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New Nutanix Releases: AOS 7.3, AHV 10.3, Prism Central pc.7.3

Nutanix released AOS 7.3, which is now the latest available release with the end of support life up to June 2027. In addition to the AOS, new versions of AHV and PC were released.

The AOS 7.3 release includes:
1. Support of 185 TB Capacity in All-Flash Node for Asynchronous Replication with One Hour to Less Than Six Hours RPO;
2. Support of 370 TB Capacity in All-Flash Node for Asynchronous Replication with 24 Hours or More RPO;
3. Support for Accessing a Volume Group using NVMeoF/TCP – check the doc;
4. Node-Level Support for Centralized Password Management for AHV Accounts – This procedure also described in the doc;
5. Enhanced Controller VM (CVM) Security (enabled by default for new clusters deployed with the AOS 7.3 release) – With this enhancement, access to underlying data is further restricted to internal system processes, helping reduce the risk of unauthorized modification;
6. Support for LUKS-Based Encryption of AOS and AHV Configuration Data – support for encrypting AOS and AHV configuration data at rest using LUKS. Read the documentation carefully;
7. Enabled Protection of vTPM-Enabled VMs in PD-Based DR with Asynchronous Replication Schedule;
8. On-Wire Encryption of Replication Traffic.

And more. You can find all release notes following this URL.

Let’s move to AHV 10.3:
1. Single Root Input Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) – Network interface card (NIC) passthrough provides a VM with direct access to a physical NIC.. A long-awaited feature. For more information, check the AHV administration guide. Also make sure to check supported versions;
2. Network Offload – The Network Offload (datapath offload) feature removes the burden by offloading the datapath rules to the NIC hardware. Links above are applicable for Network Offload feature too;
3. Automatic Cluster Selection Feature Enhancements;
4. CCLM and OD-CCLM Support for Guest VMs Connected to an Open Virtualized Network (OVN) LAN;
5. Support for RHEL High-availability Pacemaker Clusters – If you’re working with Red Hat clusters and Pacemaker and use STONITH, this is a must-have feature for you. Check out the documentation.

This release also includes a bunch of resolved issues, so make sure to read the release notes for AHV 10.3.

The last release is Prism Central pc.7.3 (you may notice a change in naming):
1. Enhancements in Network Settings of Recovery Plan;
2. Multicluster Virtual Switches in Prism Central – Starting with pc.7.3, you can create and manage virtual switches in Prism Central that span multiple clusters managed by the Prism Central instance. Check the documentation for more;
3. SR-IOV NIC Profile;
4. Network Offload NIC Profile;
5. Support for Accessing a Volume Group using NVMeoF/TCP;
6. Category Access from Prism Central Admin Center;
7. Prism Central Backup and Restore on Nutanix Objects – You can now back up your Prism Central instances to an S3 compatible object-based storage bucket on Nutanix Objects and recover them;
8. Template Placement Policies;
9. Support for AHV Metro in Multisite Deployments;
10. Intelligent Assist – Starting with pc.7.3, Prism Central displays the Intelligent Assist icon in the bottom-right corner of the Prism Central user interface. The icon provides in-product contextual recommendations, tips, and help resources for blueprints, runbooks, playbooks, and other features of Self-Service and Intelligent Operations;
11. Prism Central Backup and Restore: Configurable Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for Backups to AWS S3 and Nutanix Objects;
12. On-Wire Encryption of Replication Traffic.

This is a really large release, and I didn’t post more than 20 other features, and as always, please refer to the release notes for more information.

Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3.2 Release

A new version of Veeam Backup & Replication was released with the build number 12.3.2.3617.

First and foremost, this release includes security fixes for VBR server:
CVE-2025-23121 – CVSS v3.0 Score: 9.9, “A vulnerability allowing remote code execution (RCE) on the Backup Server by an authenticated domain user.”

This vulnerability affects only domain-joined backup servers, so if your VBR server is part of a domain, please consider updating it as soon as possible.

