NPS case studies
NPS · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Nutanix Platform Specialist (NPS) credential is aimed at IT professionals who design, deploy, and operate Nutanix hyperconverged environments day to day - typically systems administrators, virtualization engineers, and data-centre operations staff who already touch AHV, Prism, and the cluster's storage layer rather than candidates meeting the platform for the first time. The exam tests breadth across the whole stack rather than deep specialisation in one corner: how a cluster is architected and how nodes, disks, and metadata interact; how the distributed storage fabric stores and protects data through replication and policies; how virtual networking and the virtual switch are configured and segmented; how VMs are created, migrated, and retired on AHV; how Prism Element and Prism Central divide management responsibilities; and how to read cluster health signals, raise support cases, and work through a fault methodically. The NPS case studies are 5 cases and about 3,108 words.
1RF3 Request on a Five-Node Cluster That Cannot Absorb a Node Failure
A five-node NX cluster runs AOS with AHV. Each node has six 1.92 TB SSDs, giving roughly 57.6 TB of raw cluster capacity; Prism Element reports about 26.5 TB of usable capacity at RF2 after metadata, CVM, and curator reserves.
627 words, about 3 min2LACP Bond on Switches With No Port-Channel, Plus an Untagged VLAN
A three-node AHV cluster was built by a network team that wanted maximum throughput. Each host has two 10 GbE interfaces, one cabled to ToR-A and one to ToR-B; the two switches are standalone with no MLAG or stacking.
651 words, about 3 min3A VM That Cannot Migrate During Maintenance Mode
A six-node AHV cluster is scheduled for an AOS upgrade. Node C hosts two unusual VMs.
600 words, about 3 min4VMs Missing From a Scheduled Protection Domain
Prism Central manages three clusters: Prod-A, Prod-B, and DR-C. The finance team is protected by an RF2 protection domain named PD-Finance with a schedule that takes a local snapshot and replicates to DR-C every four hours.
593 words, about 3 min5Stalled Rebuild and Slow I/O After a Disk Replacement
A four-node cluster running AOS with RF2 had a disk failure on node 3. The drive was replaced and the cluster recognized the new disk, but Curator's rebuild has sat at 38% for six hours.
637 words, about 3 min