NCP-MCI-6.10 Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI v6.10) Questions and Answers

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.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Security-Guide-v6_10:mul-configure-data-in-transit-encryption-pc-t.html

"Ensure that port 2009 is open between the Prism Central instances for the KMS cluster to communicate."This is explicitly stated in the "Firewall rules for Data-in-Transit Encryption" section for Prism Central.

Technical Context:

Port 2009 is used by ZooKeeper (the coordination service for the KMS cluster) in Scale-Out Prism Central deployments.

DiTE in Prism Central relies on a dedicated KMS cluster that synchronizes encryption keys across PC instances using this port.

Firewall blocks on port 2009 break KMS quorum, preventing key exchange and causing DiTE to fail.

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 AHV networking documentation describes IGMP Snooping as a feature that enables the AHV virtual switch to learn which VMs have joined specific multicast groups through IGMP membership reports. The documentation states that with IGMP Snooping enabled, multicast traffic is forwarded only to VMs that are registered members of a multicast group, preventing unnecessary flooding of multicast packets across all ports. LACP is for NIC bonding, network segmentation is for isolating networks, and LLDP is for link layer device discovery. None of these selectively deliver multicast traffic. Only IGMP Snooping provides the optimized multicast forwarding described.

The Nutanix ECA course covers migration options for VMs in multi-cluster environments, particularly when minimizing downtime is critical, such as during scheduled maintenance. The scenario involves two identical clusters with guest VMs using pass-through GPUs, managed by separate Prism Central instances, requiring a migration method that ensures minimal disruption.

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

Module: VM Management, Section: Cross-Cluster Live Migration"Cross-Cluster Live Migration allows administrators to migrate VMs between clusters managed by different Prism Central instances with minimal downtime. This feature supports live migration of VMs with pass-through GPUs, ensuring continuous operation during maintenance activities."

Module: Cluster Management, Section: Migration Strategies"For scenarios requiring minimal downtime, such as planned maintenance, Cross-Cluster Live Migration is the preferred method. It enables seamless VM migration across clusters, even those managed by separate Prism Central instances, while maintaining VM availability."

Explanation of Options:

A. Run a Recovery Plan planned failoverThis is incorrect. A Recovery Plan planned failover is part of Nutanix’s disaster recovery (DR) solution, used to execute failover for Protection Domains in scenarios like site failure. It is not designed for routine maintenance migrations and may involve downtime, especially for VMs with pass-through GPUs, as failover requires VM restart on the target cluster. The ECA course states:"Recovery Plans are used for DR failover, not for live migrations during maintenance, and may result in downtime."

B. Use Cross-Cluster Live MigrationThis is the correct answer. Cross-Cluster Live Migration, introduced in later AOS versions, allows VMs to be migrated between clusters, even those managed by different Prism Central instances, with minimal downtime. The ECA course confirms that this feature supports VMs with pass-through GPUs, as the migration process preserves VM state and connectivity. This method is ideal for planned maintenance, ensuring VMs remain operational.

Supporting Extract:"Cross-Cluster Live Migration minimizes downtime by transferring VM state and data live, supporting complex configurations like pass-through GPUs, making it suitable for maintenance scenarios."

C. Perform a Nutanix Move migration planThis is incorrect. Nutanix Move is a tool for migrating VMs from non-Nutanix environments (e.g., VMware or Hyper-V) to a Nutanix cluster, not for migrations between Nutanix clusters. It is not optimized for live migrations within a Nutanix environment and may involve downtime. The ECA course notes:"Nutanix Move is designed for external-to-Nutanix migrations, not for intra-Nutanix cluster migrations, and is not suitable for minimizing downtime."

D. Migrate Asynchronous Protection DomainsThis is incorrect. Migrating Asynchronous Protection Domains involves replicating snapshots to a remote cluster for DR purposes, not live VM migration. This process is asynchronous, involves downtime during failover, and is not suitable for maintenance scenarios requiring minimal disruption. The ECA course clarifies:"Asynchronous Protection Domains are used for DR replication, not for live VM migration, and require VM restart during failover."

Additional Context from ECA:

Cross-Cluster Live Migration: This feature leverages Nutanix’s hypervisor-agnostic migration capabilities, ensuring that VMs with pass-through GPUs are migrated seamlessly. The process involves copying VM memory and state while keeping the VM running, minimizing downtime to seconds or less.

