Nutanix Prism Central Plugin#

Overview#

The Nutanix Prism Central plugin integrates Nokia EDA with Nutanix Prism Central, enabling automated network provisioning and management for Nutanix environments. It supports both VLAN Basic and Advanced Networking subnets, and provides seamless connectivity between Nutanix-managed workloads and the EDA fabric.

Key capabilities include:

• Direct integration with Nutanix Prism Central through its v4 rest API
• Automatic provisioning of the fabric based on Nutanix virtual switch and subnet configuration
• Support for VLAN Basic and Advanced Networking subnets
• Support for VPC breakout subnets (VLAN-based)
• Basic workflows managed completely through Prism Central (Prism Managed Mode)
• Advanced workflows managed through EDA (EDA Managed Mode)
• Interconnectivity between different cloud environments through EDA

Supported Versions#

• Nutanix Prism Central 7.3

Architecture#

The Nutanix Prism Central plugin consists of two components:

Nutanix Prism Central Plugin App

Manages the lifecycle of Nutanix plugin instances in EDA using a custom resource definition (CRD).

Nutanix Prism Central Plugin

Connects to Prism Central, monitors configuration changes, and synchronizes state with EDA. The plugin listens for events on:

• Virtual switches
• Subnets (VLAN Basic and VLAN Advanced)
• Host NIC to virtual switch associations
• Categories (for EDA-managed mode)

Installation#

For detailed deployment instructions, see the Nutanix Prism Central Plugin Installation Guide.

Features#

Limitations#

• VM NICs in Trunked mode are not supported
• Audit functionality is not supported in the technical preview
• Heartbeats are not supported in the technical preview
• SR-IOV and NIC offloading are not supported in the technical preview

Operational Modes#

The plugin supports two operational modes for managing VLAN subnets, selectable on a per-subnet basis:

Prism Central-Managed Mode

This is the default mode. Each VLAN subnet in Prism Central results in a unique BridgeDomain in EDA. The VLAN in Prism Central determines the VLANs managed for the BridgeDomain. If multiple subnets use the same VLAN on the same virtual switch, only a single BridgeDomain will be provisioned. The BridgeDomain is not routable through the fabric in this mode. If routing is required, EDA managed mode can be used, or external routing can be provisioned in the subnet.

EDA-Managed Mode

Subnets can be associated with an existing EDA BridgeDomain by attaching the connect.eda.nokia.com category with key EDA Managed to the subnet in Prism Central. The name of the subnet must match the name of the EDA BridgeDomain.

Alternatively, subnets can be excluded from EDA management by attaching the connect.eda.nokia.com category with key EDA Ignored. An example use case for this is the initial infrastructure network hosting the CVM and Prism Central VMs.

Using EDA-Managed Mode#

The plugin automatically creates the connect.eda.nokia.com category in Prism Central on startup if it does not exist. It also ensures that the two standard values, EDA Managed and EDA Ignored, are present for this category.

To use EDA-managed mode:

1. Create a BridgeDomain in EDA with the desired settings. This can be a BridgeDomain in a VirtualNetwork as well as a standalone BridgeDomain.
2. In Prism Central, attach the connect.eda.nokia.com category to the subnet and set its value to EDA Managed. The name of the subnet must match the name of the EDA BridgeDomain.

You can switch between EDA-managed and Prism-managed mode at any time.

VPC Overlay Subnets#

Subnets created in a VPC are overlay (Geneve-based) and are not visible to the EDA fabric. Only breakout subnets (VLAN-based) can be managed by EDA.

Virtual Switch Modes#

A Nutanix virtual switch can operate in several modes:

• Active-Backup: Each uplink is represented as a separate ConnectInterface.
• Active-Active with MAC pinning: A single ConnectInterface is created for all uplinks, mapped to a static LAG interface in EDA.
• Active-Active with LACP: A single ConnectInterface is created for all uplinks, mapped to an LACP interface in EDA.

The plugin provisions the correct ConnectInterface objects based on the virtual switch mode. The corresponding Interface objects in EDA must be created before installing the plugin.

Event Monitoring#

The plugin subscribes to events in Prism Central and configures EDA resources accordingly:

Audit#

The plugin performs an audit on startup and when requested by the operator to ensure synchronization between Prism Central and EDA. Any discrepancies are resolved automatically. See also the audit documentation.

Startup#

• The plugin instance has registered itself with Connect using the provided metadata.name as the ConnectPlugin metadata.name.
• The plugin checks connectivity with Prism Central and validates the provided credentials.
• The plugin performs an audit to synchronize initial state between Prism Central and EDA.
• The plugin creates the connect.eda.nokia.com category in Prism Central if it does not exist.

Troubleshooting#

The plugin is not running#

• Check plugin alarms in EDA.
• Verify connectivity from the EDA cluster to Prism Central.
• Check credentials in the Kubernetes Secret.
• Check the plugin pod logs in the eda-system namespace in Kubernetes.

The plugin is not creating resources in EDA#

• Check plugin alarms in EDA.
• Verify connectivity from the EDA cluster to Prism Central.
• Check the plugin pod logs in the eda-system namespace in Kubernetes.
• Check the staleness state of the plugin object in EDA.

The plugin is not configuring the correct state#

• Check plugin alarms in EDA.
• Verify uplink configuration for vswitches in Prism Central.
• VLAN ranges are not supported on subnets.
• Inspect EDA resources (VLAN, BridgeDomain, ConnectInterface).
• Check the plugin pod logs.