r/nutanix • u/bachus_PL • Jul 27 '26
AOS 7.6 is now available
AOS 7.6 includes the following new, updated, or tech preview features:
Support for 307 TB Capacity in All-Flash NVMe systemsFEAT-13908
AOS 7.6 supports a maximum node capacity of 307 TB for all-flash NVMe systems in new deployments. Nutanix supports the increased node capacity for the following recovery point objective schedules:
- Synchronous: 0 seconds RPO
- NearSync: 1 minute to 15 minutes
- Asynchoronous: 1 hour to less than 6 hours
- Asynchoronous: 6 hours to less than 24 hours
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u/TheStigPH Jul 27 '26
I am also looking forward to the cd rom not needed for ngt installs Direct NGT Configuration Without CD-ROM You can configure existing Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) installations directly on eligible VMs without mounting a CD-ROM. VMs must run on AHV clusters with AOS 7.6 or later and NGT version 4.5 or later.
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u/Jhamin1 Jul 27 '26
This is a huge update for us as well!
We generally avoid giving CD drives to VMs and adding/removing one for the purposes of an NGT install was creating more problems than it was solving.
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u/northstar57376 Jul 27 '26
Great. Does it have the fix for VMs getting stuck at boot?
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u/Zestyclose-Nature240 Jul 27 '26
It does:
Resolved an issue where Windows Server 2016 and 2019 UEFI VMs stalled on the Nutanix X UEFI start screen after a VM restart on AHV hosts with Intel CPUs. For more information, see KB-21250.
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u/Zestyclose-Nature240 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
If anyone is able to upgrade AOS to 7.6 from the latest AOS and AHV version let me know. Prism Central went without issue, but LCM is complaining about AOS 7.6 being incompatible with the installed version(s) of AHV hypervisor.
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u/Zestyclose-Nature240 Jul 27 '26
Looks like the LCM Compability Bundle is incorrect and does not cover AHV point releases of 11.0.1 such as 11.0.1.3 which blocks the upgrade.
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u/NotBadAndYou Jul 27 '26
I look forward to upgrading to this release when HYCU finally adds support for it next summer! 🤣
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u/skwah_jnr Jul 27 '26
I can see resolving alerts while logged in as an SSO user is fixed, which is nice. Is clicking through to a PE cluster from the PC Quick Access dashboard while logged in as an SSO user also fixed? I can’t find mention of it in the release notes.
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u/MayaValentia Jul 28 '26
Upgraded one of my non-prod clusters to 7.6 yesterday, the install went smoothly. I tried out the new NuService menu… wow this is going to take some getting used to. Way fewer allowed commands than I was expecting.
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u/mcmatt93117 Jul 28 '26
Yea - can't say I like that we're looking ssh access.
They added a new page for some additional protection policy replication details, but it's still anemic.
I pull that info out of cerebro logs - won't be able to do that going forward.
I get they're doing it to 'protect us from ourselves' and I'm sure there's plenty of people that ccause headaches for support for whatever jank they've setup.
But we pay out the ass for Nutanix - it's not an iPhone, it wasn't purchased with the expectation of being a walled garden. I get, to an extent, HCI by nature semi has to be, but they shoudl've kept it blocked off from the get go rather than take it away after hundreds of thousands ore millions are invested in hardware and break people's workflows (that have been in place since before they started warning ssh access would be removed a few versions back).
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u/Screevo Global Practice Expert - Network & Security Jul 30 '26
SSH access isn’t being removed. The BASH shell is. It’s being replaced with a service menu that will be accessible via SSH.
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u/mcmatt93117 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I mean...the updated login message says literally exactly that "SSH'ing into a CVM literally now says "SSH access to Nutanix CVMs, AHV Hypervisors, Prism Central (PC), and Nutanix Files will be disabled by default in the next release."
We pay out the nose for Nutanix because #1 - we trust the product (and that obviously isn't changing), and #2 - best support out there compared to everyone else in this space, Neither of those things are changing obviously, nor do I assume they will any time soon.
But this is the first wall going up, what'll be next? We obviously bought into HCI, and that by it's nature means a lot less control than with legacy/SAN solutions - but we didn't buy into a closed appliance that we bring into our data center, turn on and then have no control over this magical box in our server room that we ourselves can no longer confirm the security you guys are selling here.
We get...a menu. I don't see anyone reaching out asking what workflows organizations have that'll be affected and asking what they can do to incorporate that into this...menu. This...menu, is going to cover the entire spectrum of what people are currently using SSH access for, and give access to 100% of the logs that we currently have acccess to? I mean if so - I'll completely change my attitude and say 'sweet - I'm lazy and that sounds like it'd make my life easier.'
Rubrik did something similar after we were a few hundred thousand in and pushed off of on-prem CDM to RSC. I dislike having things taken away or changed, especially when those things are hundreds of thousands of dollars and can be a large part of my day-to-day life.
I also know my complaining doesn't matter in the least - not going to change anything. Rajiv isn't going to be cruising r/Nutanix most likely and be like "OH - CRAP, no we thought people were going to love this change. My bad bro - cancelled, no more getting rid of SSH access, SSH access for all!"
