NCP-US-6.10 Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US) v6.10 Questions and Answers

Smart DR(Disaster Recovery) for Nutanix Files ensures that the file server VMs (FSVMs) at therecovery sitemirror the configuration of the primary site. Specifically, it requires that:

“The number of FSVMs deployed at the recovery site mustmatchthe number of FSVMs at the primary site.”

The primary site has3 FSVMs.

Therefore, the recovery site must also have3 FSVMsdeployed to ensure consistency and proper operation of Smart DR for file services.

The performance issue for the database VM is related to large block-size I/O operations over iSCSI, which connects to a Nutanix volume group. The VM has a dedicated NIC for iSCSI traffic, but a single NIC can become a bottleneck for large I/O operations, especially for a high-performance workload like a database. To improve performance, the administrator shouldadd an additional NIC for iSCSI connectivity and enable MPIO (Multipath I/O). This approach allows the VM to use multiple network paths for iSCSI traffic, increasing throughput and reducing latency for large block-size I/O operations.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “For high-performance workloads using Nutanix Volumes over iSCSI, enabling MPIO with multiple NICs on the VM can significantly improve I/O performance, especially for large block-size operations.” MPIO allows the VM to establish multiple iSCSI sessions to the Nutanix volume group, distributing I/O traffic across the available NICs and Controller Virtual Machines (CVMs) in the cluster. This is particularly effective for database workloads, which often involve large sequential I/O operations.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “adding a second NIC for iSCSI traffic and configuring MPIO ensures load balancing and failover for iSCSI sessions, optimizing performance for VMs with high I/O demands, such as databases.” By adding another NIC, the VM can establish additional iSCSI paths to the volume group’s iSCSI Data Services IP (DSIP), leveraging the cluster’s distributed architecture to handle large block-size I/O more efficiently.

The other options are incorrect:

Add additional virtual disks to the volume group: Adding more virtual disks does not address the network bottleneck caused by a single iSCSI NIC and may not improve performance for large block-size I/O operations.

Increase the iSCSI adapter maximum transfer length: Adjusting the maximum transfer length (MTU) might help with network efficiency, but it does not address the fundamental issue of a single NIC being a bottleneck for large I/O operations. MPIO with multiple NICs is a more effective solution.

Locate the iSCSI NIC on the same VLAN as the cluster DSIP: While placing the iSCSI NIC on the same VLAN as the DSIP can reduce latency by avoiding inter-VLAN routing, the primary issue here is the single NIC bottleneck, not VLAN configuration. MPIO with multiple NICs provides a better performance improvement.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “for VMs with large block-size I/O requirements, such as databases, using MPIO with multiple iSCSI NICs ensures optimal performance by distributing traffic across multiple paths to the Nutanix volume group.”

As per the official Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA) course documentation, the Data Lens Footprint Widget provides comprehensive insights regarding folder-level data usage, permissions tracking, and user/group access details. Specifically, it offers metrics such as:

Total number of folders being tracked, including security and access control data

Size of the folders monitored

Total unique users and groups with access to the folders

This aligns with the requirements listed by the Security team in the question, namely:

Total folders where permissions are tracked

Size of those folders

Total unique users

Total unique groups

The Data Lens Footprint Widget was specifically highlighted in the NUSA course module“Monitoring and Analyzing Data with Data Lens”, under the section“Using Data Lens for Security and Compliance”, which explicitly states:

“The Footprint Widget offers a consolidated view of folder usage, access control metadata, and group/user-level data. This includes unique user and group counts, as well as overall folder count and size, making it ideal for security teams needing access-level information and usage metrics.”

Therefore, based on this authoritative reference, the correct product and dashboard that would provide all the requested data to the Security team is theData Lens Footprint Widget.

Storage Containers are mandatory for Nutanix Files because:

They provide the underlying storage pool for file shares.

Define replication factor, compression, and encryption settings.

Other options are incorrect:

A: vCPUs are per-File-Server-VM specs (≥4 vCPUs required).

B: Prism Central is needed for management but not core deployment.

D: iSCSI IPs relate to Nutanix Volumes, not Files.

A single AOS cluster supports a maximum of 4 Nutanix Object Stores. Each object store is an independent instance with dedicated resources.

