Acropolis Upgrade Guide

Acropolis 5.0
03-Feb-2017
Notice

Copyright
Copyright 2017 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 is a trademark of Nutanix, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks
and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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.

output The information is displayed as output from a command or in a log file.

Default Cluster Credentials

Interface Target Username Password

Nutanix web console Nutanix Controller VM admin admin

vSphere Web Client ESXi host root nutanix/4u

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 Interface Target Username Password

vSphere client ESXi host root nutanix/4u

SSH client or console ESXi host root nutanix/4u

SSH client or console AHV host root nutanix/4u

SSH client or console Hyper-V host Administrator nutanix/4u

SSH client Nutanix Controller VM nutanix nutanix/4u

SSH client or console Acropolis OpenStack root admin

Services VM (Nutanix
OVM)

Version
Last modified: February 3, 2017 (2017-02-03 0:51:17 GMT-8)

Copyright | Acropolis Upgrade Guide | AOS | 3

Contents
AOS Upgrade to 5.0......................................................................................................... 5
Controller VM Access.......................................................................................................................... 5
Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0.......................................................................................................6
Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere)........................................................................... 6
Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (Hyper-V)........................................................................... 8
Changing CVM Memory Configuration (AHV).......................................................................... 8
Upgrading to AOS 5.0......................................................................................................................... 9
Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0.......................................................................................................12
Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere)........................................................................... 13
Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (Hyper-V)........................................................................... 14
Controller VM Memory Configurations.............................................................................................. 14
CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G5/Broadwell)....................................................... 14
CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G4/Haswell/Ivy Bridge)......................................... 15
CVM Memory Configurations for Features............................................................................. 16

4
AOS Upgrade to 5.0
Tip: While upgrading does not require cluster downtime, it does create additional load on the
nodes. For this reason, Nutanix recommends that you perform upgrades during times of non-peak
load and shut down any VMs that are not being actively used.
For information about upgrade paths for this release, browse to the Nutanix Support portal and consult
Downloads > Acropolis Upgrade Paths.
Nutanix recommends upgrading your cluster through the Prism web console by using the Upgrade
Software feature, also known as 1-click upgrade, as described in the Nutanix Web Console Guide. This
describes how to upgrade AOS through a command line.
If you are upgrading and use Prism Central to manage your Nutanix clusters, upgrade Prism Central
first, then upgrade AOS on the clusters managed by Prism Central. See:
Upgrading Prism Central
Prism Central Release Notes. This document describes new features, resolved issues, and AOS/
NOS compatibility.

Important: For AHV only, the number of vCPUs per VM is only constrained by the number of
logical processors available to the VM. Any VM with a vCPU setting that is greater than the actual
physical number of CPU cores on the underlying host does not start. This condition also applies
to existing VMs from the AOS version from which you are upgrading. To start these VMs, reduce
the vCPU count to a value equal to or less than the number of actual physical cores. Please see
the System Maximums topic in the Web Console Guide for your AOS version for more information.
This note does not apply to ESX or Hyper-V clusters. [ENG-45727]

Warning: By default, Nutanix clusters have redundancy factor 2, which means they can tolerate
the failure of a single node or drive. Nutanix clusters with a configured option of redundancy factor
3 allow the Nutanix cluster to withstand the failure of two nodes or drives in different blocks.
Never shut down or restart multiple Controller VMs or hosts simultaneously.
Always run the cluster status command to verify that all Controller VMs are up before
performing a Controller VM or host shutdown or restart.

Controller VM Access
Most administrative functions of a Nutanix cluster can be performed through the web console or nCLI.
Nutanix recommends using these interfaces whenever possible and disabling Controller VM SSH access
with password or key authentication. Some functions, however, require logging on to a Controller VM
with SSH. Exercise caution whenever connecting directly to a Controller VM as the risk of causing cluster
issues is increased.
Warning: When you connect to a Controller VM with SSH, ensure that the SSH client does
not import or change any locale settings. The Nutanix software is not localized, and executing
commands with any locale other than en_US.UTF-8 can cause severe cluster issues.
To check the locale used in an SSH session, run /usr/bin/locale. If any environment variables
are set to anything other than en_US.UTF-8, reconnect with an SSH configuration that does not
import or change any locale settings.

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Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0
Warning: Do not take a snapshot of the Controller VM for backup. Doing so can cause the
Controller VM to stop functioning and compromise data integrity.

