Terminology and Components
Prism - The management console for Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure.
Prism Element - The management console for 1 cluster.
Prism Central - The management console for multiple clusters.
AOS (Acropolis Operating System) - The underlying OS for virtualization management.
AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) - Nutanix’s hypervisor.
AHV is based on KVM and extends its base functionality to include features like HA, live migration, and IP address management.
AOS Storage - The underlying storage component of Nutanix.
Node - A node is a server with compute and storage resources, and a cluster is a grouping of nodes.
Block - In a typical Nutanix cluster, a block is a chassis that holds one or more nodes along with power and the networking backplane for the cluster.
Cluster - A Nutanix cluster is a logical grouping of physical and logical components. A single Nutanix cluster can consist of one or more nodes, and these nodes can be housed in one or more blocks.
At Expedient, our standard cluster is a minimum of 3 nodes (and up to 20 nodes) with a replication factor (RF) of 2 in an N+1 configuration.
Clusters with more than 20 nodes are set for a replication factor of 3 in an N+2 configuration.
Replication Factor | Minimum Nodes | Fault Tolerance | Compute Cluster | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
RF2 | 3 | FT1 | N+1 | A cluster can sustain the failure of single Nutanix node or disk |
RF3 | 5 | FT2 | N+2 | A cluster can sustain the failure of two Nutanix nodes or disk |
Controller VM (CVM) - Each node in a cluster runs an industry-standard hypervisor (AHV in our case), and the CVM. The CVM runs the Nutanix software and serves all of the I/O operations for the hypervisor and all VMs running on that host.
Nutanix / VMware Stack Comparison at Expedient
Note that AOS Storage can be used with other hypervisors, including ESXi, but we are only comparing Nutanix with AHV and VMware.
Nutanix | VMware (Broadcom) | |
|---|---|---|
Core Platform | Nutanix AOS | vSphere |
Management | Prism | vCenter |
Hypervisor | AHV | ESXi |
Storage | AOS | vSAN* Expedient uses vSAN, AOS, or Pure Storage for different versions of Enterprise Cloud |
Networking | Flow Virtual Networking | NSX |
Reporting | Intelligent Operations | vRealize Operations (now VMware Aria) |
Microsegmentation | Flow Network Security | NSX Microsegmentation |
Add-ons | ||
Nutanix | VMware | |
Disaster Recovery | Nutanix Disaster Recovery | Cloud Director Availability or Third-Party (Zerto) |
Backups | Third-Party (Cohesity) | Third-Party (Cohesity) |
Files | Nutanix Files | Third-Party (CTERA) |
Objects | Nutanix Objects | Third-Party (Cloudian) |
Logging | Third-Party (Elastic) | Third-Party (Elastic) |
Looking for more?
We recommend creating an account at my.nutanix.com to access more resources, including Nutanix Software Documentation and Nutanix University.
We recommend Nutanix University’s Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals (NHCF) Online course for admins, technicians, or engineers looking to gain more familiarity with the platform.
You can also checkout Nutanix in 3 Minutes: A brief overview of Nutanix hybrid multi-cloud solutions for a quick overview.