Install on Nutanix AHV

Before you start

You need:

• the DC Netscope OVA, downloaded from easyvirt.com,
• a Prism account DC Netscope will read the inventory with, and create the IPFIX export with,
• an IP address for DC Netscope, or a DHCP network,
• these network openings:

Upload the OVA to Prism Central

1. In Prism Central, open Compute > OVAs and click Upload OVA.

   

2. Keep OVA File as the source, select the AHV cluster that will run DC Netscope, give the OVA a name (DCNetscope here), choose the DC Netscope OVA file and click Upload. The checksum is optional.

   

   The upload takes a while: Continue in Background closes the window without stopping it.

   

3. Once uploaded, Prism Central checks the file. Follow it in the tasks (top right): wait for OVA validate to reach 100% before going on.

   

Deploy the virtual machine

1. In Compute > OVAs, select the OVA you uploaded, then Actions > Deploy as VM.

   

2. Configuration: name the virtual machine, and give it its CPUs and memory, for instance 4 vCPUs and 8 GiB.

   

3. Resources:

   • in Boot Configuration, choose Legacy BIOS Mode, with the default boot order,

     

   • in Network, the OVA may come with a network interface already, shown with errors: the OVA is built for VMware, and Nutanix can only partly read its network settings. Delete this interface, then click Attach to Subnet to create a new one, on the subnet DC Netscope will be reached on and will receive the flows on.

     

4. Management: in Guest Customization, choose Cloud-init (Linux) as the script type and Custom Script as the configuration method, and paste the settings of DC Netscope in Startup Script:

   {
       "email": "admin@example.com",
       "os_password": "a-strong-password",
       "ip_mode": "static",
       "static_ip": "192.168.1.50",
       "static_netmask": "255.255.255.0",
       "static_gateway": "192.168.1.1",
       "dns_ip": "192.168.1.1"
   }

   

   • email and os_password create the first administrator of DC Netscope. The password is also the one of the root account of the virtual machine.
   • ip_mode is dhcp, static, or cloud-init to let cloud-init configure the network itself. The static_* fields are ignored in dhcp mode.

   See Appliance settings for all the settings.

5. Review: check the settings and create the virtual machine.

Power on the virtual machine. After a few minutes, its console shows the address of DC Netscope: open https://<DC Netscope address> in your browser and log in with the account you defined.

Connect Prism

1. Open the administration interface, and go to the Services tab.

   

2. In Connected infrastructures, choose Nutanix (beta), type the address of Prism (DC Netscope uses the port 9440 unless you write another one, as in prism.example.com:9440), the user and the password, and click Add a new connector.

3. Check that the status of the Nutanix connection is green.

Send the flows with IPFIX

Nutanix exports the flows of the virtual machines in IPFIX. DC Netscope creates this export on the cluster for you.

1. Start an IPFIX collector in DC Netscope. In the configuration of the administration interface, set Nutanix IPFIX Collector workers count to 1 or more.

   

2. Create the export. Back in the Services tab, the Nutanix connection shows its exporters: none at first.

   

   Type the address of DC Netscope and the port of its IPFIX collector, 11000, then click Add exporter.

   

3. After a few seconds, the exporter is listed: Nutanix now sends its flows to DC Netscope.

   

Check that the flows arrive

Open the Dashboard. Within a few minutes, the collect summary shows the traffic received from Nutanix, and the flows of your virtual machines appear with their names.

Nothing shows up? Check that 11000/udp is open from the cluster to DC Netscope, that the exporter is still listed in the Services tab, and have a look at the troubleshooting page.

Next steps

• Activate your license: a 15 days trial license is active from the installation.
• Manage the users, or connect your Active Directory.
• Group your applications to read the flows between them.