Visio by DPTPB: Nutanix stencil G6 (Skylake) update, Vol3

Now that it is holiday season and business has somewhat slowed down, I have time to update BPTPB Nutanix Visio stencil collection with new G6 generation hardware shapes.

Nutanix themselves have stepped up their game when it comes to their Visio stencils, my main gripe with using raster images is now resolved as they are using nicely scaling vector images.

But there are still some issues, like some of their shapes are not is scale and funky/missing connection points. Also I’d like to see some additional features, like separate NIC shapes, modular shapes with separate block and node shapes and some optimisation with shapes sizes (and shape placement times). I ‘ve tried to convey my thoughts on how they could improve their shapes and have exchanged few emails with their illustrator responsible for Visio shapes, but I haven’t heard from them for a while. It seems that they ran out of time or money allocated to Visio or got bored my constant tinkering…

Nutanix NX-1065-G6 and NX-3060-G6

With previous version of DPTPB stencil collection there was a slight scale issue with these shapes. In G6 generation power supplies are narrower than in G5 generation. To save some time I used G5 block shape with the first iteration of DPTPB G6 shapes, which in turn led to too narrow node shapes and no room for correctly sized NIC shapes. I’ve fixed this now with new G6 4N2U block shape with narrower power supplies and wider node shapes.

NX-1065-G6 and NX-3060-G6 share the same basic DPTPB shape, only difference is the number of NICs per node, with NX-1065-G6 you can use only one NIC and with NX-3060-G6 you can use two NICs.

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix Block NX-1465-G6 rear view shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix Block NX-3460-G6 rear view shape

Nutanix NX-3170-G6

NX-317x model series was originally meant for VDI type workloads and can be equipped with Nvidia GPU cards. In Nutanix node model naming scheme the last number in the model number indicates the form factor for SSDs/HDDs, 5 = 3.5″ drives, 0 = 2.5″ drives. In G5 generation the model number was NX-3175, i.e it was equipped with 3.5″ drives, four SSDs/HDDs per node in total. In G6 generation the SSD/HDD form factor was changed to 2.5″, thus the model number changed from NX-3175- to NX-3170. Smaller disk drive form factor means also that more disk drives can be equipped in this 1U chassis, 8x SAS/SATA + 2xNVMe.

With G5 generation most of  the time this node model was sold to VDI type workloads with GPU cards, but it seems that NX-3170-G6 model is also popular with non-VDI type workloads, especially with All Flash configurations. I’ve already had few projects where customer previously bought NX-3460-G5 models (four-nodes-in-2U), but when upgrading their environment, they went for NX-3170-G6 (one-node-in-1U). This was mainly because of storage configuration flexibility, they could start with partially populated nodes and add drives as needed (2-,4-,6- and 8-drive All Flash configurations are available).

Some also liked the fact that the nodes were truly “shared nothing” and each node had their own power supplies and fans, where as multiple node blocks, like NX-3460, have common power supplies and fans shared by the nodes residing in that block and in the unlikely event of dual power supply failure, multiple nodes would go down.

Other use case for this node model is database workloads where core or socket based software licensing can cause cost issues. NX-3170-G6 can be equipped for example with “2 x Intel Xeon Gold_6128, 6-core Skylake @ 3.4 GHz (12 cores per node)” or “2 x Intel Xeon Gold_6144, 8-core Skylake @ 3.5 GHz (16 cores per node)”. By maximizing CPU GHz and minimising CPU core count the software licensing costs can be cut down while maintaining the same (or better) level of performance.

Nutanix NX-3170-G6 specifications:

• Form factor:
  • 1 node in 1U
•  CPU
  • 2 x Intel Skylake processors
• Memory
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 32 GB, RDIMM
    • 192 GB – 768 GB
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 64 GB, LRDIMM
    • 384 GB – 1.5 TB
• Disk drives
  • 2.5″ form factor
  • Hybrid: 2x SSD + 6x HDD
  • All Flash: 2x / 4x / 6x / 8x SSD (SATA/SAS)
  • All Flash NVMe: 2x NVMe + 8x SSD (SATA/SAS)
• GPU :
  • Nvidia M10, P40
• Two PCI slots
  • Either two NICs
  • or
  • One NIC and one GPU
• On-board ports
  • 2 x 10GBaseT
  • 1 x IPMI