Maintenance Scenario: For scheduled maintenance, Cross-Cluster Live Migration ensures that VMs remain available, which is critical for GPU-intensive workloads that cannot tolerate extended downtime.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Support Portal (https://portal.nutanix.com) aligns with the ECA documentation: "Cross-Cluster Live Migration supports live VM migration between clusters, including those with pass-through GPUs, ensuring minimal downtime for maintenance tasks."

LCM (Life Cycle Manager) fetches software updates from Nutanix’s repositories, requiring access to specific URLs.

Option A (download.nutanix.com) is correct:

This domainhosts all software update filesfor AOS, AHV, and other Nutanix components.

Option C (release-api.nutanix.com) is correct:

This domain is used forLCM to fetch update metadataand check for new versions.

Option B (mynutanix.com) is incorrect:

This domain is used foraccount management, not LCM updates.

Option D (portal.nutanix.com) is incorrect:

TheNutanix support portal is not used for automated LCM updates.

Agent VMs, such as CVMs (Controller VMs) or Witness VMs, have strict affinity and anti-affinity rules to ensure they remain on specific hosts and maintain data consistency and high availability. If an agent VM is powered off and then manually started on another host, it becomes unresponsive because it breaks these rules.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Agent VMs have specific configuration and affinity constraints. Manually starting them on another host violates these constraints, resulting in the agent VM becoming unresponsive to the cluster.”

Further clarification:

“The cluster expects the agent VM to be on a particular host. Moving it manually to another host breaks this expectation and causes the VM to be unable to properly join the cluster services, leading to an unresponsive state.”

Therefore, it is essential to avoid manually starting agent VMs on different hosts, as doing so can disrupt cluster services.

The LCM (Life Cycle Manager) precheck failures in this scenario indicate an inability to connect to vCenter to validate ESXi-specific checks, such as LACP configuration, HA, and pinned VMs. The appropriate log to analyze the details of the LCM precheck failures is the 1cm_ops.out log.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“The 1cm_ops.out log file contains detailed output and error information related to LCM operations, including prechecks, execution, and post-checks. This log is essential for troubleshooting LCM framework failures and understanding the root cause of any issues preventing upgrades.”

Metro Availability in Nutanix requires that the primary and secondary storage containers be configured identicallyto ensuredata replication consistency.

Option C (The destination storage container is not empty) is correct:

Theremote storage container must be emptybefore Metro Availability can be enabled.

Existing data can cause conflictsand prevent it from appearing in the "Compatible Remote Sites" list.

Option D (Both storage containers must have the same name) is correct:

Metro Availability requires thatstorage containers have identical names across clusters.

If namesdo not match, thestorage container will not be listed as compatible.

Option A is incorrect: Metro Availability works regardless of hardware vendor differences.

Option B is incorrect:Compression does not affect compatibilitybut may impact performance.

Capacity Runway analytics in Prism Central rely on historical usage data to generate forward-looking projections. Nutanix documentation specifies:

“Capacity runway forecasts require a minimum of 30 days of historical utilization data to build growth rate baselines and trending models.”

The modeling engine uses CPU, memory, and storage trends over time to estimate depletion dates. Insufficient historical data prevents generating meaningful predictions.

Prism Central will display “Not enough data” or simply omit runway metrics until the minimum time window is met.

The 21-day threshold applies to anomaly detection, not runway calculations.

The 3-month and 6-month options refer to optimal historical windows for accuracy but are not required.

Thus, the correct requirement is 30 days of history.

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.

Application discovery in Prism Central requires sufficient Prism Central resources and an active internet connection to retrieve application signatures.

Option A (Sufficient Prism Central VM resources) is correct:

Prism Central needsadequate CPU and memoryto process application signatures and discovery data.

Option B (Internet connection) is correct:

Application discovery depends on Nutanix’scloud databaseto recognize application patterns.

Option C (API key and key ID) is incorrect:

API keys are not requiredfor automatic application discovery.

Option D (Network controller enabled) is incorrect:

Application discoverydoes not depend on a network controller feature.

When the maximum instance count of retained reports is reached, Nutanix automatically deletes the oldest report to accommodate the new one.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“To ensure storage and performance efficiency, Nutanix reporting limits the number of stored reports. If this maximum is reached, the oldest report instance is automatically deleted to make space for new reports.”

