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Nutanix Prism is the one-click management engine and interface for data center operation to manage Nutanix hyper converged infrastructure.
Nutanix prism, prism service, prism central core architecture is deeply explained with prism interfaces, prism service and Prism key board shortcut keys.
Nutanix prism architecture is designed with interfaces like HTML5, API, CLI and Polices as well.
Prism element is the web-console known for it’s beauty with intelligence built for Nutanix platform to manage invisible infrastructure.
Read more about Prism development & designing story
Learning Index, What is ?
- Nutanix Prism Architecture
- Prism Versions ( Prism Element & Prism Central )
- Prism Services
- Prism keyboard shortcuts
- Prism web console demo video
Nutanix Prism Architecture
Prism is web console HTML-5 enabled management control plane platform which has the ability to manage distributed resources across the cluster and it gives the flexibility to manage and monitor objects and services of Nutanix cluster.
Prism is built from two keys ( interfaces + Management )
Interfaces
Prism has many interfaces to interact through and execute task or command on Nutanix platform, few interfaces describing below:
HTML5 UI : Hypertext Markup Language revision 5 (HTML5) is markup language for the structure and presentation of World Wide Web contents and software solution stack that defines the properties and behaviors of web page content by implementing a markup based pattern to it. HTML 5 is the fifth and current major version of the HTML standard, and subsumes XHTML.
REST API : REST API defines a set of functions which developers can perform requests and receive responses via HTTP protocol such as GET and POST.
CLI : Command Line Interface (CLI) is the core component of any operating system to work with machine language and execute the task even more faster then GUI interface.
Nuanix Prism has built-in acli and ncli command interface.
PowerShell CMDlets : Powershell is command line based interface and a scripting language to handle task automation and configuration management of native Microsoft applications.
Management
Management is key component of any system to manage with predefined policies, protocols, services, rules etc. to manage the entire system in systematic way.
Nutanix Prism also has it own management components
Policy : A policy is a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions.
Services : Services is the basic core application run in to operating system to maintain the system or support to run independent and dependent applications in the system.
Analytics : Analytics is the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data; and the process of applying those patterns towards effective decision making. In other words, analytics can be understood as the connective tissue between data and effective decision making.
Prism Version
Prism is categorizes in two components / versions
Prism Element ( Basic version)
Prism element is the basic version of prism which is built-in with Nutanix Acropolis cluster, when form or create the Nutanix cluster.
- Prism element run as service on local Nutanix cluster to manage the cluster operations
- Prism element is the local cluster manager responsible for single cluster only
- Prism element is bundled-in with Nutanix solution
- Prism element does not require any additional license
Prism Central ( Advance version )
Prism central is the single pane of glass to manage multi-cluster from single web-console. Prism central can manage multi Nutanix Acropolis clusters to register them on Prism central.
- Prism central is optional appliance installed as virtual machine on Nutanix Platform
- Prism central supports Single Sign On (SSO)
- Prism central comes with Prism Pro license
- Prism central has add-on features with add-on license
- Prism central features : Capacity runway, centralized upgrade, Nutanix Calm and Nutanix Flow etc.
Prism Services
A Prism service runs on every CVM with an elected Prism Leader which is responsible for handling HTTP requests. Similar to other components which have a Master, if the Prism Leader fails, a new one will be elected. When a CVM which is not the Prism Leader gets a HTTP request it will permanently redirect the request to the current Prism Leader using HTTP response status code 301.
Here we show a conceptual view of the Prism services and how HTTP request(s) are handled:
When using the cluster external IP (recommended), it will always be hosted by the current Prism Leader. In the event of a Prism Leader failure the cluster IP will be assumed by the newly elected Prism Leader and a gratuitous ARP (gARP) will be used to clean any stale ARP cache entries. In this scenario any time the cluster IP is used to access Prism, no redirection is necessary as that will already be the Prism Leader.
Prism Network Port
Prism listens on ports 80 and 9440, if HTTP traffic comes in on port 80 it is redirected to HTTPS on port 9440.
How To Check Prism Leader ?
You can check the current Prism leader by running command on any CVM
'curl localhost:2019/prism/leader'
Prism Keyboard Shortcuts
Accessibility and ease of use is a very critical construct in Prism. To simplify things for the end-user a set of shortcuts have been added to allow users to do everything from their keyboard.
The following characterizes some of the key shortcuts:
Change view (page context aware):
- O – Overview View
- D – Diagram View
- T – Table View
Activities and Events:
- A – Alerts
- P – Tasks
Drop down and Menus (Navigate selection using arrow keys):
- M – Menu drop-down
- S – Settings (gear icon)
- F – Search bar
- U – User drop down
- H – Help
Prism Element Web-console Demo
Watch Prism element demonstration in following video
I have explained Nutanix Prism in detailed information as per my knowledge.
I hope, it will be helpful for Nutanix lovers. 🙂
Thank you to being here.!
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