which may be due to several issues
including network issue, disk related issue, CPU or resource crunch.
Impact Meta data load is inconsistent.
Resolution Cassandra will repair itself. If other Cassandra checks are failing, contact
Nutanix support.
KB Article 1369

Table 164: Cassandra tokens consistent [111003]

Name Cassandra tokens consistent


Description Check that all Cassandra nodes are consistent
Cause The tokens may be inconsistent because of manual intervention or because of
bad configuration.
Impact Meta data load is inconsistent.
Resolution Follow instructions described in KB 1369.
KB Article 1369

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Table 165: Name server configuration [111022]

Name Name server configuration


Description Check for DNS Server configuration
Cause Name server is not configured on CVMs and hypervisor hosts or is not able to
resolve queries.
Impact Name resolution will not work.
Resolution Verify if Name server is configured on CVMs and on hypervisor hosts and if it
can resolves queries. Review KB 3005 for more details.
KB Article 3005

Table 166: HTTP proxy check [111023]

Name HTTP proxy check


Description Check if HTTP proxy is working
Cause (A) No proxy configured. (B) Unable to connect to proxy on the port.
Impact Cluster may not have access to Internet-based service such as 1-click auto and
manual downloads, Pulse, LCM inventory, etc.
Resolution Check the proxy server settings (network, port, user credentials, etc.)
KB Article 1708

Table 167: LDAP configuration [111024]

Name LDAP configuration


Description Check LDAP configuration.
Cause LDAP not correctly configured in the cluster.
Impact Directory users might not be able to log properly.
Resolution Review KB 2997.
KB Article 2997

Table 168: Virtual IP Check [111027] [A111027]

Name Virtual IP check


Description Check if virtual IP is configured and reachable.
Alert message vm_type Virtual IP is configured but unreachable.
Cause Cluster virtual IP is not configured.
Cause Cluster services are down or cluster is not started yet.
Impact Nutanix features that use virtual IP address might be adversely affected.
Impact

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 316


Resolution Configure a valid virtual IP for the cluster.
Resolution Verify that all cluster services are up.
KB Article 3708
Severity Critical

Table 169: Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) enabled [111035]

Name Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) enabled


Description Checks AVX enabled on CPUs.
Cause Intel's Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) is disabled on the node.
Impact If AVX is disabled, upgrade will fail.
Resolution Enable AVX on the node. Review KB 8148.
KB Article 8148

Table 170: Prism Central using default password [111050] [A111050]

Name PC using default password


Description PC is using default password
Alert message Please update the default password on PC for user(s): users to harden the security on the clusters.
Nutanix highly recommends not using default passwords for clusters.
Cause SSH access credentials have not changed from the shipped default.
Impact Insecure configuration - Using default passwords could expose your system to
unauthorized access.
Resolution Ensure that Prism Central is using a custom password for improved security.
KB Article 6153
Severity Critical

Table 171: Notifications dropped check [111052]

Name Notifications dropped check


Description Some alert notifications were dropped
Cause One or more cluster services are not healthy.
Impact Some of the alerts will not be raised. Cluster issues may stay unnoticed.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 4905

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 317


Table 172: Alert E-mail Failure [111066] [A111066]

Name Alert E-mail Failure


Description Failed to send alert Emails
Alert message Unable to send alert Email from the Controller VM service_vm_external_ip due to reason.
Cause Issue with the Email client
Impact Alerts notification Emails will not be sent.
Resolution Contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 9937
Severity Critical

Table 173: Failure to copy Image to Cluster [111072] [A111072]

Name Image copy to Cluster check


Description Detect if image copy to cluster is failing
Alert message Image could not be copied to Cluster
Cause Cluster may be unreachable from PC or Catalog service may be down on
Cluster.
Impact Image will not be available on the Cluster.
Resolution Check Catalog service on cluster and connectivity to PC.
Severity Warning

Table 174: SW Encryption Keys from {kms_name} are unavailable [111075] [A111075]

Name SW Encryption Keys Unavailable


Description Check to see if the KMS actually has the expected passwords for the container
encryption keys.
Alert message SW encryption keys for one or more containers are not available from external key manager
kms_name.

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 175: High number of tasks in the cluster [111082]

Name High number of tasks in the cluster

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 318


Description High number of tasks in the cluster
Cause High number of tasks in the cluster
Impact Operation on entities in the cluster might not progress.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support for help.
KB Article 9866

Table 176: Cannot Remove Password Protected Disk(s) [130003] [A1106]

Name Password Protected Disk Status


Description Cannot remove password protected disk(s).
Alert message Cannot remove password protected disks disk_id_list from the configuration as they cannot be
cleaned.
Cause The drives are offline, the drives are removed, or the node is down.
Impact The disks cannot be removed from the configuration.
Resolution Ensure the disks are accessible.
Severity Warning

Table 177: Automatic Addition Of Node To Metadata Ring Disabled [130004] [A1079]

Name Node Auto Add Check


Description Automatic addition of the node to the metadata ring is disabled.
Alert message Automatic addition of node to metadata ring has been disabled on CVM service_vm_id with IP
address ip_address.
Cause This node has been removed from the metadata store after being
automatically added recently. Automatic addition of this node to the metadata
store has now been disabled.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Impact In the case of multiple nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become
unable to service I/O requests.
Resolution Automatic addition will be re-enabled when the node is manually added to
the metadata store. If the node was down for an extended period of time and
is now running, add it back to the metadata store by going to host details.
Otherwise, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 178: Node Detached From Metadata Ring [130005] [A1055]

Name Node Detached From Ring Check


Description The metadata drive is detached from the ring.
Alert message Node ip_address is now detached from metadata ring due to reason.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 319


Cause Either a metadata drive has failed, the node was down for an extended period
of time, or an unexpected subsystem fault was encountered, so the node was
removed from the metadata store.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Impact In the case of multiple nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become
unable to service I/O requests.
Resolution (A) If the metadata drive has failed, replace the metadata drive as soon as
possible. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions. (B) If the node
was down for an extended period of time and is now running, add it back to
the metadata store by going to host details. For assistance, contact Nutanix
support.
Severity Warning

Table 179: Metadata Dynamic Ring Change Operation Stuck [130006] [A1117]

Name Metadata DynRingChangeOp Status


Description Dynamic Ring Change operation is not making progress.
Alert message operation for node ip_address is not progressing. Node performing the operation:
ip_address_doing_ring_change.

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]

Name Metadata DynRingChangeOp Slow Check


Description Dynamic Ring Change operation too slow.
Alert message operation for node ip_address is progressing slowly. Total elapsed time: elapsed_time_mins min(s).
Node performing the operation: ip_address_doing_ring_change.
Cause A node in the cluster is unhealthy, or the cluster contains an extraordinarily
large amount of data.
Impact Cluster performance may be degraded.
Resolution Ensure that all nodes in the cluster are healthy. If they are and the alert
persists, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

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Table 181: Node Forwarding Metadata Requests [130008] [A1037]

Name Node In Forwarding Mode Check


Description Node Forwarding Metadata Requests
Alert message Metadata service on node ip_address is running in forwarding mode due to reason.
Cause Either a metadata drive has failed, node removal has been initiated, or an
unexpected subsystem fault has been encountered.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
KB Article 8266
Severity Critical

Table 182: Large Metadata Size Detected [130009] [A1119]

Name Metadata Size


Description Large metadata size detected.
Alert message Node ip_address contains a large amount of metadata.
Cause A node in the cluster contains a large amount of metadata and has exceeded
thresholds.
Impact Cluster performance may be degraded.
Resolution Ensure that all nodes in the cluster are healthy. If they are and the alert
persists, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 183: Node Marked To Be Auto Added To Metadata Ring [130010] [A1078]

Name Node Marked To Be Auto Added Check


Description Node Marked To Be Auto Added To Metadata Ring
Alert message Node service_vm_id with IP address ip_address is marked to be added to metadata ring. reason.
Cause Node was detached from metadata ring earlier. It is now stable and will be
added back to the metadata store.
Impact The metadata service will start to use the node.
Resolution No action is necessary.
Severity Info

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Table 184: Node Marked To Be Detached From Metadata Ring [130011] [A1054]

Name Node Marked To Be Detached Check


Description The node is marked to be detached from the metadata ring.
Alert message Node ip_address is marked to be detached from metadata ring due to reason.
Cause Either a metadata drive has failed, the node was down for an extended period
of time, or an unexpected subsystem fault was encountered, so the node is
marked to be removed from the metadata store.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution (A) If the metadata drive has failed, replace the metadata drive as soon as
possible. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions. (B) If the node
was down for an extended period of time and is now running, add it back to
the metadata store by going to host details. For assistance, contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 8408
Severity Critical

Table 185: Metadata Ring Imbalance [130012] [A1072]

Name Metadata Imbalance Check


Description Cassandra metadata imbalance.
Alert message Metadata ring imbalance for num_partitions partitions. The partitions are partition_list.
Cause One or more nodes have a disproportionately larger token range size. This
imbalance may cause performance bottlenecks on the node(s) affected.
Impact Node performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Execute cassandra ring skew fix operation using the NCLI command 'cluster
cassandra-token-range-skew-fixer-start'. UVMs' performance might be
affected for a small amount of time.
Severity Warning

Table 186: Curator Job Running Too Long [130015] [A1120]

Name Curator Job Status


Description The Curator job has been running for too long.
Alert message Curator job name with id execution_id has been running for a long time i.e. elapsed_time_secs
seconds.
Cause Various
Impact Background cluster maintenance tasks might get affected in the future. The
root cause should be addressed as soon as possible.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support if this issue persists.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 322


Severity Info

Table 187: Curator Scan Failure [130016] [A1081]

Name Curator Scan Status


Description Curator scan failure.
Alert message Curator scan_type scans have repeatedly failed to complete.
Cause Various
Impact Background cluster maintenance tasks are not occurring. While cluster
operation will not be immediately affected, the root cause should be
addressed as soon as possible.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3786
Severity Critical

Table 188: Duplicate IP Address Detected [130017] [A1096]

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

Table 189: Duplicate Remote Cluster ID [130018] [A1038]

Name Duplicate Remote Cluster ID Check


Description Duplicate remote cluster ID.
Alert message Remote site already exists with the name 'conflicting_remote_name'.
Cause Two remote sites with different names or different IP addresses have same
cluster ID. This can happen in two cases: (a) A remote cluster is added twice
under two different names (through different IP addresses) or (b) Two
clusters have the same cluster ID.
Impact Protected data is not replicated to the remote site.

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Resolution In case (a) remove the duplicate remote site. In case (b) verify that the both
clusters have the same cluster ID and contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 190: IP Address Not Hosted [130023] [A1097]

Name Virtual IP Configuration


Description IP address is not hosted.
Alert message Unable to host virtual IP address ip_address.
Cause The network configuration is incorrect.
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 Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 191: SMTP Error [130060] [A1080]

Name SMTP Configuration


Description Failed to send Pulse and/or alert emails to Nutanix support with the current
configuration.
Alert message Failed to send email from Controller VM ip_address due to error: error.
Cause SMTP server may not be configured.
Cause The SMTP server is not reachable from the Controller VM.
Cause Firewall is preventing emails from being forwarded through the SMTP server.
Impact Nutanix support cannot proactively monitor cluster health and offer assistance
before issues become acute.
Resolution Configure the SMTP server.
Resolution SMTP server should be reachable.
Resolution Ensure that the firewalls allow the cluster to send email messages through the
Nutanix SMTP servers (nsc01.nutanix.net and nsc02.nutanix.net) on port 80.
KB Article 1638
Severity Warning

Table 192: Remote Site Latency Is High. [130075] [A1168]

Name RemoteSiteHighLatency
Description Latency to a Metro remote site is high.

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Alert message Latency to remote site 'remote_name' is more than 'remote_site_high_latency_threshold_ms' ms , for
'sustained_high_latency_secs' seconds due to reason.
Cause Network issues or CVM resource constraints
Impact Replication will fail.
Resolution Check if remote site is reachable and resolve any network issues. Monitor CVM
CPU and memory usage
Severity Warning

Table 193: Possible degraded Node [130087] [A130087]

Name Node Degradation Status


Description Services on one of the nodes in the cluster are in a degraded state and
possibly not making progress.
Alert message Possible degraded node ip_address with Controller VM ID service_vm_id reported by component
component_name.

Cause Various
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3827
Severity Critical

Table 194: CPS Deployment Evaluation Mode [130093] [A130093]

Name CPS Deployment Evaluation Mode


Description Checks if the CPS deployment is running in evaluation mode.
Alert message CPS deployment of cluster with cluster id cluster_id is running in evaluation mode. Please apply
a license by following the CPS deployment guide.
Cause CPS is running in evaluation mode.
Impact The deployment cannot be in evaluation and the user has to apply a license.
Resolution Apply a license to the deployment.
Severity Warning

Table 195: Metro connectivity lost [130119] [A130119]

Name Metro Connectivity Lost


Description Metro connectivity is lost
Alert message Metro connectivity from local site 'local_stargate_handler' to remote site 'remote_name' is lost due
to 'reason'
Cause Remote site(s) not reachable

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 325


Impact Metro connection of the remote site is unavailable
Resolution Check remote site(s) connectivity and re-enable Metro if necessary
Severity Warning

Table 196: Alert raised on cloud remote site {remote_name}: {alert_message} [130135]
[A130135]

Name Cloud Remote Alert


Description Alert generated on cloud remote site.
Alert message Alert raised on cloud remote site remote_name: alert_message
Cause Various
Impact Various
Resolution Resolve the issue stated in the alert. If you cannot resolve the issue, please
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 197: Snapshot Reserve on SSD is Full. [130139] [A130139]

Name LWS Store Full


Description SSD reserved for the Nearsync snapshots is full.
Alert message The SSD space that is reserved for the snapshots is full.
Cause Snapshot reserve on the SSD is full or has high IO workload.
Impact RPO cannot be met and will be temporarily transitioned to 60 minutes.
Resolution Reduce the retention time of the snapshots.
Severity Warning

Table 198: Two node cluster state changed [130151] [A130151]

Name Change in state of two node cluster


Description Change in state of two node cluster
Alert message Two node cluster state changed: message
Cause There is a change in availability of a node (or network between the nodes).
Impact If the cluster is now in stand-alone mode, it cannot handle the remaining
nodes failure.
Resolution Two node cluster will auto-heal when node (or network between the nodes) is
available again.
KB Article 8284
Severity Critical

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Table 199: Two node cluster changed state to stand-alone mode. [130152] [A130152]

Name Two node cluster changed state to stand-alone mode


Description One of the nodes in a two node cluster is currently unavailable, the cluster is
now operating in stand-alone mode.
Alert message Two node cluster state change: message
Cause There was an unplanned event that changed the availability of a node (or
network between the nodes).
Impact The cluster is not node fault tolerant until the cluster auto-heals.
Resolution Two node cluster will auto-heal when node (or network between the nodes) is
available again.
KB Article 8285
Severity Warning

Table 200: Two node cluster state change to stand-alone mode [130153] [A130153]

Name Two node cluster changed now in stand-alone mode


Description Change in state of two node cluster
Alert message Two node cluster state change: message
Cause There is a change in availability of a node (or network between the nodes).
This event was planned.
Impact The cluster is not node fault tolerant until the cluster auto-heals.
Resolution Two node cluster will auto-heal when the planned event is completed
successfully.
Severity Warning

Table 201: State changed for two node cluster [130154] [A130154]

Name Two node cluster changed state back to a two-node mode.


Description Change in state of two node cluster
Alert message Two node cluster state changed: message
Cause A previously unavailable node or service is now available again.
Impact No impact.
Resolution No resolution necessary.
Severity Info

Table 202: Witness is unreachable from node. [130155] [A130155]

Name Witness VM is unreachable from a node in two node cluster

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Description Unable to reach the Witness VM over the network, the cluster may not be able
to handle a node failure.
Alert message The node cannot issue witness APIs to witness: message
Cause Node is unable to issue APIs to witness VM.
Impact The cluster may not be able to handle node failure until the witness is
reachable again.
Resolution Check the witness VM to verify it is up and verify the cluster nodes can
communication with the Witness VM over the network.
Severity Warning

Table 203: Drive Removal Stuck [130156] [A130156]

Name Drive Removal Stuck


Description Drive Removal Stuck
Alert message Removal of drive disk_id is stuck.
Cause Various
Impact Drive cannot be removed from the cluster.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 204: Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone. [130173]
[A130173]

Name Unable to get Availability Zone Endpoint


Description Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone
Alert message Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone
availability_zone_physical_name
Cause Prism Central, Prism Element, or Xi - Availability Zone may be unreachable
Impact VMs may not be fully protected
Resolution Check if the Prism Central, Prism Element, or Xi - Availability Zone are
reachable. If the problem persists, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8274
Severity Critical

Table 205: Unable to communicate with the Data Center Manager [130175] [A130175]

Name Failure to communicate with DCM


Description Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone from the
Data Center Manager

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Alert message Unable to retrieve the endpoint information for the Availability Zone availability_zone_name from
the Data Center Manager
Cause Data Center Manager may be unreachable or has provided an invalid response
Impact VMs may not be fully protected
Resolution Check if Data Center Manager is reachable from the Xi - Availability Zone
KB Article 6901
Severity Critical

Table 206: Data At Rest Encryption key backup warning [130184] [A130184]

Name Data At Rest Encryption key backup warning.


Description New encryption keys not backed up.
Alert message Data At Rest Encryption key backup warning: message
Cause New encryption keys have been created since the last backup was
downloaded.
Impact If the encryption keys are lost, the data in the storage container cannot be
accessed.
Resolution Download the latest copy of the cluster’s key backup.
Severity Warning

Table 207: Local key manager master key rotation warning. [130185] [A130185]

Name Local key manager master key rotation warning.


Description Unable to rotate local key manager's master key.
Alert message Local key manager master key rotation warning. Last failure reason: failure_message
Cause One or more nodes in the cluster are unavailable.
Impact If the cluster experiences any more node failures, the data on the cluster may
be inaccessible.
Resolution Ensure Mantle service is UP on all nodes. If the warning persists, contact
Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 208: Remote Availability Zone Latency is High [130187] [A130187]

Name Latency to Remote Availability Zone is High


Description Network latency to the remote Availability Zone is high.
Alert message Network latency to the remote Availability Zone 'availability_zone_physical_name' exceeds the
threshold limit.
Cause Network latency to the remote Availability Zone exceeds the threshold limit.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 329


Impact Replications will fail
Resolution Check if the remote Availability Zone is reachable over the network.
Severity Warning

Table 209: Cluster Join to Domain Failure [130189] [A1154]

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 210: Background Encryption Stuck [130194] [A130194]

Name Background Encryption Stuck


Description Background Encryption Stuck
Alert message Encryption of container container_id is not progressing. Contact Nutanix support for further
assistance.
Cause Oplog entries, extent groups, NFS entries or other components are not being
encrypted.
Impact Encryption is not progressing.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 211: Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking [130202] [A130202]

Name Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking


Description Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking.
Alert message Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking
Cause Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking.
Impact If hypervisor memory is exhausted, random VMs may be powered off to
reclaim memory.

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Resolution Power off VMs to reduce host memory consumption.
KB Article 8525
Severity Critical

Table 212: Possible Service Degradation. [130338] [A130338]

Name Service instances receiving bad degraded node scores


Description Service instances on a few nodes of the cluster are possibly in a bad state.
Alert message Possible degradation of service_name instances on the Controller VM IDs service_vm_id_list.
Cause Various
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Follow KB9390 to troubleshoot reasons for the service receiving bad scores.
KB Article 9390
Severity Warning

Table 213: Cross-container disk migration task is paused [130340] [A130340]

Name Cross-container disk migration task is paused


Description Cross-container disk migration task is paused.
Alert message Migration of VM disk 'vdisk_name' (VM 'vm_name') from source storage container
'src_container_name' to destination storage container 'dst_container_name' is paused
Cause Cross-container disk migration task is paused due to lack of free space in the
destination storage container.
Impact Cross-container disk migration cannot be completed.
Resolution Free up additional space in the destination storage container or abort the
parent task.
KB Article 10248
Severity Warning

Table 214: Zookeeper server unresponsive. [130344] [A130344]

Name Zookeeper server unresponsive for a long time


Description Zookeeper server might be unresponsive on a CVM for a long time.
Alert message Zookeeper server on the Controller VM ID service_vm_id is unresponsive since
death_timestamp_secs.

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.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 331


KB Article 1587
Severity Warning

Table 215: Detected iSCSI discovery or login through cluster external IP address [130346]
[A130346]

Name Invalid iSCSI portal


Description Detected iSCSI discovery or login through cluster external IP address
Alert message Detected iSCSI access_type through cluster external IP address
Cause The iSCSI discovery or login portal is incorrectly configured
Impact The iSCSI service won't be highly available and the performance would be
affected
Resolution Use the cluster external data services IP address for iSCSI discovery
Severity Warning

Table 216: MEM-NVMe Tiering Cluster Constraints Check Failure [130360] [A130360]

Name MEM-NVMe tiering disabled


Description The cluster requirements for enabling the MEM-NVMe storage tier feature are
not met. MEM-NVMe storage tiering will be disabled.
Alert message Cluster fails to meet the MEM-NVMe tiering constraints due to reason: reason
Cause Failing to meet the MEM-NVMe tiering constraints results in MEM-NVMe
tiering being disabled.
Impact All the MEM-NVMe disks will be treated as SSD-PCIe disks.
Resolution Configure the cluster to meet the MEM-NVMe tiering constraints. All the nodes
in the cluster should have at least one MEM-NVMe disk and the cluster should
not contain any {tiers_not_allowed} disk.
KB Article 11650
Severity Warning

Table 217: Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint [140001] [A140001]

Name REST endpoint connection status


Description Check if Pulse can connect to REST server endpoint https://
insights.nutanix.com:443.
Alert message Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint https://insights.nutanix.com:443. Connection
Status: connection_status, Pulse Enabled: enable, Error Message: message
Cause Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint https://
insights.nutanix.com:443.
Impact Data driven serviceability and customer support cannot be performed.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 332


Resolution Ensure that the REST server endpoint https://insights.nutanix.com:443 is
reachable from Pulse.
KB Article 5490
Severity Warning

Table 218: Pulse is disabled [140002] [A140002]

Name Pulse Disabled


Description Pulse is disabled on the paired Prism Central.
Alert message Pulse is disabled on the paired Prism Central cluster_uuid
Cause Pulse enablement might be missed or disabled.
Impact Monitoring Nutanix Service Health cannot be performed.
Resolution Enable Pulse on current cluster and all of its registered clusters.
KB Article 6377
Severity Info

Table 219: Metering server endpoint connection unavailable. [140003] [A140003]

Name Metering endpoint connection status


Description Checks if the connection to the metering server endpoint is available and if the
metering stats can be successfully sent to server endpoint.
Alert message Cannot publish metering stats to server endpoint on a metering enabled cluster.
Cause Unable to verify metering enablement state and/or unable to establish a
connection to the metering server endpoint.
Impact Metering and billing stats cannot be collected from this cluster violating the
terms of service.
Resolution Ensure that the metering server endpoint is resolvable and reachable from
cluster and that the network connection is stable.
KB Article 10651
Severity Critical

Table 220: Pulse is not enabled on cluster. [140004] [A140004]

Name Pulse enablement check


Description Checks if the pulse is disabled on cluster.
Alert message Pulse is not enabled on cluster
Cause Pulse is not enabled on cluster.
Impact Telemetry data cannot be sent thus impacting Nutanix's ability to provide
proactive support

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 333


Resolution Ensure that pulse is enabled on the cluster to allow Nutanix to provide
proactive support.
KB Article 10743
Severity Info

Table 221: OVS Service Restart [150002] [A150002]

Name OVS Service Restarted


Description OVS service has unexpectedly restarted on one or more AHV hosts.
Alert message Node uuid_node: detected unexpected restart of ovs-vswitchd process on host host_ip from
old_pid old_pid to new_pid new_pid. OVS service configuration was restored after restart. Guest
VMs might have experienced temporary network disconnect.
Cause OVS service was restarted.
Impact Guest VMs may temporarily lose network connectivity.
Resolution Bridges and flow rules on hosts have been rebuilt. No user action is required.
KB Article 6151
Severity Warning

Table 222: Flow visualization statistics collector service restart detected [150003] [A150003]

Name Flow visualization statistics collector service monitor


Description Check if flow visualization statistics collector service was restarted.
Alert message Flow visualization statistics collector service was restarted max_restart_count times in last
time_interval_min minutes on host host_ip.

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 223: Inconsistent Virtual Switch State Detected [150004] [A150004]

Name Inconsistent virtual switch state was detected


Description Virtual switch state is inconsistent across nodes in the cluster.
Alert message Virtual switch vs_name is in an inconsistent state for the host_info. Reason: error_message
Cause A virtual switch is not present on at least one node in the cluster.
Impact VMs using this virtual switch may lose network connectivity when migrated to
the affected node.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 334


Resolution (A) Review virtual switch configuration and ensure every host (storage-only
hosts are optional) in the cluster is included. (B) Ensure all the hosts and their
physical NICs used in the virtual switch configuration are present.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 224: Default Virtual Switch Error [150005] [A150005]

Name Default virtual switch error


Description Default virtual switch has error in the cluster.
Alert message Default virtual switch cannot be created on the host_info. Reason: error_message
Cause Default virtual switch could not be created on a node in the cluster.
Impact Networking operations may be impacted on the affected node(s) in the
cluster.
Resolution Check Acropolis service logs and refer to KB 9233 to identify the problem and
steps to restore the default virtual switch in the cluster.
KB Article 9233
Severity Critical

Table 225: IGMP Snooping needs to be re-configured on newly migrated virtual switch.
[150008] [A150008]

Name IGMP Snooping needs to be re-configured on newly migrated virtual switch


Description Notifies when IGMP Snooping has been configured on an OVS bridge that's
migrated to a virtual switch
Alert message IGMP Snooping was found to be configured on bridge bridge_name, when it was migrated to
virtual switch vs_name with UUID vs_uuid. This configuration won't be carried over to the virtual
switch vs_name, please re-configure it.
Cause IGMP Snooping was previously enabled on the bridge before its migration to a
virtual switch.
Impact Existing IGMP Snooping configuration on the OVS bridge is not reflected in
the migrated virtual switch configuration. Any further update of virtual switch
will reconfigure IGMP Snooping based on its configuration in virtual switch.
Resolution Please re-configure IGMP Snooping on the bridge using the migrated virtual
switch.
Severity Warning

Table 226: Inconsistent SPAN Session State Detected [150009] [A150009]

Name Inconsistent SPAN session state was detected


Description SPAN session state is inconsistent on one of the nodes in the cluster.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 335


Alert message SPAN session session_name is in an inconsistent state for the host_info. Reason: message
Cause A SPAN session is in an inconsistent state on one of the nodes in the cluster.
Impact The SPAN session mirroring traffic from the host NIC(s) to a destination VM
NIC is no longer active.
Resolution Ensure that the source ports and/or destination ports for the SPAN session
are connected and in active state.
KB Article 10440
Severity Warning

Table 227: IPFIX exporter cannot be enabled on the cluster [150010] [A150010]

Name IPFIX exporter cannot be enabled on the cluster


Description Cannot enable IPFIX exporter on the cluster
Alert message IPFIX exporter exporter_name cannot be enabled on cluster with UUID cluster_uuid. Reason:
cause

Cause IPFIX exporter could not be enabled on the cluster.


Impact Network connection details cannot be exported via IPFIX from this cluster.
Resolution Check the software version(s) of Prism Element and AHV and upgrade them
to the minimum required version(s). Make sure the connection between Prism
Central and Prism Element is healthy.
Severity Warning

Table 228: Analytics VM one or more component failure. [160064] [A160064]

Name Analytics VM one or more component failure.


Description One or more components of the File Analytics VM {avm_ip} are not
functioning properly or have failed.
Alert message One or more components of the File Analytics VM avm_ip are not functioning properly or have
failed.
Cause One or more File Analytics VM components have failed.
Impact File Server analytics will not perform appropriately.
Resolution Contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 8239
Severity Critical

Table 229: Analytics VM high CPU usage. [160065] [A160065]

Name Analytics VM high CPU usage.


Description File Analytics VM {avm_ip} has a high CPU usage of {usage_percent}%

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 336


Alert message File Analytics VM avm_ip has a high CPU usage of usage_percent%
Cause File Analytics VM is performing too many CPU intensive operations.
Impact File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Monitor which component has a high CPU usage and reduce the processing
load.
Severity Warning

Table 230: Analytics VM high disk usage. [160066] [A160066]

Name Analytics VM high disk usage.


Description File Analytics VM {avm_ip} has a high disk usage of {usage_percent}%
Alert message File Analytics VM avm_ip has a high disk usage of usage_percent%
Cause Extensive disk usage on the File Analytics VM
Impact File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Add more capacity to the File Analytics VM or delete some data.
Severity Warning

Table 231: Analytics VM low memory available. [160067] [A160067]

Name Analytics VM low memory available.


Description The memory available on File Analytics VM {avm_ip} is {memory_available}
bytes which is low.
Alert message The percent memory available on File Analytics VM avm_ip is memory_available which is low
Cause Excessive memory usage on the File Analytics VM
Impact File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Add more RAM
Severity Warning

Table 232: File Server upgrade task stuck [160075] [A160075]

Name File Server Upgrade Task Stuck


Description File Server Upgrade Task Stuck.
Alert message Upgrade of file server file_server_name is stuck due to reason.
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact File server has not been upgraded.
Resolution Refer to KB article 8438 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue
still persists or assistance needed. Once the issue is resolved, execute 'afs
infra.resume_fs_upgrade' on cvm to resume Nutanix Files upgrade.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 337


KB Article 8438
Severity Critical

Table 233: Files cluster HA takeover failure [160076] [A160076]

Name File server HA Takeover Failure


Description Files cluster HA takeover failed
Alert message Files cluster file_server_name HA takeover has failed multiple times on FSVM fsvm_internal_ip
due to message.
Cause Files cluster HA takeover process failed for multiple attempts
Impact Files cluster may be unavailable.
Resolution Refer to KB article 8419 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8419
Severity Critical

Table 234: File Server Alert [160080] [A160080]

Name File Server Alert


Description Files server alert
Alert message file_server_alert_msg
Cause Check alert summary
Impact Check alert summary
Resolution Check alert summary
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 235: File Server Manager Upgrade Failed. [160085] [A160085]

Name File Server Manager Upgrade Failed.


Description The File Server Manager upgrade task failed on the cluster.
Alert message reason
Cause Please check the alert message for details.
Impact The File Server Manager upgrade failed on the cluster; File Server operations
may not work as expected.
Resolution Please refer to KB 8342 at the Nutanix Portal.
Severity Warning

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Table 236: Cassandra status is not normal on few nodes of file server [160092] [A160092]

Name File Server Cassandra Status Failure


Description Cassandra status is not normal on few nodes of file server
Alert message message
Cause See details in the alert message.
Impact Some file server features may not be functioning
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 237: Inconsistent state found in File Server [160093] [A160093]

Name File Server Invalid IDF State


Description One or more inconsistent entities have been found. This may cause upgrades
to fail.
Alert message One or more inconsistent entities have been found. This may cause upgrades to fail.
Cause IDF is in an inconsistent state.
Impact File server upgrades may fail.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 238: Post upgrade handler failed [160094] [A160094]

Name File Server Master One Time Upgrade Failure


Description Post upgrade handler failed.
Alert message message.
Cause Master One Time Upgrade failed.
Impact File server upgrade failed. Some file server features may not be functioning.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 239: File Server SMB Share is unavailable [160095] [A160095]

Name File Server Multi-Protocol Backward Compatibility Failure


Description File Server SMB Share is unavailable.
Alert message message
Cause Multi-protocol share backward compatibility failed.
Impact File Server SMB Share is unavailable.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 339


Resolution Please retry enabling multi-protocol access, if the issue persists, contact
Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 240: Auto Snapshot Failed [160096] [A160096]

Name File Server Auto Snapshot Failure


Description File server auto snapshot failed.
Alert message message
Cause Auto snapshot was running for a long time. System is overloaded.
Impact File server auto snapshot failed.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 241: Some files are possibly corrupted [160097] [A160097]

Name File Server Corrupted Files


Description Some files are possibly corrupted.
Alert message message
Cause Some files are possibly corrupted for file server.
Impact Affected data may not be readable until fixed.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 242: Some File server share(s) are unavailable [160098] [A160098]

Name File Server Shares Unavailable


Description Some File server share(s) are unavailable.
Alert message message
Cause See details in the alert message.
Impact Some shares may be unavailable.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 243: File server rebalance is aborted [160099] [A160099]

Name File Server Rebalance Aborted

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 340


Description File server rebalance is aborted
Alert message reason_and_resolution_msg
Cause See details in the alert message.
Impact Rebalance is not performed.
Resolution See details in the alert message. Contact Nutanix support if necessary.
KB Article 7035
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 244: File server share is inaccessible or read-only [160102] [A160102]

Name File Server Share Access Changed


Description Share has become readonly or inaccessible.
Alert message share share_name on File Server file_server_name is message
Cause File analytics has set a filter to set share readonly or inaccessible.
Impact Share may be inaccessible or read-only.
Resolution Check File Analytics page for available actions. Contact Nutanix support if
problem persists.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 245: File server metadata scan is aborted [160122] [A160122]

Name File Server Metadata Scan Aborted


Description File server metadata scan is aborted
Alert message message
Cause See details in the alert message.
Impact Metadata scan is not completed.
Resolution See details in the alert message.
Severity Warning

Table 246: File server external network not functional. [160123] [A160123]

Name File Server External IP Failure


Description One or more of the external IP(s) may not be operational or reachable.
Alert message message

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 341


Cause Most probable cause is either network unreachability on the external interface
or core Nutanix files cluster services are down/unstable. See details in the alert
message.
Impact Shares may become unavailable.
Resolution Ensure that external network is reachable, please refer to KB10434 for more
details. Contact Nutanix support if the issue still persists.
KB Article 10434
Severity Critical

Table 247: File server persistent store volume-group unavailable [160124] [A160124]

Name File Server Persist Store VG Unavailable


Description One or more of persist store Volume Group(s) may not be operational.
Alert message message
Cause Most probable cause can be underneath storage issues on AOS or Files cluster
virtual IP connectivity problems. See details in the alert message.
Impact Some Persist Store Volume Group(s) may be unavailable which can lead to
issues with Continuously Available shares.
Resolution Execute Cluster Health check to ensure there are no underlying AOS issues,
please refer to KB10435 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if the issue
still persists.
KB Article 10435
Severity Critical

Table 248: File server Inode usage is high [160125] [A160125]

Name File Server Inode Usage High


Description The number of free Inodes in the cluster is getting low. Inode contains
information about data files attributes.
Alert message message
Cause There can be multiple causes including overall high storage utilization. See
details in the alert message.
Impact The system may experience unavailability.
Resolution Execute Cluster Health check to ensure there are no underlying storage high
utilization issues, please refer to KB10436 for more details. Contact Nutanix
support if the issue still persists.
KB Article 10436
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 342


Table 249: File server iSCSI service is not healthy [160126] [A160126]

Name File Server iSCSI Service Unavailable


Description iSCSI service is not in an healthy state on the cluster and can lead to storage
unavailability.
Alert message message
Cause iSCSI service is in a hung state or not in a functional state.
Impact Shares may become unavailable.
Resolution Execute Cluster Health check to ensure there are no underlying cluster issues,
please refer to KB10437 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if the issue
still persists.
KB Article 10437
Severity Critical

Table 250: Platform is not reachable at required ports from the fileserver VM. [160134]
[A160134]

Name File Server Cvm Port Unreachable


Description Platform is not reachable at required ports from the fileserver VM.
Alert message message
Cause Either Platform services are down OR Platform ports are blocked by firewall.
Impact File Server services are impacted.
Resolution Check Platform status. Ensure the File Server Port Requirements are met
entirely, Refer Nutanix Files User Guide. Refer to KB article 11022. Contact
Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 11022
Severity Critical

Table 251: File server slog partitioning failed. [160140] [A160140]

Name File Server Slog Partition Failure


Description File server slog partition failure for volume group.
Alert message message
Cause Device partition creation failed.
Impact Share write performance is impacted.
Resolution Refer to KB article 11400. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 11400
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 343


Table 252: File server slog update task failed. [160141] [A160141]

Name File Server Slog Update Task Failure


Description File server slog update task failure for volume groups.
Alert message message
Cause Storage update with slog device failed.
Impact File server is in heterogenous state.
Resolution Refer to KB article 11412. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 11412
Severity Critical

Table 253: Cluster Connectivity Status [200000] [A200000]

Name Cluster Connectivity Status


Description Tests whether the cluster connectivity is fine
Alert message component data from cluster cluster_name is not up-to-date.
Cause The connection between Prism Central and Prism Element is down or Services
on Prism Central are crashing.
Impact Cluster data shown in the Prism Central is not up to date.
Resolution Ensure that cluster network connectivity is up and all CVM services are up.
KB Article 3379
Severity Warning

Table 254: IDF Source to Remote Sync Status [200001] [A200001]

Name IDF DB to DB sync heartbeat check


Description Checks if IDF replica is receiving requests from IDF master.
Alert message IDF data on this cluster is not in sync with the IDF data on cluster:cluster_name
Cause Cluster network connectivity or cluster services such as insights server,
insights uploader, insights receiver, Aplos, or Prism gateway could be down.
Impact IDF data that is replicated from master cluster is not up to date.
Resolution Ensure that cluster network connectivity is up and all cluster services are up.
KB Article 5582
Severity Warning

Table 255: Dynamic scheduling failure. [200201] [A200201]

Name Acropolis Dynamic Scheduler Status

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 344


Description One or more nodes have resource contention. This imbalance can cause
performance bottlenecks on the node(s) affected.
Alert message Dynamic scheduling failure. reason
Cause Cluster may have insufficient CPU or Controller VM resources.
Cause Cluster may have insufficient resources to satisfy VM group affinity policies or
VM host affinity policies.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Shut down unneeded VMs to free cluster resources.
Resolution Expand the cluster to add resources.
Severity Warning

Table 256: Prism Central vCPU Availability Check [200301] [A200301]

Name Prism Central vCPU Availability Check


Description Checks if the number of vCPUs is sufficient for the number of VM entities in
Prism Central.
Alert message The Prism Central does not have enough vCPUs for the number of VM entities it has.
Cause Prism Central doesn't have enough vCPUs to support the current number of
VMs
Impact Prism Central performance may be degraded.
Resolution 1) Reduce the number of VM entities in Prism Central or 2) If using 1 node small
Prism Central scale up to 1 node large Prism Central or scaleout to 3 node
small Prism Central. 3) If using 1 node large Prism Central scaleout it to 3 node
large Prism Central.
KB Article 4381
Severity Warning

Table 257: Insufficient Space for UVMs deployed on PC [200302] [A200302]

Name PC Sufficient Disk Space Check


Description Checks if the amount of storage is sufficient for the number of VM entities in
Prism Central.
Alert message The PC does not have enough storage for the number of VM entities it has.
Cause Too many VMs in Prism Central for the amount of storage in Prism Central.
Impact Prism Central may run out of disk space to store data.
Resolution Reduce the number of VM entities in Prism Central or provide more storage
for Prism Central.
KB Article 4340
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 345


Table 258: Prism Central Memory Availability Check [200303] [A200303]

Name Prism Central Memory Availability Check


Description Checks if the amount of memory is sufficient for the number of VM entities
and the services enabled in Prism Central.
Alert message The Prism Central does not have enough memory for the current number of VMs.
Cause Prism Central doesn't have enough memory to support the current number of
VMs
Impact Services running in Prism Central may run out of memory and crash.
Resolution 1) Reduce the number of VM entities in Prism Central or 2) If using 1 node small
Prism Central scale up to 1 node large Prism Central or scaleout to 3 node
small Prism Central. 3) If using 1 node large Prism Central scaleout it to 3 node
large Prism Central.
KB Article 4315
Severity Warning

Table 259: Prism Central VM Limit Check [200304] [A200304]

Name Prism Central VM Limit Check


Description Checks if the number of VM entities is within the limit.
Alert message The Prism Central cannot handle these many VM entities.
Cause Too many VMs in Prism Central.
Impact Prism Central performance may be degraded.
Impact Prism Central may run out of disk space to store data.
Impact Services running in Prism Central may run out of memory and crash.
Resolution Reduce the number of VM entities in Prism Central.
KB Article 4296
Severity Warning

Table 260: Policy not applicable to any Host. [200305] [A200305]

Name No viable Hosts to place VMs in PE


Description Policy as defined does not apply to any of the Hosts.
Alert message Rule rule_uuid applies to no Host in cluster cluster_uuid
Cause Addition of a new policy(s) or update to existing policy(s) or Attaching/
Detaching categories to Hosts.
Impact VMs will not have any Hosts to run on.
Resolution Make appropriate updates to affinity policies or Host categories in the affected
PE.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 346


Table 261: Prism Central cluster version check [200310]

Name Prism Central cluster version check


Description Checks if Prism Central is running GA version.
Cause Non GA version detected on Prism Central.
Impact Prism Central is running a Non GA version.
Resolution Nutanix recommends running officially released GA versions of Prism Central
software. For assistance refer to KB 6325
KB Article 6325

Table 262: Prism Central Version EOL [200311] [A200311]

Name Prism Central version EOL check


Description Checks if Prism Central is running an EOL version.
Alert message info_msg. Upgrade Prism Central at the earliest.
Cause EOL version running on Prism Central
Impact Support may not be able to resolve issues since this version will no longer be
maintained.
Resolution Move to a recent released version immediately, to avoid disruption in
support.You can refer to the EOL Schedule on the Nutanix support portal.
KB Article 6325
Severity Info

Table 263: Inadequate Resource Configuration for the Prism Central VM [200327] [A200327]

Name Prism Central Resource Resize Check


Description Configured resource for the Prism Central VM is inadequate.
Alert message inadequate_resources for the pc_vm_type Prism Central VM is inadequate on
non_resized_pc_vm_ips.

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 264: Prism Central EXT4-fs Error Check [200329]

Name Prism Central EXT4-fs Error Check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 347


Description Captures Prism Central EXT4-fs error messages
Cause File system inconsistencies are present on the Prism Central VM node.
Impact Inability for the Prism Central VM to boot or for the upgrade pre-checks to
run.
Resolution Look for any problems in the file system. Review KB 9622.
KB Article 9622

Table 265: Prism Central Backup Sync has failed. [200331] [A200331]

Name Prism Central Backup Sync check


Description Checks if Prism Central backup sync is stopped for more than 3 hours
Alert message Prism Central Backup Sync to these Prism Element(s) : pe_names is halted for the last : delays
Cause Prism Central Backup Sync to designated Backup Prism Element(s) is halted
for more than 3 hours.
Impact Prism Central may not be restorable during disaster.
Resolution Refer to KB 10788 for further details.
KB Article 10788
Severity Critical

Table 266: VM forcibly powered off. [200401] [A200401]

Name VM forcibly powered off


Description We have detected that VM {vm_name} (vm_id: {vm_id}) was running on
multiple hosts. To avoid data corruption this VM was forcibly powered off on
host {host_address}. {reason}
Alert message VM named vm_name with id vm_id has been forcibly powered off on host host_address
Cause Unexpected restart of Acropolis service during VM migration.
Cause If VM does not have local disks, but using network-attached storage, it will be
forcibly powered off to prevent data corruption on network-attached storage.
Impact If the VM does not have any disks on Nutanix storage and is only using
network-attached storage, data corruption on network-attached storage is
possible.
Resolution Please collect the log bundle and engage Nutanix support.
Resolution Check the integrity of data located on network-attached storage that is in use
by this VM.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 348


Table 267: Power cycle VMs before performing upgrade or migrate operation [200404]
[A200404]

Name Power cycle VMs before performing upgrade or migrate operation


Description Power cycle all the VMs before you perform the upgrade or migrate operation.
Alert message Power cycle the VMs before you perform the upgrade or migration operation
Cause A node with a lower CPU feature set has been added to the cluster.
Impact You will not be able to migrate the existing VMs to newly added node(s).
Operations that require VM migration, including but not limited to hypervisor
upgrade, will fail.
Resolution Ensure that all the VMs in the cluster are power cycled.
Severity Warning

Table 268: Report Generation Failure [200501] [A200501]

Name Report Generation Failure


Description Report Generation failed. Database may be down or cluster may have
insufficient storage.
Alert message Report generation failed for report report_name scheduled for timestamp. reason
Cause Cluster may have insufficient storage.
Impact Some of the reports can be missed.
Resolution (A) Free the space by deleting older reports that have been generated. (B)
Manually run the report instance scanner utility.
Severity Warning

Table 269: Send Report Through E-mail Failure [200502] [A200502]

Name Send Report Through E-mail Failure


Description Sending of report through E-mail failed. SMTP might be down or report might
have been deleted.
Alert message Sending of report through E-mail failed for report report_name. reason
Cause (A) SMTP server might be unreachable or might not have been configured. (B)
Generated report may have been deleted.
Impact Some of the report emails can be missed.
Resolution Check the SMTP configuration and ensure that its reachable.
Severity Warning

Table 270: Report Quota Scan Failure [200503] [A200503]

Name Report Quota Scan Failure

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 349


Description Report Quota scan failed. Cassandra might be unreachable.
Alert message Report quota scan failed for the report report_name at timestamp. reason
Cause Cassandra may not be reachable for some time.
Impact There might be some stale reports on the cluster that are taking unnecessary
space on the cluster.
Resolution Manually run the report instance scanner utility.
Severity Warning

Table 271: VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy [200608] [A200608]

Name VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy


Description VMs that have NICs in one or more VPCs have been detected that are also
part of a Flow Security Policy. This Security Policy will not be enforced for
these VMs.
Alert message num_vms VPC VM(s) detected in Flow Security Policy rule_name (network_security_rule_uuid).
VMs: vms. Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Cause VMs with NICs in VPC subnets have been placed into Flow Security Policies.
Impact Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Resolution Remove the affected VMs from VPC subnets for Flow Security Policies to be
enforced on these VMs.
Severity Warning

Table 272: VMs with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy [200609] [A200609]

Name VMs with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy


Description VMs that have one or more kDirectNICs have been detected that are also
part of a Flow Security Policy. This Security Policy will not be enforced for the
traffic through these kDirectNics.
Alert message num_vms VM(s) with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy rule_name
(network_security_rule_uuid). VMs: vms. Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the traffic
through these kDirectNics.
Cause VMs with kDirectNics have been placed into Flow Security Policies.
Impact Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Resolution Remove the kDirectNics from the vms for Flow Security Policies to be
enforced.
Severity Warning

Table 273: Availability Zone Connection Failure [200801] [A200801]

Name Availability Zone Connection Failure

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 350


Description The remote availability zone {az_url} is unreachable.
Alert message The remote availability zone az_url is unreachable.
Cause (A) Services on remote site might be down. (B) Connection might be missing
on remote site. (C) Access tokens might have expired.
Impact Disaster recovery operations might fail due to unreachability of remote site.
Resolution Unpair from the remote availability zone, if already paired. Pair with the
remote availability zone again.
KB Article 8252
Severity Critical

Table 274: PE-PC Connection Failure [200802] [A200802]

Name PE-PC Connection Failure


Description The remote {remote_vm_type} {cluster_ip} is unreachable.
Alert message The remote remote_vm_type cluster_ip is unreachable.
Cause The name servers might be missing.
Cause Services on PC/PE might be down.
Cause Access tokens might have expired.
Impact Management tasks for various entities, including VM, might fail due to
unreachability of remote {remote_vm_type}.
Resolution Ensure that the appropriate name servers are configured.
Resolution Check that no services are crashing on the PC or PE.
Resolution Contact Nutanix Support to troubleshoot this issue further.
Severity Warning

Table 275: Entity Sync Failure [500101] [A500101]

Name Entity Sync failed


Description Entity Sync failed
Alert message message
Cause An update made to the entity locally might not have synced to the connected
Availability Zone(s).
Cause One or more internal services might be down or not working as expected.
Impact Data Protection and Recovery might be impacted.
Resolution Perform Forced Entity Sync after ensuring that all the remote entities can be
overwritten. If the issue persists, contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 351


Table 276: Entity Sync Failure for the Protection Policy [500102] [A500102]

Name Entity Sync failed for Protection Policy


Description Entity Sync failed for the Protection Policy
Alert message message
Cause An update made to the Protection Policy locally might not have synced to the
connected Availability Zone(s).
Cause One or more internal services might be down or not working as expected.
Impact Data Protection and Recovery might be impacted.
Resolution Perform Forced Entity Sync after ensuring that all the remote entities can be
overwritten. If the issue persists, contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 277: Entity Sync Failure for the Recovery Plan [500103] [A500103]

Name Entity Sync failed for Recovery Plan


Description Entity Sync failed for the Recovery Plan
Alert message message
Cause An update made to the Recovery Plan locally might not have synced to the
connected Availability Zone(s).
Cause Protection Policy configuration for the entities specified in the Recovery Plan
may be different across connected Availability Zones.
Cause One or more internal services might be down or not working as expected.
Impact Data Protection and Recovery might be impacted.
Resolution Perform Forced Entity Sync after ensuring that all the remote entities can be
overwritten. If the issue persists, contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Ensure that the Protection Policy configuration is same across connected
Availability Zones for the entities specified in the Recovery Plan.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 278: Entity Sync Failure for the Availability Zone [500104] [A500104]

Name Entity Sync failed for Availability Zone


Description Entity Sync failed for the Availability Zone
Alert message message
Cause Unable to send request to the Availability Zone.
Cause Request timed out.
Impact Data Protection and Recovery might be impacted.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 352


Resolution Ensure Availability Zone is reachable and do a 'Forced Entity Sync' to ensure
that all the entities are in sync. If the issue still persists, contact Nutanix
support.
Resolution Ensure there are no sync related tasks running under the 'Tasks' page on all
the connected Availability Zone(s) and then invoke 'Forced Entity Sync' from
the chosen site.
KB Article 10241
Severity Critical

Table 279: Translated Addresses Retrieval Failure in NGT [600102] [A600102]

Name Unable to get translated addresses in NGT


Description NGT is unable to retrieve the XAT address translations.
Alert message Unable to retrieve translated addresses in NGT because the Prism Element IDF service may be
unreachable.
Cause (A) Prism Element IDF may be unreachable. (B) Translation information is not
available in IDF.
Impact NGT features may not work on the User VMs.
Resolution Check if the Prism Element IDF service is reachable.
Severity Warning

Table 280: Data provider collector is in crashloop [650000] [A650000]

Name Data provider collector is in crashloop


Description Data provider collector is restarting frequently
Alert message data_provider_name data collector with uuid metrics_data_provider_instance_uuid is in crashloop
Cause Collector heartbeat may not be reaching Prism Central
Impact Users may notice missing stats for some of the endpoints that are configured
through monitoring integration feature.
Resolution Manually attempt to start mercury service on all Prism Central VMs. if situation
persists, or any assistance is needed please contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 9258
Severity Warning

Table 281: Data provider collector has violated sizing limits [650001] [A650001]

Name Data provider collector has sizing violation


Description Data provider collector metrics usage has violated sizing limits
Alert message data_provider_name data collector has reached threshold% of the sizing limits.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 353


Cause Total no. of instances or Metric collection has reached the supported limit by
Data Provider Collector
Impact Users may not be able to configure new instances through monitoring
integration feature.
Resolution Delete some existing instance to configure new instances if situation persists,
or any assistance is needed please contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 9473
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 282: Cluster is not healthy [802004] [A802004]

Name Failure to configure a cluster for Advanced Networking


Description Failure to configure a cluster for Advanced Networking.
Alert message Cluster (cluster_uuid) failed to be configured for Atlas Networking
Cause Cluster cannot accept Advanced Networking Configuration.
Impact Ability to make network-related configurations may be impacted.
Resolution (A) Verify health of cluster. (B) Verify cluster is reachable from Prism Central.
(C) Verify cluster AOS and AHV version are compatible with Advanced
Networking.
Severity Warning

Table 283: Security Planning is disabled [803001] [A803001]

Name Security Planning is disabled


Description Security Planning is disabled due to de-registration of Prism Element from
Prism Central.
Alert message Security Planning is disabled. Reason: details
Cause The cluster that is hosting the Epoch data collector was de-registered from
Prism Central.
Impact The Security Planning feature has been automatically disabled.
Resolution Enable Security Planning from the Prism Central UI to deploy a new instance
of the Epoch data collector.
Severity Warning

Table 284: ID Firewall lost connectivity to domain controller [803003] [A803003]

Name ID Firewall is unable to connect to one or more domain controllers


Description ID Firewall is unable to connect to one or more domain controllers used for
scraping identities.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 354


Alert message Domain controller domain_controller on domain domain is not reachable and accepting LDAP or
WMI connections. Details: details.
Cause The domain controller may not be reachable via the network.
Cause The domain controller may not be accepting LDAP/WMI connections due to
permissions issues.
Cause The domain controller may not be running or fully booted up.
Impact ID Firewall will not function properly and Flow VDI security policies may not
be enforced until access to the domain controller is restored.
Resolution Check network connectivity from Prism Central to the domain controller.
Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.
Resolution Check that the domain controller is fully up and accepting WMI and LDAP
connections. Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.
Resolution Check that the service account registered for ID Firewall is active and has
permissions for both WMI and LDAP access, and that the correct password is
entered in Prism Central. Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.
KB Article 10219
Severity Warning

Table 285: ID Firewall unable to locate mapped Active Directory object [803004] [A803004]

Name ID Firewall mapped object not found


Description ID Firewall was unable to find a mapped object in Active Directory.
Alert message The mapped object_type object_dn with GUID object_guid was not found in domain.
Cause The mapped object in Active Directory which is referenced for ID Firewall
could not be found because it was deleted from Active Directory.
Impact Flow VDI security policies written around the mapped object will not function
as expected.
Resolution The mapping should be checked, and if the mapped object does not exist,
or if it has been deleted and re-created, the mapping must also be deleted
and possibly re-created. Security policies should be updated to use the new
mapping or not reference the mapping at all if the object was permanently
deleted.
Severity Warning

Table 286: ID Firewall did not recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily unreachable
domain controller [803005] [A803005]

Name ID Firewall state recovery failed


Description ID Firewall was unable to recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily
unreachable domain controller.
Alert message ID Firewall was unable to recover state from domain controller domain_controller on domain
domain. Details: details.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 355


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 287: Epoch Data Collector upgrade available [803006] [A803006]

Name Epoch Data Collector needs upgrade


Description Checks whether there is an upgrade available for the Epoch Data Collector.
Alert message message
Cause A new version of the Epoch Data Collector is available and not yet installed.
Impact Some new functionality or bugfixes in the Epoch Data Collector may not be
available.
Resolution Go to Epoch Data Collector Enablement page to upgrade the Epoch Data
Collector.
Severity Info

Table 288: ID Firewall service account is invalid [803007] [A803007]

Name Service account used for ID Firewall is invalid


Description ID Firewall has detected that the service account configured is not valid.
Alert message ID Firewall service account account@domain is invalid. Details: details.
Cause The service account password may have been changed.
Cause The service account may have been deleted.
Impact ID Firewall will not function properly and Flow VDI security policies may not
be enforced until the service account is valid again.
Resolution Check that the configured service account password is up-to-date and update
it in Prism if needed.
Resolution Check that the configured service account exists, and update it in Prism if
needed.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 356


Table 289: Object Store deployment is not supported on this cluster. [805001] [A805001]

Name Objects Store Deployment Check


Description Checks if Object Store is deployed on an unsupported AOS cluster.
Alert message The registered cluster(s) affected_clusters_list is/are on one of the versions between 5.18 and
5.18.0.4 which is unsupported for Object Store Deployment.
Cause One or more Prism Element cluster(s) attached to this Prism Central is on
version(s) between 5.18 and 5.18.0.4 which is unsupported for Object Store
Deployment.
Impact Object Store will not work as expected.
Resolution Upgrade the cluster to 5.18.0.5 or above.
KB Article 10000
Severity Critical

Controller VM (Prism Central)

Table 290: CVM or Prism Central VM RAM Usage High [3023] [A1056]

Name CVM Memory Usage


Description Check that CVM or Prism Central VM memory usage is not high.
Alert message Main memory usage in vm_type ip_address is high, available_memory_kb KB is free.
Cause The RAM usage on the Controller VM or Prism Central VM has been high.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Check the memory utilization of Prism Central VM or Controller VM. If
abnormal behavior is seen, please collect logs and contact Nutanix Support.
CVM Available Critical Threshold: 589824 KB
Memory
Threshold
KB Article 2473
Severity Critical

Table 291: CVM/PCVM time not synchronized with external servers. [3026] [A3026]

Name CVM/PCVM NTP Time Synchronized


Description Checks that the {vm_type} is synchronizing time with an NTP server.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause External NTP servers are not configured or are not reachable
Impact Workflows involving Kerberos may fail if the time difference between the
Controller VM and the NTP server is greater than 5 minutes.
Resolution Please verify that the external NTP servers are configured and are reachable.
KB Article 4519

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 357


Severity Warning

Table 292: CVM Rebooted [3028] [A1024]

Name CVM Rebooted Check


Description Checks if the CVM is not rebooted recently.
Alert message vm_type ip_address has been rebooted on reboot_timestamp_str.
Cause CVM is rebooted.
Impact During the time the Controller VM is down, cluster compute and storage
capacity are reduced.
Resolution Check CVM status. Ignore if intentional.
KB Article 2474
Severity Critical

Table 293: CVM Service(s) Restarting Frequently [3029] [A1032]

Name CVM Services Status


Description Check if services have restarted recently on the CVM.
Alert message One or more cluster services have restarted within 15 minutes in the Controller VM
ip_address, the total restarts being >= 10.The following are the service(s) that have restarted :
failed_components.

Cause Faulty behavior in one or more service(s), leading to frequent crashes,in a


short period of time.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution If this alert occurs more than once, please collect CVM logs and contact
Nutanix support.
KB Article 2472
Severity Critical

Table 294: {services} facing segmentation fault [3036] [A3036]

Name CPP Services Segmentation fault Check


Description Check if services faced a segmentation fault recently in PCVM/CVM
Alert message More than 5 segmentation fault errors happened in the last 15 minutes in the PCVM/CVM
ip_address. Services: services

Cause Faulty behavior in one or more service(s).

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 358


Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution If this occurs more than 1 time, please refer to KB 2472 for more information. If
unsure, please contact Nutanix Support.
KB Article 2472
Severity Critical

Table 295: CVM Python Service(s) Restarting Frequently [3037] [A3037]

Name Python Services Fatal Check


Description Check if python services have crashed/restarted recently in PCVM/CVM
Alert message One or more cluster services have restarted within 15 minutes in the PCVM/CVM ip_address, the
total restarts being >= 10. The following are the service(s) that have restarted : failed_components.
Cause Faulty behavior in one or more service(s) leading to frequent crashes in a
short period of time.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution If this alert occurs more than once, please contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 2472
Severity Warning

Table 296: Multiple cpu_unblock processes running [3042] [A3042]

Name cpu_unblock Process Check


Description Check that there are no stale cpu_unblock processes running.
Alert message Multiple cpu_unblock processes are running on svm_ip.
Cause Zookeeper restarting frequently on cluster node.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Kill all cpu_unblock processes and restart cluster services on node.
KB Article 5581
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 297: Prism Central VM CPU Load High [6517] [A6517]

Name CVM CPU Load High


Description Check that Prism Central VM CPU load is not high.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 359


Alert message CPU load in or Prism Central VM ip_address is high. Load average over 5 Minutes =
#load_average_5min@, number of vCPUs in CVM or Prism Central VM = num_procs.
Cause The CPU load on the Prism Central VM has been high.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Contact Nutanix Support for diagnosis. CPU on the Prism Central VM may
need to be increased.
KB Article 5227
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 298: Prism Central VM disk usage high [101059] [A101059]

Name Prism Central VM high disk space usage


Description Check that disk space usage on the Prism Central VM is within limits.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause High disk usage in the Prism Central VM.
Impact Prism Central VM may run out of storage space to store data.
Resolution Refer to KB 5228 for further details.
Prism Central Warning Threshold: 75 %
VM disk
usage critical Critical Threshold: 90 %
threshold
percentage
KB Article 5228
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 299: Core dumps are enabled on this CVM or Prism Central VM. [101069] [A101069]

Name Saltstate coreoff check


Description Checks if saltstate is correctly set to default coreoff state to ensure services
do not produce core dumps unnecessarily.
Alert message Core dumps are enabled on the vm_type with IP service_vm_external_ip.
Cause Core dumps are enabled for services running on this CVM or Prism Central VM.
Impact Core dumps are useful for isolated troubleshooting but leaving enabled may
unnecessarily fill the node /home system partition, and this can affect node
stability and availability.
Resolution Follow KB7586 to validate and fix coreoff saltstate. Resolution may involve
graceful node reboot, so ensure the cluster is otherwise healthy and resiliency
status is OK prior to this action.
KB Article 7586

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 360


Severity Critical

Table 300: Kernel crash dump found. [101073] [A101073]

Name Kernel crash dump check


Description Checks if Kernel crash dump logs exists on a node.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause Kernel dump logs are present on the node.
Impact Neglecting old kernel crash dump files may unnecessarily fill the system
partition, in turn affecting node stability.
Resolution Please refer to KB 11831 to validate core dump.
KB Article 11831
Severity Warning

Table 301: Reset Current Passwords for admin and nutanix SSH accounts on {cluster_name}
[101081] [A101081]

Name Password Strength Status


Description High-strength password policy has been enabled, please reset the password.
Alert message High-strength password was recently enabled, please reset current passwords for admin and
nutanix SSH accounts on cluster_name - cluster_uuid.
Cause High-strength password policy has been enabled.
Impact High-strength password policy has been enabled but low-strength passwords
may still be in use on the cluster.
Resolution Please reset the current passwords. Follow the Security Guide's Hardening
Instructions on Nutanix Support Portal for the password requirements.
Severity Warning

Table 302: Host time not synchronized with any external servers. [103090] [A103090]

Name Host time synchronized


Description Checks to ensure that the host is configured and synchronizing time with an
NTP server.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause External NTP servers are not configured or are not reachable.
Impact Logs may have different timestamps in the host and the CVMs/PCVM. Host
may not work as expected.
Resolution Please verify that the NTP servers are configured and are reachable from the
host.
KB Article 4519

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 361


Severity Warning

Table 303: CVM TCP checksum error rate check [103104]

Name CVM TCP checksum error rate check


Description Check if corrupted packets with compromised checksums are reaching the
CVM and not dropped by the host NICs.
Cause Hardware failure or NIC firmware/driver compatibility issue.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Check for any hardware failures or issues with firmware/driver/cables. Please
refer to KB 9623 for more details.
KB Article 9623

Table 304: Node in Maintenance Mode [130001] [A1013]

Name Node Maintenance Mode Status


Description Node in Maintenance Mode.
Alert message Controller VM ip_address is put in maintenance mode due to reason.
Cause Node removal has been initiated.
Impact The node will be removed from the cluster.
Resolution No action is necessary.
Severity Info

Table 305: Kerberos Clock Skew Failure [130024] [A1083]

Name Kerberos Clock Skew Status


Description Kerberos clock skew failure.
Alert message Kerberos authentication failure occurred on the Controller VM ip_address due to clock skew
between the Controller VM and the Domain Controller (reason: reason).
Cause There is considerable clock skew between the Controller VM and the Domain
Controller.
Impact The Controller VM cannot manage the host, which may lead to node
instability.
Resolution Ensure that the time on the Controller VM is synchronized with the time of the
host. It can be accomplished by configuring the NTP server properly.
KB Article 8036
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 362


Table 306: Metadata Volume Snapshot Persistent Failure [130026] [A1087]

Name Metadata Volume Snapshot Persistent


Description Metadata Volume Snapshot persistent failure.
Alert message The last failure_count metadata volume snapshots have failed. reason
Cause The EBS snapshot service is unavailable, possibly because AWS could not be
reached.
Impact If the cloud instance fails, backups of the Guest VMs may be unavailable.
Resolution Please check connectivity to cloud instance and reach out to Nutanix Support
for assistance.
KB Article 8413
Severity Warning

Table 307: Metadata Volume Snapshot Timeout [130027] [A1088]

Name Metadata Volume Snapshot Status


Description Metadata Volume Snapshot timeout failure.
Alert message Metadata volume snapshot could not be created in duration_mins minutes.
Cause Metadata volume snapshot frequency is too high.
Impact If the cloud instance fails, backups of the guest VM may be unavailable.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 308: Physical Disk Added To Slot [130034] [A1102]

Name Physical Disk Add Check


Description Physical Disk added to slot.
Alert message Disk with serial disk_serial and model disk_model was added in drive bay disk_location on
Controller VM service_vm_external_ip. Action Required: action. Visit Prism hardware page for
further actions.
Cause A drive was inserted into an empty slot.
Impact The drive may not be available to the cluster until further configuration is
completed.
Resolution Ensure that the drive is added correctly from the Hardware page.
KB Article 9288
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 363


Table 309: Physical Disk Drive Has Failed [130035] [A1104]

Name Physical Disk Status


Description Physical drive has failed.
Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial and model disk_model in drive bay disk_location on Controller
VM service_vm_external_ip has failed. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause The drive has failed.