For cross-hypervisor DR failover (e.g., ESXi to AHV), Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) must be installed on VMs to ensure proper configuration and recovery.

Option D (NGT must be installed on source guest VMs) is correct:

NGTensures correct reconfiguration of VM devices and networking settingsduring failover.

Ithandles disk and driver reassignmentsbetween ESXi and AHV.

Option A (Utilize delta disks) is incorrect:

Delta disks are used insnapshot optimization, not DR failover.

Option B (Deploy Legacy BIOS boot) is incorrect:

AHV prefers UEFI boot mode, and Legacy BIOS is not a requirement.

Option C (Use raw device mappings) is incorrect:

RDMs areVMware-specificand arenot used in AHV failover scenarios.

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.

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.

When connectivity between Metro clusters is lost, Nutanix Metro Availability ensures data integrity using Witness for automatic failover.

Option A (Guest VM I/O operations pause until connectivity is restored) is correct:

Metro Availability enforces data consistency, so I/O operationspauseuntil failover is confirmed.

Option C (Guest VMs failover automatically to the recovery cluster) is correct:

TheWitness VM detects the failureand initiates anautomatic failoverto the secondary cluster.

Option B is incorrect:

Prism Centraldoes not control VM failover in Metro Availability.

Option D is incorrect:

The primary cluster isunreachable, so VMs cannot continue running there.

Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) has built-in workflow controls that allow administrators to pause or stop active upgrade sessions. The documentation states:

“Administrators can use the Stop Update option in the LCM UI to halt further job progression. This safely stops the upgrade pipeline without disrupting already-applied updates.”

More internal behavior details:

Stop Update immediately prevents LCM from starting additional node or component upgrades.

It safely terminates queue execution while maintaining cluster consistency.

It does not require command-line interaction or service restarts.

Using .py scripts is not recommended and is reserved for engineering workflows. Restarting Genesis or canceling tasks via ecli may interrupt LCM activities but do not cleanly stop the scheduled upgrade workflow.

The supported and correct control method is the built-in Stop Update button.

During cluster expansion, Nutanix uses the Controller VM discovery service, which relies on multicast-based node advertisement. The internal architecture documentation states:

“Node discovery during cluster expansion requires IPv4 multicast to be enabled and permitted on the switching infrastructure.”

This allows new nodes to announce themselves to the existing cluster through standard Nutanix discovery packets.

IPv6 multicast is not used for node discovery. Matching AOS or hypervisor versions is recommended for compatibility but not required for discovery itself. These are post-discovery compatibility concerns, not prerequisites.

Thus, IPv4 multicast is required for automatic node discovery.

Nutanix documentation for Cross-Hypervisor Disaster Recovery (CH-DR) specifies that Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) must be installed on all VMs participating in ESXi to AHV recovery workflows. NGT includes the VM Mobility Drivers, which are required for the VM to interpret AHV device models, storage controllers, and network adapters during recovery. The documentation notes that without NGT installed, VMs may fail to boot or attach devices correctly after being recovered on AHV. Legacy BIOS, RDMs, and delta disks are not listed as prerequisites or contributing factors for CH-DR success. Therefore, installing Nutanix Guest Tools on the source VM is mandatory for successful cross-hypervisor recovery.

Nutanix Multicloud Infrastructure documentation explains that Recovery Plans and Protection Policies are designed to scale using Categories rather than per-VM assignments. Categories provide metadata that allows grouping of VMs by purpose, business unit, application tiers, boot order, and network requirements. The documentation states that Recovery Plans "consume categories so that VMs matching those categories are automatically included in the DR workflow." Categories also allow automatic updates so that when a VM is added, removed, or changed, the DR plan does not require modification. This method is specifically recommended for environments with numerous workloads and variable application tiers. Scripts, naming conventions, and static ratios do not provide the dynamic grouping and automation that categories provide.

InNutanix Capacity Planning,Overall Runwayrepresents how long the cluster can support current and new workloads before resources are exhausted.

Even if the runway is below 365 days, the system considers the cluster to be in good shape if new workloads are sustainable (Option B).

Option A is incorrect: Storage runway alone is not the only factor; CPU and memory are equally important.

Option C is incorrect: The presence of recommended resources does not mean the cluster is in good shape.

Option D is incorrect: The target of 1 month affects projections but does not explain why the cluster is in good shape.

