Nutanix NCP-EUC Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) 6.10 Exam Exam Practice Test

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the Nutanix Files Guide regarding Data Replication and VDI solutions:

VDI Sync Functionality: VDI Sync is the specific feature designed to replicate VDI user profiles and data across file servers in different locations (active-active). It ensures that user profile data (like FSLogix or UPM containers) is synchronized in near real-time, allowing users to roam between sites and access their data locally at either location.

Smart DR distinction: Smart DR (Option C) is primarily a Disaster Recovery solution (Active-Standby) used for share-level replication and failover in the event of an outage. It is not designed for the active-active, bi-directional roaming of user profiles required by the question.

Use Case: For a distributed VDI environment where a user might log in to Site A today and Site B tomorrow and needs their profile immediately available and writable in both, VDI Sync is the mandatory component.

Nutanix AHV includes a native feature called VM High Availability (VMHA), which protects VMs in the event of a host failure (such as power loss).

When a host fails, the Acropolis High Availability service detects the failure. Built-in AHV policies automatically restart the affected VMs on the remaining healthy hosts in the cluster.

Live migration (Option D) is not possible because the host is already down (powered off), meaning the memory state cannot be transferred; the VMs must be restarted (booted) on new hosts. No manual policy creation (Option B) is required as this is a core default function of the AHV cluster, provided resources are available.

Nutanix Files offers a feature called Smart DR, which enables share-level replication between active file server instances for disaster recovery.

Smart DR allows administrators to configure replication policies for each share, such as replication interval, retention period, and bandwidth limit.

Smart DR also supports failover and failback operations between source and target file servers in case of a disaster.

According to Nutanix best practices1, Smart DR is suitable for scenarios where users need to access their files from different locations or data centers.

A cloud-based DR service that allows customers to protect their Nutanix workloads in a Nutanix-owned cloud platform6. Xi Leap eliminates the need for multiple products and provides end-to-end security, automation, and SLA compliance6.

Frame is a cloud-native desktop-as-a-service platform that delivers virtual apps and desktops from multiple public clouds1. Frame allows administrators to manage various components of their cloud accounts easily from the Frame console1.

A cloud account is a logical grouping of resources that are associated with a specific cloud provider (such as AWS, Azure, or Google) and region1. A cloud account can have multiple virtual networks, master images, and instance types that can be used to create and run virtual apps and desktops1.

To configure AWS, Azure, and Google accounts within Frame, an administrator needs to go to the Cloud Accounts section of the Frame console1. There, the administrator can add new cloud accounts or edit existing ones by providing the required credentials and settings for each cloud provider12.

ECC (Error Correcting Code) mode is a feature of some NVIDIA GPUs that provides error detection and correction for memory errors. However, ECC mode can interfere with vGPU functionality and prevent vGPU-enabled VMs from being created or started1. Therefore, two correct steps to resolve this issue are B (Disable ECC by running nvdia-smi -e 0) and D (Check if ECC Mode is turned on by running nvdia-smi -q | grep “ECC Mode” -A2).

When configuring Link Aggregation Groups (LAG) or Active-Active NIC bonding (such as balance-tcp with LACP) on Nutanix AHV, there is a strict requirement regarding link negotiation. All interfaces in a bond must run at the same speed.

If the second node has physical NICs that have negotiated different speeds (e.g., one link at 10 Gbps and another at 1 Gbps due to a cabling issue or switch misconfiguration), the bond creation command will fail for that specific node. While identical hardware (Option A) is preferred, it is the actual operating speed of the links that determines whether the OVS bond can successfully form.

In Nutanix AHV networking, the default bond mode for a virtual switch is Active-Backup. In this mode, all traffic flows through a single active physical uplink, while other uplinks remain in standby mode to be used only in the event of a failure. This explains the observation that "only one of the physical NICs... is carrying VM traffic."

To utilize multiple physical uplinks simultaneously and balance the traffic, the administrator must change the bond mode to an Active-Active configuration. In AHV, this is achieved by configuring the bond mode to Balance-SLB (Source Load Balancing) or Balance-TCP (LACP). These modes distribute VM traffic across all available physical interfaces in the bond, thereby balancing the load.

