Nutanix Acropolis discovery

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated June 3, 2026
  • 10 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Nutanix Acropolis discovery

    The ServiceNow Discovery application leverages the Nutanix Components pattern to identify and map components of the Nutanix Acropolis environment, including Nutanix Prism Central (version 2024.3.1.8 or later) and Nutanix Prism Element (version 7.0.1.6 or later). Using REST APIs, the pattern collects detailed information about Nutanix infrastructure for CMDB population. The discovery supports both API versions v1-3 and the newer v4 (supported starting with Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.29.0), with v4 enabling enhanced discovery capabilities and creating new pool and container records.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Comprehensive Nutanix component discovery: Includes clusters, hosts, storage pools, containers, virtual machines, controller VMs, and Prism Central instances.
    • Event-driven rediscovery: Nutanix VM and Host Event patterns detect state changes and trigger rediscovery, supporting both legacy APIs and API v4 (from version 1.31.0 onward).
    • REST API integration: Utilizes Nutanix REST APIs for accurate and up-to-date data collection.
    • Support for both AHV and VMware hypervisors: Can discover Nutanix components hosted on AHV or VMware environments, linking discovered components appropriately.
    • Tag discovery (optional): Collects tags for Nutanix hosts and VMs, which can be disabled to improve performance in environments with many tags.
    • Serverless schedule creation: Enables targeted, scheduled discovery using REST APIs without requiring traditional probes.
    • Configurable batch size: Allows tuning of the batch size for deleting redundant relationship data to optimize performance.
    • Dashboard reporting: Provides dashboards to visualize discovered Nutanix infrastructure within ServiceNow.

    Prerequisites and Setup

    • Ensure Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns, Visibility Content, and CMDB CI Class Models applications are up to date.
    • Deploy and connect a dedicated MID Server with network access to Nutanix Prism Central and Prism Element.
    • Import Nutanix endpoint SSL certificates into the MID Server's Java keystore to enable secure REST API communication.
    • Verify that the account used for discovery has read-only permissions on required Nutanix REST API endpoints for both v1-3 and v4 APIs.
    • For API v4 discovery, ensure Prism Central is at least version 7.3 and enable v4 discovery by configuring the MID Server property with the exact v4 version.
    • Configure basic authentication credentials for accessing Nutanix APIs.
    • Create serverless discovery schedules to run targeted Nutanix Acropolis discoveries.
    • For Nutanix components hosted on VMware ESX clusters, run VMware probe discovery first to properly link Nutanix components to ESX clusters.

    Data and CI Relationships

    The discovery populates detailed CMDB tables for Nutanix components such as Controller VMs, Clusters, Hosts, Storage Pools, Storage Containers, Virtual Machine Instances, and Prism Central instances. Key attributes include names, IDs, memory, CPU specs, storage sizes, versions, and hypervisor types.

    Relationships are established to reflect the infrastructure topology, including:

    • Membership of hosts to clusters and virtual machines to hosts.
    • Storage pools containing storage containers.
    • Virtual machines instantiated by servers.
    • Clusters managed by Prism Central instances.
    • Specialized relationships for AHV and VMware environments to accurately associate Controller VMs and resources.

    Event Discovery and Scheduled Jobs

    Event patterns monitor Nutanix VM and host state changes, triggering rediscovery as needed. These run by default every five minutes but require enabling the corresponding scheduled jobs. For API v4 event discovery, ensure Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.31.0 or later is installed and MID Server properties are configured to restrict discovery to specific Prism Central instances if desired.

    Performance and Customization

    • Optionally disable CI tag discovery to avoid performance degradation in environments with many tags.
    • Adjust the batch size for redundant relationship deletion with the snitompattern.nutanixrelationsdeletionbatchsize property to optimize discovery performance.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    By implementing Nutanix Acropolis discovery, ServiceNow customers can maintain an accurate, up-to-date CMDB representation of their Nutanix infrastructure. This enables better visibility, impact analysis, and operational awareness of Nutanix components and their relationships within hybrid virtualization environments. Event-driven rediscovery ensures CMDB data remains current with infrastructure state changes, improving configuration management and operational efficiency.

    The ServiceNow Discovery application uses the Nutanix Components pattern to find components of the Nutanix Acropolis solution containing Nutanix Prism Central version 2024.3.1.8 or Nutanix Prism Element 7.0.1.6. Discovering some of these resources may require updating to the latest version of the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns application from the ServiceNow Store.

    The Nutanix Components pattern uses REST APIs to collect information about the Acropolis deployment components.

