NCM-MCI flashcards

34 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Nutanix cluster minimum nodes

A standard Nutanix cluster requires at least three nodes so the Cassandra metadata ring can maintain quorum; single-node plus witness is allowed only for edge/ROBO configurations.

RF2 versus RF3

Replication factor 2 keeps two copies of each extent and tolerates one failure; RF3 keeps three copies and tolerates two. RF2 needs three nodes, RF3 needs five.

Nutanix Sizer output

The Sizer tool takes VM count, vCPU, vRAM, storage capacity, IOPS, and working-set ratio and returns node model, node count, and resiliency headroom for N+1 or N+2.

Backplane network purpose

The backplane carries storage replication and CVM-to-CVM traffic between nodes. It should use a dedicated VLAN on 10 or 25 GbE links, separate from management and guest traffic.

Cluster VIP versus CVM IP

The cluster VIP is the single management address used to reach Prism Element. Each node also has its own CVM IP and hypervisor IP for direct access.

Foundation imaging workflow

Foundation discovers nodes over IPMI/Redfish, assigns hypervisor type, sets cluster name, VIP, CVM subnet, and IPs, then images the nodes and creates the cluster.

Registering cluster to Prism Central

From Prism Element, use Register to Prism Central and supply the Prism Central VIP and credentials. The cluster then appears as a registered cluster under PC management.

Prism Central projects

Projects in Prism Central scope VM ownership, resource quotas, and role-based access for a defined set of users and categories, separating tenants or teams.

AHV OVS bridges

AHV uses Open vSwitch. br0 carries management traffic, and each VLAN-backed network maps to an OVS bridge that tags traffic with its VLAN ID on the uplink.

Flow Network Security enforcement

Flow policies are enforced in the AHV host kernel through OVS, so east-west traffic between VMs is filtered even when both VMs run on the same host.

Flow policy precedence

Flow evaluates quarantine policies first, then isolation policies, then application policies. Within a policy type, the most specific matching rule determines the action.

VXLAN overlay in AHV

AHV overlay networking encapsulates tenant traffic in VXLAN with a unique VNI per virtual network, requiring VTEP configuration on host uplinks.

Extent and vBlock sizing

AOS writes data as 1 MB extents grouped into 4 MB vBlocks. Replication is applied per extent across fault domains such as nodes or blocks.

Cassandra metadata ring

Cluster metadata is stored in Cassandra with three replicas regardless of the container replication factor, which is why three nodes are needed for quorum.

Erasure coding requirements

Erasure coding stripes data across four or more nodes, reducing capacity overhead compared with RF2. It is applied to cold data and requires a minimum of four nodes.

Storage container settings

A container defines replication factor, compression, deduplication, and erasure coding for the vDisks placed in it. Settings can be changed online.

Protection domain purpose

A protection domain groups VMs for snapshot scheduling and replication to a remote cluster or cloud, defining RPO through its snapshot interval.

Metro Availability RPO

Metro Availability uses synchronous replication between two clusters or a stretched cluster with a witness, providing near-zero RPO for disaster recovery.

NearSync replication

NearSync provides continuous replication between clusters with an RPO as low as one minute, sitting between async snapshot DR and fully synchronous Metro Availability.

Redirect-on-write snapshots

Nutanix snapshots are metadata-only redirect-on-write copies. They consume capacity only as the source data changes after the snapshot is taken.

Nutanix Guest Tools

NGT is a guest package that enables VSS-consistent snapshots, self-service file restore, and file-level restore for VMs running on AHV or ESXi.

VM categories

Categories are key-value tags applied to VMs. They are used as targets for Flow policies, protection domains, and Prism Central policies.

AHV live migration

AHV can live-migrate running VMs between hosts. Entering maintenance mode on a host automatically evacuates its VMs to other hosts in the cluster.

Affinity policies

Prism Central affinity policies keep specified VMs together on the same host or apart on different hosts, supporting performance or availability requirements.

RBAC role mapping

A role is a set of privileges. A role mapping binds an Active Directory group or local user to a role and a scope such as a project or category.

Cluster Lockdown

Cluster Lockdown restricts CVM SSH access to an approved host list and disables password logins in favor of key-based authentication for administrative access.

Data-at-rest encryption

Nutanix encryption protects data on self-encrypting drives or via software encryption. Keys are managed by the cluster or an external key management server.

Prism audit logs

Prism Central records user actions in audit logs, which can be reviewed in the UI or exported to a syslog server for long-term retention.

Stargate service role

Stargate runs on each CVM and serves storage I/O for the node. High Stargate CPU or CVM network saturation commonly causes VM storage latency.

NCC health checks

Nutanix Cluster Check runs automated health checks on disks, CVM memory, time drift, and configuration. Run it before and after upgrades.

Prism Analysis metrics

Prism Element Analysis displays cluster IOPS, latency, and throughput with drill-down to one-minute granularity, defaulting to the last hour of data.

Prism v3 API

The Prism v3 API is RESTful with JSON payloads, authenticated by basic auth or API keys, with endpoints rooted under /api/nutanix/v3/.

Nutanix Calm blueprints

Calm, part of Prism Central, provisions multi-tier applications from blueprints that define VM and cloud resources, dependencies, and lifecycle actions.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters

NC2 runs AOS and AHV on bare-metal instances in AWS or Azure, managed from Prism Central alongside on-premises clusters for a hybrid operating model.