NCP Cluster Deployment and Configuration 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An administrator is deploying a Nutanix cluster and wants to use a non-default MTU of 9000 for storage traffic. When must this be configured?
- After the first VM is created
- Before Foundation begins imaging the nodes (Correct answer)
- After cluster creation but before adding storage pools
- During the Prism cluster expansion wizard
Correct answer: Before Foundation begins imaging the nodes
Jumbo frames (MTU 9000) must be configured on the physical switch ports before Foundation runs, as Foundation validates network connectivity during imaging.
Question 2: Which Nutanix feature allows a single physical cluster to be logically divided into isolated groups of nodes for different workloads?
- Storage Pools
- Availability Zones (Correct answer)
- Host Affinity Policies
- Node Segmentation
Correct answer: Availability Zones
Availability Zones in Prism Central allow logical grouping of nodes within or across clusters to provide fault domain isolation for different workloads.
Question 3: What is the recommended approach when replacing a failed node in a Nutanix cluster to avoid data loss?
- Immediately remove the failed node and add a new one without waiting
- Wait for cluster redundancy to be restored before removing the failed node (Correct answer)
- Re-image the failed node using Foundation while it is still in the cluster
- Manually copy all data to the new node before removing the failed one
Correct answer: Wait for cluster redundancy to be restored before removing the failed node
Best practice is to wait until the cluster has rebuilt redundancy (data is re-replicated to surviving nodes) before physically replacing the failed node.
Question 4: Which storage container setting enables thin provisioning and allows VMs to consume more logical space than is physically available?
- Compression
- Deduplication
- Advertised Capacity (Correct answer)
- Erasure Coding
Correct answer: Advertised Capacity
The Advertised Capacity setting in a storage container sets the maximum capacity reported to VMs, enabling thin provisioning by presenting more space than physically exists.
Question 5: When deploying Nutanix clusters across multiple racks for rack-level fault tolerance, which configuration must be applied?
- Enable stretched cluster mode in Prism
- Configure fault domains using node-to-rack mapping (Correct answer)
- Set RF3 as the default replication factor
- Enable Metro Availability between racks
Correct answer: Configure fault domains using node-to-rack mapping
Fault domains must be configured to map nodes to their physical racks, allowing Nutanix to ensure replicas are placed on nodes in different racks.
Question 6: An administrator runs 'ncc health_checks run_all' after cluster deployment and sees a warning about NTP sync. Why is NTP critical for Nutanix clusters?
- NTP controls storage tiering schedules
- Distributed services rely on synchronized clocks for consistency and log correlation (Correct answer)
- NTP is required for VM live migration
- Prism Element licensing validation uses NTP timestamps
Correct answer: Distributed services rely on synchronized clocks for consistency and log correlation
Nutanix's distributed services like Zookeeper and Cassandra require synchronized clocks to maintain consistency, ordering, and accurate log correlation across nodes.
Question 7: What is the function of the 'Prism Element Virtual IP' configured during cluster setup?
- It provides load balancing for CVM storage traffic
- It is a floating management IP that always points to the current Prism leader CVM (Correct answer)
- It serves as the gateway for external replication traffic
- It enables IPMI access across all nodes from a single address
Correct answer: It is a floating management IP that always points to the current Prism leader CVM
The Prism Element Virtual IP floats to whichever CVM is currently the Prism leader, ensuring management access remains available even if individual CVMs are down.
NCP Cluster Deployment and Configuration 4
An administrator is deploying a Nutanix cluster and wants to use a non-default MTU of 9000 for storage traffic.
When must this be configured?