DPTPB Nutanix NX-3170-G6 Visio shape

While the original Nutanix NX-3170-G6 visio shape is adequate for basic Visio usage, I wanted to make few improvements:

• Added compatible connection points for separate DPTPB NIC and GPU shapes. The original Nutanix NX-3170-G6 shapes have hard-coded two dual-port sfp+ NIC cards  and no option to document other NIC/GPU combinations.
• Relocated port connection points roughly to the middle of the port. The original connection points were placed less optimally and adjacent connection points were not aligned, which made cabling look funky. Also IPMI port was missing a connection point.
• Added coloured boxes around IPMI, monitor and serial ports (like found in other G6 hardware).
• Reduced shape size by collapsing product image into single background image.  This will make shape usage faster.

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-3170-G6 front view bezel shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix Block NX-3170-G6 rear view shape

Picture: Nutanix original NX-3170-G6 front view shape

NX-3155G-G6

2U form factor 1-node cousin of NX-3170-G6. The disk form factor for this model has not changed between G5 and G6 generations and this model is still equipped with 3.5″ drives, 6 SATA/SAS drives in total. The main selling point of this model is capability to have two Nvidia GPU cards, enabling more GPU density per CPU socket, it also support the latest Nivida V100 GPU (no V100 support with NX-3170-G6 at the time of writing). Otherwise I would expect this model end up used mostly in VDI projects requiring lot of storage space, typically in hybrid configuration, with All Flash configurations NX-3170-G6  is more rack space efficient.

Nutanix NX-3155G-G6 specifications:

• Form factor:
  • 1 node in 2U
•  CPU
  • 2 x Intel Skylake processors
  • No High Ghz / low core-count CPU options!! Wonder why since some of the “single-threaded” CAD applications would greatly benefit from these CPUs?
• Memory
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 32 GB, RDIMM
    • 192 GB – 768 GB
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 64 GB, LRDIMM
    • 384 GB – 1.5 TB
• Disk drives
  • 3.5″ form factor
  • Hybrid: 2x SSD + 4x HDD
  • All Flash: 6x SSD (SATA/SAS)
  • 6 unused disk bays
• GPU
  • Nvidia M10, P40, V100
• Four PCI slots
  • Two Nvidia GPUs + two NICs
  • or
  • One Nvidia GPU + three NICs
  • HW Platform itself has additional PCI slots which are unused or used by HBA cards
• On-board ports
  • 2 x 10GBaseT
  • 1 x IPMI

DPTPB Nutanix NX-3155G-G6 Visio shape

No Nutanix original shape in their own Visio stencil collection, using their NX-8155-G6 shapes as donor shape. Like with G5 generation NX-x155 platforms share the same basic hardware architecture, with slight variations on PCI slot assignments. DPTPB NX-3155G-G6 visio shape is the same basic shape as DPTPB NX-8155-G6.

• Added compatible connection points for separate DPTPB NIC and GPU shapes.
• Added coloured boxes around IPMI, monitor and serial ports (like found in other G6 hardware).
• Reduced shape size by collapsing product image into single background image.  This will make shape usage faster.

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-3155G-G6 front view bezel shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-3155G-G6 rear view shape

NX-8035-G6

2 Node in 2U, not much has changed between G5 and G6 generations, most significant changes: Intel Skylake processors and 10GBase-T on-board ports instead of 1GbE.

Nutanix NX-8035-G6 specifications:

• Form factor:
  • 2 nodes in 2U
•  CPU
  • 2 x Intel Skylake processors / Node
• Memory / Node
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 16 GB, RDIMM
    • 96 GB
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 32 GB, RDIMM
    • 192 GB – 768 GB
• Disk drives / Node
  • 3.5″ form factor
  • Hybrid: 2x SSD + 4x HDD
  • All Flash: 2x/4x/6x SSD (SATA/SAS)
  • All Flash NVMe: 2x NVME + 4x SSD (SATA/SAS)
• Two PCI slots
• On-board ports
  • 2 x 10GBaseT
  • 1 x IPMI

DPTPB Nutanix NX-8035-G6 Visio shape

Few issues with the original Nutanix shape: both front and rear view shapes are not in correct scale, when pulled to a drawing they are around 304″ wide, when they should be  19″ wide. You can obviously manually fix this by changing the object width to 19″, but you shouldn’t have to. Also the shape is HUGE, with plethora of sub shapes, making it very slow to use. On my fairly beefy laptop (Lenovo P51) it took over 30 seconds to pull this shape to a drawing, Visio was hanging in “Not responding” state and I was afraid that my Visio would crash…

