Nutanix

Overview

Nutanix simplifies datacenter infrastructure by integrating server and storage resources allowing applications to run at scale. Morpheus provides and avenue to enhance the Nutanix resources to allow efficient and seamless deployment of applications as a virtual machine (VM) or as a container on a Docker host.

Features

  • Virtual Machine Provisioning

  • Containers

  • Backups / Snapshots

  • Resources Groups

  • Migrations

  • Auto Scaling

  • Load Balancing

  • Remote Console

  • Periodic Synchronization

  • Lifecycle Management and Resize

Morpheus can provide a single pane of glass and self-service portal for managing multiple Nutanix Clusters and allowing the seamless deployment of applications.

Note

Prism Central is currently supported and is maintained as a separate, plugin-based Cloud integration. See the Prism Central plugin page on the Morpheus plugin share site for additional details and access to the plugin.

Getting Started

To get started this a few prerequisites must first be met. The Nutanix cluster should be provisioned and available on the network. Morpheus will look login to the Nutanix cluster with the Nutanix admin credentials and is typically located at the https://fqdn:9440 url.

Adding a Nutanix Cloud

The Nutanix cluster should be available and responding to the https://fqdn:9440 url for authentication by Morpheus .

NAME

Name of the Cloud in Morpheus

CODE

Unique code used for api/cli, automation and policies.

LOCATION

Description field for adding notes on the cloud, such as location.

VISIBILITY

For setting cloud permissions in a multi-tenant environment. Not applicable in single tenant environments.

TENANT

If Visibility is set to Private, select the Tenant the Cloud resources will assigned to.

ENABLED

When disabled, automatic Cloud sync is paused and the Cloud will not be selectable for provisioning.

AUTOMATICALLY POWER ON VMS

When enabled, Morpheus will maintain the expected powered on state of managed VM’s and power on any managed VM’s in the cloud that have been shut down for unknown reasons (not powered off by Morpheus) to ensure availability of services.

Note

When “AUTOMATICALLY POWER ON VMS” is enabled, the power state of managed VM’s should be maintained in Morpheus. This setting is not applicable to discovered/unmanaged resources.

API URL

URL of the Nutanix Prism API, example: https://10.30.21.220:9440

USERNAME

Nutanix admin username

PASSWORD

Nutanix admin password

Inventory Existing Instances

If enabled, existing Virtual Machines will be inventoried and appear as unmanaged Virtual Machines in Morpheus .

Advanced Options

DOMAIN

Specify a default domain for instances provisioned to this Cloud.

SCALE PRIORITY

Only affects Docker Provisioning. Specifies the priority with which an instance will scale into the cloud. A lower priority number means this cloud integration will take scale precedence over other cloud integrations in the group.

APPLIANCE URL

Alternate Appliance url for scenarios when the default Appliance URL (configured in admin > settings) is not reachable or resolvable for Instances provisioned in this cloud. The Appliance URL is used for Agent install and reporting.

TIME ZONE

Configures the time zone on provisioned VM’s if necessary.

DATACENTER ID

Used for differentiating pricing among multiple datacenters. Leave blank unless prices are properly configured.

NETWORK MODE

Unmanaged or select a Network Integration (NSX, ACI etc)

LOCAL FIREWALL

On or Off. Enable to managed Host and VM firewall/IP Table rules (linux only)

SECURITY SERVER

Security Server setting is for Security Service Integrations such as ACI

TRUST PROVIDER

Select Internal (Morpheus) or an existing Trust Provider Integration

STORAGE MODE

Single Disk, LVM or Clustered

BACKUP PROVIDER

Select a backup provider. Depending on the Cloud type and any currently-configured backup plugins you may select Internal Backups (Morpheus) or another configured backup solution

REPLICATION PROVIDER

Sets the default Replication Provider for the Cloud. Select an existing Replication Provider Integration

GUIDANCE

Enable Guidance recommendations on cloud resources.

COSTING

Enable for Morpheus to sync Costing data from the Cloud provider, when available. For on-prem Clouds, enabling costing activates a costing service designed to mirror the live costing experience of public clouds, including invoicing with line items and real-time cost data (Operations > Costing > Invoices). If your organization utilizes reserved instances and you want to pull in related pricing data, some Cloud integrations include the option to select Costing and Reservations. If this is not relevant, select Costing to save money on additional calls to the Cloud provider’s costing API.

DNS INTEGRATION

Records for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected DNS integration.

SERVICE REGISTRY

Services for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected Service Registry integration.

CONFIG MANAGEMENT

Select a Chef, Ansible or Puppet integration to be used with this Cloud.

CMDB

Select CMDB Integration to automatically update selected CMDB.

