Nutanix AHV networking configuration and mass deployment.

In Nutanix AHV networking terminology the network (in VMware vSphere world you call it portgroup), is a logical component of the networking stack where Virtual Machine virtual NIC is plugged in to. In the network object, you specify the VLAN ID and name (basic settings). If you leverage Nutanix AHV IPAM, you can set up all parameters on the network too. When you create the Nutanix network on the Nutanix AHV cluster, the network configuration is instantly replicated to all nodes in the Nutanix cluster. Similar to VMware vDS, but you do not need expensive Enterprise Plus license 🙂

There are several ways to create and configure networks on Nutanix. You can do it from Prism Central, Prism Element, Powershell or from command-line using acli.

For deployment and configuration using Prism, see Nutanix official documentation.

If you would like to learn more about Nutanix AHV networking, have a look at my earlier blog post – Nutanix AHV CheatShet

Powershell

Create portgroup using New-NtnxNetwork -vlanId -Name

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> New-NTNXNetwork -VlanId 1111 -Name vlan1111

networkUuid
-----------
13de23dd-9ab2-446e-9a18-07382355aeaf

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

List networks on Nutanix cluster – Get-NTNXNetwork

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-NTNXNetwork | Select-Object -Property name, vlanid

name                     vlanId
----                     ------
Objects-IPAM-Network-568    568
vm                            0
vlan1111                   1111
Objects-IPAM-Network-567    567
VLAN567                     567
VLAN568                     568

Delete portgroup Remove-NTNXNetwork -Networkid

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Remove-NTNXNetwork -Networkid 13de23dd-9ab2-446e-9a18-07382355aeaf
Success!
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-NTNXNetwork | Select-Object -Property name, vlanid

name                     vlanId
----                     ------
Objects-IPAM-Network-568    568
vm                            0
Objects-IPAM-Network-567    567
VLAN567                     567
VLAN568                     568

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Nutanix acli

After getting into acli, to create network, run command net.create <network_name> vlan=<vlanID>

<acropolis> net.create VLAN1111 vlan=1111
<acropolis> net.list
Network name              Network UUID                          Type      Identifier  Subnet
Objects-IPAM-Network-567  4c00e7be-f4c7-4686-a5cf-b24bf966de92  kBridged  567         
Objects-IPAM-Network-568  e5685e6e-dc0c-4176-92b3-cbaa0e374c77  kBridged  568         
VLAN1111                  48453a31-b1c4-4b9e-a787-3baeff6163c8  kBridged  1111
VLAN567                   93e80b13-1d87-4c1b-9ddc-55c8731f4a5e  kBridged  567
VLAN568                   c7f89a6b-dcad-4cb5-b62b-c22e96604e88  kBridged  568
vm                        060c0a0b-147f-4417-93c3-556621b7efa3  kBridged  0

Delete network using acli

<acropolis> net.delete VLAN1111
<acropolis> net.list
Network name              Network UUID                          Type      Identifier  Subnet
Objects-IPAM-Network-567  4c00e7be-f4c7-4686-a5cf-b24bf966de92  kBridged  567         
Objects-IPAM-Network-568  e5685e6e-dc0c-4176-92b3-cbaa0e374c77  kBridged  568         
VLAN567                   93e80b13-1d87-4c1b-9ddc-55c8731f4a5e  kBridged  567
VLAN568                   c7f89a6b-dcad-4cb5-b62b-c22e96604e88  kBridged  568
vm                        060c0a0b-147f-4417-93c3-556621b7efa3  kBridged  0
<acropolis>

Mass Nutanix network deployment

Simple 1-liner to create multiple Nutanix networks on the cluster

nutanix@cvm: for i in {1111..1115} ; do acli net.create vlan$i vlan=$i ; done

nutanix@cvm:~$ for i in {1111..1115} ; do acli net.create vlan$i vlan=$i ; done

nutanix@cvm:~$ acli net.list
Network name              Network UUID                          Type      Identifier  Subnet
Objects-IPAM-Network-567  4c00e7be-f4c7-4686-a5cf-b24bf966de92  kBridged  567         
Objects-IPAM-Network-568  e5685e6e-dc0c-4176-92b3-cbaa0e374c77  kBridged  568         
VLAN567                   93e80b13-1d87-4c1b-9ddc-55c8731f4a5e  kBridged  567
VLAN568                   c7f89a6b-dcad-4cb5-b62b-c22e96604e88  kBridged  568
vlan1111                  bf21fbe1-899a-4125-a1e8-d4e0ded0df9c  kBridged  1111
vlan1112                  b5366df2-0e27-4177-8490-5d15ced30063  kBridged  1112
vlan1113                  3a6632ac-a30a-4475-bbe7-2a3f0ff204df  kBridged  1113
vlan1114                  d8c573db-5ef8-440b-b34f-9d3e93521d2a  kBridged  1114
vlan1115                  b54dee54-32fc-48d5-987f-f3e2aceef1a6  kBridged  1115
vm                        060c0a0b-147f-4417-93c3-556621b7efa3  kBridged  0
nutanix@cvm:~$