The FIRST EDITION Nutanix Design Guide Edited by AngeloLuciani,VCP By Nutanix, RenévandenBedem, incollaborationwith NPX,VCDX4,DECM-EA RoundTowerTechnologies Table of Contents 1 Foreword 3 2 Contributors 5 3 Acknowledgements 7 4 Using This Book 7 5 Introduction To Nutanix 9 6 Why Nutanix? 17 7 The Nutanix Eco-System 37 8 Certification & Training 43 9 Design Methodology 49 & The NPX Program 10 Channel Charter 53 11 Mission-Critical Applications 57 12 SAP On Nutanix 69 13 Hardware Platforms 81 14 Sizer & Collector 93 15 IBM Power Systems 97 16 Remote Office, Branch Office 103 17 Xi Frame & EUC 113 Table of Contents 18 Xi IoT 121 19 Xi Leap, Data Protection, 133 DR & Metro Availability 20 Cloud Management 145 & Automation: Calm, Xi Beam & Xi Epoch 21 Era 161 22 Karbon 165 23 Acropolis Security & Flow 169 24 Files 193 25 Volumes 199 26 Buckets 203 27 Prism 209 28 Life Cycle Manager 213 29 AHV 217 30 Move 225 31 X-Ray 229 32 Foundation 241 33 Data Center Facilities 245 34 People & Process 251 35 Risk Management 255 The Nutanix Design Guide 1 Foreword Iamhonoredtowritethisforewordfor‘TheNutanixDesignGuide’. Wehavealwaysbelievedthatcloudwillbemorethanjustarented modelforenterprises.Computingwithintheenterpriseisnuanced, asittriestobalancethefreedomandfriction-freeaccessofthe publiccloudwiththesecurityandcontroloftheprivatecloud.The privateclouditselfisspreadbetweencoredatacenters,remoteand branchoffices,andedgeoperations.Thetrifectaofthe3laws–(a) LawsoftheLand(dataandapplicationsovereignty),(b)Lawsof Physics(dataandmachinegravity),and(c)LawsofEconomics (owningvs.rentinginlongterm)–isforcingtheenterprisetobe deliberateaboutitscloudjourney.AtNutanix,wefirmlybelievethat theprivateandthepubliccloudmustmimiceachotherwhenit comestoease-of-useandfriction-freeoperations. Crawl. Walk. Run. The Three Stages of the Enterprise Cloud Journey Likemostmemorableandpracticalthingsinlife,webreakdown thecloudjourneyfortheenterpriseintothreeachievablephases: • Modernize your Infrastructure:withahyperconverged architecture. • Build your Private Cloud: withautomationandanentirely software-definedinfrastructure. • Simplify your Multi-Cloud:withgovernance,application mobility,andlocation-agnosticservices. Modernize Your Infrastructure Thecorefoundationofanycloudisweb-scaleengineeringand consumer-gradedesign.Theenterpriseneedstooperatean infrastructurethatallowsforfractionalconsumption(“payasyou 3 Foreword grow”),continuousconsumptionandinnovation(“seamless upgrades”),andrapidtimetomarket(“invisibleoperations”). We’vemadecompute,storage,andvirtualizationinvisible andextremelybite-sizedfortheenterprisetohaveamodern infrastructuretofreethemuptobuildatrueprivatecloud. Build Your Private Cloud Oncetheenterprisehasexperiencedhyperconvergenceof compute,storage,andvirtualizationrunningoncommodityservers, itisnowreadytoleveragedeepautomationandorchestrationfor atrulyprogrammableinfrastructure.Withourapp-centricapproach toautomation,andwithourfocusonsoftware-definedsecurity, networking,andfilemanagement,weenabletheenterpriseto ownandoperateanefficientandreliableprivatecloud. Simplify Your Multi-cloud Theenterprisewillsurelyhavemultiplecloudsformultipleapps, justlikeithadmultipleoperatingsystemsformultipleworkloadsin