A Nutanix Microservices Platform (MSP) is a Kubernetes-based platform that hosts all Objects microservices.
Here's a breakdown of what that means and why it's important:
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Microservices Platform (MSP): Essentially, it's the foundation upon which Nutanix Objects operates. It provides the environment necessary for the individual components (microservices) of Objects to run.
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Kubernetes-based: Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for automating application deployment, scaling, and management. By building MSP on Kubernetes, Nutanix gains benefits like portability, scalability, and resilience.
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Objects Microservices: Nutanix Objects is a software-defined object storage solution. Instead of a monolithic application, Objects is built using many smaller, independent services (microservices). This architecture promotes agility and allows for independent updates and scaling of individual components.
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MSP Lifecycle Management: A service called the MSP Controller, running on Prism Central, manages the lifecycle of the MSP. This includes deployments, upgrades, and other management tasks.
Key Implications & Considerations:
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Upgrade Order is Critical: You must upgrade the MSP Controller before upgrading the Objects Manager or Objects Service. This ensures compatibility and stability. The MSP Controller acts as the control plane for the microservices, and therefore must be running the appropriate version to manage them.
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Kubernetes Abstraction: While MSP is built on Kubernetes, users don't typically need to directly interact with Kubernetes to manage Objects. Nutanix handles the complexities of Kubernetes under the hood, providing a simplified interface.
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Scalability & Resilience: By leveraging Kubernetes and a microservices architecture, Nutanix Objects benefits from inherent scalability and resilience. Individual microservices can be scaled up or down as needed, and if one service fails, it doesn't necessarily bring down the entire system.
In summary, the Nutanix MSP provides the necessary infrastructure and management framework for Nutanix Objects to function, offering a scalable, resilient, and manageable object storage solution.
