NCA-6.5 Sample Questions Answers

To maintain high availability in the case of a node failure in a two-node cluster, a Witness VM is required. Therefore, the correct answer is A. The Witness VM acts as a tie-breaker and arbitrator in the event of a split-brain scenario, where both nodes lose connectivity to each other, to ensure that only one node continues to operate and serve workloads. It is also recommended to use a high-performance network to minimize network latency between the two nodes and the Witness VM.

Nutanix Volumes uses a Filesystem Whitelist to control which external hosts can access the iSCSI block devices allocated to them. If the external host IP address is not in the Filesystem Whitelist, it will not be able to discover or connect to the Nutanix-hosted iSCSI block device. Jumbo frames, external client access, and network segmentation are not required for Nutanix Volumes to work. References: https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/datasheets/ds-nutanix-acropolis-block-services.pdf (page 4) https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=BP-2049-Nutanix-Volumes:BP-2049-Nutanix-Volumes (page 7)

An administrator can create VM Protection Policies to enforce VM to host affinity for each VM in the AHV cluster. This will ensure that the VMs are always running on the same host, even if the cluster is resized or the VMs are migrated to other nodes. This is the most efficient way to achieve the desired goal. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Admin-Guide-v5_6:pr-vmprofiles-affinity-c.html

When uploading images from a local workstation to Prism Central, the destination cluster is determined based on the alphabetical order of the cluster names. Specifically, the first available cluster in alphabetical order is selected as the destination for the image upload.

This behavior is documented in the Prism Central Admin Guide, which states that when you upload an image to Prism Central, "the image is stored in the first cluster that has sufficient space and starts with the letter that appears first in the image name."

From Prism Central's main dashboard page, an administrator can access any cluster by clicking the cluster quick access link. This will open the cluster summary page, which contains detailed information about the cluster, including the nodes, virtual machines, and applications running on the cluster. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Platform-Administrator-Guide-v5_7:pag-prism-central-cluster-access-c.html

Role-based access control (RBAC) allows administrators to configure access control for different users and groups in the Nutanix cluster. This feature is available through Prism Central, where administrators can configure roles and permissions for different users and groups. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Platform-Administrator-Guide-v5_7:pag-user-role-c.html

ADS is a feature of Nutanix AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) that proactively monitors a Nutanix cluster for compute and storage I/O contention or hotspots over a period of time [1]. It provides dynamic and intelligent scheduling of workloads on the cluster for optimal performance and utilization.

HTTP is the only option available for an administrator to upload a remote disk file to Image Configuration. FTP, SCP, and SFTP are not supported by Nutanix. References: https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/misc/ebg-nca-6-5.pdf (page 24)

When the Cassandra and Stargate services fail frequently on a single node, the cluster will automatically put the host in Maintenance Mode to ensure the reliability and performance of the cluster. This will remove the node from the cluster's IO path and prevent any data loss or corruption. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Platform-Administrator-Guide-v5_7:pag-maintenance-mode-c.html

Nutanix Objects is a storage service that can store petabytes of unstructured data and supports S3 APIs. It is a distributed object store that provides an easy-to-use interface for storing and managing objects and data. It also provides advanced features such as versioning, replication, encryption, and access control. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Platform-Administrator-Guide-v5_7:pag-objects-c.html

The Redfish Protocol and Lifecycle Manager (LCM) provide the biggest benefit of allowing BMC and BIOS updates to be done twice as quickly as before. This is because Redfish and LCM allow for updates to be done in parallel, rather than serially, which reduces the amount of time it takes for an update to be completed. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Platform-Administrator-Guide-v5_7:pag-redfish-lcm-c.html

In Prism Element, policies such as replication factor and storage efficiency settings are applied to Containers. A container is a logical grouping of one or more storage pools and defines the storage resources available to virtual machines. By applying policies to a container, you can set the replication factor, storage efficiency settings, and other storage-related settings for all of the virtual machines that are associated with that container. This is a fundamental concept in Nutanix Platform.

The type of relationship that a VM Affinity policy defines is VM to Host. A VM Affinity policy is used to specify which host a virtual machine should be placed on. This can be used to ensure that certain VMs are always running on the same host for performance or availability reasons. Additionally, VM Affinity policies can also be used to ensure that VMs are spread across multiple hosts for better load balancing.

The Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix (CIM) is the resource that should be used to ensure a successful upgrade of the hypervisors and AOS within a vSphere-based Nutanix cluster. The CIM provides information about the compatibility and interoperability of the different components of the Nutanix cluster, including the hypervisors, AOS, and other related components. Reference: https://www.nutanix.com/support/compatibility-matrix/

Discoveries within the Nutanix Support Portal are used to identify clusters that are affected by known issues. This can help Nutanix Support quickly identify and address any potential problems that may be caused by a specific issue. Reference: https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Support-Portal-User-Guide-v2_0:sp-discoveries-c.html

The Recycle Bin is a feature that allows administrators to recover data that has been accidentally deleted from the cluster, by storing deleted files in a temporary holding area for a certain period of time. During this time, the deleted files can be restored to their original location, effectively undoing the deletion.

The default retention period for the Recycle Bin is 24 hours, which means that any files that are deleted from the cluster will be retained in the Recycle Bin for a period of 24 hours before they are permanently deleted. This retention period can be customized to suit the needs of a particular environment, but the default value is 24 hours.

In Prism Central, Image Placement Policies can be used to map images to target clusters using categories. An Image Placement Policy is a set of rules that determine where an image should be placed on the Nutanix cluster. These rules are based on categories, such as the image's OS type, the target cluster's hardware type, and other factors. By creating image placement policies, you can ensure that images are placed on the appropriate clusters, and that they are compatible with the hardware and software requirements of those clusters.

For example, you could create a placement policy that specifies that all Windows images should be placed on a specific cluster, and that all Linux images should be placed on another cluster. You can also set image replication policies on image placement policies, to ensure that images are replicated to multiple clusters for disaster recovery purposes.