NCP-EUC Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) 6.10 Exam Questions and Answers

non-persistent VDI machines are deleted when they are rebooted, logged off, or shut down. Therefore, Windows Update policy should be configured to prevent automatic updates that may trigger a restart on these machines1.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-endpoint/onboarding-and-servicing-non-persistent-vdi-machines-with/ba-p/1360721

Nutanix Prism Central includes Behavioral Learning and Efficiency reporting tools designed to identify inefficient resource usage.7

To verify if VMs are "using less than their configured memory" (wasted resources), the administrator should view the Over-provisioned VMs list within the Efficiency widget. Nutanix defines an "Over-provisioned VM" as one that is sized with more resources (CPU/Memory) than it actually consumes based on historical performance data.8 This list explicitly identifies these VMs, allowing the administrator to right-size them and reclaim cluster resources, whereas Task Manager (Option A) is manual/individual, and Capacity Runway (Option D) focuses on global cluster storage/resource exhaustion time rather than individual VM efficiency.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Citrix on Nutanix Best Practices for Profile Management:

Legacy Roaming Profiles: A "Legacy Roaming Profile" (Windows Roaming User Profiles) functions by downloading the entire profile (files, folders, AppData, etc.) from the network share to the local VM at logon, and uploading changes back at logoff.

Impact on Performance: If a user has a large existing profile (common in legacy migrations), this copy process creates massive network and disk I/O activity during the logon/logoff phase, resulting in extended wait times (the "Applying User Settings" or "Waiting for User Profile Service" screens).

Contrast with Modern Solutions: Modern VDI solutions use Profile Containers (like FSLogix or Citrix Profile Management containers) which mount the profile as a virtual disk (VHDX) almost instantly, rather than copying files.

Why not Home Folder (C)? A home folder is typically a mapped network drive. It does not copy data to the desktop at logon; it simply maps a pointer. Therefore, having "too much data" in a mapped drive does not slow down the logon process itself.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the Prism Central Admin Guide regarding Security and User Management:

RBAC Definition: Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is the specific feature designed to map users and groups (such as an Active Directory "Department" group) to specific sets of permissions (Roles).

Application: An administrator can define a role (e.g., "HR Admin") with specific privileges and assign it to the "HR Department" AD group. This ensures that permissions are granted granularly based on the department, fulfilling the security requirement efficiently.

Why not others:

Network Segmentation controls traffic flow (who can talk to whom), not administrative permissions.

Cluster Lockdown disables password authentication for SSH, which is a hardening step, not a permission management strategy.

non-persistent VDI is a type of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that does not save any changes made by the user on the virtual machine (VM) across sessions. Non-persistent VDI uses a master image to create and delete VMs as needed.

Therefore, if the administrator needs to manage a non-persistent deployment, they should avoid any requirements that involve modifying or installing applications on the VMs, as those changes would not be saved.

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-ncp-euc-v6

According to the Nutanix Security Guide, Cluster Lockdown is the specific security feature designed to restrict access to the cluster by disabling password-based authentication. When Cluster Lockdown is enabled, the cluster allows access only via SSH keys (RSA keys).

To meet the requirement of allowing access from "selected workstations" while "disallowing password access," the administrator must use Cluster Lockdown. By generating an SSH key pair and configuring the public key within the Cluster Lockdown settings (and removing the "Enable Remote Login with Password" option), the administrator ensures that only workstations possessing the corresponding private key can authenticate. This effectively restricts access to the specific workstations holding the keys and eliminates the risk associated with password-based logins. While IP restrictions (Option B/C) can limit the source addresses, they do not inherently disable password authentication, which is the primary requirement of the question.

For non-persistent VDI environments where speed and personalization are required, Container-based profiles (such as FSLogix Profile Containers or Citrix Profile Management containers) are the industry standard and Nutanix recommended solution.

