Getting Started with Flow Network Security Next-Gen – Part 2 – Upgrade the Controller(s)

In part 1 I showed you how to create Security Policies with Microsegmentation (flow) on your cluster(s). This blogpost will describe some more information about the versions and how to upgrade the specific components.

In my lab I’m running AOS 7.0.1 and Prism Central 2024.3.1. The network controller and Micro seg are default enabled so (in my case) the used versions are:

Prism Element:

Prism Central:

The Flow Network Security is default deployed with version 4.2.0 in Next Gen mode (single stack) meaning you need to use the Network Controller managed VLANs for Microsegmentation. You can switch to legacy mode (dual stack) to be able to use basic VLANs for you Microsegmentation. If you need to then contact support and they will help you switch. For now we stick to the Next Gen mode. (If running in legacy mode, then you don’t need to upgrade the network controller as that is not being used).

Download FNS PC and PE updates:

The upgrades for the FNS controllers (PC and PE) are not being done via the one click method but they require direct upload in LCM. Download the version you want from the download portal on the Nutanix website. Don’t forget to switch between PC and PE at the top. For now I download 5.1.0 for PC and PE.

Upgrade FNS PC and PE:

Upload the downloaded bundles as a direct upload in LCM in the corresponding Prism.

• lcm_flow_pc_5.1.0.tar.gz in Prism Central
• lcm_flow_cvm_5.1.0.tar.gz in Prism Element

In Prism Central the update is directly available for installation but In Prism Element it isn’t. First install the update in Prism Central and after that run an inventory in Prism Element LCM. Then the update will be shown in Prism Element as well and can be installed.

Upgrade Network Controller:

Last step it to upgrade the network controller in Prism Central. This should be available via LCM and can be a direct uploads as well. At the time of writing there is no update available and the 5.0 is the latest version.

Nutanix Portal:

Here you can find the different updates of the components:

Stay tuned for part 3 😉