Nutanix NCP-MCI-6.10 Dumps

"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.

TheUpdate Guest OS feature (Option D)in Nutanixallows administrators to apply patches and updatesto aVM templateby creating atemporary VM instancefor modification.

How It Works:

Atemporary VMis deployed from the template.

Administratorsapply updatesto the OS.

Once complete,the changes are saved back to the template.

Option A (Create VM from Template) is incorrect:

This featurecreates a new VMfrom an existing template butdoes not update the template itself.

Option B (Complete Guest OS Update) is incorrect:

There is no specific Nutanix feature named"Complete Guest OS Update."

Option C (Update Configuration) is incorrect:

Updates VM hardware and policiesbutnot the OS.

The best way to test the performance of a Linux VM that is underperforming at the storage level on an ESXi cluster, while minimizing downtime, is to migrate the VM to an AHV-based cluster. This allows leveraging Nutanix-native storage optimizations and hypervisor capabilities of AHV.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“AHV and Nutanix storage integration is natively optimized for performance, leveraging capabilities like data locality, I/O path enhancements, and advanced metadata management. Migrating workloads from ESXi to AHV can often resolve performance bottlenecks associated with storage I/O.”

Additionally:

“Using the Nutanix Move tool, administrators can migrate running VMs between different hypervisors (e.g., ESXi to AHV) with minimal downtime and fully automated steps, reducing the operational burden.”

Increasing vCPUs would not address storage-level performance issues, and collapsing disks would require significant reconfiguration and VM downtime. vDisk sharding is not directly user-configurable and not applicable in this scenario.

NutanixIntelligent Operations Reports(Option D) provideweekly summariesof cluster health, performance, and resource consumption.

These reports includerecommendations for optimization, alerts, and forecasted resource usage trends.

Option A (Admin Center LCM)managesfirmware and software upgradesbut does not generate weekly performance reports.

Option B (Prism Central Syslog)is used forlogging and event tracking, not performance summaries.

Option C (Infrastructure VMs List)provides astatic list of VMsbut does not generate periodic reports.

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.

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.

Multicast traffic can generate unnecessary overhead if it is not properly managed.IGMP Snooping (Option C)ensures thatmulticast packets are only sent to VMs that have requested them, rather than broadcasting to all VMs.

Option C (IGMP Snooping) is correct:

Itreduces unnecessary multicast trafficby ensuring that only subscribed VMs receive the packets.

It is supportednatively in AHV networking.

Option A (LACP) is incorrect:

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)improves bandwidth and redundancy but doesnot control multicast traffic.

Option B (UDP) is incorrect:

UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is a transport protocol, not a network optimization feature.

Option D (Network Segmentation) is incorrect:

Segmentation (VLANs, VPCs) isolates networksbut does not optimizemulticast traffic specifically.

For workloads requiring new IP addresses and DNS server settings during DR recovery, using custom scripting within the Recovery Plan is the recommended and supported method.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Recovery Plans support scripting within the Recovery Sequence to enable administrators to perform post-recovery customization tasks, such as updating IP addresses, configuring DNS, or applying application-specific settings.”

“This scripting capability provides a flexible, automated approach to ensure that VMs are correctly reconfigured to operate within the DR environment’s network and DNS settings.”

This avoids the need for manual reconfiguration post-recovery or adjusting settings in production prior to failover.

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.

To ensureVM high availability (HA) in the event of a node failure, the administrator mustenable HA Reservation (Option B)in Prism Element.

High Availability (HA) in Nutanix ensures that VMs restart on another available node if the host they are running on fails.

Option A (Redundancy Factor 3)affectsstorage redundancy, not VM failover.

Option C (Protection Domains)is related todisaster recovery (DR), not local HA failover.

Option D (RF1 Storage Container)would reduce fault tolerance and is not recommended for production environments.

Data-in-Transit Encryption ensures that replication traffic is encrypted while being sent over the internet.

Option D (Enable Data-in-Transit Encryption) is correct:

This encryptsreplicated data between clusters, ensuring security againstman-in-the-middle attacks.

Option A (Self-encrypting drive) is incorrect:

This protects data at rest, not during transmission.

Option B (UEFI Secure Boot) is incorrect:

Secure Boot prevents unauthorized OS modifications, but doesnot encrypt network traffic.