Impact Cluster storage capacity is reduced.
Resolution Replace the failed drive. Please refer to KB 4158.
KB Article 4158
Severity Critical

Table 310: Physical Disk Removed From Slot [130036] [A1103]

Name Physical Disk Remove Check


Description Physical drive is removed from the slot.
Alert message Drive with serial disk_serial and model disk_model was removed from drive bay disk_location
on Controller VM service_vm_external_ip. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause A drive was physically disconnected from a slot.


Impact Migration of data from the drive will start.
Resolution Remove the drive from the slot and reseat it. Contact the Hardware Vendor if
issue persists.
KB Article 8031
Severity Critical

Table 311: Self-encrypting Drive Operation Failure [130051] [A1111]

Name SED Operation Status


Description Self-encrypting drive operation failure.
Alert message Self-encrypted Drive operation operation has failed for disk disk_id with serial disk_serial on node
service_vm_external_ip.

Cause A self-encrypting drive operation could not be performed.


Impact The desired action could not be performed.
Resolution Retest key management server configuration to ensure connectivity and
certificates are valid then retry the command.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 364


Table 312: Stargate Temporarily Down [130054] [A1030]

Name Stargate Status


Description Stargate Temporarily Down.
Alert message Stargate on Controller VM ip_address is down for downtime seconds. #rf1_custom_message@
Cause Zookeeper service not running.
Cause Cassandra service not running.
Cause Stargate keeps timing out during restart.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution If CVM node running the zeus service was powered off, power it on. Otherwise
contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 3784
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 313: Unsupported Configuration For Redundancy Factor 3 [130055] [A1092]

Name FT2 Configuration


Description Unsupported Configuration For Redundancy Factor 3.
Alert message Controller VM service_vm_id with IP address service_vm_external_ip has actual_ram_size_gbGB
RAM which does not meet the configuration requirement of min_ram_required_gbGB RAM to
support 'Redundancy Factor 3' feature.
Cause To support 'Redundancy Factor 3' feature all controller VMs in the cluster
must meet the minimum requirements for RAM.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded. In the case of multiple
nodes with the same condition, the cluster may become unable to service I/O
requests.
Resolution Increase RAM on the Controller VM to meet the minimum requirement.
Contact Nutanix support for assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 314: Disk Diagnostic Failure [130089] [A1139]

Name Disk Diagnostic Status


Description The drive diagnostic test has failed.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 365


Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial in drive bay disk_location on Controller VM
service_vm_external_ip has failed diagnostic test. This drive is failing or has failed.
#rf1_custom_message@
Cause The drive is failing or has failed.
Impact Cluster storage capacity has been reduced.
Resolution Replace the failing drive. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
Severity Warning

Table 315: Prism Central VM platform disk space usage high [200328] [A200328]

Name Prism Central VM platform disk space usage check


Description Check that platform disk space usage on the Prism Central VM is within limits.
Alert message Platform disk space usage in Prism Central VM svm_ip exceeds percentage_exceed% for disk(s):
disk_paths.

Cause High disk usage in the Prism Central VM.


Impact Prism Central VM may run out of storage space to store data.
Resolution Refer to KB 5228 for further details.
Disk Usage Warning Threshold: 75 %
Percentage
Critical Threshold: 90 %

KB Article 5228
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 316: Flow Rule Failed. [200601] [A200601]

Name Flow rule failed


Description Programming a Flow rule failed.
Alert message Flow policy operation failed for rule_name. reason
Cause Microsegmentation service is unreachable or the PC is unavailable or the PE
cluster is unavailable or Remote Connection from PC to PE failed or AHV host
is unavailable or connection from PE to host failed. Check description.
Impact VMs will not be protected by the Flow rule.
Resolution Check PC microsegmentation service, PE acropolis service, PC to PE
connection, PE to AHV connection.
Severity Warning

Table 317: Flow Control Plane Failed. [200602] [A200602]

Name Flow control plane failed

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 366


Description Flow failure event.
Alert message Flow operation failed on remote_uuid. reason
Cause Microsegmentation service is unreachable or the PE cluster is unavailable
or Remote Connection from PC to PE failed or AHV host is unavailable or
connection from PE to host failed. Check description.
Impact Flow control plane failure, rule cannot be programmed.
Resolution Check PC microsegmentation service, Check PE acropolis service, AHV
microsegmentation module.
Severity Warning

Table 318: Flow Mode Change Failed [200606] [A200606]

Name Flow policy hit mode change failed


Description Flow control plane failure event
Alert message Flow mode change failed on remote_uuid. reason
Cause Flow mode configuration could not be programmed from PC to PE or PE to
AHV. In Default mode network traffic hitting security policies won't be logged
on AHV.
Impact Flow running in default mode. Network traffic hitting security policies won't be
logged by AHV.
Resolution Ensure AHV host is reachable from Prism Central. Ensure all the services in
Prism Central and Prism Element are in a healthy state and AHV host has more
than 4 GB memory available. If the issue is still not resolved, collect cvm_logs
and contact Nutanix Support
Severity Warning

Table 319: VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy [200608] [A200608]

Name VPC VMs detected in Flow Security Policy


Description VMs that have NICs in one or more VPCs have been detected that are also
part of a Flow Security Policy. This Security Policy will not be enforced for
these VMs.
Alert message num_vms VPC VM(s) detected in Flow Security Policy rule_name (network_security_rule_uuid).
VMs: vms. Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Cause VMs with NICs in VPC subnets have been placed into Flow Security Policies.
Impact Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Resolution Remove the affected VMs from VPC subnets for Flow Security Policies to be
enforced on these VMs.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 367


Table 320: VMs with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy [200609] [A200609]

Name VMs with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy


Description VMs that have one or more kDirectNICs have been detected that are also
part of a Flow Security Policy. This Security Policy will not be enforced for the
traffic through these kDirectNics.
Alert message num_vms VM(s) with kDirectNics detected in Flow Security Policy rule_name
(network_security_rule_uuid). VMs: vms. Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the traffic
through these kDirectNics.
Cause VMs with kDirectNics have been placed into Flow Security Policies.
Impact Flow Security Policies will not be enforced for the affected VMs.
Resolution Remove the kDirectNics from the vms for Flow Security Policies to be
enforced.
Severity Warning

DR (Prism Central)

Table 321: Remote Replication is Lagging for Protection Domain Snapshot [110260] [A110260]

Name PD Snapshot Lagging Remote Replication


Description Remote replication of the protection domain snapshot is lagging.
Alert message Snapshot 'snapshot_uuid' of the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' has replication to
remote 'remote_name' that is lagging by lagging_minutes minutes.
Cause Replication of the protection domain snapshot to the remote cluster is too
slow.
Impact Recovery point objective for the protection domain will be affected.
Resolution (A) Ensure that the number of entities are within the supported limit. (B)
Ensure that replication bandwidth to remote cluster is unaffected.
KB Article 10197
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 322: NearSync Replication of Protection Domain has not progressed. [110264] [A110264]

Name Nearsync Replication Stuck


Description Nearsync replication of the protection domain has not progressed.
Alert message NearSync replication of the protection domain protection_domain_name to the remote site
remote_name for the snapshot snapshot_id has not made any progress in the last time_string.

Cause Network outage, saturated network or unavailability of services like Stargate,


Cerebro on the remote site. Snapshots of the protection domain will not be
available on the remote site.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 368


Cause SSD snapshot reserve on the remote site does not have enough free disk
space.
Impact Protection domain may transition out of NearSync.
Impact Snapshots of the protection domain will not be available on the remote site.
Resolution Check the network connection and status of the remote site.
Resolution Ensure that the remote site has enough disk space available in the SSD
snapshot reserve.
KB Article 10249
Severity Warning

Table 323: Availability Zone configured in Protection Policy is not accessible [110401] [A110401]

Name Availability Zone Accessibility Check


Description Check if availability zones configured in protection policy are accessible.
Alert message Availability Zone(s) fault_azs configured in the Protection Policy protection_rule_name is/are not
accessible.
Cause Availability zone configured in the protection rule is not accessible.
Impact Availability zones of the backup site will not be reachable for taking backup.
Resolution Check the health status of the configured availability zone.
KB Article 5685
Severity Critical

Table 324: Protection Policy Max entities per Category Check Failed. [110402] [A110402]

Name Protection Policy Max entities Per Category Exceeded


Description Checks if the entity count for a category specified in Protection Policy
exceeds the maximum allowed limit.
Alert message Maximum number of entities for a category in a Protection Policy should not exceed
max_entity_count. Following categories exceeds entities limit : categories.

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 369


Table 325: Disconnected Availability Zones are affecting some entities. [110403] [A110403]

Name Entities Affected By Disconnected Availability Zones


Description Lists all entities which will be affected due to the disconnected Availability
Zones.
Alert message entity_type of name name has been affected by disconnected availability zones.
Cause Availability zone configured in the protection rule has been disconnected.
Impact Operations related to the affected entities will be affected.
Resolution Check the health status of the configured availability zone.
KB Article 6283
Severity Info

Table 326: Stale VM present in DR system [110457] [A110457]

Name Stale VM present in the DR system


Description A stale VM in the DR protection conflicts with the live VM
Alert message A stale VM stale_vm_name with ID(stale_vm_hs_id, vm_ha_uuid) against VM vm_name with
ID(vm_id, vm_ha_uuid). Please unprotect the stale VM entry protection_information.
Cause An in-place restore workflow might have been performed on the VM by
backup software resulting in newly created VM with the same Nutanix ID
Impact Some or all DR workflows on this VM might fail
Resolution Please unprotect the stale VM and if needed, protect the restored VM. If the
issue still persists contact Nutanix Support
KB Article 10545
Severity Critical

Table 327: Secure Tunnel To Remote Site Down [130000] [A1090]

Name Remote Site Tunnel Status


Description Secure Tunnel To Remote Site Down.
Alert message Secure tunnel to remote site remote_name is down.
Cause Incorrect remote site configuration or network connectivity issue.
Impact Replication to remote site will fail.
Resolution Check if the IP address specified in the remote site is reachable.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 370


Table 328: Metro Availability Is Disabled [130002] [A1124]

Name Metro Connectivity


Description Metro availability is disabled.
Alert message Metro availability for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name' is disabled because of 'reason'.
Cause Remote site unreachable.
Impact Metro availability operation is disabled.
Resolution Check network connectivity and health of the remote cluster. If issue persists
reach out to Nutanix Support
KB Article 8228
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 329: Duplicate Remote Cluster ID [130018] [A1038]

Name Duplicate Remote Cluster ID Check


Description Duplicate remote cluster ID.
Alert message Remote site already exists with the name 'conflicting_remote_name'.
Cause Two remote sites with different names or different IP addresses have same
cluster ID. This can happen in two cases: (a) A remote cluster is added twice
under two different names (through different IP addresses) or (b) Two
clusters have the same cluster ID.
Impact Protected data is not replicated to the remote site.
Resolution In case (a) remove the duplicate remote site. In case (b) verify that the both
clusters have the same cluster ID and contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 330: Entities Restored But Unprotected [130019] [A1134]

Name Restored Entities Protected


Description Entities are restored but unprotected.
Alert message Some entities became unprotected after restoring protection_domain_name. Count: num_entities.
Entity names: entity_names. Reason: reason.
Cause Some other protected entities conflict with the entities being recovered.
Impact Some entities became unprotected after restoring the snapshot.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 371


Table 331: Entities Skipped During Restore [130020] [A1132]

Name Entities Restored Check


Description Entities were skipped during restore.
Alert message Some entities skipped during restore of protection_domain_name. Count: num_entities. Entity
names: entity_names. Reason: reason.
Cause Existing files conflict with the files to be recovered.
Impact Not all entities could be restored from the snapshot.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8415
Severity Critical

Table 332: Entity conflict in Consistency Groups [130022] [A1136]

Name Consistency Group Configuration


Description Entity conflict in consistency group(s)
Alert message Failed to create a snapshot of protection domain protection_domain_name as some files in
consistency group consistency_group_name overlap other consistency groups.
Cause VMs with common files are not in the same Consistency Group.
Impact Snapshot will fail.
Resolution Put VMs with common files in the same Consistency Group.
Severity Warning

Table 333: Metadata Volume Snapshot Persistent Failure [130026] [A1087]

Name Metadata Volume Snapshot Persistent


Description Metadata Volume Snapshot persistent failure.
Alert message The last failure_count metadata volume snapshots have failed. reason
Cause The EBS snapshot service is unavailable, possibly because AWS could not be
reached.
Impact If the cloud instance fails, backups of the Guest VMs may be unavailable.
Resolution Please check connectivity to cloud instance and reach out to Nutanix Support
for assistance.
KB Article 8413
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 372


Table 334: Metadata Volume Snapshot Timeout [130027] [A1088]

Name Metadata Volume Snapshot Status


Description Metadata Volume Snapshot timeout failure.
Alert message Metadata volume snapshot could not be created in duration_mins minutes.
Cause Metadata volume snapshot frequency is too high.
Impact If the cloud instance fails, backups of the guest VM may be unavailable.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 335: Metro Availability Configuration Failed [130028] [A1123]

Name Metro Availability


Description Metro availability start failed.
Alert message Failed to operation for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name'. Reason: 'reason'.
Cause Check the alert message for the reason of failure
Impact Metro availability operation could not be started.
Resolution Resolve the issue as stated in the alert message and retry the Metro operation.
If the issue persists contact Nutanix Support
KB Article 10250
Severity Critical

Table 336: Stale NFS Mount [130029] [A1135]

Name Metro Vstore Mount Status


Description Stale NFS mount.
Alert message Unable to process NFS requests for vstore id vstore_id due to reason.
Cause Stale NFS file handle.
Impact Unable to process NFS requests.
Resolution Unmount the datastore from all hosts and remount again.
Severity Warning

Table 337: Compliance Failure of the Protected VMs. [130037] [A1109]

Name Protected VM CBR Capability


Description Protected VM is not Nutanix backup and recovery compliant.
Alert message message

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 373


Cause Protected VM may have been modified to include files that are not on a
Nutanix Storage Container.
Impact Any data associated with the VM may not be backed up or replicated to the
remote site.
Resolution Remove or detach files from the VM that are not on the Nutanix Storage
Containers and make the VM Nutanix backup and recovery compliant.
Severity Warning

Table 338: Protected VM Not Found [130038] [A1010]

Name Protected VM Not Found


Description Protected VM not found.
Alert message Unable to locate the VM 'vm_name (ID vm_id)' protected by protection domain
'protection_domain_name'.
Cause The protected VM cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the VM may not be backed up or replicated to a
remote site.
Resolution Remove the VM from the protection domain.
Severity Info

Table 339: Protection Domain Activation Failed [130040] [A1043]

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 340: Protection Domain Activation or Migration Failure [130041] [A1060]

Name PD Change Mode Status


Description Protection domain activation or migration failed.
Alert message Protection domain protection_domain_name activate/deactivate failed with the error : reason

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 374


Cause (A) Protection domain cannot be activated or migrated. (B) Protection
domain with same name might be active on remote site. (C) Remote sites
might not be configured correctly, please check the remote sites on source
and target clusters. (D) Protection Domain has one or more missing VMs/VGs.
Impact Protected VMs could not be started during failover to a remote site.
Impact Some of the VMs might have been powered off. User has to power on those
VMs.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If issue persists, please contact
Nutanix Support.
KB Article 8021
Severity Critical

Table 341: Registration Of One Or More VMs Failed [130043] [A1093]

Name PD VM Registration Status


Description Registration of one or more VMs failed.
Alert message Failed to register one or more VMs of the protection domain protection_domain_name.
Cause VMs in the snapshot have invalid VM configuration or the local hypervisor
reported an error.
Impact VMs restored from the snapshot will not be unavailable.
Resolution Check the existence of the VM in the snapshot and check any errors reported
in the hypervisor management software. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8005
Severity Critical

Table 342: Protection Domain Replication Expired [130045] [A1003]

Name PD Replication Expiry Status


Description Protection domain replication expired.
Alert message Protection domain protection_domain_name replication to the remote site remote_name has expired
before it is started.
Cause Replication is taking too long to complete before the snapshots expire.
Impact The snapshot that was scheduled to be replicated could not be replicated.
Data that is expected to be protected may not be protected.
Resolution Review replication schedules taking into account bandwidth and overall load
on systems. Confirm retention time on replicated snapshots. If issue persists,
please contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 375


Table 343: Protection Domain Replication Failure [130046] [A1015]

Name PD Replication Status


Description Protection Domain Replication Failure
Alert message Protection domain protection_domain_name replication to remote site remote_name failed. reason.
Cause Various
Impact Snapshots of protected VMs were not replicated to the remote site.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 344: Skipped Replication Of Snapshot For Protection Domain [130047] [A1113]

Name PD Replication Skipped Status


Description Skipped replication of the snapshot.
Alert message Replication was skipped for protection domain protection_domain_name of the latest snapshot
snapshot_name to remote site remote_name. reason There could be other snapshots that may have
been skipped.
Cause Snapshot replication was skipped because a newer snapshot is available.
Impact Snapshot is not present on the remote site.
Resolution Make sure that enough bandwidth is available for replication. If the issue
persists, consider reducing the frequency of replication. Perform a manual
resync of the skipped snapshot, if required.
KB Article 4282
Severity Warning

Table 345: Failed to Receive Snapshot for the Protection Domain [130048] [A1127]

Name Protection Domain Receive Snapshot Failure


Description Protection Domain Receive Snapshot Failure.
Alert message Failed to receive snapshot for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' from the remote
site remote_name. reason
Cause Incorrect configuration on DR site or Network Error.
Impact The snapshot receive operation could not be completed.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 376


Table 346: Protection Domain Snapshot Failure [130049] [A1064]

Name PD Snapshot Status


Description Protection Domain Snapshot Failure.
Alert message Protection domain protection_domain_name snapshot 'snapshot_id' failed. reason.
Cause Protection domain has VMs being protected by other vstore(s) or in case of
a cluster where Metro Availability is configured, Metro protection domain has
more entities than supported.
Impact A requested snapshot of guest VMs and files in the protection domain did not
succeed.
Resolution Unprotect VMs from other vstore(s) before snapshotting the concerned
protection domain. In case of a cluster where Metro Availability is configured,
make sure number of entities are within the supported limit.
KB Article 8038
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 347: Remote Site Is Unhealthy [130050] [A1125]

Name Remote Site Health


Description Remote site is unhealthy.
Alert message Remote 'remote_name' is unhealthy due to reason 'reason'.
Cause Various
Impact Replication to remote site may fail.
Resolution Check if the IP address specified in the remote site is reachable.
Severity Warning

Table 348: Snapshot Partially Crash Consistent [130052] [A1110]

Name Snapshot Crash Consistent


Description Snapshot partially crash consistent.
Alert message Failed to create an application-consistent snapshot for one or more VMs in snapshot
snapshot_name of protection domain protection_domain_name. A crash-consistent snapshot has
been created for these VMs instead.
Cause VSS or hypervisor error
Impact Recovery may take longer and involve manual steps.
Resolution No action is necessary if this issue is intermittent. If this error persists, contact
Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 377


Table 349: VM Action Error [130057] [A1033]

Name VM Action Status


Description VM action error.
Alert message Failed to action VM with name 'vm_name and internal ID (ID vm_id)' due to reason.
Cause A VM could not be restored because of a hypervisor error, or could not be
deleted because it is still in use.
Impact The requested VM action (restore or delete) could not be completed.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10658
Severity Warning

Table 350: VM Virtual Hardware Version Not Compatible [130058] [A1133]

Name VM Virtual Hardware Version Compatible


Description Virtual hardware version of the VM is not compatible.
Alert message Virtual hardware version of the VM vm_name is not supported by any of the nodes on the remote
site remote_name. Protection domain: protection_domain_name. Reason: reason.
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 site.
Impact VM may not register properly on the remote site on restore/clone.
Resolution Upgrade the hypervisor version on the remote site to support virtual hardware
version for the VM.
Severity Warning

Table 351: Missing Network Mapping for the Remote Site. [130062] [A1156]

Name Remote Site Network Configuration


Description Network mapping not specified for the remote site.
Alert message No network mapping specified for the remote site remote_name.
Cause Network mapping not specified for the remote site.
Impact When the VM is restored or cloned on the remote site, networking
configuration may not be recovered.
Resolution Specify network mapping for the remote site.
Severity Warning

Table 352: Remote Site {remote_name} Network Mapping Invalid [130063] [A1157]

Name Remote Site Network Mapping Configuration

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 378


Description Invalid Network Mapping Specified.
Alert message Invalid network mapping specified for remote site remote_name: reason.
Cause Either the source or destination network configuration is not present in the
network mapping specified on the remote site, or the networks specified in
the network mapping do not exist.
Cause The network associated with one or more VM(s) does not have the
corresponding recovery network mapping in the remote site.
Impact When the VM is restored or cloned on the remote site, networking
configuration may not be recovered.
Resolution Delete existing network mappings and create the network mapping with the
associated networks present on the source and the destination cluster for the
remote site.
Resolution Update the network mapping of the remote site with all the network(s)
associated with the VM(s).
KB Article 10243
Severity Warning

Table 353: Protection Domain Snapshot Operation Skipped [130066] [A1147]

Name PD Snapshot Skipped Status


Description Skipped snapshot operation.
Alert message Replication was skipped for protection domain protection_domain_name to remote site
remote_name. reason

Cause Snapshot operation was skipped.


Impact Snapshot is not present on both the local and remote sites.
Resolution Wait for the completion of the upgrade process before initiating snapshot
schedules.
Severity Info

Table 354: Volume Group Action Error [130071] [A1163]

Name Volume Group Action Status


Description Volume group action error.
Alert message Failed to action volume group with name 'vg_name' and internal ID 'vg_uuid' because reason in
protection domain 'protection_domain_name'
Cause A volume group could not be restored or could not be deleted because it is
still in use.
Impact The requested volume group action (restore or delete) could not be
completed.
Resolution Detach the volume group from VMs and external initiators before recovery.
Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 379


KB Article 10120
Severity Critical

Table 355: VSS Snapshot Failed [130073] [A130073]

Name VSS Snapshot Status


Description VSS snapshot failed.
Alert message VSS snapshot failed for the VM(s) vm_names protected by the protection_domain_name in the
snapshot snapshot_id because reason.
Cause Guest is not able to quiesce VM due to internal error.
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken instead of application consistent.
Resolution Review the logs in the guest VM and take necessary actions. If issue persists
contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Table 356: Nutanix Guest Tools Not Installed [130074] [A130074]

Name NGT Configuration


Description Nutanix Guest Tools is not Installed.
Alert message VSS is enabled but Nutanix Guest Tools are not installed on the VM(s) vm_names protected by
protection_domain_name.

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

Table 357: Protection Domain might have symlinks. [130077] [A130077]

Name Snapshot Symlink Check


Description Protection domain snapshot has symlinks.
Alert message Protection Domain protection_domain_name might have symlinks that have been skipped in the
snapshot.
Cause The protection domain might have symlinks that have been skipped in the
snapshot.
Impact The symlinks in the protection domain have been skipped in the snapshot.
Resolution Delete the symlinks or protect the entities individually.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 380


Table 358: Entity Restore Aborted [130078] [A130078]

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

Table 359: Remote Site Is Incompatible For Replication [130079] [A130079]

Name Remote Site Snapshot Replication Status


Description Skipped replication of the snapshot.
Alert message Replication was skipped for protection domain protection_domain_name to remote site
remote_name. reason

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]

Name VSS VM Reachable


Description VSS on VM(s) is not reachable.
Alert message VM(s) vm_names Guest Agent Service is not reachable, protected by protection_domain_name.
Cause The communication link to the VMs Nutanix Guest Agent service seems to be
down.
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken instead of application consistent snapshot.
Resolution Please check and restart Nutanix Guest Agent service inside the VM.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 381


Table 361: Protected VM(s) Not Found [130083] [A130083]

Name Protected VMs Not Found


Description Protected VM(s) Not Found.
Alert message Unable to locate VM(s) vm_names protected by protection domain 'protection_domain_name'.
Cause Protected VM(s) cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the VMs may not be backed up or replicated to a
remote site.
Impact Next transition into NearSync will be delayed if the protection domain is
configured with high frequency schedule.
Resolution Verify that the VM(s) are registered on the host. If the VM(s) were
unregistered or deleted, remove VM(s) from the protection domain. If the CVM
on the host the VM(s) are registered on was shutdown or rebooting, retry the
snapshot operation.
Severity Warning

Table 362: Protected Volume Groups Not Found [130084] [A130084]

Name Protected Volume Groups Not Found


Description Protected volume groups not found.
Alert message Unable to locate volume group(s) vg_names protected by protection domain
'protection_domain_name'.
Cause Protected volume group(s) cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the volume group(s) may not be backed up or
replicated to a remote site.
Impact Next transition into NearSync will be delayed if the protection domain is
configured with high frequency schedule.
Resolution Remove volume group(s) from the protection domain.
Severity Warning

Table 363: VSS Software or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) Scripts Not Installed [130085] [A130085]

Name VSS Scripts Not Installed


Description VSS software or pre_freeze/post_thaw scripts are not installed
Alert message VSS is enabled but VSS software or pre_freeze/post_thaw scripts are not installed on the guest
VM(s) vm_names protected by protection_domain_name.
Cause VSS is enabled but VSS software or pre_freeze/post_thaw scripts are not
installed on the VM(s).
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken instead of application consistent snapshot.
Resolution Install VSS software or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) scripts on the guest VM(s).
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 382


Table 364: VStore Snapshot Status [130086] [A130086]

Name VStore Snapshot Status


Description vStore snapshot status.
Alert message Snapshot status for vstore vstore_name: reason.
Cause Various
Impact The requested VStore snapshot action could not be completed.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 365: Failed To Snapshot Entities [130088] [A130088]

Name Failed To Snapshot Entities


Description Failed to snapshot entities.
Alert message Failed to snapshot the entities entity_names in the protection domain protection_domain_name,
snapshot snapshot_id.
Cause Conflicting hypervisor tasks might be running on the entities.
Impact The entities are not captured in the snapshot.
Resolution Retry the operation after the hypervisor tasks are complete.
KB Article 8485
Severity Warning

Table 366: Associated entities are not protected together. [130090] [A130090]

Name Related Entity Protection Status


Description Protection status of a related entity.
Alert message error_message.
Cause Related entity is not protected in the same protection domain.
Impact Related VM/Volume Group will not be snapshotted and recovered.
Resolution Protect the related entity in the same consistency group.
Severity Warning

Table 367: Remote Site Operation Mode ReadOnly [130092] [A1189]

Name Remote Site Operation Mode ReadOnly


Description Operation Mode of Remote Site changed to kReadOnly.
Alert message Remote site remote_name moved to read-only state, outgoing replications to this remote will fail.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 383


Cause SSD failure on remote site in case of single node or two-node cluster.
Cause Cloud virtual appliance ran out of memory in case of cloud connect.
Cause Data stored on cloud appliance exceeded 20TB.
Impact All outgoing replications to remote site will be aborted.
Resolution Replace the failed SSD on the remote site.
Resolution Delete some remote snapshots to reduce memory or data usage in case of
cloud connect and wait for some time.
Resolution Increase the cloud CVM size. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for
instructions.
KB Article 8082
Severity Warning

Table 368: VM renamed on restoration [130094] [A130094]

Name VM Renamed On Conversion


Description VM Renamed On Restoration
Alert message VM 'vm_name (ID vm_id)' will be registered as 'new_vm_name' during VM restore to avoid
duplicate VM names.
Cause Directory with same name as VM name exists on Storage Container.
Impact The restored VM will be registered under the new name.
Resolution No action is necessary.
Severity Info

Table 369: Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools during VMs recovery for protection
domain [130095] [A130095]

Name Failed To Recover NGT Information


Description Failed to enable Nutanix Guest Tools during VMs recovery for protection
domain.
Alert message Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for VMs in protection domain protection_domain_name
due to reason.
Cause Nutanix Guest Tools service might be down.
Impact VM
Resolution Enable and mount Nutanix Guest Tools, and restart Nutanix Guest Agent
service within the VM, for VMs in protection domain. If you cannot resolve the
error, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10079
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 384


Table 370: Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for the recovered VM [130096] [A130096]

Name Failed To Recover NGT Information for VM


Description Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for a VM in protection domain.
Alert message Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for VM vm_name in protection domain
protection_domain_name.

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]

Name Failed To Mount NGT ISO On Recovery of VM


Description Failed to mount ISO image as part of Nutanix Guest Tools reconfiguration for
a VM in protection domain
Alert message Failed to reconfigure Nutanix Guest Tools for VM vm_name in protection domain
protection_domain_name due to ISO mount failure.

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 372: External iSCSI Attachments Not Snapshotted [130099] [A130099]

Name External iSCSI Attachments Not Snapshotted

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 385


Description External iSCSI Attachments Not Snapshotted.
Alert message error_message. Volume Group external iSCSI attachments cannot be snapshotted for these VMs.
Cause VMs have duplicate IQNs.
Cause VMs have configured iSCSI target IP addresses that do not belong to the local
Nutanix cluster.
Cause IQN could not be resolved to VM ID.
Impact Volume group external iSCSI attachments cannot be snapshotted and
restored for these VMs.
Resolution Make sure all VMs in the protection domain have different IQNs.
Resolution Remove iSCSI target IP addresses that do not belong to the local Nutanix
cluster from the VMs.
Resolution Install Nutanix Guest Tools on all the VMs using volume group external iSCSI
attachments.
Severity Warning

Table 373: Volume Group Attachments Not Restored [130101] [A130101]

Name Volume Group Attachments Not Restored


Description Volume Group Attachments Not Restored.
Alert message error_message for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name'.
Cause Acropolis failed to attach volume groups to the VMs.
Impact VMs will not be able to access volume group iSCSI disks.
Resolution Manually attach volume groups to the VMs.
Severity Warning

Table 374: Self service restore operation failed [130102] [A130102]

Name Self service restore operation Failed


Description Self service restore operation failed
Alert message Unable to 'operation' disk from VM 'vm_name (ID vm_id)' due to 'reason'.
Cause (A) Snapshot disk could not be recovered. (B) Recovered disk could not be
attached to the VM. (C) Self-service restore disk could not be detached from
VM.
Impact In the case of attachment failure, the user will not be able to restore files from
snapshot.
Impact In the case of detachment failure, the guest VM will have an extraneous disk
attached.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 386


Table 375: Witness is not configured [130114] [A130114]

Name Witness Not Configured


Description Witness is not configured
Alert message Failed to operation for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name'. Reason: Witness is not configured or a different Witness VM is configured on the
remote site
Cause Witness is not configured
Impact Metro availability operation failed
Resolution Configure Witness
KB Article 10119
Severity Critical

Table 376: Witness is not reachable [130115] [A130115]

Name Witness Not Reachable


Description Witness is not reachable
Alert message Failed to operation since unreachable_since for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to
the remote site 'remote_name'. Reason: Witness is not reachable or the Witness credentials are
incorrect
Cause Witness or the network is down.
Cause Witness credentials are incorrect.
Impact Metro availability failures will not be automatically handled
Resolution Check if Witness is up on the network.
Resolution Check Witness credentials.
KB Article 5483
Severity Critical

Table 377: Metro Availability Is Promoted [130116] [A130116]

Name Automatic Promote Metro Availability


Description Metro availability is promoted.
Alert message Metro availability for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name' is promoted because of 'reason'.
Cause Remote site unreachable.
Impact Metro availability is promoted on standby cluster and storage is now
inaccessible in the active side.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 387


Resolution (A) Check if cluster service is healthy at remote cluster. (B) Ensure VMs are
running first at the promoted side. In the case of storage only outage in order
to restore VM availability follow the procedure in the Prism Web Console
Guide, section: <Recovering from a Storage-only Failure on the Primary Site>.
After that verify the previously active cluster is healthy before re-enabling
metro availability.
KB Article 8279
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 378: Failed to update Metro Availability failure handling [130117] [A130117]

Name Updating Metro Failure Handling Failed


Description Error in updating failure-handling on Metro Availability protection domain.
Alert message Error in updating Metro Availability failure handling for the protection domain
'protection_domain_name' to the remote site 'remote_name'. Reason: 'reason'.
Cause Failed to update Metro Availability Failure Handling due to possible network
error
Impact Metro Availability failure-handling could not be updated.
Resolution Resolve network issues. If the issue persists contact Nutanix Support
KB Article 8480
Severity Critical

Table 379: Failed to update Metro Availability failure handling on the remote site [130118]
[A130118]

Name Updating Metro Failure Handling Remote Failed


Description Error in updating failure handling on the remote Metro Availability protection
domain
Alert message Error in updating Metro Availability failure handling on the remote site 'remote_name' for the
protection domain 'protection_domain_name'. Reason: 'reason'.
Cause Failed to update Metro Availability Failure Handling due to possible network
error
Impact Failure handling on this Metro Availability protection domain might be
affected
Resolution Resolve any network related issues. If issue persists contact Nutanix Support
KB Article 8481
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 388


Table 380: Authentication failed in Witness [130123] [A130123]

Name Authentication Failed in Witness


Description Authentication failed in Witness
Alert message Failed to operation for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name'. Reason: Authentication failure in Witness
Cause Witness configured with incorrect credentials
Impact Metro availability failures will not be automatically handled
Resolution Configure Witness with correct credentials
KB Article 4376
Severity Critical

Table 381: Metro Availability Is Promoted [130125] [A130125]

Name Manual Promote Metro Availability


Description Metro availability is promoted.
Alert message Metro availability for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name' is promoted.
Cause An administrator promoted metro availability.
Impact Metro availability is promoted on standby site.
Resolution Re-enable to get the benefit of Metro protection domain.
Severity Info

Table 382: Metro Availability Is Disabled [130126] [A130126]

Name Manual Break Metro Availability


Description Metro availability is disabled.
Alert message Metro availability for the protection domain 'protection_domain_name' to the remote site
'remote_name' is disabled.
Cause An administrator disabled metro availability.
Impact Metro availability operation is disabled.
Resolution Re-enable Metro on the protection domain to get the benefit of Metro
availability
Severity Info

Table 383: VMs in the standby site of a Metro Availability protection domain are running at
suboptimal performance. [130129] [A130129]

Name Metro Protection domain VMs running at Sub-optimal performance

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 389


Description VMs in the standby site of a Metro Availability protection domain are running
at suboptimal performance.
Alert message Warning: num_of_vms VMs are running on the standby site 'remote_name' of protection domain
'protection_domain_name'. However, all the I/O operations are being forwarded to this site. This
can significantly affect the performance of VMs. It is recommended to move VMs to this site or
update the DRS rules. The affected VMs list is: vm_names
Cause VMs are hosted at the standby site of the Metro Availability protection
domain.
Impact Experience of decreased performance
Resolution Host the VMs at the active site of the Metro Availability protection domain.
Severity Warning

Table 384: Protection domain contains more than the specified VMs [130130] [A130130]

Name Protection Domain VM Count Check


Description Protection domain contains multiple VMs.
Alert message It is not recommended to protect more than one VM in a protection domain
protection_domain_name if you are replicating to the backup only remote site remote_name.

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]

Name Replication Of Deduped Entity


Description Snapshot contains entities from the storage container that have deduplication
enabled.
Alert message Do not replicate protection domain protection_domain_name comprising entities from the storage
container that have deduplication enabled to a remote_site_type remote site remote_name.
Cause Replicating a snapshot with entities from the storage container that have
deduplication enabled to a single node backup or cloud remote site.
Impact Performance of replications and retrievals will be affected.
Resolution Either disable dedup on the Storage Containers, or use a multi-node AOS
cluster as a replication target.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 390


Table 386: Cloud Appliance Deployment Failed [130133] [A130133]

Name Cloud Appliance Deployment Failed


Description Cloud Appliance Deployment Failed
Alert message Failed to configure cloud appliance for remote site remote_site_name. reason.
Cause Resource quota for buckets/instances/storage accounts exhausted for cloud
account.
Cause AWS credentials do not have permissions to perform S3/SG/EC2 related
operations.
Cause Cloud CVM deployed was not able to reach the Internet.
Impact Cloud appliance could not be configured as remote site.
Resolution Make sure that account has enough quota to create new buckets/instances.
Resolution Make sure that AWS IAM user has permissions to perform S3/SG/EC2
operations.
Resolution Make sure that the subnet in which cloud appliance is being deployed allows
Internet connectivity.
Severity Warning

Table 387: vStore is being replicated to backup only remote site. [130134] [A130134]

Name Vstore Replication To Backup Only Remote


Description vStore is being replicated to backup only remote site.
Alert message vStore protection domain protection_domain_name is being replicated to backup only remote site
remote_name.

Cause vStore is being replicated to backup only remote site.


Impact Low RTO can be seen as selective retrieve of VMs is not supported and
snapshot of whole protection domain, having all the VMs in it, has to be
retrieved.
Resolution One VM per protection domain is the recommended configuration to achieve
higher RTO.
Severity Info

Table 388: Replication of protection domain {protection_domain_name} has not progressed.


[130137] [A130137]

Name Protection Domain Replication Stuck


Description Replication of protection domain has not progressed.
Alert message Replication of protection domain protection_domain_name to remote site remote_name for the
snapshot snapshot_id has not made any progress in last one hour.
Cause Network outage with remote.
Cause Remote cluster does not have enough free disk space available.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 391


Cause Single-node cluster might be in read-only mode, due to one of the metadata
SSDs failure.
Impact Snapshots of protection domain will not be available on the remote site.
Resolution Check network connection with remote.
Resolution Make sure that the remote cluster has enough disk space available.
Resolution Replace the failed SSD.
Severity Warning

Table 389: Snapshot Reserve on SSD is Full. [130139] [A130139]

Name LWS Store Full


Description SSD reserved for the Nearsync snapshots is full.
Alert message The SSD space that is reserved for the snapshots is full.
Cause Snapshot reserve on the SSD is full or has high IO workload.
Impact RPO cannot be met and will be temporarily transitioned to 60 minutes.
Resolution Reduce the retention time of the snapshots.
Severity Warning

Table 390: Snapshot Reserve Allocation Failure [130140] [A130140]

Name LWS store allocation too long


Description Failed to allocate the snapshot reserve.
Alert message Failed to allocate the snapshot reserve in duration_mins minutes.
Cause Snapshot reservation timed out.
Impact Protection domain will not be able to meet less than 15 minutes RPO.
Resolution Check SSD performance from Prism Web console and if issue persists contact
Nutanix support
Severity Warning

Table 391: Failed to allocate snapshot reserve on the remote site [130141] [A130141]

Name LWS store allocation in remote too long


Description Failed to allocate snapshot reserve on the remote site.
Alert message Failed to allocate snapshot reserve on the remote site 'remote_name' in duration_mins minutes.
Cause Snapshot reserve allocation on the remote site timed out.
Impact Failed to meet less than 15 minute RPO for the remote site.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 392


Table 392: Protection Domain transitioning to lower frequency snapshotting. [130142]
[A130142]

Name Protection Domain transitioning to lower frequency snapshot schedule


Description Protection Domain transitioning to lower frequency snapshot schedule.
Alert message Protection Domain 'protection_domain_name' has degraded to 'rpo_string' RPO. reason.
Cause High RPO cannot be sustained due to system constraints.
Cause New entity has been protected in the protection domain which needs to be
seeded to the remote.
Impact All ongoing high frequency replications will be aborted and RPO for data
protection will be affected.
Resolution Protection Domain will automatically attempt to transition to a higher RPO
after system constraints are resolved.
Resolution Protection Domain will automatically attempt to transition to a higher RPO
after seeding for newly added entities completes.
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 393: Protection Domain falling back to lower frequency replications to remote. [130143]
[A130143]

Name Protection Domain fallback to lower frequency replications to remote


Description Protection Domain fallback to lower frequency replications to remote.
Alert message Protection Domain 'protection_domain_name' has degraded to 'rpo_string' RPO to remote
'remote_name'. reason.
Cause High frequency replications to remote site cannot be sustained due to system
constraints.
Impact Recovery Points available on the remote for Data Protection will be affected
Resolution Protection Domain will automatically attempt to transition to higher frequency
replications when resources are available.
Severity Warning

Table 394: Protection Domain Transition to Higher Frequency Snapshotting. [130144]


[A130144]

Name Protection Domain transitioning to higher frequency snapshot schedule


Description Protection domain transitioning back to the configured RPO.
Alert message Protection Domain 'protection_domain_name' has been upgraded to rpo_string RPO.
Cause High frequency snapshot schedule has been enabled.
Impact RPO for Data Protection will be met.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 393


Resolution Reduce snapshot schedule frequency or delete the schedule if high frequency
snapshots are not needed.
Severity Info

Table 395: Snapshot queued for replications to remote site [130145] [A130145]

Name Protection Domain Snapshots Queued for Replication to Remote Site


Description Protection domain {protection_domain_name} has one or more snapshots
queued for replication to remote site {remote_name}
Alert message Protection domain protection_domain_name has one or more snapshots queued for replication to
remote site remote_name
Cause Various
Impact One or more snapshots cannot be replicated to the remote site to meet the
configured recovery point objective
Resolution Maintain enough cross-cluster network bandwidth and throttle primary IO
Severity Warning

Table 396: Protection Domain {protection_domain_name} Seeding Process Pending to the


Remote Site {remote_name} [130146] [A130146]

Name Protection Domain Seeding Process Pending to Remote Site


Description Protection Domain {protection_domain_name} will maintain {rpo_string} RPO
until seeding process completes to the remote_site {remote_name}
Alert message The Protection Domain protection_domain_name will maintain rpo_string RPO until seeding
process completes to the remote_site remote_name. The seeding process gets completed when
snapshot reserve has been allocated on the local and remote site
Cause Various
Impact The Protection Domain {protection_domain_name} will maintain {rpo_string}
RPO until seeding process completes to the remote_site {remote_name}
Resolution Maintain enough network bandwidth to help the seeding transfer to succeed.
Protection domain will wait for the seeding transfer and then automatically
enable the configured RPO.
Severity Warning

Table 397: VM registration failed [130147] [A130147]

Name VM Registration Failure


Description VM Registration Failure
Alert message Registration of virtual machine, vm_name, failed because reason
Cause This might happen for several reasons. Check the alert message for more
details.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 394


Impact VMs cannot be registered on the cluster.
Resolution Verify the existence of the VM in the snapshot and check whether any errors
are reported in the hypervisor management software. Check the VM version
and the maximum VM version supported by the host. If you cannot resolve the
error, contact Nutanix support
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 398: Snapshot Creation Delayed [130148] [A130148]

Name Protection Domain Snapshots Delayed


Description Snapshot creation for the protection domain {protection_domain_name} has
been delayed
Alert message Snapshot creation for the protection domain protection_domain_name has been delayed.
Cause Many entities might be scheduled for the snapshot creation at the same time.
Impact One or more snapshots cannot be created and hence cannot be replicated to
the remote sites to meet the configured recovery point objective
Resolution Stagger the schedules for different protected entities. Additionally, you can
throttle other administrative operations in the cluster.
Severity Warning

Table 399: VM Recovery Point Creation Failed. [130157] [A130157]

Name VM Recovery Point Failed


Description VM Recovery Point creation failed.
Alert message Failed to capture the Recovery Point for VM 'vm_name'.
Cause Nutanix Data Protection service error.
Impact VM Recovery Point will not be available to recover the VM.
Resolution Retry the VM Recovery Point operation. If issue persists please contact
Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Table 400: VM Protection Failed. [130158] [A130158]

Name VM Protection Failed


Description VM protection failed.
Alert message Failed to protect VM: 'vm_name', because of 'reason'.
Cause Nutanix Data Protection service error.
Impact VM cannot be recovered in case of disaster.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 395


Resolution VM protection will get retriggered. In case if this situation persists, please
contact nutanix support.
KB Article 8281
Severity Warning

Table 401: Protection Rule Conflict Occurred. [130161] [A130161]

Name Protection Rule Conflicts


Description Unable to protect VM due to conflicting protection rules.
Alert message Failed to apply the protection rule on the VM 'vm_name', because of 'reason'.
Cause One or more protection rules protecting the same entity.
Impact VM cannot be recovered if disaster occurs.
Resolution Resolve all the conflicts between the protection rules or modify the VM to
ensure that it is protected under one protection rule.
KB Article 8275
Severity Warning

Table 402: Recovery Point Replication Skipped. [130162] [A130162]

Name Recovery Point Replication Skipped


Description Recovery Point Replication Skipped.
Alert message Skipped replication of Recovery point created at 'recovery_point_create_time' UTC of the VM:
'vm_name' because of 'reason'.
Cause Latest recovery point is in the queue for the replication.
Impact One of the recovery point replication will be skipped.
Resolution Trigger the replication of the snapshot manually.
Severity Warning

Table 403: Failed to find the Target cluster for Replication [130163] [A130163]

Name Fetch Replication Target Failure


Description Cannot find a target cluster for replication on the Remote Availability Zone.
Alert message Cannot find the replication target on the Recovery Location 'availability_zone_physical_name'.
Cause None of the attached clusters support recovery.
Cause Virtual IP is not set on the remote cluster.
Cause Target cluster could not be found for replication due to some internal error.
Impact Replication of recovery points to this remote Availability Zone will be affected.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 396


Resolution Ensure that at least one of the clusters, attached to the Remote Availability
Zone, supports recovery.
Resolution Configure the virtual IP address on the remote cluster.
Resolution Retry the operation. Contact Nutanix support if the issue persists.
Severity Warning

Table 404: VM Replication Failure [130164] [A130164]

Name VM Replication Failure


Description VM Replication Failure
Alert message Replication of VM Recovery Point created at recovery_point_create_time UTC for VM vm_name to
the Recovery Location availability_zone_physical_name failed.
Cause (A) Remote cluster is in read only state. (B) Remote Availability Zone does
not support PowerPC architecture. (C) Replication of Recovery Point with
dedup entity to a Recovery Availability Zone without dedup support is not
allowed. (D) Remote Availability Zone does not support Volume Groups. (E)
Replication of Recovery Point with VMs having attached File Level Restore
(FLR) disks to a Recovery Availability Zone without FLR support is not
allowed.
Impact VM Recovery Point was not replicated to the Recovery Location.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 405: Application-Consistent Recovery Point Failed [130165] [A130165]

Name VSS Recovery Point Status


Description Application-consistent Recovery Point failed.
Alert message Application-Consistent Recovery Point created at recovery_point_create_time UTC for the VM
vm_name failed because reason.

Cause Failed to quiesce the VM.


Impact Crash-consistent Recovery Point is taken instead of application-consistent.
Resolution Review the logs in the guest VM and take necessary actions. If issue persists
contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Table 406: Recovery Point expired prior to start of replication. [130166] [A130166]

Name VM Replication Expiry Status


Description Recovery Point expired prior to start of replication.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 397


Alert message Replication of Recovery Point created at recovery_point_create_time UTC for VM vm_name to the
recovery location az_name expired prior to start of replication.
Cause Previous Recovery Point replication took longer than RPO.
Impact The Recovery Point that was scheduled to be replicated could not be
replicated. Data that is expected to be protected may not be protected.
Resolution Review the RPO and retention time of the Recovery Point based on available
bandwidth.
Severity Warning

Table 407: VM Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO [130167] [A130167]

Name VM Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeds RPO


Description VM Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO Limit.
Alert message Replication time of the snapshot created at 'recovery_point_create_time' UTC for VM vm_name
exceeded the RPO limits.
Cause Latest replication took more time than the RPO limit.
Impact Replications for the next snapshots will be delayed.
Resolution Please check your network.
Severity Warning

Table 408: NGT on VM is not reachable [130168] [A130168]

Name NGT is unreachable


Description NGT on the VM is not reachable.
Alert message Communication link to Nutanix Guest Tools on the VM vm_name is not working.
Cause Communication link to Nutanix Guest Tools on the VM is not working.
Impact Crash consistent snapshot will be taken instead of application consistent
snapshot and static IP address preservation/mapping will fail.
Resolution Restart the Nutanix Guest Tools service in the VM.
Severity Warning

Table 409: VM Replication has not progressed. [130169] [A130169]

Name VM Recovery Point Replication Stuck


Description Replication of the VM has not progressed.
Alert message Replication of the Recovery Point created at recovery_point_create_time UTC for VM vm_name to
Recovery Location az_name has not made any progress in last one hour.
Cause Network Connectivity issues between the Source and the recovery location.
Cause Recovery Location might not have enough free disk space available.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 398


Cause Single-node cluster might be in read-only mode, due to an SSD failure.
Impact VM Recovery Point will not be available at the Recovery Location.
Resolution Check network connection between the Source and the Recovery Location.
Resolution Make sure that the Recovery Location has enough disk space available.
Resolution Replace the failed SSD.
Severity Warning

Table 410: Nutanix Guest Tools Not Installed on the VM [130170] [A130170]

Name VM NGT Configuration


Description Nutanix Guest Tools not installed.
Alert message Nutanix VSS is enabled but Nutanix Guest Tools is not installed on the VM vm_name.
Cause Nutanix VSS is enabled but Nutanix Guest Tools is not installed on the VM.
Impact Application Consistent Recovery Points will fail. Instead Crash consistent
recovery point will be taken.
Resolution Install Nutanix Guest Tools on the guest VM.
Severity Warning

Table 411: Nutanix VSS provider or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) Scripts Not Installed. [130171]
[A130171]

Name VSS Scripts Not Installed On VM


Description Nutanix VSS provider or pre_freeze/post_thaw Scripts Not Installed.
Alert message VSS is enabled, but Nutanix VSS provider or pre_freeze/post_thaw scripts are not installed on
the VM vm_name.
Cause VSS is enabled, but Nutanix VSS provider or pre_freeze/post_thaw scripts are
not installed on the VM.
Impact Crash-consistent Recovery Point will be taken instead of application-
consistent Recovery Point.
Resolution Install Nutanix VSS provider or (pre_freeze/post_thaw) scripts on the VM.
Severity Warning

Table 412: Degraded VM Recovery Point. [130172] [A130172]

Name Partial VM Recovery Point


Description Partial VM Recovery Point.
Alert message Recovery Point for VM vm_name failed to capture associated policies and categories because
reason.

Cause Recovery Point for VM failed to capture associated policies and categories.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 399


Impact VM will be restored without associated policies and categories.
Resolution Check the connection between PC and the PE, then retry the Recovery Point
operation.
Severity Info

Table 413: Recovery Point Replication Failed [130174] [A130174]

Name Recovery Point Replication Failed


Description Recovery Point replication failed.
Alert message Failed to replicate recovery point created at: 'recovery_point_create_time' UTC of the VM:
'vm_name' to the recovery location: availability_zone_physical_name.
Cause Network Connectivity issues between the Primary and the Recovery
Availability Zone.
Cause Data Protection and Replication service is not working as expected. The
service could be down.
Cause VM migration process is in progress.
Cause If NearSync is enabled, the container name on remote cluster should match
the one on source cluster hosting the VM.
Cause Virtual IP address has not been configured on the remote cluster.
Cause Remote clusters are unhealthy.
Cause Recovery point was created for an entity having datasource backed virtual
disks.
Cause (A) Remote cluster is in read only state. (B) Remote Availability Zone does
not support PowerPC architecture. (C) Replication of Recovery Point with
dedup entity to a Recovery Availability Zone without dedup support is not
allowed. (D) Remote Availability Zone does not support Volume Groups. (E)
Replication of Recovery Point with VMs having attached File Level Restore
(FLR) disks to a Recovery Availability Zone without FLR support is not
allowed.
Cause Replication to the remote site have been suspended for an entity by the user
through CLI.
Impact Recovery Point will not be replicated to the recovery location.
Resolution Check network connection between the Primary and the Recovery Availability
Zone.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Retry the Recovery Point replication operation after the migration is complete.
Resolution Create container(s) on which VM is running with the same name on the
remote cluster.
Resolution Configure the Virtual IP address and then retry the Recovery Point replication
operation.
Resolution For a manually taken Recovery Point, retry replication again. For a scheduled
Recovery Point replication, ensure all the emote clusters are healthy. Then wait
for the scheduled Recovery Point replication.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 400


Resolution Retry the Recovery Point replication operation after storage migration for the
datasource backed virtual disks is complete.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Remove the suspended replication timer associated with the entity using the
CLI.
KB Article 8460
Severity Warning

Table 414: Invalid Availability Zone details configured in Protection Policy. [130177] [A130177]

Name Availability Zone Validation Failed


Description Availability Zone referenced in the Protection Policy is not Valid.
Alert message Protection Policy protection_rule_name has invalid Availability Zone configured.
Cause Invalid Availability Zone configured in the Protection Policy.
Impact Protection Policy will not be processed.
Resolution Update the Availability Zone in Protection Policy.
Severity Warning

Table 415: Entity Unprotection Failed [130178] [A130178]

Name Entity Unprotection Failed


Description Unable to unprotect the VM because of some internal error.
Alert message Failed to unprotect the VM: 'vm_name', because of 'reason'.
Cause Data Protection service may be down.
Impact VM will remain protected.
Resolution If this issue persists for a long time, contact Nutanix support for further
assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 416: Data Protection tasks are not progressing. [130179] [A130179]

Name Cerebro tasks Stuck


Description Replication tasks are not progressing.
Alert message Multiple tasks are not making progress on PE:cluster_name because of long running replication
tasks.
Cause Replication tasks are running for long.
Impact Tasks can stuck forever.
Resolution Please reach out to Nutanix Support to help abort the long running tasks.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 401


Severity Warning

Table 417: Recovery Location is in Read Only mode [130180] [A130180]

Name Entity Centric Remote Site Operation Mode ReadOnly


Description Operation Mode of the Recovery Location changed to Read Only mode.
Alert message Availability zone: availability_zone_physical_name is in read-only state. Replications to this site
will fail.
Cause Single node or two-node clusters: Possible SSD failure on the Recovery
Location.
Impact Replications to this Recovery Location will be aborted.
Resolution Single node or two-node clusters: Replace the failed SSD on the recovery
location.
KB Article 8324
Severity Warning

Table 418: Snapshot has Entities from the Storage Container that have Deduplication Enabled
[130181] [A130181]

Name Replication Of Deduped Entity


Description Snapshot contains entities from the storage container that have deduplication
enabled.
Alert message Do not replicate the recovery point comprising entities from the storage container that have
deduplication enabled to the recovery location : availability_zone_physical_name.
Cause A snapshot with entities from the storage container that have deduplication
enabled was replicated to a single node backup or cloud recovery location.
Impact Performance of replications and retrievals will be affected.
Resolution Either disable the deduplication on the storage containers or use a multi-node
AOS cluster as a replication target.
Severity Warning

Table 419: Nutanix Guest Tools not Upgraded [130182] [A130182]

Name NGT needs upgrade


Description Nutanix Guest Tools not upgraded.
Alert message Nutanix Guest Tools are not upgraded to version version or higher on the guest VM(s) vm_names
protected by protection_domain_name.
Cause VSS is enabled, but Nutanix Guest Tools are not upgraded on the VM(s).
Impact Crash-consistent snapshot will be taken instead of application consistent
snapshot.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 402


Resolution Install the latest version of Nutanix Guest Tools available on the cluster on the
guest VM(s).
Severity Warning

Table 420: Protected VM(s) May Not Be Recoverable [130183] [A130183]

Name Protected VMs May Not Be Recoverable


Description Protected VM(s) May Not Be Recoverable
Alert message VM(s) vm_names protected by protection domain 'protection_domain_name' are running from
VMWare snapshots. Recovery of the VMs from the PD snapshot 'snapshot_id' may not succeed.
Manual intervention is required to boot up the VMs.
Cause Protected VM(s) are running from VMWare snapshots and may not be
recoverable.
Impact Recovery of the VMs from the PD snapshot may not succeed
Resolution Ensure that the VMs are not running from VMWare snapshot at the time of
scheduled Protection Domain snapshot. Refer Nutanix KB: 7023 for further
details.
Severity Warning

Table 421: VM Protection Failed [130186] [A130186]

Name VM Protection Failed


Description Failed to protect the VM by using the defined Protection Policy.
Alert message Failed to apply protection policy 'protection_rule_name' on the VM 'vm_name' because 'reason'
Cause VM is already protected in a legacy protection domain.
Cause Cluster hosting the VM does not support VM in multiple schedules or
replication to more than one target site.
Cause (A) VM has volume group attachments. (B) VM is CBR incapable. (C) Source
or the target cluster does not support replication within the same Availability
Zone.
Impact VM will not be protected.
Resolution Unprotect the VM from the Protection Domain to protect it using Entity
Centric Workflow (Leap).
Resolution Upgrade cluster to version 5.19 or above.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure.
KB Article 8472
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 403


Table 422: VM Recovery May Fail [130188] [A130188]

Name VM Recovery May Fail


Description VM may not start on the recovery location.
Alert message VM vm_name may not start on the recovery location 'availability_zone_name'
Cause Primary and Remote locations are on different hypervisors and VM does not
have NGT information.
Cause VM uses vNUMA. Cannot recover vNUMA VMs on Xi.
Impact VM will not start on the recovery location.
Resolution Install NGT on the VM (if not already installed).
Resolution Don't replicate VMs which use vNUMA to Xi.
Severity Warning

Table 423: Virtual IP Address not Configured on the Cluster. [130191] [A130191]

Name Virtual IP not set on Cluster


Description Virtual IP address is not configured on the cluster.
Alert message Virtual IP address is not configured on the cluster cluster_name. Protection and replication of
VMs will be affected.
Cause Virtual IP address has not been configured on the cluster.
Impact Protection and replication of VMs will be affected.
Resolution Configure the virtual IP address on the cluster.
Severity Warning

Table 424: Full Replication Started for the VM [130193] [A130193]

Name VM Recovery Point Full Replication


Description A full replication was triggered for the VM.
Alert message Replication for the VM vm_name recovery point with the create time recovery_point_create_time to
recovery location az_name will be a full replication.
Cause A reference recovery point could not be found.
Impact Replication will take longer to finish.
Resolution No action is necessary.
Severity Info

Table 425: Protected VM Not Recoverable [130195] [A130195]

Name VM Not Recoverable


Description Protected VM may not be recoverable.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 404


Alert message VM vm_name is running from the VMware snapshots. Recovery of the VM from the Recovery
Point created at recovery_point_create_time UTC may not succeed. Manual intervention is
required to boot up the VM.
Cause Protected VM is running from the VMware snapshot and may not be
recoverable.
Impact Recovery of the VM from the Recovery Point may not succeed.
Resolution Ensure that the VM is not running from the VMware snapshot at the time of
scheduled Recovery Point.
Severity Warning

Table 426: VM Virtual Hardware Version Incompatible [130196] [A130196]

Name VM Virtual Hardware Version Incompatible


Description VM Virtual Hardware Version Incompatible
Alert message Virtual hardware version of the VM vm_name is not supported on the availability zone
availability_zone_name.

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 427: VM Restoration Failed. [130197] [A130197]

Name VM Restoration Failed


Description VM Restoration Failed.
Alert message Failed to restore VM: 'vm_name' due to reason.
Cause Snapshot is not present.
Cause VM Restoration failed due to Internal error.
Impact VM will not be restored.
Resolution Retry the VM Restoration operation with different snapshot.
Resolution Retry the VM Restoration operation.
KB Article 8487
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 405


Table 428: VM Migration Failed [130199] [A130199]

Name VM Migration Failed


Description VM Migration Failed.
Alert message Failed to migrate VM: 'vm_name' as the user may have manually powered ON the VM on the
source after migration process powered it off or due to an internal error.
Cause User may have manually powered ON the VM on the source after migration
process powered it off.
Impact VM will not be migrated.
Resolution Retry the VM Migration operation. If this situation persists, contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 8520
Severity Critical

Table 429: VSS Snapshot is not supported for some VMs. [130200] [A130200]

Name VSS Snapshot Not Supported


Description VSS snapshot is not supported for some VMs.
Alert message VSS snapshot is not supported for the following VMs protected by Protection Domain
'protection_domain_name'. VMs list: 'vm_names'
Cause Some VMs in the Protected Domain have unsupported configuration.
Impact Hypervisor based application consistent snapshot is taken on ESX. Crash
consistent snapshot is taken for other hypervisors.
Resolution For more details, please review the alerts generated at Data Protection page
and fix the unsupported configuration.
Severity Warning

Table 430: Recovery Location is not in Good State [130203] [A130203]

Name Recovery Location Not In Good State


Description Recovery location is not in good state.
Alert message Recovery location: availability_zone_physical_name is not in good state. Replications to this site
will fail.
Cause If Recovery Availability Zone is different from the Primary Availability Zone,
check Network connectivity issues between the two Availability Zones.
Cause Data Protection and Replication service is not working as expected. The
service could be down.
Cause The Cluster(s) attached to the affected Availability Zone may have been
destroyed and recreated.
Impact Replications to this recovery location will fail.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 406


Resolution Check network connection between the Primary and the Recovery Availability
Zone.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Disconnect and reconnect the Recovery Availability Zone.
Severity Warning

Table 431: Entity Transition to a Higher Frequency Snapshot Schedule. [130204] [A130204]

Name Entity transitioning to higher frequency snapshot schedule


Description Entity is being transitioned to a higher frequency snapshot schedule.
Alert message Entity 'vm_name' has been upgraded to rpo_string RPO.
Cause High frequency snapshot schedule has been enabled and higher RPO can be
sustained as the system is stable.
Impact RPO for Data Protection will be affected.
Resolution If high-frequency snapshots are not required, reduce the snapshot schedule
frequency in the Protection Rule or remove the VM from the Protection Rule
with high frequency schedule.
Severity Info

Table 432: Entity is being transitioned to a lower frequency snapshot schedule. [130205]
[A130205]

Name Entity transitioning to lower frequency snapshot schedule


Description Entity is being transitioned to a lower frequency snapshot schedule.
Alert message Entity vm_name has degraded to rpo_string RPO. reason.
Cause High RPO cannot be sustained due to system constraints.
Impact All ongoing high frequency replications will be aborted and RPO for data
protection will be affected.
Resolution Entity will automatically attempt to transition to a higher RPO after system
constraints are resolved.
Severity Warning

Table 433: Subnet configured for Remote Site mis-matches with remote cluster subnet
[130206] [A130206]

Name Remote Subnet Mismatch With Provided Value


Description Subnet configured for Remote Site mis-matches with remote cluster subnet.
Alert message Remote remote_name is configured with the subnet user_specified_subnet, which is not matching
with the subnet remote_returned_subnet of the remote cluster.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 407


Cause Subnet specified in the remote site is not matching with the subnet of the
remote cluster.
Impact Improper firewall and routing settings.
Resolution Reconfigure the remote subnet parameter.
KB Article 10276
Severity Warning

Table 434: Hosting of Virtual IP of the Network Segmentation DR Service Failed. [130207]
[A130207]

Name Failed Hosting Network Segmented VIP


Description Hosting of virtual IP of the DR service network segmentation failed.
Alert message Virtual IP virtual_ip of the DR service network segmentation could not be hosted on the network
interface network_interface.
Cause Network configuration might have been changed or has not been configured
properly.
Impact Replication of the protected entities will be affected.
Resolution Reconfigure the DR service network configuration.
KB Article 8258
Severity Critical

Table 435: Snapshot Replication to Remote Site is Lagging. [130210] [A130210]

Name Recovery Point Lagging Remote Replication


Description Replication of the snapshot to the remote cluster is lagging.
Alert message Replication of the recovery point for the VM 'vm_name'to the remote site 'remote_az' is lagging by
'lagging_minutes' minutes.
Cause Clusters are not sized properly according to the workloads that are running on
them.
Cause Recovery Point Replication requires more bandwidth than the allocated
bandwidth.
Impact Recovery point objective for the protection domain will be affected.
Resolution Make sure that the clusters are sized properly according to the workload.
Resolution Maintain sufficient network bandwidth for successful seeding transfer.
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 408


Table 436: VM has been Recovered at an Alternate Path [130211] [A130211]

Name VM Recovered at Alternate Path


Description VM has been Recovered at an Alternate Path
Alert message The following files of the VM old_vm_name conflict with the files present on the target:
conflicting_file_paths. The VM new_vm_name has been restored at an alternate path by adding the
prefix 'path_prefix' after the container name to its file paths.
Cause Existing VM files conflict with the VM files that you are recovering.
Impact The VM with the conflicting files has been restored at an alternate path.
Resolution The VM containing the conflicting files has been recovered at an alternate
path. Clean up the conflicting stale files.
Severity Warning

Table 437: Cluster does not support Synchronous Replication. [130212] [A130212]

Name Cluster does not support Synchronous Replication


Description Cluster does not support Synchronous Replication.
Alert message Protection Rule: 'protection_rule_name' is processed but following issue is observed - 'reason'.
Cause The cluster given in the Protection Rule does not support Synchronous
Replication.
Impact Protection Rule might not be processed.
Resolution Please use a cluster that supports Synchronous Replication.
Severity Critical

Table 438: Failed to transition to a higher frequency snapshot schedule. [130213] [A130213]

Name Failed to transition to higher frequency snapshot schedule


Description Protection Domain failed to transition to a higher frequency snapshot
schedule.
Alert message Failed to enable nearsync for protection_domain_name. reason.
Cause Low RPO cannot be sustained due to system constraints.
Impact Failed to enable high frequency replications and configured RPO for data
protection will be affected.
Resolution Protection Domain will automatically attempt to transition to a high frequency
snapshot schedule after system constraints are resolved.
Severity Warning

Table 439: Nearsync Replication is lagging for Protection Domain snapshot [130214] [A130214]

Name Nearsync Replication is Lagging

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 409


Description Replication of the nearsync protection domain snapshot is lagging.
Alert message Nearsync replication for protection_domain_name to remote remote_name is lagging by
replication_lagging_seconds seconds.

