NCSE-Core Nutanix Certified Systems Engineer-Core (NCSE-Core 6.8) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The Curator service in a Nutanix cluster is responsible for distributing storage optimization tasks. This includes managing and distributing tasks such as disk balancing, proactive scrubbing, compression, deduplication, and erasure coding.

Task Distribution: Curator runs on every node and is controlled by an elected Curator Leader who is responsible for task and job delegation.

Scan Types: Curator performs full scans every six hours and partial scans every hour to ensure optimal storage performance and resource utilization.

Optimization Activities: The service ensures efficient data placement and storage utilization across the cluster.

References:

Nutanix Bible: Provides an in-depth explanation of Curator and its role in the cluster​​.

Nutanix Documentation: Further details on the operations and management of Curator tasks.

When providing a quote for a hybrid cluster to a customer with an existing vSAN ReadyNode quote, it is essential to avoid sizing solely based on the competitor's bill of materials for the following reasons:

Customer Requirements:

No Visibility to Actual Requirements: Sizing based on competitor's specifications without understanding the customer's specific requirements can lead to suboptimal solutions. The customer’s workload characteristics, performance expectations, and future growth plans must be considered.

Competitor Assumptions:

Unknown Assumptions: The assumptions made in the competitor's sizing, such as expected workload intensity, redundancy needs, and performance criteria, are not clear. These assumptions can vary significantly and may not align with the actual needs of the customer.

Customized Solution:

A tailored solution based on a thorough assessment using tools like Nutanix Sizer and Nutanix Collector ensures the configuration meets the specific performance, capacity, and resilience requirements of the customer.

References:

Nutanix Sizing Guidelines and Tools.

Best practices for creating customized infrastructure solutions based on customer needs.

POC Requirements:

Measure recovery time from power loss, the impact of running multiple workloads, and peak storage performance.

The results need to be presented to the CIO.

Tool Selection:

X-Ray: Nutanix X-Ray is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking tool designed specifically for Nutanix environments. It includes pre-defined scenarios for various testing requirements.

Explanation:

X-Ray Scenarios: X-Ray comes with built-in scenarios that cover various aspects of performance, resiliency, and workload impact. This ensures that the tests are standardized and reliable.

PDF Report: X-Ray generates detailed PDF reports that can be directly presented to stakeholders, such as the CIO, providing a clear and professional summary of the test results.

Outcome:

Using X-Ray with its included scenarios will provide the most reliable and comprehensive testing environment, reducing the room for error and ensuring the results are presented in a professional format.

References: Refer to Nutanix documentation on X-Ray and its usage for performance testing and benchmarking.

To address the performance concerns of a prospective customer evaluating a hybrid configuration versus an all-flash array, the following Nutanix features should be discussed:

Data Locality:

Nutanix ensures that data is kept local to the node where the VM is running. This reduces latency and increases performance by minimizing the distance data must travel over the network.

Automatic Data Tiering:

Nutanix can automatically move frequently accessed data to faster storage tiers (e.g., SSDs) and less frequently accessed data to slower storage tiers (e.g., HDDs). This ensures that critical data gets the performance benefits of faster storage without the need for an entirely all-flash array.

References:

Nutanix Bible​

Understanding Prism Central Requirements:

Prism Central is used to manage multiple Nutanix clusters, providing a centralized management interface for large-scale environments such as a financial institution planning to manage 8000 VMs.

Sizing Guidelines for Prism Central:

To accurately size resources for VMs, certain VMs require further data analysis. Specifically, VMs with varying or unpredictable workloads, or those that have shown performance issues in the past, should be analyzed in more detail.

VM Analysis Criteria:

prodsrv02: If this VM has variable workload patterns or is known to run resource-intensive applications periodically, it requires detailed analysis to ensure that the resources allocated can handle peak loads without performance degradation.

prodsrv06: Similarly, if this VM has been identified to have inconsistent performance or varying resource utilization, further analysis is necessary to properly size the resources to meet its demands.

