Pass the Nutanix Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) NCP-US-6.10 Questions and answers with CertsForce

When accessing Nutanix Files FSVMs (File Server VMs), Nutanix enforcespassword complexity policiesto meet common security standards. According to the NCP-US and NUSA materials, the defaultminimum requirementfor password complexity is:

“Passwords must be at least 8 characters long, supporting uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. However, the absolute minimum is an 8-character length.”

This ensures that even if the environment does not enforce uppercase/lowercase mixes or special character usage, theabsolute minimum lengthof8 charactersmust be met. This requirement ensures protection against basic dictionary attacks.

The other options (specific numbers of uppercase or lowercase letters, or a difference of 8 characters from previous passwords) arenot specifically requiredby Nutanix Files out-of-the-box.

To migrate physical SQL workloads from a legacy SAN platform where hosts boot from SAN to a Nutanix environment, the administrator can useNutanix Volumesto enable booting overiSCSI. Nutanix Volumes is a block storage solution that provides iSCSI-based storage, allowing external hosts (such as physical servers) to access Nutanix storage as block devices. This is ideal for replacing SAN-based boot volumes, as it supports the same iSCSI protocol used in traditional SAN environments.

According to theNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course, Nutanix Volumes enables external hosts to connect to Nutanix storage via iSCSI, which can be used for boot volumes or data volumes. The course emphasizes that “Nutanix Volumes supports iSCSI boot for physical servers, making it a suitable solution for migrating workloads from legacy SAN environments to Nutanix.” This allows the administrator to configure the physical SQL servers to boot from iSCSI targets provisioned on Nutanix Volumes, leveraging the Nutanix cluster’s storage resources.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further details that Nutanix Volumes can be configured to present iSCSI LUNs to physical hosts, which can be used for both operating system boot and application data storage. For the SQL workloads, the administrator can create iSCSI targets on Nutanix Volumes, configure the physical hosts’ iSCSI initiators to connect to these targets, and migrate the boot and data volumes from the legacy SAN to Nutanix.

The other options are not suitable for this task:

Boot using PXE protocol with Nutanix Files: Nutanix Files is a file storage solution that supports SMB and NFS protocols, not PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) booting. PXE is typically used for network-based OS installation, not for booting SQL workloads or replacing SAN-based boot volumes.

Boot using the NFS protocol with Nutanix Files: Nutanix Files supports NFS for file sharing, but NFS is not designed for booting physical servers. It is used for file-level access, not block-level access required for boot volumes.

Boot using Nutanix Object stores: Nutanix Objects is an object storage solution designed for S3-compatible APIs, not for block or file-based booting. It is unsuitable for hosting bootable volumes or SQL workloads.

The NUSA course documentation highlights that “Nutanix Volumes provides a seamless migration path for SAN-based workloads, including boot-from-SAN configurations, by leveraging iSCSI to present storage to physical hosts.” This makes it the only viable option for the described migration task.

To protect a Nutanix Files instance between two sites with a1-hour RPO (Recovery Point Objective),four recovery points, andcross-hypervisor capabilities, the administrator should useSmart DR. Smart DR is a disaster recovery feature for Nutanix Files that enables replication of file shares between primary and recovery sites, supporting automated failover and recovery with configurable RPOs and retention policies.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course explains that “Smart DR for Nutanix Files supports replication between sites with configurable RPOs as low as 1 hour, multiple recovery points, and cross-hypervisor compatibility, ensuring seamless failover and recovery.” Smart DR allows the administrator to set a replication schedule to meet the 1-hour RPO requirement, retain four recovery points by configuring the retention policy, and supports cross-hypervisor environments (e.g., AHV, ESXi, Hyper-V) since Nutanix Files operates at the file-share level, independent of the underlying hypervisor.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further states that “Smart DR provides disaster recovery for Nutanix Files with an RPO as low as 1 hour, the ability to retain multiple recovery points (e.g., four snapshots), and compatibility across hypervisors, making it ideal for multi-site file server protection.” The feature uses asynchronous replication to copy file share data to the recovery site, ensuring data consistency and availability.

The other options are incorrect:

Protection Policies: Protection Policies in Nutanix are used for backup and snapshot schedules, typically for VMs or volumes, but they are not specific to Nutanix Files and do not support cross-site replication with the specified RPO.

