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

For high-performance databases like MySQL, optimizing storage access is critical.

Option B (Create additional vDisks for SQL data) is correct:

Multiple vDisks allowbetter parallelismin NutanixDSF (Distributed Storage Fabric), improving IOPS.

Option C (Use LVM to stripe SQL data across multiple vDisks) is correct:

Striping across multiple disksdistributes the load, reducing latency.

Option A (Thick provisioned vDisks) is incorrect:

Nutanixalways provisions vDisks thinly, and thick provisioningdoes not improve IOPS.

Option D (Thin provisioned vDisks) is incorrect:

All Nutanix vDisksare thin-provisioned by default.

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.

When usingFQDN instead of a Virtual IP in a scale-out Prism Central deployment, Nutanixenables load balancing across multiple Prism Central instances.

Option A (Load balancing) is correctbecause it ensures that requests are distributed among multiple Prism Central nodes, improving performance and redundancy.

Option B (Resiliency) is incorrectbecause resiliency is achieved through HA and replication, not through FQDN configuration.

Option C (Segmentation) is incorrectbecause network segmentation is handled at the VLAN or security policy level.

Option D (SSL Certificate) is incorrectbecause SSL certificates can be applied regardless of whether FQDN or Virtual IP is used.

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.”

The Nutanix ECA course provides guidance on performance monitoring and troubleshooting for VMs, including metrics to analyze when determining whether additional vCPUs are needed. The scenario involves a VM experiencing performance issues, with the cluster performing well overall, suggesting the issue is VM-specific.

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

Module: Performance Monitoring, Section: VM Performance Metrics"To determine if a VM requires additional vCPUs, analyze VM CPU Usage and VM CPU Ready Time. High CPU Usage indicates the VM is under heavy load, while high CPU Ready Time suggests the VM is waiting for CPU resources, both justifying additional vCPUs."

Module: Troubleshooting, Section: VM Performance Issues"When a VM experiences performance issues, VM CPU Usage and VM CPU Ready Time are critical metrics. CPU Usage shows demand, while CPU Ready Time indicates contention or scheduling delays, helping determine if more vCPUs are warranted."

Explanation of Options:

A. VM CPU UsageThis is correct. VM CPU Usage measures the percentage of CPU resources the VM is consuming. High CPU Usage (e.g., consistently above 80–90%) indicates that the VM is under heavy load and may benefit from additional vCPUs to handle the workload. The ECA course emphasizes:"VM CPU Usage is the primary metric to assess whether a VM’s CPU allocation is sufficient for its workload."

B. VM CPU Ready TimeThis is correct. VM CPU Ready Time measures the time a VM is ready to run but waiting for CPU resources from the hypervisor due to contention or oversubscription. High CPU Ready Time (e.g., above 5–10%) suggests that the VM is not getting enough CPU cycles, and adding vCPUs could alleviate the issue. The ECA course notes:"High VM CPU Ready Time indicates CPU contention, often resolved by adding vCPUs or optimizing resource allocation."

C. Host Memory Swap Out RateThis is incorrect. Host Memory Swap Out Rate indicates memory pressure on the host, causing memory pages to be swapped to disk. While this can affect VM performance, it is unrelated to CPU performance and does not justify adding vCPUs. The ECA course states:"Host Memory Swap Out Rate is relevant for memory-related issues, not CPU allocation decisions."

D. Host CPU UsageThis is incorrect. Host CPU Usage measures the overall CPU utilization of the host, not the specific VM. Since the cluster is performing well overall, high Host CPU Usage is unlikely, and it does not directly indicate whether the VM needs more vCPUs. The ECA course clarifies:"Host CPU Usage is a cluster-wide metric and less relevant for diagnosing VM-specific CPU performance issues."

Additional Context from ECA:

Performance Monitoring Tools: In Prism Element or Prism Central, VM CPU Usage and CPU Ready Time can be monitored underVM > Monitoror through dashboards. These metrics provide insight into the VM’s CPU demand and contention.

Adding vCPUs: The ECA course advises caution when adding vCPUs, as over-allocation can increase CPU Ready Time due to scheduling overhead. However, if both CPU Usage and Ready Time are high, adding vCPUs is justified.

