Posts

Posted on

Automation

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.

Calm

Discovery Questions

1.  How are you currently automating IT Service Delivery today, do you have any:
     a.  IAAS – Infrastructure as a service
     b.  PaaS – Platform as a service
     c.  SaaS – Software as a service

Why ask?  It helps us understand the customer’s maturity level when it comes to application deployment and could uncover some of the competitive infrastructure.  See some of the possible competitive or other products we may be able to work with or integrate with.

2.  Are standardizing and compliance important to you in your IT Automation Delivery Strategy?
a.  Do you currently use a business intake or self-service request process via a solution such as ServiceNow, Cherwell, Remedy, etc. to automate IT service delivery?

Why ask? Gives us the opportunity to discuss our SNOW plugin. Also helps understand which front end they will use for the Calm implementation.

3. Do you have any contracts with the cloud providers (AWS, Azure or GCP)?
a.  What are the specific use cases or workload profiles consumed from the cloud providers?

Why ask? Helps us understand which providers they may consume with Calm. Helps us understand which services are still on-prem and available as a target for AOS. May help position Beam. Also helps us understand if they have a Microsoft EA which may force their spend to go to Azure.

4.  Can you describe the process, do you have any documentation  for VM, OS or Database Deployment and Management?

Why ask? It helps uncover their current pain points and possibly competitive landscape.  (This would typically be asked when talking to the Infrastructure Team) If the process is already well documented/defined, the hardest part of the implementation is already done.

5.  What tools do you leverage to automate your Windows or Linux Server builds beyond the imaging / template / cloning process?
      a.  vRA
      b.  Terraform
      c.  Puppet
      d.  Chef
      e.  Ansible
      f.  Salt
      g.  SCCM

Why ask? Helps understand the competitive landscape as well as integration points that will need to be solved

6.  How many VMs are under management today?

Why ask? It helps us estimate the size of the deal for licensing

7.  What does your infrastructure footprint for managing/running containers look like?
      a.  What tools are you using?
      b.  How many containers?
      c.  If Kubernetes, how many pods and containers?
      d.  Which version of Kubernetes? (AKS/EKS/Anthos/Openshift/Tanzu/etc)

Why ask? Helps understand their current place on the journey to cloud native apps.  If they are still investigating, we have an option to position Karbon. If they are using another product already, we may be able to provide the infrastructure for that environment. 

8.  Do you have any contracts with the cloud providers (AWS, Azure or GCP)?
      a.  What are the specific use cases or workload profiles consumed from the cloud providers?

Why ask? Helps us understand which providers they may consume with Calm. Helps us understand which services are still on-prem and available as a target for AOS.  May help position Beam.  Also helps us understand if they have a Microsoft EA which may force their spend to go to Azure.

9.  Are standardizing and compliance important to you in your IT Automation Delivery Strategy?
      a.  Do you currently use a business intake or self-service request process via a solution such as ServiceNow, Cherwell, Remedy, etc. to automate IT service delivery?

Why ask? Gives us the opportunity to discuss our SNOW plugin. Also helps understand which front end they will use for the Calm implementation. 

10.  In your application development organization, is Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) an operating principle?
      a.  What tools do you leverage in your current/targeted pipeline?
            i.    Jenkins
            ii.   Atlassian Bamboo
            iii.  CircleCI
            iv.  GitLab CI/CD
            v.   Azure DevOps

Why ask? Helps us understand the integrations needed for a successful implementation.

Resources:

Glossary of Terms: https://github.com/nutanixworkshops/calmbootcamp/blob/master/appendix/glossary.rst 

xPert Automation team page: http://ntnx.tips/xPertAutomation (Internal Only)

LinkedIn Learning – DevOps Foundations Learning Plan: https://www.nutanixuniversity.com//lms/index.php?r=coursepath/deeplink&id_path=79&hash=2ce3cb1f946cc3770bd466853e68ee36ddbcf5e1&generated_by=19794

Udacity+Nutanix: Hybrid Cloud Engineer Nanodegree

Calls to action/next steps:

1.  Create a SFDC opportunity, quote a Calm+Services bundle, add a DevOps resource request
2.  Test Drive: Automation
3.  Calm bootcamps (+Karbon, +CI/CD, etc.) (Internal Only)

Posted on

End User Computing Discovery Guidance (Revised 4/15/25)

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 made a 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 the questions will be expanded and updated over time.

