Enterprise Cloud

Administration (ECA)
Lab Guide
 Copyright

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2022 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.

License
The provision of this software to you does not grant any licenses or other rights under any
Microsoft patents with respect to anything other than the file server implementation portion of
the binaries for this software, including no licenses or any other rights in any hardware or any
devices or software that are used to communicate with or in connection with this software.

Conventions
Convention Description
variable_value The action depends on a value that is unique to your
environment.
ncli> command The commands are executed in the Nutanix nCLI.

user@host$ command The commands are executed as a non-privileged user (such

as nutanix) in the system shell.
root@host# command The commands are executed as the root user in the vSphere
or Acropolis host shell.
> command The commands are executed in the Hyper-V host shell.

The information is displayed as output from a command or

output in a log file.

Version A
Last modified: November 14, 2022

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Contents

Copyright...................................................................................................................2
License.................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Conventions........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Version.................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Lab 1: Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster.....................................6

Exercise 1: Connecting to Prism Element.............................................................................................. 6
Exercise 2: Exploring Prism Element....................................................................................................... 6
Exercise 3: Setting Up the Initial Configuration for the Cluster................................................... 8
Task 1: Adding a Data Services IP.................................................................................................8
Task 2: Adding an NTP Server...................................................................................................... 8
Task 3: Adding a Name Server......................................................................................................8
Task 4: Configuring Active Directory Authentication.......................................................... 9
Exercise 4: Exploring Prism Central.......................................................................................................10
Exercise 5: Prism Central Initial Configuration....................................................................................11

Lab 2: Securing the Nutanix Cluster.............................................................13

Exercise 1: Adding a Local User...............................................................................................................13
Exercise 2: Verifying the New User Account..................................................................................... 14

Lab 3: Cluster Network Management.......................................................... 15

Exercise 1: Creating an Unmanaged Network.................................................................................... 15
Exercise 2: Creating a Managed Network............................................................................................15
Exercise 3: Exploring the AHV Network Configuration..................................................................16
Exercise 4: Managing Virtual Switches and Uplinks........................................................................ 17
Exercise 5: Viewing Virtual Switches from Prism Element............................................................18

Lab 4: Image Management.............................................................................. 19

Exercise 1: Uploading Images to Prism Central................................................................................. 19
Exercise 2: Importing Images to Prism Central................................................................................. 19
Exercise 3: Configuring an Image Placement Policy...................................................................... 20

Lab 5: Creating Virtual Machines..................................................................22

Exercise 1: Creating a Windows Virtual Machine..............................................................................22
Task 1: Creating a Windows Virtual Machine with Secure Boot..................................... 22
Task 2: Installing the Windows Operating System............................................................. 24
Exercise 2: Creating a Linux Virtual Machine.................................................................................... 26
Task 1: Creating a Linux Virtual Machine................................................................................ 26
Task 2: Installing the Linux Operating System..................................................................... 28
Exercise 3: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools..........................................................................................33
Task 1: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools on Windows............................................................33
Task 2: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools on Linux.................................................................. 34

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Lab 6: Managing Virtual Machines............................................................... 36
Exercise 1: Updating a VM.........................................................................................................................36
Exercise 2: Templates, Clones and OVAs........................................................................................... 36
Task 1: Creating a Template......................................................................................................... 36
Task 2: Creating a Clone................................................................................................................37
Task 3: Exporting a VM as an OVA...........................................................................................37
Exercise 3: Automating Tasks.................................................................................................................. 38
Task 1: Creating a Playbook..........................................................................................................38
Task 2: Running a Playbook......................................................................................................... 39
Exercise 4: Creating a Storage Policy................................................................................................. 40

Lab 7: Virtual Machine and Data Protection............................................. 41

Exercise 1: Creating Protection Domains and Local VM Restore................................................41
Exercise 2: Creating Containers for Replication...............................................................................42
Exercise 3: Configuring Remote Sites.................................................................................................. 42
Exercise 4: Creating Protection Domains using a Remote Site................................................. 44
Exercise 5: Performing VM Migration...................................................................................................44
Exercise 6: Migrating Back to Primary.................................................................................................45

Lab 8: Managing Cluster Storage.................................................................46

Exercise 1: Exploring the Storage Dashboard................................................................................... 46
Exercise 2: Creating a Container with Compression...................................................................... 47
Exercise 3: Creating a Container without Compression................................................................47
Exercise 4: Comparing Data in a Compressed vs Uncompressed Container........................47
Task 1: Adding Disks to a Virtual Machine............................................................................. 47
Task 2: Formatting the New Virtual Disks..............................................................................48
Task 3: Writing Large Files to the Virtual Disks...................................................................49
Task 4: Observing the Result of Compression Savings.....................................................52
Exercise 5: Migrating vDisks between Storage Containers.......................................................... 52

Lab 9: Migrating Workloads with Nutanix Move.................................... 55

Exercise 1: Preparing a VM for Migration............................................................................................ 55
Exercise 2: Deploying a Move VM..........................................................................................................55
Exercise 3: Configuring Move.................................................................................................................57
Exercise 4: Configuring a Migration Plan...........................................................................................58

Lab 10: Monitoring Cluster Performance...................................................60

Exercise 1: Creating a Prism Central Performance Monitoring Dashboard............................ 60
Exercise 2: Creating Charts to Analyze Metrics using Prism Central........................................ 61
Exercise 3: Creating and Managing Reports......................................................................................62

Lab 11: Monitoring Cluster Health................................................................. 65

Exercise 1: Using Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) Health Checks................................................. 65
Exercise 2: Collecting Logs for Support..............................................................................................65

Lab 12: Investigating and Remediating Performance Issues.............. 67

Exercise 1: Working with Alerts...............................................................................................................67
Exercise 2: Exploring Events.................................................................................................................... 68

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Lab 13: Performing Cluster Maintenance................................................... 69
Exercise 1: Verifying Cluster Health.......................................................................................................69
Exercise 2: Node Maintenance Mode....................................................................................................69
Task 1: Putting a Node into Maintenance Mode................................................................... 69
Task 2: Exiting a Node from Maintenance Mode.................................................................70

Lab 14: Upgrading Software and Firmware............................................... 71

Exercise 1: Lifecycle Manager....................................................................................................................71

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

Lab

1
GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR NUTANIX
CLUSTER

Exercise 1: Connecting to Prism Element

Individual Exercise
In this exercise, you will connect to Prism Element and review current licensing.

1. Open a browser from your lab desktop, enter the URL: https://<Cluster Virtual IP
Address>:9440 and click Enter. The Cluster Virtual IP Address is shown in your lab
handout. If a security page is displayed, click Advanced, then click Proceed to <IP> (unsafe).

Note: Chrome is the preferred browser.

2. On the Prism Element login page, enter the username and password from your lab handout.

3. Once logged on, you should see the Prism Home page also known as the Home
dashboard. The Home page gives an "at a glance" status view of the local Nutanix Cluster.
Review the widgets to see the available information.

4. Click the Settings (gear) icon at the upper right corner of the display.

5. In the Settings column at the left, locate Licensing.

6. Click Licensing and determine the licensing level currently on the cluster.

7. Click the Starter license. This will show details about the current license and what
components are enabled. Click Back to License Summary Page to close the license details.

8. Click Enable 1-Click Licensing. If you need to enter a new license, it would be done here by
entering a license key into the API Key field or by uploading a license key file. Click Cancel.

9. Return to the Home dashboard by clicking on the Nutanix logo (the X at the upper left of
the UI) or by selecting Home from the dashboard menu.

Exercise 2: Exploring Prism Element

Individual Exercise

In this exercise you will explore the primary Nutanix Interface: the Prism Element.

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

1. From Prism Element, in the upper right corner, click the right most drop down menu (it will
be labeled with the currently logged-in user, admin) and select About Nutanix.

Answer the following questions:

• Which version of Acropolis (AOS) are you running?

• What is the license type on your cluster?

2. Click Close to close the dialog box.

3. Click the Home dropdown menu. This dropdown menu will show all the dashboards. Select
the VM dashboard.

4. From the Overview page, locate the VM Summary widget. How many virtual machines are
shown?

5. At the upper left corner of the browser window, click Table. Are any VMs listed? If so, what
VMs are they? If not, why not?

6. Click the checkbox next to Include Controller VMs (above the VM Table). Now you should
see the same number of VMs in the table as you saw on the Overview page.

Answer the following questions:

• How many cores are allocated to each CVM?

• How much memory is allocated to each CVM?

7. After answering the questions, uncheck the Include Controller VMs checkbox.

8. Click the Settings (gear icon), scroll through the settings on the left, under the Security
category, select SSL Certificate.

Answer the following questions:

• What is the Key Type is being used?

• Which Signing Algorithm is being used?

9. Click the magnifying glass found at the top right of the Prism window.

10. Type the letter a in the search bar and click acknowledge alerts. You are automatically
redirected to the Alerts dashboard.

11. Moving the mouse cursor to any alert listed under the Title column reveals a hyperlink.
Select any alert hyperlink. This switches you to the page dedicated to that alert. Read
the summary and possible cause, then click on the Acknowledge button at the upper
right. This logs that the alert has been seen. In the left column, the Status should show
Acknowledged. Select the X (close) at the upper-right to close the page.

12. Select the same alert you selected in the previous step and click Resolve. The Status
changes to Resolved. Alerts which have been resolved do not display by default on the
Alerts dashboard. Click the X once again to exit the page. The alert should no longer be
displayed in the list of alerts.

13. Return to the Home dashboard by clicking on the Nutanix logo (the X at the upper left of
the UI) or by selecting Home from the dashboard menu.

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

Exercise 3: Setting Up the Initial Configuration for the Cluster

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise you will prepare
the Nutanix cluster for first use.

Task 1: Adding a Data Services IP

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task. In this task, you will add a data services
IP to your Nutanix cluster.

1. Log on to Prism Element, if needed.

2. At the upper left, click the cluster name to get a Cluster Details dialog box.

3. In the Cluster Details dialog box, locate the ISCSI DATA SERVICES IP text box and enter the
ISCSI Data Services IP from your lab handout. Click Save.

Note: If the ISCSI DATA SERVICES IP is already present, verify it matches the
specified IP.

4. If you get a dialog box asking, "Are you sure you want to proceed with updating the cluster
and change the ISCSI Data Services IP?", click Yes.

Task 2: Adding an NTP Server

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task. In this task, you will add an NTP server
to your Nutanix cluster.

1. Log on to Prism Element if needed.

2. Click the Settings (gear icon) in the upper right corner of the browser window, scroll
down the Settings list displayed on the left side and under the Network category, select
NTP Servers.

3. In the NTP Servers dialog box, add the NTP Server IP address located in the lab handout.
Click + Add. If the NTP server IP is already present, verify it matches the specified IP.

Note: The IP address should appear in the HOSTNAME OR IP ADDRESS portion

of the NTP Servers dialog box.

Task 3: Adding a Name Server

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task. In this task, you will add one or more
name server(s) to your Nutanix cluster.

1. Log on to Prism Element if needed.

2. Click the Settings (gear icon) in the upper-right corner of the browser window, scroll down
the Settings list displayed on the left side and under the Network category, select Name
Servers.

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

3. In the Name Servers dialog box, locate the Server IP field and enter the Name Server IP
Address from the lab handout. Click + Add. If the Name server IP is already present, verify it
matches the specified IP.

Note: The IP address should appear in the IP ADDRESS portion of the Name
Servers dialog box.

Task 4: Configuring Active Directory Authentication

Group Exercise
If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task. In this task, you will configure active
directory for your Nutanix cluster.

