Free and Premium Nutanix NCP-MCI-6.10 Dumps Questions Answers

TheBully VMs List (Option C)in Prism Central’sIntelligent OperationsidentifiesVMs consuming excessive CPU, memory, or storage, which negatively affects other VMs.

Option A (Inactive VMs List)is used foridentifying unused VMsbut does not detect performance issues.

Option B (Overprovisioned VMs List)helps identifyVMs with excessive allocated resources, but it does not focus on live performance impact.

Option D (Constrained VMs List)highlightsVMs suffering from resource contention, not those causing it.

The Nutanix ECA course covers storage optimization techniques for Nutanix storage containers, particularly for workloads like persistent desktops, which require efficient capacity utilization due to their repetitive data patterns. Persistent desktops typically store user-specific data and configurations, making them ideal candidates for storage optimization techniques like compression, deduplication, or erasure coding. The question asks for the setting that provides thebest possible capacity savings.

Extract from Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) Course Documents:

Module: Storage Management, Section: Storage Optimization"Erasure Coding provides the highest capacity savings for workloads with large amounts of data, such as persistent desktops. By distributing data and parity across nodes, Erasure Coding reduces storage overhead compared to replication factor (RF) while maintaining fault tolerance."

Module: Storage Configuration, Section: Optimization for Virtual Desktops"For persistent desktop workloads, Erasure Coding is recommended to maximize capacity savings. It is more efficient than compression or deduplication alone, as it reduces the storage footprint by encoding data across nodes, making it ideal for environments with high data redundancy."

Explanation of Options:

A. Erasure CodingThis is the correct answer. Erasure Coding (EC-X) is a storage optimization technique in Nutanix AOS that distributes data and parity information across nodes, reducing the storage overhead compared to traditional replication factor (RF) settings. For persistent desktops, which often have large datasets with redundant patterns, Erasure Coding provides significant capacity savings by encoding data efficiently while maintaining fault tolerance. The ECA course highlights that Erasure Coding is particularly effective for workloads with cold or less frequently accessed data, which aligns with persistent desktop storage.

Supporting Extract:"Erasure Coding can achieve up to 50% or more capacity savings compared to RF=2 for workloads like virtual desktops, making it the most effective optimization for capacity-constrained environments."

B. Inline compression with a delay of 0 minutesThis is incorrect. Inline compression reduces data size in real-time as it is written to storage, but it provides less capacity savings compared to Erasure Coding for persistent desktops. Compression is effective for reducing the size of compressible data, but persistent desktops often benefit more from Erasure Coding due to their larger datasets and redundancy. Additionally, a delay of 0 minutes means compression occurs immediately, which may increase write latency without maximizing savings. The ECA course notes:"Inline compression is useful for general workloads but is less effective than Erasure Coding for high-capacity workloads like persistent desktops."

C. Inline Deduplication of Read CachesThis is incorrect. Deduplication removes duplicate data blocks, but “Inline Deduplication of Read Caches” is not a standard Nutanix feature for storage containers. Nutanix supports inline and post-process deduplication, but these apply to data writes, not specifically to read caches. Even if deduplication were applied, it would provide less capacity savings than Erasure Coding for persistent desktops, as deduplication depends on data similarity, whereas Erasure Coding optimizes storage across all data types. The ECA course states:"Deduplication is effective for workloads with high data similarity, but Erasure Coding provides broader capacity savings for large-scale desktop deployments."

D. Post Process DeduplicationThis is incorrect. Post-process deduplication analyzes and removes duplicate data after it is written, which can save capacity but is less efficient than Erasure Coding for persistent desktops. Deduplication requires significant data similarity to achieve savings, and its post-process nature delays optimization, potentially leading to temporary storage overuse. The ECA course clarifies:"Post-process deduplication is suitable for specific workloads, but Erasure Coding is preferred for persistent desktops due to its superior capacity efficiency and immediate applicability across nodes."