Unlike Roaming Profiles (Option D), which must copy thousands of files over the network at login (causing slow logins and "bloat"), Container-based profiles encapsulate the entire user profile into a single virtual disk (VHD/VHDX). This disk is mounted instantly over the network when the user logs in. This provides the user with their personalized settings immediately—mimicking a local profile—without the performance penalty of file copying, ensuring the fast and consistent sign-in experience requested by management.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Citrix on Nutanix Reference Architectures:

Simplicity of MCS: Machine Creation Services (MCS) is integrated directly into the Citrix Studio console and communicates natively with the Nutanix AHV APIs. It creates clones (Linked or Full) effortlessly without requiring extra infrastructure.

Comparison with PVS: PVS (Provisioning Services) (Option D) requires a separate PVS infrastructure (Provisioning Servers, SQL database, TFTP/DHCP configuration, Network Streaming Setup).

Conclusion: For a "Dedicated VDI" requirement, using MCS to provision full or fast clones requires significantly less administrative effort and infrastructure setup than implementing a PVS environment.

alert policies are rules that define the conditions for generating alerts on Nutanix clusters1. You can create custom alert policies based on your specific needs and preferences2Playbooks are automated workflows that perform actions based on triggers such as alerts3. You can create playbooks using predefined alerts or alerts matching criteria3.

To ensure that the vice president of IT infrastructure has the best possible experience and to be notified if any CPU resource constraints on the virtual desktop, one possible solution is to create a new alert policy to alert if the CPU on the virtual desktop is over a certain threshold (for example, 80%) and configure a playbook to send a notification (for example, via email or Slack) to the administrator23. This way, the administrator can monitor the performance of the virtual desktop and take appropriate actions if needed.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Central-Guide-vpc_2022_6:mul-alert-policies-customize-system-pc-t.html

To resolve issues with persistence (retaining settings) and login performance in a non-persistent VDI environment, the industry standard and Nutanix-recommended solution is to Enable a Virtual Disk-based profile solution (such as FSLogix Profile Containers or Citrix Profile Management containers).

Retaining Settings: Unlike local profiles (wiped on reboot) or mandatory profiles (read-only), containerized profiles capture all user writes and persist them to a VHD/VHDX file on a file share (e.g., Nutanix Files).

Speed: Microsoft Roaming Profiles (Option A) require copying files over the network at login, causing slowness. Virtual Disk-based solutions mount the profile disk instantly over the network, making the login process nearly as fast as a local profile while ensuring data persistence.

VMware Horizon is a solution that delivers Windows and Linux virtual desktops and published applications to end users from centralized servers.

One of the best practices for delivering Microsoft Office 365 in VMware Horizon is to disable Cached Exchange Mode for Outlook3. This can improve performance and reduce storage requirements.

There are different profile management toolsets that can be used with Office 365 and VMware Horizon. One of them is Horizon Persona Management4, which is a feature that synchronizes user profiles with a remote repository and provides a personalized desktop experience.

Another option is FSLogix Profile Management5, which is a Microsoft solution that enhances Office 365 performance in non-persistent VDI environments by redirecting user profiles to virtual disks.

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/best-practices-delivering-microsoft-office-365-vmware-horizon

roaming profiles are a way to deliver user settings across physical and virtual desktops. However, they can also cause issues such as profile unload failures2 and slow log-on and log-off times1.

The error code displayed in the exhibit, NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID, explicitly indicates that the browser does not trust the Certificate Authority (CA) that signed the SSL certificate presented by Prism Central.

According to the Nutanix Security Guide and Prism Central documentation regarding Security Certificate Management:

By default, Nutanix clusters and Prism Central use a self-signed certificate.

When an administrator accesses Prism via a web browser using these default certificates, the browser will display a security warning (such as "Your connection is not private") because the self-signed certificate authority is not in the browser's or operating system's Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.

To resolve this behavior, the administrator must either import the self-signed root certificate into the client's trusted store or replace the default certificate with one signed by a commercial or internal CA that the browser already trusts.

