Nutanix Exam Nutanix NCP 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Nutanix AOS, what does the 'Pithos' service manage?
- VM live migration between hosts
- vDisk and storage container metadata (Correct answer)
- Network policy enforcement for VMs
- Cluster upgrade orchestration
Correct answer: vDisk and storage container metadata
Pithos manages vDisk (virtual disk) metadata and is responsible for tracking disk extents, snapshots, and container relationships within the Nutanix storage fabric.
Question 2: Which Nutanix feature provides object storage with an S3-compatible API for unstructured data such as backups, archives, and media files?
- Nutanix Files
- Nutanix Volumes
- Nutanix Objects (Correct answer)
- Nutanix Era
Correct answer: Nutanix Objects
Nutanix Objects provides S3-compatible object storage natively on Nutanix clusters, enabling applications to store and retrieve unstructured data using standard S3 APIs.
Question 3: When upgrading Nutanix AOS using the 1-Click Upgrade feature, what is the correct upgrade sequence for cluster components?
- AOS → AHV → Firmware (Correct answer)
- Firmware → AHV → AOS
- AHV → AOS → Firmware
- AOS → Firmware → AHV
Correct answer: AOS → AHV → Firmware
The recommended Nutanix upgrade order is AOS first, then AHV hypervisor, then node firmware, ensuring compatibility and cluster stability throughout the process.
Question 4: In Nutanix, what is the primary difference between a 'Volume Group' and a 'Storage Container'?
- Volume Groups are for VMs only; Containers are for physical servers
- Volume Groups provide block storage via iSCSI; Containers provide NFS-based VM storage (Correct answer)
- Volume Groups support deduplication; Containers do not
- Volume Groups are managed by Prism Central; Containers by Prism Element only
Correct answer: Volume Groups provide block storage via iSCSI; Containers provide NFS-based VM storage
Volume Groups expose block storage over iSCSI for external servers or applications requiring raw block access, while Storage Containers provide NFS-based distributed storage for AHV VMs.
Question 5: Which Nutanix service provides SMB and NFS file shares as a scale-out file server solution running directly on the Nutanix cluster?
- Nutanix Objects
- Nutanix Volumes
- Nutanix Files (Correct answer)
- Nutanix Calm
Correct answer: Nutanix Files
Nutanix Files (formerly Acropolis File Services) delivers scale-out SMB and NFS file services natively on Nutanix, eliminating the need for dedicated NAS appliances.
Question 6: What happens to a Nutanix cluster's ability to serve I/O when the cluster loses quorum due to multiple simultaneous node failures?
- The cluster continues operating normally with reduced performance
- The cluster enters a read-only mode to prevent data corruption
- The cluster stops serving I/O to protect data integrity (Correct answer)
- Prism Central automatically fails over I/O to a remote site
Correct answer: The cluster stops serving I/O to protect data integrity
When a Nutanix cluster loses quorum (more than the tolerable number of node failures), it stops serving I/O to prevent split-brain scenarios and data corruption.
Question 7: In Nutanix Prism Central, which capability allows administrators to run pre-defined operational procedures—such as adding nodes or resolving alerts—through an automated workflow?
- Playbooks (Correct answer)
- Blueprints
- Categories
- Projects
Correct answer: Playbooks
Nutanix Playbooks in Prism Central allow administrators to define and automate operational workflows triggered by alerts or scheduled events, reducing manual intervention.
Nutanix Exam Nutanix NCP 5
In Nutanix AOS, what does the 'Pithos' service manage?