According to Nutanix "Security Log Configuration" and "Prism Central" best practices, configuring syslog monitoring via the Prism Central (PC) web console automatically propagates the configuration to all registered Prism Element clusters. This is designed for centralized management but violates the requirement for cluster-specific servers.

To configure a syslog server for a specific cluster without propagating the setting to other clusters, the administrator must use the Nutanix Command-Line Interface (nCLI) on the specific cluster (Prism Element). Documentation explicitly states: "Use the Nutanix command-line interface (nCLI) for syslog monitoring configuration to avoid propagating the configuration to the clusters."

In the terminology of Flow Network Security Next-Gen (FNS NG), the components are defined as follows:

Security Policy Model: Defined as "A schema of policies for specifying and enforcing a desired behavior.4 A Policy Model will have one or more policies."5 This model provides the framework (such as Application, Isolation, or Quarantine) within which specific policies are created.

Security Policy: Defined as a "collection of security rules and assets [entities, endpoints, categories, applications, etc.] on which the rules have to be enforced together."6

Therefore, the function that acts as the overarching schema and contains "one or more policies" is the Security Policy Model.7

Based on the given information, the administrator is deploying 1000 instant clone virtual desktops, 500 full clone virtual desktops, and 150 applications. To support these workloads, the Nutanix solution will need multiple storage containers.

According to the Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) v6 guide, for VDI workloads, it is recommended to create a separate storage container for each type of desktop (e.g. instant clone, full clone) and another container for AppStacks. It is also recommended to have at least one container for metadata and one container for replicas.

Therefore, for this scenario, a total of 3 storage containers should be created:

One container for 1000 instant clone virtual desktops

One container for 500 full clone virtual desktops

One container for 150 applications delivered via AppStacks

So the answer is C. 3.

 Nutanix recommends using separate containers for persistent and non-persistent VMS. For persistent VMS, enable compression and deduplication. For non-persistent VMS, enable compression only1

According to Nutanix documentation, it is recommended to use multiple containers, with each container representing an individual performance workload. This allows for better performance isolation and easier management. For example, one container could be used for VDI workloads, while another container could be used for general-purpose workloads.

As for compression and deduplication, it is recommended to enable them for all VMs. Compression reduces the amount of storage space required and increases the performance of the system, while deduplication reduces the amount of duplicate data stored on the system. Erasure coding can also be used as an alternative to replication for data protection.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix Move and Citrix/VDI Master Image Preparation guides:

The Process: When Nutanix Move migrates a VM from ESXi to AHV, it installs Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) (including VirtIO drivers) on the target VM to ensure it boots and functions correctly on the AHV hypervisor.

The Issue: If this migrated VM is intended to be a Base Image (Gold Image) for a non-persistent pool (MCS/PVS), the NGT instance installed by Move contains specific identity information (VM UUIDs/communication certificates) unique to that single VM.

The Requirement: If you clone this image without cleaning up, every clone will attempt to use the same NGT identity, causing communication conflicts with the cluster.

The Solution: The administrator must Remove NGT (or run the NGT cleanup interaction) after the conversion (once the VM is on AHV) and before reprovisioning (before sealing the image and creating clones). This ensures the clones can register as unique entities.

The default load balancing configuration in Nutanix AHV is Balance-SLB (Source Load Balancing). This setting utilizes all available uplinks by assigning VM traffic to specific uplinks based on source MAC address hashing. To optimize bandwidth usage, the Balance-SLB algorithm periodically evaluates link utilization and may rebalance traffic by moving a VM's assignment from one uplink to another.

According to Nutanix AHV Networking documentation, this rebalancing action involves sending a gratuitous ARP (RARP) to update the physical switch. During this split-second transition, real-time sensitive traffic—such as streaming video or VoIP—may experience dropped packets or out-of-order delivery, resulting in symptoms like "hung/frozen display frames." For environments prioritizing connection consistency over aggregate bandwidth for single VMs (like VDI with streaming requirements), Active-Backup is often recommended to eliminate the potential for rebalancing interruptions. (Note: Option A is a VMware ESXi terminology, not AHV).

In a Nutanix AHV environment integrated with Citrix Provisioning (PVS), the XenDesktop Setup Wizard (or Citrix Virtual Desktops Setup Wizard) is responsible for creating the Write Cache disk for target VMs during the provisioning process.