Additional Context from ECA:

Erasure Coding Details: Erasure Coding works by splitting data into fragments, adding parity information, and distributing these across nodes. For a storage container with persistent desktops, enabling Erasure Coding (e.g., with a stripe width of 4+2) can significantly reduce the storage footprint compared to RF=2 or RF=3. The ECA course notes:"Erasure Coding is ideal for containers with large datasets, such as VDI environments, where capacity savings are critical."

Persistent Desktops: These desktops store user data and configurations, leading to large, redundant datasets. Erasure Coding’s ability to optimize storage across nodes makes it the best choice for capacity savings, as confirmed by the ECA materials.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible supports the ECA documentation: "Erasure Coding (EC-X) provides the highest capacity efficiency for workloads like persistent desktops, reducing storage overhead by distributing data and parity across nodes, outperforming compression and deduplication in capacity-constrained environments."

CPU Ready Time indicates how long a VM waits for CPU resources due to contention.

Option B (Review host CPU utilization) is correct:

IfCPU utilization is high, there may beexcessive CPU overcommitment, leading to high CPU Ready Time.

Adding more hostsorreducing vCPU allocationsmay resolve the issue.

Option A (Check CVM vCPUs) is incorrect:

The Controller VM (CVM)does not directly impact application VM performancein this case.

Option C (Assess SSD capacity) is incorrect:

CPU Ready Time is unrelated to storage performance.

Option D (Enable VM memory oversubscription) is incorrect:

Memory oversubscription does not affect CPU contention.

Reserved Capacity settings define how much storage is exclusively allocated for a specific container.

Option B (Reserved Capacity is too high) is correct:

If too much space is reserved for a container, it can report "out of space" while the cluster still has free capacity.

Options A, C, and D are incorrect:

Advertised Capacity, Compression, and RF settings do not directly cause storage exhaustion unless misconfigured with Reserved Capacity.

The Nutanix ECA course covers the use of Playbooks in Prism Central to automate responses to specific events or conditions, such as VM protection failures. The task requires creating an alert for VMs in theCriticalApps:Alertscategory when a VM Protection Failed Alert is triggered, with notifications sent to on-call personnel.

Extract from Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) Course Documents:

Module: Automation, Section: Playbooks"Playbooks in Prism Central can be configured with an Alert Matching Criteria trigger to respond to specific alerts, such as VM protection failures. This trigger allows filtering by entity categories, ensuring the Playbook only acts on VMs matching the specified category, and can send notifications to designated personnel."

Module: Intelligent Operations, Section: Alert Management"To create an alert for specific VMs based on a category, use a Playbook with an Alert Matching Criteria trigger. This allows precise targeting of alerts (e.g., VM Protection Failed) for VMs in a category like CriticalApps:Alerts, with actions such as sending email notifications to on-call teams."

Explanation of Options:

A. Create a Playbook with a Manual triggerThis is incorrect. A Manual trigger requires an administrator to manually initiate the Playbook, which does not meet the requirement for automatic alerting when a VM Protection Failed Alert is triggered. The ECA course states:"Manual triggers are used for ad-hoc Playbook execution, not for automated responses to alerts."

B. Create a Playbook with an Alert Matching Criteria triggerThis is the correct answer. An Alert Matching Criteria trigger allows the Playbook to respond automatically to specific alerts, such as VM Protection Failed, and can be filtered to apply only to VMs in theCriticalApps:Alertscategory. The Playbook can then execute an action, such as sending an email notification to on-call personnel. The ECA course highlights this as the most precise method for alert-based automation.

Supporting Extract:"The Alert Matching Criteria trigger enables Playbooks to filter alerts by type and entity category, ensuring targeted responses, such as notifying on-call personnel for VM protection failures in specific categories."

C. Create a Playbook with an Event-based triggerThis is incorrect. Event-based triggers respond to system events (e.g., VM power-on or cluster events) rather than specific alerts like VM Protection Failed. They are less precise for this use case, as they do not allow filtering by alert type or category. The ECA course notes:"Event-based triggers are suited for general system events, not for targeted alert responses like VM protection failures."

