Evacuate \ Remove Nutanix AHV ESXI Node from Cluster

To safely evacuate / remove / exit / Nutanix AHV, ESXi host / nodes from Nutanix HCI Acropolis AHV / VMware ESXi cluster through Nutanix Prism and/or ncli cli command line. This is the common question asked by Nutanix loving customers to me frequently. Today i will answer in detailed to remove / evacuate the Nutanix node / host from Nutanix HCI Acropolis AHV , ESXi cluster without any downtime or problem.

Use Case of Removal Node

What are the use cases in that case need to remove the Nutanix AHV / VMware ESXi Node(s) / Host(s) from Nutanix HCI Cluster. Following use case may fit in

• Node – no more need to be in same Nutanix cluster
• Move Node(s) from one Nutanix cluster to another Nutanix cluster
• Mismatch the Node’s specs among nodes in the same Nutanix cluster
• Node having some technical issue and want to replace it with new one
• Want to create different cluster to remove few nodes from existing Nutanix cluster.

You may have different reasons to evacuate / remove node(s) / Host(s) from Nutanix HCI cluster but above are common reasons to removal nodes.

Read Also Add Storage Node as Never Schedule-able Node in Nutanix Cluster

Prerequisites to Remove Node

If you want to remove / evacuate / exit the Nutanix AHV , VMware ESXi host / node from Nutanix HCI cluster then you need to complete the Nutanix node removal prerequisites before removing / evacuating the node / host.

Nutanix AHV / ESXi Node / Host Removal Prerequisites are:

• Nutanix cluster must have atleast 3 and/or 5 nodes in the cluster as per Nutanix Redundancy factor RF2 / RF3
• Nutanix Cluster must have N+1 / N+2 nodes to sustain the one / two node failure after evacuate the node(s)
• Nutanix Cluster Health must be Green Heart is recommended
• Nutanix Cluster Redundancy Statu must be OK

• Nutanix cluster HA and DRS must be enabled with AUTOMATICALLY functionality in case of VMware Esxi hypervisor running on Nutanix HCI Platform
• VM should not pinned on host / VM-host affinity must be disabled
• Admission Control Policy must be disabled in VMware Esxi hypervisor

• Atleast 30% free space must be available to avoid filling any disk beyond 95%.
• You cannot remove nodes from a 3-node cluster because a minimum of three Zeus nodes are required
• Remove one node / host at a time to avoid any downtime or unexpected issue.

Read Also How to Shutdown Nutanix AHV Host and Nutanix CVM

Remove Nutanix Node(s)

To Remove / Evacuate the Nutanix AHV / VMware Esxi node(s) from Nutanix HCI Acropolis cluster has two methods

Through Nutanix nCLI Command Line

Remove Nutanix AHV / VMware ESXi node / host from ncli command line to login any controll-VM CVM on the same Nutanix HCI Acropolis Cluster.

Step 1 : Login to Controller-VM CVM of the Nutanix HCI cluster

Step 2 : Get Nutanix AHV / ESXi host / node ID though ncli command line

cvm$ ncli hostl list

Determine the right Nutanix AHV / VMware ESXi node / host ID that will be marked for removal. For Example host / node ID is 123456

Step 3 : Execute Nutanix ncli command to evacuate / remove the AHV / VMware ESXi Node / host from Nutanix HCI Acropolis Cluster

cvm$ ncli  host  rm-start  id=123456

Note : Nutanix AHV / ESXi node removal time may take up to 20 – 30 minutes per node basis.

Read Also how to Enable Nutanix CVM, AHV Maintenance mode

Through Nutanix Prism

To remove / evacuate the Nutanix AHV / VMware ESXi node from Nutanix HCI Cluster through Nutanix Prism is one-click job as shown below steps.

Step 1 : Login to Nutanix Prism web-console

Step 2 : Click on main menu > Hardware > Select Node ( That you want to remove from Nutanix cluster ) > click on Remove Node

Remove \ Evacuate Nutanix AHV Node \ Host from Nutanix HCI Cluster as shown in below Screenshot

Remove \ Evacuate Nutanix VMware ESXi Node \ Host From Nutanix HCI Cluster as shown in below Screenshot

Now Nutanix cluster will be initiated the removal of Node / Host from Nutanix AHV / ESXi Cluster and will take up to 20-30 minutes. Now keep patience and have a cup of coffee 😉

Nutanix Evacuation Node Process

Nutanix cluster will live migrate the VMs from evacuating / removing node to another nodes with load balancing technique to distribute the VMs load other entire hosts in the cluster after VMs migration completed, the Node will be entered into maintenance mode to evacuate the node successfully.

Read Also How To Shutdown And Start Nutanix AHV Cluster

Reclaim License of Removed Nodes

After removed / Evacuation of Node(s) / Host(s) need to reclaim the Acropolis and/or Add-on licenes to re-use it. To re-claim the Nutanix license read this post Reclaim Nutanix licenses

Read Also How to Install Nutanix Acropolis License

Conclusion

Removal node(s) / Host(s) from Nutanix HCI running cluster is very rare but sometimes needs to be removed to satisfy the real scenario to solve the issue.

Thanks to being with HyperHCI Tech Blog to learn something new very day.!