NCP-MCI-6.5 Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) v6.5 exam Questions and Answers

VirtIO drivers are device drivers that are specifically designed for virtualized environments. They allow the guest operating system to communicate directly with the underlying hardware, bypassing the emulation layer. This improves the performance and efficiency of the virtual machines. VirtIO drivers are supported by various hypervisors, including Nutanix AHV1.

Nutanix AHV uses SCSI disks for VMs by default. However, Windows does not have native support for SCSI disks and requires VirtIO drivers to recognize them. Therefore, if an administrator is installing Windows 2019 on a new VM on an AHV cluster, they need to install the VirtIO drivers before selecting the destination disk for the installation. Otherwise, they will not see any drives listed for the install2.

To install the VirtIO drivers during Windows installation, the administrator can use one of the following methods3:

• Use a VirtIO ISO image that contains the driver files. The administrator can download the VirtIO ISO image from the Nutanix support portal and upload it to the AHV image service. Then, they can attach the VirtIO ISO image to the VM as a CD-ROM device and load the driver from it during Windows installation.
• Use a Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) ISO image that contains the driver files and other tools. The administrator can download the NGT ISO image from Prism Element or Prism Central and attach it to the VM as a CD-ROM device. Then, they can load the driver from it during Windows installation.
• Use a floppy disk image that contains only the driver files. The administrator can create a floppy disk image using tools such as WinImage or WinRAR and upload it to the AHV image service. Then, they can attach the floppy disk image to the VM as a floppy device and load the driver from it during Windows installation.

According to the image description, the exhibit shows a screenshot of a computer screen with a table of data. The table has 6 columns and 4 rows. The columns are labeled “Date”, “Time”, “Status”, “Details”, “Configuration”, and “Duration”. The rows contain information about different configurations and their statuses. The background is a light blue color. There is a pop-up message on the bottom right corner of the screen that reads “This question has been answered. Click here to enable the edit button.”

Based on the table data, it seems that the screenshot is taken from the Prism Central web console, showing the results of a cluster health check report. The report shows that there are four failed checks: Host Password Policy, CVM Password Policy, NTP Configuration, and Cluster Time Skew2. These checks indicate that some initial cluster configuration tasks were missed during the deployment process.

The Host Password Policy check verifies that the host passwords are not set to default values and are compliant with the password policy defined in Prism Central3. The CVM Password Policy check verifies that the CVM passwords are not set to default values and are compliant with the password policy defined in Prism Central4. These checks are important for ensuring the security and compliance of the cluster. Therefore, changing the host and CVM passwords from their default values and following the password policy guidelines are two initial cluster configuration tasks that were missed.

References: 1: VM Details View - Nutanix Support & Insights 2: Cluster Health - Nutanix Support & Insights 3: Host Password Policy - Nutanix Support & Insights 4: CVM Password Policy - Nutanix Support & Insights

According to the CPU (%) - VMware Docs web search result2, one of the possible causes of high CPU ready % is over-provisioning vCPUs for a VM or having too many VMs on a host. CPU ready % indicates the percentage of time that the VM was ready, but could not get scheduled to run on the physical CPU. High CPU ready % can lead to VM performance problems, such as slow response time or application latency. To improve VM performance, the administrator should reduce the number of vCPUs assigned to VMs or reduce the number of VMs on the hosts, so that there is less contention for CPU resources.

According to the web search results, the most efficient action an administrator should take to ensure a supported state when adding a node with a higher AOS release to an existing cluster is to perform a standalone reimage of the new node and then add it to the cluster1. This way, the new node will have the same AOS version as the existing nodes, and there will be no compatibility issues or downtime. Therefore, option C is correct, while options A, B, and D are not.

Nutanix provides two types of granular RBAC for AHV hosts: category based and cluster based3. Category based RBAC allows administrators to assign roles to users or groups based on categories, which are key-value pairs that can be applied to various entities in Prism Central, such as clusters, hosts, VMs, images, and networks. Categories can be used to group entities by different criteria, such as department, project, environment, or location. For example, an administrator can create a category key named Department and assign different values to it, such as Finance, Marketing, or Engineering. Then, the administrator can apply this category to different clusters or hosts and assign roles to users or groups based on this category. This way, users or groups can have different levels of access to different clusters or hosts depending on their department4.