    Starting with version 1.29.0, Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns supports Nutanix v4 discovery. When you switch to v4, Discovery creates new pool and container records, while existing records stop being updated.

    Request apps on the Store

    Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.

    Nutanix events

    The Nutanix VM Event pattern finds events for virtual machines (VMs) in the Nutanix deployment and triggers rediscovery when a state change is detected. Starting with Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.31.0, the VM Event pattern also supports API v4, and the Nutanix Host Event pattern detects state changes for Nutanix hosts using API v4. Both patterns run every five minutes by default, but are inactive until you enable the relevant scheduled job.

    Table 1. Patterns used for event discovery
    Pattern CI API version
    Nutanix VM Event Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance] v1–3 and v4
    Nutanix Host Event Nutanix Host [cmdb_ci_nutanix_host] v4 only

    Prerequisites

    Verify that the following applications are up to date
    • Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns
    • Visibility Content
    • CMDB CI Class Models
    Verify MID Server requirements
    Deploy and connect a dedicated MID Server with network access to Prism Element and Prism Central.
    Install Nutanix end-point SSL certificates for the MID Server JRE
    1. Collect the certificates by browsing the Nutanix Prism console on Internet Explorer.
    2. Add SSL certificates for the MID Server, as described in Add SSL certificates for the MID Server.
    3. Use the following JRE keytool command to import the SSL certificates in the MID Server's keystore: <MID Installation>/jre/bin/keytool -import -v -keystore <MID Installation>jre/lib/security/cacerts.

      If you must enter a password, enter a custom password or the default password - "changeit".

    4. Install Nutanix end-point SSL certificates for the MID Server JRE.
    Verify API permissions for v1-3
    Verify that the user has read-only access to the following API requests:
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/vms
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/storage_pools
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0/tasks/list
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0/hosts
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0/clusters
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0/vms
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v2.0/storage_containers
    • /api/nutanix/v3/clusters/list
    • /api/nutanix/v3/categories/list
    • /api/nutanix/v3/categories/{category_keys}/list
    • /api/nutanix/v3/category/query
    Verify API permissions for v4
    Verify that the user has read-only access to the following GET APIs. Note that the API call referencing /PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/vms uses a legacy endpoint because it's not available yet in the newer API.
    • /api/clustermgmt/v4/config/clusters
    • /api/clustermgmt/v4/config/clusters/{clusters_ID}/hosts​
    • /api/clustermgmt/v4/config/storage-containers
    • /api/vmm/v4/ahv/config/vms
    • /PrismGateway/services/rest/v1/vms
    • /api/prism/v4/config/categories?$expand=associations​
    • /api/prism/v4/config/categories/{categories_ID}?$limit=extId&$expand=detailedAssociations
    Verify Prism Central version for v4 API
    Ensure that Prism Central is at least version 7.3 to use the v4 API.
    Set MID Server property to discover v4
    Enable Nutanix v4 discovery by setting the MID Server property value to the exact v4 version. For more information, see Enable Nutanix v4 discovery.
    Configure basic authentication credentials
    For more information, see Basic authentication credentials.
    Create a serverless discovery schedule
    Create a discovery schedule to perform targeted discovery of Nutanix components. For more information, see Create a serverless schedule for Nutanix Acropolis discovery.
    Link Nutanix components to ESX clusters
    The Nutanix Components pattern can discover Nutanix components hosted on ESX clusters, like storage pools, storage containers, and Controller Virtual Machine (CVM), but not ESX clusters themselves. Run VMware probe discovery before the Nutanix pattern discovery to link the Nutanix components to their ESX clusters. If you don't, the Nutanix components are linked to Nutanix Prism instead. For more information on VMware probe discovery, see Discovery for VMware virtualization.
    (Optional) Disable CI tag discovery
    The Nutanix Components pattern discovers tags for Nutanix hosts and virtual machines. If you have dozens of tags in your deployment, it might slow down the discovery causing performance issues. You can disable the CI tag discovery by performing the following steps:
    1. Navigate to Pattern Designer > Discovery Patterns.
    2. Select the Nutanix Components pattern.
    3. Under Extension Section, select the check box for Categories (Tags) and select Remove.
    4. Select Save.
    Adjust the batch size for removing redundant relationship data
    The sn_itom_pattern.nutanix_relations_deletion_batch_size property sets the batch size for deleting relations between Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance and Nutanix Host. The default value is 1000; you can adjust this batch size as needed.
    Configure Nutanix events
    • Verify that Nutanix Components discovery has run and that the Nutanix Prism Central [cmdb_ci_nutanix_prism_central] table is populated.
    • Verify that the MID Servers for Nutanix event discovery have All or Nutanix capability.
    • For v4 event discovery, verify that at least version 1.31.0 of Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns is installed.
    • To restrict v4 event discovery to specific Prism Central instances, see Restrict Nutanix v4 event discovery to specific Prism Centrals.
    • Enable the event discovery scheduled job. For more information, see Enable Nutanix event discovery.