1. Log on to Prism Element if needed.

2. Click the Settings (gear icon) at the upper-right corner of the browser window, scroll down
until the Settings list displayed on the left side and and under Users and Roles, select
Authentication.

3. The Authentication Configuration page is displayed. Click + New Directory and configure
the following:

Field Value

Directory Type Active Directory

Name See lab handout

Domain See lab handout

Directory URL Directory URL

Search Type Non Recursive (Default)

Service Account Username See lab handout

Service Account Password See lab handout

4. Click Save.

5. You should see your AD in the Authentication Configuration > Directory List window.
Move the mouse over the warning beside your directory name.

6. Select Click here in the warning message to configure role mapping.

7. In the Role Mapping dialog window, click + New Mapping.

8. In the Create Role Mapping window, enter the following values:

Field Value

Directory or Provider AD Server Name

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

Field Value

Type Group

Role Viewer

Values See lab handout

9. Click Save.

10. Close the Role Mapping Management dialog box.

Exercise 4: Exploring Prism Central

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will explore Prism Central.

1. Log on to Prism Element if needed, using the credentials from the lab handout.
2. From the Home dashboard on Prism Element, locate the Prism Central widget and click
Launch. A new browser tab will be opened. If a Security page is displayed, click Advanced,
then click Proceed to (unsafe). At the Prism Central login page, enter the username and
password from the lab handout. Once logged on, you will see the Prism Central Main
Dashboard.

Note: Dashboards in Prism Central are fully customizable with Prism Pro or
Ultimate licenses. New dashboards can be created and widgets can be added
or removed from any dashboard. Prism Central shows information and provides
management for registered clusters only

3. To find the Prism Central version, click the admin username at the upper right and from the
menu, select About Nutanix.

4. On the Prism Central Main Dashboard, at the top left, locate and click the Entities menu (3
Horizontal bars). Select Hardware, then click Clusters.

Note: From here you are able to see information about clusters that are
registered to Prism Central. The Summary, List, Alerts, Events and Metrics tabs
provide additional information.

5. From the Summary or Lists tab, click the cluster name to view more information about the
cluster.

Note: This view gives detailed information about the cluster. You can click the
tabs to view the information available. You can also connect to Prism Element
for the selected cluster by clicking the Launch Prism Element button.

6. From the Entities menu, select Hardware again and click Hosts.

Note: From here, you can see IP information, hypervisor type and memory
capacity for the cluster hosts.

7. Click one of the hostnames to view a detailed page for that host.

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

8. Click each of the tabs to review the information available for this cluster host.

9. Return to the Prism Central Main Dashboard by clicking the Prism logo at the top center of
the UI (you can also click the Entities menu and select Dashboard).

Exercise 5: Prism Central Initial Configuration

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will be
performing the initial configurations for Prism Central

1. Log on to Prism Central if needed.

2. Click the Settings (gear icon) in the upper-right corner of the browser window, scroll down
the Settings list displayed on the left side and under the Network category, select NTP
Servers.
3. In the NTP Servers dialog box, add the NTP Server IP address located in the lab handout.
Click + Add. If the NTP server IP is already present, verify it matches the specified IP.

4. From the Settings list under the Network category, select Name Servers.
5. In the Name Servers dialog box, add the Name Server IP address located in the lab
handout. Click + Add. If the Name server IP is already present, verify it matches the
specified IP.

6. In the Settings list under Users and Roles select Authentication.

7. On the Authentication Configuration page, click + New Directory and configure the
following:

Field Value

Directory Type Active Directory

Name See lab handout

Domain See lab handout

Directory URL See lab handout

Search Type Non Recursive (Default)

Service Account Username See lab handout

Service Account Password See lab handout

8. Click Save.

9. You should see your AD server in the Authentication Configuration > Directory List
window. Move the mouse over the warning beside your directory name.

10. Select Click here in the warning message to configure role mapping.

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 Getting Started with your Nutanix Cluster

11. In the Role Mapping dialog window, click + New Mapping.

12. In the Create Role Mapping window, enter the following values:

Field Value

Directory or Provider AD Server Name

Type Group

Role Viewer

Values See lab handout

13. Click Save.

14. Close the Role Mapping Management dialog box.

15. Return to the Prism Central Main Dashboard by clicking the Prism at the top-center of the
UI.

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Lab

2
SECURING THE NUTANIX CLUSTER

Exercise 1: Adding a Local User

Individual Exercise

In this exercise you will work individually to add a local (i.e. non-domain) user account to Prism
Central. This user will have permission to log on and perform cluster tasks based on the level of
access granted to them.

1. Log on Prism Central as admin if needed.

2. Click the Settings icon, scroll down the left hand column and select Local User Management
under User and Roles category.

3. In the Local User Management window, click + New User.

4. Use the table below to complete the fields in the Create User window:

Field Value

USERNAME <Your first name>

FIRST NAME <Your first name>

LAST NAME <Your first name>

EMAIL abc@xyz.net

PASSWORD Use your full name with first letter capitalized and
add /4u,eg: Johnsmith/4u. Password should be at
least 8 characters long.

LANGUAGE Your preferred language (e.g. en-US)

ROLES Prism Central Admin

Note: Choosing Prism Central Admin gives all privileges on Prism Central except
user management.

5. Click Save.

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 Securing the Nutanix Cluster

Exercise 2: Verifying the New User Account

Individual Exercise

1. Log out of Prism Central by clicking the username menu (next to the gear icon and is
currently admin) and select Sign Out.

2. Log on to Prism Central with the user account that you created in the previous exercise.

3. Observe your user account name (instead of admin) in the upper-right corner.

4. Click the Gear icon, scroll down the Settings page and observe whether you can see Local
User Management.

Are you able to administer new user accounts?

Note: You should not be able to perform that action because the assigned
Prism Central Admin role does not have rights to administer user accounts.

5. Log out of Prism Central and log back on with the admin user.

6. Go back to Settings and you should now see Local User Management. Click Local User
Management.

7. On the Local User Management page, click the pencil (edit) icon for your user and add
User Admin priviledges. Click Save.

8. Log out as the admin user and log back on as your user.

9. Go to Settings. Do you have Local User Management rights?

10. Click Local User Management and click the X to delete your user. Click OK to delete. Were
you successful? Why not?

11. Log out of Prism Central and log back on with the admin user.

12. Go to Settings, Local User Management and try deleting your user. Were you successful
this time?

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Lab

3
CLUSTER NETWORK MANAGEMENT

Exercise 1: Creating an Unmanaged Network

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will create
an unmanaged network.

1. Log on to Prism Central if needed, as the admin user.

2. Click the Entites menu and select Network & Security, then Subnets.

3. Click Create Subnet.

4. In the Create Subnet dialog box, configure the following:

Field Value

Name Unmanaged Network-<your initials>

Type VLAN

Cluster Select your local cluster

VLAN ID See lab handout

Virtual Switch vs0

IP Address Management Leave unchecked

5. Click Create.

Exercise 2: Creating a Managed Network

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will create
an IP address management (IPAM) or managed network.

Note: A single VLAN can support multiple unmanaged networks, but only one
managed network.

1. Navigate to the Subnets page on Prism Central by clicking the Entites menu and select
Network & Security, then Subnets, then click Create Subnet.

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 Cluster Network Management

2. Use the information in the table below to complete the Create Subnet dialog box:

Field Value

Name Managed Network

Type VLAN

Cluster Select your local cluster

VLAN ID See lab handout

Virtual Switch vs0

IP Address Management Check the box

Network IP Address / Prefix See lab handout

Gateway IP address See lab handout

3. Click Add IP Pool.

4. Fill out the Add IP Pool row with the IP pool Start Address and End Address from your lab
handout.

5. Click the blue checked circle (you may need to scroll down to see the blue circle) to save.
Click Create.

6. Verify you now have an Unmanaged Network-<your initials> (Two if you are sharing a
cluster) and a Managed Network in the Network Configuration dialog box.

Note: You may also have a default-net network as well. Do not delete.

Exercise 3: Exploring the AHV Network Configuration

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, this exercise can be done together or individually. In this exercise,
you will use Prism Central to review the AHV networks created in the previous exercises.

1. Navigate to the Subnets page on Prism Central by clicking the Entites menu and select
Network & Security, then Subnets, then click Network Config.

2. In the Networks Configuration window, you will see three tabs, Subnets, Internal
Interfaces and Virtual Switch. The Subnets tab should be selected by default and in this
case, you should see the virtual networks created in the previous exercises. Review the
information displayed for the existing virtual networks.

3. Click the Internal Interfaces tab. You will see three LANs. Hover your mouse cursor over
the circled ? immediately to the right of Backplane LAN and review the message.

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 Cluster Network Management

4. Click Hypervisor LAN and in the pop-up window, review the interface and IP addresses
used for AHV Host to CVM communications. Click Back.

5. Click Management LAN and in the pop-up window, review the interface and IP addresses
assigned to the AHV Hosts and CVMs. Click Back.

6. Now, click the Virtual Switch tab and review the information presented for the default
virtual switch.

7. For the default virtual switch vs0, click the pencil icon to enter the virtual switch edit mode.
From here you can get a more detailed view of the switch configuration.

8. Under the General tab, review the Configuration Methods to determine the impact
expected when changes are made to a virtual Switch.

9. Click Next.

10. Under the Uplink Configuration tab, you can review and change the existing configurations
related to this virtual switch.

11. Note the current Bond Type and click the Bond Type dropdown menu. Review the
available bond configurations. Click outside the dropdown menu to close and keep
the previous selection.

12. Click the dropdown menu for Selected Hosts. You will see all cluster nodes listed. Click
outside the dropdown menu to close and keep the previous selection.

13. Under Select Uplink Ports, select Connected and Unconnected Uplink Ports if not already
selected.

14. Under Uplink Port Speed, the menu selection should be All Speeds. Click the dropdown
menu to see the interface speeds and select each one in turn and note the changes in the
table below. Click the turn-down arrows on the right side of the table to reveal the NICs
related to the speed selected.

15. The previous step shows all ports regardless of its connection status. Now look at only the
connected ports. Under Select Uplink Ports, select Only Connected Uplink Ports.

16. Repeat step 14 and note the differences.

17. Click Cancel and return to the Network Configuration page. Click x to close.

Note: This exercise verifies that by default a virtual switch vs0 is created on all AHV
hosts and all the physical interfaces on a host are attached to it.

Exercise 4: Managing Virtual Switches and Uplinks

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will modify
the default network configuration by removing NICs from the existing virtual switch and then
adding them to a new virtual switch.

1. Navigate to the Subnets page on Prism Central by clicking the Entites menu and select
Network & Security, then Subnets.

2. Click Network Config and on the Network Configuration dialog box, click the Virtual
Switch tab.

3. With the Virtual Switch tab selected, click the pencil icon for the vs0 switch.

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 Cluster Network Management

4. At the bottom of the page, click Next to advance to the Uplink Configuration tab.

5. Under Uplink Port Speed, click the menu showing All Speeds and select 10G, then
click Save. The cluster will now start a rolling reboot for all hosts to update the network
configuration. Close(X) the Network Configuration dailog box.

6. To follow the Hypervisor rolling restart, go to Prism Element and select Tasks from the
dashboard menu.

7. When the restart has completed, return to Prism Central. From the Subnets page, click
Network Config and on the Network Configuration dialog box, click the Virtual Switch tab.
Click the pencil icon for vs0 and then click Next.

8. Under Uplink Port Speeds, select 10g and click the turn-down arrows in the table below
and hover the mouse cursor over the ? next to each NIC. These should show they are still
associated to vs0.

9. Repeat the previous step for 1g. Do you see a difference? The 1g NICs are no longer
associated with vs0. Click Cancel.

