January 2024 | Guide

VMware to Nutanix
Migration Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
Who This Guide is For......................................................................................................................04

Section 2: Planning Your Migration to Nutanix

Mapping VMware Products to Nutanix............................................................................. 07

Nutanix Software Licensing........................................................................................................ 08

Migration Pathways........................................................................................................................... 08

On-Premises Migration Pathways......................................................................................... 08

Cloud Migration Pathways........................................................................................................... 08

Section 3: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix

Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
NCI Overview........................................................................................................................................... 09

Benefits of Migrating to NCI....................................................................................................... 09

NCI Hardware Platforms..................................................................................................................10

NCI Licensing.............................................................................................................................................11

NCI Migration Considerations.....................................................................................................12

Migration Paths......................................................................................................................................12

Infrastructure Sizing............................................................................................................................12

Executing a Migration........................................................................................................................13

Practical Considerations...................................................................................................................13

NCI References........................................................................................................................................13

Section 4: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix

Cloud Clusters (NC2)
NC2 Overview...........................................................................................................................................14

NC2 Hibernation....................................................................................................................................14

Full Control Over Infrastructure.................................................................................................14

Use Cases.....................................................................................................................................................15

Benefits of Migrating to NC2........................................................................................................15

NC2 Cloud Platforms..........................................................................................................................16

NC2 Licensing..........................................................................................................................................16

NC2 Migration Considerations....................................................................................................16

NC2 References.......................................................................................................................................16
Section 5: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix
Cloud Manager (NCM)
NCM Overview.........................................................................................................................................17

Benefits of NCM......................................................................................................................................18

NCM Licensing........................................................................................................................................19

NCM Migration Considerations................................................................................................ 20

References..................................................................................................................................................21

Section 6: Migrating to Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

NUS Overview.........................................................................................................................................22

Benefits of Migrating to NUS......................................................................................................24

NUS Hardware Platforms...............................................................................................................25

NUS Licensing.........................................................................................................................................25

NUS Migration Considerations...................................................................................................26

Sizing and Storage Types...............................................................................................................26

Dedicated vs NCI Mode Clusters..............................................................................................26

Practical Considerations..................................................................................................................26

NUS References.....................................................................................................................................27

Section 7: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix with

Nutanix Move
Nutanix Move Overview..................................................................................................................28

Benefits of Using Nutanix Move...............................................................................................28

Migration Considerations...............................................................................................................29

Nutanix Move References..............................................................................................................29

Section 8: Nutanix Makes Migrations Simpler

Nutanix Migration Tools................................................................................................................. 30

Nutanix Partner Ecosystem..........................................................................................................31

Technology Partners...........................................................................................................................31

System Integrators...............................................................................................................................31

Services and Support.........................................................................................................................31

Finding Out More

 4

Introduction
For businesses that rely on VMware for virtualization technologies—including
VMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere, vSAN, and VMC—Nutanix offers a better
alternative with one platform to run apps and manage data across multiple
endpoints. Our cloud platform provides flexibility and choice, without vendor
lock-in, and supports existing VMware environments with unified management.

Nutanix offers VMware customers a range of migration strategies, whether

they want to shift existing VMware operations to vSphere running on the
Nutanix Cloud Platform, or to migrate all workloads from VMware
technologies to equivalent Nutanix technologies.

Who This Guide is For

This guide is intended to acquaint technical decision makers with Nutanix
technology so that they can better understand the VMware to Nutanix
migration options that are available and make more informed
planning decisions.

Section 2 introduces Nutanix Cloud Platform and its various components,

illustrates how Nutanix solutions map to various VMware products, and
discusses migration paths.

Sections 3 through 7 discuss migration considerations for the main

components of Nutanix Cloud Platform introduced in Section 2: Nutanix
Cloud Infrastructure, Nutanix Cloud Clusters, Nutanix Cloud Manager,
Nutanix Unified Storage, and Nutanix Move.

Section 8 discusses other aspects of migration from VMware to Nutanix

including available tools to assist with planning and migration as well as
Nutanix services. It also introduces Nutanix technology partners and GSI
partners that can help with migration needs.

While this guide is not intended to be a complete “how-to” guide, wherever

possible it includes links to more resources to aid with in-depth migration
planning and execution.
 5

Section 2: Planning Your

Migration to Nutanix
Nutanix Cloud Platform offers simplicity and scalability, allowing you to operate
critical virtualized and containerized workloads more easily and more successfully
Nutanix Cloud Platform: One Platform for Hybrid Multicloud
across on-premises, public cloud, edge, and service provider environments.

Enterprise Apps Modern Apps Analytics AI/ML Databases Desktops

Nutanix Central

Federated Management Nutanix Cloud Manager Nutanix Data Lens

Prism | LCM | IAM Intelligent Operations | Self-Service | Cost | Security Operations Security | Privacy | Compliance

Nutanix Unified Nutanix Data Services Nutanix Database Platform Services

Storage for Kubernetes Service NDBaaS

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure

Nutanix Public Clouds
AHV, AOS, Flow Networking, Disaster Recovery, Security
Cloud Clusters (Native)
AI Enabled Edge Private Cloud MSPs

Application and data portability

Before you can plan an effective migration strategy, it’s essential to understand
the major elements that make up Nutanix Cloud Platform and how those
capabilities map to the VMware products you are already familiar with.

When it comes to migrating from VMware to Nutanix, there are four

elements of Nutanix Cloud Platform you should know about:

• Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). A distributed infrastructure platform

combining compute, storage, and networking resources into a single
logical pool with integrated resiliency, security, performance, and
simplified administration. NCI lets you efficiently deploy and manage
data and applications across datacenter, edge, and cloud environments

NCI provides the infrastructure foundation for all VMware migrations—

whether you intend to continue running VMware vSphere or switch to
Nutanix AHV, our native hypervisor.

• Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2). An important component of NCI, NC2 brings

the full functionality of Nutanix Cloud Platform to AWS and Azure,
dramatically reducing the operational complexity associated with migrating,
extending, or bursting your applications and data between on-premises and
cloud environments. NC2 simplifies hybrid multicloud deployments by
providing the same Nutanix software capabilities and tools everywhere.
 6

NC2 enables migration of existing VMware cloud workloads as well as the

migration of on-premises VMware workloads to Nutanix environments
running in the public cloud.

• Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM). A unified solution for intelligent

operations, self-service and orchestration, security compliance and
visibility, and cost control. Build and manage multicloud deployments
simply and quickly by automating routine operational tasks and
leveraging tools for orchestration and security compliance.

NCM integrates with the Nutanix Prism management interface,

providing advanced management functions that simplify building and
managing hybrid multicloud environments and delivering faster time to
value. NCM capabilities take the place of the VMware Aria (formerly
VMware vRealize) suite.

• Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS). Software-defined storage that

consolidates seamless access and management of block, file, and object
data in a single platform. NUS is designed to address the scale,
performance, and integrated data security requirements of modern
applications with easy access to structured and unstructured data,
consistent high performance, seamless scale, and security against
ransomware attacks.

Nutanix Cloud Platform addresses the storage needs of VMs using the
built-in capabilities of AOS storage. NUS enables a Nutanix cluster to
flexibly provide additional file, object, and block services, eliminating the
need for separate storage systems with siloed management. For vSAN
customers, Nutanix Files Storage provides a superior replacement for
vSAN File Service.

Each of these elements is discussed in more detail in later sections.

Nutanix Cloud Platform also includes optional support for Nutanix Database
Service and End-User Computing (including VMware Horizon). These
capabilities are not discussed further in this guide.
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Mapping VMware Products to Nutanix

The following table should help you map from the VMware products you
currently use to the corresponding functionality in the Nutanix ecosystem.
Note that in most cases, the corresponding Nutanix functionality is not
licensed separately, simplifying procurement.

VMware Product Nutanix Product Notes & Considerations

Nutanix Cloud Platform supports

VMware Cloud Foundation Nutanix Cloud Platform hybrid and multicloud deployments
utilizing NCI and NC2

You can continue to run vSphere in all

on-premises deployments. AHV, the
native Nutanix hypervisor, is included
vSphere Nutanix AHV
as part of a Nutanix subscription and
is the only supported hypervisor for
NC2 deployments

AOS Storage functionality is included

vSAN AOS Storage as part of NCI and NC2. It does not
have to be licensed separately

FVN is included with NCI Pro and

NSX Flow Virtual Networking
NCI Ultimate licensing

VMware Cloud on AWS Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS NC2 utilizes NCI licenses which can
be flexibly moved between
on-prem and cloud locations
Azure VMware Cloud Nutanix Cloud Clusters on Azure without requiring re-licensing

Nutanix Prism provides

infrastructure and virtualization
vCenter Nutanix Prism Central
management for Nutanix. It is
included with NCI and NC2

Depending on licensing level, NCM

encompasses the capabilities of the
VMware Aria Suite Nutanix Cloud Manager
VMware Aria Suite (vRealize Suite),
and CloudHealth

VMware Aria Operations NCM Intelligent Operations

Included with all NCM licenses
VMware Aria Automation NCM Self-Service

Included with NCM Pro

VMware Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth NCM Cost Governance
and Ultimate licenses

Included with NCM Ultimate license,

VMware Aria Operations for Networks Nutanix Security Central NCI Pro license with security add-on,
and NCI Ultimate license
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Nutanix Software Licensing

Nutanix uses a simple subscription-based software licensing model.
Recognizing that complex licensing and high licensing costs can be
significant pain points for VMware customers. Nutanix makes every effort to
keep both our product structure and licensing simple and flexible.

Licensing is discussed further in the following sections. You can also find
licensing details on the Nutanix Cloud Platform Software Options page.

Migration Pathways
This guide addresses the following migration pathways:
On-Premises Migration Pathways
• From VMware software running on traditional three-tier infrastructure
(separate servers, storage, and networking) to Nutanix

• From a VMware vSAN environment to Nutanix

• From another HCI environment running VMware (Cisco, HPE) to Nutanix

• If you are considering one of these migration paths, familiarize yourself

with the following sections:

Section 3: Migrating to NCI

Section 5: Migrating to NCM

Section 6: Migrating to NUS (especially if you’re using vSAN File Service or

operating an EUC environment)

Section 7: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix with Nutanix Move

Cloud Migration Pathways
• From VMware Cloud on AWS to Nutanix Cloud Clusters

• From Azure VMware Cloud to Nutanix Cloud Clusters

• From VMware on-prem to Nutanix Cloud Clusters

• If you are considering one of these migration paths, familiarize yourself

with the following sections:

Section 4: Migrating to NC2

Section 5: Migrating to NCM

Section 7: Migrating from VMware to Nutanix with Nutanix Move
 9

Section 3: Migrating from

VMware to Nutanix Cloud
Infrastructure
Many customers considering a migration from VMware to Nutanix primarily
Multi-Cloud
need to satisfy on-premises virtualized and containerized infrastructure needs. Private,
With its flexible infrastructure options, simplified management, and compact Hybrid, Public

footprint, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers the perfect solution to address Workloads
datacenter, private cloud, remote office, and edge computing requirements. Data, Apps,
Databases
NCI runs on hardware from multiple vendors, eliminating lock-in, and is also Containers
supported by leading service providers such as Equinix, OVHCloud, and Cyxtera.
VMs

NCI Overview Virtualization

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides a complete software stack. Nutanix AHV, ESXi,
Hyper-V
has developed and refined an efficient hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI)
design that includes compute, storage, and networking. NCI features built-in HCI
Compute,
resilience, self-healing, and security along with enterprise data services, data Storage,
protection and disaster recovery, native virtualization, and container Networking
management.