D. Create a Playbook with an Alert-based triggerThis is incorrect. The term “Alert-based trigger” is not a standard option in Nutanix Playbooks. The correct terminology isAlert Matching Criteria trigger, which is specifically designed for alert-driven automation. The ECA course does not reference a generic “Alert-based trigger” option.

Additional Context from ECA:

Playbook Configuration: In Prism Central, a Playbook is created underOperations > Playbooks > Create Playbook. Select theAlert Matching Criteriatrigger, specify theVM Protection Failedalert, and filter by theCriticalApps:Alertscategory. Add an action to send an email notification to the on-call team.

Category Filtering: Categories (e.g., CriticalApps:Alerts) are key-value pairs assigned to VMs for organization and policy enforcement, making them ideal for targeting specific VMs in Playbooks.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible supports: "Playbooks with Alert Matching Criteria triggers allow precise automation for alerts, such as VM protection failures, filtered by VM categories, with actions like sending notifications."

Multicast traffic can generate unnecessary overhead if it is not properly managed.IGMP Snooping (Option C)ensures thatmulticast packets are only sent to VMs that have requested them, rather than broadcasting to all VMs.

Option C (IGMP Snooping) is correct:

Itreduces unnecessary multicast trafficby ensuring that only subscribed VMs receive the packets.

It is supportednatively in AHV networking.

Option A (LACP) is incorrect:

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)improves bandwidth and redundancy but doesnot control multicast traffic.

Option B (UDP) is incorrect:

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a transport protocol, not a network optimization feature.

Option D (Network Segmentation) is incorrect:

Segmentation (VLANs, VPCs) isolates networksbut does not optimizemulticast traffic specifically.

vGPU-enabled VMs can only be migrated if the destination host has a compatible GPU and sufficient resources.

Option A (Target host must have sufficient resources) is correct:

The target hostmust have the same GPU model and enough available resourcesto support the VM.

vGPUcannot be live-migrated across incompatible hardware.

Option B (vGPU profile change) is incorrect:

The profiledoes not need to be changedas long as the target host has the same configuration.

Option C (Agent VM required) is incorrect:

Agent VMs are not necessaryfor vGPU migration.

Option D (Host affinity) is incorrect:

Host affinitylimits movement, butis not a prerequisite for migration.

In a dark site deployment, LCM does not automatically fetch updates from the internet. The administrator must manually upload compatibility bundles.

Option B (The latest compatibility bundle has not been uploaded) is correct:

Thecompatibility bundlecontainsfirmware mappings, allowing LCM to detect the correct BIOS version.

Option A is incorrect:

AOSdoes not need to be upgraded firstfor a BIOS update.

Option C is incorrect:

TheBMC firmware does not always need updatingbefore BIOS updates.

Option D is incorrect:

In a dark site deployment,LCM does not rely on an internet connection, so webserver access is not required.

Dead VMs and Zombie VMs are different classifications of inactive VMs in Nutanix, and their deletion timelines depend on Playbook configuration.

Dead VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option C is correct).

Zombie VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option B is correct).

Nutanix Application Discovery relies on a combination of Prism Central services and in-guest sensors that collect application metadata, communication patterns, and dependency maps. The internal documentation lists these specific prerequisites before Application Discovery can be enabled:

“Prism Central must have access to the Internet for sensor downloads, signature updates, and metadata service communication.”Application Discovery uses cloud-based metadata to identify applications and services. Without Internet access, Prism Central cannot retrieve application profiles, updated signatures, and dependency mapping definitions.

“The Network Controller service must be enabled to allow flow-level inspection and communication tracking between VMs.”Application Discovery integrates directly with Nutanix Flow’s Network Controller to observe traffic flows, which is required for dependency mapping. Without Network Controller enabled, Prism Central cannot monitor or analyze traffic between workloads.

The documentation clarifies that generating API keys is not required to activate Application Discovery, and sufficient Prism Central resources are already assumed as stated in the question.

Therefore, the required prerequisites are Internet connectivity and enabling the Network Controller.

After a Prism Central upgrade, IAM authentication settings may require reconfiguration.