Cause Replication of the protection domain nearsync snapshot is slow.


Impact Configured RPO to the remote might get affected.
Resolution Ensure that the number of entities are within the supported limit.
Severity Warning

Table 440: VM SyncRep Container not found [130335] [A130335]

Name VM SyncRep Container not found


Description VM SyncRep container is not found at the target cluster
Alert message Failed to replicate the VM: 'vm_name' synchronously since 'details'.
Cause Container does not exist or it is marked to be removed at the target cluster.
Impact VM will not be synchronously replicated.
Resolution Retry the VM SyncRep operation after creating the missing container at target
cluster. If this situation persists, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

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 442: VM Protection Might Fail Post Recovery [130341] [A130341]

Name VM Protection Might Fail Post Recovery


Description VM Protection Might Fail Post Recovery

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 410


Alert message After recovery to remote availability zone remote_availability_zone_name, VM protection might
fail because remote cluster remote_cluster_name does not support multisite protection.
Cause The remote cluster to which replication is happening does not support
multisite protection.
Impact After recovery to the specified remote site, VM protection might fail.
Resolution Upgrade the remote Prism Element to AOS 5.19 or above, which supports
multisite protection.
Severity Warning

Table 443: Remote Site network connectivity unstable [130342] [A130342]

Name Remote Site Connectivity Unstable


Description Remote Site network connectivity is unstable
Alert message Network connectivity to remote site 'remote_name' is unstable
Cause Connection to remote site is unstable
Impact VMs in Metro Protection Domain can experience intermittent I/O failures due
to OS disk timeouts
Resolution Check network connectivity between local and remote sites and manually
break metro if VM I/O is stalled
KB Article 9713
Severity Warning

Table 444: Volume Group Recovery Point Creation Failed. [130343] [A130343]

Name Volume Group Recovery Point Failed


Description Volume Group Recovery Point creation failed.
Alert message Failed to capture the Recovery Point for Volume Group 'volume_group_name'.
Cause Nutanix Data Protection service error occurred.
Impact Volume Group Recovery Point will not be available to recover the Volume
Group.
Resolution Retry the Volume Group Recovery Point operation. If issue persists please
contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 411


Description Cluster does not support the live migration of synchronously replicated
entities.
Alert message Synchronous Replication is enabled for the entity vm_name but cluster cluster_name does not
support live migration.
Cause The cluster does not support the live migration of synchronously replicated
entities.
Impact Live migration of the entity will fail.
Resolution Please upgrade the source and target clusters to version 5.19 or later. It is
recommended to have source and target clusters on the same version.
Severity Warning

Table 446: Consistency Group Conflict Occurred. [130349] [A130349]

Name Consistency Group VM Conflicts


Description Unable to protect VM due to conflicting protection policy and Consistency
Group configurations.
Alert message Failed to protect the VM vm_name belonging to the Consistency Group consistency_group_name,
because of reason.
Cause Multiple protection policies are applied on some of the members present in
the Consistency Group.
Cause No protection policy is applied to protect some of the members present in the
Consistency Group.
Cause Members in the same Consistency Group have different protection policies
that can be applied.
Cause VM belongs to a Consistency Group that contains VM(s) or Volume Group(s)
which have been deleted.
Impact VM cannot be recovered if disaster occurs.
Resolution Ensure that exactly one protection policy is applied to protect the defined
members in a Consistency Group.
Resolution Ensure that exactly one protection policy is applied to protect the defined
members in a Consistency Group.
Resolution Ensure that the members in a Consistency Group are protected by the same
protection policy.
Resolution Remove the stale/deleted VM(s) or Volume Group(s) from the Consistency
Group.
KB Article 10571
Severity Warning

Table 447: Consistency Group Conflict Occurred. [130350] [A130350]

Name Consistency Group VG Conflicts

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 412


Description Unable to protect Volume Group due to conflicting protection policy and
Consistency Group configurations.
Alert message Failed to protect the Volume Group volume_group_config_name belonging to the Consistency
Group consistency_group_name, because of reason.
Cause Multiple protection policies are applied on some of the members present in
the Consistency Group.
Cause No protection policy is applied to protect some of the members present in the
Consistency Group.
Cause Members in the same Consistency Group have different protection policies
that can be applied.
Cause Volume Group belongs to a Consistency Group that contains VM(s) or Volume
Group(s) which have been deleted.
Impact Volume Group cannot be recovered if disaster occurs.
Resolution Ensure that exactly one protection policy is applied to protect the defined
members in a Consistency Group.
Resolution Ensure that exactly one protection policy is applied to protect the defined
members in a Consistency Group.
Resolution Ensure that the members in a Consistency Group are protected by the same
protection policy.
Resolution Remove the stale/deleted VM(s) or Volume Group(s) from the Consistency
Group.
KB Article 10572
Severity Warning

Table 448: Volume Group Protection Failed. [130351] [A130351]

Name Volume Group Protection Failed


Description Volume Group protection failed.
Alert message Failed to protect Volume Group: 'volume_group_name', because of 'reason'.
Cause Nutanix Data Protection service error occurred.
Impact Volume Group cannot be recovered in case of disaster.
Resolution Volume Group protection will get retriggered. If issue persists, please contact
nutanix support.
KB Article 10560
Severity Warning

Table 449: Volume Group Protection Might Fail Post Recovery [130352] [A130352]

Name Volume Group Protection Might Fail Post Recovery


Description Volume Group Protection Might Fail Post Recovery

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 413


Alert message After recovery to remote availability zone remote_availability_zone_name, Volume Group
protection might fail because remote cluster remote_cluster_name does not support multisite
protection.
Cause The remote cluster to which replication is happening does not support
multisite protection.
Impact After recovery to the specified remote site, Volume Group protection might
fail.
Resolution Upgrade the remote Prism Element to AOS 5.19 or above, which supports
multisite protection.
KB Article 10573
Severity Warning

Table 450: Automatic Synchronous Replication pause is triggered by Witness [130353]


[A130353]

Name Automatic Synchronous Replication Pause is triggered by Witness


Description Automatic Synchronous Replication pause is triggered by Witness for
{vm_count} VMs protected by Protection Rule '{protection_rule_name}'
Alert message Automatic Synchronous Replication pause has been triggered for vm_count VMs. 'reason'.
Cause Network connection to remote site or to Witness is lost probably because of a
network partition or the remote site being unavailable.
Cause One or more internal services are down or not working as expected.
Impact Synchronous Replication for {vm_count} VMs will be paused.
Resolution Ensure the remote site and Witness are reachable and resume Synchronous
Replication.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Severity Info

Table 451: Automatic Failover triggered by Witness [130354] [A130354]

Name Automatic Failover triggered by Witness


Description Automatic Failover triggered by Witness
Alert message Unplanned Failover of the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has been triggered by Witness.
'reason'.
Cause Automatic Failover triggered by Witness probably because of a network
partition or source site being down.
Cause One or more internal services are down or not working as expected.
Impact Effected VMs are restored on remote site.
Resolution Restore the connectivity between source and remote sites and the restored
VMs can be migrated back to source site.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 414


Severity Info

Table 452: Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Failed. [130355] [A130355]

Name Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Failed


Description Volume Group Recovery Point replication failed.
Alert message Failed to replicate recovery point created at: recovery_point_create_time UTC of the volume
group: volume_group_name to the recovery location: availability_zone_physical_name.
Cause Network Connectivity issues between the Primary and the Recovery
Availability Zone.
Cause Data Protection and Replication service is not working as expected. The
service could be down.
Cause Volume Group migration process is in progress.
Cause Virtual IP address has not been configured on the remote cluster.
Cause Remote clusters are unhealthy.
Impact Volume Group Recovery Point will not be replicated to the recovery location.
Resolution Check network connection between the Primary and the Recovery Availability
Zone.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support.
Resolution Retry the Recovery Point replication operation after the migration is complete.
Resolution Configure the Virtual IP address and then retry the Recovery Point replication
operation.
Resolution For a manually initiated Volume Group Recovery Point replication, retry again.
For a scheduled Volume Group Recovery Point replication, ensure all the
emote clusters are healthy. Then wait for the next scheduled Recovery Point
replication.
KB Article 10754
Severity Warning

Table 453: VM is part of multiple Recovery Plans configured with Witness [130356] [A130356]

Name Same VM is in multiple Witness configured Recovery Plans


Description VM is part of multiple Recovery Plans configured with Witness
Alert message The VM 'vm_name' is part of multiple Recovery Plans configured with Witness. reason
Cause Same VM is part of multiple Recovery Plans configured with Witness
Impact The VM will be managed only by one of the Recovery Plans configured with
Witness
Resolution Ensure the VM is part of only one Witness configured Recovery Plan
KB Article 11001
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 415


Table 454: Volume Group Protection Failed [130357] [A130357]

Name Volume Group Protection Failed On PC


Description Volume Group protection failed.
Alert message Failed to protect Volume Group: 'volume_group_config_name', because of 'reason'.
Cause Data Protection service error occurred.
Cause Volume Group is already protected in a legacy protection domain.
Cause The Protection Policy applied on Volume Group has a NearSync or a
Synchronous snapshot schedule applied on it.
Impact Volume Group cannot be recovered in case of disaster.
Resolution Volume Group protection will get retriggered. If issue persists, please contact
Nutanix Support.
Resolution Unprotect the Volume Group from the Protection Domain to protect it using
Leap.
Resolution NearSync and Synchronous protection is not supported on Volume Groups.
Therefore, ensure that the Protection Policy protecting the Volume Groups
does not have NearSync or Synchronous snapshot schedules
KB Article 11308
Severity Warning

Table 455: Consistency Group Contains Stale Members [130358] [A130358]

Name Consistency Group Contains Stale Members


Description Consistency Group contains one or more members that have been deleted.
Alert message Consistency Group 'consistency_group_config_name' contains stale members.
Cause One or more VMs or Volume Groups belonging to the Consistency Group may
have been deleted.
Impact The VMs and Volume Groups part of the Consistency Group will not be
protected.
Resolution Remove the deleted members from the Consistency Group configuration.
KB Article 11413
Severity Warning

Table 456: Synchronous Replication is not supported on the VM [130359] [A130359]

Name Synchronous Replication is not supported on the VM


Description Synchronous Replication is not supported on the VM
Alert message Synchronous replication is not supported on the VM vm_name. Reason: message
Cause VM has disks that are backed by a datasource external to the AOS cluster.
Impact VM will not be synchronously replicated until the seeding from the external
datasource is complete.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 416


Resolution Enable background storage migration on the disk backed by external
datasource to complete the seeding.
KB Article 11344
Severity Warning

Table 457: Partial Volume Group Recovery Point. [130361] [A130361]

Name Partial Volume Group Recovery Point


Description Partial Volume Group Recovery Point.
Alert message Recovery Point for Volume Group volume_group_name failed to capture associated policies and
categories because reason.
Cause Recovery Point for Volume Group failed to capture associated policies and
categories.
Impact Volume Group will be restored without associated policies and categories.
Resolution Check the connection between PC and the PE, then retry the Recovery Point
operation.
KB Article 11744
Severity Info

Table 458: Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO [130362]
[A130362]

Name Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeds RPO


Description Volume Group Recovery Point Replication Time Exceeded the RPO Limit.
Alert message Replication time of the snapshot created at 'recovery_point_create_time' UTC for Volume Group
volume_group_name exceeded the RPO limits.

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 459: Recovery Plan Execution Failure [300401] [A300401]

Name Recovery Plan Execution Failure


Description Execution of the Recovery Plan failed.
Alert message operation_type failed for the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name. One or more entities in this
Recovery Plan might have failed to be started/recovered.
Cause One or more entities were not recovered as part of the Recovery Plan
execution.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 417


Impact One or more entities or applications in this Recovery Plan might not have
started completely.
Resolution Review the Recovery Plan execution report for detailed step by step
information on the recovery plan execution and failures.
KB Article 8278
Severity Critical

Table 460: Validation Warnings found during Recovery Plan Execution [300402] [A300402]

Name Recovery Plan Execution Failure due to Validation Warnings


Description Execution of the Recovery Plan failed.
Alert message operation_type for Recovery plan recovery_plan_name resulted in validation warnings. You can
choose to execute the Recovery Plan anyway or you can fix the issues.
Cause The Recovery Plan validation resulted in warnings.
Impact The Recovery Plan execution could not be started due to warnings in the
validation report.
Resolution Review the Recovery Plan validation report for detailed information.
Severity Warning

Table 461: Subnet Creation Failure for the Recovery Plan [300405] [A300405]

Name Subnet creation failure for Recovery Plan


Description Subnet creation failed for the Recovery Plan.
Alert message Subnet network_cidr creation in the virtual network atlas_virtual_network_name failed for the
operation_type of the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name executed through the recovery plan job
recovery_plan_job_name.

Cause Networks with conflicting CIDR might be present.


Impact Some VMs will be recovered without vNICs.
Resolution Resolve the issue. If you cannot resolve the issue, contact Nutanix support.
Severity Critical

Table 462: Invalid Network Settings for the Recovery Plan [300407] [A300407]

Name Recovery Plan Periodic Check for Invalid Network Settings


Description Network settings have Availability Zones that are not in accordance with
Availability Zone order list of Protection Policy applied to VMs in Recovery
Plan.
Alert message Invalid network settings found for the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name. reason.
Cause One or more Availability Zones listed in Protection Policy do not match the
Availability Zones specified in the Recovery Plan network settings.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 418


Impact Recovery Plan will not be synced to Availability Zones defined in Protection
Policy.
Resolution Update Availability Zones in the Recovery Plan network settings to be in
accordance with Availability Zone order in the Protection Policy.
Severity Warning

Table 463: Recovery Plan Validation Failed With Errors [300408] [A300408]

Name Validation Failed For Recovery Plan with Errors


Description Recovery Plan validation failed with errors.
Alert message Validation failed with errors for the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Cause There might be various reasons for this issue.
Impact Entities recovery might fail.
Resolution Review the Recovery Plan execution report for detailed step by step
information on the recovery plan execution and failures.
KB Article 8276
Severity Critical

Table 464: Recovery Plan Validation Failed with Warnings [300409] [A300409]

Name Validation Failed For Recovery Plan with Warnings


Description Recovery Plan validation failed with warnings.
Alert message Validation failed with warnings for the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Cause There might be various reasons for this issue.
Impact Entities recovery might fail.
Resolution Review the Recovery Plan execution report for detailed step by step
information on the recovery plan execution and failures.
Severity Warning

Table 465: Recovery plans have conflicting network mappings [300410] [A300410]

Name Recovery Plan network mapping conflict check


Description Checks network mapping conflicts in multiple Recovery Plans.
Alert message Recovery plans #rp_1@ and #rp_2@ have different source networks mapped to same
destination network target_network
Cause Multiple Recovery Plans have different source networks mapped to same
destination network.
Impact VMs isolated on source network might be able to reach each other on the
destination after recovery.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 419


Resolution Avoid mapping multiple networks to same network in one or more Recovery
Plans.
KB Article 7175
Severity Info

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]

Name Recovery Plan Last Test Failover run status check


Description Checks when last Test Failover was run on the Recovery Plan.
Alert message time days have elapsed since a Test Failover was run on Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Cause Test Failover on the Recovery Plan has not been executed.
Impact There might be issues in the recovery of VMs, which may be difficult to
identify if the Test Failover is not run periodically.
Resolution Run a Test failover on the Recovery Plan periodically, to ensure Recovery Plan
has no errors.
KB Article 5793
Severity Info

Table 468: Multiple Recovery Plans associated with a Category [300413] [A300413]

Name Same Category in multiple Recovery Plans check.


Description Checks if same category belongs to multiple Recovery Plans.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 420


Alert message A specific category should be associated with only one Recovery Plan. Recovery Plans : rp_list
are associated with the same entity_abbrv category category.
Cause Multiple Recovery Plans have Same Category
Impact Execution of the following Recovery Plans will be affected and only one of
those Recovery Plan will be able to recover VMs from specified category.
Resolution Update the Recovery Plans such that the category is unique between them.
KB Article 5669
Severity Warning

Table 469: Number of entities in Recovery Plan exceeds the threshold [300414] [A300414]

Name Recovery Plan Entity Limit Check


Description Checks if the entity count exceeds the threshold in Recovery Plan.
Alert message Maximum number of entities in a recovery plan should not exceed max_entity_count. Recovery
Plan recovery_plan_name have entity_count entities.
Cause Number of entities in the Recovery Plan exceeds the limit.
Impact Entity Recovery prone to failure.
Resolution Reduce the number of entities in the Recovery Plan.
KB Article 5717
Severity Warning

Table 470: VMs are part of multiple stages in Recovery Plan [300415] [A300415]

Name VM in Multiple Stages Check


Description Checks whether a VM is part of more than one stage in Recovery Plan.
Alert message A VM should be part of a single stage in a Recovery Plan. duplicate_entities
Cause VMs are part of multiple stages in the Recovery Plan.
Impact VM specified in the first stage will be considered for recovery, later stages will
be skipped.
Resolution Update the Recovery Plan to ensure that the VMs are not part of multiple
stages.
KB Article 5715
Severity Info

Table 471: The same floating IP is associated with multiple VMs belonging to different Recovery
Plans [300416] [A300416]

Name Conflicting Floating IP Check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 421


Description Checks if VMs which are part of different Recovery Plan have same Floating
IPs.
Alert message Same Floating IPs should not be assigned to multiple VMs and should not be part of multiple
Recovery Plans. Floating IP floating_ip is assigned to VMs alert_msg.
Cause VMs belonging to different Recovery Plans are assigned the same Floating IP.
Impact Floating IP assignment post VM recovery may fail.
Resolution Update the Recovery Plans to ensure that a Floating IP address is to be
assigned to only one VM.
KB Article 5797
Severity Warning

Table 472: Some of the entities in the Recovery Plan are unprotected [300417] [A300417]

Name Recovery Plan Entities Protection Policy Check


Description Checks if entities configured in the Recovery Plan are protected.
Alert message entities in the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name are not protected.
Cause Entities in the Recovery Plan are not protected.
Impact Entities present in the Recovery Plan can't be recovered.
Resolution Update associated entities in Recovery Plan to have Protection Policy.
KB Article 5795
Severity Warning

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 422


Table 474: Subnets Deletion Failure for the Recovery Plan [300419] [A300419]

Name Dynamic Subnets deletion failure for Recovery Plan


Description Deletion of dynamic subnets failed.
Alert message Deletion of the subnets networks_list failed for the operation_type of the Recovery Plan
recovery_plan_name executed through the recovery_plan_job_name due to reason.

Cause Some of the VMs might be using the subnets.


Impact Unused subnets will be billable.
Resolution Resolve the issue. If you cannot resolve the issue, contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Critical

Table 475: Floating IPs Allocation Failed [300420] [A300420]

Name Floating IPs Allocation Failure.


Description Floating IPs allocation failed.
Alert message Failed to allocate num_failed_floating_ips floating IPs, required for the dynamic allocation, for
operation_type on the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.

Cause The system may not have enough floating IP addresses.


Impact VMs will come up without floating IPs.
Resolution Try to manually assign pre-allocated floating IPs for the vNICs.
Severity Warning

Table 476: Floating IPs Deallocation Failed [300421] [A300421]

Name Floating IPs Deallocation Failure.


Description Floating IPs deallocation failed.
Alert message Failed to deallocate num_failed_floating_ips floating IPs, which were allocated dynamically but
are not associated with any vNIC, for operation_type on the Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Cause The floating IPs might be in use.
Impact Floating IPs will remain reserved. Reserved floating IPs are billable.
Resolution If you are not using the floating IPs, deallocate them manually.
Severity Warning

Table 477: Recovery Plan Execution Failure due to Validation Errors [300422] [A300422]

Name Recovery Plan Execution Failure due to Validation Errors


Description Execution of the Recovery Plan failed.
Alert message The operation_type for the recovery plan recovery_plan_name could not be started due to errors in
validation.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 423


Cause The Recovery Plan validation failed.
Impact The Recovery Plan execution could not be started.
Resolution Review the Recovery Plan validation report for detailed information.
KB Article 8277
Severity Critical

Table 478: Recovery Plan has multiple Availability Zone Orders [300424] [A300424]

Name Recovery Plan Multiple Availability Zone Order Check


Description Checks if the Recovery Plan has any entity protected to multiple Availability
Zones.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has entities protected to multiple Availability Zones.
Cause Recovery Plan contains entities protected to multiple Availability Zones.
Impact The Recovery Plan update will not be allowed.
Resolution Update associated entities in Recovery Plan to have single Availability Zone
Order.
KB Article 6591
Severity Warning

Table 479: Recovery Plan contains VMs with Unsupported CHDR VM configuration. [300425]
[A300425]

Name Recovery Plan CHDR VM Config Check


Description Checks if Recovery Plan contains VMs with Unsupported CHDR VM
configuration.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name contains VMs vm_list with Unsupported CHDR VM
configuration.
Cause Recovery Plan contains VMs with unsupported configuration for Cross
hypervisor disaster recovery.
Impact The VMs will not be recovered.
Resolution Install NGT on all the VMs in the Recovery Plan, ensure that you do not have
UEFI boot, and have no SATA/PCI or delta disk attached.
KB Article 6835
Severity Warning

Table 480: Incompatible Recovery Availability Zones for some VMs in the Recovery Plan
[300426] [A300426]

Name Recovery Plan Incompatible Recovery Availability Zone Check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 424


Description Checks if Recovery Plan contains VMware VMs and snapshots for these VMs
are replicated to a recovery Availability Zone that doesn't support recovery of
VMware VMs.
Alert message Incompatible Recovery Availability Zones for Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name.
Recovery of VMs incompatibles_vms on Recovery Availability Zones
incompatbile_target_availability_zone_names will fail.

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 NGT Config Empty CD ROM Check


Description Checks if VMs part of the recovery plan have an empty CDROM available to
mount nutanix guest tools, so NGT reconfiguration tasks can be completed on
restore.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name contains VMs vm_list with special configuration that require
NGT reconfiguration on restore. Nutanix Guest tools cannot be mounted as there is no empty
CD ROM slot on the VM.
Cause VMs on Source Availability Zone do not have a free CDROM slot.
Impact VM will be recovered however post recovery VM reconfiguration tasks,
including NGT reconfiguration, static IP reconfiguration will fail.
Resolution Add an empty CDROM to the VM.
KB Article 7054
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 425


Table 483: Recovery Plan Execution Exceeded the Time Limit. [300429] [A300429]

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.

Cause Restore or Power On operation may have taken longer time.


Impact Recovery Plan execution is prone to failure.
Resolution Contact Nutanix customer service.
Severity Warning

Table 484: Entities in category(s) present in multiple fault domains. [300432] [A300432]

Name Category Protected entities Multiple Fault Domain Check


Description Checks if entities protected by category(s) in Recovery Plan are present in
multiple fault domains.
Alert message alert_message
Cause Protection Policy is applied on category(s) with Live entities on Local AZ and
Remote AZ.
Cause Entities from category(s) are getting replicated between clusters registered
with Local Availability Zone and are configured for failover operations for
different Availability Zones in Recovery Plan.
Impact Selection of entities for recovery will be affected.
Resolution Ensure category(s) present in Recovery Plan contain entities from only single
Availability Zone.
Resolution Ensure category(s) present in Recovery Plan contain entities from only one
fault domain. Refer KB 9472 for further guidance. Contact Nutanix support if
the issue persists.
KB Article 9472
Severity Warning

License (Prism Central)

Table 485: Nutanix Objects License Expiry [14008] [A14008]

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

Cause The Nutanix Objects license is set to expire or has expired.


Impact The Nutanix Objects instance will be out of licensing compliance.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 426


Resolution Contact Nutanix to extend the expiration of the Object license, or apply a new
Object license.
KB Article 2469
Severity Warning

Guest VM (Prism Central)

Table 486: Node Failure [130030] [A1137]

Name Node Status


Description Node failure.
Alert message Host hypervisor_address appears to have failed. High Availability is restarting VMs on
failover_host_info.

Cause Host is not accessible.


Impact VMs will restart on another host.
Resolution Check for network connectivity or a hardware failure.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 487: Protected VM Not Found [130038] [A1010]

Name Protected VM Not Found


Description Protected VM not found.
Alert message Unable to locate the VM 'vm_name (ID vm_id)' protected by protection domain
'protection_domain_name'.
Cause The protected VM cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the VM may not be backed up or replicated to a
remote site.
Resolution Remove the VM from the protection domain.
Severity Info

Table 488: VM Action Error [130057] [A1033]

Name VM Action Status


Description VM action error.
Alert message Failed to action VM with name 'vm_name and internal ID (ID vm_id)' due to reason.
Cause A VM could not be restored because of a hypervisor error, or could not be
deleted because it is still in use.
Impact The requested VM action (restore or delete) could not be completed.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 427


Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10658
Severity Warning

Table 489: Failure To Restart VMs For HA Event [130064] [A1145]

Name VMs Restart Status


Description Failure to restart VMs for an HA event.
Alert message Failed to restart one or more VMs that were running on failed host hypervisor_address.
Cause Not enough memory or CPU resources within the cluster.
Impact Some VMs will remain powered off.
Resolution Shut down unneeded VMs to free cluster resources; expand the cluster to add
resources; or wait until the failed host recovers. Once resources are available,
power on the VMs.
KB Article 8199
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 490: HA Host Evacuation Failure [130065] [A1146]

Name Host Evacuation Status


Description Failure to evacuate host while entering maintenance mode or reserving host
for HA.
Alert message Failed to evacuate some VMs from host hypervisor_address while reason.
Cause Not enough memory/CPU resources within the cluster.
Impact The host will not enter requested state.
Resolution Shut down unneeded VMs to free cluster resources or expand the cluster to
add resources.
Severity Warning

Table 491: HA Healing Failure [130067] [A1155]

Name VM HA Healing Status


Description HA healing failure.
Alert message Could not restore VM High Availability.
Cause Not enough memory/CPU resources within the cluster.
Impact VMs are no longer protected against host failure.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 428


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 492: VM High Availability Failure [130068] [A130068]

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 493: iSCSI Configuration Failed [130100] [A130100]

Name iSCSI Configuration Failed


Description iSCSI Configuration Failed
Alert message Failed to re-configure iSCSI settings on the recovered VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Nutanix Guest Tools failed to execute some iSCSI commands on the guest VM.
Impact iSCSI disks may become unavailable on the guest VM.
Resolution (A) If IQN and iSCSI target IP addresses of the VM have been updated by
Nutanix Guest Agent, Discover and connect to new targets after rebooting the
VM. (B) Manually configure iSCSI settings on the guest VM. (C) Resolve the
stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error, contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 10118
Severity Critical

Table 494: Failed to Mount Nutanix Guest Tools [130103] [A130103]

Name NGT Mount Failure


Description Nutanix Guest Tools mount may have failed.
Alert message Nutanix Guest Tools mount failed for vm_name. reason.
Cause CDROM slot is not free. This can be because of hypervisor-related error.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 429


Impact Nutanix Guest Tools will not be mounted on the VM.
Resolution Check the logs on the CVM. If required, also check the VM logs for any error
information to fix the issue.
Severity Warning

Table 495: VSS Snapshot is not supported for the VM. [130105] [A130105]

Name VSS Snapshot Not Supported


Description VSS snapshot is not supported for the VM.
Alert message VSS snapshot is not supported for the VM 'vm_name', because reason.
Cause VM has unsupported configuration.
Impact Hypervisor based application consistent snapshot is taken on ESX. Crash
consistent snapshot is taken for other hypervisors.
Resolution Please look at the alert message and fix the invalid configuration.
Severity Warning

Table 496: VSS Snapshot Aborted [130106] [A130106]

Name VSS Snapshot Aborted


Description VSS snapshot is aborted by the Guest VM.
Alert message VSS snapshot is aborted for the VM 'vm_name (ID vm_id)', because reason.
Cause Guest VM aborted VSS snapshot operation.
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken.
Resolution Please look at the alert message for details of the failure and take necessary
actions. If issue persists contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Table 497: Recovered VM Disk Configuration Update Failed [130107] [A130107]

Name Disk Configuration Update Failed


Description Disk Configuration Update Failed
Alert message Failed to make some disks online on the recovered VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Nutanix Guest Tools failed to automatically bring the disks online.
Impact Disks may become offline on the recovered VM.
Resolution Manually bring the disks online on the recovered VM. Resolve the stated
reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8208
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 430


Table 498: Execution of the PostThaw Script Failed [130113] [A130113]

Name PostThaw Script Execution Failed


Description Execution of the PostThaw Script Failed
Alert message Failed to execute the post_thaw script during the creation of the application consistent snapshot
with uuid 'snapshot_uuid' for the VM 'vm_name'. Error : error_message.
Cause Guest VM failed to execute the post_thaw script during the creation of the
application consistent snapshot.
Impact Some of the applications that got stopped by the pre_freeze script may not
start after application consistent snapshot is created for the VM.
Resolution Manually run the post_thaw script on the guest VM. Fix the cause of the script
failure to avoid any further execution failures. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8116
Severity Critical

Table 499: Failed to take the application-consistent snapshot for the VM. [130127] [A130127]

Name Application Consistent Snapshot Skipped


Description Failed to take the application-consistent snapshot for the VM.
Alert message Failed to take the application-consistent snapshot for the VM 'vm_name', because reason.
Cause VMware tools is not installed on the VM.
Cause VMware tools is not running on the VM.
Cause Removal of temporary hypervisor-based snapshot of the VM failed.
Impact Crash consistent snapshot is taken for the VM.
Resolution Install the VMware tools on the VM.
Resolution Start the VMware tools on the VM.
Resolution Manually remove temporary hypervisor-based snapshot of the VM.
Severity Warning

Table 500: VM Registration Warning [130132] [A130132]

Name VM Registration Warning


Description VM Registration caused warning
Alert message VM with name vm_name has been recovered successfully, however the following issue was
observed - reason
Cause Processor features may not be compatible.
Impact VM registered successfully during the disaster recovery but with warnings.
Resolution Ensure that the recovered VM is working as expected.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 431


Table 501: Guest Power Operation through NGT Failed [130149] [A130149]

Name VM Guest Power Op Failed


Description Guest Power Operation Failed
Alert message Failed to perform operation 'operation'on VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Power operation failed in guest operating system.
Impact Desired power operation may not be completed.
Resolution (A) Manually shutdown the VM by logging into the VM and running the
appropriate shutdown command. (B) Resolve the issue for the failure. If you
cannot resolve the issue, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10242
Severity Warning

Table 502: Removal of the Temporary Hypervisor Snapshot Failed for the VM [130150]
[A130150]

Name Temporary Hypervisor Snapshot Cleanup Failed


Description Removal of the temporary hypervisor snapshot that got created while taking
the host-based application-consistent snapshot has failed for the VM.
Alert message Removal of the temporary hypervisor snapshot that got created while taking the Nutanix host-
based application-consistent snapshot has failed for the VM vm_name.
Cause VM might be experiencing high I/O when host-based application-consistent
snapshot cleanup is attempted.
Impact Future application-consistent snapshots might fail.
Resolution Wait until the merging of the snapshots is complete and then verify that there
are no temporary Nutanix host-based snapshots before taking an application-
consistent snapshot for the VM.
Severity Warning

Table 503: Nutanix Guest Tools Failed to Initiate VM Reboot. [130190] [A130190]

Name NGT VM Reboot Failure


Description Nutanix Guest Tools failed to initiate reboot on the VM.
Alert message Nutanix Guest Tools failed to initiate the VM reboot after NGT install/upgrade on the VM
'vm_name' due to reason.
Cause Failed to initiate reboot on the VM. Please check the alert message for exact
cause of the failure.
Impact VM is not rebooted after NGT install/upgrade. VM Mobility drivers may not be
updated.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure in the alert message. If the issue
persists contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 432


Table 504: Conflicting NGT policies [130192] [A130192]

Name NGT policy conflicts


Description There are conflicting NGT policies for the VM.
Alert message Conflicting NGT policies found for the VM 'vm_uuid'.
Cause More than one NGT policy is applicable for this VM. Please resolve the
conflicts.
Impact VM is not rebooted after NGT install/upgrade. Scheduled reboot of the VMs
will be impacted.
Resolution Check if more than 1 NGT policy exists for each VM and remove such policies
via the Prism Central.
KB Article 10694
Severity Warning

Table 505: Node Maintenance Mode Failure [130198] [A130198]

Name Node Removal Failure


Description VMs failed to evacuate off of the node.
Alert message Failed to evacuate VMs off of node node_uuid: error
Cause Other nodes in this cluster may not have enough resources available for VMs
to migrate.
Impact VMs can not migrate to other nodes in the cluster.
Resolution Free the resources by switching off some VMs.
KB Article 8471
Severity Critical

Table 506: NGT CD-ROM not Unmounted on the VM [130334] [A130334]

Name NGT CD-ROM Not Unmounted


Description NGT CD-ROM not unmounted on the VM.
Alert message NGT CD-ROM not unmounted on the VM 'vm_name' with uuid vm_id
Cause NGT CD-ROM not unmounted on the VM because NGT version of the VM is
incompatible with the NGT version of the cluster.
Impact NGT workflow will not be impacted, however it is advised to unmount the
stale ISO.
Resolution Unmount the NGT ISO on the VM.
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 433


Table 507: Node Removal is Stuck [130337] [A130337]

Name Node Removal Stuck


Description Cannot proceed with the node removal as the node is not in maintenance
mode.
Alert message Cannot proceed with the node removal due to: error
Cause Insufficient cluster resources are available for the VMs to migrate off the host
that is marked for removal.
Cause Exit Maintenance Mode action triggered manually on the node that is marked
for removal, and hence the node removal task cannot proceed.
Cause The node that is being removed is either the source or the destination for
VMs that are being live migrated to/from another cluster, and hence the node
removal task cannot proceed.
Impact The node marked for removal cannot be removed from the cluster until this
condition is resolved.
Resolution Ensure enough resources are available on other hosts for the VMs to
evacuate from the host being removed. Consider manually shutting down
unnecessary VMs and reviewing the HA settings. Put the affected node back in
Maintenance Mode now.
Resolution Put the affected node back in Maintenance Mode.
Resolution Wait for cross cluster live migration of VM(s) to finish.
KB Article 8471
Severity Warning

Table 508: VM is in Paused state [130348] [A130348]

Name VM is in Paused state


Description VM found in paused state.
Alert message VM vm_name with ID vm_uuid has been found in paused state
Cause Failed migration or some hypervisor issue.
Impact VM in paused state most likely means downtime and it's in an irrecoverable
state.
Resolution Power cycle the VM to get it out of this state.
KB Article 10834
Severity Warning

Table 509: File Analytics VM component failure [160081] [A160081]

Name File Analytics VM component failure


Description One or more components of the File Analytics VM {avm_ip} are not
functioning properly or have failed.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 434


Alert message One or more components of the File Analytics VM avm_ip are not functioning properly or have
failed.
Cause One or more File Analytics VM components have failed.
Impact File Server analytics will not perform appropriately.
Resolution Contact Nutanix Support.
Severity Critical

Table 510: File Analytics VM high CPU usage. [160082] [A160082]

Name File Analytics VM high CPU usage.


Description The File Analytics VM {avm_ip} has a high CPU usage of {usage_percent}%
Alert message The File Analytics VM avm_ip has a high CPU usage of usage_percent%
Cause The File Analytics VM is performing too many CPU intensive operations.
Impact The File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Monitor which component has a high CPU usage and reduce the processing
load.
Severity Warning

Table 511: File Analytics VM high disk usage. [160083] [A160083]

Name File Analytics VM high disk usage.


Description The File Analytics VM {avm_ip} has a high disk usage of {usage_percent}%
Alert message The File Analytics VM avm_ip has a high disk usage of usage_percent%
Cause Extensive disk usage on the File Analytics VM
Impact The File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Add more capacity to the File Analytics VM or delete some data.
Severity Warning

Table 512: File Analytics VM low memory available. [160084] [A160084]

Name File Analytics VM low memory available.


Description The memory available on File Analytics VM {avm_ip} is {memory_available}
bytes which is low.
Alert message The percent memory available on File Analytics VM avm_ip is memory_available which is low
Cause Excessive memory usage on the File Analytics VM
Impact The File Analytics VM's performance will be impacted.
Resolution Add more RAM
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 435


Table 513: vNUMA VM Pinning Failure. [200402] [A200402]

Name vNUMA VM Pinning Failure


Description Cluster was unable to provide requested vNUMA pinning for VM.
Alert message VM 'vm_name' with uuid vm_id is running with a non-compliant vNUMA pinning following
operation.

Cause Insufficient memory and/or CPU resources available.


Impact VM performance may degrade.
Resolution Migrate VM to a host which has adequate CPU and memory resources. Please
refer to KB-10223.
KB Article 10223
Severity Warning

Table 514: VM stored on RF1 container failed to start after host/CVM maintenance. [200405]
[A200405]

Name VM stored on RF1 container failed to start after host/CVM maintenance


Description VM stored on RF1 container failed to start after host/CVM maintenance.
Alert message VM vm_name (UUID: vm_uuid) failed to start with the following error: message
Cause Insufficient resources available to start the VM.
Impact VM which was running before the host/CVM maintenance will stay powered
off until manual intervention.
Resolution Free up resources and manually start the VM. Refer to KB-10804.
KB Article 10804
Severity Critical

Hardware

Table 515: Node Failure [130030] [A1137]

Name Node Status


Description Node failure.
Alert message Host hypervisor_address appears to have failed. High Availability is restarting VMs on
failover_host_info.

Cause Host is not accessible.


Impact VMs will restart on another host.
Resolution Check for network connectivity or a hardware failure.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 436


Table 516: Non Self Encryption Drive Disk Inserted [130031] [A1122]

Name Non SED Disk Inserted Check


Description Non-self-encrypting drive is inserted.
Alert message Non encrypted disk with serial disk_serial was added in drive bay disk_location on Controller VM
service_vm_external_ip. It is not usable because the rest of the cluster is protected using encrypted
drives.
Cause A cluster with self-encrypting drives has a non-self encrypting drive installed.
Impact The new drive was not mounted because the cluster cannot be fully secured
without all drives supporting encryption.
Resolution Ensure all installed drives are of self-encrypting type. If more help is needed
call Nutanix support.
KB Article 8417
Severity Critical

Table 517: Disk Failed/Marked offline [130033] [A1044]

Name Disk Offline Status


Description Drive is marked offline.
Alert message Disk disk_position with id disk_id on node node_position of block block_position has been
marked offline due to IO errors. Serial number of the disk is disk_serial in host host_ip of block
block_serial.

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 518: Physical Disk Drive Has Failed [130035] [A1104]

Name Physical Disk Status


Description Physical drive has failed.
Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial and model disk_model in drive bay disk_location on Controller
VM service_vm_external_ip has failed. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause The drive has failed.


Impact Cluster storage capacity is reduced.
Resolution Replace the failed drive. Please refer to KB 4158.
KB Article 4158
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 437


Table 519: Physical Disk Removed From Slot [130036] [A1103]

Name Physical Disk Remove Check


Description Physical drive is removed from the slot.
Alert message Drive with serial disk_serial and model disk_model was removed from drive bay disk_location
on Controller VM service_vm_external_ip. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause A drive was physically disconnected from a slot.


Impact Migration of data from the drive will start.
Resolution Remove the drive from the slot and reseat it. Contact the Hardware Vendor if
issue persists.
KB Article 8031
Severity Critical

Table 520: Disk Diagnostic Failure [130089] [A1139]

Name Disk Diagnostic Status


Description The drive diagnostic test has failed.
Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial in drive bay disk_location on Controller VM
service_vm_external_ip has failed diagnostic test. This drive is failing or has failed.
#rf1_custom_message@
Cause The drive is failing or has failed.
Impact Cluster storage capacity has been reduced.
Resolution Replace the failing drive. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
Severity Warning

Table 521: Node Maintenance Mode Failure [130198] [A130198]

Name Node Removal Failure


Description VMs failed to evacuate off of the node.
Alert message Failed to evacuate VMs off of node node_uuid: error
Cause Other nodes in this cluster may not have enough resources available for VMs
to migrate.
Impact VMs can not migrate to other nodes in the cluster.
Resolution Free the resources by switching off some VMs.
KB Article 8471
Severity Critical

Node (Prism Central)

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 438


Table 522: Latency between CVMs is high [6005] [A6005]

Name Inter-CVM Latency


Description Checks whether latency among CVMs is high.
Alert message Latency between vm_types is higher than ping_threshold ms.
Cause Malfunctioning or misconfigured network infrastructure
Impact If problem persists I/O performance will be degraded.
Resolution Check network connectivity/configuration.
Ping Time Critical Threshold: 15 ms
Threshold
KB Article 3690
Severity Critical

Table 523: Hardware difference is noticed [106068] [A106068]

Name Hardware differences alert


Description Any change in any parameter of the hardware will raise this alert
Alert message alert_msg
Cause Hardware configuration is changed
Impact NA
Resolution NA
Severity Info

Table 524: SSH keys missing [111089] [A111089]

Name Node Missing SSH Keys check


Description Check if /home/nutanix/ssh_keys directory contents are missing.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause Some of SSH keys are missing from /home/nutanix/ssh_keys directory.
Impact Missing SSH keys can jeopardise ongoing infrastructure workflows in a silent
manner such as node un-configuration.
Resolution Please refer to KB 10736 for more information.
KB Article 10736
Severity Critical

Table 525: Kernel mitigation configuration doesn't match current state. [111090] [A111090]

Name Kernel mitigations check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 439


Description Check if spectre/meltdown mitigation is synced up with mitigations value in /
proc/cmdline.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause Spectre/meltdown configuration doesn't match current state.
Impact Uncertain configuration.
Resolution Reboot CVM. Please refer to KB 10938 for more information.
KB Article 10938
Severity Critical

Table 526: Disk utilization for audit partition is more than 75%. [111092] [A111092]

Name AHV audit disk space check


Description Checks if the disk usage for audit partition is higher than 75%.
Alert message On host host_ip, alert_msg
Cause Disk utilization for audit partition is more than 75%.
Impact There may not be enough disk space left for new audit records.
Resolution Refer KB11680 to address the disk utilization over 75%.
KB Article 11680
Severity Warning

Table 527: Certificate Creation Error [130013] [A1112]

Name Certificate Creation Status


Description Certificate signing request creation failed.
Alert message Failed to create a certificate signing request on node service_vm_external_ip in the cluster.
Cause Either the OpenSSL library had a failure or a non-supported subject field,
subject value, or subject alternative name was provided.
Impact Without a CSR then data at rest encryption cannot be enabled.
Resolution Ensure that the certificate signing request fields are valid and retry the
command, or contact Nutanix support if the OpenSSL configuration file is
missing or corrupted.
Severity Info

Table 528: Agent VM Restoration Failure [130091] [A130091]

Name Agent VM Restoration


Description Failure to Restore Agent VM
Alert message Failed to restore agent VM with UUID vm_uuid.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 440


Cause Not enough memory/CPU resources on this node.
Impact VMs on this host may not function correctly because of the missing agent VM.
Resolution Shut down unneeded VMs to free cluster resources or expand the cluster to
add resources.
KB Article 8010
Severity Critical

Table 529: VM Group Snapshot and Current State Mismatch [130110] [A130110]

Name VM group snapshot and current mismatch


Description Check that snapshot to restore matches current VM group
Alert message VM group vm_group_uuid snapshot and current state mismatch: message
Cause VM group changed after snapshot was created.
Impact VMs might be scheduled to run on the same host instead of a different host.
Resolution Recreate VM snapshot to ensure up-to-date VM group information.
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 530: Protection Domain is in a Decoupled State [130112] [A130112]

Name Protection Domain Decoupled Status


Description Protection domain is in a decoupled state.
Alert message Protection domain 'protection_domain_name' protecting the Storage Container 'container_name' is
in a decoupled state. impact
Cause Standby site has been promoted to the primary site.
Impact Metro availability for the protection domain on the primary is unavailable.
Resolution Re-enable metro availability from the remote site.
Severity Warning

Table 531: Host Network Uplink Configuration Failed. [130160] [A130160]

Name ClusterVswitch Configuration Update Failed


Description Failed to apply host uplink configuration on the host(s).
Alert message Host network uplink configuration update on Host(s):'node_uuid' failed due to the reason: cause
Cause Host uplink configuration failed to apply on the host(s).
Impact Host OVS configuration may not be in sync with cluster vswitch configuration.
Resolution Use manage_ovs to configure the host individually after correcting errors.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 441


Table 532: Failed to configure host for Atlas networking [130201] [A130201]

Name Failed to configure host for Atlas networking


Description Failed to configure host for Atlas networking.
Alert message Failed to configure host hypervisor_address for Atlas networking: message
Cause Failed to configure host for Atlas networking.
Impact VMs on Atlas networks cannot run on this host.
Resolution Check the hypervisor version, and upgrade if necessary.
KB Article 8526
Severity Critical

Table 533: Virtual Switch configuration deployment failed. [150006] [A150006]

Name Virtual Switch configuration deployment failed


Description Notifies when a validated Virtual Switch configuration is unable to be applied
to host network infrastructure
Alert message Virtual Switch vs_name configuration deployment on Host(s):'node_uuid' failed due to the reason:
cause

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 534: IPFIX exporter host update failed [150011] [A150011]

Name IPFIX exporter host update failed


Description IPFIX exporter update failed on the host in the cluster.
Alert message IPFIX exporter update failed on host hypervisor_address because of error: cause

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 442


Cause IPFIX exporter update failed on the host in the cluster.
Impact IPFIX exporter on this host in the cluster may not be working as expected.
Resolution Check the error message and follow the appropriate steps to fix the IPFIX
exporter state on the host.
Severity Warning

Table 535: OVN Connection Unhealthy [150012] [A150012]

Name OVN Connection Unhealthy


Description Hypervisor node is disconnected from the Advanced Networking Controller.
Alert message Node uuid_node is disconnected from the Advanced Networking Controller
Cause The Chassis' ovn-controller does not have a Healthy connection to the
Advanced Networking Controller.
Impact Ability to make network-related configurations may be impacted.
Impact Overlay networking may be disconnected on this Hypervisor node.
Resolution Verify that the Hypervisor node can connect to the Prism Central hosting
the Advanced Networking Controller. Verify the health of the Advanced
Networking Controller.
KB Article 11129
Severity Critical

Table 536: Home partition is not expanded to 50GB. [200330] [A200330]

Name Prism Central home partition expansion check


Description Checks if home partition is expanded to 50GB after upgrade.
Alert message Home partition is not expanded to 50GB on Prism Central pc_ip after upgrade.
Cause During an upgrade, home partition extension has failed.
Impact Prism Central performance may be degraded.
Resolution Refer to KB 9525 for further details.
KB Article 9525
Severity Warning

Table 537: SSL Certificate is expiring soon [200705] [A200705]

Name Check SSL Cert Expiry


Description Notify if SSL Certificate is expiring soon
Alert message SSL Certificate is expiring in the next 30 days. Please regenerate
Cause SSL Certificate is expiring soon

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 443


Impact SSL Certificates are expired and Cannot be accessed.
Resolution Regenerate the ssl certificate.
KB Article 11493
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Network (Prism Central)

Table 538: Latency between CVMs is high [6005] [A6005]

Name Inter-CVM Latency


Description Checks whether latency among CVMs is high.
Alert message Latency between vm_types is higher than ping_threshold ms.
Cause Malfunctioning or misconfigured network infrastructure
Impact If problem persists I/O performance will be degraded.
Resolution Check network connectivity/configuration.
Ping Time Critical Threshold: 15 ms
Threshold
KB Article 3690
Severity Critical

Table 539: CVM TCP checksum error rate check [103104]

Name CVM TCP checksum error rate check


Description Check if corrupted packets with compromised checksums are reaching the
CVM and not dropped by the host NICs.
Cause Hardware failure or NIC firmware/driver compatibility issue.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Check for any hardware failures or issues with firmware/driver/cables. Please
refer to KB 9623 for more details.
KB Article 9623

Table 540: OVA Upload Interrupted [111076] [A111076]

Name OVA Upload Interrupted


Description OVA upload interrupted
Alert message Upload interrupted for OVA ova_name
Cause Network might have been disconnected.
Cause Prism UI may have been closed.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 444


Cause OVA file might not be accessible.
Impact OVA will not be available for use.
Resolution Validate stable network connection.
Resolution Ensure Prism UI is open and logged in.
Resolution Ensure OVA file is accessible.
Severity Info

Table 541: Failed to configure host for Atlas networking [130201] [A130201]

Name Failed to configure host for Atlas networking


Description Failed to configure host for Atlas networking.
Alert message Failed to configure host hypervisor_address for Atlas networking: message
Cause Failed to configure host for Atlas networking.
Impact VMs on Atlas networks cannot run on this host.
Resolution Check the hypervisor version, and upgrade if necessary.
KB Article 8526
Severity Critical

Table 542: Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking [130202] [A130202]

Name Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking


Description Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking.
Alert message Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking
Cause Failed to reserve host memory for Atlas networking.
Impact If hypervisor memory is exhausted, random VMs may be powered off to
reclaim memory.
Resolution Power off VMs to reduce host memory consumption.
KB Article 8525
Severity Critical

Table 543: IPFIX exporter host update failed [150011] [A150011]

Name IPFIX exporter host update failed


Description IPFIX exporter update failed on the host in the cluster.
Alert message IPFIX exporter update failed on host hypervisor_address because of error: cause
Cause IPFIX exporter update failed on the host in the cluster.
Impact IPFIX exporter on this host in the cluster may not be working as expected.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 445


Resolution Check the error message and follow the appropriate steps to fix the IPFIX
exporter state on the host.
Severity Warning

Table 544: Flow Rule Failed. [200601] [A200601]

Name Flow rule failed


Description Programming a Flow rule failed.
Alert message Flow policy operation failed for rule_name. reason
Cause Microsegmentation service is unreachable or the PC is unavailable or the PE
cluster is unavailable or Remote Connection from PC to PE failed or AHV host
is unavailable or connection from PE to host failed. Check description.
Impact VMs will not be protected by the Flow rule.
Resolution Check PC microsegmentation service, PE acropolis service, PC to PE
connection, PE to AHV connection.
Severity Warning

Table 545: Flow Control Plane Failed. [200602] [A200602]

Name Flow control plane failed


Description Flow failure event.
Alert message Flow operation failed on remote_uuid. reason
Cause Microsegmentation service is unreachable or the PE cluster is unavailable
or Remote Connection from PC to PE failed or AHV host is unavailable or
connection from PE to host failed. Check description.
Impact Flow control plane failure, rule cannot be programmed.
Resolution Check PC microsegmentation service, Check PE acropolis service, AHV
microsegmentation module.
Severity Warning

Table 546: Flow Mode Change Failed [200606] [A200606]

Name Flow policy hit mode change failed


Description Flow control plane failure event
Alert message Flow mode change failed on remote_uuid. reason
Cause Flow mode configuration could not be programmed from PC to PE or PE to
AHV. In Default mode network traffic hitting security policies won't be logged
on AHV.
Impact Flow running in default mode. Network traffic hitting security policies won't be
logged by AHV.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 446


Resolution Ensure AHV host is reachable from Prism Central. Ensure all the services in
Prism Central and Prism Element are in a healthy state and AHV host has more
than 4 GB memory available. If the issue is still not resolved, collect cvm_logs
and contact Nutanix Support
Severity Warning

Table 547: Maximum VPN BGP route limit reached [801001] [A801001]

Name Max VPN eBGP route limit reached


Description On-prem VPN gateway is advertising more than the maximum number of
routes accepted by the VPN gateway over eBGP.
Alert message A total of num_routes routes received from the on-prem VPN gateway for connection
"vpn_connection_name". Only max_num_routes routes will be processed.
Cause On-prem VPN gateway is advertising more than the maximum number of
routes accepted by the VPN gateway over eBGP.
Impact Connectivity between AZs via the VPN connection might be impacted.
Resolution Consider aggregating more specific prefixes into larger prefixes to reduce the
number of routes advertised.
KB Article 8469
Severity Critical

Table 548: VPN IPSEC tunnel between VPN endpoints is down [801002] [A801002]

Name VPN IPSEC Tunnel down


Description The IPSEC tunnel between the VPN endpoints is down.
Alert message VPN IPSEC tunnel for VPN connection "vpn_connection_name" is down.
Cause The IPSEC tunnel between the VPN endpoints is down.
Impact Connectivity between AZs via VPN connection will be impacted.
Resolution Follow the on-prem VPN device vendor's troubleshooting steps. If you suspect
that the problem is not with the on-prem VPN device, please contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 8466
Severity Critical

Table 549: eBGP session between VPN endpoints is down [801003] [A801003]

Name eBGP session between VPN gateway peers down


Description The eBGP session between VPN endpoints is down.
Alert message eBGP session for VPN connection "vpn_connection_name" is down.
Cause The eBGP session between VPN endpoints is down.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 447


Impact VPN connectivity between the VPN endpoints will be impacted because
routes cannot be exchanged.
Resolution Follow the on-prem VPN device vendor's troubleshooting steps. If you suspect
that the problem is not with the on-prem VPN device, please contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 8465
Severity Critical

Table 550: Invalid routes received by VPN connection "{vpn_connection_name}". [801004]


[A801004]

Name Invalid routes received from on-prem VPN


Description Invalid routes received from on-prem VPN gateway.
Alert message The following invalid routes received by VPN connection "vpn_connection_name" will be
rejected: message.
Cause Invalid routes received from on-prem VPN gateway.
Impact VPN connectivity may be impacted.
Resolution Remove the invalid routes being advertised from on-prem VPN gateway over
eBGP.
Severity Warning

Table 551: Deletion of the Layer-2 subnet extension failed on the remote site. [801101] [A801101]

Name Layer-2 subnet extension deletion failure


Description Deletion of the Layer-2 subnet extension failed on the remote site.
Alert message Deletion of the Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" failed on the remote site.
Cause Deletion of the remote Layer-2 subnet extension failed (possibly due to AZ
connection issues).
Impact The remote site's Prism Central will show the remote subnet as being
extended to the local site, even though the subnet extension has been deleted
locally.
Resolution Delete the Layer-2 subnet extension on the remote site by logging into the
remote site's Prism Central and navigating to the Subnets page.
KB Article 10310
Severity Critical

Table 552: ANC version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension. [801102] [A801102]

Name ANC version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension


Description ANC version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 448


Alert message ANC version does not support Layer-2 subnet extension.
Cause ANC 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 ANC to the right version that has support for Layer-2 subnet
extension.
KB Article 10388
Severity Critical

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 449


Table 555: Peer AZ involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is not reachable. [801105] [A801105]

Name Peer AZ involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is not reachable


Description Peer AZ involved in Layer-2 subnet extension is not reachable.
Alert message Peer AZ involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" is not reachable.
Cause The cause could either be VPN connection between the AZs is down, or Atlas
service in the peer AZ is down (or not responsive).
Impact VMs in the subnet extended across AZs may be unable to communicate with
each other.
Resolution Fix the underlying issue of VPN connection being down, or Atlas service in
peer AZ being down.
KB Article 10391
Severity Critical

Table 556: Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension not found. [801106] [A801106]

Name Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension not found


Description Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension not found.
Alert message Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" not found.
Cause Subnet involved in Layer-2 subnet extension was deleted.
Impact If subnet is not present, no vNICs can be created using this network UUID.
Resolution Delete the Layer-2 subnet extension, and create it again after the subnet has
been restored.
KB Article 10392
Severity Critical

Table 557: CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension don't match. [801107]
[A801107]

Name CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension don't match


Description CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension don't match.
Alert message CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" don't match.
Cause CIDR of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension don't match.
Impact Some VMs may not be able to communicate with other VMs on the extended
subnet.
Resolution Modify one of the subnets to fix the CIDR mismatch.
KB Article 10393
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 450


Table 558: DHCP of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension have overlapping IP
addresses or include VPN interface IP addresses. [801108] [A801108]

Name DHCP of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension have overlapping IP


addresses or include VPN interface IP addresses
Description DHCP of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension have overlapping IP
addresses or include VPN interface IP addresses.
Alert message DHCP of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" have
overlapping IP addresses or include VPN interface IP addresses.
Cause DHCP of subnets involved in Layer-2 subnet extension have overlapping IP
addresses or include VPN interface IP addresses.
Impact Some VMs may not be able to communicate with other VMs on the extended
subnet.
Resolution Modify the subnets involved in the Layer-2 subnet extension to ensure DHCP
pools do not overlap, and do not contain the local or remote VPN interface IP.
KB Article 10394
Severity Critical

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.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 451


Alert message Remote VPN interface IP involved in Layer-2 subnet extension "#layer2_stretch_name@" is in
use in this AZ.
Cause A vNIC in this AZ was assigned the same IP address as VPN interface IP used
in the remote 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.
KB Article 10396
Severity Critical

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

Table 562: Advanced Networking Controller is not Healthy [802001] [A802001]

Name An Advanced Networking Controller service did not respond


Description Atlas could not connect to an Advanced Networking Controller service.
Alert message The service at url did not respond
Cause The Advanced Networking Controller is not Healthy.
Impact Ability to make network-related configurations may be impacted.
Resolution Verify the health of the Advanced Networking Controller.
KB Article 9366
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 452


Table 563: Unable to resolve an Advanced Networking Controller service's DNS name [802002]
[A802002]

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]

Name A Virtual Private Cloud Routing Policy of type reroute is inactive


Description Atlas was unable to apply a VPC Routing Policy of type reroute.
Alert message Routing Policy with priority priority and type reroute in VPC vpc_name is not applied as VM/
service with reroute IP: reroute_ip is down.
Cause VM(s) with reroute IP(s) does not exist or is powered off.
Impact Traffic in VPC will not hit the inactive Routing Policy.
Resolution (A) Create VM with reroute IP in the given VPC. (B) Power on VM with reroute
IP in the given VPC.
KB Article 9484
Severity Warning

Table 565: ID Firewall lost connectivity to domain controller [803003] [A803003]

Name ID Firewall is unable to connect to one or more domain controllers


Description ID Firewall is unable to connect to one or more domain controllers used for
scraping identities.
Alert message Domain controller domain_controller on domain domain is not reachable and accepting LDAP or
WMI connections. Details: details.
Cause The domain controller may not be reachable via the network.
Cause The domain controller may not be accepting LDAP/WMI connections due to
permissions issues.
Cause The domain controller may not be running or fully booted up.
Impact ID Firewall will not function properly and Flow VDI security policies may not
be enforced until access to the domain controller is restored.
Resolution Check network connectivity from Prism Central to the domain controller.
Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 453


Resolution Check that the domain controller is fully up and accepting WMI and LDAP
connections. Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.
Resolution Check that the service account registered for ID Firewall is active and has
permissions for both WMI and LDAP access, and that the correct password is
entered in Prism Central. Please refer article KB-10219 for more details.
KB Article 10219
Severity Warning

Table 566: ID Firewall did not recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily unreachable
domain controller [803005] [A803005]

Name ID Firewall state recovery failed


Description ID Firewall was unable to recover state after reconnecting to a temporarily
unreachable domain controller.
Alert message ID Firewall was unable to recover state from domain controller domain_controller on domain
domain. Details: details.

