Installing Nutanix Community Edition (CE) on VMware

ESXi/vSphere

In this Document, I will explain how to install 3 node Nutanix cluster in VMWare
ESXi/vSphere

Prerequisites

 Make sure you have a list of IP-Addresses available on your own LAN that are not in use
 For each node 2 ips (AHV and CVM)
 These addresses should be accessible from your management machine
 1 IP for the cluster virtual IP
 1 IP for each Prism Central virtual machine
 1 IP for Prism Central virtual IP
 Have enough memory available on the VMware environment.
 at least 32GB of Memory
 4 CPU Cores minimum
 64GB Boot Disk minimum
 200GB Hot Tier Disk minimum
 500GB Cold Tier Disk minimum.

So, if we want a 3-node Nutanix CE cluster we need 96GB RAM 32GB for each Node I
will create a 3-node cluster and give pointers to make a 1-node cluster.

First, make sure you have the latest Nutanix CE installer (ISO) downloaded from here.

https://next.nutanix.com/discussion-forum-14/download-community-edition-38417

Make a sheet with the IP-Addresses you are going to use:

For example

 Node 1:
 AHV 10.0.0.81
 CVM 10.0.0.82
 Node 2:
 AHV 10.0.0.83
 CVM 10.0.0.84
  Node 3:
 AHV 10.0.0.85
 CVM 10.0.0.86
 Cluster Virtual IP: 10.0.0.80
 Netmask 255.0.0.0
 Gateway: 10.0.0.254

In ESXi or vCenter enable promiscuous mode and Forged transmits on the port group or virtual
switch (in some cases the MAC address change must also be accepted)

Create a virtual machine

Give your virtual machine a name and select the guest os (Linux –> CentOS 7)
Select the datastore to store the virtual machine. Make sure it is fast storage
In customized settings TAP
Change/Add the following things:

 CPU: 4
 Enable Hardware virtualization
 Memory: 64GB;
 Hard Disk 1 (This is the AHV Boot Disk)
 128GB
 Thin Provisioned
 Controller location: SCSI (0:0), don’t use SATA;
 Hard Disk 2 (This is the CVM Disk)
 200GB;
 Thin Provisioned
 Controller location: SCSI (0:1), don’t use SATA;
 Hard Disk 3 (This is the Data Disk)
 500GB;
 Thin Provisioned
  Controller location: SCSI (0:3), don’t use SATA
 SCSI Controller: VMware Paravirtual
 Network Adapter 1: Select the network (vlan/subnet) where the Cluster should be
running
 CD/DVD Drive 1: Select the CE installer iso file
 Remove the USB controller.
Create the VM. Edit the virtual machine and navigate to: VM options –> Advanced –> Edit
Configuration

Add parameter: disk.EnableUUID with value: TRUE

Save the configuration and start the virtual machine. Wait until the CE installer wizard is shown.
Make sure the disk serials are populated. Select the correct disks with their purpose and
provide the correct IP addresses. Don’t select: Create single-node cluster.
Follow the next steps and let the installer run. When the installer is ready reboot the virtual
machine (don’t forget to unmount the CE installer ISO).

Repeat the above steps 2 more times for the 2 other nodes (with their own IP addresses)
You should now have 3 nodes running

When all nodes are booted make sure you can ping all IP addresses from your workstation and
from each cvm to each other. If this is not working then make sure the port group/virtual switch
is configured correctly.
Login, via ssh, to one of the CVM with the default credentials nutanix (username) nutanix/4u
(password).
When you are in the cvm run: watch -d genesis status

You should see service is running and we must ensure this service is running on all nodes.
After making sure the service is running now we can create the cluster
For a three-node cluster the command is
cluster -s <cvm_ip_1>,<cvm_ip_2>,<cvm_ip_3> create

As we didn’t specify DNS servers during cluster creation, Community Edition will configure 2
Google DNS servers.
The cluster is accessible via https://<cvm_ip>:9440. Login with admin nutanix/4u

After login, you need to log in with your Nutanix Community account. Make sure you are
registered from here
https://www.nutanix.com/products/community-edition/register

And there you have it, a 3-node cluster nested running on VMware.

