Nutanix NDB 2.11 - The New Release

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) is a leading Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) platform that supports a broad range of commercial and open source databases, including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, EDB Postgres, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, and MariaDB. Trusted by enterprises and government organizations worldwide, NDB delivers enterprise-grade database automation, lifecycle management, and data protection at scale.

NDB 2.11 introduces significant enhancements across dynamic scaling, data protection, security, governance, and hybrid cloud support. Organizations can now add or remove nodes from existing Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL clusters with near-zero downtime, incrementally expand MongoDB sharded clusters without disrupting workloads, and leverage native encryption and disaster recovery capabilities that reduce reliance on complex manual scripts.

The release also introduces more granular role-based access control (RBAC), comprehensive audit trails, enhanced security for Prism communications, expanded public cloud support, and new operational tools-all designed to simplify database operations while improving security, resilience, and flexibility.

Here’s a closer look at the key capabilities in NDB 2.11.

Dynamic Scaling for Existing Database Clusters

Before NDB, adding or removing database nodes often required DBAs to perform complex provisioning, configuration, replication, and data synchronization tasks manually. These processes could take significant time and frequently required maintenance windows, resulting in downtime and business disruption.

NDB 2.11 simplifies cluster scaling, enabling organizations to expand or right-size existing database environments without rebuilding clusters or taking them offline.

Add or Remove Database Nodes with Near-Zero Downtime

NDB 2.11 enables administrators to add or remove nodes from existing SQL Server Always On Availability Group (AG) and PostgreSQL clusters directly through the NDB UI, API, or CLI. These operations can be performed with near-zero downtime, eliminating the need to create a new cluster or migrate data.

Supported cluster sizes include:

• SQL Server AG: Up to 9 nodes
• PostgreSQL: Up to 5 nodes

This capability is particularly useful for replacing failed nodes, migrating individual nodes, expanding capacity, improving read throughput, or increasing resilience as business requirements evolve.

Zero-Downtime Incremental Scaling for MongoDB Sharded Clusters

For MongoDB Enterprise Advanced sharded clusters, NDB 2.11 enables administrators to incrementally add shards or mongos query routers one at a time without downtime. Reads and writes continue uninterrupted while NDB manages the cluster balancer and ensures the new resources are ready for production workloads.

New shards automatically inherit existing cluster configurations, including backup policies, networking settings, and software profiles. This makes MongoDB capacity expansion faster, more consistent, and less operationally intensive.

Together, these capabilities give organizations greater agility to scale database environments up or down while minimizing operational effort and disruption.

Advanced Encryption and Data Protection

NDB 2.11 expands native encryption and data protection capabilities, helping organizations reduce their dependence on custom scripts and manual processes.

Transparent Data Encryption for MySQL and EDB Postgres

NDB now provides native Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) for both MySQL and EDB Postgres, with external Key Management System (KMS) integration, including Thales, and automated key rotation.

Encryption can be enabled during provisioning, with NDB automating KMS configuration, key and certificate setup, and initialization.

Key capabilities include:

• MySQL: Automated key rotation without manual intervention
• EDB Postgres: Key, certificate, and credential rotation through the NDB UI or API with zero downtime
• Restore, clone, and refresh: Automatically use the appropriate encryption keys without requiring manual configuration on database servers

These capabilities simplify encryption management while helping organizations maintain consistent security throughout the database lifecycle.

PostgreSQL Disaster Recovery

NDB 2.11 introduces native Disaster Recovery (DR) for PostgreSQL High Availability clusters.

The solution provides end-to-end lifecycle automation, including:

• One-click failover
• Planned switchover and switchback with zero data loss

By replacing complex, custom DR scripts with automated workflows, NDB makes PostgreSQL disaster recovery simpler, more reliable, and less disruptive.

Enhanced Security, Governance, and Hybrid Cloud Support

NDB 2.11 strengthens security and governance while expanding support across public cloud environments.

Comprehensive NDB Audit Trail

NDB now captures every user action performed through the Console, API, and CLI in a structured audit trail. Each event records who performed the action, what was done, when and from where it occurred, and the outcome.

Audit logs are automatically forwarded to Prism Central, Nutanix’s centralized management and control plane. Organizations can also route these logs to enterprise SIEM platforms such as Splunk, QRadar, and Datadog through syslog.

The capability can be enabled through a simple setting in NDB and provides greater visibility into database operations while supporting applicable security and compliance requirements.

More Granular RBAC

NDB 2.11 expands entity-level sharing to provide more granular access control for databases and database clones.

New access levels include:

• Databases: Manage and Full access, in addition to View
• Database Clones: Full access, in addition to View and Manage

Teams can now delegate operational responsibilities-including snapshotting, restoring, scaling, refreshing, and removing databases or clones-without granting users Super Admin privileges.

This enables organizations to follow the principle of least privilege while giving database teams the access they need to perform their jobs effectively.

Enhanced Security for Prism Communication

Prism serves as the centralized management plane for the Nutanix Cloud Platform. In NDB 2.11, Prism API calls originating from database server VMs are securely routed through the NDB control plane.

Prism credentials remain centralized in the control plane and are never distributed to database VMs. Database VMs also no longer require direct network access to Prism over port 9440.

This architecture reduces the attack surface, supports stronger network segmentation, and provides improved auditability of infrastructure-related calls.

Expanded Public Cloud Support with Google Cloud

NDB is now available through Google Cloud Marketplace, extending NDB support across all three major hyperscalers: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

NDB on the Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) solution for Google Cloud supports all NDB database engines across both single-instance and high-availability deployments.

NDB workflows remain consistent across on-premises environments, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, giving organizations greater flexibility to choose their preferred cloud platform without having to adopt different database management tools.

Operational Excellence Tools

NDB 2.11 also introduces tools designed to simplify everyday database administration and accelerate troubleshooting.

Fitment Tool for Microsoft SQL Server

The new standalone Fitment Tool for Microsoft SQL Server scans existing SQL Server VMs-up to 100 at a time-to assess their readiness for NDB onboarding.

The tool identifies configuration issues and generates detailed remediation reports, helping organizations prepare existing SQL Server environments for NDB with less manual assessment.

Improved Diagnostic Log Bundles

Diagnostic log collection is now more flexible and efficient. Administrators can filter logs by category, exclude large components such as pg_dump, and specify precise time windows.

The result is smaller diagnostic bundles that are faster to transfer, making troubleshooting more efficient and reducing the time required to investigate issues.

New Platform and Database Support

NDB 2.11 expands support for newer operating systems and database versions, including:

• Windows Server 2025 with SQL Server 2025 (RTM)
• RHEL 10 with PostgreSQL Community versions 17 and 18
• RHEL 10 with MySQL Enterprise and Community 8.4.5

Conclusion

NDB 2.11 represents a significant advancement in simplifying enterprise database management across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments.

With near-zero-downtime cluster scaling, zero-downtime MongoDB sharded cluster expansion, native encryption and PostgreSQL disaster recovery, stronger security and governance, and expanded public cloud support, NDB gives organizations greater control over their database environments while reducing operational complexity.

Whether organizations need to dynamically adjust database capacity, strengthen data protection, improve security and compliance, or operate consistently across multiple cloud environments, NDB 2.11 delivers a more automated, secure, and flexible approach to enterprise database management.