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Databases

Introduction – Please Read First

These questions are here to assist with ensuring that you’re gathering necessary information from a customer/prospect in order to put together an appropriate solution to meet their requirements in addition to capturing specific metrics from tools like Collector or RVTools. 

This list is not exhaustive, but should be used as a guide to make sure you’ve done proper and thorough discovery.  Also, it is imperative that you don’t just ask a question without understanding the reason why it is being asked.  We’ve structured these questions with not only the question that should be asked, but why we are asking the customer to provide an answer to that question and why it matters to provide an optimal solution. 

Questions marked with an asterisk (*) will likely require reaching out to a specialist/Solution Architect resource at Nutanix to go deeper with the customer on that topic/question.  Make sure you use the answers to these questions in the Scenario Objectives in Sizer when you create a new Scenario.  These questions should help guide you as to what the customer requirements, constraints, assumptions, and risks are for your opportunity. 

This is a live document, and questions will be expand and update over time.

Databases

Generic

 1.  Is this replacing a current solution, or is this a net new project?  What’s the current solution?

Why ask? This question helps us understand the use case, any current expectations and what the competitive landscape may look like

2.  Is the current environment coming to the end of a contract and due for contract renewal/hardware refresh?  how soon?

Why ask?  It helps us understand how serious the customer is about migrating and the drivers : usually cost and helps create a pipe-line.

3.  Is the current Infrastructure solution bare-metal/3-tier or virtualized or Engineered Appliance ? provide details
      a.  e.g.  AIX  , Solaris Sparc , VMware Virtualized ,  OVM/KVM, Exadata/ODA (Oracle)
      b.  FC SAN/speed/10GbE Ethernet/iSCSI , Storage Array : Vendor : All Flash/Hybrid
      c.  If possible use automated means to capture configuration and performance information to help with capturing as much information as possible (RVTools, Collector, AWR, LiveOptics, MAP, etc.)

Why ask?  To determine which environment is easier to go after as a starting point.

4.  What are the 3 major pain points in current environment(s)  ( other than end of life/contract).  Examples:
      a.  License Consolidation
      b.  Managing multiple GUIs ( need single pane of Glass)
      c.  Life Cycle Management/Patching
      d.  Performance
      e.  Storage Sprawl due to multiple copies
      f.  Provisioning

Why ask?   Helps us articulate Nutanix Value for Relational Database Workloads.

 5.  How many sites/env.  ( PROD / DR / QA/DEV/Test)

Why ask?   Helps us articulate a Disaster recovery/backup strategy.

6.  How are backups done today : Native or 3rd Party tools , leveraging Snaps/clones?

Why ask?  Whether using third party DR tools ( Zerto/Actifio/SRM) or native database replication.  Whether using third party backup   ( Commvault/VEEAM/VERITAS ) or native tools

7.  Workload types? :  OLTP (Online Transactional Processing) / OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) /DWH (Data Warehouse)

Why ask?   Helps us identify transactional, OLTP, vs Analytical, OLAP/DWH  ( latency sensitivity )

8.  Largest Database size?

Why ask?  Beyond 30 TB , hyperconverged virtualizing may not be beneficial. Need to understand use case

9.  Performance Characteristics  desired : Bandwidth / IOPS / Latency.  These can be given directly from the customer if known, or gathered using local operating system metrics (perfmon/top) or via a discovery tool or script like AWR for Oracle, or a tool like LiveOptics, SolarWinds, etc.

Why ask?  Accurate sizing

 10.  Type of Database Clustering used if Any

Why ask?   Determine if there are potentially any mission critical workloads

MSSQL

SQL Server Inventory Questions:

1.  Number of SQL Server Instances in the environment?

Why ask?  Inventory purposes and Era only supports a single SQL Server instance on the same host.

2.  Number of SQL Server databases in the environment?

Why ask?  Inventory purposes and also helps identify which databases are considered critical for AG (Always On Availability Groups) etc. , databases reside in an instance.