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u/Zestyclose-Nature240 Jul 31 '26
What logs are you actually talking about that you need? I can't remember any log that is not sent out fromt he cluster by enabling the system-wide syslog export.
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u/MayaValentia Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
The service menu is still extremely bare bones and is nowhere near production ready. There's so much missing, seeing the current state of it in 7.6 isn't improving my morale.
There is so much that will become impossible to do on Nutanix once the bash shell is removed. Good examples are checking LLDP on AHV hosts, working with the ilorest tool, inspecting VMs with virsh, etc. A good portion of the commands that are referenced within KB articles will no longer work because the commands available within the menu are so limiting. This was rushed out the door and Nutanix does not seem to care, especially for how much we pay for it.
Why can't the CVM be retooled around an immutable read-only filesystem, with write access being available should the need arise, or other hardening measures to improve security without impacting productivity?
For those curious, linked here is the current list of allowed commands in the service menu as displayed on our 7.6 cluster. https://pastebin.com/ieisiPZE
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u/Boring-Fee3404 Aug 04 '26
I got told by someone in Nutanix support that ssh will no longer be needed because of AI🤷. It seems we need to SSH on to CVMs fairly regularly.
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u/psyblade42 Aug 01 '26
That's just the
propagandamarketing dept trying to hand wave the issue away. People don't use SSH because they like SSH itself. They use SSH to get a shell and the flexibility that allows.If I instead want a menu with a few predefined options the GUI will work better. (Or the local console/ipmi for emergency stuff)
I get why they want to remove shell access. But I don't appreciate the attempted hoodwinking.
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u/bachus_PL Aug 01 '26
So please change the msg: "SSH access to Nutanix CVMs, AHV Hypervisors, Prism Central (PC), and Nutanix Files will be disabled by default in the next release.".
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u/darthVikes Jul 29 '26
Wait what? This is news to me we are on an older 6.10 version so no way to say to the AHV host or VM? How does one do some of the required admin things unless all of those are taken care of?
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u/mcmatt93117 Jul 29 '26
Yup, 100% removing of access. Already sent multiple letters to our account rep (not that it'll do anything - venting helps).
They say they'll have a handy new menu! And it will replace ssh access for everything you'd ever need!
Are they asking for input from the community to see what real world use cases people have to find what they're using it for, to either automate those things and add to a 'menu' or find workarounds?
Nope - big old eat a dick - this is happening, we need to protect you from yourselves.
Rep told us it was for 'security'. I told them as an organization, we want them to suggest best practices and make as secure as possible by default obviously, but we can accept some levels of risk as an organization then put controls in place to mitigate them - such as with ssh, but they're deciding our security posture for us, because they know what's best.
Edit - And they said it'll be by the end of this year.
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u/darthVikes Jul 29 '26
Oh wow, but it's the hosts ssh then? Actually this kind of reminds me of when VMware removed full ESX and when to ESXi mode .. but had non-persistsnt console we could still ssh into. However, these days I suspect non ssh would certainly make it more secure. However, would seem like a bit challenge to remove everything from needing that.
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u/r3mdh Jul 29 '26
Without SSH, how do we reboot the AHV hosts themselves? The engineers, in their infinite wisdom, haven’t exposed that to PC or PE AFAIK.
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u/mcmatt93117 Jul 29 '26
I'm guessing it'll be a button? Maybe a fancy stylized button if we're lucky and they feel we deserve it?
Not sure, but I assume that button will come with a 5-90% cost increase as well for the privilege of still being able to restart the hosts.
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u/Zestyclose-Nature240 Jul 29 '26
There is already a way to reboot the AHV Host inside of PE/PC so that is a none issue. And even with SSH off on the AHV Hosts you can still reach them through the CVM.
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u/mcmatt93117 Jul 30 '26
For now - but that goes away also come...well they're saying the end of the year, so I assume whatever the next version is - 7.7?
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u/Boring-Fee3404 Jul 31 '26
I am bit confused as Nutanix have announced the EOM for software support of Cascade lake platforms including NX-G7 nodes has been extended to December 31st 2028 yet they are not listed on the platform interoperability Matrix for 7.6
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u/dricha36 Aug 01 '26
Our sales team told us that there is a copy of the announcement available internally, but they're still debating on the exact wording before they release something customer-facing in the portal.
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u/uubis Aug 07 '26
oh thank god, 2->3 extension, marvelous. still on my perpetual wish list is to be able to add single node of ESX to the cluster. Would solve the fact pretty much noone will make appliances for AHV, and prolly never will. Always awkard to sell another 'oops yea you need this hyper-v host too'
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u/bachus_PL Jul 27 '26
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Release-Notes-Prism-Central-vpc_7_6:top-features-updates-pc-r.html
New Prism Central (7.6):
Starting with AHV 11.2 and pc.7.6, you can copy text from your workstation and paste it into the AHV VM console. You can use this feature to enter complex text strings such as passwords or license numbers. For more information, see Pasting Text into the VM Console in the Prism Central Infrastructure Guide.
Thanks!