NCP-EUC Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) 6.10 Exam Questions and Answers

one of the possible causes of slower logon and application load times for VMware Horizon-based virtual desktop users is Failed to create Native clone errors. This error occurs when there is a problem with cloning virtual machines using Nutanix Native Clones technology. To troubleshoot this issue, you can check the following:

The Nutanix cluster has enough free space to create clones

The Nutanix cluster has enough CPU and memory resources to handle cloning operations

The Nutanix cluster is running a compatible version of AOS and AHV with VMware Horizon

The VMware Horizon environment is configured correctly to use Nutanix Native Clones

The VMware Horizon agent is installed and updated on the master image

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-ncp-euc-v6

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1008360

ersistent virtual machines are those that retain all the user’s personal settings, files, and customizations after each session12. Non-persistent virtual machines are those that reset to a predefined state after each session and do not save any user data12. MCS (Machine Creation Services) is a Citrix feature that allows administrators to create and manage multiple virtual machines from a single master image3. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a Microsoft feature that allows users to access applications or desktops hosted on a remote server4. Citrix Virtual Apps is a Citrix feature that allows users to access applications hosted on a remote server or cloud5

There are two types of Launchpads that exist in Frame: Application Launchpad and Desktop Launchpad2.

An Application Launchpad is a representation of the applications that are available for streaming. Users can launch any application they have access to from this Launchpad. An example of an Application Launchpad is shown below:

A Desktop Launchpad is a representation of the desktops that are available for streaming. Users can launch any desktop they have access to from this Launchpad. An example of a Desktop Launchpad is shown below:

https://www.nutanix.com/blog/work-from-home-anywhere-in-five-easy-steps

One of them is Nutanix Frame, which is a cloud-based service that delivers virtual apps and desktops from any cloud provider or on-premises datacenter.

Nutanix Frame simplifies VDI deployment by providing automated cloud resource orchestration, user session brokering, and environment administration.

Another solution is Nutanix Citrix Cloud, which is a hybrid cloud solution that integrates Nutanix HCI with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service.

Nutanix Citrix Cloud enables VDI deployment by providing centralized management and delivery of virtual apps and desktops through Citrix Cloud Services.

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the steps needed for deploying VDI with Nutanix Citrix Cloud is to configure the PE Citrix Connection.

This step involves creating a connection between the Nutanix Prism Element (PE) cluster and the Citrix Cloud account, which allows Nutanix to register as a resource location for Citrix Cloud Services.

This connection also enables Nutanix to provide performance metrics, alerts, and actions for the virtual apps and desktops running on Nutanix HCI.

The optimal storage configuration aligns the container settings with the specific I/O patterns of the workload types:

Non-Persistent Desktops: These are typically linked clones (MCS/Instant Clones) with high write churn and little data commonality in the delta disks. Compression Only is best. Deduplication adds overhead with no benefit.

Persistent Full Clones: These are full copies of the OS. Because there are hundreds of copies of the same OS files, Deduplication (Capacity or Performance tier) is highly effective at saving space. Compression is always recommended.

Therefore, creating two separate containers—one configured with Compression Only (for the non-persistent pools) and one with Compression and Deduplication (for the persistent full clone pools)—provides the best balance of performance and capacity efficiency (Option D).

The charts provided display a scenario typical of a VDI Boot Storm or login storm, characterized by a massive spike in Read IOPS (top chart) while maintaining extremely low Read I/O Latency (bottom chart).

This behavior is best described by Data Locality (specifically leveraged through a mechanism often called Shadow Clones in VDI contexts).

The Scenario: During VDI logins, hundreds or thousands of VMs simultaneously read from the same base "Golden Image" or replica disk.

The Mechanism: Nutanix Data Locality ensures that VM data is served locally from the node where the VM is running. In the specific case of multi-reader VDI workloads, the Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric detects that the same vDisk is being read by VMs across multiple nodes. It automatically caches this vDisk (Shadow Clone) on the local SSD/RAM of every node.

