Category: Sizer Tool Information

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Upgrade scenario

What is Upgrade sales option in Sizer?

So far Sizer has been focussing on getting a new cluster sized for deploying a new workload or migrating an existing workload from a 3 tier architecture to Nutanix private cloud.  However, it did not address the upgrade or expansion use case scenario for an existing Nutanix cluster.

With this option available in Sizer, SEs can recreate an existing Nutanix cluster.

 

How does Upgrade sales option work in Sizer?

Pretty much similar to how it works for standard scenario/use case. The SE selects the scenario as Upgrade sale by clicking the checkbox below in the scenario page:

 Sizer acknowledges that it is a Upgrade use case and will show options accordingly. For workloads, it is not different – meaning, SEs can still go ahead and add details about the workload running on the existing Nutanix cluster, however, they need to know the details of the workload in order to recreate the cluster.

Additionally, they can run Collector to kow all about the workload and import Collector output to recreate the existing cluster.

 

So how is it different from standard scenario in Sizer? 

The key difference in Upgrade vs standard scenario is the availability of the HW.  The upgrade scenario will list all older models as well, for ex: for NX, will list G5 & G4 platforms.

While the auto sizing recommends the current HW platforms [like G7 for NX], in both cases, the manual option will have older G4/G5 NX platforms for SEs to recreate the existing cluster with the original NX model which can be (and most likely) be the older platforms which is currently end of sale.

Please see the image below for reference:

What other ways is this feature helpful apart from upgrade ?

This feature is also helpful for expansion purpose.  Users can recreate the existing cluster with G4/G5 models and add another node for expansion, that node could be G7. And this cluster with mixed nodes of existing G4s and new G7s can be created in Sizer with this option.

 

Creating a Frontline Quote (including budgetary quote) for Upgrade scenarios in Sizer?

Sizer also allows you to generate a Frontline quote or Budgetary quote for an upgrade scenario. Since Upgrade Scenario deals with an existing Nutanix cluster deployed at the customer site, users have an option to mark the already existing nodes that are already part of the solution as “Existing”.  Sizer won’t be generating the hardware quote and the licenses for those existing nodes as they are already purchased by the customer. If the existing license is a Life of Device license and if the customer plans to move to a CBL license model, an additional software license needs to be added manually.

The BOM generated by Sizer would contain the overall solution with both the existing and new nodes and the license quantities required for the overall solution.

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Sizer 4.0 Introduction

Welcome to Sizer 4.0

 

What is Sizer 4.0

It is based on Sizer 3.0 which has been around 1 year and has had over 120,000+ sizings.  It is shift in how to think about defining the best solution for the customer.

Workloads first -> Solution second

Here you focus on the customer requirements the bulk of your time and then the solution with hardware is secondary.

Sizer 4.0 Demo

 

Sizer 4.0 Demo

Why Sizer 4.0

  • Nutanix is now a software company. Customers buy our clusters to run their key applications be it VDI, Oracle, Server Virtualization, etc.  Hardware is then a secondary concern.  Many vendors are supported.    Given that shift it makes sense to focus on
    • First focus on the workloads. Work in Sizer interactively with the customer to define their requirements with precision
    • Then focus on the solution which here means pull in the hardware. With Sizer 4.0, you can stay in the same scenario and switch from vendor to vendor
  • Advent of Collector-driven sizing. Collector is a bit over a year old and with 2.x is a formidable collection tool for customers with either VMWare clusters or Nutanix clusters.  There are many advantages to collector-driven sizing
    • Ultimate precision. Though our workload profiles have their place, far better for example to gather 7 days of performance data for 1000 VDI users then assume they fit in one of a few profiles.
    • Today we group VMs into 25 different buckets but in near future we will allow each VM to be its own workload and then could have 100s of workloads

How it works

Create the scenario

Just like before you enter in the name of the scenario, customer, opportunity, and the objectives.  Don’t the objectives are in the BOM for customer review

Create the Workloads

 

The first page is the Workloads tab.  You start with an empty canvas and can add workloads

  • Add will allow you to get to the workload modules.
  • Import will allow you to import from tools like Collector

All the same workloads are there for you

Conversely can just add them via collector

 

So here added a couple workloads manually

 

Worth noting is on right is the 3 dots to indicate actions like edit workload or clone workload.  On left is the slider to disable the workload.  Gone are the little tiles.  That simply won’t do if you have 100s of workloads.  We had that in Sizer 2.0 when typical scenario had 1 to 3 workloads.  The tiles were kind of cute then, but now unusable for where we see things going.