According to Nutanix Knowledge Base articles regarding PVS on AHV, a common cause for the failure of the write-cache disk creation is the presence of an attached virtual disk on the snapshot used as the template. The wizard expects to create and attach the write-cache disk itself. If the template snapshot already has a hard disk attached (other than the potential CD-ROM, which is generally supported if single), the wizard's logic for disk slot assignment or disk creation conflicts with the existing disk, causing the "creation of the VM's write-cache disk failed" error. The supported procedure explicitly states that the VM template snapshot must be created without any hard disks attached.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix and Citrix DaaS documents:

According to Citrix Cloud and Nutanix DR best practices:

High Availability Requirement: Citrix strongly recommends and practically enforces a requirement of at least two (2) Cloud Connectors per Resource Location (RL).

Reasoning: Cloud Connectors are "evergreen" components that update automatically from the cloud. During an update, a connector may reboot. If only one connector exists (Option A), the Resource Location would go offline, severing connectivity for the DR site.

Production vs. DR: A Disaster Recovery (DR) site is treated as a production Resource Location because it must be ready to accept user connections instantly during a failover. Therefore, the minimum N+1 redundancy rule applies, requiring 2 connectors.

regarding replicating AppStacks between Nutanix clusters, it is likely that the correct answer would involve configuring some form of replication or disaster recovery technology on the Nutanix clusters themselves.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix VDI Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning best practices:

Symptom Analysis: "Sluggish mouse and keyboard response" is a classic symptom of high CPU contention or high Latency on the host or VM. Since the environment was previously stable ("No additional virtual desktops added") and the change was "dramatic," it points to a new process consuming resources unexpectedly.

The "Agent" Factor: In non-persistent VDI environments, a common cause for sudden performance degradation affecting an "entire department" is an Antivirus or Security Agent running a scheduled scan or a signature update simultaneously across all clones. This creates a "storm" of IOPS and CPU usage (often called an AV storm), starving the user sessions of the resources needed for basic input processing (mouse/keyboard).

Why not others?

Unoptimized master image (B): This would cause poor performance from day one, not a "dramatic change" after 60 days of stability.

Legacy drivers (C): Drivers do not degrade suddenly; they would cause issues from the time of installation.

Over-provisioning (D): This usually results in gradual degradation as user concurrency increases, not a sudden cliff-edge drop in performance if user counts haven't changed.

To meet the specific requirements:

Windows Desktop OS Requirement: This eliminates Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), which typically relies on Windows Server operating systems to host multiple sessions. The requirement explicitly calls for Desktop OS (e.g., Windows 10/11).

Minimize Resources & Shift Work: Dedicated options (Physical PCs or Persistent Full Clones) are inefficient for shift workers because the resources remain assigned to a specific user even when they are off-shift (16 hours a day).

Pooled Non-persistent desktops are the correct solution. They allow a single VM to be used by a contractor in Shift 1, reset, and then used by a different contractor in Shift 2. This "concurrency-based" model significantly reduces the storage and compute footprint compared to 1:1 dedicated assignments, perfectly fitting the "follow-the-sun" 24-hour coverage model while satisfying the Desktop OS requirement.

When provisioning automated pools (Instant Clones or Linked Clones) in Omnissa Horizon (formerly VMware Horizon), the domain join operation is performed by a specified service account. If this process fails automatically but works manually with an administrator's account, it indicates a permissions issue for that service account, not a general network or DNS failure.

The service account does not require high-level privileges like Domain Admin or Schema Admin. Instead, it requires specific delegated permissions on the Target Organizational Unit (OU) where the new computer objects are created. These permissions include "Create Computer Objects," "Delete Computer Objects," "Write All Properties," and "Reset Password." If these delegations are missing, the automated domain join will fail.

To enable Secure Boot and vTPM on a Nutanix AHV cluster, specific VM configuration requirements must be met. According to the Nutanix AHV Administration and Security guides, Secure Boot prevents malicious code from loading during the boot process by ensuring that only signed drivers and OS loaders are used.