The primary design goal of NCI is to dramatically reduce operational complexity.

Our powerful, secure, virtualized environment is suitable for any workload. With
Nutanix, you can deploy just the infrastructure you need to get started and
scale easily as your needs grow, avoiding upfront over-provisioning.

In the context of a VMware migration, you can start with a small proof of
concept (POC) or pilot project and grow to encompass more workloads as
you build confidence—and your team gains operational experience.

Benefits of Migrating to NCI

The Nutanix HCI architecture that underpins NCI offers these significant
benefits for existing VMware customers:

• Hypervisor choice. Continue to run ESXi or use Nutanix Move to migrate to

AHV to reduce risk and cost.

• Dynamically distributed storage. Nutanix AOS storage automates

provisioning, scaling, and self-healing with lower cost and improved failure
tolerance vs a static cache drive or RAID.

• Automated app-aware data management. Nutanix uses data locality and

tuning to deliver higher resiliency, app-centric optimization, and more
consistent read performance.

• Granular and efficient snapshots. Integrated per-VM snapshots speed clone

creation and restore times.
 10

• Enterprise-grade DR. DR is implemented at the storage layer for optimized

performance and efficiency, with per-VM DR policies that range from relaxed
RPOs for less critical workloads to synchronous clustering across metro
distances to address the most rigorous uptime requirements.

• License portability from on-premises to cloud. Easily move licenses between

environments and fine-tune deployments as requirements change.

• VM-level storage policies. NCI storage policies include encryption, data

protection, compression, and quality-of-service (QoS).

A recent blog series describes these and several additional Nutanix benefits
in depth.

NCI Hardware Platforms

NCI offers a very compelling stack with flexibility and choice so that you are
not forced with over-consumption of products that you don’t need. For
example, VMware’s new licensing consolidates their offering to just two
foundational offerings and many portfolio products are now licensed as
add-ons with some new metrics and cost structure. This could force
overconsumption creating shelfware and may increase costs for core
virtualization customers, customers using vSphere ENT+ on compute tiers
attached to storage, vSAN customers and Aria Automation customers.
Supported platforms:
• Nutanix NX Appliances

• Nutanix OEM Platforms including:

• Dell

• HPE

• Lenovo

• Fujitsu

• Supermicro

• Third-Party Server Vendors including:

• Cisco

• Hitachi

• NEC

For more details, visit the Nutanix Hardware Platforms page. To see details
of the available platforms, visit our Hardware Platform Spec Sheets page.
 11

NCI Licensing
NCI software is licensed in three editions: Starter, Pro, and Ultimate.
Functionality is organized into seven areas:

Starter is limited to clusters with a maximum of 12 nodes

Enterprise Data Services and has limited resiliency and data reduction features
relative to Pro and Ultimate.

All editions include up to 1 TiB of file/object storage capacity.

(Additional file/object capacity requires a NUS license.) Pro
Consolidated Storage Services
and Ultimate enable IP-SAN functionality with external
access to Volume Groups.

Starter includes Snapshots and Async Replication. Pro and

Data Protection and DR Ultimate add multi-site DR, sync and NearSync replication*,
and Runbook Automation.*

Pro and Ultimate support data-at-rest encryption with

Security native key management and out-of-the-box platform
hardening.*

All editions include AHV support and use of Nutanix

Kubernetes Engine (NKE). Pro and Ultimate add vGPU and
Enterprise Compute
vGPU Passthrough, HA Guaranteed Failover, and Cross-Cluster
Live Migration*.

Pro and Ultimate support software-defined networking

leveraging overlay networks and VPCs with Flow Virtual
Networking, workload microsegmentation*, and Nutanix
Networking and Network Security
Security Central* which unifies application security operations
by providing automated incident response, intelligent analysis,
and regulatory compliance.

All editions include cluster and multi-cluster management,

Management and Analytics monitoring, authentication, REST APIs and other basic
management functionality.

*Pro edition requires an add-on license for this functionality.

NCI can also be purchased together with Nutanix Cloud Manager in three
bundles. (See Section 5 for details of NCM licensing)

NCP Starter NCP Pro NCP Ultimate

Combines: NCI Pro + NCM Pro Combines: NCI Ultimate + NCM Pro Combines: NCI Ultimate + NCM Ultimate
 12

NCI Migration Considerations

NCI offers a very compelling stack with flexibility and choice so that you are
not forced with over-consumption of products that you don’t need. For
example, VMware’s new licensing consolidates their offering to just two
foundational offerings and many portfolio products are now licensed as
add-ons with some new metrics and cost structure. This could force
overconsumption creating shelfware and may increase costs for core
virtualization customers, customers using vSphere ENT+ on compute tiers
attached to storage, vSAN customers and Aria Automation customers.

For VMware customers using or considering vSAN, NCI benefits from a

single, optimized and flexible storage architecture. vSAN 8 introduced
Express Storage Architecture or ESA to use the latest fast storage devices
more efficiently, but lacks many features of the Original Storage Architecture
(OSA). As a result, customers moving to vSAN 8 are forced to choose between
OSA and ESA, often on a workload-by-workload basis.

All NCI editions include Kubernetes support, and Nutanix also has a
partnership with Red Hat to offer OpenShift on Nutanix. Containers run well
in the Nutanix environment and their unique storage needs are well
supported by Nutanix Unified Storage (See Section 6). Once you’ve
completed your migration to NCI, Nutanix APIs simplify automation for
teams that have been struggling to automate.
Migration Paths
There are two common migration paths for VMware customers moving to NCI:
• VMware on three-tier infrastructure to NCI

• VMware with vSAN to NCI

From a planning and execution standpoint, there isn’t much difference

between these two migration paths. If you’re using vSAN File Services (no
longer supported in vSAN 8), you may want to read section 6 on Nutanix
Unified Storage.
Infrastructure Sizing
Sizing is a big challenge in any infrastructure migration. Nutanix provides the
Nutanix Sizer Configuration Estimator and Nutanix Collector to simplify sizing
for migrations and deployments of all types. These tools take the pain out of
properly sizing your migration for all supported NCI hardware platforms as
well as cloud. These tools are described in more detail in Section 8. Both
Nutanix customers and Nutanix employees rely on and trust Nutanix Sizer to
deliver good results while minimizing the effort needed.