10. With the 1g NICs no longer associated with vs0, you can create a new virtual switch with
the 1g NICs. Under the Virtual Switch tab, click + Create VS.

11. Enter vs1 for the Virtual Switch Name and click Next.

12. Under Uplink Port Speeds, select 1g.

13. At the right, click Select All and click the turn-down arrows for each host in the table. All of
the 1g NICs should be selected.

14. Click Create. The cluster will go into another rolling restart.

15. When the rolling restart completes, review the new vs1 virtual switch configuration under
the Virtual Switch tab.

Exercise 5: Viewing Virtual Switches from Prism Element

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will view the
virtual switch configurations visually from the Network dashboard.
1. Log on to Prism Element if needed.

2. From the Dashboard menu, select Network and click one of the host boxes to highlight.

3. Hover your mouse cursor over the NICs in the host box to see port information.

4. Click the hostname hyperlink. The pop-up windows shows a detailed view of the network
configuration for that AHV host.

Note: When vs1 was created, a new bridge (br1) and Bond (br1-up) was also
created. Clicking Go to Host Details takes you to the Hardware dashboard, Host
tab.

5. In the pop-up window, click the CVM, VS, Bridge and Bond boxes to show the configurations
of each. Click Close to close the pop-up window.

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Lab

4
IMAGE MANAGEMENT

Exercise 1: Uploading Images to Prism Central

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will upload
images to Prism Central.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click Images.

3. On the Images page, click Add Image.

4. On the Add Image page, under the Select Image tab, ensure Image File is selected and click
+ Add File. Browse to the location shown in the lab handout for the Cubic Design Tools ISO
image. Select the image and click Open. Leave the fields at their default values and click +
Add File once again.

5. Browse to the location shown in the lab handout for the Nutanix VirtIO ISO image. Select
the image and click Open. Leave the fields at their default values and click Next.

6. Under the Select Location tab, for Placement Method ensure Place image directly on
cluster is selected. Under Select Clusters, select your cluster.

Note: If Prism Central only has a single cluster registered, the cluster is already
selected by default.

7. Click Save.

Exercise 2: Importing Images to Prism Central

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will import
images from Prism Element to Prism Central.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click Images.

3. Select the List tab if not already selected and click Import Images.

4. In the Import Images pop-up window, under Select Import Type, select Images on a cluster.

5. From the cluster list, select your cluster and click Select Images.

6. From the list of images, select only the images shown in the lab handout. Click Next.

7. Click Save.

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 Image Management

8. The uploading process will take a few minutes. If required, refresh the page. Once uploaded,
review the list of images.

Exercise 3: Configuring an Image Placement Policy

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will assign
a category to your cluster, assign a category to one or more images, and configure an image
placement policy.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. Assign a preexisting category to your cluster. From the Entities menu, select Hardware,
then click Clusters.

3. Click the List tab if needed and select the checkbox next to your cluster name.
4. Click Actions and in the dropdown menu, select Manage Categories.

5. In the Set Categories search field, enter environment. When a list is displayed, select
Environment: Production. A new search field will become available. This is for adding
additional categories.

6. Click Save at the lower right.

7. Now assign a preexisting category to one or more images. From the Entities menu, select
Compute & Storage, then click Images.

8. Under the List tab, select the checkbox next to all the Windows images.

9. Click Actions and in the dropdown menu, select Manage Categories.

10. In the Set Categories search field, enter environment. When a list is displayed, select
Environment: Production. Click Save.

11. Create a placement policy. From the Images page, select the Policies tab and click
Placement Policies, then click Create Placement Policy.

12. On the Create Image Placement Policy page, input the following:

Field Value

Policy Name Production

Description Production Policy

Assign Images With All Of Click the menu, scroll down and select
The Following Categories Environment: Production. Click the blue + next to the
menu.

To Clusters With All Of The Click the menu, scroll down and select
Following Categories Environment: Production. Click the blue + next to the
menu.

Policy Enforcement Soft

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 Image Management

13. Click Save. After a minute or two, the new policy will appear in the Placement Policy list.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

Lab

5
CREATING VIRTUAL MACHINES

Exercise 1: Creating a Windows Virtual Machine

In this exercise you will work individually to create a Windows virtual machine.

Task 1: Creating a Windows Virtual Machine with Secure Boot

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will work individually to create a virtual machine that supports Windows Secure
Boot.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

3. Click Create VM.

Note: On the Create VM page you will see four tabs, Configuration (selected),
Resources, Management and Review. The VM creation process will step
through these tabs.

4. Enter the following under the Configuration tab:

Field Value

Windows-<your initials> (use three initials of your full

Name
name. For example: Windows-ABC)

Description Leave blank.

This should default to your cluster. If multiple clusters

Cluster
are listed, select your cluster.

Number of VMs 1

VM Properties CPU = 1, Cores per CPU = 1, Memory = 4

5. Click Next.

6. Under the Resources tab, locate the Boot Configuration section and select UEFI
Bios Mode. You will get a pop-up defining the change in the boot configuration. Click
Confirm.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

7. Under the Shield VM Security Setting section, select Secure Boot and leave the Windows
Defender at default (unchecked).

8. In the Disks section, click Attach Disk.

Note: This VM will be used to install the Windows operating system. This
requires a minimum of three disk devices, two CDROM and one disk. The first
CDROM will contain the Windows ISO, the second CDROM will contain the
Nutanix VirtIO drivers and the disk will be the OS installation device.

9. Enter the following into the Attach Disk dialog box:

Field Value

Type CDROM

Operation Clone from Image

Image Windows 2019 ISO from the lab handout.

Bus Type SATA

10. Click Save. You should now see the new CDROM listed in the the Disks section.

11. Click Attach Disk to add the second CDROM:

Field Value

Type CDROM

Operation Clone from Image

Image Nutanix-VirtIO-1.1.7.ISO

Bus Type SATA

12. Click Save. You should now see two CDROMs listed in the the Disks section.

13. Click Attach Disk once more to add the OS installation disk:

Field Value

Type DISK

Operation Allocate on Storage Container

Storage Container default-container

Capacity 25

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 Creating Virtual Machines

Field Value

Bus Type Keep the default

14. Click Save. You should now see the new disk image listed in the the Disks section.

15. Now add a virtual network. In the Networks section, click Attach to Subnet.

16. Enter the following into the Attach to Subnet dialog box:

Field Value

Subnet Select the subnet shown in the lab handout.

Network Connection State Connected

17. Click Save. You should now see the new subnet listed in the the Networks section.

18. Click Next.

19. Under the Management tab, leave the defaults and click Next.

20. Review the VM configuration under the Review tab, if all is correct, click Create VM.

Note: If you need to correct any settings, click the Back button to return to the
appropriate section. You can then click the trashcan to remove or the pencil to
edit existing configurations.

21. You should see your Windows-<your initials> in the VM list.

Note: The VM just created will be in a powered off state.

Task 2: Installing the Windows Operating System

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will work individually to power on your new virtual machine and install the
Windows Server 2019 operating system. These steps require a console connection to the VM. If
you are using Chrome or Firefox, you need to disable the pup-up blocker in order to view the
console. All console exercises can be done with any browser.

Chrome

• Click the vertical ellipsis (…) at the upper right of the Chrome browser window.

• Click Settings, and then Privacy and security on the left menu of the page.

• Under Site Settings, click Pop-ups and redirects.

• Under Default Behavior choose, Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects to allow pop-
ups.

• Close the tab.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

Firefox

• Click the menu symbol (three horizontal lines) at the upper right of the browser window.

• Click Settings, then Privacy & Security.

• Scroll down to the Permissions section and de-select the Block pop-up windows.

• Close the tab.

1. From Prism Central, go to the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

2. Select the checkbox next to the virtual machine you created in the previous task. Click the
Actions menu and select Power On.

3. With the VM still selected, click the Actions menu once again and select Launch Console.

Note: If you get a UEFI error, press the Enter key each time you are asked, until
it starts booting. Alternatively, reboot the VM and try again.

4. In the console of your Windows virtual machine, press any key to Boot from CD or
DVD..., and take the defaults (language, time, keyboard) in the Windows Setup dialog box
by selecting Next.

5. Click Install now.

6. Click to select Windows Server 2019 Standard (Desktop Experience) and click Next.

7. Accept the license terms and click Next.

8. Click Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

9. To display the Windows VM virtual disk, you must install the Nutanix VirtIO drivers. Click
Load driver.

10. In the Load driver dialog box, click Browse.

11. Locate and select the CD-ROM with the Nutanix VirtIO 1.1.7.ISO attached and click to
expand the Windows Server 2019 folder, then click to select amd64. Click OK.

12. Select all available drivers and click Next. The VirtIO drivers will take a minute or two to
install.

13. Select the now visible 25GB Drive 0 and click Next.

14. When prompted for an administrator password, enter the password from your lab handout
and click Finish.

15. To log on, click the Control-Alt-Delete icon in the upper-righthand corner of the console
window (the icon looks like a stack of three blocks). Log on as Administrator using the
password you set up in the previous step.

16. Disable the Server Manager from auto starting. In the Server Manager window, click
Manage at the upper right and select Server Manager Properties. In the new dialog box,
click the checkbox for Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon. Click OK and
close the Server Manager.

17. Shutdown the VM using the Windows shutdown process. Click the Windows Start menu
and click the Power icon. Select Shut down. When asked to choose a reason, select Other
(Planned) from the list.

18. Click Continue.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

19. Close the console window.

Note: At this point of the OS setup, Nutanix Guest Tools has not yet been
installed, so all shutdown procedures need to be performed manually within
Windows.

20. Your VM should now be in a powered off state. Check the box next to your VM if needed
and from the Actions menu, click Update.

21. Click Next to get to the Resources tab. In the Disks section, click the Eject button
(immediate left of the pencil icon) for each CD-ROM to eject the ISO disks.

22. For the #2 CD-ROM, click the trashcan to delete.

23. Click Next.

24. Click Next.

25. Click Save.

26. Right-click on your Windows VM and select Power On.

Exercise 2: Creating a Linux Virtual Machine

In this exercise, you will work individually to create a Linux virtual machine.

Task 1: Creating a Linux Virtual Machine

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will work individually to create a Linux VM using CentOS.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

3. Click Create VM.

Note: On the Create VM page you will see four tabs: Configuration (selected),
Resources, Management, and Review. The VM creation process will step
through these tabs.

4. Enter the following under the Configuration tab:

Field Value

CentOS7-<your initials> (use three initials of your full

Name
name. For example: CentOS7-ABC)

Description Leave blank.

This should default to your cluster. If multiple clusters

Cluster
are listed, select your cluster.

Number of VMs 1

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 Creating Virtual Machines

Field Value

VM Properties CPU = 2, Cores per CPU = 1, Memory = 4

5. Click Next.

6. Under the Resources tab, locate the Disks section and click Attach Disk.

7. Enter the following into the Attach Disk dialog box:

Field Value

Type CDROM

Operation Clone from Image

Image CentOS 7 ISO from the lab handout.

Bus Type SATA

8. Click Save. You should now see the new CDROM listed in the the Disks section.

9. Click Attach Disk once more to add the OS installation disk:

Field Value

Type DISK

Operation Allocate on Storage Container

Storage Container default-container

Capacity 20

Bus Type Keep the default

10. Click Save. You should now see the new disk image listed in the the Disks section.

11. Now add a virtual network. In the Networks section, click Attach to Subnet.

12. Enter the following into the Attach to Subnet dialog box:

Field Value

Subnet Select the subnet shown in the lab handout.

Network Connection State Connected

13. Click Save. You should now see the new subnet listed in the the Networks section.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

14. Click Next.

15. Under the Management tab, leave the defaults and click Next.

16. Review the VM configuration under the Review tab, if all is correct, click Create VM.

Note: If you need to correct any settings, click the Back button to return to the
appropriate section. You can then click the trashcan to remove or the pencil to
edit existing configurations.

17. You should see your CentOS7-<your initials> in the VM list.

Note: The VM just created will be in a powered off state.

Task 2: Installing the Linux Operating System

Individual Exercise

In this task you will work individually to install a Linux OS using CentOS 7.

1. From Prism Central, go to the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

2. Click the checkbox next to your CentOS7-<your initials> VM and from the Actions menu,
select Power on.

3. Once the VM is powered on, click the Actions menu and select Launch Console.

4. Select Install CentOS 7. Once the booting starts you will be able to resize the window.
Resize the window to suit your needs.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

5. Select your preferred language (or take the default) and click the Continue button.

6. Click INSTALLATION DESTINATION.

7. Select the NUTANIX VDISK and then click the Done button in the upper-left corner of the
window.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

8. Click the Begin Installation button.

9. When the User Settings window is displayed, click ROOT PASSWORD to configure the
password for the root user. The installation will still be in progress.

10. See the lab handout for the root password and click Done in the upper-left corner of the
window.

11. Click USER CREATION. Create a user called student and see the lab handout for the
password.

12. Click the box next to Make this user administrator and click Done.

13. After the CentOS initial installation has completed, click Reboot.

14. After the virtual machine reboots, log on as the user root using the password you created
in the previous step.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

15. Display the VM NIC IP address by entering the command:

ip addr sh

Note: The output shows that the CentOS7 virtual machine has not received an
IP address from the DHCP address pool. This is expected, the network adapter
is disabled by default with CentOS.

16. Confirm the eth0 interface is disconnected with the command:

nmcli d

17. Launch the NetworkManager TUI tool with the command:

nmtui

18. In the NetworkManager TUI window, using the up/down arrows on your keyboard, select
Edit a connection and press the Enter key.

19. Use the Tab key to select <Edit…> and Press the Enter key. This will put you in the Edit
Connection view.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

20. In the Edit Connection view press the Tab key to navigate to Automatically connect and
use the spacebar to then select Automatically Connect.

21. Press the Tab key to select <OK> and press the Enter key.

Note: This will take you back one view.

22. Press the Tab key to select <Back> and press the Enter key.

23. Use the up/down arrow keys to select Quit and press the Enter key. This returns you to the
command line.

24. Restart the network services with the command:

service network restart

25. Verify the virtual machine has been assigned an IP address with the command:
ip addr sh

26. Verify connectivity to the default gateway with the following command:
ping <gateway IP address> (See the lab handout)

Note: Enter control-c to abort the ping command.

27. Shut down CentOS with the command:

init 0

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 Creating Virtual Machines

28. Close the VM console window.

29. Right-click on your CentOS VM in the VM list and select Power On.

Exercise 3: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools

In this exercise you will work individually to install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) on your Windows
and Linux virtual machines.

Task 1: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools on Windows

Individual Exercise

In this task you will use Prism Central and manually install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) on your
Windows virtual machine.

1. In Prism Central, click the Entities menu.

2. Expand Compute & Storage and click VMs to access the VMs dashboard.

3. Select the Windows-<your initials> virtual machine by clicking the checkbox next to its
name.

4. After selecting the VM, click the Actions menu and select Install NGT.

5. In the Install NGT window, select the checkbox for Enable Self Service Restore (SSR).

6. Ensure that the Skip restart option is selected.

7. Click Confirm & Enter Password.

Note:

If you provide the guest username and password in the Install NGT window and
click Done, Prism Central will automatically install NGT on the selected VM.

Prism Central also allows you to install NGT on multiple VMs. If you select
multiple VMs and if the username and password for the guest operating system
is not the same for all the selected VMs, you need to provide the username and
password in a JSON format.

In this task, we will only mount the NGT installer inside the selected VM and
perform the installation manually.

8. Click Skip and Mount.

You can monitor the progress of the mount NGT image on the Tasks dashboard.

9. After the mount NGT image task is complete, return to the VMs dashboard.

10. With the VM still selected, click Actions, and select Launch console.

11. Click the Ctl-Alt-Del icon (stacked blocks) at the upper right corner of the VM Console
window.

12. Log on to your Windows virtual machine as Administrator. See the lab handout for the
password.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

13. Open Windows File Explorer (File Manager) and select This PC on the left.

14. Double-click the NUTANIX_TOOLS CD drive.

15. Double-click setup to begin the installation process.

16. In the Nutanix Guest Tools Setup window, click the checkbox to agree to the license terms
and then click Install. The installation of Nutanix Guest Tools will take a minute or two to
complete.

17. When the installation has completed, click Close.

18. With NGT installed, you no longer need to use the Windows shut down procedure. To
shut down using NGT, click the power icon at the top right of the console and select Guest
Shutdown.

19. Click Submit and observe as the Windows operating system goes through a standard
shutdown.

20. Close the VM console window.

21. On the VMs dashboard, the VM on which NGT was installed now displays the version of
NGT in the NGT column.

22. Right-click on your Windows VM and click Power on.

Task 2: Installing Nutanix Guest Tools on Linux

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will use Prism Central to automatically install Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) into
your CentOS7 virtual machine.

1. In Prism Central, click the Entities menu. Expand Compute & Storage, and then click VMs
to access the VMs dashboard.

2. Select your CentOS7 virtual machine by clicking the checkbox next to its name.

3. After selecting the VM, click the Actions dropdown menu and select Install NGT.

4. In the Install NGT window, select the checkbox for Enable Self Service Restore (SSR).

5. Ensure that the Skip restart option is selected.

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 Creating Virtual Machines

6. Click Confirm & Enter Password.

Note: For enabling Prism Central to automatically install NGT on a VM, you
must provide the username and password for the guest operating system.

7. Type the username and password (Refer to your lab handout) for the guest operating
system in the Username and Password fields respectively.

8. Click Done in the Install NGT window to start the installation.

When the NGT installation is in progress, a revolving icon next to the VM name is displayed.

9. After the installation is complete, the VM on which NGT was installed displays the version
of NGT in the NGT column.

10. To shut down Linux using NGT, select the VM and select Guest Shutdown from the Actions
dropdown menu.

11. Click Submit.

12. After the VM is powered off, right-click and click Power on.

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 Managing Virtual Machines

Lab

6
MANAGING VIRTUAL MACHINES

Exercise 1: Updating a VM
Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will work individually to add a CPU and increase the memory on your
Windows VM.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

3. Right-click your Windows-<your initials> VM and click Update.

4. In the Update VM dialog box, under VM Properties, increase the CPU from 1 to 2 and the
Memory from 4 to 8.

5. Click Next, Next, Next, Save.

6. Observe the change for your VM. The vCPU column will change from 1 to 2 and the Memory
from 4 to 8.

Note: If you do not see the change after a minute or so, refresh the browser
rather than wait for the Prism refresh cycle.

Exercise 2: Templates, Clones and OVAs

In this exercise, you will create a VM template, clone a VM, and export an AHV VM as an Open
Virtualization Appliance (OVA).

Task 1: Creating a Template

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will create a template from your Windows virtual machine.

1. From the Prism Central, Entities, Compute & Storage, VMs page, click the checkbox to
select your Windows-<your initials> VM.

2. Click Actions and select Create VM Template.

3. On the Create Template from VM page, configure the following:

Field Value

Name Windows-<your initials>-Template

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 Managing Virtual Machines

Field Value

Description Windows 2019 Template

Guest Customization : Script

No Customization
Type

Allow users to override at VM

Yes
Deployment?

4. Click Next.

5. Review the configuration details. Resources can be modified here if needed.

6. Click Save.

7. Expand theEntities menu, selectCompute & Storage, then selectTemplates. The new
template will be listed after completion.

8. Select the checkbox next to your new template and click Deploy VMs.

9. Give your VM the name My-Windows-<your initials>, keep the remaining defaults and click
Next.

10. Click Deploy and review the new VM from the VMs dashboard located at Entities,
Compute & Storage, VMs.

Task 2: Creating a Clone

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will clone an existing virtual machine.

1. From the Prism Central, navigate to Entities, Compute & Storage, VMs.

2. Right-click the Windows-<your initials> VM and select Clone.

3. In the Clone VM dialog box, change the VM name to Windows-<your initials>-Clone, keep
the remaining defaults, and click Next.

Note: With the exception of the VM name, a cloned VM inherits the configuration
of the source VM, however, most settings can be modified.

4. Click Next, Next, Next, and then Clone VM.

5. The cloned VM displays in the VM list when completed.

Task 3: Exporting a VM as an OVA

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will export an AHV virtual machine as an Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA).

1. From Prism Central, navigate to Entities, Compute & Storage, VMs page, then click the
checkbox next to your Windows-<your initials> VM.

2. From the Actions dropdown menu, select Export as OVA.

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 Managing Virtual Machines

3. In the Export as OVA window, configure the following:

Field Value

Name Windows-<your initials>-OVA

Export Disk Format VMDK

4. Click Export.

5. You can check the progress of the OVA export from the Entities menu, expand Activity, and
select Tasks page.

Note: This operation can take 10 or more minutes depending on VM size.

6. Once the OVA export has completed, the new OVA can be found by expanding the Entities
menu, Compute & Storage, and selecting OVAs.

Exercise 3: Automating Tasks

X-Play is an easy to use automation tool that helps you automate routine administrative tasks
and auto-remediate issues that may occur on your system. You can achieve this automation
by creating playbooks. A playbook allows you to define a trigger that results in the execution
of an action or series of actions. A trigger may be an event that occurs on the system, such as
an alert, or it can be a manual request by a user. An action can be configured to perform VM
updates, call communication processes, call alerts, or initiate reports.

Task 1: Creating a Playbook

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will create a manually triggered playbook to dynamically add memory to a VM.

1. From Prism Central, expand the Entities menu, click Operations, then select Playbooks.

2. On the Playbooks page, click Get Started. You should see a series of predefined playbooks.
3. Click the name for Increase memory for constrained VMs playbook to open it.

Note: The left column provides information about this playbook. The second
column shows the trigger and actions in the order called. In this case, the
trigger is an alert, which needs to be pre-configured to define what to alert
on and when (the alert policy is shown in the right column). When an alert
is called due to constrained memory, the trigger is activated and calls the
actions. This playbook will shutdown the VM before adding memory and then
power the VM back up. Your playbook update the memory dynamically.

4. Click the x at the upper-right to close the playbook.

5. Create a new playbook by clicking Create Playbook.

6. Create a manually executed trigger by clicking Select for the Manual trigger.

7. Click the Entity Type dropdown menu and review the types that can be selected. Reselect
VM.

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 Managing Virtual Machines

8. In the left column, click Add Action.

9. The first action you want to call is a snapshot as a recovery point in case of failure. Click
Select in the VM Recovery Point action.

10. Leave the default value in the Target VM dropdown menu.

11. Enter 7 into the Time To Live field.

12. Now to add the add memory action. In the left column, click Add Action.

13. Click Select in the VM Add Memory action.

14. Leave the default value in the Target VM dropdown menu.

15. For Memory to Add, enter 4.

16. For Maximum Limit, enter 16.

17. At the upper-right, click Save & Close to save the playbook.

18. In the Save Playbook pop-up window, enter the following:

Field Value

Name Windows-<your initials>-Playbook

Description Increase VM RAM

Playbook Status Click the toggle button to enable the playbook.