When configuring a VM for Secure Boot, the machine type must be set to q35. The standard legacy machine type (i440fx) does not support the necessary features for Secure Boot and vTPM operations in this context. Documentation for creating or updating a VM with these features via the Acropolis CLI (aCLI) explicitly includes the parameter machine_type=q35 in the command string (e.g., vm.create vm-name machine_type=q35 uefi_boot=true secure_boot=true virtual_tpm=true). Furthermore, if an administrator attempts to update an existing VM to enable Secure Boot without this machine type, the operation will fail or require the conversion, as Secure Boot and vTPM are supported specifically on the Q35 virtual hardware platform combined with UEFI boot mode.

Legacy BIOS (Option C) is explicitly unsupported for Secure Boot, as UEFI is a strict prerequisite. Hardware TPM pass-through (Option D) is not used; instead, AHV utilizes a software-based vTPM that keeps the crypto keys independent of the underlying hardware to allow for VM mobility.

Relevance of the video: The video provides a step-by-step visual guide on enabling Credential Guard and Secure Boot for Windows VMs on Nutanix AHV, which directly illustrates the configuration steps and requirements discussed in the question, including the necessary VM settings.

Enabling Credential Guard for AHV Windows VMs

Blast Extreme is the proprietary display protocol developed by Omnissa (formerly VMware) for Horizon.

A key feature of Blast Extreme is its use of Adaptive Transport. This technology allows the protocol to dynamically switch between UDP (for high performance and lossy networks) and TCP (as a fallback for reliability) based on real-time network conditions. This adaptability ensures the best possible user experience regardless of bandwidth or latency constraints. (PCoIP primarily relies on UDP, and RDP is traditionally TCP-heavy, while HDX is a Citrix protocol).

According to the certification details1, one of the objectives is to “Configure and manage security features such as role-based access control (RBAC), SSL certificates, encryption at rest, and data protection.”

This answer seems to align with the security team’s feedback and the objective of managing security features using Nutanix technologies.

To install the NVIDIA GRID host driver (vGPU driver) on a Nutanix AHV cluster, the administrator must upload the driver file (typically an RPM) to a Controller VM (CVM). From the CVM, the correct procedure is to use the install_host_package command.

This specific Nutanix utility pushes the installation package to the AHV hosts and executes the installation process. The typical syntax is install_host_package -r , which ensures the driver is correctly applied to the hypervisor layer across the cluster nodes. allssh or hostssh commands with standard Linux package managers (like yum) are not the supported method for applying hypervisor-level drivers in AHV.

When migrating Machine Creation Services (MCS) non-persistent (pooled) environments to Nutanix, it is not efficient or recommended to migrate the individual worker VMs using migration tools like Nutanix Move. These VMs are ephemeral clones that are deleted or reset upon reboot.

The correct architectural procedure is to migrate the Master Image (Gold Image). The administrator should replicate the base image VM to the Nutanix cluster (using Nutanix Move or Data Protection replication), install the necessary Nutanix drivers (VirtIO) and the Citrix VDA, and then snapshot this migrated image. This snapshot is then used by the MCS service to redeploy a fresh catalog of worker VMs native to the Nutanix AHV infrastructure. This ensures all clones are properly linked to the new storage architecture and avoids the overhead of moving disposable data.

The error code displayed in the exhibit, NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID, explicitly indicates that the browser does not trust the Certificate Authority (CA) that signed the SSL certificate presented by Prism Central.

According to the Nutanix Security Guide and Prism Central documentation regarding Security Certificate Management:

By default, Nutanix clusters and Prism Central use a self-signed certificate.

When an administrator accesses Prism via a web browser using these default certificates, the browser will display a security warning (such as "Your connection is not private") because the self-signed certificate authority is not in the browser's or operating system's Trusted Root Certification Authorities store.

To resolve this behavior, the administrator must either import the self-signed root certificate into the client's trusted store or replace the default certificate with one signed by a commercial or internal CA that the browser already trusts.

If the issue were related to the hostname missing (Option C), the error code would be NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID. Since the error is specifically "Authority Invalid," the cause is the lack of trust in the issuer (CA).

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix AHV Administration Guide regarding GPU Pass-Through:

Hardware Binding: GPU Pass-Through (DirectPath I/O) binds a virtual machine to a specific physical PCIe device on the host. Unlike vGPU (which abstracts the hardware), passthrough creates a 1:1 dependency.

