2020-09-08T04:53:00Z

What is best for use with vSphere 7: VxRail or Nutanix nodes?

Hey peers,

The purpose is academic - we want to install GPU cards to test automation with access to vGPU. 

Thank you!

DJ
System Administrator for virtual platforms at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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5 Answers
DJ
System Administrator for virtual platforms at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
2020-09-10T12:07:59Z
Sep 10, 2020

"Nutanix node you will be running vSphere on top on the underlining Nutanix software" This description is incorrect. 


There is no "layer" between the hardware and the OS which is ESXI hypervisor on both cases.

Product comparison that may be of interest to you
BW
Technical Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
MSP
2020-09-11T17:53:23Z
Sep 11, 2020

While both systems do a very good job within the nodal limits for scaling a compute environment - it is the networking layer that has the most impact on GPU sharing across a cluster.  From a practical perspective, VxRail nodes will typically offer a discount over native Nutanix nodes.  With Nutanix you also need servers, disk, networking and GPU's.  VxRail will be more integrated with sized nodes, Dell, Cisco or other networking and often the VSphere 7 licenses can be integrated - achieving a lower net cost.  


Testing for optimizations on either VSAN or Nutanix to see which favors a vGPU system would be something I would like to see quantified.  My guess is they are network constrained and differences between VxRail and a build your own Nutanix environment will be negligible for the same network.  Would be good to confirm if there is an optimal point - say 40Gbps vs 10Gbps or 100Gbps for the inter-GPU message passing.

RG
Administrator at Latix NS
User
2021-09-06T04:52:17Z
Sep 6, 2021

I don't know the technical details, but if you want to work with the VMware hypervisor it would be best to select the VxRail platform, which is a part of Dell and VMware.


The Nutanix platform would be the option to select if you are thinking of changing the VMware hypervisor for the Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor, which, besides working very well, has no cost and could represent savings to the customer.

RP
Unit Manager & Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reseller
2020-09-08T09:13:51Z
Sep 8, 2020

Best option for vSphere 7 is the VxRail as it designed on VMware technology and built in integrates with vSphere, on a Nutanix node you will be running vSphere on top on the underlining Nutanix software. 

Steffen Hornung - PeerSpot reviewer
Administrator at Neuberger Gebäudeautomation GmbH
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2020-12-31T11:10:38Z
Dec 31, 2020

Ok, I have no hands-on with vxRail. 
But we have vGPU running on Nutanix with ESXi (vsphere). I am not aware of something like vGPU sharing across nodes/hosts. You did not mention which solution you have in mind as you would be about to choose in the process.


We have Citrix XenDesktop running. It works really smoothly most of the time. We only encountered a lagging problem once every few weeks which we are yet to solve. Perhaps something running in the back of our net.


With Nutanix you would have a solid base to work with.


You did not mention what automation is to be used. You could use something like Nutanix Calm as an automation solution.

further reading: Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop on Nutanix


Dev-Test: Cloud Development Environment & Testing Solutions | Nutanix


Let me know which platform you have in mind to narrow down suggestions.

Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. VxRail and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
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