• Corrected the scale issue
• Reduced shape size by collapsing product image into single background image.  This will make shape usage faster, much, MUCH faster
• Made the shape modular: separate empty block shape, separate node shape, separate NIC shapes. Much easier shape maintenance and much more options to document different configurations.
• Added compatible connection points for separate DPTPB NIC and GPU shapes. The original Nutanix NX-3170-G6 shapes have hard-coded two dual-port sfp+ NIC cards  and no option to document other NIC/GPU combinations.
• Added coloured boxes around IPMI, monitor and serial ports (like found in other G6 hardware).

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8135-G6 front view bezel shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8235-G6 front view bezel shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8135-G6 rear view shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8235-G6 rear view shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8035-G6 empty block rear view shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8035-G6 node rear view shape

Picture: Nutanix original NX-8035-G6 front view shape

NX-8155-G6

In G6 generation disk form factor has changed for this node model, instead of 24 x 2.5″ drives there are now 12 x 3.5″ drives.

Nutanix NX-8155-G6 specifications:

• Form factor:
  • 1 node in 2U
•  CPU
  • 2 x Intel Skylake processors
• Memory
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 32 GB, RDIMM
    • 192 GB – 768 GB
  • DDR4-2666, 1.2V, 64 GB, LRDIMM
    • 768 GB – 1.5 TB
• Disk drives
  • 3.5″ form factor
  • Hybrid: 2x / 4x SSD + 8x / 10x HDD
  • All Flash:  4x / 6x / 8x / 10x / 12x SSD (SATA/SAS)
  • All Flash NVMe: 2x NVMe + 10x SSD (SATA/SAS)
• Three PCI slots
• On-board ports
  • 2 x 10GBaseT
  • 1 x IPMI

DPTPB Nutanix NX-8155-G6 Visio shape

Few issues with the original Nutanix shapes. It seems that they cut some corners and are actually using a G5 shape as a base shape ( no colored boxes around IPMI, serial and monitor ports). Further more they’ve used wrong shape with four RJ-45 ports on-board,  NX-8155-G6 has only two RJ-45 ports + IPMI port. Both original front and rear view shapes share the same shape size issue as the original NX-8035-G6 shape and it will take loooong time to pull them to a drawing, around 25-30 seconds.

• Reduced shape size by collapsing product image into single background image.  This will make shape usage faster, much, MUCH faster
• Added compatible connection points for separate DPTPB NIC  shapes. The original Nutanix NX-8155-G6 shapes have hard coded NIC shapes, weirdly one dual port sfp+ and two quad port sfp+ adapters (and no option to document other NIC combinations).
• Added coloured boxes around IPMI, monitor and serial ports (like found in other G6 hardware).

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8155-G6 front view bezel shape

Picture: DPTPB Nutanix NX-8155-G6 rear view shape

Picture: Nutanix original NX-8155-G6 front view shape

Picture: Nutanix original NX-8155-G6 rear view shape

New Low-Profile (LP) and Full-Height (FH) NIC / GPU shapes

Nutanix is actually using two different form factor with NICs and GPUs, full height and low profile. Previous version of DPTPB collection had only one form factor for adapters, which some times led to weird looking drawings. I’ve now added various NICs and GPU cards in both form factors, Low-profile = LP and Full-Height = FH. Low profile adapter shapes are typically used with multi-node blocks like NX-1065/NX-3060 and full height adapter shapes are typically used with single node (NX-8155-G6) and dual node blocks (NX-8035-G6). Some models use both form factor  (NX-3170-G6 / NX-3155-G6 ), where NIC1 is low profile and NIC2/GPU(s) are full height adapters.

Picture: Low-Profile (LP) DPTPB adapter shapes

Picture: Full-Height (FH) DPTPB adapter shapes

You might also want to take a look at Unofficial DPTPB Nutanix Dynamix Shapes, which are more user friendly and faster to use than the official Nutanix shapes, while at the same time provide capability to produce more detailed drawings. Even if you don’t care about the advanced dynamic features, I recommend using the dynamic shapes as they contain some bug fixes for the official Nutanix stencil.

Downloads

Please visit Nutanix Downloads page for updated DPTPB Nutanix stencil collection and sample drawings.