Nutanix Certified Master - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCM-MCI) : NCM-MCI-6.10

Correct Answer:

See the Explanation for step by step solution.
Explanation:
To configure the storage for the Citrix-based VDI, you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Central using the credentials provided.
Go to Storage > Storage Pools and click on Create Storage Pool.
Enter a name for the new storage pool, such as VDI_Storage_Pool, and select the disks to include in the pool.
You can choose any combination of SSDs and HDDs, but for optimal performance, you may prefer to use more SSDs than HDDs.
Click Save to create the storage pool.
Go to Storage > Containers and click on Create Container.
Enter a name for the new container for the non-persistent pool, such as MCS_Pool_Container, and select the storage pool that you just created, VDI_Storage_Pool, as the source.
Under Advanced Settings, enable Deduplication and Compression to reduce the storage footprint of the non- persistent desktops. You can also enable Erasure Coding if you have enough nodes in your cluster and want to save more space. These settings will help you optimize the storage capacity for the non-persistent pool.
Click Save to create the container.
Go to Storage > Containers and click on Create Container again.
Enter a name for the new container for the persistent pool, such as Persist_Pool_Container, and select the same storage pool, VDI_Storage_Pool, as the source.
Under Advanced Settings, enable Capacity Reservation and enter 20 GiB as the reserved capacity. This will guarantee that 20 GiB of space is always available for the persistent desktops. You can also enter 100 GiB as the advertised capacity to limit the maximum space that this container can use. These settings will help you control the storage allocation for the persistent pool.
Click Save to create the container.
Go to Storage > Datastores and click on Create Datastore.
Enter a name for the new datastore for the non-persistent pool, such as MCS_Pool_Datastore, and select NFS as the datastore type. Select the container that you just created, MCS_Pool_Container, as the source.
Click Save to create the datastore.
Go to Storage > Datastores and click on Create Datastore again.
Enter a name for the new datastore for the persistent pool, such as Persist_Pool_Datastore, and select NFS as the datastore type. Select the container that you just created, Persist_Pool_Container, as the source.
Click Save to create the datastore.
The datastores will be automatically mounted on all nodes in the cluster. You can verify this by going to Storage > Datastores and clicking on each datastore. You should see all nodes listed under Hosts.
You can now use Citrix Studio to create your VDI pools using MCS or full clones on these datastores. For more information on how to use Citrix Studio with Nutanix Acropolis, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on Nutanix or Nutanix virtualization environments.


https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=BP-2079-Citrix-Virtual-Apps-and- Desktops:bp-nutanix-storage-configuration.html

Correct Answer:

See the Explanation for step by step solution.
Explanation:
To correct the issue of cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196) in the least disruptive manner, you need to do the following steps:
Log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to the Alerts page and click on the alert to see more details.
You will see which cluster services are down on the Controller VM. For example, it could be cassandra, curator, stargate, etc.
To start the cluster services, you need to SSH to the Controller VM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the Controller VM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.
txt.
Once you are logged in to the Controller VM, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This will show you which services are down on the Controller VM.
To start the cluster services, run the command:
cluster start
This will start all the cluster services on the Controller VM.
To verify that the cluster services are running, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This should show no output, indicating that all services are up.
To clear the alert, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To meet the security requirements for cluster level security, you need to do the following steps:
To update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the node using the root user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the node. You will need the IP address and the password of the root user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\root.txt.
Once you are logged in to the node, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the root user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the CVM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the CVM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.
Once you are logged in to the CVM, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the nutanix user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To resolve the alert that is being reported, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To output the cluster-wide configuration of SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > SCMA Policy and click on View Policy Details. This will show you the current settings of SCMA policy for each entity type.
Copy and paste these settings into a new text file named Desktop\Files\output.txt.
To enable AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > AIDE Configuration and click on Enable AIDE. This will enable AIDE to monitor file system changes on all CVMs and nodes in the cluster.
Select Weekly as the frequency of AIDE scans and click Save.
To enable high-strength password policies for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Password Policy and click on Edit Policy. This will allow you to modify the password policy settings for each entity type.
For each entity type (Admin User, Console User, CVM User, and Host User), select High Strength as the password policy level and click Save.
To ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Cluster Lockdown and click on Configure Lockdown. This will allow you to manage SSH access settings for the cluster.
Uncheck Enable Remote Login with Password. This will disable password-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click New Public Key and enter a name for the key and paste the public key value from Desktop\Files\SSH\id_rsa.pub. This will add a public key for key-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click Save and Apply Lockdown. This will apply the changes and ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords.
Part1
Enter CVM ssh and execute:
cluster status | grep -v UP
cluster start
If there are issues starting some services, check the following:
Check if the node is in maintenance mode by running the ncli host ls command on the CVM. Verify if the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to False for the node where the services are down. If the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to True, remove the node from maintenance mode by running the following command:
nutanix@cvm$ ncli host edit id=<host id> enable-maintenance-mode=false
You can determine the host ID by using ncli host ls.
See the troubleshooting topics related to failed cluster services in the Advanced Administration Guide available from the Nutanix Portal's Software Documentation page. (Use the filters to search for the guide for your AOS version). These topics have information about common and AOS-specific logs, such as Stargate, Cassandra, and other modules.
Check for any latest FATALs for the service that is down. The following command prints all the FATALs for a CVM. Run this command on all CVMs.
nutanix@cvm$ for i in `svmips`; do echo "CVM: $i"; ssh $i "ls -ltr /home/nutanix/data/logs/*.FATAL"; done NCC Health Check: cluster_services_down_check (nutanix.com) Part2 Vlad Drac2023-06-05T13:22:00.86I'll update this one with a smaller, if possible, command Update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin root"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM sudo passwd nutanix Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Output Example:
nutanix@NTNX-372a19a3-A-CVM:10.35.150.184:~$ ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Enable Aide : false Enable Core : false Enable High Strength P... : false Enable Banner : false Schedule : DAILY Enable iTLB Multihit M... : false Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-aide=true
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params schedule=weekly
Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008gb3CAA

