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

Receive Side Scaling (RSS) VirtIO-Net Multi-Queue improves network performance by distributing network processing across multiple CPU cores.

Option C (Enable RSS VirtIO-Net Multi-Queue) is correct:

This settingreduces CPU bottlenecksby allowing multiple queues to handle network packets.

It isessential for high-throughput network applications.

Option A (Add more vCPUs) is incorrect:

CPU resources are important, butwithout enabling RSS, additional vCPUs will not optimize network traffic distribution.

Option B (Enable AHV Turbo Technology) is incorrect:

AHV Turbo improvesdisk I/O, notnetwork I/O.

Option D (Add more RAM) is incorrect:

RAM does not directly impact network performance.

References:

Nutanix AHV Best Practices Guide →Optimizing Network Performance with RSS Multi-Queue

Nutanix KB →Enabling Multi-Queue for High-Performance Applications

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.

References:

Nutanix Metro Availability Guide→How Witness Handles Failover Scenarios

Nutanix KB→I/O Freezing and Failover Behavior in Metro Clusters

Offset-based IP mapping in Nutanix Recovery Plans allows automatic subnet changes during DR failover.

Option D (Utilize Recovery Plan Offset-based IP mapping) is correct:

This methodautomatically adjusts the IP rangewhile keeping the same last octet.

It eliminates the need formanual interventionafter failover.

Option A (Custom script) is incorrect:

Scripting is an option, butRecovery Plan IP mapping is simpler and native to Nutanix.

Option B (Use IPAM) is incorrect:

IP Address Management (IPAM) is useful, butoffset-based mapping provides more control.

Option C (Manually update IPs) is incorrect:

This would betime-consuming and error-prone.

References:

Nutanix Disaster Recovery Guide →Using Offset-Based IP Mapping

Nutanix KB →Best Practices for Managing IP Addresses in DR

Understanding the Exhibit & the Alert

The alert states:

"The cluster is using password-based SSH access for the CVM."

"Password-based remote login is enabled on the cluster."

"It is recommended to use key-based SSH access instead of password-based SSH access for better security."

This means that the nutanix user can log in to Controller VMs (CVMs) using a password, which is a security risk.

Corrective Action: Enabling Cluster Lockdown

✅(C) Enable Cluster Lockdown. (Correct Answer)

Cluster Lockdown Mode restricts password-based SSH access and forces key-based authentication.

This prevents users from logging into CVMs using passwords, enhancing cluster security.

To enable Cluster Lockdown:

Go to Prism Central or Prism Element.

Navigate to Settings → Security → Cluster Lockdown.

Enable Cluster Lockdown Mode.

Evaluating the Other Answer Choices

❌(A) Rename the nutanix user. (Incorrect)

The nutanix user is a built-in system account required for cluster operations.

Renaming the user will not prevent SSH access via password.

❌(B) Block port 22 on the CVM firewall. (Incorrect)

Blocking port 22 (SSH) will completely disable SSH access, including key-based authentication.

This may break cluster management and troubleshooting operations.

❌(D) Delete the nutanix user. (Incorrect)

The nutanix user is a critical system account required for cluster functionality.

Deleting the account will cause serious issues with cluster management.

Multicloud Infrastructure References & Best Practices

Nutanix Security Best Practices:

Always use key-based SSH authentication instead of password-based logins.

Enable Cluster Lockdown Mode to enforce security policies.

Regularly audit user access to ensure security compliance.

Cluster Lockdown Benefits:

Prevents unauthorized SSH access via passwords.

Enforces public key authentication, reducing brute-force attack risks.

Strengthens CVM security against potential exploits.

References:

Nutanix Security Guide →Enabling Cluster Lockdown for SSH Security

Nutanix KB →Securing SSH Access on Nutanix Clusters

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.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Guide →Intelligent Operations & Report Retention Policies

Nutanix KB →Why Reports in Prism Central Are Not Persisting

Understanding the Issue

The administrator is investigating VM performance complaints and is analyzing CPU Ready Time data.

CPU Ready Time is a crucial metric in Nutanix and virtualization environments (AHV, ESXi, or Hyper-V).

It measures the amount of time a VM is waiting for CPU scheduling due to resource contention.

High CPU Ready Time indicates that VMs are ready to run but are waiting because the host lacks available CPU resources.

Analysis of the Exhibit

The graph shows CPU Ready Time spikes for multiple VMs.