19. Click Save. After a few moments, you should see your new playbook in the list.

Task 2: Running a Playbook

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will run a manually triggered playbook to dynmically add memory to a VM.

1. From Prism Central, navigate to the VMs dashboard by expanding the Entities menu,
selectCompute & Storage, and clickVMs.

2. Click directly on your Windows-<your initials> VM to get the VM page specific to this
VM. Review the current Memory settings in the left panel.

3. At the top of the page, click the More dropdown menu and select Run Playbook.

4. In the Run Playbook dialog box, ensure Windows-<your initials>-Playbook is selected in the
left column and click Run.

5. The following may happen quickly: A Recovery Point will be created and the Memory setting
will change. You may need to refresh the browser to see this before the normal UI refresh
occurs.

6. When you see the memory updated, click Recovery Points at the top of the page and review
the available snapshot(s). If more than one is listed, the last one is from the playbook action.

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 Managing Virtual Machines

Exercise 4: Creating a Storage Policy

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this lab exercise. In this exercise, you will create a
storage policy and use categories to apply storage policy to VMs.

1. If needed, log on to Prism Central using the username and password from your lab
handout.

2. From the Entities menu, click Compute & Storage, then select Storage Policies.

3. Click + Create Storage Policy. Configure the following:

Field Value

Name Encrypted-Storage

Encryption Enabled

Compression On

4. Click Next.

5. In the Add Category field, type env and locate Environment:Production, note the cluster
and images already referenced with this category. Click the category to add it to the
Associated Categories list.

6. Click Save to save the storage policy.

7. From Entities, Compute & Storage, select VMs.

8. Right-click your Windows-<your initials> VM and select Manage Categories.

9. Under Set Categories search for and select Environment:Production. Note the policies
associated to the category.

10. Click Save.

11. Click your Windows-<your initials> VM and click the Categories tab. It will display the
policies associated with the VM.

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Lab

7
VIRTUAL MACHINE AND DATA PROTECTION

Exercise 1: Creating Protection Domains and Local VM Restore

Individual Exercise

You will work individually to create a local protection domain for local VM protection. In this
exercise, you will be working exclusively on your local cluster.

1. From Prism Element, click the Dashboard dropdown menu and select VM. If needed, select
Table at the top.

2. Select your Windows-<your initials> virtual machine and click Clone.

3. Name the clone <your initials>-Windows-Backup and click Save.

4. Select your backup VM and click Update.

5. Verify the CD-ROM is EMPTY. If not, click the eject icon.

6. Click Save.

7. Click Manage Guest Tools and in the pop-up, select Enable Nutanix Guest Tools and Self
Service Restore (SSR).

8. Click Submit, then Power on.

9. Select the Dashboard menu and select Data Protection. Click OK if the Protection Domain
Warning dialog appears.

10. Click the Table tab.

11. Click + Protection Domain and then select Async DR.

12. In the Protection Domain window, in the Name text box, enter <your initials>-LocalPD.

13. Click Create.

14. Under Unprotected Entities, click the checkbox next your <your initials>-Windows-
Backup VM.

15. In the lower-left corner of the window, click Protect Selected Entities (1).

Note: You should see the protected Windows VM move to the right column
labeled Protected Entities.

16. Click Next.

17. Click New Schedule.

18. Click the radio button for Repeat every… minutes and enter 60 into the text box.

19. Leave all other fields at their default values and click Create Schedule.

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20. Click Close.

21. In the Protection Domain table, click to select your protection domain.

22. In the lower left side of the Protection dashboard, look at the PROTECTION DOMAIN
DETAILS box and verify the Protection Domain Mode is Active.

23. Below the Protection Domain table, click the Schedules tab and verify the Every 60
minutes schedule.

24. Select the Local Snapshots tab. A snapshot is automatically taken when the protection
domain is created. If you do not see a snapshot, wait a few minutes and check again.

25. Click the Restore link on the right side of the snapshot entry in the Local Snapshots table.

26. In the Restore Snapshot window, click the checkbox for your <your initials>-Windows-
Backup VM.

27. Ensure the Create new entities radio button is selected, leave all other fields at their default
values, and click OK.

28. Click the Dashboard menu and selectVM.

29. Verify the restored VM named Nutanix-Clone-<your initials>-Windows-Backup is present.

Note: The restored VM will be in a powered off state.

Exercise 2: Creating Containers for Replication

Exercises 2 - 6: These exercises involve two clusters. You will work from your local cluster and
when directed, connect to your remote cluster to configure DR. If you are sharing your local
cluster with another student, you will work together for Exercise 2 to create remote storage
containers and you will work together and coordinate with the students on your remote cluster
for Exercise 3: Remote Site Configuration.

For these DR exercises, your local cluster is the cluster you were assigned for class. Your
remote cluster is a cluster assigned to other students and designated to be your DR site. This is
the same perspective for the student on the other cluster. Their cluster is their local cluster and
your local cluster is their remote cluster.
1. Locate the name, IP address, and login credentials for your remote cluster from the lab
handout. Open a new browser tab and enter https://<remote cluster IP>:9440 and log on
as the admin user.

2. Click the Dashboard menu and select Storage, then click + Storage Container.

3. In the Create Storage Container window, in the Name text box, enter the name <your
cluster>-DR-Container.

4. Leave all other fields at their default values and click Save.

5. Click the admin username and select Sign Out.

Exercise 3: Configuring Remote Sites

Group Exercise

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 Virtual Machine and Data Protection

In this exercise you will work together to configure the remote site settings on your local cluster
for your remote cluster.

1. From Prism Element, navigate to the Data Protection dashboard, by clicking the
Dashboard dropdown menu and click the Data Protection. If needed, click the Table tab.
Click the Remote Site tab at the upper-left.

2. Click + Remote Site at the upper-right and select Physical Cluster.

3. Enter the following in the Remote Site window:

Field Value

Remote Site Name <your remote cluster name>-Site

Capabilities Disaster Recovery

Cluster Virtual IP <your remote cluster virtual IP address>

Note: If you are the only person configuring this setup on both clusters, you
will have to configure the Remote Site settings on the remote cluster to point
back to your local cluster.

4. Click Add Site.

5. Scroll down to Mappings.

6. Configure Network Mapping between your cluster and your remote cluster:

Field Value

Source Cluster See lab handout

Destination Cluster See lab handout

7. Click the + to the right of the network mapping you just created.

8. Create a second network mapping, selecting AHV: Unmanaged Network for both the
Source Cluster and Destination Cluster then click the + to the right of the second
mapping. When completed you should have two grayed out network mappings with red "-"
blocks on the right.

Note: When selecting mappings, the selections have not been committed until
the "+" is clicked.

9. Scroll down to vStore Name Mapping and map the cluster vStore/Containers:

Field Value

Source vStore default-container-####

Destination vStore <your cluster>-DR-Container

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 Virtual Machine and Data Protection

10. Click the + to the right of the vStore mapping you just created.

11. Click Save.

12. Coordinate with the students on the remote cluster to ensure they have completed this
exercise before beginning Exercise 4.

Exercise 4: Creating Protection Domains using a Remote Site

Individual Exercise

In this exercise you will configure a protection domain on your local cluster.

1. From the Data Protection dashboard, click + Protection Domain and select Async DR.

2. In the Protection Domain (Async DR) window, in the Name text box, enter <your initials>-
DR-PD.
3. Click Create.

4. Under Unprotected Entities, select your Nutanix-Clone-<your initials>-Windows-Backup

VM.
5. Click Protect Selected Entities. The VM should move under Protected Entities at the right.

6. Click Next.

7. Click New Schedule.

8. Click the Repeat every… minutes radio button and enter 60 into the text box.

9. At the right, under Remote Sites, click to select your remote cluster site name.

10. Enter 5 into the keep the keep the last… snapshots text box.

11. Click Create Schedule.

12. Click Close.

Note: At this point the protection domain is created on the local and remote
cluster and replication is started.

13. Select your <your initials>-DR-PD protection domain and below the table, click the
Replications tab. You may have to wait several minutes before you see any activity.

Exercise 5: Performing VM Migration

Individual Exercise

In this exercise you will perform a migration of your protection domain to your remote cluster.

1. From Prism Element, navigate to the Data Protection dashboard by selecting Data
Protection from the Dashboard menu if needed. Click the Async DR tab at the upper-left.

2. Select your <your initials>-DR-PD protection domain selected, in the links below the
Protection Domain table, click Migrate.

3. In the Migrate Protection Domain window, click the radio button next to your remote
cluster site name and type the word MIGRATE in the text box.

4. Click Migrate.

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 Virtual Machine and Data Protection

5. In a new browser tab, log on to your remote cluster's Prism Element as the admin user.
Refer to the lab handout for the IP address and login credentials.

6. Click the Dashboard menu and selectVM. If needed, change to the Table view.

7. When the migration has completed, you should see the VM from your protection domain in
the VM table.

8. Click to select your migrated VM and Power On.

9. Click Launch Console to verify that the VM powered on successfully.

10. Still on your remote cluster's Prism Element, click the Dashboard menu and select Data
Protection. If needed, select the Async DR tab, then select your protection domain.

11. Look in the PROTECTION DOMAIN DETAILS box and verify your protection domain mode
is set to Active. Refresh your browser if needed.

12. Switch to the browser tab for your cluster, select your protection domain and verify the
mode is set to Inactive. Refresh the browser if needed.

Exercise 6: Migrating Back to Primary

Individual Exercise

In this exercise you will migrate your VM back to your local cluster.

1. From your remote cluster's Prism Element, log on if needed, switch to the Data Protection
dashboard by selecting Data Protection from the Dashboard menu, and click the Async DR
tab.

2. Click to select your protection domain.

3. Click Migrate.

4. In the Migrate Protection Domain window, click the radio button next to your site name
and type the word MIGRATE in the text box

5. Click Migrate.

6. Switch back to your local cluster's Prism Element and switch to the VM dashboard, by
selecting VM from the Dashboard menu.

7. Wait until you see your Nutanix-Clone-<your initials>-Windows-Backup VM appear in the

table, indicating failback has occurred.

8. Click to select the VM, then click Power On.

9. Click Launch Console to verify the VM is functional.

10. Click the Dashboard menu and select Data Protection. Verify Protection Domain Mode is
set to Active again.

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 Managing Cluster Storage

Lab

8
MANAGING CLUSTER STORAGE

Exercise 1: Exploring the Storage Dashboard

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will explore the Storage dashboard and review the default storage pool and
storage containers in Prism Element.

1. From Prism Element, go to the Storage dashboard, then click Overview at the upper left.

2. Review each card on the Overview page to become familiar with the cluster-wide storage
information available at a glance. How many VMs are being hosted and how many storage
containers are available?

3. Click the Diagram tab at the upper left. The Diagram view shows a summary of the last
view that was accessed under the Table tab. What you currently see may be different the
next time you review this page. To illustrate this, get a baseline view by clicking the Table
tab and then click the Storage Pool tab.

4. The Table view shows a list of the available components based on the tab selected - in
this case storage pools. Locate the Summary section at the lower left, this should show
STORAGE SUMMARY. This is a general storage summary for the cluster. The section
to the right is a larger card, containing four tabs that define general Usage Summary,
Performance Summary, Storage Alerts and Storage Events for the cluster. Click the
default-storage-pool in the list. You should see the Summary section change from
STORAGE SUMMARY to STORAGE POOL DETAILS. This now shows details for a specific
storage pool.

5. Click the Diagram tab again and review the Summary section at the lower left. Is it the
same information you saw from the Storage Pool, Table view?

6. Click the Table tab table again and select the Storage Container tab at the upper left. How
many storage containers do you see in the list?

Note: The columns in the list give details about each storage container.