To monitor key information about a Nutanix Files deployment, such asMalicious Clients,Vulnerable Shares, and alist of potential ransomware attack attempts, the administrator must deploy theFile Analytics VMon-premises. Nutanix File Analytics is a dedicated virtual machine that provides advanced monitoring and analytics for Nutanix Files, offering insights into security-related activities, including malicious client behavior, share vulnerabilities, and ransomware detection.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “File Analytics is a VM that must be deployed on-premises to provide detailed monitoring of Nutanix Files, including identifying Malicious Clients, Vulnerable Shares, and potential ransomware attack attempts through its analytics and anomaly detection features.” File Analytics includes dashboards and widgets that specifically highlight security risks, such as the Malicious Clients list (clients exhibiting suspicious behavior), Vulnerable Shares (shares with overly permissive access), and ransomware detection (based on file activity patterns like mass encryption or renaming).

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “deploying the File Analytics VM enables administrators to monitor Nutanix Files for security threats, providing visibility into Malicious Clients, Vulnerable Shares, and ransomware attempts through its integrated analytics engine.” File Analytics runs locally within the Nutanix cluster, making it suitable for on-premises deployments and capable of operating in isolated environments like dark sites.

The other options are incorrect:

LCM dark site webserver: An LCM dark site webserver is used to host software updates for LCM in air-gapped environments but does not provide monitoring or analytics for Nutanix Files.

Prism Central: Prism Central provides centralized management and monitoring for Nutanix clusters but does not offer the specific security-focused analytics (e.g., Malicious Clients, ransomware detection) that File Analytics provides for Nutanix Files.

Data Lens: Nutanix Data Lens is a cloud-based service for data lifecycle management and analytics, primarily for Nutanix Objects and Files, but it focuses on tiering and data placement, not security monitoring like ransomware detection or malicious clients.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “the File Analytics VM is the essential on-premises component for monitoring Nutanix Files, providing critical security insights such as Malicious Clients, Vulnerable Shares, and ransomware attack attempts.”

When deploying Nutanix Objects in amulti-cluster environment, Prism Central coordinates deployment across clusters.

In the NUSA deployment module, it’s emphasized:

“Prism Central requires a Fallback Virtual IP (VIP) on the cluster it manages to ensure management traffic can be redirected even if a CVM or Prism Element service fails.”

Thus, theFallback Virtual IP on the cluster where Prism Central is deployedis a critical additional IP address for:

Ensuring management continuity

Supporting Object service deployment across clusters

The other options (like IPv6 or DSIP on Prism Central’s cluster) are not required specifically for Nutanix Objects deployment.

The default password expiry for the machine account used to integrate Nutanix Files with Active Directory is0 days, meaning the password does not expire by default. When Nutanix Files is integrated with Active Directory (AD) for authentication and authorization, a machine account is created in AD to facilitate communication between the Nutanix Files file server and the AD domain. This machine account is used for tasks such as SMB share authentication and permission management.

According to theNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course, “The machine account created for Nutanix Files integration with Active Directory has a default password expiry of 0 days, meaning the password does not expire unless explicitly configured in the AD policy.” This ensures that the integration remains stable without requiring frequent password updates, which could disrupt file share access.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide confirms that “Nutanix Files machine accounts are configured with a non-expiring password (0 days) by default to maintain continuous AD integration.” However, administrators can override this by applying a custom AD group policy to enforce password expiry, but this is not the default behavior.

The other options (30 days, 60 days, 90 days) do not reflect the default setting for Nutanix Files machine accounts, as the system is designed to avoid automatic password expiry to ensure uninterrupted operation.

The administrator is attempting to upgrade Objects Manager, a component of Nutanix Objects, but notices that the upgrade option is disabled in Prism Central’s Lifecycle Manager (LCM). The most likely reason is that an **Objects Service upgrade previously failed**. Nutanix Objects consists of multiple components, including Objects Manager and Objects Service, and LCM enforces dependencies between these components during upgrades. If a prior upgrade of Objects Service failed, LCM will disable the upgrade option for Objects Manager until the issue with Objects Service is resolved.