HA Behavior: Nutanix AHV supports High Availability (HA) for GPU-enabled VMs in the sense that if a host fails, the system attempts to restart the VM on another host (Cold Migration). Option C ("Not HA-capable") is incorrect because the system attempts the restart; it does not simply abandon the VM by design.

Failure Cause: The restart fails (the "behavior" described) because the destination host must have the exact same GPU hardware resource available (free and matching the profile/addressing). If the other nodes in the cluster do not have a free GPU of the same type, or if they are already fully utilized, the VM cannot power on, resulting in the "Insufficient GPU resources" error.

one of the possible causes of slower logon and application load times for VMware Horizon-based virtual desktop users is Failed to create Native clone errors. This error occurs when there is a problem with cloning virtual machines using Nutanix Native Clones technology. To troubleshoot this issue, you can check the following:

The Nutanix cluster has enough free space to create clones

The Nutanix cluster has enough CPU and memory resources to handle cloning operations

The Nutanix cluster is running a compatible version of AOS and AHV with VMware Horizon

The VMware Horizon environment is configured correctly to use Nutanix Native Clones

The VMware Horizon agent is installed and updated on the master image

one of the possible ways to optimize the virtual desktop environment is to verify if VAAI plugin is running. VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration) is a technology that enables VMware ESXi hosts to offload storage operations to Nutanix storage controllers. This can improve performance and efficiency of cloning, migrating, and snapshotting virtual machines234.

According to standard VDI image preparation best practices (including those for testing with tools like LoginVSI), the foundational step before any benchmarking can occur is to Install and patch the Operating System.

A benchmark is invalid if it is run on an incomplete or vulnerable OS. The standard workflow is:

Install OS and standard runtimes.

Patch fully (to represent a realistic production state).

Optimize (OSOT).

Option A represents the critical mandatory "Action" required to build the base image for the test.

When using Nutanix IPAM (Managed Network) for DHCP, the built-in DHCP service has limitations regarding UEFI PXE boot support (specifically regarding the dynamic delivery of architecture-specific boot files like bootx64.efi vs undionly.kpxe).

To successfully provision UEFI VMs in this scenario—particularly for Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS)—the BDM (Boot Device Manager) ISO (referred to here as SDM boot ISO due to common industry acronym variance in exam banks) is required. The BDM ISO allows the VM to boot directly from a virtual CD-ROM that contains the bootstrap information needed to contact the provisioning server, bypassing the limitations of the IPAM PXE implementation for UEFI workloads.

The file server VM (FSVM) is a virtual machine that runs on Nutanix Files and provides file services such as SMB shares and NFS exports. The FSVM is based on CentOS and incorporates all the security and hardening that goes into the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM)2. The CVM is a virtual machine that runs on each node of a Nutanix cluster and provides storage management, data protection, cluster coordination, and other services3.

The FSVMs have some default configuration settings that can be changed depending on your workload requirements. For example, you can change the number of vCPUs, RAM, network interfaces, or disk size of an FSVM2. However, you should not change these settings without consulting Nutanix Support first.

One of the factors that affects the performance of an FSVM is its memory allocation. The more memory an FSVM has, the more cache it can use for file operations. This can improve the throughput and latency of file serving workloads4. Therefore, increasing the FSVM RAM to 96GB can help optimize its performance for a large number of users.

Microsegmentation is the specific functional capability within Nutanix Flow Network Security designed to control and restrict east-west traffic between virtual machines.

While traditional firewalls protect the perimeter (North-South), Microsegmentation applies stateful firewall policies directly to the vNIC of each VM. This allows an administrator to define granular rules that explicitly allow or deny traffic between individual VMs or groups of VMs (e.g., preventing a compromised VDI desktop from accessing a database server on the same subnet). This feature is the primary mechanism used to prevent lateral movement within the environment.

Frame is a cloud-based desktop-as-a-service platform that allows users to access Windows applications and desktops from any device1. A license server is a server that hosts a network licensing manager for software that requires licenses to run2. Frame supports using a utility server as a license server for Frame desktops1. A utility server is a stand-alone, general purpose Windows server that can be configured and managed from the Frame dashboard1.

non-persistent VDI is a type of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that does not save any changes made by the user on the virtual machine (VM) across sessions. Non-persistent VDI uses a master image to create and delete VMs as needed.