3.  Total size of SQL Server databases in the environment?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes.

4.  SQL Server versions used in the environment?

Why ask?  Different SQL Server versions have different features, limitations etc and also different CU cumulative update levels.  SQL Server stopped issuing service packs in SQL Server 2016 everything now is a CU format. External SQL Server Edition and Version Comparison.

5.  Windows versions used in the environment?

Why ask?  Different Windows versions have different features, limitations and update levels that may affect SQL Server, also driver versions etc.

6.  SQL Server licensing model used in the environment Core, or Server/Cal?

Why ask?  This can help differentiate which licensing  model the customer is using and why.

7.  SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery being used in the environment?   *(Depending on the complexity for HA or DR, this would warrant further discussion with a Database Specialist/Solutions Architect)

Why ask?  This can help determine if shared storage is used such as a SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI), or a SQL Server Always On Availability Group (AG) which does not require shared storage.  Also is there any multi site replication being used either as a physical storage layer or logical SQL Server layer.

8.  CPU model, type, speed allocated for current/existing SQL Server hosts?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline.

9.  Number of CPU/Cores allocated for SQL Server hosts?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline.

10.  Amount of Memory allocated for SQL Server hosts?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline.

11.  Amount of storage allocated for SQL Server hosts?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline.

12.  Storage type used for SQL Server hosts, flash, HDD, DAS, SAN etc?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline helpful in determining expectations with regard to latency.

13.  Network allocation (speed, number of nics) for SQL Server hosts?

Why ask?  Inventory sizing purposes for baseline.

SQL Server Performance Questions:

 1.  What is the total max IOPS required for all SQL Server Instances?

Why ask?  The number of I/O service requests to use as a baseline for their current workload.

2.  What is the latency requirement for SQL Server?

Why ask?  The response time requirement to use as a baseline for their current workload.

3.  What is the bandwidth requirement for SQL Server both read/write?

Why ask?  The throughput requirement to use as a baseline for their current workload.

4.  What is the current SQL Server workload profile read/write ratio?

Why ask?  This helps determine what their workload profile is like and how it will affect our platform (reads are local, writes incur node replication cost) as a baseline.

5.  What is the SQL Server average IO size?

Why ask?  This helps determine what their workload profile I/O size is related to bandwidth .

6.  Top current SQL Server wait statistics during peak workload?

Why ask?  This helps determine what SQL Server is waiting on to process transactions, where there may be a bottleneck.

7.  Current customer Microsoft SQL Server pain points?

Why ask?  This helps narrow the focus and develop a relationship with the customer.  It also assists in focusing on how Nutanix can help alleviate those specific pain points and gives information about how the solution can be shown to resolve those particular pain points.

Oracle

 1.  License Entitlement  ( Cores/NUPS/ELA/ULA/bundled licensing)?

Why ask?  Oracle licensing is expensive and customers want to make the best use of their entitlement when replatforming and not spend more $$ on new licensing when doing a new solution.  Customers are also looking forward to reducing their Oracle License overhead .

2.  Type of Licensing used? :  STD / Enterprise and other options (RAC/Partitioning …etc.).  Each is a paid item.

Why ask?  There may be possibilities to eliminate some Options by using Nutanix Features such as Compression, Encryption, Replication

3.  Is the customer ready to run a “SQL script” or provide details of the environment using RVTools/Collector?

Why ask? When inventorying an Oracle DB environment, you can use the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) report to gather detailed inventory and performance statistics for an Oracle Database.  Nutanix has an AWR script that can be run to capture the necessary information and is able to be downloaded from within the Sizer Tool.  When adding a Workload select Import, then click the AWR tab and you will see the AWR SQL Script download link.  Once run, you can then upload the output using the Upload File option.

4.  What are the main pain points in the current environment?

5.  When moving to Nutanix would you consider AHV as a hypervisor?

6.  Have you been introduced to Era?

Era

1.  How do you do DB provisioning today and how long does it take to provision a multi-node database cluster?

Why ask :  To find out customer operational efficiency for provisioning . Era can help improve this from weeks to hours.