Option D (Log in with a local admin account) is correct:

If IAM authentication fails, thelocal admin account must be usedto check domain settings.

Option A (Ping the Domain Controller) is incorrect:

Network connectivity is important, but theissue is likely related to IAM settings, not network reachability.

Option B (Check firewall port 9441) is incorrect:

Port 9441 is used forSSO authentication, butport issues usually result in login delays, not complete failures.

Option C (Validate signing certificate) is incorrect:

While certificates can cause issues,local admin login should always work.

To resolve issues with application-consistent snapshots (script execution failures), two critical actions are needed:

NGT Service Status:From the ECA materials:

“The Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) service is responsible for executing pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts for application-consistent snapshots. If NGT is not running, these scripts will not execute.”

Script Validation:

“Before relying on scheduled snapshot runs, execute pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts manually to ensure they complete successfully. This helps to rule out script logic or permission issues.”

Ownership or log review of the script path itself (A and B) are secondary and typically not root-cause resolution steps.

Nutanix requires thatall cluster components synchronize time using an external NTP (Network Time Protocol) server.

Option A (Adding an external NTP server) is correctbecause Nutanix best practices recommend using anexternal time source to prevent clock drift between cluster nodes.

Option B (DNS server IP) is incorrect: ADNS server does not provide NTP services.

Option C (Server with DNS hostname) is incorrectunless the DNS hostnameresolves to an NTP server.

Option D (IP of the Domain Controller) is incorrectbecausenot all domain controllers provide NTP servicesunless explicitly configured.

The Nutanix ECA course provides guidance on performance monitoring and troubleshooting for VMs, including metrics to analyze when determining whether additional vCPUs are needed. The scenario involves a VM experiencing performance issues, with the cluster performing well overall, suggesting the issue is VM-specific.

Extract from Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) Course Documents:

Module: Performance Monitoring, Section: VM Performance Metrics"To determine if a VM requires additional vCPUs, analyze VM CPU Usage and VM CPU Ready Time. High CPU Usage indicates the VM is under heavy load, while high CPU Ready Time suggests the VM is waiting for CPU resources, both justifying additional vCPUs."

Module: Troubleshooting, Section: VM Performance Issues"When a VM experiences performance issues, VM CPU Usage and VM CPU Ready Time are critical metrics. CPU Usage shows demand, while CPU Ready Time indicates contention or scheduling delays, helping determine if more vCPUs are warranted."

Explanation of Options:

A. VM CPU UsageThis is correct. VM CPU Usage measures the percentage of CPU resources the VM is consuming. High CPU Usage (e.g., consistently above 80–90%) indicates that the VM is under heavy load and may benefit from additional vCPUs to handle the workload. The ECA course emphasizes:"VM CPU Usage is the primary metric to assess whether a VM’s CPU allocation is sufficient for its workload."

B. VM CPU Ready TimeThis is correct. VM CPU Ready Time measures the time a VM is ready to run but waiting for CPU resources from the hypervisor due to contention or oversubscription. High CPU Ready Time (e.g., above 5–10%) suggests that the VM is not getting enough CPU cycles, and adding vCPUs could alleviate the issue. The ECA course notes:"High VM CPU Ready Time indicates CPU contention, often resolved by adding vCPUs or optimizing resource allocation."

C. Host Memory Swap Out RateThis is incorrect. Host Memory Swap Out Rate indicates memory pressure on the host, causing memory pages to be swapped to disk. While this can affect VM performance, it is unrelated to CPU performance and does not justify adding vCPUs. The ECA course states:"Host Memory Swap Out Rate is relevant for memory-related issues, not CPU allocation decisions."

D. Host CPU UsageThis is incorrect. Host CPU Usage measures the overall CPU utilization of the host, not the specific VM. Since the cluster is performing well overall, high Host CPU Usage is unlikely, and it does not directly indicate whether the VM needs more vCPUs. The ECA course clarifies:"Host CPU Usage is a cluster-wide metric and less relevant for diagnosing VM-specific CPU performance issues."