Option C (Data-at-Rest Encryption) is incorrect:

This encryptsstored data but does not secure replication traffic.

Themost efficient wayto allow team leads to manage aspecific set of VMsis bycreating a Project (Option C)in Prism Central and assigning the team leads to that Project.

Nutanix Projects allow administrators to control VM accessbased on groups and permissions, ensuring that users only manage VMs assigned to their project.

Option A (Role Mapping)applies more broadly to roles but does not restrict access to specific VM groups.

Option B (VPC Admin)is related to network segmentation, not VM access control.

Option D (Security Policies)are used for network and firewall rules, not VM access control.

Metro Availability requires that VMs always read data from their primary site to maintain optimal performance and prevent remote data access latency.

Option C (Migrate the VM to its primary site and set appropriate rules) is correct:

If a VMfails over to the secondary sitebut is still running in the primary site, it will read data remotely, causinghigh latency and performance issues.

The solution is tomigrate the VM back to the primary siteand configureDRS rulesorhost affinity settingsto prevent unwanted movement.

Option A is incorrect:

The command listsactive Metro Availability protection domainsbut doesnot resolvethe issue.

Option B is incorrect:

Must-affinity rules can help, but they should be configuredafter migrating the VM back to the primary site.

Option D is incorrect:

RunningNCC health checkswill onlydiagnose the issue, not resolve it.

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.

Syslog severity levels follow a standard numerical system, wherelower numbers indicate higher severity.

Option B (Severity Level 2) is correct:

Level 2 = CRITICAL→ Used forserious conditions requiring immediate attention.

Audit logs often generate Critical logsrelated tosecurity, access violations, or major failures.

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated

Options A (0), C (5), and D (7) are incorrect:

0 = Emergency (Too severe, only used for full system failures).

5 = Notice (Not critical, used for general system events).

7 = Debug (Not relevant for critical logs).

High SSD utilization in a hybrid cluster can lead to increased I/O latency as new writes may spill over to HDDs, reducing overall performance.

Option D (Average I/O latency in the cluster may increase) is correct:

If SSD usage isabove 75%,data tiering shifts to slower HDDs,increasing latency.

Option A is incorrect:

SSD failures are managed via redundancy policies (RF2/RF3), and high utilizationdoes not impact failure handling.

Option B is incorrect:

Metadata is stored separately, and high SSD usage does not mean metadata is at risk.

Option C is incorrect:

Clusters do not go into read-only mode due to high SSD utilization—they simply experienceperformance degradation.

In a Nutanix cluster, Replication Factor 2 (RF2) means that each piece of data has two copies: a primary and a replica. To safely remove a node while ensuring data redundancy and cluster health, the system must have enough nodes to maintain the RF2 protection and complete the removal.

From the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) documentation:

“The minimum number of nodes required for a safe host removal in an RF2 cluster is four. This ensures that even after removing a node, there are enough remaining nodes to continue hosting the primary and replica data copies, meeting the RF2 requirement.”

The logic is:

In a 3-node RF2 cluster, there isn’t enough redundancy to safely remove a node without impacting data availability.

A 4-node RF2 cluster allows safe removal of one node while still ensuring two copies of all data remain.

Thus, the minimum number of nodes required for a safe host removal in an RF2 cluster is 4

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 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."

When synchronous replication fails immediately between two clusters, it is often due to blocked communication across the required ports (2009 and 2020). These must be open manually if the clusters are in different subnets or if network policies block traffic.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Replication communication relies on specific ports, which must be allowed through the firewall. If the clusters are in different subnets or if there are external firewalls, these ports must be explicitly opened.”

“The modify_firewall command is used to open or close ports on cluster nodes. For replication and remote site communication, eth1 is typically used for external replication traffic.”

Since eth1 is typically used for external connectivity and replication traffic, opening ports on this interface using modify_firewall resolves the communication block.

Categories in Nutanix are used to group resources and require only a name and a value for definition.

Option A (A name and a value) is correct:

Categoriesrequire a name (e.g., "Production VMs")and a value (e.g., "Tier 1").

These are then applied to VMs, storage, and other resources forpolicy-based management.

Option B (Policy and Entity) is incorrect:

Policiesuse categories but are not required to define a category.