So here I made it more interesting by using collector to size lot of VM’s.  I want precision and so selected performance data and 95th percentile.  This means over a 7 day period we size to fit at least 95% of all the workload demands.  Remember it just takes Collector about 10 min to run at customer site and gets all its data from either VCenter or Prism.

So now we have sized 100s of VMs and put them into groups.  You can see that it is a lot easier to review as a table and not a bunch of tiles

Finalize the solution

Go the Solution tab on left and you see the solution.  Here it is for Nutanix.  You see all the familiar things like the dials, the sizing summary, and all options to edit the hardware

Want to go to new vendor – it is easy !!.  Pull down on upper right and then get to HP DX for example.  Here is same sizing but for DX

 

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Data Center Addons (Prism Pro, Flow, Calm, Files)

Want to add on some cool Essentials  products to the HCI offering.  It is easy with Sizer

  • Prism Pro –  1 per node
  • Flow – 1 per node
  • Calm – ½ VM pack per node (rounded up)
  • Files – Capacity is 5TiB per node

It should be a decoupled quote (separate license and hardware).  We use the terms and support level for the software license.   However, Calm is ONLY Mission Critical level of support

 

 

Here they are in the budgetary quote

 

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Sizer for Customers

Customer Access to Sizer

In the right situations, Sizer can be very beneficial for technical customers planning deployments for the following reasons:

Collaborative sale

  • Customers can scope out new emerging projects and then later pull in SE
  • Customer confidence and ownership in a proposed solution increases when they are involved in sizing
  • Build a better bond with SE

Customers can do what-ifs

  • if add 100 more users how many more nodes needed
  • If certain application core usage spiked 2x what is the impact on a cluster

Requirements for Success

  • Customers have to understand Acropolis and the workloads they are sizing. Sizer does have profiles and offers guidance in the wiki, but we assume a knowledgeable user.
  • SE would need to provide training though there are videos on the wiki
  • SE would need to be front line support to explain nuances in AOS, workloads, sizing, and Sizer

By default,  when customers sign up on MyNutanix, they have access to the “Basic” version of Sizer. The basic access limits the hardware sizing to Nutanix NX hardware. 

Process to request access to the Advanced version of Sizer

1.   SE requests Sizer PM (sizerhelp@nutanix.com) to bump up the customer level to Sizer advanced

2.  SE agrees to be front-end and provide training (to complement videos)

Key things to note

  • SE has to provide support
  • We will need to know what vendors the customer can have access to like Nutanix, HPE, Cisco, etc.  We can offer almost any combination
  • Customers will see budgetary list pricing with the Budgetary quote option
    • Nutanix software pricing is available irrespective of the vendors
    • Hardware prices are available for Nutanix NX, HPE-DX and AWS Bare Metals
      • Nutanix and HPE-DX hardware prices are updated monthly and quarterly, respectively.
      • AWS Bare Metal and EBS Volume prices are fetched on the fly
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Introduction

Sizer Users can can size for different type of business requirements which may require sizing for:

  • NX Appliances
  • NX Core
  • Software Only Vendors

Sizer Users, both Nutanix Employees and Partners (resellers and distributors), can generate following documents with the help of Sizer for any of the above mentioned scenarios:

  • BOM
  • Budgetary Quote
  • Salesforce Quotes

Contents of these documents (BOM, Budgetary quote and Salesforce Quote) change significantly based on whether one is sizing for NX-Appliance, NX-Core or CBL (Software Only vendors, Dell XC, HX Certified). Most of these changes are related to license and support products. Sizer uses information present in Salesforce Account and Opportunity to determine the correct license and support options. Following flowchart diagram explains how we make such decisions:

 

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Partners: BOM and Salesforce Quotes