The Nutanix ECA course provides detailed procedures for performing hardware upgrades, such as adding host memory, to ensure cluster stability and data availability. Upgrading host memory requires safely preparing the node to avoid disrupting running VMs or cluster operations.

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

Module: Cluster Management, Section: Hardware Upgrades"Before performing hardware upgrades, such as adding host memory, the node must be placed into maintenance mode. This ensures that all VMs are migrated to other nodes and the host is safely isolated from cluster operations."

Module: Host Maintenance, Section: Maintenance Mode"Placing a node into maintenance mode is the first step for hardware upgrades. Maintenance mode migrates all VMs to other nodes, stops the Controller VM (CVM), and prepares the host for safe shutdown or hardware changes."

Explanation of Options:

A. Gracefully stop the host by using the out of band management interfaceThis is incorrect. Stopping the host via the out-of-band management interface (e.g., IPMI or iLO) without first entering maintenance mode risks disrupting running VMs and cluster services. The ECA course warns:"Shutting down a host without maintenance mode can cause VM crashes and data unavailability, as VMs are not migrated."

B. Remove node from the clusterThis is incorrect. Removing a node from the cluster is a permanent action that detaches it from the cluster’s metadata and storage pool, requiring re-imaging to rejoin. It is not appropriate for a temporary hardware upgrade like adding memory. The ECA course states:"Removing a node is not required for hardware upgrades and should be avoided, as it disrupts cluster configuration."

C. Execute "shutdown -h now" from the AHV command line interfaceThis is incorrect. Running shutdown -h now on the AHV host without entering maintenance mode will abruptly stop the host, potentially crashing VMs and disrupting cluster operations. The ECA course notes:"Directly shutting down a host via CLI without maintenance mode risks data loss and service disruption."

D. Place node into maintenance modeThis is the correct answer. Placing the node into maintenance mode is the first step for hardware upgrades, as it safely migrates all VMs to other nodes, stops the CVM, and prepares the host for shutdown or hardware changes. The ECA course emphasizes that maintenance mode ensures cluster stability during upgrades.

Supporting Extract:"To upgrade host memory, place the node into maintenance mode using Prism Element or the CLI command ncli host maintenance_mode. This ensures safe VM migration and host isolation."

Additional Context from ECA:

Maintenance Mode Process: In Prism Element, maintenance mode can be enabled underHardware > Host > Enter Maintenance Mode. The process automatically migrates VMs using live migration, stops the CVM, and isolates the host. For AHV, the CLI command is ncli host maintenance_mode id= enable=true.

Memory Upgrade: After entering maintenance mode, the host can be safely powered off to add memory, then powered back on and exited from maintenance mode.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible (https://www.nutanix.com/go/the-nutanix-bible) confirms: "Maintenance mode is the required first step for host hardware upgrades, ensuring VMs are migrated and the node is isolated before changes like memory upgrades."

In Nutanix Prism Central, if anadministrator is also an approverfor an approval policy, it can result in repeated prompts for approvals even after the original request is approved. This occurs because the system requires the approver (who is also the requester) to explicitly confirm actions involving protected snapshots to maintain compliance and avoid accidental deletion.

From theNutanix ECA documentation:

“When an administrator is configured as an approver in the approval policy, repeated approval requests may occur because the same user must explicitly confirm actions they initiated, such as deleting protected snapshots. This ensures administrative actions are fully deliberate.”

Scale-out Prism Central deployments consist of multiple nodes running the Prism Central service. Nutanix documentation emphasizes that:

“When deploying multi-node Prism Central, an FQDN backed by DNS can provide request distribution across all Prism Central nodes, enabling load balancing and increased concurrency.”

A Virtual IP in contrast only directs traffic to a single active Prism Central node. Internal behavior notes:

“A VIP is not active-active; it designates one node as primary for all inbound requests.”

“Using an FQDN with DNS round-robin or an external load balancer allows the cluster to distribute workload across all PC nodes.”

The FQDN allows:

distributing API/UI traffic across multiple Prism Central nodes

improving performance under heavy load

enabling parallel query handling

avoiding bottlenecks on the primary node

SSL certificates apply to either VIP or FQDN. Segmentation and resiliency are unrelated to FQDN usage.

Thus, the correct answer is Load Balancing.

Upgrading an AHV host with GPUs requires that the correct GPU drivers be manually uploaded to LCM, as GPU firmware is not updated automatically.

Option C (Use Direct Uploads to upload appropriate driver bundles) is correct:

LCM does notautomatically fetch GPU drivers.

