Auto-Generate Nutanix Reports with Ansible and Email Integration

Introduction

Nutanix operations teams benefit from having a consolidated daily snapshot of cluster health, VM status, and storage capacity. With Ansible, you can automate report generation and email delivery. This post shows how to create a consolidated Nutanix infrastructure report and send it to your team each morning.

My Personal Repository on GitHub

Nutanix Repository on GitHub

Diagram: Reporting Automation Flow

Use Case

• Daily executive or operations summary
• Cluster monitoring for NOC or MSPs
• Detect VMs that are powered off or oversized

Playbook: daily_nutanix_report.yml

- name: Generate Daily Nutanix Infrastructure Report
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  collections:
    - nutanix.ncp
  vars_files:
    - nutanix_credentials.yml
  vars:
    cluster: "prod-cluster"
    report_file: "/tmp/nutanix_report_{{ ansible_date_time.date }}.log"
    mail_to: "ops@example.com"
  tasks:

    - name: Start report log
      copy:
        content: "Nutanix Daily Report - {{ ansible_date_time.date }}\n\n"
        dest: "{{ report_file }}"

    - name: Append Cluster Summary
      shell: |
        echo "=== Cluster Summary ===" >> {{ report_file }}
        ncli cluster get-summary >> {{ report_file }}
      environment:
        PATH: "/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"

    - name: Append VM Inventory
      shell: |
        echo "\n=== VM Summary ===" >> {{ report_file }}
        ncli vm list name power-state | grep -v '^--' >> {{ report_file }}

    - name: Append Container Info
      shell: |
        echo "\n=== Storage Containers ===" >> {{ report_file }}
        ncli container list name usage-capacity | grep -v '^--' >> {{ report_file }}

    - name: Email Report
      shell: |
        mailx -s "Nutanix Daily Report - {{ ansible_date_time.date }}" {{ mail_to }} < {{ report_file }}
      when: ansible_virtualization_role == 'host'  # example condition to limit where it runs

Run the Playbook

ansible-playbook daily_nutanix_report.yml --ask-vault-pass -i inventory.yml

Schedule It

0 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/ansible-playbook /opt/playbooks/daily_nutanix_report.yml

Optional Enhancements

• Use template module for better formatting
• Include LCM updates or certificate expiry
• Send as HTML with mutt or mailx -a options

Sample Output (Text Email)

Nutanix Daily Report - 2025-07-23

=== Cluster Summary ===
Cluster Name: prod-cluster
State: NORMAL
Nodes: 6
Uptime: 132 days

=== VM Summary ===
web01 ON
db01 OFF
api01 ON

=== Storage Containers ===
default-container 78% used
backup-container 55% used

Summary

Ansible makes it easy to convert Nutanix cluster data into a structured daily report. With built-in CLI modules and email delivery, teams can stay informed without logging into Prism or building custom dashboards.

External Documentation:

• nutanix.ncp.vms_info Module
• mailx Setup for Linux