Tag Archives: Acropolis Hypervisor

Solving Oracle & SQL Licensing challenges with Nutanix

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The Nutanix platform has and will continue to evolve to meet/exceed the ever increasing customer and application requirements while working within constraints such as licensing.

Two of the most common workloads which I work frequently with customers to design solutions around real or perceived licensing constraints are Oracle and SQL.

In years gone by, Nutanix solutions were constrained to being built around a limited number of node types. When I joined in 2013 only one type existed (NX-3450) which limited customers flexibility and often led to paying more for licensing than a traditional 3-tier solution.

With that said, the ROI and TCO for the Nutanix solutions back then were still more often than not favourable compared to 3-tier but these days we only have more and more good news for prospective and existing customers.

Nutanix has now rounded out the portfolio with the introduction of “Compute Only” nodes to target a select few niche workloads with real or perceived licensing and/or political constraints.

Compute only nodes compliment the traditional HCI nodes (Compute+Storage) as well as our unique Storage Only Nodes which were introduced in mid 2015.

So how do Compute Only nodes help solve these licensing challenges?

In short, Oracle leads the world in misleading and intimidating customers into paying more for licensing than what they need to. One of the most ridiculous claims is “You must license every physical CPU core in your cluster because Oracle could run or have ran on it”.

The below tweet makes fun of Oracle and shows how ridiculous their claim that customers need to license every node in a cluster (which I’ve never seen referenced in any actual contract) is.

So let’s get to how you can design a Nutanix solution to meet a typical Oracle customer licensing constraint while ensuring excellent Scalability, Resiliency and Performance.

At this stage we now assume you’ve given your first born child and left leg to Oracle and have subsequently been granted for example 24 physical core licenses from Oracle, what next?

If we we’re to use HCI nodes, some of the CPU would be utilised by the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM) and while the CVM does add a lot of value (see my post Cost vs Reward for the Nutanix Controller VM) you may be so constrained by licensing that you want to maximise the CPU power for just Oracle workloads.

Now in this example, we have 24 licensed physical cores, so we could use two Compute Only nodes using an Intel Gold 6128 [6 cores / 3.4 GHz] / 12 cores per server for 24 total physical cores.

Next we would assess the storage capacity, resiliency and performance requirements and decide how many and what configuration storage only nodes are required.

Because Virtual Machines cannot run on storage only nodes, the Oracle Virtual Machines cannot and will never run on any other CPU cores other than the two Compute Only nodes therefore you would be in compliance with your licensing.

The below is an example of what the environment could look like.

2CO_4SOnodes

SQL has ever changing CPU licensing models which in some cases are licensed by server or vCPU count, Compute Only can be used in the same way I explained above to address any SQL licensing constraints.

What about if I need to scale storage capacity and/or performance?

You’re in luck, without any modifications to the Oracle workloads, you can simply add one or more storage only nodes to the cluster and it will almost immediately increase capacity, performance and resiliency!

I’ve published an example of the performance improvement by adding storage only nodes to a cluster in an article titled Scale out performance testing with Nutanix Storage Only Nodes which I wrote back in 2016.

In short, the results show by doubling the number of nodes from 4 to 8, the performance almost exactly doubled while delivering low read and write latency.

What if you’ve already invested in Nutanix HCI nodes (example below) and are running Oracle/SQL or any other workloads on the cluster?

TypicalHCIcluster

Nutanix provides the ability to convert a HCI node into a Storage Only node which results in preventing Virtual Machines from running on that node. So all you need to do is add two or more Compute Only nodes to the cluster, then mark the existing HCI nodes as Storage Only and the result is shown below.

CO_PlusConvertedHCI

This is in fact the minimum supported configuration for Compute Only Environments to ensure minimum levels of resiliency and performance. For more information, check out my post “Nutanix Compute Only Minimum requirements“.

Now we have two nodes (Compute Only) which can run Virtual Machines and four nodes (HCI nodes converted to Storage Only) which are servicing the storage I/O. In this scenario, if the HCI nodes have unused CPU and/or RAM the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM) can also be scaled up to drive higher performance & lower latency.

Compute Only is currently available with the Nutanix Next Generation Hypervisor “AHV”.