If the issue were related to the hostname missing (Option C), the error code would be NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID. Since the error is specifically "Authority Invalid," the cause is the lack of trust in the issuer (CA).

A cloud-based DR service that allows customers to protect their Nutanix workloads in a Nutanix-owned cloud platform6. Xi Leap eliminates the need for multiple products and provides end-to-end security, automation, and SLA compliance6.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix Prism Operations documents:

According to the Prism Central Intelligent Operations Guide regarding Reporting:

Precedence Rule: When configuring reports, settings can be applied at a Global level (default for all reports) or overridden at the specific Report level.

Outcome: The specific Report level settings take precedence over the Global level settings. This allows administrators to have a general standard while customizing specific reports for unique requirements without breaking the global standard.

ersistent virtual machines are those that retain all the user’s personal settings, files, and customizations after each session12. Non-persistent virtual machines are those that reset to a predefined state after each session and do not save any user data12. MCS (Machine Creation Services) is a Citrix feature that allows administrators to create and manage multiple virtual machines from a single master image3. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a Microsoft feature that allows users to access applications or desktops hosted on a remote server4. Citrix Virtual Apps is a Citrix feature that allows users to access applications hosted on a remote server or cloud5

This is because having too many snapshots can cause serialization or deserialization errors when using the JSON serializer5

https://next.nutanix.com/product-updates/ahv-plug-in-for-citrix-director-1-1-4-0-released-39682

This option allows you to create a custom report with the required metrics for all VMs across all clusters and send it automatically to the operations team via email4. This way, you don’t have to manually export or FTP the data every month.

gold image is a term used to describe a template for a virtual machine (VM) that contains a preconfigured operating system and applications1. A gold image can be used to create multiple session hosts that share the same configuration1. However, a gold image needs to be properly prepared before being used as a template123.

One of the steps involved in preparing a gold image is to run sysprep on the VM. Sysprep is a tool that removes system-specific data such as computer name, security identifier (SID), and driver cache from Windows23. This allows the VM to be generalized and duplicated without causing conflicts or errors23.

One of the options that can be set when running sysprep is CopyProfile. CopyProfile is a setting that determines whether the user profile settings of the built-in administrator account are copied to the default user profile2. The default user profile is used as a template for creating new user profiles on Windows2. If CopyProfile is set to True, then any changes made by the administrator account (such as desktop wallpaper, screen saver, Start menu items, etc.) will be applied to all new user profiles2.

Therefore, if users are being disconnected from their sessions consistently after 10 minutes, it could be because the gold image has some incorrect settings in the default user profile that cause session timeout or termination. To resolve this issue, one possible solution is to sysprep the gold image with CopyProfile set to True, and make sure that there are no settings in the administrator account that could affect session stability (such as power saving options or Windows Store applications)2.

The default load balancing configuration in Nutanix AHV is Balance-SLB (Source Load Balancing). This setting utilizes all available uplinks by assigning VM traffic to specific uplinks based on source MAC address hashing. To optimize bandwidth usage, the Balance-SLB algorithm periodically evaluates link utilization and may rebalance traffic by moving a VM's assignment from one uplink to another.

According to Nutanix AHV Networking documentation, this rebalancing action involves sending a gratuitous ARP (RARP) to update the physical switch. During this split-second transition, real-time sensitive traffic—such as streaming video or VoIP—may experience dropped packets or out-of-order delivery, resulting in symptoms like "hung/frozen display frames." For environments prioritizing connection consistency over aggregate bandwidth for single VMs (like VDI with streaming requirements), Active-Backup is often recommended to eliminate the potential for rebalancing interruptions. (Note: Option A is a VMware ESXi terminology, not AHV).