Revision History
2025.1  1st Revision – Kees Baggerman, Thomas Brown – 4-15-25
Nov 2020 Initial Publication – Lane Leverett

Basic discovery

1. What is the expected type of EUC workload?
 

Why Ask? Are we talking about VDI (Full Desktop), RDSH (Shared Desktop), and Application Virtualization (like MSIX, App-V, or Horizon App Volumes).  Please keep in mind that you need to ask this question for every different workload the customer needs. In most EUC projects there is not just one type of user requirement. You will find a lot of mixed workloads, like persistent and non-persistent desktops as well as application virtualization.
NCI-VDI licensing can help if the customer wants to run resource-intensive VDI workloads, like developers or VDI with vGPUs and DR scenarios.  

For more information about NCI-VDI: https://www.nutanix.com/library/datasheets/nci-vdi  

 

 2. Which vendor is used to manage and broker Desktops and Apps?
 

Why ask? The main vendors are Citrix and Omnissa. Every vendor has its own display protocol, which makes a difference in CPU usage. Citrix = HDX, VMware = Blast, Blast Extreme  

3. What is the expected Operating System Version? 

Why ask? Every new version of Windows has higher CPU and Memory requirements. Comparing an older Windows version to the latest version can make a big difference.  

Windows 10 Performance Impact Analysis: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=TN-2113-Windows-10-Performance-Impact:TN-2113-Windows-10-Performance-Impact 

Overall Performance Impact Analysis: 

End-User Computing Performance Impact Analysis 


4.  What Office version is used? 

Why ask? For Microsoft Office, it is the same issue as Windows versions. Newer versions need more resources.  Office 2019 Performance Impact Results from LoginVSI: https://www.loginvsi.com/login-vsi-blog/98-login-vsi/907-office-2019-performance-impact 

Overall Performance Impact Analysis: 

End-User Computing Performance Impact Analysis 


5. What other applications will be used? 

Why ask? The applications used have a strong impact on the CPU. There might be single-threaded applications that need high clock speed, or you run applications that are multi-threaded and need a higher core count. Think Microsoft Teams, Zoom but also specific LOB applications like the Epic client, CAD/CAM apps or Bloomberg Terminal.  

6. What is the expected type of user? 

Why ask? In sizer, we ask for user types: task, knowledge, power user or developer. Every user type comes with a specific workload profile – memory, # vCPUs, vCPU:pCPU ratio, disk size. Sometimes the customer can give you details on the VM sizing, but not on the expected vCPU:pCPU ratio. Depending on the workload expected you can set the ratio.  

For more information read here:  

 

7. How many concurrent users will you have on that workload? 

Why ask? Concurrent user defines the number of active users. How many VMs need to run at the same time? Our VDI licensing is based on active VMs. You can have more users in an environment, but they can share resources if they don’t work on the platform at the same time.  This can impact how you size compute and memory but remember that storage may be needed for all possible users.  

8. What provisioning method is used? 

Why ask? Depending on the workload, the VMs can be persistent or non-persistent. Persistent desktops will be treated like normal VMs. Non-persistent VMs will have a different storage footprint since they share a single boot disk and have additional write cache disks, which will be deleted after a VM reboots. Citrix uses MCS (Machine Creation Service) or PVS (Provisioning). Omnissa uses  InstantClones. 

9. Where are the user profiles stored? 

Why ask? Using our own Files solution, we can provide storage for user profiles. Today, you will mostly encounter FSLogix profile containers or Citrix Profile Management, which still need an SMB share to be stored on and loaded during user logon. 

For more information: 

 

 

10. Do you need additional GPU support?  * (This may warrant engaging with a Solutions Architect or EUC Specialist for proper sizing and configurations) 

Why ask? To accommodate applications like CAD or requirements in number of monitors and high resolution you need to add NVIDIA GPUs. An overview of vGPU Profiles can be found here: 

 11. Are there any other special requirements? 

Why ask? Does the customer need RF3? Block Awareness, Rack Awareness, Storage encryption or replication) 

VM Details

1. How many vCPUs? 

Why ask? The number of vCPUs impacts the performance of the VM and the density of the host. Solution Engineering found the sweet spot to be at 3 vCPUs for a Windows 10 desktop, 4 vCPUs for Windows 11 or 8 vCPUs for Windows Server based Desktops 

2. What is the ratio between vCPU to pCPU? 

Why ask? See question 6 

3. What is the requested CPU size per User? 

Why ask? How many MHz does every user need to run the workload? It is very rare that a customer can answer this. It is more common in application virtualization environments, where a number of users share the same VM and its resources. 

4. What CPU is currently in use? 

Why ask? If the CPU currently used can handle it, you could choose the same clock speed. But keep in mind that in a virtualized environment, resources are shared, and you might have additional tasks running, like Files, which can impact the CPU. 