The Result: As shown in the graphs, the cluster delivers very high Read IOPS because every node is serving its own VMs from local cache, preventing network congestion. Consequently, the latency remains flat and near-zero, rather than spiking as it would in a traditional centralized storage architecture where all reads traverse the network to a single controller.

Nutanix AHV Plug-In for Citrix Director provides more information on Citrix generated desktops running on Nutanix AHV. Some of the metrics that are available in customized reports are:

VM CPU Usage

VM Memory Usage

VM Disk IOPS

VM Disk Bandwidth

Nutanix leverages the Security Configuration Management Automation (SCMA) framework to ensure that services are constantly inspected for variance to the security policy. This framework checks multiple security entities for both Nutanix storage and AHV, automatically reporting log inconsistencies and reverting them to the baseline where applicable.

To prevent these continuous inspections from negatively affecting the cluster's operation, the Nutanix Security Guide specifies that STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide) scans have the lowest system priority within the virtual storage controller. This design ensures that security checks do not interfere with platform performance or user workloads, regardless of whether the schedule is set to run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

Nutanix supports Data-in-Transit Encryption to secure traffic flowing between nodes (CVM to CVM) and between the CVM and hypervisor. This feature uses TLS to encrypt replication and storage data traffic.

However, the Security Guide notes that enabling encryption introduces computational overhead. The encryption and decryption of storage traffic are handled by the Controller VM (CVM) CPUs. Therefore, a key design consideration is that this configuration results in increased CVM CPU utilization. Consequently, due to the processing time required for encryption operations, there may be a slight increase in I/O latency. Administrators must ensure the cluster has sufficient CPU headroom on the CVMs to absorb this overhead without impacting application performance.

The CPU usage percentage indicates how much of the allocated CPU resources the virtual desktop is consuming.

A high CPU usage percentage means that the virtual desktop is using a lot of CPU resources, which can affect the performance of other virtual desktops on the same host or cluster.

According to Nutanix best practices, the recommended CPU usage percentage for virtual desktops is less than 80%.

VM-0001 (99%)

VM-0002 (98%)

VM-0003 (97%)

VM-0004 (96%)

VM-0005 (95%)

VM-0010 (85%)

VM-0016 (81%)

These virtual desktops are likely contributing to the performance issue by consuming too much CPU resources and starving other virtual desktops from performing adequately.

VMware Horizon is a solution that delivers Windows and Linux virtual desktops and published applications to end users from centralized servers.

One of the best practices for delivering Microsoft Office 365 in VMware Horizon is to disable Cached Exchange Mode for Outlook3. This can improve performance and reduce storage requirements.

There are different profile management toolsets that can be used with Office 365 and VMware Horizon. One of them is Horizon Persona Management4, which is a feature that synchronizes user profiles with a remote repository and provides a personalized desktop experience.

Another option is FSLogix Profile Management5, which is a Microsoft solution that enhances Office 365 performance in non-persistent VDI environments by redirecting user profiles to virtual disks.

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/best-practices-delivering-microsoft-office-365-vmware-horizon

Nutanix Files offers a feature called Smart DR, which enables share-level replication between active file server instances for disaster recovery.

Smart DR allows administrators to configure replication policies for each share, such as replication interval, retention period, and bandwidth limit.

Smart DR also supports failover and failback operations between source and target file servers in case of a disaster.

According to Nutanix best practices1, Smart DR is suitable for scenarios where users need to access their files from different locations or data centers.

https://next.nutanix.com/community-blog-154/nutanix-files-3-8-and-file-analytics-3-0-39309

This is because this option will allow the administrator to use Citrix Director to reset user profiles on a Nutanix Files share that provides high performance, scalability, and resilience3.

Citrix Profile Management is a solution that allows administrators to manage user profiles and settings across different devices and sessions12. Nutanix Files is a software-defined file storage solution that provides high performance and scalability for file data12. Nutanix Files supports all forms of profile management with efficient metadata caching techniques that optimize for faster VDI logon times12. Nutanix Files offers two types of shares: standard shares and distributed shares3. Standard shares are hosted on a single file server, while distributed shares are hosted on multiple file servers for load balancing and high availability3.