Now let’s cover off a few of the benefits of running applications like Oracle & SQL on Nutanix:

  1. No additional Virtualization licensing (AHV is included when purchasing Nutanix AOS)
  2. No rip and replace for existing HCI investment
  3. Unique scale out distributed storage fabric (ADSF) which can be easily scaled as required
  4. Storage Only nodes add capacity, performance and resiliency to your mission critical workloads without incurring additional hypervisor or application licensing costs
  5. Compute Only allows scale up and out of CPU/RAM resources where applications are constrained by ONLY CPU/RAM and/or application software licensing.
  6. Storage Only nodes can also provide functions such as Nutanix Files (previously known as Acropolis File Services or AFS)

As a result of Nutanix now having HCI, Storage Only and Compute Only nodes, we’re now entering the time where Nutanix can truely be the standard platform for almost any workload including those with non technical constraints such as political or application licensing which have traditionally been at least perceived to be an advantage for legacy SAN products.

The beauty of the Nutanix examples above is while they look like a traditional 3-tier, we avoid the legacy SAN problems including:

1. Rip and Replace / High Impact / High Risk Controller upgrades/scalability
2. Difficulty in scaling performance with capacity
3. Inability to increase resiliency without adding additional Silos of storage (i.e.: Another dual controller SAN)

With Compute Only being supported by AHV, we also help customers avoid the unnecessary complexity and related operational costs of managing ESXi deployments which have become increasingly more complex over time without significantly improving value to the average customer who simply wants high performance, resilient and easy to manage virtualisation solution.

But what about VMware ESXi customers?

Obviously moving to AHV would be ideal but for those who cannot for whatever reasons can still benefit from Storage Only nodes which provide increased storage performance and resiliency to the Virtual machines running on ESXi.

Customers can run ESXi on Nutanix (or OEM / Software Only) HCI nodes and then scale the clusters performance/capacity with AHV based storage only nodes, therefore eliminating the need to license both ESXi and Oracle/SQL since no virtual machine will run on these nodes.

How does Nutanix compare to a leading all flash array?

For those of you who would like to see a HCI only Nutanix solution have better TCO as well as performance and capacity than a leading All Flash Array, checkout A TCO Analysis of Pure FlashStack & Nutanix Enterprise Cloud where even with giving every possible advantage to Pure Storage, Nutanix still comes out on top without data reduction assumptions.

Now consider that Nutanix the TCO as well as performance and capacity was better than a leading All Flash Array with only HCI nodes, imagine the increased efficiency and flexibility by being able to mix/match HCI, with Storage Only and Compute only.

This is just another example of how Nutanix is eliminating even the corner use cases for traditional SAN/NAS.

For more information about Nutanix Scalability, Resiliency and Performance, checkout this multi-part blog series.

Why Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor (AHV) is the next generation hypervisor – Part 2 – Simplicity

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Let me start by saying I believe complexity is one of the biggest and potentially the most overlooked, issue in modern datacenters.

Virtualization has enabled increased flexibility and solved countless problems within the datacenter. But over time I have observed an increase in complexity especially around the management components which for many customers is a major pain point.

Complexity leads to things like increased cost (both CAPEX & OPEX) and risk, which commonly leads to reduced availability/performance.

In Part 10, I will cover Cost in more depth so let’s park it for the time being.

When architecting solutions for customers, my number one goal is to meet/exceed all my customers’ requirements with the simplest solution possible.

anyfool

Acropolis is where web-scale technology delivers enterprise grade functionality with consumer-grade simplicity, and with AHV the story gets even better.

Removing Dependencies

A great example of the simplicity of the Nutanix Xtreme Computing Platform (XCP) is its lack of external dependencies. There is no requirement for any external databases when running Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) which removes the complexity of designing, implementing and maintaining enterprise grade database solutions such as Microsoft SQL or Oracle.

This is even more of an advantage when you take into account the complexity of deploying these platforms in highly available configurations such as AlwaysOn Availability Groups (SQL) or Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) where SMEs need to be engaged for design, implementation and maintenance. As a result of not being dependent on 3rd party database products, AHV reduces/removes complexity around product interoperability or the need to call multiple vendors if something goes wrong. This also means no more investigating Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCLs) and Interoperability Matrix’s when performing upgrades.

Management VMs

Only a single management virtual machine (Prism Central) needs to be deployed – even for multi-cluster globally distributed AHV environments. Prism Central is an easy to deploy appliance and since it’s state-less, it does not require backing up. In the event the appliance is lost, an administrator simply deploys a new Prism Central appliance and connects it to the clusters which can be done in a matter of seconds per cluster. No historical data is lost as the data is maintained on the clusters being managed.

Because Acropolis requires no additional components, it all but eliminates the design/implementation and operational complexity for management compared to other virtualization / HCI offerings.

Other supported hypervisors commonly require multiple management VMs and backend databases even for relatively small scale/simple deployments just to provide basic administration, patching and operations management capabilities.

Acropolis has zero dependencies during the installation phase, customers can implement a fully featured AHV environment without any existing hardware/software in the datacenter. Not only does this make initial deployment easy, but it also removes the complexity around interoperability when patching or upgrading in the future.

