So I have been working recently on a large VDI project based on the Nutanix converged platform, which I have used before but only in its VMware hypervisor version, this time however the solution was to be based on Hyper-V.So here is what I have learned…… The documentation is not complete or entirely accurate!!!!! However with that aside here are my tips and how-to’s.
Configuring the Nutanix Storage Cluster
If you are doing this from a Windows computer, you need to ensure you have installed the bonjour service (yes, the thing that comes with iTunes) and enabled IPv6 on your network adapter.With these pre-requisites in place connect your PC to the same network as the 10Gb interfaces on the nodes (remember you need a minimum of three nodes to build a Nutanix cluster), ensuring that there is no DHCP Server running on this network. You are going to use IPv6 Link-Local addresses to connect to one of the nodes to create the cluster.Connect to one of the nodes via http://NTNX-SerialNumber-NodeLetter-CVM.local.:2100/cluster_init.html where SerialNumber is the block serial number on the side of the chassis and the NodeLetter in A,B,C or D within the chassis. Fill in all the required fields to configure the cluster, the cluster IP address will be the VIP that is assigned to the cluster of storage controller VMs. The name you give the cluster will also form the basis of the Hyper-V OS computer names when you later use the domain join script (it will add -1, -2, etc for each node in sequence)Once the cluster configuration has finished, refresh the page, it should show the node service statuses.We can now connect to the Nutanix management console – http://ClusterIP – you will be redirected to a https siteNow we need to create a storage pool, call this SP1 (this is important as later scripts will use this)We then create a container within this pool, call it CTR1 (this is important as later scripts use this) this will be the share name (as all shared storage access is via SMB3.0) that all nodes will access.
Configuring your Hyper-V cluster
Use something like putty.exe or your favourite SSH application, connect to the Nutanix VIP, which will bounce you to one of the controller VMs. Once connected you can run the following command to join all the nodes to the domain (remember that it will rename each one to the clustername-1, -2, -3, etc)setup_hyperv.py setup_hostsFollow all the prompts and by the end you will have all your nodes domain joined. Remember you need to note down the DNS entry it tells you to create, do this as it is how all the nodes will connect the to the shared storage presented from the Nutanix platform.Remember that for full manageability of your cluster you will require a server running System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2, now this should ideally be a physical server or a VM running on another Hyper-V machine.If you need to have the VMM server running on your Nutanix cluster and you don’t want to use PowerShell you will need to use another machine running Server 2012 R2 with the remote tools installed.& Before you create the VM you need to add the IP address of your remote management server to the NFS/SMB whitelist in the Nutanix console. Now you can connect to your node and create a VM pointing the vhdx file location to \\NUTANIX-xxxxxx\CTR1 (where NUTANIX-xxxxxx is the DNS entry it told you to create when you joined the hosts to the domain above)Now here is where the documentation is a little incomplete………. before you run the cluster creation script do the followingRDP or console each node and set:
- Timezone
- Regional settings
- Language settings
Run this PowerShell command on each node and your VMM serverSet-SmbClientConfiguraiton -RequireSecuritySignature $false -ForceAdd the following accounts to the local Admins group on each node
- VMM Computer Account
- VMM Service Account
Install the VMM Agent to each nodeDelegate the VMM Computer account for the CIFS protocol to each Hyper-V nodeNow you are ready to run the below command on via an SSH session to one of the controller VMssetup_hyperv.py setup_scvmmYou need to provide an administrator account that is domain admin to be able to create the cluster computer object in ADOnce your cluster is configured, you can convert your VMM server VM to highly available and carry on using it to build virtual machines.
