NA-CLTM study plan

Map the Nutanix Cloud Platform product stack (Prism, AOS, AHV, Files, Objects, NDB, Frame, NC2) into a one-page diagram showing which layer each component occupies

Explain the difference between a storage pool, a container, and a volume group, and state which workloads each is suited to

Describe how Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric achieves resilience: replication factor, checksums, and rebuild behavior after a node loss

Define the core terms hyperconverged infrastructure, controller VM, and data locality, and explain why locality matters for read performance

Compare Nutanix replication factor 2 and 3 in terms of usable capacity and failure tolerance, and calculate usable capacity for a 4-node cluster with 8 TB per node at each setting

Explain erasure coding (EC-X) and state when it is appropriate versus when replication is preferred

Trace the write path from a guest VM through the controller VM to the storage tier, naming each hop

Distinguish hybrid and all-flash configurations and predict the performance implications of each for a mixed workload

Create and configure a VM in AHV: attach disks, assign networks, set categories, and apply an affinity policy

Explain the role of Prism Element versus Prism Central and list three tasks that can only be done in Prism Central

Describe live migration and high availability behavior in AHV, including what triggers an automatic restart

Configure a protection domain or category-based protection policy and verify that snapshots are being taken

Interpret Prism health checks and alerts: identify what a given alert means and the first diagnostic step

Explain LCM (Lifecycle Manager) and describe how firmware and AOS upgrades are staged and validated

Use the Prism Central or Prism Element REST API to authenticate and retrieve a list of VMs with a scripted call

Explain the role of Nutanix Calm blueprints in provisioning multi-tier applications

Describe role-based access control in Prism Central: built-in roles, custom roles, and how categories scope permissions

Explain how to integrate Nutanix with an external directory service for authentication and what changes for users after integration

Compare network security controls available in AHV, including security policies and microsegmentation concepts

Identify the compliance and data-at-rest encryption capabilities of the platform and what each protects against

Distinguish snapshots, clones, and backups in Nutanix and state the recovery use case for each

Explain asynchronous replication between clusters and calculate an RPO given a replication schedule

Describe how Nutanix Leap supports planned and unplanned failover, and what a recovery plan contains

Outline a disaster recovery test plan that validates RTO without disrupting production

Walk through cluster expansion: pre-checks, what happens to data distribution, and post-expansion verification

Explain how to interpret capacity runway and when to recommend adding nodes versus rebalancing workloads

Summarize the operational differences between managing one cluster and managing many through Prism Central

Review weak areas from weeks 1 through 6 and list the five concepts still least solid

Complete a timed full-length practice set and score each domain separately

Re-teach the two lowest-scoring domains aloud or in writing without reference material

Revisit the week 7 gap list and confirm each item is now explainable in under a minute

Finalize a one-page cheat sheet of formulas, defaults, and command syntax you keep forgetting