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

Shadow Clones is a Nutanix feature that provides effective caching optimization in VDI environments. VDI stands for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, which is a technology that allows users to access virtual desktops hosted on a centralized server. VDI environments typically have a high degree of similarity among desktop images, which means that many VMs access the same data blocks from the storage layer. Shadow Clones leverages this similarity by creating read-only copies of frequently accessed data blocks on each node’s SSD tier, reducing network traffic and improving performance. Shadow Clones works automatically and transparently without any configuration or intervention from the administrator.

References: : [Fault Tolerance - Nutanix Bible] : [Block Awareness - Nutanix Bible] : [Block Awareness - Nutanix Support & Insights] : [Shadow Clones - Nutanix Bible] : [Shadow Clones - Nutanix Support & Insights] : [Shadow Clones - Nutanix Community]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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