One excellent article to read is “Workgroup or Domain” in the Veeam Best Practices guide.

CVE-2025-24286 – CVSS v3.1 Score: 7.2, “A vulnerability allowing an authenticated user with the Backup Operator role to modify backup jobs, which could execute arbitrary code.”

And one security fix for Veeam Agent:
CVE-2025-24287 – CVSS v3.1 Score: 6.1, “A vulnerability allowing local system users to modify directory contents, allowing for arbitrary code execution on the local system with elevated permissions.”

In addition to security fixes, this release resolved several issues and added support for new modern Linux distros, including recently released RHEL 10 and RHEL-like Oracle Linux 10 and Rocky Linux 10, Ubuntu 25.04, and Debian 12.10/11.

Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 (NCP-CN 6.10) Exam

A few months ago, I took the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 exam, and in this post, I want to share materials I used to prepare for this exam.

For those who did not hear about this certification, NCP-CN measures your ability to use the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform product, which makes Kubernetes management much easier.

This guide outlines the preparation methodology I am using for certification exams, and it is applicable to other Nutanix exams as well.

Nutanix Certified Professional is the second stage in the Nutanix certification track. This certification requires the candidate to have good theoretical and practical knowledge of working with Nutanix solutions and is divided into several tracks:

Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Automation (NCP-DB)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA)
Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Integration (NCP-CI)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN)

In this article, we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN) exam version 6.10, and I will also share materials that you can use to prepare yourself.

Preparing for the NVIDIA-Certified Associate: AI Infrastructure and Operations Exam

I am a new one to the AI field, and this year I decided that this is a time to sharpen my skills. One of the pillars of AI is infrastructure, which is somewhat different from the traditional one used for running typical applications and virtual machines.

I started with the NVIDIA technologies and solutions as the leader in a modern AI infrastructure. NVIDIA provides a lot of training materials, documentation, and certifications on its technologies. It looks like a good way to start, because I believe that the best way to learn is by pursuing the certification.

Recently I completed the NVIDIA-Certified Associate: AI Infrastructure and Operations certification, and in this post, I want to share the materials I used to successfully pass the exam.

Nutanix .NEXT 2025 Announcements

As you know, Nutanix .NEXT 2025 is all around, and in this post, I want to share announcements made during the conference.

What I really love to see is a partnership with PureStorage —the leader in the storage market, a partnership with Canonical, and that Omnissa Horizon (ex. VMware Horizon) will support the AHV hypervisor.

Nutanix and Pure Storage Partner to Deliver Greater Customer Choice with New Integrated Solution for Mission-Critical Workloads;

Nutanix and Canonical Partner to Simplify Kubernetes Deployments with NKP and Ubuntu Pro;

Omnissa Horizon on Nutanix AHV: More Choice, More Simplicity for VDI and App Delivery;

Multi-Cluster Citrix VDI Support on Nutanix AHV with Prism;

Now Available: Nutanix Enterprise AI with NVIDIA Enable Agentic AI from the Edge to Public Clouds;

Fortifying the Future: Nutanix Expands Security Ecosystem and Simplifies Compliance;

Nutanix Cloud Clusters Walks the Runway at .NEXT;

Announcing Nutanix Cloud Clusters on Google Cloud Public Preview;

Nutanix Cloud Native AOS Brings Enterprise Storage to Diverse Kubernetes Environments;

I will update the post as soon as announces arrive.

Free Red Hat AI Foundations courses

As you know, AI is everywhere now. We all know we’ll be here in a moment, whether you’re using it or just planned to.

I love to share knowledge, and in this short post I want to share what I found: Red Hat AI Foundations courses.

There are two paths:
1. Executive: all those AI basics and terminology. Want to know what the difference between AI and ML is? What is GenAI? Start right here;
2. Technologist: You will learn about Red Hat AI products and especially the flagship – the Red Hat OpenShift AI platform.

