Accelerate VMware Migrations to AWS with Nutanix NC2

By Miles Scott, NAMER ISV Partner Solutions Architect – AWS
Cleavon Roberts, NAMER ISV Partner Solutions Architect – AWS

Nutanix

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), our priority is to meet you where you are in your journey. Whether you’re looking to rehost existing VMware-based workloads on AWS, re-platform on fully managed AWS services, or completely re-architect your applications using modern cloud services, we’ve got you covered.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS allows you to run virtualized workloads on Nutanix’s Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) directly on AWS infrastructure. This solution provides a seamless path to hybrid cloud by delivering the same Nutanix technologies and services across on-premises data centers and the AWS cloud.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS, explaining how it enables enterprises to run the Nutanix stack natively on AWS for a seamless hybrid cloud experience. The post outlines NC2 architecture leveraging AWS services and Nutanix tools. It covers use cases like migration and disaster recovery and NC2 benefits like fast deployment, unified management, and cost optimization. Details include AWS instance support, licensing, automated migration, disaster recovery capabilities, and Migration Acceleration Program resources for VMware workloads.

Use Cases for NC2 on AWS

NC2 on AWS can help accelerate your workload migration to AWS and get your on-premises applications to the AWS cloud faster. NC2 provides hybrid cloud simplicity by extending your on-premises workloads to AWS without major refactoring efforts or code changes to your apps. NC2 on AWS is ideally suited for the following key use cases:

Hybrid-Cloud: Utilize a single pane of glass to operate and manage your virtual machine workloads in your on-premises data center and NC2 on AWS environments.
Migrate and Modernize Applications with AWS: Accelerate migration to AWS by relocating virtualized workloads without refactoring or rewriting applications. Quickly get on-premises workloads to AWS virtualization and modernize applications with direct AWS service integrations.
Disaster Recovery to AWS: Configure NC2 on AWS for data replication to quickly recover business-critical workloads in a disaster recovery event. Leverage AWS’ global presence and elasticity for an Elastic DR configuration, expanding the pilot light cluster on-demand to save DR costs.
Capacity Bursting: Instead of waiting weeks or months to purchase infrastructure, rack and stack, then operationalize hardware. You can simply consume NC2 capacity when needed and give it back when you don’t.

For more information, see NC2 Use Cases.

NC2 Architecture

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) architecture diagram showing hybrid cloud integration with native AWS services

NC2 runs directly on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) bare-metal instances, leveraging EC2 Instance Store for primary storage and utilizing Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) for additional storage capacity where required. Built-in integration with Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) based networking enables consuming cloud-native services directly from Nutanix.

NC2 utilizes advanced Nutanix technologies, including Nutanix Flow Network Security, and also allows customers to use the Nutanix Database Service for database management. This provides a consistent operational model using the same Nutanix tools across private cloud and AWS.

NC2 on AWS gives enterprises a seamless path to hybrid cloud. By running the complete Nutanix stack natively on AWS, NC2 delivers one-click simplicity, unified management, and cloud-native integration for hybrid cloud.

Benefits of NC2 on AWS

Nutanix NC2 on AWS offers enterprises a seamless hybrid cloud experience that bridges their on-premises Nutanix environment with the scalability and services of AWS.

The key benefits of the NC2 solution are:

Cluster management:
- A single management console to manage private and AWS resources
- Burst into AWS to meet temporary increases in demand
- Use AWS for high availability and disaster recovery
- Simple to deploy and manage
App mobility:
- Lift and shift applications quickly without retooling or refactoring
- Consistent performance across on-premises and AWS
Cost management:
- Flexible subscription options
- Pay based on your actual usage
- Purchase Nutanix licenses via AWS Marketplace
- Leverage existing Private Pricing Agreements and Enterprise Discounts
- Use your existing Nutanix licenses for NC2

Additional Benefits of NC2 on AWS

NC2 supports Layer 2 network extensions between VMware Cloud on AWS and NC2 on AWS. With NC2 and Nutanix Move, you can migrate workloads to NC2 without the need to change IP addresses or change application configurations.
Quickly move VMs between NC2 and native EC2 instances (and back) using the Move tool.
Since NC2 runs the Nutanix stack natively on AWS, you can use the same familiar tools, skill sets, and processes across on-premises and the cloud.
NC2 provides improved disaster recovery and backup capabilities by making AWS readily available as a DR target and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for cost optimized storage.

