What is nutanix acropolis hypervisor(AHV)?

Nutanix acropolis hypervisor revolutionized the industry with its unique approach to simplifying data center operations through an integrated software solution that converges computing, storage, and networking.

More and more organisations are asking IT teams to spend less time on infrastructure and more time and budget on application services that add value to the business.

Despite continuous improvements in IT hardware and software, the infrastructure pressures on IT teams continue unabated.

IT infrastructure and virtualisation software that meets the needs of the business is often complex and expensive, and data centre management can be a headache, with IT staff spending too much time and effort just to keep the infrastructure running.

Traditional infrastructures use siloed storage systems, storage networks, and servers.

This model no longer meets the demands of growing enterprise applications or the rapid pace of growth of the modern enterprise.

The silos created by legacy infrastructure have become a barrier to change and progress, adding complexity to all steps from ordering, to deployment, to management.

New business projects need to gain buy-in from multiple teams and must anticipate IT needs three to five years down the road.

As most IT teams know, this is a nearly impossible task.

In addition, vendor lock-in and increasing licence costs are stretching IT budgets to breaking point.

How to change?

Today’s enterprise IT teams are looking for new ways to deliver on-premise IT services, hoping to achieve the speed and efficiency of public cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine.

Hyper-converged infrastructures take their cue from the operating models of Internet giants, combining x86-based compute and storage resources with intelligent software to eliminate common pain points associated with traditional infrastructures.

Nutanix offers Web-Scale hyper-converged infrastructure that eliminates the need to purchase separate servers, storage devices and storage networks.

This enables organisations to start up and scale quickly and without disruption, so less time is wasted configuring infrastructure and more time is spent adding value to the business.

What is nutanix acropolis hypervisor?

Nutanix Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) brings a new level of simplicity and operational efficiency to your data centre and remote sites.

It is ideally suited to deliver high performance and unmatched resiliency to enterprise applications and virtual desktops.

Nutanix core products include the industry’s highly popular hyperconverged infrastructure solution, Nutanix Acropolis, for organisations of all sizes, from small offices to large data centres.

With its elegant consumer simplicity, you don’t need specialised IT skills to deploy and manage your infrastructure, enabling cloud-like agility and flexibility!

Nutanix enables the convergence of the entire data centre stack, including compute, storage, storage networking and virtualisation.

Replacing complex and expensive legacy infrastructure with simple 2U appliances helps organisations start small and scale up: one node at a time.

Each server, also known as a node, is equipped with Intel-core x86 hardware, as well as flash solid state drives (SSDs) and mechanical hard drives (HDDs).

Nutanix software running on each node distributes all operational functions across the cluster for superior performance and flexibility.

A Nutanix cluster can have an unlimited number of nodes.

Different hardware platforms are available to address different workload requirements for compute and storage, and Nutanix software is hardware-independent, running on Nutanix hardware as well as hardware provided by hardware OEMs such as Dell and Lenovo.

The hardware platform is available in “compute-intensive,” “storage-intensive,” and “storage-only” options.

All nodes include flash memory and are designed to optimise storage performance. All-flash nodes are also available for lowest latency and maximum I/O traffic for all enterprise applications.

nutanix acropolis hypervisor architecture

nutanix acropolis hypervisor architecture includes three main components:

Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF)

An application-specific enterprise storage service that eliminates the need for separate solutions from vendors such as NetApp, EMC and HP.

Comprehensive performance acceleration, data compression, data protection and other capabilities

Full support for VMware® vSphere, Microsoft® Hyper-V and Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor

Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)

Locally built virtualisation solution

AHV is based on the proven Linux KVM Hypervisor, hardened to meet the most stringent enterprise security requirements

ntegrated management through Prism

Application Mobility Framework (AMF)

Provides intelligent virtual machine (VM) deployment, migration, Hypervisor transformation and cross-Hypervisor high availability for maximum flexibility.

Distributed Storage Framework (DSF)

Acropolis Distributed Storage Fabric is designed to simplify storage and data management for virtual environments.