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

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops architecture documentation utilized in Nutanix EUC designs:

VDA Functionality: The Virtual Delivery Agent (VDA) is the essential software component that must be installed on every machine (virtual or physical) that delivers applications or desktops.

FMA Role: The VDA registers with the Delivery Controller (Broker) and manages the FMA (FlexCast Management Architecture) connection between the machine and the user device. It establishes and manages the HDX connection, allowing the Citrix Workspace app (on the client side) to connect directly to the desktop session.

Distinction:

Citrix Workspace app is installed on the client device (endpoint), not the virtual desktop.

VirtIO drivers are lower-level drivers for disk/network I/O virtualization on AHV, not FMA connection brokers.

NGT provides Nutanix-specific fabric features (SSR, FLR), not Citrix session connectivity.

Frame is a cloud-based desktop-as-a-service platform that allows users to access Windows applications and desktops from any device1. A license server is a server that hosts a network licensing manager for software that requires licenses to run2. Frame supports using a utility server as a license server for Frame desktops1. A utility server is a stand-alone, general purpose Windows server that can be configured and managed from the Frame dashboard1.

https://docs.frame.nutanix.com/platform/admin/utility-servers/

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix LCM and NVIDIA vGPU operational best practices:

Live Migration Requirement: To keep a VM "online" during a host upgrade, the VM must be live-migrated (vMotioned) off the host entering maintenance mode.

vGPU Constraint: A VM configured with a vGPU profile cannot be live-migrated to a host that does not have a compatible physical GPU resource available.4 The destination host must have a GPU capable of hosting the specific vGPU profile.

The Solution: Since only one host currently has a GPU, there is no valid destination for the VM to migrate to. The administrator must install a GPU in a second host to create a valid migration target. This allows the VM to vMotion to the second host, keeping it online while the first host is upgraded.

According to Nutanix "Security Log Configuration" and "Prism Central" best practices, configuring syslog monitoring via the Prism Central (PC) web console automatically propagates the configuration to all registered Prism Element clusters. This is designed for centralized management but violates the requirement for cluster-specific servers.

To configure a syslog server for a specific cluster without propagating the setting to other clusters, the administrator must use the Nutanix Command-Line Interface (nCLI) on the specific cluster (Prism Element). Documentation explicitly states: "Use the Nutanix command-line interface (nCLI) for syslog monitoring configuration to avoid propagating the configuration to the clusters."

To meet the requirements of minimizing operational overhead and optimizing hardware resources while ensuring N+1 availability, Option B is the optimal design.

Operational Overhead: Managing two clusters (Option B) creates significantly less administrative burden (upgrades, lifecycle management, failure domains) than managing four clusters (Options C and D).

Resource Optimization & Availability:

Total Load: 64TB of RAM (4,000 VMs * 16GB).

Option B (Correct): 2 Clusters × 32 Nodes = 64 Total Nodes.

Per Cluster: 32 nodes × 1.5TB = 48TB Total RAM.

Required RAM per cluster (2,000 VMs): 32TB.

N+1 Check: If 1 node fails, available RAM is 46.5TB. (46.5TB > 32TB required). This validates redundancy with fewer physical nodes (64) compared to Option D (72 nodes).

Option A: Fails N+1. (32 nodes × 1TB = 32TB. If 1 node fails, 31TB available < 32TB required).

Option D: Uses 72 nodes (higher hardware count/cost) and 4 clusters (higher overhead), making it less optimal than B.

Users may expect some level of personalization and consistency across their virtual desktop sessions, even if they do not save any changes1. To customize this user experience, administrators can use different solutions that manage user profiles and settings1.

To achieve logical traffic separation while minimizing physical ports (using the same physical uplinks for multiple traffic types), Nutanix AHV networking best practices recommend the use of 802.1Q VLAN tagging.

The standard validated design is to:

Place the CVM and AHV Host management/storage interfaces on the Native VLAN (untagged) or a specific management VLAN.

Place User VM (Guest) traffic on Tagged VLANs.