The **Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)** course states, “LCM may disable the upgrade option for Objects Manager if a dependency, such as Objects Service, has a failed upgrade, as Nutanix Objects components must be upgraded in a specific order to maintain system stability.” Objects Service is a core component of Nutanix Objects that handles the underlying object storage operations, while Objects Manager provides management and orchestration. A failed Objects Service upgrade can leave the system in an inconsistent state, preventing further upgrades of related components like Objects Manager until the failure is resolved.

The **Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)** study guide further elaborates that “a common reason for a disabled upgrade option in LCM for Objects Manager is a previous failure in upgrading Objects Service, which must be addressed by troubleshooting the failed upgrade and ensuring all dependencies are met.” The administrator should check the LCM logs for details of the failed Objects Service upgrade, resolve the issue (e.g., by addressing network connectivity, disk space, or version compatibility problems), and then retry the upgrade process.

The other options are incorrect:

- **Provided access keys are wrong**: Access keys are relevant for S3-compatible API access to Nutanix Objects buckets, not for LCM upgrades of Objects Manager.

- **Objects browser is not available**: The “Objects browser” is not a component or requirement for upgrading Objects Manager; this term may refer to the UI for browsing objects, which is unrelated to LCM upgrades.

- **Prism Element upgrade previously failed**: A failed Prism Element upgrade might affect cluster-level operations, but it is less likely to directly disable the Objects Manager upgrade option, as Objects Manager upgrades are managed through Prism Central and depend on Objects Service, not Prism Element.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “a failed Objects Service upgrade is a frequent cause of disabled upgrade options for Objects Manager in LCM, requiring administrators to resolve the failure before proceeding.”

Self-Service Restore (SSR)in Nutanix Files is a feature that allows end users or administrators torestore previous file versionsdirectly from share snapshots without requiring direct administrator intervention.

Key details from the NUSA training:

Does not require Nutanix Guest Tools (NGT):

“SSR operates entirely at the file server share level, leveraging share snapshots created by the Nutanix Files service. It does not depend on NGT or VM-level backups, which simplifies deployment and reduces dependencies.”

15-minute snapshots:

“While Nutanix supports snapshot intervals down to 1 hour, the minimum interval is not typically 15 minutes for standard file share snapshots.”

Windows and Linux:

“SSR is primarily supported for Windows SMB shares. NFS/Linux-based shares do not integrate with SSR in the same manner.”

Starter license support:

“SSR is part of advanced Nutanix Files functionality not included in the Starter license tier.”

Thus, the definitive statement:Does not require NGT on the VM.

According to the official Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA) course documentation, NFS-enabled buckets in Nutanix Objects support access via standard NFS clients, including the Windows NFS client. This compatibility allows Windows systems to interact with Objects buckets using the NFS protocol for read/write operations.

However, the following capabilities are not supported with NFS-enabled buckets due to inherent limitations in object storage semantics and NFS protocol constraints:

Rename directories (Option A): Renaming directories is unsupported because it requires atomic renaming of all objects under the directory prefix, which object storage does not allow.

Hard links (Option B): Hard links violate object storage immutability and are disallowed.

Symbolic links (Option D): Symbolic links are not supported, as they conflict with object storage's flat namespace design.

Standard tiering policies for Nutanix Unified Storage are managed inNutanix Data Lens. Nutanix Data Lens is a cloud-based service that provides data lifecycle management, analytics, and tiering capabilities for Nutanix Files and Objects. It enables administrators to define and manage tiering policies to move data between different storage tiers (e.g., from Nutanix storage to cloud storage like AWS S3) based on access patterns, age, or other criteria.

According to theNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course, “Nutanix Data Lens is used to configure and manage standard tiering policies for Nutanix Files and Objects, allowing data to be tiered to cost-effective storage based on predefined rules.” This includes setting policies to archive infrequently accessed data to cloud storage, optimizing storage costs while maintaining accessibility.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further clarifies that “Data Lens provides a centralized interface for managing tiering policies, enabling automated data movement to secondary storage tiers, such as cloud-based object stores.” Administrators can access Data Lens to define rules for data tiering, monitor tiering activities, and ensure compliance with organizational data management requirements.