Storage Efficiency features that will provide better storage efficiency and performance improvement for a mix of full clones and non-persistent desktops deployed via Citrix MCS on a three-node cluster are Compression and Deduplication. Compression is a technology that reduces the size of data blocks by removing redundant information. Deduplication is a technology that eliminates duplicate blocks of data and reduces storage consumption. Both Compression and Deduplication can be enabled on a per-container basis and can provide significant savings for Citrix virtual desktop deployments that use cloning technologies such as MCS2.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the Prism Central Guide on Storage Policy Management and Precedence Rules:

Precedence Rule: Nutanix documentation explicitly states: "If you assign a category associated with a non-default storage policy to an entity and also enable the Enable 'Default-Storage' policy toggle switch, the non-default storage policy gets precedence over the default storage policy."

Explanation: The "Default-Storage" toggle acts as a fallback or baseline policy assignment (specifically linking the VM to the Storage: $Default category). However, if the administrator specifically tags the VM with a user-defined category (like DesktopVM) that has its own specific storage policy, the system honors the specific (non-default) policy over the generic default one.

Result: The "expected" settings (if the administrator expected the Default policy to override the specific one because they toggled the switch) are not applied because the specific category policy takes priority.

The feature in Nutanix that would be used to complete the task of deploying virtual desktops to a Hyper-V Nutanix cluster with writable differencing disks using a read-only master image with clones that link back to the image is Shadow Clones. Shadow Clones allow for the creation of a snapshot or a clone of a VM that uses the original VM's disks as read-only, and only writes changes to a separate differencing disk. This is useful when deploying virtual desktops as it can reduce storage requirements and improve performance.

Nutanix shadow clones are a feature that enables distributed caching of virtual disks (vDisks) that are in a multi-reader scenario. This can improve performance and reduce network traffic for scenarios such as VDI or private clone boot storms1

Frame is a cloud-native desktop-as-a-service platform that delivers virtual apps and desktops from multiple public clouds1. Frame allows administrators to manage various components of their cloud accounts easily from the Frame console1.

A cloud account is a logical grouping of resources that are associated with a specific cloud provider (such as AWS, Azure, or Google) and region1. A cloud account can have multiple virtual networks, master images, and instance types that can be used to create and run virtual apps and desktops1.

To configure AWS, Azure, and Google accounts within Frame, an administrator needs to go to the Cloud Accounts section of the Frame console1. There, the administrator can add new cloud accounts or edit existing ones by providing the required credentials and settings for each cloud provider12.

https://docs.frame.nutanix.com/platform/infrastructure/byo/cloud-accounts/

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix AHV Administration Guide regarding GPU Pass-Through:

Hardware Binding: GPU Pass-Through (DirectPath I/O) binds a virtual machine to a specific physical PCIe device on the host. Unlike vGPU (which abstracts the hardware), passthrough creates a 1:1 dependency.

HA Behavior: Nutanix AHV supports High Availability (HA) for GPU-enabled VMs in the sense that if a host fails, the system attempts to restart the VM on another host (Cold Migration). Option C ("Not HA-capable") is incorrect because the system attempts the restart; it does not simply abandon the VM by design.

Failure Cause: The restart fails (the "behavior" described) because the destination host must have the exact same GPU hardware resource available (free and matching the profile/addressing). If the other nodes in the cluster do not have a free GPU of the same type, or if they are already fully utilized, the VM cannot power on, resulting in the "Insufficient GPU resources" error.

In a non-persistent VDI environment, changes to the operating system should only occur within the Golden Image (or Master Image), not on the individual provisioned VMs. If the Windows Update policy is set to Automatic within the Gold Image, the clones generated from that image will independently check for updates, download them, and attempt to install them during the user's session.

This behavior often triggers a "Restart Required" prompt to the end-user to finish installing the updates. To prevent this disruption and ensure version consistency, Nutanix and VDI best practices dictate that the Windows Update service should be disabled or set to Manual in the Gold Image. Updates should be applied administratively to the Gold Image during a maintenance window, followed by a recompose/update of the machine catalog.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix Storage Best Practices for Citrix/VDI:

Workload Type: The question specifies Persistent VDI, which typically uses Full Clones.