This configuration allows storage replication traffic (CVM) and user traffic (VMs) to share the same physical cables (minimizing port usage) while remaining logically isolated at the switch level. Options like separate virtual switches (Option B) often require dedicated physical uplinks, which violates the requirement to minimize ports.

AHV Xi PC plug-in is used for when Prism Central resides in Xi Cloud. Prism Central is a management plane that provides centralized control and visibility across multiple Nutanix clusters and clouds. Xi Cloud is a hybrid cloud platform that enables customers to run their applications and workloads on Nutanix infrastructure in public cloud environments such as AWS and Azure2. The AHV Xi PC plug-in allows customers to use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops with Nutanix AHV clusters running on Xi Cloud3.

https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/support/ebg-ncp-euc-6.pdf

https://www.nutanix.com/products/ahv

https://docs.frame.nutanix.com/platform/admin/account-creation/

The Public Network option provides access to the Frame environment over the public internet, while the Private Network with VPN option allows for a secure connection to the Frame environment over a private network using a VPN.

In a Nutanix AHV environment integrated with Citrix Provisioning (PVS), the XenDesktop Setup Wizard (or Citrix Virtual Desktops Setup Wizard) is responsible for creating the Write Cache disk for target VMs during the provisioning process.

According to Nutanix Knowledge Base articles regarding PVS on AHV, a common cause for the failure of the write-cache disk creation is the presence of an attached virtual disk on the snapshot used as the template. The wizard expects to create and attach the write-cache disk itself. If the template snapshot already has a hard disk attached (other than the potential CD-ROM, which is generally supported if single), the wizard's logic for disk slot assignment or disk creation conflicts with the existing disk, causing the "creation of the VM's write-cache disk failed" error. The supported procedure explicitly states that the VM template snapshot must be created without any hard disks attached.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix and Citrix Desktop Delivery Models:

Requirement Analysis: The goal is to replace a physical desktop while minimizing Application Compatibility concerns.

Why Persistent VDI? Persistent VDI (often Full Clones) provides a 1:1 user-to-VM mapping where the user's data, profile, and installed applications persist across reboots, exactly mimicking a physical PC. This offers the highest application compatibility because apps that require local installation, hard-coded paths, or local licensing work without the complex layering or virtualization required in non-persistent setups.

Comparison:

Non-Persistent VDI (C): often requires "App Layering" or complex image management for incompatible apps, increasing overhead for difficult applications.

Hosted Shared (B): (RDS) has the lowest app compatibility due to multi-user OS limitations.

According to Nutanix and Microsoft best practices for Windows 11 on AHV, the operating system has significantly higher CPU overhead compared to previous versions due to mandatory security features like Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI).

While the minimum requirement for Windows 11 is 2 vCPUs, this configuration is often insufficient for an acceptable user experience in a VDI environment where users are running concurrent applications. Performance analysis indicates that 2 vCPUs results in high CPU Ready time and sluggishness. The recommended configuration to resolve these performance bottlenecks is to increase the CPU allocation to at least 3 vCPUs (typically 4 vCPUs is the standard "sweet spot" for Windows 11 VDI), ensuring enough compute cycles are available for both the OS overhead and user workloads.3

To resolve issues with persistence (retaining settings) and login performance in a non-persistent VDI environment, the industry standard and Nutanix-recommended solution is to Enable a Virtual Disk-based profile solution (such as FSLogix Profile Containers or Citrix Profile Management containers).

Retaining Settings: Unlike local profiles (wiped on reboot) or mandatory profiles (read-only), containerized profiles capture all user writes and persist them to a VHD/VHDX file on a file share (e.g., Nutanix Files).

Speed: Microsoft Roaming Profiles (Option A) require copying files over the network at login, causing slowness. Virtual Disk-based solutions mount the profile disk instantly over the network, making the login process nearly as fast as a local profile while ensuring data persistence.

an action that the administrator should take to enable Shadow Clones for a VMWare Horizon Solution on AHV is Connect to Prism Central and execute the cluster enable –cluster_cluster_uuid 0xxx – show_clones=true command. Shadow Clones are a feature that helps decrease read latency by creating local copies of frequently accessed data blocks on each host2. To enable Shadow Clones, the administrator needs to connect to Prism Central and run a cluster command with the appropriate parameters1.

non-persistent VDI is a type of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that does not save any changes made by the user on the virtual machine (VM) across sessions. Non-persistent VDI uses a master image to create and delete VMs as needed.

