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Summary of Nutanix Acropolis discovery
The ServiceNow Discovery application leverages the Nutanix Components pattern to identify and gather details about Nutanix Acropolis environments, specifically supporting Nutanix Prism Central version 2024.3.1.8 and Prism Element 7.0.1.6.It uses REST APIs to collect data, with support for both API versions v1-3 and the newer v4 starting from Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns version 1.29.0.Nutanix event patterns detect state changes in virtual machines and hosts, triggering rediscovery to keep CMDB data current.
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Key Features
Comprehensive Discovery: Identifies Nutanix clusters, hosts, virtual machines, storage pools, storage containers, and controller VMs, populating detailed configuration items (CIs) in the CMDB.
API Version Support: Supports legacy APIs (v1-3) and the latest v4 API, with v4 discovery creating new records without updating legacy ones.
Event-driven Rediscovery: Nutanix VM Event and Host Event patterns detect state changes every five minutes (disabled by default), enabling near real-time CMDB updates.
Integration with VMware: Links Nutanix components hosted on ESX clusters to VMware clusters when VMware probe discovery is run prior to Nutanix discovery.
Tag Discovery: Collects tags for hosts and VMs, storing them in the Key Value [cmdbkeyvalue] table, with an option to disable tag discovery for performance optimization.
Security and Connectivity: Requires MID Server deployment with SSL certificates installed and proper API permissions configured for read-only access.
Configurable Batch Processing: Allows adjustment of batch size for deleting redundant relationships to optimize performance.
Dashboards: Provides out-of-the-box dashboards for visibility into discovered Nutanix infrastructure, accessible via the Discovery Admin Workspace.
Prerequisites and Configuration
Ensure the Discovery and Service Mapping Patterns, Visibility Content, and CMDB CI Class Models applications are up to date.
Deploy a dedicated MID Server with network access to Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central, including importing Nutanix SSL certificates into the MID Server's Java keystore.
Verify that the user account for discovery has read-only permissions on the required REST API endpoints for the Nutanix versions in use.
For v4 API usage, Prism Central must be at least version 7.3, and the MID Server property must be set to enable v4 discovery.
Create serverless discovery schedules targeting Nutanix components via REST API.
Run VMware probe discovery first if linking Nutanix components to ESX clusters is needed.
Optionally disable CI tag discovery to improve discovery performance in environments with numerous tags.
Enable Nutanix event discovery scheduled jobs to activate VM and host state change detection for automatic rediscovery.
Data Collected and CMDB Impact
Discovery populates detailed CI records in the CMDB for the following Nutanix components:
Controller VMs: Including name, UUID, memory, power state, hypervisor type, and descriptions.
Clusters: Covering cluster name, IP addresses, version, subnets, timezone, hypervisor types, NTP servers, node count, and block serial numbers.
Hosts: Capturing CPU details, RAM, and serial numbers (non-applicable in v4).
Storage Pools and Containers: Including IDs, names, sizes, replication, deduplication, compression, and erasure code settings.
Virtual Machine Instances: With CPU count, memory, state, and descriptive information.
Prism Central Instances: Identified by name and object ID, linked by IP or DNS name depending on discovery method.
Differing details may be retrieved depending on the API version used.
CI Relationships
Discovery establishes extensive relationships between Nutanix CIs and other infrastructure components to accurately reflect environment topology. This includes:
Clusters containing hosts and virtual machines.
Hosts registering virtual machines.
Storage pools containing storage containers.
Server instances linked to Nutanix virtual machines.
Management relations between Nutanix Prism Central and clusters.
Special relationships to support AHV and ESX virtualization platforms, including VMware cluster integration when applicable.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
Automated and Accurate Discovery: Enables efficient mapping and management of Nutanix Acropolis infrastructure within ServiceNow CMDB, supporting IT operations and service management processes.
Real-time Updates: Event-driven rediscovery keeps the CMDB aligned with actual
The ServiceNowDiscovery 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.
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.
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".
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:
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.
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:
Navigate to Pattern Designer > Discovery Patterns.
Select the Nutanix Components pattern.
Under Extension Section, select the check box for Categories (Tags) and select Remove.
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.
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.
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
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
The graphic illustrates the Server and Nutanix VM Instance relationship.
CI relationships
These relationships are created to support all Nutanix discovery, regardless of hypervisor.
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.