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 567: ID Firewall service account is invalid [803007] [A803007]

Name Service account used for ID Firewall is invalid


Description ID Firewall has detected that the service account configured is not valid.
Alert message ID Firewall service account account@domain is invalid. Details: details.
Cause The service account password may have been changed.
Cause The service account may have been deleted.
Impact ID Firewall will not function properly and Flow VDI security policies may not
be enforced until the service account is valid again.
Resolution Check that the configured service account password is up-to-date and update
it in Prism if needed.
Resolution Check that the configured service account exists, and update it in Prism if
needed.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 454


Nutanix Files

Table 568: File Server Space Usage High [160000] [A160000]

Name File Server Space Usage


Description The usage of file server space is high.
Alert message File Server space usage for file_server_name is at usage_pct%.
Cause File Server Storage utilization is high.
Impact If storage usage keeps growing, the shares will be marked as read-only.
Resolution Expand File Server storage size. Ask users to delete unused files. Refer to KB
article 8475 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 8475
Severity Warning

Table 569: File Server Space Usage Critical. [160001] [A160001]

Name File Server Space Usage Critical


Description File server space usage critical.
Alert message File Server space usage for file_server_name is at usage_pct%.
Cause File Server storage utilization has reached a critical value.
Impact The shares will be marked as read-only until there is more free space on the
File Server.
Resolution Expand File Server storage size. Refer to KB article 8475 for more details.
Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8475
Severity Critical

Table 570: File Server Unreachable. [160002] [A160002]

Name File Server Unavailable Check


Description File server is unreachable.
Alert message File server file_server_name is unreachable.
Cause FSVMs are not reachable.
Impact No operations can be executed against the File Server.
Resolution From Controller VM run 'ncc health_checks fileserver_checks run_all' and
resolve the reported issues. If you are unable to resolve the issue reported by
NCC, contact Nutanix Support for assistance.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 455


Table 571: File Server storage is not available. [160003] [A160003]

Name File Server Storage Status


Description File Server storage is not available.
Alert message Storage for File Server file_server_name is unavailable.
Cause File Server storage is unavailable due to network connectivity issues between
FSVM and CVM.
Impact Read and write operations on the File Server will fail.
Resolution From Controller VM run 'ncc health_checks run_all' and resolve the reported
issues. If you are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for
assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 572: File Server scale-out failed. [160004] [A160004]

Name File Server Scale-out Status


Description File Server scale-out failed.
Alert message File Server file_server_name scale-out failed because of reason
Cause See details in the alert message.
Impact Unable to scale-out the file server.
Resolution From Controller VM run 'ncc health_checks run_all' and resolve the reported
issues. If you are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for
assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 573: File server could not join the AD Domain [160005] [A160005]

Name File Server Join Domain Status


Description File server could not join the AD domain.
Alert message File Server file_server_name could not join the Domain because reason.
Cause See details in the alert message. Error could be due to one of the following
reasons: Domain credentials are invalid. Correct Port for connecting to AD is
not being used. File Server AD Object already exists in the domain.
Impact Domain operations can not be performed on the File Server as it has not
joined the domain
Resolution The resolution is to identify the reason from one of the possible causes in the
cause list. Please refer Nutanix Files Guide 'Pre-requisite' section for more
details. If you are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for
assistance.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 456


Table 574: Node Failed To Join Domain [160006] [A160006]

Name File Server Node Join Domain Status


Description The node could not join the domain.
Alert message The node could not join the domain for file server file_server_name as reason
Cause DNS is not correctly configured or is not reachable. Domain Controllers are
not reachable or the reachable Domain controller is having issues. Domain
credentials are invalid. Correct Port for connecting to AD is not being used.
File Server AD Object already exists in the domain.
Impact The node could not join the domain.
Resolution The resolution is to identify the reason from one of the possible causes in the
cause list. Please refer Nutanix Files Guide 'Pre-requisite' section for more
details. If you are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for
assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 575: File Server Time Difference High [160007] [A160007]

Name FSVM Time Drift Status


Description The time drift between the FSVMs is beyond the acceptable range
Alert message For file_server_name, time drift between the FSVMs (lower_time_ip and higher_time_ip) is more
than the acceptable value of time_difference_limit_secs
Cause NTP is not configured correctly or the NTP service is not functioning.
Impact The Nutanix Files cluster may become inaccessible
Resolution Check that the NTP service is running and is reachable from the FSVMs Refer
KB article 8135 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists
or assistance needed.
KB Article 8135
Severity Warning

Table 576: File Server Storage Cleanup Failed [160012] [A160012]

Name File Server Storage Cleanup Failure


Description Failed to clean up storage for the file server.
Alert message Storage message for the file server file_server_name is not cleaned up.
Cause Acropolis service may be down on the cluster.
Impact File server storage will not be released.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 457


Table 577: File server cannot connect with AD server [160013] [A160013]

Name File Server AD Connectivity Failure


Description File server cannot connect with AD server with configured information
Alert message File server file_server_name cannot connect with AD server
Cause The machine account credentials may have been changed. There is a network
connectivity issue for the AD server.
Impact Domain operations cannot be performed for the file server. Client connectivity
with file-server is disabled.
Resolution Check that the AD server is reachable. Refer to KB article 8122 for more
details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8122
Severity Critical

Table 578: File Server performance optimization recommended [160015] [A160015]

Name File Server Performance Optimization Recommended


Description File server has a recommendation to optimize performance by using scale-up,
scale-out or rebalance.
Alert message A recommendation is available to optimize the performance on one or more nodes of file server
file_server_name.

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 579: User Quota Assignment Failed [160016] [A160016]

Name File Server Quota allocation failed for user


Description Failed to assign the specified quota to the user
Alert message Failed to apply quota for user: user_name on share: share_name of File Server file_server_name
Cause The user has used more space on the File Server than the specified quota
value.
Impact User has no quota limit
Resolution Notify user to reduce their usage below the quota value. Notify user to
increase the quota allocation for the user.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 458


Severity Warning

Table 580: Share utilization reached configured limit [160017] [A160017]

Name Share Utilization Reached Configured Limit


Description Share is no longer writable.
Alert message Utilization on share_name on file server file_server_name has reached the configured limit
Cause Share utilization reached its configured limit
Impact Writes to the share will fail until one of the actions is taken.
Resolution Expand File Server storage size. Refer to KB article 8475 for more details.
Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8475
Severity Critical

Table 581: File Server failed to get updated CVM IP address. [160018] [A160018]

Name File Server CVM IP update failed


Description File server Controller VM IP update failed.
Alert message The file server file_server_name could not get updated CVM IP address.
Cause AOS cluster is not able to contact file server.
Impact File server is not reachable
Resolution Ensure correct Cluster IP Address Configuration procedure is followed. Refer
to KB article 2290 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 2290
Severity Critical

Table 582: Appropriate Site Not Found in Active Directory [160019] [A160019]

Name File Server Site Not Found


Description Unable to determine an appropriate site in Active Directory
Alert message File server file_server_name's client network is not mapped to a site on the Active Directory.
Cause File server client network is not part of any site in Active Directory.
Impact File server may take a long time to join the domain, depending on which
domain controller is selected.
Resolution Add the client network of file server to a local site in Active Directory for
optimal performance.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 459


Table 583: File server DNS Updates Pending [160020] [A160020]

Name File Server DNS Updates Pending


Description DNS updates are pending after a file server operation.
Alert message File server file_server_name's DNS entries need to be programmed on nameservers. message
Cause Failed to add or remove DNS entries
Impact The file server cannot be used by clients by its name, but can be used with the
IP addresses.
Resolution Correct the required DNS entries under 'DNS' on the file server page. Refer KB
article 3722 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 3722
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 584: File Server activation failed [160021] [A160021]

Name File Server Activation Failed


Description File Server Activation Failed
Alert message File server file_server_name activation failed due to reason
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact File Server is not usable.
Resolution Try to activate file server again, and if the failure persists, then contact Nutanix
support.
Severity Warning

Table 585: Failed to set VM-to-VM anti-affinity rule [160023] [A160023]

Name Failed To Set VM-to-VM Anti Affinity Rule


Description Failed to set VM-to-VM anti affinity rule
Alert message Failed to set VM-to-VM anti-affinity rule for file_server_name. reason_and_resolution_msg
Cause More than one FSVM of a File Server entity is may be deployed hosted on a
single physical host.
Impact More than one FSVM of a File Server entry is hosted on a single physical host,
which will cause data unavailability in case that host fails.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 460


Table 586: Discovery of iSCSI targets failed. [160025] [A160025]

Name File Server iSCSI Discovery Failure


Description Failed to discover iSCSI targets on the CVM during the discovery process.
Alert message Discovery of iSCSI targets failed for file server file_server_name
Cause The 'external_data_services_ip' or the CVM IP addresses are not reachable
from the FSVM.
Impact Share operations and File server HA will fail.
Resolution Please refer article 8216 for more details on Changing Data Services IP
Address. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8216
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 587: File Server upgrade failed [160026] [A160026]

Name File Server Upgrade Failed


Description File Server Upgrade Failed.
Alert message Upgrade of file server file_server_name failed due to reason.
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact File server has not been upgraded.
Resolution From Controller VM run 'ncc health_checks fileserver_checks run_all' and
resolve the reported issues. If you are unable to resolve the issue reported by
NCC, contact Nutanix Support for assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 588: Incompatible File Server activated [160028] [A160028]

Name Incompatible File Server Activation


Description Activating an incompatible File Server
Alert message Incompatible File server file_server_name is activated
Cause File server is activated which is incompatible with current AOS version
Impact Next AOS upgrade will fail.
Resolution Upgrade file server to the latest. Please refer Software Product Interoperability
page on portal for reference. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 461


Table 589: File Server in heterogeneous state. [160032] [A160032]

Name File Server In Heterogeneous State


Description File server in heterogeneous state. Nodes do not match in their CPU or
memory configuration.
Alert message File server file_server_name is in heterogeneous state, as File Server VM configuration update
operation failed due to reason
Cause Check alert message for details.
Impact Performance of the file server is less than optimal.
Resolution Get the largest configured CPU and memory values among VMs of reported
File Server in VM page. Free up resources on hypervisor hosts and retry File
Server VM configuration update with these values in File Server page. Contact
Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
Severity Critical

Table 590: Failed to correct File Server data and meta data inconsistencies [160034]
[A160034]

Name Failed To Run File Server Metadata Fixer Successfully


Description Failed to Run File Server Metadata Fixer tool successfully
Alert message Failed to run File Server file_server_name Metadata fixer task successfully.
reason_and_resolution_msg
Cause Metadata fixer task might have timed out
Impact Some of the top level directories would be unavailable on file server
Resolution Run 'afs share.fix_tld_metadata' command form one of the FSVM shell to fix
the metadata inconsistency. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
Severity Warning

Table 591: File server share deletion failed [160035] [A160035]

Name File Server Share Deletion Failed


Description Failed to delete share.
Alert message Failed to delete share share_name on File Server file_server_name. message
Cause Multiple causes possible. Most likely, a failure in destroying file systems from
FSVMs.
Impact Unable to clean up share storage space.
Resolution Please retry Share delete operation. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 462


Table 592: File server compatibility check skipped [160036] [A160036]

Name Skipped File Server Compatibility Check


Description File server compatibility check skipped
Alert message File server compatibility check skipped
Cause File server compatibility check was skipped during AOS upgrade
Impact Some management functions of the file server may not be available.
Resolution Upgrade file server to the latest. Please refer Software Product Interoperability
page on portal for reference. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
Severity Warning

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]

Name Maximum connections limit reached on a file server VM


Description Maximum connections limit is about to reach on a file server VM
Alert message File server VM fsvm_name on file server file_server_name has reached conn_percentageconnections
limit.
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. Refer to KB
article 7371 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 7371
KB Article 7371
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 463


Table 595: File Server Clone failed [160040] [A160040]

Name File Server Clone Failed


Description File Server Clone Failed
Alert message File server file_server_name clone failed due to reason
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact Clone File Server not available.
Resolution Check alert message, Retry clone operation after rectifying, and if the failure
persists, then contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 596: File Server rename failed [160041] [A160041]

Name File Server Rename Failed


Description File Server Rename Failed
Alert message File server rename from file_server_name to file_server_new_name failed due to reason
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact File server could not be renamed.
Resolution Check alert message, Retry rename operation after rectifying, and if the failure
persists, then contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 597: File Server AntiVirus - ICAP Server Down [160042] [A160042]

Name File Server AntiVirus - ICAP Server Down


Description ICAP server is not responding to scan requests.
Alert message ICAP server scan_server_host is not responding from file server file_server_name.
Cause Failed to reach ICAP server from FSVM.
Impact File server antivirus scanning is degraded.
Resolution Check ICAP server and connectivity between FSVMs to ICAP server. Refer to
KB article 8414 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists
or assistance needed.
KB Article 8414
Severity Warning

Table 598: File Server AntiVirus - All ICAP Servers Down [160043] [A160043]

Name File Server AntiVirus - All ICAP Servers Down


Description All configured ICAP servers are not responding to scan requests.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 464


Alert message All configured ICAP servers are not responding from file server file_server_name.
Cause Failed to reach all configured ICAP server from FSVM.
Impact File server antivirus scanning is not possible. Access is decided by scan policy.
Resolution Check ICAP server and connectivity between FSVMs to ICAP server. Refer to
KB article 8414 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists
or assistance needed.
KB Article 8414
Severity Critical

Table 599: File Server network change failed [160044] [A160044]

Name File Server Network Change Failed


Description File Server Network Change Failed
Alert message File server file_server_name network change failed due to reason
Cause Check alert message for details
Impact File Server is not usable.
Resolution Try to change file server network again, and if the failure persists, then contact
Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 600: File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Full on FSVM [160045] [A160045]

Name File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Full on FSVM


Description Antivirus Scan Queue is Full on FSVM.
Alert message Antivirus Scan Queue is Full on FSVM nvm_name of file server file_server_name.
Cause ICAP Daemon is not able to keep up with in coming requests.
Impact File server antivirus scanning is slow, clients may observe high latency.
Resolution Check ICAP server status. Check number of ICAP servers configured. Check
workload on FSVM.
Severity Critical

Table 601: File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Piling Up on FSVM [160046] [A160046]

Name File Server AntiVirus - Scan Queue Piling Up on FSVM


Description Antivirus Scan Queue is Piling Up on FSVM.
Alert message Antivirus Scan Queue is Piling Up on FSVM nvm_name of file server file_server_name.
Cause Incoming scan request rate is higher than the scan processing rate.
Impact File server antivirus scanning is slow, clients may observe high latency.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 465


Resolution Check ICAP server status. Check number of ICAP servers configured. Check
workload on FSVM.
Severity Warning

Table 602: File Server AntiVirus - Excessive Quarantined / Unquarantined Files [160047]
[A160047]

Name File Server AntiVirus - Excessive Quarantined / Unquarantined Files


Description Excessive Quarantined / Unquarantined Files on File Server.
Alert message File Server file_server_name has a lot of quarantined / unquarantined files.
Cause Number of quarantined / unquarantined files on file server is approaching
limit.
Impact File server will stop scanning the files once the limit is reached. Default action
specified in the scan policy will be applied.
Resolution Delete unwanted quarantined / unquarantined files, check ICAP server for
false positives or check system for virus activity.
Severity Warning

Table 603: File Server AntiVirus - Quarantined / Unquarantined Files Limit Reached [160048]
[A160048]

Name File Server AntiVirus - Quarantined / Unquarantined Files Limit Reached


Description Quarantined / Unquarantined Files Limit is Reached on File Server.
Alert message File Server file_server_name has reached quarantined / unquarantined files limit.
Cause Number of quarantined / unquarantined files on file server reached limit.
Impact File server stopped scanning files. Default action in the scan policy is applied.
Resolution Delete unwanted quarantined / unquarantined files, check ICAP server for
false positives or check system for virus activity. Refer to KB article 8416
for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance
needed.
KB Article 8416
Severity Critical

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.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 466


Impact The Nutanix Files cluster may become inaccessible.
Resolution Check that the NTP service is running and the NTP servers are reachable from
the file server VMs. Refer to KB article 8404 for more details. Contact Nutanix
support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8404
Severity Warning

Table 605: File Server User Management Configuration Failed [160050] [A160050]

Name File Server User Management Configuration Failed


Description Given user management options could not be configured for the file server.
Alert message The values provided for File server file_server_name's user management options are incorrect.
Cause Failed to configure user management with given options
Impact The file server may have restricted or insecure access from various clients.
Resolution Update correct entries against fields in the User Management tab. Refer to KB
article 9123 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or
assistance needed.
KB Article 9123
Severity Warning

Table 606: /home partition usage on a file server VM higher than threshold [160051] [A160051]

Name File Server Disk Usage Warning


Description Space consumption under /home partition on file server VM is higher than the
set threshold
Alert message /home partition usage on File server VM fsvm_name on file server file_server_name at usage_pct
(greater than threshold threshold_pct).
Cause File server has one or more nodes under extensive load.
Impact Deleting a share from a File server fails.
Resolution Remove unwanted data or files from under /home for the specified file server.
Refer to KB article 8478 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8478
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 607: File server DNS records cannot be refreshed [160052] [A160052]

Name File Server DNS - Unable to refresh DNS records


Description File server DNS records periodic refresh failed

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 467


Alert message File server file_server_name DNS records cannot be updated
Cause DNS entries may not be created with Nutanix Files computer account due to
insufficient permissions.
Impact If scavenging is active on the DNS servers, then Nutanix Files DNS records
may get removed. This can cause clients to not connect with Nutanix Files
using its DNS hostname.
Resolution Create static DNS entries for the fileserver manually using 'DNS' button.
Update required permissions for the Nutanix Files computer account. Refer to
KB article 8405 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists
or assistance needed.
KB Article 8405
Severity Critical

Table 608: File Server Share Backup diff path translation failed [160053] [A160053]

Name File Server Backup Diff Path Translation Warning


Description Backup diff found inodes whose path translation failed
Alert message Backup diff found inodes whose path translation failed file_server_name, error information:
failure_msg

Cause File server share may have hardlinks.


Impact Some files may not have been backed up.
Resolution Refer to KB article 8874 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8874
Severity Warning

Table 609: File Server Partner Server Connectivity Down [160054] [A160054]

Name File Server Partner Server Connectivity Down


Description Partner server is not responding to file notifications.
Alert message Partner server partner_server_host is not responding from file server file_server_name.
Cause Failed to reach partner server from File Server VM.
Impact File server stopped notifying file operation events.
Resolution Ensure that the partner server is functioning and that there is connectivity
between File Server VMs and the partner server.
Severity Critical

Table 610: File Server DNS resolver IP connectivity Failure [160055] [A160055]

Name File Server DNS resolver IP connectivity Failure

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 468


Description File server cannot resolve its domain name using configured DNS resolver IP
addresses.
Alert message File server file_server_name cannot resolve its domain name using configured DNS resolver IP
addresses. message
Cause None of the configured DNS resolver IP addresses are reachable. None of the
configured DNS resolver IP addresses are resolving the file server domain
name.
Impact File server services may be unavailable and new clients may not be
authenticated.
Resolution Ensure that the servers specified by DNS resolver IP addresses are functional.
Refer to KB article 8406 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8406
Severity Warning

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]

Name File Server NTP servers connectivity failure


Description File server cannot connect to NTP server.
Alert message File Server file_server_name cannot reach NTP servers specified. reason
Cause None of the configured NTP servers are reachable.
Impact File server services may become inaccessible.
Resolution Ensure that the NTP servers are functional and are reachable from the file
server VMs. Refer to KB article 8135 for more details. Contact Nutanix support
if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8135
Severity Critical

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 469


Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 613: File server services got interrupted [160059] [A160059]

Name File Server services got interrupted


Description One of the fileserver services has restarted.
Alert message File server file_server_name services got interrupted. Error Message: message
Cause One of the fileserver services has restarted.
Impact Some fileserver service would be unavailable to NAS clients momentarily.
Resolution If the service continues to be down, consider restarting minerva_ha service.
Severity Warning

Table 614: Share usage reaching to configured limit [160061] [A160061]

Name File Server Share Space Usage Reaching Configured Limit


Description Share will be no longer be writable.
Alert message Share share_name on file server file_server_name is approaching capacity
Cause Share usage reaching its configured limit
Impact Writes to the share will fail if share gets full.
Resolution Increase storage allocation to the share or direct users to free up space by
removing unneeded files. Please refer KB article 8690 for more details. If you
are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for assistance.
KB Article 8690
Severity Warning

Table 615: Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint on File Server [160062] [A160062]

Name File Server Failed to Reach Pulse REST Endpoint


Description Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint on File Server.
Alert message Pulse cannot connect to REST server endpoint on File Server file_server_name. Connection
Status: connection_status, Pulse Enabled: enabled, Error Message: message
Cause REST server endpoint is not reachable from Pulse.
Impact Data driven serviceability and customer support cannot be performed for
affected File Server.
Resolution Ensure that the REST server endpoint is reachable from Pulse on File Server.
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 470


Table 616: Storage pool usage reaching its limit [160063] [A160063]

Name File Server Storage Pool Usage Reaching Configured Limit


Description Shares on storage pool will be no longer writable.
Alert message share_names shares on file server file_server_name are about to run out of space. command
Cause Storage pool usage is reaching its limit
Impact Writes to the shares may fail if their storage pool gets full.
Resolution Increase storage allocation to the share or direct users to free up space by
removing unneeded files. Please refer KB article 8690 for more details. If you
are unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix Support for assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 617: Duplicate IP address detected for a File Server VM. [160068] [A160068]

Name File Server Duplicate IP Address Detected


Description File server VMs have IP address conflict.
Alert message Duplicate IP address detected for a file server VMs for file_server_name. Error Message: message
Cause Another host has started using a file server VM IP address.
Impact Some file server operations may fail due to invalid network configuration.
Resolution Update IP address on host which has an IP address conflict with file server VM.
Refer to KB article 8951 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8951
Severity Warning

Table 618: File Server Unique Fsid failure [160069] [A160069]

Name File Server Unique Fsid Failure


Description Assigning Unique Fsid failed
Alert message Found unique fsid failure file_server_name, error information: failure_msg
Cause Duplicate Unique Fsid present
Impact NFS handles may not be unique.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
Severity Warning

Table 619: File Server VM Time Drift from NTP Servers [160072] [A160072]

Name File Server VM Time Drift from NTP Servers


Description Difference between FSVM clock and NTP servers is too large

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 471


Alert message File Server VM fsvm_name clock is different from NTP servers for time_diff_secs seconds.
Acceptable time difference time_diff_limit_secs seconds.
Cause NTP servers are not publishing time correctly. File server VM time is not
syncing with NTP servers.
Impact File server cluster may become inaccessible
Resolution Verify NTP servers are functional and reachable. Refer to KB article 8135 for
more details. Contact Nutanix support if the issue still persists or assistance is
needed.
KB Article 8135
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 620: File Server Service in Crash Loop [160074] [A160074]

Name File server service in crash loop


Description File server service in crash loop
Alert message File server service crashed_service_name has crashed crash_count times in crash_interval_secs
seconds.
Cause File server service has crashed multiple times in short interval
Impact Some file server features may not be functioning
Resolution Refer to KB article 8418 for more details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still
persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 8418
Severity Critical

Table 621: File server service got interrupted [160101] [A160101]

Name File server service got interrupted


Description One of the fileserver services has restarted.
Alert message File server file_server_name service got interrupted. Error Message: message
Cause One of the fileserver services has restarted.
Impact Some fileserver service would be unavailable to NAS clients momentarily.
Resolution If the service continues to be down, consider restarting minerva_ha service.
Severity Warning

Table 622: File Server Active Directory operation failed during Disaster Recovery [160103]
[A160103]

Name File Server Active Directory operation failed during Disaster Recovery

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 472


Description Active Directory operations during failover or failback operation as part of
Disaster Recovery failed.
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery operation failed to update Active Directory.
message

Cause Various. See message for details.


Impact Clients connected to previous file server may not work with the current file
server after Disaster Recovery.
Resolution Various. See message for details.
KB Article 9805
Severity Critical

Table 623: File Server Disaster Recovery - target site not reachable [160105] [A160105]

Name File Server Disaster Recovery - target site not reachable


Description File server target site is not reachable for Disaster Recovery
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery - Target site is not reachable. message
Cause Network connectivity issue between the source and the target.
Impact Disaster Recovery operation may be impacted. Share data may not be
replicated on time.
Resolution Please check the network connectivity between the source and the target.
KB Article 9857
Severity Critical

Table 624: File Server Disaster Recovery - not able to meet RPO [160106] [A160106]

Name File Server Disaster Recovery - not able to meet RPO


Description File server Disaster Recovery feature is not able meet current RPO standard.
Alert message File server file_server_name Disaster Recovery feature is not able meet current RPO standard.
message

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 473


Table 625: File Server Disaster Recovery - both source and target are active file servers
[160107] [A160107]

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]

Name File Server Connected Share Path not found


Description Path for connected share is not available.
Alert message File server file_server_name connected share child_share_name path submount_path was not found.
Cause The submount path doesn't exist.
Impact Share won't be accessible from submount path
Resolution Remove submount path and reconfigure the share with new or recreated
submount path
Severity Warning

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 474


Severity Critical

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]

Name File Server Disaster Recovery - failover operation failed


Description File server - failed to take over primary file server during Disaster Recovery
Failover operation.
Alert message Failed to take over primary file server during Disaster Recovery Failover operation on
file_server_name. message

Cause Various. Please see alert message for more details.


Impact Primary file server clients may not access the shares/exports.
Resolution Correct the error and retry the operation.
Severity Warning

Table 630: File Server Disaster Recovery - failback operation failed [160113] [A160113]

Name File Server Disaster Recovery - failback operation failed


Description File server - failed to take over current file server resource during Disaster
Recovery Failback operation.
Alert message Failed to take over current file server resources during Disaster Recovery Failback operation on
file_server_name. message

Cause Various. Please see alert message for more details.


Impact Current file server clients may not access the shares/exports.
Resolution Correct the error and retry the operation.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 475


Severity Warning

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 633: File Server Domain is Offline [160120] [A160120]

Name File Server Domain is Offline


Description File server domain is offline.
Alert message File Server file_server_name domain domain_name is offline on node node_name.
Cause There is a network connectivity issue for the AD server.
Impact Domain operations cannot be performed for the file server. Client connectivity
with file-server is disabled.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 476


Resolution Check that the AD server is reachable. Refer to KB article 10074 for more
details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 10074
Severity Critical

Table 634: File Server Domain Controller is detected slow. [160121] [A160121]

Name File Server Domain Controller is detected slow


Description File Server domain controller is detected slow.
Alert message File Server file_server_name domain controller dc_name is detected slow on node node_name.
Cause There could be network connectivity issue the AD server or the kerberos user
ticket is getting resolved after multiple redirections to child domain having the
information.
Impact Domain operations cannot be performed for the file server. Client connectivity
with file-server is disabled.
Resolution Check that the AD server is reachable. Refer to KB article 10076 for more
details. Contact Nutanix support if issue still persists or assistance needed.
KB Article 10076
Severity Warning

Table 635: AIDE Baselines configuration changes on File Server. [160130] [A160130]

Name File Server AIDE Baseline Configuration Changes Check


Description Checks the log files of aide for changes to baseline configs if aide is enabled
Alert message Detected changes to baseline configs on a File Server. message
Cause Baseline configurations changed on a File Server.
Impact Aide execution may fail depending on the files that were changed
Resolution Check changed files and revert their changes if needed
KB Article 10461
Severity Warning

Table 636: Remote syslog server forwarding failed on a File Server. [160131] [A160131]

Name File Server Remote Syslog Server Forwarding Check


Description Check remote syslog server log forwarding on a File Server.
Alert message Remote syslog server forwarding failures detected on a File Server. message
Cause Remote syslog server forwarding failed on a File Server.
Impact Remote syslog server will not be receiving log output from the File Server.
Resolution Check for forwarding failure causes with rsyslog server.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 477


KB Article 10735
Severity Warning

Table 637: File Server Tiering Service is not healthy [160135] [A160135]

Name File Server Tiering Service is not healthy


Description Tiering service is not in a healthy state and can lead to temporary
unavailability of tiered files.
Alert message message
Cause Tiering service might be overloaded or is unavailable.
Impact Delayed processing of tiering operations and can lead to temporary
unavailability of tiered files.
Resolution Check file server cluster health and refer to KB11073 for more details.
KB Article 11073
Severity Warning

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]

Name File Server/Share(s) are deleted; Object Store cleanup is required


Description File Server/Share(s) are deleted, please cleanup the Object Store.
Alert message message
Cause File Server/Share(s) are deleted on the cluster.
Impact Objects can remain longer than intended. After the file server is deleted, we
cannot accurately track the objects for garbage collection.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 478


Resolution Please cleanup the Object Store. Refer to KB11075 for more details. Contact
Nutanix support for assistance.
KB Article 11075
Severity Info

Table 640: Disk space usage for audit volume high on a file server. [160138] [A160138]

Name File Server System Audit Volume Space Usage High


Description Checks if FSVM system audit volume usage is within threshold to ensure
uninterrupted operations.
Alert message System Audit Volume Space Usage High on a file server. message
Cause Increased FSVM system audit volume usage due to excessive logging, or
miscellaneous files being placed inside.
Impact If FSVM system audit volume is 100% utilized, then auditd will stop and further
system auditing will not be recorded.
Resolution Remove files other than audit.log* from /home/log/audit. If unsure, please
engage Nutanix Support for assistance.
KB Article 1523
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

Table 641: File Server Share Conversion Alert [160139] [A160139]

Name File Server Share Conversion Alert


Description File server share conversion - see message for details
Alert message Share conversion for file_server_name: message
Cause See details in the alert message
Impact See details in the alert message
Resolution See details in the alert message
Severity Info

Table 642: Versioning is suspended for the bucket in the file server tiering profile. [160142]
[A160142]

Name File Server Tiering - Bucket versioning is suspended


Description Versioning is suspended for the bucket in the file server tiering profile.
Alert message message
Cause Versioning is suspended for the bucket in the file server tiering profile.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 479


Impact Tiering is not allowed if versioning is suspended for the bucket in the file
server tiering profile.
Resolution Enable versioning for the bucket in the file server tiering profile. Please refer to
the vendor-specific documentation for bucket versioning configuration.
Severity Warning

Other (Prism Central)

Table 643: Detected recovery points on prism central managing clusters with high density
nodes [110452] [A110452]

Name High density nodes recovery points check


Description Checks if recovery points are detected on prism central managing clusters
with high density nodes
Alert message Recovery points are detected on prism central managing clusters with high density nodes
Cause Detected recovery points on prism central managing clusters with high
density nodes
Impact Recovery points are not currently supported on clusters with high density
nodes. They may impact cluster operations
Resolution Delete recovery points on prism central hosted by clusters with high density
nodes
KB Article 7003
Severity Info

Table 644: Detected protection policies on Prism Central managing clusters with high density
nodes [110453] [A110453]

Name High density nodes protection rules check


Description Checks if protection policies are detected on Prism Central managing clusters
with high density nodes
Alert message Protection policies are detected on Prism Central managing clusters with high density nodes
Cause Protection policies are detected on a Prism Central managing clusters with
high density nodes
Impact Data protection is currently not supported for clusters with high density
nodes, this may impact cluster operations
Resolution Delete protection policies configured on Prism Central managing clusters with
high density nodes
KB Article 7003
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 480


Table 645: Metro Availability Operation Failed [130124] [A130124]

Name Metro Availability Operation Failed


Description Metro availability operation failed
Alert message For the protection domain 'protection_domain_name', operation failed to the remote site
'remote_name'. Reason: 'reason'.
Cause Check the alert message for the reason of failure
Impact Metro availability operation could not be started.
Resolution Resolve the issue as stated in the alert message and retry the Metro operation.
If the issue persists contact Nutanix Support
KB Article 10111
Severity Critical

Table 646: Recovery Point Objective Cannot Be Met [130138] [A130138]

Name Recovery Point Objective Cannot Be Met


Description Recovery Point Objective Cannot Be Met
Alert message Recovery point objective cannot be met because 'reason'
Cause Various
Impact Recovery plan could be affected.
Resolution Contact Nutanix support if this condition persists
Severity Warning

Table 647: Network Segmentation Config Update Failed [130363] [A130363]

Name NS Config Update Failed


Description Network Segmentation Config update during AOS upgrade failed
Alert message message
Cause Network Segmentation Configuration update during AOS upgrade failed
Impact All Network Segmentation operations will be blocked
Resolution Try CLI command network_segmentation fix_config_after_upgrade on any
CVM. Contact Nutanix Support in case of command failure.
Severity Warning

Table 648: Memory configuration inconsistent. [200306] [A200306]

Name Prism Central VM same memory level check


Description Check all Prism Central VMs have the same memory level.
Alert message The Prism Central VMs are not configured to have the same amount of memory.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 481


Cause Memory configuration among Prism Central VMs is inconsistent.
Impact The Prism Central VM will not perform at the level necessary to manage the
cluster.
Resolution Fix Prism Central VM memory configuration by providing same amount of
memory for all the Prism Central VMs
KB Article 5377
Severity Warning
Severity Info

Table 649: Prism Central VM type or annotation not set. [200307] [A200307]

Name PCVM type and annotation check


Description Check the type and annotation of all PCVMs are set.
Alert message The type or annotation of Prism Central VMs is not set
Cause Prism Central VMs do not have annotation set.
Impact Guardrails to avoid potentially disruptive user actions on a Prism Central will
not be applied.
Resolution Set the annotation for the Prism Central VM. Refer to KB 6027.
KB Article 6027
Severity Warning

Table 650: Unequal metadata partition size(s) across Prism Central VMs. [200308] [A200308]

Name Prism Central VM same disk size check


Description Checks if metadata partition size(s) are the same among Prism Central VMs.
Alert message The metadata partitions across Prism Central VMs are not consistent due to mismatch in sizes:
disks_info

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]

Name PC-PE time drift check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 482


Description Checks ntp sync between the PC and the registered PEs.
Alert message Time differs between Prism Central and registered Prism Elements.
Cause Time is not synchronized between Prism Central and registered Prism
Elements.
Impact Stale statistics or configuration may appear in Prism Central.
Impact Statistics may not be available in Prism Central.
Impact Components that make use of the statistics or configuration in Prism Central
may not function as expected.
Resolution Ensure that NTP is configured properly and that the cluster has connectivity
with the NTP server. Refer to KB 6121.
KB Article 6121
Severity Warning

Table 652: PE-PC incompatible AOS versions. [200312] [A200312]

Name PC-PE incompatible versions


Description Checks if the Prism Element and Prism Central AOS versions are compatible.
Alert message The AOS version of the registered cluster is incompatible with the Prism Central version.
Cause The AOS version of the registered cluster is incompatible with the Prism
Central version.
Impact Prism Central features will not work as expected for this cluster.
Resolution Upgrade the AOS version of the registered cluster to a version compatible
with this Prism Central.
KB Article 6323
Severity Warning

Table 653: Prism Central VM active upgrade check [200313]

Name Prism Central VM active upgrade check


Description Checks if there are any active upgrades
Cause An upgrade is in process for this entity
Impact Maintenance activities will have to wait until upgrade is finished.
Resolution Wait until the upgrade is completed before doing any other actions.Contact
Nutanix support for assistance.
KB Article 6644

Table 654: Prism Central Upgrades are disabled on {cvm_ip} [200314] [A200314]

Name Prism Central VM upgrades are disabled check

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 483


Description Checks if upgrades are disabled on Prism Central VM
Alert message Prism Central Upgrades are disabled on cvm_ip
Cause Prism Central Upgrade has been paused manually.
Impact Upgrades from Prism won’t proceed.
Resolution Upgrades have been disabled and need to be re-enabled.Contact Nutanix
support for assistance.
KB Article 6644
Severity Info

Table 655: Free Xi Account Expired [200701] [A200701]

Name Free Xi Account Expired


Description Free period using Xi expired. If this issue persists, you may experience an
interruption in service.
Alert message Free period using Xi expired. If this issue persists, you may experience an interruption in
service.
Cause The free period is limited by time.
Resolution Select a payment plan and method in the billing section under the top right
gear menu.
Severity Critical

Table 656: Xi Subscription Expired [200702] [A200702]

Name Xi Subscription Expired


Description Xi subscription period expired. If this issue persists, you may experience an
interruption in service.
Alert message Xi subscription period expired. If this issue persists, you may experience an interruption in
service.
Cause The subscription period is limited by time.
Resolution Select a new payment plan in the billing section under the top right gear
menu.
KB Article 8255
Severity Critical

Table 657: Xi Payment Missed [200703] [A200703]

Name Xi Payment Missed


Description Unable to process payment. If this issue persists, you may experience an
interruption in service.
Alert message Unable to process payment. If this issue persists, you may experience an interruption in service.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 484


Cause This is likely due to an expired or canceled credit card.
Resolution Update payment method in the billing section under the top right gear menu.
KB Article 8254
Severity Critical

Table 658: Xi Payment Missed [200704] [A200704]

Name Xi Payment Missed


Description Unable to process payment. If this issue persists, you may experience an
interruption in service.
Alert message Xi tenant tenant_uuid invoice payment for plan_name plan failed at timestamp_usecs
Cause This is likely due to a change in address or a forgotten or misplaced invoice.
Resolution Ensure invoices are sent to the correct contact information provided in the
billing section under the top right gear menu. Confirm with your team that the
invoice wasn't misplaced or forgotten. Contact support if needed.
KB Article 8253
Severity Critical

Table 659: Recovery Plan has conflicting IP mappings with other Recovery Plan(s) [300430]
[A300430]

Name Recovery Plan IP mappings check


Description Checks for conflicting IP mappings across multiple Recovery Plans for the
paired AZs.
Alert message Recovery Plan rp has conflicting IP mappings with other Recovery Plans. conflicting_ips
conflicting_vms

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 485


Table 660: Recovery Plan has errors in Consistency Group(s) configuration. [300434]
[A300434]

Name Recovery Plan consistency group configuration check


Description Checks if Recovery Plans have errors in the configuration of consistency
groups.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has errors in configuration of following Consistency
Group(s): partial_cg_names.
Cause Recovery Plan {recovery_plan_name} has the following partial Consistency
Groups: {partial_cg_names}.
Impact Partial Consistency Group might be recovered on failover.
Impact Consistency Group will not be reformed post failover of entities in the
Recovery Plan.
Impact Recovered VM(s), Volume Group(s) might be in inconsistent state.
Resolution Ensure that all VM(s) and Volume Group(s) belonging to a consistency group
are present in Recovery Plan
KB Article 10532
Severity Warning

Table 661: Recovery Plan has networks which are modified [300435] [A300435]

Name Recovery Plan modified network check


Description Checks if network names specified in the Recovery Plan are modified.
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has following networks which are modified: missing_networks.
Cause Network name(s) specified in the Recovery Plan are modified.
Cause Network(s) specified in the Recovery Plan are deleted.
Impact VMs will be recovered without vNIC upon failover
Resolution Ensure that Network name(s) specified in the Recovery Plan are correct.
Resolution Ensure that Network(s) specified in the Recovery Plan exists.
KB Article 11044
Severity Warning

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.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 486


Cause VM(s) with iSCSI attached Volume Group(s) do not have a compatible NGT
installed.
Impact Volume Group(s) attachment post recovery of a VM(s) would fail.
Resolution Ensure that the VM(s) with iSCSI attached Volume Group(s) have NGT version
of 2.3 or higher.
KB Article 11649
Severity Warning

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]

Name Recovery Plan VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) configuration check.


Description Checks if the VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) configuration which are
specified in the Recovery Plan are the same as the live VM to Volume Group(s)
attachment(s).
Alert message Recovery Plan recovery_plan_name has VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) attachment_list
configuration specified that are not the same as the live VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s).
Cause VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) which are specified in the Recovery
Plan are not present in the live state.
Cause VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) present in the live state are not
specified in the Recovery Plan.
Cause VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) authentication configuration present in
the live state are not the same as the configuration specified in the Recovery
Plan.
Impact VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) might not be done post recovery.
Resolution Ensure that VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) which are specified in the
Recovery Plan, are also present in the live state.
Resolution Ensure that all VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) present in the live state
are also specified in the Recovery Plan.
Resolution Ensure that VM to Volume Group(s) attachment(s) authentication
configuration present in the live state matches with the configuration specified
in the Recovery Plan.
KB Article 11629
Severity Warning

Table 664: Nucalm Internal Service has Stopped Working [400101] [A400101]

Name Nucalm Service Down


Description Nucalm internal service is down
Alert message Discovered that the nucalm internal service is not working: 'service_names'
Cause Nucalm internal service may have stopped working
Impact You will not be able to perform App Management related operations.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 487


Resolution Please refer to KB-7080
KB Article 7080
KB Article 8621
Severity Critical

Table 665: Epsilon Internal Service has Stopped Working [400102] [A400102]

Name Epsilon Service Down


Description Epsilon internal service is down
Alert message Discovered that the epsilon internal service is not working: 'service_names'
Cause Epsilon internal service may have stopped working
Impact You will not be able to perform App Management related operations.
Resolution Please refer to KB-7080
KB Article 7080
KB Article 8622
Severity Critical

Table 666: Applications Archive ready for download. [400104] [A400104]

Name Applications Archive Ready


Description Archive ready for download.
Alert message Application logs from 'start_time' to 'end_time' are now available for download and archival.
Please go to Calm > Settings to download them.
Cause Archival process archived the run logs.
Impact You will not be able to download it after a week.
Resolution Make sure you download the archive.
Severity Critical

Table 667: Dataservice IP is unreachable [400105] [A400105]

Name Data service IP connectivity check


Description Data service IP is not reachable
Alert message Data service ip 'data_service_ip' is unreachable from prism central node_name
Cause Invalid or empty data service ip
Impact Nutanix Calm containers will be inaccessible
Resolution Please provide correct data service ip. Review KB 5199
KB Article 5199

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 488


Severity Critical

Table 668: Calm showback is unable to reach beam service [400107] [A400107]

Name Beam is unreachable


Description Beam service is unreachable. Calm showback calculations will be affected
Alert message Beam service is unreachable. Calm showback calculations will be affected
Cause Prism central may not have internet connectivity or beam service is
unavailable.
Impact Impact on Calm Showback data.
Resolution Review KB-6664 for further troubleshooting.
KB Article 6664
Severity Critical

Table 669: AHV Prism Element attached [400108] [A400108]

Name AHV Prism Element attached


Description A new AHV Prism Element is attached.
Alert message AHV Prism Element attached name: pe_name
Cause A new AHV Prism Element is attached.
Impact New Calm provider setting is added without showback price list.
Impact Prism Element unusable in Calm if not associated with Calm project.
Resolution (A) Associate the Prism Element in Calm project. (B) Define the price list for
added Calm provider setting.
Severity Info

Table 670: AHV Prism Element detached [400109] [A400109]

Name AHV Prism Element detached


Description One of the existing AHV Prism Element is detached.
Alert message AHV Prism Element detached name: pe_name
Cause One of the existing AHV Prism Element is detached.
Impact Actions other than soft delete cannot be run on Calm applications that are
provisioned on this Prism Element.
Impact Calm provider settings corresponding to this Prism Element is deleted.
Resolution In case the Prism Element is permanently detached run soft delete on the
Calm applications that are provisioned on this Prism Element.
Severity Info

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 489


Table 671: Calm Version Mismatch [400110] [A400110]

Name Calm Version Mismatch


Description Calm Version Mismatch
Alert message All nodes are not running on same Calm version
Cause Failed LCM upgrade
Impact Calm will not work as expected
Resolution Refer to KB 7528 for resolution
KB Article 7528
Severity Critical

Table 672: Epsilon Version Mismatch [400111] [A400111]

Name Epsilon Version Mismatch


Description Epsilon Version Mismatch
Alert message All nodes are not running on same Epsilon version
Cause Failed LCM upgrade
Impact Epsilon will not work as expected
Resolution Refer to KB 7528 for resolution
KB Article 8694
Severity Critical

Table 673: Calm Containers are unhealthy [400112] [A400112]

Name Calm containers health check


Description Check for Calm Container's state
Alert message Nutanix Calm or Epsilon container is in unhealthy state
Cause Internal services of each calm containers are down, Docker plugin is not
working properly
Impact Nutanix Calm services may be inaccessible or performs incorrectly.
Resolution Please check internal services of each calm containers.
KB Article 7343

Table 674: Calm Policy Engine Internal Service has Stopped Working [400114] [A400114]

Name Calm Policy Engine Service Down


Description Calm Policy Engine internal service is down

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 490


Alert message Discovered that the Calm policy engine internal service running on policy_engine_ip is not
working: 'service_names'
Cause Calm Policy Engine internal service may have stopped working
Impact You will not be able to perform App Management related operations.
Resolution Please refer to KB-9456
KB Article 9456
Severity Critical

Table 675: Threshold set for the quota has been crossed [400116] [A400116]

Name Quota threshold crossed


Description Quota threshold crossed
Alert message Quota utilisation has crossed threshold threshold for quota_attributes at quota_level
Cause Number of virtual machine(s) deployed under quota exceeds the threshold
Impact Quota consumption can go beyond the threshold value
Resolution Either delete virtual machines or increase threshold value set for the quota
Severity Warning

Prism Central VM

Table 676: XPilot Retry Approval Pending [111081] [A111081]

Name XPilot Retry Approval Pending


Description XPilot Playbook is waiting for Approval to retry
Alert message XPilot Playbook action_rule_name is awaiting approval to begin retry no. retry_count
Cause XPilot Playbook is waiting for approval to begin retry
Impact Playbook will fail after wait period of 7 days
Resolution Resume playbook to give approval. Refer to KB 9961 for further details
KB Article 9961
Severity Info

Storage (Prism Central)

Table 677: VSS Snapshot of Container Share Failed [20020] [A20020]

Name VSS snapshot of container share failed


Description A VSS initiated snapshot of the container share failed due to too many files in
the container.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 491


Alert message A backup application requires a container id container_id to be backed up, however the VSS
snapshot operation on it failed as there are files_present files on the container. Only a container
with a maximum of files_max files can be snapshotted through VSS.
Cause Too many files in the container.
Impact Third party backup applications using VSS to backup VMs from a container
share will fail.
Resolution Reduce the number of files in each container to less than or equal to 1000.
Severity Warning

Table 678: Fingerprinting Disabled [130021] [A1068]

Name Fingerprinting On Write


Description Fingerprinting Disabled
Alert message Disabling fingerprinting (deduplication) for future writes. Calculated metadata usage of
metadata_usage bytes exceeds safety limit of metadata_limit bytes on Controller VM service_vm_id.
The metadata disk size is metadata_disk_size.
Cause The metadata disk is used for metadata and data. Once the metadata
portion on the disk exceeds the safety threshold AOS disables fingerprinting
(deduplication) of future writes. Metadata sizes can increase due to a variety
of reasons such as having too many snapshots, or simply because too much
data is fingerprinted.
Impact The advantages of deduplication are not available.
Resolution Once the metadata size is brought under the safety limit (for example,
by removing unneeded snapshots, or by expanding the cluster size), the
fingerprinting will be auto-enabled.
Severity Warning

Table 679: Metadata Usage High [130025] [A1101]

Name Metadata Usage


Description Metadata Usage High.
Alert message Metadata usage on Controller VM service_vm_external_ip has exceeded critical_pct%.
Cause The cluster either has too many snapshots or too much data is being
fingerprinted.
Impact Cluster performance may be significantly degraded.
Resolution Reduce metadata size by removing unneeded snapshots, creating snapshots
less frequently, creating snapshots of fewer VMs, or expanding the cluster size.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 492


Table 680: Non Self Encryption Drive Disk Inserted [130031] [A1122]

Name Non SED Disk Inserted Check


Description Non-self-encrypting drive is inserted.
Alert message Non encrypted disk with serial disk_serial was added in drive bay disk_location on Controller VM
service_vm_external_ip. It is not usable because the rest of the cluster is protected using encrypted
drives.
Cause A cluster with self-encrypting drives has a non-self encrypting drive installed.
Impact The new drive was not mounted because the cluster cannot be fully secured
without all drives supporting encryption.
Resolution Ensure all installed drives are of self-encrypting type. If more help is needed
call Nutanix support.
KB Article 8417
Severity Critical

Table 681: On-Disk Dedup Disabled [130032] [A1089]

Name On-Disk Dedup Status


Description On-disk deduplication is disabled.
Alert message Disabling further on-disk deduplication (fingerprinting). Controller VM with ram_sizeGB RAM
and ssd_sizeGB SSD does not meet the minimum requirements of required_ram_sizeGB RAM and
required_ssd_sizeGB SSD to support the on-disk deduplication feature.

Cause To support on-disk deduplication (fingerprinting) feature, the Controller VM


must meet minimum requirements for RAM and SSD. If this threshold is not
satisfied, on-disk deduplication is disabled.
Impact The advantages of on-disk deduplication are not available.
Resolution Once the Controller VMs are upgraded to meet the minimum requirements on
RAM and SSD, on-disk deduplication can be enabled. Contact Nutanix support
for assistance.
Severity Warning

Table 682: Disk Failed/Marked offline [130033] [A1044]

Name Disk Offline Status


Description Drive is marked offline.
Alert message Disk disk_position with id disk_id on node node_position of block block_position has been
marked offline due to IO errors. Serial number of the disk is disk_serial in host host_ip of block
block_serial.

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

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 493


Severity Critical

Table 683: Physical Disk Drive Has Failed [130035] [A1104]

Name Physical Disk Status


Description Physical drive has failed.
Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial and model disk_model in drive bay disk_location on Controller
VM service_vm_external_ip has failed. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause The drive has failed.


Impact Cluster storage capacity is reduced.
Resolution Replace the failed drive. Please refer to KB 4158.
KB Article 4158
Severity Critical

Table 684: Physical Disk Removed From Slot [130036] [A1103]

Name Physical Disk Remove Check


Description Physical drive is removed from the slot.
Alert message Drive with serial disk_serial and model disk_model was removed from drive bay disk_location
on Controller VM service_vm_external_ip. Node serial is node_serial_number and Node position
node_position. #rf1_custom_message@

Cause A drive was physically disconnected from a slot.


Impact Migration of data from the drive will start.
Resolution Remove the drive from the slot and reseat it. Contact the Hardware Vendor if
issue persists.
KB Article 8031
Severity Critical

Table 685: Space Reservation Violated [130053] [A1021]

Name Space Reservation Status


Description Space reservation violated.
Alert message Space reservation configured on vdisk vdisk_name belonging to Storage Container id container_id
could not be honored due to insufficient disk space resulting from a possible disk or node failure.
Cause A drive or a node has failed.
Impact The space reservations on the cluster can no longer be met. Writes by guest
VMs may fail if expected storage space is not available.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 494


Resolution Change space reservations to total less than 90% of the available storage,
and replace the drive or node as soon as possible. Refer to the Nutanix
documentation for instructions.
Severity Warning

Table 686: Volume Group Action Error [130071] [A1163]

Name Volume Group Action Status


Description Volume group action error.
Alert message Failed to action volume group with name 'vg_name' and internal ID 'vg_uuid' because reason in
protection domain 'protection_domain_name'
Cause A volume group could not be restored or could not be deleted because it is
still in use.
Impact The requested volume group action (restore or delete) could not be
completed.
Resolution Detach the volume group from VMs and external initiators before recovery.
Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10120
Severity Critical

Table 687: Unable To Remount Datastore [130076] [A130076]

Name Datastore Remount Status


Description Unable to remount a datastore.
Alert message Unable to operation Datastore 'datastore_name'host_info.
Cause Datastore information unavailable
Impact VM HA and DRS functionality might be impaired.
Resolution Check container exists on ESXi, rescan datastore and mount the container on
the hosts from Prism Element. If issue persists contact Nutanix Support
Severity Warning

Table 688: Remounted Datastore [130080] [A130080]

Name Datastore Remount Success


Description Remounted datastore.
Alert message Remounted Datastore 'datastore_name' as metro availability is being enabled.
Cause Datastore has been remounted
Impact VM HA and DRS functionality might be impaired.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 495


Resolution As the datastore has been mounted successfully rescan the datastore in
vCenter in order to complete the changes necessary to support the enhanced
planned failover functionality
Severity Info

Table 689: Protected VM(s) Not Found [130083] [A130083]

Name Protected VMs Not Found


Description Protected VM(s) Not Found.
Alert message Unable to locate VM(s) vm_names protected by protection domain 'protection_domain_name'.
Cause Protected VM(s) cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the VMs may not be backed up or replicated to a
remote site.
Impact Next transition into NearSync will be delayed if the protection domain is
configured with high frequency schedule.
Resolution Verify that the VM(s) are registered on the host. If the VM(s) were
unregistered or deleted, remove VM(s) from the protection domain. If the CVM
on the host the VM(s) are registered on was shutdown or rebooting, retry the
snapshot operation.
Severity Warning

Table 690: Protected Volume Groups Not Found [130084] [A130084]

Name Protected Volume Groups Not Found


Description Protected volume groups not found.
Alert message Unable to locate volume group(s) vg_names protected by protection domain
'protection_domain_name'.
Cause Protected volume group(s) cannot be found and may have been deleted.
Impact Any data associated with the volume group(s) may not be backed up or
replicated to a remote site.
Impact Next transition into NearSync will be delayed if the protection domain is
configured with high frequency schedule.
Resolution Remove volume group(s) from the protection domain.
Severity Warning

Table 691: VStore Snapshot Status [130086] [A130086]

Name VStore Snapshot Status


Description vStore snapshot status.
Alert message Snapshot status for vstore vstore_name: reason.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 496


Cause Various
Impact The requested VStore snapshot action could not be completed.
Resolution Resolve the stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error,
contact Nutanix support.
Severity Warning

Table 692: Disk Diagnostic Failure [130089] [A1139]

Name Disk Diagnostic Status


Description The drive diagnostic test has failed.
Alert message Drive disk_id with serial disk_serial in drive bay disk_location on Controller VM
service_vm_external_ip has failed diagnostic test. This drive is failing or has failed.
#rf1_custom_message@
Cause The drive is failing or has failed.
Impact Cluster storage capacity has been reduced.
Resolution Replace the failing drive. Refer to the Nutanix documentation for instructions.
Severity Warning

Table 693: Associated entities are not protected together. [130090] [A130090]

Name Related Entity Protection Status


Description Protection status of a related entity.
Alert message error_message.
Cause Related entity is not protected in the same protection domain.
Impact Related VM/Volume Group will not be snapshotted and recovered.
Resolution Protect the related entity in the same consistency group.
Severity Warning

Table 694: iSCSI Configuration Failed [130100] [A130100]

Name iSCSI Configuration Failed


Description iSCSI Configuration Failed
Alert message Failed to re-configure iSCSI settings on the recovered VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Nutanix Guest Tools failed to execute some iSCSI commands on the guest VM.
Impact iSCSI disks may become unavailable on the guest VM.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 497


Resolution (A) If IQN and iSCSI target IP addresses of the VM have been updated by
Nutanix Guest Agent, Discover and connect to new targets after rebooting the
VM. (B) Manually configure iSCSI settings on the guest VM. (C) Resolve the
stated reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error, contact Nutanix
support.
KB Article 10118
Severity Critical

Table 695: Recovered VM Disk Configuration Update Failed [130107] [A130107]

Name Disk Configuration Update Failed


Description Disk Configuration Update Failed
Alert message Failed to make some disks online on the recovered VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Nutanix Guest Tools failed to automatically bring the disks online.
Impact Disks may become offline on the recovered VM.
Resolution Manually bring the disks online on the recovered VM. Resolve the stated
reason for the failure. If you cannot resolve the error, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8208
Severity Critical

Table 696: System-Defined Flash Mode Usage Limit Exceeded [130120] [A130120]

Name System Defined Flash Mode Usage Limit


Description Check that usage for flash-mode-enabled vDisks is within system limits.
Alert message System has down-migrated the data of flash-mode-enabled vDisks.
Cause Too many vDisks are assigned to the flash tier, or the vDisks assigned to the
flash tier are too large.
Impact The advantages of flash mode may not be available.
Resolution Reduce the number of flash-mode-enabled vDisks or increase the capacity of
the flash tier.
Severity Warning

Table 697: NFS metadata usage high [130122] [A130122]

Name NFS Metadata Size Overshoot


Description NFS Metadata Usage High
Alert message NFS metadata usage is too high. Calculated metadata usage of metadata_usage bytes exceeds
safety limit of metadata_limit bytes on Controller VM service_vm_id.
Cause Either a NFS datastore is used as a file store which is not supported, or too
many files are present in the datastore.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 498


Impact Cluster performance and stability may be significantly degraded.
Resolution If a NFS datastore is used as a file store, remove the corresponding files and
wait for up to 24 hours to allow for compaction.
KB Article 6012
Severity Warning

Table 698: Guest Power Operation through NGT Failed [130149] [A130149]

Name VM Guest Power Op Failed


Description Guest Power Operation Failed
Alert message Failed to perform operation 'operation'on VM 'vm_name'. reason.
Cause Power operation failed in guest operating system.
Impact Desired power operation may not be completed.
Resolution (A) Manually shutdown the VM by logging into the VM and running the
appropriate shutdown command. (B) Resolve the issue for the failure. If you
cannot resolve the issue, contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 10242
Severity Warning

Table 699: Protected VM(s) May Not Be Recoverable [130183] [A130183]

Name Protected VMs May Not Be Recoverable


Description Protected VM(s) May Not Be Recoverable
Alert message VM(s) vm_names protected by protection domain 'protection_domain_name' are running from
VMWare snapshots. Recovery of the VMs from the PD snapshot 'snapshot_id' may not succeed.
Manual intervention is required to boot up the VMs.
Cause Protected VM(s) are running from VMWare snapshots and may not be
recoverable.
Impact Recovery of the VMs from the PD snapshot may not succeed
Resolution Ensure that the VMs are not running from VMWare snapshot at the time of
scheduled Protection Domain snapshot. Refer Nutanix KB: 7023 for further
details.
Severity Warning

Table 700: External Repository Access Failure [130208] [A130208]

Name External Repository Access Failure


Description Failed to access an NFS v3 external repository.
Alert message Failed to access external repository external_repository_name. Failure reason: message.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 499


Cause Network connectivity issues between the AOS CVM subnet and the external
repository. This can be either intermittent or permanent.
Cause The NFS server may not have white-listed access to the CVM subnet.
Cause The NFS server may not support the v3 protocol version.
Cause The repository is no longer exported by the NFS server.
Cause The NFS server may not allow clients accessing it using non-privileged TCP
ports (port number higher than 1023).
Cause The NFSv3 external repository does not have the correct access permission.
Cause I/O error on the NFS server while mounting the exported directory.
Impact Mounting an NFS v3 external repository fails
Resolution Make sure that the CVM subnet has access to the NFS server.
Resolution Make sure the CVM subnet is (all AOS CVMs have) white-listed for the export
on the NFS server.
Resolution Make sure that the NFS server support NFS v3.
Resolution Make sure the repository is exported by the NFS server.
Resolution Make sure the NFS server allows clients accessing it using non-privileged TCP
ports.
Resolution Make sure that the exported directory of the NFS external repository is
mountable.
Resolution Make sure the NFS server is in a good state.
Severity Warning

Table 701: IO failures to a data source in an external repository [130209] [A130209]

Name IO failures to data sources in external repositories


Description IO to an external data source within an external repository failed.
Alert message IO to the external data source with path relative_uri in the external repository
external_repository_name failed. Failure reason: message.

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.

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 500


Resolution Make sure that the CVM subnet has access to the NFS server.
Resolution Make sure that NFS server has enough space/quota for the write to this
datasource.
Resolution Change external repository access mode from READ_ONLY to READ_WRITE.
Resolution Make sure that the datasource is available for the CVM subnet and allows
requests such as read and/or write.
Resolution Make sure the datasource is available or recreate the VM disk with the correct
datasource configuration.
KB Article 8362
Severity Warning

Table 702: External datasource storage migration suspended due to unrecoverable errors
[130347] [A130347]

Name External datasource storage migration suspended due to unrecoverable errors


Description Storage migration from an external datasource within an external repository
suspended due to unrecoverable errors.
Alert message Storage migration from the external datasource datasource_uuid with path relative_uri in the
external repository external_repository_name suspended. Suspension reason: message.
Cause Insufficient free storage space.
Cause Reads to the external datasource failed with I/O error from the NFS server.
Cause Network connectivity issues between the CVM subnet and the external
repository. This can be either intermittent or permanent.
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 Storage migration from a datasource within an external repository is
suspended
Resolution Make sure the destination container has enough free capacity.
Resolution Make sure the NFS server is in a good state.
Resolution Make sure that the CVM subnet has access to the NFS server.
Resolution Make sure that the datasource is available for the CVM subnet and allows
requests such as read and/or write.
Resolution Make sure the datasource is available or recreate the VM disk with the correct
datasource configuration.
KB Article 10864
Severity Warning

Table 703: Prism Central VM System Root Partition Space Usage High [200316] [A200316]

Name Prism Central VM System Root Partition Usage

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 501


Description Checks if Prism Central system root partition usage is within threshold to
ensure uninterrupted operations.
Alert message Disk space usage for root partition mount_path on entity-ip_address has exceeded threshold%.
Cause Increased Prism Central VM system root partition usage due to excessive
logging or incomplete maintenance operation.
Impact If Prism Central VM system root partition is highly utilised then certain
maintenance operations, such as upgrades, may be impacted. If Prism Central
VM system root partition is 100% utilized then services may stop and impact
Prism Central cluster management functions.
Resolution Reduce Prism Central VM system root partition usage by removing any known
temporary or unneeded files. Refer to KB 5228 for further details.
Prism Central Critical Threshold: 95 %
VM System
Root Partition
Usage
Threshold
KB Article 5228
Severity Critical

Table 704: Prism Central VM home partition disk usage high [200317] [A200317]

Name Prism Central VM home partition disk usage


Description Checks if Prism Central home partition usage is within threshold to ensure
uninterrupted operations.
Alert message alert_msg
Cause Increased Prism Central VM home partition usage due to excessive logging or
incomplete maintenance operation.
Impact If Prism Central VM home partition is highly utilised then certain maintenance
operations, such as upgrades, may be be impacted. If Prism Central VM home
partition is 100% utilised then services may stop and impact cluster storage
availability.
Resolution Reduce Prism Central VM home partition usage by removing any known
temporary or unneeded files. Refer to KB 5228 for further details.
Prism Central Warning Threshold: 75 %
VM home
partition disk Critical Threshold: 90 %
usage critical
threshold
percentage
KB Article 5228
Severity Critical
Severity Warning

System Indicator (Prism Central)

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 502


Table 705: Tomcat is restarting frequently. [700101] [A700101]

Name Tomcat Frequent Restart


Description Tomcat is restarting frequently.
Alert message Tomcat is restarting frequently on cvm_ip. Reason: message.
Cause Tomcat is restarting frequently, please check prism, prism_monitor and
catalina logs for exact cause of failure.
Impact Performance and availability impact for Prism
Resolution Check the logs for error information or contact Nutanix support.
KB Article 8524
Severity Critical

VM

Table 706: Non Compliance with Host Affinity policies. [200403] [A200403]

Name VM not in compliance with the defined affinity policies.


Description VM not in compliance with the defined affinity policies.
Alert message VM vm_uuid in cluster cluster not in compliance with policies policy_list_str
Cause A new policy was added, an existing policy was updated, or a category was
attached to or detached from the VM or host.
Impact VM might not run on hosts it is expected to run on.
Resolution Make appropriate updates to affinity policies OR VM or Host categories.
Severity Warning

Prism | Alert and Event Monitoring (Prism Central) | 503


SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
You can configure various system settings for Prism Central.

• 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).

Configuring Prism Central When a Cluster Uses Proxy Servers


Note:

• 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.

• You can add or delete one whitelist entry at a time.


• Each whitelist entry cannot exceed 253 characters.

Prism | System Management | 504


• A maximum of 1000 whitelist entries are supported.
• When deleting an entry from a whitelist, delete the target, not the target type.
• The commands do not support the IPv4 network mask network prefix or * (asterisk)
prefix notation. You can specify a subnet and netmask, such as 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 or
192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0. This results in adding the specified subnet to the whitelist.
• When applying a whitelist, domain names like contoso.com are not processed the same as
www.contoso.com and are treated as separate, distinct entities.
• Use fully qualified domain names to whitelist.

Who Needs to Use the Whitelist Method


SSL port 9440 needs to be open in both directions between the Prism Central VM and any
registered clusters or clusters to be registered. For the complete list of required ports, see Port
Reference.
If you are implementing a proxy server in your cluster environment with this port open as
shown in this simple graphic, you do not need to allow Prism Central and its managed/
registered clusters.

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.

Prism | System Management | 505


Figure 220: Prism Central, Proxy Server with SSL Port 9440 Closed and with Whitelisting

Configuring an HTTP Proxy

About this task

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.

About this task


If Prism Central cannot send traffic to a Nutanix Service center directly, an HTTP proxy is
required. To configure an HTTP proxy, do the following:

Prism | System Management | 506


Procedure

1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select HTTP Proxy in the Settings page.
The HTTP Proxies dialog box appears.

Figure 221: HTTP Proxy Window

Prism | System Management | 507


2. To add an HTTP proxy, click the New Proxy button and do the following in the displayed
fields:

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.

a. Name: Enter a proxy server name.


b. Address: Enter an IP address or host name for the proxy server.
c. Port: Enter the port number to use.
d. Username: Enter a user name.
e. Password: Enter a password.
f. Protocols: Select (check) the protocol to use, HTTP, HTTPS, or both.
Select HTTP to route all HTTP requests through the proxy.
Select HTTPS to route all HTTPs requests through the proxy.
Select HTTP and HTTPS to route both HTTP and HTTPS requests through the proxy.
g. When all the fields are correct, click the Save button (lower right).
This saves the configuration and redisplays the dialog box with the new HTTP proxy entry
appearing in the list.

Note: To return to the HTTP Proxy window without saving, click the Cancel button.

Prism | System Management | 508


Figure 222: Create HTTP Proxy Window

Prism | System Management | 509


3. To edit an HTTP proxy entry, click the pencil icon on the line for that entry, update one or
more of displayed field entries as desired, and then click the Save button.
The Update HTTP Proxy dialog box appears with the same fields as the Create HTTP Proxy
dialog box plus the option (below the protocol check boxes) to add whitelist entries.
To configure HTTP proxy whitelist entries, do the following:

• 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.