Ease of Management

Nutanix XCP clusters running any hypervisor can be managed individually using Prism Element or centrally via Prism Central.

Prism Element requires no installation; it is available and performs optimally out-of-the-box. Administrators can access Prism Element via the XCP Cluster IP address or via any Controller VM IP address.

Administrators of Legacy virtualization products often need to use hypervisor-specific tools to complete various tasks requiring design/deployment and management of these components and their dependencies. With AHV, all hypervisor level functionality is completed via Prism providing a true single pane of glass interface for everything from Storage, Compute, Backup, Data Replication, Hardware monitoring and more.

The image below shows the PRISM Central Home Screen that provides a high-level summary of all clusters in the environment. From this screen, you can drill down to individual clusters to get more granular information where required.

PRISMcentraloverview

Administrators perform all upgrades from PRISM without the requirement for external update management applications/appliances/VMs or supporting back end databases.

PRISM performs one-click fully automated rolling upgrades to all components including Hypervisor, Acropolis Base Platform (formally known as NOS), Firmware and Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC).

For a demo of Prism Central see the following YouTube video:

Further Reduced Storage Complexity

Storage has long been, and continues for many customers to be, a major hurdle to successful virtual environments. Nutanix has essentially made storage invisible over the past few years by removing the requirement for dedicated Storage Area Networks, Zoning, Masking, RAID and LUNs. When combined with AHV, XCP has taken this innovation yet another big step forward by removing the concepts of datastores/mounts and virtual SCSI controllers.

For each Virtual Machine disk, AHV presents the vDisk directly to the VM, and the VM simply sees the vDisk as if it were a physically attached drive. There is no in-guest configuration. It just works.

This means there is no complexity around how many virtual SCSI controllers to use, or where to place a VM or vDisk and as such, Acropolis has eliminated the requirement for advanced features to manage virtual machine placement and capacity management such as vSphere’s Storage DRS.

Don’t get me wrong, Storage DRS is a great feature which helps solve serious problems with traditional storage.  With XCP these problems just don’t exist.

For more details see:  Storage DRS and Nutanix – To use, or not to use, that is the question?

The following screen shot shows just how simple vDisks appear under the VM configuration menu in Prism Element. There is no need to assign vDisks to Virtual SCSI controllers which ensures vDisks can be added quickly and perform optimally.

VMdisks

Node Configuration

Configuring an AHV environment via Prism automatically applies all changes to each node within the cluster. Critically, Acropolis Host Profiles functionality does not need to be enabled or configured, nor do Administrators have to check for compliance or create/apply profiles to nodes.

In AHV all networking is fully distributed similar to the vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) from VMware. AHV network configuration is automatically applied to all nodes within the cluster without requiring the administrator to attach nodes/hosts to the virtual networking. This helps ensure a consistent configuration throughout the cluster.

The reason the above points are so important is each dramatically simplifies the environment by removing (not just abstracting) many complicated design/configuration items such as:

  • Multipathing
  • Deciding How many datastores are required & what size each should be
  • Considering how many VMs should reside per datastore/LUN.
  • Configuration maximums for Datastores / Paths
  • Managing consistent configuration across nodes/hosts
  • Managing Network Configuration

Administrators can optionally join Acropolis built-in authentication to an Active Directory domain, removing the requirement for additional Single Sign-On components. All Acropolis components include High Availability out-of-the-box, removing the requirement to design (and license) HA solutions for individual management components.

Data Protection / Replication

The Nutanix CVM includes built-in data protection and replication components, removing the requirement to design/deploy/manage one or more Virtual Appliances. This also avoids the need to design, implement and scale these components as the environment grows.

All of the data protection and replication features are also available via Prism and, importantly, are configured on a per VM basis making configuration easier and reducing overheads.

Summary

In summary the simplicity of the AHV eliminates:

  1. Single points of failures for all management components out of the box
  2. The requirement for dedicated management clusters for Acropolis components
  3. Dependency on 3rd Party Operating Systems & Database platforms
  4. The requirement for design, implementation and ongoing maintenance for Virtualization management components
  5. The need to design, install, configure & maintain a Web or Desktop type
  6. Complexity such as
    1. The requirement to install software or appliances to allow patching / upgrading
    2. The requirement for an SME to design a solution to make management components highly available
    3. The requirement to follow complex Hardening Guides to achieve security compliance.
    4. The requirement for additional Appliances/interfaces and external dependencies (i.e.: Database Platforms)
  7. The requirement to license features to allow Centralised configuration management of nodes.

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