Note: Ensure that the latest NCC version for your pre-upgrade AOS/NOS version is installed on
your cluster as part of preparing to upgrade AOS. For information about installing or upgrading
NCC, see the NCC Release Notes.

1. Log on to any Controller VM in the cluster with SSH.

2. Run the Nutanix Cluster Checks (NCC).

Log in to a Controller VM and use the ncc CLI.
nutanix@cvm$ ncc health_checks run_all

From the Prism web console Health page, select Actions > Run Checks. Select All checks and
click Run.
If the check reports a status other than PASS, resolve the reported issues before proceeding. If you are
unable to resolve the issues, contact Nutanix support for assistance.

3. Enable automatic installation.

nutanix@cvm$ cluster enable_auto_install

What to do next: Complete preparation with steps specific to the hypervisor (AHV, Hyper-V, vSphere).

Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere)

Caution: If the ESXi hosts in the cluster have been upgraded to a later version of ESXi, ensure
that all configurations specified by Nutanix have been made. The AOS upgrade fails if ESXi has
not been properly configured.
For instructions on upgrading vSphere on a Nutanix cluster, see vSphere Upgrade in the Nutanix
vSphere Administration guide.

1. If the cluster has iSCSI LUNs, set the ESXi hosts to avoid all paths down.
To check if the cluster has iSCSI LUNs, log on to an ESXi host as root and run esxcfg-scsidevs -m . If
any output other than the node local datastore is returned, log on to each ESXi host in the cluster and
enable the FailVolumeOpenIfAPD option.
root@esx# esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /VMFS3/FailVolumeOpenIfAPD

This setting prevents the ESXi hosts from entering the all paths down (APD) state, which causes VMs
to stop responding and requires restarting ESXi hosts. For more information, see VMware KB article
1016626 at http://kb.vmware.com.
If the option is enabled, the host displays the following status.
Value of FailVolumeOpenIfAPD is 1

2. Log on to any Controller VM in the cluster with SSH.

3. If remote replication is configured, ensure that no replication operations are currently in process. You
need to wait for any outstanding replications to complete before upgrading. Replication operations
cannot be in progress or paused during an upgrade.

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 a. List all protection domains.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli protection-domain list

b. Check replication status of every protection domain that is configured in the cluster.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli protection-domain list-replication-status name="pd_name"

Replace pd_name with the name of the protection domain. Check every protection domain.
If any replication operations are in progress, output similar to the following is displayed.
ID : 12983253
Protection Domain : pd02
Replication Operation : Receiving
Start Time : 09/20/2013 17:12:56 PDT
Remote Site : rs01
Snapshot Id : rs01:54836727
Aborted : false
Paused : false
Bytes Completed : 63.15 GB (67,811,689,418 bytes)
Complete Percent : 84.88122
If no replication operations are in progress, no output is displayed and you can continue
upgrading.

4. Log on to vCenter with the vSphere client.

5. Increase the memory of the Controller VM (if needed), depending on your configuration settings for
deduplication and other advanced features.
Perform these steps once for each Controller VM in the cluster. See CVM Memory and vCPU
Configurations (G4/Haswell/Ivy Bridge) on page 15 for memory sizing guidelines.
Caution: To avoid impacting cluster availability, shut down one Controller VM at a time. Wait
until cluster services are up before proceeding to the next Controller VM.

a. Log on to the Controller VM with SSH and shut down the Controller VM.
nutanix@cvm$ cvm_shutdown -P now

b. Log on to the vSphere web client.

c. Right-click the Controller VM and select Edit Settings.

d. Select Hardware > Memory and increase the memory configuration to the recommended amount
from the sizing guidelines.

e. Select Resources > Memory and select the Reserve all guest memory check box.

f. Right-click the Controller VM and select Power > Power On.

g. Log on to the Controller VM with SSH.

h. Confirm that cluster services are running on the Controller VM.

nutanix@cvm$ cluster status | grep CVM:

Every Controller VM listed should be Up.

6. Right-click the cluster and select Rescan for Datastores.

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 Click Ok in the confirmation dialog box. Ensure that both Scan for New Storage Devices and Scan for
New VMFS Volumes are selected in the next dialog box and click Ok. Wait for the rescan to complete
before proceeding.

7. Ensure that the Nutanix upgrade installer is not delayed by potential DNS issues by logging on to an
ESXi host and modifying the ESXi SSH daemon settings.

a. Open an SSH session to the ESXi host.

b. Using a text editor such as vi, open the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and add the string useDNS no .

c. Save and quit the editor.

d. You might also need to restart the SSH service.