Figure 223: Whitelist Targets

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.

Prism | System Management | 510


Whitelisting Prism Central and Its Managed Clusters (nCLI)

About this task


In this example, bypass a proxy server used by a managed Prism Element cluster and allow
network traffic between Prism Central and the cluster. Previously, if you attempted to register a
cluster that implemented a proxy server, the registration failed.

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:

• Repeat this step for individual CVM IP addresses.


• For large clusters or for multiple clusters in a network it can be more efficient to
add a network to the http-proxy whitelist. For example,
The following is a sample command to add a network to the http-proxy whitelist.
nutanix@PCVM:~$ ncli http-proxy add-to-whitelist target-type=ipv4_network_mask
target=10.4.52.0/255.255.255.0

The following is sample output of the get-whitelist command, which displays the
whitelisted network added above.
nutanix@CVM:~$ ncli http-proxy get-whitelist

Target Type : IPV4_NETWORK_MASK Target : 10.4.52.0/255.255.255.0

In this case, Prism Central and its managed cluster can communicate, with network traffic
bypassing any proxy servers configured in the cluster.

Prism | System Management | 511


Configuring Name Servers (Prism Central)
About this task
Name servers are computers that host a network service for providing responses to queries
against a directory service, such as a DNS server. To add (or delete) a name server, do the
following:

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.

Figure 224: Name Servers Window

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.

4. Click the Close button to close the Name Servers window.

Configuring NTP Servers (Prism Central)


About this task
Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol for clock synchronization between computers,
and Prism Central must connect to an NTP server to synchronize the system clock. To add (or
delete) an NTP server entry, do the following:

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.

Prism | System Management | 512


Procedure

1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select NTP Servers in the Settings page.
The NTP Servers dialog box appears.

Figure 225: NTP Servers Window

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.

4. Click the Close button to close the NTP Servers window.

Configuring an SMTP Server (Prism Central)


About this task
Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard protocol for electronic mail
transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks, and Prism Central uses SMTP to send alert
emails and to exchange emails with Nutanix customer support. To configure an SMTP server
entry, do the following:

Prism | System Management | 513


Procedure

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.

Figure 226: SMTP Server Settings Window

2. Do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

Configuring SNMP (Prism Central)


About this task
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol that
facilitates the exchange of management information between network devices. To configure
SNMP on Prism Central, do the following:

Prism | System Management | 514


Note: Prism Element (individual cluster) supports both the SNMP service (agent) and SNMP
traps, but Prism Central only supports SNMP traps. Prism Central does not support the SNMP
service (unlike Prism Element), so its SNMP capability is limited to just sending traps. For
information on configuring SNMP for an individual cluster and for details about the Nutanix MIB,
see .Web Console Guide .

Procedure

1. Click the gear icon in the main menu and then select SNMP in the Settings page.
The SNMP Configuration dialog box appears.

Figure 227: SNMP Configuration Window

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.

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4. To add an SNMP user entry, click the Users tab and the New User button and then do the
following in the indicated fields:

Figure 228: SNMP Configuration: Users Tab

a. Username: Enter a user name.


b. Priv Type: Select the privacy encryption type from the pull-down list.
The only option is AES (Advanced Encryption Standard).
c. Priv Key: Enter a privacy key phrase (password) into this field.
The key phrase is AES encrypted when the user is created.
d. Auth Type: Select the authentication hash function type from the pull-down list.
The only option is SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm).
e. Auth Key: Enter an authentication key phrase (password) into this field.
The key phrase is SHA-1 encrypted when the user is created.
f. When all the fields are correct, click the Save button (lower right).
This saves the configuration and redisplays the dialog box with the new user entry
appearing in the list.

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5. To add an SNMP trap receiver, click the Traps tab and the New Trap Receiver button, and
then do the following in the indicated fields:

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Figure 229: SNMP Configuration: Traps Tab


a. Receiver Name: Enter the receiver name.
b. SNMP Version: Select (click the radio button for) the SNMP version, either v3 or v2c. For
SNMP v2c, Nutanix supports only SNMP TRAP and not SNMP GET.
c. This field is displayed based on your selection in the SNMP Version:

• 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.

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6. To edit a user or trap receiver entry, click the appropriate tab (Users or Traps) and then click
the pencil icon for that entry in the list.
An edit window appears for that user or trap receiver entry with the same fields as the add
window. (Transport entries cannot be edited.) Enter the new information in the appropriate
fields and then click the Save button.

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.

8. Click the Close button to close the SNMP Configuration window.

Configuring Syslog Monitoring


Using Prism Central, you can configure syslog monitoring to forward system logs (API Audit,
Audit, Security Policy Hitlogs, and Flow Service Logs) of the registered clusters to an external
syslog server. You can configure multiple remote syslog servers for Prism Central. Additionally,
you can configure separate log modules to be sent to each of the rsyslog servers.

About this task

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.

To configure syslog monitoring through Prism Central, do the following.

Before you begin

• 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.

2. Click Configure Syslog Server.

Note: You can configure only one syslog server per cluster.

3. In Server Name, enter a descriptive name for the server.

4. Enter the IP Address and Port.

5. Select the Transport Protocol (TCP or UDP).

6. Optionally, click the check box to enable RELP (Reliable Logging Protocol).

7. Click Edit against Data Sources.

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8. Select one or more log modules from the following log types. See Syslog Modules on
page 521 for details.

• 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.

Table 707: Log Modules and Severity Levels

Module Name Severity Level Description


API Audit 0-7 API Audit logs send information about REST API
endpoints that are called and who called them from both
Prism Central and Prism Element. All log level settings
send the same type of information. Changing the log
level changes the received log level at the syslog server,
but not the content that is sent.
Audit 0-7 Audit logs send information about VM, Category, and
Security Policy creation, update, and delete operations.
All log level settings send the same type of information.
Changing the log level changes the received log level
at the syslog server, but not the content that is sent.
See the Syslog Module: AUDIT Fields table below for
information on Syslog Audit fields.
Security Policy All Levels Security Policy Hit Logs send information about network
Hit Logs flows that are acted on by a security policy. This
information includes the source and destination IP
address, protocol, and port. It also includes the action
taken by the policy such as allow, monitor, or drop.
Network statistics are also included in each message for
bytes sent and received in the flow. Messages are always
sent to the syslog server as level 6 - informational.

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Module Name Severity Level Description
Flow Service Flow service logs contain detailed debug information
Logs used for troubleshooting the backend processes used by
Flow.

Note: Do not enable these unless instructed to do so


by Nutanix support for troubleshooting purposes.

Unlike the other data sources, the syslog level selected


for Flow Service Logs has an impact on the types of
data sent to the syslog server.

0-5 Critical service failure messages as well as log rotation


indications. Sent at the selected log level to syslog.
6-7 Detailed log messages from the various components
that make up the Flow product on both Prism Central
and Prism Element.

The following table provides information on the syslog severity levels.

Table 708: Syslog Severity Levels

Value Severity Keyword Description


0 Emergency emerg System is unusable.
1 Alert alert Should be corrected immediately.
2 Critical crit Critical conditions.
3 Error err Error Conditions.
4 Warning warning May indicate that an error will an action is not
taken.
5 Notice notice Events that are unusual, but not error conditions.
6 Informational info Normal operational messages that require no
action.
7 Debug debug Information useful to developers for debugging
the application.

The following table provides information on the AUDIT fields of the Syslog Module.

Table 709: Syslog Module: AUDIT Fields

AUDIT Field Description

entityType Indicates the resource type of the entity that


is associated with the audit record.
Example. The entity type is vm for operations
on virtual machines.

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AUDIT Field Description

name Indicates the name of the entity that is


associated with the audit record.
Example. Name of the virtual machine for
audits or operations on virtual machines.

uuid Indicates the unique identifier of the entity


that is associated with the audit. uuid is also
used to fetch the details of the entity instance.

alertUid Indicates the name of the audit record.


Example. VmMigrateAudit and VmCreateAudit.

creationTimestampUsecs Indicates the time (in microseconds) from


Epoch when the audit record was created.

defaultMsg Provides a brief description of the current


state of the operation that is captured by the
audit.

opStartTimestampUsecs Indicates the time (in microseconds) from


Epoch when the operation that is captured by
the audit begins.

opEndTimestampUsecs Indicates the time (in microseconds) from


Epoch when the operation that is captured by
the audit is completed.

operationType Indicates the category of the audit record.


Example. Create, Delete, and Migrate.

originatingClusterUuid Indicates the cluster (if applicable) where the


operation of is performed.

params Additional key value pairs that capture


information pertaining to the operation that is
captured by the audit record.

userName Indicates the name of the user who triggered


the operation.

userUuid Indicates the unique identifier of the user who


triggered the operation.

The following table provides information on the different fields of the Security Policy Hit Logs.

Table 710: Security Policy Hit Logs Fields

Field Description

<Timestamp> Indicates the time of the hit log capture.

<Policy UUID> Indicates the unique identifier of the policy


that is associated with the hit log.

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Field Description

<Policy Name> Indicates the name of the policy as configured


by the user.

<Session Information> Create, Update, or Indicates the session information.


Destroy
• Create - New session started. TCP
handshake or UDP bidirectional packets.
• Update - Sent every 30 seconds for active
sessions.
• Destroy - Session ended by TCP handshake
or UDP timeout.

SRC Indicates the source IP address.

DST Indicates the destination IP address.

PROTO Indicates the transport protocol.

ACTION Indicates the action taken on traffic by the


applied policy.

• Allow - traffic allowed by policy


• Drop - traffic dropped by policy
• Monitor - traffic allowed by policy in
monitor mode

<Packet Stats> Indicates the packet statistics.

Modifying UI Settings (Prism Central)


About this task
The Prism Central login page includes background animation by default, and users are logged
out automatically after being idle for 15 minutes. You can change one or both of these settings.

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Procedure

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.

Figure 230: UI Settings Window

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.

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For example, Licensing Settings. Nutanix recommends that you register a case on
the support portal to report any anomalies.

Figure 231: Example: Licensing View (Dark Theme Exception)


• You are required to Save your selection and refresh any open Prism tabs after
changing a background theme.
• The Prism themes setting is not a universal feature between Prism Central and
Prism Web Console. The background themes need to be configured in Prism
Central and Prism Web Console respectively.

• 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.

Figure 232: Prism Theme (Dark Mode)


• Select Auto (OS defined) to apply background themes defined in the OS. A pop-up
appears prompting you to click Continue to proceed. For example, if you have defined

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Dark mode in the OS setting, the Prism UI honors the setting and sets a dark background
theme.

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! .

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4. To customize the theme, background color, title text, or blurb text on the logon page, do the
following:

• 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

5. To configure session timeout, do the following under Security Settings:

• 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.

7. Click Save to save your changes and close the window.

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Configuring a Banner Page (Prism Central)
You have the option to create a welcome banner, which will be the first screen that appears
when a user attempts to log into Prism Central. The content of the banner page is configurable,
and it can include a custom message and graphics.

About this task


To configure a banner page, do the following:

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.

Figure 234: Welcome Banner Window

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.

Internationalization (i18n) (Prism Central)


The following table lists all the supported and unsupported entities in UTF-8 encoding.

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Table 711: Internationalization Support for Prism Central

Supported Entities Unsupported Entities

User-defined dashboard name Password fields

Custom widget name Static dashboard name

First and last name under Update Profile Static widget name

User name, first name, and last name under


User Management

Chart name

Localization (L10n) (Prism Central)


Nutanix localizes the user interface in Simplified Chinese and Japanese language. All the static
screens are translated to the selected locale language.
You have an option to change the language settings of the cluster from English (default) to
Simplified Chinese or Japanese. For more information, see Changing the Language Settings
(Prism Central) on page 530.
If the Prism Element instance is launched from Prism Central, language settings of Prism Central
takes precedence over Prism Element.
The dashboards (including tool tips) and menus of Prism Central are localized.

Guidelines and Limitations

• 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.

Changing the Language Settings (Prism Central)


Perform the following procedure to change the language settings in Prism Central. You can
change the language setting to Simplified Chinese or Japanese.

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Procedure

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.

Figure 235: Language Settings Window

2. To change the setting, do the following:

» 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

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selection. For more information about localization, see Localization (L10n) (Prism Central) on
page 530.

Figure 236: Localized Settings (Chinese/Russian)

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.

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SECURITY AND USER MANAGEMENT
(PRISM CENTRAL)
Prism Central provides several mechanisms to manage security and control user access. See
the following topics in the Security Management using Prism Central (PC) chapter of Nutanix
Security Guide.

• 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)

• Update your account (see Updating My Account)


• Assign roles to users (see Controlling User Access (RBAC) )

Note: For recovery plan RBAC, see Leap Administration Guide.

• Install SSL certificates (see Installing an SSL Certificate)


• Control SSH access to Prism Central (see Controlling Remote (SSH) Access)
• Create and apply security-related policies (see Security Policies in the Flow
Microsegmentation Guide).

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COMPUTE AND STORAGE (CLUSTER)
ADMINISTRATION
You can view hardware and infrastructure information about registered (individual) clusters
through the Entities menu (see Hardware Entities on page 200 and Compute and Storage
Entities on page 89). In addition, you can configure certain components on a registered cluster
directly through Prism Central.

• To create or manage a VM on an AHV or ESXi cluster, see

• 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)

• To create a VM, see Creating a VM (Self Service) on page 545.


• To manage or modify a VM, see Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on
page 552.

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Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV)
You can create virtual machines (VMs) in Acropolis managed clusters through Prism Central.

About this task

Figure 237: Creating a VM (AHV)

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275780958001 on Brightcove.

Note: For instructions about how to install Nutanix VirtIO on Windows VMs, see Windows VM
Provisioning in the AHV Administration Guide.

To create a VM, do the following:

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.

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2. In the Configuration step, do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 238: Create VM - Configuration

a. Name: Enter a name for the VM.


b. Description (optional): Enter a description for the VM.
c. Cluster: Select the target cluster from the drop-down list on which you intend to create
the VM.
d. Number of VMs: Enter the number of VMs you intend to create. The created VM names
are suffixed sequentially.
e. vCPU(s): Enter the number of virtual CPUs to allocate to this VM.
f. Number of Cores per vCPU: Enter the number of cores assigned to each virtual CPU.
g. Memory: Enter the amount of memory (in GiBs) to allocate to this VM.

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3. In the Resources step, do the following.
Disks: To attach a disk to the VM, click the Attach Disk button. The Add Disks dialog box
appears. Do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 239: Add Disk Dialog Box

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.

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This field appears only when Clone from Image Service is selected. It specifies the image
to copy.

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.

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4. In the Resources step, do the following.
Networks: To create a network interface for the VM, click the Attach to Subnet button. The
Attach to Subnet dialog box appears.
Do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 240: Attach to Subnet Dialog Box

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.

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j. Repeat this step to create additional network interfaces for the VM.

5. In the Resources step, do the following.


Boot Configuration: Select one of the following firmware to boot the VM.

» 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.

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6. In the Resources step, do the following.
GPUs: (For GPU-enabled AHV clusters only) To add a GPU, click the Add GPU button. The
Add GPU dialog box appears. Do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

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Figure 241: Add GPU Dialog Box: vGPU
c. If you selected Passthrough, click the radio button for the desired type.

Figure 242: Add GPU Dialog Box: Passthrough


d. Click the Add button.

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Figure 243: Create VM Window (Resources)

7. In the Management step, do the following.

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

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host) and must be powered off and migrated after rest of the VMs (for example, during
maintenance mode operations).

Figure 244: Create VM Window (Management)

8. In the Management step, do the following.


Guest Customization: To customize the VM, select Cloud-init (for Linux VMs) or Sysprep
(for Windows VMs).
Script Type: Select the VM script customization type from the drop-down list. The options
are No Customization, Sysprep(Windows), or Cloud-init (Linux).
Configuration Method: Select the VM script customization method from the drop-down
list. This field is activated when the Script Type is either Sysprep(Windows) or Cloud-init (Linux). The
options are Custom Script or Guided Script.
Field required for configuring Cloud-init and Sysprep, such as options for specifying a
configuration script and option to upload script appears.

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9. 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.

Note: The script type supports the following file formats.

• Sysprep: XML
• Cloud-init (Linux): YAML, JSON, or Shell.

Figure 245: Create VM Window (Management)

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.

Creating a VM (Self Service)

About this task


When you are logged in as a self-service administrator or a project member with permission to
create a VM (see Prism Self Service Overview on page 719), you can create a VM in two ways:

• 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).

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Creating a VM from Catalog Items (Self Service)

About this task


When you are logged on as a self-service administrator or a project member with permission
to create a VM (see Prism Self Service Overview on page 719), you can create a VM based on
a source file stored in the Prism Central catalog (see Catalog Management on page 662). To
create a VM in this case, do the following:

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).

2. Click the Create VM from Catalog Item button.


The Create VM from Catalog Items page appears.

3. In Catalog Type, select the source image for the VM.

» Click VM Template if you want to create a VM from a template in the catalog.


A VM template includes all the configuration information required to create a VM. You
can use a template to quickly deploy a VM without having to specify all configuration
information.
» Click Image if you want to create a VM from a mounted disk image.
Disk images can be CD-ROM images such as installer ISO images or images of hard
drives that contain preinstalled applications and data. Disk images enable you to share
data with other VMs, but you need to specify configuration information to create the VM
that will use the data.

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4. In Catalog Item, do one of the following:

• 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.

Figure 246: Create VM Window (Configuration)


• For Image select one or more of the disk images. The available disk images from the
catalog are listed. If the target disk image does not appear in the list, you can search for
it by name in the search field.

Figure 247: Create VM Window (Configuration)

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5. Click Begin.
The Create VM page appears.

6. In the Configuration step, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the VM.


b. Project: Select the project associated with this VM from the drop-down list.
c. Cluster: Select the target cluster from the drop-down list on which you intend to create
the VM.
d. Number of VMs: Enter the number of VMs you intend to create. The VM names are
suffixed with sequential numbers (1 to 5).
e. vCPU(s): Enter the number of virtual CPUs to allocate to this VM.
f. Number of Cores per vCPU: Enter the number of cores assigned to each virtual CPU.
g. Memory: Enter the amount of memory (in GB) to allocate to this VM.

Figure 248: Create VM Window (Configuration)

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7. In the Resources step, do the following.
Disks: Displays the disks and CD-ROMs attached to this VM.

• 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.

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8. In the Resources step, do the following.
Networks: To create a network interface for the VM, click the Attach to Subnet button. The
Attach to Subnet dialog box appears.
Do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 249: Attach to Subnet Dialog Box

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.

9. In the Resources step, do the following.


Boot Configuration: Select one of the following firmware to boot 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.

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10. In the Management step, do the following.

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.

11. In the Management step, do the following.


Guest Customization: To customize the VM, select Cloud-init (for Linux VMs) or Sysprep
(for Windows VMs).
Script Type: Select the VM script customization type from the drop-down list. The options
are No Customization, Sysprep(Windows), or Cloud-init (Linux).
Configuration Method: Select the VM script customization method from the drop-down
list. This field is activated when the Script Type is either Sysprep(Windows) or Cloud-init (Linux). The
options are Custom Script or Guided Script.
Field required for configuring Cloud-init and Sysprep, such as options for specifying a
configuration script and option to upload script appears.

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.

Note: The script type supports the following file formats.

• Sysprep: XML
• Cloud-init (Linux): YAML, JSON, or Shell.

Figure 250: Create VM Window (Management)

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13. 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.

Managing a VM through Prism Central (AHV)

About this task


After creating a VM (see Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535), you can
use Prism Central to perform operations on the VM.
You can perform these operations 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 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.

Table 712: VM Actions

Action Description Applicable to


Multiple VMs

Update Update the VM configuration. For more information, No


(see Updating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on
page 554.
Delete Delete the VM. Yes
Clone Clone a VM. For more information, see Cloning a VM No
through Prism Central (AHV) on page 558.
Create VM Create a VM template. For more information, see No
Template Creating a VM Template on page 610.
Launch Console Launch the VM console. For more information, see No
Launching a VM Console through Prism Central (AHV)
on page 559.
Power On Power on the VM. Yes
Power Off Power off the VM. Yes

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Action Description Applicable to
Multiple VMs
Disable Disable efficiency measurement for the VM. For more Yes
Efficiency information, see Operations Policy Management on
Measurement page 820.
Enable Efficiency Enable efficiency measurement for the VM. For more Yes
Measurement information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.
Disable Anomaly Disable Anomaly Detection for the VM. For more Yes
Detection information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.
Enable Anomaly Enable Anomaly Detection for the VM. For more Yes
Detection information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.
Create Recovery Create VM recovery point. The VM can be restored No
Point or replicated from a recovery point either locally or
remotely in a state of a chosen recovery point.
In the Create VM Recovery Point dialog box, enter a
name for the VM recovery point. You can choose to
create an app consistent VM recovery point by enabling
the App Consistent check-box. For more information
about app consistent recovery point, see Terminology
section in the Data Protection and Recovery with Prism
Element guide.

Migrate Migrate the VM to another host. In the Migrate VM dialog No


box, select the target host from the pull-down list (or
select the System will automatically select a host option
to let the system choose the host) and then click the
Migrate button to start the migration.

Note: Nutanix recommends to live migrate VMs when


they are under light load. If they are migrated while
heavily utilized, migration may fail because of limited
bandwidth.

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.

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Action Description Applicable to
Multiple VMs
Upgrade NGT Upgrade NGT. For more information, see Upgrading NGT Yes
on page 593.
Configure VM Establish VM host affinity. In the Configure VM Host No
Host Affinity Affinity dialog box, select (click the icon for) the hosts
and then click the Save button. This creates an affinity
between the VM and the selected hosts. For more
information, see Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central
on page 604.
It is recommended to create an affinity to multiple hosts
(at least two) to protect against downtime due to a
node failure.

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.

Updating a VM through Prism Central (AHV)


You can use Prism Central to update the VM configuration.

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.

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2. To modify the VM configuration, select Update.
The Update VM dialog box appears, which includes the same fields as the Create VM dialog
box. Make the desired changes and then click the Save button in the Review step.

Figure 251: Update VM Window (Configuration)

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

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create a new disk for a VM. You can enable or disable the flash mode settings for the VM and
VM disks.

a. To enable flash mode on the VM, click the Enable Flash Mode check box.

Figure 252: Update VM Window (Resources)

» 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.

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Figure 253: Update Disk Window (VM Disk Flash Mode)

Note: The flash mode setting is not supported for CD-ROM storage device.

Figure 254: Update VM Window (Resources)

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.

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5. Boot Configuration: You cannot modify the BIOS mode after the VM is created. However, if
you have enabled the Secure Boot option under UEFI Mode while creating the VM, you can
modify this setting during the VM update.

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.

Cloning a VM through Prism Central (AHV)


You can use Prism Central to clone a VM.

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.

2. To clone the VM, select Clone.


This displays the Clone VM dialog box, which includes the same fields as the Create VM
dialog box. A cloned VM inherits most the configurations (except the name) of the source
VM. Enter a name for the clone and then click the Save button to create the clone. You
can optionally override some of the configurations before clicking the Save button. For
example, you can override the number of vCPUs, memory size, boot priority, NICs, or the
guest customization.

Note:

• You can clone up to 250 VMs at a time.

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• You cannot override the secure boot setting while cloning a VM, unless the source
VM already had secure boot setting enabled.

Figure 255: Clone VM Window

Launching a VM Console through Prism Central (AHV)


You can use Prism Central to launch a VM console.

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.

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2. To launch a console window, select Launch Console.
This opens a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client and displays the console in a new tab
or window. This option is available only when the VM is powered on. The VM power options
that you access from the Power On Actions (or Power Off Actions) action link below the VM
table can also be accessed from the VNC console window. To access the VM power options,
click the Power button at the top-right corner of the console window.

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.)

Figure 256: Console Window (VNC)

Note: For enabling or disabling console support for a VM with one vGPU configured, see
Enabling or Disabling Console Support for vGPU VMs.

Managing a VM (Self Service)

About this task


After creating a VM (Creating a VM (Self Service) on page 545), you can use Prism Central
to update the VM configuration, delete the VM, clone the VM, launch a console window, power
on (or off) the VM, disable efficiency measurement, disable anomaly detection, set flash mode
settings for a VM and VM disks, assign the VM to a protection policy, migrate the VM, add the
VM to a recovery plan, run a playbook, manage categories, install and manage Nutanix Guest
Tools (NGT), configure VM host affinity, add the VM image to the catalog, manage the VM
ownership, configure QoS settings, or export VM as OVA.

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.

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Procedure

• To modify the VM configuration, select Update.


The Edit VM dialog box appears, which includes the same fields as the Create VM dialog box.
Make the desired changes and then click the Save button.
(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 need to power off 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.

Figure 257: Edit VM Window


• Disks: You can add new disks to the VM using the + New Disk option. You can also add new
CDs to the VM using the + New CD option. You can also modify the existing disk attached
to the VM using the controls under the actions column. See Creating a VM (Self Service) on
page 545 before you modify the disk or create a new disk for a VM.
• Network: You can attach new network to the VM using the Connect to Subnet option. You
can also modify the existing subnet attached to the VM. See Creating a VM (Self Service) on
page 545 before you modify NIC network or create a new NIC for a VM.
• Configuration:You can update the CPU and memory configuration of the VM.

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• Categories:You can update the VM category value, enter the category name and then click
the plus sign (+) to the right of the field. See Creating a VM (Self Service) on page 545
before you modify or assign new categories for a VM.
• To delete the VM, select Delete. A window prompt appears; click the OK button to delete the
VM.
• To clone the VM, select Clone.
This displays the Clone VM dialog box, which includes the same fields as the Create VM
dialog box. A cloned VM inherits most the configurations (except the name) of the source
VM. Enter a name for the clone and then click the Save button to create the clone. You
can optionally override some of the configurations before clicking the Save button. For
example, you can override the number of vCPUs, memory size, boot priority, NICs, or the
guest customization.

Note:

• You can clone up to 250 VMs at a time.

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• You cannot override the secure boot setting while cloning a VM, unless the source
VM already had secure boot enabled.

Figure 258: Clone VM Window (Configuration)

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Figure 259: Clone VM Window (Resources)

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Figure 260: Clone VM Window (Management)

Figure 261: Clone VM Window (Review)

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• To launch a console window, select Launch Console.
This opens a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client and displays the console in a new tab
or window. This option is available only when the VM is powered on. The VM power options
that you access from the Power On Actions (or Power Off Actions) action link below the VM
table can also be accessed from the VNC console window. To access the VM power options,
click the Power button at the top-right corner of the console window.

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.)

Figure 262: Console Window (VNC)


• To power on (or off) the VM, select Power on (or Power off).
• To disable (or enable) efficiency measurement for the VM, select Disable Efficiency
Measurement (or Enable Efficiency Measurement).
• To disable (or enable) anomaly detection the VM, select Disable Anomaly Detection (or
Enable Anomaly Detection).
• To create VM recovery point, select Create Recovery Point.
This displays the Create VM Recovery Point dialog box. Enter a name of the recovery action
for the VM. You can choose to create an App Consistent VM recovery point by enabling
the check-box. The VM can be restored or replicated from a Recovery Point either locally or
remotely in a state of a chosen recovery point.

Figure 263: Create VM Recovery Point Window

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• To add this VM to a recovery plan you created previously, select Add to Recovery Plan (see
the Adding Guest VMs Individually to a Recovery Plan section in the Leap Administration
Guide).

• Adding Guest VMs Individually to a Recovery Plan


• To run a playbook you created previously, select Run Playbook (see Running a Playbook
(Manual Trigger) on page 884).
• To assign the VM a category value, select Manage Categories.
This displays the Manage VM Categories page (see Assigning a Category on page 744).
• To install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT), select Install NGT (see Installing NGT on page 590).
• To enable (or disable) NGT, select Manage NGT Applications (see Managing NGT
Applications on page 592).
The VM is registered with the NGT service. NGT is enabled and mounted on the selected
virtual machine. A CD with volume label NUTANIX_TOOLS gets attached to the VM.

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

For example, to mount the NGT on the VM with


VM_ID=00051a34-066f-72ed-0000-000000005400::38dc7bf2-a345-4e52-9af6-
c1601e759987, type the following command.
ncli> ngt mount vm-id=00051a34-066f-72ed-0000-000000005400::38dc7bf2-a345-4e52-9af6-
c1601e759987

Note:

• Self-service restore feature is not enabled by default on a VM. You need to


manually enable the self-service restore feature.
• If you have created the NGT ISO CD-ROMs on AOS 4.6 or earlier releases, the
NGT functionality will not work even if you upgrade your cluster because REST
APIs have been disabled. You need to unmount the ISO, remount the ISO, install
the NGT software again, and then upgrade to a later AOS version.

• To upgrade NGT, select Upgrade NGT (see Upgrading NGT on page 593).

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• To specify a project and user who own this VM, select Manage Ownership.
In the Manage VM Ownership window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Project: Select the target project from the pull-down list.


b. User: Enter a user name. A list of matches appears as you enter a string; select the user
name from the list when it appears.
c. Click the Save button.

Figure 264: VM Ownership Window


• To export as OVA, select Export as OVA (see OVA Management on page 694 and
Uploading an OVA on page 696).

Adding Multiple vGPUs to the Same VM

About this task


You can add multiple vGPUs of the same vGPU type to:

• A new VM when you create it.


• An existing VM when you update it.

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

1. Click Add GPU.

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2. In the Add GPU dialog box, click Add.
The License field is grayed out because you cannot select a different license when you add a
vGPU for the same VM.
The VGPU Profile is also auto-selected because you can only select the additional vGPU of
the same vGPU type as indicated by the message at the top of the dialog box.

Figure 265: Add GPU for multiple vGPUs

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3. In the main dialog box, you see the newly added vGPU.

Figure 266: New vGPUs Added

4. Repeat the steps for each vGPU addition you want to make.

Live Migration of vGPU-enabled VMs


You can live-migrate a vGPU-enabled VM to another host within the cluster. You can also
migrate the vGPU-enabled VM to a host outside the cluster, that is, a host in another cluster.

Note: Live migration of VMs with vGPUs is supported:

• 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.

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Ensure the following:
1. The VM is not powered off.
2. The host affinity is not set for the VM.
If the host affinity of the VM is set to only one host, you cannot migrate the VM. However,
based on the GPU resources required, if the host affinity is set to multiple hosts with the
same or similar GPU resources, you can migrate the VM among the hosts with which the
affinity is set.
3. You have another host in the same cluster that supports the resources necessary to support
the vGPU-enabled VM that you want to live migrate.
For limitations applicable to live migration of vGPU-enabled VMs, see Limitations for Live
Migration in AHV Administration Guide.

Migrating Within the Cluster


You can live-migrate a vGPU-enabled VM to another host within the cluster.

About this task


The Migrate Within Cluster option in the Migrate VM dialog box allows you to migrate vGPU-
enabled VMs to other hosts within the clusters.
For limitations applicable to live migration of vGPU-enabled VMs, see Limitations for Live
Migration in AHV Administration Guide.
To live migrate a vGPU-enabled VM to another host in the same cluster, do the following.

Procedure

1. Click Compute & Storage > VMs > List.

2. Select the VM you want to migrate live. Click Actions > Migrate

Figure 267: VM Selection

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3. In the Migrate VM dialog box, the Migrate Within Cluster option is default selection.

Figure 268: Migrate VM dialog box

4. In the Host drop-down list, do one of the following:

• 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.

Migrating Outside the Cluster


You can migrate the vGPU-enabled VM to a host outside the cluster, that is, a host in another
cluster.

About this task


The Migrate Outside Cluster option in the Migrate VM dialog box allows you to migrate vGPU-
enabled VMs across clusters.

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Note: Live migration to a host in another cluster is supported only if the VM is protected by
protection policy with Synchronous replication schedule.

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

1. Click Compute & Storage > VMs > List.

2. Select the VM you want to migrate live. Click Actions > Migrate

Figure 269: VM Selection

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3. In the Migrate VM dialog box, select the Migrate Outside Cluster option.

Figure 270: Migrate VM dialog box

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.

• Primary Location: Virtual Network/Port Group—Select the network in the Primary AZ to


be used for the live migration.
• Recovery Location: Virtual Network/Port Group—Select the network in the Recovery AZ
to be used for live the migration.

5. Check the Live Migrate box.

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.

Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)


In ESXi clusters, you can create a new virtual machine (VM) through Prism Central.

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Before you begin

• 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.

About this task


To create a VM, do the following:

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.

2. In the Configuration step, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the VM.


b. Description (optional): Enter a description for the VM.
c. Cluster: Select the target cluster from the pull-down list on which you intend to create the
VM.
d. Number of VMs: Enter the number of VMs you intend to create. The created VM names
are suffixed sequentially.
e. vCPU(s): Enter the number of virtual CPUs to allocate to this VM.
f. Number of Cores per vCPU: Enter the number of cores assigned to each virtual CPU.
g. Memory: Enter the amount of memory (in GiBs) to allocate to this VM.

Figure 271: Create VM Window (Configuration)

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3. In the Resources step, do the following.
Disks: To attach a disk to the VM, click the Attach Disk button. The Add Disks dialog box
appears. Do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 272: Add Disk Dialog Box

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.

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This field appears only when Clone from Image Service is selected. It specifies the image
to copy.

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.

Figure 273: Create VM Window (Resources)

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4. In the Resources step, do the following.
Networks: To create a network interface for the VM, click the Attach to Subnet button. The
Attach to Subnet dialog box appears.
Do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 274: Attach to Subnet Dialog Box

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.

5. In the Management step, do the following.

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

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guest operating system. For information about the list of supported operating systems,
see vCenter Server Integration on page 713.

Figure 275: Create VM Window (Management)

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.

Managing a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)


You can manage virtual machines (VMs) in an ESXi cluster through Prism Central.

Before you begin

• 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) .

About this task


After creating a VM (see Creating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 574), you can
use Prism Central to perform operations on the VM.
You can perform these operations by using any of the following methods:

• 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.

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Note: You can perform only those operations for which you have permissions from the admin.

Procedure

• Select the target VM and choose the action that you want to perform. See the following
table for the actions and their descriptions.

Table 713: VM Actions

Action Description Applicable to


Multiple VMs

Update Update the VM configuration. For more information, No


(see Updating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi) on
page 582.
Delete Delete the VM. Yes
Clone Clone the VM. For more information, see Cloning a VM No
through Prism Central (ESXi) on page 583.
Create VM Create a VM template. For more information, see No
Template Creating a VM Template on page 610.
Launch Console Launch the VM console. For more information, see No
Launching a VM Console through Prism Central (ESXi)
on page 584.
Power On Power on the VM. Yes
Power Off Power off the VM. Yes
Power Cycle power off the VM followed by a power on. Yes
Reset Perform an ACPI reset action through the BIOS of the No
VM.
Guest Shutdown Perform a graceful shutdown of the operating system of No
the VM.
Guest Reboot Perform a graceful restart of the operating system of the No
VM.
Pause/Suspend Pause or suspend the VM. This option is available only Yes
when the VM is powered on.
Resume Resume a paused or suspended VM. No
Disable Disable efficiency measurement for the VM. For more Yes
Efficiency information, see Operations Policy Management on
Measurement page 820.
Enable Efficiency Enable efficiency measurement for the VM. For more Yes
Measurement information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.
Disable Anomaly Disable Anomaly Detection for the VM. For more Yes
Detection information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.
Enable Anomaly Enable Anomaly Detection for the VM. For more Yes
Detection information, see Operations Policy Management on
page 820.

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Action Description Applicable to
Multiple VMs
Protect Assign the VM to a protection policy. Selecting Protect Yes
opens a dialog box to specify the protection policy to
which this VM should be assigned.
You can create a protection policy for a VM or set
of VMs that belong to one or more categories by
enabling Nutanix Disaster Recovery and configuring the
Availability Zone.

Unprotect Remove the VM from a protection policy. Yes


Create Recovery Create VM recovery point. The VM can be restored No
Point or replicated from a recovery point either locally or
remotely in a state of a chosen recovery point.
In the Create VM Recovery Point dialog box, enter a
name for the VM recovery point. You can choose to
create an app consistent VM recovery point by enabling
the App Consistent check-box. For more information
about app consistent recovery point, see Terminology
section in the Data Protection and Recovery with Prism
Element guide.

Migrate Migrate the VM to another host. In the Migrate VM dialog No


box, select the target host from the pull-down list (or
select the System will automatically select a host option
to let the system choose the host) and then click the
Migrate button to start the migration.

Note: Nutanix recommends to live migrate VMs when


they are under light load. If they are migrated while
heavily utilized, migration may fail because of limited
bandwidth.

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.

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Action Description Applicable to
Multiple VMs
Configure VM Establish VM host affinity. In the Configure VM Host No
Host Affinity Affinity dialog box, select (click the icon for) the hosts
and then click the Save button. This creates an affinity
between the VM and the selected hosts. For more
information, see Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central
on page 604.
It is recommended to create an affinity to multiple hosts
(at least two) to protect against downtime due to a
node failure.

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.

Updating a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)


You can use Prism Central to update the VM configuration.

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.

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2. To modify the VM configuration, select Update.
The Update VM dialog box appears, which includes the same fields as the Create VM dialog
box. Make the desired changes and then click the Save button in the Review step.

Figure 276: Update VM Window (Resources)

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.

Cloning a VM through Prism Central (ESXi)


You can use Prism Central to clone 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.

2. To clone the VM, select Clone.


This displays the Clone VM dialog box, which includes the same fields as the Create VM
dialog box. A cloned VM inherits most the configurations (except the name) of the source
VM. Enter a name for the clone and then click the Save button to create the clone. You
can optionally override some of the configurations before clicking the Save button. For

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example, you can override the number of vCPUs, memory size, boot priority, NICs, or the
guest customization.

Note:

• You can clone up to 250 VMs at a time.


• You cannot override the secure boot setting while cloning a VM, unless the source
VM already had secure boot setting enabled.

Figure 277: Clone VM Window

Launching a VM Console through Prism Central (ESXi)


You can use Prism Central to launch a VM console.

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.

2. To launch a console window, select Launch Console.


This opens a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client and displays the console in a new tab
or window. This option is available only when the VM is powered on. The VM power options
that you access from the Power On Actions (or Power Off Actions) action link below the VM

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table can also be accessed from the VNC console window. To access the VM power options,
click the Power button at the top-right corner of the console window.

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.)

Figure 278: Console Window (VNC)

Exporting a VM as an OVA

Before you begin


If you intend to run the OVA in a non-Nutanix environment, ensure that you install the
necessary drivers as per the requirements of the destination hypervisor.

About this task


As a Super Admin, you can export a VM as an OVA by selecting the Export as OVA action from
the Actions dropdown list. You can export a VM as an OVA with a specified disk format for the
disks configured on the VM.

Note:

• The Super Admin role was formerly called as User Admin.


• If you intend to run the OVA in a non-Nutanix environment, ensure that you install
the necessary drivers as per the requirements of the target destination hypervisor.

To export a VM as an OVA, do the following in the VMs dashboard:

Procedure

1. Select the VM in List tab.


You can click the VM and open the VM details page.

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2. In the Actions list, select Export as OVA.
Alternatively, on the details page of the VM, select More and click Export as OVA.

Figure 279: Export as OVA dialog box

3. In the Export as OVA window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Enter a name for the OVA, in the Name field.


b. Select the disk format that you want to format the disks in the VM to, in the Export Disk
Format section.
The default format is QCOW2. If you want to use the OVA to deploy a VM with disks
formatted as VMDK, then select VMDK as the disk format.

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.

Nutanix Guest Tools


Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) is a software package that comes bundled with AOS. You can
install NGT in a guest virtual machine (VM) to enable advanced VM management functionalities
provided by Nutanix.

Nutanix Guest Tools Overview


The NGT software package for Linux and Windows includes the following components:

• NGT Installer: Allows you to install NGT in a guest VM.


• Nutanix Guest Agent (NGA) Service: Maintains a communication channel between the
Controller VM (CVM) and the guest VMs.
• Nutanix VirtIO Package: Includes the drivers required to run the VM on the AHV hypervisor.
• Python: The NGA service is written in Python and is shipped with a dedicated installation of
Python so it does not interact with the other components in the system.
• Nutanix VSS package: Enables Nutanix native in-guest Volume Snapshot Service (VSS)
agent to take application-consistent snapshots for all the VMs that support VSS.
In addition, the NGT software package for Windows also includes the following components:

• A custom module that performs checks and fulfills all the prerequisites.

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• Microsoft Visual C++ 2008/2012 x64 redistributable component
• Integration with Windows Performance Monitor for hypervisor statistics.
Installing NGT in a guest VM allows you to use the following advanced VM management
features:

• File Level Restore CLI


Performs self-service file-level recovery from the VM snapshots. For more information about
self-service restore, see Self-Service Restore in the Data Protection and Recovery with Prism
Element guide.
• Nutanix VM Mobility
Facilitates VM migration between ESXi and AHV, in-place hypervisor conversion, and cross-
hypervisor disaster recovery (CHDR) features. For more information about cross-hypervisor
disaster recovery, see Nutanix Cross Hypervisor Disaster Recovery in the Data Protection
and Recovery with Prism Element guide. For more information about in-place hypervisor
conversion, see In-Place Hypervisor Conversion.
• Application-consistent snapshots for Windows VMs
Enables Nutanix native in-guest Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) agent to take application-
consistent snapshots for all the VMs that support VSS. This mechanism takes application-
consistent snapshots without any VM stuns (temporary unresponsive VMs) and also enables
third-party backup providers like CommVault and Rubrik to take application-consistent
snapshots on the Nutanix platform regardless of which hypervisor is used in the cluster.
For more information about Nutanix VSS-based snapshots for the Windows VMs, see the
Application-consistent Snapshots with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) section
in the Conditions for Application-consistent Snapshots topic of the Data Protection and
Recovery with Prism Element guide.
• Application-consistent snapshots for Linux VMs
Supports application-consistent snapshots for Linux VMs by running specific scripts on VM
quiesce. For more information, see the Conditions for Application-consistent Snapshots topic
of the Data Protection and Recovery with Prism Element guide.
• Static IP address preservation support after failover for Nutanix Disaster Recovery (DR)
This feature allows the preservation of the IP address of a guest VM (with a static IP
address) for its failover (DR) to an IPAM network. For more information, see the Networking
Requirements section in the Nutanix Disaster Recovery Requirements topic of the Nutanix
Disaster Recovery Guide.
• In-guest scripts execution support for Nutanix Disaster Recovery (DR)
In-guest scripts automate various task executions upon recovery of the VMs. For example,
you can automate the task of changing the domain controller or performing the reassigning
of the DNS IP address and reconnection to the database server at the recovery AZ. For more
information about the tasks that can be automated using In-guest scripts, see Creating a
Recovery Plan in the Nutanix Disaster Recovery Guide.

Nutanix Guest Tools Requirements


Ensure that the following requirements are met so that you can successfully install NGT, and
use all the NGT features.

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General Requirements

• 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:

• A user account in the VM with administrative privileges is required to install NGT.


• For Windows Server Edition VMs, ensure that Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
is enabled before you install NGT with the VSS application enabled. For more information
about how to verify if Microsoft VSS is enabled on your server, see Microsoft documentation.
• During NGT installation a few PowerShell commands are executed. To run these commands,
the PowerShell executable must be present in the PATH system variable of the environment.
Otherwise, the installation of NGT might fail. For more information, see KB-7284.
• The PowerShell version on the Windows VMs must be 3.0 or later.
• Antivirus scanners might need exclusions added for the C:\Program Files\Nutanix directory for
successful NGT installation.
• Windows Remote Manager Service (winrm) must be running and configured to allow SSL-
based connections. The following commands are one of the many methods to configure

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winrm with SSL. These commands must be executed from an administrative Windows
PowerShell console.
> $certificate = New-SelfSignedCertificate -DnsName $env:computername -CertStoreLocation cert:\LocalMachine\My
> winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTPS
"@{Hostname=`"$env:computername`";CertificateThumbprint=`"$($certificate.ThumbPrint)`"}"
> cmd /c 'winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{Basic="true"}'
> netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=\"WinRM-HTTPS\" dir=in localport=5986 protocol=TCP action=allow

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.

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NGT Management in Prism Central
You can use Prism Central to perform the following operations on a guest VM or multiple guest
VMs:

• Enable NGT and mount the NGT installer


• Install NGT
• Upgrade NGT
• Manage NGT applications
In addition, NGT installation through Prism Central provides the following capabilities:

• 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.

Before you begin


Ensure that all the requirements specified in Nutanix Guest Tools Requirements are met.

About this task


Perform the following steps to install NGT on a guest VM or multiple guest VMs at the same
time by using Prism Central.

Note: The guest VM must be powered on to install NGT in the VM.

Procedure

1. Log in to Prism Central.

2. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs from the Navigation Bar.

3. From the VMs dashboard, click the List tab.

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.

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5. Click Actions, and from the dropdown menu that appears click Install NGT.

Figure 280: Installing 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.

7. Select the restart schedule of the VM 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: Nutanix recommends that you restart the VM after the NGT installation completes.

8. (Optional) Click Review to view your configurations.

9. Click Confirm & Enter Password.

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10. In the Username and Password fields, enter a username and password of an account that
meets the requirements specified in Nutanix Guest Tools Requirements, and is accessible to
all the VMs on which NGT is being installed.

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.

11. Click Done to start the installation process.


When the installation completes successfully on a VM, the NGT status column of the VM in
the List tab displays the status as Latest. It takes a few minutes for the status to reflect in
Prism Central because this is an asynchronous operation.

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.

Enabling NGT and Mounting the NGT Installer on Cloned VMs

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.

About this task


Perform the following steps to enable NGT and mount the NGT installer on 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.

Managing NGT Applications

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.

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About this task
Perform the following steps to enable the SSR and VSS applications if you have not enabled
them during the NGT installation workflow. You can also disable these applications (if already
enabled) after NGT is installed using this procedure.

Procedure

1. Log in to Prism Central.

2. Navigate to Compute & Storage > VMs from the Navigation Bar.

3. From the VMs dashboard, select the List tab.

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.

Figure 281: Manage NGT Applications

7. Click Confirm to save the changes.


When you enable an application, the Services Enabled field in the Properties widget of the
Summary tab displays the services enabled for the VM. For example, if you enable the SSR
application the Services Enabled field displays SSR.

Upgrading NGT

Prism Central allows you to upgrade NGT on the guest VMs.

Before you begin

• 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.

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About this task
Perform the following steps to upgrade NGT on a guest VM.

Note: You can upgrade NGT on a maximum of 60 VMs at the same time.

Procedure

1. Log in to Prism Central.

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.

Figure 282: Upgrading NGT

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.

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7. (Optional) Click Review to view your configurations.

8. Click Confirm to start the upgrade process.


When the upgrade is complete, the NGT status column associated with the VMs displays the
status as Latest. It takes a few minutes for the status to reflect in Prism Central because this
is an asynchronous operation.

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

Prism Central does not support automatic uninstallation of NGT.


You must log in to a guest VM to uninstall NGT in that VM. For more information, see Disabling,
Uninstalling, and Removing Nutanix Guest Tools in the Prism Web Console Guide.

Nutanix Guest Agent and Controller VM Communication


You can set up connectivity between the controller virtual machine (CVM) and the guest VMs
using the Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) service that runs on the CVM and the Nutanix Guest
Agent (NGA) service that runs on the guest VMs in the Nutanix cluster. After you install NGT in
a guest VM, the NGA service in the guest VM starts periodic communication with the CVM over
SSL connections.
Each Nutanix cluster is configured as a certificate authority (CA). When NGT is enabled in a
guest VM, a certificate pair is generated specifically for that VM and it is embedded in an ISO
that is configured for that VM. The security certificates are installed inside the VM as part of the
installation process.
The NGA service running inside the guest VM initiates an SSL connection to the port 2074 of
the virtual IP on the CVM to communicate with the CVM. Any firewall must be configured to
allow the guest VM to be able to reach port 2074 on the CVM. For the complete list of required
ports, see Port Reference.
NGT provides three levels of security for VM communication.

• 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.

Automatic CD-ROM Ejection


After NGT is installed or re-configured in a guest VM, the CD-ROM is auto-ejected from the VM
in the following stages.

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1. CD-ROM is automatically ejected from the VM immediately after the installation of NGT is
successfully completed.
2. NGA indicates to the controller VM (CVM) that the installation is complete and the CD-
ROM is detached from the VM through the hypervisor. This operation depends on the
communication between the guest VM and the CVM and may take up to 10 minutes.

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.

NGT Usage in Disaster Recovery


If NGT is enabled on a guest VM that is protected by Nutanix Disaster Recovery, the snapshots
of the VM include NGT relevant information along with its capabilities.
The NGT information is preserved for a restored guest VM in the following scenarios:

• Migrating the VM to the remote cluster (Planned Failover)


• Performing an in-place restore of the VM on the source cluster
• Creating a clone of the VM on the source cluster
In these scenarios, a new NGT ISO image containing only the relevant configuration information
(SSL certificates, Controller VM IP address, ans so on) is created for the recovered guest VM
and the image is automatically attached to the VM. When the VM is powered on, the NGA
service running on the VM copies the relevant configuration information and detaches the NGT
ISO CD-ROM automatically.
The NGT information is not preserved for a restored guest VM in the following scenarios:

• Performing an out-of-place restore of the VM on the remote cluster.


• Retrieving and restoring the snapshot from the remote cluster to the source cluster.
In these scenarios, you must enable NGT again in the restored VM.

Storage Quality of Service (QoS)


Storage QoS provides administrators granular control to manage the performance of virtual
machines and ensure that the system delivers consistent performance for all workloads. You
can use a controllable knob to limit the IOPS that the storage layer would serve for individual
virtual machines. IOPS is the number of requests the storage layer can serve in a second. You
can set throttle limits on a VM to prevent noisy VMs from over-utilizing the system resources.

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.

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Terminology
Throttled IOPS
The maximum IOPS that the storage layer tries to admit over a sustained period.
Applications that are running on the VM are not permitted to exceed this level. This
prevents VMs from affecting a system beyond the set limits. However, if the system is in
a state of flux, your application might not be throttled. To prevent application crashing
due to misconfiguration, the throttled IOPS setting must not be less than one hundred.
Otherwise, an error is raised.
Setting maximum IOPS on a VM may affect the cluster latency for that VM and may
result in higher latency being displayed in the cluster latency charts. Performance of any
other VM is not affected by this setting. You can view individual VM latency graph to
ensure that the other VMs are not affected. You can also create a custom focus view to
display the throttled IOPS for all the VMs.
Throughput
Throughput is the amount of data that an application sees from the storage layer
underneath per second. The maximum throughput is calculated by multiplying the
number of IOPS with the block size.

Calculation of the IOPS and Throughput


The default block size used for IOPS calculation is 32 KiB. If the block size is less than or
equal to 32 KiB, then the system is rate limited by the number of IOPS and the bandwidth is
calculated by multiplying the number of IOPS with the block size of the application. Otherwise,
if the block size is greater than 32 KiB, the system is rate limited by the throughput and the
number of IOPS is calculated by dividing the throughput by block size of the application.
For example, if you have set a throttle limit of 800 IOPS on a VM and the application is
admitting IOPS with 8 KiB block size, then the application would see 800 IOPS and throughput
of 6.25 MBps. However, if application is admitting IOPS with 64 KiB block size, then the
application would see 400 IOPS and a throughput of 25 MBps. For more information about
the block size, IOPS, and throughput relationship when throttle limit it set to 800 IOPS, see
Relationship between Block Size, IOPS, and Throughput table.

Table 714: Relationship between Block Size, IOPS, and Throughput

Block size IOPS Throughput

8 KiB 800 6.25 MBps

16 KiB 800 12.50 MBps

32 KiB 800 25 MBps

64 KiB 400 25 MBps

128 KiB 200 25 MBps

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.

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• While creating a clone of a VM, any QoS attributes throttle limit set on the original VM might
not be applied to the new cloned VM. QoS throttle limit has to be set on the new cloned VM
separately.
• For linked clones, when you are sharing the vDisks across multiple VMs, shared disks are not
a part of QoS policy and shared disks would not be throttled. Each VM might exceed the
maximum limit depending on the shared vDisk usage. For example, during bootstorm in a
VDI setup.
• If a VM has volume groups attached, then QoS is not applicable.
• Storage QoS is not supported for Metro Availability, synchronous replication, and Nutanix
Files virtual machines.

Setting QoS for an Individual VM

About this task


Storage QoS allows you to set throttle limits on a VM to prevent noisy VMs from over-utilizing
the system resources. Perform the following procedure to set the QoS for an individual VM.

Figure 283: Setting QoS for an Individual VM

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275779955001 on Brightcove.

Procedure

1. Go to the List tab of the VM dashboard (see VMs Summary View on page 90) and select the
target VM.

2. Do one of the following:

» From the Actions drop-down list, select Set QoS Attributes.


» Click the VM and then select Set QoS Attributes from the More drop-down list.

3. Under Input Type, select one of the following:

» 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.

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5. If you selected Throughput, enter a value for the throttled throughput in the Throttled
Throughput.

Figure 284: Setting QoS Attributes

6. Click Show Details to populate a table that describes the relationship between block size,
IOPS, and throughput.

7. Click Clear Attributes to delete all the values.

8. To save details, click Confirm.


This step stores the number of IOPS or throughput that would be served by a storage layer.
To edit the storage QoS setting, follow the previous process and enter a new value for IOPS
or throughput.

Memory Overcommit Management

Enabling Memory Overcommit While Creating a VM


This procedure helps you enable memory overcommit in a VM that you create in Prism Central.
You need a minimum Prism Central version of pc.2022.4 for this procedure.

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Before you begin
You cannot enable the memory overcommit feature using the Prism Element Web Console.
Enable memory overcommit on a VM that you create by using Prism Central. If you create a
VM using Prism Web Console, then you can enable memory overcommit on that VM using
Prism Central. For the procedure to enable memory overcommit on a VM that you have already
created, see Enabling Memory Overcommit for Existing VMs on page 602.

About this task


When you are creating a VM, you can enable memory overcommit for it. Follow the procedure
to create a VM.

Procedure

1. On the VMs dashboard, click Create VM.


The Create VM page opens.

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2. On the Configuration tab, provide the other details necessary to create the VM. Select the
Enable Memory Overcommit checkbox.

Figure 285: Create VM - Enable Memory Overcommit

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.

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6. Click Save.

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.

Figure 286: VM Details Page - Memory Overcommit Enabled

Enabling Memory Overcommit for Existing VMs


The procedures in this section enable you to enable memory overcommit in one or more
existing VMs. You need a minimum Prism Central version of pc.2022.4 for this procedure.

Before you begin


Ensure that the VM on which you want to enable memory overcommit is powered off. If the
VM is powered on or is in Soft Shutdown state, the Enable Memory Overcommit action is not
available in the Actions dropdown list.

About this task


To enable memory overcommit in one or more existing VM by updating it, follow this
procedure.

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Procedure

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.

Figure 287: VM(s) Selection to Enable Memory Overcommit

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.

Disabling Memory Overcommit on Existing VMs


This procedure helps you to disable memory overcommit in one or more existing VMs. You
need a minimum Prism Central version of pc.2022.4 for this procedure.

Before you begin


Ensure that the VM on which you want to disable memory overcommit is powered off. If the
VM is powered on or is in Soft Shutdown state, the Disable Memory Overcommit action is not
available in the Actions dropdown list.

About this task


To disable memory overcommit in one or more existing VM by updating it, follow this
procedure.

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Procedure

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.

Figure 288: VM(s) Selection to Disable Memory Overcommit

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)

Affinity Policies Defined in Prism Central


In Prism Central, you can define category-based VM-Host affinity policies, where a set of VMs
can be affined to run only on a particular set of hosts. Category-based affinity policy enables
you to easily manage affinities for a large number of VMs. In case of any changes to the affined
hosts, you only need to update the category of the host, and it updates the affinity policy for all
the affected VMs.
This policy checks and enforces where a VM can be hosted when you start or migrate the VM. If
there are no resources available on any of the affined hosts, the VM does not get started.

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Note:
If you create a VM-Host affinity policy for a VM that is configured for asynchronous
replication, you must create similar categories and corresponding policies on the
remote site as well. If you define similar categories and policies on the remote site,
affinity policies will be applied when the VMs are migrated to the remote site.

Limitations of Affinity Policies

Affinity policies created in Prism Central have the following limitations:

• Only a super admin can create, modify, or delete affinity policies.


• The minimum supported versions for VM-Host affinity policies are version 6.1 for Prism
Element and version 2022.1 for Prism Central.
• Host category attach or detach takes around five minutes to get reflected in the applicable
affinity policies.
• You cannot apply VM-Host affinity policy on a VM that is enabled for synchronous
replication. Also, you cannot enable synchronous replication on a VM that is associated with
a VM-Host affinity policy.

Affinity Policy Configuration Workflow

About this task


To set up an affinity policy, do the following:

Procedure

1. Create categories for the following entities:

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.

3. Create the affinity policy. See Creating an Affinity Policy.

Associating VMs with Categories

About this task


To associate categories with VMs, do the following:

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > VMs.

2. Select the VMs that you want to associate with a category.

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3. In the Actions menu that is displayed, click Manage Categories.

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.

Associating Hosts with Categories

About this task


To associate categories with hosts, do the following:

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Hardware > Hosts.

2. Select the hosts that you want to associate with a category.

3. In the Actions menu that is displayed, click Manage Categories.

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.

Creating an Affinity Policy

About this task


To create an affinity policy, do the following:

Before you begin


Complete the following tasks:

• 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.

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2. In the Create Affinity Policy page, enter a name and description (optional) for the policy.

Figure 289: Create Affinity Policy

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.

Updating an Affinity Policy

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.

About this task


To update an affinity policy, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the entity menu, go to Policies > Affinity Policies, and then click the affinity policy that
you want to update.

2. From the Actions menu that is displayed, click Update.

3. The Update Affinity Policy page that is displayed includes the same options and settings as
the Create Affinity Policy page.

Figure 290: Update Affinity Policy

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

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like to be restarted at different times, for example if they are in different time zones or if their
down times are expected to be different. Policy workflow are defined on the categories. You
have to attach the category to the VM and then you can create a policy on the VM.

Creating a New Restart Policy

Perform the following procedure to create a new restart policy.

Procedure

1. Go to the VMs > Policies dashboard (see NGT Policies View on page 190) and click the New
VM Reboot Policy button.

Figure 291: NGT Policy

2. In the Policy Name text box, type a policy name.

3. In the Policy Description text box, type a description of the policy.

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4. Configure the guest restart schedule.

• 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.

Modifying a Restart Policy

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.

a. Make the necessary changes to the policy and click Save.

3. To delete a policy, select the policy and from the Actions drop-down menu click Delete.

a. Click Delete in the confirmation dialog box to delete the policy.

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.

Note: You can create or manage a VM template only as an admin user.

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Limitations of VM Template Feature
The current implementation of the VM template feature has the following limitations:

• Templates do not copy the following attributes from the source VMs:

• Host affinity attributes


• HA priority attributes
• Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) installation
You must reconfigure the above-listed attributes at the deployed VMs.
• You cannot create VM templates from VMs that have disks located on RF1 containers.
• VM templates are not yet supported for role-based access control (RBAC). For a non-admin
AD user or group, you must use catalog items instead of VM templates.

Creating a VM Template

About this task


To create a VM template, do the following:

Procedure

1. Select the VM in List tab under the VM dashboard.

Note: Before selecting a VM for creating a template, ensure that the VM is powered off.

2. In the Actions list, select Create VM Template.


Alternatively, on the details page of the VM, select More and click Create VM Template.

3. This displays the Create template from VM dialog box. In the Create Template from VM
window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. In the VM Template Name field, enter a name for the template.


b. In the Description field, enter a description for the template. Description is an optional
field.
c. In the Guest Customization field, select your options for guest operating system (OS)
customization.
You can choose to provide a customization option for the OS of the VMs that will be
deployed using this template. In the Script Type field, select Sysprep (Windows) for
customizing the Windows OS, and Cloud-init (Linux) for customizing the Linux OS. For
each of these script types, you can choose to either upload a custom script or opt for a
guided setup in the Configuration Method field.

• 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

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type and then allow the users to override the settings, the users can change the settings
only for the configuration method. For example, the users can change the authentication
information at the time of deploying a VM from template, or they can change from a
guided setup to a custom script.
If you select No Customization at the time of creating the template but allow the users to
override the guest customization settings, it gives the maximum customization control to
the users. They can customize the script type and the configuration method.

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.

Figure 292: Create VM Template

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.

5. Click Save to save the inputs and create a template.


The new template appears in the templates entity page list.

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Deploying VM from a Template

About this task


After creating a VM template, you can use the template to deploy any number of VMs across
clusters.
To deploy a VM from a template, do the following:

Procedure

1. You can use any of the following methods to deploy VMs:

• 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:

• Name: Enter a name for the VM.


• Cluster: Select the cluster where you want to deploy the VM.
• Number of VMs: Enter the number of VMs that you want to deploy.
• Starting Index Number: Enter the starting index number for the VMs when you are
deploying multiple VMs simultaneously. These index numbers are used in the VM
names. For example, if you are deploying two VMs and specify the starting index
number as 5, the VMs are named as vm_name-5 and vm_name-6.
• Guest Customization: The template can have any one of the following options for
guest OS customization: No Customization, Sysprep (Windows), or Cloud-init (Linux).
For Sysprep (Windows), or Cloud-init (Linux), you can choose to either upload a
custom script or opt for a guided setup. The fields are enabled for modification only if
the template allows you to override its guest customization settings while deploying
the VM. If you are not allowed to override the guest customization settings, the
settings that are already provided in the template are used for VM deployment.
• Click Next to verify the configuration details of the VMs to be deployed.

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• Click Deploy to deploy the VMs.

Figure 293: Deploy VM from Template using Quick Deploy Method


• Advanced Deploy: To deploy VMs using the advanced deploy method, provide inputs in
the indicated fields and review the information displayed under various tabs:

• 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.

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• Review: Review the information displayed on this tab. Click Deploy to deploy the VMs.

Figure 294: Deploy VM from Template using Advanced Deploy Method

Managing a VM Template

About this task


After creating a template (see Creating a VM Template on page 610), you can update the
guest OS of the source VM of the template, complete guest OS update, cancel guest OS
update, update the configuration of the template to create a version, or delete the template.
You can perform these tasks by using any of the following methods:

• 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.

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Procedure

• 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.

Figure 295: Update Guest OS

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

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settings to create a new version of the template. In Select a version to Upgrade window,
select the version of the template that you want to modify and create a version on top of it.
The Update Template Configuration window displays the following sections:

• 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.

Figure 296: Update Template Configuration


• To delete a template, select Delete Template. A window prompt appears; click the OK
button to delete the template.

Storage Management (Prism Central)


Storage in a Nutanix cluster is organized into several components that allow you to manage
capacity and performance. Nutanix clusters include storage pool, storage container, volume
group, and virtual disk components. Prism Element allows you to manage all aspects of storage
for a cluster, but you can also manage some storage components directly from Prism Central.

• The storage containers dashboard displays information about storage containers across the
registered clusters (see Storage Containers Summary View on page 125).

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• The volume groups dashboard displays information about volume groups across the
registered clusters (see Volume Groups Summary View on page 143). Using Prism Central
you can do the following:

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)

• Create a volume group (see Creating a Volume Group on page 642)


• Update or delete a volume group (see Modifying a Volume Group on page 646)
• Add, update, or remove connections to external clients for a volume group (see Managing
Volume Group Connections on page 647)
• Add, update, or delete virtual disks for a volume group (see Managing Volume Group
Virtual Disks on page 651)
• The storage policy dashboard displays information about the storage policies that are
configured to manage the govern the storage behaviour of VMs or entities (see Storage
Policies Summary View on page 137 and Storage Policy Management on page 652).
• For information about storage management tasks that are performed through Prism
Element, see the Storage Management chapter in the Prism Web Console Guide.

Storage Components (Prism Central)


Storage in a Nutanix cluster is organized into the following components.

