Update Nutanix Community Edition To The Latest Versions (or STS)

In this blogpost I will explain how-to upgrade your Nutanix community edition cluster to the latest versions. I will do this in a 1 node cluster, but steps will be the same for a multi node cluster. Default community installation will install the following versions:

If we run an LCM inventory we will get the following updates (at this point in time):

Please don’t update all together. I always upgrade AOS and AHV in separate steps (AOS separate and AHV separate) in community edition.

FSM (File Server Module), Foundation and NCC (Nutanix Cluster Checks)

We can update FSM, Foundation and NCC at the same time. Select the components and upgrade.

AOS (Acropolis Operating System)

Upgrading AOS will take a long time and will reboot the CVM. As I’m running a single node cluster I need to prepare the cluster for this.

  • Shutdown any running guest virtual machines (including Prism Central and Files);
  • Backup your lab data 😉

When the upgrade is running and the CVM is rebooting Prism Element is unavailable. Wait until Prism Element is available and you can successfully login again. AOS is upgraded:

AHV (Acropolis HyperVisor)

AHV is a bit harder to upgrade. When the node is rebooting you will (potential) run into issues booting again. This is explained by Satoshi here: https://smzklab.net/2023/03/nutanix-ce-20-how-to-fix-ahv-after-upgrade.html

In LCM select AHV and upgrade. This will take a long time and you probably think it is not doing anything. If you have a disk activity led on the node this will blink ;). Just wait (grab a coffee, or two) until the node reboots. And when Dracut Emergency Shell is entered follow the following steps (Thanks Satoshi for sorting this out):

  • insmod /lib/modules/<installed version>/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.ko
    • For example: insmod /lib/modules/5.10.177-2.el7.nutanix.20220304.462.x86_64/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.ko
  • Type exit to exit dracut and continue booting the node;
  • When the node restarts the CVM cant start as it cannot access the necessary files;
    • Login into AHV and type: sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/pci-passthru-nx2k.conf
    • Comment out the 3 blacklist lines (add # in front) and save the file;
    • Type: sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/stig-reqs-usbstorage.conf
    • Comment out the two lines and save the file;
    • To make the changes permanent type: dracut -f
    • Reboot the node: reboot

The cluster should start automatically again. But when this is not the case ssh into CVM and initiate the “cluster start” command.

And there it is. AHV nicely upgraded:

STS (Short Term Support)

Before switching to the STS version make sure the versions (AOS and AHV) are working on Community Edition.

As for now AHV 20230302.1011 is not available for CE.

Above I explained the simple process to upgrade to the latest LTS (Long Term Support) but off-course we want to run the latest and greatest. Upgrading to STS is done manually and can’t be done via LCM. Download your STS AOS LCM bundle from portal.nutanix.com. For me (at this point in time) the latest version is:

  • AOS 6.7.1 (STS).

Upload the bundle to LCM:

Now you can upgrade AOS as described above.

4 thoughts on “Update Nutanix Community Edition To The Latest Versions (or STS)

  1. Where can I find the download AOS 6.7.1 (STS)?
    It looks like you need access to the support portal, and that’s only possible if you own Nutanix hardware of have a commercial license.

  2. I I buy refurbished Nutanix hardware (pretty cheap on Ebay), can I use that serial to access the support portal?

    1. I dont know. Probably not as the serial is attached to the old customer. And you cant just add it to you account. Forget the sts version and stay at the lts. (This will be changed soon either way)

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