Option C (Service and Scope) is incorrect:

Categoriesdo not require servicesor a defined scope.

Option D (Catalog and Template) is incorrect:

These apply toself-service provisioning, not categories.

TheBully VMs Listview in Prism Central’sIntelligent Operationsidentifies VMs that are consumingexcessive resources(CPU, memory, or storage IO) and causing resource starvation for other VMs.

From theNutanix ECA documentation:

“Bully VMs List identifies virtual machines with high resource consumption, enabling administrators to investigate and take action to prevent performance degradation in other VMs.”

The other options:

A (Constrained VMs): Shows VMs that are being starved of resources.

C (Inactive VMs): Shows VMs that are using little to no resources.

D (Overprovisioned VMs): Shows VMs with allocated resources beyond actual usage.

Understanding the Exhibit & Memory Allocation

Thehost has 128GB of physical RAM.

Thecurrent memory allocationacrossthree VMs (VM1, VM2, VM3) is 128GB, but only92GB is actually utilized.

This means there is36GB of unutilized memory available for allocation.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Existing Memory Usage Before Adding VM4

Total Physical RAM:128GB

Used by running VMs (VM1, VM2, VM3):92GB

Unutilized Memory Available:36GB

After Creating and Running VM4

VM4 is allocatedmemory but only utilizes 28GB.

The table does not show VM4’s allocated RAM, but assuming it was given a reasonable allocation, it must have been taken from the36GB unutilized memory pool.

IfVM4 uses 28GB, theremaining unutilized memory is now (36GB - 28GB) = 8GB.

Maximum Memory Allocation for VM5

Sinceonly 8GB remains unutilized, the maximum memory VM5 can be allocated while still allowing it to power on is8GB.

Evaluating the Answer Choices

(A) 4GB❌(Incorrect)

More memory (8GB) is available, so limiting to 4GB is unnecessary.

(B) 8GB✅(Correct)

Theremaining unutilized memory after VM4 is 8GB, so VM5 can be allocated up to8GBwhile ensuring it can power on.

(C) 16GB❌(Incorrect)

Only8GB is left, so 16GB isnot possible.

(D) 32GB❌(Incorrect)

There isnot enough unutilized memoryto allocate 32GB.

Key Concept: Nutanix Memory Overcommit

Nutanix AHV supportsmemory overcommit, meaning VMs can be allocated more memory than physically available usingmemory ballooning and swapping.

However,to power on VM5 without impacting performance, it must fit within the available unutilized memory, which is8GB.

By default, Nutanix Prism Central retains the last 10 instances of a report if no retention policy is configured.

Option B (10) is correct:

Nutanixstores up to 10 reports, after which older reports areautomatically deleted.

Options A (5), C (15), and D (20) are incorrect:

Whileretention policies can be customized, thedefault setting is 10 reports.

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.

Entity Charts in Nutanix Prism Central allow multiple metrics from a single entity (e.g., VM, storage container) to be displayed on a single graph.

Option B (Entity Chart) is correct:

This allows the administrator totrack multiple performance metrics(e.g., read/write bandwidth, IOPS) for aspecific VM.

Option A (Metric Chart) is incorrect:

Metric Charts track a single metric across multiple entities, which does not meet the requirement ofdisplaying multiple metrics for a single VM.

Option C (Hypervisor Performance Chart) is incorrect:

Hypervisor Performance Chartstrack host-level metrics, notVM-specific bandwidth metrics.

Option D (VM Summary Chart) is incorrect:

VM Summary Chartsonly provide an overviewand do not supportcustom multi-metric tracking.

To create a custom Intelligent Operations report and run it across multiple Prism Central instances, administrators must export the report configuration from one Prism Central instance and then import it into the others. This process leverages the .rpt file format, which encapsulates the report’s configuration details, including data sources, visualization preferences, and thresholds.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Administrators can create custom Intelligent Operations reports in Prism Central and export the configuration as a .rpt file. This exported file can then be imported into other Prism Central instances, ensuring consistency across environments without requiring manual recreation of the report’s details.”

Additionally:

“The export/import feature for reports ensures that custom dashboards and reports can be easily migrated or replicated across multiple Prism Central instances, enabling a standardized approach to monitoring and analytics in a multicloud environment.”

