Cisco & Nutanix Solution Hardware - M6/M7
This is a simple and quick post - It details out the hardware Cisco has qualified with Nutanix starting with the launch of the partnership.
Cisco UCS M6
Cisco launched the partnership with Nutanix supporting their UCS M6 generation server. While this generation of servers has been announced End of Sale (EoS) the M6 generation of servers still has a significant amount of life left for customers to squeeze as much out of the hardware as possible.
- Cisco UCS C220 Series: 1U Rackmount Servers
- HCIAF220C-M6S or UCSC-C220-M6S
- CPU Family: Intel Ice Lake
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: SAS/SATA SSD (includes self-encrypting drives [SEDs])
- Node Capacity: Up to 76TB
- HCIAF220C-M6SN or UCSC-C220-M6N
- CPU Family: Intel Ice Lake
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: NVMe SSD
- Node Capacity: Up to 153TB
- HCIAF220C-M6S or UCSC-C220-M6S
- Cisco UCS C240 Series: 2U Rackmount Servers
- HCIAF240C-M6SX or UCSC-C240-M6SX
- CPU Family: Intel Ice Lake
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: SAS/SATA SSD (includes self-encryping drives [SEDs])
- Node Capacity: Up to 182TB
- HCIAF240C-M6SX or UCSC-C240-M6SX
Cisco UCS M7
Shortly after the launch of the partnership, Cisco and Nutanix released support for the UCS M7 generation of servers. This is also where the UCS X-Series modular server platform was introduced to the mix.
- Cisco UCS C220 Series: 1U Rackmount Servers
- HCIAF220C-M7S or UCSC-C220-M7S
- CPU Family: Saphire Rapids & Emerald Rapids
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: SAS/SATA SSD (includes self-encrypting drives [SEDs])
- Node Capcaity: Up to 153TB
- HCIAF220C-M7SN or UCSC-C220-M7N
- CPU Family: Saphire Rapids & Emerald Rapids
- CPU Sockets: Dual only
- Drive Type: NVMe SSD
- Node Capacity: Up to 153TB
- HCIAF220C-M7S or UCSC-C220-M7S
- Cisco UCS C240 Series: 2U Rackmount Servers
- HCIAF240C-M7SX or UCSC-C240-M7SX
- CPU Family: Saphire Rapids & Emerald Rapids
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: SAS/SATA SSD (includes self-encryping drives [SEDs])
- Node Capacity: Up to 307TB
- HCIAF240C-M7SN or UCSC-C240-M7SN
- CPU Family: Saphire Rapids & Emerald Rapids
- CPU Sockets: Dual only
- Drive Type: NVMe SSD
- Node Capacity: Up to 370TB
- HCIAF240C-M7SX or UCSC-C240-M7SX
- Cisco UCS X210c Series: Modular Servers
- HCIX210C-M7SN or UCSX-210C-M7
- CPU Family: Saphire Rapids & Emerald Rapids
- CPU Sockets: Single or Dual
- Drive Type: NVMe SSD
- Node Capacity: Up to 92TB
- HCIX210C-M7SN or UCSX-210C-M7
A few things to note on the above specs:
- All rackmount NVMe nodes are dual socket
- The 307TB capacity maximum for the C240-M7SX is a Nutanix AOS software maximum capacity for SAS/SATA SSD configurations. This applies for AOS 7.0 and below.
- The 370TB capacity maximum for the C240-M7SN is a Nutanix AOS software maximum capacity for NVMe SSD configurations. This maximum capacity was introduced with AOS 7.3 and above.
- Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) supports more capacity than the AOS software but the above capacities reflect an assumption that a customer will run AOS.
- A fully populated X-Series chassis with X210c servers gives users up to 1.1PB usable space (8 X210c servers per chassis)
Cisco UCS M8
As I started writing this section, I thought it may be a better idea to dedicate a post to M8 as it's the latest generation offered by Cisco and there are a more details and choices with M8 than any other geneation. Stay tuned for another post.