Nutanix NCP-MCI-6.5 Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) v6.5 exam Exam Practice Test

Nutanix leverages a method for determining the bands called ‘Generalized Extreme Studentized Deviate Test’. A simple way to think about this is similar to a confidence interval where the values are between the lower and upper limits established by the algorithm.

Another web source3 shows an example of how anomaly detection works in Nutanix Prism Central. In the video, you can see that when the observed value of a metric deviates significantly from the predicted value based on historical data, an anomaly event is triggered and displayed on a chart.

Therefore, by comparing the observed values with the predicted values based on historical data, Nutanix anomaly detection can identify abnormal behavior and alert you accordingly.

To periodically send information about cluster efficiency via email to a set of users, the administrator can follow these steps:

• Create a report in Prism Central that contains the relevant information about cluster efficiency.
• Add a schedule to the report to generate and send the report via email to the set of users at a specified frequency.

This will ensure that the users receive regular updates about the cluster efficiency without the need for manual intervention.

Answer: A. VM-VM anti-Affinity policy

A VM-VM anti-Affinity policy is a rule that ensures that two or more VMs don’t run on the same AHV host. It’s useful when an application provides HA and an AHV host can’t be an application’s single point of failure1. In this case, the SQL cluster VMs should have a VM-VM anti-Affinity policy configured to prevent them from running on the same host and causing an outage if that host fails. A VM-VM anti-Affinity policy can be created using the aCLI commands2. The other options are not relevant for this scenario.

References: 1: Affinity Policies - Nutanix Support & Insights 2: Affinity Policies Help | Nutanix Community

The best way for the administrator to limit the amount of storage space that data stored in a single container can consume is to set an advertised capacity for the container. This will ensure that the data stored in the container doesn't exceed the set limit, and it will also help prevent any potential performance issues due to resource contention. Additionally, the administrator should consider thick provisioning the container, which will pre-allocate the amount of storage space that can be used by the container. This will help ensure that the data stored in the container doesn't exceed the advertised capacity.

Based on the VM performance metrics shown in the exhibit, the most likely cause of the poor performance in the particular VM is that the host’s CPU is severely overloaded. This is indicated by the high percentage of Hypervisor CPU Ready Time, which is shown as 96% in the CPU ready chart. CPU Ready Time is a metric that shows the amount of time a VM is ready to run but is unable to run because the host CPU resources are not available. In a healthy environment, this value is typically low. A high percentage indicates that the VMs are waiting for available CPU cycles, which means the CPU is not able to schedule the VM effectively, often due to overcommitment or heavy CPU load.

When the CPU ready time is consistently high, it is a clear indicator that the VM is frequently waiting for CPU resources, which can lead to performance issues such as sluggishness or delays in processing. It is not related to the storage subsystem (Oplog fullness or SSD tier size), nor directly to the number of vCPUs assigned to the VM. While adding more vCPUs might seem like a solution, it could actually exacerbate the issue if the host is already CPU constrained.

To resolve this issue, an administrator should consider balancing the load across the hosts more effectively, possibly by using Nutanix's built-in automation and balancing features, or by scaling out the cluster to add more CPU resources. It is also advisable to check for any VMs with unusually high CPU demand and to adjust resource allocation as needed. Nutanix provides extensive documentation and guidelines in their Resource Management Guide to help administrators identify and resolve such performance issues.

 According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result4, Prism Central can be installed manually on an AHV cluster by using three disk images: boot, home, and data. These disk images must be downloaded from the portal for the Prism Central VM and uploaded to an image service on the AHV cluster. The boot image contains the operating system and kernel for Prism Central. The home image contains the configuration files and logs for Prism Central. The data image contains the database and application files for Prism Central.

NGT is a software package that enables advanced VM management features provided by Nutanix, such as file-level restore, VM mobility, and application-consistent snapshots12. To use NGT, you need to enable the NGT feature for a VM in the Prism Element web console, mount the NGT installer (ISO disk file) in the VM, and install NGT in the VM1. However, before installing NGT, you need to ensure that the VM can communicate with the NGT-Controller VM service, which runs on the Controller VM (CVM) of each Nutanix node3. The NGT-Controller VM service listens on port 9943 for incoming requests from the guest VMs3. Therefore, you need to enable port 9943 on the ESXi-hosted VM to allow communication with the NGT-Controller VM service.