5.  How much Memory is required per VM? 

6. What is the disk size? 

Why ask? Depending on the provisioning method used you need the size of the Master Image (also called parental disk or Sandbox) and the Write Cache per VM. The write cache stores the temporary files written during the VM is active. For persistent VMs you need the disk size of the Master Image, which is then cloned into separate VMs. 

7. Are you planning to use microsegmentation to secure your VMs? If yes, what solution will be used?  * (This may warrant engaging with a Flow or Networking specialist or Solutions Architect) 

Why ask? Position Flow on AHV or remember to size for a NSX appliance on every host. 

For more information: 

 

 

8. Are you planning on using an App layering solution? 

Why ask? This saves the customer the need to manage many different master images. With App layering, you have one master image, and when a user logs in, the system will automatically attach additional disks containing the required applications. We can use shadow cloning to make those disks available locally. 

Read: 

 

 

General supporting Infrastructure

1. What Hypervisor are you planning to use?

Why ask? Different Hypervisors have different needs. If the customer chooses VMware, we may need to accommodate vCenter. 

2. Where will generic required services run? 

Why ask? By generic services, we mean AD, DHCP, DNS, Printing, licensing or application backend services. Some of them might be running in the cloud or on existing infrastructure. If running on the Nutanix Cluster take note of size and see Server virtualization questions. 

 3. Where will user profiles, home shares or App disks (if used) be stored? 

Why ask? This is an opportunity to position Files. Today, customers usually use a profile container to store user profiles. FSLogix is the most common solution used by customers since it is included in their licensing. Please be aware that Files Services running on the same cluster do have a performance penalty during login times. 

4. What is your DR strategy? 

Why ask? Every customer needs a DR strategy for their EUC environment. A great question to position NC2 , replication and our unique VDI licensing approach.
Also need to calculate additional resources in your sizing, depending on the customer’s strategy. 

More information: 

 

Citrix Infrastructure

1. Where do you plan on running your Citrix services? 

Why ask? Customers can choose to run all Citrix-related services (like Studio, Databases, Storefront) as a service in the cloud, managed by Citrix, or on-premises. If the customer chooses to run the services on premises, he can still run it on a different infrastructure. If he chooses to run it on the same cluster, please size additional server virtualization VMs. Guidelines on VM requirements can be found here: https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/system-requirements.html
If the customer chooses Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop (CVAD) Service you still need an additional Windows server as a Cloud Connector.

A typical on-premises implementation would need the following servers:
SQL deployment. What type of HA? (Always On, SQL Clustering with WSFC)
StoreFront Servers (HA, N+1)
Citrix Desktop Studio and Director (N+1)
Optional Provisioning Server (PVS) (N+1)
Network Load Balancer
Global Server Load Balancing
Profile Management Infrastructure (File services)
AppLayering Infrastructure
Any Endpoint Management technologies?
Failure domain sizes (Prism Central sizing)
Dedicated Infra Management Cluster or part of the Citrix cluster 

VMware Infrastructure

1. Where do you plan on running your Omnissa Horizon Services? 

Why ask? Customers can choose to run all Horizon-related services as a service in the cloud, managed by VMware or on-premises. If the customer chooses to run the services on premises, he can still run it on a different infrastructure. If he chooses to run it on the same cluster, please size additional server virtualization VMs.  

Guidelines on VM requirements can be found here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.12/horizon-installation/GUID-858D1E0E-C566-4813-9D53-975AF4432195.html 

A typical on-premises implementation would need the following servers:
SQL deployment. What type of HA? (Always On, SQL Clustering with WSFC)
Unified Access Gateway Appliances (N+1)
vCenter (N+1)
Horizon Connection Server (N+1)
Optional View Composer (N+1)
Profile Management Infrastructure (File services)
AppLayering Infrastructure
Any Endpoint Management technologies?
Failure domain sizes (Prism Central sizing) 

Advanced Discovery

1. How do you optimize your image? 

Why ask? Image optimization is crucial in all EUC environments. Optimizing the VM using tools provided by Citrix, VMware, or vendor-independent vendors increases the host density and user experience.
Citrix: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX224676
VMware: https://flings.vmware.com/vmware-os-optimization-tool 

2. What is your Antivirus Strategy? 

Why ask? The right AV solution can also have a massive impact on user experience and host density. If not done correctly all file operations lead to file scans, which increase CPU and IO on the host 

Posted on

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?

Posted on

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

 

Posted on

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

 

Posted on

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
Posted on

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:

Posted on

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

 

Posted on

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.