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Hi,

 

I’m new to Nutanix and I have many questions that I would appreciate getting answers to. It’s a very confusing topic for me and I looked for answers but either didn’t find or just got more confused. I apologize if the answers already exist on the forum.

I’m helping a friend setup a 3 node cluster on Nutanix CE. Each node has 1TB 2.5” SSD for CVM, 1TB 2.5” for data and a 32GB/64GB USB drive for AHV. We were able to install CE on one of the nodes as a start, with some errors that didn’t seem to affect the installation and setup, like “Failed to start Systems Management Device Drivers. See ‘systemct1 status instsvcdrv.service’ for details”. We didn’t know what that meant or where to check, but the installation was ok.

  • To create a 3 node cluster, do I have to setup CE on each node separately, assign IP addresses for the Host and CVM for each, and then run the command 
    cluster -s cvm1_ip_addr,cvm2_ip_addr,... create ?
  • If I create a single node cluster, can I add more nodes to the cluster later?
  • Does each VM have to have its own subnet?
  • Are VM’s automatically created on the data drive?
  • If the data drive fails, can I hot swap it and re-create the VM’s or restore them from a back up?

 

i appreciate any help and answers I can get.

Thanks!

The errors during CE installation can, most of the time, be ignored. As the bits are also for the commercial version and you are installing it on non-commercial-version-hardware ;) 

 

Lets try to answer all you questions: 

  • To create a 3 node cluster, do I have to setup CE on each node separately, assign IP addresses for the Host and CVM for each, and then run the command 
    cluster -s cvm1_ip_addr,cvm2_ip_addr,... create ? - Correct. But the create cluster command has to be done only one (1) time on one (1) cvm;
  • If I create a single node cluster, can I add more nodes to the cluster later? - No, single node clusters cannot be expanded. You need to destroy the single node cluster and then create the three node cluster (2 node clusters aren’t possible)
  • Does each VM have to have its own subnet? - Do you mean the CVM? In that case, NO. All CVM's and AHV's need to be in the same subnet. You workload vm's (the virtual machines you create yourself) can be in any subnet/vlan you want. As long as the vlan's are created in the clusters and on the switch ports. 
  • Are VM’s automatically created on the data drive? - You mean the virtual machines you create yourself? Those are placed on the performance tier and later will flow into the capacity tier (when data is cold). The performance tier is the fastest drive in you setup and the capacity tier in the slowest drive in your setup. The is nothing you can configure on this, this will just work out of the box and is one of the awesome features nutanix has in the distributed storage fabric ;) 
  • If the data drive fails, can I hot swap it and re-create the VM’s or restore them from a back up? - Not in CE ;) But you can in the commercial version. 

Just keep in mind, CE is for testing and learning. Not to run production workloads. More info here: https://www.jeroentielen.nl/nutanix-community-edition-the-commercial-version/

Jeroen,

 

Thank you so much for your clear answers. You have no idea how much I appreciate that! :)

I hope it’s ok to bother you with a few more questions, please. But before that, I got couple comments on your reply.

Regarding adding new nodes to a single-node cluster, I have seen videos online, but I checked after I read your answer and it looks like it’s possible on Foundation, not CE Edition.

“Does each VM have to have its own subnet?” I meant the Virtual Machines, but you also answered that one. Thanks!

Regarding where VM’s are saved, yes I meant Virtual Machines that I create. Are they placed on the capacity tier when they aren’t in use? And then they move to the performance tier everytime they are being used? Are those “tiers” on the drives assigned as D (Data) drives? Btw, my Nutanix has 3 1TB 2.5” SSD drives, one for CVM and 2 for data and all of them are same model/speed. Does any data (related to the VM’s) get saved on the CVM drive or is that strictly for CVM?

  • What is the best way to backup the data on CE? I read about snapshots and Protection Domains, and that RAID is not a possibility. How can I configure the disk controller for JBOD? And since I have 2 data drives, can I set one of them for the VM’s and all the work, and the other for the PD’s/Snapshots? If not, is there a better way to backup the data drive/s? Can I do that on an external drive? Can I clone it by plugging it into another computer and create a clone?
  • Is there a way to repair CVM if something goes wrong, like, for example, repairing a Windows/Mac OS?

 

Again, I really appreciate any answer and help on this.

Thanks!

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