Now you are ready to configure the cluster to your needs (NTP, DNS, containers, prism central,
password, files, etc.)
Installing Prism Central vm in Prism
element
Download and extract the Prism Central files for AHV from here
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/downloads?product=prism
Copy the three virtual disks you extracted to your workstation or other accessible location.
For example, for pc.2020.9, the three files are:
 pc.2020.9-boot.qcow2
 pc.2020.9-data.qcow2
 pc.2020.9-home.qcow2
Log on to the Prism web console of the target cluster and select Image Configuration from the Settings menu
available from the gear icon.

Enter a name, for example, pc_boot, and an optional description (annotation) for the boot image.
Select Disk as the image type.
Select a storage container to use from the pull-down list.
Select Upload a file and select the boot image you downloaded.
Click the Save button.
Repeat this step for the home and data disk image files.
Create a new VM from the images as follows:
In the VM dashboard, click the Create VM button.
In the Create VM window, enter the appropriate information in the name, compute details, and memory
fields, and (if needed) click the Add New NIC button to create a network interface for the VM.
The recommended VM size is 6 vCPUs, 26 GB of memory, and 500 GiB of storage for a "small" Prism
Central VM or 10 vCPUs, 44 GB of memory, and 2500 GiB of storage for a "large" Prism Central VM.
Click the Add New Disk button and attach a boot disk.
Enter the following information in the Add Disk window and then the click the Add button:
 Type: Select Disk.
 Operation: Select Clone from Image Service.
 Bus Type: Select SCSI.
 Storage Container: Select a storage container from the list of available for the Prism
 Image: Select boot image file you saved from the list of images.
 Size (GiB): Enter the disk size (in GiB)

Click the Add New Disk button again and attach the home disk.
The steps are the same as for the boot disk except the image file name. Choose the home image file.
Click the Add New Disk button again and attach the data disk.
The steps are the same as for the boot disk except the image file name Choose the data image file.
When all the settings are correct, click the Save button to create the VM.
Go to the VM dashboard table view, select the new VM (in the table), and then click the Power on action
If the power on is disabled go to any cvm in the cluster using ssh and run
nutanix@cvm$ acli vm.on pc_vm_name [host="host_name" ]
Launch the console (click the Launch Console action link) and log into the Prism Central VM (user name
"nutanix" and password "nutanix/4u").
AOpen the ifcfg-eth0 file for editing.
The following command opens the file using the vi editor:
ssign a static IP address to the Prism Central VM as follows:
$ sudo vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Add or update the NETMASK, IPADDR, BOOTPROTO, and GATEWAY entries as needed.
NETMASK="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
IPADDR="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
BOOTPROTO="none"
GATEWAY="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
Warning: Carefully check the file to ensure there are no syntax errors, whitespace at the end of lines, or
blank lines in the file.
Save the changes.
Remove any existing Nutanix Controller VM entries, that is ones which include "NTNX-<number>-CVM",
from the /etc/hosts file. (Be careful that you do not remove any other entries from the file.)
To edit the file using vi, enter
$ sudo vi /etc/hosts
When the Prism Central VM starts the first time and DHCP is enabled in the network, an entry similar to
the following is added to the /etc/hosts file. This entry (if present) needs to be removed from
the /etc/hosts file before restarting the Prism Central VM in the next step, which generates a new entry if
DHCP is enabled.
127.0.0.1 NTNX-10-3-190-99-A-CVM
Restart the Prism Central VM.
$ sudo reboot
Log on to the Prism Central VM again and then enter the following command to create a cluster:
$ cluster --cluster_function_list="multicluster" -s static_ip_address create
The static_ip_address is the Prism Central VM IP address.
After installing prism central we need to ensure about ports between prism central and cvms and the
cluster virtual ip address from here
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/list?type=software&filterKey=software&filterVal=Ports
%20and%20Protocols&productType=Prism%20Central
after configuring the ports
Log in to the Prism Element web console on the target cluster as the admin user.
In the Actions dropdown menu, click Health > Run Checks to run Nutanix Cluster Checks.
Do either of the following:
In the Home dashboard, click Register or create new from the Prism Central widget.
 Click the Settings icon, and navigate to Setup > Prism Central Registration in the Settings page.
In the Prism Central Registration window, click Connect.
Click Next after reviewing the message.
Enter the following information:
 Prism Central IP:
 Port: The default port number is 9440
 Username: Indicates the user name for Prism Central. You can enter admin as the Prism Central
user name.
 Password: Indicates the password for the Prism Central user.
Click Connect to save the values and close the window.
The cluster is now registered with the specified Prism Central VM. After successful registration, the system
allows passing information between the specified cluster and Prism Central.

