Nutanix NCP-EUC Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) v6.5Exam Exam Practice Test

Frame is a cloud-based desktop-as-a-service platform that allows users to access Windows applications and desktops from any device1. A license server is a server that hosts a network licensing manager for software that requires licenses to run2. Frame supports using a utility server as a license server for Frame desktops1. A utility server is a stand-alone, general purpose Windows server that can be configured and managed from the Frame dashboard1.

regarding replicating AppStacks between Nutanix clusters, it is likely that the correct answer would involve configuring some form of replication or disaster recovery technology on the Nutanix clusters themselves.

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

one of the possible causes of slower logon and application load times for VMware Horizon-based virtual desktop users is Failed to create Native clone errors. This error occurs when there is a problem with cloning virtual machines using Nutanix Native Clones technology. To troubleshoot this issue, you can check the following:

• The Nutanix cluster has enough free space to create clones
• The Nutanix cluster has enough CPU and memory resources to handle cloning operations
• The Nutanix cluster is running a compatible version of AOS and AHV with VMware Horizon
• The VMware Horizon environment is configured correctly to use Nutanix Native Clones
• The VMware Horizon agent is installed and updated on the master image

gpumodeswitch is a command-line tool that is used to switch supported NVIDIA GPUs between compute and graphics mode. Compute mode allows multiple VMs to share a GPU for CUDA workloads. Graphics mode allows a single VM to use a GPU for graphics workloads12. 

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.

The Public Network option provides access to the Frame environment over the public internet, while the Private Network with VPN option allows for a secure connection to the Frame environment over a private network using a VPN.

non-persistent VDI desktops are virtual desktops that do not save any changes made by the user after they log off or shut down12. They rely on a master image that contains the OS, configuration settings, and other customizations that replicate to multiple virtual desktops1.

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.

Citrix Workspace includes several components that can replace or integrate with the traditional Citrix infrastructure components, such as:

• Citrix Cloud Services, which provide management and orchestration capabilities for Citrix Workspace, such as Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, Citrix Gateway service, Citrix Endpoint Management service, etc.
• Citrix Workspace app, which is a client software that enables users to access their apps and desktops from any device.
• Citrix Cloud Connectors, which are software agents that establish a secure connection between Citrix Cloud Services and the on-premises or cloud-based resources, such as Active Directory, hypervisors, VDAs, etc.

According to Citrix documentation2, an administrator who chooses to move all of the backend Citrix infrastructure to be managed as a service by Citrix can use the following components:

• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, which replaces the Citrix Delivery Controllers and provides centralized management and delivery of virtual apps and desktops.
• Citrix Studio, which is still available as a web-based console for configuring and managing the virtual apps and desktops environment.
• Citrix Gateway service, which replaces the Citrix NetScaler and provides secure remote access to virtual apps and desktops through a single URL.
• Citrix StoreFront, which is still available as an optional component for providing users with self-service access to their apps and desktops through a web portal or native receiver.

Shadow Clones are a unique feature of the AOS storage that enables distributed caching of virtual disks (vDisks) used by virtual machines1. Shadow Clones provide effective caching optimization in distributed multireader scenarios, such as large VDI and cloud deployments2.

The warning message you see indicates that Shadow Clones are disabled on your Nutanix cluster. This may affect the performance of your Instant Clone desktop pool, as it will not benefit from the caching optimization provided by Shadow Clones.

Based on the given information, the administrator is deploying 1000 instant clone virtual desktops, 500 full clone virtual desktops, and 150 applications. To support these workloads, the Nutanix solution will need multiple storage containers.

According to the Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) v6 guide, for VDI workloads, it is recommended to create a separate storage container for each type of desktop (e.g. instant clone, full clone) and another container for AppStacks. It is also recommended to have at least one container for metadata and one container for replicas.

Therefore, for this scenario, a total of 3 storage containers should be created:

• One container for 1000 instant clone virtual desktops
• One container for 500 full clone virtual desktops
• One container for 150 applications delivered via AppStacks

So the answer is C. 3.

The Citrix Optimizer tool is used to prepare Windows operating system images for use in a virtual desktop environment. Some of the actions that it takes to improve the gold image creation process include:

• Optimizes user environments for better performance: The tool removes unnecessary or redundant services, features, and applications from the image, which can improve performance and reduce resource usage.
• Uses built-in templates to perform optimizations: The tool comes with pre-configured templates that are optimized for specific environments, such as virtualdesktops or server workloads. These templates can be customized based on the specific needs of the organization.

