NCP-US-6.5 Exam Dumps : Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US) v6.5

Nutanix Volumes allows administrators to provision a volume group with one or more volumes that can be attached to multiple VMs or physical servers via iSCSI. This enables the creation of a Microsoft Server Failover Cluster that uses shared storage for a critical application. 

Microsoft Server Failover Cluster typically uses shared block storage for its quorum disk and application data. Nutanix Volumes provides this via iSCSI by provisioning a Volume Group, which can be accessed by both the AHV-hosted VMs and bare metal servers. This setup ensures maximum resiliency, as the shared storage is accessible to all nodes in the cluster, allowing failover between VMs and bare metal servers as needed.

Exact Extract from Nutanix Documentation:

From the Nutanix Volumes Administration Guide (available on the Nutanix Portal):

“Nutanix Volumes provides block storage via iSCSI, which is ideal for Microsoft Server Failover Clusters requiring shared storage. To deploy an MSFC with VMs and bare metal servers, provision a Volume Group in Nutanix Volumes and expose it via iSCSI to all cluster nodes, ensuring shared access to the storage for high availability and failover.”

The Files feature that the administrator should enable to ensure the sessions will auto-reconnect in such events is Durable File Handles. Durable File Handles is a feature that allows SMB clients to reconnect to a file server after a temporary network disruption or a client sleep state without losing the handle to the open file. Durable File Handles can improve the user experience and reduce the risk of data loss or corruption. Durable File Handles can be enabled for each share in the Files Console. References: Nutanix Files Administration Guide, page 76; Nutanix Files Solution Guide, page 10

Nutanix Data Lens, a service integrated with Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS), provides data governance, analytics, and ransomware protection for Nutanix Files. Enabling Data Lens for a file server involves configuring the service to monitor the file server’s shares. If the administrator is unable to enable Data Lens, there may be a configuration or compatibility issue with the file server.

Analysis of Options:

Option A (The file server has been cloned): Correct. Cloning a file server (e.g., creating a duplicate file server instance via cloning in Nutanix) is not a supported configuration for Data Lens. Data Lens relies on a unique file server identity to manage its metadata and analytics. If the file server has been cloned, Data Lens may fail to enable due to conflicts in identity or metadata, as the cloned file server may not be properly registered or recognized by Data Lens.

Option B (SSR is enabled on the file server): Incorrect. Self-Service Restore (SSR) is a feature in Nutanix Files that allows users to recover previous versions of files in SMB shares. Enabling SSR does not affect the ability to enable Data Lens, as the two features are independent and can coexist on a file server.

Option C (The file server is in a Protection Domain): Incorrect. A Protection Domain in Nutanix is used for disaster recovery (DR) of VMs or Volume Groups, not file servers directly. Nutanix Files uses replication policies (e.g., NearSync) for DR, not Protection Domains. Even if the file server is part of a replication setup, this does not prevent Data Lens from being enabled.

Option D (The file server has blacklisted file types): Incorrect. Blacklisting file types in Nutanix Files prevents certain file extensions from being stored on shares (e.g., for security reasons). However, this feature does not affect the ability to enable Data Lens, which operates at a higher level to analyze file metadata and user activity, regardless of file types.

Why Option A?

Cloning a file server creates a duplicate instance that may not be properly registered with Data Lens, leading to conflicts in identity, metadata, or configuration. Nutanix documentation specifies that Data Lens requires a uniquely deployed file server, and cloning can cause issues when enabling the service, making this the most likely cause of the administrator’s difficulty.

Exact Extract from Nutanix Documentation:

From the Nutanix Data Lens Administration Guide (available on the Nutanix Portal):

“Data Lens requires a uniquely deployed file server to enable its services. Cloning a file server is not supported, as it may result in conflicts with Data Lens metadata and configuration. If a file server has been cloned, Data Lens may fail to enable, and the file server must be redeployed or re-registered to resolve the issue.”