Supporting Reference from Web Results:

The Nutanix Bible (https://www.nutanix.com/go/the-nutanix-bible) supports: "For VM performance issues, analyze VM CPU Usage and CPU Ready Time to determine if additional vCPUs are needed, as these metrics directly indicate CPU demand and contention."

In a dark site deployment, LCM does not automatically fetch updates from the internet. The administrator must manually upload compatibility bundles.

Option B (The latest compatibility bundle has not been uploaded) is correct:

Thecompatibility bundlecontainsfirmware mappings, allowing LCM to detect the correct BIOS version.

Option A is incorrect:

AOSdoes not need to be upgraded firstfor a BIOS update.

Option C is incorrect:

TheBMC firmware does not always need updatingbefore BIOS updates.

Option D is incorrect:

In a dark site deployment,LCM does not rely on an internet connection, so webserver access is not required.

Dead VMs and Zombie VMs are different classifications of inactive VMs in Nutanix, and their deletion timelines depend on Playbook configuration.

Dead VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option C is correct).

Zombie VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option B is correct).

Protection Domains (PDs) in Nutanix ensure that entire applications and their associated data are protected during failover.However,Volume Groups (VGs) are not automatically includedunless explicitly configured.

Option A (Select "Auto protect related entities") is correct:

This setting ensures thatassociated Volume Groups, networks, and other dependencies are included in the Protection Domainautomatically.

Without enabling this, only the VM itself would be protected, leading tomissing application data upon failover.

Option B (Manually add Volume Groups to Protected Entities) is correct:

If"Auto protect related entities" is not enabled, the administrator mustmanually add Volume Groups to the Protection Domain.

This ensures that bothVMs and their attached Volume Groupsare replicated and recovered together.

Option C (Place Volume Groups in a separate Protection Domain) is incorrect:

Separating Volume Groups into a different PDdoes not guarantee they failover together with VMs.

It is best practice tokeep related VMs and Volume Groups in the same PD.

Option D (Use application-consistent snapshots) is incorrect:

Whileapplication-consistent snapshots improve data integrity, theydo not fix missing Volume Groups in failover scenarios.

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.

In Nutanix AHV-based clusters, when you want to ensure that a specific VM (e.g., a critical VM like a domain controller) is powered on before other VMs during a host startup or failover scenario, you use the Agent VM configuration setting.

Here’s the exact explanation from the Nutanix ECA course:

“Agent VMs are special VMs that are automatically powered on before other user VMs during host startup or recovery. This ensures that critical VMs, such as those that provide essential services, are always available first.”

In contrast:

✅Recovery Plan (A) — This is used in the context of DR and failover, typically with Nutanix Leap.

✅Host Affinity (B) — Host affinity rules control placement policies of VMs but not startup priority.

✅High Availability (C) — HA ensures VMs are restarted on surviving hosts but does not control startup order.

Therefore, setting the VM as an Agent VM guarantees that it is powered on before the other VMs during host start-up. Let me know if you’d like steps on how to configure an Agent VM within Prism Central or Prism Element!

Nutanix Categories allow administrators to group related VMs, making Disaster Recovery (DR) planning easier.

Option B (Utilize Categories to organize VMs in Recovery Plans) is correct:

Categories help group VMsbased on application tiers(e.g.,database, middleware, web servers).

This ensuresorderly failoverwhile maintaining application dependencies.

Option A (Naming schema) is incorrect:

Naming conventions help, but theydo not provide functional organizationin recovery plans.

Option C (1:10 Recovery Plan to VMs) is incorrect:

The ratio depends onbusiness requirements, not a fixed number.

Option D (RESTful APIs) is incorrect:

Automation is useful, butit does not replace proper VM grouping via categories.

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.

Storage Policies in Nutanix are applied through Categories, allowing policy-based automation and enforcement.

Option D (Assign the VM or VG to the same Category as the Storage Policy) is correct:

Nutanixapplies Storage Policies based on VM Categories, enablingflexibility in policy enforcement.