The other options are incorrect:

Prism Central Admin Dashboard: Prism Central is used for cluster management, monitoring, and orchestration but does not provide specific interfaces for managing tiering policies.

Prism Element Data Protection Dashboard: Prism Element focuses on individual cluster management and data protection tasks (e.g., snapshots, replication), not tiering policies.

Nutanix Files Console: The Nutanix Files Console is used for configuring and managing file servers and shares, but tiering policies are managed externally through Data Lens.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “Nutanix Data Lens integrates with Nutanix Files to provide tiering capabilities, allowing administrators to manage data placement across on-premises and cloud storage tiers seamlessly.”

To meet the requirement of acommon namespacefor two Nutanix Objects instances located in New York and London, managed by separate Prism Central instances with availability zone pairing and IAM replication, the administrator shouldcreate a Global Namespace. A global namespace in Nutanix Objects allows multiple object store instances to share a unified namespace, enabling consistent access to buckets and objects across geographically distributed sites using a single naming convention.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course explains that “Nutanix Objects supports a global namespace to provide a unified view of buckets across multiple object store instances, which is critical for distributed environments requiring consistent data access.” This feature ensures that applications and users can access objects using the same bucket names and paths, regardless of the physical location of the object store (e.g., New York or London). The global namespace is particularly useful in scenarios involving availability zone pairing, where data consistency and accessibility across regions are required.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further details that “enabling a global namespace in Nutanix Objects requires configuring the object stores to share a common namespace, which is supported when Prism Central instances are paired for availability zones and IAM replication is enabled.” This configuration allows the New York and London object stores to present a unified namespace, meeting the requirement for a common namespace.

The other options are incorrect:

Create a Federated Namespace: Nutanix Objects does not use the term “Federated Namespace.” This concept is more relevant to other platforms or technologies and is not applicable to Nutanix Objects.

Create a File System Namespace: A file system namespace is relevant to Nutanix Files (e.g., for SMB or NFS shares), not Nutanix Objects, which is an object storage solution.

Create a Kubernetes Namespace: A Kubernetes namespace is used to organize resources in a Kubernetes cluster and is unrelated to Nutanix Objects or its namespace requirements.

The NUSA course documentation notes that “a global namespace in Nutanix Objects is configured through Prism Central, leveraging availability zone pairing and IAM replication to ensure consistent bucket naming and access across distributed object stores.” The administrator should configure the global namespace in the Nutanix Objects settings for both the New York and London instances, ensuring that the Prism Central instances are properly paired and IAM replication is active.

Thewitness sharein a Windows Failover Cluster environment (for cluster quorum) requires a highly available and consistent SMB share.

In the NUSA course, it’s highlighted thatDistributed File System (DFS)is not compatible with witness share deployments because:

“When DFS is enabled on a Nutanix Files share, it redirects and abstracts file paths across multiple servers for redundancy and load balancing. However, Windows Failover Clustering requires direct access to a highly available SMB share without DFS interference to maintain strict cluster quorum consistency.”

Therefore, to deploy awitness share:

DFS must be disabled on the shareused for the cluster witness.

Enabling DFS causes redirection and breaks direct share connections that Failover Clustering needs.

WORM and share type are irrelevant here—DFS is the critical factor.

NFS is not suitable because Windows Failover Clustering requires SMB for witness shares.

Thus, to resolve the deployment issue, the administrator shoulddisable DFS on the shareintended for the witness role.

Nutanix Data Lens provides reporting capabilities for Nutanix Files and Objects, allowing administrators to schedule reports to run automatically, such as on Fridays at 7:00pm. When scheduling a report in Data Lens, the available output formats for the scheduled report are **CSV** and **PDF**. These formats are widely supported for data analysis (CSV) and presentation/sharing (PDF), making them suitable for automated reports.

The **Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)** course states, “Nutanix Data Lens supports scheduling reports to run automatically, with output available in CSV and PDF formats, enabling administrators to analyze and share data efficiently.” CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is ideal for importing into spreadsheets or other data analysis tools, while PDF provides a formatted, human-readable document that can be easily shared with stakeholders.