Deduplication: For Full Clones/Persistent Desktops, the data (OS and Apps) is identical across many VMs but stored independently. Deduplication (specifically Capacity Tier Deduplication) is Enabled to eliminate these redundant blocks and save significant capacity.

Compression: Inline Compression is Enabled by default and recommended for all VDI workloads to improve performance and capacity usage.

Erasure Coding (EC-X): Nutanix documentation explicitly states that Erasure Coding is Disabled for active VDI workloads. EC-X provides capacity savings for "write-cold" data (like backups or archives) but introduces a performance penalty (parity calculation overhead) on random writes, which are common in persistent desktop usage.

Correction: While option D suggests enabling everything, the specific best practice table for "Citrix MCS: Full Clone" lists Erasure Coding as Disabled to maintain optimal user experience.

According to the Nutanix Hardware Administration Guide and Product Mixing Restrictions, mixing nodes from different hardware vendors (OEMs) in the same cluster is not supported.

Specifically, a cluster must contain nodes from a single vendor (e.g., all Nutanix NX, all Dell XC, or all Cisco UCS). Mixing Nutanix NX nodes with Cisco UCS nodes within the same cluster is explicitly listed as an unsupported configuration due to differences in hardware lifecycle management, firmware updates, and foundation processes.

Therefore, the administrator must create a new, separate cluster for the Cisco UCS nodes. They can then leverage features like Cluster-to-Cluster replication or a multi-cluster VDI broker configuration to manage the environment, but the nodes cannot be merged into the existing NX cluster.

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-ncp-euc-v6

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-daas/install-configure/machine-catalogs-create.html

A gold image is a master image that contains the operating system, drivers, patches, and configurations for a virtual desktop. A non-persistent Citrix MCS environment is one where virtual desktops are created from a gold image and discarded after each user session.

Citrix Machine Creation Services (MCS) is a tool that uses a gold image to create and manage virtual machines for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environments. MCS can create different types of machines, such as pooled random, static assigned, or dedicated2.

One of the challenges of using MCS is managing multiple gold images for different user groups or application needs. Updating multiple gold images can be time-consuming and error-prone. Therefore, it is recommended to use a single base image without any applications and leverage another tool such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to deliver applications dynamically to the cloned virtual desktops3.

This approach can simplify image management, reduce storage consumption, improve performance, and enhance user experience. SCCM can also provide additional features such as patch management, compliance enforcement, inventory reporting, etc.3

one of the possible Nutanix storage efficiency features that the administrator can use for this solution is Deduplication. Deduplication is a technology that eliminates duplicate blocks of data and reduces storage consumption. Deduplication can be enabled on a per-container basis and can provide significant savings for Citrix virtual desktop deployments that use cloning technologies such as Machine Creation Services (MCS) or Provisioning Services (PVS)1.

Citrix Studio is the primary management console for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (or Citrix DaaS) site.7 It is explicitly designed with wizards to guide administrators through deployment scenarios, such as creating Machine Catalogs (provisioning VMs) and Delivery Groups.

It is specifically within the Delivery Groups wizard in Citrix Studio that an administrator configures the publishing of resources (such as applications and desktops) and assigns them to users.8 While Prism Central manages the underlying Nutanix infrastructure (VMs, networking), it does not handle the session brokering or the specific definition of "published resources" for the VDI users.

To achieve logical traffic separation while minimizing physical ports (using the same physical uplinks for multiple traffic types), Nutanix AHV networking best practices recommend the use of 802.1Q VLAN tagging.

The standard validated design is to:

Place the CVM and AHV Host management/storage interfaces on the Native VLAN (untagged) or a specific management VLAN.

Place User VM (Guest) traffic on Tagged VLANs.

This configuration allows storage replication traffic (CVM) and user traffic (VMs) to share the same physical cables (minimizing port usage) while remaining logically isolated at the switch level. Options like separate virtual switches (Option B) often require dedicated physical uplinks, which violates the requirement to minimize ports.

