With the recent release of Nutanix AOS 6.8, it’s interesting to reflect on the early days of AOS. I began my journey with the Nutanix software using AOS 3.5, and it’s remarkable to see how much has evolved since then. Back in the day, AOS looked vastly different – no LCM, no FILES, no Prism Central. AHV was in its early stages, VMware still used a thick client, and the HTML5 UI was relatively new.
When considering hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solutions, Nutanix’s Acropolis Operating System (AOS) is a leading option due to its scalability, performance, and management simplicity. As Nutanix AOS has evolved, it has undergone significant improvements, particularly between version 3.5 and newer versions. Let’s take a look!
Introduction to Nutanix AOS: Nutanix AOS is the foundational software that powers Nutanix’s hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platform. It integrates storage, compute, and virtualization into a single, easy-to-manage solution. Nutanix has introduced performance, scalability, and functionality enhancements with each version update.
Then: Overview of Nutanix AOS 3.5: This software’s early version laid the groundwork for hyper-converged infrastructure, key features included:
- Basic HCI Capabilities: Integrated storage, compute, and virtualization.
- Interface: HTML5 Web-based UI.
- VM-Centric Storage Management: Provided VM-centric snapshots, clones, and storage services.
- Data Protection and Resiliency: Initial support for data protection features such as replication, snapshots, and disaster recovery.
- Hardware Support: NX (Supermicro)
- Hypervisor Support: Multiple hypervisors, including VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, were supported, and the KVM hypervisor was generally available.
- KVM would later be renamed to Nutanix’s own Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)
- Initial Automation Features: Basic capabilities for infrastructure management.
Despite its foundational features, AOS 3.5 lacked some advanced capabilities and performance optimizations, as seen in later versions. How does it compare to the newer version of AOS?
Now: Overview of Nutanix AOS 6.8: represents a much more advanced version, with significant enhancements in performance, scalability, and functionality. Key improvements include support for more hypervisors and a more comprehensive range of hardware platforms, advanced data services (deduplication, compression, erasure coding), AI/ML-driven intelligent automation, enhanced security features (such as micro-segmentation and data encryption), and better integration with hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The UI also saw significant changes, including features like Prism Central and advanced data protection options, reflecting a more mature, feature-rich platform.
- Enhanced Performance and Scalability: Significant optimizations in performance for large-scale deployments, including support for more nodes and clusters.
- Hypervisor Support: Multiple hypervisors, including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)
- Hardware Support: NX (Supermicro), Dell XC, Lenovo HX, Fujitsu XF, HPE DX, Cisco HCI.
- Advanced Data Services: Improved data services, including deduplication, compression, and erasure coding, to optimize storage efficiency and performance.
- Intelligent Automation and Operations: Enhanced automation with built-in AI/ML capabilities for predictive analytics, automated scaling, and self-healing infrastructure.
- Expanded Security Features: Comprehensive security features, such as micro-segmentation, data-at-rest encryption, and enhanced compliance capabilities.
- Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Integration: Enhanced support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, including seamless integration with public clouds and better workload mobility.
- Improved Disaster Recovery and Backup: More robust disaster recovery options, including advanced replication and backup strategies.
- Greater Flexibility and Customization: Support for a broader range of hardware platforms and hypervisors, providing customers with more flexibility in their infrastructure choices.
Lets take a look at some of the changes in the UI and Function.
CVM: Services on the CVM have increased as more features have been added; on the left are the services from AOS 3.5, and on the right, we see AOS 6.8. Services went from 16 to 45.
Prism Element Changes
- Home Menu: The menu bar didn’t have much going for it in the past; we had Home (where the Dashboard is located), VM, Storage, Hardware, DR, Analysis, and Alerts. The Network, File Server, Tasks, LCM, and Settings are absent. This is because these features didn’t exist in the early days; there was no File Server, Networking integration, or LCM; in fact, 1-Click wasn’t a thing in the UI. Settings had a dedicated dropdown because fewer were added; as more options were added, it made sense to put those all into their own dedicated section.
- Login Page: In the beginning, the login page for Prism was very animated with traffic lights passing you by, but for example, with later AOS 6.8, we have a paused, by default, star field with consolation that can be animated with a button
- Dashboard: This hasn’t changed much, aside from the addition of Prism Central, Health Status, and Data Resiliency Status.
- VM: Aside from the VM integration, such as creation, updating, deleting, etc., the VM section has remained the same.
- Storage: Volume Group is missing since that didn’t come out until later
- Hardware: There is little change here; it is just a UI upgrade.
- DR (Data Protection): In later versions of AOS, DR was renamed to Data Protection but has essentially stayed the same, with Remote Sites and creating Protection Domains. One thing that changed a bit was scheduling options. In the old version, we only had 1h, 2h, 8h, etc. intervals. Now, there are options for minutes, hours, days, dates and times, start and end dates, etc.
- Analysis: Like Hardware, not much has changed here. The only real change is that a lot more data is collected today.
- Alerts: This section has not changed much compared to Hardware and Analysis; newer versions have a different layout and a filter.
- Tasks: You always had Tash, but they were always in their own section; the only way to get to them was the Task popup or from the Events tabs in Alerts
Summary: Nutanix’s Acropolis Operating System (AOS) is a powerful choice for hyper-converged infrastructure due to its scalability, performance, and ease of management. Over time, AOS has evolved significantly, with substantial improvements from version 3.5 to today.
Nutanix AOS 3.5, laid the foundational framework for HCI, offering basic integration of storage, compute, and virtualization. Key features included a simple HTML5-based UI, basic data protection (such as replication and snapshots), and initial support for multiple hypervisors. However, AOS 3.5 lacked advanced capabilities like comprehensive automation, extensive hardware support, and more robust data services.
Overall, Nutanix AOS 3.5 was a substantial advancement over other products when it came out. Providing better performance, more robust features, and enhanced capabilities tailored to modern IT needs for businesses leveraging HCI when it first came out.
Is this something you are interested in? Did I miss something?
Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think!