The administrator mustdownload and manually upload the appropriate firmware bundlebefore upgrading.

Option A is incorrect:

Agent VMs are not requiredfor GPU updates.

Option B is incorrect:

Running LCM indark site mode does not impact GPU firmware updates.

Option D is incorrect:

Updating NCCis a best practice but does not resolve GPU driver issues.

Nutanix AHV networking documentation explains that high-connection-count workloads can saturate a single network queue, causing receive-side bottlenecks. VirtIO-Net supports Multi-Queue with Receive-Side Scaling (RSS), allowing the VM to distribute packet processing across multiple vCPUs. The documentation states, “Enabling RSS Multi-Queue improves performance for workloads handling a large number of simultaneous network flows by parallelizing packet handling.”

Trunk mode does not solve per-queue packet processing limitations. Adding vNICs is not recommended because the bottleneck is at the queue level, not the number of interfaces. Using the e1000 adapter results in lower performance compared to VirtIO and is discouraged. Therefore, enabling RSS Multi-Queue is the correct performance optimization for a VM handling thousands of client connections.

Windows Defender Credential Guard requires UEFI firmware and Secure Boot to function properly.

Option B (Enable UEFI with Secure Boot) is correct:

Credential Guardrequires a UEFI-based boot moderather thanLegacy BIOS.

Secure Boot ensures only trusted OS components load, reducing attack surface for credential theft.

Option A (Update vCPU to 8) is incorrect:

Increasing vCPUs does not impactCredential Guard compatibility.

Option C (Use Windows Server 2022) is incorrect:

Windows Server 2019supports Credential Guard; upgrading to 2022 isnot required.

Option D (Update Memory to 16GB) is incorrect:

Credential Guard has no minimum RAM requirementbeyond general OS needs.

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.

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.

To automate the deployment of a large number of Linux VMs (such as 100), each with similar base configurations but unique hostnames, local configurations, and additional package installations,Cloud-Initis the most appropriate approach. Cloud-Init is a widely supported industry-standard tool for automating the initialization and configuration of Linux instances at first boot.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Cloud-Init is the recommended method for configuring Linux virtual machines during deployment in Prism Central. It allows administrators to inject configuration scripts and user data that customize the VM at boot time, including hostname, network settings, user creation, and package installations.”

Specifically:

“Using Cloud-Init, you can create a template or base image for the Linux VMs and then customize each VM deployment by passing individualized configuration parameters, ensuring that while the base configuration remains consistent, each VM has unique settings such as hostname or installed software.”

This method is far superior to manual configuration, which is impractical for 100 VMs, and it’s not suitable to use SysPrep (which is for Windows-based customization). VM templates alone would provide only the base image; they do not address unique per-VM settings.

Therefore,Cloud-Initensures a repeatable, scalable, and fully automated deployment process that aligns with the Nutanix best practices for deploying large numbers of Linux VMs with unique configurations.

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.

Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) relies on validated firmware and driver bundles for hardware components. For GPU-enabled hosts, LCM documentation states:

“GPU-enabled AHV hosts require GPU driver bundles to be uploaded manually via the Direct Uploads mechanism so that LCM can validate and upgrade the necessary GPU components during workflow execution.”

GPU drivers are vendor-specific and not always available in the standard catalog, so the administrator must upload them before LCM can orchestrate the upgrade.

Running in dark site mode does not provide missing GPU bundles. Creating agent VMs is unrelated to GPU driver operations. Updating NCC improves validations but does not provide GPU support files.

Therefore, Direct Uploads of GPU driver bundles is required.

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.

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.

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.

Nutanix capacity planning includes a feature called “Reserve Capacity for Failure,” which ensures that enough resources are preserved to sustain one or more node failures without impacting cluster functionality.

For RF3 clusters, the documentation states:

“Reserve Capacity for Failure should be set to Auto Detect, which calculates the required resources dynamically based on node count, RF policy, and data distribution.”

RF3 requires more resiliency than RF2, and manual settings such as fixed percentages do not accurately reflect the space needed during multi-node failure resiliency. “None” is never recommended because it eliminates failover protection. Memory reserve percentages do not impact storage resiliency. Storage reserve percentages are static and do not reflect the real RF3 overhead.

Auto Detect ensures Nutanix automatically calculates the resources needed to sustain the required failure domains.