Nutanix

nutanix is a hyperconverged infrastructure (hci) platform that runs virtual machines on commodity hardware deploying litmus edge as a vm on nutanix lets you run edge computing workloads on shared infrastructure without requiring dedicated physical hardware for each device why deploy litmus edge on nutanix running litmus edge on nutanix is common in facilities where the it team already manages a nutanix cluster and prefers to consolidate edge workloads alongside other vms rather than deploy standalone appliances it also suits environments where hardware procurement is centralized you can provision a new litmus edge instance without sourcing a dedicated device key advantages of this deployment model include centralized resource management you can resize vcpu and memory allocations without touching physical hardware and manage litmus edge alongside other workloads in the nutanix management console vm level snapshots and recovery nutanix snapshot and replication features apply to the litmus edge vm this gives you a rollback point before major configuration changes flexible networking the vm connects to any subnet defined in your nutanix network configuration so you can place litmus edge on the same network segment as the plcs and devices it communicates with core components a litmus edge on nutanix deployment involves three components in addition to the nutanix cluster itself litmus edge iso image the installation image for litmus edge it is added to nutanix image storage before vm creation and attached to the vm as a cd rom disk during installation after installation is complete, the cd rom disk can be removed virtio drivers image paravirtualized drivers that enable efficient communication between the vm guest os and the nutanix ahv hypervisor for disk and network operations the virtio drivers disk must be attached during os installation without it, the installer cannot correctly identify or access storage and network devices once installation is complete and the os is running, the drivers are loaded and the disk is no longer needed nutanix vm the virtual machine that hosts litmus edge the vm is configured with uefi boot firmware, three disks (os image cd rom, virtio drivers, and a hard disk for the os), and a network interface bound to your deployment subnet vm configuration decisions several configuration choices made during vm setup affect how litmus edge operates in a nutanix environment boot firmware uefi boot is required legacy bios mode is not supported for litmus edge on nutanix this is set during vm creation and cannot be changed after the vm is saved disk layout the vm uses three disks during installation disk type purpose litmus edge iso cd rom, cloned from image service provides the os installer virtio drivers cd rom, cloned from image service provides drivers the installer needs to access the hard disk and nic hard disk standard virtual disk the target disk where litmus edge is installed both cd rom disks use ide bus type for compatibility with the installer environment the hard disk can use virtio scsi for better performance once the drivers are loaded network interface the vm's network interface is connected to a nutanix managed subnet choose a subnet that has routable access to the plcs, sensors, and other devices that litmus edge will communicate with if your environment uses vlans to segment ot and it networks, place the litmus edge vm on a subnet that can reach both considerations uefi boot is required the setting is applied at vm creation time and cannot be modified after the vm is saved without recreating the vm the virtio drivers disk must be attached and available during os installation attaching it after installation starts will not work nutanix ahv does not support hot adding disks to a running vm power off the vm before making disk changes litmus edge does not natively integrate with nutanix management apis it runs as a standard vm and is managed through the litmus edge ui or litmus edge manager before you begin before you begin, ensure you have the ip address of your nutanix console and valid login credentials the litmus edge iso image uploaded or available to upload to nutanix the virtio drivers image available in nutanix image storage decided on the vm name, description, time zone, vcpu count, core count, and memory allocation step 1 access the nutanix workspace to log in to the nutanix console open a web browser and navigate to the ip address of your nutanix console enter your username and password, then click log in step 2 add the litmus edge iso image to upload the litmus edge iso to nutanix image storage navigate to settings > image configuration > upload image in name , enter a descriptive name for the image in image type , select iso in storage container , select default select the litmus edge iso file and click save step 3 create a virtual machine to create a new vm in nutanix on the home screen, navigate to vm > create vm in name , enter a name for the vm in description , enter a description in time zone , select the appropriate time zone from the dropdown step 4 configure compute resources to set the compute resources for the vm in vcpus , enter the number of virtual cpus in number of cores per vcpu , enter the number of cores in memory , enter the required memory in gb in boot configuration , select uefi step 5 add disks to add the os image disk in the disks section, click add new disk in type , select cd rom in operation , select clone from image service in bus type , select ide in image , select the litmus edge iso image you uploaded in step 2 click add to add the virtio drivers disk click add new disk again in operation , select clone from image service in bus type , select ide in image , select the virtio drivers image click add to add the hard disk click add new disk a third time and configure it for the os hard disk click add step 6 configure networking to add a network interface to the vm in the network adapters (nic) section, click add new nic in subnet name , select the subnet you created for this deployment click add click save the vm is created step 7 install the operating system to start the vm and complete os installation right click the vm in the vm list and select power on click launch web console when the setup window appears, press f2 to enter the setup menu select us as the keyboard layout, then click apply enter the default username and password scroll down and press enter to continue when prompted, enter and confirm a new password step 8 configure system settings to configure the network interface for litmus edge select configure interface and click next enter the ip address, subnet mask, gateway, and dns details for this device click apply verify the installation to confirm litmus edge is installed and accessible open a web browser and navigate to the ip address you configured in step 8 confirm that the litmus edge login page appears log in with the default credentials and confirm the dashboard 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