NCA-6.10 Nutanix Certified Associate NCA v6.10 Question and Answers

The correct answer isB. Disabled.

When creating a new storage container in Prism Element or Prism Central,compression is disabled by default. The administrator mustexplicitly enableone of the available compression options:

Inline Compression

Post-process Compression

If no compression type is selected, the container remains uncompressed.

UI Navigation Path:

Storage > Storage Containers > Create Container > Compression Settings

Clarifications:

A (60 mins)andC (15 mins): Not standard default post-process intervals.

D (Inline): Must be manually selected.

Official Reference:

Nutanix Storage Administration Guide – Creating and Configuring Containers

Excerpt: “Compression is disabled by default during container creation. Admins must select inline or post-process if desired.”

Answer: B

Nutanix Support case priority levels are defined as follows:

P1 (Critical):The system is down or severely impacted, requiring immediate attention.

P2 (High):The system is available but experiencing issues that directly impact productivity or operations.

P3 (Medium):The system is functioning, but there are non-critical issues or questions.

P4 (Low):General questions or requests that do not impact system performance.

The scenario described matchesP2, where the system is available but productivity is directly affected by the issue.

Deduplication is most effective withfull clone VMsbecause it reduces redundant data blocks stored on the cluster. Full clone VMs often contain identical OS and application files, making them ideal candidates for deduplication, which optimizes storage usage and improves efficiency.

Other options:

Server workloads: May benefit from deduplication but not as significantly as full clone VMs.

Linked Clone VMs: Already share base disk images, so deduplication offers limited benefits.

Cold data: Deduplication is less effective for data that isn’t accessed frequently.

The correct answer isD. Every 24 hours.

In NutanixLife Cycle Manager (LCM), when theLCM Auto Inventoryfeature is enabled, the system performsautomatic inventory scansof the cluster's hardware and software components. By default, thisauto-inventory runs every 24 hoursto keep track of firmware, software versions, and available updates.

Clarifications:

The frequency isnot user-configurablefrom the Prism UI.

It ensuresaccurate detection of upgrade eligibilityand component compliance.

The admin can alsorun an inventory manuallyat any time.

Prism UI Navigation Path:

Settings > LCM > Auto Inventory(toggle enabled)

Official Reference:

Nutanix LCM Guide – Auto Inventory Section

Excerpt: “When Auto Inventory is enabled, LCM automatically performs inventory every 24 hours.”

Answer: D

The correct answer isB. Internal NTP sources.

Nutanix strongly recommends configuringreliable internal NTP sources(e.g., enterprise-managed NTP servers or domain NTP servers) to ensure:

Time consistency across all nodes and CVMs

Accurate logging, monitoring, authentication (e.g., Kerberos), and cluster operations

Avoiding dependency onexternal/public NTPsources, which may berate-limited, unavailable, or blockedby firewalls

Clarifications:

A (Windows time sources):Generally discouraged unless they are configured to use a stratum 1/2 reliable upstream source.

C (Rate-limited sources):Not recommended; can result in dropped or inconsistent time updates.

D (External ISP NTP):Not preferred for production clusters due to reliability concerns.

Prism UI Navigation Path:

Settings > NTP Servers

Official Reference:

Nutanix Best Practices Guide – NTP Configuration

Excerpt: “Use reliable and consistent internal NTP servers for all Nutanix clusters to maintain time synchronization.”

Answer: B

Life Cycle Management (LCM) in Nutanix is a feature designed tosimplify software and firmware upgradesacross the entire cluster. LCM automates and orchestrates upgrades for components like BIOS, hypervisors, firmware, and Nutanix software, ensuring that the cluster remains up-to-date with minimal manual intervention.

A. To optimize server performance:Incorrect, as LCM focuses on updates, not performance optimization.

B. To manage network configurations:Incorrect, as LCM is unrelated to network configuration management.

C. To simplify software and firmware upgrades:Correct, as LCM is specifically designed for this purpose.

D. To automate application deployment:Incorrect, as LCM does not handle application deployment.

In a cluster configured with Redundancy Factor 3 (RF3), the system ensures that data is replicated across at least three nodes to tolerate the failure of two nodes. During an AHV upgrade, Nutanix only placesone node at a timeinto maintenance mode, even in an RF3 configuration, to minimize the impact on data redundancy and cluster operations.

A. 1:Correct, as AHV upgrades proceed node by node in RF3.

B. 2, C. 3, D. 4:These options are incorrect, as only one node is upgraded at a time regardless of RF3.

Fordark site clusters, theNutanix Compatibility Bundlemust be downloaded prior to running LCM Inventory or updates. This bundle contains the necessary metadata and software binaries to perform inventory collection and upgrades in environments without internet connectivity.

A. Nutanix Foundation:Incorrect, as Foundation is used for initial deployments, not for LCM updates.

B. Nutanix Compatibility Bundle:Correct, as it contains the necessary files for offline LCM operations.

C. Nutanix Prism Central:Incorrect, as this does not pertain to offline updates.

D. Nutanix Foundation Platform:Incorrect, as this is not required for LCM Inventory or updates.

To rerun only the health checks that previously failed or issued warnings, the administrator can select theOnly Failed and Warning Checksoption in Prism Element. This targeted approach helps verify that resolved issues have been addressed without rerunning all checks unnecessarily.

Steps:

Navigate toPrism Element > Health > NCC Checks.

Filter forOnly Failed and Warning Checksand rerun them.

Other options:

A. Run LCM Pre-Upgrade: Runs pre-upgrade checks, not related to health check validation.

B. Runncc health_checks run_all: Executes all checks, not just failed ones.

C. Select Run Check for each check worked: Requires manual execution for each check.

Non-migratable VMs in a Nutanix cluster typically include those with attached Volume Groups. This is because such VMs leverage direct-attached storage via iSCSI, which ties them to a specific host, preventing live migration to another host. Volume Groups provide block storage to applications, and the iSCSI protocol does not support live migration of such connections.

