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Systems Engineer at a tech services company
Real User
Very easy to use and very reliable

Nutanix has helped us with a system that has high performance in a small footprint. It has been very easy to use and is very reliable. Using AHV looks good, and is a much cheaper alternative to VMware.

There were initially some setup complications with Nutanix on Dell hardware by not having Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) open locally on the network switches. The simple hour install was closer to a day, but the system has been solid since then.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user630414 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
​Hyper-convergence Makes The Whole Datacenter Simpler
Pros and Cons
  • "I can use VMware or Hyper-V license, if I already have. But if I use a similar solution as Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor (AHV) that comes embedded in Nutanix solution, I can manage all my virtual environments with everything I need without spend more money on licenses."
  • "AHV is a great hypervisor but still limited compared to VMware. AHV is the one product they must improve."

How has it helped my organization?

Hyper-convergence makes the whole datacenter simpler. I don’t need anymore to manage servers, SAN, and storage as I used to, but instead, manage everything from one simple and complete dashboard. I can manage my resources to I get any information I need to monitor and scale.

What is most valuable?

Hypervisor agnostic. I can use VMware or Hyper-V license, if I already have. But if I use a similar solution as Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor (AHV) that comes embedded in Nutanix solution, I can manage all my virtual environments with everything I need without spending more money on licenses.

What needs improvement?

AHV is a great hypervisor but still limited compared to VMware. AHV is the one product they must improve.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I’ve implemented and operated Nutanix in several different situations. Never had an issue in all those cases.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I’ve just scaled such a solution twice and never had a problem. Sometimes I don’t find the new appliances through the web console, but I use CLI for that situation without a problem.

How are customer service and technical support?

Never used it before.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I work either with Dell EMC VxRail, but this product is tied with VMware ESXi which requires expensive licenses. It is also a great solution if you have already those licenses. VxRail has a limit in scalability (64) in the 3.5 version.

How was the initial setup?

Sometimes I had to install it twice to put on the solution. Errors in the middle of installation require you retry, then it goes well. Other than that, it is very simple and does not requires deep knowledge.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I know Nutanix and VxRail have similar prices and licenses. Nutanix is a go-ahead if AHV is used as hypervisor because it is already embedded in the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have some customers who tried Cisco HyperFlex and HPE HC380 besides VMware vSAN. None of these were so attractive as Nutanix when they compared hypervisor flexibility, scalability, and support.

What other advice do I have?

Nutanix is the first and the biggest hyper-convergence company in the world. VxRail is also a great solution as well as HPE SimpliVity, but regarding to scalability and TCO, I think Nutanix is unbeatable at this moment.

Regarding Dell EMC having a main hyper-convergence solution VCE as VxRail, Nutanix is the best seller.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user

It's not only staying on top. It's all what Nutanix is building around the infrastructure..

See all 2 comments
Buyer's Guide
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Enterprise Systems & IT Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Has a compact size that reduces the HW/Datacenter footprint.
Pros and Cons
  • "Management is simple"
  • "The product needs improvement in the areas of SAN attachment for high capacity and high I/O profile workloads."

How has it helped my organization?

There was a 30% reduction in CAPEX spending when we moved towards the Nutanix platform and we had a high ROI.

What is most valuable?

  • Management is simple
  • There is easy configuration
  • The solution is scalable
  • The product has a compact size that greatly reduces the HW/Datacenter footprint.

What needs improvement?

The product needs improvement in the areas of SAN attachment for high capacity and high I/O profile workloads.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not yet encountered any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical team was instrumental in resolving issues to our satisfaction.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution on the hyper-converged platform. Apart from this solution, we converged infrastructures from EMC/HDS vendors.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing and licensing are easy if:

  • You know which solution you are choosing the product for
  • You provide the correct sizing

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this product for its easy implementation and its elimination of the silo approach.

We have a bunch of data warehousing servers that we have planned to migrate to the Nutanix environment, but the limitation is on the amount of capacity that is currently in the DW environment and its all traditional SAN attached. We couldn’t put the amount of data that is currently in our existing production (instead need to rework on the 10G copper connections with additional funding). That is the huge drawback, considering the infrastructure we have.

Most of the authentication processors/servers have a minimum transaction of 15k requests per second. For these types of workloads, we realized the solution doesn’t seem to fit well, leaving many of the requests either being dropped or transmission lost.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user653052 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Consultant
Provides data protection in various flavours.

What is most valuable?

  • Data protection in its various flavours.
  • Overall performance of the platform.
  • Scalability.
  • Ease of implementation.
  • Great GUI.