According to the Troubleshooting hosted disk I/O performance problems (1008885), when using VMware hosted products, consider that both the virtual machines and host operating system often share the same disk resources and hardware. If a hard disk fails, the virtual machines that have data on the failed device will experience an HA event, causing them to restart on a node that contains the replica data.

First Preference:

• Policy is applied to a specific entity

2nd Preference:

• Policy is applied to an entity type in a category

3rd Preference:

• Policy is applied to an entity type in a cluster

4th Preference:

• Policy is applied to all entities of an entity type

Comprehensive Detailed Explanation with References:In Nutanix Prism, when multiple alert policies are created and applied to the same entities, the policies are evaluated based on their specificity. The order of precedence from highest to lowest is as follows:

• Policy is applied to a specific entity: Custom alert policies that are applied to specific entities take precedence over those applied to broader categories. This is because the more specific policy is usually created with a particular context or requirement in mind for that entity.
• Policy is applied to an entity type in a category: The next level of precedence is given to policies that are applied to all entities of a certain type within a specific category. Categories allow grouping of entities based on certain criteria, and policies applied here are more specific than to an entire cluster or entity type.
• Policy is applied to an entity type in a cluster: This refers to policies that are applied to all entities of a certain type within a specific cluster. This is more general than the above two but still targets a specific cluster environment.
• Policy is applied to all entities of an entity type: The lowest precedence is given to policies that are broadly applied to all entities of a particular type across the entire Nutanix environment.

This order ensures that the most specifically targeted policies are given priority, which allows for fine-tuned control and customization of alert policies. The details of alert policy precedence are typically covered in the Nutanix Prism Central Guide and the documentation related to Prism Central's alerting and policies.

According to the web search results, one of the best practices for Nutanix AHV networking is to create a second bridge on each host and assign the 1GbE interfaces to it3. This way, the customer can use both 10GbE and 1GbE interfaces for VM traffic, and also benefit from network isolation and redundancy. 

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A bully VM is a VM that consumes too many resources and causes other VMs to starve. A bully VM can affect the performance and availability of other VMs on the same host or cluster by hogging CPU, memory, disk, or network resources. A bully VM can be identified by using the VM Profile feature in Prism Central2. The VM Profile feature analyzes the resource utilization of each VM and assigns it a profile based on its efficiency and impact on other VMs. The profiles are as follows3:

• Efficient: The VM is well-provisioned and has optimal resource utilization.
• Over-provisioned: The VM has more resources than it needs and has low resource utilization.
• Constrained: The VM has less resources than it needs and has high resource utilization.
• Inactive: The VM has no resource utilization and is idle or powered off.
• Bully: The VM has high resource utilization and causes contention for other VMs.

To identify a bully VM, the administrator can use Prism Central to view the VM Profile dashboard and filter by profile type. The dashboard shows the number of VMs in each profile type, as well as their resource consumption and efficiency score. The administrator can also drill down into each VM to see its detailed metrics and recommendations for optimization.

According to the web search results, three storage optimizations that should be set on a dedicated storage container for a VDI solution with persistent desktops are compression, deduplication and erasure coding. Compression is a technique that reduces the size of data by removing redundant information. Deduplication is a technique that eliminates duplicate copies of data blocks and stores only unique blocks. Erasure coding is a technique that increases usable capacity by reducing the replication factor of data blocks and using parity information instead7. These three optimizations can improve performance and save storage space for VDI workloads, especially during a node failure event when data needs to be rebuilt from parity information8. The administrator can enable these optimizations by using Prism Element web console or ncli command-line interface9.

Nutanix supports two types of deduplication: post-process and inline. Post-process deduplication runs periodically on a schedule and can be enabled on any cluster. Inline deduplication runs in real time before data is written to disk and can be enabled only on all-flash clusters.

Therefore, by checking the type of storage and the type of deduplication, you can determine if you can enable inline deduplication on a storage container or not.