This clearly indicates that the recommended and supported method for sharing or replicating custom reports across multiple Prism Central instances is by exporting and importing the report configurations in .rpt format. This approach avoids the need for manual recreation and ensures that the reports maintain their intended configuration and layout across different instances.

The Nutanix ECA course covers the use of Playbooks in Prism Central to automate responses to specific events or conditions, such as VM protection failures. The task requires creating an alert for VMs in theCriticalApps:Alertscategory when a VM Protection Failed Alert is triggered, with notifications sent to on-call personnel.

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

Module: Automation, Section: Playbooks"Playbooks in Prism Central can be configured with an Alert Matching Criteria trigger to respond to specific alerts, such as VM protection failures. This trigger allows filtering by entity categories, ensuring the Playbook only acts on VMs matching the specified category, and can send notifications to designated personnel."

Module: Intelligent Operations, Section: Alert Management"To create an alert for specific VMs based on a category, use a Playbook with an Alert Matching Criteria trigger. This allows precise targeting of alerts (e.g., VM Protection Failed) for VMs in a category like CriticalApps:Alerts, with actions such as sending email notifications to on-call teams."

Explanation of Options:

A. Create a Playbook with a Manual triggerThis is incorrect. A Manual trigger requires an administrator to manually initiate the Playbook, which does not meet the requirement for automatic alerting when a VM Protection Failed Alert is triggered. The ECA course states:"Manual triggers are used for ad-hoc Playbook execution, not for automated responses to alerts."

B. Create a Playbook with an Alert Matching Criteria triggerThis is the correct answer. An Alert Matching Criteria trigger allows the Playbook to respond automatically to specific alerts, such as VM Protection Failed, and can be filtered to apply only to VMs in theCriticalApps:Alertscategory. The Playbook can then execute an action, such as sending an email notification to on-call personnel. The ECA course highlights this as the most precise method for alert-based automation.

Supporting Extract:"The Alert Matching Criteria trigger enables Playbooks to filter alerts by type and entity category, ensuring targeted responses, such as notifying on-call personnel for VM protection failures in specific categories."

C. Create a Playbook with an Event-based triggerThis is incorrect. Event-based triggers respond to system events (e.g., VM power-on or cluster events) rather than specific alerts like VM Protection Failed. They are less precise for this use case, as they do not allow filtering by alert type or category. The ECA course notes:"Event-based triggers are suited for general system events, not for targeted alert responses like VM protection failures."

D. Create a Playbook with an Alert-based triggerThis is incorrect. The term “Alert-based trigger” is not a standard option in Nutanix Playbooks. The correct terminology isAlert Matching Criteria trigger, which is specifically designed for alert-driven automation. The ECA course does not reference a generic “Alert-based trigger” option.

Additional Context from ECA:

Playbook Configuration: In Prism Central, a Playbook is created underOperations > Playbooks > Create Playbook. Select theAlert Matching Criteriatrigger, specify theVM Protection Failedalert, and filter by theCriticalApps:Alertscategory. Add an action to send an email notification to the on-call team.

Category Filtering: Categories (e.g., CriticalApps:Alerts) are key-value pairs assigned to VMs for organization and policy enforcement, making them ideal for targeting specific VMs in Playbooks.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible supports: "Playbooks with Alert Matching Criteria triggers allow precise automation for alerts, such as VM protection failures, filtered by VM categories, with actions like sending notifications."

The Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) is designed to manage and automate firmware and software upgrades across Nutanix clusters. However, firmware upgrades via LCM are not supported for single-node clusters. This limitation is documented in the ECA course as well as in LCM’s official release notes and guides.

From the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) course materials:

“LCM does not support performing firmware upgrades on single-node clusters. These clusters require manual upgrades, and LCM will not list any available firmware updates for them, regardless of the firmware revision state.”

The other options:

A is incorrect; single-node clusters don’t have this limitation specifically for “one-disk” firmware upgrades—it’s a complete limitation for all firmware tasks in LCM.

B is misleading; LCM is supported in general for Nutanix clusters, just not for firmware tasks in single-node clusters.

D is incorrect because lack of internet connectivity would typically show an error related to download or connectivity issues, not complete absence of firmware updates.