Therefore, if the administrator needs to manage a non-persistent deployment, they should avoid any requirements that involve modifying or installing applications on the VMs, as those changes would not be saved.

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-ncp-euc-v6

In virtualization performance troubleshooting, CPU Ready % is a critical metric that indicates the percentage of time a virtual machine was ready to execute a thread but had to wait for the hypervisor to schedule it on a physical CPU core.

According to standard Nutanix and AHV performance guidelines, a CPU Ready value above 5% per vCPU is considered a leading indicator of CPU contention (oversubscription) and performance degradation. While the overall host CPU Usage appears low (18%), the high CPU Ready (6.5%) suggests that specific VMs are fighting for scheduling slots, causing the latency ("tasks taking longer") reported by the users. The other metrics (IOPS, Storage Usage) are well within normal operating parameters.

Citrix Studio is the primary management console for the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (or Citrix DaaS) site.7 It is explicitly designed with wizards to guide administrators through deployment scenarios, such as creating Machine Catalogs (provisioning VMs) and Delivery Groups.

It is specifically within the Delivery Groups wizard in Citrix Studio that an administrator configures the publishing of resources (such as applications and desktops) and assigns them to users.8 While Prism Central manages the underlying Nutanix infrastructure (VMs, networking), it does not handle the session brokering or the specific definition of "published resources" for the VDI users.

In a Nutanix-hosted Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment, proper network port configuration is essential for component communication. The Citrix License Server is a critical infrastructure component that manages product licensing.

According to Nutanix Validated Designs and Citrix reference architectures for traffic flow, TCP port 27000 is the default port required for inbound communication to the License Server. This port is used by the License Server Manager (lmadmin or lmgrd) to receive communication from Citrix products (such as the Delivery Controller) requesting licenses.

The specific port breakdown for the License Server is:

Port 27000 (TCP): The License Server Manager port (Inbound communication). This is the primary entry point.

Port 7279 (TCP): The Vendor Daemon port.

Port 8082/8083 (TCP): The Administration Console web port (used for management, not licensing requests).

Therefore, to ensure successful inbound communication for licensing operations within the Nutanix infrastructure, the firewall must allow traffic on Port 27000.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=TN-2041-Nutanix-Files:file-server-virtual-machines.html

https://next.nutanix.com/files-storage-71/command-line-access-to-nutanix-file-server-vm-fsvm-via-ssh-nutanix-files-33420

The file server VM (FSVM) is a virtual machine that runs on Nutanix Files and provides file services such as SMB shares and NFS exports. The FSVM is based on CentOS and incorporates all the security and hardening that goes into the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM)2. The CVM is a virtual machine that runs on each node of a Nutanix cluster and provides storage management, data protection, cluster coordination, and other services3.

The FSVMs have some default configuration settings that can be changed depending on your workload requirements. For example, you can change the number of vCPUs, RAM, network interfaces, or disk size of an FSVM2. However, you should not change these settings without consulting Nutanix Support first.

One of the factors that affects the performance of an FSVM is its memory allocation. The more memory an FSVM has, the more cache it can use for file operations. This can improve the throughput and latency of file serving workloads4. Therefore, increasing the FSVM RAM to 96GB can help optimize its performance for a large number of users.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to the Nutanix Files Guide regarding Data Replication and VDI solutions:

VDI Sync Functionality: VDI Sync is the specific feature designed to replicate VDI user profiles and data across file servers in different locations (active-active). It ensures that user profile data (like FSLogix or UPM containers) is synchronized in near real-time, allowing users to roam between sites and access their data locally at either location.

Smart DR distinction: Smart DR (Option C) is primarily a Disaster Recovery solution (Active-Standby) used for share-level replication and failover in the event of an outage. It is not designed for the active-active, bi-directional roaming of user profiles required by the question.