According to the certification details1, one of the objectives is to “Configure and manage security features such as role-based access control (RBAC), SSL certificates, encryption at rest, and data protection.”

This answer seems to align with the security team’s feedback and the objective of managing security features using Nutanix technologies.

Nutanix Frame allows administrators to configure capacity settings for their virtual machines (VMs) that run virtual apps and desktops.

Capacity settings include:

• Default capacity, which defines how many VMs are turned on when there is no user activity on the account. This setting helps reduce costs by turning off unused VMs.
• Active capacity, which defines how many VMs are turned on when there is user activity on the account. This setting helps improve performance by ensuring enough VMs are available for user sessions.
• Quick Publish, which defines how many VMs are updated with the latest changes when publishing a new version of an app or desktop. This setting helps speed up the publishing process by updating only a subset of VMs instead of all of them.

According to Nutanix Frame documentation1, Quick Publish value should be equal to or less than the active capacity value for each instance type.

If Quick Publish value is set higher than active capacity value, then Frame will ignore Quick Publish value and perform regular publishing instead.

persistent virtual desktops are virtual desktops that retain their state and configuration across sessions.

This means that users can customize their virtual desktops with their own applications, settings, and data, and have them available every time they log on.

Persistent virtual desktops are suitable for users who need a consistent and personalized experience, such as developers.

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the recommended migration paths for persistent virtual desktops is to convert the physical computers to virtual desktops.

This can be done by using a tool such as VMware Converter or Microsoft Disk2vhd to create a virtual disk image of the physical computer’s hard drive.

Then, this image can be imported into Nutanix Cloud Platform and used as a base image for creating persistent virtual desktops.

This migration path can preserve the existing applications, settings, and data of the physical computers and minimize the disruption for the users.

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.

Nutanix and Citrix provide a turnkey validated VDI infrastructure solution that allows 10x faster deployments, cuts management time by 70% and significantly reduces the number of support calls. Nutanix eliminates the complexity of managing discrete storage, servers and separate virtualization and networking stacks.

Prism Central Image Service allows you to upload and manage images through Prism Central by using the v3 API. You can also choose where your images will be available across different clusters123

The file server VM (FSVM) is a virtual machine that runs on Nutanix Files and provides file services such as SMB shares and NFS exports. The FSVM is based on CentOS and incorporates all the security and hardening that goes into the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM)2. The CVM is a virtual machine that runs on each node of a Nutanix cluster and provides storage management, data protection, cluster coordination, and other services3.

The FSVMs have some default configuration settings that can be changed depending on your workload requirements. For example, you can change the number of vCPUs, RAM, network interfaces, or disk size of an FSVM2. However, you should not change these settings without consulting Nutanix Support first.

One of the factors that affects the performance of an FSVM is its memory allocation. The more memory an FSVM has, the more cache it can use for file operations. This can improve the throughput and latency of file serving workloads4. Therefore, increasing the FSVM RAM to 96GB can help optimize its performance for a large number of users.

Nutanix AHV Plug-In for Citrix Director provides more information on Citrix generated desktops running on Nutanix AHV. Some of the metrics that are available in customized reports are:

• VM CPU Usage
• VM Memory Usage
• VM Disk IOPS
• VM Disk Bandwidth

One of them is Nutanix Frame, which is a cloud-based service that delivers virtual apps and desktops from any cloud provider or on-premises datacenter.

Nutanix Frame simplifies VDI deployment by providing automated cloud resource orchestration, user session brokering, and environment administration.

Another solution is Nutanix Citrix Cloud, which is a hybrid cloud solution that integrates Nutanix HCI with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service.

Nutanix Citrix Cloud enables VDI deployment by providing centralized management and delivery of virtual apps and desktops through Citrix Cloud Services.

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the steps needed for deploying VDI with Nutanix Citrix Cloud is to configure the PE Citrix Connection.

This step involves creating a connection between the Nutanix Prism Element (PE) cluster and the Citrix Cloud account, which allows Nutanix to register as a resource location for Citrix Cloud Services.

This connection also enables Nutanix to provide performance metrics, alerts, and actions for the virtual apps and desktops running on Nutanix HCI.