How has it helped my organization?

We can test even the most storage-performance-hungry workloads on our Nutanix blocks.

What needs improvement?

Pricing transparency: Software and hardware should be separate items.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for 12 months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not encountered any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service is a perfect 10.

Technical Support:

Technical support is a perfect 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We currently use several HCI solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

An in-house team implemented it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're a partner for Nutanix.
PeerSpot user
it_user327513 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Metro availability with synchronous replication is most appreciable for my customer, but cloning VMs in Prism would be nice.

What is most valuable?

  • Metro availability
  • Fingerprinting

How has it helped my organization?

Metro availability with synchronous replication is most appreciable for my customer. Its benefit is high avaibility in production.

What needs improvement?

Maybe more functions for Prism with VMmware, for example, cloning VMs in Prism, exactly like Acropolis.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used them for almost three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

One time, with IPMI not reachable for CVM. I troubleshot this problem with Nutanix US support.

How are customer service and technical support?

It's at a high level.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No previous solution was used.

How was the initial setup?

It is small but complex. Howerver, if you have a good skills with virtualization solutions, and Linux systems, you can install it without any problems.

What about the implementation team?

I installed the solution alone. My advice is to read the Nutanix documents before your installation.

What was our ROI?

I have am immediately gain, as it has lower hardware maintenance costs, and lower electricity consumption.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated SimpliVity OmniCube.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user302127 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It centralizes management, so we can build clouds anywhere, but they should replace all the hard drives with SSD.

Valuable Features

All the software-defined, hyper-converged, and cloud-based infrastructure provide our network with VMs and storage.

Improvements to My Organization

It centralizes management, so we can build clouds anywhere. Regardless of the hardware platform, it still works.

Room for Improvement

The processing power is OK, but for the future it needs to be better. Replacing all the hard drives with SSD would dramatically improve performance.

Stability Issues

  • Very good compression
  • QoS is very good

Scalability Issues

It's highly scalable because it's all in the cloud.

Customer Service and Technical Support

We often use technical support, but usually we grab an account manager who sends an entire team.

Initial Setup

It was very easy.

Other Advice

The solution you choose will depend on your budget. If you want to build a hybrid cloud, and have a good balance between cost and performance, then Nutanix is good option.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant, ASEAN at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
Reduces complexity but does not use RAID and there is no RAID Controller.

Nutanix is hyper-converged infrastructure, which is currently a major concern in the world of IT. New players are appearing in hyper-converged infrastructure like Simplivity, VMware EVO: Rail, EMC ScaleIO, and so forth.

Waht is Hyper-Converged?

Hyper-Converged is the solution to combine Computer (Server), Storage and Networks in one solution or in one hardware. This solution will reduce complexity of the management and also the price. So like in Nutanix, the 2 U Server, in which there are four independent servers (nodes), who each have 2 Socket CPU, RAM, 2x10GbE, 2x1GbE, 6 Disks. Bringing the total in 2U Server (Series NX-3450) there are 80 CPU Cores, 2TB RAM (assuming 512GB per node), 8x10GbE and 16TB SATA Row, Row 3.2TB SSD.

Storage in Nutanix (Converged Storage), reduces the complexity of the storage layer, because it does not need LUN, Volume, Zoning, etc as when we configure FC Storage. Storage in Nutanix is NFS, NFS is the benefit of reducing the overhead of the disk groups and LUNs.

Nutanix Architecture

Inside there is a term Nutanix nodes and blocks.Block is a 2U rack mount chassis in which there are four nodes.Hardware Nutanix is OEM Super Micro or Dell.

In each of these nodes are Nutanix Controller VM (CVM). CVM is a storage appliance or controllers which use VMware Direct Path for direct access to the LSI Disk Controller. This is what allows the CVM to control the disks directly without passing through the hypervisor (ESXi or Hyper-V or KVM). Nutanix does not use RAID and no RAID Controller therein. Nutanix Distributed Files System (NDFS) algorithm is owned (proprietary) by Nutanix system for distributing files or replicating data to each Node. NDFS is a similar technology as used by Googles Files System, Facebook and other Web-Scale Technology.

Hypervisor is installed in the SATA DOM (Disk on Motherboard) module. So there is a flash chip in the motherboard 64GB per node (read article unboxing Nutanix). CVM is a VM running on the hypervisor, which has the configuration of 8 vCPUs and 16-24GB RAM.CVM has two vNICs that one vNIC to connect to the production network and one vNIC to connect to a private vSwitch. Private vSwitch VMkernel adapters have and currently do not have physical network adapter (Punic). Private network used for communication from the host to the CVM for mounting NFS datastore of Nutanix Storage Cluster.CVM uses public vNIX for communication between the CVM in other nodes and also for monitoring cluster plus replicate data.