DSF centralises flash and hard drive storage from Nutanix clusters, exporting it to the virtualisation layer for sharing over iSCSI, NFS, and SMB, eliminating the need for SAN and NAS solutions.

Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor Vs VMware vSphere

Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) and VMware vSphere are two popular virtualization solutions that allow users to create and manage virtual machines (VMs) on a physical server.

However, they have some differences in terms of features, performance, and cost. Here are some of the main points of comparison between them:

Free And Paid

Nutanix acropolis hypervisor is a free and open-source hypervisor that is integrated with the Nutanix Cloud Platform, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and management in a single, software-defined platform.

VMware vSphere is a proprietary and licensed hypervisor that is part of the VMware Cloud Foundation, a hybrid cloud platform that integrates vSphere with other VMware products, such as vSAN, NSX, and vRealize.

AHV is designed to be simple and intuitive, with a consumer-grade user interface and automated workflows.

Users can easily create, manage, and migrate VMs and containers for applications and cloud-native workloads.

VMware vSphere or  vm srm is more complex and technical, with a steeper learning curve and more manual configuration.

Users need to have a good understanding of VMware products and technologies to use vSphere effectively.

Main Features

AHV offers all the features that users need to meet their service level agreements (SLAs), such as high availability, live migration, dynamic scheduling, VM HA, and metro clustering.

AHV also supports memory overcommit, VM affinity, vNUMA, automated CPU compatibility, AHV turbo, and an optimized storage stack, to ensure high utilization and performance.

VMware vSphere also offers similar features, but some of them require additional licenses or products, such as vSphere HA, vMotion, DRS, and vSAN.

License

Nutanix acropolis hypervisor  eliminates the need for expensive and complex virtualization licenses, as it is included in the Nutanix Cloud Platform at no extra cost.

AHV also reduces the operational costs, as users can spend less time deploying and managing VMs and containers, and benefit from the efficiency and scalability of the Nutanix HCI platform.

VMware vSphere requires users to purchase licenses for the hypervisor and other VMware products, which can be costly and restrictive.

VMware vSphere also involves more operational costs, as users need to spend more time and resources on maintaining and upgrading the VMware stack.

Management Tool

AHV leverages the Nutanix Prism management tool, which provides a unified and holistic view of the entire infrastructure, and enables one-click upgrades, troubleshooting, and optimization.

Prism also integrates with other Nutanix technologies, such as data protection, disaster recovery, security, and automation, without requiring additional installation or configuration.

VMware vSphere uses the VMware vCenter Server management tool, which provides a centralized and granular control of the VMware environment, and enables advanced features, such as vSphere Distributed Switch,

VMware vSphere Update Manager, and vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management. vCenter Server also integrates with other VMware products, but some of them require separate installation or configuration.

In conclusion, AHV and vSphere are both capable and reliable virtualization solutions, but they have different strengths and weaknesses.

AHV is more suitable for users who want a simple, scalable, and secure virtualization solution that empowers them to run any application, on any platform, at any scale.

VMware vSphere is more suitable for users who want a complex, powerful, and flexible virtualization solution that enables them to run a variety of VMware products and technologies.

Users can choose the best virtualization solution for their needs based on their preferences and requirements.

Conclusion

Virtualization is a key technology for modern IT environments, as it enables businesses to run multiple operating systems and applications on the same physical hardware, reducing costs, improving performance, and enhancing security.

However, not all virtualization solutions are created equal.

Some are complex, expensive, and difficult to manage, while others are limited, outdated, and incompatible.

Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) is a different kind of virtualization solution.

It is a native and integrated part of the Nutanix Cloud Platform, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and management in a single, software-defined platform.

AHV is a free and open-source hypervisor that is based on the Linux KVM foundation and extends its capabilities with enterprise-grade features and cloud-like simplicity.

Nutanix acropolis hypervisor is the next-generation hypervisor for the hybrid cloud era.

It delivers a simple, scalable, and secure virtualization solution that empowers businesses to run any application, on any platform, at any scale.

We hope that the content of this article and related technical details will help you better understand the nutanix acropolis hypervisor.