# /etc/init.d/SSH restart

Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (Hyper-V)

Perform these steps once for every Hyper-V host in the cluster if you need to increase the memory of each
Controller VM, depending on your configuration settings for deduplication.

Caution: To avoid impacting cluster availability, shut down one Controller VM at a time. Wait until
cluster services are up before proceeding to the next Controller VM.

1. Log on to the Hyper-V host with Remote Desktop Connection and start PowerShell.

2. Shut down the Controller VM.

> Stop-VM -Force -Turnoff NTNX-*CVM

3. Increase the memory of the Controller VM (if needed), depending on your configuration settings for
deduplication and other advanced features.
See CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G4/Haswell/Ivy Bridge) on page 15 for memory sizing
guidelines.
> Set-VMMemory cvm_name -StartupBytes (ram_gb*1024*1024*1024) `
-MaximumBytes (ram_gb*1024*1024*1024) -MinimumBytes (ram_gb*1024*1024*1024)

Replace cvm_name with the name of the Controller VM and ram_gb with the recommended amount
from the sizing guidelines.

4. Start the Controller VM.

> Start-VM -Name NTNX-*CVM

5. Log on to the Controller VM with SSH.

6. Confirm that cluster services are running on the Controller VM.

nutanix@cvm$ cluster status | grep CVM:

Every Controller VM listed should be Up.

Changing CVM Memory Configuration (AHV)

Before you begin: Perform these steps once for each Controller VM in the cluster if you need to change
the Controller VM memory allocation.

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 Caution: To avoid impacting cluster availability, shut down one Controller VM at a time. Wait until
cluster services are up before proceeding to the next Controller VM.

1. Log on to the Acropolis host with SSH.

2. Find the name of the Controller VM.

root@ahv# virsh list --all | grep CVM

Make a note of the Controller VM name in the second column.

3. Stop the Controller VM.

root@ahv# virsh shutdown cvm_name

Replace cvm_name with the name of the Controller VM that you found from the preceding command.

4. Check the current memory and CPU settings.

root@ahv# virsh dumpxml cvm_name | egrep -i "cpu|memory"

Replace cvm_name with the name of the Controller VM that you found in step 2.

5. Increase the memory of the Controller VM (if needed), depending on your configuration settings for
deduplication and other advanced features.
See CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G4/Haswell/Ivy Bridge) on page 15 for memory sizing
guidelines.
root@ahv# virsh setmaxmem cvm_name --config --size ram_gbGiB
root@ahv# virsh setmem cvm_name --config --size ram_gbGiB

Replace cvm_name with the name of the Controller VM and ram_gb with the recommended amount
from the sizing guidelines in GiB (for example, 1GiB).

6. Start the Controller VM.

root@ahv# virsh start cvm_name

7. Log on to the Controller VM.

Accept the host authenticity warning if prompted, and enter the Controller VM nutanix password.

8. Confirm that cluster services are running on the Controller VM.

nutanix@cvm$ cluster status

Upgrading to AOS 5.0

Before you begin:

Caution: If the ESXi hosts in the cluster have been upgraded to a later version of ESXi, ensure
that all configurations specified by Nutanix have been made. The AOS upgrade fails if ESXi has
not been properly configured.
For instructions on upgrading vSphere on a Nutanix cluster, see vSphere Upgrade in the Nutanix
vSphere Administration guide.
Prepare for the upgrade by following Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 on page 6.
Also follow Preparing to Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere) on page 6, Preparing to Upgrade to AOS
5.0 (Hyper-V) on page 8, or Changing CVM Memory Configuration (AHV) on page 8 depending
on the hypervisor.

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 Note: If the cluster has AHV, you might need to upgrade AHV before upgrading AOS. See
Upgrading the KVM Hypervisor to Use Acropolis Features in the AHV Administration Guide.

Download the AOS 5.0 tar file and associated upgrade metadata file and copy both files to /home/
nutanix on one Controller VM in the cluster.
Ensure that no SRM workflows are in progress. If any are, wait until they complete before proceeding
with the upgrade.