Cluster based RBAC allows administrators to assign roles to users or groups based on specific clusters registered in Prism Central. For example, an administrator can create a role named Cluster Admin and assign it to a user or group for a particular cluster. This way, the user or group can have full access to that cluster and its hosts and VMs, but not to other clusters5.

Automated live migration is a feature of Nutanix that allows the cluster to automatically move VMs from one host to another without any downtime, in order to optimize the performance and availability of the cluster. According to the Nutanix documentation1, automated live migration can occur in the following scenarios:

• Cluster resource hotspot: When a host or a group of hosts experience high resource utilization, such as CPU, memory, or network, the cluster can automatically migrate some VMs to other hosts with lower utilization, in order to balance the load and avoid performance degradation.
• AOS upgrade: When upgrading the Nutanix software (AOS), the cluster can automatically migrate the VMs from the host that is being upgraded to another host in the same availability zone, in order to maintain the VM availability and minimize the impact of the upgrade process.
• AHV host maintenance mode: When putting an AHV host into maintenance mode, the cluster can automatically migrate all the VMs from that host to another host in the same availability zone, in order to prepare the host for maintenance operations such as hardware replacement or firmware update.

One of the possible reasons for a cluster to transition out of NearSync is insufficient network bandwidth between the source and target clusters. NearSync requires a minimum network bandwidth of 10 Mbps per VM for replication3. If the network bandwidth is lower than the required amount, the replication of recovery points may take longer than the configured RPO, resulting in an Out of NearSync condition. To address this issue, you can increase the network bandwidth between the clusters or reduce the number of VMs protected by NearSync4.

References: 1: Stargate - Nutanix Bible 2: Nutanix Cluster Architecture Overview - Nutanix Bible 3: NearSync Disaster Recovery (RPO <= 15 minutes) - Nutanix Support & Insights 4: Transitioning in and out of NearSync - Nutanix Support & Insights

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.

According to the Nutanix Community1, users can authenticate using their Active Directory credentials when Active Directory support is enabled for Prism Central. To enable Active Directory support, you need to configure Role Mapping12, which defines how Active Directory groups map to Prism Central roles.

https://next.nutanix.com/ncm-intelligent-operations-formerly-prism-pro-ultimate-26/configuring-authentication-38051

 When a node with Erasure Coding fails, the cluster will automatically rebuild the missing data using replication factor (RF) 2 or 3, depending on the cluster configuration. This means that the data that was previously stored using Erasure Coding will now be stored using full copies, which may increase the amount of data stored in the SSD tier1.

According to the Troubleshoot high memory issues on Azure virtual machines web search result2, one of the common factors in a low memory situation is over-provisioning memory for a VM. Over-provisioning memory can cause memory pressure, which leads to swapping and degraded performance. Therefore, to fix this issue, the administrator should reduce the amount of memory assigned to the VM, based on the average hardware requirements for that operating system and application load.

https://next.nutanix.com/blog-40/net work-load-balancing-with-acropolis-hypervisor-6463

The node is automatically re-imaged using the software currently running in the cluster. This is because Nutanix supports a feature called Auto Re-Image that allows adding nodes with different AOS versions to an existing cluster without manual intervention. The Auto Re-Image feature detects the AOS version mismatch and automatically downloads and installs the same AOS version as the cluster on the new node. This ensures that the cluster remains in a consistent state and avoids any compatibility issues.

According to the web search results, two steps that should be taken to prepare for relocating an AHV cluster to a new datacenter during a maintenance window are:

• Shut down all user VMs in the cluster: This step is necessary to ensure that there is no data loss or corruption during the relocation process. The user VMs can be shut down either individually or in bulk by using the Prism Element web console or the acli command-line interface1.
• Stop all Nutanix Files clusters: If the AHV cluster hosts any Nutanix Files clusters, they should be stopped before relocating the cluster. Nutanix Files clusters are composed of one or more virtual machines that provide file services to clients. Stopping a Nutanix Files cluster will stop all the file server VMs and release the resources they consume2. The Nutanix Files clusters can be stopped by using the Prism Element web console or the ncli command-line interface3.

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.