Some VMs have CPU Ready Time exceeding 18% to 21.5%, which is very high.

A healthy CPU Ready Time should be below 5%.

Values above 10% indicate CPU contention, and anything above 20% is critical and requires immediate troubleshooting.

Evaluating the Answer Choices

❌(A) Check the number of vCPUs assigned to each CVM. (Incorrect)

CVMs (Controller VMs) have fixed CPU allocation, and modifying their vCPU count is not recommended unless advised by Nutanix Support.

The issue is related to VM CPU contention, not CVM configuration.

✅(B) Review host CPU utilization. (Correct Answer)

High CPU Ready Time suggests CPU overcommitment or host saturation.

The administrator should check host CPU usage in Prism Central to determine if the cluster is overloaded.

If host CPU usage is consistently above 85–90%, VMs are competing for CPU resources, leading to high CPU Ready Time.

❌(C) Assess cluster SSD capacity. (Incorrect)

SSD capacity impacts storage performance (latency, read/write speeds) but does not affect CPU Ready Time.

High CPU Ready Time is a CPU scheduling issue, not a storage bottleneck.

❌(D) Enable VM memory oversubscription. (Incorrect)

Memory oversubscription does not impact CPU scheduling.

Enabling memory oversubscription affects RAM allocation, but CPU Ready Time is strictly related to CPU contention.

Next Steps to Diagnose & Resolve the Issue

Review Host CPU Utilization:

Navigate to Prism Central → Analysis → CPU Usage per Host.

Identify hosts experiencing high CPU load.

Check VM vCPU Allocation:

Ensure that VMs do not have excessive vCPUs assigned, which can lead to scheduling inefficiencies.

Overprovisioning vCPUs can cause unnecessary contention.

Balance Workload Across Hosts:

Use Nutanix AHV DRS (Dynamic Scheduling) or VMware DRS to redistribute VMs across hosts.

Check if certain hosts are overloaded while others have spare CPU capacity.

Consider Scaling Out the Cluster:

If CPU usage is consistently high, adding more nodes may be required to reduce CPU contention.

Multicloud Infrastructure References & Best Practices

CPU Ready Time Best Practices:

Keep CPU Ready Time below 5%.

Avoid overcommitting vCPUs on heavily loaded hosts.

Monitor Prism Central Runway Metrics to predict future CPU resource needs.

Nutanix AHV CPU Scheduling Optimization:

Ensure proper VM sizing (avoid excessive vCPU allocation).

Balance workloads using Nutanix AHV DRS.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central: Performance Analysis and CPU Metrics

Nutanix Bible: VM Performance and Resource Management

Nutanix KB: Troubleshooting High CPU Ready Time in AHV

When diagnosing CPU performance issues, CPU Ready Time and CPU Usage are the key indicators of whether more vCPUs are needed.

Option A (VM CPU Ready Time) is correct:

High CPU Ready Time means the VM is waiting for CPU resources, indicatingCPU contention.

Option B (VM CPU Usage) is correct:

If CPU usage isconsistently high, adding more vCPUsmay improve performance.

Option C (Host CPU Usage) is incorrect:

Host-wide CPU usage does not indicate whether a specific VM needs more vCPUs.

Option D (Host Memory Swap Out Rate) is incorrect:

Memory swappingaffects RAM performance, not CPU allocation.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Guide→Analyzing VM CPU Performance

Nutanix KB→Understanding CPU Ready Time and VM Performance

After a Prism Central upgrade, IAM authentication settings may require reconfiguration.

Option D (Log in with a local admin account) is correct:

If IAM authentication fails, thelocal admin account must be usedto check domain settings.

Option A (Ping the Domain Controller) is incorrect:

Network connectivity is important, but theissue is likely related to IAM settings, not network reachability.

Option B (Check firewall port 9441) is incorrect:

Port 9441 is used forSSO authentication, butport issues usually result in login delays, not complete failures.

Option C (Validate signing certificate) is incorrect:

While certificates can cause issues,local admin login should always work.

References:

Nutanix KB →Troubleshooting IAM Login Issues After a Prism Central Upgrade

Nutanix Documentation →Managing User Authentication and IAM Integration

For Disaster Recovery to function correctly, the source and destination storage containersmust have identical names.

Option C (Storage container name mismatch) is correct:

If thestorage container name at the DR site does not match, Nutanix cannot mapsnapshots and replication data.