The figure below is a diagram per Node:

And the image below is a diagram per Cluster Nutanix:

And some of the questions often asked are:

  1. What happens when CVM failure in one node? Autopathing will redirect IO to the CVM in other nodes in the same cluster.
  2. What happens when a disk failure on one node?Nutanix Storage Cluster will "sustain" the current single disk failure, and the system will redistribute data through Cluster.When the rebuild or redistribution is complete it will Cluster Healthy back.This process is very fast (ms).
  3. What happens when one node failure?The process is almost the same as point 2, the data will redistribute within the Cluster.Only this process Nutanix uses MapReduce to speed up the process.If we have three nodes in one cluster, then only allowed one node failure.Therefore, at least 3 nodes required to form 1 Nutanix Cluster.

Management Console

Management Console in Nutanix is PRISM.PRISM is a web interface as shown below.

The first time we log in, then the initial menu as shown above.Visible top left is the ESXi hypervisor is installed, if you use Microsoft Windows, the look is Hyper-V.Then also seen versions of ESXi, below is the total storage capacity, a total of VMs (VMs 230), total node (5) and total blocks (2).In the middle column visible performance monitoring IOPS, bandwidth, CPU and Memory.And the rightmost column is the Events and Alerts.

Top left corner there is a drop down menu (Home), then I moved to the Storage menu Diagram View.It will appear as shown below.

Now we move to the VM menu, which will give us the details of the VM is running in the cluster.Seen there total VM, total CPU and Memory.Then there is also a report by IOPS, Latency IO, Memory Usage and CPU Usage.

Then we move to the VM Table, it is seen in detail per-VM, as shown below. If we look at the information that there is, then I think this function together with VMware vCenter Ops, which did not exist just Forecast Analysis. Here we can search the VM and then perform analysis per-VM performance based on CPU, Memory, IOPS, Latency, or Network.

And now we move to the Storage menu Diagram.Seen all information relating to such Usage Storage, IOPS, bandwidth IO, IO Latency. And in the top right corner, there are two menus of "Container" and "Storage Pool".

Storage Pool, is the union of all disks that exist in all Nodes.Container is as Datastore. We can make some Container in 1 Storage Pool.As with traditional storage, we can make some LUNs in 1 Disk Group.

Interestingly here is Nutanix without RAID but using NDFS, no volume or LUNs. For example, we will create one Container, then I click menu in the top right corner Container, the menu will appear below.

Interestingly, we we would like to mount the new container to multiple hosts / nodes, we just need to do the check as shown below.Imagine if we use the SAN, must do Zoning first, then setting WWN ID to each of the hosts, and so on.

And we can compress or dedup the container that we have made, and only one click then completed as shown below. Interesting is it not it?

And no less, that is build-in replication. We can do replication N-Way means can perform replication to 3rd place (A-> B-> C) upto 6th place (A-> B-> C-> D-> E-> F). Which greatly facilitates that we can do per-VM based and fixed per block-level replication. Imagine in traditional storage, replication must be done LUN to LUN.So if there are 50-VM per LUN, then total all 50 VM will be replicated to the LUN in the DR Site.Replication in Nutanix, can be integrated with VMware SRM.

Likewise reviews Nutanix, although not as complete but could be an additional complete our knowledge. And we will come back to a Nutanix detailed discussion at a later time.

Thanks to Nutanix for allowing me to "box-test" Nutanix lab in Singapore.
I would like to thank the team for greater Nutanix Reviews their help in providing the access to Reviews their lab and willingness to answer questions during our process.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1752147 - PeerSpot reviewer
Anonymous at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Its networking concept is very good
Pros and Cons
  • "Acropolis AOS's networking concept is excellent."
  • "I feel like the flow chart and the automated processes have some room for improvement. They're nearly there, and the rest is fine. They've improved a lot over the past few years."

What is most valuable?

Acropolis AOS's networking concept is excellent.

What needs improvement?

I feel like the flow chart and the automated processes have some room for improvement. They're nearly there, and the rest is fine. They've improved a lot over the past few years. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used Acropolis AOS daily for the past three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Acropolis AOS is highly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Acropolis AOS is scalable. 

What was our ROI?

We've seen a return on investment. Hundred percent.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Acropolis AOS 9.5 out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.