Nutanix Prism Login access credentials

In order to access the Nutanix CE appliance we have nested in our home lab we need to update the default appliance password and register the new installation. In order to proceed with the first registration and access the Nutanix Prism login we need to make sure of two things:

• The Nutanix CE appliance can connect to the internet
• The Nutanix CE appliance can resolve internet names

Now as far as the first one is very obvious and can we can quickly check the Networking settings on the Port Group as per our example it is not so obvious at least right after the initial deployment that the correct Name Servers need to be configured in the Nutanix Cluster to complete this steps.

This article simply shows the steps on how to login to the Nutanix Controller VM and check the Name Servers configuration using the nCLI commands.

Nutanix Prism login dashboard

Right after the installation of Nutanix CE let’s browse the https://CVM_IP or https://CVM_IP:9440 in case it is not automatically redirected. If we try to provide the correct credentials we might receive a message like the one in the screenshot below:

Unknown host, could not reach NEXT server. Please configure name server.

The Name Server in question can be easily configured from the Dashboard > Settings Wheel > Name Servers

But what if we cannot access the Dashboard at all? This is where the command line is our friend here!

Let’s start a new ssh session (in my case I will use PuTTY) and login to the Nutanix Controller VM using the default user and password:

• User: nutanix
• Password: nutanix/4u

The configured IP Address for the Nutanix Controller VM is also shown on the root console of the Host.

At this point we can use the nCLI commands to query the actual Name Servers configuration for the Nutanix Cluster. all we have to do is just issue the command:

“ncli cluster get-name-servers”

This command will return the IP Addresses of the existing Name Server if already configured. In my example for my network this particular server is not reachable due to firewall configuration. Actually not working as expected!

So it’s time to add another IP Address for a name server the resolve the NEXT domain and help with Nutanix Prism login registration. All we have to do is to use the nCLI commands again to add the intended server. So the command will look something similar to:

“ncli cluster add-to-name-servers server=”192.168.1.1”

At this point the previous command again will show both name servers. Should we want to remove unwanted name servers the command to use will be “remove-from-name-servers” instead. Pretty straight forward.

If we now want to test internet names can be resolved let’s do a quick test with a domain name of our choice. In my example I’m using google.com and as the screenshot is showing the FQDN name can be successfully resolved.

At this point if we simply refresh the page or try to connect again to the https://CVM_IP address we should be able to go through the first registration and access the Nutanix Prism login dashboard.

The Nutanix CE appliance requires Internet connectivity. It’s not just for the first registration against the NEXT Community Portal but also for other Nutanix Cluster components. So I would highly recommend to check network configuration for this appliance. In case of a nested install into VMware it is sufficient to create a dedicated Port Group in Promiscuous mode to allow communication from the internal resources to the Nodes and Cluster components.