Therefore, if the administrator needs to manage a non-persistent deployment, they should avoid any requirements that involve modifying or installing applications on the VMs, as those changes would not be saved.

The charts provided display a scenario typical of a VDI Boot Storm or login storm, characterized by a massive spike in Read IOPS (top chart) while maintaining extremely low Read I/O Latency (bottom chart).

This behavior is best described by Data Locality (specifically leveraged through a mechanism often called Shadow Clones in VDI contexts).

The Scenario: During VDI logins, hundreds or thousands of VMs simultaneously read from the same base "Golden Image" or replica disk.

The Mechanism: Nutanix Data Locality ensures that VM data is served locally from the node where the VM is running. In the specific case of multi-reader VDI workloads, the Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric detects that the same vDisk is being read by VMs across multiple nodes. It automatically caches this vDisk (Shadow Clone) on the local SSD/RAM of every node.

The Result: As shown in the graphs, the cluster delivers very high Read IOPS because every node is serving its own VMs from local cache, preventing network congestion. Consequently, the latency remains flat and near-zero, rather than spiking as it would in a traditional centralized storage architecture where all reads traverse the network to a single controller.

one of the possible Nutanix storage efficiency features that the administrator can use for this solution is Deduplication. Deduplication is a technology that eliminates duplicate blocks of data and reduces storage consumption. Deduplication can be enabled on a per-container basis and can provide significant savings for Citrix virtual desktop deployments that use cloning technologies such as Machine Creation Services (MCS) or Provisioning Services (PVS)1.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix AOS storage documentation and best practices regarding Data Efficiency:

Default Behavior (AOS 5.18+): Starting with AOS 5.18, Inline Compression is enabled by default on all newly created storage containers.2 The system configures this with a compression delay of 0, meaning data is compressed immediately as it is written to the extent store.3

Performance Impact: Enabling inline compression by default is designed to improve performance and increase effective storage capacity without significant overhead.4 Nutanix recommends keeping this default setting for most workloads, including VDI and general server virtualization, as it reduces the amount of physical data written to the SSD tier.5

Other Mechanisms:

Deduplication is not enabled by default.6 It is typically reserved for specific use cases (like full clones or persistent desktops) and requires enabling both cache and capacity deduplication manually.

Erasure Coding (EC-X) is not enabled by default. It is a post-process feature that must be manually turned on for containers where data is "write cold" (not frequently overwritten), such as archives or backups.

Post-Process Compression was the historical default in older AOS versions (configured with a 60-minute delay) but has been superseded by Inline Compression as the standard default for new containers.

Summary: When an administrator creates a new container in a modern Nutanix environment, the system automatically checks the box for Compression and sets the delay to 0 minutes (Inline).7

Deduplication is a process that eliminates duplicate data blocks and reduces the amount of storage space required for virtual desktops. Deduplication can be enabled at both cluster level and container level on Nutanix.

Deduplication can also work with VCAI (View Composer Array Integration), which is a feature that uses Nutanix native NFS snapshot technology to clone VMs2. VCAI can improve performance and reduce storage consumption for linked-clone desktop pools.

Another feature that can help with capacity issue is Shadow Clones, which is a distributed caching mechanism that allows multiple VMs to read from a single vDisk copy stored locally on each node3. Shadow Clones can reduce network traffic and improve boot times for virtual desktops.

In Nutanix Prism Central, the Capacity Runway scenario provides details on the available capacity for the next 12 months based on the current usage pattern. This feature can help the administrator to plan and prepare the budget for the next fiscal year. The administrator can use this information to decide whether more resources need to be added to the Nutanix cluster or if the existing resources are sufficient.

Prism Central planning tools can help you estimate the capacity runway of your cluster by considering the storage, CPU, and memory capacity. However, you need to have at least 21 days of data from a cluster to calculate the baseline runway estimates4.

According to Nutanix AHV support documentation for Windows 11, the operating system enforces strict hardware requirements for installation and booting. These mandatory requirements include:

UEFI firmware (Legacy BIOS is not supported).

