NCP Storage Management and Data Services 2

Question 1

Which Nutanix service is responsible for managing metadata and ensuring data locality on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Cassandra

Answer

Cassandra is the distributed metadata store in Nutanix AOS that tracks the location of all data blocks across the cluster, enabling fast lookups and data locality.

Question 2

What is the primary purpose of Nutanix Shadow Clones?

Accepted Answer

To cache frequently read VM disks on local nodes to reduce network I/O

Answer

Shadow Clones cache read-only VM disk data locally on nodes that frequently access it, reducing cross-node network traffic and improving read performance.

Question 3

What does the Stargate service in Nutanix AOS primarily handle?

Accepted Answer

All data I/O operations including reads and writes

Answer

Stargate is the data I/O gateway service in AOS that handles all read and write operations, applying storage policies like compression, deduplication, and replication.

Question 4

In Nutanix, what is the minimum number of nodes required to enable Erasure Coding (EC-X)?

Accepted Answer

4 nodes

Answer

EC-X requires a minimum of 4 nodes in the cluster because it needs to distribute data strips and parity blocks across enough nodes to achieve meaningful fault tolerance.

Question 5

Which Nutanix protocol allows VMs to access block storage volumes directly, bypassing the hypervisor datastore?

Accepted Answer

iSCSI

Answer

Nutanix Volumes (formerly Acropolis Block Services) exposes iSCSI LUNs that can be attached directly to VMs or physical hosts, enabling block-level access to Nutanix storage.

(NCP) Certified Nutanix Professional Practice Test

(NCP) Certified Nutanix Professional Practice Test

NCP Storage Management and Data Services 2