1. Log on to the Controller VM that has the Nutanix software tar file.

2. Disable email alerts to avoid spurious alerts when Controller VMs restart during the upgrade.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli alerts update-alert-config enable=false

3. Expand the tar file.

nutanix@cvm$ cd /home/nutanix
nutanix@cvm$ tar -zxvf nutanix_installer*-5.0*

4. Start the upgrade.

Note: Ensure that you use the -v option with the downloaded upgrade metadata JSON file to
verify installation package integrity and upgrade information.
nutanix@cvm$ /home/nutanix/install/bin/cluster -i /home/nutanix/install \
-v /home/nutanix/version-upgrade-metadata.json upgrade

Before starting the upgrade, the installer checks the state of the cluster and the related upgrade
metadata to ensure the upgrade succeeds. If the pre-upgrade check fails, correct the conditions before
attempting to upgrade.
For each node in the cluster, this command updates the Controller VM image, updates the AOS
packages, and restarts it. Your SSH and any web console sessions to the Controller VM is terminated.
Upgrading the Controller VMs takes approximately 10 minutes per node in the cluster.
During upgrade, a task named HostRestoreVmLocality appears on the All VM Tasks tab. The task,
which restores VMs to their original host after they are migrated by Acropolis, is scheduled during
the upgrade process as part of a group of tasks that check the state of the cluster. In most upgrade
scenarios, no migration is required.
While the upgrade is in progress, you can monitor progress with the following command.
nutanix@cvm$ host_upgrade_status

This command specifies which Controller VMs have completed the upgrade, which is in progress, and
which have not yet been updated. Wait until the upgrade process completes.

INFO upgrade_status:39 Target release version: 1.4-release-congo-5.0-stable-

fc853bbd93bd1a3e663c7fe0f8c3a3b0dd5f6344
INFO upgrade_status:82 SVM 172.16.24.80 is up to date
INFO upgrade_status:82 No release version is available on SVM 172.16.24.81, this node
still needs to upgrade, node is currently upgrading
INFO upgrade_status:82 No release version is available on SVM 172.16.24.79, this node
still needs to upgrade
INFO upgrade_status:82 No release version is available on SVM 172.16.24.78, this node
still needs to upgrade

If the upgrade fails to complete on a Controller VM after 20 minutes, perform the following steps.

a. Log on to the hypervisor host with SSH or the IPMI remote console (vSphere or AHV) or remote
desktop connection (Hyper-V).

b. Log on to the Controller VM.

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 Accept the host authenticity warning if prompted, and enter the Controller VM nutanix password.

c. Confirm that package installation has completed and that genesis is not running.
nutanix@cvm$ ps afx | grep genesis
nutanix@cvm$ ps afx | grep rc.nutanix
nutanix@cvm$ ps afx | grep rc.local

If any processes are listed, wait five minutes and try again. If none of these processes are listed, it is
safe to proceed.

d. Restart the Controller VM.

nutanix@cvm$ sudo reboot

Enter the nutanix password if prompted. Wait to proceed until the Controller VM has finished starting,
which takes approximately 5 minutes.

e. Check the upgrade status again.

The upgrade process writes the following log files on the Controller VMs:
/home/nutanix/data/logs/install.out
/home/nutanix/data/logs/boot.out
/home/nutanix/data/logs/boot.err
/home/nutanix/data/logs/finish.out
/home/nutanix/data/logs/svm_upgrade.tar.out

5. Log on to any Controller VM in the cluster with SSH.

If you are unable to log on to the Controller VM, the cluster is in lockdown. To enable SSH access, log
on to the web console and go to > Cluster Lockdown to either enable password access or add
your SSH key.
To enable password access: Select Enable Remote Login with Password.
To add an SSH key: Select + New Public Key and paste the text of the key in the dialog box.
You can disable password logon or remove the key after completing the upgrade if you do not want to
allow SSH access.

6. Confirm the AOS version.

nutanix@cvm$ upgrade_status

The Target release version should match the target version, and each Controller VM should show SVM
cvm_ip_address is up to date.

If some Controller VMs are marked as needing to be upgraded, wait 5 minutes and check again. If the
command fails on one or more Controller VMs with a message like Could not connect to zookeeper:
ok, run the command again.

What to do next:
Apply licenses to the cluster. For more information about licensing, see License Management in the
Web Console Guide.
Complete the upgrade by following Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 on page 12.