Additional Context from ECA:

Performance Monitoring Tools: In Prism Element or Prism Central, VM CPU Usage and CPU Ready Time can be monitored underVM > Monitoror through dashboards. These metrics provide insight into the VM’s CPU demand and contention.

Adding vCPUs: The ECA course advises caution when adding vCPUs, as over-allocation can increase CPU Ready Time due to scheduling overhead. However, if both CPU Usage and Ready Time are high, adding vCPUs is justified.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible supports: "For VM performance issues, analyze VM CPU Usage and CPU Ready Time to determine if additional vCPUs are needed, as these metrics directly indicate CPU demand and contention."

Duringfailover in Nutanix Disaster Recovery, VMs retain theirstatic IPsbut maylose DNS settingsif the network configuration at the DR site is different from the primary site.

Option B (Create custom in-guest scripts) is correct:

Custom scriptsallowWindows or Linux VMs to restore DNS settings automaticallyafter failover.

These scripts can be executed usingpost-failover automationin Nutanix DR policies.

Option A (Self-Service Restore) is incorrect:

Self-Service Restore is used forend-user recovery of deleted files, not for network settings.

Option C (nncli tool) is incorrect:

Thenncli toolis used fornetwork troubleshooting, but it does not automatically restore DNS settings.

Option D (Configure a Protection Domain) is incorrect:

Protection Domains definereplication policies, but they do not fix DNS settings after failover.

VMs using GPU pass-through cannot be live-migrated because they are directly tied to a physical GPU on a specific host.

Option B (VMs use GPU pass-through) is correct:

Pass-through devices (such as GPUs) are directly assigned to VMs, makingmigration impossibleunless the VM is powered off first.

Option A (VMs use a Volume Group) is incorrect:

Volume Groupssupport live migrationunless they are configured incorrectly.

Option C (VM-VM anti-affinity) is incorrect:

Anti-affinity rules prevent two specific VMs from running together, but do not prevent migration.

Option D (VMs use external NAS) is incorrect:

Using NAS does not block VM migration, as Nutanixsupports shared storage across hosts.

When configuring application-consistent snapshots in a Nutanix protection domain for applications such as SQL, Oracle, and Exchange, it is critical to group all related VMs in the same consistency group within the protection domain. This ensures that the snapshot captures a consistent state of the entire application stack.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“A consistency group ensures that snapshots across multiple VMs are taken at the same time, maintaining application consistency for distributed applications. This is especially important for multi-tiered applications like SQL, Oracle, and Exchange, where data integrity depends on coordinated snapshot creation.”

Additionally:

“For application-consistent snapshots, leverage guest tools or volume shadow copy services (VSS) in Windows to quiesce applications, and configure the consistency group to include all relevant VMs.”

By creating one consistency group for all VMs comprising an application, the administrator ensures that snapshots represent a consistent state across the application components.

Understanding the Exhibit & the Alert

The alert states:

"The cluster is using password-based SSH access for the CVM."

"Password-based remote login is enabled on the cluster."

"It is recommended to use key-based SSH access instead of password-based SSH access for better security."

This means that the nutanix user can log in to Controller VMs (CVMs) using a password, which is a security risk.

Corrective Action: Enabling Cluster Lockdown

✅(C) Enable Cluster Lockdown. (Correct Answer)

Cluster Lockdown Mode restricts password-based SSH access and forces key-based authentication.

This prevents users from logging into CVMs using passwords, enhancing cluster security.

To enable Cluster Lockdown:

Go to Prism Central or Prism Element.

Navigate to Settings → Security → Cluster Lockdown.

Enable Cluster Lockdown Mode.

Evaluating the Other Answer Choices

❌(A) Rename the nutanix user. (Incorrect)

The nutanix user is a built-in system account required for cluster operations.

Renaming the user will not prevent SSH access via password.

❌(B) Block port 22 on the CVM firewall. (Incorrect)

Blocking port 22 (SSH) will completely disable SSH access, including key-based authentication.

This may break cluster management and troubleshooting operations.