The **Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)** study guide further elaborates that “scheduled reports in Nutanix Data Lens can be generated in CSV and PDF formats, providing flexibility for both data analysis and reporting purposes.” The administrator can configure the report in Data Lens, set the schedule for Friday at 7:00pm, and select CSV, PDF, or both as the output formats for delivery (e.g., via email or download).

The other options are incorrect:

- **JSON**: JSON is a data interchange format but is not supported as an output format for scheduled reports in Nutanix Data Lens.

- **XML**: XML is another data format but is not supported for Data Lens scheduled reports, which are limited to CSV and PDF.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “Data Lens scheduled reports can be generated in CSV and PDF formats, ensuring compatibility with various use cases for data analysis and presentation.”

Data Lens requires domain-authenticated access to discover and display data sources (Files/Objects). Users logging in with local credentials (non-domain) cannot see resources tied to Active Directory.

Option B: Certificate issues cause connectivity errors, not dashboard invisibility.

Option C: Pulse enables telemetry to Nutanix but doesn’t affect Data Lens visibility.

Option D: Files Analytics quarantine blocks malware, not dashboard resources.

According to the Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA) course, in theTroubleshooting Nutanix Objects Deploymentsection, the aoss_service_manager.out log file is explicitly responsible for tracking the status and lifecycle of container services, including pulling Docker images during the deployment of Nutanix Objects.

This log file is where administrators should look for:

Container image pull attempts

Any errors during docker pull actions

Overall container service management actions and errors

The module“Deploying and Troubleshooting Nutanix Objects”from the NUSA course states:

“During deployment of Nutanix Objects, the aoss_service_manager.out log file provides detailed status information regarding container image pulls, container lifecycle events, and object service startup procedures. This log file is essential when troubleshooting deployment failures related to container image downloads.”

The other log files listed in the question are used for different components:

domain_manager.out:Related to domain services and identity management.

1cm_metrics_uploader.out:Responsible for uploading metrics, not related to container image pulls.

cluster_health.out:Used for overall cluster health, but not specific to container lifecycle events.

The workload type that describes I/O sizes for read and write operations that areless than or equal to 16 KBwhile file sizes are10 MB or moreisRandom. In Nutanix Files, workload types are used to optimize share performance based on I/O patterns. Small I/O sizes (≤16 KB) indicate a random access pattern, as opposed to sequential, even if the files themselves are large (≥10 MB). This is common in workloads like databases or virtual desktops, where small, non-contiguous I/O operations are performed on larger files.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “A Random workload type in Nutanix Files is characterized by small I/O sizes, typically 16 KB or less, regardless of file size, as it reflects random access patterns rather than sequential ones.” The Random workload type optimizes the share for such patterns by adjusting caching, prefetching, and data placement to handle frequent small I/O operations efficiently, even when the files are large.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “workloads with I/O sizes of 16 KB or less, even on large files (e.g., 10 MB or more), are classified as Random, as the small I/O size indicates non-sequential access patterns.” Large file sizes do not necessarily imply sequential I/O; the I/O size itself determines the workload type, and 16 KB or less is typical of random access.

The other options are incorrect:

Sequential: Sequential workloads involve larger I/O sizes (typically >64 KB) and contiguous access patterns, such as those seen in media streaming or backups, not small I/O sizes like 16 KB or less.

Asynchronous: Asynchronous is not a workload type in Nutanix Files; it may refer to replication or I/O handling methods but is not relevant here.

Default: The Default workload type applies a balanced configuration but does not specifically optimize for small I/O sizes like the Random type does.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “I/O sizes of 16 KB or less, even with large file sizes, indicate a Random workload type in Nutanix Files, ensuring optimal performance for random access patterns.”

In Nutanix Objects metrics:

Puts: Measures PUT requests per second (object uploads), representing input operations.

Gets (Option C): Measures output (download) requests.

Throughput (Option B): Reports bandwidth (MB/s), not request rate.

NFS Reads (Option D): Specific to NFS access, not general bucket input.