Supported AWS Instances

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) running on AWS supports seven EC2 bare-metal instances in various AWS regions. This selection of instance options provides the flexibility in rightsizing clusters to balance cost and performance. With support for GPU enabled instances and heterogeneous clusters, customers can mix and match the right instances to meet their performance needs.

The following table lists the Amazon EC2 bare-metal instance types supported by Nutanix.

EC2 Bare-metal Instance Details

EC2 Instance Support for NC2

NC2 also supports the following AWS tenancy models:

Default: This is the default EC2 tenancy option, where EC2 bare-metal instances can migrate across different hosts during an instance power-cycle operation.
Dedicated Host – In this tenancy option, EC2 bare-metal instances that run on a dedicated physical host do not migrate to another physical host, even after an instance power cycle.

When using the default tenancy option, you can optionally deploy and manage Microsoft Windows Server License Included (LI) Instances directly from AWS. Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts allow you to use your existing per-socket, per-core, or per-VM software licenses to leverage your existing investments and save money on third party licensing costs.

Migration Paths to NC2 on AWS

There are a few different paths enterprises can take to migrate to NC2 on AWS:

Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) to NC2
For customers running the Nutanix AHV hypervisor on-premises, you can directly migrate VMs to NC2 on AWS. Nutanix’s native replication capabilities make it straightforward to replicate VMs from on-premises AHV to NC2 on AWS.
On-Premises ESXi to NC2
Customers running the ESXi hypervisor on-premises can also migrate to NC2 using the Nutanix Move application mobility tool. Move can convert VMs directly into AHV format and replicate them to NC2 on AWS. This enables simple migration from on-premises ESXi environments.
VMware Cloud on AWS to NC2
Current customers using VMware Cloud on AWS can migrate VMs from VMC-A to NC2 on AWS using Nutanix Move.
Microsoft Native Technology to NC2 on AWS
Nutanix Move also supports both Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure Cloud as sources for migrations, giving you the ability to consolidate workloads from multiple source location onto NC2 clusters running on AWS.

Nutanix Move

For many enterprise customers, automated VM conversion and orchestrated migration are critical capabilities that make moving workloads to AWS far simpler.

Nutanix Move is a tool, offered at no additional cost, that seamlessly converts VMs from ESXi to AHV format while, at the same time, migrating instance data to NC2 on AWS. This enables “lift-and-shift” migrations from your existing virtualized infrastructure to AWS without needing to do manual VM conversion. Move orchestrates the entire workflow end-to-end, coordinating each aspect of the migration.

The Move tool circumvents a major barrier to cloud adoption and makes the path to hybrid cloud seamless. The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) can also provide prescriptive guidance, tools, and investments to simplify moving VMware workloads to Nutanix NC2 on AWS.

Disaster Recovery

Nutanix Cloud Cluster Disaster Recovery options

NC2 supports Asynchronous, NearSync, and Synchronous replication. NC2 also supports the newly released Nutanix Multi Cloud Snapshot (MST) capabilities that enable the offloading of snapshots to Amazon S3. MST not only helps reduce long-term storage costs by removing the need to keep snapshots on primary storage, but it also facilitates new disaster recovery patterns. This includes on-premises workloads that wish to align their DR plans to the criticality of their applications.

If you want to use MST, protection policies, and recovery plans to protect applications across multiple Nutanix clusters, you can set up Nutanix Disaster Recovery in Prism Central. Nutanix Disaster Recovery allows you to stage your DR workflow to restore applications in the right order. You can also use protection policies to revert to your production environment after the event has ended. For more information on Nutanix Disaster Recovery capabilities, see Nutanix Disaster Recovery Guide.

Conclusion

In summary, Nutanix NC2 provides a seamless path to hybrid cloud for VMware customers looking to leverage the scale and services of AWS. The NC2 architecture runs the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud natively on AWS infrastructure, delivering consistent Nutanix technologies and operations across on-premises and AWS.

Key customer benefits include simplified management, unified networking/security, integrated data protection, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Nutanix Move enables automated migration to NC2 on AWS from ESXi, Hyper-V, and other cloud providers. Migrating to NC2 alleviates re-platforming while enabling hybrid cloud modernization.

To learn more about how Nutanix NC2 can accelerate your transition to hybrid cloud, connect with your current systems integration partner or fill out a contact request to get in touch with your AWS and Nutanix account teams. Take the next step in your cloud journey today!