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Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0

1. If you use SNMP to manage or collect information from the Nutanix cluster, as soon as the upgrade
process is complete, update the Nutanix SNMP MIB file that is used by your network management
system. Until the MIB file is updated, SNMP queries might return erroneous data or data of the wrong
type. To download the latest SNMP MIB file, do the following:

a.
In the web console, click the gear icon , and then click SNMP.

b. In the SNMP Configuration dialog box, click Download MIB, and then save the MIB file to your
local hard drive.

2. If you are upgrading from a version of NOS lower than 3.5, remove old Nutanix SSH keys.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli cluster remove-all-public-keys

3. If the timezone on the Controller VMs was changed from the default before the upgrade, reset the
timezone.
ncli> cluster set-timezone timezone=cluster_timezone

Replace cluster_timezone with the timezone of the cluster (for example, America/Los_Angeles, Europe/
London, Asia/Tokyo).
Restart all Controller VMs in the cluster after changing the timezone. Restart the Controller VM in a
series, waiting until one has finished starting before proceeding to the next.

4. If the site policy is for email alerts to be enabled, re-enable them.

a. Sign in to the Nutanix web console.

b.
In the wheel icon pull-down list of the main menu, select Alert Email Contacts.

c. If no email address is listed in Email Alert Contacts and the customer wants to receive email alerts,
click Add, enter one or more addresses, and click Close.

d.
In the wheel icon pull-down list of the main menu, select Email Alert Services.

e. If email alert is set to Disable, click Enable and Save.

5. If the customer wants to receive support email messages in addition to alerts, add email addresses.

a.
In the wheel icon pull-down list of the main menu, select Pulse.

b. Enter customer email addresses in the Email Recipients field and click Save.

6. If you deleted schedules from any existing configured protection domains, create new schedules.

What to do next: Complete upgrade with steps specific to the hypervisor:

Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere) on page 13
Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (Hyper-V) on page 14

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Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (vSphere)

1. Log on to vCenter with the vSphere client.

2. Right-click each Controller VM and select Edit Settings.

Warning: Once the upgrade is complete, do not upgrade VMware tools on any Controller VM.

3. Verify that the following parameters are set to the expected values.

a. (Hardware) Memory: 16 GB (12 GB if the node is NX-1020; 24 GB if performance tier deduplication

is enabled; 32 GB if capacity tier deduplication is enabled)

b. (Hardware) vCPUs: 8

c. (Hardware) Adapter Type for both network interfaces: VMXNET 3

d. (Resources > Advanced CPU) Hyperthreaded Core Sharing Mode: Any

If any of these parameters are set to different values, change them. The Controller VM must be shut
down to change some of the parameters.

4. Log on to any Controller VM in the cluster with SSH.

5. If remote replication is configured, re-enable replication.

a. Open the port for remote replication.

nutanix@cvm$ allssh "sudo iptables -t filter -A WORLDLIST -p tcp -m tcp \
--dport 2009 -j ACCEPT && sudo service iptables save"

b. Resume replication.
nutanix@cvm$ ncli protection-domain resume-replication name="pd_name" \
replication-ids="operation_id"

Replace pd_name with the name of the protection domain.

Replace operation_id with the ID field from protection-domain list-replication-status.

6. Check the VAAI plugin version and update if necessary.

nutanix@cvm$ for i in `hostips`; do echo ESXi host:$i; ssh root@$i "esxcli software \
vib list | grep nfs-vaai-plugin"; done

If the version returned is other than 2.0-5dfbc550, update the VAAI plugin by issuing the following
command.
nutanix@cvm$ for i in `hostips`; do echo $i; scp \
~/data/installer/*5.0*/pkg/nfs-vaai-plugin.vib root@$i:/var/tmp/; \
echo "about to install"; ssh root@$i "esxcli software vib install -v \
/var/tmp/nfs-vaai-plugin.vib -f"; done

When installation of the VAAI VIB completes, restart the hosts.

Warning: To avoid cluster service interruption, restart one host at a time and wait for the
Controller VM to start before proceeding to the next host.

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Completing Upgrade to AOS 5.0 (Hyper-V)
If you are using VSS on a Hyper-V cluster, set additional required parameters.

Join the storage cluster to the domain.

Note: This command supports Windows Server 2012 AD operating at Windows Server 2012
domain functional level.
If you are using AD 2008, contact support for assistance. AD 2003 is not supported.
ncli> cluster join-domain ad-admin-username=admin_username

Replace admin_username with the username of the account that has administrative access to the
Windows AD domain.
Enter the domain administrator password when prompted.

