Question 9 - NCM-MCI-6.5 discussion

To correct the issue of cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196) in the least disruptive manner, you need to do the following steps:

Log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to the Alerts page and click on the alert to see more details.

You will see which cluster services are down on the Controller VM. For example, it could be cassandra, curator, stargate, etc.

To start the cluster services, you need to SSH to the Controller VM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the Controller VM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.

Once you are logged in to the Controller VM, run the command:

cluster status | grep -v UP

This will show you which services are down on the Controller VM.

To start the cluster services, run the command:

cluster start

This will start all the cluster services on the Controller VM.

To verify that the cluster services are running, run the command:

cluster status | grep -v UP

This should show no output, indicating that all services are up.

To clear the alert, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.

To meet the security requirements for cluster level security, you need to do the following steps:

To update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the node using the root user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the node. You will need the IP address and the password of the root user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\root.txt.

Once you are logged in to the node, run the command:

passwd

This will prompt you to enter a new password for the root user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.

To update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the CVM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the CVM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.

Once you are logged in to the CVM, run the command:

passwd

This will prompt you to enter a new password for the nutanix user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.

To resolve the alert that is being reported, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.

To output the cluster-wide configuration of SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > SCMA Policy and click on View Policy Details. This will show you the current settings of SCMA policy for each entity type.

Copy and paste these settings into a new text file named Desktop\Files\output.txt.

To enable AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > AIDE Configuration and click on Enable AIDE. This will enable AIDE to monitor file system changes on all CVMs and nodes in the cluster.

Select Weekly as the frequency of AIDE scans and click Save.

To enable high-strength password policies for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > Password Policy and click on Edit Policy. This will allow you to modify the password policy settings for each entity type.

For each entity type (Admin User, Console User, CVM User, and Host User), select High Strength as the password policy level and click Save.

To ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > Cluster Lockdown and click on Configure Lockdown. This will allow you to manage SSH access settings for the cluster.

Uncheck Enable Remote Login with Password. This will disable password-based SSH access to the cluster.

Click New Public Key and enter a name for the key and paste the public key value from Desktop\Files\SSH\id_rsa.pub. This will add a public key for key-based SSH access to the cluster.

Click Save and Apply Lockdown. This will apply the changes and ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords.

Part1

Enter CVM ssh and execute:

cluster status | grep -v UP

cluster start

If there are issues starting some services, check the following:

Check if the node is in maintenance mode by running the ncli host ls command on the CVM. Verify if the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to False for the node where the services are down. If the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to True, remove the node from maintenance mode by running the following command:

nutanix@cvm$ ncli host edit id=<host id> enable-maintenance-mode=false

You can determine the host ID by using ncli host ls.

See the troubleshooting topics related to failed cluster services in the Advanced Administration Guide available from the Nutanix Portal's Software Documentation page. (Use the filters to search for the guide for your AOS version). These topics have information about common and AOS-specific logs, such as Stargate, Cassandra, and other modules.

Check for any latest FATALs for the service that is down. The following command prints all the FATALs for a CVM. Run this command on all CVMs.

nutanix@cvm$ for i in `svmips`; do echo 'CVM: $i'; ssh $i 'ls -ltr /home/nutanix/data/logs/*.FATAL'; done

NCC Health Check: cluster_services_down_check (nutanix.com)

Part2

Update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password

echo -e 'CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: '; read -rs password1; echo 'Confirm new password: '; read -rs password2; if [ '$password1' == '$password2' ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host 'passwd --stdin root'; done; else echo 'The passwords do not match'; fi

Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM

sudo passwd nutanix

Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy

ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config

Output Example:

nutanix@NTNX-372a19a3-A-CVM:10.35.150.184:~$ ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config

Enable Aide : false

Enable Core : false

Enable High Strength P... : false

Enable Banner : false

Schedule : DAILY

Enable iTLB Multihit M... : false

Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-aide=true

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params schedule=weekly

Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true

Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008gb3CAA