To calculate the estimated number of virtual desktops per server, one must consider the physical memory of the GPU, the memory required by the selected vGPU profile, and the number of GPUs installed in the node.

GPU Specifications: The NVIDIA L40S GPU is equipped with 48 GB of physical GDDR6 memory.

Profile Requirements: The L40S-12Q profile allocates 12 GB of frame buffer memory to each virtual desktop.

Density Calculation per GPU: Dividing the total physical memory by the profile memory (48 GB / 12 GB) results in 4 virtual desktops supported per single GPU card.

Server Capacity: The Nutanix NX-9151-G9 platform supports up to four NVIDIA L40S GPUs per node.

Total Estimate: Multiplying the desktops per GPU by the number of GPUs (4 desktops x 4 GPUs) yields a total of 16 virtual desktops per server.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix LCM and NVIDIA vGPU operational best practices:

Live Migration Requirement: To keep a VM "online" during a host upgrade, the VM must be live-migrated (vMotioned) off the host entering maintenance mode.

vGPU Constraint: A VM configured with a vGPU profile cannot be live-migrated to a host that does not have a compatible physical GPU resource available.4 The destination host must have a GPU capable of hosting the specific vGPU profile.

The Solution: Since only one host currently has a GPU, there is no valid destination for the VM to migrate to. The administrator must install a GPU in a second host to create a valid migration target. This allows the VM to vMotion to the second host, keeping it online while the first host is upgraded.

To change the account lockout behavior from the default (which is typically a temporary 15-minute lockout) to a permanent lockout required for high-security environments, the administrator must enable the DoD (Department of Defense) configuration compliance.

This is managed through the Security Configuration Management Automation (SCMA) framework, often found within the "Cluster Hardening" or "Security Dashboard" settings (sometimes referenced as "Additional Settings" in exam contexts). Applying the DoD STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide) policy modifies the underlying Linux PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) configuration (pam_faillock) to enforce strict rules, including permanently locking user accounts after a specific number of failed attempts until an administrator manually unlocks them. "Cluster Lockdown" (Option A) refers to disabling password authentication entirely in favor of SSH keys, which does not fit the requirement of locking accounts after incorrect login attempts.1

Here are the 100% verified answers for Questions 12, 13, 14, and 15, derived from Nutanix End User Computing architectural best practices.

This is because this option will allow the administrator to use Citrix Director to reset user profiles on a Nutanix Files share that provides high performance, scalability, and resilience3.

Citrix Profile Management is a solution that allows administrators to manage user profiles and settings across different devices and sessions12. Nutanix Files is a software-defined file storage solution that provides high performance and scalability for file data12. Nutanix Files supports all forms of profile management with efficient metadata caching techniques that optimize for faster VDI logon times12. Nutanix Files offers two types of shares: standard shares and distributed shares3. Standard shares are hosted on a single file server, while distributed shares are hosted on multiple file servers for load balancing and high availability3.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=BP-2079-Citrix-Virtual-Apps-and-Desktops:BP-2079-Citrix-Virtual-Apps-and-Desktops

In Nutanix storage architecture, Capacity Reservation (also known as "Reserved Capacity") is the feature designed to guarantee space at the container level.

Nutanix documentation states: "To ensure that there is space available for a storage container, you can enable capacity reservation. Capacity reservation ensures that a storage container has a minimum allocated capacity, preventing other storage containers from using that reserved space."

This effectively isolates the required storage amount from the shared Storage Pool, ensuring the specific workload housed in that container always has the physical capacity it requires, regardless of the consumption by other containers in the pool.

According to the "Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on Nutanix" best practices guide, the recommended storage container configuration depends on the provisioning method. For Citrix MCS (Machine Creation Services) Non-persistent workloads, the following settings are explicitly recommended in the Nutanix storage table:

Compression: Enabled (Inline compression is recommended for all workloads to improve capacity and performance).

