Nutanix: Base Pack PowerPack Release Notes version 103

Version 103 of the Nutanix: Base Pack PowerPack adds support for Prism Central and new alerts.

• Minimum Required SL1 Version: 8.10.1

• Support Status: GA

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 8.10.1 or later of SL1 before installing "Nutanix: Base Pack" PowerPack version 103.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

You can monitor Prism Elements or Prism Central. You must choose between monitoring Prism Elements or Prism Central as the root device, and then run discovery accordingly. It is recommended that you monitor Prism Central in all cases, unless you have only Prism Elements instances with no Prism Central instances.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack version to Monitor Prism Element

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

To install this PowerPack:

1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
6. Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack version to Monitor Prism Central

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

To install this PowerPack:

1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
6. Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack to switch from Monitoring Prism Element to Monitoring Prism Central

If you monitor Prism Element and want to monitor Prism Central, upgrading to version 103 or greater of the PowerPack might require further steps, depending on if you need to keep historical data.

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you need to preserve historical data, perform the following steps:

1. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 8.10.1 or later release.
2. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
3. Download "Nutanix: Base Pack" version 103 from the Support Site to a local computer.
4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import "Nutanix: Base Pack" version 103. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
6. Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components). Find the Prism Element Component and select its checkbox.
7. In the Select Action drop-down list, under Change Collection State, select Disabled (recursive).
8. Discover your Prism Central device. After discovery, all Prism Element devices that are a part of Prism Central will appear as component devices under the root device.
9. If you are discovering a Prism Central that contains Prism Element devices that have been previously discovered and user-disabled, the Prism Element devices will need to be re-enabled in order for normal Dynamic Application alignment and data collection to proceed. Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components). Find the Prism Central device tree and select the checkboxes for the Prism Element devices that have been disabled in that tree. In the Select Action drop-down list, under Change Collection State, select Active(recursive).
10. See the manual Monitoring Nutanix for instructions on using the PowerPack.

If you do not need to preserve historical data, perform the following steps:

1. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 8.10.1 or later release.
2. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
3. Go to the Device Components page (Registry > Devices > Device Components). Find the Prism Element Component and select its checkbox.
4. In the Select Action drop-down list, under Change Collection State, select Disabled (recursive).
5. Go to the Device Manager page (Registry > Devices > Device Manager) and select all of the disabled Prism Element devices. In the Select Action drop-down list, under Administration, select DELETE Selected Devices. This will delete all of the devices except the root device.
6. Once those devices are removed, in the Device Manager page (Registry > Devices > Device Manager) select the root Prism Element device. In the Select Action drop-down list, under Administration, select DELETE Selected Devices.
7. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Find the version of the PowerPack you are currently on and select its checkbox. Click the Actions menu and choose Delete PowerPack(s).
8. Download "Nutanix: Base Pack" version 103 from the Support Site to a local computer.
9. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. Import "Nutanix: Base Pack" version 103. For details on importing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
10. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.
11. Discover your Prism Central device. After discovery, all Prism Element devices that are a part of Prism Central will appear as component devices under the root device.
12. See the manual Monitoring Nutanix for instructions on using the PowerPack.

Features

This release includes the following features:

• Dynamic Applications that discover and collect configuration and performance data for Nutanix devices

• Event Policies and corresponding alerts that are triggered when Nutanix devices meet certain status criteria
• Device Classes for each type of Nutanix device monitored
• A sample Credential for discovering Nutanix devices
• Dashboards that display information about Nutanix instances and component devices
• A Run Book Action and an Automation policy to assign the proper device class to the root device

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "Nutanix: Base Pack":

• Support was added for Prism Central devices with multiple Prism Element clusters. New Dynamic Applications, Event Policies, Run Book Actions, Run Book Automation Policies, a Device Category, and Device Class for Prism Central have been added.
• The Prism Central device class category was added to the PowerPack.
• The "Nutanix: Disk Configuration" Dynamic Application was updated to include alerts to indicate when the disk is in an online or offline state.
• Alert messages about storage capacity were improved to be more detailed.
• The Collector Affinity field is now set to Root device collector by default in all Dynamic Applications in the PowerPack.
• Nutanix: Prism Elements Discovery Dynamic Application

• Several Dynamic Application names were updated to conform to our Content Standards. Some Event Policy names may have been changed slightly. Event Policies have been updated to include more detail in the description. Some Presentation objects were updated to include units and abbreviations.