2.  How many dev/test copies of databases do you have for a your PROD instance(s)?

Why ask : Customers make multiple “full copies” of PROD for test-dev dev/test and use up to 5-10 times the space they need . Era will help in creating space optimized clones of database with “rapid speed”  

3.  What is your typical clone refresh interval and time it takes to refresh a DB clone?

Why ask: Customers using traditional techniques to refresh a copy of a database from a RMAN backup , takes multiple hours and is usually done once a month .  With Era , they can clone everyday or multiple times a day in minutes.

4.  How do you do your Database Patching (Oracle)?

Why ask :  Oracle patching is a huge pain point in large Oracle environments. Era provides a unique way to do “fleet patching”  which will help save 100’s of man hours spent in traditional patching

5.  How do you migrate Databases when required ( Oracle)?

Why ask : Migration is an involved process and a lot of planning and time is required for migration.
Era provides an easy method to “replicate & migrate” databases (Same version) for same-endian formats. ( Linux->Linux or Windows ->Linux)

6.  What is your choice of  Database Replication  (infrastructure/database/hypervisor based)?  Please elaborate.  * (Depending on the complexity of the environment, this would warrant further discussion with a Database Specialist/Solutions Architect)

Why ask:  customers are looking to reduce their software licensing cost of database replication and will look for opportunities to replicate using infrastructure (nutanix replication) . era enables cross-cluster replication including replicating to a NTNX cluster in AWS cloud in an upcoming release 2.0

7.  What are the database engines they currently use?

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April 2020 Sprints

April 27

Hi everyone

Hope all is well at end of quarter. We did release a new sprint with some nice enhancements-

  • Mine can now have Objects as it archive. So you can put a lot of the archive data on cheaper storage. Screenshot below. You can adjust the mix of how much to put on Mine vs Objects
  • AMD sizing is ready … well whenever we have AMD models. Ratan worked through lot of narly stuff to get this ready and wanted to plug his efforts and good that Sizer is ready
  • NX – 12 cores rule for 12TB HDDs are there
  • DX – added the gpu cables and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM to the BOM).  We are pretty complete on offering full BOM for DX now
  • VERY COOL department…
    • Go to a workload and scroll down and you will see on your left a menu with the sections that scroll with you (attached). Sizer in last couple years has way more stuff in a workload and so resulted in lot of scrolling, but now we made it easy to go all round
    • Manual sizing UI is nicer now too

April 13

  • New edit/add workload page –  We want to introduce new functionality as we develop Sizer Basic and Advanced. We are now offering our new workload page. It is easier to select what you want. Hope you like it and describe it below·
  • N+1 yellow indicator. When we do an auto sizing or you do a manual sizing we let you know if the resiliency is N+0, N+1., or N+2.  Most people shoot for N+1. What we do is under the covers is remove a node and go through all the sizing rules and equations and make sure indeed it is less than the N+0 threshold (for example for CPU that is 95%). That is all good but you can be close and so we wanted to let you know. Using the CPU example if within 5% of the n+0 threshold we keep it N+1 as technically it is but turn it yellow.  Given sizing is lot of estimates it is best to have some margin for error and let you all know your close to the edge.·
  • Migration for VDI Display protocol –  Display Protocol was added recently as an input for VDI sizing. The VDI gurus felt it was needed going forward. It is very expensive though adding 40 to 45% on cores. While this is valid sizing this could break any old sizings. So in older sizings it will default to None·
  • Mine licenses updated

April 6

GREAT NEWS

We have Frame for AHV live in Sizer

As mentioned in the town hall,  EUC and in particular Frame for AHV is a hot market in extremely difficult times.  We were working on it but pulled it in.    We always want Sizer to enable you guys to do the amazing work you do.  In these times though, we will acutely focus on solutions that are  really hot right now.  I see improving upsell (replace or increase nodes in existing clusters) as next focus.

