Nutanix AOS 6.6 & AHV 8.1

Today, 2023-01-23, Nutanix releases AOS version 6.6 which is a Short Term Release, read more about difference between LTS & STS here and it comes with quite a few really nice new features and improvements. Just take a look at the below long list:)

• Security
  • IP-less Communication Between NGT and CVM. Requested especially by service providers.
  • Native Encryption of Replication Traffic
  • Service-level Network Segmentation for Disaster Recovery traffic
  • Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM), TPM 2.0 chip, for AHV based VMs.
  • Server Side Session Management in Mercury
  • Switch Port Analyzer or Traffic Mirroring Enhancement
  • AOS Kernel Migrated to Upstream, Kernel.org Provided, Long Term Support (LTS) Kernel Branch
• Availability
  • Disaster Recovery of Volume Groups and Consistency Groups
  • Nutanix Cluster Resiliency Preference during upgrade meaning you can delay data rebuild operation.
  • Cross-vDisk Strips Inline Erasure Coding which helps with data locality even when using erasure coding.
  • NearSync improvement and now it supports 20 seconds recovery point objective. This applies to both Prim and Prism Central configurations,
  • Disk Health Monitor
• Manageability
  • Unregister a Nutanix cluster from an offline Prim Central
  • Node Maintenance Mode for ESXi Nodes
  • RDMA Pass-through can be enabled after foundation
  • Use Prism Central to rename and AHV host
• Supportability
  • Intel Ice Lake Processors are supported, Linux OS with min 5.6 is required.
• Storage
  • Improved Garbage Collection
  • Deduplication o work at sub.extent level compared to the entire 1MB extent.

In addition to the new capabilities there are also improvement in the following areas:

• AHV
• AHV Management
• AIOps – Analysis
• Cluster conversion
• Data Replication and Protection
• Encryption
• Ergon
• Foundation
• Identity and Access Management (IAM)
• Infrastructure & Services
• NX Platform
• Networking
• Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT)
• Platform Solutions
• Prism
  • Gateway
  • UI
• Pulse and Insights
• Security
  • CEBA-2022:6138
  • CESA-2022:5052
  • CESA-2022:5235
  • CESA-2022:5698
  • CESA-2022:6160
  • CESA-2022:6170
  • CESA-2022:6381
  • CESA-2022:6765
  • CESA-2022:6834
  • RHEL-07-010483
  • Apache Commons Text 1.5.x < 1.10.0 Remote Code Execution
• Stargate
• Storage UI
• Witness VM

Bundled software in the release are:

• AOS 6.6
• AHV 8.1 also known as 20220304.10013
• Foundation 5.3.2
• Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) 3.0
• Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) 4.6.2.1

As usual check Nutanix Software End Of Life document on a regular basis to keep you up to date.

Important

Before upgrading, make sure to read, understand and take appropriate actions (if required) for Virtual Switch Migration Requirements in the AHV Administration Guide.

Useful links

• Acropolis 6.6 Upgrade Guide
• Firewall Requirements 6.6
• AOS 6.6 Download
• AOS 6.6 Release Notes
• AHV 8.1 20220304.10013 Download
• AHV 8.1 20220304.10013 Release Notes
• Upgrade Path
• Hypervisor json files
• Nutanix Compatibility Matrix
• Software Product Interoperability

Enjoy the new version and its capabilities..
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