In this Post will see how we can safely shutdown and start up a Nutanix cluster that consists of Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Prism Central, and Nutanix files.

Shutdown Sequence

Step 1: Run NCC check

In this phase, we want to make sure that before starting Nutanix cluster is healthy

Login to prism management interface 
Go Home > Health > Action > Run NCC Checks > Run

Step 2: Check Nutanix Cluster Data residency

Here we want to validate that all data is replicated so when cluster is back up we don’t have any problems

 Login to prism management interface
 Go Home > Check Nutanix cluster “Data Resiliency Status” That must be “OK”

Step 3: Disable protection Domain if applicable

If the cluster is part of Metro Availability (SYNC replication) this needs to be disabled after failover to the active site, here are steps for failover to the active site.

If the cluster is part of ASYNC replication make sure there is no active or scheduled replication during this maintenance window

Step 4: Shutdown user VMs

we can power off VMs via Prism or prism central

Through prism Home > VM > select VM > power off actions

repeat this for all VMs except CVMs, prism central, and Files FSVMs

or alternatively, this can be done with the below methods

For vSphere clusters
     Login to vCenter Select VMs and power off
For AHV clusters
     SSH to any CVM with nutanix username
 to do soft shutdown run nutanix@cvm: acli vm.shutdown *   
 OR for force shutdown run nutanix@cvm: acli vm.off *     

Step 5: Shutdown Nutanix Files

Nutanix Files is a cluster of 3 VMs to do a power on/off operation you will need to SSH to any CVM in the cluster

STEP 1 : switch to AFS command line
      nutanix@cvm: afs  
STEP 2 : Gracefully stop Nutanix files cluster and services and power off the FSVMs of all file servers.
     <AFS> infra.stop * 

Step 6: Shutdown Prism Central

where Prism central can be treated as any other VM, but is better to stop internal cluster first.

SSH to Prism Central VM
STEP 1 : stop PC cluster
nutanix@ProdPCVM: cluster stop
STEP 2 : Gracefully shutdown for PC VM
nutanix@ProdPCVM: sudo shutdown  

vCenter considration

Need to check where is vCenter VM is running? if running on the same cluster so before the cluster shutdown vCenter should be power off also. and then powered on using startup configuration in vSphere.

Verify if vCenter VM is running on the same Nutanix cluster that you are shutting down. If so, vCenter VM must be shut down, too.

Step 7: Shutdown Nutanix AOS cluster and power off CVMs

when all VM is powered off and only CVMs are running we can proceed to shutdown cluster and power off CVMs

SSH to any CVM using nutanix user name
STEP 1 : stop AOS cluster
 nutanix@cvm: cluster stop
STEP 2 : Gracefully shutdown for CVM
nutanix@cvm: sudo shutdown -h now

---

Bringing everything back up again

after conduct maintenance or physical hardware re-location we can start powering nutanix cluster. first we will

 1.    Power ON the physical hosts
 2.    Ensure all CVMs are UP/Online (CVMs auto-start when hosts are up)
 3.    Ensure all physical network connections are in-place and green 

Step 1: Starting AOS cluster

SSH to any CVM using nutanix username 
 cluster start
Verify AOS cluster services
 nutanix@cvm: cluster status (make sure all services are up) 
or nutanix@cvm$ cluster status | grep -v UP ( will list if any service is down)

Step 2: Starting Ntuanix Files

SSH to any CVM using nutanix username
STEP 1 : switch to AFS command line
      nutanix@cvm: afs  
STEP 2 : Gracefully start Nutanix files cluster and services and power on the FSVMs of all file servers.
     <AFS> infra.start*  

Step 3: Starting Prism Central

Login to Prism Web management > VM > select PC VM > Power on

Step 4: Run NCC

Login to prism management interface
 Go Home > Health > Action > Run NCC Checks > Run
 wait until all checks finish
Check  data Resiliency status
 Go Home > Check Nutanix cluster “Data Resiliency Status” That must be “OK”

Step 5: Power On user VMs

using any of the methods mentioned in step 7 above power all VMs.