Nutanix 1350

I have been using the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform 3450 and 3460 appliances on some of my recent projects.  I have been wanting to do some testing to see what these appliances are capable of, I mean other than hosting 5000+ VMware View desktops, but it’s not like I can just go pull one out of production and fire up IOMeter, or install Hyper-V on it, or do some What-If-BadThingsTM happen like a hard drive accidently getting pulled or two nodes decide to power off at the same time.

Nutanix was kind enough to send me a Nutanix 1350 Virtual Computing Platform appliance to do exactly this.  The 1000 series is the little brother to the 3000 series.  Without having received Nutanix Official Sales Training(TM) I should clarify what the series numbers mean:

X (Series Number)
X (Number of Nodes)
X (Processor Type)
X (SSD Drive Capacity)
1 (1000 Series)
3 (3 Nodes)
5 (Dual Intel Sandy Bridge E5-2620)
0 (1-400GB SSD Drive)

Nutanix had also warned me that the appliance is rated to consume 1150W at 10-12A.  With all of the other equipment that I have in the office, my 15A circuit didn’t look like it was going to cut it.  Time for a power upgrade!

However, something seemed to be missing to complete this power upgrade… attic access!  5 days, 10 trips to Home Depot, a stud finder, 1 new reciprocating saw, and 4 holes in the wall later I had finally installed a new 20A circuit!

This is also probably where I should put the disclaimer:
I am a computer systems engineer and not a licensed electrician.  Any work performed on your own structures must be performed according to your local laws and building codes.  It is highly recommended to have any electrical work performed by a licensed electrician.

Found the back of the electrical panel!

 electrical

 

Circuit breaker installed!

20A 

 

Time for unboxing!

 Nutanix

Even though it came with rails, I don’t feel like moving everything around in my lab rack, I want to play!  I’ll just set it on top and rack it later.

nutanix

So now that I have it plugged in, let’s see what this thing is going to cost me to run.  Thanks to Southern California Edison and the California Public Utilities Exchange Commission I’m in Tier 4 which costs $0.31 per kilowatt hour.  At 1.15 kw/hr * 24 hrs per day * 30 days per month * $0.31, I’m looking at a $256.68 increase in my bill next month. 

However, I plugged in my Kill-A-Watt meter and it shows me that these 3 nodes are only consuming 367 Watts.  At 0.367 kw/hr * 24 hrs per day * 30 days per month * $0.31, it looks like I’m only going to be paying an additional $81.91.  I realize that these numbers are at idle, so I’ll have to write another post once I get a load spun up.  Also, this load probably could have fit on my existing 15A circuit.  But at least I got to play Tim Taylor over the holiday break and get more power!

kill-a-watt

2 thoughts on “Nutanix 1350”

  1. Disclaimer: I work for Nutanix in Performance Engineering.

    Great post Josh, and looks like you had fun connecting the power. I’ve got a 3450 in my lab and I was surprised at how little power it consumes, even when I’m running tests against it. I definitely need to get one of those meters though so I can measure it against all the other lab kit I’ve got. You pay heaps for your power too. I’m glad I’m only charged $0.18 per kWh, and thats NZD too. Hope you have fun with the block. Those 1350’s are excellent for a lot of production use cases as well, including Management Clusters, DMZ Clusters, VDI, or Remote Branch Offices. So many use cases and so simple. Look forward to reading updates on how you get on with your tests.

    1. Thanks Mike! I just looked at your lab, you might have too much equipment for the little Kill-A-Watt. It starts beeping and making “I’m getting mad” noises at around 1800W. Maybe pull the power numbers off of your UPS?

      I am pleasantly surprised by the power consumption of the 1000 series! My whitebox/Drobo combo consumes about 275W, so for only 100W more I get 4.5x processor and 2x storage.

      If my order arrives next week, I should be able to take my meter and get power numbers from the 3460.

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