 Nutanix inline deduplication is a feature that reduces the stored size and avoids duplicate data on a storage container1. It is recommended only on some specific scenarios, such as when using Nutanix Files or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workloads12.

According to the Network File System web search result3, NFS (Network File System) is a distributed file system protocol that allows a user on a client computer to access files over a network in a manner similar to how local storage is accessed. NFS is one of the access protocols supported by Files. According to the [MS-WPO]: File Access Services Protocols web search result4, SMB (Server Message Block) is a Windows file sharing protocol that enables applications to discover, access, and share files that are hosted on or made available by a file server, using a network between them, in a secure and managed environment. SMB is another access protocol supported by Files. Therefore, SMB and NFS are two access protocols supported by Files.

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According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result1, erasure coding is a data savings technique that utilizes stripes and parity calculation in a Nutanix cluster. Erasure coding increases the usable capacity on a cluster by reducing the replication factor of data blocks. Instead of replicating data, erasure coding uses parity information to rebuild data in the event of a disk or node failure. Erasure coding can save up to 50% of storage space compared to replication factor 2, and up to 75% compared to replication factor 32.

A bond is a logical interface that combines two or more physical interfaces on an AHV host. A bond provides high availability and load balancing for the network traffic of the host and its VMs. A bond can have different modes that determine how the traffic is distributed and how the bond handles failures of the physical interfaces. The most common bond modes are active-backup, active-active, and LACP1.

Nutanix recommends including at least two physical interfaces in every bond to ensure high availability and redundancy. If one of the physical interfaces fails or is disconnected, the other interface can take over the traffic without affecting the connectivity of the host or its VMs. Having at least two physical interfaces in a bond also allows for maintenance operations such as firmware upgrades or cable replacements without downtime2.

Nutanix does not recommend including NIC models from different vendors in the same bond, as this may cause compatibility issues or performance degradation. Nutanix also does not recommend using only one physical interface in a bond, as this provides no redundancy or load balancing benefits3.

According to the web search results, the cluster redundancy factor (RF) determines how many copies of the cluster metadata and configuration data are stored on different nodes. By default, the cluster RF is 2, which means that there are three copies of the Zookeeper and Cassandra data on the cluster. If the cluster RF is increased to 3, then there will be five copies of the Zookeeper and Cassandra data on the cluster12. This means that the Zookeeper component can tolerate two failures, as it can still operate with a quorum of three nodes out of five3.

However, the container replication factor (RF) determines how many copies of the VM data and oplog are stored on different nodes. The container RF can be set independently for each container, and it can be different from the cluster RF. For example, a container can have RF 2 even if the cluster has RF 34. In this case, the container will only have two copies of the VM data and oplog on the cluster, regardless of the cluster RF. This means that the Extent Groups component can only tolerate one failure, as it needs at least one copy of the VM data and oplog to be available5.

Therefore, if the administrator increases the cluster RF to 3, but does not modify the containers, then the new values in the data resiliency dashboard will be Zookeeper = 2 and Extent Groups = 1.

switch ports are configured with different VLANs could be the cause of this error. If the switch ports are not configured with the same VLANs as the network interfaces on each node, then there could be a mismatch in network connectivity when one interface is disconnected1. This could affect the guest VMs that are using a different VLAN than the hypervisor.

This is because Nutanix uses a distributed storage fabric (DSF) that replicates data across multiple nodes and drives to ensure data resiliency. When a drive fails, the cluster detects the failure and initiates a data rebuild process to restore the replication factor (RF) of the affected containers. The data rebuild process does not affect the availability or performance of the VMs, as they can still access their data from other replicas on other nodes or drives. Therefore, there is no need to wait for 60 minutes, use a shared volume group, or trigger an HA event.

According to the web search results, Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF) is the scale-out storage technology that makes HCI and cloud possible45. DSF pools the storage devices that are directly attached to a cluster of servers and presents them to applications across a variety of storage protocols4. DSF also manages and protects data by a fine-grained, distributed metadata system that ensures uniform distribution of data throughout the cluster to eliminate hot spots and speed up rebuilds

According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result2, VM NICs on AHV can operate in two modes: Access and Trunked. Access NICs are the default, and allow one VLAN on the NIC. Trunked NICs allow multiple VLANs on a single NIC for VMs that are VLAN aware. If you must use trunked NICs, follow the steps described in the web search result2. Therefore, the most efficient way to have a VM on an AHV cluster with access to multiple VLANs is to update a vNIC on the VM to operate in trunked mode for all desired VLANs.

