Nutanix AHV Virtualization Reviews

We are working on on-premises cloud projects. For these projects, we needed to choose a virtualization option like VMware, Microsoft Hyper V, or Nutanix AHV. Nutanix AHV was chosen because it provides a cost-effective solution compared to other options without incurring license costs for the hypervisor. We are primarily using it for Singapore government projects, where reducing deployment costs is crucial.

Nutanix AHV's most valuable feature is the one-click upgrade capability. It allows for seamless upgrades without any downtime for the workload, as all necessary processes are handled automatically in the background. This feature makes managing the virtual environment easy for the administrators. AHV provides cost savings by eliminating the need for license costs and simplifies maintenance activities, making it a very user-friendly solution.

I have used it to host a virtualized environment.

It quickly takes snapshots. Moreover, the technology behind the backups is very efficient, enabling a reliable virtual environment.

We are a service provider managing 80+ customers, around one million virtual desktops.

Since we are part of the virtual desk practice, all our customers use AHV specifically for virtual desktops.

To use geo clusters, you must have AHV running at the bottom of Prism Central. That was one application. Clusters must connect to multiple geographic locations. 

Second, we needed a lightweight system that could integrate with AHV Prism natively.

Nutanix It was an out-of-the-box integration with AHV being Nutanix and Prism being Nutanix. We didn't have to do anything special to integrate it with Prism. 

Third, an application feature was available with AHV that was not available with VMware or other solutions. That feature enabled us to create VM-level recovery and production sites across our spectrum. 

Fourth, the way AHV and CVM actually work, because if you buy VMware, it must be integrated with vSAN; in this case, CVM was integrated with AHV. 

Many backup solutions that we use today are available for purchase, be it IBM, VMware, Veritas, or anything else. They usually have very good vSphere and Hyper-V support. Because there isn't much AHV deployment in place, we typically have issues with the integrations that AHV has with backup solutions. We would like to see AHV's backup solution integration improved so that we can take VM-level backups directly from Nutanix.

The issue is that it provides a higher VM level for VMware and other areas. When it comes to AHV, however, you must purchase a separate set of third-party software, which can then supplement that backup via your IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

One issue we frequently encounter when using AHV is that if you want to install specific software, you must first gain compatibility.

If you want to install an operating system, or OS, on top of your AHV, only a few operating systems are supported. That is one area where I would like to see some progress. VMware typically supports almost all of our systems, as does Hyper-V, but when it comes to AHV, we must apply specific patches in order to run it on top of AHV. Operating system support must be improved out of the box.

If you want to install software, you must first ensure that it is compatible with Nutanix AHV; not all software is compatible.

It is not possible to integrate it with everything. There is limited compatibility with the software that can be installed on top of Nutanix AHV, for example.

If you want to install a specific operating system, you must first check to see if it is listed in the compatibility list; only then will you be able to install it, and that is one issue for now.

We are hosting our mission-critical applications on the Nutanix cluster.

Because of our business needs and application requirements, we have some limitations in terms of migrating our services to the cloud. As a hospital, we need ultra-low latency applications that are very critical for patient care. We need our solution within the same building so that latency requirements can be met. We have a huge amount of data and accessing it is more easily feasible within the data center within our building.

The main advantage we have now, using Nutanix AHV Virtualization, is that it has helped us reduce downtime. Earlier, we were on a three-tier infrastructure, with separate server, storage, and network. Opting to go with Nutanix SDI over the last two years has resulted in zero downtime. Even if there is maintenance is going on for upgrades, there is zero downtime. DR runbooks and snapshots have both helped us.

In addition, the security features have helped reduce operational challenges. Out-of-the-box, the security of AHV is already hard-coded and hardened. As a customer, I don't have to worry about the security or about adding another layer of security.

It is super easy to manage and doesn't require any specific technical skills to operate. We can provision new infrastructure on-demand with a few clicks. Because of that, it has reduced our IT administration overhead by up to 85 percent. If we compare provisioning network and storage and servers separately with the way that is done in Nutanix, it takes that much less time to provision new servers and resources. That is a big gift.

It has reduced the burden on our administrators. That 85 percent of time is available for an administrator to do other things, rather than providing and monitoring the resources. This is the big takeaway that we have achieved.

And in terms of consolidation, we have placed all of our high-I/O-latency and critical applications on Nutanix SDI. Initially, they were on legacy hardware from different OEMs, like Dell and HPE. Managing those older solutions required multiple skill sets, in Dell and HPE. Now that we have migrated these critical applications to Nutanix, there is no backend. The technology is working in the backend and, as an administrator, I don't have to do a deep dive into the technology. This consolidation was critical and that's why we moved to Nutanix.

We removed a legacy SAN from our environment. Initially, we had separate servers and then the SAN switches. With the SDI consolidation, we don't need any additional SAN boxes or switches to run the applications or servers. We bought our Nutanix solution with enough storage so that we could eliminate the SAN part, and it has helped us with performance as well, because the storage is directly attached to the Nutanix boxes.

The solution is tightly integrated with Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure.

The product has helped consolidate a lot of my workload. Everything is virtualized. We have hyperconverged storage systems. The administration is simplified.

We use the solution for cloud services and IT.

The solution's up time is always up. The solution is easy to troubleshoot and easy to operate. The most valuable feature of the solution is the built-in data protection, that helps with backup in a matter of minutes.

Many customers use the solution. One of the customers, I think, uses 4,000 virtual machines. Virtual machines are used for administration, applications, and many other things. We can slide them into three environments, including the test environment, the pre-production environment and production environment.

The solution's most valuable features stem from the fact that I use many things, including NSX-T and NSX-P, which are new for virtualization. It started in 2022. NSX-T and NSX-P are different from NSX-v. NSX-v is dedicated to vCenter, and NSX-P is for Nutanix or VMware.

It is difficult to give an explanation about why I find NSX-P to be useful because VMware changed the category when Cisco bought it. I think Nutanix told its customers that the best way to go around it was based on the licensing system, and it is better than VMware's very expensive licenses.