NCA Sample Questions & Answers

False. AHV networks can be configured to operate in multiple modes. While VLAN-backed networks are common, AHV also supports 'native VLAN' or untagged traffic for VMs. A network can be created without a VLAN ID, in which case the traffic from VMs on that network will be sent untagged on the physical switch ports.

Nutanix Files includes a feature called Smart Tiering, which allows it to automatically move older, less frequently accessed data to a lower-cost secondary storage tier. Nutanix Objects is the ideal target for this, providing a scalable, S3-compatible object store. This combination directly addresses the need to archive aging data to a more cost-effective tier.

The Storage Controller Latency chart in the Analysis dashboard provides a detailed breakdown of I/O latency as it passes through the Nutanix software stack (Stargate). By adding the specific VM's I/O latency and IOPS metrics to this same chart, an administrator can visually correlate spikes in the VM's activity with increases in overall storage controller latency, helping to pinpoint contention or performance bottlenecks.

The 'Licensing' page in Prism Element, found under the main settings (gear icon), displays the current license level of the cluster (e.g., Starter, Pro, Ultimate). It also provides a detailed breakdown of which features are enabled or disabled based on that license tier. This is the direct source of truth for feature availability within Prism itself.

VDI linked-clone environments are a prime use case for deduplication. Since each desktop VM shares a common base disk (the golden image), there is a massive amount of redundant data across the VMs. The Nutanix Elastic Dedupe Engine will identify these common blocks and store only a single copy, leading to very high space savings. While compression helps, deduplication will provide a much larger benefit in this scenario.

Prism Element provides a streamlined workflow for support. From the health dashboard or settings, an administrator can choose 'Collect Logs'. This tool gathers a comprehensive log bundle from all nodes. Crucially, if Pulse is enabled, the interface provides an option to directly upload this bundle to the Nutanix SFTP server and automatically attach it to a new or existing support case number, making it the most efficient and recommended method.

Custom alert policies based on specific metrics, thresholds, and durations are configured in Prism Central. The administrator would navigate to Alert Policies, create a new policy, specify the metric (e.g., 'Cluster CPU Usage %'), set the threshold (90%), define the duration (15 minutes), and configure the email notification action. Prism Element has pre-defined alerts but lacks this level of customization.

For dark site (air-gapped) environments, LCM can be configured to pull updates from a local web server instead of the Nutanix portal. An administrator must first download the LCM dark site bundle from the Nutanix Support Portal using an internet-connected machine, transfer it to the local web server, and then configure the LCM source in Prism to point to that server's URL.

Guest Customization is the feature that resolves identity issues in cloned VMs. When selected, it leverages Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) and Microsoft Sysprep to automatically change the computer name, generate a new security identifier (SID), and configure network settings for the cloned VM. This ensures the new VM is a unique entity on the network and in the domain.

Open vSwitch (OVS) is the software-defined virtual switch integrated into every AHV host. Its primary role is to manage all network traffic for the host, including traffic between VMs on the same host, traffic between VMs and the CVM, and traffic between VMs and the external physical network. It provides features like VLAN tagging, NIC bonding, and load balancing.