NCP Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield NCP facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What Nutanix feature allows a storage container to access capacity from multiple Nutanix clusters? → Distributed Storage Fabric
2. In Prism Central, what is the maximum number of vCPUs that can be assigned to a single VM by default on an AHV cluster? → 128
3. How does Nutanix scale? → Add more nodes to the cluster
4. Which statement BEST describes the relationship between Certified Nutanix Professional certification and industry evolution? → Requirements evolve periodically to reflect advances in knowledge and practice
5. What is the MOST important reason for maintaining equipment maintenance logs in NCP practice? → To track maintenance history, predict failures, and demonstrate compliance
6. Which Nutanix component handles I/O operations? → Stargate
7. When documenting assessment findings in NCP practice, which approach is MOST appropriate? → Record objective findings, measurements, and observations factually
8. What does the Nutanix 'Stargate' service primarily handle? → All data I/O operations including reads, writes, and caching
9. Which statement BEST describes the relationship between Certified Nutanix Professional certification and industry evolution? → Requirements evolve periodically to reflect advances in knowledge and practice
10. In Nutanix AOS, what is a Storage Container? → A logical storage policy grouping that maps to a datastore
11. Which approach is MOST important for NCP professionals when applying technical procedures? → Adhering to established protocols while adapting to specific conditions
12. What is the FIRST step before operating any equipment in NCP practice? → Conduct a pre-operation inspection and verify safety systems
13. Which Nutanix tool detects configuration issues? → Health checks
14. In Nutanix, what is the function of 'VM anti-affinity' rules? → Ensure specified VMs run on different physical hosts
15. Which log type helps diagnose VM issues? → VM logs
16. Which Nutanix service is responsible for providing the Prism Element and Prism Central web interfaces? → Prism
17. After a successful cluster deployment, an administrator finds that CVMs cannot reach external DNS. What is the first configuration element to verify? → CVM network configuration including DNS server IPs and gateway
18. What happens to the Controller VM (CVM) I/O path when a node fails in a Nutanix cluster? → Remote CVMs on surviving nodes take over I/O for the failed node's VMs via CVM autopathing
19. What technology underpins Nutanix’s distributed storage? → Distributed Storage Fabric
20. What is metadata in Nutanix used for? → Track object and data location
21. In Nutanix, what is the minimum number of nodes required to enable Erasure Coding (EC-X)? → 4 nodes
22. What is the FIRST step before operating any equipment in NCP practice? → Conduct a pre-operation inspection and verify safety systems
23. When Nutanix compression is set to 'Inline', when does compression occur? → Immediately as data is written to disk
24. What distinguishes a Certified Nutanix Professional certified professional from a non-certified practitioner? → Certification validates competency through standardized assessment against benchmarks
25. Which foundational principle is MOST important for success in Certified Nutanix Professional? → Commitment to continuous learning, ethical practice, and quality outcomes
26. Which Nutanix configuration allows administrators to define the maximum storage capacity a single VM can consume from a container? → vDisk size limit
27. What is a key component of the Nutanix architecture? → Controller Virtual Machine (CVM)
28. Which Nutanix feature reduces storage space by encoding data with parity, tolerating failures with less overhead than full replication? → Erasure Coding (EC-X)
29. What is the purpose of a CVM IP? → To manage cluster services
30. How should Certified Nutanix Professional professionals handle equipment showing signs of malfunction during operation? → Immediately cease operation, secure the equipment, and report