❌(D) Delete the nutanix user. (Incorrect)

The nutanix user is a critical system account required for cluster functionality.

Deleting the account will cause serious issues with cluster management.

Multicloud Infrastructure References & Best Practices

Nutanix Security Best Practices:

Always use key-based SSH authentication instead of password-based logins.

Enable Cluster Lockdown Mode to enforce security policies.

Regularly audit user access to ensure security compliance.

Cluster Lockdown Benefits:

Prevents unauthorized SSH access via passwords.

Enforces public key authentication, reducing brute-force attack risks.

Strengthens CVM security against potential exploits.

By default, Nutanix Prism Central retains the last 10 instances of a report if no retention policy is configured.

Option B (10) is correct:

Nutanixstores up to 10 reports, after which older reports areautomatically deleted.

Options A (5), C (15), and D (20) are incorrect:

Whileretention policies can be customized, thedefault setting is 10 reports.

Active-Active bonding allows multiple network interfaces to be used simultaneously, improving bandwidth and redundancy.

Option B (Active-Active) is correct:

This mode enablesload balancing across all available adapters, providinghigher throughput and fault tolerance.

Option A (No Uplink Bond) is incorrect:

Without a bond, VMscannot benefit from multiple adapters.

Option C (Active-Active with MAC pinning) is incorrect:

MAC pinningbinds traffic to a single NIC, limiting bandwidth distribution.

Option D (Active-Backup) is incorrect:

This modeonly provides failover, not increased bandwidth.

In a 12-node FT2 cluster, onlyonenode can be placed into maintenance mode at a time. This ensures that the cluster maintains data redundancy and protection (FT2 indicates 2-failure tolerance).

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“For FT2 clusters, a maximum of one node can be placed in maintenance mode at a time to ensure the cluster’s ability to tolerate failures and maintain quorum.”

Question 155 [Manage Nutanix clusters]

Which Nutanix feature allows administrators to expand a cluster by adding new nodes without downtime?

A. AHV Protection Domains

B. Prism Central

C. Scale-out Architecture

D. Metro Availability

Answer: C

VM templates in Nutanix are supported only when the VM’s disks reside on storage containers configured with Replication Factor 2 (RF2) or higher.

Option C (VM has disks on RF2 containers) is correct:

VM templates requirea minimum RF2 for fault tolerance.

RF1 containers do not meet Nutanix best practices for VM templates.

Option A is incorrect:

VMs protected by Protection Domains can be cloned, but this is different from creating a VM template.

Option B is incorrect:

Agent VMs (e.g., Witness VMs) or Prism Central cannot be used as VM templates.

Option D is incorrect:

Nutanix VM templates are natively supported on AHV, not ESXi.

The most efficient way to move a VM’s storage to a container that has different storage optimization policies (like compression) is to perform aVM migrationto the target container. This operation ensures that all the VM’s vDisks are moved to the destination container and allows leveraging the configured optimizations on the Production container.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“VM migration to another storage container in Nutanix Prism Central is supported and can be performed with minimal disruption. When moving a VM to a new container, it inherits the storage optimization policies of that container, including compression, deduplication, and encryption.”

Furthermore:

“Migrations can be initiated at the VM level in Prism Central or Prism Element. This is the most streamlined method to ensure all vDisks for a VM are moved together, preserving data integrity and performance characteristics.”

Recreating the VM or vDisks would be cumbersome and require manual data copying, introducing potential risks and downtime.

Categories in Nutanix are used to group resources and require only a name and a value for definition.

Option A (A name and a value) is correct:

Categoriesrequire a name (e.g., "Production VMs")and a value (e.g., "Tier 1").

These are then applied to VMs, storage, and other resources forpolicy-based management.

Option B (Policy and Entity) is incorrect:

Policiesuse categories but are not required to define a category.

Option C (Service and Scope) is incorrect:

Categoriesdo not require servicesor a defined scope.

Option D (Catalog and Template) is incorrect:

These apply toself-service provisioning, not categories.

