Nutanix Foundation: My foundation kit

Nutanix foundation allows you to deploy a Nutanix cluster from bare metal hardware. The process is simple and quick. 

This post is about the switches I use for Nutanix foundation.

Switches

To keep things simple, it is best to use a dumb switch with no vlans setup and interfaces in access port. A lot of hardware these days come with at least 2 x 10G interfaces for ‘Data’ and 1 x 1G IPMI interface for ‘Management’.

10g Switch

A lot of hardware these days only ship with 10g interfaces so it is best to have a 10g switch. Problem with most 10g switches is that it doesn’t come with enough 1g ports.

1g Switch

The 1g switch is used to connect the IPMI interfaces and the deployment laptop.

Ports

The number of ports required depends on the number of nodes you want to deploy at a time. Say if your typical deployment is only 3 nodes, a switch with 7 ports is sufficient – 3 (Data) + 3 (IPMI) + 1 (Laptop). If deploying 8 nodes at a time, 17 (8+8+1) interfaces are required.

Setup

Below is my setup for foundation

10g Switch – Mikrotik CRS309-1G-8S+IN

Features

• Compact
• Fanless
• Inexpensive 
• 8 x 10G SFP+ 
• 1 x 1G Ethernet

Connectivity

The 8 SFP+ interfaces allows me to connect 8 nodes at a time. The 1G interfaces is used to connect to a 1G IPMI switch 

Alternatively, if you only need 4 x 10G interfaces CRS305-1G-4S+IN can be used. 

1G Switch

TP-Link TL-SG116 

Features

• Compact
• Fanless
• Inexpensive 
• 16 x 1G Ethernet

10G Cables

Direct Attach Cable