Nutanix NCP-US key terms

A single software-defined platform that delivers file, object, and block storage services from the same Nutanix cluster, managed through Prism and governed by one set of policies.

A logical policy boundary on a Nutanix cluster that defines replication factor, compression, deduplication, and encryption settings for the vDisks and shares placed inside it.

The number of independent copies of data the cluster keeps, typically RF2 or RF3, determining how many simultaneous component failures the cluster can tolerate without data loss.

A grouping of hosts and their disks used to guarantee replicas land on independent hardware, so a single block, node, or rack failure cannot take out all copies of data.

The Nutanix scale-out NAS service that presents SMB and NFS shares from cluster nodes, with distributed metadata and data served directly by the VM hosting each share.

File Server Virtual Machine: the Nutanix VM that hosts a Files share, owns its IP address, and serves SMB or NFS traffic while participating in the distributed file system.

A Files export using the Server Message Block protocol, typically consumed by Windows clients and configured with share-level permissions plus NTFS-style access control.

A Files export using the Network File System protocol, commonly mounted by Linux and Unix clients, controlled through export policies and client host or subnet restrictions.

The access control list on a Files share that grants or denies read and change permissions to users and groups, evaluated before or alongside file-level permissions depending on protocol.

An external directory such as Active Directory or an LDAP service that Files uses to authenticate users and resolve group membership for share and file permissions.

The Nutanix S3-compatible object storage service that stores data as objects in buckets, exposed through an S3 API endpoint and managed independently of file shares.

A container for objects in the S3-compatible store, with a globally unique name inside the deployment, its own access policies, and optional versioning or lifecycle rules.

A credential pair, an identifier plus a secret, used by S3 clients to sign requests so the Objects service can authenticate the caller and apply bucket policies.

A JSON document attached to a bucket that states which principals may perform which S3 actions on which resources, evaluated to allow or deny each request.

A bucket setting that keeps every overwrite and delete as a distinct numbered version, allowing recovery of prior object contents or undeletion of removed objects.

Rules on a bucket that automatically transition or expire objects after a defined age or count, used to control storage growth and retention costs.

The Nutanix block storage service that presents a vDisk as a standards-compliant iSCSI target, letting external hosts consume cluster storage as raw LUNs.

A collection of vDisks attached to a VM or exposed through Volumes, allowing multiple LUNs to be presented together and snapshotted as one consistent unit.

The server-side endpoint in Volumes that clients log in to, identified by an IQN, with one or more LUNs mapped and access restricted by initiator allow-lists.

iSCSI Qualified Name: the globally unique identifier string used to name an iSCSI target or initiator, formatted with a reversed domain and a unique suffix.

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol: a method where the iSCSI target and initiator prove knowledge of a shared secret, preventing unauthorized hosts from logging in to a LUN.

A point-in-time, space-efficient copy of a VM, volume group, or share that records the state of its data so it can be restored or cloned later.

A schedule that defines how often snapshots are taken, how many are retained, and where they are replicated, applied to VMs or storage entities.

A named grouping of VMs, volume groups, or shares whose snapshots are scheduled and replicated together to a remote cluster or site for disaster recovery.

Copying snapshot data to a remote cluster on a schedule rather than in lockstep with writes, trading a nonzero recovery point objective for lower latency impact.

Recovery Point Objective: the maximum acceptable amount of data, measured in time, that may be lost after a failure, driven by replication or snapshot frequency.

Recovery Time Objective: the target duration within which a service must be restored after an outage, guiding failover design and runbook expectations.

The planned or unplanned activation of replicated data at a recovery site so workloads resume there, typically followed later by a failback to the primary site.

The Nutanix management plane, available as Prism Element for a single cluster and Prism Central for many clusters, used to configure storage services and view health.

The multi-cluster management console that provides centralized inventory, categories, policies, and reporting across registered Nutanix clusters and their storage services.

A generated notification about a condition such as capacity pressure, failed disk, or service degradation, with severity and recommended resolution steps shown in Prism.

An automated assessment that inspects cluster configuration and component state against best practices and flags risks such as insufficient reserve capacity or version drift.

A projection of how long remaining cluster storage will last at the current growth rate, helping administrators plan expansion before free space becomes critical.

Assigning permissions to roles and roles to users or groups, so administrative rights over clusters, shares, and buckets follow job function rather than individual accounts.

The practice of granting each account only the permissions needed for its task, minimizing the blast radius if credentials are stolen or misused.

Storing data on disk in encrypted form so physical disk removal or theft does not expose contents, using cluster-level keys managed by the platform.

The handling of encryption keys, including generation, rotation, storage in a hardware module or external server, and escrow so data remains recoverable.

Meeting external or internal requirements such as retention periods, audit logging, and access review, often demonstrated through reports and immutable retention settings.