Hardware

The table below shows Nutanix hardware recommendations for Community Edition:

Table 2-1: Hardware Requirements

Component

Nutanix Recommendation

Notes

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Intel CPUs with VT-x support

Four-core minimum because 2 cores are dedicated to the CVM

System memory

16 GB minimum; 32 GB or higher recommended

32 GB or greater recommended for AOS features such as deduplication, compression, or more user VMs

Network interface card (NIC)

Intel-based NIC

Host bus adapter (HBA)

Community Edition supports Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) SATA, or LSI controller with:

  • IT mode

  • IR mode with pass-through

  • IR mode with RAID-0

Storage Devices (all drives)

Maximum number of SSD/HDD drives per node is four

Storage Devices (cold tier)

500 GB or greater available; Maximum 18 TB (3 x 6 TB HDDs)

Hard disk drive (HDD) or Solid-state drive (SSD) for cold-tier storage

Storage Devices (hot tier flash)

Single 200 GB SSD or greater

Place SSD(s) before HDDs (commonly Bay 0 or Bay 1). The first bay number varies depending on manufacturer labeling; NVMe-based drives are not supported

Boot device

One 8 GB capacity device per node. It can be an external or internal device

Nutanix has successfully tested and used external USB drives and internal devices such as a SATA DOM. USB 3.0 media recommended

Firmware

Consider updating the firmware for any hardware you plan to use to the latest version recommended by the hardware vendor

Source: Nutanix. (2020). “Getting Started with Nutanix Community Edition”

If you use a USB flash device as your boot drive, do not remove it while the server is running!

2.1 Cluster Sizing

Community Edition supports up to four (4) nodes in a single cluster. Nutanix recommends deploying a three-node cluster to reap the most benefit from the platform. If you deploy a single node cluster, you will not be able to take advantage of Nutanix’s high-availability (HA) features.

It is not possible to extend a one or two node cluster. Moving from a one or two-node cluster requires destroying the existing cluster and all VMs.

Discuss these limitations with the customer before recommending a cluster size.

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