The best method to provide access for a user to view real-time performance metrics for all VMs on all clusters across the datacenter is to configure AD authentication create a custom role, assign the user to the role, and apply the role to all clusters and VMs. This method accomplishes this with the least effort and ongoing maintenance because:

• AD authentication allows Nutanix Prism Central to integrate with an existing Active Directory (AD) domain and use AD users and groups for authentication and authorization5. This simplifies user management and avoids creating local users on Prism Central.
• Creating a custom role allows Nutanix Prism Central to define granular permissions for different actions and entities based on specific needs6. This ensures that users only have access to what they need and nothing more.
• Assigning the user to the custom role allows Nutanix Prism Central to grant access rights for that user based on the role definition7. This avoids assigning permissions individually for each user.
• Applying the role to all clusters and VMs allows Nutanix Prism Central to propagate the access rights for that role across all entities in scope8. This ensures that users can view real-time performance metrics for all VMs on all clusters without having to configure each entity separately.

References: 1: Health Dashboard - Prism Element Guide 2: Understanding Native VLANs - Cisco 3: VMs may lose network connectivity if connected to virtual network with … - Nutanix Support & Insights 4: VLAN Configuration - AHV Networking Guide 5: Active Directory Authentication - Prism Central Guide 6: Create Custom Roles - Prism Central Guide 7: Assign Roles - Prism Central Guide 8: Apply Roles - Prism Central Guide

According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result1, the administrator can change the frequency of checks and alerts for the System Non-Root Partition Usage in Prism Element by going to the Health Dashboard > Manage Checks > Schedule. The administrator can select the check name, such as disk_usage_check, and click on Edit Schedule. The administrator can then choose the desired frequency, such as every 15 minutes, every hour, or every day, and click on Save. This will change how often the check runs and alerts are generated.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details/?targetId=Web_Console_Guide-Prism_v4_7:lic_licensing_managing_c.html

Reclaiming Licenses (Including License Renewal)

You can reclaim and optionally re-apply licenses for nodes in your clusters:

• You must reclaim licenses when you plan to destroy a cluster. First reclaim the licenses, then destroy the cluster. You do not need to reclaim Starter licenses. These licenses are automatically applied whenever you create a cluster, including after you have destroyed a cluster.
• Return licenses to your inventory when you remove one or more nodes from a cluster. Also, if you move nodes from one cluster to another, first reclaim the licenses, move the nodes, then re-apply the licenses.
• You can reclaim licenses for nodes in your clusters in cases where you want to make modifications or downgrade licenses. For example, applying an Ultimate license to all nodes in a cluster where some nodes are currently licensed as Pro and some nodes are licensed as Ultimate. You might also want to transition nodes from Ultimate to Pro licensing.
• You must reclaim licenses when you renew licenses. First reclaim the expired licenses, then apply new licenses.

According to the Nutanix Prism Central Guide, you can click on any chart in a widget to expand it and view more details about the data elements.

LCM (Life Cycle Manager) is a feature that allows Nutanix administrators to perform one-click firmware and software upgrades for Nutanix clusters and components. LCM fetches inventory and update information from a pre-configured URL that contains the latest versions of firmware and software packages. However, upgrading Nutanix AOS does not automatically update the fetch URL. To update the fetch URL, the administrator needs to update the LCM framework. The LCM framework is the core component of LCM that provides the logic and functionality for inventory, download, and upgrade operations1.

To upgrade the LCM framework, the administrator needs to perform an LCM inventory. An LCM inventory is a process that scans the cluster and its components for their current firmware and software versions and compares them with the available versions from the fetch URL. If there is a newer version of the LCM framework available, it will be shown as an update option under Cluster Software Component in the Available Updates page. The administrator can then select and apply the LCM framework update to upgrade it to the latest version2.

The administrator can perform an LCM inventory using Prism Element or Prism Central. The steps are as follows3:

• In Prism Element, go to the Network Configuration page and click Life Cycle Management.
• In Prism Central, go to the Services page and click Life Cycle Management.
• Click Inventory in the toolbar and select Perform Inventory from the drop-down menu.
• Wait for the inventory process to complete and check for any available updates.

