Free Nutanix NCP-MCI-6.5 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 5

According to the web search results, two steps that should be taken to prepare for relocating an AHV cluster to a new datacenter during a maintenance window are:

• Shut down all user VMs in the cluster: This step is necessary to ensure that there is no data loss or corruption during the relocation process. The user VMs can be shut down either individually or in bulk by using the Prism Element web console or the acli command-line interface1.
• Stop all Nutanix Files clusters: If the AHV cluster hosts any Nutanix Files clusters, they should be stopped before relocating the cluster. Nutanix Files clusters are composed of one or more virtual machines that provide file services to clients. Stopping a Nutanix Files cluster will stop all the file server VMs and release the resources they consume2. The Nutanix Files clusters can be stopped by using the Prism Element web console or the ncli command-line interface3.

Active-Active is a bond mode that allows all uplinks in the bond to be used simultaneously for traffic transmission and reception. This bond mode provides load balancing and increased bandwidth for the AHV host and its VMs. Active-Active bond mode uses a hashing algorithm based on source MAC addresses to distribute traffic across different uplinks in the bond. Each individual VM NIC uses only a single bond member interface at a time, but multiple VM NICs are spread across different bond member interfaces. As a result, it is possible for a Nutanix AHV node with two 10 Gb interfaces to use up to 20 Gbps of network throughput, while individual VMs have a maximum throughput of 10 Gbps6.

Therefore, if an administrator needs to optimize for maximum single VM throughput, they should select Active-Active bond mode for their AHV cluster. This bond mode can be configured using Prism Element UI or manage-ovs commands on each AHV host7. No additional configuration is required on the upstream switch side, as long as the switches are interconnected physically or virtually and both uplinks trunk the same VLANs8.

According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result2, VM NICs on AHV can operate in two modes: Access and Trunked. Access NICs are the default, and allow one VLAN on the NIC. Trunked NICs allow multiple VLANs on a single NIC for VMs that are VLAN aware. If you must use trunked NICs, follow the steps described in the web search result2. Therefore, the most efficient way to have a VM on an AHV cluster with access to multiple VLANs is to update a vNIC on the VM to operate in trunked mode for all desired VLANs.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Central-Guide-Prism-v5_10:mul-pc-install-scratch-c.html

 According to the Nutanix Support & Insights web search result4, Prism Central can be installed manually on an AHV cluster by using three disk images: boot, home, and data. These disk images must be downloaded from the portal for the Prism Central VM and uploaded to an image service on the AHV cluster. The boot image contains the operating system and kernel for Prism Central. The home image contains the configuration files and logs for Prism Central. The data image contains the database and application files for Prism Central.

A bond is a logical interface that combines two or more physical interfaces on an AHV host. A bond provides high availability and load balancing for the network traffic of the host and its VMs. A bond can have different modes that determine how the traffic is distributed and how the bond handles failures of the physical interfaces. The most common bond modes are active-backup, active-active, and LACP1.

Nutanix recommends including at least two physical interfaces in every bond to ensure high availability and redundancy. If one of the physical interfaces fails or is disconnected, the other interface can take over the traffic without affecting the connectivity of the host or its VMs. Having at least two physical interfaces in a bond also allows for maintenance operations such as firmware upgrades or cable replacements without downtime2.

Nutanix does not recommend including NIC models from different vendors in the same bond, as this may cause compatibility issues or performance degradation. Nutanix also does not recommend using only one physical interface in a bond, as this provides no redundancy or load balancing benefits3.

According to the Nutanix Prism Element Guide, Prism Element uses a single SSL certificate on a Nutanix cluster. The certificate is used to secure the communication between the web browser and the Prism web console. The certificate is also used to authenticate the cluster to external services, such as Active Directory, SMTP, and SNMP. The certificate can be either self-signed or signed by a trusted certificate authority (CA). The certificate can be replaced or renewed through the Prism web console or the ncli command-line interface.