Secure Boot enabled.

vTPM (Virtual Trusted Platform Module) version 2.0.

Credential Guard is a security feature (Virtualization-Based Security) available in Windows 11 that protects credentials, but it is not a mandatory requirement to successfully install or boot the operating system. While Nutanix AHV supports Credential Guard, an administrator can validly exclude it from the minimum requirements list needed just to get the VMs running, whereas excluding vTPM, UEFI, or Secure Boot would cause the OS installation or boot process to fail.

For persistent desktop workloads (full clones) where data efficiency is critical, Nutanix recommends leveraging Inline Compression as the primary reduction technology. To further optimize storage capacity without the heavy memory overhead associated with Deduplication, the recommended complementary technology is Erasure Coding (specifically Inline Erasure Coding in newer AOS versions or EC-X post-process).

Erasure Coding increases the effective usable capacity of the cluster by stripping data parity across nodes (similar to RAID 5/6 logic) rather than relying on the default Replication Factor 2 (RAID 1 logic) for cold or write-cold data. Since persistent desktops often contain large amounts of static data after the initial OS and application installation, Erasure Coding significantly reduces the storage footprint. While Capacity Deduplication (Option D) is available, it is generally reserved for specific use cases (like full clone setups with high data commonality) due to its high RAM requirement for fingerprint metadata, making Erasure Coding the more universally applicable "other" technology for general persistent VDI.

The Prism Central Playbook Action is a tool that allows you to automate tasks based on triggers, such as events, alerts, or webhooks. You can define a series of actions (called a playbook) that perform operations on your infrastructure, such as adding or reducing resources on a VM2.

To use the Playbook Action for VMs, you need to meet some prerequisites, such as:

The Prism Central version must be 2020.11 or later.

The AOS version must be 5.15 LTSR or later.

The hypervisor must be AHV or ESXi.

The VMs must have Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT) installed and enabled3.

One of the possible reasons why the Playbook Action is no longer being triggered is that the virtual desktop CPU Usage alerts were not cleared. According to the Prism Central guide3, “If an alert has been triggered once and has not been cleared yet, then it will not trigger any action again until it has been cleared”. Therefore, if the CPU Usage alert remains active for a virtual desktop, it will prevent the Playbook Action from adding more vCPUs to it.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the latest Nutanix Security Guide (AOS 6.x and later) regarding SCMA (Security Configuration Management Automation):

OS Evolution: Modern Nutanix Controller VMs (CVMs) in current Long Term Support (LTS) releases (AOS 6.5 and above) utilize an operating system based on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8.

STIG Compliance: Consequently, the built-in SCMA policies are updated to check and enforce compliance against the RHEL 8 STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide).

Correction Note: Older documentation (AOS 5.x) referenced the RHEL 7 STIG. However, per your request for "latest knowledge" applicable to current supported environments, the CVM is compliant with RHEL 8 STIGs. If this question appears on a legacy exam version, the answer might still be listed as C (RHEL 7), but B is the technically correct answer for modern Nutanix software.

The optimal storage configuration aligns the container settings with the specific I/O patterns of the workload types:

Non-Persistent Desktops: These are typically linked clones (MCS/Instant Clones) with high write churn and little data commonality in the delta disks. Compression Only is best. Deduplication adds overhead with no benefit.

Persistent Full Clones: These are full copies of the OS. Because there are hundreds of copies of the same OS files, Deduplication (Capacity or Performance tier) is highly effective at saving space. Compression is always recommended.

Therefore, creating two separate containers—one configured with Compression Only (for the non-persistent pools) and one with Compression and Deduplication (for the persistent full clone pools)—provides the best balance of performance and capacity efficiency (Option D).

AHV Xi PC plug-in is used for when Prism Central resides in Xi Cloud. Prism Central is a management plane that provides centralized control and visibility across multiple Nutanix clusters and clouds. Xi Cloud is a hybrid cloud platform that enables customers to run their applications and workloads on Nutanix infrastructure in public cloud environments such as AWS and Azure2. The AHV Xi PC plug-in allows customers to use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops with Nutanix AHV clusters running on Xi Cloud3.