Here's a breakdown of the options:

A. VMs without NGT:Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) are used for guest-level integration but do not affect VM migratability.

B. VMs marked as an Agent:This setting does not inherently make VMs non-migratable. It primarily affects roles and tasks within certain configurations.

C. Memory Overcommitted:While memory overcommitment can affect performance, it does not make VMs non-migratable. Nutanix AHV handles memory allocation dynamically.

D. VMs with attached Volume Groups:Correct answer, as the iSCSI connections used by Volume Groups are host-specific and cannot migrate seamlessly.

The feature that ensures VMs automatically power on in a specific order at the DR site during a disaster is aRecovery Plan. Recovery Plans are part of Nutanix’s DR functionality and allow administrators to define startup sequences, dependencies, and priorities for VMs during failover scenarios.

Steps:

Create a Recovery Plan in Prism Central under the DR section.

Configure the VM power-on sequence and dependency rules.

Test the Recovery Plan to ensure it operates as intended.

To run a full health check in Prism Element, the administrator should first select theActionsmenu. From there, the administrator can choose to execute health checks for the entire cluster or specific components. This ensures a comprehensive evaluation of the cluster’s health.

Other options:

Scheduled: Refers to predefined or automated health checks.

Checks: Displays the list of checks but doesn’t initiate them.

Failed: Filters checks based on their status but doesn’t start a new check.

TheRecycle Binin Nutanix clusters temporarily stores deleted VMs for 24 hours, allowing administrators to recover them if needed. This feature helps protect against accidental deletions by providing a grace period for recovery before permanent deletion occurs.

A. Stores the OpLog's most recent deleted data in case of a CVM failure:Incorrect, as the OpLog pertains to write operations, not VM deletion.

B. Keeps deleted VMs for 24 hours for recovery:Correct, as the Recycle Bin's purpose is temporary VM recovery.

C. Allows administrators to undo the last five actions:Incorrect, as there is no such feature for undoing multiple actions in Prism.

D. Centralizes the deleted data from the different VMs in the cluster:Incorrect, as the Recycle Bin is specifically for deleted VMs, not generalized data centralization.

To create a VM-VM Anti-Affinity Policy ensuring VMs are not placed on the same hypervisor,Prism Centralis required. Anti-affinity policies are cluster-wide configurations managed through Prism Central’s policy-based interface, enabling placement rules to distribute workloads effectively.

Steps:

Navigate toPrism Central > Policies.

Create a new Anti-Affinity Policy.

Select the VMs and configure the policy to ensure separation.

Redundancy Factor 3 (RF3) requires a minimum of five nodes in the cluster to ensure that data can be distributed across enough nodes to tolerate the failure of two nodes. If the cluster has fewer than five nodes, RF3 cannot be enabled.

A. Check that the cluster has been properly licensed:Licensing is not directly related to enabling RF3.

B. Check that the cluster has five or more nodes:Correct, as RF3 requires at least five nodes.

C. Check hardware availability of the nodes:While hardware health is important, it does not determine RF3 eligibility.

D. Check AOS version and upgrade, if needed:RF3 requirements are not specific to an AOS version.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)enables extending on-premises datacenters into public cloud environments, such as AWS or Azure. This solution allows administrators to seamlessly migrate workloads, scale operations, and manage resources across hybrid cloud environments using a unified control plane.

A. Nutanix Cloud Security:Incorrect, as this focuses on securing workloads in the cloud, not extending datacenters.

B. Nutanix Cloud Clusters:Correct, as NC2 enables hybrid cloud functionality by extending on-prem clusters into the public cloud.

C. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine:Incorrect, as this is used for container orchestration, not hybrid cloud extension.

D. Nutanix Data Services:Incorrect, as this refers to storage and data management capabilities.

The correct answer isB. UTC.

When creating Linux VMs in a Nutanix environment (or in any enterprise-grade production environment), it isbest practice to use UTC(Coordinated Universal Time) as the system timezone. This ensures:

Consistencyacross distributed systems

Accurate log correlation

Avoidance of issues with daylight saving time (DST)

Simplifiedcentralized monitoring and troubleshooting

Clarifications:

A (Eastern)andD (Central)are region-specific and may introduce time skew across systems.

C (Local)is ambiguous and depends on the underlying hardware or hypervisor setting, which can lead to inconsistent behavior.

Official Reference:

Linux Admin Best Practices

Nutanix Best Practices Guide – VM Provisioning Section

Excerpt: “For consistency across environments, it is recommended to configure all Linux virtual machines to use UTC timezone, particularly in clustered and distributed applications.”

APriority 1 (P1)case guarantees an8-hour response timefor customers with Production Support. P1 cases are designated for critical issues that severely impact business operations or cause a complete system outage, requiring immediate attention from Nutanix Support.

Other priorities:

P2: High-impact issues but not critical, response time varies.

P3: Medium impact, typically non-urgent issues.

P4: Low priority, general inquiries or minor issues.

Nutanix AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) supports integrated IP address management (IPAM) as a built-in feature. IPAM allows administrators to dynamically allocate and manage IP addresses for VMs within a network segment. This functionality simplifies network management by automating the assignment of IPs without relying on external DHCP servers.

A. ESXi:Incorrect, as ESXi does not include built-in IPAM.

B. Hyper-V:Incorrect, as Hyper-V lacks integrated IPAM functionality.

C. AHV:Correct, as AHV has built-in IPAM for automated IP address allocation.

D. XenServer:Incorrect, as XenServer does not support integrated IPAM.