Nutanix Data Protection enforces strict snapshot lifecycle controls to ensure recovery integrity. The system prevents deletion of any snapshot that is actively referenced by a running operation. The documentation states:

“Snapshots that are part of an active recovery or restore workflow cannot be deleted until the operation completes, as they are required to maintain data consistency and restore points.”

This includes DR failover tests, restorations, or live recovery workflows. Corrupted snapshots do not cause deletion failure; the system can still delete a corrupted snapshot unless it’s attached to an active workflow. Ransomware affects guest data, not the snapshot metadata in Prism. Approval policies do not block snapshot deletion unless tied to automation policies, which is rare and would produce a different error.

Therefore, active recovery operations are the most common and most accurate cause when deletion is blocked.

The “nutanix” user is a system-level account required by the platform for internal operations, automation, cluster communication, and support access. It cannot be deleted or renamed. Nutanix security guidelines state:

“The correct method to prevent password-based SSH access for system accounts is to use Cluster Lockdown mode, which disables password authentication and enforces key-based access for all system-level CVM accounts.”

Cluster Lockdown modifies SSH configuration across all CVMs, ensuring:

password authentication is disabled

only key-based authentication is permitted

privileged system accounts such as ‘nutanix’ cannot log in interactively

Blocking port 22 is not appropriate because it would block SSH entirely, including legitimate administrative access. The “nutanix” user cannot be renamed or removed due to system dependency.

Thus, enabling Cluster Lockdown is the proper Nutanix-approved method to remove password-based SSH access for system accounts.

Enabling "Cluster Lockdown" in Nutanix is the best security measure to prevent password-based SSH logins.

Option C (Enable Cluster Lockdown) is correct:

Cluster Lockdowndisables password-based SSHandrequires key-based authentication.

Option A (Rename the nutanix user) is incorrect:

The Nutanix useris a system accountand cannot be renamed.

Option B (Block port 22) is incorrect:

This wouldprevent all SSH connections, includingkey-based logins, making administration difficult.

Option D (Delete the nutanix user) is incorrect:

Thenutanix useris required for system operations and cannot be removed.

RF3 (Replication Factor 3) clusters require sufficient reserved capacity to tolerate failures without data loss.

Option C (Set Reserve Capacity for Failure to Auto Detect) is correct:

Auto Detect dynamically calculates the necessary reserved spacebased on cluster size and RF settings.

It ensures thatenough storage remains available in case of a node failure.

Option A (Set Reserve Storage Capacity to 20%) is incorrect:

The required storage reservationdepends on the number of nodes and RF level, not a fixed percentage.

Option B (Set Reserve Capacity for Failure to None) is incorrect:

Without reserved capacity,a node failure could lead to data unavailability.

Option D (Set Reserve Memory Capacity to 20%) is incorrect:

This setting applies toRAM, notstorage resiliency.

Nutanix documentation explains that Reserved Capacity for a storage container allocates a guaranteed amount of physical space exclusively for that container. The internal description is:

“Reserved Capacity is space carved out from the storage pool for guaranteed use by a container. When a container’s reserved allocation approaches exhaustion, alerts are raised even if the overall cluster has ample free space.”

This means that although the physical cluster capacity may be sufficient, the container itself may hit its reserved limit, triggering an out-of-space forecast. Advertised Capacity determines an upper usage limit but does not produce this behavior. Replication Factor affects total usage but cannot explain container-only exhaustion when the cluster is fine. Compression levels influence data reduction but not capacity alerting mechanisms.

Thus, an oversized Reserved Capacity value is responsible for the alert.

When Life Cycle Manager (LCM) reports thata newer framework version is available, thecorrect actionis toperform an inventory scan (Option C).

Performing an inventory scan updates the available firmware/software versionsand allows LCM to download required updates.

Option A (Run an AOS upgrade)is unrelated to the LCM framework update process.

Option B (Run an AHV upgrade)is a separate component update and does not affect the LCM framework.

Option D (Download manually from a CVM)is not necessary because LCM updates are automatically pulled after an inventory scan.