For more high-level guidance on choosing and sizing infrastructure, read the
following blogs:
 13

Dynamically Distributed Storage NCI References

Seamless Cluster Management for Performance and Capacity • Why VMware runs Better with
Nutanix HCI
Executing a Migration
If you’re migrating to NCI but continuing to run ESXi, you may be able to use • Tech Note 2038: Nutanix AHV
Virtualization
familiar VMware tools such as Storage vMotion and vMotion. You can also
use Nutanix Move, which is capable of migrating non-Nutanix ESXi • Tech Note 2072: Migrating VMs to
Nutanix AHV
environments to ESXi running on Nutanix. If you’re migrating from ESXi to
Nutanix AHV, you will likely want to use Nutanix Move, which provides • Nutanix Bible: Book of AHV
cross-hypervisor mobility. Nutanix Move does much of the heavy lifting for • Nutanix Bible: Book of vSphere
you, taking the pain out of migration. See Section 7 for more information on
Nutanix Move.

For those who prefer to have assistance with critical migrations, Nutanix
Professional Services can help with any and all aspects of your migration. Many
Nutanix channel partners are also capable of providing assistance, and Nutanix
also partners with leading system integrators and service providers. (For more
details on Nutanix services and partnerships, see Section 8.)
Practical Considerations
While the right software tools can greatly simplify migration, there’s no
replacement for upfront planning and careful thinking about your objectives.
Before you undertake migration to NCI—or any migration—it’s important to
consider your needs and vet anything that could present a problem:

• Which enterprise features do you need? This will determine which

licensing level(s) you purchase.

• What are your specific storage and application requirements?

• How much data will you need to migrate? It’s important to properly
account for the time data migration will require.

• If you’re migrating to AHV, ensure that you can address any unique
application requirements.

• Which applications will you move directly to AHV, and which (if any) will
you keep on ESXi?
 14

Section 4: Migrating from We completed all of the

VMware to Nutanix testing for the AWS
Cloud Clusters deployment in one day.

As business has become increasingly dependent on digital technology, Once we were convinced
traditional datacenter operations have expanded to encompass hybrid and everything was working
multicloud deployments. While operating multiple cloud environments can
properly, we linked up our
be an essential element of business success, it comes at the cost of greater
on-prem data protection
complexity for IT teams.
cluster with our rapid
Many organizations now employ a cloud first strategy, but their efforts are
recovery Nutanix Cloud
being stymied by the limitations of tee-shirt sizing offered by cloud vendors.
Clusters on AWS.
Nutanix Cloud Clusters is designed to overcome the challenges of hybrid
multicloud operations, facilitating your cloud first efforts.
In less than two hours, the
NC2 Overview desktops were on AWS, we
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is a software-defined hybrid multicloud platform
turned them on, they came
that natively integrates private and public clouds. It provides a consistent up, we reconfigured Citrix
cloud management experience with seamless application migration and to connect to the desktops
license portability across all NCI environments. This enables you to run the full in the cloud, and our
Nutanix software stack anywhere, simplifying your operations. employees were
NC2 enables the same applications to run in private and public clouds immediately able to log
without expensive refactoring. Your team can operate everything as a single into their virtual desktops
distributed cloud environment and seamlessly manage and migrate VMs, off-network.
containers, and applications, delivering freedom from cloud lock-in.

NC2 delivers the same capabilities as NCI running on-premises by utilizing

The Nutanix Cloud Clusters
bare metal instances in the public cloud. Everything you learned about NCI were very easy to deploy,
in the previous section also applies to NC2, with the exception that NC2 even on bare metal, and
environments can only run the AHV hypervisor. being able to use our
NC2 can share the same Nutanix licenses as on-premises NCI environments, existing VPNs and subnets
giving you the flexibility to address cloud requirements without made it simple to use and
repurchasing licenses. more secure.
NC2 Hibernation Craig Wiley
While it is expensive to leave infrastructure idle or under-utilized in the public Senior Infrastructure Systems
cloud, it can also take significant effort to rebuild an environment from Architect, Penn National Insurance
scratch every time. NC2 features an innovative hibernation capability,
allowing for workload hibernation and restoration, significantly reducing
monthly cloud costs for seasonal or ad-hoc application usage. Hibernation
moves all cluster VMs and configuration data to more cost-efficient object
storage, uninstalls the Nutanix software, and stops bare metal compute
instances. These steps are reversed during the restore process.
Full Control Over Infrastructure
NC2 ensures you retain full control over your Nutanix infrastructure running
in the cloud, unlike VMware cloud solutions.
 15

Use Cases
Seamless App Mobility
The most popular use cases for NC2 include:
Disaster Recovery
• Eliminate the need for a dedicated secondary datacenter
Unified Infrastructure
• Utilize the same platform across private and public clouds
Management
• Replicate VMs and data to the cloud—with full control over your DR
environment
Lift and Shift/Cloud First Lower Operational
• Operational simplicity with a single management plane across clouds Costs

• Migrate applications across clouds with no code changes

• Eliminate error-prone manual tasks with easy-to-use automation

Burst to Cloud
• Scale to the cloud to address seasonal/temporary resource needs

• Automate on-demand scaling with automation playbooks

• Hibernate cloud environments (such as dev/test) when not needed and

easily restore them later
VDI
• Host virtual desktops in the cloud to improve service for remote workers

• Provide low cost DR for on-prem VDI deployments

• Facilitate using the same gold image across all sites

Benefits of Migrating to NC2

When we ask Nutanix customers what differentiates NC2, the benefits that
come up most often are:

• License mobility. Move licenses between datacenters and public clouds

to address changing operational needs without having to re-license.