The output in the exhibit indicates that the node's network interfaces (eth0-eth3) are bonded together using LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) with 'balance-tcp' as the bonding mode and LACP speed set to 'fast'. For LACP to function correctly, the switch ports to which the node is connected must also be configured to support LACP. If the ports on the upstream switch are not configured for LACP, the bond will not be able to establish properly, and the node will not communicate effectively on the network, making it undiscoverable when attempting to expand the cluster.

The absence of an operational LACP configuration could prevent the new node from joining the existing cluster as the node's network interfaces would not be able to pass traffic correctly. This can be verified by checking the switch configuration to ensure that the ports are set to participate in an LACP bond.

The other options, such as a firewall blocking discovery traffic (Option A) or the node being on different VLANs (Option C), are possible causes for a node not being discovered, but given the specific command output provided, the most likely cause is related to the switch port configuration for LACP. Option D, regarding completing LACP configuration after cluster expansion, is not correct because LACP needs to be operational for the node to communicate with the cluster during the expansion process.

Proper LACP configuration is critical for network communication in a Nutanix AHV cluster, and this is covered in detail in the Nutanix AHV and Networking documentation. It outlines the steps for configuring network bonds and LACP on both the AHV hosts and the connecting network infrastructure.

"Playbook allows you to define a trigger that results in the execution of an action or a series of actions. A trigger may be an event that occurs in the system, such as an alert or a request made by you. The resultant actions that you configure can be VM actions, communication actions, alert actions, or report actions."

inline compression is a technique that compresses all incoming write I/O operations over 4 KB inline in the persistent write buffer (oplog)23. This approach enables you to use oplog capacity more efficiently and helps drive sustained performance2. From AOS 5.18 onward, inline compression (compression delay=0) is enabled by default for all new containers24.

According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result3, shadow clones are vDisk copies that are created by the cluster when a vDisk is read by multiple VMs. Shadow clones are immutable copies of a vDisk that are stored in different nodes in the cluster, and are used to improve read performance and reduce network traffic. Shadow clones are automatically created and deleted by the cluster, based on the demand and availability of resources.

According to section 4 of the exam blueprint guide1, one of the topics covered is AHV networking components and configuration settings. One of these components is Open vSwitch (OVS), which is a software switch that provides network connectivity between VMs and physical networks. OVS has two types of ports:

• Uplink ports: These are physical ports that connect to external networks or switches.
• Internal ports: These are virtual ports that connect to VMs or other internal networks.

To view the uplink state of all AHV nodes in the cluster, an administrator can use the manage_ovs command with the show_uplinks option. This command displays information such as port name, link state, speed, duplex mode, MTU size, bond mode, and bond status. However, this command only works on a single node. To run the command on all nodes in the cluster, an administrator can use the allssh command, which executes a command on all CVMs in parallel. Therefore, the correct command is:

allssh manage_ovs show_uplinks

According to the web search results, the policy that should be used to meet this requirement is an Isolation Environment Policy. An Isolation Environment Policy is a type of security policy that can be created in Prism Central using Flow Network Security, which is a feature that provides microsegmentation and network security for Nutanix environments1. An Isolation Environment Policy allows the administrator to isolate a group of VMs from another group of VMs based on their categories, and block all traffic between them regardless of direction2. This policy can be useful for creating isolated environments for testing, development, or compliance purposes2.

The change password at next logon attribute is a setting that forces a user to change their password when they log on to a domain for the first time or after their password has expired. This attribute is enabled by default for new Active Directory user accounts or when an administrator resets a user’s password4.

However, Prism Central does not support this attribute for Active Directory authentication. Users with this attribute enabled will not be able to log on to Prism Central using their Active Directory credentials. They will receive an error message saying “Invalid credentials” or “Authentication failed” when they try to log on5.

