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Deploying Nutanix Files on a 3 nodes (AHV)

  • November 21, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 24 views
Daniel Martinez
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Hi,

I need to deploy a Nutanix Files service on a 3-node AHV cluster. The goal is to replace an old Windows File Server, so once the deployment is done I will need to migrate all the data to the new Nutanix Files setup.

While reviewing the Nutanix documentation, I’m a bit confused about the deployment requirements. Specifically:

  1. How many IP addresses are required for Nutanix Files in this scenario?
    From what I understand, the minimum seems to be around 7 IPs

    • 3 for FSVMs

    • 1 for Data Service

    • 1 for VIP

    • 1 or 2 for internal services

  2. Why is it recommended to place those IPs in a separate subnet/VLAN?
    I’m not sure if this is mandatory or just a best practice.

Thanks.

2 replies

S
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  • swischer
  • Trailblazer
  • November 22, 2025

Hi ​@Daniel Martinez ,

for a Files cluster with 3 FSVMs, you should plan the following IP addresses:

Client Network

Used by SMB/NFS clients and directory services (AD, DNS, etc.).

  • 1 × Virtual IP (VIP)
    Floating Files service VIP that clients use as the primary access address.
  • 3 × FSVM client IPs
    One client IP per FSVM for data access and communication with client-side services.

Backend Network

Used for storage and internal traffic between FSVMs and the Nutanix cluster.
Optional: Could be same as Client LAN for test or demo environments to simplify setup.

  • 1 × Data Services IP (if not already configured on your Nutanix Cluster)
    Nutanix Data Services IP is required for storage services (iSCSI/NFS) from the Nutanix cluster and is used by Files to access its backing storage if not already configured.
  • 3 × FSVM backend IPs
    One backend IP per FSVM to connect to the Nutanix storage over iSCSI (Files uses volume groups underneath).

Hope this gives a bit more clarification on the IP requirements and shows that the idea is to separate Client and Storage network but you can see that it is possible also setup a Fileserver environment with all in one Subnet. But most customers separate for several reasons Client and Storage LANs of course.

Hope that helps?

Sebastian

J
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  • jamali.ahmad
  • Trendsetter
  • November 22, 2025

nutanix files, you will have two network (interfaces),client and storage,
now lets say you have N nodes (number of FSVM) in your file server cluster
1-storage:keep the IPs in same subnet as CVMs subnet, you will need N+1 IPs 
2- Client: you will need N IPs for your cluster.

for the part of recommendation, as FSVM will be directly communicating to CVMs , they are always recommended to be in same vlan as CVM (matter a fact, there is a NCC test for this).and client side is recommended to be on separate VLAN as that is a VLAN that you like to be access by end users.(better VLAN and security management)

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