CMDB DISCOVERY

When checked, any automatically discovered (unmanaged) servers onboarded into Morpheus from this Cloud will also have CMDB records created for them.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Select an existing Change Management Integration to set on the Cloud. ex: Cherwell

AGENT INSTALL MODE

  • SSH / WINRM: Morpheus will use SSH or WINRM for Agent install.

  • Cloud Init / Unattend (when available): (DEFAULT) Morpheus will utilize Cloud-Init or Cloudbase-Init for agent install when provisioning images with Cloud-Init/Cloudbase-Init installed. Morpheus will fall back on SSH or WINRM if cloud-init is not installed on the provisioned image. Morpheus will also add Agent installation to Windows unattend.xml data when performing Guest Customizations or utilizing syspreped images.

API PROXY

Set a proxy for outbound communication from the Morpheus Appliance to the Cloud endpoints. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure > Networks > Proxies tab.

INSTALL AGENT

Enable to have Agent Installation on by default for all provisioning into this Cloud. Disable for Agent Installation to be off by default for all provisioning into this Cloud.

CUSTOM LOGOS

When integrating a Cloud, it will appear by default throughout the UI with its standard logo (VMware logo for VMware Clouds, etc.). If desired, you may upload a custom logo that should appear instead. This might be useful for MSPs which might not want to reveal the Cloud type underlying its services. A dark mode version of the logo may also be uploaded if the standard logo doesn’t look right against the Morpheus dark mode theme. Checking USE DEFAULT CLOUD LOGOS allows the user to return to the standard logo for the Cloud type without deleting the custom uploaded logo.

INVENTORY OPTIONS

Inventory options allow you to set a default active or inactive state for certain discovered resources. The list of available resources to configure will vary based on the Cloud type and its supported resources. By default, all possible resources for the Cloud type will be discovered in an active state. Uncheck the box for some or all resources to discover them in an inactive state. The list of potential resources that may appear include:

  • Service Plans

  • Resource Pools

  • Networks

  • Security Groups

  • Datastores

  • Folders

Provisioning Command

PROXY

Set a proxy for inbound communication from Instances to the Morpheus Appliance. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure > Networks > Proxies tab.

Bypass Proxy for Appliance URL

Enable to bypass proxy settings (if added) for Morpheus Agent communication to the Appliance URL.

NO PROXY

Include a list of IP addresses or name servers to exclude from proxy traversal

USER DATA (LINUX)

Add cloud-init user data. Morpheus 4.1.0 and earlier assumes bash syntax. Morpheus 4.1.1 and later supports all User Data formats. Refer to https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/format.html for more information.

Service Plans

A default set of Service Plans are created in Morpheus for the VMware provisioning engine. These Service Plans can be considered akin to AWS Flavors or Openstack Flavors. They provide a means to set predefined tiers on memory, storage, cores, and cpu. Price tables can also be applied to these so estimated cost per virtual machine can be tracked as well as pricing for customers. By default, these options are fixed sizes but can be configured for dynamic sizing. A service plan can be configured to allow a custom user entry for memory, storage, or cpu. To configure this, simply edit an existing Service Plan tied to Nutanix or create a new one. These all can be easily managed from the Admin | Service Plans & Pricing section.

Docker

So far this document has covered how to add the Nutanix cloud integration and has enabled users the ability to provision virtual machine based instances via the Add Instance catalog in Provisioning. Another great feature provided by Morpheus out of the box is the ability to use Docker containers and even support multiple containers per Docker host. To do this a Docker Host must first be provisioned into Nutanix (multiple are needed when dealing with horizontal scaling scenarios).

To provision a Docker Host, simply navigate to the Cloud detail page or Infrastructure > Clusters section. From there click + ADD CLUSTER to add a Nutanix Docker Host. Morpheus views a Docker host just like any other Hypervisor with the caveat being that it is used for running containerized images instead of virtualized ones. Once a Docker Host is successfully provisioned a green checkmark will appear to the right of the host marking it as available for use. In the event of a failure click into the relevant host that failed and an error explaining the failure will be displayed in red at the top.

Some common error scenarios include network connectivity. For a Docker Host to function properly, it must be able to resolve the Morpheus appliance url which can be configured in Admin Settings. If it is unable to resolve and negotiate with the appliance than the agent installation will fail and provisioning instructions will not be able to be issued to the host.

Snapshots

Morpheus allows the ability to create a snapshot of a Nutanix instance. From the instance detail page, simply select Actions > Create Snapshot to begin creation of a new Snapshot. Existing snapshots can be viewed in the BACKUPS tab on the instance detail page. Snapshots taken outside Morpheus will be synced every five minutes. To revert to a previous snapshot, click on the revert icon located on the right side of the Snapshot. Snapshots can be deleted by clicking on the trash can icon.

Note

Access to Snapshots can be limited or removed entirely for specific user roles as needed. To edit a role’s Snapshots permissions, go to Administration > Roles > (Your selected role) > Snapshots. Users can be given Full, Read-only, or No access.