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      Nutanix Private Cloud
      • 26 Mar 2025
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      Nutanix Private Cloud

      • Updated on 26 Mar 2025
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      Article summary

      Nutanix Private Cloud is managed infrastructure-as-a-service on a single-tenant Nutanix/AHV platform. Expedient maintains the hardware, software updates, licensing, and ongoing maintenance as a managed service. Clients have full admin access to their virtual machines, along with the ability to perform many of the same operations as their on-premises environments.

      New to Nutanix? Here are a few of the core components to get you started…

      • 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.

        A node is a server with compute and storage resources and a cluster is a grouping of nodes.

        At Expedient, our standard is a minimum of 3 nodes with a replication factor of 2 in an N+1 configuration.

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      Support Summary

      Activity

      Expedient

      Client

      Co-Managed

      Platform Infrastructure Monitoring

      X

      Platform Infrastructure Break/Fix

      X

      Firmware Updates

      X

      Platform Licensing

      X

      Platform Updates/Patches

      X

      Virtual Machine Management

      X

      Operating System Licensing

      X

      Operating System Management

      X

      Replication Software Configuration

      X

      Replication Monitoring (Success/Failure)

      X

      Disaster Recovery Runbook

      X

      Replication Failure Remediation

      X

      Workload Protection Configuration

      X

      Declaration of Disaster Recovery Enactment

      X

      Failover of VMs to Secondary Site

      X

      Failback of VMs to Primary Site

      X

      Validation of Application Functionality

      X

      Note: Co-Managed tasks can be performed by Expedient or client, based on preference, but will require input and direction for configuration.

      When Expedient will “Assist”

      • Items where Expedient will provide “assistance” typically require clients to complete defined tasks on external platforms not controlled or owned by Expedient.

      • “Assisting” a client consists of providing appropriate documentation and general guidance with the option to run live walkthroughs for additional help.

      • Assistance will be offered during the delivery phase but will also be available from the operation support center after implementation.

      Deployment

      • Expedient will deploy private cloud instances in Expedient data centers including hardware and physical networking.

      • Expedient will apply Prism Central and Prism Element licensing. Section Link.

      • Expedient will provision hosts, storage, and deploy Prism Central and Prism Element clusters for the client to our most recent standards.

        • Reserve Rebuild Capacity Disabled

        • Compression Enabled

        • Deduplication: Disabled

        • The Cluster and Storage container will be set to RF2 for clusters with up to 20 nodes for N+1 and a Fault Tolerance of FT1.

        • The Cluster and Storage container will be set to RF3 for clusters with more than 20 nodes for N+2 and a Fault Tolerance of FT2.

          • A cluster set to RF3 cannot be downgraded to RF3.

      • VM HA Availability enabled

      • Encryption

        • Expedient will use the native KMS for cluster encryption.

          • External and Cloud KMS solutions are client supported and may impact Expedient's ability to maintain the platform.

      • Networking

        • Expedient will configure our multi-cloud firewall solution (if applicable).

      • Expedient will create any requested client networks in AHV.

        • VPC Self-Service capabilities to be test.

      • Expedient will grant networks access to cloud data protection environment (if applicable).

      Management Plane

      • Prism Central – Expedient will provide all clients access to Prism Central UI and configure access via existing Active Directory or LDAP.

        • Client’s will have admin permissions in Prism Central to:

          • Manage and configure networking, storage, and compute resources.

          • Create, modify, delete, and manage virtual machines.

          • Add, remove, or modify user accounts.

          • Access logs and analytical data.

          • Set up and manage backup schedules and perform recovery operations.

        • Prism Central will be maintained and updated by Expedient.

        • Two-Factor authentication will be configured with OneLogin.

          • Additional third-party authentication is not supported by Expedient.

      • API and CLI – Clients can utilize Nutanix’s API, SDK, and CLIs

        • Expedient support is limited to ensuring that Nutanix’s aCLI, nCLI and API components are available for use and updated along with Prism Central and AOS.

        • Nutanix SDKs are maintained by Nutanix and available on GitHub.

      Authentication

      • Expedient will provide access and authenticate to Prism Central.

        • Expedient will connect an existing Active Directory domain to Prism Central.

        • Two-factor authentication will be provided through OneLogin (required addon).

      • Expedient requires Prism Centrals to be accessed behind a VPN. This can be via a BYOB solution or Expedient’s multi-cloud firewall option.

      Maintenance and Monitoring

      • Platform Infrastructure and Supporting Hardware Monitoring

        • Service tickets are created from Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) alerts in Prism Central.

      • Infrastructure and Supporting Hardware Break/Fix

      • Firmware Updates

        • Firmware updates will be part of routine updates through Nutanix LCM.

      • Software Updates

        • AOS upgrades will be routine and include recommended AHV and Prism Central version upgrades.

      Nutanix Move

      • Server migration services are available for to assist clients relocating workloads to Nutanix Private Cloud.

      • At this time, we will only assist in Nutanix-to-Nutanix migrations for Files (ESXi or AHV).

      Definitions

      • Node - An x86 server with compute and storage resources.

      • Clusters - A logical grouping consisting of multiple nodes.

        • An Expedient cluster contains a minimum of 3 nodes.

      • AOS (Acropolis Operating System) - The underlying OS for managing infrastructure virtualization, including compute, storage, and networking.

      • AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) - The AOS hypervisor.

      • Prism - The management plane for AOS.

        • Prism Element – The management plane for a single cluster.

        • Prism Central – The consolidated management plane for multiple clusters.

      • AOS Storage - The underlying, unified storage component of AOS.

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