• The "Nutanix: CVM I/O and Performance" Dynamic Application was updated to check the hypervisor type before sending a high memory threshold alert, to avoid erroneous memory utilization alerts for ESXi-based Nutanix systems.
• Two new alerts were added to the "Nutanix: CVM Configuration" Dynamic Application to indicate the Controller VM power state.
• The "Nutanix: Controller VM Discovery" Dynamic Application was updated to add the "Cluster UUID" collection object and a GUID component identifier.
• The "Nutanix: Host I/O and Performance" Dynamic Application was updated to add the "CPU Usage" collection object and alerts for CPU usage.
• Event policies in the PowerPack were updated so the event expiry meets content standards.
• The "Nutanix: Collection Cache" Dynamic Application was updated to use the correct CVM memory usage cache object and to address an issue that was causing divide-by-zero errors during collection.
• The "CPU Utilization" collection and presentation objects have been removed from the "Nutanix: VM I/O and Performance" and "Nutanix: CVM I/O and Performance" Dynamic Applications because they were reporting incorrect data.
• The "Nutanix: Node Config: CVM" snippet was removed from the "Nutanix: Host Configuration" Dynamic Application.
• An issue was addressed in which VMware vCenters were being reclassified as Nutanix devices during nightly discovery.
• The following Dynamic Applications were updated to address an issue in which the events log did not contain a list of active events:

• Nutanix: CVM Events
• Nutanix: Disk Events
• Nutanix: Host Events
• Nutanix: Storage Container Events
• Nutanix: Storage Pool Events
• Nutanix: VM Events

• An issue was addressed in which data retrieval for customers with multiple disks in their environment was not working correctly.

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 103 of the Nutanix: Base Pack PowerPack:

• When discovering a Prism Central that contains Prism Element devices that have been previously discovered and user-disabled, the Prism Element devices will need to be re-enabled after the Prism Element devices have been moved to the new Prism Central device tree so that normal Dynamic Application alignment and data collection can proceed.
• Dynamic Application auto-alignment may take as long as 30 minutes to complete.
• When discovering Prism Element and Prism Central devices, do not include both types of devices in the IP list for discovery, as the DCM tree will not fully build out and will be missing component devices. It is recommended that you either discover individual Prism Element clusters, or discover a Prism Central device with multiple Prism Element clusters.
• When upgrading the PowerPack from a version earlier than version 101, duplicate virtual devices may be created in your Dynamic Component Map (DCM) when upgrading the PowerPack. This is due to the change to the unique ID and SL1 recognizing it as a new device.

To remove the old devices from the DCM, set the Component Vanish Timeout field (in either the Global Threshold Settings page [System > Settings > Thresholds> System], the Device Thresholds page for the component device [Registry > Devices > Device Manager > wrench icon > Thresholds], or the Device Thresholds page for a device higher in the component tree) on the DCM tree so that the old virtual devices get moved out of the DCM and only the newly discovered devices remain.

If you do not need to retain the old devices for historical data purposes, then the Component Purge Timeout field (in either the Global Threshold Settings page [System > Settings > Thresholds], the Device Thresholds page for the component device [Registry > Devices > Device Manager > wrench icon > Thresholds], or the Device Thresholds page for a device higher in the component tree) can be used to eventually remove those devices completely from the system.

• Discovery and auto-alignment of Dynamic Applications can take up to about 30 minutes to complete.
• If detailed discovery has completed and no Dynamic Applications are aligned, it may be due to a discovery Dynamic Application in the Microsoft HyperV v2.1 PowerPack. If you are monitoring Hyper-V, delete the Microsoft HyperV v2.1 PowerPack and install the updated Microsoft Hyper-V Server v100 PowerPack.