Therefore, if an administrator is not able to log on to Prism Central using a new Active Directory user account, the most likely cause of this issue is that the change password at next logon attribute is set for that user account. To resolve this issue, the administrator should disable this attribute for the user account or log on to a domain workstation first and change their password before accessing Prism Central6.

When a VM is connected to a Nutanix managed network, the IP address is assigned when the VM is powered on. A Nutanix managed network is a network that is created and managed by Prism Central using IP address management (IPAM). IPAM allows Prism Central to automatically assign IP addresses to VMs from a pool of available addresses in a subnet. IPAM also tracks the IP address usage and availability across clusters and networks4.

When a VM is connected to a Nutanix managed network, the administrator can choose one of the following assignment types for the IP address:

• Assign Static IP: This option allows the administrator to manually specify a static IP address for the VM from the subnet range. The IP address will not change unless the administrator changes it.
• Assign with DHCP: This option allows Prism Central to dynamically assign an IP address for the VM from the subnet range using DHCP. The IP address may change depending on the DHCP lease time and availability.
• No Private IP: This option allows the administrator to skip assigning an IP address for the VM. This option is useful for scenarios where the administrator wants to use an external IPAM solution or assign an IP address later5.

Regardless of the assignment type, the IP address is assigned when the VM is powered on. This is because Prism Central needs to communicate with the hypervisor (AHV or ESXi) to configure the virtual NIC (vNIC) of the VM with the IP address information. This communication can only happen when the VM is in a powered on state6.

References: 4: IP Address Management - Prism Central Guide 5: Creating a New Report - Prism Central Guide 6: IP Address Assignment - AHV Networking Guide

According to the web search results, the two impacts on the cluster that will result from increasing the vCPU count on all of the VDI VMs are:

• Increase CPU utilization%: CPU utilization is the percentage of time that a CPU is busy executing instructions5. By increasing the vCPU count on all of the VDI VMs, the administrator will increase the demand for CPU resources on the cluster, which will increase the CPU utilization percentage6.
• Increase CPU ready%: CPU ready is the percentage of time that a vCPU is ready to run but is waiting for a physical CPU to become available5. By increasing the vCPU count on all of the VDI VMs, the administrator will increase the contention for physical CPU resources on the cluster, which will increase the CPU ready percentage6. A high CPU ready percentage can indicate performance issues such as latency or slowdowns5.

A native VLAN is a VLAN that is assigned to untagged traffic on a trunk port of a switch. A trunk port can carry traffic from multiple VLANs, but it needs to have a native VLAN to handle traffic that does not have a VLAN tag. The native VLAN is usually VLAN 1 by default on most switches, but it can be changed to any other VLAN number2. When creating a network profile on Nutanix, the administrator needs to specify the VLAN ID that matches the VLAN configuration on the physical switch. However, if the network profile uses the same VLAN ID as the native VLAN on the switch, it will cause network connectivity issues for the VMs connected to that network profile. This is because Nutanix AHV uses 802.1Q tagging for all network traffic, including traffic in the native VLAN. The switch will expect untagged traffic in the native VLAN and will drop any tagged traffic in that VLAN3. To fix this issue, the administrator needs to change the VLAN field from vlan. 1 to vlan. 0 in the network profile on Nutanix. This will tell Nutanix AHV to send untagged traffic for that network profile and match the native VLAN configuration on the switch4.

Configure VM-Host affinity for the nodes that meet the application’s GPU requirement. This is because VM-Host affinity allows the administrator to specify which nodes a VM can run on or must not run on1. By creating a VM-Host affinity rule that binds the application VM to the three nodes that have the physical GPU, the administrator can ensure that the VM will always run on a node that meets its requirement, regardless of any HA or migration events. This also allows the other nodes in the cluster to host other VMs without any restrictions.

An Application Security Policy is a security feature in Nutanix AHV that can be used to restrict network communication between virtual servers based on a variety of criteria, such as IP address, port, and protocol. By creating a policy that restricts communication to authorized hosts and applying it to the servers in enforce mode, the administrator can prevent unauthorized communication between virtual servers.