• Time to value. Get infrastructure set up, migrate workloads, and be up

and running quickly.

• Accurate sizing. NC2 environments are simple to size properly, ensuring

you aren’t paying for underutilized cloud instances.

• Resiliency. The resiliency built into Nutanix AOS, including our HA

features, are well suited to the public cloud.

• Full control. Because NC2 is not a managed service, you retain greater
control over critical infrastructure. For example, upgrades and patches take
place when you choose, you’re not subject to a service provider’s timetable.

For those that prefer a more managed service or want to work with a
service provider, several Nutanix partners offer services based on Nutanix
Cloud Platform.
 16

NC2 Cloud Platforms NC2 References

NC2 is currently offered in the following versions: • NC2 on AWS: Deployment and
User Guide
• NC2 on AWS
• NC2 on Azure: Deployment and
• NC2 on Azure
User Guide

NC2 Licensing
NC2 utilizes the same licensing as NCI as described in the previous section.
Licenses can be moved between on-prem and cloud locations according to
your needs, simplifying planning.

NC2 Migration Considerations

While there are VMware customers who are migrating from VMC or AVS to
NC2, the typical customer migrates from an on-prem VMware environment,
often as the result of a cloud first strategy. Some customers utilize NC2 to
provide DR for an existing VMware environment. NC2 is a low-overhead
option for DR because there’s no heavyweight management layer that
requires extra VMs and increases costs.

Migrating from VMware to NC2 is very similar to migrating from VMware to

NCI. As with NCI, Nutanix Sizer can appropriately size your NC2 environment
for both AWS and Azure. Nutanix Move can then be used to move VMs to
NC2 with minimal disruption. (See the Nutanix Move section.)

For NC2, the use of microsegmentation (available with NCI Pro and NCI
Ultimate licenses) is highly recommended to control east-west traffic and
increase security.
 17

Section 5: Migrating from Nutanix makes it easy to

VMware to Nutanix Cloud watch all clusters and
Manager quickly reconfigure things
as needed. Clear metrics on
As the demands on IT teams continue to grow—exacerbated by the difficulty
oversubscription and
hiring experienced IT experts—identifying the best management tools has
become critical to success. Our goal with Nutanix Cloud Manager is to deliver
utilization enable us to
the functionality you need, while making it simpler to manage hybrid proactively manage
multicloud environments and simpler to license exactly what you need. capacity.
NCM helps your organization build and manage multicloud deployments Kevin Priest
more easily by automating routine tasks and by providing tools for Senior Director, The Home Depot
orchestration and security compliance.

For organizations migrating from VMware to Nutanix, NCM takes the place
of the VMware Aria Suite (formerly the VMware vRealize Suite). NCM replaces
the sometimes frustrating complexity of VMware Aria with a powerful suite
of capabilities that offers a simple transition from Aria tools while delivering
much faster time to value.

VMware Product Nutanix Product

VMware Aria Operations NCM Intelligent Operations

VMware Aria Automation NCM Self-Service

VMware Aria Cost powered by CloudHealth NCM Cost Governance

VMware Aria Operations for Networks Nutanix Security Central

NCM Overview
Nutanix Cloud Manager adds intelligent operations, self-service and
orchestration, cost governance, and security compliance and visibility
capabilities that complement the management functionality of Nutanix
Prism. Underlying NCM services include:

• NCM Intelligent Operations. An end-to-end management and operations

solution for virtualized datacenter environments. Through task automation,
machine learning algorithms, and predictive analytics, NCM allows your
team to automate operations, optimize resources, forecast capacity needs,
and proactively detect performance anomalies. NCM also provides
ticketing system integration and constant system monitoring.

NCM Intelligent Operations overlaps with the functionality provided by

VMware Aria Operations (formerly vRealize Operations).
 18

• NCM Self-Service and Orchestration. A multicloud application

management framework that helps your teams streamline the way they
Unified
provision, scale, and manage new or existing applications across multiple
management
environments. The solution includes tools for consumption and
governance management, as well as blueprint creation, lifecycle
automation, and management from a single control plane.

NCM Self-Service replaces VMware Aria Automation (formerly vRealize

Automation) with an easy-to-use automation solution that enables you to
Full lifecycle
deliver meaningful automation and self-service with less effort in far less
automation
time. For example, NCM makes it simple to automate routine
infrastructure tasks (IaaS) such as provisioning a single virtual machine.

• NCM Cost Governance. Provides visibility across hybrid cloud

environments from a single console, with tools for optimization and cost
control. The solution uses advanced machine learning algorithms to
automatically detect cost anomalies, then takes fast, proactive measures Seamless
to right-size resources and help you keep costs under control. migration
NCM Cost Governance takes the place of VRealize Aria powered by & automation
CloudHealth, providing powerful and simple-to-use cost management for
Nutanix environments.

• Nutanix Security Central. Provides a single dashboard to plan for,

Faster time
manage, and govern workload security on any cloud type without the
to value
need for deep cybersecurity training or additional personnel. The solution
also uses intelligent analysis to automate incident response and aid
regulatory compliance for strategic initiatives such as zero trust.

Nutanix Security Central replaces the functionality of VMware Aria

Operations for Networks.

Benefits of NCM
Details include:

• Unified management. Manage AHV, ESXi, and vCenter/vSphere from a

single console.

• Full lifecycle automation. Automate and manage the entire application

lifecycle with less effort.

• Seamless migration and automation. Avoid the disruptive migrations

that have accompanied some VMware Aria upgrades (like vRealize
Automation 8.0). Migrate existing automations to NCM and simplify the
path for future automations.

