What is Nutanix Prism ?

Nutanix Prism is the main management interface run as web service to manage Nutanix hyper converged virtual environment easily and seamlessly without any interruption to handle Nutanix cluster resources. Nutanix Prism as Service PaS run in background with three interface web interface HMTL5, REST API and CLI to handle and represent the Nutanix cluster resources on the web console to monitor and manage the Nutanix cluster.

Nutanix Prism run as a service hosted by Apache software in background in Nutanix Acropolis operating system on network port number 80 ( http ) and 9440 (https) on Nutanix cluster to monitor, mange and analysis the cluster operations.

Why Nutanix adopted the Prism ?

Prism word describe its own definition :

Prism Definition : ” A glass or other transparent object in the form of a prism, especially one that is triangular with refracting surfaces at an acute angle with each other and that separates white light into a spectrum of colors.”

As described in definition Prism is the spectrum of colors of surfaces , in the same way Nutanix engineers designed the Prism core architecture, that’s the reason Nutanix adopted the Prism word and added to Nutanix family as Nutanix Prism as Service ( PaS ) to serve the Nutanix cluster control for monitoring, management and analysis.

Nutanix Prism service has capability to handle the Nutanix cluster stack to represent it in real time analysis and monitoring the cluster resources like storage, memory, CPU and networking uses.

Prism Service Supported Interfaces list

Nutanix Prism supports three different interface to manage Nutanix cluster

• Web interface : HTML 5
• REST API interface : API
• Command line interface : acli, ncli and cmdlet

Nutanix Prism Management Features

Nutanix Prism as service offer one-click management and operation features as mentioned below :

• One-click Infrastructure management
• End-to-end VM Management
• One-click Operation Insights
• One-click Inefficient VM profile Scanning
• One-click Planning
• One-click Analysis
• One-click performance Monitoring
• Role-based Access Control (RBAC)

One-click Infra Management

Nutanix Prism web service manages the entire stack from the storage and compute and virtual machines ( VMs) infrastructure.

• Cluster Management : Streamlined deployment, maintenance and scaling of hosts with a single click.
• Virtual Network Management : Simplified set-up and management of virtual networking for hosts and virtual machines.
• VM Management : End-to-end VM life cycle management, from creation and initial placement, to high availability and migration.
• Storage Management : Intuitive VM centric control of storage services.
• Prism Self Service : Friction-less access to infrastructure resources.
• Network Visualization : VM centric operational view of the network.
• Nutanix cluster components : Nutanix cluster components works in invisible infrastructure for smooth operations.

End-to-end VM Management

Enjoy Prism’s radically simplified workflows throughout the entire VM lifecycle, from creation and initial placement, to IP network configuration, to protection and migration.

• Resource scheduling : Leverage intelligent placement of VMs, and optimize performance with dynamic load balancing.
• Live Migration : Manage live migrations of virtual machines across hosts.
• Disaster Recovery : Recover applications quickly, even in the event of a site disaster.

One-click Operation Insights

Nutanix Prism web service has advanced machine learning technology provides one-click insight for detailed infrastructure trending, analysis and optimization, simplifying routine operational tasks.

• Prism Search : Integrated Google-like search experience to query and perform actions with a single click.
• Customizable Operations Dashboard : Visually rich dashboards that give actionable summary of applications, virtual machines and infrastructure state at-a-glance.
• Scheduled Reporting : Existing out of the box reports or custom reports to share KPIs within the organization.

One-click Inefficient VM profile Scanning

Nutanix integrated VM efficiency core monitoring tool to detect nutanix inefficient VM profile i.e Bully, Zombie, Constrained and Over-provisioned from Prism Central appliance ( Prism central deployed as VM appliance in Nutanix hyper converged infrastructure ) to monitor each VM’s behavior in nutanix environment.

Inefficient VM Profiles are

• Over-provisioned VM
• Constrained VM
• Bully VM
• Inactive VM / Zombie VM

One-click Planning

Nutanix Prism web service includes a powerful application and VM-centric capacity planning engine that is powered by Nutanix’s patent-pending X-Fit technology.

• Capacity Behavior Analytics : Predictive analysis of capacity usage and trends based on workload behavior enabling pay-as-you-grow scaling.
• Capacity Optimization Advisor : Infrastructure optimization recommendations to improve efficiency and performance based on VM behavioral analysis.
• Just In Time Forecast: Capacity expansion forecast to meet future workload growth.

One-click Analysis

Nutanix prism web service deliver one-click analysis for

• Virtual Machines
• Storage : vdisk / Datastores
• memory
• CPU
• I/O : Read/ write
• Nutanix cluster wide
• Host

One-click performance Monitoring

Nutanix Prism web service learns the real-time performance behavior of VMs and workloads, and detects anomalies automatically providing early warning signs.

• Anomaly Detection : Predictive monitoring based on behavioral analysis instead of static thresholds detects performance issues before they impact workloads.
• Bottleneck Detection : Guidance for correct VM resource allocation is provided based on behavioral analysis and machine learning.

Role-based Access Control (RBAC)

Nutanix Prism web service give end user self- service to access Nutanix hyper converged infrastructure as per defined role and granular control over which users can perform specified actions on entities such as VMs, applications, reports, and clusters. Group end users together for easy role assignment, and tag group entities for simple management of VM, storage, and network resources.

Useful Links Related to Nutanix Prism Troubleshooting

• Reset Nutanix Prism Web Console Password
• Reset Prism Central Password From Command Line
• Nutanix Prism web console is slow, not working, hanging issues troubleshooting

Conclusion

Nutanix Prism web service deliver the robust web interface for Nutanix virtual cluster management thru single pan of glass for easy and seamless management without any interruption.

If you have any question related to Nutanix Prism management web interface you can write down in comment section.