Unofficial DPTPB Nutanix Dynamic Visio Shapes: NX-3170-G7 & Minor updates

In my earlier post describing NX-8170-G7 and NX-3170-G6 DPTPB Nutanix Dynamic Visio shapes, I was surprised to see that NX-8170-G7 only supported NVMe drives and I was missing a direct G7 generation equivalent for NX-3170-G6. It seems that I wasn’t the only one missing NX-3170-G7 and after all Nutanix decided to introduce NX-3170 also with G7 generation.

So it is time for me to update my Unofficial DPTPB Nutanix Dynamic Visio shape collection. Additionally there has been some changes in supported disk / NIC combinations for existing G7 generation NX appliances and I’ve modified the shapes to reflect these changes.

NX-3170-G7 DPTPB Dynamic Visio shape

Nutanix NX-3170-G7 shares the same basic visual appearance as NX-3170-G6 and NX-8170-G7, so it is only logical that these NX models share the same basic dynamic Visio shape. The differences are implemented by using different parameters for the shapes.

Unlike NX-3170-G6, NX-3170-G7 does not support Nvidia GPUs. My guess that handling thermal loads proved to be problematic with such tightly packed 1U appliance. Already with NX-3170-G6  some of the more power hungry CPUs were not supported with GPU cards.

Additionally no support for HDD drives and thus no support for SSD+HDD hybrid configurations. Since this platform uses 2.5″ drives and the largest 2.5″ HDD drive available is smallish 2TB drive, it does not make much sense to offer SSD+HDD hybrid setup. In most cases if SSD+HDD hybrid configuration is desired, selecting a platform which support larger capacity 3.5″ HDD drives makes more sense, like I’ve described in my earlier post Nutanix Hybrid Selection Guide

NX-3170-G7 DPTPB Dynamic Visio Shape Usage

Follows the same logic as other DPTPB Nutanix Dynamic shapes, behaves much like NX-3170-G6

NX-3170-G7 DPTPB Dynamic Visio Shape Examples

Example: Front View NX-3170-G7 with Bezel

nx-3170-g7_bezel

Example: Front View NX-3170-G7 AllFlash  (6×7.68TB SSD):

nx-3170-g7_all_flash_6x768

Example: Front View NX-3170-G7  NVMe + SSD (4×3.84TB SSD+ 2×7.68TB NVMe): 

nx-3170-g7_ssd_nvme

Example: Front View NX-3170-G7  SED SSD (2×1.92TB SED SSD):

nx-3170-g7_ssdsed

Example: Rear View NX-3170-G7 with 1x Quad 10GbE sfp+ NIC

nx-3170-g7_rear_quad_10Gbe_sfp

Example: Rear View NX-3170-G7 with 2x Dual 40GbE qsfp+ NICs + port labels

nx-3170-g7_rear_2xdual_40Gbe_qsfp_labeled

NX-3170-G7 Spec Sheet Errata

Nutanix NX-3170-G7 spec sheet follows the same quality standard as previous spec sheets, unfortunately the standard is not very high… I’ve covered these issues in-depth in a separate post Nutanix Spec Sheet Errata, it took just mere 5204 words to cover the issues… It is really shame that for such a wonderful product as Nutanix, the supporting documentation is such poor quality.

Screenshot from spec sheet:

nx-3170-g7_nic_options

  • Which is it? two or three NICs supported?
  • My guess is that is two NICs is supported and the supporting image was borrowed from NX-8170-G7
  • How hard would it be to get matching illustration and text?

Although RECREATIONAL weed is now legal in California, maybe abstain or limit consumption while WORKING and making the specs sheets 🙂

Updates to existing DPTPB Nutanix shapes

NVMe drive sizes

In previous versions of the Nutanix G7 NX appliance spec sheets NVMe drives had advertised capacities of 2TB and 4 TB. With the latest release of the spec sheets these sizes have been modified

  • 2TB -> 1.92TB
  • 4TB -> 3.84TB

Additionally there is a 7.68TB NVMe drive supported with select NX models

Changes to DPTPB Nutanix shapes

  • Modified NVMe sizes for NX models using NVMe drives

SED HDD drive sizes

Additional NX platforms support 12TB SED HDD drives

Changes to DPTPB Nutanix shapes

  • Modified SED HDD sizes for NX models using these drives

NX-3155G-G7

Previously Quad 10GbE sfp+ NIC had different PCI slot assignment order than the rest of the NICs. With the latest release of the spec sheets this has changed and there is no difference anymore.

NX-3155G-G7 also now supports using three Quad 10GbE spf+ adapters

Changes to DPTPB Nutanix shapes

  • Modified PCI slot assignment rules for NX-3155G-G7
  • Added new allowed NIC combination: 3xQuad 10GbE spf+

NX-8150-G7

Previously NX-8155-G7 supported adding new disk drives in increments of four drives. Currently it is supported to add drives in increments of two drives (like with most of the NX models).

NX-8150-G7 supports using 7.68TB NVMe  & 7.68TB SSD drives. To avoid exceeding platform maximum disk capacity there are some new rules regarding allowed disk size combinations

  • All SSD
    • When using 7.68TB SSD the maximum number of drives is limited to 16 (of 24 drives)
  • NVMe + SSD
    • 7.68 TB SSDs with 1.92 TB or 3.84 TB NVMe: Maximum of 14 SSDs + 4 NVMe
    • 7.68 TB SSDs with 7.68 TB NVMe: Maximums of 12 SSDs + 4 NVMe

Changes to DPTPB Nutanix shapes

  • Updated NX-8150-G7 disk usage “rules” to follow the spec sheet

NX-8155-G7

Some changes to supported disk drive combinations with SSD+HDD hybrid setups + added support for 7.68TB SSD drive

Previously it was supported to use 8TB HDD drives with 1.92TB SSD drives. Currently using  2×1.92TB with NX-8155-G7 limits the HDD drive to 6TB.

Changes to DPTPB Nutanix shapes

  • Updated NX-8155-G7 disk usage “rules” to follow the spec sheet

Spec sheets used

Above information is based on following Nutanix NX appliance spec sheets

  • System Specifications for Single-Node G7 Platforms
    • June 3, 2020
  • System Specifications for Multinode G7 Platforms
    • April 23, 2020

Limitations

Bugs found?

Comments regarding any possible bugs can be left in the comments section of this post, your help is much appreciated

Downloads

  • Please visit the Nutanix stencil download page for the latest stencil package.
  • Since these are unofficial Visio shapes, they are not available on visiocafe.com, where the official stencil package resides.

Further documentation

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