After 8 years of running Nutanix in production, these 10 commands are top of my list. These commands should be run with CAUTION and experience – following guidance from Nutanix KB’s or support directly. If you have ANY hesitation – reach out to support.

1. nutanix@cvm: ncc health_checks – One of the first steps verifying a cluster is to run health checks.
   • To run all health checks:
     • nutanix@cvm$ ncc health_checks run_all
   • To run health checks specifically for down services:
     • nutanix@cvm$ ncc health_checks system_checks cluster_services_down_check
2. nutanix@cvm: cluster status – Cluster status provides a detailed list of all CVM’s, their status, and what condition the services are in. This is helpful for troubleshooting a failed service or verifying CVM health.
   • nutanix@cvm$ cluster status
3. nutanix@cvm: cluster start – If any services are down, use cluster start to restart services on any CVM in the cluster. This will not impact running services and is generally* safe to run.
   • nutanix@cvm$ cluster start
4. nutanix@cvm: ncli cluster info – Use this command to get information like cluster name, UUIC, cluster IP address, etc – from any CVM
   • nutanix@cvm$ ncli cluster info
5. nutanix@cvm: acli host.list – Use this command to list all hosts in a Nutanix cluster
   • nutanix@cvm$ acli host.list
6. nutanix@cmv: acli host.enter_maintenance_mode and acli host.exit_maintenance_mode – Entering and Existing host maintenance mode is a common task. New version (6.5 and above) support a 1-click GUI option, but for those who love to work in the CLI, these two commands will enter or exit host maintenance.
   • Host Enter Maintenance Mode – with wait statement
     • nutanix@cvm$ acli host.enter_maintenance_mode_check <host ip> wait="true"
   • Host Exit Maintenance Mode
     • nutanix@cvm$ acli host.exit_maintenance_mode_check <host ip>
7. nutanix@cvm: upgrade_status – Use these commands to check the status of a current upgrade or past LCM upgrade.
   • nutanix@cvm$ upgrade_status
   • nutanix@cvm$ lcm_upgrade_status
8. nutanix@cvm$ cvm shutdown -r now and cvm shutdown -P now – While performing host maintenance, it is common to place the node into maintenance and reboot or shut down the CVM. This will REBOOT or SHUT DOWN your CVM. Use with caution!
   • Reboot:
     • nutanix@cvm$ cvm shutdown -R now
   • Shutdown:
     • nutanix@cvm$ cvm shutdown -P now
9. root@aos$ shutdown -h now – While performing host maintenance, it is common to need to issue a hard shutdown to the host. This will SHUT DOWN your AOS host. Use with caution!
   • root@aos# shutdown -h now
10. ipmitool – If you are running NX hardware, or supermicro/quanta in general, ipmitool is your best friend. I commonly use it to verify BMC health pre/post upgrade, issue cold resets, and update passwords. I recommend starting with lan print, as it’s a informational output.
    • root@aos$ ipmitool lan print
    • nutanix@cvm$ ipmitool -I lanplus –H x.x.x.x –U ADMIN –P <password> <command>
11. Bonus command nutanix@cvm: hardware_info – This command will provide hardware specifications like CPU, Memory, Networking, Power, and Storage.
    • nutanix@cvm$ allssh ncc hardware_info show_hardware_info

– Marc