Data Collection:

Performance metrics such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network usage should be collected over a representative period to understand the peak and average resource requirements.

Sizing Tools:

Tools like Nutanix Sizer and Nutanix Collector can be used to gather detailed performance data and provide recommendations based on real usage patterns.

References:

Nutanix Sizing and Performance Best Practices.

Detailed Analysis Methods in Nutanix Documentation.

To meet the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 encryption requirement for data at rest for a federal government prospect, the solution must include the following:

A supported Key Management Server (KMS): Nutanix supports external KMS solutions that are FIPS 140-2 compliant, ensuring secure key management.

Self-Encrypting Drive (SED): SEDs provide hardware-based encryption that meets the FIPS 140-2 Level 2 standard, ensuring that the data is encrypted at rest with high security​​.

To resolve an SSL error when connecting to a Nutanix cluster, the administrator should:

Generate a New SSL Certificate:

The administrator should create a new SSL certificate for the cluster. This certificate should be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), such as an Active Directory (AD) certificate authority.

Install the Certificate on the Cluster:

Once the certificate is generated and signed, it needs to be installed on the Nutanix cluster. This ensures that the certificate is trusted by the clients connecting to the cluster.

Update Trust Stores:

Ensure that the clients and workstations connecting to the Nutanix cluster trust the CA that signed the new SSL certificate. This can often be achieved by updating the trusted root certificate authorities on the client systems.

Creating a new SSL certificate signed by an AD certificate authority ensures that the certificate is recognized and trusted within the organization, thereby resolving the SSL errors and establishing secure connections.

References:

Nutanix Security Best Practices

Nutanix Documentation on SSL Certificate Management

C. "Shadow IT" that increases the risk of security breaches and brand damage:

The engineering department building their own infrastructure using available hardware, SaaS offerings, and public cloud can lead to "Shadow IT." This increases the risk of security breaches as these systems may not adhere to the company’s security policies and could expose sensitive data.

D. Slow response time from the infrastructure group (SLAs) that could result in product release delays:

The new CIO is trying to gain control of the existing and incoming information systems while supporting an agile environment. Slow response times from the infrastructure group can delay product releases, affecting the company's competitive edge and innovation pace.

References:

Nutanix's unified platform and comprehensive management tools can address these pain points by providing centralized control, enhancing security, and improving agility and response times.

Understanding the Context:

The project to migrate to the public cloud was largely unsuccessful, indicating underlying issues that need to be identified.

Effective Open-Ended Questions:

What challenges triggered the public cloud initiative?:

Explanation: This question helps understand the initial pain points and motivations for the migration attempt, providing insight into what problems the company was trying to solve.

To configure alerts to notify the administrator before VM CPU utilization hits 90%, follow these steps:

Open the Health dashboard in the Prism web console.

Locate the VM CPU Check alert configuration.

Adjust the alert threshold to a value below 90%, such as 80% or 85%.

Save the changes to ensure that the alert will trigger when VM CPU utilization reaches the newly set threshold.

By lowering the alert threshold, the administrator will receive notifications before CPU utilization becomes critical, allowing for proactive management and mitigation of potential performance issues.

References:

Nutanix Prism Web Console Guide

Nutanix Health Dashboard Documentation

To address concerns about restoring data locality for VMs after they migrate during an AHV upgrade, it should be highlighted that AHV's built-in scheduler automatically restores data locality. This means that after the VM migration, the scheduler ensures that the VM data is moved to the local storage of the destination node, thereby maintaining optimal performance and data locality​​.

C. Expand the cluster by adding an additional node:

Demonstrating the ease of expanding the Nutanix cluster by adding an additional node showcases the scalability and simplicity of Nutanix’s hyperconverged infrastructure. This is a critical success criterion for customers looking for a solution that can grow with their needs.

D. Use a single interface to manage and monitor the full stack:

One of Nutanix’s key advantages is the ability to manage and monitor the entire infrastructure stack from a single interface, Prism. This feature simplifies management and reduces operational overhead, which aligns with the customer’s requirement for an “All in One” solution.