thepastdecades.Ouraimhereistoprovideasetofcloud-agnostic SaaSandPaaSservicesthathelpourcustomersmanagetheir multi-cloudoperationswithsimple1-clickexperiencesforedge computing(IoT),costgovernanceandsecurity,andmanagement ofdesktops,databases,containers,andobjectstorage. IamgladthatTheNutanixDesignGuideisexplainingthe“Why” ofNutanixandprovidinga40,000ftviewoftheecosystemwe havecrafted.Oneofourcoreculturalprinciplesis“Believein Striving”.Weareaconstantlylearning,continuouslyimproving, eternallyevolvingcompanywithanimmenserespectforthelaw ofsmallimprovements. Letuslearntogether. Dheeraj Pandey, Co-Founder & CEO, Nutanix 4 The Nutanix Design Guide 2 Contributors Angelo Luciani istheNutanixTechnologyChampionCommunity ManageratNutanix.HeisVCPcertified.Heblogsatvirtuwise. com(votedTop50vBlog2018atvsphere-land.com)andcanbe followedonTwitterat@AngeloLuciani. René van den BedemistheMasterArchitectandStrategistat RoundTower Technologies.HeisalsoaNutanixPlatformExpert (NPX),aquadrupleVMwareCertifiedDesignExpert(VCDX)and aDell-EMCCertifiedMasterEnterpriseArchitect(DECM-EA). RenéisacurrentNutanixTechnologyChampionElite(NTCElite). In2018,hewasalsopresentedtheNutanixNTC&Community awardandtheNutanixEducation&Certificationaward.Heblogs atvcdx133.com(votedTop10vBlog2018atvsphere-land.com) andcanbefollowedonTwitter@vcdx133. RoundTower Technologiesisasolutionsproviderthatdelivers innovativesolutionsandservicesintheareasofservice management,datacenterinfrastructure,hyperconvergedplatforms, cloudautomationandorchestration,DevOps,dataanalytics, andcybersecurity.RoundTower(roundtower.com)isenabling itscustomerstodrivepositivebusinessoutcomesbybecoming moreagile,efficient,andsecureusingtechnology.RoundTower isaNutanixMasterPartnerandtheonlyNutanixPartnerinthe AmericastohaveaNutanixPlatformExpert(NPX)on-staff. RoundTowercanbefollowedonTwitter@roundtowertech. 5 Contributors Thefollowingpeopleauthoredcontentforthisbook: • Magnus Andersson,SeniorStaffSolutionsArchitect,Nutanix. HeisalsoaNutanixPlatformExpert(NPX)andadouble VMwareCertifiedDesignExpert(VCDX). • Neil Ashworth,SolutionsArchitect,Nutanix. • Kees Baggerman,TechnicalDirector,Nutanix. • Daemon Behr,SolutionsArchitect,ScalarDecisions. HeisalsoaNutanixTechnologyChampion(NTC). • Chris Brown,TechnicalMarketingManager,Nutanix. • Mark Brunstad,Director,Nutanix. • Wayne Conrad,ConsultingArchitect,Nutanix. HeisalsoaNutanixPlatformExpert(NPX). • Rohit Goyal,PrincipalProductMarketingManager,Nutanix. • Laura Jordana,TechnicalMarketingEngineer,Nutanix. • Steve Kaplan,VicePresident,CustomerSuccess Finance,Nutanix. • Gary Little,Director,TechnicalMarketingEngineering- CoreHCI&Performance,Nutanix. • Mark Nijmeijer,ProductManagementDirector,Nutanix. • Bas Raayman,StaffSolutionsArchitect,Nutanix. HeisalsoaNutanixPlatformExpert(NPX). • Michael Webster,TechnicalDirector,Nutanix.Heisalso aNutanixPlatformExpert(NPX)andaVMwareCertified DesignExpert(VCDX). • Greg White,SolutionMarketingPrincipal,Nutanix. 6 The Nutanix Design Guide 3 Acknowledgements Thefollowingpeoplereviewedandprovidedfeedbackforthisbook: • Kasim Hansia,StaffSolutionsArchitect,Nutanix. • Michal Iluz,ArtDirector,Nutanix. • Dwayne Lessner,PrincipalTechnicalMarketingEngineer,Nutanix. • Jordan McMahon,SeniorContentMarketingManager,Nutanix. • Alexander Thoma,SeniorManager,Nutanix.HeisalsoaVMware CertifiedDesignExpert(VCDX). 