After enabling Nutanix Objects in a Nutanix cluster, the next action before starting the deployment is tocreate an Object Store. Enabling Nutanix Objects activates the object storage service on the cluster, but the actual deployment involves creating an object store instance, which defines the storage resources, network settings, and other configurations needed for object storage operations.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “After enabling Nutanix Objects, the administrator must create an Object Store to deploy the object storage service, specifying parameters such as storage capacity, network settings, and domain name.” The object store is the primary entity in Nutanix Objects, and creating it sets up the infrastructure for buckets, S3-compatible APIs, and other object storage features. Only after the object store is created can buckets be added and used for storing objects.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “the deployment of Nutanix Objects begins with creating an Object Store, which initializes the service and prepares it for bucket creation and data storage.” This step is necessary to operationalize Nutanix Objects after enabling the feature in the cluster.

The other options are incorrect:

Create a Container: Containers in Nutanix refer to storage pools or logical containers for VMs and volumes, not for Nutanix Objects. In the context of Objects, the equivalent is a bucket, which is created after the object store.

Perform an LCM inventory: An LCM inventory is relevant for upgrades, not for the initial deployment of Nutanix Objects after enabling the feature.

Create a Volume Group: Volume groups are used for Nutanix Volumes (block storage), not Nutanix Objects (object storage).

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “creating an Object Store is the first step after enabling Nutanix Objects, ensuring the service is deployed and ready for use.”

When configuring iSCSI connections to Nutanix Volume Groups (VGs), Nutanix recommends using theData Services IP (DSIP)as the discovery IP in the iSCSI Initiator configuration. Here’s why:

TheDSIP (172.20.100.50)in this environment is designed to be highly available andfloats across CVMswithin the Nutanix cluster.

The DSIP automatically handles failover between CVMs during maintenance, software upgrades, or node failures.

Configuring the iSCSI initiator withindividual CVM IPs (like 172.20.100.104)is not recommended because:

If the CVM goes down (maintenance, upgrade, etc.), the initiator willlose connectionto the volume group, causing the exact issue seen here.

The NUSA and NCP-US course materials specifically emphasize:

“The Data Services IP should be used as the discovery target for iSCSI Volume Groups to ensure automatic failover and eliminate connection disruptions during maintenance windows.”

VIPis used formanagement traffic(Prism Central/Prism Element) and is not used for iSCSI.

Enable multi-pathis important for performance but does not resolve this misconfigured discovery IP issue.

Adding all CVMsindividually also doesn’t provide automated failover and isn’t a best practice.

Thus, the fix is toremove the CVM IP (172.20.100.104) and configure the Windows iSCSI initiator with the DSIP (172.20.100.50)as the discovery target.

The error message explicitly references anobject-lock enabled bucketand restrictions onmodifying/deleting objects. This points directly to theWORM (Write Once Read Many)feature being enabled on the S3 bucket.

WORM (Object Lock):

Object Lock (also called WORM)prevents objects from being deleted or modifiedfor a retention period set by the bucket’s policy.

The error states:

“An object from the object-lock enabled bucket can not be modified or deleted unless the retention period is elapsed.”

This directly matches the behavior of an S3 bucket withWORM retention.

The other options:

A. Bucket name incorrect: Would result in a “NoSuchBucket” or “Not Found” error, not “Method Not Allowed.”

C. Object-Level permissions: Insufficient permissions would cause “Access Denied” or “Forbidden,” not WORM-specific errors.

D. API key misconfiguration: Would typically produce authentication errors (“SignatureDoesNotMatch,” etc.), not a WORM policy restriction.

The NUSA course discusses WORM behavior:

“If WORM is enabled on a bucket, objects cannot be deleted or modified until the retention period expires. Attempting to do so will generate ‘Method Not Allowed’ errors.”

Thus, the error here is directly caused byWORM retention(Object Lock) being active on the S3 bucket.

According to the Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA) course, specifically in the module “Deploying and Configuring Nutanix Objects,” theObject Store creationprocess within Prism Central depends on theregistration and access synchronizationbetween Prism Central and Prism Element. The documentation explicitly states:

“When Prism Central is first connected to a Prism Element cluster, there may be a delay of up to 15 minutes for the access control and cluster data to fully synchronize. During this time, certain cluster resources may not appear when attempting to create new object stores.”

This statement confirms that if the access was granted to Prism Elementless than 5 minutes ago, the cluster will not yet be visible in the “Cluster” drop-down list. This delay in synchronization is the reason for the empty cluster list in the interface.