Smart Sync: Smart Sync is not a Nutanix feature; it may refer to third-party tools or unrelated functionalities and is not applicable here.

Protection Domain: Protection Domains are used for VM-level replication and disaster recovery in Nutanix, not for Nutanix Files, and they are hypervisor-specific, which may limit cross-hypervisor support.

The NUSA course documentation highlights that “Smart DR meets stringent RPO requirements, such as 1-hour intervals, and supports multiple recovery points while ensuring compatibility across hypervisors, making it the optimal solution for Nutanix Files disaster recovery.”

In Nutanix Unified Storage (specifically when using Volume Groups as iSCSI targets for VMs),IO performance scalingand redundancy acrossmultiple CVMsdepends on theiSCSI MPIO (Multi-Path I/O)feature configured within theguest OS.

According to the NUSA course:

“To leverage multiple CVMs for servicing IO requests to a volume group, MPIO must be configured in the guest operating system. MPIO allows the VM to establish multiple concurrent iSCSI sessions to the Nutanix cluster, balancing the load across available CVMs.”

Without MPIO, even if multiple CVMs host the VG target, the guest OS will typically establish asingle iSCSI sessionto one CVM at a time, limiting scalability and redundancy.

The virtual RAID controller in the guest OS (option A) has no impact on how iSCSI paths are handled at the network level.

Flash mode (option C) only affects local performance caching and does not provide multi-path IO.

Configuring multiple vDisks in a VG (option D) improves storage organization but does not automatically enable multi-path IO to different CVMs.

Thus, the administrator mustenable iSCSI MPIO in the guest OSto ensure the VM can leverage multiple CVMs for IO operations.

FSVMs (File Server VMs)are essential for delivering file services (SMB/NFS) in Nutanix Files. Each FSVM is responsible for handling client connections and file access requests.Stopping an FSVMcan temporarily disrupt file share access if not properly coordinated.

TheHigh Availability (HA) stateis thecritical factorto check before stopping an FSVM because:

TheNUSA and NCP-US coursesemphasize:

“In a Nutanix Files deployment, High Availability (HA) for FSVMs ensures that client connections are redistributed to other FSVMs in the cluster when an FSVM is stopped or fails. Before stopping an FSVM, administrators must confirm that HA is enabled to avoid data access disruption.”

If HA is disabled or misconfigured:

Stopping an FSVM could lead toclient disconnectionsand potential data access issues.

Thefiles servicemay temporarily becomeunavailablefor the workloads handled by that FSVM.

The other options are not directly related tostopping FSVMs:

Data Protection status— more relevant to snapshots and replication, not FSVM runtime status.

VDI Sync— relates to desktop sync, not FSVM management.

SSR (Self-Service Restore)— depends on file share snapshots, not FSVM status.

Thus, the best practice is tocheck HA stateto ensure a seamless failover and minimal service impact before stopping the FSVM.

Smart Tieringin Nutanix Files is a built-in feature that allows administrators toautomatically move infrequently accessed data(cold data) tolower-cost storage tiers(like NFS or S3-compatible storage). It also supportsautomatically recalling dataif it becomes hot (frequently accessed) again.

According to NUSA course details:

“Smart Tiering policies in Nutanix Files allow administrators to define rules based on file metadata (type, size, owner) and last access time. Cold data is tiered off to cheaper storage, and Files can recall the data if needed, ensuring transparent access for users.”

Key reasons why Smart Tiering is the solution:

Automatically identifies cold data(based on access patterns).

Moves cold data to external or cheaper storagetransparently.

Re-hydrates dataautomatically if it becomes hot again, maintaining performance and user experience.

The other options:

Advanced tiering in Data Lens— Data Lens is for analytics and reporting, not for moving data.

Lifecycle Rules in Objects— manages data lifecycle for object buckets, not Files shares.

SSR (Self-Service Restore)— is for file recovery, not data tiering.

Thus, the administrator shouldconfigure Smart Tiering in Nutanix Filesto satisfy the requirement.