• Faster time to value. Achieve greater value in much less time with NCM’s
intuitive tools.
 19

NCM Licensing
Similar to NCI, NCM is licensed in three editions: Starter, Pro, and Ultimate.

All Editions offer the following Intelligent Operations capabilities:

• Reporting

• Capacity planning

• Inefficiency detection and rightsizing

• Support for ESXi in non-Nutanix environments

• Operations automation

Pro Edition adds advanced Intelligent Operations functions (application

discovery, self-tuning with ML), Cost Governance, and basic

Self-Service functionality:

• Marketplace

• VM blueprints

• Runbooks

Ultimate Edition adds Security Central and advanced Self-Service

functionality:

• Application blueprints

• Governance

NCM licensing is summarized in the following table:

NCM Starter NCM Pro NCM Ultimate

Intelligent Operations X* X X

Self-Service X* X

Cost Governance X X

Security Central X

*Does not include some advanced features

NCM can also be purchased together with NCI in three bundles. (See Section
3 for details of NCI licensing).

NCM Starter NCM Pro NCM Ultimate

Combines: NCI Ultimate + NCM

Combines: NCI Pro + NCM Pro Combines: NCI Ultimate + NCM Pro
Ultimate
 20

NCM Migration Considerations

The first thing to recognize about an NCM migration is that it’s not all or
nothing. For example, you can migrate VMs to Nutanix running ESXi, register
your existing vCenter with Nutanix Prism, and utilize the cloud management
features of NCM. You can also use NCM for VMware clusters that aren’t
running on Nutanix. (The NCM software runs on Nutanix and must have
access to the vCenter managing the non-Nutanix clusters.)

If you have licensed NCM, as you migrate VMs from VMware to Nutanix many
NCM capabilities begin to function automatically regardless of target
hypervisor, taking the place of their VMware Aria (VMware vRealize)
counterparts according to the capabilities you have licensed.

This applies to the following:

• VMware Aria Operations (VMware vRealize Operations) to NCM

Intelligent Operations

• As VMs are migrated, Intelligent Operations capabilities (based on the

Edition you’ve chosen) automatically become active, such as capacity
planning and inefficiency detection and rightsizing. You can also
immediately begin creating playbooks for task automation.

• VMware Aria Cost (CloudHealth) to NCM Cost Governance

• When Nutanix Move is used to migrate a VM, it maps any VMware tags
to Nutanix categories so they can be automatically ingested for use by
NCM Cost Governance.

• VMware Aria Operations for Networks to Nutanix Security Central

• As VMs are migrated, traffic flows start to appear automatically on the

Nutanix console.

The exception to these examples is the migration from VMware Aria

Automation (vRealize Automation) to NCM Self-Service. The level of difficulty
for this migration will depend on how much custom automation you have:

• Simple self-service operations such as deploying VMs through a

marketplace with no third-party integrations are a lift-and-shift to Nutanix.

• Integrations created using vRealize Orchestrator are based on JavaScript,

while NCM Self-Service uses Python so those automation will have to
be refactored.

• PowerShell and other shell scripts can be copied from VMware into NCM
Self-Service and used as is.

Therefore, migration to NCM Self-Service will require some additional

discovery to determine how much effort the migration will require.
 21

NCM References
NOTE: The various components that make up Nutanix Cloud Manager have
all undergone name changes. You may encounter blogs, videos, and other
reference material that refer to these products by their previous names:

Current Name Previous Name

NCM Intelligent Operations Prism Pro / Prism Ultimate

NCM Cost Governance Nutanix Beam

NCM Self-Service Nutanix Calm

Nutanix Security Central Flow Security Central

Best Practices for Choosing a Cloud Management Solution

The Economic Benefits of Intelligent IT Automation with Nutanix
TN-2094: Flow Network Security

NCM Cost Governance Adoption (Webinar)

 22

Section 6: Migrating to
Nutanix Unified Storage
Storage has become a growing pain point for IT. In addition to storage to
support virtual environments, companies typically need file storage as well
as separate block storage systems to support databases and other high-
performance applications. And, increasingly, object storage is coming into
play to support cloud native applications and long-term archival needs.

The result is often a bewildering array of file, block, and object storage,
requiring separate procurement, maintenance, management, and capacity
planning. These silos of storage add to datacenter complexity and cost.

Nutanix Unified Storage addresses these challenges, allowing all storage

needs to be satisfied by a single platform—the same platform that runs your
virtualized and containerized workloads.

NUS Overview
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is a software-defined storage solution that
offers data services for simple data management and integrated ransomware
protection to manage and secure structured and unstructured data.

NUS enables you to consolidate block, file, and object storage into a single,
unified data services platform. It provides easy access to structured and
unstructured data and is built for high performance, seamless scale, and security
against ransomware attacks—whether data is in the core, cloud, or edge.

NUS enables Nutanix Cloud Platform to satisfy all your storage needs
utilizing a solution that offers enterprise-class features including snapshots
and replication for DR, WORM support, scale-out capacity and performance,
and native analytics.

For customers migrating to Nutanix from VMware, NUS allows a single

platform to meet all your storage needs. Since all storage services can share
the same capacity pool, capacity planning is greatly simplified.
 23

Nutanix Data Lens

File Object Volume

Services Services Services

Nutanix Unified Storage

Deploy as a dedicated 1-Click Deployment Uses only Start Small and Right Data,
cluster or alongside NCI and Operations Standard APIs Scale Out Right Location

NUS Component Services:

Nutanix Files Storage is a simple and secure software-defined scale-out file
storage solution. It enables organizations to store, manage, and scale
unstructured data by consolidating storage silos onto a single platform, while
keeping it secure with integrated cybersecurity and ransomware protection.