Use Case: For a distributed VDI environment where a user might log in to Site A today and Site B tomorrow and needs their profile immediately available and writable in both, VDI Sync is the mandatory component.

This issue is caused by the NVIDIA vGPU scheduling policy. On many NVIDIA GRID/vGPU architectures (prior to latest MIG capabilities), you cannot mix different vGPU profile sizes (e.g., 2Q and 4Q) on the same physical GPU.

Current State (Breadth Mode): The scheduler is likely distributing the "2Q" VMs evenly across all available GPUs. This means every physical GPU has at least one "2Q" profile active, "tainting" the GPU so it can only accept other "2Q" VMs.

The Fix (Depth Mode): By changing the allocation policy to Depth-First, the scheduler will fill up the first physical GPU with "2Q" VMs until it is full before moving to the next. This consolidates the "2Q" workloads onto fewer cards, leaving other physical GPUs completely empty. These empty GPUs can then accept the "4Q" profile type, allowing both profiles to co-exist on the same host (though on different physical cards).

View Composer API for Array Integration (VCAI) is a feature of VMware Horizon that leverages the native cloning abilities in the storage array to offload storage operations within a VMware View environment12. This feature allows customers to offload the creation of linked clones to the storage array3.

According to Nutanix Support & Insights3, you need to install the Nutanix AHV plugin for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on Delivery Controllers (also called the MCS plugin SDK) to create and manage Citrix-provisioned VMs in a Nutanix AHV infrastructure environment. 

Nutanix Prism Central features the Security Dashboard (previously known as Security Planner), which is the designated interface for monitoring and managing the security posture of the environment.

This dashboard specifically scans and reports on Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), including CPU and memory-related vulnerabilities (such as Spectre, Meltdown, and L1TF) affecting the AHV hosts and CVMs. It provides a consolidated view of the "Protection Status" across all registered clusters and guides the administrator on the necessary software versions (LTS/STS) or Life Cycle Manager (LCM) updates required to remediate these specific hardware-level security risks.

To install the NVIDIA GRID host driver (vGPU driver) on a Nutanix AHV cluster, the administrator must upload the driver file (typically an RPM) to a Controller VM (CVM). From the CVM, the correct procedure is to use the install_host_package command.

This specific Nutanix utility pushes the installation package to the AHV hosts and executes the installation process. The typical syntax is install_host_package -r , which ensures the driver is correctly applied to the hypervisor layer across the cluster nodes. allssh or hostssh commands with standard Linux package managers (like yum) are not the supported method for applying hypervisor-level drivers in AHV.

According to the Nutanix Security Guide, Cluster Lockdown is the specific security feature designed to restrict access to the cluster by disabling password-based authentication. When Cluster Lockdown is enabled, the cluster allows access only via SSH keys (RSA keys).

To meet the requirement of allowing access from "selected workstations" while "disallowing password access," the administrator must use Cluster Lockdown. By generating an SSH key pair and configuring the public key within the Cluster Lockdown settings (and removing the "Enable Remote Login with Password" option), the administrator ensures that only workstations possessing the corresponding private key can authenticate. This effectively restricts access to the specific workstations holding the keys and eliminates the risk associated with password-based logins. While IP restrictions (Option B/C) can limit the source addresses, they do not inherently disable password authentication, which is the primary requirement of the question.

persistent virtual desktops are virtual desktops that retain their state and configuration across sessions.

This means that users can customize their virtual desktops with their own applications, settings, and data, and have them available every time they log on.

Persistent virtual desktops are suitable for users who need a consistent and personalized experience, such as developers.

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the recommended migration paths for persistent virtual desktops is to convert the physical computers to virtual desktops.

This can be done by using a tool such as VMware Converter or Microsoft Disk2vhd to create a virtual disk image of the physical computer’s hard drive.

Then, this image can be imported into Nutanix Cloud Platform and used as a base image for creating persistent virtual desktops.

This migration path can preserve the existing applications, settings, and data of the physical computers and minimize the disruption for the users.