The best way for the administrator to configure Prism to send encrypted messages to a set of recipients is to set the SMTP Security Mode to STARTTLS. This will ensure that all messages sent over SMTP are encrypted and secure. Additionally, the administrator should consider installing SSL certificates on Prism Central to ensure that the messages are being sent securely. Finally, the administrator should consider configuring Prism Central to use Cluster Lockdown, which will help ensure that the messages are only sent to the intended recipients.

This will allow the administrator to quickly identify VMs that are overprovisioned or underutilized based on their performance metrics.

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-multicloud-infrastructure-6_5

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.

data size for flash mode exceeds 25% of the SSD capacity could cause the performance issues. Flash mode is a feature that allows vDisks to be pinned to SSDs for faster access, but it has a limit of 25% of the SSD capacity per node. If this limit is exceeded, some vDisks may be evicted from flash mode and cause disk latency2.

The critical alerts listed are indicating that the default passwords are still in use for IPMI, the host, and the Controller Virtual Machine (CVM). This suggests that the passwords for these components were not changed from the default during the initial cluster configuration and deployment process, which is a critical security practice.

A. CVM password changes: The alert for the CVM using the default password indicates that the CVM password has not been changed. It is a standard security measure to change default passwords to prevent unauthorized access.

C. Host password changes: Similarly, the alert for the host using the default password indicates that the default password for the host has not been updated. This applies to the passwords used to access the hypervisor host directly.

Changing default passwords is a critical step in securing the Nutanix environment. This is highlighted in Nutanix's best practices and security guidelines, which recommend changing default passwords as part of the initial configuration to ensure that the environment is not left vulnerable to unauthorized access due to known default credentials. This process is typically part of the initial setup procedures outlined in the Nutanix documentation for cluster deployment and security configuration.

The IPMI alert also points to the need for changing default passwords, but since IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is not specifically mentioned in the provided options, it falls under the broader category of host-level password changes, which would be covered by option C.

BIOS password changes (Option B) and Password policy changes (Option D) are also important but were not directly flagged by the alerts mentioned. BIOS password changes are usually a separate task and not indicated by the alerts given, while password policy changes are related to the policies governing password complexity and rotation rather than the initial password setup.

NTP service needs to be configured to ensure logs, alerts and information is consistent across clusters that are located in different countries. NTP stands for Network Time Protocol and it is used to synchronize the clocks of all the nodes in a cluster1. This helps to maintain accurate timestamps for logs, alerts and other information that are generated by Nutanix clusters1.

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.

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.

Prism Element and NCC are two ways to run all NCC checks manually on a Nutanix cluster. Prism Element is the web console that provides management and monitoring capabilities for a single Nutanix cluster. Prism Element has a Health dashboard that shows the status of various components and services in the cluster, such as disks, nodes, CVMs, NCC, and alerts. The Health dashboard also allows the administrator to run NCC checks manually by using the Actions drop-down menu on the right side of the screen. The administrator can choose to run all NCC checks or specific checks based on the category or severity. The NCC checks will run in the background and generate a report that can be viewed or downloaded from the Summary tab. This method is easier and faster than running NCC from the command line on the CVM.

NCC stands for Nutanix Cluster Check, which is a framework of scripts that performs system checks and validations on Nutanix clusters. NCC can detect issues related to hardware, software, configuration, hypervisor, networking, and more. NCC can be run from the command line interface (CLI) of any CVM in the cluster by using the ncc command. To run all NCC checks manually, the administrator can use the command ncc health_checks run_all, which will execute all available checks and display the results on the screen. This method is more comprehensive and detailed than running NCC from Prism Element.

References: : [Health Dashboard - Prism Element Guide] : [Nutanix Cluster Check (NCC) - Nutanix Support & Insights] : [Running NCC Checks - Nutanix Support & Insights]

Nutanix Move is a tool that allows you to migrate VMs from different sources to Nutanix AHV with minimal downtime and complexity. Nutanix Move supports migration from Hyper-V to AHV, including VMs configured for UEFI-boot. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is a standard for the software interface between the operating system and the firmware. UEFI-boot is a mode of booting that uses UEFI instead of BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) to load the operating system. UEFI-boot offers some advantages over BIOS-boot, such as faster boot time, larger disk support, and better security features1.