Nutanix Objects Storage is a simple, scale-out cloud object storage solution

that offers secure S3-compatible storage at massive scale. It helps simplify
storage operations while offering high performance for cloud-native, big data
analytics, and deep archive workloads. Nutanix Objects is flexible and easy to
use, with policy-driven data tiering to any S3-compatible cloud provider.

Nutanix Volumes Block Storage is an enterprise-class, software-defined

storage solution that exposes storage resources directly to virtualized guest
operating systems or physical hosts using the iSCSI protocol.

Nutanix Data Lens is a cloud-based data governance service offering a global

view with intelligent insights into unstructured data stored on the NUS platform.
 24

Benefits of Migrating to NUS

Nutanix Unified Storage offers a number of benefits versus the storage
solutions typically found in VMware environments:

• Manage all storage in one place. Eliminate infrastructure and

management silos

• Greater consolidation. Migrate multiple file servers and/or object stores

onto a common platform to reduce complexity and simplify management.

• Pay-as-you-grow. Start small, right size, then scale incrementally as needed

• Flexible deployment options. Deploy in NCI-mode (VM workloads and

storage workloads on same cluster) or dedicated (storage-only)
environments for efficiency

• Address diverge storage needs. Well suited for remote and edge sites as
well as datacenters

• Multi-hypervisor support. Support multi-hypervisor environments

including ESXi and AHV

• Built-in analytics. Leverage native analytics to understand usage and

identify anomalies

• Enhance security. Integrated cyber-security and ransomware protection

with Data Lens

The Value of Nutanix Unified Storage

The Business Value IT and Operational Efficiencies IT Agility and Business Results

53% reduced cost of 82% less time to deploy 99% reduction in

operations over 5 years new Files storage unplanned downtime

75% less time to deploy 41% improved

421% five-year ROI
new Object storage application performance

60% more efficient IT 16% more productive

10 month payback
storage management application developers

$441K revenue gained 56% more efficient IT

per year security teams
 25

NUS Hardware Platforms

NUS runs on any of the hardware platforms that support NCI, including:
Nutanix NX, OEM platforms, and third-party servers as described in the
section NCI Hardware Platforms.

Nutanix NX and most OEMs offer storage-dense options that are well suited
for NUS. (Storage-heavy nodes can be mixed with other nodes in the same
cluster if desired.)

NUS Licensing
Nutanix Unified Storage and Data Lens are purchased and licensed on a
per-TiB usable basis. As noted earlier, all NCI licenses include consolidated
storage services including volumes and 1 TiB of free files/objects capacity.

NUS can be deployed either as a dedicated storage cluster or with NCI for
further consolidation. Dedicated mode allows for a maximum of 1 VM per
node, if more VMs are required, NUS must be run in NCI mode. You can
convert between Dedicated and NCI mode.

NUS is available in two editions, Starter and Pro:

• NUS Starter supports object storage only.

• NUS Pro supports file, object, and block storage.

• Advanced replication and security add-ons are available.

Dedicated mode storage clusters:

• Require a NUS license based on the desired usable capacity for Files,
Objects, and Volumes

NCI mode clusters:

• Require a NCI license plus a NUS license for Files and Objects capacity
beyond 1TiB

• Volumes is included with NCI Pro and NCI Ultimate licenses and does not
require a capacity-based NUS license
 26

NUS Migration Considerations NUS References

With the exception of vSAN File Service, NUS is not a direct replacement • TN-2016: Nutanix Files Migration
for any products supplied by VMware. However, NUS can stand in for the Guide

diverse storage systems common in VMware environments, greatly reducing • TN-2041: Nutanix Files
complexity, streamlining management, and giving you more flexible storage • Objects User Guide
options to meet future needs. For example, you may not require on-prem
• Exploring the High-Performance
object storage today, but if you need it in the future, NUS makes it simple Capabilities of Nutanix Objects
to add the capability to existing Dedicated mode or NCI mode clusters.
• Nutanix Volumes Best Practices
Additional NUS migration considerations include: • Data Lens User Guide
• NUS supports the CSI and COSI drivers needed for Kubernetes and
containerized operations, making it an ideal option for supporting the
storage needs of cloud native applications.
• NUS can run on single-node clusters to support the smallest
environments; pay-as-you-grow licensing enables you to start small and
grow your storage deployment as needed.

• NUS provides very good performance, including high performance object

storage suitable for addressing big data use cases. (Object storage is not
typically designed for performance.)

• File Analytics and Data Lens provide data insights, auditing, reporting
and ransomware protection.
Sizing and Storage Types
Nutanix Sizer can accurately size your NUS environment, helping you to
right size total capacity and determine your expected compute needs. NUS
customers typically deploy NUS on nodes with hybrid storage (SSD + HDD).
(Flash provides performance while HDDs provide economical capacity for
storing cold data.)
Dedicated vs NCI Mode Clusters
NUS can be deployed in a dedicated storage cluster or deployed in NCI
mode on the same cluster as application workloads. There’s no hard and
fast rule for when to choose dedicated vs NCI mode. Overall, the existing
customer NUS deployments are about 50:50. Generally, you pick a dedicated
cluster when you need a lot of storage capacity and you want the most
predictable performance.
Practical Considerations
Before you migrate from your existing storage, there are a few additional
questions that are worth considering:

• Is your existing backup vendor qualified on Nutanix? If not, will you utilize
Nutanix integrated data protection or choose a qualified vendor?

• Is your anti-virus software qualified on Nutanix?

• With Nutanix Files Storage, it’s important to think about your data layout
and what you’re trying to achieve. This is spelled out in the Nutanix Files
Migration Guide along with other valuable guidance.
 27

Section 7: Migrating from

VMware to Nutanix with
Nutanix Move
Migrations remain a pain point for IT organizations, requiring significant time
and effort. Nutanix Move is designed to simplify cross-hypervisor VM
migrations and reduce risk.