The scenario involves upgrading an S3-compatible bucket (Nutanix Objects) using Prism Central’s Lifecycle Manager (LCM). The LCM upgrade process failed because outbound traffic to the Internet was restricted, and the administrator needs to identify which components require Internet access for a successful upgrade. The correct answer is that theCVM IP address/portmust be provided to the security team, as the Controller Virtual Machines (CVMs) are responsible for downloading upgrade artifacts from Nutanix’s external repositories during an LCM upgrade.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course explains that “LCM upgrades require the CVMs to access external Nutanix repositories to download software and firmware updates, typically over HTTPS (port 443).” The CVMs initiate the download of upgrade packages for components like Nutanix Objects, which includes the S3-compatible bucket infrastructure. The course further notes that “outbound traffic from CVM IP addresses to the Internet must be allowed on ports such as TCP 80 (HTTP) and TCP 443 (HTTPS) for LCM to successfully retrieve upgrade files.”

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide elaborates that “during an LCM upgrade, CVMs communicate with external Nutanix servers (e.g., download.nutanix.com) to fetch upgrade bundles, requiring outbound Internet access from the CVM IP addresses on TCP ports 80 and 443.” Additionally, DNS resolution (TCP/UDP port 53) is needed to resolve the external repository URLs, and NTP (UDP port 123) ensures time synchronization, both of which are already allowed in the outbound traffic configuration provided. However, the failure suggests that the specific outbound traffic from CVMs to the Internet on port 443 (or 80) was blocked, preventing the download of the Nutanix Objects upgrade package.

The other options are incorrect:

Pod network: The pod network (e.g., 10.100.0.0/16) is typically an internal network range for containerized workloads and does not require Internet access for LCM upgrades.

Prism Central IP address/port: While Prism Central orchestrates the LCM upgrade, it is the CVMs that perform the actual download of upgrade artifacts from the Internet. Prism Central communicates with CVMs internally and does not directly access the Internet for this task.

LCM: LCM is a software component, not a network entity with an IP address or port. It runs on Prism Central and relies on CVMs to fetch the necessary files.

To resolve the issue, the administrator should provide the security team with the CVM IP addresses and ensure that outbound traffic to the Internet is allowed on TCP port 443 (HTTPS) and optionally TCP port 80 (HTTP) for accessing Nutanix’s external repositories (e.g., download.nutanix.com). The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “ensuring CVMs have Internet access on the required ports is critical for LCM upgrades to complete successfully, especially for components like Nutanix Objects.”

The log message indicates a failure to download the file fraser-6.10-stable_build_release.tar.xz from a web server, resulting in anHTTP 404 Not Founderror when attempting to connect to the server overport 80. The error suggests that the Microservices Platform (MSP) is attempting to access a resource via HTTP (port 80), but the connection fails, either because the server is not reachable, the resource is not available, or the port is blocked.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course discusses the Microservices Platform (MSP) as a component that supports containerized services in Nutanix environments, often requiring access to external repositories for downloading build artifacts, such as those hosted on AWS ECR (Elastic Container Registry). The course notes that “MSP services may require outbound network access to download container images or configuration files, typically over HTTP (port 80) or HTTPS (port 443), depending on the repository configuration.”

In this case, the log explicitly shows the attempt to useHTTP (port 80)to access the URL http://x.x.x.x/..., indicating that MSP is configured to use HTTP for this operation. The HTTP 404 Not Founderror suggests that either the file does not exist at the specified URL, the server is not responding, or network connectivity issues (e.g., firewall rules blocking port 80) are preventing MSP from reaching the web server. Since the error occurs during the connection attempt over port 80, the most likely cause is thatMSP needs to reach the web server over port 80, and this connectivity is not properly configured or is blocked.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide emphasizes troubleshooting network connectivity for Nutanix services, stating, “Administrators must ensure that required ports, such as 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS, are open for services like MSP to access external resources.” The guide also recommends checking firewall rules, proxy settings, and network routes when encountering connectivity errors like HTTP 404.

The provided search results further support this analysis. For example, troubleshooting connectivity issues in Nutanix environments often involves verifying port access, as seen in discussions about Pulse and other services requiring HTTP (port 80) or HTTPS (port 443) connectivity to external servers (e.g., nsc01.nutanix.net or insights.nutanix.com). While the specific issue in the log is related to MSP, the principle of ensuring proper port access applies.

The other options are incorrect:

Prism Central needs to reach the web server over port 443: The log indicates that MSP, not Prism Central, is attempting the connection, and it uses HTTP (port 80), not HTTPS (port 443).

MSP needs to reach the web server over port 443: The log clearly shows the connection attempt over HTTP (port 80), not HTTPS (port 443).

Prism Central needs to reach the web server over port 80: The log references MSP, not Prism Central, as the component attempting the download.

