Accelerating Your Nutanix to AWS Migration with Migration Evaluator

Migrating to the cloud can be a complex and daunting task, but with the right tools and data, your organization can gain valuable insights to make informed decisions and accelerate the process.

In this blog post, I will walk you through how you can leverage the Nutanix Collector to gather inventory and utilization data from your Nutanix environment and seamlessly import it into the Migration Evaluator tool. The Nutanix Prism control plane retains inventory and utilization data that can be extracted from a file to be uploaded to the Migration Evaluator console. It can then be used to generate a migration assessment.

Nutanix is a popular hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platform that provides a range of features, including virtualization, storage, and networking; in a hybrid solution, across private locations, co-locations, and AWS. Customers often say they are looking to modernize their infrastructure and take advantage of the scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of the AWS Cloud.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS can provide an accelerated path to cloud for customers with accelerated migration requirements. NC2 enables the Nutanix hypervisor, storage and control plane to run on bare metal EC2 instances in AWS, potentially even using the Nutanix licenses that customers have already purchased for use on premise or by using new licenses acquired through the AWS marketplace. Some customers may also want to consider using native virtual EC2 instances for part of their workloads.

Migration Evaluator is a complimentary migration assessment service from AWS that helps customers create a data-driven directional business case for migrating workloads to AWS. The service provides insights into the potential cost savings, performance improvements, and operational benefits of migrating to AWS, based on an analysis of the customer’s existing infrastructure and workloads.

Customers looking to migrate to NC2 on AWS bare metal instances should work with their Nutanix specialists and use their tools to conduct a similar assessment.

The key deliverables from the Migration Evaluator assessment are:

1. Quick Insights – A high-level one-page summary outlining the projected costs for re-hosting on AWS based on usage patterns, along with a detailed breakdown of infrastructure and software license costs.
2. Business Case – A technical document that delivers a comprehensive business case, including a detailed cost analysis, migration roadmap, and recommendations for the optimal AWS services and migration approach.

These insights can help organizations make informed decisions about their cloud migration strategy and accelerate the overall migration process.

Prerequisites

1. A login for the Nutanix support portal. If you do not have one you will need to create one by signing up in the Nutanix support portal, this is complimentary.
2. Connection details for your Nutanix source system. These will include the IP address or hostname for your Nutanix system, a username and password, and the connection port. The user account you are using must have read-only permissions for your Nutanix host server.
3. An active Migration Evaluator assessment for these specific workloads. If you do not already have an active assessment, you can request one via your AWS account team, an AWS Partner, or using our request form.

Installing the Nutanix Collector

Download and install the Nutanix Collector application on your local Windows, macOS, or Linux computer.

1. Download the Nutanix Collector – Go to the Nutanix support portal, and log in with your Nutanix support login. Navigate to Downloads —> Collector and download the version of the Nutanix Collector software package that matches the operating system of your local install computer (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Nutanix downloads

2. Unzip and launch the Collector – Unzip the downloaded package to a folder on your local computer, then launch the Nutanix Collector application.

Configuring and Collecting Data

With the Nutanix Collector up and running, you are ready to initiate data collection from your Nutanix environment. Follow these steps.

1. Select the Prism Instance – From the drop-down menu on the Nutanix Collector screen, select the Prism instance (Prism Element or Prism Central) from which you want to collect data.
2. Enter Connection Details – Provide the IP address or hostname, port, username, and password for the Prism instance you selected.
3. Connect and Collect – Select Connect to establish a connection, then select Collect to initiate the data gathering process. This may take a few minutes to complete (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Nutanix Collector

Exporting and Importing Data

The data collection takes two to five minutes, depending on the size of the environment. Next download the collected data to a file and upload that file to the Migration Evaluator console.

1. Select Clusters – On the Nutanix Collector’s Output screen, select the clusters you would like to assess in Migration Evaluator.
2. Save Output as .XLSX – Select the Save output as .XLSX button to export the collected data (Figure 3).

Figure 3 – Nutanix Collector output

3. Import into Migration Evaluator – In the Migration Evaluator Console, navigate to the Self-reported files section, select your engagement and select Upload (Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Migration Evaluator console

4. Select, Choose File and choose the file that you downloaded from the Nutanix Collector.
5. Select the Data Import Template option and upload the Nutanix XLSX file (Figure 5).

Figure 5 – Migration Evaluator upload

The Migration Evaluator team will then review the uploaded data and, if required, contact you for any clarifications. The deliverables will be created using the uploaded data and a Migration Evaluator Solution Architect will contact you to discuss the results.

Important note: Nutanix typically processes Collector output using their “Sizer” solution sizing tool. Nutanix Sizer is a highly configurable solution and hardware platform Sizing tool that can also be used for NC2 solutions on AWS. The assumptions and methodologies Sizer uses are significantly different to those used in the AWS Migration Evaluator tool. Therefore the outputs of the two tools should not be compared directly without a full and transparent understanding of the inputs, configurations and assumptions the tools use, ideally with help from suitably qualified Nutanix and AWS experts.

Conclusion

In this blog I showed you how you can export and upload your Nutanix environment data into Migration Evaluator by following a few steps. The resulting business case will allow your team to make informed decisions on your cloud migration journey.

If you’re interested in running a Migration Evaluator assessment, you can request one by by contacting your AWS account team. For customers looking to build a hybrid cloud solution, the Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) can also be an option. You can request a complimentary Nutanix funded Migration Optimization Assessment (MOA) with Evolve Cloud Services for qualifying customers.

Our network of AWS Partners are also equipped to run Migration Evaluator assessments on your behalf. Partners can request access to the tool through the AWS APN Portal.

Those who do not have an account team or Partner can raise a request directly with the Migration Assessment team by visiting the AWS Migration Evaluator page.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to migration-assessment@amazon.com if you have any further questions or need assistance.

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