Finishing those learning paths, you will receive Credly badges. To get information about what you should complete, use “Check your status” at the bottom of each learning path.

I highly recommend finishing the executive path as a minimum, especially since it’s free. And if you’re an active RHEL and OpenShift user, consider pursuing the technologist path.

Is Free VMware vSphere ESXi 8 back?

According to the release notes for VMware vSphere 8.0U3e, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) can now be downloaded free of charge from the Broadcom support portal:

Broadcom makes available the VMware vSphere Hypervisor version 8, an entry-level hypervisor. You can download it free of charge from the Broadcom Support portal.

Next, I use my own (non-corporate) account without any SiteIDs added.

In the Free Downloads section, we can find VMware vSphere Hypervisor:

With the only one release available – 8.0U3e:

After reading and accepting terms and conditions, we can download the ISO:

After installing, the first thing we want to see is the license:

We can see that the expiration date is set to never, and the host is limited to 8-way virtual SMP, meaning that you cannot power on the VM that contains more than 8 vCPUs.

In the example above, you can see that I cannot power on a 16-vCPUs VM. However, I can power three VMs with 8 vCPUs each:

And this is the same way as it worked before. This is a suitable option for extra-small deployments, labs, and testing. For large environments, you should definitely consider purchasing VVF or VCF licenses.

Regarding the license key, you don’t need to get one as it was before. It is already installed in the ISO. According to the screenshots shared on Reddit, all downloads use the same key.

Replacing Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central certificates

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to replace certificates for both Prisms – Element and Central.

In this article, we will look at how to generate self-signed certificates and add them to the Prism Element and to the Prism Central.

Nutanix AOS 7.0.1, AHV 10.0.1 and PC 2024.3.1 Releases

Nutanix released new minor versions of AOS, AHV, and PC with a few new features and many resolved issues in AOS, AHV, and Prism Central.

If you’re waiting for the first patch to upgrade your clusters to AOS 7 and PC 2024.3, make sure to read the release notes, resolved issues, and known issues. Maybe it’s time to upgrade.

For AOS 7.0.1 and AHV 10.0.1, there is a new feature:
AMD Turin Processor Support – Starting with AOS 7.0.1, AOS supports nodes based on the AMD Turin processor, such as Nutanix G10 platforms.
Currently, Nutanix has qualified the AMD Turin processor for Lenovo HX platforms.

For Prism Central 2024.3.1:
There are few features related to NCM, but I want to highlight a new and highly anticipated feature called Power Monitor – Starting with pc.2024.3.1, you can gain insights into the power consumption of your IT infrastructure by enabling the Power Monitor feature. Power Monitor collects real-time power usage data at the node and cluster levels and displays this historical data as line charts on the Prism Central dashboard.

You can read more on how Prowe Usage works in the documentation.

All releases have a lot of resolved issues, and you can check them here (requiring authentication):
Resolved Issues – AOS 7.0.1;
Resolved Issues – AHV 10.0.1;
Resolved Issues – pc.2024.3.1.

What’s new at Nutanix University? New certification NCP-CN is Now Available for Scheduling

Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 is ready to leave the beta state and exam is now open for scheduling with exam appointments starting on Tuesday, April 22

For those, who do not know, what NCP-CN is, it is the certification that measures your ability to deploy, configure, optimize, and perform administrative tasks on a Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP).

The best way to start preparing is to check the blueprint guide. You can find the blueprint guide here.

To schedule the exam, use the My Certification section on Nutanix University. Next, find the Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native 6.10 certification and click schedule. You will be forwarded to the PSI page, where you can select a suitable date and time.

In addition, I highly recommend checking the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Administration (NKAP) free online course to get the knowledge on the NKP solution. Also, if you have an opportunity, I recommend visiting this course live, because it includes a lot of hands-on labs, and it really can boost your knowledge on NKP, especially if you have a poor practice experience.