Very simple to use if you are familiar with VDI in Sizer (which is one of top workloads and so presumably you are).    Frame for AHV is simply a different broker and the display protocol is selected.  All the other options are the same.Beyond enabling it in the tool, we will soon add licenses to make that easier to quote (we have AOS and the HW now).  We will also enhance collateral with the solution as time goes on.Hope you like … let us know.  Attached is short video

Frame for AHV

 

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March 2020 Sprints

March 31

Hi gang

We are actively building out Sizer Basic and Sizer Advanced.  Sizer Basic for customers, reps, other non-technical folks who want a sizing and just go with the default profiles.  Sizer Advanced will offer the SE much more advanced functionality for multiple workloads, multiple clusters, etc

As we build those out we want to get some of the functionality out in Sizer when available.  Today we introduced Workload Filters.  We see a workload where with Collector you may have a hundred workloads and finding what you want will be hard.  Enter the filter where you can filter by workload name, workload type, number of VMs. cores, RAM, SSD (either less than or greater than a value ), status (enabled/disabled).

Examples

  • Show me just workloads of certain type (e.g. VDI)
  • Show me workloads that have min or max of so many cores (could be RAM, HDD,SSD)
  • show me just enabled workloads
  • show me ones with certain name string or partial string
  • Combine all the above

This will ultimately be accompanied with BULK EDITs.  So find me all the VDI workloads with certain name string and change profile to Power User for example. Here is screen shot (edited)

 

March 16

We did come out with new Sprint last night

Backup  is now a  regular primary workload like VDI, Server Virt, etc (see below).  It had been a target for existing workloads but now Backup can be a primary workload where you figure out the backup requirements if the customer is just wanting back up some data from some other systems beside Nutanix

12TB HDD/min12 cores

Partial population rule for Nutanix with 1.92TB SSD

NX: 128GB with mCPU, LCPU

various updates for Dell XC

 

March 2

Great to see so many of you at GTS America

We did go live with the new sprint.

Now have full BOM for HP DX.  Why that is important is as you go to the HP store to place a quote you will have full information you need including the power supply for example.  At GTS, people asked about us making a call to the HP store.  Unfortunately they don’t have a API we can call.  We will work on making it easier though with a link from Sizer We did do The cascade refresh CPUs but not live in Sizer yet.  I would expect those in next 2 days

 

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February 2020 Sprints

Feb 24

Hi everyone

I am at GTS Americas.  Hope to see lot of you.  I have a presentation tomorrow with the Partners and one on Thursday with NX field.

  • A lot of very cool things are happening in the Sizer area which I’ll discuss in these presentations but here is the summary.
  • Collector 2.2 is out but coming is Collector Portal which allows customer to share their collection much easier than with Excel
  • Sizer Basic is in the works and should be out this qtr.  This is streamlined for volume sales and will be available to customers.  We have had a customer program for some time which has been a success and this will be cool.  Think about collaborating with the customer on sizing.  I’ll talk more
  • Sizer will get a lot more advanced.  We are moving to multiple clusters and ability to have different sizing for each cluster and for each cluster to adhere to different policy.  Auto will provide 3 options – low cost, high performance, and high cap .  Wow lot of options to play with
  • Ok if that was not enough we are working on Sizer Xpert.  Sizer today is deterministic.  You want replication, RF3, Era, yada yada, by golly Sizer can do it to the 4th decimal place.  Well great if you know that is what you need.    Working on Xpert that will review your solutions and prescribe ideas.  We worked on it at hackathon and now in development.  hope to see a lot of you this week and please do reach out if want to meet 1 on 1.  Ratan Kumar will be in EMEA GTS later next month.  We will cover APAC one too
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Server Virtualization

What is a Server Virtualization sizing? 

This is the most common workload along with VDI. This can be used for any web app which needs to be sized. Each workload or the application which is to be migrated to the Nutanix software stack is a VM with its own CPU/RAM/Capacity requirements. To simplify for the users, Sizer has set profiles (small,medium,large ) for the VMs but customizable as per the actual application needs.

 

What are profiles in Server Virtualization in Sizer?

Profiles are fixed templates with pre assigned resources in terms of vCPUs, RAM, SSD, HDD to each profile. Broadly, small, medium,large profiles will have different allocation of these resources.

