Nutanix Files is a scalable File Serving solution, which can be accessed by hundred’s or thousands of users. 

High availability is a core tenet of Nutanix Files, but how does Nutanix Files load-balance client requests in order to ensure consistent response times and performance?

Nutanix Files offers two TYPES of Shares (SMB) / Exports (NFS):

DISTRIBUTED SHARE

Distributed shares and exports distribute data by dividing the top-level directories across all the FSVMs that make up the file server. Nutanix Files maintains the directory mapping for each responsible FSVM using InsightsDB. FSVMs use DFS referrals for SMB and junctions for NFSv4 to make sure that clients can connect to the right top-level directories. Distributed share directories work well for home shares and exports because Nutanix Files automatically spreads the workload over multiple FSVMs per user. Distributed shares and exports don’t allow files in the root.

STANDARD SHARE

A standard share is an SMB share or NFS export hosted by a single FSVM. A distributed share spreads the workload by distributing the hosting of top-level directories across FSVMs, which also simplifies administration. Standard shares and exports do not distribute top-level directories. A single file server always owns the files and subfolders for standard shares and exports.

Load Balancing:

Load balancing occurs on two levels. First, a client can connect to any one of the FSVMs and users can add FSVMs as needed. Second, on the storage side, Nutanix Files can redistribute volume groups to different FSVMs for better load balancing across nodes.

Nutanix Files maintain usage statistics and patterns to detect per-FSVM load (in terms of CPU and memory utilisation) and per–volume group load (in terms of user connections and latency of operations).

Nutanix Files uses these statistics to make a load balancing recommendation, but the administrator must accept the recommendation before Files carries out the action. Nutanix calls this feature one-click performance optimisation.

Nutanix Files eliminates the need for an external load-balancer to balance client requests for smb or nfs by providing a performant and highly-available file-serving environment.

Please visit the following:

How Nutanix Files Load balances client request - Nutanix Files Tech Note

Nutanix KB to get more insight on How FSVM HA Works