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TinkerTry - Sensible
datacenter
technology in
the IT Pro's
home. My
opinions here,
not my
employer's.

Paul Braren,
Getting started with Nutanix Community
VCP 2.5/3/4/5, vExpert
Edition the easy way - using Rufus on
2014/15/16/17, vExpert
Windows to create bootable USB for vSAN 2017.
automated server install
Posted by Paul Braren on Jan 1 2016 (updated on Jan 6 2016) in Veeam Vanguard
Storage, Virtualization, ESXi, HomeServer, HomeLab, HowTo 2015/16/17.

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I recently found myself
involved in a Twitter
discussion about getting
Nutanix Community Edition
going in my home
virtualization lab
environment. My thinking
Advertise here
went something like this.
Instead of more tiny tweet
replies, how about I just
figure it out using one of my
SanDisk flash drives and my Support TinkerTry
Supermicro SuperServer
Patronage | SuperServer
Bundle 2, and record video as
Order Page
I go along? That's exactly
what I did, given I happened
to be in the middle of rebuild
season anyway, with this
handy server exceeding
Nutanix minimum specs.

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Phew, and wow! A away to get a first-hand look at a very

popular way converge datacenter infrasture into one turnkey
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solution, using my own hardware.
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server for top performance, as well as for the reasons so nicely
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described by Marco Broeken here: high-value content, with little effort. Se
Skimlinks Disclosure
Do we really need to wipe our current lab that runs ESXi?
you're interested in automatic Skimlink
Bbs Lam
But the more we thought about it the more we did like the
help cover the cost of running your site
way Nutanix designed it. This way we can properly test
consider using this wow... I mean, it's just
their software. Also the possibility to run a one node terrific! Easy and clear.
cluster is just awesome. You can just have one node Fixed my problem in 2
configured to run Nutanix CE and play around with NOS seconds! Thank you!
and NCLI. Nutanix CE is definitely a great idea and I hope How to change Windows
its going to be a big success. I would like to say thanks to 10 network type from
the Nutanix CE team for the experience and releasing Public to Private 8 hours
such a cool product to the community! ago

m4nti c0r

2 of 9 10/5/2017, 8:30 PM
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i answered but the

message is in pending for
two hours?

Benchmarking Optimized
BIOS Settings for
Supermicro SuperServer
SYS-5028D-TN4T 1 day
ago

rhambus

That worked. Thanks! Still

will not give me CPU
temps, but the fans and
voltage actually make
sense now. I am running
2 Xeon 5650s on a
Supermicro X8DT3, and
esxi v. 6.5.0

Here's a look at the snazzy and effective web based HTML5 UI. How to fix inaccurate
Xeon D Hardware Health
Documentation sensor readings on
VMware ESXi 6.5, since
Documentation & Guides sfcbd CIM service is off by
Understand the product and install process, in much more default 1 day ago
detail.

Shawn Hank

Oh gosh no. Thank you

The basic steps, as seen in the Nutanix video. [click the image for your consideration,
above to start that video]
though. I spent a couple
of hours trying to find the
for Community Edition info, and just couldn't see
Servers 1, 3 & 4 servers or hear it. I knew you'd
know, hence the reason
CPU Intel CPUs, 4 cores minimum, with VT-x support
for my ask. I feel a...
Memory 16GB minimum
Supermicro Xeon D
Storage Subsystem RAID 0 (LSI HBAs) or AHCI storage
SuperServer BIOS 1.2b /
sub-systems
IPMI 3.58 released 1

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Hot Tier (SSD) One SSD per server minimum, 200GB day ago
per server
Cold Tier (HDD) One HDD per server minimum, 500GB
per server
Networking Intel NICs

Note, AMD CPUs not listed!

m4nti c0r

Step-by-step instructions i use bios 1.2a and IPMI

3.46 in your second
Unlike the Installing Nutanix Community Edition video that
video, min. 8:20, you
assumed Linux or Mac OS X, these instructions I've created
dont get the 100% cpu
don't assume you have either. You won't need to know what dd
load. if i run prime with
is, for example. Instead, I use a Windows 10 PC for the 16threads i see ~93%
downloads of the code and the right tools, to get your bootable and 1,93GHz. why is this
install media created, then I use a server that exceeds Nutanix so? prime95 - 16
minimum specs, which is my SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T threads...
equipped with 64GB of RAM and 4 built-in Intel NICs.
Benchmarking Optimized
1. Download the latest Nutanix CE from this NEXT forum BIOS Settings for
area. Supermicro SuperServer
Currently, the latest is this 2GB download here: SYS-5028D-TN4T 1 day
ago
download.nutanix.com/ce/2015.11.05/ce-2015.11.05-
stable.img.gz

2. Download Rufus.
Currently, that's Rufus 2.6 Portable here:
rufus-2.6p.exe
Always a nice bonus when you don't have to install. You
just run it. Fast, and effective. Same great tool you may Shawn Hank

be using for creating ESXi and Windows installation media. Thanks, Paul. I read
3. Download and install 7-Zip. through your posts before