Before performing any LCM (Life Cycle Manager) updates on a Nutanix cluster, it is essential to ensure that the AOS (Acropolis Operating System) is updated to the required or recommended version. AOS updates provide foundational enhancements, security patches, and compatibility improvements, which are critical for the successful execution of LCM updates.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“LCM updates depend on the underlying AOS version. Before proceeding with any hardware or software updates through LCM, administrators must ensure that the cluster is running a supported AOS version. This step ensures compatibility and prevents issues that can arise from dependencies between AOS and the update components.”

Additionally:

“AOS upgrades should be performed first to bring the cluster to a version that supports the desired LCM updates for components like BIOS, firmware, and hypervisors. This aligns the management stack with the latest features and security enhancements.”

Therefore, updating AOS before performing LCM updates is a mandatory prerequisite to ensure stability and supportability for the entire cluster lifecycle management process.

To create a custom Intelligent Operations report and run it across multiple Prism Central instances, administrators must export the report configuration from one Prism Central instance and then import it into the others. This process leverages the .rpt file format, which encapsulates the report’s configuration details, including data sources, visualization preferences, and thresholds.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Administrators can create custom Intelligent Operations reports in Prism Central and export the configuration as a .rpt file. This exported file can then be imported into other Prism Central instances, ensuring consistency across environments without requiring manual recreation of the report’s details.”

Additionally:

“The export/import feature for reports ensures that custom dashboards and reports can be easily migrated or replicated across multiple Prism Central instances, enabling a standardized approach to monitoring and analytics in a multicloud environment.”

This clearly indicates that the recommended and supported method for sharing or replicating custom reports across multiple Prism Central instances is by exporting and importing the report configurations in .rpt format. This approach avoids the need for manual recreation and ensures that the reports maintain their intended configuration and layout across different instances.

For workloads requiring new IP addresses and DNS server settings during DR recovery, using custom scripting within the Recovery Plan is the recommended and supported method.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Recovery Plans support scripting within the Recovery Sequence to enable administrators to perform post-recovery customization tasks, such as updating IP addresses, configuring DNS, or applying application-specific settings.”

“This scripting capability provides a flexible, automated approach to ensure that VMs are correctly reconfigured to operate within the DR environment’s network and DNS settings.”

This avoids the need for manual reconfiguration post-recovery or adjusting settings in production prior to failover.

For optimal Disaster Recovery performance, new nodes must match or exceed the storage performance of existing nodes.

Option A (New node must have at least 2 SSDs) is correct:

Since the G7 nodes havetwo SSDs, replacing G5 nodes withat least 2 SSDsensuresconsistent SSD cache and performance.

Option B is incorrect:

G7 or G8 nodes may help, but storage performance is more critical for DR.

Option C is incorrect:

CPU core count does not impact DR storage performance as much as SSD capacity.

Option D is incorrect:

Hybrid nodes are already in use, but SSDs must match for performance balance.

Data-in-Transit Encryption ensures that replication traffic is encrypted while being sent over the internet.

Option D (Enable Data-in-Transit Encryption) is correct:

This encryptsreplicated data between clusters, ensuring security againstman-in-the-middle attacks.

Option A (Self-encrypting drive) is incorrect:

This protects data at rest, not during transmission.

Option B (UEFI Secure Boot) is incorrect:

Secure Boot prevents unauthorized OS modifications, but doesnot encrypt network traffic.

Option C (Data-at-Rest Encryption) is incorrect:

This encryptsstored data but does not secure replication traffic.

When usingFQDN instead of a Virtual IP in a scale-out Prism Central deployment, Nutanixenables load balancing across multiple Prism Central instances.

Option A (Load balancing) is correctbecause it ensures that requests are distributed among multiple Prism Central nodes, improving performance and redundancy.

Option B (Resiliency) is incorrectbecause resiliency is achieved through HA and replication, not through FQDN configuration.

Option C (Segmentation) is incorrectbecause network segmentation is handled at the VLAN or security policy level.

Option D (SSL Certificate) is incorrectbecause SSL certificates can be applied regardless of whether FQDN or Virtual IP is used.