7. Click the default-container-##### and review the Summary for STORAGE CONTAINER
DETAILS at the lower left. From here you can determine if settings like compression and
deduplication have been set. You can also determine the maximum amount of space in the
storage container, as well as used space and available free space.

8. To the right of the Summary section, click Breakdown to see a list of VMs using this
container.

9. Click each of the other tabs, Storage Container Usage, Storage Container Performance,
Storage Container Alerts, and Storage Container Events to become familiar with those
sections for the default-container-#####.

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 Managing Cluster Storage

10. Click the Diagram tab once again and you should see the same SUMMARY cards from the
previous steps.

11. Return to the Overview page by clicking the Overview tab.

Exercise 2: Creating a Container with Compression

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create a new storage container with compression enabled.

1. From Prism Element, go to the Storage dashboard.

2. On the Storage dashboard Overview page, examine the Capacity Optimization widget at
the lower left.

3. In the upper right corner of the browser window, click + Storage Container.
4. In the Create Storage Container window, type: Compressed-Container in the Name field.

5. Click Advanced Settings.

6. Verify that the Compression checkbox is selected and ensure that the Delay (In Minutes)
field is set to 0.

7. Click Save.

Exercise 3: Creating a Container without Compression

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create a new storage container without compression.

1. In the upper right corner of the browser window, click + Storage Container.

2. In the Create Storage Container window, type: NotCompressed-Container in the Name

field.

3. Click Advanced Settings.

4. Uncheck the box for compression.

5. Click Save.

Exercise 4: Comparing Data in a Compressed vs Uncompressed

Container
Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will clone your original Windows VM and add two virtual disks. One
of these virtual disks will be placed in the compressed container and the other into the
uncompressed container you created in the previous exercises. Data will be generated on both
virtual disks to compare results.

Task 1: Adding Disks to a Virtual Machine

Individual Exercise

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 Managing Cluster Storage

In this task, you will add two virtual disks to the VM you cloned in an earlier exercise. One virtual
disk will be placed in the Compressed-Container and the other into the NotCompressed-
Container.

1. Navigate to Prism Element, VM dashboard, Table view.

2. Select your Windows-<your initials> VM to highlight and click Clone.

3. Change the name of the VM to DSF-<your initials> and click Save.

4. Select your DSF-<your initials> VM and Powered on.

5. Once powered on, click Update.

6. In the Update VM dialog box, scroll to the Disks section.

7. Dynamically add a new disk by clicking + Add New Disk.

8. Use the following table to complete the Add Disk dialog box:

Field Value

Type Disk

Operation Allocate on Storage Container

Bus Type SCSI

Storage Container Compressed-Container

Size (GiB) 10

Index Next Available

9. Click Add.

10. Repeat the previous steps to add a second disk of 11 GB virtual disk to the virtual machine
with the second virtual disk placed into the NotCompressed-Container.

11. Click Save.

12. Scroll down (if required) in the VM dashboard and at the lower left, under VM DETAILS,
verify the VM is utilizing three containers (refresh the browser if needed):

• Default-container-####

• Compressed-Container

• NotCompressed-Container

Task 2: Formatting the New Virtual Disks

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will format the newly added virtual disks in your Windows virtual machine so
that you can write a large file to each of the new virtual disks.

1. Select your DSF-<your initials> VM and click Launch Console.

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 Managing Cluster Storage

2. In the upper right corner of the virtual machine console window, click the Send Ctl-Alt-Del
icon to log on to your virtual machine as Administrator (see lab handout for password).

3. Start the Windows Server Manager by clicking the Windows Start button (four pane glass,
lower left) and selecting Server Manager. Click File and Storage Services in the left panel.

4. Click Disks.

5. Right-click on the 10GB disk and select Bring Online.

6. Click Yes in the Bring Disk Online warning window.

7. Repeat the previous steps to bring the second disk of 11 GB disk online.

8. Right-click the 10GB disk and select New Volume…

9. Complete the New Volume wizard as follows:

a. In Before You begin, click Next.

b. In Select the server and disk, click Next.

c. In the Offline or Uninitialized Disk warning window, click OK.

d. In Specify the size of the volume, click Next.

e. In Assign to a drive letter or folder, note the assigned drive letter (you will need this
later) and click Next.

f. In Select File System Settings, type Compressed in the Volume Label: field, then click
Next.

g. In Confirm selections, click Create.

h. When the new volume creation has completed, click Close.

10. Repeat the above steps for the 11GB disk with Volume Label set to NotCompressed (again
noting its assigned drive letter). When you are finished, both disks should have the status
Online and have GPT partitions.

11. Close the Server Manager window and leave the console window open.

Task 3: Writing Large Files to the Virtual Disks

Individual Exercise

In this task you will use the Cubic Design Disk Tool to write a large file to each new disk.

1. From the Prism Element, VM dashboard, Table view, click your DFS-<your initials> to
select and click Update.

2. Scroll down to the Disks section and click the Edit (pencil icon) to the right of the CD-ROM,
sata.0.

3. Complete the Update Disk window as follows:

Field Value

Operation Clone from Image Service

Image CubicDesignTools ISO

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 Managing Cluster Storage

4. Click Update. Click Save.

5. If the VM console window is not open from the previous lab task, click the Launch
Console link below the table of virtual machines and log on to your virtual machine as
Administrator.

6. Click the Windows Start button (four pane glass) and select File Explorer.

7. From File Explorer, on the left panel, click This PC and then double-click the
CubicDesignTools CD Drive.

8. Double click the CubicDesign-tools installer file.

9. Click Extract to install Cubic Design Tools.

10. In the File Explorer window, go to This PC, Local Disk (C:) and open the System tools
package folder.

11. Scroll down and double-click Disk Tools. The Cubic Design Disk Tool File Generator will
start.

12. In the File Generator window, make sure the File Generator tab is selected and complete
the fields as follows (leave any fields not referenced below at the default state):

Field Value

Number of Files 1 (one)

File Size 5 GB

File Name: Name Select Random name

File Name: Output Folder Enter the drive letter from the first disk, Compressed(10
GB) you added to the VM. Example: e:\

File Content: radio buttons Fill the Files with this content:

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 Managing Cluster Storage

Field Value

File Content: text box Leave the default text

When you are done, the File Generator window should look like the following screenshot
(your specific drive letter may be different from the screenshot):

13. Click Create. This process should take less than a minute to complete. You will see a Done
notice at the bottom of the File Generator window when the file creation has completed.

14. Repeat the previous steps to create a large file on the second virtual disk drive
NotCompressed (11 GB).

15. Close the File Generator window, after the process is completed.

16. In Windows File Explorer, in the left column, select each new disk and do the following:
Right-click and choose properties. Look at the used space number. Windows is showing
that approximately 5GB of space is used on each virtual disk, indicating the Windows
operating environment is completely unaware of any compression happening in the
storage containers on the back end.

Note: You may need to refresh the screen before the used space is displayed.
To do this, hit the refresh circle to the right of the path field near the top of the
dialog box.

17. Close the VM console window.

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 Managing Cluster Storage

Task 4: Observing the Result of Compression Savings

Individual Exercise

In this task, you will observe the result of container compression from Prism Element.

1. Switch to the Storage dashboard and click the Overview tab.

2. Examine the Capacity Optimization widget.

Do you see any immediate savings reported?

Note: This can take several hours for a value to appear in this widget.

3. Click Table, then select Storage Container.

4. In the Storage Container table, for Compressed-Container and NotCompressed-Container,

look in the Used column and compare the amount of physical space used.

Do you see a difference?

The Compressed-Container should be using significantly less space than the

NotCompressed-Container.

5. Click to select Compressed-Container.

6. Below the table, at the lower left, examine the values for the compressed container. The
information presented here, provides additional storage saving details for this container.

Note: This can take several hours for a value to appear in these fields.

7. From the VM dashboard, remove the DSF-<your initials> VM by selecting the VM from the
list and clicking Delete. Check the box to delete all snapshots.

8. From the Storage dashboard, click to select Compressed-Container and click Delete. Click
Delete in the verification pop-up.

9. Repeat the previous step to delete the uncompressed container.

Exercise 5: Migrating vDisks between Storage Containers

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create a new storage container, add a vDisks to a VM, and migrating
the vDisk between storage containers.

1. From Prism Element, go to the Storage dashboard.

2. Click + Storage Container and configure the following:

Field Value

Name NewSC-<your initials> (e.g. NewSC-ABC)

Storage Pool Use default storage pool

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 Managing Cluster Storage

Field Value

Advanced Settings Do not configure Advanced Settings

3. Click Save.

4. Switch to the VM dashboard.

5. Select your Windows-<your initials> VM to highlight and click Clone.

6. Change the name of the VM to mvdisk-<your initials> and click Save.

7. Select your mvdisk-<your initials> VM and Power on.

8. Once powered on, click Update.

9. In the Update VM dialog box, scroll to the Disks section.

10. Dynamically add a new disk by clicking + Add New Disk.

11. Use the following table to complete the Add Disk dialog box:

Field Value

Type Disk

Operation Allocate on Storage Container

Bus Type SCSI

Storage Container default-container-#####

Size (GiB) 2

Index Next Available

12. Click Add.

13. Click Save.

14. With the VM still selected, review the Summary, VM DETAILS section at the lower left. The
VM should only be using the default-storage container.

15. In the panel to the right, click Virtual Disks. You should see the original 25 GiB disk and the
new 2 GiB disk. Take note of the 2 GiB disk type.#. Example: scsi.1

16. Go to the Storage dashboard and click the default-container. Below the storage container
table, under the Breakdown tab, you should see your mvdisk-<your initials> VM in the list
twice, once for the 25 GiB disk and again for the 2 GiB disk.

17. From the storage container table, click your NewSC-<your initials> container. Under
Breakdown, you should not see any VMs listed.

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 Managing Cluster Storage

18. Migrating a disk or disks from one container to another is currently done by command line
on a cluster CVM. Using anSSH Client like PuTTY, SSH to a cluster CVM using the Cluster
Virtual IP address and login credentials from the lab handout.

Migrate the 2 GiB disk to the your NewSC-<your initials> container. At the command line,
type the command:
acli vm.update_container mvdisk-<your initials> disk_addr_list=scsi.# container=NewSC-
<your initials>

19. Once completed, return to Prism Element, Storage dashboard and click the default-
container. Under Breakdown, your VM should only be listed once.

20. Now select the NewSC-<your initials> storage container and under Breakdown you should
see the 2 GiB disk. The 2 GiB disk was migrated from the default-container to the NewSC-
<your initials> container.

Note: To migrate all the disks of a VM using the following command:

acli vm.update_container <VM name> container=<Destination Storage
Container name>

21. From the VM dashboard, remove the mvdisk-<your initials> VM by selecting the VM from
the list and clicking Delete. Check the box to delete all snapshots.

22. From the Storage dashboard, click to select NewSC-<your initials> and click Delete. Click
Delete in the verification pop-up.

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Lab

9
MIGRATING WORKLOADS WITH NUTANIX
MOVE
In this lab, you will migrate workloads from ESXi to AHV using Nutanix Move.

Exercise 1: Preparing a VM for Migration

Group Exercise

In this exercise, you will work together to prepare a virtual machine for migration.

1. Open a new tab on your browser and enter the IP of the ESXi Server from the lab handout.
Log on with the user and password from the your lab handout.

2. At the top of the middle section, click Create/Register VM.

3. In the New virtual machine wizard, select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA
file and click Next.

4. Enter a name for the VM: <your cluster name>-VM and click in the the blue box to select an
OVA file. See the lab handout for the path to the Windows_template.ova file.