4 Using This Book Thisbookhasbeenwrittentoprovideaconsolidatedviewofthe NutanixEnterpriseCloudeco-system.Itprimarilyfocusesonthe “Why”ofNutanix.Thereferencessectionfoundattheendofeach chaptercontainslinkstoresourcesthatexplainthe“What”and “How”ofNutanix. Eachchapterisdesignedtobereadasastandaloneartifact. Andregardlessofthereader’sfamiliaritywithNutanix,there shouldbesomethingforeveryone. Nutanixhastheintentofrenewingandupdatingthispublication eachyear,toincludethelatestproductsandenhancementsofthe NutanixEnterpriseCloud. Formoreinformationonthesupportedthird-partyecosystems, pleaserefertotheappropriatevendordocumentation. Pleasenotethatsomeofthelistedresourcesrequireavalid customerorpartnerlogintomy.nutanix.com. 7 8 The Nutanix Design Guide 5 Introduction to Nutanix Author: Angelo Luciani 9 IntroductiontoNutanix “In twenty years’ time, people will look back and shake their heads at the complexity of IT today. The future will be a utility model - connect to the cloud and consume a service. Bit like living in a city now and talking about running diesel generators and not using the power FIGURE 1 grid for your house.” Nutanix Customer Journey – René van den Bedem, RoundTower Technologies X E N T E N I R P R T A I S N U E Xi Leap Volumes Xi Frame N I X E S S E N T A T I A ThecoreofHCIissoftware-definedinfrastructure,inthatall N U L S datacenterdevicesneedtomovetopuresoftwarerunningon Buckets Xi Beam Calm Flow commodityx86servers.Standardizedhardware,acommon A N I X C O U T R operatingsystem,consumer-gradedesign,anddeepautomation Era N E Xi Epoch arethedistinctvirtuesthatmakeatruecloud(publicorprivate). PrismPro Files Anopensourcemovementaroundcommoditizingprivatecloud –displacinglargeincumbentsinvirtualization(compute),storage, Karbon Calm PrismAHV Xi IoT 10 The Nutanix Design Guide networking,andmanagement–haslargelyfizzledoutinthelast decade,becauseitlackedintegrityofexecution. Ourcompanymission,sincethebeginning,hasbeentomake infrastructureinvisible.Naysayersscoffedatuswhenwewere tryingtomakestorageinvisible.Mostpeoplebelievedthatwe hadanichemarketfortheSMB,onlytorealizethatthelarge enterprisehadsuddenlywokenuptothissimpleyetpowerfulidea ofsoftware-definedinfrastructureforalmosteverything.Converged infrastructure(CI)–acoalitionsolutionoflargecompute-storage- networkingincumbents,masqueradedasprivatecloud–isnow consideredamuchsmallermarketthanHCI.Infact,itwouldnot berhetorictosaythatCIisdeadasasegment. In2014,whenwesetouttobuildourownhypervisor(AHV), punditsgaveusnochanceinasaturatedmarketofcompute virtualizationdominatedbyoneortwolargecompanies. FIGURE 1 Nutanix Customer Journey X E N T E N I R P R T A I S N U E Xi Leap Volumes Xi Frame N I X E S S E N T A T I A N U L S Buckets Xi Beam Calm Flow A N I X C O U T R Era N E Xi Epoch PrismPro Files Karbon Calm PrismAHV Xi IoT 11 IntroductiontoNutanix Inthelast3years,wehaveprovedthemwrongwiththedeep inroadsthatAHVhasmadewithalargeswatheofworkloadsin theenterprise.Industrywatchersgaveusnochancetoshiftfrom anappliancebusinessmodeltoapuresoftwarebusinessmodel