Deduplication: Disabled (For non-persistent MCS, the write-heavy differencing disks are deleted upon reboot, making post-process capacity deduplication ineffective. While performance deduplication can help with reads, Nutanix Shadow Clones automatically handle caching of the base image on AHV, rendering deduplication largely redundant and an unnecessary overhead for this specific use case).

Erasure Coding: Disabled (Erasure coding is not suitable for the random write patterns and "hot" data associated with active VDI desktops; it is designed for cold, archive data).

Therefore, the correct configuration is Compression Enabled, Deduplication Disabled, and Erasure Coding Disabled.

Here are the 100% verified answers and detailed explanations based on the latest Nutanix End User Computing and Best Practices documentation.

Nutanix Security Guide documentation on Data-at-Rest Encryption (DARE) specifies strict hardware compatibility rules. For Hardware Encryption, the cluster must exclusively use Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs). The documentation states that you cannot mix SEDs and non-SEDs (standard drives) within the same cluster if you intend to use hardware-based encryption.

However, Software Encryption (AOS Software Encryption) is hardware-agnostic. It uses the CPU (leveraging AES-NI instructions) to encrypt data before writing it to the disk. Software encryption supports any drive type and is the only supported method for clusters containing a mix of SEDs and standard drives. Therefore, the administrator must use cluster-level software encryption.

To install the NVIDIA GRID host driver (vGPU driver) on a Nutanix AHV cluster, the administrator must upload the driver file (typically an RPM) to a Controller VM (CVM). From the CVM, the correct procedure is to use the install_host_package command.

This specific Nutanix utility pushes the installation package to the AHV hosts and executes the installation process. The typical syntax is install_host_package -r , which ensures the driver is correctly applied to the hypervisor layer across the cluster nodes. allssh or hostssh commands with standard Linux package managers (like yum) are not the supported method for applying hypervisor-level drivers in AHV.

In a Nutanix-hosted Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment, proper network port configuration is essential for component communication. The Citrix License Server is a critical infrastructure component that manages product licensing.

According to Nutanix Validated Designs and Citrix reference architectures for traffic flow, TCP port 27000 is the default port required for inbound communication to the License Server. This port is used by the License Server Manager (lmadmin or lmgrd) to receive communication from Citrix products (such as the Delivery Controller) requesting licenses.

The specific port breakdown for the License Server is:

Port 27000 (TCP): The License Server Manager port (Inbound communication). This is the primary entry point.

Port 7279 (TCP): The Vendor Daemon port.

Port 8082/8083 (TCP): The Administration Console web port (used for management, not licensing requests).

Therefore, to ensure successful inbound communication for licensing operations within the Nutanix infrastructure, the firewall must allow traffic on Port 27000.

administrator can take to resolve the issue of performance for several full clone virtual desktops within Cluster01 by migrating them to Cluster02. 

a recovery plan is a set of steps that defines how to recover guest VMs from a disaster. A recovery plan can be used to migrate VMs between Nutanix clusters at the same or different availability zones1.

one of the factors that affects end-user performance in a virtual desktop environment is network latency, which is the time it takes for data packets to travel between two points on a network.

Therefore, if the company wants to optimize end-user performance, they should choose a public cloud data center location that minimizes the network latency between the end user and the data center.

A mandatory profile is a type of roaming profile that is read-only and does not save any changes made by users during their sessions. A mandatory profile can be applied to a group of users who share a common desktop environment and do not need to customize their settings or preferences.

A mandatory profile can ensure that a group of base settings are applied to Citrix-based VDI users at each logon, regardless of any changes they make during their sessions. A mandatory profile can also improve performance, security, and consistency of the VDI environment.

To use a mandatory profile with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, you need to create a template profile on a reference machine, rename its NTUSER.DAT file to NTUSER.MAN, and copy it to a network share. Then you need to configure Profile Management policies or Active Directory settings to point to the network share location for your users2.