Requirements

  • In order to generate correct BOM, Budgetary quote and Salesforce Quote, user must enter the Opportunity ID or Deal Registration Approval ID.
  • In case of Nutanix models, Opportunity value helps Sizer determine if the sizing needs to be done for appliance or hardware disaggregated. Based on the opportunity value,  user will be presented with support and license selection page which is applicable to software choice or appliance sizing.
  • Opportunity value plays a significant role when sizing with Non Nutanix Software only Vendors. If Opportunity is marked for Software only, then then user will be presented with support and license selection page which is applicable to CBL, otherwise user won’t see any support and license selection page.
  • Opportunity is a required field when creating a Salesforce Quote. It also ensure that Sizer isn’t sending quotes creating for velocity program to non-velocity opportunities.
  • If user doesn’t have the opportunity information but would still like to size for CBL/Software choice, one can do so my selecting “Software Choice Only” option from the create scenario page.

Steps to push BOM & Quote to Salesforce

  • Linking scenario to an opportunity or deal reg. Two features are enabled for the distributors
    • Upload BoM to Salesforce from Sizer
    • Generate Salesforce Quote from Sizer
  • In Salesforce, BoM and Quote are dependent on an opportunity, so to upload a BoM or to generate a Salesforce Quote, Sizer needs to know which opportunity to use. A user can provide opportunity information on the scenario creation page. Any of the following IDs/numbers is acceptable:
    • 15- or 18-character Opportunity ID
    • Deal registration approval ID
  • Opportunity & Deal registration approval ID can be found from DQT opportunity

  • Once the sizing is completed by adding the workloads, selecting & modifying financial assumptions, proceed with the actions to generate BoM, Generate Budgetary Quote, Push BoM to Sales force, Generate Salesforce Quote
  • On the left panel/sidebar of Scenario detail page, there are actions (generate BoM, Generate Budgetary Quote, Push BoM to Sales force, Generate Salesforce Quote) can be found

  • Clicking on “Push BoM to Salesforce” will launch a modal/pop-up. User can confirm the opportunity and push the BoM to Salesforce. Successful upload will close the modal and display a message on the page

  • Clicking on the “Generate Salesforce Quote” will launch a modal/pop-up. User can confirm the opportunity a license/support options before generating the Salesforce Quote. Successful upload will close the modal and display a message on the page

  • The opportunity information can be modified (removed, updated) only by clicking on the “Edit Scenario” action
  • Email notifications, containing link to opportunity in case of BoM upload and link to quote in case of Quote, will be sent to Users (Distributor, Opportunity Owner, Primary SE)
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Sizer BOT

SizerBot is here to assist the Sizer team is answering questions that are of repetitive nature. This guide breaks down our approach for Phase 1 and our plan to continuously build on feedback generated.

 

Types of questions on the Sizer Channel

We classify questions on Sizer into two specific buckets:

  1. The first set of questions typically hold answers based on unique configurations and combinations of sizing
  2. The second set of questions are more generic such that its answers can be found through the wiki

 

What questions does the bot address?

Extensive research within the fields of ‘conversational AI’ are underway to mine through the first set of questions. This requires larger sets of data as well as the ability to interpret the context of questions, which we are currently exploring for the next few phases of the bot.

 

For the first phase we are targeting a small subset of repetitive questions that we are building on using content from this channel as well as from the Sizer product managers.

 

How does the bot work?

Based on a list of questions stored, we use a matching algorithm to identify if a similar question, as asked on the slack channel, exists in the database. While we can get the bot to provide a response to every question asked on the slack channel, we are avoiding this by increasing the threshold to 90%. This means, unless the probability of the match is greater than 90%, no answer will be provided. This is often referred to as the trade-off between precision and recall which helps address the question of do we want the bot to provide more answers, or do we want the bot to provide more answers accurately?

 

Improving the bots performance

We currently have two ways of improving the bots performance:

  1. When a question is answered by the bot – The feedback provided is used to upvote or downvote the bots response
  2. When a question is not answered by the bot – We first identify if the question is repetitive in nature, if so the questions are automatically logged back to a database through a separate slack channel

 

Suggestions

 

We are always open to more suggestions and recommendations on how to improve this process. You can reach out to revathi.anilkumar@nutanix.com with your feedback.

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BOM contents for SW only platforms

Thi article explains the contents of the BOM for SW only platforms like HPE, Cisco, Dell PE etc

Sizer specifically focuses on certian parts of a server. The workload which is being sized determines the number and quantity of each of these parts. These are primarily the CPUs, Memory, SSDs/HDDs and NICs.