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,

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which means that the physical storage is allocated to the storage container as needed when
data is written, rather than allocating the predefined capacity when the storage container is
created. Storage efficiency features such as compression, deduplication, and erasure coding are
enabled at the container level.

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.

Containers for VMware and Hyper-V (Datastores/SMB Shares)


In vSphere, a datastore is a logical container for files necessary for VM operations. Nutanix
provides the choice by supporting both iSCSI and NFS protocols when mounting a storage
volume as a datastore within vSphere. NFS has many performance and scalability advantages
over iSCSI, and it is the recommended datastore type.
In Hyper-V environments, storage containers are mounted as an SMB share.

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.

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Figure 297: vSphere Configuration of NFS Datastore

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.

Figure 298: Hyper-V Configuration of an SMB Share

Compression (Prism Central)


You can enable compression on a storage container. Compression can save physical storage
space and improve I/O bandwidth and memory usage—which may have a positive impact on
overall system performance.

Note: If the metadata usage is high, compression is automatically disabled. If compression is


automatically disabled, an alert is generated.

The following types of compression are available.


Post-process compression
Data is compressed after it is written. The delay time between write and compression is
configurable, and Nutanix recommends a delay of 60 minutes.
Inline compression
Data is compressed as it is written. When you create a new storage container,
inline compression is enabled by default for all license tiers. It is set to a delay of 0,
compressing data immediately as it is written.

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Compression Ratios
You can view compression ratios and usage savings in the Prism Web Console.

• 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.

Deduplication (Prism Central)


Deduplication reduces space usage by consolidating duplicate data blocks on Nutanix storage.
You can enable either cache deduplication only or both cache and capacity deduplication on a
storage container.

Cache Deduplication
You can enable cache deduplication of read cache to optimize performance. Cache
deduplication means deduplication performed on the data in memory.

Note: Cache deduplication is not enabled by default.

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:

• Cache deduplication: 24 GB RAM


• Capacity deduplication: 32 GB RAM
For more information about enabling deduplication, see Creating a Storage Container (AHV) on
page 627 for AHV, Creating a Storage Container (ESXi) on page 631 for ESXi or Creating a
Storage Container (Hyper-V) on page 634 for Hyper-V.

Deduplication Best Practices

This table shows when deduplication is recommended and when it is not.

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Enable deduplication Do not enable deduplication

• Full clones • Linked clones or Nutanix VAAI clones:


Duplicate data is managed efficiently by
• Physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration DSF so deduplication has no additional
• Persistent desktops benefit
• Server workloads: Redundant data is
minimal so may not see significant benefit
from deduplication

Erasure Coding (Prism Central)


Erasure coding increases the usable capacity on a cluster. Instead of replicating data, erasure
coding uses a parity information to rebuild data in the event of a disk failure. The capacity
savings of erasure coding is in addition to deduplication and compression savings.
If you have configured redundancy factor 2, two data copies are maintained. For example,
consider a 6-node cluster with 4 data blocks (a b c d). In this example, we start with 4 data
blocks (a b c d) configured with redundancy factor 2. In the following image, the white text
represents the data blocks and the green text represents the copies.

Figure 299: Data copies before Erasure Coding

When the data becomes cold, the erasure code engine computes parity P for the data by
performing an exclusive OR operation.

Figure 300: Computing Parity

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.

Figure 301: After Computation of Parity

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If the node containing data block c fails, block c is rebuilt using the rest of the erasure coded
stripe (a b d and P) as displayed in the following image.
Block c is then placed on a node that does not have any other members of this erasure coded
stripe.

Figure 302: Post 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.

Example of Savings from Erasure Coding (Prism Central)

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.

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Figure 303: Storage Container Summary: Usage Savings Screen

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%.

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Erasure coding stripe size adapts to the size of the cluster starting with the minimum 4 nodes
with a maximum of 5 node stripe width. The following image displays the various configurations
of cluster size, possible stripe widths, and approximate savings that might occur when erasure
coding is enabled.

Figure 304: Example of Space Saving from Erasure Coding on 20 TiB Nodes

Erasure Coding Best Practices and Requirements (Prism Central)

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:

Table 715: Minimum Recommended Configuration for Erasure Coding

Desired Awareness FT Level Min. Units Simultaneous Failure


Type Tolerance

Node 1 4 nodes 1 node

Node 2 6 nodes 2 nodes

Block 1 4 blocks 1 block

Block 2 6 blocks 2 blocks

Rack 1 4 racks 1 rack

Rack 2 6 racks 2 racks

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

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change the strip size. Greater strip sizes increases the space savings, however, it increases
the cost of rebuild.
• Erasure coding effectiveness (data reduction savings) might reduce on workloads that have
many overwrites outside of the erasure coding window. The default value for erasure coding
window is seven days for write cold.
• Read performance is affected during rebuild and the amount depends on cluster strip size
and read load on the system.
• Erasure coding is an asynchronous process, and hence the time taken to calculate and
display space savings depends on the type and coldness of data. A minimum of two full
curator scans are required to calculate the data savings.
• We recommend that you have RF+1 storage heavy or storage only nodes for all-flash clusters
with storage heavy nodes. For example, if you have a four-node RF2 cluster, then you must
add a minimum of three storage heavy nodes for optimum performance.

Inline Erasure Coding (Prism Central)

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.

Enabling Inline Erasure Coding (Prism Central)

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.

About this task


To manually enable erasure coding, run the following nCLI commands.

Procedure

• Enabling erasure coding on the storage container:


ncli> container edit name=container_name erasure-code=on

Replace container_name with the name of the storage container on which you want to enable
erasure coding.

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• Enabling inline erasure coding on the storage container.
Run the following nCLI commands:
ncli> container create name=container_name sp-id=storage_pool_id erasure-code=on inline-ec-enabled=true

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

Replace container_id with the ID of the storage container.

Capacity Reservation Best Practices (Prism Central)


By default, each storage container has access to all of the unused storage in the storage
pool. If a storage pool has multiple storage containers, one storage container may take all the
remaining storage space and leave others with no available space. To make sure that there is
space for a storage container, you can enable capacity reservation.
Capacity reservation allows you to guarantee that a storage container has a minimum amount
reserved that is unavailable to other storage containers.
Following are best practices for capacity reservation.

• 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).

Storage Container Management


A storage pool is created during cluster configuration. There is one storage pool per cluster.
Storage efficiency features including compression, deduplication, erasure coding, and
replication factor are enabled at the storage container level. To access the storage containers
dashboard, select Compute & Storage > Storage Containers from the entities menu (see
Entities Menu on page 13).
The storage containers dashboard displays information about storage containers across the
registered clusters (see Storage Containers Summary View on page 125). Using Prism Central
you can do the following:


• 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:

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• A storage pool and three storage container are created automatically when the
cluster is created.
• A storage container is not created if you have not configured the Controller
VMs with enough memory. Controller VM memory allocation requirements differ
depending on the models and features that are being used. For more information,
see Controller VM Memory Configurations in Acropolis Advanced Administration
Guide.
• The NutanixManagementShare, SelfServiceContainer, and a default-container are
created by default.

• The NutanixManagementShare storage container is a built-in storage container


for Nutanix clusters for use with the Nutanix Files and Self-Service Portal (SSP)
features. This storage container is used by Nutanix Files and SSP for file storage,
feature upgrades, and other feature operations. The NutanixManagementShare
storage container is not intended to be used as storage for vDisks, including
Nutanix Volumes.
• SelfServiceContainer storage container is also a built-in storage container for
Nutanix clusters for use with Image service features.
To ensure proper operation of these features, do not delete these storage
containers. Nutanix also recommends that you do not delete this storage container
even if you are not using these features.

Known Issues and Limitations


RF1 containers are not supported in Prism Central. You can create RF1 containers only from
Prism Element. However, you cannot update or delete Prism Element created RF1 containers
from Prism Central.

Creating a Storage Container (AHV)

Before you begin


Confirm that the cluster is configured to synchronize time with NTP servers (see Configuring
NTP Servers (Prism Central) on page 512 for information on how to configure the NTP server)
and that the time on the Controller VMs is synchronized and current. If the time on the
Controller VMs is ahead of the current time, cluster services may fail to start. Files within the
storage containers may also have timestamps ahead the current time when viewed from the
hypervisor.

About this task


AOS automatically creates the correct type of access to the storage container for each
hypervisor. The storage container is accessible transparently for AHV.
To create a storage container, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Entities menu, click Compute and Storage.

2. Click Storage Containers.

3. Go to the List tab in the storage containers dashboard.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 627


4. Click the Create Storage Container button.
The Create Storage Container page appears.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 628


Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 629
Figure 305: Create Storage Container (AHV)
5. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the storage container.

Note: This entity has the following naming restrictions.

• Container Name Length: Maximum length is 75 characters.


• Supported Characters: Uppercase and lowercase standard Latin letters (A-Z
and a-z), Simplified Chinese, decimal digits (0-9), dots (.), hyphens (-) , hash
(#), and underscores (_).
• Case Sensitivity: Container names are case sensitive.

b. Clusters: Select a cluster from the drop-down list.


c. Max Capacity displays the amount of free space available in the selected cluster.

6. To configure additional parameters, click the Advanced Settings.


Do the following in the indicated fields:

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 630


for full-clone, persistent desktops, and physical to virtual migration use cases. Turning
deduplication on for VAAI clone or linked clone environments is not recommended.
Select the CAPACITY check box to perform post-process deduplication of persistent data.
This option is recommended primarily for full clone, persistent desktops, and physical
to virtual migration use cases that need storage capacity savings (not just performance
savings from deduplication). It is further recommended that the Controller VMs have at
least 32GB of RAM and 300GB SSDs for the metadata disk to use this option.

Important: Deduplication is only supported on clusters with a minimum of three nodes.

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.

Creating a Storage Container (ESXi)

Before you begin


Confirm that the cluster is configured to synchronize time with NTP servers (see Configuring
NTP Servers (Prism Central) on page 512 for information on how to configure the NTP server)
and that the time on the Controller VMs is synchronized and current. If the time on the
Controller VMs is ahead of the current time, cluster services may fail to start. Files within the
storage containers may also have timestamps ahead the current time when viewed from the
hypervisor.

About this task


AOS automatically creates the correct type of access to the storage container for each
hypervisor. For ESXi, the storage container is accessible as an NFS datastore. This requires
access to the vSphere APIs. Ensure that you have appropriate license of vSphere to access the
APIs.
To create a storage container, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Entities menu, click Compute and Storage.

2. Click Storage Containers.

3. Go to the List tab in the storage containers dashboard.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 631


4. Click the Create Storage Container button.
The Create Storage Container page appears.

Figure 306: Create Storage Container (AHV)

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 632


5. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the storage container.

Note: This entity has the following naming restrictions.

• Container Name Length: Maximum length is 42 characters.


• Supported Characters: Uppercase and lowercase standard Latin letters (A-Z
and a-z), Simplified Chinese, decimal digits (0-9), dots (.), hyphens (-) , hash
(#), and underscores (_).
• Case Sensitivity: Container names are case sensitive.

b. Clusters: Select a cluster from the drop-down list.


c. Max Capacity displays the amount of free space available in the selected cluster.
d. NFS Datastore: Select the Mount on all ESXi hosts button to mount the storage container
on all hosts. Select the Mount on the following ESXi hosts button to mount the storage
container on a subset of hosts, which displays a list of host IP addresses below this field.
Check the boxes of the hosts to be included.
Option Description

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.

6. To configure additional parameters, click the Advanced Settings.


Do the following in the indicated fields:

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 633


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: Sets a maximum storage space for this storage container, enter the
amount (in GiB) to reserve in this field.
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. (When a storage container reaches a threshold percentage of the actual storage
pool size, an alert is issued.)
d. Compression: Inline compression is enabled by default with the Delay (In Minutes) field
set to 0. A value of 0 means data is compressed immediately as it is written. The delay
time between write and compression is configurable. For post-process compression,
where data is compressed after it is written, Nutanix recommends 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
for full-clone, persistent desktops, and physical to virtual migration use cases. Turning
deduplication on for VAAI clone or linked clone environments is not recommended.
Select the CAPACITY check box to perform post-process deduplication of persistent data.
This option is recommended primarily for full clone, persistent desktops, and physical
to virtual migration use cases that need storage capacity savings (not just performance
savings from deduplication). It is further recommended that the Controller VMs have at
least 32GB of RAM and 300GB SSDs for the metadata disk to use this option.

Important: Deduplication is only supported on clusters with a minimum of three nodes.

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.

Creating a Storage Container (Hyper-V)

Before you begin


Confirm that the cluster is configured to synchronize time with NTP servers (see Configuring
NTP Servers (Prism Central) on page 512 for information on how to configure the NTP server)

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 634


and that the time on the Controller VMs is synchronized and current. If the time on the
Controller VMs is ahead of the current time, cluster services may fail to start. Files within the
storage containers may also have timestamps ahead the current time when viewed from the
hypervisor.

About this task


AOS automatically creates the correct type of access to the storage container for each
hypervisor. The storage container is accessible as an SMB share for Hyper-V.
To create a storage container, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Entities menu, click Compute and Storage.

2. Click Storage Containers.

3. Go to the List tab in the storage containers dashboard.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 635


4. Click the Create Storage Container button.
The Create Storage Container page appears.

Figure 307: Create Storage Container (AHV)

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 636


5. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the storage container.

Note: This entity has the following naming restrictions.

• Container Name Length: Maximum length is 32 characters.


• Supported Characters: Uppercase and lowercase standard Latin letters (A-Z
and a-z), decimal digits (0-9), dots (.), hyphens (-), and underscores(_).
• Case Sensitivity: Container names are case insensitive. For example, if there is a
container with name ABCD, then creating another container with name abcd is
restricted.

b. Storage Pool: Select a storage pool from the drop-down list.


The following field, Max Capacity, displays the amount of free space available in the
selected storage pool.
c. Set this storage container as default store for VMs on Hyper-V hosts.
Depending on your selection the Create Virtual Machine Wizard of Hyper-V automatically
populates the storage location with the relevant storage container.
Option Description

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.

6. To configure additional parameters, click the Advanced Settings.


Do the following in the indicated fields:

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 637


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: Sets a maximum storage space for this storage container, enter the
amount (in GiB) to reserve in this field.
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. (When a storage container reaches a threshold percentage of the actual storage
pool size, an alert is issued.)
d. Compression: Inline compression is enabled by default with the Delay (In Minutes) field
set to 0. A value of 0 means data is compressed immediately as it is written. The delay
time between write and compression is configurable. For post-process compression,
where data is compressed after it is written, Nutanix recommends 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
for full-clone, persistent desktops, and physical to virtual migration use cases. Turning
deduplication on for VAAI clone or linked clone environments is not recommended.
Select the CAPACITY check box to perform post-process deduplication of persistent data.
This option is recommended primarily for full clone, persistent desktops, and physical
to virtual migration use cases that need storage capacity savings (not just performance
savings from deduplication). It is further recommended that the Controller VMs have at
least 32GB of RAM and 300GB SSDs for the metadata disk to use this option.

Important: Deduplication is only supported on clusters with a minimum of three nodes.

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.

Modifying a Storage Container


A storage container is a defined subset of available storage within a storage pool that can be
modified as conditions change.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 638


About this task
Storage Containers can be modified to change how the data in that storage container is
handled, for example to apply compression.

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.

To modify a storage container, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Entities menu, click Compute and Storage.

2. Click Storage Containers.

3. Go to the List tab in the storage container dashboard.

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 639


coding, select or deselect fingerprinting on writes which enables deduplication on reads, and
configure filesystem whitelist.
For example,

Figure 308: Update Storage Container (AHV)

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 640


Figure 309: Update Storage Container (Hyper-V)

Note:

• If the compression policy is changed from compressed to uncompressed (or vice


versa), the existing compressed (uncompressed) data in the storage container

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 641


will be uncompressed (compressed) as a background process when the next data
scan detects the data that needs this change.
• The Prism Central does not provide an option to change the container replication
factor. That can be done only through the nCLI (see Increasing the Cluster Fault
Tolerance Level section in the Prism Web Console Guide).

Deleting a Storage Container


A storage container is a defined subset of available storage within a storage pool that can be
deleted.

About this task


To delete a storage container, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Entities menu, click Compute and Storage.

2. Click Storage Containers.

3. Go to the List tab in the storage container dashboard.

4. To delete the storage container, select the target storage container.

5. Click the Delete link.


The Deleting Storage Container window appears which requests you to confirm deletion of
the selected storage container.

6. Click the Delete button.

Creating a Volume Group

About this task


To create a volume group through Prism Central, do the following:

Figure 310: Creating a Volume Group

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275775660001 on Brightcove.

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.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 642


2. In the Configuration screen, do the following in the indicated fields:

Figure 311: Create Volume Group: Configuration

a. Name: Enter a name for the volume group.


b. Description: Enter an optional description for the volume group.
c. Cluster: Select the cluster in which to create the volume group from the pull-down list.
The list includes all clusters registered with this Prism Central.
d. iSCSI Target Name (read only): The iSCSI target name appears in the field. (You cannot
change the name.)
e. Virtual Disks: Click the Add Disk button. In the Add Virtual Disk window, select the target
volume group from the pull-down list, enter the disk size (in GiBs), and then click the Add
button.
The Configuration screen reappears with a table of virtual disks. The table includes index
(assigned number), storage container (name), size, and action fields with a line for each
disk in the volume group.

• 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.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 643


Figure 312: Add Virtual Disk Window
f. Advanced Settings (optional): Check the Flash Mode box to ensure no down migration of
data occurs from the flash tier.
Clicking Advanced Settings switches (display/hide) the Flash Mode box.
g. Click the Next button.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 644


3. In the Connections screen, do the following in the indicated fields:

» 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.

Figure 313: Create Volume Group: Connections - Virtual Machines

Configure the Virtual Machines settings as indicated.

• 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.

Configure the External Clients configuration as indicated.

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 645


Authentication box and password to enable CHAP authentication, and then click the
Add button. The added client appears in the table.
• To update a client, click the pencil icon for that client in the table. The Edit External
Client window appears. Check (uncheck) the box to enable (disable) CHAP
authentication and then click the Save button. (You cannot change the client address.)

Figure 314: Add External Client Window


c. Click the Create button.
The volume group is created, and the new volume group appears in the list of volume
groups.

Modifying a Volume Group

About this task


You can modify a volume group (update or delete) at any time after creating it.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 646


Procedure

• To update a volume group, do the following:

a. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Managing Volume Group Connections

About this task


Connections to external clients are configured when the volume group is created (see
Creating a Volume Group on page 642), but you configure authentication and add or remove
connections to a volume group at any time.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 647


Procedure

• To manage connections as a whole, do the following:

a. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 315: Manage Connections Page


b. Check the CHAP Authentication box to enable the Challenge Handshake Authentication
Protocol (CHAP) and then enter the password in the indicated field.
c. The iSCSI target name appears in the iSCSI Target Name field. This is a read-only field
because you cannot change the name.
d. Configure the clients as desired in the Attached Clients section. 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 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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 648


(disable) CHAP authentication and then click the Save button. (You cannot change the
client address.)
e. Click the Save button.
• To add an external client connection to a volume group, do the following:

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.

Figure 316: Add External Client Window

The connection is added, and the new client appears in the list of connections for the
volume group.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 649


• To update a client connection, do the following:

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.

Figure 317: Edit External Client Window


• To remove a client connection, select the Connections tab in the details page of the target
volume group, select the target connection, and then click the Remove button.
The connection is removed, and the entry is deleted from the list of connections.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 650


Managing Volume Group Virtual Disks

About this task


Virtual disks are added when the volume group is created (see Creating a Volume Group on
page 642), but you add, update, or delete disks for a volume group at any time.

Procedure

• To add a virtual disk to a volume group, do the following:

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.

Figure 318: Add Virtual Disk Window

The disk is created, and the new disk appears in the list of virtual disks for the volume
group.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 651


• To update a virtual disk, do the following:

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.

Figure 319: Edit Virtual Disk Window


• To delete a virtual disk, select the Virtual Disks tab in the details page of the target volume
group, select the target disk, and then click the Delete button.

Storage Policy Management


Storage Policies in Prism Central let you manage the storage attributes like encryption,
compression and QoS of entities like VMs. A single storage policy can manage the attributes of
several entities that are associated with various Categories.
You can create a storage policy in Prism Central. A storage policy uses Categories to associate
with entities such as VMs. Using a storage policy, you can manage parameters of entities (VMs)
such as encryption, type of values for data compression, and IOPS or Throughput throttling to
be applied to the entities.
To create and manage storage policies, open the Storage Policies dashboard (see Storage
Policies Summary View on page 137).

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 652


Requirements
Prism Central supports storage policies only on AHV. Prism Central supports storage policies
only for VMs. It does not support storage policies for Volume Groups.
To successfully complete the inbuilt pre-checks and create a storage policy, ensure that:
1. You provide a unique name for every storage policy. In other words, no two storage policies
can have the same name. If you use the name of an existing policy, Prism Central displays an
error.
2. You provide a defined (non-default) value for at least one storage policy attribute or
property. For example, for Compression the default value is Inherit from Cluster, so you may
instead select On with Inline as the value. You could select or provide a defined value for any
one ore more properties of the storage policy.
See Creating or Updating a Storage Policy on page 655 for list of properties that you can
configure during creation or updating of a storage policy.
3. The throttled IOPS value is greater than 99 (to enable rate limiting or throttling) or equal to
-1 (to clear the throttling) in the storage policies.

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.

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• You can associate multiple categories with one storage policy. However, you can associate
one category with only one storage policy. After associating a category with one storage
policy, you cannot associate the same category with another storage policy. When you
associate the same category with another storage policy, Prism Central adds the category to
the Associated Categories list but displays an alert (an exclamation mark) and disables the
Save button until you remove the category. The following message pops up when you hover
on or click the alert (exclamation mark):
This category has an existing storage policy (<name of storage policy>)
associated with it.

• 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.

Storage Policy Based Encryption


Storage policies allow you to make Encryption-at-Rest choices at the VM level.
Deployments can continue to have Nutanix Encryption-at-Rest capabilities scoped for the
entire cluster. Storage policy provides the additional option to control the encryption scopes
decisions at the VM.

Note: Prism Central does not support Policy based encryption storage containers on which
Erasure Coding or Deduplication is enabled.

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The Key Manager System (KMS) choice is configured as a cluster-wide setting, leveraging either
Nutanix Built-In Native Key manager or leveraging a third party Key Manager. As part of the
Key manager configuration, the scope of encryption-at-rest is defined either as Cluster-wide
or specific entity-scoping. Entity-scoping means that the encryption-at-rest scope is defined at
the container or the data policy level.

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.

Creating or Updating a Storage Policy


You can create or update a storage policy in Prism Central only.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 655


About this task
The Create Storage Policy has two tabs - Configuration and Association. The Configuration
tab lets you configure the Data Security (Encryption), data Reduction (Compression) and QoS
(IOPS or Throughput throttling) aspects of the storage policy. The Association tab lets you
associate the storage policy with categories (and thence, entities).
The Create Storage Policy and the Update Storage Policy pages have the same storage policy
attribute or property configuration fields.
Do the following on the Storage Policies dashboard:

Procedure

1. Click Create Storage Policy.


On the Create Storage Policy page, the Configuration tab opens.

Figure 320: Create Storage Policy - Configuration Tab

Configure the following properties in the Configuration tab. Select a defined (non-default)
value for a least one of the properties.

Table 716: Configuration Tab Fields

Field Description and Values

Name Enter a unique name for the storage policy.

Note: Do not repeat a name previously used for another


storage policy. The built-in pre-check fails if you enter a non-
unique name.

Data Security

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Field Description and Values
Encryption Select one of the following values from the drop-down list.
Value
• Enabled—to enable encryption through the storage policy.

Note: After you enable encryption using storage policies,


you cannot disable it.

• Inherit from Cluster (default)—the category or entity inherits


the encryption configuration from the cluster. This is the
default value for Encryption.

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

Throttled Value Provide a numeric value.

Note: For IOPS the value must be greater than 99 or equal to


-1 (minus 1).

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

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the categories you want to add to the Associated Categories list. You can select multiple
categories for one storage policy.

Note: When you associate a category with one storage policy, you cannot associate the same
category with another storage policy.

Figure 321: Create Storage Policy - Association Tab

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.

4. Click Save to save the storage policy.

Managing Associations
You can update a storage policy to add or remove a category association.

About this task


Storage policies use categories to associate with entities like VMs. A storage policy cannot
associate directly with an entity like a VM. To associate an entity such as a VM, add an
appropriate category to the VM and then associate the category with the storage policy. See
Limitations section in Storage Policy Management on page 652.

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:

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 658


Procedure

1. Click the name of the storage policy. On the storage policy details page, click the Categories
(or Entities) tab.

2. On the Categories page, click Manage Associations.


On the Manage Associations page, you can add or remove category associations.

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.

Figure 322: Add Category

The plus icon changes to a check mark icon indicating that the category is added to the
Associated Categories list.

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4. In the Associated Categories list, click the remove icon of the category (or categories) you
want to remove.

Figure 323: Remove Categories

The category is removed from the Associated Categories list, thus removing the association
of the category with the storage policy.

Deleting a Storage Policy


You can delete a storage policy. When you do so, the entities associated with the deleted
storage policy return to their default state or the configurations from any other storage policy
that is associated with the category are applied to the entities.

Before you begin


Nutanix recommends that you remove all the categories and entities associated with the
storage policy. See Managing Associations on page 658 for more information about removing
associations.

About this task


When a storage policy is deleted, it is marked for removal in the database. Prism Central stops
displaying that storage policy. The process stops applying the storage attributes of the policy
and instead applies the storage attributes configured for the container. However, the VM
continues to display the storage policy as if it still applies, until the next system scan occurs and
removes the policy from VM information. (A Kanon service scan occurs every 1800 seconds and
refreshes the information.)
Remove associations of the storage policy to categories in the Categories or Entities tabs of
the storage policy details page. See Managing Associations on page 658 for steps to remove
associations of a storage policy.
Delete a storage policy from the Storage Policies dashboard or the Summary tab of the storage
policy details page.
Do the following to delete a storage policy:

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Procedure

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:

Figure 324: Delete Storage Policy

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2. (Optional) Click Preview Changes to view the Changes Preview dialog box.
The Changes Preview dialog box lists the categories and entities that are affected by the
deletion of the storage policy.

Tip: If you have already removed all the associations of the storage policy, then the list of
categories and entities is empty.

Figure 325: Change Preview

After you preview the impact, click Back to go back to the Delete <storage-policy-name>
dialog box.

3. Check the I understand the impact of this action. box.


The Delete button is actionable only after you check the I understand the impact of this
action. 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

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select No Access permission for the Marketplace Item entity while creating the
custom role, the custom role will not have access to the Catalog Item entity as well.
See the Creating A Custom Role section of the AOS Security Guide on how to create
a custom role with access to catalog items entity.

Adding a Catalog Item

About this task


When you add a VM to the catalog, a snapshot of the VM is created. The snapshot is available
to users across all the self-service projects. Users who have the requisite permissions can create
VMs from the snapshot. You can continue to use the VM or delete the VM after you add it to
the catalog. These actions do not affect the snapshot.
Adding an image to the catalog makes the image available to self-service users who have
permissions to create VMs. A copy of the image is added to the catalog, so you can delete the
image without affecting the copy in the catalog.
To add a VM snapshot or image to the catalog:

Note: Nutanix recommends that you power off the VM before adding a snapshot of it to the
catalog.

Procedure

1. Do one of the following:

» 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).

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2. To add an image, select Add Image to Catalog from the Actions menu and do the following
in the Add Image to Catalog window in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the image.


b. Description (optional): Enter a description of the image.
c. Click the Save button.

Figure 326: Add Image to Catalog Window

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:

a. Name: Enter a name for the VM.


b. Description (optional): Enter a description of the VM.
c. Guest Customization: Select No Customization in the left pull-down menu if you do not
want to allow any customizations. If you do want to allow customizations, select either

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SysPrep (Windows) or Cloudinit (Linux) in the left pull-down menu and then either
Guided Setup or Existing Script in the right pull-down menu.
If you select Existing Script, a Custom Script field appears. Click the Upload File button
and select the target script file.
If you select Guided Setup, a set of fields appears. Do the following 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.

Figure 327: Add VM to Catalog Page

Deleting a Catalog Item

About this task


VM snapshots and images deleted from a catalog makes those items unavailable to project
members. To delete a VM snapshot or image from the catalog, do the following:

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 665


Procedure

1. Do one of the following:

» 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).

2. From the Actions menu, select Delete Catalog Item.

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).

Figure 328: Image Management Demo

A video on this topic is available https://youtu.be/UlqM8jjvr4s on YouTube.

Uploading Images from Prism Central to Registered Clusters


From Prism Central, you can upload images by using the following methods:

• Uploading images from a workstation


• Specifying URLs to images on a remote server
• Uploading images from a VM disk
For information about these methods, see Creating an Image on page 667.

Selecting Target Clusters When Uploading Images from Prism Central


When uploading images by either of the methods described earlier, you can select target
clusters. Your image placement options are as follows:

• 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.

Upload Behavior When Target Clusters Are Not Selected


If you do not specify target clusters, the choice of target clusters depends on whether you
choose to upload the images from a workstation or from a remote server. The respective
procedures describe the choice of target clusters. See Uploading Images from a Workstation
on page 668 and Uploading Images from a Remote Server on page 672, and then choose
the option that works for you. Regardless of the method you choose, Prism Central retains the
ability to manage the images that you upload from Prism Central.

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Importing Images from Registered Clusters to Prism Central
In addition to uploading images, you can also import images from registered AHV clusters. You
can import images only from registered clusters that are running AOS 5.8 or later. For more
information, see Importing Images to Prism Central on page 684.

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.

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 667


About this task
To add an image, do one of the following:

Procedure

• Upload Images from a workstation. See Uploading Images from a Workstation on


page 668.
• Uploading Images from a Remote Server. See Uploading Images from a Remote Server on
page 672.
• Uploading Images from a VM disk. See Uploading Images from a VM Disk on page 677.

Uploading Images from a Workstation


You can browse the workstation from which you are accessing Prism Central and upload
images from it.

About this task


You can select multiple images and upload them as part of a single operation. With this method
of upload, Prism Central identifies a single registered cluster for each specified image and
uploads the image to it. The choice of cluster is random. The image becomes active (in Prism
Element) on the selected cluster and inactive on other clusters registered to Prism Central.
Image placement policies take effect after a short duration.

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.

To upload an image from a workstation, do the following:

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.

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2. Under Image Source, click Image File, and then click Add File.

Figure 329: Add Images: File

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3. To specify one or more files for upload, do the following:

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.

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5. After you have added all the image files you want, click Next.
The Select Location page appears.

Figure 330: Add Images: Select Location

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6. In Placement Method, do one of the following:

• 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.

Uploading Images from a Remote Server


You can upload an image from a remote server to registered Nutanix clusters. To upload an
image from a remote server, you need the URL of the image. You can also specify URLs to
multiple images as part of a single operation. When you specify image URLs, Prism Central
uploads the images to all registered clusters. Uploading from a remote server also allows you to
overcome file size limitations imposed by modern browsers. The file size limitation is usually 2
GB.

About this task


To upload an image from a remote server, do the following:

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.

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2. Under Image Source, click URL.

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Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 674
3. To specify one or more image URLs, do the following:

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.

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5. After you have added all the URLs you want, click Next.
The Select Location page appears.

Figure 332: Add Images: Select Location

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6. In Placement Method, do one of the following:

• 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.

Uploading Images from a VM Disk


You can clone an existing VM disk to add it to the image list.

About this task

Figure 333: Uploading Images from a VM Disk

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6271311948001 on Brightcove.

• You select a powered-off source VM on an AHV cluster.


• You then select a disk attached to this source VM to add it as an image.
You can also upload the added image to the registered clusters based on the image placement
method. You can either:

• 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.

Before you begin


Ensure that the following requirements are met before you add and upload an image from a VM
disk.

• The source VM belongs to an AHV cluster.


• The source VM on which the disk resides is in the powered-off state.

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• To place the image on clusters associated with relevant categories, you must first set up the
image placement policies between categories assigned to clusters and categories assigned
to images.
See the Creating a Category on page 742 and Assigning a Category on page 744 sections
for information on how to create a category and assign a category value to an image
respectively.

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.

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2. Under Image Source, click VM Disk.

Figure 334: Add Images: VM Disk

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3. To specify the VM disk, do the following:

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.

4. To specify the image information, do the following:

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.

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6. After you have added all the VM disks, click Next.
The Select Location page appears.

Figure 335: Add Images: Select Location

7. In Placement Method, do one of the following:

» 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.

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8. If you selected Place image using Image Placement policies, do the following:

a. To assign a category, click the Select Image Categories search box.


b. Select the desired category from the list.
You can also start typing the name of the category to reduce the list to matching names.
c. Click the add icon beside the search box.
d. To specify another category, repeat these steps.

9. Click Save.
Prism Central uploads the image files in batches.

Image Upload Verification


Verify whether an image upload to multiple clusters succeeded.
When you add an image and select multiple clusters for initial placement of the image (using
the Place image directly on clusters), the status message box shows that the task succeeded.
The status message displays the successful completion of the task even if the image is
successfully uploaded to only one cluster. Therefore, go to Tasks and check whether the
Image upload and Image update subtasks succeeded for all the clusters that you selected. It is
possible that the Image upload or update subtasks for some of the clusters failed.
Nutanix recommends that you use Categories and Image Placement Policy based image
placement option when you add images to multiple clusters. Image Placement policy based
placement ensures that images propagate successfully to multiple clusters in a single operation.
See Creating an Image on page 667 and Associating Images with Categories on page 686
for more details about adding an image.

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Figure 336: Image Placement Method selection for multiple clusters

Modifying an Image

About this task


To modify an image (delete, update, or add to catalog), in the Entities menu, go to Compute &
Storage > Images (see Images Summary View on page 120), and then do the following:

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Procedure

• 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.

Figure 337: Update Image


• To add an image to the catalog (see Catalog Management on page 662), select the target
image and then select Add Image to Catalog from the Action pull-down menu.

Importing Images to Prism Central


You can import images from registered clusters and manage the images centrally from Prism
Central. An image imported to Prism Central continues to reside on the cluster that owns it.
Prism Central only creates and stores image metadata locally, and it uses that metadata when
you perform an action on the image. After you import an image, the image remains visible on
the cluster from which you imported it but you cannot update the image from the cluster. You
can update the image only from Prism Central.

About this task


The image import feature does not affect the following images:

• Any images that you choose not to import.


• Any images that you upload subsequently to the cluster from its web console. These images
remain editable on the cluster until you import them to Prism Central.
In a single operation, you can import all images from all registered clusters, all images from a
selection of clusters, or a selection of images from some of the clusters.
To import images from registered clusters, do the following:

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).

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2. In the Import Images dialog box, under Select Import Type, do one of the following:

» 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.

3. To begin the import, click Save.


Prism Central imports the metadata of the selected images and marks the images as read-
only entities on the clusters.

Image Policy Management


In Prism Central, you can create and manage the following types of policies for the images:

• Image Placement Policies (see Image Placement Policies on page 685)


• Bandwidth Throttling Policies (see Bandwidth Throttling Policies on page 690)

Image Placement Policies


Prism Central enables you to upload VM images from your workstation or from a remote server.
It also enables you to manually specify a subset of registered clusters as targets for those
images. However, image placement decisions are often driven by compliance requirements,
policies, and regulations. For example, you might have to confine a VM image to a Nutanix
cluster in a specific location. Or, a cluster in one region might require a Windows VM image with
a specific set of applications while a cluster in another region might require a Linux VM with its
own set of applications.
Prism Central enables you to configure policies that govern which clusters receive the images
that you upload. These policies, called image placement policies, map images to target clusters
using categories associated with both those entities. For example, an image placement policy
states that the Linux images associated with the OS:Linux and distribution:Centos categories must be
uploaded to the clusters associated with the Location:SFO category.
Image placement policies also specify how strictly the policy must be enforced. Soft
enforcement allows clusters not identified by the policy to use the images, when required,
by checking them out. Hard enforcement disallows such usage. By using both soft and hard
enforcement on the same category of clusters, you can address more specific use cases. For
more information, see Sample Scenarios.
Image placement policies maintain a state of compliance across the clusters registered
with Prism Central. They detect and correct violations introduced by changes in category
assignments and updates to their configuration (including a switch from soft enforcement
to hard enforcement). For more information, see Sample Scenarios and Configurations on
page 689.
To view the location of, the category and Image Placement policy associated with an image, see
Images Summary View on page 120 and Image Details View on page 122.

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Configuration Workflow

About this task


To set up an image placement policy, do the following:

Procedure

1. Create categories for the following entities:

a. Clusters (for example, create categories based on cluster location or region)


b. Images (for example, create categories based on operating system and size)
For information about creating a category, see Creating a Category.

2. Apply the cluster categories to clusters and image categories to images.


For information about associating categories with a Nutanix cluster, see Associating a
Registered Nutanix Cluster with Categories. For information about associating categories
with an image, see Associating an Image with Categories.

3. Configure the image placement policy. See Configuring an Image Placement Policy.

Associating Clusters with Categories

About this task


To associate categories with a registered Nutanix cluster, do the following:

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Hardware > Clusters.

2. Select the cluster that you want to associate with categories.

3. In the Actions menu that is displayed, click Manage Categories.

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.

Associating Images with Categories

About this task


To associate categories with an image, do the following:

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, in the Entities menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images.

2. Select the image that you want to associate with categories.

3. In the Actions menu that is displayed, click Manage Categories.

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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.

Configuring an Image Placement Policy

About this task


To configure an image placement policy, do the following:

Before you begin


Complete the following tasks:

• 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

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a hard enforcement policy uploads an image to clusters A and B, the image is available
only on clusters A and B. Cluster C cannot check out the image.
For various scenarios involving these enforcement policies, see Sample Scenarios and
Configurations on page 689.

6. Click Save.

Updating an Image Placement Policy

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.

About this task


For example, if you change the cluster category such that the policy now identifies a different
set of clusters as targets, Prism Central first copies the images to the clusters in the new
category, and then removes the images from the clusters in the previously mentioned category.
If you change the policy enforcement setting from Soft to Hard, and if any clusters that are
not identified as targets had previously checked out the images, Prism Central corrects the
violation by deleting the images from those clusters. An update to a policy might also result in
a conflict with one or more of the other policies that apply to the same category of images. For
more information about how Prism Central handles conflicting policies, see How Prism Central
Handles Conflicting Policies.
To update an image placement policy, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the entity menu, go to Policies > Image Placement Policies, and then click the image
placement policy that you want to update.

2. From the Actions menu that is displayed, click 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.

How Prism Central Handles Conflicting Policies

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,

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and it does not enforce P2 either. When there is a policy conflict, the conflict is noted in the
Policies tab of the details view for that image.
• Prism Central continues to enforce other policies that are not in conflict. For example, if
policies P3 and P4 apply to the same categories of images as P1 and P2, Prism Central
continues to enforce P3 and P4 as long as they are not in conflict with P1 and P2.

Sample Scenarios and Configurations

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).

Table 717: Sample Scenarios and Configurations

Desired Result Image Placement Policy Configuration


The images must be available on any one of Create an image placement policy that
the clusters (A, B, or C) and can be checked identifies any one of the clusters (A, B, or C)
out to the other two clusters and to any other as the target cluster (by the use of categories)
clusters that might be registered with Prism and set the policy enforcement to Soft.
Central now or in the future.
The images must be available on all of the Create an image placement policy that
clusters A, B, and C and can be checked out identifies clusters A, B, and C as the target
to any other clusters that are registered with clusters (by the use of categories) and set the
Prism Central now or in the future. policy enforcement to Soft.
The images must be available on all of the Do the following:
clusters A, B, and C and cannot be checked
out to any other clusters that are registered • Create an image placement policy that
with Prism Central now or in the future. identifies clusters A, B, and C as the target
clusters (by the use of categories) and set
the policy enforcement to Soft. (This policy
ensures that the images are available on all
of the three clusters)
• Create a second image placement policy
that identifies clusters A, B, and C as the
target clusters (by the use of categories)
and set the policy enforcement to Hard.
(This policy makes sure that the images are
available only on these three 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.

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Desired Result Image Placement Policy Configuration
The images are available on cluster A and Do the following:
must now be available on clusters B and C.
Cluster A can use the images if required. The • Dissociate the categories specified in the
policy enforcement is currently Soft. image placement policy from cluster A and
associate them with clusters B and C.
• Do not update the image placement policy
(no changes are required).
Prism Central takes the following corrective
actions:
1. Prism Central copies the images to clusters
B and C. If clusters B and C had checked
out the images before the reassignment of
categories to the clusters, the images are
not copied.
2. Additionally, because the Soft policy
enforcement setting is retained, Prism
Central does not remove the image from
cluster A.

The images are available on cluster A and Do the following:


must now be available only on clusters B and
C. Cluster A must not be permitted to use the • Dissociate the categories specified in the
images. The policy enforcement is currently image placement policies from cluster A
Soft. and associate them with clusters B and C.
• Change the policy enforcement setting in
the image placement policy to Hard.
Prism Central takes the following corrective
actions:
1. Prism Central copies the images to clusters
B and C. If clusters B and C had checked
out the images before the reassignment of
categories to the clusters, the images are
not copied.
2. To honor the Hard policy enforcement
setting, Prism Central removes the image
from cluster A.

Bandwidth Throttling Policies


Prism Central uses the bandwidth throttling policy feature to manage the usage of bandwidth
when you create a new image or transfer an image from one cluster to another cluster using
Prism Central. The bandwidth throttling policy limits the bandwidth consumed during image
creation using the URL option in the specific clusters. See Uploading Images from a Remote
Server on page 672 for more information about URL option). Without bandwidth throttling
policy, an image creation from the remote server consumes as much bandwidth as available.
High bandwidth consumption for creating a new image limits the bandwidth availability for the
other cluster operations.

Requirements for Bandwith Throttling Policy

The bandwidth throttling policy feature in Prism Central has the following requirements:

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• The bandwidth throttling policy feature works on Prism Central version 2021.9 and the
clusters must have AOS version version 6.0 or later.
• The clusters must be registered with Prism Central and must have AHV installed.

Note: The bandwidth throttling policy is not supported on ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors.

Limitations with Bandwidth Throttling Policy

The bandwidth throttling policy has the following limitations.

• 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.

Creating Bandwidth Throttling Policy

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.

About this task


Perform the following procedure to create a new bandwidth throttling policy.

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Procedure

1. In the Entity menu, go to Compute & Storage > Images > Policies > Bandwidth Throttling
Policies, and then click Create Policy.

Figure 338: Bandwidth Throttling 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.

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4. In the Bandwidth Limit text box, enter the bandwidth limit for use with this bandwidth
throttling policy.
The network bandwidth is throttled to the bandwidth limit set in this field during the new
image creation using the URL option, and for image transfer from a cluster to another cluster
as part of image placement policy enforcement.

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.

Updating Bandwidth Throttling Policy

You can update the bandwidth throttling limit on a cluster to ensure faster or more controlled
image downloads using the URL operation.

About this task


Perform the following procedure to update the bandwidth limit on a cluster.

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.

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3. Click Update to modify the bandwidth throttling policy.
You can update the Policy Name, add additional Cluster Categories or delete the selected
Cluster Categories, and change the Bandwidth Limit.

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.

4. Click Save to commit the changes.

Deleting Bandwidth Throttling Policy

Deleting a bandwidth throttling policy removes the bandwidth limit enforced on an image
associated with cluster and category.

About this task


Perform the following procedure to delete the bandwidth throttling policy on a cluster.

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.

3. Click Delete in the Delete Policy? dialog to delete the policy.

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).

• To export a VM in the VM dashboard as an OVA , see Exporting a VM as an OVA on


page 585.
• To upload an OVA, see Uploading an OVA on page 696.
• To deploy an OVA file as a VM, see Deploying an OVA as VM on page 704.
• To download an OVA file to your local machine, see Downloading an OVA on page 710.
• To rename an OVA file, see Renaming an OVA on page 710.
• To delete an OVA file, see Deleting an OVAs on page 711 .
To perform any action an OVA in the OVAs dashboard, select the target OVA, then select the
desired action in the Actions menu.

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The task progress for these actions are displayed in the Tasks page.

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.

Figure 339: Actions menu

Exporting a VM as an OVA

Before you begin


If you intend to run the OVA in a non-Nutanix environment, ensure that you install the
necessary drivers as per the requirements of the destination hypervisor.

About this task


As a Super Admin, you can export a VM as an OVA by selecting the Export as OVA action from
the Actions dropdown list. You can export a VM as an OVA with a specified disk format for the
disks configured on the VM.

Note:

• The Super Admin role was formerly called as User Admin.


• If you intend to run the OVA in a non-Nutanix environment, ensure that you install
the necessary drivers as per the requirements of the target destination hypervisor.

To export a VM as an OVA, do the following in the VMs dashboard:

Procedure

1. Select the VM in List tab.


You can click the VM and open the VM details page.

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2. In the Actions list, select Export as OVA.
Alternatively, on the details page of the VM, select More and click Export as OVA.

Figure 340: Export as OVA dialog box

3. In the Export as OVA window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Enter a name for the OVA, in the Name field.


b. Select the disk format that you want to format the disks in the VM to, in the Export Disk
Format section.
The default format is QCOW2. If you want to use the OVA to deploy a VM with disks
formatted as VMDK, then select VMDK as the disk format.

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

About this task


You can upload an OVA from the following sources:

• 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.

For OVA upload from local folders:

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• The upload process can be interrupted due to the following reasons:

• Network issues when the upload is running.


• You close the browser window or tab in which the upload is running.
• The concatenate and validate operations of the OVA upload operation fail when an error
occurs in the upload services because the checksum provided for the OVA file when it was
created is incorrect.

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.

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2. In the Upload OVA dialog box, do the following:

a. Select the OVA Source. As an example, select OVA Fileto upload from a local folder.

Figure 341: Upload OVA dialog box


b. If you choose URL as OVA Source, you can select multiple clusters from the Cluster
dropdown list that is displayed. One cluster is already selected in the Cluster field.
c. Enter a Name for the OVA that you are uploading.
By default, Prism uses the file name of the OVA file that you upload, in the Name field if
you do not enter a name and directly select the file for upload.
d. Optionally, enter the Checksum value of the OVA file after selecting the encryption as
SHA-1 or SHA-256 hash algorithm.

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e. For OVA File, click Select File to navigate to the location of the OVA file in your local
folder and open it.
In case of upload from URL, in the OVA URL field, enter the source URL from where you
want to upload the OVA file. To specify one or more URLs, 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.

Figure 342: OVA URL field

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.

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3. The OVA upload starts. Wait until the Continue in Background button is displayed.

Note: The Continue in Background button is not displayed for uploads from URL.

Figure 343: Upload OVA - Waiting

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Figure 344: Continue in Background button

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

Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 701


to an incorrect checksum, the Resume Upload option is not available. Upload the
OVA again in case the upload process was interrupted due to a checksum error.

Concatenating Upload using APIs

About this task


During an OVA upload, the OVA file is chunked and the chunks are uploaded. After upload,
during the validation phase, the chunks are concatenated and validated.
When the OVA upload process is interrupted because of a concatenation error, you need to run
the concatenation API to resume the upload process.
To run the API successfully, you need the UUID of the OVA for which the upload is interrupted.
The UUID is derived using the name of the OVA.

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.

Figure 345: ovas List Operations

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3. In the expanded ovas list of operations, click Post /ova/list.
To use the concatenate API, you need the UUID of the OVA. Post /ova/list helps you filter
the OVAs and get the details of the details of the interrupted OVA.

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>”
}

Figure 346: Parameter Filter

5. In the Response Body box, the UUID of the queried OVA is listed. Note or copy the UUID.

Figure 347: OVA Upload UUID

6. In the expanded ovas list of operations, click Post /ova/{uuid}/chunks/concatenate and


enter the UUID of the OVA in the UUID parameter value field.

7. Click Try it out!.


The Response Code field displays 202 indicating that the concatenation and validation
request has been accepted.

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Deploying an OVA as VM

About this task


To perform this task in the OVAs dashboard, select the target OVA. Some of the steps that
you need to complete in this procedure are the same as the steps provided in Creating a VM
through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535. The Deploy as VM dialog box has four tabs. Ensure
that information in the first three tabs are appropriate for the VM you want to deploy. The
Review tab helps you review the information in the first three tabs in one tab. You can navigate
back and forth between the tabs using the Back and Next buttons.

Note:
In case of OVAs that are not created from AHV, ensure that the OVA has pre-installed
VirtIO drivers.

To deploy an OVA as a VM, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Actions menu, select Deploy as VM.


You need to use the tabs in the Deploy as VM dialog box to configure the deployment. Use
the Back and Next buttons to move between the tabs in the dialog box.

Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.

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2. In the Deploy as VM dialog box, complete the indicated details in the Configuration tab:

Figure 348: Deploy as VM dialog box

a. Name for the VM that you are deploying.


b. Description that are informative like Backup VM for Prism.
c. Cluster that you want to deploy the VM on. Select the cluster from the drop down list.
Only clusters, where OVAs are available and you have access to, are displayed in the
dropdown list. Prism Central also recommends a cluster in the list for the deployment.
d. The number of CPU, Cores Per CPU and Memory in VM Properties.
e. Select Next.

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Figure 349: Deploy A VM - Resources tab

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3. Complete the indicated details in the Resources tab.

Note:
You can add new disks, NICs and GPUs.

a. Boot Configuration mode.


Select UEFI Mode only if your hardware supports UEFI boot mode.
b. Set Boot Priority.
The default priority is already set.
c. Attach Disk in addition to the disks already available in the OVA, if so required.
In the Attach Disk dialog box, complete the indicated details and select Save.
See Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535 for more information
about attaching disks.
d. Configure the network by selecting Attach to Network.
In the Attach to Network dialog box, select the Subnet and Network Connection State
from the drop down lists.
See Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535 for more information
about configuring networks.
e. If the selected cluster has GPU resources, then you can add multiple vGPUs. Select Add
GPU.
See Creating a VM through Prism Central (AHV) on page 535 and Adding Multiple
vGPUs to the Same VM on page 568 for more information about configuring networks..

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.

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Figure 350: Deploy A VM - Management tab
g. Select the Category. Type in this field to display a list of available categories. For more
information about categories, see Category Management on page 742.
h. Set the Timezone.
i. If you want to use the deployed VM as an agent VM, check the Use this VM as an Agent
VM checkbox.
j. Configure Guest Customizations if you want to run scripts for configurations on
Microsoft Windows or Linux VMs.
You can choose from No Customization, Sysprep (Windows) and Cloud-init (Linux) as Script Type. You
can choose from Custom Script or Guided Script as Configuration Method.
If you choose No Customization as Script Type, then the Configuration Method field is
grayed out.
k. Select Next.

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Prism | Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration | 709
4. Review the deployment configuration in the Review tab.

5. Click Launch to deploy the VM.


You can check the deployment tasks in Tasks. The deployed VM is displayed in the VMs
dashboard.

Downloading an OVA

About this task


To perform this task in the OVAs dashboard, select the target OVA.

Note:
You can download upto five OVAs in parallel.

To download an OVA, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Actions menu, select Download.

Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.

Figure 352: Download message box

2. To confirm the download action, select Continue.


To cancel the download action, select Cancel.
The downloaded file is saved in a local folder based on the download settings of your
browser.

Renaming an OVA

About this task


To perform this task in the OVAs dashboard, select the target OVA.

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To rename an OVA, do the following:

Procedure

1. In the Actions menu, select Rename.

Note:
The Actions menu is displayed only if you select an OVA in the list.

Figure 353: Rename dialog box

2. In the Name field of the Rename dialog box, delete the current name and enter the new
name for the OVA.

3. To confirm the rename action, select Save.


To cancel the delete action, select Cancel.

Deleting an OVAs

About this task


To perform this task in the OVAs dashboard, select the target OVA.
To delete an OVA, do the following:

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Procedure

1. In the Actions menu, select Delete.

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>.

Figure 354: Delete OVA dialog box

2. To confirm the delete action, select Delete.


To cancel the delete action, select Cancel.

Performing Other Administrative Tasks


About this task
You can perform some administrative tasks for a selected cluster directly from Prism Central
(see Compute and Storage (Cluster) Administration on page 534). Other tasks can only be
performed through Prism Element, which is the web console interface for an individual cluster.
To access Prism Element from Prism Central, do the following:

Procedure

1. Go to the clusters dashboard (see Clusters Summary View on page 200).

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2. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Table 718: User Menu List

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.

Help Opens the online help.

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.

vCenter Server Integration


The VM management through Prism Central for ESXi provides a unified management interface
for all of the vCenter Server instances. All the vCenter Server instances that are registered
or not registered with any of the clusters are auto-discovered and displayed. 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.
During the registration process, you have an option to select the ESXi clusters that you want
to manage using Prism Central. For more information about registering vCenter Server, see
Registering vCenter Server (Prism Central) on page 715. After you successfully register
vCenter Server instances, you can perform the following operations directly from Prism Central.

• Create, clone, update, and delete VMs.


• Create and delete NICs.
• Attach and delete disks.

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• Power operations: Power on or off, reset, suspend, resume.
• Open and launch VM console.
• Enable and disable NGT.

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.

Rules and Guidelines

• 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.

Requirements and Limitations

• 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.

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Registering vCenter Server (Prism Central)
All the vCenter Server instances that are registered to Prism Element are listed in Prism Central.
If you do not want to manage your cluster through Prism Central, you have an option to de-
select the clusters from Prism Central.

Before you begin


Ensure that you have vCenter Server Extension privileges as these privileges provide
permissions to perform vCenter registration for the Nutanix cluster.

About this task


Note the following points about registering vCenter Server.

• Nutanix does not store vCenter Server credentials.


• Whenever a new node is added to a cluster, vCenter Sever registration for the new node is
automatically performed.

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.

Figure 355: vCenter Registration

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2. To register the vCenter Server, click Register.

• 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.

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4. If you do not wish to manage all your ESXi clusters from Prism Central, select the check box
of just the clusters that you want to manage and click Save.

Figure 356: Cluster Selection

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.

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Unregistering a Cluster from the vCenter Server (Prism Central)
To unregister your clusters from the vCenter Server, perform the following procedure.

About this task

• 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.

Managing vCenter Server Registration Changes (Prism Central)


After you change the IP address of the vCenter Sever or if the Host Connection field changes
to Not Connected (may occur if current vCenter Server is not managing the hosts), you must
register your cluster with the new vCenter Server. Perform the following procedure to re-
register the vCenter Server.

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.

2. Unregister the existing vCenter Server instance by clicking Unregister.


For more information about unregistering vCenter Server, click Unregistering a Cluster from
the vCenter Server (Prism Central) on page 718.

3. Register the new vCenter Server instance by clicking Register.


For more information about registering vCenter Server, click Registering vCenter Server
(Prism Central) on page 715.

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PRISM SELF SERVICE ADMINISTRATION
The Prism Self Service feature allows you to create projects where consumers of IT
infrastructure within an enterprise—individual users or teams such as development, test, and
DevOps—can provision and manage VMs in a self-service manner, without having to engage IT
in day-to-day operations.

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.

Prism Self Service Overview


Prism Self Service represents a special view within Prism Central. While Prism Central enables
infrastructure management across clusters, Prism Self Service allows end users to consume
that infrastructure in a self-service manner. Prism Self Service uses the resources provided by a
single AHV cluster. (Other hypervisors are not supported platforms for Prism Self Service.)

Note: A SelfServiceContainer storage container (see Storage Containers Summary View on


page 125) is created on the target cluster and used by Prism Self Service for storage and other
feature operations. To ensure proper operation of these features, do not delete this storage
container.

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

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 719


Active Directory group, be sure that you want to delegate the responsibility to all
the users in the group. If the user group is large or includes users that must not have
self-service administrator privileges, Nutanix recommends that you create a separate
Active Directory group for the users to whom you want to delegate self-service
administration responsibilities.

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.

Configuring Prism Self Service


About this task
To configure Prism Self Service, do the following:

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.

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 720


2. Click the gear icon in the main menu and select Self-Service Admin Management from the
Settings menu.
The Self-Service Admin Management window appears.

Note: The Self-Service Admin Management option does not appear in the Settings menu
until you configure a directory service (step 1).

Figure 357: Self-Service Admin Management Window

3. Do the following in the Connect to AD tab:

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.

c. Click the Next button.

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.

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• To remove an existing self-service administrator, click the X icon in the Actions fields for
that user.

Figure 358: Configure Self Service tab

Migrating Prism Self Service

About this task


If you configured the Prism Self Service feature (previously referred to as the self-service
portal or SSP) on a cluster that runs a pre-5.5 version of AOS, that Prism Self Service instance
must first be migrated to Prism Central before you can use it. To migrate a Prism Self Service
instance, do the following:

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 722


Procedure

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.

Figure 359: Migrate Prism Self Service to Prism Central Window

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.

4. Click the Migrate button.


This starts the migration process. Click the Close button to close the window. You can view
progress of the migration through the Tasks dashboard (see Tasks View on page 244).

Figure 360: SSP Migration Tasks

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Project Management
A project defines Active Directory users or groups to manage common set of requirements or
functions. For example, a project can define a team collaborating on an engineering project. A
project specifies roles to associate its members, select existing networks that the deployed VMs
can use, and (optionally) set usage limits on infrastructure resources.

Creating a Project

Before you begin


Authentication must be configured before you can create a project. See Configuring
Authentication in Security Guide.

About this task


To create a project, do the following:

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.

Figure 361: Create Project Page

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2. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Project Name: Enter a name for the new project.


b. Description (optional): Enter a description of the project.
c. Cluster: Select the target cluster from the pull-down list.

Note: Only clusters running AHV appear in the list.

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.

Figure 362: Search Directories Window

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.

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 725


• If you add a group to a project, users in the group might not appear in the
project members list until they log in.

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

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 726


able to use the resource even if the project has not reached its specified limit. However, if
a project requires more resources, you can increase its quota.
If you do not specify a quota, no usage limit is applied. However, usage statistics are
collected even if you do not specify a quota.

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

About this task


To update or delete an existing project, do the following:

Prism | Prism Self Service Administration | 727


Procedure

1. Go to the projects dashboard (see Projects Summary View on page 258) and select (check
the box for) the target project.

2. Do one of the following:

» 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.

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NETWORK AND SECURITY
MANAGEMENT
This section provides the information on how to set up the network and security infrastructure
for a cluster.

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.

• The Subnets tab displays a list of the configured networks.

Figure 364: Subnets Tab


• The Internal Interfaces tab displays a list of LAN interfaces.

Figure 365: Internal Interfaces Tab

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• The Virtual Switch tab displays a list of virtual switches configured, including the default
system-generated virtual switch vs0.

Figure 366: Virtual Switch Tab


The following table describes the fields in each tab.

Table 719: Network Configuration Fields

Parameter Description Values

Networks Tab

Name Displays the name of the virtual network. (name)

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.

VLAN ID Displays the VLAN identification number for (ID number)


the network in the form vlan.#, for example
vlan.27 for virtual LAN number 27.

Used IP Addresses Displays the number of IP addresses in the (number of IP


subnet that are used, for example IP address addresses)
of a VM or any other entity. This parameter is
applicable only when you have configured a
managed network or subnet.

Free IPs in Subnets Displays the number of free or unused IP (number of IP


addresses in the subnet. This parameter is addresses)
applicable only when you have configured a
managed network or subnet.

Free IPs in Pool Displays the number of free or unused (number of IP


IP addresses in the configured pool. This addresses)
parameter is applicable only when you have
configured a managed network or subnet.

Actions Action link for editing or deleting a network (Edit/Delete)


configuration.

Internal Interfaces Tab

Descriptive Name Displays a name for the LAN. (LAN name)

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)>

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Parameter Description Values

Features Displays the features available on the internal


interfaces.

Interface Displays the interface designation such as (interface name)


eth0 or eth1.

Virtual Switch

Name Displays the name of the switch in the form vs# (vs<number>)

Bridge Displays the name of the bridge associated (br<number>)


with the virtual switch in the form br#, for
example br0 for the default bridge.

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

LAG and LACP on the ToR Switch


For more information, see Enabling LACP and LAG (AHV Only) on page 739.

Configuring Network Connections


Prism Central allows you to configure network connections for a selected cluster.

About this task


To create one or more network configurations, do the following:

Procedure

1. Do one of the following:

» 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.

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2. In the list Subnets tab of the Network Configuration window, click the Create Subnet button.
This displays the Create Subnet page.

Figure 367: Create Subnet Page (expanded)

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3. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Subnet Name: Enter a name for the network.


b. Virtual Switch: Select the virtual switch for the network from the drop-down list.
You can associate the default virtual switch vs0 or create a virtual switch. To create a
virtual switch, see Creating or Updating Virtual Switch on page 734.
For more information about virtual switch, see the Layer 2 Network Management section
in the AHV Administration Guide.
c. VLAN ID: Enter the number of the VLAN.
Enter just the number in this field, for example 1 or 27. Enter 0 for the native VLAN. The
value appears as vlan.1 or vlan.27 in displays.
d. Enable IP Address Management: Check the box to have the cluster control IP
addressing in the network.
Checking this box display additional fields. If this box is not checked, no network
management is attempted. In this case it is assumed management for this virtual LAN is
handled outside the cluster.
e. Network IP Prefix: Enter the IP address of the gateway for the network and prefix with
the network prefix (CIDR notation, for example, 10.1.1.0/24).
f. Gateway IP Address: Enter the VLAN default gateway IP address.
g. DHCP Settings: Check this box to display fields for defining a domain.
Checking this box displays fields to specify DNS servers and domains. Unchecking this
box hides those fields.
h. Domain Name Servers (Comma Separated): Enter a comma-delimited list of DNS
servers.
i. Domain Search (Comma Separated): Enter a comma-delimited list of domains.
j. Domain Name: Enter the VLAN domain name.
k. TFTP Server Name: Enter the host name or IP address of the TFTP server from
which virtual machines can download a boot file. Required in a Pre-boot eXecution
Environment (PXE).
l. Boot File Name: Name of the boot file to download from the TFTP server.

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4. To define a range of addresses for automatic assignment to virtual NICs, click the + Create
Pool button (under IP Address Pools) and enter the following in the Add IP Pool page:

Note: If no pool is provided, the user must assign IP addresses to VMs manually.

Figure 368: Add IP Pool Page

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.

7. Click the Close button to close the Create Subnet page.

Creating or Updating Virtual Switch

About this task


For more information about virtual switch, see the Layer 2 Network Management section in the
AHV Administration Guide.
You can create or update a Virtual Switch (VS) using the Create Virtual Switch or Update
Virtual Switch dialog box. The Create Virtual Switch and Update Virtual Switch dialog boxes
have identical parameters and settings.
To open the Create Virtual Switch dialog box in Prism Central, do the following.

Procedure

1. Click Subnets > Network Config.

2. On the Network Configuration window, click the Virtual Switch > Create VS link.

About this task


To create a virtual switch using the Create Virtual Switch dialog box, do the following.

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Procedure

1. In the Create Virtual Switch dialog box, provide the necessary information on the General
tab.

Figure 369: Create Virtual Switch - General tab

Field Description

Virtual Switch Name Enter a name for the virtual switch.

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.

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Field Description

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.

2. Click Next to go to the Uplink Configuration tab.


On the Uplink Configuration tab, provide the following details:

Figure 370: Create Virtual Switch - Uplink Configuration tab

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Field Description and Value

Bond Type Select an appropriate bond type. See the Bond Types table for
details about the bond types.

Select Hosts Select the hosts that can host VMs.

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.

Show (Port Type) Select one of the following:


Connected and Unconnected Uplink Ports: Select this if you
want to use ports that are not currently connected but may be
connected later.
Only Connected Uplink Ports: Select this option if you want to
use only the connected ports. You must also select in the On
Switches (with LLDP) drop down box the switches with LLDP.

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.

Note: A port listing is greyed out if it is unavailable because it


is already associated with another virtual switch.

Click Select All to select all the ports available and listed.
Click Clear All to unselect all the ports available and listed.