In the "Omnissa Horizon on Nutanix Best Practices" (formerly VMware Horizon), the recommended provisioning method for non-persistent desktops (specifically for task workers who do not need to retain user-installed apps) is Instant Clones.6

Instant Clones (vmFork technology) allow for the rapid provisioning of desktop VMs that share a base image and memory footprint, offering high storage efficiency and fast deployment times. Nutanix AHV and AOS are fully optimized to support Instant Clones (often utilizing Shadow Clones for caching the replica disk). Linked Clones (Option D) are considered a legacy technology and are deprecated in modern versions of Horizon. Full Clones (Option C) are typically reserved for persistent, power-user use cases where storage efficiency is less of a priority than persistence.

 Nutanix recommends using separate containers for persistent and non-persistent VMS. For persistent VMS, enable compression and deduplication. For non-persistent VMS, enable compression only1

According to Nutanix documentation, it is recommended to use multiple containers, with each container representing an individual performance workload. This allows for better performance isolation and easier management. For example, one container could be used for VDI workloads, while another container could be used for general-purpose workloads.

As for compression and deduplication, it is recommended to enable them for all VMs. Compression reduces the amount of storage space required and increases the performance of the system, while deduplication reduces the amount of duplicate data stored on the system. Erasure coding can also be used as an alternative to replication for data protection.

an action that the administrator should take to identify the virtual desktops in the environment that are using the most resources and causing resource contention is Filter the virtual desktops by Constrained: High. Constrained is a metric that indicates how often a virtual machine is unable to get its requested CPU resources. A high value means that the virtual machine is frequently starved for CPU and may experience performance degradation. By filtering the virtual desktops by Constrained: High, the administrator can see which ones are suffering from resource contention and take appropriate actions such as migrating them to less loaded hosts or increasing their CPU allocation.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Central-Guide-Prism-v6_0:mul-tasks-view-page-pc-r.html

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace/integrate.html

The Prism Citrix Cloud integration feature allows you to configure the Citrix Cloud settings in Prism Central and connect your Nutanix cluster as a resource location in Citrix Cloud4. This enables you to use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service to deliver applications and desktops to your end users.

To use this feature, you need to meet some prerequisites, such as:

The Prism Central version must be 2020.11 or later.

The AOS version must be 5.15 LTSR or later.

The hypervisor must be AHV or ESXi.

You must have a valid Citrix Cloud account with access to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service4.

One of the steps for configuring the Prism Citrix Cloud integration is to establish the connection to Citrix Cloud. To do this, you need to provide three pieces of information:

Customer ID: This is a unique identifier for your Citrix Cloud account that can be found in your profile settings2.

Client ID: This is a unique identifier for an API client that can access your Citrix Cloud account. You can create an API client in your identity and access management settings2.

Secret Key: This is a secret string that authenticates the API client. You can generate a secret key when you create an API client2.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix AOS storage documentation and best practices regarding Data Efficiency:

Default Behavior (AOS 5.18+): Starting with AOS 5.18, Inline Compression is enabled by default on all newly created storage containers.2 The system configures this with a compression delay of 0, meaning data is compressed immediately as it is written to the extent store.3

Performance Impact: Enabling inline compression by default is designed to improve performance and increase effective storage capacity without significant overhead.4 Nutanix recommends keeping this default setting for most workloads, including VDI and general server virtualization, as it reduces the amount of physical data written to the SSD tier.5

Other Mechanisms:

Deduplication is not enabled by default.6 It is typically reserved for specific use cases (like full clones or persistent desktops) and requires enabling both cache and capacity deduplication manually.

Erasure Coding (EC-X) is not enabled by default. It is a post-process feature that must be manually turned on for containers where data is "write cold" (not frequently overwritten), such as archives or backups.

Post-Process Compression was the historical default in older AOS versions (configured with a 60-minute delay) but has been superseded by Inline Compression as the standard default for new containers.

Summary: When an administrator creates a new container in a modern Nutanix environment, the system automatically checks the box for Compression and sets the delay to 0 minutes (Inline).7