However, a server has other non sizer parts which does not impact sizing but are equally important to be a valid and qualified combination. Examples of non sizer parts are boot drive, power supplies, storage controller, chassis etc

The Sizer BOM lists both the sizer and non sizer parts. We need to make sure that all components listed on the HCL are accounted for on the BOM built by your partner. We cannot have any omissions of required components.

An example of a Cisco UCS BOM:

The Sizer parts listed with details and quantity of the CPUs/Memory/SSD/HDD/NICs required.

It is followd by listing of the non sizer parts. This includes Boot Drive, Chassis, Power supply, Storage Controller, Network Adapters.

 

 

 

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Storage Calculator

Storage Calculator is both a standalone tool as well as a Sizer feature.  Either way it is used to determine the Extent Store and Effective Capacity of a configuration the user defines.  It is NOT tied to the workloads or the recommendation in the sizing scenario.

Access as a Standalone Tool

This is available on the Internet without login.  The same as DesignBrewz.

https://services.nutanix.com/#/storage-capacity-calculator

Access as a Sizer Feature

This is accessed by clicking on Storage Calculator in upper right corner of Sizer user interface

Storage Calculator

Here is Storage Calculator.

The purpose of Storage Calculator is to determine either the Extent Store or the Effective Capacity of a configuration.  As mentioned it is not tied to a sizing scenario.

  • Extent Store is the amount of storage remaining after discounting for CVM.  This is amount available for customer workloads.
  • Effective Capacity is then Extent Store * Storage Efficiency  + Erasure Coding savings you expect.   Storage Efficiency is either none, 1.5:1, or 2:1.  Examples of storage efficiency is compression and dedupe.

Defining the Configuration and Input Settings

Here are the inputs

  • SSD Size –  Pulldown with common SSDs currently available in various vendor models
  • SSD is downstroked –  If selected each drive loses 80GB for downstroking.  Sizer does that in its sizing for regular SSDs but assumes no downstroking is needed for encrypted drives
  • SSD quantity –  This is the number of SSDs you expect in model you are sizing.  Minimum is 1 as always need a SSD for parts of CVM
  • HDD Size –  Pulldown with common HDDs currently available in various vendor models
  • HDD quantity –  This is the number of HDDs you expect in model you are sizing.  Min is 0 in case of All Flash
  • Node Count –  Number of nodes you expect
  • Replication Factor –  Can be RF2 or RF3
  • ECX – If selected then see the % of Cold Data input
  • % of Cold Data – If select ECX then this input appears and is the percentage of cold data you are expecting
  • Storage Efficiency –  This is the factor you expect for storage efficiency and can be none, 1.5:1, or 2:1.
  • Calculate Button –  NOTE: must click on calculate when make any changes above

Storage Calculator Charts

Total Usage

  • The left donut chart shows the Extent Store and the CVM.  Extent Store is adjusted for either RF2 or RF3 depending on the input selection.  So here the extent store is adjusted for RF2 and is 7.26 TiB.  The total amount of Extent Store is 2x that amount or 14.52 TiB.  The adjustment was made so the customer sees amount of storage they have given the Replication Factor they prefer.
  • The right donut breaks out all the CVM pieces be it stored on HDD or SSD
  • Effective Capacity is above the charts.  It is Extent Store * Storage Efficiency Factor + ECX savings.  Again we adjust for RF level.  This capacity then represents the storage available to customers at their preferred RF level and including expected benefits from storage efficiency as as well as ECX.

SSD Usage

This is a supplemental graph from Total Usage.  It breaks out just the SSD portion of the Total Usage.

  • Top graph shows SSD CVM and SSD Extent Store adjusted for either RF2 or RF3
  • Lower graph shows all the SSD CVM elements.

HDD Usage

This is a supplemental graph from Total Usage.  It breaks out just the HDD portion of the Total Usage.

  • Top graph shows HDD CVM and HDD Extent Store adjusted for either RF2 or RF3
  • Lower graph shows all the HDD CVM elements.

 

What do the letters in the SSD drive indicate?

The letters indicate different levels of endurance in terms of Drive Writes per Day (DWPD).  For example, 3DWPD means you can rewrite all the data on the drive 3 times a day for its entire life that it is warranted for.