    Data collected by Discovery during horizontal discovery

    Discovery populates the data in the CMDB when running the Nutanix Components pattern.

    Note:
    API v4 calls might retrieve or populate different values compared to v1-3. For more information, search the Nutanix documentation for the "API Reference v4 Introduction" article.
    Table 2. Nutanix Controller VM [cmdb_ci_nutanix_controller_vm]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    VM ID [vm_id] The universally unique identifier (UUID) of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    Object ID [object_id] The ID of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    Memory (MB) [memory] The memory size of the Nutanix Controller VM in Megabytes (MB).
    State [state] The power state of the Nutanix Controller VM (on/off).
    Hypervisor Type [hypervisor_type] The type of the hypervisor used for the Nutanix Controller VM.
    Description [short_description] The description defined for the virtual machine in the Nutanix console: Prism Central or Prism Element.
    Table 3. Nutanix Cluster [cmdb_ci_nutanix_cluster]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix Cluster.
    IP Address [ip_address] The IP address of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Cluster ID [cluster_id] The ID of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Object ID [object_id] The object ID of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Version [version] The Nutanix Cluster version.
    Full Version [full_version] The full version of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Internal Subnet [internal_subnet] The subnet of the internal IP address of the Nutanix Cluster.
    External Subnet [external_subnet] The subnet of the external IP address of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Timezone [timezone] The time zone of the Nutanix Cluster.
    Hypervisor Types [hypervisor_types] The type of the hypervisor used for the Nutanix Cluster.
    NTP Servers [ntp_servers] The Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers that are related to the Nutanix Cluster.
    Number of Nodes [num_nodes] The number of nodes connected to the Nutanix Cluster.
    NCC Version [ncc_version] The Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) version.
    Block Serial Numbers [block_serial_numbers] The serial numbers of blocks of data connected to the Nutanix Cluster.
    Table 4. Nutanix Host [cmdb_ci_nutanix_host]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix host.
    Object ID [object_id] The ID of the Nutanix host.
    CPU core count [cpu_core_count] The number of Nutanix host cores.
    CPU core thread [cpu_core_thread] The number of threads of the Nutanix host.
    CPU speed (MHz) [cpu_speed] The CPU speed of the Nutanix host in MHz.
    CPU count [cpu_count] The number of CPU sockets of the Nutanix host.
    RAM (MB) [ram] The memory of the host in Megabites (MB).
    Serial number [serial_number] Serial number of the Nutanix host.

    This field is not applicable for v4.
    Table 5. Nutanix Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_pool]
    Field Description
    Name [name]
    • v1-3: The name of the Nutanix storage pool.
    • v4: Cluster name.
    Pool ID [pool_id]
    • v1-3: The UUID of the Nutanix storage pool.
    • v4: The external ID (extId) of the pool retrieved from the Nutanix Storage Container.
    Object ID [object_id]
    • v1-3: The ID of the Nutanix storage pool.
    • v4: The external ID (extId) of the pool retrieved from the Nutanix Storage Container.
    Size [size] The size of the Nutanix storage pool.