This causesfailover operations to fail, even though data exists.

Option A (NGT not installed) is incorrect:

NGT is needed for application-consistent snapshots, butnot required for crash-consistent snapshots.

Option B (Windows updates) is incorrect:

OS updates do not affect replication availability.

Option D (Storage RF factor mismatch) is incorrect:

Replication works across different RF factors, but performance may vary.

References:

Nutanix Disaster Recovery Guide→Requirements for Remote Replication

Nutanix KB→Storage Container Mapping for Protection Domains

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.

References:

Nutanix Security Guide →Implementing Cluster Lockdown

Nutanix KB →Best Practices for SSH Security on CVMs

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.

Nutanix uses IPv4 multicast for automatic node discovery and cluster expansion.

Option D (IPv4 multicast must be allowed) is correct:

When adding new nodes,the Nutanix Cluster automatically detects themusingIPv4 multicast traffic.

If multicast isblocked at the switch level, the new nodeswill not be discoveredautomatically.

Option A (Hypervisor version must match) is incorrect:

While thehypervisor version should be compatible, itdoes not impact node discovery.

Option B (IPv6 multicast) is incorrect:

Nutanixdoes not use IPv6 multicast for cluster discovery.

Option C (AOS version must match) is incorrect:

Nodes can haveslightly different AOS versions, butdiscovery still works as long as they are compatible.

References:

Nutanix Best Practices →Cluster Expansion & Auto-Discovery

Nutanix KB →Why Nutanix Requires IPv4 Multicast for Node Discovery

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.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central →Projects and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Nutanix Bible →Multi-Tenancy and Project-Based Access Control

Nutanix KB →Setting Up Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for Prism Central

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.

References:

Nutanix Storage Management Guide→Understanding Storage Container Settings

Nutanix KB→Advertised vs. Reserved Capacity in Storage Containers

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.

References:

Nutanix LCM Guide→Using Compatibility Bundles in Dark Sites

Nutanix KB→Troubleshooting Firmware Updates in Dark Site Deployments

Nutanix Prism Central requires at least 21 days of usage data to generate accurate Capacity Runway projections.

Option B (21 days) is correct:

Until 21 days of data is collected, no runway analysis is available.

Option A (30 days) is incorrect:

30 daysis recommended for long-term accuracy, butnot required for initial projections.

Option C (3 months) and Option D (6 months) are incorrect:

Extended data collection helps trend accuracy, but runway calculationsbegin after 21 days.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Guide →Understanding Capacity Runway Calculations

Nutanix KB →Why No Capacity Runway Data is Displayed for New Clusters

RF3 (Replication Factor 3) clusters require sufficient reserved capacity to tolerate failures without data loss.

Option C (Set Reserve Capacity for Failure to Auto Detect) is correct:

Auto Detect dynamically calculates the necessary reserved spacebased on cluster size and RF settings.

It ensures thatenough storage remains available in case of a node failure.

Option A (Set Reserve Storage Capacity to 20%) is incorrect:

The required storage reservationdepends on the number of nodes and RF level, not a fixed percentage.

Option B (Set Reserve Capacity for Failure to None) is incorrect:

Without reserved capacity,a node failure could lead to data unavailability.

Option D (Set Reserve Memory Capacity to 20%) is incorrect:

This setting applies toRAM, notstorage resiliency.

References:

Nutanix Bible →Understanding Replication Factor (RF) and Failure Planning

Nutanix Prism Element Guide →Configuring Reserve Capacity for Cluster Resiliency

Nutanix KB →How to Plan Capacity for RF3 Clusters

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.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Guide→Entity vs. Metric Charts for Performance Analysis

Nutanix KB→Creating Custom Charts in Prism Central

Guest customization options allow administrators to automate OS configuration during VM deployment from a template.

Option A (Sysprep, Cloud-init, Custom Script, Guided Script) is correct:

Sysprep(for Windows) andCloud-init(for Linux) enablecustom OS configurations.

Custom Scriptscan be used foradvanced automation.

Options B and C are incorrect:

Bash, Powershell, Python, and YAMLcan be used in automation, but theyare notguest customization options in VM templates.

Option D is incorrect:

Guest customization is fully supportedin Nutanix templates.

References:

Nutanix VM Deployment Guide→Using Cloud-Init and Sysprep for Guest Customization

Nutanix KB→Automating VM Deployments with Guest Customization