Currently, that's 7-Zip 15.14 (2015-12-31) for 64-bit I sent up my message. I

was looking for the
Windows x64 (Intel 64 or AMD64) here:
manual as well, but
7z1514-x64.exe
wasn't able to find it.
4. Right-click on: Thank you for the extra
ce-2015.11.05-stable.img.gz effort and pointing me in
choose "7-Zip" "Extract to" the right...
/ce-2015.11.05-stable.img Supermicro Xeon D
SuperServer BIOS 1.2b /
IPMI 3.58 released 1
day ago

5. Insert a USB flash drive at least 8GB in size, I used this

SanDisk 32GB USB 3.0 model that costs merely ~$11

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USD, and is easy to label.

m4nti c0r
6. Launch Rufus, say not to one-time question about
have you found a solution
"application updates" then click the CD icon to select an
for this problem?
image, navigating to
Benchmarking Optimized
/ce-2015.11.05-stable.img/ce-2015.11.05-
BIOS Settings for
stable.img
Supermicro SuperServer
then click Start, and wait about 7 minutes for it to write
SYS-5028D-TN4T 1 day
about 6GB of data ago

Advertise here

7. Eject the flash drive properly, using Disk Manager/Right-

click eject, since there's no system tray based drive
removal for driver-letter-less-devices.

8. Remove all HDDs and SSDs from your server that

you'll be using for Nutanix to install on because this
current stable build auto-formats any storage it can see.
You've been warned! See also a wonderful discussion
about this here, with constructive ideas for safer
approaches in future releases.

9. Insert at least one HDD and one SSD that you don't mind
getting wiped, so it has storage to automatically format
then use for its own installation and use.

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10. Power on your server.

11. If your BIOS won't boot the media properly by default, you
may need to revert to factory defaults, and ensure CSM is
turned on. I went with defaults with CSM on for my
SuperServer. From the Supermicro SuperServer
SYS-5028D-TN4T manual page 108:

CSM Support
Select Enabled to support the EFI Compatibility
Support Module (CSM), which provides compatibility
support for traditional legacy BIOS for system boot.
The options are Enabled and Disabled.

12. Select the SanDisk as primary in the boot order, as the

video demonstrates, save BIOS settings and exit.

13. Once you've successfully

booted from the USB drive,
some basic questions come
up, as pictured at right.
Then it's hands-off for 5-10
minutes, which is also when
it auto-formats all drives it
sees. When it's done, it'll
tell you, just point your
browser to the assigned IP
for that first login. Here's a
guide that will help you
with NCE installation questions, and another useful
resource for using the PRISM web interface after the install
is done, Nutanix Community Edition Primer.

14. If you were just testing Nutanix CE temporarily, and

you're now done, don't forget to reverse the first steps
above. Eject the Nutanix CE USB drive (don't forget your
labels, for easy idenfication/re-use later). Then reinsert
your ESXi USB drive (also hopefully labeled), and your
original SSD and HDD drives. Now power up and
configure the BIOS the way it was before you started this
Nutanix CE test. If that was with this same Supermicro
SuperServer, here's just the right spot in the step-by-
step article, which most importantly turns UEFI mode
back on.

Step-by-step video

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Step-by-step video about getting started with Nutanix CE.

Jan 02 2016 Update

I noticed that Acropolis doesn't currently support NVMe
storage. So if you have something like a Samsung 950 PRO
M.2 NVMe drive, or an Intel 750 Series PCIe NVMe card, you
technically don't need to reach for a screwdriver to remove
them, with this particular Nov 2015 Nutanix CE build. But be
careful. What if Nutanix both:

1. adds NVMe drivers in the future

2. doesn't add a drive selector to the installer and keeps all
drives found as the default targets to autoformat

then you're better off removing those NVMe drives during

Nutanix CE testing anyway, just in case.

See also at TinkerTry

Superguide:
SuperServer home
virtualization lab
storage tiers, platinum
through bronze, how
many efficient drives fit inside this tiny chassis?

World's fastest consumer SSD - Samsung 950 PRO

M.2 NVMe benchmark results

Rufus takes seconds to create a bootable USB flash

drive for ESXi installation

Get those tiny USB flash

drives labeled quickly,
effectively, and

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affordably

Nice little USB flash

drive choice for that
ESXi in your home lab

See also
Is there any possibility to recover VMs from a VMFS5
auto-reformatted by Nutanix CE?
Dec 30 2015 by Paul Braren at Nutanix NEXT forum
I've never felt more welcomed on any forum I've signed up
for, nor more convinced a company is paying attention to
my valid feedback. Thank you, Moderator Jon, Senior
Manager, Advisory Services, Nutanix GSO!

Create Nutanix CE VM Nested on ESXi 6

August 05 2015 by Philippe Lima

Nutanix Community Edition! be warned: You are

going to buy new lab gear!
May 18 2015 by Marco Broekn at vClouds

Creating a Nutanix Storage Pool and Container with

PRISM
Jan 27 2014 by Andrew Leibovici at myvirtualcloud.net

Nutanix Acropolis Datasheet

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Nutanix Acropolis Datasheet.

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