Controller VM Memory Configurations

Controller VM memory allocation requirements differ depending on the models and the features that are
being used.

CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G5/Broadwell)

This topic lists the recommended Controller VM memory allocations for workload categories.
Note: Nutanix Engineering has determined that memory requirements for each Controller VM in
your cluster are likely to increase for subsequent releases. Nutanix recommends that you plan to
upgrade memory.

Controller VM Memory Configurations for Base Models

Platform Default

Platform Recommended Default Memory vCPUs

Memory (GB) (GB)
Default configuration for all platforms 16 16 8
unless otherwise noted

The following table show the minimum amount of memory required for the Controller VM on each node for
platforms that do not follow the default. For the workload translation into models, see Platform Workload
Translation (G5/Broadwell) on page 15.

Note: To calculate the number of vCPUs for your model, use the number of physical cores per
socket in your model. The minimum number of vCPUS your Controller VM can have is eight and
the maximum number is 12.
If your CPU has less than eight logical cores, allocate a maximum of 75 percent of the cores of a
single CPU to the Controller VM. For example, if your CPU has 6 cores, allocate 4 vCPUs.

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 Nutanix Broadwell Models

The following table displays the categories for the platforms.

Platform Default Memory (GB)
VDI, server virtualization 16
Storage Heavy 24
Storage Node 24
Large server, high-performance, all-flash 32

Platform Workload Translation (G5/Broadwell)

The following table maps workload types to the corresponding Nutanix and Lenovo models.

Workload Nutanix Lenovo

Features NX Model HX Model

VDI NX-1065S-G5 HX3310

SX-1065-G5 HX3310-F
NX-1065-G5 HX2310-E
NX-3060-G5 HX3510-G
NX-3155G-G5 HX3710
NX-3175-G5 HX3710-F
- HX2710-E

Storage Heavy NX-6155-G5 HX5510

NX-8035-G5 -
NX-6035-G5 -

Storage Node NX-6035C-G5 HX5510-C

High Performance and All-Flash NX-8150-G5 HX7510

NX-9060-G5 -

CVM Memory and vCPU Configurations (G4/Haswell/Ivy Bridge)

This topic lists the recommended Controller VM memory allocations for models and features.

Note: Nutanix Engineering has determined that memory requirements for each Controller VM in
your cluster are likely to increase for subsequent releases. Nutanix recommends that you plan to
upgrade memory.

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 Controller VM Memory Configurations for Base Models

Platform Default

Platform Recommended Default Memory vCPUs

Memory (GB) (GB)
Default configuration for all platforms 16 16 8
unless otherwise noted

The following tables show the minimum amount of memory and vCPU requirements and recommendations
for the Controller VM on each node for platforms that do not follow the default.

Nutanix Platforms

Platform Recommended Default Memory vCPUs

Memory (GB) (GB)
NX-1020 12 12 4
NX-6035C 24 24 8
NX-6035-G4 24 16 8
NX-8150 32 32 8
NX-8150-G4 32 32 8
NX-9040 32 16 8
NX-9060-G4 32 16 8

Dell Platforms

Platform Recommended Default Memory vCPUs

Memory (GB) (GB)

XC730xd-24 32 16 8
XC6320-6AF
XC630-10AF

Lenovo Platforms

Platform Default Memory (GB) vCPUs

HX-3500 24 8
HX-5500
HX-7500

CVM Memory Configurations for Features

The following table lists the minimum amount of memory required when enabling features.

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The memory size requirements are in addition to the default or recommended memory available for your
platform. The maximum additional memory required is 16 GB even if the total indicated for the features is
more than that.
Note: Total CVM memory required = recommended platform memory + memory required for each
enabled feature (max 16 GB)

Features Memory (GB)

Capacity tier deduplication (includes performance tier deduplication) 16
Redundancy factor 3 8
Performance tier deduplication 8
Cold-tier nodes + capacity tier deduplication 4
Capacity tier deduplication + redundancy factor 3 16
Self-service portal (AHV only) Variable
Note:
SSP requires a minimum of 24 GB of memory for the CVM. If the CVMs
already have 24 GB of memory, no additional memory is necessary to run
SSP.
If the CVMs have less than 24 GB of memory, increase the memory to 24 GB
to use SSP.
If the cluster is using any other features that require additional CVM memory,
add 4 GB for SSP in addition to the amount needed for the other features.

AOS Upgrade to 5.0 | Acropolis Upgrade Guide | AOS | 17