Nutanix Move Overview

Nutanix Move is a cross-hypervisor mobility solution that migrates VMs with
minimal downtime. For VMware migrations, Nutanix Move supports the
following migration paths:

• VMware ESXi to AHV

• VMware ESXi on three-tier infrastructure to VMware ESXi on Nutanix

Cloud Platform

• VMware ESXi to Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS

• VMware ESXi to NC2 on Microsoft Azure

For example, you can migrate ESXi on three-tier infrastructure to ESXi on

Nutanix or shift ESXi VMs to AHV VMs on Nutanix to avoid hypervisor
licensing costs.

Nutanix Move provides minimal disruption to operations and requires no

manual scripting. It works by seeding data from the running source VM to
the target VM in the new environment. Once the seeding process is
completed, cutover can be initiated to stop the running VM, transfer any
remaining data, and restart the VM in the new environment, minimizing the
downtime required for cutover.

Nutanix Move is managed through the Nutanix Move User Interface which is
accessed by logging into the Nutanix Move VM.

Benefits of Using Nutanix Move

Benefits of Nutanix Move include:

• Fast and simple. Nutanix Move is cleaner, simpler, faster, and less error
prone than other options.

• Scalability for large-scale migrations. Nutanix Move can migrate an

individual VM or scale to migrate thousands of VMs.

• Reduced risk and cost. Nutanix Move is automated, eliminating the

problem of rebuilding VMs and applications manually.
 28

Migration Considerations Nutanix Move References

The key to a successful migration is planning. Initial planning may include • Nutanix Move User Guide
identification of the workloads being migrated, file sizes, time frames for the • Learn how to Migrate an
migration, etc. existing ESXi Cluster to an AHV
Cluster (video)
Break large migrations into phases and verify that each phase completes
successfully before proceeding to the next one. Perform backups as each
phase completes.

The Nutanix Move User Guide includes migration planning for all VMware to
Nutanix migrations including in-depth workflows for each specific source
and target.

While Nutanix Move is suitable for migrating all types of applications, some may
require additional consideration and preparation. This includes very large
databases, high-performance workloads, and applications with very specific
customization requirements that must be maintained.

While Nutanix Move can migrate a database, it may be preferable to rebuild the
database on the target platform and migrate the data. It is up to you to
understand your applications and workloads before deciding how to migrate
each one.
 29

Section 8: Nutanix Makes

Migrations Simpler
Migrations are always a challenge no matter how many you’ve been involved
in or how skilled your team is. The right partners don’t just offer great
technology, they offer the tools, partnerships, support, and services necessary
to mitigate risks and ensure success. Nutanix is that type of partner.

Nutanix Migration Tools

As you learned in the previous section, Nutanix created Nutanix Move as a
general-purpose migration tool that takes the pain out of migration
planning and execution. Nutanix provides several additional tools that
can be extremely useful during the migration process:

• Nutanix Sizer. Streamlines on-prem and cloud solution deployments with

fast and accurate infrastructure sizing for all types of workloads. With
Nutanix Sizer, you’re assured of delivering maximum workload density,
performance, and value. Nutanix Sizer enables you to:

• Eliminate guesswork

• Reduce or eliminate infrastructure silos

• Size infrastructure for AHV and ESXi

• Obtain a complete bill of materials

• Leverage data gathered from existing workloads

• Nutanix Collector. Provides a simple means to quickly capture production

workload utilization metrics. This information can be imported into
Nutanix Sizer to deliver the most accurate sizing recommendations.
• Native SMB Migration Tool. SMB remains the file sharing protocol of
choice in Microsoft environments. Our SMB migration tool simplifies the
migration of SMB file shares into Nutanix Files Storage.
 30

Nutanix Partner Ecosystem

The Nutanix partner ecosystem is designed to offer the best possible customer
experience, providing end-to-end, fully integrated Nutanix Cloud Platform
solutions for any application or workload to create maximum customer value.

Our partner ecosystem consists of:

• Reseller Partners
• Technology Alliances
• System Integrators
• Service Providers
• OEM Partnerships
• Training Partners
• Consulting Partner
Technology Partners
Partnerships are essential in the hybrid multicloud era. The ecosystem of
technologies you select to meet your business needs must work together
seamlessly to deliver maximum strategic value. Nutanix partners with
leaders and innovators across all major technology categories.

Nutanix Elevate Technology Alliance Partners collaborate with us to ensure

joint solutions “just work,” through Nutanix Ready interoperability validations
and unique feature integrations.
System Integrators
To better serve the needs of large enterprises and global organizations,
Nutanix partners with the world’s leading system integrators. Nutanix Global
System Integrators (GSIs) are trained and certified to develop, design, and
implement IT strategies for customers migrating from VMware to Nutanix.
They can help you develop essential data center practices and will
recommend and implement Nutanix technology solutions to improve
productivity and efficiency.
Services and Support
The ramp-up period associated with assessing and migrating to Nutanix
from VMware can create challenges for your organization. Nutanix Customer
Xperience—our education, services, and support team—offers a range of
services, including:

• Workshops to help with assessments and planning

• “Fast track” deployment services and support

• Education services

Nutanix has consistently maintained a 90+ NPS (the benchmark of customer

satisfaction) in an industry where the average NPS is 56. That’s one more
reason you can choose Nutanix with confidence.
Finding Out More
To learn more about migrating from VMware to Nutanix,
visit nutanix.com/vmaware.

Want more on the practical aspects of deploying Nutanix AHV and other
solutions? Visit our mission control page.

Ready to experience the Nutanix technologies mentioned in this guide?

Take a test drive and see the Nutanix difference for yourself.
Visit nutanix.com/testdrive-vm.

You can also contact Nutanix at [email protected], follow us on

Twitter @nutanix, or send us a request at www.nutanix.com/demo
to set up a customized briefing.

[email protected] | www.nutanix.com | @nutanix

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