Nutanix seems to have done a soft launch for the next generation G6 hardware. I haven’t seen much marketing around this, but some information is already trickling down. For example HW specifications of G6 platform are already available at Nutanix website.
Quick Notes on G6 Nutanix hardware
- At the moment only available with NX-1065 and NX-3060 series nodes
- G6 hardware is based on Intel Skylake processor family
- (G5 was based on Intel Broadwell)
- Different optimal memory configurations (192GB, 384GB, ..) due to six memory channels with Skylake architecture. G5/Broadwell had four memory lanes with different optimal memory configurations (128GB,256G,512GB,…)
- NX-3060-G6 Nodes have more connectivity options than NX-3060-G5 nodes
- Dual port 10GBaseT (RJ-45) LOM (Lan On Motherboard)
- Two slots for additional NICs
- NX-1065-G5 seems to share some of the new characteristics
- Dual port 10GBaseT (RJ-45) SIOM (Super Micro IO module)
- But only one slot for additional NICs
- I haven’t found a picture of NX-1065-G6, so hard to tell if it shares the same external appearance with NX-3060-G6 or if the hardware is completely different.
Official Nutanix Visio Stencils
Nutanix has also published updated version of their official stencil package on 22-Feb-2018.
To start with something positive:
- New stencils are using vector based graphics and scale nicely
- Some of the NIC ports have connection points
Unfortunately there are quite many negatives:
- The shapes are not in scale, when pulled to drawing they are 30-31 inch wide, when they should be 19″ wide
- There are no connection points to match existing rack shapes
- Some of the NIC ports are missing connection points
I’ve exchanged emails with Nutanix director who is responsible of their Stencils and provided feedback how they could improve their stencils. IMHO the minimum level that they should aim for, would be fixing above deficiencies.
Additionally their shapes are fairly large in size and it takes quite long time to pull their shapes to drawings. And since they are not using modular approach:
- There is no easy way to document partially populated blocks, for example NX-3360-G6, where one of the node slots in a block is empty.
- Nor document various connectivity options with different NICs (10GBaseT, dual port 10GbE sfp+, quad port 10GbE sfp+)
DPTPB Nutanix G6 Visio Stencils
While waiting for Nutanix to fix their own stencil, I decided to update my own DPTPB Nutanix stencil collection. This was fairly trivial task since I am using modular approach with my stencils – just make a new NX-3060-G6 node shape and reuse existing block and NIC shapes. Actually writing this blog post took longer than making the new shapes 🙂
New shapes
NX-x06x-G6 Node shape
The official Nutanix stencil package contains shapes only for G6 generation 3000 series. No official shapes for G6 generation 1000 series. Maybe they look the same like with G5 platform?
picture: Nutanix NX-x060x-G6 (or NX-3060-G6) shape
Nutanix NX-3×60-G6 Block Front View DPTPB Shapes
picture: NX-3160-G6 front shape
picture: NX-3260-G6 front shape
picture: NX-3360-G6 front shape
picture: NX-3460-G6 front shape
Nutanix NX-3×60-G6 Block Rear View DPTPB Shapes
picture: Fully populated NX-3460 Block
picture: Fully populated NX-3460 Block with pre-labeled IPMI ports
picture: NX-3160-G6 Rear View DPTPB Shape
picture: NX-3260-G6 Rear View DPTPB Shape
picture: NX-3360-G6 Rear View DPTPB Shape
picture: NX-3460-G6 Rear View DPTPB Shape
Further instructions on shape usage
Please visit documentation for G5 Nutanix DPTPB Visio shapes
Change of File Format
Since I’ve decided to drop the idea of using VBA with my stencils there is no need to store drawings, stencils and templates in “Macro Enabled” mode, which was causing some unnecessary alerts.
Downloads
Please visit Nutanix – Downloads page for updated stencil packages and sample drawings
DontPokeThePolarBear 