Correct Answer:

See the Explanation below for detailed answer.
Explanation:
Here is the step-by-step solution to all three tasks, performed within the Nutanix Prism interface.
Task 1: Create Monitoring Session & Save Metrics
* From the Prism Central dashboard, navigate to Operations > Analysis.
* Click the + New Session button.
* Name the session Monitor SQL02.
* In the "Entities" search box, type SQL01 and select VM: SQL01.
* In the "Entities" search box, type SQL02 and select VM: SQL02.
* Click Add Charts > New Chart.
* Title: Storage IOPS
* Metric: Storage Controller IOPS
* Click Add.
* Click Add Charts > New Chart.
* Title: Storage Latency
* Metric: Storage Controller Latency
* Click Add.
* Click Add Charts > New Chart.
* Title: Storage Bandwidth
* Metric: Storage Controller Bandwidth
* Click Add.
* Click Save Session.
* With the "Monitor SQL02" session open, right-click anywhere on the page and click Select All.
* Right-click again and select Copy.
* Open Notepad, paste the content, and save the file to the desktop as Task 1.txt.
(The content pasted into Task 1.txt would be the session's chart configurations, showing metrics for SQL01 and SQL02.)
Task 2: Create and Schedule the Report
* While still in the "Monitor SQL02" analysis session, click the Save as Report button (it looks like a bookmark icon).
* Name the report MonitorSQL02 and click Save.
* Navigate to Operations > Reports.
* Find the MonitorSQL02 report in the list. Select its checkbox.
* Click the Actions dropdown and select Schedule.
* Configure the schedule with the following settings:
* Schedule Name: monitovm2_daily_report
* Recurrence: Daily
* Start Time: (Set to a time, e.g., 8:00 AM)
* Repeat every: 1 day(s)
* Retention Policy: Uncheck the "Retain a copy of the report" box. (This ensures reports are not retained).
* Email Report: Check this box.
* Format: PDF
* Recipients: [email protected]
* Click Save.
Task 3: Identify and Correct the Performance Issue
This task is performed without powering on the VMs, indicating a configuration error.
Investigation
* Navigate to VMs > Table view.
* Click on the SQL01 (the good VM) and select the Configuration tab.
* Expand the Disks section. Observe that the primary disk is attached to a SCSI bus (e.g., scsi.0). This is the high-performance standard.
* Return to the VM list and click on SQL02 (the problem VM).
* Expand the Disks section.
Root Cause
You discover that the primary disk for SQL02 is attached to an IDE bus. The IDE bus has significant performance limitations and is not suitable for a database server, causing the poor storage performance.
Correction
* With the SQL02 VM selected, click the Update button.
* In the "Update VM" dialog, scroll down to the Disks section.
* Find the disk attached to the IDE bus. Click the Edit (pencil) icon for that disk.
* Change the Bus Type dropdown from IDE to SCSI.
* The Device Index will automatically populate (e.g., scsi.0).
* Click Save in the "Update Disk" dialog.
* (Note: A "VirtIO SCSI Controller" will be automatically added to the VM configuration if one was not already present.)
* Click Save in the "Update VM" dialog.
The VM SQL02 is now configured to use the high-performance VirtIO-SCSI controller, which will resolve the storage performance discrepancy once the VM is powered on.