Table 720: Bond Types

Bond Type Use Case Maximum VM NIC Maximum Host


Throughput Throughput

Active-Backup Recommended. Default 10 Gb 10 Gb


configuration, which transmits
all traffic over a single active
adapter.

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Bond Type Use Case Maximum VM NIC Maximum Host
Throughput Throughput

Active-Active with Works with caveats for 10 Gb 20 Gb


MAC pinning multicast traffic. Increases
host bandwidth utilization
Also known as beyond a single 10 Gb adapter.
balance-slb Places each VM NIC on a single
adapter at a time. Do not
use this bond type with link
aggregation protocols such as
LACP.

Active-Active LACP and link aggregation 20 Gb 20 Gb


required. Increases host and
Also known as LACP
VM bandwidth utilization
with balance-tcp
beyond a single 10 Gb adapter
by balancing VM NIC TCP
and UDP sessions among
adapters. Also used when
network switches require
LACP negotiation.
The default LACP settings are:

• Speed—Fast (1s)
• Mode—Active fallback-
active-backup
• Priority—Default. This is not
configurable.

No Uplink Bond No uplink or a single uplink on - -


each host.
Virtual switch configured with
the No uplink bond uplink
bond type has 0 or 1 uplinks.
When you configure a virtual
switch with any other bond
type, you must select at least
two uplink ports on every
node.

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.

3. Click Create to create the virtual switch.


Click Cancel to exit without creating the virtual switch.
Click Back to go back to the General tab.

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What to do next

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

Enabling LACP and LAG (AHV Only)


If you select the Active-Active bond type, you must enable LACP and LAG on the
corresponding ToR switch for each node in the cluster one after the other. This section
describes the procedure to enable LAG and LACP in AHV nodes and the connected ToR switch.

About this task

Procedure

1. Change the uplink Bond Type for the virtual switch.

a. Open the Edit Virtual Switch window.

» 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.

Perform the following steps on each node, one at a time.

Prism | Network and Security Management | 739


2. Put the node and the Controller VM into maintenance mode.
Before you put a node in maintenance mode, see Verifying the Cluster Health and carry out
the necessary checks.
See Putting a Node into Maintenance Mode. Step 6 in this procedure puts the Controller VM
in maintenance mode.

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.

• Nutanix recommends that you enable LACP fallback.


• Consider the LACP time options (slow and fast). If the switch has a fast configuration,
set the LACP time to fast. This is to prevent an outage due to a mismatch on LACP
speeds of the cluster and the ToR switch. Keep in mind that the Active-Active bond type
configuration set the LACP of cluster to fast.
Verify that LACP negotiation status is negotiated.

4. Remove the node and Controller VM from maintenance mode.


See Exiting a Node from the Maintenance Mode (AHV). The Controller VM exits maintenance
mode during the same process.

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.

Figure 371: Data Resiliency Status

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Modifying Network Connections

About this task


To modify or delete a network configuration (defined on an Acropolis managed cluster), do the
following:

Procedure

1. Do one of the following:

» 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:

a. Update the field values as desired.


b. When the configuration is correct, click the Save button to close the page, update the
network configuration, and return to the Network Configuration page.

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.

4. Click the Close button to close the Network Configuration page.

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.

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CATEGORY MANAGEMENT
A category is a grouping of entities into a key value pair. Typically, new entities are assigned to
a category based on some criteria. Policies can then be tied to those entities that are assigned
(grouped by) a specific category value.
For example, you might have a Department category that includes values such as engineering,
finance, and HR. In this case you could create one backup policy that applies to engineering
and HR and a separate (more stringent) backup policy that applies to just finance. Categories
allow you to implement a variety of policies across entity groups, and Prism Central allows you
to quickly view any established relationships.
The following hypothetical example illustrates the relationship of four policies (Backupbasic,
Engenvironment, Hourly alerts, and Daily backup) tied to three departments (Eng, Fin, and HR)
that apply to 30+ VMs in each department.

Figure 372: Dept Details View (example)

Creating a Category
About this task
To create a category, do the following:

Figure 373: Creating a Category

A video on this topic is available https://players.brightcove.net/5850956868001/


xJM5EiUJJ_default/index.html?videoId=6275774441001 on Brightcove.

Prism | Category Management | 742


Procedure

1. Go to the categories dashboard (see Categories Summary View on page 161) and click the
Create Category button.
The Create Category page appears.

Figure 374: Create Category Page

2. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Name: Enter a name for the new category.

Note: The Name and Values fields are case sensitive.

b. Purpose (optional): Enter a description of the category purpose.


c. Values: Enter a category value. To add a second (and subsequent) value, click the plus
sign (+) to the right. This opens another line; enter the next value in the new field.
Repeat this step for all the values you want to include in the category. For example, if the
category name is Departments, values might include Engineering, HR, Sales, Marketing,
and so on.
Duplicate values are discarded. Character case is considered when determining
duplicates. For example, multiple instances of the value Sales are considered duplicates and
all instances but one are dropped; the values Sales and sales are considered unique and are
accepted.
d. Click the Save button.
This creates the category and closes the page. The new category now appears in the
category list.

Modifying a Category
About this task
To update or delete an existing category, do the following:

Note: System (built-in) categories cannot be modified or deleted.

Prism | Category Management | 743


Procedure

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.

2. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Prism | Category Management | 744


2. Select Manage Categories from the Actions pull-down menu.
This displays the Manage [Cluster|VM|Image|Subnet] Categories page.

Figure 375: Manage VM Categories Page

3. In the Manage [Cluster|VM|Image|Subnet] Categories page, do the following:

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.

c. Click the Save button (bottom right).


This saves the category assignments and closes the page.

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OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• Analysis: Analyze cluster activity (see Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central) on page 746)
• App Discovery: Discover applications running in a cluster (see Application Discovery on
page 778)
• Cost Management: Analyze and manage costs (see Cost Management (Xi Beam) on
page 802)
• Integrations: Monitor select applications in a cluster (see Application Monitoring on
page 803)
• Ops 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 (see Reports View on page 248)

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.

Analysis Dashboard (Prism Central)


The Analysis dashboard allows you to create sessions with charts that can monitor dynamically
a variety of performance measures. To view the Analysis dashboard at any time, select
Operations > Analysis from the entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).
When you open the Analysis dashboard, it displays the session that you were last working in
as the default session. A session helps you correlate the metrics with the alerts and events for
troubleshooting. You can create new sessions to troubleshoot new situations and preserve the
old sessions created for old issues.
When you open the Analysis dashboard for the first time after installing or upgrading Prism
Central, the Analysis dashboard displays a session named Analysis Session. Prism displays
the label System with the name of this session in the Sessions dashboard to indicate that this
session is a system-generated session. Prism displays the label next to the Analysis Session
session name to indicate that this session is system-generated. You can set the default session
for display in the Analysis dashboard in the Sessions dashboard. For more information about
the Sessions dashboard, see Sessions Dashboard on page 772.

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.

Prism | Operations Management | 746


Prism Central 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, if you change the name of the session in the Analysis
dashboard, then the change is automatically saved. However, when you edit a chart using the
Edit option and the Edit Chart dialog box on the Analysis dashboard, 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 Sessions dashboard using the Edit Session Details action, you need to click
the Update button to save the changes made in the dialog box.
The following figures are sample views of the Analysis dashboard. Some fields include a
slide bar on the right to view additional information in that field. The displayed information is
dynamically updated.

Figure 376: Analysis Dashboard - Prism-generated Session

Figure 377: Analysis Dashboard - User-defined Session

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.

Table 721: Analysis Dashboard Elements

Field Description

Session The name of the session that is displayed in


the Analysis dashboard.
The Analysis dashboard displays the session
you viewed last by default. You can change
the default session in Settings in the
Sessions dashboard.

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Field Description
Switch Session A dropdown menu of all available sessions
created and saved. Select the session you
want to view and modify the details for.
Select Switch Sessions > View All Sessions to
view the Sessions dashboard that lists all the
sessions created and saved.

Changes saved status The status whether the changes made to the
session are saved.

• Displays Saving when Prism is saving the


changes.
• Displays All changes are saved when Prism
has saved all the changes.

Add Chart You can add a chart by clicking:

• The Add Chartoption at the top left of the


dashboard.
• The Add Chart button at the bottom center
of the dashboard.
You can define a chart to monitor many
entities with the same single metric. You can
define a chart to monitor several metrics for a
single entity.

Note: You cannot define a single chart


with many entities and many metrics.

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:

• Time range for the stacked bar.


• Red segment depicting Critical Alert with
the number of alerts.
• Yellow segment depicting Warning Alert
with the number of alerts.
• Grey segment depicting Events with the
number of events.
Click the stacked bar to open the Alerts and
Events List panel on the right. The Alerts and
Events List panel displays the details of the
alerts and events represented by the stacked
bar.

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Field Description
Alerts and Events List Provides more information about the alerts
and events.
When you click:

• The Alerts and Events List option at the


top right of the Analysis dashboard, the
Alerts and Events List panel provides
information about all the alerts and events
that have occurred during the selected
time range.
• A stacked bar in the Alerts and Events
monitor, the Alerts and Events List panel
provides information about all the alerts
and events that occurred in the time range
indicated by the stacked bar that you
clicked on the timeline.
See the Alerts and Events List Panel Elements
table for descriptions of the tabs and fields in
the Alerts and Events List panel.

Actions Provides the following three options for the


current session:
1. Edit Session Details
2. Delete (session)
This action is not available and appears
dimmed if the current session is the
system-defined session, because the
system-defined session cannot be deleted.
3. Close (session)
When you close the current session, the
Sessions dashboard is displayed.

(Defined chart monitors) Displays the monitors for the charts that you
defined for the session.

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Table 722: Alerts and Events List Panel Elements

Field Description

Alerts tab Displays the list of alerts.


The tab name includes colored icons with
inscribed numbers. The color and number
provide the following information:

• Color depicts the severity type of the alert.


Red indicates critical and yellow indicates
warning.
• Number indicates the number of respective
alerts.
In the example depicted in the figure, the
red icon has 1 inscribed indicating that
there is one critical alert in the stacked bar
instance.

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

Events tab Displays the list of events.


The tab name includes a grey-colored icon
with an inscribed number. The inscribed
number indicates the number of events.
You can see the event details page by clicking
the event in the list.
The events in the list are grouped into two
default groups:

• 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.

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Field Description
Hide/Show toggle Displayed for each group of alerts or events in
the list.
This toggle allows you to hide or show the
alerts or events in a group.

Modifying the Time Range


You can select a time range for the session and the charts you choose in the Analysis
dashboard.

About this task


The time range you select applies to the session as a whole including the charts you add to the
session. The default time range is 1 Day.

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

1. Click the Range drop-down list.

2. Select one of the following:

» A predefined range from the list.


» Custom Range.

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3. If you selected Custom Range, then in the Select a Time Range dialog box:

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.

Figure 379: Time Range

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Viewing Alerts and Events

About this task


You can view the alerts and events occurring during the selected time range in the following
ways:

• 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.

Figure 380: Stacked bar - Alerts and Events Information

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2. Click the Alerts and Events List option at the top right of the Analysis dashboard.
The Alerts and Events List panel displays the details of the alerts and events that occurred
during the time range selected.
See the Table 722: Alerts and Events List Panel Elements on page 750 table for more
information.

• The Alerts tab provides the details of the alerts. The alerts can be filtered.

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Figure 381: Alerts tab

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.

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Figure 382: Events tab

Click Show to expand the category of alerts or events.

3. Click an alert or event to open the alert or event details page.

Chart Management
On the Analysis dashboard, you can:

Add charts Adding Charts on page 757

Edit a chart Editing a Chart on page 759

Delete a chart Deleting a Chart on page 760

Clone a chart Cloning a Chart on page 761

Export a chart as a JSON or CSV file Exporting a Chart on page 761

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.

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Figure 383: Sample Chart - Chart Options

Adding Charts

This is a Nutanix task.

About this task


You can add charts in a session by clicking:

• The Add Chart option at the top left of the dashboard.


• The Add Chart button at the bottom center of the dashboard.
The Add Chart option and button opens the Add Chart dialog box. You can add multiple charts
by opening the Add Chart dialog box once.

Figure 384: Add Chart dialog box

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You can define a single chart to monitor a single metric for multiple entities of the same entity
type. You can define a chart to monitor multiple metrics for a single entity.

Note:
You cannot define a single chart to monitor multiple metrics for multiple entities.

Procedure

1. Click one of the following:

» The Add Chart option at the top left of the dashboard.


» The Add Chart button at the bottom center of the dashboard.

2. In the Add Chart dialog box, do the following:

a. Under Entities, select an entity type.


b. Select the entities by selecting the check boxes for the entities in the list of entities.
c. Under Metric, select the metrics you want by selecting the check boxes for the metrics in
the list of metrics.
See Chart Metrics on page 762 for the list of metrics you can select.

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.

d. Provide an appropriate Chart Name with appropriate keywords.


Prism provides a default name in the Chart Name field based on the entities and metrics
you select in the preceding steps.
e. To add another chart, click Add Another Chart.
Follow the preceding steps a to d, to define the chart.
Click the Add Another Chart option multiple times in the Add Chart dialog box. Each time
you click the Add Another Chart option, provide the necessary details (steps a to d).
f. Click Add after adding all the charts.

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3. You can also add any chart or metric from anywhere in Prism Central. For example, you can
add a chart from the Metrics tab of a Disk details page. On the chart or metric widget, do
one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 385: Example of chart or metric widget

Editing a Chart

About this task


You can edit a chart in the Analysis dashboard to modify the entity or the metric you are
monitoring with the chart. You can also modify the name of the chart.
To edit a chart, do the following:

Procedure

1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.

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2. Click Edit.

Figure 386: Edit Chart dialog box

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

About this task


To delete a chart, do the following:

Procedure

1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.

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2. Click Delete.

Figure 387: Delete confirmation dialog box

3. Do one of the following:

» Click Confirm to delete the chart widget.


» Click Cancel to return to the Analysis dashboard without deleting the chart.

Cloning a Chart

About this task


To clone a chart, do the following:

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

About this task


You can export a chart as a CSV or a JSON file.
To export a chart as CSV or JSON file, do the following:

Procedure

1. Click the options button (three vertical dots) on the top left corner of the chart that you
want to modify.

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2. Click one of the following:

» Export CSV to save as a CSV file.


» Export JSON to save as a JSON file.

3. Select Save File.

4. Browse to the location you want to save the file in the local folder and click Save.

Chart Metrics

These metrics can be added to charts.

Note: The mapping between a metric and an entity type is hypervisor dependent.

Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Content Cache Hit Content cache hits over all lookups.


Rate (%) • Host
ID: CONTENT_CACHE_HIT_PPM
• Cluster

Content Cache Hits Number of hits on the content cache.


• Host
ID: CONTENT_CACHE_NUM_HITS
• Cluster

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 Number of lookups on the content cache.


Lookups • Host
ID: CONTENT_CACHE_NUM_LOOKUPS
• Cluster

Content Cache Memory (in bytes) saved due to content cache


Memory Saved • Host deduplication.
• Cluster ID: CONTENT_CACHE_SAVED_MEMORY_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 Average number of content cache references.


Reference Count • Host
ID: CONTENT_CACHE_NUM_DEDUP_REF_COUNT_PPH
• Cluster

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

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

Deduplication Number of written bytes for which fingerprints


Fingerprints Cleared • Host have been cleared.
• Cluster ID: DEDUP_FINGERPRINT_CLEARED_BYTES

Deduplication Number of written bytes for which fingerprints


Fingerprints Written • Host have been added.
• Cluster ID: DEDUP_FINGERPRINT_ADDED_BYTES

Disk I/O Bandwidth Data transferred per second in KB/second from


• Host disk.
• Cluster ID: STATS_BANDWIDTH
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Disk I/O Bandwidth - Read data transferred per second in KB/second


Read • Host from disk.
• Cluster ID: STATS_READ_BANDWIDTH
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Disk I/O Bandwidth - Write data transferred per second in KB/second


Write • Host from disk.
• Cluster ID: STATS_WRITE_BANDWIDTH
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Disk I/O Latency I/O latency in milliseconds from disk.


• Host
ID: STATS_AVG_IO_LATENCY
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Disk IOPS Input/Output operations per second from disk.


• Host
ID: STATS_NUM_IOPS
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Disk IOPS - Read Input/Output read operations per second from disk.
• Host
ID: STATS_NUM_READ_IOPS
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Disk IOPS - Write Input/Output write operations per second from


• Host disk.
• Cluster ID: STATS_NUM_WRITE_IOPS
• Disk
• Storage Pool

GPU Framebuffer Virtual Machine Framebuffer usage in percentage.


Usage
ID: FRAMEBUFFER_USAGE_PPM

Note: The Virtual Machine entity is applicable


for AHV hypervisor.

GPU Usage Virtual Machine GPU compute usage in percentage.


ID: GPU_USAGE_PPM

Note: The Virtual Machine entity is applicable


for AHV hypervisor.

GPU video decoder Virtual Machine GPU video decoder usage in percentage.
Usage
ID: DECODER_USAGE_PPM

Note: The Virtual Machine entity is applicable


for AHV hypervisor.

GPU video encoder Virtual Machine GPU video encoder usage in percentage
usage
ID: ENCODER_USAGE_PPM

Note: The Virtual Machine entity is applicable to


AHV hypervisor.

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

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Hypervisor CPU Usage Percent of CPU used by the hypervisor.


(%) • Host
ID: STATS_HYP_CPU_USAGE
• Cluster
• Virtual
Machine

Hypervisor I/O Data transferred per second in KB/second from


Bandwidth • Host Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_BANDWIDTH
• Virtual Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
Machine ESXi. hypervisor

Hypervisor I/O Read data transferred per second in KB/second


Bandwidth - Read • Host from Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_READ_BANDWIDTH
• Virtual Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
Machine ESXi hypervisor.

Hypervisor I/O Write data transferred per second in KB/second


Bandwidth - Write • Host from Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_WRITE_BANDWIDTH
• Virtual Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
Machine ESXi hypervisor.

Hypervisor I/O I/O latency in milliseconds from Hypervisor.


Latency • Host
ID: STATS_HYP_AVG_IO_LATENCY
• Cluster
Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
• Virtual ESXi hypervisor.
Machine

Hypervisor I/O I/O read latency in milliseconds from Hypervisor.


Latency - Read • Host
ID: STATS_HYP_AVG_READ_IO_LATENCY
• Cluster
Note: Cluster entity is applicable only for AHV
hypervisor.

Hypervisor I/O I/O write latency in milliseconds from Hypervisor.


Latency - Write • Host
ID: STATS_HYP_AVG_WRITE_IO_LATENCY
• Cluster
Note: Cluster entity is applicable only for AHV
hypervisor.

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Hypervisor IOPS Input/Output operations per second from


• Host Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_NUM_IOPS
• Virtual Note:
Machine
• Cluster entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
ESXi.

Hypervisor IOPS - Input/Output read operations per second from


Read • Host Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_NUM_READ_IOPS
• Virtual Note:
Machine
• Cluster entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
ESXi.

Hypervisor IOPS - Input/Output write operations per second from


Write • Host Hypervisor.
• Cluster ID: STATS_HYP_NUM_WRITE_IOPS
• Virtual Note:
Machine
• Cluster entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual Machine entity is applicable for
ESXi.

Hypervisor Memory Percent of memory used by the hypervisor.


Usage (%) • Host
ID: STATS_HYP_MEMORY_USAGE
• Cluster
• Virtual
Machine

Logical Usage Storage Logical usage of storage (physical usage divided by


Container replication factor).
ID: STATS_UNTRANSFORMED_USAGE

Memory Usage(%) Percent of memory used by the hypervisor.


• Virtual Consolidated guest memory usage in percentage.
Machine
ID: MEMORY_USAGE_PPM

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Network Rx Bytes Virtual Machine Network transmitted bytes reported by the


hypervisor.
ID: HYPERVISOR_NUM_RECEIVED_BYTES

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


AHV hypervisor.

Network Tx Bytes Virtual Machine Write data transferred per second in KB/second.
ID: HYPERVISOR_NUM_TRANSMITTED_BYTES

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


AHV hypervisor.

Physical Usage Actual usage of storage.


• Host
ID: STATS_TRANSFORMED_USAGE
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool
• Storage
Container

Read IOPS (%) Percent of IOPS that are reads.


• Host
ID: STATS_READ_IO_PPM
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool

Replication Bandwidth Replication data received per second in KB/second


- Received • Cluster
ID: STATS_REP_BW_RECEIVED
• Remote Site
• Protection
Domain
• Replication
Link

Replication Bandwidth Replication data transferred per second in KB/


- Transmitted • Cluster second
• Remote Site ID: STATS_REP_BW_TRANSFERRED
• Protection
Domain
• Replication
Link

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Replication Bytes - Number of bytes received.


Received • Cluster
ID: STATS_REP_NUM_RECEIVED_BYTES
• Remote Site
Note: Cluster entity is applicable for AHV
• Protection hypervisor.
Domain
• Replication
Link

Replication Bytes - Replication Link Total number of bytes received.


Total Received
ID: STATS_REP_TOT_RECEIVED_BYTES

Replication Bytes - Replication Link Total number of bytes transmitted.


Total Transmitted
ID: STATS_REP_TOT_TRANSMITTED_BYTES

Replication Bytes - Number of bytes transmitted.


Transmitted • Cluster
ID: STATS_REP_NUM_TRANSMITTED_BYTES
• Remote Site
Note: Cluster entity is applicable for AHV
• Protection hypervisor.
Domain
• Replication
Link

Storage Controller Data transferred in KB/second from the Storage


Bandwidth • Cluster Controller.
• Storage ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_BANDWIDTH
Container
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller Read data transferred in KB/second from the


Bandwidth - Read • Cluster Storage Controller.
• Storage ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_READ_BANDWIDTH
Container
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Storage Controller Write data transferred in KB/second from the


Bandwidth - Write • Cluster Storage Controller.
• Storage ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_WRITE_BANDWIDTH
Container
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller Input/Output operations per second from the


IOPS • Host Storage Controller
• Cluster ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_NUM_IOPS
• Storage Note: The Host entity is applicable for AHV
Container hypervisor only.
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller Input/Output read operations per second from the


IOPS - Read • Host Storage Controller
• Cluster ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_NUM_READ_IOPS
• Storage Note: The Host entity is applicable for AHV
Container hypervisor.
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller Percent of Storage Controller IOPS that are reads.


IOPS - Read (%) • Cluster
ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_READ_IO_PPM
• Storage
Container Note: The Host entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Storage Controller Input/Output write operations per second from the


IOPS - Write • Host Storage Controller
• Cluster ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_NUM_WRITE_IOPS
• Storage
Container
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller Percent of Storage Controller IOPS that are writes.


IOPS - Write (%) • Cluster
ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_WRITE_IO_PPM
• Storage
Container
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage Controller I/O latency in milliseconds from the Storage


Latency • Cluster Controller.
• Storage ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_AVG_IO_LATENCY
Container
Note:
• Virtual
Machine • Custer entity is applicable only for AHV
• Volume Group hypervisor.

• Virtual Disk • Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


AHV and Hyper-V hypervisors.

Storage Controller Storage Controller read latency in milliseconds.


Latency - Read • Cluster
ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_AVG_READ_IO_LATENCY
• Storage
Container Note: Custer entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Storage Controller Storage Controller write latency in milliseconds.


Latency - Write • Cluster
ID: STATS_CONTROLLER_AVG_WRITE_IO_LATENCY
• Storage
Container Note: Custer entity is applicable for AHV
hypervisor.
• Virtual
Machine
• Volume Group
• Virtual Disk

Storage container own Storage Storage container's own usage + Reserved (not
usage Container used).
ID: NEW_CONTAINER_OWN_USAGE_LOGICAL

Swap In Rate Virtual Machine Rate of data being swapped in.


ID: STATS_HYP_SWAP_IN_RATE

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors.

Swap Out Rate Virtual Machine Rate of data being swapped out.
ID: STATS_HYP_SWAP_OUT_RATE

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors.

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

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable only


for ESXi hypervisor.

Virtual NIC bytes Virtual Machine Virtual NIC bytes transmitted rate in kbps.
transmitted rate.
STATS_NETWORK_TRANSMITTED_RATE

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


ESXi hypervisor.

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Metric Entity Type(s) Description

Virtual NIC dropped Virtual Machine Number of dropped transmitted packets by the
transmitted packets. Virtual NIC.
STATS_NETWORK_DROPPED_TRANSMITTED_PACKETS

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


ESXi hypervisor.

Virtual NIC receive Virtual Machine Number of receive packets dropped by the Virtual
packets dropped. NIC.
STATS_NETWORK_DROPPED_RECEIVED_PACKETS

Note: Virtual Machine entity is applicable for


ESXi hypervisor.

Write IOPS (%) Percent of IOPS that are writes.


• Host
ID: STATS_WRITE_IO_PPM
• Cluster
• Disk
• Storage Pool

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.

The following figure is a sample view of the Sessions dashboard.

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Figure 388: Sessions dashboard

Table 723: Sessions Dashboard Elements

Field Allows you to...

Create Session Create a new session.


Settings Set the default session for the Analysis
dashboard.
Actions
• Delete a session you select in the list.
• Edit Session Details of a session you select
in the list.
The Actions menu is displayed only when you
select a session in the list.

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Field Allows you to...
Filters Filter the list of sessions.
You can filter the list by:
1. Session Name: Filters on the session name.
Select a condition from the pull-down list
and enter a string in the field. It returns
a list of sessions that satisfy the session
name condition/string.

Note: Adding a name for a session


is mandatory. The default name
is Untitled Session. Change the
default name to a suitable name with
appropriate keywords to facilitate
filtering the sessions by session name.

2. Description: Filters on the description of


the session. Select a condition from the
pull-down list and enter a string in the field.
It returns a list of sessions that satisfy the
description condition/string.

Note: Adding a description for a


session is not mandatory. However,
to facilitate filtering the sessions by
description, enter a description with
appropriate keywords for the sessions
you create.

Type name to filter by Allows you to filter the sessions by name.


Type a word used in the session names that
you want to filter to in this search box. Prism
Central filters the list of all the sessions to
provide a list of the sessions which have the
word in their names.
The filter is not case sensitive.

Session Name Enter a name for the session you create or


update.
Description Provide a description for the session.
Last Updated Time View the date and time when the session was
last updated.

Viewing Sessions Dashboard

About this task


You can view the Sessions dashboard and manage the sessions.
To view the Sessions dashboard, do one of the following:

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Procedure

1. Click Switch Session in the Analysis dashboard and select View All Sessions.
This switches the view to the Sessions dashboard.

2. Click Actions in the Analysis dashboard and select Close.


This closes the active session and switches to the Sessions dashboard.

Creating a New Session

About this task


You can create a new session from the Analysis dashboard or the Sessions dashboard.
To create a new session, do the following:

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.

Setting the Default Session View

About this task


You can set the default session view for the Analysis dashboard in the Sessions dashboard.
To set the default session view, do the following:

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Procedure

1. Click Settings in the Sessions dashboard.

Figure 389: Settings dialog box

2. Select one of the following options:

» Last working session


This session is displayed by default in the Analysis dashboard. This is the last session that
you worked on before signing out of Prism. This option is pre-selected.
» System defined session
This session is named Analysis Session. Prism creates and opens this session after
installation of or upgrade to Prism Central 5.18 or later. Prism migrates and persists all the
charts that you created before upgrading, to Analysis Session in Prism Central 5.18.
Prism also opens this session in the Analysis dashboard after Prism services are restarted.

3. Click Save.

Deleting a Session

About this task


To delete a session in the Sessions dashboard, do the following:

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Procedure

1. Select the session you want to delete.

2. Click Actions > Delete.

3. In the confirmation dialog box, do one of the following:

» Click Confirm to delete the session.


» Click Cancel to return to the Sessions dashboard without deleting the session.

Editing Session Details

About this task


To edit the session details like Session Name and Description of a session, do the following:

Procedure

1. Click Actions > Edit Session Details.

Figure 390: Edit Session Details dialog box

2. Provide appropriate Session Name and Description to help quickly identify the session.

3. Click Update.

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Closing the Session

About this task


To close the current session in the Analysis dashboard, do the following:

Procedure
Click Actions > Close.

Switching Between Sessions

About this task


To switch between sessions, do the following:

Procedure

1. Click Switch Session in the Analysis dashboard.

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).

• To configure application discovery:

• enable application discovery (see Enabling Application Discovery on page 788)


• connect to the cloud-based discovery service (see Connecting to the Cloud on
page 794)
• add clusters to monitor (see Adding (Removing) Clusters to Monitor on page 795)
• authenticate with vCenter for ESXi cluster access (see Configuring vCenter
Authentication on page 797)

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• To generate current findings at any time:

• start an application discovery (see Discovering Applications on page 798)


• publish data for identified applications (see Publishing Applications on page 799)
• create policies for unidentified applications (see Creating Discovery Policies on
page 799)
• To view discovery findings, see the application discovery dashboard (see Application
Discovery View on page 779).

Application Discovery View


The application discovery dashboard allows you to view information about discovered
applications and associated policies.
To access the application discovery dashboard, select Operations > App Discovery from the
entities menu. See Entities Menu on page 13 . The dashboard includes seven tabs at the top
(Summary, Discovered Apps, Published Apps, Policies, App Relationships, Monitored Clusters,
and Alerts) with a display area below for the selected tab.

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.

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Figure 391: App Discovery Summary Tab

Discovered Apps Tab


Clicking the Discovered Apps tab, which appears by default when you first open the page,
displays a list of the discovered applications.

Figure 392: Discovered Apps Tab

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.

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Table 724: Discovered Apps Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

VM Displays the VM name. Click the name to (VM name)


display the details page for the VM. See VM
Details View on page 100 .

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 .

Environment Displays whether the cluster resides in a Nutanix, vCenter


Nutanix or non-Nutanix (vCenter managed)
environment.

Status Indicates whether the instance is an identified Identified, Unidentified


application type and whether it is newly
discovered ("new app" meaning discovered
during the most recent pass) or discovered
previously ("existing app" meaning discovered
in an earlier pass). An "identified" application
is one that is a known type. The discovery
service can classify many applications, but for
those it cannot identify, you can assign them
to a type through a custom discovery policy.
See Creating Discovery Policies on page 799
.

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.

Table 725: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

Status Filters by whether the instance has been Identified, Unidentified


identified as a known application type.

App State Filters by whether the instance is new. New, Existing

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Parameter Description Values

Ignored Filters for ignored applications. Show Ignored Apps


(check box)

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.

Environment Filters based on whether the applications Nutanix, vCenter


are in a Nutanix or non-Nutanix (vCenter)
managed environment.

VM Filters on the VM name (same options as App (VM name string)


Instance).

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.

Published Apps Tab


Clicking the Published Apps tab displays a list of the published applications. A "published"
application is one that is made available to the API. Publishing involves copying the data for the
identified (and not ignored) applications into an internal database that you can access through
an external API call. An "identified" application is one where the VM in which it runs is known
and the used ports are mapped.

• The listed information for published applications is the same as for discovered applications,
except there is no status field.

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• The Focus , Group, and Export options are the same, but the Filter pane includes just App
Instance and VM options.
The published apps tab includes the following action buttons:

• 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.

Figure 393: Published Apps Tab

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.

Figure 394: Policies Tab

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.

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Table 726: Policies Fields

Parameter Description Values

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 .

Application Displays the application type. Application (application type)


discovery can identify various common
applications by default (referred to as system-
defined applications) such as DNS, NTP, SSH,
Web Server, MS Exchange Server, MS SQL
Server, Oracle DB, SAP HANA. For user-
defined applications, the user provides the
name. See Creating Discovery Policies on
page 799 .

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.

Status Displays the current application operational Enabled, Disabled


status.

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).

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App Relationships Tab
Clicking the App Relationships tab displays the top 20 applications based on the number of
entities that are communicating with these applications. The displayed information includes
the VMs where these applications are running, along with the number of entities that are
communicating with these VMs.

Figure 395: App Relationships Tab

The following table describes the fields that appear in the app relationships list.

Table 727: App Relationships Fields

Parameter Description Values

App Name Displays the application name. (app name)

VM Displays the VM name. Click the name to (VM name)


display the details page for the VM. See VM
Details View on page 100 .

IP Address Displays the IP Address of the VM. (IP Address)

Ports Displays the port used by the application. (port numbers)

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 .

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Parameter Description Values

Identification Status Indicates whether the application is an Identified, Unidentified


identified application type. An identified
application is one that is a known type per
application discovery service. You can use
custom discovery policy to assign a type to
the unidentified applications listed under App
Relationships tab.
If an application is displayed as unidentified
regardless of it belonging to the known
types, try refreshing the list of discovered
applications. You can refresh the list by
running the Discover operation from
Discovered Apps tab.

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.

Table 728: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

VM Filters on the VM name. (same options as App (VM name string)


Name).

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)

Time Range Filters on the time range. Last 30 Mins, Last 1


Hour, Last 12 Hours,
and Last 24 Hours

To download the table contents in CSV format, click the Export link.

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Monitored Clusters Tab
Clicking the Monitored Clusters tab displays the list of clusters that application discovery
monitors when it does a discovery search.

Figure 396: Monitored Clusters Tab

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.

Table 729: Monitored Clusters Fields

Parameter Description Values

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 .

# of Nodes Displays the number of nodes in the cluster. (integer)

# of VMs Displays the number of VMs in the cluster. (integer)

vCenter IP Displays the IP address of the vCenter for this (IP address)
cluster.

Environment Displays whether the cluster resides in a Nutanix, vCenter


Nutanix or non-Nutanix (vCenter managed)
environment.

Monitored Hypervisor Displays the monitored hypervisor in the ESXi, AHV, vCenter
cluster.

Health Status Displays the current VM network traffic Active, Inactive


monitoring status.

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.

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Table 730: Filter Pane Fields

Parameter Description Values

vCenter IP Filters on the vCenter IP address (same (IP address string)


options as Cluster Name).

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 .

Enabling Application Discovery


Enabling application discovery (disabled by default) involves connecting to the discovery
service in the cloud, specifying clusters to monitor, and authenticating to the vCenter instances
for the specified clusters.

About this task


When you select application discovery for the first time, a wizard appears to guide you through
the setup process. To configure application discovery initially, do the following:

Before you begin


Complete the Prerequisites on page 793.

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.

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2. In the "Welcome to App Discovery" screen, check the "I have increased the PC VM's memory
and vCPUs" box (as specified in the prerequisites) and then click the Enable App Discovery
button.

Figure 397: Welcome to App Discovery screen

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.

Figure 398: App Discovery Setup: Cloud Connection screen

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4. In the "App Discovery Setup: Select Clusters" screen, do the following:

» 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.

Figure 399: App Discovery Setup: Select Clusters (initial)

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.

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Figure 400: App Discovery Setup: Select Clusters

5. [vCenter only] select vCenter in the External Entity Type field and then click the Enable
button.

Figure 401: Enable vCenter Discovery

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6. [vCenter only] Do the following in the indicated fields to configure a vCenter instance:

a. External Entity Type: Select vCenter from the pull-down menu.


b. vCenter Host: Enter the IP address of the vCenter host VM.
If the IP address does not resolve automatically to the proper port number, enter the
address in the form ip_address:port#. The standard vCenter Server port is 443.
c. Username: Enter the vCenter administrator user name.
d. Password: Enter the vCenter administrator password.
e. SSL Verify: Select the SSL mode to use (Verify or Don't Verify) when connecting to the
target.
This setting determines whether to verify (or not verify) the target's SSL certificate as
part of the connection process.

Figure 402: Configure vCenter Instance

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.

8. [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. The instance

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configuration and data collection begins. When it completes (which can take a few minutes),
a "vCenter Configuration successful" message appears.

Figure 403: Select Clusters (vCenter)

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.

Figure 404: vCenter Configuration Complete

Prerequisites
Address the following before enabling application discovery:

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• Sufficient Prism Central VM resources. Application discovery is one of the Prism Ultimate
license features that requires additional Prism Central VM resources (more memory
and vCPUs). The requirements are listed in KB 8932. If your Prism Central VM resources
are below the recommended amount, manually increase the memory and vCPUs to the
recommended amount.
• Internet connection. An Internet connection is required to connect to the Nutanix cloud.
• Up and running firewall in Prism Central.
• VDS enabled on vCenter. This requires a vSphere version (Enterprise Plus license) that
supports vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) and netflow version 10.
• My Nutanix account that is either admin role or account admin.
• API key and key ID. Log on to the Nutanix support portal and get your API key information.
See the License Manager Guide for instructions on how to generate a new key or view
information about an existing key.
Each Prism Central instance requires a unique API key/ID pair. If you have multiple Prism
Central instances (or a key was revoked for any reason), create additional API key/ID pairs
as needed so you have a unique and valid pair for each Prism Central instance.

Figure 405: Create API Key Flow (example)

Connecting to the Cloud


Using application discovery requires connecting to a cloud-based discovery service.

About this task


Nutanix provides a SaaS-like service in the cloud that analyzes application data from the
monitored clusters. The connection is established during initial setup (see Enabling Application
Discovery on page 788), but to update the connection after setup, do the following:

Before you begin


Log on to the Nutanix support portal and get your API key information. See the License
Manager Guide for instructions on how to generate a new key or view information about an
existing key.

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Procedure

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).

2. In the Cloud Connection window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. API Key: Enter the API key value.


b. Key ID: Enter the key identification number.
c. Click the Save button.
Only one API key/ID pair is allowed per Prism Central instance. If you have multiple Prism
Central instances (or your initial key was revoked for any reason), create additional API key/
ID pairs as needed (through the Nutanix support portal) so you have a unique and valid pair
for each Prism Central instance.

Figure 406: Cloud Connection Window

Adding (Removing) Clusters to Monitor


Using application discovery requires first specifying the clusters to monitor.

About this task


Specifying clusters to monitor is done during initial setup (see Enabling Application Discovery
on page 788), but you can add or remove clusters after setup at any time.

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Procedure

• To add a cluster to the monitored list, do the following:

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.

Figure 407: Add Clusters to App Discovery Window

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c. Run discovery to identify applications on the new clusters (see Discovering Applications
on page 798).
• To remove a cluster from the monitored list, select the target cluster(s) in the list and then
click the Remove button.

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.

Configuring vCenter Authentication


Using application discovery with ESXi clusters requires first authenticating with the associated
vCenter.

About this task


Authenticating with vCenter is done during initial setup (see Enabling Application Discovery on
page 788), but to update authentication after setup, do the following:

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).

2. In the vCenter Authentication window, do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

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If a vCenter is not monitored currently, you can enable monitoring by clicking the Configure
button (see Configuring Application Monitoring on page 816).

Figure 408: vCenter Authentication Window

Discovering Applications
You can check for the current applications on the monitored clusters at any time.

About this task


To start an application discovery search, do the following:

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

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of discovered, identified, and unidentified applications; number of application types; and
number of new application instances.

Figure 409: App Discovery Window

2. Click the View App Instances button to redisplay the tab.


If some applications are misclassified, you can modify the results by manually identifying,
unidentifying, or ignoring (hiding) selected applications (see the Actions menu options in
Application Discovery View on page 779).

Publishing Applications
You can publish the application discovery findings to a database.

About this task


Applications are discovered based on discovery policies that map applications and ports. You
may validate, fix, and sanitize the list of discovered applications, and then publish the final list
of discovered application. Publishing means copying the VM and port-mapping data for the
identified applications to an internal database, which is accessible through an external API call.
To publish data for the current identified applications, do the following:

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.

2. Go to the Published Apps tab to view the list of published applications.


You can delete applications from the published list that you do not want in the database (see
Application Discovery View on page 779).

Creating Discovery Policies


You can define custom discovery policies for unidentified applications.

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About this task
Application discovery can identify a variety of common (system defined) application types
such as DNS, NTP, SSH, Web Server, MS Exchange Server, MS SQL Server, Oracle DB, and SAP
HANA. However, it cannot determine the type for some applications. To create a custom (user
defined) discovery policy for an unidentified application, do the following:

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).

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2. In the New Discovery Policy window, do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Application: Enter the application name.


b. Policy Name: Enter a name for the policy.
c. Description: Enter a description for the policy (optional).
d. VMs: Do one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 410: New Discovery Policy Window

Modifying (Viewing) Discovery Policies


You can view any discovery policy, enable or disable any policy, or modify a user-defined policy
at any time.

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About this task
To view or modify a policy, do the following:

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.

Figure 411: Edit Discovery Policy Window

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).

Cost Management (Xi Beam)


About this task
Xi Beam is a cost governance and security compliance SaaS product offering by Nutanix.
Xi Beam helps cloud-focused organizations to gain visibility into cloud spend and security
compliance status across multiple cloud environments.
To enable Xi Beam, do the following:

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Procedure

1. Enable Pulse if it is not already enabled (see Configuring Pulse on page 952).

2. Set up a Xi Beam (SaaS) account.

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.

Application Monitoring Summary View


The monitoring integrations dashboard allows you to view information about select
applications, such as SQL Server or vCenter instances, running in the cluster.
To access the monitoring integrations dashboard, select Operations > Integrations from the
entities menu. See Entities Menu on page 13 . The monitoring integrations dashboard allows
you to view summary information about application instances and access detailed information
about each instance.

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 .

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Figure 412: Monitoring Integrations Dashboard

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.

Table 731: Application Instance Fields

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the name of the application instance. (instance name)


Click the name to display the details for
that instance (see Application Instance
Details View (SQL Server) on page 805 or
Application Instance Details View (vCenter) on
page 814).

Type Displays what type of application the instance Microsoft SQL Server,
is. vCenter

Data Provider Application metrics are supplied through an Nutanix, (third-party


agentless collector, and this field displays who name)
provided that collector.

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:

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• Click the Configure Instance button to add an application instance for monitoring (see
Configuring Application Monitoring on page 816).
• An Actions menu appears when an instance is selected:

• 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.

Application Instance Details View (SQL Server)


The application instance details page provides a range of data and performance metrics for an
SQL Server instance.
To access the details page for an SQL Server instance, go to the application integrations
dashboard and click the application instance name (see Application Monitoring Summary View
on page 803). The instance name and the following set of tabs appear on the left: Summary,
Alerts, Events, Databases, Queries, and Metrics. Click a tab to display that information on the
right. (Click the Back to External Entity Instances 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).
• 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.

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Figure 413: Application Instance Summary Tab

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.

Table 732: Instance Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

Properties

Host VM Displays the host VM IP address. Click the IP (IP address)


address to displays the details page for that
VM . See VM Details View on page 100 .

Type Displays the type of SQL server. Standalone

SQL Version Displays the SQL server version number for (version number)
the instance.

Database Count Displays the number of databases managed (integer)


by the SQL server instance.

Host Displays the SQL server host name. (host name)

Instance Displays the instance type.

VM Name Displays the host VM name. (name)

VM Alert Count Displays the number of alerts assciated with (integer)


the instance.

Metrics

CPU Usage Displays the percentage of CPU capacity 0 - 100%


currently being used by the instance.

Memory Usage Displays the percentage of memory capacity 0 - 100%


currently being used by the instance.

Available Physical Displays the amount of available memory. xx [GiB]


Memory

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Parameter Description Values

IOPS Rate Displays the average number of combined (number)


read and write operations per second for the
past 15 minutes.

Buffer Cache Hit Ratio Displays the buffer cache hit rate for the past 0-100%
15 minutes.

Number of Active Displays the number of active connections. (integer)


Connections

Read Ops Rate Displays the average number of read (number)


operations per second for the past 15 minutes.

Write Ops Rate Displays the average number of write (number)


operations per second for the past 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.

Figure 414: Application Instance Databases Tab

• 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.

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• To select (or unselect) databases in the list:

• 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.

Table 733: Databases Fields (SQL Server)

Parameter Description Values

Name Displays the database name. Click on the (database name)


name to display the details for that database
(described below).

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.

Space Available Displays the percentage of space available on 0-100%


Percentage disk used by the database.

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.

Figure 415: Database Instance Page

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• Each graph includes a pull-down actions menu with the following options:

• 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.

Figure 416: Session Window


• Select Alert Settings to create a custom alert policy for the metric. See Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286 .
• To view a subset of the graphs, click the Filters button and check (uncheck) the desired
graphs.
• To specify a view format for the graphs, click the tile (default) or stack icon.
• To specify a time interval for the graphs, select Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours (default), or Last
Week from the pull-down list.
• Click the Back to <instance_name> link to return to the application instance details page.

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.

Figure 417: Application Instance Queries Tab

• To order the rows, click a column header, which toggles the list alphabetically, numerically,
or chronologically (as appropriate) based on that parameter.

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• 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 for a text string in the query, 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.
• To select (or unselect) queries in the list:

• 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.

Table 734: Query Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Execution Count Displays the number of times the query (integer)


statement has been executed.

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.

• To see the full query statement, click the View link.

Figure 418: Query Statement Window


• To copy the query statement, click the Copy link.
• Click the Back to <instance_name> link to return to the application instance details page.

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Figure 419: Query Details Page

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.

Figure 420: Application Instance Metrics Tab

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• Each graph includes a pull-down actions menu with the following options:

• 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.

Figure 421: Session Window


• Select Alert Settings to create a custom alert policy for the metric. See Creating Custom
Alert Policies on page 286 .
• To view a subset of the graphs, click the Filters button and check (uncheck) the desired
graphs.
• To specify a view format for the graphs, click the tile (default) or stack icon.
• To specify a time interval for the graphs, select Last 1 hour, Last 24 hours (default), or Last
Week from the pull-down list.
• Click the Back to External Entity Instances link to return to the monitoring applications
dashboard.
The following table describes the metric graphs.

Table 735: Metric Performance Graphs

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.

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Metric Description

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.

Active Connections Displays the number of active connections to this instance.

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.

Available Physical Memory Displays the amount of physical memory available.

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.

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Application Instance Details View (vCenter)
The application instance details page provides a range of data and performance metrics for a
vCenter instance.
To access the details page for a vCenter instance, go to the application integrations dashboard
and click the application instance name (see Application Monitoring Summary View on
page 803). The instance name and tabs for Summary and Alerts appear on the left. Click a
tab to display that information on the right. (Click the Back to External Entity Instances link to
return to the summary view.)

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.

Figure 422: Application Instance Summary Tab

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.

Table 736: Instance Properties Fields

Parameter Description Values

VMs Displays the number of VMs managed by the (integer)


vCenter instance.

Clusters Displays the number of clusters managed by (integer)


the vCenter instance.

Nodes Displays the number of clusters managed by (integer)


the vCenter instance.

Critical Alerts Displays the current number of critical alerts (integer)


associated with the vCenter instance.

Warning Alerts Displays the current number of warning alerts (integer)


associated with the vCenter instance.

Name Displays the name of the vCenter instance. (name)

Configured Alerts Displays the number of alerts configured to (integer)


Count monitor the vCenter instance.

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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 vCenter-related alerts. See Alerts
Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266 .

Infrastructure Tabs (VMs, Clusters, and Hosts)


In addition to the application details view, tabs for non-Nutanix entities appear in the VMs,
clusters, and hosts dashboards after enabling vCenter application monitoring.

• 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.

Figure 423: VMs dashboard (vCenter tab)


• To view information about clusters managed by vCenter, select Hardware > Clusters
from the entities menu and then click the non-Nutanix tab. See Clusters Summary View
on page 200 . The Summary, Alerts, and Events tabs display the same information as for
Nutanix-managed clusters. The Metrics tab displays CPU usage, memory usage, and VM
operations. The List tab displays fields for name, host count, VM count, storage usage, and
storage capacity.

Figure 424: Clusters dashboard (vCenter tab)


• To view information about hosts managed by vCenter, select Hardware > Hosts from the
entities menu and then click the non-Nutanix tab. See Hosts Summary View on page 220
.The Summary, Alerts, and Events tabs display the same information as for Nutanix-managed

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hosts. The Metrics tab displays a subset of the full list (5 of the 7 metrics). The List tab
displays fields for name, host IP, VM count, memory capacity, and cluster name.

Figure 425: Hosts dashboard (vCenter tab)

Configuring Application Monitoring


Monitoring an application instance requires configuring an instance profile.

Before you begin


Complete the prerequisites for configuring application Monitoring (see Prerequisites for
Configuring Application Monitoring on page 818).

About this task


To configure an instance profile, do the following:

Procedure

1. Go to the monitoring integrations dashboard and click the Configure Instance button (see
Application Monitoring Summary View on page 803).

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2. In the Configure external entity for monitoring page, do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

Figure 426: Configuration Page (enable)

When the provisioning is complete (which can take a few minutes), the following fields
appear.

Figure 427: Configuration Page (SQL server example)


b. [Microsoft SQL Server | vCenter] Host: Enter the IP address of the SQL Server or vCenter
host VM. You can monitor SQL Server instances in both Nutanix and non-Nutanix
(vCenter managed) clusters.
c. [Microsoft SQL Server | vCenter] Port: Enter the target port number.
The port number defaults to the standard port number for SQL Server (1433) or vCenter
(443).
d. Username: Enter the SQL Server or vCenter administrator user name.
e. Password: Enter the SQL Server or vCenter administrator password.
f. [vCenter only] SSL Verify: Select the SSL mode to use (Verify or Don't Verify) when
connecting to the target.
This setting determines whether to verify (or not verify) the target's SSL certificate as
part of the connection process.

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g. Click the Test Connection button to verify (test) the connection.
A "Test connection success" message appears after a successful test.
h. After a successful test, do one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 428: Select Clusters

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).

Prerequisites for Configuring Application Monitoring


Address the following before enabling application monitoring:

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• Sufficient Prism Central VM resources. Application monitoring is a feature that requires
additional Prism Central VM resources (more memory and vCPUs). The requirements are
listed in KB 8932 (see instructions for Prism Ultimate features). If your Prism Central VM
resources are below the recommended amount, manually increase the memory and vCPUs
to the recommended amount.
• TLS version 1.2.
• SQL Server-specific requirements:

• 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.

Modifying Application Monitoring


You can view, update, or delete the application configuration for an instance at any time.

About this task


To modify application monitoring for an instance, do the following:

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Procedure

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.

Operations Policy Management


Prism Central implements a variety of system services to analyze cluster integrity and
performance. You have the option to apply policies to customize some services in your
environment. You can apply the following policies:

• Anomaly Detection Exclusion. Prism Central includes machine-learning capabilities that


analyze resource usage and identify potential problems (see Behavioral Learning Tools on
page 846). One is anomaly detection that records when performance or resource usage
is outside an expected range. The anomaly detection exclusion policy allows you to specify
VMs to ignore when looking for anomalies. For example, you might have some VMs with
expected peak load on certain days, and you do not want that usage surge counted as an
anomaly. In this case you can either define a category for those VMs and enable anomaly
detection exclusion for that category or enable the exclusion for each VM individually.
• Inefficiency Measurement Exclusion. Another machine-learning capability is VM "right sizing"
that identifies VMs which exhibit inefficient profiles. Again, you have the option to exclude
selected VMs from the inefficiency analysis.

Operations Policies View


The operations policies dashboard allows you to view and modify operations policies that can
be applied to VMs or other entities.
To access the operations policies dashboard, select Operations > Ops Policies from the entities
menu (see Entities Menu on page 13). The dashboard displays a list of the operations policies.

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.

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Figure 429: Operations Policies Dashboard

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.

Table 737: Operations Policy Fields

Parameter Description Values

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.

Purpose Describes the purpose of the policy. (VM name)

No. of Excluded Displays the number of categories the policy (integer)


Categories applies to (see Category Management on
page 742).

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).

Modifying an Operations Policy


You can customize the list of categories to which an operations policy applies.

About this task


No categories are assigned to the Anomaly Detection Exclusion and Inefficiency Measurement
Exclusion polices by default. To add (or delete) one or more categories to an operations policy,
do the following:

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Procedure

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).

2. In the policy page, click the Add link.

Figure 430: Anomaly Detection Exclusion Page (add category)

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.

Figure 431: Add Window

4. Click the Save button.


The policy is now enabled for entities in the selected categories.

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5. To delete a category from the list, click the garbage pail icon for that category and then click
the Save button.

Figure 432: Anomaly Detection Exclusion Page (delete category)

Enabling an Operations Policy


You can enable (or disable) an operations policy for selected VMs.

About this task


To disable anomaly detection or inefficiency measurement for selected VMs or for all the VMs in
selected clusters, do the following:

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Procedure

1. Do one of the following:

» 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.

Figure 433: VM Actions Menu

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.

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Figure 434: Planning

The planning dashboard includes two tabs:

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).

Capacity Runway View


Click the Capacity Runway tab in the planning dashboard (see Resource Planning on
page 824) to view summary resource runway information for the registered Nutanix and Non-
Nutanix clusters and to access detailed runway information about each cluster.

Note:

• Capacity planning requires a minimum of 21 days of data from a cluster to calculate


the baseline runway estimates. No estimates appear when insufficient data is
available. In addition, it takes a day after registering a cluster for the data to appear
in Prism Central.
• Capacity planning checks the past 90 days of data for monthly seasonality, it also
uses up to 365 days of past data (when available) for calculating and adjusting the
baseline accordingly if it finds a seasonality pattern.
• When you determine the current usage (Total Used Space) for a cluster that has
Rebuild Capacity Reservation enabled, Nutanix recommends that you ignore the
Effective Capacity threshold displayed in the Storage Runway graph of the Prism
Central Capacity planning report. Instead, you must rely on the Total Capacity and

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Resilient Capacity numbers on the Storage Summary widget in the Prism Element
web console. This is because the Storage Runway report in Prism Central for a
cluster does not take into account the Rebuild Capacity Reservation of the cluster
when calculating the Effective Capacity threshold in the report.
• For a Non-Nutanix cluster, the vCenter datastores dashboard appears only when
at least one vCenter instance has been registered. See Application Monitoring on
page 803 for more information.

• 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).

Figure 435: Capacity Runway View (Nutanix)

Figure 436: Capacity Runway View (Non-Nutanix)

The following table describes the fields that appear in the Capacity Runway view.

Table 738: Capacity Runway Tab Fields

Parameter Description Values

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).

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Parameter Description Values

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?

Note: The "runway" is the number of days


the existing CPU, memory, or storage
capacity can handle the workload based
on the current workload consumption
model.

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.

Figure 437: Scenarios View

The following table describes the fields that appear in the Scenarios view.

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Table 739: Scenarios Tab Fields

Parameter Description Values

Scenario Displays the scenario name. Clicking on the (scenario name)


name displays the details of that scenario (see
Creating a Scenario on page 828).

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.)

Workloads Displays the workloads included in the (blank),


scenario. This field lists workloads added to
the scenario. In the figure above, the "tom"
scenario lists "sql" in this field indicating an
SQL workload was added to the scenario.
A blank field indicates either there is no
workload (for a scenario based on a new
cluster) or only the existing (current)
workload is applied (for a scenario based on
an existing cluster).

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

About this task


Anticipating future resource needs can be a challenging task. To address this task, Prism
Central provides an option to create "what if" scenarios that assess the resource requirements
for possible future work loads. This allows you to evaluate questions like

• How many new VMs can the current cluster support?


• If I need a new database server in a month, does the cluster have sufficient resources to
handle that increased load?
• If I create a new cluster for a given set of workloads, what kind of cluster do I need?
• If I remove a set of VMs or nodes, how will my cluster look?
You can create various "what if" scenarios to answer these and other questions. The answers
are derived by applying industry standard consumption patterns to the hypothetical workloads
and current consumption patterns for existing workloads. To create a "what if" scenario, do the
following:

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Procedure

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.

Figure 438: Scenario Configuration Page (example)

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.

b. Target: Select a runway duration (1 to 12 months) from the pull-down list.


c. Vendor Type (new cluster only): For a new cluster, select the hardware vendor of choice
(Nutanix, Dell, Lenovo, Cisco, IBM) from the pull-down menu.
d. Capacity configuration: Check this box to reserve some capacity prior to analyzing the
scenario.
All the storage, CPU, and memory capacity in the cluster is used by default. However, you
have the option to reserve (withhold) some capacity before doing the analysis. To specify

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the capacity to reserve, click the pencil icon and do the following in the Edit Cluster
Configuration window:
1. Replication Factor: Select the desired replication factor (2 or 3) from the pull-down list.
2. CPU Reservation: Specify the percentage of CPU capacity to keep in reserve. (The
default is 0.)
3. Memory Reservation: Specify the percentage of memory capacity to keep in reserve.
(The default is 0.)
4. Storage Reservation: Specify the percentage of storage capacity to keep in reserve.
(The default is 0.)
5. CPU Overcommit Ratio for New VM Worloads: Specify the ratio of virtual CPU to
physical CPU. (The default is 1.)
6. Memory Overcommit Ratio for New VM Worloads: Specify the ratio of virtual memory
to physical memory. (The default is 1.)
7. Click the Save Configuration button to save the configuration and close the window
and then check the Capacity configuration box (if it is not already checked) to apply
this configuration.

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Figure 439: Edit Cluster Configuration Window

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

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a variety of workloads. The configuration fields vary depending on the selected workload.
The following table describes the configuration fields for each workload.

Note: If you want to include multiple workloads in the scenario, repeat this step as many
times as needed.

Figure 440: New Workload Fields (SQL Server example)

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Table 740: Workload Fields

Workload Field Description Values

(all) Workload Select the desired workload type SQL Server,


from the pull-down menu. VMs, VDI,
Splunk, Xen
App, Change in
Demand

SQL Server Number of Enter the number of databases to (number)


Databases support. The default is 1.
(This emulates
the workload Profile Type Select (click the radio button for) Small, Medium,
for a specified the database size. The default is Large
set of SQL medium.
databases.)
Database Type Select the database type. There OLAP, OLTP
are two options:

• on-line transaction processing


(OLTP) is characterized by a
large number of short on-line
transactions.
• on-line analytical processing
(OLAP) characterized by
a relatively low volume of
transactions. This is the default.

On Enter the starting date for this (date)


workload. Clicking in the field
displays a calendar from which
you can select the date.

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Workload Field Description Values

VMs Based On Select (click the radio button for) VM Profiles,


the source for the VM profile: Existing VMs,
(This emulates
New Profile
the workload for Note: If the list of available
a specified set profiles or VMs is long, you
of VMs.) can filter the list by entering
a string in the "filter by" field.

• VM Profiles: Select this option


to use an existing profile. Select
(click the line for) the desired
profile from the provided list in
the following table.
• Existing VMs: Select this option
to use an existing VM as the
profile. Select the desired VM
from the provided list.
• New Profile: Select this option
to create a profile from scratch.
For a new profile, enter a name,
the number of vCPUs (4 by
default), and the amount of
memory (4 GiB by default)
and HDD (20 GiB by default)
capacity in the displayed fields.

On Enter the starting date for this (date)


workload. Clicking in the field
displays a calendar from which
you can select the date.

Number of VMs Enter the number of VMs to add. (number)

VDI Vendor Select (click the radio button View,


for) the vendor product, either XenDesktop
(This emulates a
View from VMWare (default) or
virtual desktop
XenDesktop from Citrix.
infrastructure
workload for User Type Select the target user type: task task worker,
a specified (default), knowledge, power, or knowledge
number of developer. worker, power
users.) user, developer

Provision Type Select how to provision the VMs. full clones,


The selection of provisioning types V2V/P2V,
vary depending on the selected linked clones,
vendor: provisioning
services,
• View: full clones, V2V/P2V, machine
linked clones creation services
• XenDesktop: full clones, V2V/
P2V, provisioning services,
machine creation services

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Workload Field Description Values

Number of users Enter the number of users. (number)

On Enter the starting date for this (date)


workload. Clicking in the field
displays a calendar from which
you can select the date.

Splunk Daily Average Enter a value (number of events) (number)


Index Size for the daily average index size.
(This emulates a
The default is 500.
Splunk workload
for a specified Hot Retention Enter the number of days to retain (number)
configuration.) Days hot data. The default is 7.

Cold Retention Enter the number of days to retain (number)


Days cold data. The default is 60.

Search Users Enter the number of search users. (number)


The default is 5.

On Enter the starting date for this (date)


workload. Clicking in the field
displays a calendar from which
you can select the date.

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

Provision Type Select how to provision XenApp. PVS, MCS, VM


The choice of provisioning types clone
vary depending on the selected
vendor:

• Citrix: PVS, MCS


• Microsoft: VM clone

System Data Enter the amount of system xxx [GB]


data (in GB), that is the space
consumed by each RDSH Server
image. The default is 100.

Number of Enter the number of concurrent (number)


Concurrent users. The default is 1000.
Users

MCS Diff Per VM Enter a size (in GB) for the MCS xxx [GB]
difference disk per VM. The default
is 20.

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Workload Field Description Values

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.

On Enter the starting date for this (date)


workload. Clicking in the field
displays a calendar from which
you can select the date.

Change in Increase/ Specify how to change the current Increase,


Demand Decrease workload, that is select (from the Decrease
pull-down list) whether to increase
or decrease the workload.

By Percentage Enter the amount you want (1-unlimited)


to change the workload as
a percentage of the current
workload. Enter the value as an
integer (no percent mark).

On Enter a date when the workload (date)


change should take effect by
clicking in the field and then
selecting the target date from the
displayed calendar. You can make
the change effective immediately
or at any date in the future.

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

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first workload listed for removal, which in this case applies to Category1 (and ignored
for Category2).

Note: To use this option, you must first create a category to select (see Category
Management on page 742).

Figure 441: Disregard Existing Workloads Fields

3. To add a resource, do one of the following:

• 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.)

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• Click the Add/Adjust button in the Resources section and then click the New Nodes
radio button in the Add/Adjust Resource window to explicitly add a resource. Enter
appropriate information in the following fields and then click the Save button.

• 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.

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Figure 442: New Nodes Fields
The Runway chart is updated accordingly. However, unlike with the Recommend button
which adds a resource(s) guaranteed to satisfy the target runway, the resource you add
explicitly may or may not satisfy the target runway completely. If it does not, one or more of
the resources will remain red in the chart.

Note: You can make changes at any time to the allocated resources and any of the
configuration fields to try various scenarios.

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4. To remove one or more nodes from a resource, click the Add/Adjust button in the
Resources section, click the Disregard Existing Nodes radio button in the Add/Adjust
Resource window, select the node(s) to disregard from the displayed list, and then click the
Save button.
The total, disregarded, and effective CPU, memory, and storage are displayed at the
bottom. These values are adjusted as you select (unselect) each node to be removed from
the scenario. In addition, various stability checks are evaluated when a node is removed
including whether this results in too many lost nodes on the same day, system capacity falls
below system usages, resources are insufficient to maintain the RF level, and the erasure
coding ratio can no longer be maintained (when erasure coding is enabled). When one of the
checks fails, an appropriate warning or error message appears.

Figure 443: Disregard Existing Nodes Fields

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).

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6. To download a PDF version of the scenario, click the Generate PDF button (upper right).
If the target runway in the scenario is not satisfied (one or more resources are red), the PDF
includes a list of node recommendations that satisfy the runway target.

7. To close the scenario screen, click the X icon (upper left).

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.

Figure 444: Scenario Screen (with added workload)

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.

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Figure 445: Scenario Screen (with added workload and recommended resource)

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.

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Figure 446: Storage Usage View

Figure 447: CPU Usage View

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Figure 448: Memory Usage View

Modifying a Scenario

About this task


To modify an existing planning scenario, do the following:

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.

5. To change the workload, do one or more of the following:

• 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.

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• To delete an existing workload, click the associated X icon.

6. To change the resources, do one or more of the following:

• To add a new (recommended) resource automatically, click the Recommend button.

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.

7. To save the changed scenario, click the Save Scenario button.

Updating Capacity Configurations

About this task


The Prism Central planning tools (see Resource Planning on page 824) assume by default that
all the storage, CPU, and memory capacity in the cluster should be considered when estimating
the runway. However, you have the option to reserve some capacity before doing the runway
analysis. To reserve storage, CPU, or memory capacity, do the following:

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.

Figure 449: Update Capacity Configurations Window

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2. Do the following in the indicated fields:

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.

Behavioral Learning Tools


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. These tools include

• 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.

