If you have Nutanix in your datacenter you are free to choose between three different hypervisors, Acropolis Hypervisor aka AHV (Nutanix KVM based hypervisor), Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2 and VMware ESXi 5.1 or newer.
[box type=”info”] Note: VMware ESXi 6.0 is supported too, on NOS 4.1.3 and newer.[/box]
I decided to write up quick tutorial on How to update Hyper-v failover cluster on Nutanix because many people wondering how to do it, there is a lot of FUD spread by some people referring to complexity and how risky this operation is. Below I will show you how easy and quickly you can install updates on Hyper-V cluster running on the Nutanix. To install updates on Hyper-v cluster running on the Nutanix, Nutanix recommend Cluster-Aware Utility. Cluster-Aware Utility is standard Microsoft tool.
[box type=”warning”] You have to be NOS 4.0.2 or newer.[/box]
- Download powershell pre-upgrade script from Nutanix repo, you can find link to it on portal.nutanix.com
- Upload powershell pre-upgrade script to every Hyper-V node in cluster and to CAU servers under the same location. Default location is c:\Program Files\Nutanix\Utils\ but you can place pre-upgrade script on SMB share. Make sure that share is accessible by all the hosts in cluster and by workstation were you are running CAU from.
- Change Powershell Execution Policy to unrestricted on every host in Hyper-V cluster
powershell.exe Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
- Enable file file – below is the default path to pre-update script file. Remember to provide correct path to the file.
powershell.exe Unblock–File -Path 'C:\Program Files\Nutanix\Utils\cau_preupdate.ps1'
- Start Cluster-Aware Utility
- Click on Create or modify Updating Run Profile
- In Pre-Upgrade field, type path to pre-upgradePowerShell script uploaded previously
CAU – configure new profile
- Save CAU configuration as new profile into XML file. Default location is c:\Windows\system32\
That is for preparation work, time to install updates
- Start CAU tool or failover cluster utility.
- Connect to Hyper-V cluster.
- Load Nutanix update profile you have created previously.
- Click on either Preview updates on this cluster or Apply
Install windows updates on Hyper-V
[box type=”warning”] Do not stop or log out server where your CAU tool is running from.[/box]
Wait for operation to complete. CAU tool with pre-upgrade script will upgrade all nodes Hyper-V cluster, one by one. In the background CAU is:
- scanning Hyper-V nodes for updates (all at time)
- downloading updates on Hyper-V nodes (all at time)
- migrating VMs out of the Hyper-V node (one at time)
- installing updates
- reboot Hyper-V node
- wait for CVM to boot
When patching is completed change, change Execution policy back to the one was set before patching. Remember to set it on all servers in the Hyper-V cluster.
powershell.exe Set-ExecutionPolicy