Correct Answer:

To configure the VM to better leverage AHV Turbo, you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Element of cluster A using the credentials provided.
Go to VM > Table and select the VM named Turbo.
Click on Update and go to Hardware tab.
Increase the number of vCPUs to match the number of multiqueues that you want to enable. For example, if you want to enable 8 multiqueues, set the vCPUs to 8. This will improve the performance of multi-threaded workloads by allowing them to use multiple processors.
Change the SCSI Controller type from SATA to VirtIO. This will enable the use of VirtIO drivers, which are required for AHV Turbo.
Click Save to apply the changes.
Power off the VM if it is running and mount the Nutanix VirtIO ISO image as a CD-ROM device. You can download the ISO image from Nutanix Portal.
Power on the VM and install the latest Nutanix VirtIO drivers for Windows 10. You can follow the instructions from Nutanix Support Portal.
After installing the drivers, power off the VM and unmount the Nutanix VirtIO ISO image.
Power on the VM and log in to Windows 10.
Open a command prompt as administrator and run the following command to enable multiqueue for the VirtIO NIC:
ethtool -L eth0 combined 8
Replace eth0 with the name of your network interface and 8 with the number of multiqueues that you want to enable. You can use ipconfig /all to find out your network interface name.
Restart the VM for the changes to take effect.
You have now configured the VM to better leverage AHV Turbo. You can run your stress test application again and observe the performance gains.
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA00e000000LKPdCAOchangev
CPUto 2/4 ?
Change SATA Controller to SCSI:
acli vm.get Turbo
Output Example:
Turbo {
config {
agent_vm: False
allow_live_migrate: True
boot {
boot_device_order: "kCdrom"
boot_device_order: "kDisk"
boot_device_order: "kNetwork"
uefi_boot: False
}
cpu_passthrough: False
disable_branding: False
disk_list {
addr {
bus: "ide"
index: 0
}
cdrom: True
device_uuid: "994b7840-dc7b-463e-a9bb-1950d7138671"
empty: True
}
disk_list {
addr {
bus: "sata"
index: 0
}
container_id: 4
container_uuid: "49b3e1a4-4201-4a3a-8abc-447c663a2a3e"
device_uuid: "622550e4-fb91-49dd-8fc7-9e90e89a7b0e"
naa_id: "naa.6506b8dcda1de6e9ce911de7d3a22111"
storage_vdisk_uuid: "7e98a626-4cb3-47df-a1e2-8627cf90eae6"
vmdisk_size: 10737418240
vmdisk_uuid: "17e0413b-9326-4572-942f-68101f2bc716"
}
flash_mode: False
hwclock_timezone: "UTC"
machine_type: "pc"
memory_mb: 2048
name: "Turbo"
nic_list {
connected: True
mac_addr: "50:6b:8d:b2:a5:e4"
network_name: "network"
network_type: "kNativeNetwork"
network_uuid: "86a0d7ca-acfd-48db-b15c-5d654ff39096"
type: "kNormalNic"
uuid: "b9e3e127-966c-43f3-b33c-13608154c8bf"
vlan_mode: "kAccess"
}
num_cores_per_vcpu: 2
num_threads_per_core: 1
num_vcpus: 2
num_vnuma_nodes: 0
vga_console: True
vm_type: "kGuestVM"
}
is_rf1_vm: False
logical_timestamp: 2
state: "Off"
uuid: "9670901f-8c5b-4586-a699-41f0c9ab26c3"
}
acli vm.disk_create Turbo clone_from_vmdisk=17e0413b-9326-4572-942f-68101f2bc716 bus=scsi remove the old disk acli vm.disk_delete 17e0413b-9326-4572-942f-68101f2bc716 disk_addr=sata.0