C. N+1:

In the exhibit, the Failover option selected is "Standard (N+1)." This indicates that the configuration is set up for N+1 resiliency.

N+1 resiliency means that the system can tolerate the failure of one node without affecting the availability of the applications running on the cluster.

This is a standard level of resiliency where one additional node is available to take over in case of a failure, ensuring continuous availability.

References:

Nutanix documentation and the Nutanix Bible explain the different levels of resiliency, including N+1, and how they ensure data and application availability in case of node failures.

C. Identify appropriate POC hardware:

It is essential to identify and confirm the hardware that will be used for the Proof of Concept (POC) to ensure that the resources match the requirements of the workloads being tested. This includes selecting Nutanix and HPE SimpliVity hardware that can be compared under similar conditions.

D. A test plan with agreed upon success criteria:

Developing a detailed test plan with agreed-upon success criteria ensures that both the prospect and the SE have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the POC. This includes defining performance metrics, features to be evaluated, and acceptable thresholds for success.

A clear test plan helps in systematically evaluating the capabilities of Nutanix versus HPE SimpliVity, ensuring that the evaluation is fair and comprehensive.

When sizing a hybrid cluster to replace an existing IT test and development environment, the systems engineer (SE) requires the following additional items besides the aggregate vCPU and RAM requirements:

Working Data Set:

Understanding the size of the working data set helps determine the amount of active data that needs to be stored and accessed frequently. This information is crucial for optimizing the performance and ensuring that sufficient resources are allocated for the active workloads.

Storage Capacity:

The total storage capacity required for the cluster must be assessed to ensure that the new environment can accommodate all the data from the existing cluster. This includes not only the active data but also additional capacity for future growth, snapshots, backups, and other storage needs.

References:

Nutanix Bible​

A. Native convergence of traditional infrastructure:

Start by explaining how Nutanix converges traditional server, storage, and networking into a single platform, simplifying infrastructure management and reducing complexity.

Scalable distributed system:

Next, highlight the scalable nature of Nutanix’s distributed system, which can easily expand to meet the growing needs of the prospect’s environment.

Data locality and distributed data:

Discuss the benefits of data locality and distributed data management, ensuring high performance and efficient resource utilization.

Application automation with Calm:

Introduce Nutanix Calm for application automation, streamlining the deployment and management of applications across the infrastructure.

Xi Cloud Services:

Conclude with Nutanix Xi Cloud Services, providing additional flexibility and extending the capabilities of the on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.

References:

Nutanix First Customer Presentation guidelines and best practices for presenting Nutanix’s value proposition to prospects.

To report on any alerts generated by a Nutanix cluster that affected the cluster's availability over the past 10 days, the administrator should use the Alerts dashboard in Prism. The steps are as follows:

Navigate to the Alerts dashboard in the Prism web console.

Use the filter options to select the Impact Type, specifically filtering for alerts that impact cluster availability.

Set the desired Time Range to the past 10 days to view relevant alerts within this period.

Review the filtered alerts to identify any that affected the cluster's availability.

This method provides a focused view of alerts related to cluster availability and allows for efficient reporting and analysis.

References:

Nutanix Prism Web Console Guide

Nutanix Alerts Dashboard Documentation

To ensure the solution does not exceed 80% CPU utilization when a node is placed in maintenance mode, the SE should:

Access Sizer: Open the Nutanix Sizer tool.

Create New Scenario: Start a new scenario for the project.

Define Workload: Enter the details of the current workload, specifying resource requirements.

Customize CPU Threshold:

In the sizing options, customize the CPU threshold to 80%. This setting ensures that the calculated resources account for keeping CPU utilization at or below 80% when a node is taken out of the pool for maintenance (N+0).

Review Configuration: Verify that the proposed configuration meets the 80% CPU utilization requirement under maintenance conditions.

This approach ensures that the solution is appropriately sized to handle the specified workload without exceeding the desired CPU utilization threshold.

References:

Nutanix Sizer documentation and guides.

Best practices for configuring CPU thresholds and resource allocation.