Nutanix Files is a software-defined, scale-out file storage solution that provides a repository for unstructured data, such as home directories, user profiles, departmental shares, application logs, backups, and archives1. Nutanix Files also provides high availability and a unified single namespace for easy management2.

alert policies are rules that define the conditions for generating alerts on Nutanix clusters1. You can create custom alert policies based on your specific needs and preferences2Playbooks are automated workflows that perform actions based on triggers such as alerts3. You can create playbooks using predefined alerts or alerts matching criteria3.

To ensure that the vice president of IT infrastructure has the best possible experience and to be notified if any CPU resource constraints on the virtual desktop, one possible solution is to create a new alert policy to alert if the CPU on the virtual desktop is over a certain threshold (for example, 80%) and configure a playbook to send a notification (for example, via email or Slack) to the administrator23. This way, the administrator can monitor the performance of the virtual desktop and take appropriate actions if needed.

In a non-persistent VDI environment, changes to the operating system should only occur within the Golden Image (or Master Image), not on the individual provisioned VMs. If the Windows Update policy is set to Automatic within the Gold Image, the clones generated from that image will independently check for updates, download them, and attempt to install them during the user's session.

This behavior often triggers a "Restart Required" prompt to the end-user to finish installing the updates. To prevent this disruption and ensure version consistency, Nutanix and VDI best practices dictate that the Windows Update service should be disabled or set to Manual in the Gold Image. Updates should be applied administratively to the Gold Image during a maintenance window, followed by a recompose/update of the machine catalog.

gpumodeswitch is a command-line tool that is used to switch supported NVIDIA GPUs between compute and graphics mode. Compute mode allows multiple VMs to share a GPU for CUDA workloads. Graphics mode allows a single VM to use a GPU for graphics workloads12. 

When performing maintenance (such as Life Cycle Manager updates) on a Nutanix cluster hosting Omnissa (VMware) Horizon Instant Clones, specific operational steps are required to avoid provisioning failures.

Pool provisioning was not disabled (Option D): It is a mandatory best practice to disable provisioning in the Horizon Connection Server before starting cluster maintenance. If provisioning remains active, the broker attempts to create VMs on hosts that may be rebooting or entering maintenance mode, leading to error states.

The host having maintenance performed contains the replica VMs (Option C): Instant Clones rely on a "Replica" VM (a powered-on parent VM) typically residing on one of the hosts. If the host holding this Replica VM enters maintenance mode without the broker's awareness or without proper evacuation handling, the "Link" required to generate new clones is broken, causing provisioning tasks to fail immediately.

To meet the requirement of a single desktop image without "installing apps in the image and hiding them" (which excludes Application Masking, Option D), and avoiding "double-hop sessions" (which excludes Application Publishing, Option B), the correct solution is Application Layering.

Application Layering (such as Citrix App Layering or similar technologies supported on Nutanix) allows applications to be packaged into separate virtual disks (layers). These layers are attached to the OS at runtime based on user identity or group membership. This keeps the base image clean and generic while delivering specific apps to specific users, satisfying all conditions in the scenario.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) guide and NVIDIA GRID Host Driver for AHV Installation Guide:

Centralized Efficiency: The most efficient method to upgrade Nutanix clusters, including those with specialized hardware like NVIDIA GPUs, is through Prism Central (PC). Prism Central acts as the unified control plane, allowing administrators to upload the LCM bundles (including NVIDIA drivers) once and apply them across registered clusters.

LCM Workflow: The administrator should log in to Prism Central, navigate to the LCM (Life Cycle Manager) page, and use the Direct Upload feature to upload the NVIDIA GRID driver tar.gz bundle. LCM then automatically handles the inventory, pre-checks, host maintenance mode, and driver installation across the nodes in the cluster.

Why not "install_host_package" (Option D)? While the install_host_package command (CLI) is a valid method for manual installation, it is considered a legacy or fallback procedure ("manual method"). It requires logging into each CVM, running commands, and manually managing host restarts, which is far less efficient than the automated orchestration provided by LCM in Prism Central.

Why not Prism Element (Option B)? While you can perform LCM updates via Prism Element (PE) for a single cluster, Prism Central is the preferred interface for "efficient" management of the environment, especially if it scales or involves multiple clusters, and is the standard direction for all Nutanix management tasks.