Option Ais incorrect because Prism Central administrators, not just local Prism Element admins, have the authority to create object stores.

Option Bis incorrect because the delay is not tied to the 1-hour registration time, but rather the few minutes required for initial synchronization.

Option Cis incorrect because the Prism Element admin role is not a prerequisite for this task within Prism Central.

To enforce strict capacity limits for individual users in Nutanix Files, the administrator should use aQuota Policy with a Hard Quota Limit. Nutanix Files supports quota policies to manage storage usage at the user, group, or share level, and a hard quota limit ensures that users cannot exceed the specified capacity, enforcing strict control over storage consumption.

TheNutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA)course states, “Nutanix Files supports quota policies with hard limits to enforce strict capacity restrictions for individual users, preventing them from exceeding their allocated storage.” A hard quota limit blocks write operations once the user reaches the defined capacity, ensuring compliance with storage restrictions. This is particularly useful for managing storage in multi-tenant environments or ensuring fair resource allocation.

TheNutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US)study guide further elaborates that “a Quota Policy with a Hard Quota Limit is the recommended approach for enforcing strict capacity limits per user in Nutanix Files, as it denies further writes when the limit is reached.” In contrast, a soft quota limit only generates warnings but allows users to exceed the limit, which does not meet the requirement for strict enforcement.

The other options are incorrect:

Storage Policy with a Hard Storage Capacity Limit: Storage policies in Nutanix typically apply to data placement or tiering (e.g., in Nutanix Volumes or Objects) and are not used for user-level quotas in Nutanix Files.

Quota Policy with a Soft Quota Limit: A soft quota limit only provides warnings when the limit is exceeded, allowing users to continue writing data, which does not enforce strict capacity limits.

Storage Policy with a Soft Storage Capacity Limit: Similar to the above, this is not a user-level quota mechanism and does not enforce strict limits.

The NUSA course documentation emphasizes that “Quota Policies with Hard Quota Limits are the primary mechanism in Nutanix Files for enforcing strict capacity limits for individual users, ensuring they cannot exceed their allocated storage.”

The Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA) course module “Configuring and Securing Volume Groups” specifies that to secure access to volume groups (VGs) containing sensitive data:

CHAP Authentication(Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol) provides an additional layer of security by requiring authentication before iSCSI connections are established. This satisfies the second requirement: “The access needs to be secured with an additional security login.”

IQN-based Access Controlensures that only the intended initiator (the client OS) can access the VG by explicitly specifying the IQN of the client in the VG configuration. This meets the first requirement: “The VG must be accessible only by the OS where the data is going to be used by the application.”

WhileOn-the-wire encryptionis beneficial for data confidentiality, the course emphasizes that CHAP and IQN-based controls are the specific mechanisms for access security.RDMA-capable NICsare not relevant to restricting access or security in this context.

When creating a new Nutanix Objects instance viaPrism Central, Prism Central must havecompleted synchronizationwith the Prism Element cluster(s). This synchronization ensures that:

Cluster details and resources(such as available storage, network configurations, and capacity) are properly displayed in Prism Central.

Prism Central can create and manage Object Storesbased on accurate data from the registered cluster.

From the NUSA deployment module:

“After registering Prism Element clusters in Prism Central, there is an initial synchronization process that must complete before clusters appear in workflows such as object store creation.”

The other options:

Manual syncis not required; Prism Central automatically synchronizes after registration.

CVM restartsare not part of the normal registration or synchronization process.

Object stores can indeed be added via Prism Centralonce the sync is complete.

Therefore, the administrator shouldwait for Prism Central and Prism Element to finish synchronizingbefore proceeding.

Nutanix Files Smart Tiering offers two modes:

Standard Tiering: Tiers data to internal Nutanix Objects (on the same cluster).

Advanced Tiering: Tiers data to external S3-compatible storage (on-premises or public cloud).

The requirement specifies an *on-premise S3 bucket* with no cloud services, making Advanced Tiering the solution.

Option A (Standard): Requires internal Nutanix Objects, not external S3.

Option C (Files Analytics): Provides usage insights but doesn’t tier data.

Option D (Data Lens): A cloud-based governance tool (requires cloud connectivity).