5. Click Next.

6. Under Select storage, select default-container-##### from the list and click Next.

7. In Deployment options, select the options in the table below:

Field Value

Network Mapping Select VM Network from the drop down menu.

Disk Provisioning Thin

Power on Automatically The checkbox should be selected

8. Click Next.

9. On the Ready to complete page, click Finish.

10. Monitor the VM deployment status in Recent tasks. Do not close the browser until the
deployment of the VM completes (about 5 minutes).

Exercise 2: Deploying a Move VM

Group Exercise

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 Migrating Workloads with Nutanix Move

In this exercise, you will work together as a group to deploy the Move VM on a Nutanix AHV
cluster.

1. Log on to Prism Central as the admin user, if needed.

2. From the Entities menu, select Compute & Storage, then click VMs.

3. Click Create VM.

4. Enter the following under the Configuration tab:

Field Value

Name <cluster name>-Move-VM

Description Leave blank.

This should default to your cluster. If multiple clusters

Cluster
are listed, select your cluster.

Number of VMs 1

VM Properties CPU = 2, Cores per CPU = 2, Memory = 8

5. Click Next.

6. Under the Resources tab, locate the Disks section and click Attach Disk.

7. Enter the following into the Attach Disk dialog box:

Field Value

Type DISK

Operation Clone from Image

Image Move qcow2 image from the lab handout.

Bus Type Leave default

8. Click Save. You should now see the new disk image listed in the the Disks section.

9. Now add a virtual network. In the Networks section, click Attach to Subnet.

10. Enter the following into the Attach to Subnet dialog box:

Field Value

Subnet Select the subnet shown in the lab handout.

Network Connection State Connected

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 Migrating Workloads with Nutanix Move

11. Click Save. You should now see the new subnet listed in the the Networks section.

12. Click Next.

13. Under the Management tab, leave the defaults and click Next.

14. Review the VM configuration under the Review tab. If all is correct, click Create VM.

Note: If you need to correct any settings, click the Back button to return to the
appropriate section. You can then click the trashcan to remove or the pencil to
edit existing configurations.

15. Click the <cluster name>-Move-VM name in the VM list to get to the VM details page. From
the More menu, click Power on.

16. In the Properties section, locate the IP ADDRESS field to identify the IP address of the
Move VM.

17. Open a new tab in your browser and enter the IP of your Move VM.

18. Select the I have read and agreed to terms and conditions checkbox and click Continue.

19. Click OK in the Customer Experience Program pop-up window.

20. Set a new password for the Nutanix user. See the lab handout for the Move VM Nutanix
user password.

21. Log on using the new user and password.

22. If you get a pop-up notice, click Continue.

Exercise 3: Configuring Move

Group Exercise

1. The Move dashboard displays Select Source and Target, Add VMs to the Plan, and Move
VMs. At the upper left, click + Add Environment.

2. In the Add Environment dialog box, under Select Environment Type, select VMware ESXi.

3. Enter the following values into the respective fields:

Field Value

Environment Name Lab ESXi Server

vCenter Server or standalone <ESXi IP address> See lab handout

ESXi host

User Name See lab handout

ESXi Password See lab handout

a. Click Add.

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 Migrating Workloads with Nutanix Move

4. In the new Lab ESXi Server card, click the ellipsis (…) in the upper right corner and in the
presented menu, choose Refresh. This will initiate a query to update Move with the latest
changes in the ESXi Server.

5. Click +Add Environment again to add your Nutanix cluster.

6. In the Add Environment dialog box, under Select Environment Type, select Nutanix AOS

7. Enter the following values into the respective fields:

Field Value

Environment Name <your cluster name> See lab handout for your cluster
name

Nutanix Environment <cluster virtual IP address> See lab handout

User Name admin

Password See lab handout

8. Click Add.

9. In the <your cluster name> card, click the ellipsis (…) in the upper right corner and
in the presented menu choose Refresh. This will initiate a query to update Move with the
latest changes in your Nutanix target cluster.

Exercise 4: Configuring a Migration Plan

Group Exercise

In this exercise, you will work together to create a migration plan and initiate the migration.

1. In the right (large) panel, click Create a Migration Plan.

2. In the Enter Migration Plane Name dialog box:

Plan Name: <cluster name> Test Plan

3. Click Proceed.

4. On the Source & Target page, select your source (Lab ESXi Server) and target (<three
initials>-<your cluster name>). In the Target Container menu, select the default-container.
Click Next.

5. On the Select VMs page, at the top right, locate the All VMs dropdown menu and select
Migratable VMs from the menu to filter out VMs that are non-migratable.

6. Locate your VM by paging through the list using the blue arrows at the upper right. Once
located, click the blue dot with the plus sign inside. Ensure the VM name is listed at the
right under Added VMs. Click Next.

7. On the Network configuration page, under Target Network, select Managed Network.

8. Under Test Network (Optional), select Unmanaged Network and click Next.

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 Migrating Workloads with Nutanix Move

9. On the VM Preparation page, configure the following:

Field Value

Preparation Mode Automatic

Windows VMs, User Name administrator

Password See lab handout

10. Leave the remaining fields at their default values and click Next.

11. On the VM Settings page, keep the defaults and click Next.

12. Review the summary and click Save and Start. Once the migration plan has been created,
you should see Validating Plan in the Status column. This will change to In Progress once
validation is complete.

13. Click In Progress to monitor migration progress.

14. Monitor the progress as the Migration Status/Details columns change status from Prepare
Source VM to ultimately being Ready to Cutover.

15. When is shows Ready to Cutover, select the checkbox next to your VM, click Test Actions,
and select Create Test VM. Click Continue in the Are you sure… dialog box.

16. Follow the progress in the Migration Status and Details columns to chart progress. Once
the Status shows View Test VM, the migration Test VM has been created.

17. Switch to the Prism Central browser tab and go to Entities, Compute & Storage, VMs
page. Confirm the Test VM has been migrated and is powered on.

18. Go back to the Move VM browser tab, select the checkbox next to your VM, click Test
Actions, and select Remove Test VM. Click Continue in the Are you sure… dialog box.

19. Follow the progress in the Migration Status and Details columns to chart progress. Once
the status shows Ready to Cutover, the Test VM has been removed.

20. Select the checkbox next to your VM and click Cutover. Click Continue in the Are you
sure… dialog box.

Follow the progress in the Migration Status and Details columns to chart progress. Once
the Status shows Completed, the migration is done.

21. Go back to the Prism Central browser tab and in the VM list, verify your VM has
successfully migrated and is powered on.

22. Go to your vSphere Web Client and check the status of the migrated VM. You may need
to refresh the web client. Your VM should be in a powered off state. At this time, you may
delete the VM on the ESXi server (right-click the VM and select Delete). Typically, this is
only done after the migration has been thoroughly tested.

23. From Prism Central, delete the Move VM and the migrated VM.

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 Monitoring Cluster Performance

Lab

10
MONITORING CLUSTER PERFORMANCE

Exercise 1: Creating a Prism Central Performance Monitoring

Dashboard
Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create a custom dashboard to monitor performance for one or more
clusters. This custom dashboard will give an “at a glance” view of the overall performance of
your clusters.

1. Log on to Prism Central if needed and ensure you can see and access your cluster from the
main dashboard.

2. At the top left, click Manage Dashboards and in the new pop-up dialog box, click + New
Dashboard.

3. Type <your initials> Performance Monitoring Dashboard and click Save.

4. Select your new dashboard tab and click + Add Widgets at the upper right or Add
Widgets in the center of the UI.

5. In the left column, find the HARDWARE WIDGETS section. Below this are predefined
performance monitoring widgets that will automatically monitor all clusters registered to
your Prism Central. Select Cluster CPU Usage.

6. The Cluster CPU Usage widget is placed in the center of the open space. Click Or, Add &
Return to Dashboard at the lower right to continue.

7. You should now see the new Cluster CPU Usage widget displayed in the Performance
Monitoring Dashboard. Click +Add Widgets and add the rest of the items under
HARDWARE WIDGETS to the Performance Monitoring Dashboard. For each, click the Add
to Dashboard button to stay on the Add Widgets page.

8. When the last widget has been added, click the X at the upper right to exit the Add
Widgets page.

9. Review the widgets added to the Performance Monitoring Dashboard. Your cluster may
not show any readings until Prism Central goes through its refresh cycle.

10. Return to the Add Widgets page and click Custom Chart in the left column. This allows you
to configure a customized widget to view other entities like hosts, disks, storage containers,
and virtual machines. At the upper right, configure the custom widget as follows:

Field Value

Widget Name <your_cluster_name> Disk IOPS

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 Monitoring Cluster Performance

Field Value

Entity Type host

Entity <your_clusters_first_node>

Metric Disk IOPS

11. Click Or, Add & Return to Dashboard and review the new custom widget.

12. Return to the Add Widgets page and add at least two more custom widgets.

13. Review the new custom Performance Monitoring Dashboard.

Note: This dashboard is only used to monitor general performance. If anomalies are
detected, a more detailed chart can be created.

Exercise 2: Creating Charts to Analyze Metrics using Prism Central

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create custom charts to monitor performance for one or more metrics
within your cluster. These custom charts will give a more detailed view of the performance of
the selected metrics.

1. Login to Prism Central if needed.

2. Go to Entities, Operations, Analysis. On the Analysis dashboard, a session is an instance

that contains a set of one or more charts. You can create multiple sessions to be used
to consolidate charts for different purposes. This is like having multiple desktops on a
computer.

3. The Analysis Session is default. If you see anything other than Analysis Session at the
upper left, this means there is more than one session available. To create a new session,
click Switch Sessions and select + Create New Session.
4. The new session will be untitled. Click the pencil icon next to Untitled Session to edit and
enter <your initials> Session.

5. Click + Add Chart to get the Add Chart dialog box.

6. Configure the chart to show the Memory Usage % for all nodes in your cluster:

Field Value

Entity Host

Search Entities Select all hosts

Metric Memory Usage (%)

Chart Name Hosts Memory Usage (%)

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 Monitoring Cluster Performance

7. Click Add.

8. The new chart is now displayed.

9. Click on Range: 1 Day at the upper right to change the time scale of the chart to 3
hours. Move your mouse cursor to hover over the time scale near the top of the UI to
highlight. Once highlighted, you see a blue shaded section of the time scale. This shaded
area represents the 3 hour range selected. With the time scale range highlighted, note
the time for the left shaded area boundary. Click on the left boundary and drag to the
middle of the blue shade section. When released, the blue section will shift to the new time
parameters and display across the UI once again. Note the left boundary time is the time
point you moved it to earlier.

10. Hover the cursor over the Hosts Memory Usage (%) chart. A small pop-up displays all the
hosts in the cluster (all hosts were selected in step 6) with their current memory usage
percentage. Move the mouse cursor left and right to show memory usage at different time
intervals. You can also remove and re-add the hosts from the chart view by de-selecting
and re-selecting the checkboxes next to each hosts name.

11. Add a new chart to view Storage Controller IOPS. Click + Add Chart:

Field Value

Entity Host

Search Entities Select all hosts

Metric Storage Controller IOPS

Chart Name Hosts Storage Controller IOPS

12. Click Add.

13. With the new Storage Controller IOPS chart now displayed, you can start interpreting data
more comprehensively through comparisons and correlations.

Note: Although there is little activity, you can see the advantages of multiple
metric types for the same entities along the same timeline.

14. Click + Add Chart and in the Add Chart dialog box, select an entity type of your choice
and select the entity or entities from the search field. Scroll through the Metric options
and add to the Memory Usage/Storage IOPS relationship story or create another metrics
relationship story.

