With the Nutanix AOS 5.0 release it is now possible to manage VMware vSphere ESXi based virtual machines (VMs) via Nutanix PRISM. VM management is controlled via the VM section in PRISM which you’ll reach by:
Both the management flavours available will be discussed and the difference between the two is a vCenter Server registration or no venter Server registration so the options are:
ESXi Host VM Management
The actions available per VM in the ESXi host VM management mode, which is the default one, will be shown when you highlight a VM.
- Launch Console
- Power Operations
- Power On – Not visible on the above print screen since the VM is powered on already. There will be a PowerOn link instead of the “Power Off Actions” link as shown above
- Power Off
- Reset
There is a Create VM link to the (almost) top right corner and if you click that one before register a vCenter Server you’ll get the following error:
vCenter Server VM Management
So this requires a vCenter Server registration and will give quite a few more options. This section will include:
vCenter Server Registration
Setup the vCenter Server registration by following the below procedure.
- Click the Gear Icon and select vCenter Registration
- Fill in the information required and click Register.
Highlight a VM to verify you got some additional VM management options.
VM Management
After the vCenter Server registration is completed we will have the following VM Management options available:
- Create
- Clone
- Delete
- Launch Console – Not new with the vCenter Server registration
- Power Operations
- Power On – Not new with the vCenter Server registration
- Power Off – Not new with the vCenter Server registration
- Reset
- Guest Shutdown
- Guest Reboot
- Suspend
- Update
Let’s cover the new options one by one.
Create
Create a VM by following the below procedure
- Click the Create VM link
- Fill in the information required and click Save
The VM, VM100, is created and i verified that via the vSphere HTML5 interface. Pay attention to the Configuration and Notes.
Clone
Clone a VM by following the below procedure
- Highlight the VM you want to cone, in my case VM1000, and click Clone
- Fill out the VM specification (Name, CPU, Memory) and click Save. The following options are clone workflow specific parameters.
- Verify the VMs were created
Update
Update a VM by following the below procedure.
- Highlight the VM you want to update, in my case VM1000, and click update
- Make the necessary changes for one or more of the below fields and click Save
- Verify the changed via:
Delete
Delete a VM by following the below procedure.
- Highlight the VM you want to delete, in my case VM1000, and click Delete
- Click OK on delete confirmation pop up.
- Verify that the VM is deleted and the delete task can be viewed from: