NCSE-Core Questions and Answers

Nutanix X-Ray is the tool packaged as a VM that uses realistic workloads paired with real-world test scenarios for HCI environments. It is designed to benchmark performance during typical workflows and failure events. X-Ray provides comprehensive testing capabilities, simulating various conditions and workloads to help evaluate the performance and resilience of the Nutanix infrastructure.

References:

Nutanix Bible

To decrease costs and increase efficiency by eliminating NAS silos and adopting a cloud-like mindset, Nutanix Files is the appropriate product. Nutanix Files provides scalable, distributed file storage that integrates with the Nutanix ecosystem, offering efficient management and eliminating the need for separate NAS devices​​.

A. Data Retention:

The data retention period is critical for sizing Splunk environments as it determines how much data needs to be stored and for how long. This affects storage capacity planning and resource allocation.

E. Concurrent Search Users:

The number of concurrent search users impacts the performance requirements of the Splunk environment. Higher concurrency requires more resources to handle the load efficiently, affecting CPU and memory sizing.

References:

Nutanix Sizer tool documentation for Splunk, along with best practices for configuring and sizing Splunk environments based on data retention and user concurrency requirements.

A prospective customer wants to build a private cloud and provision workloads across multiple public cloud providers but lacks the time and skillset for on-premises infrastructure management. Here is the detailed explanation of the features qualifying this project as a Nutanix opportunity:

Requirement Analysis:

Private cloud setup.

Provisioning across multiple public clouds.

Limited time and skillset for managing on-premises infrastructure.

Feature Analysis:

Flow: Provides network micro-segmentation and security, but does not directly address cloud management or simplicity in operations.

Calm: Nutanix Calm provides application automation and lifecycle management, enabling easy provisioning and management of applications across private and public clouds.

Cloud Connect: Facilitates backup and recovery to public clouds, not specifically for provisioning and ongoing management.

All Flash Nodes: Improves performance but does not address cloud management or ease of use.

Prism 1-Click operations: Offers simplified, automated management and operational tasks through a single interface, reducing the complexity and time required for infrastructure management.

Conclusion:Nutanix Calm and Prism 1-Click operations are the most relevant features as they enable seamless multi-cloud provisioning and management while simplifying the management of on-premises infrastructure.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation​​

Nutanix Prism documentation​

To tolerate the simultaneous failure of two nodes or drives, the Nutanix cluster must have a minimum of 5 nodes configured with a cluster redundancy factor (RF) of 3 and a container RF of 3. This configuration provides sufficient redundancy to withstand multiple concurrent failures while maintaining data availability and integrity​​.

Zookeeper in Nutanix is responsible for distributing metadata to ensure availability in case of node or block failure. Metadata includes important information about the state and configuration of the cluster, which is crucial for maintaining cluster operations and consistency.

References:

Nutanix Bible

D. Automatic Workload Repository Report:

The Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) report provides comprehensive details about Oracle database performance, workload characteristics, and resource utilization. This report is crucial for accurately sizing an environment that includes production Oracle databases.

AWR reports contain historical data on system performance and are used to identify trends, workload patterns, and potential bottlenecks. This information is essential for determining the appropriate resources needed to support the Oracle databases in the Nutanix environment.

References:

Nutanix documentation and Oracle best practices for database sizing recommend using AWR reports for accurate performance and capacity planning.

Understanding Critical Requirements:

For critical business operations, high availability, performance, and redundancy are essential to ensure minimal downtime and robust performance.

NX-1065S-G5 Node Specifications:

To address the concern about rebuilding data when a node hosting 100TB of data goes offline, Nutanix uses the distribution of rebuild tasks across all nodes. This approach significantly reduces the time required for data rebuilding by leveraging the collective resources of the entire cluster, ensuring faster recovery and minimizingthe impact on performance​​.

To resolve an SSL error when connecting to a Nutanix cluster, the administrator should:

Generate a New SSL Certificate:

The administrator should create a new SSL certificate for the cluster. This certificate should be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), such as an Active Directory (AD) certificate authority.

Install the Certificate on the Cluster:

Once the certificate is generated and signed, it needs to be installed on the Nutanix cluster. This ensures that the certificate is trusted by the clients connecting to the cluster.

Update Trust Stores:

Ensure that the clients and workstations connecting to the Nutanix cluster trust the CA that signed the new SSL certificate. This can often be achieved by updating the trusted root certificate authorities on the client systems.

Creating a new SSL certificate signed by an AD certificate authority ensures that the certificate is recognized and trusted within the organization, thereby resolving the SSL errors and establishing secure connections.

References:

Nutanix Security Best Practices

Nutanix Documentation on SSL Certificate Management

Understanding RVTools Output:

RVTools provides detailed information on the storage usage of virtual machines, including provisioned, used, and free space.

Determining Storage Requirements:

Aggregate Workload Sizing: The SE must consider the total storage requirements, including current usage and future growth, to ensure the Nutanix Cluster can handle the workload.

Value Selection:

15 TB: Likely insufficient for a sizable environment.

24 TB: More significant but may still be insufficient for larger deployments.

37 TB: Appears to be a reasonable estimate for a substantial workload, considering both current usage and future growth.

39 TB: Very close but slightly overestimated compared to typical recommendations.

Conclusion:

The most accurate representation of the minimum required storage capacity for the aggregate workload in sizer is37 TB.

References:

Nutanix Sizing Guidelines.

RVTools Documentation.

Current Environment Analysis:

The existing AHV cluster has 7 NX-3060-G6 nodes with Intel Skylake processors.

These nodes are distributed across two blocks.

The customer needs to add three more NX-3060-G7 nodes with Intel Cascade Lake processors.

Objective:

Efficiently utilize additional resources by integrating new nodes into the existing infrastructure.

Recommendations:

Expand the existing cluster: The goal is to enhance resource utilization and maintain cluster simplicity by adding the new nodes to the current cluster.

Add a new block populated with the three additional nodes: This approach provides several benefits:

It ensures the new nodes are integrated into the existing management and operational framework.

It leverages the existing network and storage configurations, minimizing setup complexities.

By adding a new block, the existing two blocks remain unchanged, maintaining their current configuration and workloads.

Implementation:

Order and prepare the new nodes: Ensure that the three additional NX-3060-G7 nodes are ready for deployment.

Add the new block to the existing cluster:

Physically rack and connect the new block with the three NX-3060-G7 nodes.

In the Nutanix Prism interface, initiate the process to add the new block to the existing cluster.

The cluster expansion process will automatically incorporate the new nodes into the existing cluster, ensuring seamless integration.

Outcome:

The customer will achieve an efficient expansion of their AHV cluster, utilizing the new resources effectively.

This method ensures minimal disruption and maintains operational consistency across the cluster.

References: For further details on cluster expansion and node addition processes, refer to the Nutanix documentation on cluster management and node integration.

D. Case Detail:

On portal.nutanix.com, open cases can be directly escalated from the "Case Detail" page. This page provides specific details about the case, including the ability to escalate it if necessary.

The "Case Detail" page contains all relevant information about the case, making it the appropriate place to manage and escalate cases.

To tolerate up to 2 simultaneous disk failures across different nodes, the minimum number of nodes required is 5. This configuration ensures that there are enough nodes to maintain data redundancy and availability in the event of multiple disk failures, leveraging Nutanix's Resiliency Factor (RF) mechanisms ​​.

In an 8-node hybrid cluster configured with a Fault Tolerance level of 2 (RF3), the system can tolerate up to two simultaneous failures. However, if there are SSD failures on two different nodes and a CVM is powered off on another node simultaneously, the data availability is compromised. This combination results in losing the quorum necessary for maintaining data availability and integrity, leading to VM data becoming unavailable.

References:

Nutanix Bible

For network switch discovery in Prism, the following settings are required:

Switch Management IP Address: This is necessary to access and manage the network switch.

AHV Host IP address: This helps in identifying the hosts connected to the network.

SNMP Community Name: This is used for SNMP protocol to monitor and manage the network devices​​​​.

Understanding the Prospect's Goals:

The prospect aims to replace a mainframe environment, reduce the datacenter footprint, and enhance disaster recovery for mission-critical applications.

Relevance of Document Collections:

Nutanix Bible: Provides comprehensive technical details and architecture insights but may not directly address business outcomes and real-world success stories.

Knowledge Base Articles: Offer troubleshooting and technical guidance but are not focused on high-level strategic goals and outcomes.

Case Studies: Present real-world examples of how other organizations have successfully implemented Nutanix solutions to achieve similar goals, providing a persuasive and relatable narrative.

Best Practices Guide: Offers guidelines and recommendations for optimal usage but may lack the impactful, real-world validation that case studies provide.

Recommendation:

Case Studies: These documents highlight successful implementations, showing how Nutanix has helped other organizations achieve goals similar to those of the prospect. They provide practical examples, detailed results, and customer testimonials, making a compelling case for the effectiveness of Nutanix solutions.

Conclusion:

To demonstrate how Nutanix can help the prospect reach their goals, the SE should useCase Studies.

References:

Nutanix Case Studies.

Nutanix Customer Success Stories.

The certified configuration for Oracle Linux and Oracle VM via iSCSI uses Nutanix Acropolis Block Services (ABS). ABS allows Nutanix storage to be presented as iSCSI targets to external servers, enabling the use of Nutanix storage in conjunction with Oracle environments.

This feature ensures high performance and reliability for Oracle workloads while leveraging Nutanix’s advanced storage capabilities.

References:

Nutanix documentation and the Oracle HCL list provide details on certified configurations and the use of ABS for integrating Nutanix storage with Oracle environments.

To calculate the minimum amount of required SSD storage for the active working set:

Determine the active working set size:

The data growth pattern shows an increase of 1TB per month.

Considering the most recent data point (May: 14TB), the active working set can be approximated as the difference between the highest and the lowest value in the given period.

Consider the read/write ratio:

Average Read/Write Ratio: 75/25

Typically, write operations require more SSD space for better performance.

SSD storage calculation:

Given the active working set and growth pattern, a prudent estimate would be to ensure sufficient SSD space to handle peak loads and ensure performance.

Based on the pattern and industry best practices, 6TB of SSD storage would be a reasonable minimum to accommodate the active working set and ensure performance.

References:

Nutanix Sizer guidelines and industry best practices for SSD storage estimation in virtualized environments.

When using the Sizer in Automatic mode, it can provide various configurations based on the specified workload and capacity requirements. The following configurations are possible:

6x NX-8055-G7:

Each node has 2 x 7.68TB SSDs and 10x 6TB HDDs.

This configuration balances high-performance SSDs with large-capacity HDDs, suitable for mixed workload environments.

4x NX-1075S-G7 + 4x NX-8035-G7:

NX-1075S-G7 nodes have 4x 3.85TB SSDs each.

NX-8035-G7 nodes have 6x 3.84TB SSDs each.

This combination provides high SSD storage capacity across different node types, optimized for performance-intensive workloads.

References:

Nutanix Sizer Documentation: Details on how the Sizer tool calculates and recommends configurations.

Nutanix Hardware Specifications: Specifications for different node models and their storage capabilities.

Qualifying a POC (Proof of Concept):

The initial goal is to understand the specific requirements and expectations of the prospect.

This helps in designing a relevant and focused POC that addresses the prospect's needs directly.

Reason for Asking About Evaluation Plans:

Identifying the specific aspects of Nutanix they wish to test ensures the POC is relevant.

It allows tailoring the demo environment to closely match their production environment or test scenarios.

This question also uncovers the prospect's priorities, such as performance, ease of use, scalability, etc.

Alternative Questions:

Other Solutions: This might come later to understand the competitive landscape but does not help in designing the POC.

Project Budget: Important for project feasibility but not immediately necessary for qualifying the need for a POC.

Splunk Version: Relevant for technical compatibility but not for initial qualification.

References:

Nutanix presales best practices and qualification guidelines.

To meet the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 encryption requirement for data at rest for a federal government prospect, the solution must include the following:

A supported Key Management Server (KMS): Nutanix supports external KMS solutions that are FIPS 140-2 compliant, ensuring secure key management.

Self-Encrypting Drive (SED): SEDs provide hardware-based encryption that meets the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 standard, ensuring that the data is encrypted at rest with high security​​.

To logically separate management and data traffic on a Nutanix cluster, the administrator should use Network Segmentation. This feature allows for the isolation of different types of traffic, ensuring that management and data operations do not interfere with each other and enhancing security and performance​​.

C. "Shadow IT" that increases the risk of security breaches and brand damage:

The engineering department building their own infrastructure using available hardware, SaaS offerings, and public cloud can lead to "Shadow IT." This increases the risk of security breaches as these systems may not adhere to the company’s security policies and could expose sensitive data.

D. Slow response time from the infrastructure group (SLAs) that could result in product release delays:

The new CIO is trying to gain control of the existing and incoming information systems while supporting an agile environment. Slow response times from the infrastructure group can delay product releases, affecting the company's competitive edge and innovation pace.

References:

Nutanix's unified platform and comprehensive management tools can address these pain points by providing centralized control, enhancing security, and improving agility and response times.

Current Configuration:

The customer has a 3-node cluster configured for RF2 with 100TB of raw disk space.

Erasure Coding Requirements:

Erasure Coding (EC-X) improves storage efficiency by using a parity-based method to store data.

For EC-X to be enabled, a minimum of 4 nodes is required in the cluster.

Explanation:

RF2 (Replication Factor 2): Requires data to be replicated across at least two nodes.

Erasure Coding: Requires additional nodes beyond the replication factor to store parity information. In this case, a minimum of 4 nodes is needed to implement EC-X.

Required Change:

Add 1 Node: Adding one more node to the existing 3-node cluster will meet the minimum requirement of 4 nodes, allowing the customer to enable Erasure Coding.

Outcome:

By adding an additional node, the cluster will be able to utilize Erasure Coding, thereby gaining additional usable space.

Shadow Clones is the AOS feature that provides enhanced read performance specifically for virtual desktop environments. This feature allows frequently read data to be cached locally on each node, reducing read latency and improving performance in environments with multiple virtual desktops accessing the same data​​.

C. When deploying an Oracle RAC database:

Shadow clones should be explicitly disabled when deploying an Oracle RAC database. Oracle RAC requires highly consistent and low-latency storage access, and enabling shadow clones can introduce additional latency and potential inconsistencies that are unsuitable for such databases.

Shadow clones are designed to enhance performance for read-heavy workloads by caching frequently accessed data locally. However, Oracle RAC’s stringent requirements for data consistency and latency make this feature inappropriate for its deployment.

A. Self-healing infrastructure:

Nutanix provides a self-healing infrastructure that automatically detects and recovers from hardware failures, minimizing the need for on-site intervention. This is crucial for retail locations where on-site staff may not be qualified to handle hardware issues.

C. Prism Central:

Prism Central allows for centralized management of multiple Nutanix clusters across different locations. This simplifies management and reduces operational complexity, especially for environments with numerous sites like the 100 retail locations.

References:

Nutanix Prism documentation and self-healing infrastructure features provide detailed information on how these capabilities simplify management and enhance reliability for distributed environments

Compared to a traditional 3-tier architecture, Nutanix offers the following benefits:

Elimination of Siloed Storage:

Nutanix consolidates file, block, and object storage into a single platform, eliminating the need for separate, siloed storage systems. This simplifies management and improves resource utilization.

Avoidance of Generational Infrastructure Silos:

Nutanix's modern lifecycle management allows for seamless upgrades and expansions, avoiding the creation of generational silos. This ensures that the infrastructure remains up-to-date and can easily adapt to new technologies and requirements without disruptive forklift upgrades.

References:

Nutanix Bible​

C. Adding Storage Only nodes:

Nutanix allows for the addition of storage-only nodes to a cluster. These nodes provide additional storage capacity without adding compute resources, which is a cost-effective way to increase storage for data retention and compliance purposes.

This capability allows the prospect to scale storage independently of compute, addressing concerns about data retention costs by adding capacity as needed without the overhead of additional CPU and memory resources.

To enhance the resiliency of the Nutanix environment against power outages to individual racks, it's essential to implement a strategy that ensures data availability even if an entire rack loses power. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the solution:

Current Environment Analysis:

The customer has two NX-3460-G7 blocks and one NX-3160-G7 block in a single rack.

Each block consists of multiple nodes, with a total of nine nodes across these blocks.

Objective:

Increase resiliency to power outages affecting individual racks.

Recommendations:

Move one node from each NX-3460-G7 block to the NX-3160-G7 block: This step is crucial to distribute the nodes across different physical blocks. By doing this, each block will have nodes that can ensure data availability even if a block is compromised.

Distribute the blocks across three separate racks: This ensures that even if one rack loses power, the nodes in the other racks can still maintain data availability and cluster operations.

Enable Rack Awareness: Rack Awareness is a feature in Nutanix that ensures data is distributed in such a way that a rack failure does not lead to data unavailability. When enabled, the system understands the physical location of each node and ensures data replication across different racks.

Implementation:

Physically relocate one node from each NX-3460-G7 block to the NX-3160-G7 block.

Physically distribute the three blocks (NX-3460-G7, NX-3460-G7, NX-3160-G7) across three different racks in the data center.

In the Nutanix Prism interface, enable Rack Awareness to logically inform the cluster of the new rack distribution.

Outcome:

By spreading nodes and blocks across three racks and enabling Rack Awareness, the customer will have increased resiliency. In case one rack loses power, the nodes in the other racks will ensure continuous data availability and cluster operations.

This approach leverages the best practices for ensuring high availability and fault tolerance in a Nutanix environment. It minimizes the risk of data loss or downtime due to power failures in a single rack.

References: For further information and detailed steps on enabling and configuring Rack Awareness, please refer to the Nutanix documentation related to high availability and data protection in multi-rack deployments.

Understanding the Application Requirements:

The application is very transactional with a 28/72 random, read/write ratio. This indicates a high write intensity, which necessitates optimized storage configurations to handle the I/O load efficiently.

Add Multiple Virtual Disks:

Option B: Add a minimum of four virtual disks to each VM and aggregate them on guest OS level:

By adding multiple virtual disks and aggregating them within the guest OS, the I/O operations can be spread across multiple disks. This can significantly improve I/O performance by leveraging parallelism and reducing I/O contention on a single disk.

This approach also helps in better utilizing the underlying storage infrastructure, which can include multiple SSDs and HDDs managed by Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF)​​.

Analysis of Other Options:

Option A: Add one large SSD to each node and enable Flash Mode for the VMs:

Adding a single large SSD may not fully leverage the parallel I/O capabilities needed for high transactional workloads.

Option C: Add a minimum of four SSDs to each node to ensure all writes go to the SSDs:

While this improves performance, it focuses on node-level configuration rather than optimizing VM-level disk I/O distribution.

Option D: Add one large virtual disk to each VM and use it for all application data:

This creates a bottleneck as all I/O operations are directed to a single virtual disk, limiting performance improvements.

Conclusion:

For optimal performance of a highly transactional application with a high write ratio, adding multiple virtual disks and aggregating them within the guest OS is the most effective solution.

References: Nutanix best practices for VM and storage configuration.

Problem Analysis:

The prospect experiences unplanned downtime due to hardware failures.

Notifications from their SNMP-based monitoring solution have been ignored due to communication issues.

Nutanix Pulse:

Pulse provides proactive support and monitoring for Nutanix clusters.

It automatically sends cluster health and performance data to Nutanix support, enabling quick issue resolution.

This feature can ensure critical alerts and notifications are not missed, improving overall system reliability.

Conclusion:

Highlighting Pulse helps address the key pain points of unplanned downtime and missed notifications, ensuring better system management and support.

References:

Nutanix Pulse feature documentation.

Nutanix support and monitoring best practices.

POC Requirements:

Measure recovery time from power loss, the impact of running multiple workloads, and peak storage performance.

The results need to be presented to the CIO.

Tool Selection:

X-Ray: Nutanix X-Ray is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking tool designed specifically for Nutanix environments. It includes pre-defined scenarios for various testing requirements.

Explanation:

X-Ray Scenarios: X-Ray comes with built-in scenarios that cover various aspects of performance, resiliency, and workload impact. This ensures that the tests are standardized and reliable.

PDF Report: X-Ray generates detailed PDF reports that can be directly presented to stakeholders, such as the CIO, providing a clear and professional summary of the test results.

Outcome:

Using X-Ray with its included scenarios will provide the most reliable and comprehensive testing environment, reducing the room for error and ensuring the results are presented in a professional format.

References: Refer to Nutanix documentation on X-Ray and its usage for performance testing and benchmarking.

When using Live Optics to assist with sizing a partial infrastructure refresh, it's crucial to capture data that accurately reflects the peak usage periods to ensure the sizing will accommodate the highest demands placed on the infrastructure. Here are the detailed steps and reasons:

Peak Utilization:

Capturing data during peak utilization provides a realistic picture of the maximum load the infrastructure needs to handle.

It ensures that the proposed sizing can accommodate the highest performance and capacity demands, reducing the risk of undersizing.

24-hour Window:

A 24-hour window captures a full day’s cycle, including peak and off-peak hours, providing a comprehensive view of the utilization patterns.

This duration helps in understanding not only the peak loads but also the variations and average loads throughout the day.

Combining these two factors, the most accurate and comprehensive data for sizing would be gathered during 24-hour windows at periods of peak utilization.

To report on any alerts generated by a Nutanix cluster that affected the cluster's availability over the past 10 days, the administrator should use the Alerts dashboard in Prism. The steps are as follows:

Navigate to the Alerts dashboard in the Prism web console.

Use the filter options to select the Impact Type, specifically filtering for alerts that impact cluster availability.

Set the desired Time Range to the past 10 days to view relevant alerts within this period.

Review the filtered alerts to identify any that affected the cluster's availability.

This method provides a focused view of alerts related to cluster availability and allows for efficient reporting and analysis.

References:

Nutanix Prism Web Console Guide

Nutanix Alerts Dashboard Documentation

C. Adding storage only nodes:

Nutanix allows the addition of storage-only nodes to a cluster. This feature is beneficial for environments where data retention for compliance purposes increases, as it provides a cost-effective way to scale storage capacity without adding compute resources.

Storage-only nodes help in efficiently managing and expanding storage capacity while controlling costs, making it a suitable solution for the prospect’s concerns.

References:

Nutanix documentation on cluster configuration and expansion highlights the benefits and use cases for adding storage-only nodes, particularly in scenarios requiring increased storage capacity.

To migrate database workloads from a 3-tier vSphere architecture to a Nutanix cluster while maintaining customer experience and minimizing costs, it is crucial to focus on maintaining similar processor speeds. Here’s a detailed explanation:

Workload Analysis:

The current environment consists of hosts with 256G RAM and Broadwell 2.8 GHz 12-core processors.

The largest database VM uses 64G of memory, and some databases are single-threaded but have acceptable performance.

Processor Consideration:

Database performance, especially for single-threaded workloads, is highly dependent on the CPU's clock speed.

Using processors with similar speed ensures that the performance characteristics remain consistent, minimizing the risk of performance degradation.

Avoiding Performance Bottlenecks:

Matching the CPU speed helps maintain the current acceptable performance levels.

This approach is more cost-effective than upgrading to higher-speed processors or increasing memory excessively.

Cluster Configuration:

Ensuring the new Nutanix cluster has processors with similar clock speeds to the existing environment will provide a smooth transition.

This consistency will also help in minimizing the need for extensive re-optimization or re-tuning of the databases post-migration.

References:

Nutanix documentation on CPU performance considerations for database workloads.

Best practices for migrating workloads to Nutanix and ensuring consistent performance.

Current Challenges:

The prospect is facing a VMware ELA renewal.

Management directive to move to public cloud for cost savings.

Virtualization team struggles with application refactoring for AWS.

Considering VXRail and VMware ELA renewal due to these challenges.

Nutanix AHV:

AHV is Nutanix's built-in hypervisor that eliminates the need for VMware licenses, reducing costs significantly.

Seamless integration with Nutanix's HCI platform simplifies management and reduces operational overhead.

Cloud Connect:

Cloud Connect enables seamless data backup and disaster recovery between on-prem Nutanix clusters and public clouds.

Facilitates hybrid cloud deployments without the need for extensive application refactoring.

Supports cost-effective cloud storage and disaster recovery solutions, aligning with the management's directive.

Conclusion:

Highlighting AHV addresses cost concerns by removing the need for expensive VMware licenses.

Cloud Connect provides a practical solution for hybrid cloud integration, easing the transition to public cloud and supporting the current infrastructure.

References:

Nutanix AHV feature documentation.

Nutanix Cloud Connect best practices and implementation guides.

Understanding the requirements: The SQL Server database currently runs on a physical server with 256GB of RAM and 12 CPU cores at > 80% utilization. The VM must run on a single NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) node to maintain performance.

NUMA Node Configuration:

NUMA nodes are designed to optimize memory access and CPU utilization.

Keeping the VM within a single NUMA node ensures low latency and high performance.

Processor Options:

Option A (Intel E5 2680v4): 14 cores each @ 2.4GHz, 28 cores total. This exceeds the core count for a single NUMA node.

Option B (Intel E5 2620v4): 8 cores each @ 2.1GHz, 16 cores total. Lower clock speed and fewer cores might not meet the performance requirements.

Option C (Intel E5 2643v4): 6 cores each @ 3.4GHz, 12 cores total. Matches the current core count but has higher clock speed; however, total cores might limit future scalability.

Option D (Intel E5 2667v4): 8 cores each @ 3.2GHz, 16 cores total. This provides a good balance of cores and clock speed, aligning with current and future performance needs.

Performance Consideration:

The SQL Server is highly transactional, requiring both high core count and high clock speed for optimal performance.

Option D (Intel E5 2667v4) offers a suitable compromise with 8 cores at 3.2GHz, totaling 16 cores. This configuration will fit within a single NUMA node, providing the necessary performance and maintaining efficient memory access.

References:

General CPU configuration guidelines from Nutanix documentation.

NUMA architecture and performance optimization best practices.

Nutanix and SAP Partnership:

Explanation: Nutanix is recognized as a SAP Global Technology Partner, indicating a strong, collaborative relationship with SAP for providing integrated solutions.

Understanding the Context:

The project to migrate to the public cloud was largely unsuccessful, indicating underlying issues that need to be identified.

Effective Open-Ended Questions:

What challenges triggered the public cloud initiative?:

Explanation: This question helps understand the initial pain points and motivations for the migration attempt, providing insight into what problems the company was trying to solve.

For highly active SQL workloads that write I/Os in 2 MB chunks to a vDisk, compression is the most suitable storage optimization technology. Compression works well with larger I/O sizes and can significantly reduce the storage footprint, providing better capacity optimization. This approach ensures that the large chunks of data are compressed efficiently, maximizing storage utilization and performance​​.

Nutanix Era is a tool that provides database management with one-click operations for provisioning, patching, and managing databases. It includes capabilities for self-service and lifecycle management for both Kubernetes containers and SQL databases, making it ideal for building a private cloud for internal developers. Era simplifies database operations and integrates seamlessly with Nutanix infrastructure to provide a comprehensive solution for database lifecycle management.

References:

Nutanix Bible​

B. N+1:

Based on the sizing scenario and the configuration shown in the exhibit, the Failover option selected is "Standard (N+1)."

This indicates that the cluster is configured to provide N+1 resiliency, where the system can handle the failure of one node by having an additional node available to take over.

This level of resiliency is common in environments where a balance between cost and availability is required.

References:

Nutanix Sizer tool and Nutanix documentation provide detailed explanations on configuring clusters with different levels of resiliency, including N+1.

Customer Concern:

The concern is that VMs may be forced to repeatedly migrate between nodes during a Nutanix cluster upgrade.

Nutanix Feature:

CVM Autopathing: This feature ensures continuous VM operation by dynamically rerouting I/O and network traffic during node maintenance or upgrades.

Explanation:

CVM Autopathingallows VMs to remain on their current hosts while the Controller VM (CVM) handles the necessary I/O redirection.

This minimizes the need for VM migrations, thereby reducing the operational impact during upgrades.

Outcome:

VMs can remain on their original hosts throughout the AOS upgrade process, ensuring minimal disruption and maintaining performance stability.

References: For more details on CVM Autopathing and its operational benefits, refer to Nutanix documentation on cluster maintenance and upgrade best practices.

To determine the minimum amount of HDD capacity required for the workload after converting thick provisioned disks to thin provisioned disks, we need to consider the active working set and the typical overhead for thin provisioning.

Current Capacity:

The prospect currently has 8500GB (8.5TiB) of provisioned capacity.

Active Working Set:

The total active working set for the cluster is determined to be 1TB.

Thin Provisioning:

Thin provisioning reduces the need for physical storage because it allocates storage on-demand rather than reserving the full capacity upfront.

Nutanix typically advises planning for additional overhead to accommodate metadata, snapshots, and potential growth.

Calculation:

The rule of thumb for thin provisioning overhead is approximately 2-3 times the active working set to ensure adequate capacity for metadata and additional data growth.

Using the higher end of the multiplier (3 times):

1TB (active working set)×3=3TB1 \text{TB (active working set)} \times 3 = 3 \text{TB}1TB (active working set)×3=3TB

Conclusion:

Therefore, the minimum HDD capacity required for the workload when thin provisioning is applied would be around 3.0TiB.

References:

Nutanix Sizing Guidelines.

Nutanix Documentation on Thin Provisioning and Storage Optimization.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details/?targetId=Web_Console_Guide-Prism_v4_7:lic_licensing_managing_c.html

Reclaiming Licenses (Including License Renewal)

You can reclaim and optionally re-apply licenses for nodes in your clusters:

You must reclaim licenses when you plan to destroy a cluster. First reclaim the licenses, then destroy the cluster. You do not need to reclaim Starter licenses. These licenses are automatically applied whenever you create a cluster, including after you have destroyed a cluster.

Return licenses to your inventory when you remove one or more nodes from a cluster. Also, if you move nodes from one cluster to another, first reclaim the licenses, move the nodes, then re-apply the licenses.

You can reclaim licenses for nodes in your clusters in cases where you want to make modifications or downgrade licenses. For example, applying an Ultimate license to all nodes in a cluster where some nodes are currently licensed as Pro and some nodes are licensed as Ultimate. You might also want to transition nodes from Ultimate to Pro licensing.

You must reclaim licenses when you renew licenses. First reclaim the expired licenses, then apply new licenses.

C. ABS (Acropolis Block Services):

Acropolis Block Services (ABS) enables Nutanix storage to be used by external servers, providing the performance and benefits of Nutanix’s distributed storage fabric while allowing the customer to continue using their existing investment in Oracle servers.

ABS allows the integration of all-flash storage with the existing Oracle environment, addressing the prospect's preference for all-flash arrays while leveraging Nutanix’s advanced storage capabilities.

References:

Nutanix documentation on ABS describes its features and benefits, particularly its ability to integrate Nutanix storage with external servers and support high-performance applications like Oracle databases.

To determine the best configuration, we need to calculate the required storage, including the additional 20% growth and the capacity to re-protect in the event of a node failure:

Initial Storage Requirement:

Usable storage required: 15 TiB

Additional storage for 20% growth: 15×0.2=3 TiB15 \times 0.2 = 3 \text{ TiB}15×0.2=3 TiB

Total storage required: 15+3=18 TiB15 + 3 = 18 \text{ TiB}15+3=18 TiB

Storage with Re-protection:

To ensure data protection and availability, Nutanix typically uses a replication factor (RF) of 2, meaning each piece of data is stored twice.

Therefore, the total raw storage needed: 18 TiB×2=36 TiB18 \text{ TiB} \times 2 = 36 \text{ TiB}18 TiB×2=36 TiB

Given these calculations, we should look for a configuration that provides at least 36 TiB of raw storage. Based on typical Nutanix node configurations, Option D provides the best balance of cost and capacity, ensuring that the requirement for 36 TiB of raw storage is met.

When an HDD fails, Nutanix's high availability (HA) system ensures the continuation of VM operations by initiating an HA event. The affected VMs will be restarted on a node that contains the replica data, ensuring minimal downtime and data availability​​.

A. 1-Node and 2-Node Clusters:

Nutanix offers 1-node and 2-node cluster configurations, which are ideal for small remote locations with limited hardware requirements. These configurations are cost-effective and provide the necessary compute and storage resources for small workloads, addressing the cost concerns for the prospect’s remote sites.

D. AHV:

AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) is included with Nutanix at no additional licensing cost, which can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership compared to environments that require separate hypervisor licenses (such as VMware vSphere). Highlighting the cost savings of using AHV can help address the prospect's concerns about pricing.

References:

Nutanix documentation on small cluster configurations and the benefits of AHV in reducing costs and simplifying management for remote and edge locations.

A prospect evaluating Nutanix for a large number of Oracle RAC deployments, prioritizing time to deployment and utilizing an in-house self-service tool, would benefit most from Nutanix's REST API capabilities. Here is a detailed explanation:

Requirement Analysis:The prospect needs a solution that allows rapid deployment of Oracle RAC environments and integrates with their existing self-service deployment tool. This means the feature should support automation and programmatic control.

Feature Analysis:

Calm: While Nutanix Calm can orchestrate and automate application deployments, including complex multi-tier applications, the existing self-service tool of the prospect may make Calm redundant for this specific need.

Xtract for Databases: This tool assists in migrating databases to Nutanix but is not directly involved in deploying new Oracle RAC instances.

ABS (Acropolis Block Services): ABS provides block storage services to external physical and virtual machines but is not focused on deployment automation.

REST API: Nutanix’s REST API offers extensive programmatic control over various functions, including provisioning, managing, and configuring Nutanix environments. It allows the integration of custom tools to automate and expedite deployments effectively.

Conclusion:Given the requirement for rapid deployment through an existing self-service tool, Nutanix REST API is the most appropriate feature to discuss. It provides the necessary flexibility and integration capabilities for automated deployments.

References:

Nutanix REST API documentation

Nutanix community and user guides highlighting automation use cases

For a prospective customer concerned about the suitability and design of using Nutanix for an Avaya IP Office migration, the appropriate document to provide is a Reference Architecture.

Definition:

A Reference Architecture document provides a detailed technical blueprint, including the design, configuration, and deployment guidelines specific to an application or solution.

Content Relevance:

It includes validated configurations and best practices that have been tested and recommended by Nutanix for running Avaya IP Office.

This document will address concerns about performance, reliability, and integration specific to Avaya IP Office.

Design Validation:

Reference Architectures are created based on real-world implementations and are designed to ensure that the proposed solution will meet the customer’s requirements.

References:

Nutanix Reference Architecture documents and guidelines.

Avaya IP Office deployment guides on Nutanix platforms.