To resolve this issue, the administrator should:

Verify that the web server at x.x.x.x is reachable and the file exists at the specified URL.

Ensure that outbound traffic from the MSP service to the web server over port 80 is allowed by checking firewall rules, proxy settings, and network configurations.

If the server requires HTTPS, update the MSP configuration to use port 443 instead of port 80, but the log suggests port 80 is expected.

The administrator is attempting to upgrade Objects Manager, a component of Nutanix Objects, but notices that the upgrade option is disabled in Prism Central’s Lifecycle Manager (LCM). The most likely reason is that an **Objects Service upgrade previously failed**. Nutanix Objects consists of multiple components, including Objects Manager and Objects Service, and LCM enforces dependencies between these components during upgrades. If a prior upgrade of Objects Service failed, LCM will disable the upgrade option for Objects Manager until the issue with Objects Service is resolved.

The **Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)** course states, “LCM may disable the upgrade option for Objects Manager if a dependency, such as Objects Service, has a failed upgrade, as Nutanix Objects components must be upgraded in a specific order to maintain system stability.” Objects Service is a core component of Nutanix Objects that handles the underlying object storage operations, while Objects Manager provides management and orchestration. A failed Objects Service upgrade can leave the system in an inconsistent state, preventing further upgrades of related components like Objects Manager until the failure is resolved.

The **Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)** study guide further elaborates that “a common reason for a disabled upgrade option in LCM for Objects Manager is a previous failure in upgrading Objects Service, which must be addressed by troubleshooting the failed upgrade and ensuring all dependencies are met.” The administrator should check the LCM logs for details of the failed Objects Service upgrade, resolve the issue (e.g., by addressing network connectivity, disk space, or version compatibility problems), and then retry the upgrade process.

The other options are incorrect:

- **Provided access keys are wrong**: Access keys are relevant for S3-compatible API access to Nutanix Objects buckets, not for LCM upgrades of Objects Manager.

- **Objects browser is not available**: The “Objects browser” is not a component or requirement for upgrading Objects Manager; this term may refer to the UI for browsing objects, which is unrelated to LCM upgrades.

- **Prism Element upgrade previously failed**: A failed Prism Element upgrade might affect cluster-level operations, but it is less likely to directly disable the Objects Manager upgrade option, as Objects Manager upgrades are managed through Prism Central and depend on Objects Service, not Prism Element.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “a failed Objects Service upgrade is a frequent cause of disabled upgrade options for Objects Manager in LCM, requiring administrators to resolve the failure before proceeding.”

To protect a Nutanix Objects store from a single node or two-drive failure, the cluster must be comprised of aminimum of seven nodes. Nutanix Objects uses erasure coding to provide resiliency, distributing data and parity fragments across nodes to ensure fault tolerance. To withstand a single node failure or a two-drive failure, a specific number of nodes is required to maintain data availability and rebuild capability.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “Nutanix Objects requires a minimum of seven nodes to ensure resiliency against a single node failure or a two-drive failure, using erasure coding to distribute data and parity across the cluster.” This configuration typically uses an erasure coding scheme like 4+2 or 5+2 (data + parity fragments), which requires at least six nodes for data distribution and an additional node to handle failures, totaling seven nodes.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “to achieve resiliency against a single node or two-drive failure in Nutanix Objects, the cluster must have at least seven nodes to support the erasure coding configuration needed for this level of fault tolerance.” This ensures that even if one node fails or two drives are lost, the remaining nodes have sufficient data and parity fragments to reconstruct the lost data.

The other options are incorrect:

Multi-cluster option must be disabled for the object store: The multi-cluster option is not relevant to resiliency within a single Nutanix Objects deployment. It pertains to managing multiple clusters, not erasure coding or fault tolerance.

Each node in the dense node platform requires 20 or more HDDs: There is no requirement for 20 or more HDDs per node to achieve this level of resiliency. Resiliency depends on the number of nodes and erasure coding, not the number of drives per node.

New storage container is created for the object store: While Nutanix Objects uses storage containers, creating a new container is not a requirement for enabling resiliency. Resiliency is determined by the cluster configuration and erasure coding settings.

The NUSA course documentation highlights that “a minimum of seven nodes ensures Nutanix Objects can maintain data availability and rebuild data in the event of a single node or two-drive failure, leveraging erasure coding for resiliency.”