The idea is to facilitate users with the details of a workload (that is a VM)  so they cna quickly fill in number of VMs and Sizer will do the necessary sizing.

Small VM profile template:

Medium VM profile template:

Large VM profile template:

 

What if my VMs are different? Have differen values? 

While these templates and their values are general guidelines, these are customisable.

Clicking on the Customize, opens a  pop-up for user entered values:

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January 2020 Sprints

January 21

Collector

  • Collector or RVTools –  Can now size for just powered ON VMs or both Powered ON and OFF VMs. Was just Powered ON.
  • Collector or RVTools profile can go up to 64GB RAM (was 32GB)

Usability

  • Rich Text Format is now available for  Scenario Objectives. So you can bold things or underline words in the Objectives to make a key point.  This also makes it into the BOM and so a  nicer document

January 31

Products

  • Complete HPE DX BOM.  Now Sizer will provide a complete BOM including chasis, power supplies, etc.  This makes it easier and reduces potential errors when quoting HPE DX models on HP’s configurator.
  • Update to 8155-G7 product rules

Workloads

  • Allow for 240TB per node for Objects Dedicated workloads.   Since it is Objects Dedicated workloads other applications are not allowed

 

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December 2019 Sprints

Dec 20

Hello everyone We went live with our latest sprint today with following key items:

  • Add some workload VMs to Object Dedicated clusters for free (1 VM per node)
  • Storage Capacity Calculator – Added support for NVMe only models and SSD/NVMe models
  • New Intel models – S2600WF0-2U1N-12 and S2600BPS-2U4N-12

Dec 9

Hi everyone.  We launched our latest sprint.

  • Glad to offer Mine as backup target now
  • Sizing Improvements and Processor input/Workload
    • Added Cascade Lake processors to the pull down list when you start a new workload

Usability

  • Allow editing of cluster in a workload – Now you can move workloads around to different clusters without cloning a new workload and deleting old one.

General

  • Add N+0/ N+1 pulldown to Extent Store Charts – UI. Now Extent Store charts and Extent Store values in the Sizing details are in sync.
  • Add scenario delete operation on dashboard (list and tile view) – Can get rid of old scenarios easier than opening each and deleting them.

Product Alignment

  • XC 740xd-24update/1.6TB SSD
  • Add 8260M and 8280M processors for Nutanix
  • DX is available to Nutanix partners
  • Added more profiles for the V100 GPU with 32GB RAM

Workloads

  • Now Mine is available.  In any workload you were able to direct backup to a different cluster and now Mine can be the target.  Sizer will do the sizing and include all the skus including the Nutanix skus for Veeam or HYCU software.  Unfortunately, you have to create a new opportunity in Sales Force and quote the Mine products separately from the main cluster with CBL.
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November 2019 Sprints

Nov 25

Latest sprint went live last night, with the following changes:

  • Retain fields in manual mode: In manual mode, while changing the model, quantity is retained, previously it used to get reset.. similarly, all the other fields
  • CPU/Memory/SSD/HDD/NIC/GPU is retained upon changing the model type or even model if it has the same components..
  • Validator updated with latest product changes/rules for 3rd party platforms..
  • Platforms: Dell XC : XR2(XC Core only platform), HPE DX 560 Gen10 24SFF  available for sizing..
  • NX 8170-G7 ready from Sizer end..

Nov 11

Latest sprint went live last night and includes:

  • Deep Nodes for NearSync – We already made changes to extend support for hourly snapshots (1 hour RPO) for nodes with up to 64TB HDD ( for hybrid nodes) and up to 80TB SSD (all flash nodes). This was for async.  We now did that for NearSync as well.
  • Correct RVTools capacity  – Collector 2.1 stores VM capacity data in GiB/MiB (and not GB/MB) both for VMware and Nutanix clusters as stored that way in Prism and VCenter.   RVTool  unfortunately states states the capacity in GB/MB even though the data VCenter is in GiB/MiB.  We now treat the capacities as GIB/MiB which is correctWorking on SAP Hana, Mine, 8170-G7 … all coming soon

 

 

 

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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.