According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result1, route injection is used to maintain I/O operations in the cluster when the Stargate service becomes unavailable on a single CVM on an AHV node. Route injection is a mechanism that allows the CVMs to communicate with each other and redirect the I/O requests to another healthy CVM in the cluster. Route injection uses the Linux kernel routing table to add or delete routes dynamically, based on the availability of the Stargate service on each CVM.

Deploy the Move appliance and Import the .vmdk into the Image Service. These are two methods that can be used to migrate a VM from VMware ESXi to AHV2. The Move appliance is a tool that automates the migration process by converting the VM disks and configuration to AHV format and transferring them to the Nutanix cluster3. The Image Service is a feature that allows users to upload and manage disk images that can be used to create or clone VMs on AHV4. By importing the .vmdk file of the VMware VM into the Image Service, users can create a new AHV VM from that image.

According to the Nutanix Prism Central Guide, Prism Central allows you to apply storage policies on a per VM basis using Category, so that the VM uses the storage configuration defined in the storage policy. Using a storage policy, you can manage parameters of VMs, such as encryption, type of or lack of data compression, and IOPS or Throughput throttling values to be applied to the entities.

 According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result1, the name of the internal bridge used by AHV nodes and CVMs is br0. The internal bridge is an Open vSwitch (OVS) bridge that connects the AHV host management interface, the CVM interface, and the VM vNICs. The internal bridge also acts as a gateway for the CVM and VM traffic to reach the external network through the host physical NICs.

In Nutanix AHV, when creating a virtual switch and trying to add network interfaces (NICs) to it, the NICs must be connected to the network before they can be selected and assigned to the switch. If the interfaces are showing as disconnected, the system will not allow them to be added to a virtual switch because it cannot verify their operational status or the presence of a live network connection.

It is a standard requirement for the interfaces to have physical connectivity (i.e., network cables plugged in and connected to a live switch port) so that the AHV host can detect the link status as up. Once the interfaces are connected and recognized by the host, they can then be added to a virtual switch in the Nutanix AHV.

It's important to note that while the command-line interface (CLI) is indeed a powerful tool for managing network configurations on AHV hosts, and some configurations do indeed require CLI, the inability to select disconnected interfaces is not specifically a limitation that requires the use of CLI to overcome. The focus should be on ensuring that the physical connectivity is established for the interfaces in question.

This behavior is consistent with networking best practices and Nutanix's network configuration guidelines, as detailed in the Nutanix AHV Networking Guide. This guide explains the requirements and procedures for configuring virtual switches and managing NICs in a Nutanix AHV environment.

Port 389 is the default port for LDAP without SSL encryption. Port 636 is used for LDAP over SSL (LDAPS). Port 3268 and 3269 are used for Global Catalog (GC) and Global Catalog over SSL (GCSSL), respectively2.

A. This statement is incorrect because there is no static threshold set to trigger a critical alert at 6000 MB. The graph shows a peak that goes above 6000 MB, but the alert configuration below does not specify a static threshold at this value.

B. This is the correct statement. The configuration under "Behavioral Anomaly" is set to alert every time there is an anomaly, with a critical level alert set to trigger when the I/O working set size is between 0 MB and 4000 MB. The graph illustrates that the anomalies (highlighted in pink) occur when the working set size exceeds the normal range (blue band). Therefore, any anomaly detected above 4000 MB would trigger a critical alert.

C. This statement is incorrect because there is no indication that a warning alert is configured to trigger after 3 anomalies. The exhibit does not show any configuration that specifies an alert based on the number of anomalies.

D. This statement is incorrect as there's no indication that a warning alert will be triggered based on the I/O working set size exceeding the blue band. The alert settings are configured to ignore anomalies below 4000 MB and to trigger a critical alert for anomalies above this threshold.

The settings displayed in the exhibit are typically part of Nutanix's Prism infrastructure management platform, which can set various thresholds for performance metrics and trigger alerts based on those thresholds. The behavior is defined in the Prism documentation where the alert configuration is outlined.

Terminology

• Availability Zone – it is represented by all resources (Nutanix Clusters) connected to Prism Central or Xi Leap Availability zone. Depends on the architecture, Availability zone can represent geographic territory, datacenter or server room in the datacenter. Protection policies – in protection policies you set up (RPO, Retention), rules to auto-apply policies to virtual machines

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