Free Practice Questions for Nutanix NCSE-Core Exam

Understanding the Prospect's Pain Points:

The prospect faces issues with application downtime during upgrades and struggles with infrastructure resource planning for a growing development environment.

Success Criteria Selection:

Integrated Reporting on Resource Utilization Trends:

Explanation: This helps the prospect in better planning and managing their infrastructure resources by providing insights into utilization trends and capacity planning.

A prospect is replacing a 3-tier virtualization infrastructure composed of several ESXi hosts and a SAN. They recently purchased a new 4-socket server to host their SQL server workload using the same SAN. Here is how Acropolis Block Services (ABS) allows them to continue using their new server without buying another SAN:

Requirement Analysis:The prospect needs to utilize their new server with the existing SAN without purchasing additional SAN hardware.

Feature Analysis:

Heterogeneous clusters: This feature allows mixing different types of nodes in a Nutanix cluster but does not specifically address the need to leverage an existing SAN.

Acropolis Block Services (ABS): ABS enables Nutanix clusters to provide block storage directly to external physical or virtual machines over iSCSI. This would allow the new 4-socket server to use the existing SAN storage as if it were local storage.

Virtual Fiber Channel Controller: This would require specific hardware support and might not align with the existing infrastructure.

Acropolis Container Services (ACS): ACS provides persistent storage for containerized applications and does not specifically address the need for utilizing an existing SAN with the new server.

Conclusion:ABS is the appropriate feature as it allows the new 4-socket server to access the existing SAN storage over iSCSI, integrating it seamlessly into the Nutanix environment without additional SAN purchases.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Acropolis Block Services (ABS)​

Nutanix and SAP Partnership:

Explanation: Nutanix is recognized as a SAP Global Technology Partner, indicating a strong, collaborative relationship with SAP for providing integrated solutions.

Nutanix Security Configuration Management Automation (SCMA) reduces the effort required to assess and maintain the security of Nutanix infrastructure by automating security compliance checking and remediation. SCMA continuously monitors the configuration of Nutanix CVMs and AHV hosts against documented security baselines (e.g., STIGs). If any non-compliance is detected, SCMA automatically remediates the settings to align with the defined security standards without requiring manual intervention from administrators. This ensures that the cluster remains compliant with security policies throughout its lifecycle, thereby significantly reducing the effort and overhead associated with security management.

References:

Nutanix Bible

In the Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric, write I/O that is deemed sequential first enters the Oplog. The Oplog is designed to handle high-throughput write operations efficiently by temporarily storing the incoming writes before they are later consolidated and written to the extent store.

References:

Nutanix Bible

When using the Sizer in Automatic mode, it can provide various configurations based on the specified workload and capacity requirements. The following configurations are possible:

6x NX-8055-G7:

Each node has 2 x 7.68TB SSDs and 10x 6TB HDDs.

This configuration balances high-performance SSDs with large-capacity HDDs, suitable for mixed workload environments.

4x NX-1075S-G7 + 4x NX-8035-G7:

NX-1075S-G7 nodes have 4x 3.85TB SSDs each.

NX-8035-G7 nodes have 6x 3.84TB SSDs each.

This combination provides high SSD storage capacity across different node types, optimized for performance-intensive workloads.

References:

Nutanix Sizer Documentation: Details on how the Sizer tool calculates and recommends configurations.

Nutanix Hardware Specifications: Specifications for different node models and their storage capabilities.

Nutanix Era is the most appropriate product for the given scenario. It simplifies and automates database management, including the provisioning and management of PostgreSQL databases. With Era, the online retailer can efficiently manage multiple database instances and copies, significantly reducing storage capacity demands through features like space-efficient snapshots and cloning capabilities .

POC Requirements:

Measure recovery time from power loss, the impact of running multiple workloads, and peak storage performance.

The results need to be presented to the CIO.

Tool Selection:

X-Ray: Nutanix X-Ray is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking tool designed specifically for Nutanix environments. It includes pre-defined scenarios for various testing requirements.

Explanation:

X-Ray Scenarios: X-Ray comes with built-in scenarios that cover various aspects of performance, resiliency, and workload impact. This ensures that the tests are standardized and reliable.

PDF Report: X-Ray generates detailed PDF reports that can be directly presented to stakeholders, such as the CIO, providing a clear and professional summary of the test results.

Outcome:

Using X-Ray with its included scenarios will provide the most reliable and comprehensive testing environment, reducing the room for error and ensuring the results are presented in a professional format.

References: Refer to Nutanix documentation on X-Ray and its usage for performance testing and benchmarking.

The main function of Oplog in Nutanix is to act as a persistent write buffer to coalesce bursts of random writes before they are destaged to the extent store. This mechanism improves write performance and reduces latency by temporarily storing write operations in a fast, dedicated buffer before committing them to the slower, persistent storage​​​​.

A prospective customer wants to build a private cloud and provision workloads across multiple public cloud providers but lacks the time and skillset for on-premises infrastructure management. Here is the detailed explanation of the features qualifying this project as a Nutanix opportunity:

Requirement Analysis:

Private cloud setup.

Provisioning across multiple public clouds.

Limited time and skillset for managing on-premises infrastructure.

Feature Analysis:

Flow: Provides network micro-segmentation and security, but does not directly address cloud management or simplicity in operations.

Calm: Nutanix Calm provides application automation and lifecycle management, enabling easy provisioning and management of applications across private and public clouds.

Cloud Connect: Facilitates backup and recovery to public clouds, not specifically for provisioning and ongoing management.

All Flash Nodes: Improves performance but does not address cloud management or ease of use.

Prism 1-Click operations: Offers simplified, automated management and operational tasks through a single interface, reducing the complexity and time required for infrastructure management.

Conclusion:Nutanix Calm and Prism 1-Click operations are the most relevant features as they enable seamless multi-cloud provisioning and management while simplifying the management of on-premises infrastructure.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation​​

Nutanix Prism documentation​