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Table 741: Inefficient VM Profiles

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 ready time > 5%


• Memory swap rate > 0 Kbps
• Host I/O Stargate CPU usage > 85%
One or more bully VMs might cause cluster performance to
degrade. Identifying bully VMs can help in analyzing whether
one or more of those VMs are misbehaving or need additional
resources.

Constrained VM A "constrained" VM is one that does not have enough resources


for the demand and can lead to performance bottlenecks. A VM
is considered constrained when it exhibits one or more of the
following baseline values, based on the past 21 days:

• CPU usage > 90% (moderate), 95% (severe)


• CPU ready time > 5% , 10%
• Memory usage > 90%, 95%
• Memory swap rate > 0 Kbps (no moderate value)
One or more constrained VMs might cause a performance
bottleneck. To provide adequate host resources, resize (increase)
the constrained VMs.

Over-provisioned VM An "over-provisioned" VM is the opposite of a constrained VM,


meaning it is a VM that is over-sized and wasting resources which
are not needed. A VM is considered over-provisioned when it
exhibits one or more of the following baseline values, based on the
past 21 days:

• 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.

Inactive VM A VM is "inactive" in either of the following states:

• "Dead" VM: A VM is considered dead when it has been powered


off for at least 21 days.
• "Zombie" VM: A VM is considered a zombie when it is powered
on but does fewer than 30 read or write I/Os (total) and
receives or transfers fewer than 1000 bytes per day for the past
21 days.
To prevent host resource wastage, delete dead and zombie VMs.

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You can view information about inefficient VMs from the VM Efficiency and Impacted Cluster
widgets on the home or a custom dashboard (see Main Dashboard on page 68 and Adding
Dashboard Widgets on page 78) and from the Capacity tab of a cluster details page (see
Cluster Details View on page 208).

Figure 450: Impacted Cluster and VM Efficiency Widgets

You can also use a search filter from the VMs Summary View on page 90 to identify inefficient
VMs.

Figure 451: Filtering 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.

• Twenty-seven metrics are monitored for VMs, hosts, and clusters.

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• Data for each metric from the past 21 days is recorded and analyzed, a normal behavior band
is established, and predictions for the next 2 days are formulated.
• The behavior bands and predictions are adjusted accordingly when time period or trend
patterns are observed, for example low CPU on weekends or increasing CPU usage.
The anomaly detection module measures usage every five minutes and compares that usage
with the predicted values. If the observed value is outside the band, it flags that value as an
anomaly. Each anomaly is recorded as an event (see Event Details on page 279). Anomalies
appears as outliers in the behavioral anomaly event details screen and the VM details Metrics
tab.

Figure 452: Anomaly Event Details Screen

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:

• a specified VM, host, or cluster


• a specified metric
• every time or only when the anomaly resides within a certain range
See Creating Custom Alert Policies on page 286 for instructions on how to create a custom
anomaly-based alert.

Cluster Efficiency Reports


One of the default reports (see Reports View on page 248) is the Cluster Efficiency Summary
report. This report provides cluster statistics (host and VM counts), performance and usage
statistics (average and peak CPU and memory usage), runway metrics, and information about
inefficient VMs (bully, constrained, over-provisioned, and inactive). You can run this report to
get a quick view of how efficiently the cluster is performing.

Task Automation
You can automate routine administrative tasks through Prism Central by using the X-Play
feature.

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Overview
The X-Play feature allows you to automate certain administrative tasks.

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.

• Create, read, update, delete, enable, and run playbooks.


• Create, read, update, or delete action template in the action gallery.
• View executed plays.
If you have the Prism Viewer role, you can only view the playbooks, plays, and action gallery. All
other roles do not have permissions to the playbook, play, or action gallery.

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.

You can update or delete any cloned actions later.

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.

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• Execution start time and execution end time of each action
• Result status
• Any inputs/outputs provided to the action
• Error messages
• Execution Flow (for branch actions)
• Autopilot-enabled playbook statistics and attempt details (see Configuring Autopilot for
Playbook on page 877).
You can also select one of the following actions for the paused plays from the Actions menu.

• Resume - allows you to resume any play that is paused.


• Abort - allows you to prevent a paused play from resuming.

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.

You can integrate the following applications for Playbook Actions:

• Slack - see Slack under Communication Actions in the table.


Utility actions include:

• Lookup Cluster Details


• Lookup Host Details
• Lookup VM Details
The Utility Actions provide the following parameters as output when you run a playbook:

Table 742: Utility Actions and the Output Parameters

Utility Action Parameters

Lookup Cluster Details


• Storage Capacity
• Cluster VIP
• Cluster Name
• CVM IP List
• Memory Size Cluster UUID
• CPU Count

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Utility Action Parameters

Lookup Host Details


• Disk Capacity
• Hosting Cluster VIP
• CPU Count
• Host IP
• Hosting CVM IP
• Host Name
• Memory Size
• Host UUID
• VM Count

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

Table 743: Playbook Actions

Action Action Description Configurable attributes

Conditional Actions

Branch Action Switch execution based on a See Using Branch Action


matching criteria. (Conditional Execution) on
page 882 for details.

Utility Actions

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

String Parser Parse data from a string. You


can use this action to parse • String to Parse - Enter the
response from any other string.
actions like REST API or SSH • Format - Select one of the
Action. following options.

• JSON - Enter the field to


retrieve as JSONPath.
• XML - Enter the node/
tag/text to retrieve
as XPath in the XPath
field. Optionally, enter
the comma separated
list of namespaces as
key=value in the XML
Namespaces field.
• Regular Expression -
Enter the string to parse
as regular expression

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.

Lookup VM Details Captures VM details Select the VM from the Target


VM drop-down menu.

VM Actions

Power Off VM Power off a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Select the Type of
Power Off Action (Guest
Shutdown, ACPI, or Power
Off).

Note: Guest
shutdown requires
NGT to be installed
on the VM.

Power On VM Power on a VM. Select the VM from the Target


VM drop-down menu.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

VM Add Memory Add memory for a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the Add Absolute
Memory and Absolute
Maximum.

VM Add CPU Add CPU for a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the vCPUs to
Add and Maximum
Number of vCPUs. See
the Prerequisites for VM
Actions in Playbooks on
page 861 for details.

VM Reduce Memory Reduce memory for a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the value for Reduce
Memory by and Minimum
Limit.

VM Reduce CPU Reduce CPU for a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the vCPUs to
Remove and Minimum
Number of vCPUs.

VM Snapshot Captures the state of a VM


and saves it. • Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the Time To Live in
number of days.

VM Add Disk Add vDisk to a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Select the Bus Type and
enter the Disk Size in GiB.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

VM Expand Disk Expand vDisk for a VM.


• Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the Expand Disk By
in GiB.
• Enter the Maximum Disk
Size in GiB.
• Choose from:

• Specific Disk - Select


the Bus Type and enter
the Index value for the
selected disk type.
• Most Used Disk

Communication Actions

Email Send an email. Enter the Recipient, Subject,


Message, and Attachment.

Note: The Attachment


field is applicable only
if you have selected
Generate Forecast
Report as a previous
action.

Note: This action


requires the SMTP server
to be configured. See
Configuring an SMTP
Server in the Prism
Central Web Console
Guide.

Slack Send a Slack message. Enter the Slack Token,


Channel ID, and Message.

Note: You must


integrate Slack to
automate receiving
messages in Slack, see
Integrating Slack for
details.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

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

Acknowledge Alert Mark an Alert as


acknowledged. • Select the target Alert from
the Target Alert drop-down
menu.

Resolve Alert Mark an Alert as resolved. Select the alert from the
Target Alert drop-down menu.

Send to ServiceNow Send an Alert to one of the Enter the ServiceNow


following ServiceNow target. Instance Name, Username,
and Password for the
• ServiceNow Instance ServiceNow instance.

Enter the Mid Server Address,


• Mid Server Mid Server Port, Username,
and Password.

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.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

Generate Report Generate a custom report.


• Select the Report Type as
New Report. You can also
select any of previously
created reports to be
generated.
• Enter the Report Instance
Name.
• Optionally, enter a
Description.
• Select the Time Period for
Report.

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.

Note: 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.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

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.

Note: 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.

Execution Actions

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

IP Address PowerShell Remotely run a PowerShell


script for a given VM IP • Enter the VM IP Address,
address. Username, Password, and
the Path to Script.
• Enable or disable HTTPS.

IP Address SSH Remotely run an ssh Enter the VM IP Address,


command for a given VM IP Username, Password, and the
address. Command to Run.

Note: SSH action has


a timeout of 5 minutes.
The execution of ssh
command should
complete within 5
minutes or it should be
executed as a daemon.
Otherwise, the action will
be marked as failed even
if command successfully
executes after the
timeout.

REST API Make a call to a REST API


endpoint. • Select the Method.
• Enter the URL, Username,
Password, Request Body,
and Request Headers.

VM PowerShell Remotely execute PowerShell


script for a given VM. • Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the Username,
Password, and the Path to
Script.
• Enable or disable HTTPS.

VM SSH Remotely execute an ssh


command for a given VM • Select the VM from the
Target VM drop-down
menu.
• Enter the Username,
Password, and the
Command to Run.

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.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

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.

Ansible Run an Ansible Workflow or Select Template Type. Enter


Job template. Workflow Template Name
or Job Template Name (as
per template type selected),
the Ansible Tower/AWX
Hostname, the OAuth
authentication Token to log
in to the Tower or AWX host,
and optionally, any other
parameters that you want
to use in JSON format in
the Request Body JSON
(Optional) field. Turn on
the toggle for Wait for job
completion? if you want Prism
Central to wait for the current
action to complete before
beginning the next action.

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Action Action Description Configurable attributes

Puppet Run a Puppet Task or Plan.


• Enter Puppet Enterprise
HostName.
Fully qualified domain
name of a host where the
Puppet server is running.
• The default Puppet
Enterprise Port is 8143.
The port number in
which Puppet accepts
connections. You can
change the default port
number.
• Enter Authorization Token.
The authorization token
provided by the Puppet
server.
• Select Command Type
Task or Plan.
• Enter Task or Plan
name depending on the
Command Type.
• Enter Scope. This is
the JSON payload that
determines set of nodes on
which this task runs.
• Optionally, add other
parameters shown in the
screen.

Note:
The String Parser action is categorized under the Utility Actions.

Prerequisites for VM Actions in Playbooks


The VM actions configured in playbooks have certain prerequisites based on the hypervisor
(AHV or ESXi) and the AOS version. Refer to the following table to understand the
prerequisites and other dependencies for VM actions defined in playbooks.

Note: VM actions are not supported for Hyper-V.

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Table 744: VM Action Prerequisites

Action Hypervisor Prerequisites Notes

VM Add CPU (Hot AHV AOS 5.6 and above The VM has a guest
Add) operating system that
supports CPU hot add
functionality.

ESXi None The VM has a guest


operating system that
supports CPU hot add
functionality.

VM Reduce CPU AHV VM must be powered


off

ESXi VM must be powered


off

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.

VM Reduce Memory AHV VM must be powered


off

ESXi VM must be powered


off

VM Power On AHV None

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 VMware guest tools


(optional power
functions)

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Action Hypervisor Prerequisites Notes

VM Snapshot AHV None


• The VM snapshot
action creates
snapshots for AHV
version lower than
5.10 and recovery
points for AHV
version 5.10 and
above.
• 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 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.

VM Add Disk AHV AHV does not support


hot add of SATA
disks.

ESXi PCI disk type is not


supported.

VM Expand Disk AHV

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.

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Integrating Slack
If you do not have a Slack account, create your account on the Slack website and set up a new
workspace.

About this task


To integrate Slack for playbook actions, do the following.

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.

2. To create a Slack application, click Create New App.

3. In the Create a Slack App dialog box, do the following.


1. Enter a name for the application.
2. Select a development Slack Workspace. You must select the workspace on which you
have the authority of accepting messages.

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.

5. To install the application in your workspace, do the following.


1. In Basic Information menu, click Install your app to your workspace.
2. Click Install App (or Reinstall App if you have configured it previously). This redirects you
to the My Workspace authorization page.
3. Click Authorize.

6. To retrieve the Slack authorization token, do the following.


1. Go to the Install App menu.
2. Copy the OAuth Access Token. You must paste the copied token each time you use the
Slack action in a playbook.

Integrating MS Teams Action in Playbooks


This action is used to send a message (without attachments) to a Microsoft Teams channel
using a configured webhook URL.
Perform the following steps to configure a webhook for your Microsoft Teams channel:
1. In Microsoft Teams, go to the channel where you want to add a webhook and select More
options (...) next to the channel name.
2. Select Connectors.
3. Search for Incoming Webhook in the list of connectors and select Add.
4. Enter a webhook name.
5. Click Upload Image to associate with data from this incoming webhook.
6. Click Create.
7. Copy the webhook URL to a clipboard and save the URL.

Note: This copied webhook URL is used to send information to Microsoft Teams.

8. Click Done.

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Ansible Integration in Playbooks
The Ansible action in X-play can be used to trigger job or workflow templates in your Ansible
Tower or AWX instance. Refer to the following sections to understand the prerequisites and
other dependencies for Ansible actions defined in playbooks.

• 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/

Configuring Application (Ansible Tower)

About this task


The X-Play Ansible action uses a token-based authentication to integrate with Ansible Tower.
In Tower, you create an application that is representative of X-Play and then use it to create
tokens for X-Play to use on behalf of a Tower user. Token-based authentication for users can be
configured in the Applications window.

Procedure

1. In the Ansible Tower User Interface, click the Applications icon from the left navigation bar.
The Applications window opens.

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2. Click the (+) button located in the upper right corner of the Applications window.
The New Application window opens.

Figure 453: New Application Window

3. Enter the following details in the Create New Application window:

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’.

4. Click Save to complete.


Click Cancel to abandon your changes.

Figure 454: Create New Application Window

What to do next
For information on adding a token, see Configuring Application Token (Ansible Tower) on
page 867

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Configuring Application Token (Ansible Tower)

About this task


The X-Play Ansible action uses a token-based authentication to integrate with Ansible Tower.
In Tower, you create an application that is representative of X-Play and then use it to create
tokens for X-Play to use on behalf of a Tower user. Token-based authentication for users can be
configured in the Applications window. Tokens are added through the Users screen and can be
associated with an application at that time. Specifying an application can be performed directly
in the User’s token settings. You can create a token for your user in the Tokens configuration
tab, meaning only you can create and see your tokens in your own user screen. Tokens can only
access resources that its associated user can access, and can be limited further by specifying
the scope of the token.
Perform the following steps to add a token.

Procedure

1. In the Ansible Tower User Interface, access the Users list view by clicking the Users icon from
the left navigation bar.

2. Click on your user to configure your OAuth 2 tokens.

3. Click the Tokens tab from your user’s profile.

Figure 455: Tokens

4. Click the (+) button, which opens the Create Token window.

5. Enter the following details in 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.

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6. Click Save to complete.
Click Cancel to abandon your changes.
After the token is saved, the newly created token for the user displays with the token
information and when it expires.

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.

Figure 456: Token Information


• To verify the application in the example above now shows the user with the appropriate
token, go to the Tokens tab of the Applications window.

Figure 457: X-Play Tokens

ServiceNow Integration with Prism Central (X-Play Support)

ServiceNow Integration Overview

ServiceNow provides IT services management (ITSM), and IT operations management (ITOM)


as a software service.

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ServiceNow integration with Prism Central allows seamless incident management for Prism
Central alerts using ServiceNow. Export of alerts from Prism Central is achieved by creating an
X-Play playbook in Prism Central. The X-Play Action (Send to ServiceNow) pushes the Prism
Central alerts to ServiceNow to be processed by the ServiceNow event management pipeline.

Note: To integrate Prism Central with ServiceNow, enable the Event Management plug-in on
your ServiceNow instance .

Enabling Event Management Plug-in on ServiceNow (Production 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.

Enabling Event Management Plug-in on ServiceNow (Developer Instance)

About this task


To enable X-Play support on the ServiceNow developer instance, do the following.

Procedure

1. Go to the ServiceNow Developer Portal and create an account.

2. Log on to your account and go to Manage > Instance.

3. On the instance page, request a ServiceNow instance.

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.

Configuring Alert Playbook for ServiceNow Alert Management

About this task

About this task


You can create a Playbook to send Prism Central alerts to ServiceNow.

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.

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4. Configure the ServiceNow action.

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.

e. Enter the Username and Password for the ServiceNow instance.

Figure 458: ServiceNow Action

5. To save the playbook, do the following.

a. Click Save & Close.


b. Specify the Name and provide a Description.
c. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Prism Central executes only the playbooks that are
enabled.
d. Click Save.
All Prism Central alerts of the specified type are forwarded to ServiceNow with the execution
of the playbook created above.

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What to do next
Log on to ServiceNow to view Nutanix alerts in the Alert Intelligence All Alerts menu after
completing Importing Nutanix Event Rules to ServiceNow on page 871 and Activating the
Create Incident Rule on page 871.
You can also create playbooks for actions that you want ServiceNow to initiate on Prism
Central for the alerts sent to Service now.

Importing Nutanix Event Rules to ServiceNow

Ensure that you have imported Nutanix event rules to ServiceNow after you setup the alert
playbook.

Before you begin


In ServiceNow, go to Event Management > Event Rules and check if the Nutanix event rules
are already available.
The Nutanix event rules are provided in the Nutanix Event Rule Creation xml file. Download the
Nutanix Event Rule Creation xml file from Nutanix XML download link.

About this task


To import event rules using the Nutanix Event Rule Creation xml file, do the following.

Procedure

1. In ServiceNow, go to System Update Sets > Retrieved Update Sets.

2. On the right pane, click Import Update Set from XML.


Import Update Set from XML is a clickable link on the right pane.

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.

5. Click Preview Update Set.


If you find errors after the preview run is complete, click Accept Remote Update for each
error. This resolves the error. Resolve all the errors.

6. After resolving all the errors, click Commit Update Set.

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.

Activating the Create Incident Rule

You need to activate the Create Incident rule in ServiceNow.

About this task


The incidence creation does not occur in ServiceNow until you set the active status of the
Create Incident rule in Alert Management Rules in Event Management of the ServiceNow
instance to true (Active status being false by default).
To change the Active status of the Create Incident to true, do the following:

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Procedure

1. Go to Event Management > Alert Management. A list of Alert Management Rules is


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.

Figure 459: Activate the Create Incident Rule

Configuring a Webhook Playbook for ServiceNow Action communications to Prism

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.

About this task


Create webhook based playbooks using the Webhook trigger.

Note: You can add one or more actions that you want SNOW to perform on Prism in one
playbook.

To create a webhook based playbook, do the following.

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations >
Playbook.

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2. Click Create Playbook, then click Select in the Webhook (option) card.

Figure 460: Select a Trigger

The Webhook page displays a message informing you to return to this playbook and review
the instructions configured for this trigger.

Figure 461: Webhook page

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3. Click Add Action. Click Select in the appropriate action card(s) in the X-Play actions deck.
You can select one or more actions for the playbook. After you complete configuring an X-
Play action, click Add Action to add another action to the playbook.

Figure 462: Select an Action page

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.

4. To save the playbook, do the following.

a. Click Save & Close.


b. Specify the Name and provide a Description.
c. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Prism Central executes only the playbooks that are
enabled.
d. Click Save.

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.

Creating Playbooks using Triggers


You can create playbooks based on the following triggers.

• 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.

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• Manual Trigger - The Manual trigger allows you to select an entity type (VM, cluster, or host)
to manually trigger the playbook from the Explore view for the selected entity type.
• Time - The Time trigger allows you to trigger playbook at the specified time.
• Webhook - The Webhook trigger allows triggering the playbook from a POST to the
webhook URL.
The configured playbooks are available in the Entities menu (see Entities Menu on page 13).

Creating Playbooks Using Alert

About this task


To create a playbook using a predefined alert, do the following.

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.

2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.


The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Alert option.


See Alerts Summary View (Prism Central) on page 266 for details on alert messages.

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.

6. Select the target entity type.

» 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.

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7. 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.

• 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.

Figure 463: Parameters

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.

8. (Optional) Configure Autopilot for playbook.


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, see Configuring Autopilot for Playbook on
page 877.

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9. To save the playbook, do the following.

a. Click Save and Close.


b. Specify the Name and Description.
c. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
d. Click Save.

Configuring Autopilot for Playbook

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.

About this task


To configure autopilot for new or existing playbooks, do the following.

Before you begin

Note: The autopilot feature is only applicable for playbooks that have metric-based alerts as
triggers.

Procedure

1. Click Set Autopilot.

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.

4. Enter the Monitoring Duration in minutes.

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.

Creating Playbooks Using Alerts Matching Criteria

About this task


To create a playbook using alerts matching criteria as trigger, do the following.

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Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.


The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Alerts Matching Criteria option.

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.

6. To save the playbook, do the following.


1. Click Save and Close.
2. Specify the Name and Description.
3. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
4. Click Save.

Creating Playbooks Using Event

About this task


To create a playbook using event, do the following.

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Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.


The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Event option.

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.

4. Select an event type from the events drop-down menu.


See Events Summary View (Prism Central) on page 277 for details on event messages.

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.

7. To save the playbook, do the following.


1. Click Save and Close.
2. Specify the Name and Description.
3. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
4. Click Save.

Creating Playbooks Using Time

About this task


To create a playbook using a time trigger, do the following.

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Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.


The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Time option.

4. Select the Trigger Action(s) from the following occurrence type.

• Once - Specify the day, time, and timezone.


• At a recurring interval - Specify the Recurrence interval from daily, weekly, or monthly
along with the required interval details.

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.

6. To save the playbook, do the following.


1. Click Save and Close.
2. Specify the Name and Description.
3. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
4. Click Save.

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.

Creating Playbooks Using Manual Triggers

About this task


To create a playbook using manual trigger for a VM, host, or cluster, do the following.

Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

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2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.
The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Manual option.

4. Select the Entity Type from the following options.

• 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.

6. To save the playbook, do the following.


1. Click Save and Close.
2. Specify the Name and Description.
3. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
4. Click Save.

Creating Playbooks Using Webhook

About this task


To create a playbook using a webhook as trigger do the following.

Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Click Get Started and then click Create Playbook.


The Get Started option appears only when you are creating a playbook for the first time.

3. Click Select within the Webhook option.

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4. 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.

5. To save the playbook, do the following.


1. Click Save and Close.
2. Specify the Name and Description.
3. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
4. Click Save.
After saving, open this playbook to view the instructions for using this trigger.

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.

Using Branch Action (Conditional Execution)


You can create an X-Play playbook with conditional branch action for a trigger. Branch action
allows you to switch execution based on a matching criteria.

About this task


To use a branch action, do the following.

Procedure

1. Click the hamburger icon from the main menu and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Select and configure one of the following trigger.

• Alert Trigger
• Alerts Matching Criteria
• Event
• Manual Trigger
• Time
• Webhook

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3. Click Add Action and select Branch.

4. Define condition for the branch.

• 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:

• You can create multiple branch actions for a trigger.


• Once the playbook is run, you can view the Execution Flow of your playbook.
To view the execution flow of any previously run playbook, go to Operations
> Plays and click on the playbook name. To view the complete execution flow,
click View Full Playbook.

• Operand - Click Parameters to select a Global or Trigger entity.


• Operator - Select the required operator from the drop-down menu. You can choose
regexp for pattern matching.
• Value - Enter the value for the operator, or click Parameters to select a Global or Trigger
entity.

Figure 464: Branch Action

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.

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6. Create the execution flow using more branch actions (Else-If or Else options) and adding
required actions for each condition.
You can also configure nested branch actions as required. To delete any added branch
action, click the three-dots icon select Delete.

7. To save the playbook, do the following.

a. Click Save and Close.


b. Specify the Name and Description.
c. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
d. Click Save.

Running a Playbook (Manual Trigger)

About this task


You can run a playbook that has a manual trigger associated with the playbook.

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.

3. From the Actions drop-down menu, select Run Playbook.

4. In the Run Playbook dialog box, select the playbook that you want to run for the selected
entity.

Configuring Manual Parameters

About this task


Parameters are the values that are dynamically filled in at Playbook runtime. You can either
choose the parameters using the Parameters option at the time of creating Playbooks, or
enter the parameters manually. Configuring manual parameters is useful if you want to use a
parameter while cloning an action in the Action Gallery.

Note: This task demonstrates the usage of configuring parameters manually with a scenario on
cloning the default Emailaction.

Procedure

1. Go to Operations > Action Gallery.

2. Select Email from the Actions list.

3. Click Actions and select Clone.

4. Edit the Name of the Action.

5. In the Recipient field, enter the recipient email address.

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6. In the Subject field, enter Playbook {{playbook.playbook_name}} addressed Alert
{{trigger[0].alert_entity_info.name}}.
Here, {{playbook.playbook_name}} and {{trigger[0].alert_entity_info.name}} are the available parameters.
See Parameters for Triggers and Actions on page 887 for the complete list of parameters.

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}}.

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8. Click Copy to complete.

Figure 465: Configuring parameters manually during Clone operation

What to do next
The parameters are dynamically recognized when the cloned action is selected while
configuring a Playbook.

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Note:

• 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.

Parameters for Triggers and Actions


Refer to the following table for the complete list of parameters available for triggers and
actions.

Table 745: Parameters Table

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}}

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Entity Parameter
Standard Error (string) {{action[index].stderr}}
IP Address SSH Return Code (long) {{action[index].status_code}}
Standard Output (string) {{action[index].response_headers}}
Standard Error (string) {{action[index].response_body}}
Slack Channel Id (string) {{action[index].channel_id}}
Message Timestamp (string) {action[index].timestamp}}
VM Add CPU Resultant vCPU Count (long) {{action[index].result_vcpu_count}}
VM Reduce Memory Resultant Memory (double) {{action[index].total_memory}}
VM Snapshot Recovery Point UUID (string) {{action[index].vm_recovery_point_entity.u
Recovery Point Name (string) {{action[index].vm_recovery_point_entity.n
Recovery Point (object) {{action[index].vm_recovery_point_entity}
VM SSH Return Code (long) {{action[index].ret_code}}
Standard Output (string) {{action[index].stdout}}
Standard Error (string) {{action[index].stderr}}
Wait for Some Time Resume Time (string) {{action[index].resume_time}}
Planned Resume Time (string) {{action[index].planned_resume_time}}
Wait Until Day of Month Resume Time (string) {{action[index].resume_time}}
Planned Resume Time (String) {{action[index].planned_resume_time}}
Wait Until Day of Week Resume Time (string) {{action[index].resume_time}}
Planned Resume Time (string) {{action[index].planned_resume_time}}

Exporting or Importing Playbooks


You can export a playbook for backup reasons or import any previously exported playbook. If
you export a playbook using a Prism Central instance, you can import that playbook to another
Prism Central instance that is running the same or newer version only.

About this task


To export a playbook, do the following.

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

3. Click Actions > Export.

4. Optionally edit the default Filename and click Export.


The playbook backup is downloaded in the .pbk format.

About this task


To import a playbook, do the following

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Procedure

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.

PagerDuty Integration with Prism


PagerDuty is an incident management platform that provides reliable notifications, automatic
escalations, on-call scheduling, and other functionality to help teams detect and fix
infrastructure problems quickly.
The PagerDuty integration with Prism Central allows receiving Prism alerts as incidents in
PagerDuty interface. You can create a Playbook using the new alert action called Send Alert
to PagerDuty. This alert action sends Prism alerts (from Prism Central and Prism Element) to
PagerDuty. The alerts appear as PagerDuty incidents in the PagerDuty Incidents page.
Contact Nutanix Support for any issues with PagerDuty integration with Prism.

Setting up the PagerDuty Integration


This procedure explains how to set up the PagerDuty integration key. This key is used as the
routing key to integrate PagerDuty with Playbooks.

About this task


To integrate Prism Central with PagerDuty service, do the following in the PagerDuty interface:

Procedure

1. Log in to PagerDuty

2. From the Services menu, click New Service.


Create a Service page appears.
Creating a new service includes these steps:

• 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.

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Configuring a Playbook with the PagerDuty Integration
You can create a Playbook to send Prism alerts to PagerDuty. The Playbook sends the alerts
from Prism Central and Prism Element to the PagerDuty instance.

About this task


This procedure shows how to create a Playbook to send Prism alerts to PagerDuty.

Procedure

1. In Prism Central, click the hamburger icon and go to Operations > Playbook.

2. Click Create Playbook.


The Select a Trigger page appears.

3. Select Alerts Matching Criteria as a trigger.


The Alerts Matching Criteria allows you to choose all or specific alert policies.

4. In the Alerts Matching Criteria page, do the following:

» 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

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6. Click Add Actions.
A list of all the available actions on the deck appears. Select Send Alert to PagerDuty option.
You can search by typing the action name in the search bar, or by using the Alert Actions
filter option.

Figure 466: Send Alert to PagerDuty

7. Enter the Routing Key.


The Routing Key is an integration key that you can find in your PagerDuty instance at this
location: Service Directory> Event API Integration> Integrations tab.

Figure 467: Routing Key

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.

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9. To save the playbook, do the following.

a. Click Save and Close.


b. Specify the Name and Description.
c. Click the slider to enable the playbook. Only playbooks in the enabled state are executed.
d. Click Save.

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.

• Ability to generate and customize end-to-end reports.

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• Ability to add different views to customize what data is displayed and how that data is
represented.
• Ability to download the report in PDF and CSV format.
• Create a report definition from another report definition. You can use this feature to save
time for a report that has a minor change from an existing one and copy from a shared read-
only report from the other users.
• Customize the report definition. Ability to add a logo and make changes to the appearance
of the report generated.
• Ability to send the reports through Email. Generated report in the PDF format or CSV
format, or both, are sent as an attachment to the Email.
• Ability to schedule the report. Note that you can define only one schedule for a report
definition.
• Ability to retain the reports for the specified period of time.
• Ability to check the report log details for the status of the report and any error message (if
the report generation fails).
• Ability to create Role Based Access Control (RBAC) to define different roles and assign
permissions accordingly.

Requirements

• License requirements: Prism Central should be running Prism Pro license.

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

Creating a New Report


Perform the following to create a new report.

Procedure

1. In the Reports dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click New Report.

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2. Add the views that you want to add to the report. For information about different views, see
Adding Views to a Report on page 909 .

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 .

5. To save the report, do one of the following.

• Click Save.
This option saves the report and does not generate the report.

• Click Save and Run Now.

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).

Figure 468: Create Report

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.

• To generate a report, see Generating a Report on page 894.


• To edit a report, see Editing a Custom Report on page 895.
• To clone a report, see Cloning a Report on page 896.
• To delete a report, see Deleting a Custom Report on page 896.

Generating a Report
You can generate a report instance while creating a new report or on an existing report.

About this task


To generate a report, do the following.

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Procedure

1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report on the list.

2. From the Actions drop-down menu, select Run.

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.

Editing a Custom Report


You can edit an existing custom report. You can modify views and change other report settings
in the Edit mode.

About this task


To edit a custom report, do the following.

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Procedure

1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.

2. From the Actions drop-down menu, select Edit.

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.

4. After you edit the required fields, do one of the following.

• Click Save and Run to save and generate the report.


• Click Save to save the report.
The custom report is edited and saved.

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.

About this task


To clone a report, do the following.

Procedure

1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.

2. From the Actions drop-down menu, select Clone.


A Report Preview window appears.

3. Update the desired fields.


You can also add new views to the report. See the Creating a New Report on page 893 to
add views and create a new instance of the report.
The report is cloned.

Deleting a Custom Report


Deleting a custom report removes all the generated report instances along with the selected
report configuration.

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About this task
To delete a custom report, do the following.

Procedure

1. In the Report dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 )), click the check box against the
report that is already generated.

2. From the Actions drop-down menu, select Delete.


The custom report is deleted.

Viewing Report Instances


Perform the following procedure to view the generated reports.

Before you begin


Ensure that you have generated at least one instance of the report that you are viewing.
Otherwise, no instance found message is displayed.

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.

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2. Select the instance of the report on which you want to perform the operations.

Note: You cannot view multiple reports at the same time.

You can perform the following operations on the report under the Actions drop-down menu.

Figure 469: Viewing Instance Information (Nutanix)

Figure 470: Viewing Instance Information (vCenter)

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.

Example Report - Environment Summary


A generated environment summary report has the following information.

Sample Environment Summary Report

• 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

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that you have configured, header and footer information (for example, report name and
page number).

Figure 471: Stylistic Information

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• Metrics information: Metrics summary displays the cluster details information (for example,
cluster usage, performance details, licensing information, etc).
Following sample images displays the detailed information about the environment summary
information for Nutanix and vCenter clusters.

Figure 472: Detailed Metrics Information (Nutanix: Image 1)

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Figure 473: Detailed Metrics Information (Nutanix: Image 2)

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Figure 474: Detailed Metrics Information (Nutanix: Image 3)

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Figure 475: Detailed Metrics Information (vCenter: Image 1)

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Figure 476: Detailed Metrics Information (vCenter: Image 2)

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Figure 477: Detailed Metrics Information (vCenter: Image 3)

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Figure 478: Detailed Metrics Information (vCenter: Image 4)

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Figure 479: Detailed Metrics Information (vCenter: Image 5)

Views in the Reports


The report management feature provides you different views that you can add to the report.
You can also customize these views during the addition process itself. These views are
displayed under Custom Views pane. You cannot customize some views, but these views can
be directly included in the reports. These views are displayed under Predefined Views pane.

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Figure 480: Custom View

Figure 481: Predefined View

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Figure 482: All View (Custom and Predefined Combined)

Adding Views to a Report


Perform the following procedure to add views to the report.

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.

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Adding a Bar Chart or a Line Chart or a Histogram View to a Report (Nutanix)

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.

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2. Configure the bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view.
Following image displays the bar chart view.

Figure 483: Bar Chart View

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.

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Note: If a vCenter is enabled, you can select vCenter Entities in the entity type. This option
does not appear in the drop-down menu if a vCenter is not configured. To configure the
view for vCenter entities, see Adding a Bar Chart or a Line Chart or a Histogram
View to a Report (vCenter) on page 913

b. Select a specific metric of the entity type.


The metric selection depends on what you have selected in the Entity Type drop-down
menu. For example, if you select Cluster as an entity type, you can select one of the
following metric.
CPU Usage, Free Physical Storage, Controller Read I/O Bandwidth, Controller AVG
Write I/O Bandwidth, Storage Savings Ratio, Controller I/O Bandwidth, Controller
AVG Write I/O Latency, Controller IOPS, Controller Read IOPS, Controller Write I/O
Bandwidth, Memory Usage (%), Physical Usage, Memory Usage Total, Storage Logical
Usage, Controller Write IOPS, Controller AVG Read I/O Latency, Storage Savings
c. Enter the title of the bar chart, line chart, or histogram view in the Title field.
d. Select the aggregation from the Aggregation menu.
For the metrics that has time-series data, you can define the aggregation field. For
example, if you want to include maximum CPU usage for a metric, you can use this field
and select the CPU Usage as the metric and select aggregation as Max. Depending on the
report schedule that you have defined, maximum value of the CPU usage is captured and
included as part of the report.
You can define the aggregation value of Sum, Max, Min, Average, Last, or Count.

Note: Aggregation is not supported for Line Chart 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.

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3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.

Adding a Bar Chart or a Line Chart or a Histogram View to a Report (vCenter)

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.

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2. Configure the bar chart, line chart, or a histogram view.
Following image displays the bar chart view.

Figure 484: Bar Chart View

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.

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b. Select a specific metric of the entity type.
The metric selection depends on what you have selected in the Entity Type drop-down
menu. For example, if you select External vCenter VM as an entity type, you can select
one of the following metric.
Ready, CPU Usage, Highest latency, Average read requests per second, Average read
requests per second, Read rate, Read latency, Write latency, Controller Write I/O
Bandwidth, Controller Read I/O Latency, Controller Write I/O Latency, Storage Logical
Usage, Controller Read IOPS, Controller Write IOPS.
c. Enter the title of the bar chart, line chart, or histogram view in the Title field.
d. Select the aggregation from the Aggregation menu.
For the metrics that has time-series data, you can define the aggregation field. For
example, if you want to include maximum CPU usage for a metric, you can use this field
and select the CPU Usage as the metric and select aggregation as Max. Depending on the
report schedule that you have defined, maximum value of the CPU usage is captured and
included as part of the report.
You can define the aggregation value of Sum, Max, Min, Average, Last, or Count.

Note: Aggregation is not supported for Line Chart 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.

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Adding a Data Table View to a Report (Nutanix)

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.

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2. Configure the Data Table view.

Figure 485: Data Table View

category

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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 Nutanix Entities and the entity type (Cluster, Container, Disk, Host, or VM) for
which you want to configure the view.
d. Select the entities that you want 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.
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.

h. To configure advanced setting, click the Show Advanced Settings link.


i. Select the Limit number of rows in the table check box to limit the number of rows that
you want to include in the view and enter the value in the text box that is provided.
j. 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.

» 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

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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.
If you select Clusters, VMs, or Hosts as entities along with the specific entities
option, and then select Categories in the first drop-down list for defining the rules,
you can select Equal to or Not Equal to in the second drop-down list, and then
enter a combination of category name and category value in the format category
name:category value in the last text box to filter the relevant data. For example, you
must enter AppType:Hadoop to filter the VMs that are assigned Apptype category
and Hadoop as its value (see the image below). You can see the category name and
category value correlation in the Categories view (see Categories Summary View on
page 161). You can leave the last text box blank to filter all the entities that do not have a
user-defined category assigned to them.

Figure 486: Using Category with Data Table Rules

3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.

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Adding a Data Table View to a Report (vCenter)

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.

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2. Configure the Data Table view.

Figure 487: Data Table View

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.

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» 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
external vcenter 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.

h. To configure advanced setting, click the Show Advanced Settings link.


i. Select the Limit number of rows in the table check box to limit the number of rows that
you want to include in the view and enter the value in the text box that is provided.
j. 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.

» 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.

Adding Configuration Summary View

You can add this view to include the static cluster configuration information, for example,
cluster IP address, hardware model, license information, etc.

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Procedure

1. In the New Report wizard, select the Configuration Summary view from the Custom View
pane.

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2. Configure the Configuration Summary view.

Figure 488: Configuration Summary View

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.

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» Specific Clusters: Select this option to define rules on a particular cluster. For example,
if you want to include this view for AHV, you can select Hypervisors option and define
the rule Equal to > AHV . You can specify multiple such rules by clicking the + icon.

3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.

Adding Metric Summary View (Nutanix)

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.

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2. Configure the Metric Summary view.

Figure 489: Metric Summary View

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.

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c. Enter the title of the view in the Title field.
d. Select the aggregation from the aggregation drop-down menu.
For the metrics that has time-series data, you can define the aggregation. For example,
if you want to include maximum CPU usage for a metric, you can use this field and
select the CPU Usage as the metric select aggregation as Max. Depending on the report
schedule that you have defined, maximum value of the CPU usage is captured and
included as part of the view.
You can define the aggregation value of Sum, Max, Min, Average, Last, or Count.
e. Select the mode of display from the Display Mode drop-down menu.
You can select either Textual or Graphical (Gauge Chart). The graphical chart is only
displayed for consumption related metrics, for example, CPU usage.
f. 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.

Adding Metric Summary View (vCenter)

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.

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2. Configure the Metric Summary view.

Figure 490: Metric Summary View

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.

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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.
c. Enter the title of the view in the Title field.
d. Select the aggregation from the aggregation drop-down menu.
For the metrics that has time-series data, you can define the aggregation. For example,
if you want to include maximum CPU usage for a metric, you can use this field and
select the CPU Usage as the metric select aggregation as Max. Depending on the report
schedule that you have defined, maximum value of the CPU usage is captured and
included as part of the view.
You can define the aggregation value of Sum, Max, Min, Average, Last, or Count.
e. Select the mode of display from the Display Mode drop-down menu.
You can select either Textual or Graphical (Gauge Chart). The graphical chart is only
displayed for consumption related metrics, for example, CPU usage.
f. 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.

Adding Entity Count View (Nutanix)

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.

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2. Configure the Entity Count view.

Figure 491: Entity Count View

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.

Adding Entity Count View (vCenter)

You can add the entity count view to get the number of entities for all the clusters or a
particular cluster.

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Procedure

1. In the New Report wizard, select the Entity Count view from the Custom View pane.

2. Configure the Entity Count view.

Figure 492: Entity Count View

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.

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Adding Title and Description View

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.

2. Configure the Title and Description view.

a. Enter the title of the view in the Title field.


b. Enter the description in the Description field.

3. Click Add.
The configured view gets added to the report.

Adding a Group View

Perform the following procedure to add a group view.

About this task


Grouping is always performed in an hierarchical manner. For example, if you have created
a 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. You cannot group Nutanix and vCenter entities in a single view. For
example, a Nutanix group for VM entity cannot be added to a vCenter group for VM entity.

Note: This view takes the full page width.

Procedure

1. Select the Group view from the Custom view pane in the new report wizard.

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2. Configure the Group view.

Figure 493: Group View (Nutanix)

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Figure 494: Group View (vCenter)

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

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group view for the entity type VM, you can add all the views to this except the view with
entity type cluster.

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

Adding Views into a Group View

Perform the following procedure to add views to a already created group view.

About this task


You can add a view to a group in multiple ways. The addition of views depends on whether you
have created the group view or not.

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.

Figure 495: Adding Views to Group view

The view is moved in the group view.

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2. If you have not created the group view, perform the following procedure.

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.

Adding a Predefined View

In addition to adding and configuring views according to your requirements, you an also add
some pre-defined views. You cannot modify these views.

About this task


As part of the Predefined views, you can add the following 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.

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• Storage Runway: Provides visualized information about the historical storage usage,
predicted storage usage, and predicted runway of the cluster.
• Inactive VMs List: Provides detailed information about the inactive VMs on the cluster;
including VM name, efficiency status, reasons for being marked as inactive and potential
resource gains that can be accomplished by deleting inactive VMs or resizing over-
provisioned VMs.
• Constrained VMs List: Provides detailed information about the constrained VMs on the
cluster (that require more resources to function properly); including the VM name, efficiency
status and the reasons for being marked as constrained.
• Overprovisioned VMs List: Provides detailed information about the over-provisioned VMs on
the cluster (that have more resources than they deserve); including the VM name, efficiency
status, reasons for being marked as over-provisioned and potential resource gains that can
be accomplished by deleting the inactive VMs or resizing the over-provisioned VMs.
• Bully VMs List: Provides detailed information about the VMs whose activities are affecting
other VMs that is not directly related to their sizes; including VM name, efficiency status and
the reasons for being marked as bully.
• Potential CPU Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential CPU resource
reclaim on the cluster from the inactive VMs and the over-provisioned VMs.
• Potential Memory Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential memory
resource reclaim on the cluster from the inactive VMs and the over-provisioned VMs.
• Potential Storage Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from the inactive VMs and the over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Blocks Summary: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter CPU Runway: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Memory Runway: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Storage Runway: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Inactive VMs List: Provides detailed information about the inactive VMs on the
vCenter cluster; including VM name, efficiency status, reasons for being marked as inactive
and potential resource gains that can be accomplished by deleting inactive VMs or resizing
over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Constrained VMs List: Provides detailed information about the constrained VMs
on the vCenter cluster (that require more resources to function properly); including the VM
name, efficiency status and the reasons for being marked as constrained.
• vCenter Overprovisioned VMs List: Provides detailed information about the over-
provisioned vCenter registered VMs on the cluster (that have more resources than they
deserve); including the VM name, efficiency status, reasons for being marked as over-
provisioned and potential resource gains that can be accomplished by deleting the inactive
VMs or resizing the over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Bully VMs List: Provides detailed information about the vCenter registered VMs
whose activities are affecting other VMs that is not directly related to their sizes; including
VM name, efficiency status and the reasons for being marked as bully.

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• vCenter Overprovisioned VMs List: Provides detailed information about the over-
provisioned vCenter registered VMs on the cluster (that have more resources than they
deserve); including the VM name, efficiency status, reasons for being marked as over-
provisioned and potential resource gains that can be accomplished by deleting the inactive
VMs or resizing the over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Inactive VMs List: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the vCenter cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Constrained VMs List: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Bully VMs List: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• vCenter Potential CPU Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential
storage resource reclaim on the vCenter cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned
VMs.
• vCenter Potential Memory Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential
storage resource reclaim on the vCenter cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned
VMs.
• vCenter Potential Storage Reclaim: Provides summarized information about the potential
storage resource reclaim on the vCenter cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned
VMs.
• Configuration Alerts: Provides summarized information about the potential storage resource
reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• DR Alerts Summary Table: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• Recovery Plan Events: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• Primary: Provides summarized information about the potential storage resource reclaim on
the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• Recovery: Provides summarized information about the potential storage resource reclaim on
the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• Entity Protection Summary: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• List of Entities with RPO Not Met: Provides summarized information about the potential
storage resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• List of Entities Meeting RPO: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.
• Recovery Plan Events Details: Provides summarized information about the potential storage
resource reclaim on the cluster from inactive VMs and over-provisioned VMs.

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Figure 496: Pre-Defined Views

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

1. In the New Report wizard, click Add Schedule.

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2. Select when you want to run the report from the Report Runs drop-down menu.
You an run the report on daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

Figure 497: Report Scheduling

3. Select the time when you want to repeat the report.


For example, if you select Yearly from the Report Runs drop-down menu, you can repeat the
report by selecting the month when you want to run the report from the Every drop-down
menu, date of the month from the On drop-down menu, time of the day when you want to
run the report from the Generated Time drop-down menu.

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.

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5. Select the Email Report check box and enter recipients (comma-separated) in the Email
Recipients text box.
Only the specific recipients that you have entered in the text box receives the report.

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.

About this task

• A PDF generated report displays a graphical representation of the infrastructure resources.


• A CSV generated report contains data of views separated by commas. You can use this CSV
file to load CSV data into other systems. Data of views that you add to a report is populated
to the CSV format report.
• The CSV report that you download is in the form of a .zip file. The .zip file contains CSV
generated files for each view.
• For each group, a folder is created containing CSV files of each view of that group.
• If a view is repeated over a cluster entity or VM entity, the view has a CSV file for every
repeating cluster. For example, a view named View that is repeating over clusters Cluster_1,
Cluster_2, Cluster_3, the name of the CSV file is displayed as follows:

• 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:

• Group / Cluster_1 / View.csv


• Group / Cluster_2 / View.csv
• Group / Cluster_3 / View.csv
To download a report, do the following.

Procedure

1. On the Reports dashboard (see Reports View on page 248 ), click a report you want to
download.

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2. From the list of reports, click PDF or CSV under the Download column next to the report you
want to download.

Note: You can set the output format of the report, see Creating a New Report on
page 893.

Configuring Report Settings


You can configure the report settings by configuring its appearance, email settings, and
retention policy. Perform the following procedure to configure the report settings.

About this task


You can configure the report settings for individual reports or for all the reports that you have
generated. Depending on where you configure the settings, the reports settings are applied.

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

1. Go to the report settings page.

» 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.

2. Configure the appearance of the report.


The appearance of the report is divided into two parts; cover page settings and content
page settings. Configuration of logo and the background color is included in the cover page
settings. Configuration of color of the header is included in the content page settings. For
colors, you can specify any of the 16 color names supported for HTML: aqua, black, blue,

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fuchsia, gray (or grey), green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and
yellow.

Note: The copyright information will not be displayed in the footer section, therefore the
ability to customize copyright information is not allowed.

Figure 498: Report Settings Configuration

a. To upload the logo for the report, click the Upload button.

Note: The logo size cannot be more than 1 MB.

b. To change the background color of the report, select the background color from the
Background Color field.

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c. To change the header color of the report, select the header color from the Header Color
field.

3. Configure the Email settings.

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.

4. Configure the retention policy of the report.

a. Click the Define Report Retention check box.


You can define the retention policy by entering the number of instances of the report that
you want to retain or the duration of time that you want to retain the report.
b. To configure the retention policy in instances form, click the Number of Instances option
and enter the desired number of instances.

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.

5. Configure the Report Format of the report.

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.

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7. (Optional) Click Reset to Default to discard all the changes that you have made in the
Report Settings page.

Role Based Access Control


Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) restricts Reports Management access to authorized users.
For any role you are assigned, privileges are given to you to modify certain configurations in
Reports Management. The following table shows the roles and certain privileges given to that
role.

Table 746: Roles and Permissions

Access/ Consumer Developer Operator Prism Prism Project Self- Super


Permissions Admin Viewer Admin Service Admin
Admin
Create # # # #
Common
Report
Config
Create # # # #
Report
Config
Create # # # #
Report
Instance
Delete # # # #
Common
Report
Config
Delete # # # #
Report
Config
Delete # # # #
Report
Instance
Notify # # # # # # # #
Report
Instance
Update # # # #
Common
Report
Config
Update # # # #
Report
Config
View # # # # # # # #
Common
Report
Config

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Access/ Consumer Developer Operator Prism Prism Project Self- Super
Permissions Admin Viewer Admin Service Admin
Admin
View # # # # # # #
Report
Config
View # # # # # # # #
Report
Instance

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SERVICES ENABLEMENT
You can enable selected services through Prism Central.

• Enabling Calm on page 947


• Enabling Files on page 947
• Enabling Foundation Central on page 948
• Enabling Karbon on page 948
• Enabling Objects on page 948

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

1. Do one of the following:

» 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).

2. In the Enable App Management page, do the following:

a. Check the Enable App Management box to enable application management.


b. Check the Enable Nutanix seeded blueprints box to load your application store with a set
of pre-defined blueprints.
While loading the pre-defined blueprints is optional, it is recommended as it provides
blueprints for many common use cases.
c. Click the Save button.

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:

Prism | Services Enablement | 947


Procedure

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).

2. In the Nutanix Files page, click the Enable Files button.


After Files is enabled, the Files dashboard appears. See the Nutanix Files Guide for
information about configuring and using Files.

Enabling Foundation Central


About this task
Foundation Central can manage several Foundation instances from a single pane of glass,
allowing you to create clusters of remote nodes without needing to configure each of them
individually.
To enable Foundation Central, 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 > 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).

2. In the Karbon page, click the Enable Karbon button.


After Karbon is enabled, you can click the here link to go to the Karbon console. See the
Nutanix Karbon Guide for information about configuring and using Karbon.

Enabling Objects
Nutanix Objects is a feature that allows you to create and manage object stores in a cluster.

Prism | Services Enablement | 948


About this task
To enable Objects, do the following:

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).

2. In the Objects page, click the Enable button to enable Objects.


After Objects is enabled, the Object Stores dashboard appears. See the Nutanix Objects
Guide for information about configuring and using object stores.

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CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICES
Nutanix provides customer support services in several ways.

• 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).

Pulse Health Monitoring


The feature known as Pulse provides diagnostic system data about Prism Central to Nutanix
Support to deliver proactive, context-aware support for Nutanix solutions. Pulse unobtrusively
collects this information with no effect on system performance. Pulse shares only basic system-
level information necessary for monitoring the health and status of Prism Central. Information
includes system alerts, current Nutanix software and hypervisor versions, and cumulative data
about monitored clusters.
When Pulse is enabled, it sends a summary email of the cluster configuration to a Nutanix
Support server daily by default. Pulse also collects the most important data like system-level
statistics and configuration information more frequently to automatically detect issues and
help make troubleshooting easier. With this information, Nutanix Support can apply advanced
analytics to optimize your implementation and to address potential problems.

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.

Pulse Transport Methods


Configure one of the following Pulse transport methods (in order of preference):

• [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.

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• [third choice] Enable Pulse and configure your firewall. Enable Pulse by using each
Controller VM IP address in each managed cluster. See Configuring Pulse and Pulse Access
Requirements in the Prism Web Console Guide. Disadvantage: 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):

• Nutanix services logs


• Custom gflags being set for any Nutanix service
• Activity traces for Nutanix services
• Hypervisor logs
• Hypervisor config
• Cluster configuration
• System statistics like memory usage
• Nutanix NCC health check reports
Each time Remote Diagnostics triggers a collection, an entry is added to the audit trail for
the cluster. There are always two entries, the start (initiation) and finish (termination) of the
diagnostics collection.
Remote Diagnostics is enabled by default for every cluster where Pulse is enabled. If your
security policy (or other consideration) does not allow Nutanix Support cluster access for
remote diagnostics collection, you can disable Remote Diagnostics without turning off Pulse.
Nutanix Support will still provide seamless and proactive support based on the Pulse 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.

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Configuring Pulse

About this task

• 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.

Figure 499: Pulse Window

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

Prism | Customer Support Services | 952


products require Pulse enablement for functionality and/or features. See the Nutanix Privacy
Statement and applicable product documentation for more details.
You may elect to obfuscate (mask) entity names and IP addresses which are not obfuscated
or masked by default. Entity names and IP addresses are not linked to individuals. These
relate to Nutanix entities such as cluster names.

• To check if partial scrubbing is enabled, use the following command:


nutanix@cvm$ curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X GET -H "X-Nutanix-Preauth-User:admin" --data
'{"identificationInfoScrubbingLevel": "ALL"}' http://localhost:9080/PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/pulse?
proxyClusterUuid=all_clusters

If the output contains the string "identificationInfoScrubbingLevel":"PARTIAL" or


"identificationInfoScrubbingLevel":"AUTO", that means partial scrubbing is enabled. If the output
contains the string "identificationInfoScrubbingLevel":"ALL", that means identificationInfoScrubbingLevel is
still set to ALL and the Open In Prism button on the Insights Portal remains deactivated.
• To obfuscate (mask) entity names and IP addresses, and update the PII scrub level for
specific Prism Element clusters or Prism Central cluster, use the following command:
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

• 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

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3. Click the Additional info button to display additional email recipient fields.

Figure 500: Pulse Additional Info

4. Check the Pulse Connection Status field for connection information.

• 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.

5. To add (remove) Nutanix customer support as a recipient of the cluster information,


check (uncheck) the box next to Nutanix Support ([email protected]) in the Email
Recipients field.
Cluster information is e-mailed automatically to Nutanix customer support at nos-
[email protected] when this feature is enabled. If you do not want Nutanix customer
support to receive the cluster information, you can uncheck this box at any time (or restart
the e-mails by checking it again).

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.

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Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data
Prism Central can automatically act as a proxy for Pulse data transmitted by each node in a
Prism Element cluster registered to that Prism Central instance.

How Do I Enable Prism Central Proxy for Pulse Data?


You do not have to explicitly enable this feature. It depends on your Prism Central and Prism
Element configuration.
Pulse data from Prism Element nodes is automatically routed through Prism Central and then
sent to Nutanix Support if you satisfy these requirements:

• 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.

Creating a Support Case


About this task
Nutanix customer support maintains a portal where you can get assistance by opening a
support case and viewing the status of your open cases (see Accessing the Nutanix Support
Portal (Prism Central) on page 962). However, you can also create a support case directly
from Prism Central. To create a support case or view information about your open cases, do the
following:

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.

Prism | Customer Support Services | 955


Procedure

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

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the Create new support case button (upper right). The blank page with fields for creating
a case will appear.

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Figure 501: Create New Support Case Page

Prism | Customer Support Services | 958


2. Do the following in the indicated fields:

a. Subject: Enter a title that briefly describes the issue.


b. Issue Category: Select the type of issue from the pull-down list.
The types are Technical Problem, Question, Comment/Feedback, Scheduled Upgrade/
Maintenance, RFE (request for enhancement), Licensing, Non Technical issue, and
Technical Problem - Foundation.
c. Priority: Select the priority for this issue from the pull-down list.
There are four priority levels based on the severity of the problem plus a request for
enhancement option. Select the appropriate priority based on the following descriptions.

• 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.

h. Attach NCC summary output

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• For PC: When this box is checked, NCC is run, and the summary output of Prism
Central is attached. This ensures that the NCC (health checks) results reflect the
current state.
• For PE: When this box is checked, NCC is run, and the summary output of Prism
Element is attached. This ensures that the NCC (health checks) results reflect the
current state.
i. Your Contact Details: Enter your name, phone number, and e-mail address in the
indicated fields. Case updates are sent to your e-mail address. You can also have the case
updates sent to (up to two) additional users by entering their e-mail addresses in the
Additional User Notification field.

3. When the entered information is completed, click the Submit button.


This submits the case to Nutanix customer support for review and response. The speed of
response reflects the priority of the issue, where P1 and P2 issues have a higher priority and
more rapid response than less critical issues, but Nutanix customer support strives to handle
all cases as quickly as possible.
A Prism Central task is started to create the case. If you selected to attach a log bundle
and/or NCC summary output, a task is started for each selected item. The tasks run
asynchronously, and you can check the progress (case creation, log collection, and
health check tasks) through the tasks dashboard (see Tasks View on page 244). If a
task encounters a problem, you can hover the cursor over the "Failed" status to see
a brief explanation. Automatically generated comments (preceded by "Prism Central
Automated Note:") are added to the case when the log/health checks collection starts and
when the upload completes. When the tasks complete, the output (log bundle and NCC
summary report) appear as attachments in the case summary (see Viewing Case Status on
page 961).

Figure 502: Tasks Dashboard for Prism Central (create case tasks)

Figure 503: Tasks Dashboard for Prism Element (create case tasks)

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Viewing Case Status
You can view information about open support cases directly from Prism Central by clicking the
question mark icon in the main menu and selecting Create Support Case from the pull-down
list. This opens the Create new support case page, which displays summary information about
open cases (if any). When you have one or more open cases, this page displays the following
sections:

• 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:

• Status: Displays the current status of the case.


• Created By: Displays the name of the user who created the case.
• Type: Displays the type (category) of issue the user specified when creating the case.
• Case number: Displays the number assigned to this case.
• Serial Number: Displays the serial number of the asset (node) in question.
• Access Portal: Includes a link to the Nutanix support portal. Clicking the View Details
in Portal link opens the details page for that case in the support portal in a new tab or
window. The details page in the support portal provides the full details and history of that
case should you desire more information, and you can submit additional material to the
case such as screen shots or other relevant information.

Prism | Customer Support Services | 961


Figure 504: Create New Support Case Page (open cases)

Accessing the Nutanix Support Portal (Prism Central)


About this task
Nutanix provides a variety of support services and materials through its support portal.

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.

2. Enter your support account user name and password.


The Nutanix support portal home page appears.

3. Select the desired service from the screen options.


You can select an option from one of the main menu pull-down lists or search for a
topic at the top of the screen, click one of the icons (Documentation, Open Case, View

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Cases, Downloads) in the middle, or view one of the selections at the bottom such as an
announcement or KB article. The following table lists the menu options.

Note: Some options have restricted access and are not available to all users.

Table 747: Main Menu Options

Category Option Description

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.

Solutions Displays a page from which you can view documents


Documentation that describe how to implement the Nutanix platform to
solve a variety of business applications.

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.

Training Provides a link to the separate Nutanix training portal.

Security Displays a page from which you can view security


Advisories advisories.

AOS Upgrade Displays a page where you can see the supported AOS
Paths release upgrade paths.

Compatibility Displays a page from which you can view a compatibility


Matrix matrix broken down (filtered) by hardware model, AOS
version, hypervisor type and version, and feature version
(NCC, Foundation, BMC/BIOS).

Webinar Displays a page with links to a selection of Nutanix


Recordings training webinars.

Support Open Case Displays a form to create a support case.

View Cases Displays a page from which you can view your current
support cases.

.NEXT Forums Provides a link to the (separate) Nutanix Next


Community forum.

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.

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Category Option Description

Acropolis File Displays a page from which you can download the
Services (AFS) Acropolis File Services.

Acropolis Displays a page from which you can download the


Container Acropolis Container Services.
Services (ACS)

Hypervisor Displays a page from which you can download Acropolis


Details hypervisor versions. You can also download supporting
files used when manually upgrading a hypervisor version
(AHV, ESXi, or Hyper-V).

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.

Phoenix Displays a page from which you can download Phoenix


ISO files.

Foundation Displays a page from which you can download


Foundation releases.

My Products Installed Base Displays a table of your installed Nutanix appliances,


including the model type and serial number, location,
and support coverage.

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Category Option Description

Licenses Displays a table of your product licenses along with


buttons to add or upgrade licenses for your clusters.

Figure 505: Nutanix Support Portal

Accessing the REST API Explorer


About this task
Nutanix provides a utility with the web console to help you get started with the REST API. The
Explorer displays the parameters and format for the API calls that can be included in scripts.
Sample API calls can be made to show the type of output you should expect to receive.
The v3 API can be viewed in the REST API Explorer.

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Procedure

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:

• Show/Hide: Expand or reduce the detail shown for the object


• List Operations: Show all operations that can be run on this object
• Expand Operations: Show the detailed view of the operations that can be run on this
object

2. Find the line for the object you want to explore and click Expand Operations.
For example, click alerts.

3. Click GET to show the details for this API call.

4. Click Try it out! to test the API call when used with your cluster.

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HELP RESOURCES
There are several information sources that you can access at any time when you need help:

• 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).

Accessing Online Help (Prism Central)


About this task
Prism Central includes online help documentation that you can access at any time.

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.

» Select Online Documentation to display the Help Organization page.


A context-sensitive help page or the Help Organization page appears in a new tab or
window. (These pages are located on the Nutanix support portal.) The Help Organization
page provides descriptions of the major help topics with links to the entry page for each

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major topic. The display includes a breadcrumb at the top to navigate through the help
pages.

Figure 506: Help Organization Page

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.

Figure 507: Table of Contents Pane

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.

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4. To search for a topic, click the magnifying glass icon in the main menu bar and enter a
search string in the field.
This searches not only the help contents, but also all the documentation, knowledge base
articles, and solution briefs. Matching results appear below the search field. Click a topic from
the search results to display that topic.

Figure 508: Search Results Example

Accessing the Nutanix Next Community


Nutanix maintains a community forum for customers and partners to facilitate a peer-to-peer
exchange of ideas, tips, and information about Nutanix technologies and the rapidly changing
landscape of data center IT.

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Procedure

• 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
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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.

Acropolis App Mobility Fabric


Provides virtualization management, volume management, and other distributed management
functions for Acropolis.

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AHV
Nutanix-specific hypervisor host providing core server virtualization and optimized for Nutanix
cluster and guest VM use.

block
A set of Nutanix nodes contained in a single enclosure.

block fault tolerance


When certain conditions are met, redundant copies of any data required to serve I/O are placed
on nodes that are not in the same block. In the case where multiple nodes in a block fail, the
cluster can continue to run because cluster configuration data exists on other blocks. Guest
VMs can continue to run because redundant copies of guest VM data and metadata exist on
other blocks.

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.

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data resiliency
A measure of the types of failures a cluster can withstand; affected by block awareness and
redundancy factor.

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.

Distributed Storage Fabric


All storage functionality, including snapshots and clones, data protection, disaster recovery,
data path redundancy, replication factors, deduplication, compression, erasure coding, and so
on.

Enterprise Cloud Platform


The Nutanix solution that natively converges compute, virtualization and storage into a resilient,
software-defined solution with rich machine intelligence

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.

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local replication
Multiple copies of data within a storage container. These copies exist for fault tolerance: if a
physical disk fails, the cluster can recover data from another copy. The cluster manages the
replicated data, and the copies are not visible to the user.

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.

Protection Domain, active


A Protection Domain that manages live VMs and makes, replicates, and expires snapshots.

Protection Domain, inactive


A Protection Domain that receives snapshots from a remote cluster.

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 replication, one-to-one


Replicates a production cluster with one idle cluster as a DR target.

remote replication, reciprocal


Cross replication within running (non-idle) production clusters.

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remote site
A pair of clusters that can replicate data to each other. A configured remote site can also be
located in the cloud (based on Amazon AWS, for example).

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.

storage replication adapter


A Nutanix-provided module that allows VMware Site Replication Manager (SRM) to use native
remote replication.

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.

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VM high availability
In virtualization management VM high availability, when a node becomes unavailable, VMs that
are running on that node are restarted on another node in the same cluster.

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.

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COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2023 Nutanix, Inc.
Nutanix, Inc.
1740 Technology Drive, Suite 150
San Jose, CA 95110
All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual
property laws. Nutanix and the Nutanix logo are registered trademarks of Nutanix, Inc. in the
United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other brand and product names mentioned herein
are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holders.

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