Deploy Nutanix Files For NKE

What Is Nutanix Files
Nutanix Files (Files) is a software-defined, scale-out file storage solution that
lets you share files in a centralized and protected location to eliminate the
requirement for a third-party file server.
Files uses a scale-out architecture that provides file services to clients
through the Server Message Block (SMB) and Network File System (NFS)
protocols. Files combines one or more file server VMs (FSVMs) into a logical
file server instance, sometimes referred to as a Files cluster. You can create
multiple file servers within a single Nutanix cluster.

Nutanix Files Installation Prerequisites

Before deploying Nutanix Files, you need to:

 Install the File Server Module (FSM) from the Downloads page on the Support Portal, or upgrade
to a compatible version using the Life-Cycle Manager (LCM).

 Configure and define the storage network

 Configure and define the client network

 Have at least one network (two networks recommended)

 Set up a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server

  If you use Active Directory for user authentication, have credentials of the domain administrator
or a user with delegated permissions

 If using SMB shares, enable the distributed file system (DFS) for Windows clients (on by default)

 If you plan to use LDAP for NFS with permissions required for search, have credentials of the
bind distinguished name (DN)

 (ESXi clusters only) Have vCenter registered with all of the ESXi hosts in the AOS cluster
managed by the same vCenter

 Have an assigned iSCSI Data Services IP configured for the clusters

 NFS clients should have unique hostnames.

Minimum Configurations:
File servers require the following minimum configurations:
 A minimum of 4 vCPUs per host.
 A minimum of 12 GiB of memory per host.
 For each file server, the number of CVMs must equal to or be greater than the
number of FSVMs to ensure availability in case of node failure.

The storage network requires at least one additional IP address than the
number of FSVMs. The client network requires the same number of IP
addresses as the number of FSVM nodes.
 Storage network: Number of FSVMs + 1 (available IP addresses)
 Client network: Number of FSVMs

Port Requirements:
Installation Steps:
Go to prism element (Main Menu Bar) and choose File server.

Step (2):
You will
see the page of file server is empty so click on [ + File server ] to
start deploy a new File Server.

Step (3):
Here you see the prerequisites you should prepared it and you can
click on view prerequisites to see on the portal of Nutanix.

Step (4):
Write the name of the file server which you need to deploy, DNS
domain and the capacity of the file server.
Also, you see every file server will create 3 File Server VMS with 4
vCPUs and 12 GB per VM

Step (5):
In this step of Client network, you need to choose the port group,
subnet mask, Gateway, DNS, NTP, and Enter the 3 IP that you are
prepared for Client Network.

Step (6):
In the Storage Network you need to choose the port Group, Subnet
Mask, Gateway and you need to enter the 4 IP that you are prepare
for the Storage Network
 Step (7):
In the Directory
Services you
need to choose
to use SMB Or
NFS Protocol or
use both
If you choose to
use SMB you
need to enter
the domain and
username and password to join
domain.

Step (8):
Here is the summary check it
before Create.
You can choose to enable protection domain or not.

After Installation:
Nutanix Files Interface:
After Finish the creation you will the file server is deployed as
shown in the page so we need to enter the Launch Files Console to
start make a file share and so on

FSVMs DNS Records:

You should confirm that the DNS records of FSVMs at the Client site
Network have been created from configuration menu
If the file server DNS Entries Automatic,
you must confirm that the records have
been created.
If not, you must create it manually at
the DNS Server.

That is the records creation standard:

DNS Records for FSVMs Client Network IPs:

Forward & Revers Records:

 ntnx-(File Server Name)-1.(Domain) -------< (Ip
for FCVM-1)
 ntnx-(File Server Name)-2.(Domain) -------< (Ip
for FCVM-2)
 ntnx-(File Server Name)-3.(Domain) -------< (Ip
for FCVM-3)

Forward only Records:

 (File Server Name).(Domain) ----------< (Ip for FCVM-1)
 (File Server Name).(Domain)
----------< (Ip for FCVM-2)
 (File Server Name).(Domain)
----------< (Ip for FCVM-3)

For Example
Create Shares & Export:

We have the Share & Export that

allows us to create a shared
SMB OR NFS so let us
create a new share Click
New Share or Export
Enter the name of the share
and description, and if
you need to enter the max
size of this share finally
choose which protocol
you need to use SMB OR
NFS
From general choice,
you need to enable.
SMB protocol access
choose you need to
enable and who access of
this share:
Nutanix Kubernetes Engine
To set up your NKE environment, perform the following tasks:

Cluster Requirements
o Install Prism Central (PC) on a Nutanix cluster.
o Ensure that the configuration of the Prism Element (PE) cluster meets the
following specifications:
o AHV
o A minimum 120 MB of memory and 700 MB of disk space in PC
 Register the PE cluster to PC.
 Configure the cluster virtual IP address and the iSCSI data services IP address on
the designated PE cluster.
 Configure the Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Domain Name System (DNS)
in PE and PC.
o Synchronize the time of the cluster, PC, and the clients that use kubectl.
o Note: NKE requires using the UTC timezone.
 Open the required ports and allowlist the required domains, see table below.
o (Production clusters only) Configure an AHV network with IP address
management (IPAM) enabled and IP pools configured.
o (Development clusters only) Configure an AHV network with IPAM and IP
address pools or with an external DHCP network.
o Note:
o IPAM is for Kubernetes cluster deployment.
o The DHCP pool is for the worker nodes and the master nodes in a Virtual Router
Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) environment.
 o The DNS configuration for an NKE Kubernetes cluster is obtained through the
DHCP or Nutanix IPAM
o NKE is not supported on Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2).

Firewall Requirements
Ensure that your firewall allows NKE VMs and CVMs to reach the below domains and sub-domains. Also,
exclude the following domains from the security-sockets layer (SSL) inspection in the firewall.
• *.cloudfront.net
• *. quay.io
• ntnx-portal.s3.amazonaws.com
• portal.nutanix.com

• release-api.nutanix.com

• s3*.amazonaws.com

• *.compute-1.amazonaws.com

Port Requirements

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/list?type=software&filterKey=software&filterVal=Ports
%20and%20Protocols&productType=Nutanix%20Kubernetes%20Engine

RESOURCE RECOMMENDATIONS
1: Minimum Resources per Control Plane Node

Cluster Type vCPU Memory (GiB) Storage (GiB)

Production 4 4 120

Development 2 4 120

2: Minimum Resources per Etcd Node

Cluster Type vCPU Memory (GiB) Storage (GiB)

Production 4 8 40

Development 2 8 40

3: Minimum Resources per Worker Node

Cluster Type vCPU Memory (GiB) Storage (GiB)

Production 8 8 120

Development 8 8 120
 4: Minimum Resources for Infrastructure Services per Kubernetes Cluster

Cluster Type vCPU Memory (MiB)

Production 6.8 vCPU shared across all 8294 MiB shared across all
worker nodes in the cluster plus worker nodes in the cluster plus
1.25 vCPU for each worker 870 MiB for each worker node.
node.

Enabling Kubernetes Management from Nutanix Marketplace

Procedure

 Log on to Prism Central as an administrator.

 In the application switcher, select Apps and Marketplace.
 To enable the Kubernetes Management chicklet, in the Welcome to My Apps page, click
Enable Marketplace. A progress bar appears. After successfully enabling the application
in the Nutanix Marketplace, the Get button to deploy Kubernetes Management is
enabled.
 In the left navigation pane, select Marketplace.
 In the Nutanix Marketplace page, in the Kubernetes Management chicklet, click Get.

 In the Kubernetes Management page, click Deploy.

 After the successful deployment of Kubernetes Management, click View in Admin
Center.
 In the application switcher, select Kubernetes Management.
 In the Kubernetes Management console, a message directs you to download a node OS
image see:
Ensure that you run the general availability (GA) version of NKE by performing an inventory check using
the Life-Cycle Manager (LCM).
After making LCM Inventory
Ensure to add the name server to PC
download the os for Kubernetes

As you see NKE has new version and we should install before create the cluster
After update it go to Kubernetes from drop down menu < services< Kubernetes
 We need first to download the OS image and then we will procced to create the cluster

Create Cluster

Chose from Development or Production

After Creating the cluster, you must download the kubeconfig
Run the kubeconfig commands by doing one of the following:

» Click Copy the command to clipboard and run the command to finish the download process.

» Manually run the required commands

Replace the path to the prod-1-kubectl.cfg file with the file path to the downloaded file as it appears in
your directory. Run the following command on your host.

$ export KUBECONFIG= /path/to/prod-1-kubectl.cfg

You have set the kubeconfig environment variable.