Nutanix NCP-MCI-6.10 - Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI v6.10)

Dead VMs and Zombie VMs are different classifications of inactive VMs in Nutanix, and their deletion timelines depend on Playbook configuration.

Dead VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option C is correct).

Zombie VMs→ Consideredinactive after 30 days, then must wait99 more daysbefore deletion.

Total time: 30 + 99 = 129 days.

(Option B is correct).

Before performing any LCM (Life Cycle Manager) updates on a Nutanix cluster, it is essential to ensure that the AOS (Acropolis Operating System) is updated to the required or recommended version. AOS updates provide foundational enhancements, security patches, and compatibility improvements, which are critical for the successful execution of LCM updates.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“LCM updates depend on the underlying AOS version. Before proceeding with any hardware or software updates through LCM, administrators must ensure that the cluster is running a supported AOS version. This step ensures compatibility and prevents issues that can arise from dependencies between AOS and the update components.”

Additionally:

“AOS upgrades should be performed first to bring the cluster to a version that supports the desired LCM updates for components like BIOS, firmware, and hypervisors. This aligns the management stack with the latest features and security enhancements.”

Therefore, updating AOS before performing LCM updates is a mandatory prerequisite to ensure stability and supportability for the entire cluster lifecycle management process.

The LCM (Life Cycle Manager) precheck failures in this scenario indicate an inability to connect to vCenter to validate ESXi-specific checks, such as LACP configuration, HA, and pinned VMs. The appropriate log to analyze the details of the LCM precheck failures is the 1cm_ops.out log.

From theNutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA)course materials:

“The 1cm_ops.out log file contains detailed output and error information related to LCM operations, including prechecks, execution, and post-checks. This log is essential for troubleshooting LCM framework failures and understanding the root cause of any issues preventing upgrades.”

The requirement states:

• Custom apps use Volume Groups

• VM + VG must remain consistent together

• Lowest possible RPO is required (RPO → 0)

• Must survive cluster failure

Nutanix data protection documentation clearly states:

“Synchronous replication provides an RPO of zero by ensuring every write is committed on both sites before acknowledgement.”

Additionally:

“When protecting application VMs using Volume Groups, both the VM and the Volume Group must be placed in the same Consistency Group to ensure write-order fidelity and to preserve database or application integrity during failover.”

This is critical because Volume Groups operate at the block layer, and placing them in separate groups breaks atomic write-order correctness.

Option analysis:

A. Metro AHV provides HA-style zero RPO but is not the required mechanism here because the question specifically references protection policies and VGs, which Metro does not orchestrate in the same way.

B. Synchronous replication alone is not sufficient unless VMs and VGs are inside the same consistency group.

C. This is the correct and complete solution: synchronous replication + consistency grouping ensures RPO0 and atomic updates.

D. NearSync has RPO 1–15 minutes, not the lowest possible RPO.

Therefore, placing both VMs and VGs in the same consistency group under Synchronous Replication is the correct method.

Nutanix Protection Policies replicate VM data between clusters using Nutanix’s built-in data protection engine. For inter-site or cloud-based replication, Nutanix documentation specifies that replication traffic can be encrypted using the Data-in-Transit Encryption feature. The internal description states:

“Data-in-Transit Encryption secures replication traffic moving between clusters by encrypting data packets before transmission across external or untrusted networks.”

This is distinct from Data-at-Rest Encryption, which protects stored data on disks but does not secure network traffic. Self-encrypting drives and secure boot only protect the VM locally, not the replication path. Because replication to NC2 travels over the Internet, encryption of the transport channel is mandatory to meet security compliance.

Therefore, the required capability is Data-in-Transit Encryption.

BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) updates can be applied per-node in Nutanix LCM, unlike AOS or AHV, which require cluster-wide upgrades.

Option B (BMC) is correct:

BMC firmwarecontrols remote management and power cycling of individual nodes.

Updating BMCdoes not impact the entire clusterand can be done per node.

Option A (AOS) is incorrect:

AOS upgrades affect the entire clusterand require cluster-wide consistency.

Option C (NCC) is incorrect:

NCC updatesapply across all nodes simultaneously, ensuring uniformity in checks.

Option D (AHV) is incorrect:

AHV updates require coordinated upgrades across hoststo maintain VM availability.

The Intelligent Operations and Analysis Dashboard in Prism Central supports generating ad-hoc reports. These reports are temporary artifacts and are not designed for long-term storage. Internal documentation states, “Generated reports are retained for 24 hours and then automatically purged by the system to prevent report accumulation and data bloat.” This automatic cleanup is part of the reporting subsystem and applies regardless of user role or storage location. The reports are not stored in Prism Element, nor are they archived automatically. Therefore, after the 24-hour retention window, the system removes them, explaining why the user could not find the previously generated report.

Metro Availability in Nutanix requires that the primary and secondary storage containers be configured identicallyto ensuredata replication consistency.

Option C (The destination storage container is not empty) is correct:

Theremote storage container must be emptybefore Metro Availability can be enabled.

Existing data can cause conflictsand prevent it from appearing in the "Compatible Remote Sites" list.

Option D (Both storage containers must have the same name) is correct:

Metro Availability requires thatstorage containers have identical names across clusters.

If namesdo not match, thestorage container will not be listed as compatible.

Option A is incorrect: Metro Availability works regardless of hardware vendor differences.

Option B is incorrect:Compression does not affect compatibilitybut may impact performance.