Option A is incorrect:

Storage Policies are not directly assigned at the VM or VG level—they apply through Categories.

Option B is incorrect:

Policies must be assigned toCategories, not directly to individual VMs/VGs.

Option C is incorrect:

Migrating to a storage container does not automatically apply a Storage Policy.

The test_esx_entering_mm_pinned_vms check in an AOS upgrade validates whether there are any pinned VMs on ESXi hosts, which could prevent host maintenance mode transitions.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“Affinity or anti-affinity rules that pin VMs to specific hosts prevent those VMs from migrating during host maintenance mode entry. This directly triggers a failure in the LCM precheck test_esx_entering_mm_pinned_vms check.”

Nutanix storage containers allow administrators to configure capacity reservations and advertised limits for better resource management.

Option D (Set Reserved Capacity to 10 GiB and Advertised Capacity to 500 GiB) is correct:

Reserved Capacityensures that10 GiB is always available for this container and not consumed by other containers.

Advertised Capacitydefines alogical limit of 500 GiBto prevent over-allocation.

Option A is incorrect:

Advertised Capacity of 10 GiB is too lowand does not match the requirement of a500 GiB storage container.

Option B is incorrect:

Only setting Advertised Capacity does not guarantee Reserved Capacity, meaning other containers could consume the reserved space.

Option C is incorrect:

Setting only Reserved Capacity does not enforce an upper limit, which could lead to overprovisioning.

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.

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 (https://www.nutanix.com/go/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 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.”

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.

In Nutanix Prism Central,categoriesallow administrators togroup and organize entitiesfor management, automation, and policy enforcement.

Alerts (Option B) can be categorizedto group similar system events and create filtering rules.

Virtual Machines (Option C) can be categorizedto apply security policies, automation tasks, and resource allocation rules.

Option A (Storage Containers) cannot be categorizedin Prism Central. Storage policies apply at the container level but are not managed via categories.

Option D (ISO Images) cannot be categorizedbecause ISOs arestatic objects, not active entities.

The most efficient way to move a VM’s storage to a container that has different storage optimization policies (like compression) is to perform aVM migrationto the target container. This operation ensures that all the VM’s vDisks are moved to the destination container and allows leveraging the configured optimizations on the Production container.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“VM migration to another storage container in Nutanix Prism Central is supported and can be performed with minimal disruption. When moving a VM to a new container, it inherits the storage optimization policies of that container, including compression, deduplication, and encryption.”

Furthermore:

“Migrations can be initiated at the VM level in Prism Central or Prism Element. This is the most streamlined method to ensure all vDisks for a VM are moved together, preserving data integrity and performance characteristics.”

Recreating the VM or vDisks would be cumbersome and require manual data copying, introducing potential risks and downtime.

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.

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

In Nutanix Prism Central, user-generated reports in Intelligent Operations are stored for a limited time and then deleted automatically.

Option C (Reports are automatically deleted after 24 hours) is correct:

Reportsdo not persist indefinitelyunless they arescheduled reports.

One-time reports expire after 24 hours.

Option A (Cluster Viewer deleted the report) is incorrect:

Cluster Viewerdoes not have permissions to delete reports.

Option B (Report was archived) is incorrect:

Nutanixdoes not automatically archive reports.

Option D (Report stored in Prism Element) is incorrect:

Reportsare generated and stored only in Prism Central, not Prism Element.

Snapshots that are part of an active recovery operation cannot be deleted until the process is completed or manually canceled.

Option A (Active recovery in progress) is correct:

Nutanix does not allow deletion of snapshots ifthey are being used in an ongoing recovery process.

The administrator shouldverify whether the snapshot is currently part of a Protection Domain or Disaster Recovery (DR) plan.

Option B (Ransomware encryption) is incorrect:

Nutanix snapshots are immutable by defaultandcannot be encrypted by external threats.

Option C (Approval policy denial) is incorrect:

Snapshot deletionsdo not require manual approval, unless controlled by an external workflow system.

Option D (Snapshot corruption) is incorrect:

Nutanixuses checksums to prevent corruption, so snapshots cannot besilently damaged.