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Terraform for Nutanix AHV: HCI VM Automation

Automate Nutanix AHV with Terraform: nutanix/nutanix provider, VM provisioning, categories, and Prism Central infrastructure as code.

LLuca Berton1 min read

Nutanix AHV is the KVM-derived hypervisor that ships with Nutanix HCI. The official nutanix/nutanix Terraform provider drives Prism Central — VMs, categories, projects, images, and self-service blueprints — declaratively.

Provider

# 
terraform {
  required_providers {
    nutanix = {
      source  = "nutanix/nutanix"
      version = "~> 2.0"
    }
  }
}
 
provider "nutanix" {
  username = var.username
  password = var.password
  endpoint = var.prism_central_ip
  insecure = false
  port     = 9440
}

VM with Cloud-Init

# 
data "nutanix_cluster" "this" { name = "Acme-PROD" }
data "nutanix_subnet" "this"  { subnet_name = "vlan-100" }
data "nutanix_image" "ubuntu" { image_name = "ubuntu-24.04-cloud" }
 
resource "nutanix_virtual_machine" "web" {
  name                 = "web-1"
  cluster_uuid         = data.nutanix_cluster.this.metadata.uuid
  num_vcpus_per_socket = 2
  num_sockets          = 1
  memory_size_mib      = 4096
 
  disk_list {
    data_source_reference = {
      kind = "image"
      uuid = data.nutanix_image.ubuntu.id
    }
  }
 
  nic_list {
    subnet_uuid = data.nutanix_subnet.this.metadata.uuid
  }
 
  guest_customization_cloud_init_user_data = base64encode(<<-EOT
    #cloud-config
    hostname: web-1
    users:
      - name: ubuntu
        ssh_authorized_keys:
          - ${chomp(file("~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub"))}
  EOT
  )
}

Categories for Policy

# 
resource "nutanix_category_key" "env" {
  name        = "Environment"
  description = "Deployment environment"
}
 
resource "nutanix_category_value" "prod" {
  name  = nutanix_category_key.env.name
  value = "Production"
}

Best Practices

#
  • Pin VM images — Prism's image library can rotate underneath you.
  • Cloud-init user-data over remote-exec — cleaner and faster.
  • Categories drive policy in Flow / Calm — model them in Terraform.
  • Use Projects to scope multi-team self-service.

Frequently asked questions

#

What does the Nutanix Terraform provider manage?

#

The official nutanix/nutanix provider drives Prism Central: virtual machines, images, subnets, categories, projects, access-control policies, and self-service blueprints. It turns the entire Nutanix HCI control plane into declarative infrastructure as code.

Does the Nutanix provider target Prism Element or Prism Central?

#

Point it at Prism Central (port 9440). Prism Central is the multi-cluster control plane where VMs, categories, and projects live; the provider's v2 resources are built around its v3/v4 APIs rather than the per-cluster Prism Element.

How do I pass cloud-init to a Nutanix AHV VM?

#

Set guest_customization_cloud_init_user_data on nutanix_virtual_machine to a base64-encoded #cloud-config document. AHV injects it on first boot — use it for hostname, users, SSH keys, and packages instead of remote-exec.

How do categories work in Nutanix Terraform?

#

Categories are key/value tags (nutanix_category_key + nutanix_category_value) that drive policy in Flow microsegmentation and Calm. Model them in Terraform and attach them to VMs so security and automation policies apply consistently across the fleet.

#
#Terraform#Nutanix AHV#Prism Central#HCI#Hyperconverged

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