    This field is not applicable for v4.
    Table 6. Nutanix Storage Container [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_container]
    Field Description
    Object ID [object_id] The ID of the Nutanix container.
    Container ID [container_id] The UUID of the Nutanix container.
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix container.
    Replication Factor [replication_factor] The number of copies created for the data stored on this Nutanix storage container.
    Deduplication [deduplication] The deduplication is enabled or disabled for the Nutanix container.
    Compression [compression] The compression is enabled or disabled for the Nutanix container.
    Erasure Code [erasure_code] The erasure of code is enabled or disabled for the Nutanix container.
    Size [size] The Nutanix container size calculated dynamically during discovery.
    Table 7. Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    VM Instance ID [vm_inst_id] The universally unique identifier (UUID) of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    Object ID [object_id] The ID of the Nutanix Controller VM.
    CPUs [cpus] The number of CPUs that the VM has.
    Memory (MB) [memory] The memory size of the Nutanix Controller VM in Megabytes (MB).
    State [state] The power state of the Nutanix Controller VM (on/off).
    Description [short_description] The description defined for the virtual machine in the Nutanix console: Prism Central or Prism Element.
    Table 8. Nutanix Prism Central [cmdb_ci_nutanix_prism_central]
    Field Description
    Name [name] The name of the Nutanix Prism Central multi-cluster manager.
    • PrismCentral@<IP_ADDRESS>: When the IP address is associated with the Prism Central instance, in the following scenarios:
      • During quick discovery using HTTP classification.
      • During serverless discovery if IP address was entered in PRISM_Address parameter value.
    • PrismCentral@<DNS_NAME>: When the DNS name is associated with the Prism Central instance and was entered in PRISM_Address parameter value during serverless discovery.
    Object ID [object_id] The ID of the Nutanix Prism Central. This field has the same value as the Name field.
    • PrismCentral@<IP_ADDRESS>: When the IP address is associated with the Prism Central instance, in the following scenarios:
      • During quick discovery using HTTP classification.
      • During serverless discovery if IP address was entered in PRISM_Address parameter value.
    • PrismCentral@<DNS_NAME>: When the DNS name is associated with the Prism Central instance and was entered in PRISM_Address parameter value during serverless discovery.
    The graphic illustrates CIs that are part of the Acropolis discovery in deployments that use Nutanix AHV for virtualization.
    Figure 1. Nutanix components

    Nutanix components
    The graphic illustrates CIs that are part of the Acropolis discovery in deployments that use VMware software for virtualization.
    Figure 2. Nutanix components in deployments using VMware software

    Nutanix components in deployments using VMware software
    The graphic illustrates the Server and Nutanix VM Instance relationship.
    Server and Nutanix VM Instance relationship

    CI relationships

    These relationships are created to support all Nutanix discovery, regardless of hypervisor.

    CI Relationship CI
    Nutanix Cluster [cmdb_ci_nutanix_cluster] Members::Member of Nutanix Host [cmdb_ci_nutanix_host]
    Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance] Registered::Has registered Nutanix Host [cmdb_ci_nutanix_host]
    Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance] Hosted on::Hosts Nutanix Cluster [cmdb_ci_nutanix_cluster]
    Nutanix Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_pool] Contains::Contained by Nutanix Storage Container [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_container]
    Servers [cmdb_ci_server] Instantiates::Instantiated by Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance]
    Nutanix Cluster [cmdb_ci_nutanix_cluster] Managed by::Manages Nutanix Prism Central [cmdb_ci_nutanix_prism_central]

    These relationships are created to support Nutanix discovery for components hosted on AHV clusters.

    CI Relationship CI
    Nutanix Controller VM [cmdb_ci_nutanix_controller_vm] Runs on::Runs Nutanix Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_nutanix_vm_instance]
    Nutanix Cluster [cmdb_ci_nutanix_cluster] Defines resources for::Gets resources from Nutanix Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_pool]

    These relationships are created to support Nutanix discovery for components hosted on ESX clusters if you ran a VMware discovery.

    CI Relationship CI
    Nutanix Controller VM [cmdb_ci_nutanix_controller_vm] Runs on::Runs VMware Virtual Machine Instance [cmdb_ci_vmware_instance]
    VMware Cluster [cmdb_ci_vmware_cluster] Defines resources for::Gets resources from Nutanix Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_pool]

    These relationships are created to support Nutanix discovery for components hosted on ESX clusters if you didn't run a VMware discovery.

    CI Relationship CI
    Nutanix Controller VM [cmdb_ci_nutanix_controller_vm] Hosted on::Hosts Nutanix Prism Central [cmdb_ci_nutanix_prism_central]
    Nutanix Storage Pool [cmdb_ci_nutanix_storage_pool] Hosted on::Hosts Nutanix Prism Central [cmdb_ci_nutanix_prism_central]

    Tag discovery

    The Nutanix Components pattern collects tags and populates them in the Key Value [cmdb_key_value] table.

    Table 9. Key Value [cmdb_key_value]
    Field Description
    Key [key] The category key.
    Value [value] The category value.
    Configuration item [configuration_item] References the Nutanix Host [cmdb_ci_nutanix_host] table.

    Dashboard

    The dashboard contains reports that query the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and display the results. The information is displayed only after the pattern has discovered the infrastructure.

    To display the dashboard, navigate to Self-Service > Dashboards > All > Nutanix.

    After upgrading to Discovery Admin Workspace version 1.3.1 (August 2024 Store), you can navigate to Workspaces > Discovery Admin Workspace > Insights and use the enhanced dashboard.