15. Remove your charts by selecting the virtical elipse on the right side of each chart and then
select Delete.

16. Click Prism on the top bar to exit the Analysis dashboard.

Exercise 3: Creating and Managing Reports

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will create, configure, and run a report.

1. Log on to Prism Central if needed.

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 Monitoring Cluster Performance

2. On the Prism Central Main Dashboard, click the Entities menu, select Operations, then click
Reports. By default the Reports dashboard displays the Cluster Efficiency Summary, Data
Protection and Recovery Summary and Environment Summary reports.

The cluster efficiency summary report provides detailed information about the predictive
utilization and runway information of all 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) and licensing information for clusters registered to Prism Central.

3. On the Reports dashboard, click + New Report.

4. At the top middle of the page, click the pencil sign next to New Report and rename to
<your initials> Runway Report. Click OK.

5. Under Add Views, click the Predefined tab.

6. Under PREDEFINED VIEWS, select CPU Runway, Memory Runway, and Storage Runway.
As you select these, the charts are created under Report Preview.

7. At the upper right, click Add Schedule. In the dialog box, enter the following:

Field Value

REPORT RUNS Daily

GENERATE TIME Select a time

REPORT TIME PERIOD Last 24 Hours

8. Click Add.

9. At the lower left, click Report Settings.

10. Under the Appearance tab, you can customize the reports appearance by using custom
logos, colors, and copywrite information.

11. Click the Email Settings tab. Providing SMTP server details allows reports to be
automatically sent via the reporting schedule.

12. Click the Report Retention tab. From here, you can define how many and for how long
reports are kept. Change the Number of Instances to 2, click the Time duration radio
button and set to 7 Days.

13. Click the Report Format tab. From here, you can choose the report to be created as a PDF
or CSV file. Select PDF.

14. Click Save to save the custom settings.

15. At the lower right, click Save and Run Now.

16. Enter the following information into the Run Report window:

Field Value

REPORT INSTANCE NAME <your initials> Runway Report

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 Monitoring Cluster Performance

Field Value

TIMEZONE Select your timezone

Report Format PDF

17. Click Run. A report is generated.

18. To view the report, click on the hyperlink of your Runway Report.

19. Click the PDF hyperlink under Download and save to your local desktop.

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Lab

11
MONITORING CLUSTER HEALTH

Exercise 1: Using Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) Health Checks

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will use the Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) utility to perform a systems
check. NCC enables you to perform cluster health checks, collect cluster logs for Nutanix
Support, as well as other useful functions.

1. Log on to Prism Element, if needed.

2. Navigate to the Health dashboard. You should get a Welcome to Health Page dialog box.
The first time you access the Health dashboard, you have the opportunity to run a Health
tutorial simulation. If you have the Health Tutorial dialog box, review the information
and click Next. If you did not get the Health Tutorial dialog box, locate the ? at the upper
right and click the menu arrow immediately to the right. Select Health Tutorial, review the
information, then click Next.

3. Continue through the tutorial by reviewing each section and clicking Next.

4. To see all the available checks that can be used to determine the health of the cluster, click
Checks at the upper right (this may already be selected). Scroll through the checks to see
what is available. Hovering your mouse cursor over a check provides additional information.

5. To run a complete systems check on the cluster, click the Actions menu at the upper right
and select Run NCC Checks. Select All Checks and uncheck Send the cluster check report
in the email, then click Run.

6. While the NCC health checks are running, open the Tasks dashboard and follow the NCC
progress.
7. Once the task has completed, display the summary by clicking Succeeded in the Status
column.

8. In the View Summary, download a detailed log by clicking Download Output. Review the
downloaded file. The Knowledge Base (KB) articles shown in the output file can be found on
the Nutanix Support Portal. For example, if you have KB 3005, you can access this article at
http://portal.nutanix.com/kb/3005. This allows you to attempt to resolve the issue yourself
without assistance from Nutanix Support.

Exercise 2: Collecting Logs for Support

Individual Exercise

In this exercise, you will collect logs from Controller VMs and hosts and download the results.

1. From the Prism Element, navigate to the Health dashboard. From the Actions dropdown
menu, select Collect Logs.

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 Monitoring Cluster Health

2. Under the Node Selection tab, click + Select Nodes. Select all your cluster nodes and click
Done.

3. Click Next.

4. Under the Log Settings tab, select Specific (by Tags), then click + Select Tags.

5. Select tags for acropolis, ahv_config, ahv_logs, container_info, disk_usage_info, ncc,

Prism, stargate, and Zookeeper.

6. Click Done.

7. Click Next.

8. Under the Output Preferences tab, for Select Duration select 2 Days and Select
Destination for the collected logs to be Download Locally.

9. Click Collect.

10. Navigate to the Tasks dashboard to check the status. Once completed, the status will show
Succeeded. Click the Succeeded hyperlink to download the logs and save to your local
desktop.

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Lab

12
INVESTIGATING AND REMEDIATING
PERFORMANCE ISSUES

Exercise 1: Working with Alerts

Group Exercise
If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this exercise. In this exercise, you will explore
Prism Central Alerts and create a new custom Alert Policy.

1. On the Prism Central Main Dashboard, click the Entities menu and navigate to Activity,
Alerts. 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).

2. Click the alert title to review detailed information about that alert. The alert details display
in the left column. Possible causes for the alert display to the right. The most likely cause
displays 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.
At the upper right, click X to close the alert.

3. 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 monitor entities such as VMs, hosts, and cluster. Click Alert Policies at the upper
left and then click User Defined in the sub menu.

4. Click Create Alert Policy and configure the following:

Field Value

Entity Type Cluster

Entity One cluster | <select your cluster>

Metric Memory Usage

Policy Name <cluster name> - Cluster Memory Usage

Description Cluster Memory Usage Alert Policy

Impact Type Performance

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 Investigating and Remediating Performance Issues

Field Value

Auto resolve alerts Checked

Enable Policy Checked

Behavioral Anomaly Every time there is an anomaly alert | Warning

Static Threshold Alert Critical if | > 90%

Trigger alert if conditions 60 minutes

persist for

5. Click Save to save the alert policy.

6. On the Alerts page, click on List. You should now see all alerts, resolved and not resolved.

Exercise 2: Exploring Events

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this exercise. In this exercise, you will explore
Prism Central events.

1. On the Prism Central Main Dashboard, Click the Entities menu and navigate to Activity,
Events. The Events dashboard 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.

2. Click the Create Time column header. This toggles the event list latest-to-earliest or earliest-
to-latest.

3. Click the Export link to download the table of events in CSV format.
4. At the far right of the filters field, click Modify Filters. This displays a pane for selecting filter
values. Check the box for each value to include in the filter. You can include multiple values.

5. Click any event title to display the details page for an event. The event details appear in the
left column. Additional information, such as a description or performance graph, appears to
the right.

6. Click the X icon at the upper right to close the details screen.

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Lab

13
PERFORMING CLUSTER MAINTENANCE

Exercise 1: Verifying Cluster Health

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, this exercise can be done together or individually. In this exercise,
you will verify if the cluster can tolerate a single-node failure before performing operations such
as restarting a CVM or AHV host and putting an AHV host into maintenance mode.

1. In the Prism Element, go to the Alerts page and review and resolve any critical alerts.

Note: If you receive alerts indicating expired encryption certificates or a key

manager is not reachable, resolve these issues before you shut down the cluster.
If you do not resolve these issues, data loss of the cluster might occur.

2. Verify if the cluster can tolerate a single-node failure by going to Prism Element, Home
page, check the status of the Data Resiliency Status widget. Verify that the status is OK. If
the status is anything other than OK, resolve the indicated issues before you perform any
maintenance activity.

Exercise 2: Node Maintenance Mode

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this exercise. In this exercise, you will place a
node into maintenence mode. You are required to gracefully place a node into the maintenance
mode or non-operational state to conduct node maintenance activities such as:

• making changes to the network configuration of a node

• performing manual firmware upgrades or replacements
• performing CVM maintenance
• any other maintenance operations

Task 1: Putting a Node into Maintenance Mode

Group Exercise

If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task.

1. Log on to Prism Element, if needed.

2. From the dashboard menu, select Hardware, Table, Hosts.

3. Select the node which you intend to put under maintenance.

4. Click Enter Maintenance Mode.

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 Performing Cluster Maintenance

5. In the Host Maintenance pop-up, click Enter Maintenance Mode.

6. A revolving icon appears next to the selected node and also in the Host Details view. This
indicates that the host is entering the maintenance mode. Entering maintenance mode may
take a couple of minutes. You will know it has finished when you see the Exit Maintenance
Mode option. You may need to refresh your browser. You can also monitor the progress of
the node maintenance operation from the Tasks dashboard.

Task 2: Exiting a Node from Maintenance Mode

Group Exercise
If you are sharing a cluster, work together for this task.

1. Log on to Prism Element, if needed.

2. From the dashboard menu, select Hardware, Table, Hosts.

3. Select the node which you intend to remove from maintenance mode.

4. Click Exit Maintenance Mode.

5. In the Host Maintenance pop-up, click Exit Maintenance Mode.

6. A revolving icon appears next to the selected node and also in the Host Details view. This
indicates that the host is exiting maintenance mode. You can also monitor the progress of
the node maintenance operation from the Tasks dashboard.

Note: May require host reboot if stuck to Exit Maintenance mode.

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Lab

14
UPGRADING SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE

Exercise 1: Lifecycle Manager

Group Exercise

In this exercise, you will use LCM to run an inventory on Prism Central. The result of this
inventory will be a list of upgradeable software components and links to perform upgrades. You
will perform an individual package upgrade. Check with your instructor to see if Internet access
is available and follow the appropriate steps.

If Internet access is available:

1. Log on to Prism Central, if needed.

2. Go to Entities, Administration and select LCM.

3. Click Inventory, then click Perform Inventory. Click Proceed in the pop-up window.

Note: This may take 10-15 minutes. Wait for the Perform Inventory task to
complete before proceeding to the next step.

4. When the Perform Inventory task has completed, click Back to Inventory. You should see a
list of software components and their current versions.

How many software components so you see?

5. Click the Software tab at the top of the page.

Which components do you see in the Software Update list?

In a production environment, you can update any or all items displayed by the Perform
Inventory task.

6. Select the checkbox for NCC and click View Update Plan.

7. Once the Update Plan has been generated, review the plan and click Apply 1 Update.
8. When the update is complete, click Back to Software Updates. You should no longer see
NCC in the update list.

9. Click the Inventory tab and review the NCC version.

Has it been updated?

If Internet access is not available:

1. Log on to Prism Central, if needed.

2. Go to Entities, Administration and select LCM.

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 Upgrading Software and Firmware

3. Click the Settings tab. Under Update Source, configure the following:

Field Value

Source Dark Site (Local Web Server)

http://<LCM_Web_Server_IP>/release. See your lab

URL
handout for the LCM Web Server IP address

4. Click Save.

5. Click Inventory, then click Perform Inventory. Click Proceed in the pop-up window.

Note: This may take 10-15 minutes. Wait for the Perform Inventory task to
complete before proceeding to the next step.

6. When the Perform Inventory task has completed, click Back to Inventory. You should see a
list of software components and their current versions.

How many software components so you see?

7. Click the Software tab at the top of the page.

Which components do you see in the Software Update list?

In a production environment, you can update any or all items displayed by the Perform
Inventory task.

8. Select the checkbox for NCC and click View Update Plan.

9. Once the Update Plan has been generated, review the plan and click Apply 1 Update.

10. When the update is complete, click Back to Software Updates. You should no longer see
NCC in the update list.

11. Click the Inventory tab and review the NCC version.

Has it been updated?

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