To migrate a VM configured for UEFI-boot from a Nutanix Hyper-V cluster to AHV, you need to use Nutanix Move and follow these steps2:

• Download and deploy the Nutanix Move appliance on the AHV cluster.
• Log in to the Nutanix Move web console and add the source Hyper-V environment and the target AHV environment.
• Create a migration plan and select the VMs that you want to migrate. You can choose either automatic or manual preparation mode for the migration.
• Start the migration plan and monitor the progress. The migration plan will perform data seeding, which is the process of copying the VM data from the source to the target in the background.
• When the data seeding is complete, perform a cutover, which is the process of shutting down the source VMs and powering on the target VMs. The cutover will also configure the boot device for the UEFI-boot VMs on AHV.
• Verify that the migrated VMs are working as expected on AHV.

References: 1: UEFI Boot - Nutanix Support & Insights 2: Hyper-V to AHV and Hyper-V to Nutanix Clusters on AWS VM Migration - Nutanix Support & Insights

http://www.vstellar.com/2019/01/10/ahv-networking-part-1 -basics/#:~:text=AHV%20Network%20Architecture&text=virbr0%20is%20an%20internal%20switch,virbr0)%20have%20IP%20address%20192.168.

 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.

Prism is the central service control used by Nutanix to manage the clusters. It provides a unified view of the entire system, and it is used to control the HTML5 UI, the nCLI, and the REST API. Prism is used to manage the resources of the system, such as the nodes, storage, and networks, as well as to monitor the performance of the system and the applications running on it.

https://www.nutanixbible.com/2f-book-of-basics-cluster-components.html

PrismKey Role: UI and API

·  Prism is the management gateway for components and administrators to configure and monitor the Nutanix cluster.  This includes Ncli, the HTML5 UI, and REST API. 

·  Prism runs on every node in the cluster and uses an elected leader like all components in the cluster. All requests are forwarded to the leader using Linux Iptables. This allows access to PRISM using any CVM Ip address.

·  Prism communicates with Zeus for cluster configuration data and Cassandra for statistics to present to the user. It also communicates with the ESXi hosts for VM status and related information

These are only some of the essential services that make up the CVM functionality. For more information on all the services and various Nutanix Cluster components, refer to the portal documentation.

One of the NICs needs to be configured on the internal VLAN. This is because the VMs that are isolated need to communicate with the firewall VM through a private network, and the firewall VM needs to communicate with the external network through a public network. The internal VLAN is a logical network that can be created and managed by AHV1. If the firewall VM does not have a NIC on the internal VLAN, it will not be able to route traffic between the isolated VMs and the outside world.

According to section 6 of the exam blueprint guide1, one of the topics covered is VM placement options. When creating a new VM on an AHV cluster, there are two ways to determine its initial placement:

• Automatic placement: The Acropolis Dynamic Scheduler (ADS) selects a host that provides adequate resources for the VM’s configuration, such as CPU, memory, disk space, and network bandwidth. ADS also considers factors such as host load, power state, availability domains, and affinity rules.
• Manual placement: The administrator can specify a host or a host group where they want to place the VM.

One node hosts two VMs while the node being upgraded is in maintenance mode. This is because Nutanix supports a feature called Rolling Upgrade that allows upgrading AHV on a cluster without any downtime or impact to the VMs. The Rolling Upgrade feature performs the upgrade one node at a time, by putting the node in maintenance mode, evacuating the VMs to other nodes, upgrading AHV, and then bringing the node back online. The VM-VM anti-affinity policy ensures that the four VMs are not placed on the same node during the evacuation process, so one node will host two VMs temporarily while the other node is being upgraded.

According to the How to use the cvm_shutdown script web search result3, the cvm_shutdown script signals HA when shutting down the CVM (Controller VM) to forward the storage traffic to another healthy CVM. Instead of using sudo shutdown or sudo reboot commands, this script should be used to minimize I/O hits in user VMs running on the present hypervisor host. The cvm_shutdown -P now command will initiate the shutdown process on the CVM immediately. Therefore, if the administrator needs to perform an orderly shutdown of the CVM, they should execute this command from the CVM.

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

https://vmware mine.com/2019/02/08/nutanix-leap-runbooks-part-1/#sthash.VwrzSzhQ.dpbs