Storage Efficiency features that will provide better storage efficiency and performance improvement for a mix of full clones and non-persistent desktops deployed via Citrix MCS on a three-node cluster are Compression and Deduplication. Compression is a technology that reduces the size of data blocks by removing redundant information. Deduplication is a technology that eliminates duplicate blocks of data and reduces storage consumption. Both Compression and Deduplication can be enabled on a per-container basis and can provide significant savings for Citrix virtual desktop deployments that use cloning technologies such as MCS2.

For a Citrix VDA (Virtual Delivery Agent) to successfully register with the Delivery Controller, it must establish a secure communication channel which relies heavily on Kerberos authentication.

A common cause for registration failure on startup, particularly in new deployments or non-persistent environments, is that the Time is off on the machines. If the system clock of the virtual desktop drifts more than 5 minutes from the domain controller or the Delivery Controller, Kerberos ticket generation fails. This prevents the VDA from authenticating with the Broker Service, resulting in a "Unregistered" state in Citrix Studio. While Windows 11 has strict hardware requirements (Option A), failing to meet those usually prevents the OS from booting or installing entirely; if the OS boots but fails to register, time synchronization is the most probable infrastructure cause.

To achieve the requirement of bidirectional replication where a user can access their profile data locally at either site (Active-Active profile availability), the administrator should configure VDI Sync.

VDI Sync is a specialized configuration within the Nutanix Files ecosystem designed to synchronize User Profile directories across distributed file server instances. Unlike standard one-way Disaster Recovery (Smart DR) which is designed for failover, VDI Sync ensures that changes made to a profile at Site A are replicated to Site B, and vice-versa, allowing users to roam between physical locations while maintaining a consistent, local copy of their profile data.

A cloud-based DR service that allows customers to protect their Nutanix workloads in a Nutanix-owned cloud platform6. Xi Leap eliminates the need for multiple products and provides end-to-end security, automation, and SLA compliance6.

The feature in Nutanix that would be used to complete the task of deploying virtual desktops to a Hyper-V Nutanix cluster with writable differencing disks using a read-only master image with clones that link back to the image is Shadow Clones. Shadow Clones allow for the creation of a snapshot or a clone of a VM that uses the original VM's disks as read-only, and only writes changes to a separate differencing disk. This is useful when deploying virtual desktops as it can reduce storage requirements and improve performance.

Nutanix shadow clones are a feature that enables distributed caching of virtual disks (vDisks) that are in a multi-reader scenario. This can improve performance and reduce network traffic for scenarios such as VDI or private clone boot storms1

Sysprep is a Microsoft tool that prepares a Windows installation for cloning, auditing, and customer delivery23. The Frame Sysprep Helper Tool is designed to simplify the Microsoft Sysprep process by parsing errors reported by sysprep and immediately repairing them when possible1. Therefore, the tool that the administrator can use to prepare the Sysprep of the sandbox with error parsing is A (Frame Sysprep Helper Tool).

ECC (Error Correcting Code) mode is a feature of some NVIDIA GPUs that provides error detection and correction for memory errors. However, ECC mode can interfere with vGPU functionality and prevent vGPU-enabled VMs from being created or started1. Therefore, two correct steps to resolve this issue are B (Disable ECC by running nvdia-smi -e 0) and D (Check if ECC Mode is turned on by running nvdia-smi -q | grep “ECC Mode” -A2).

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA00e000000LKjOCAW

When performing maintenance (such as Life Cycle Manager updates) on a Nutanix cluster hosting Omnissa (VMware) Horizon Instant Clones, specific operational steps are required to avoid provisioning failures.

Pool provisioning was not disabled (Option D): It is a mandatory best practice to disable provisioning in the Horizon Connection Server before starting cluster maintenance. If provisioning remains active, the broker attempts to create VMs on hosts that may be rebooting or entering maintenance mode, leading to error states.

The host having maintenance performed contains the replica VMs (Option C): Instant Clones rely on a "Replica" VM (a powered-on parent VM) typically residing on one of the hosts. If the host holding this Replica VM enters maintenance mode without the broker's awareness or without proper evacuation handling, the "Link" required to generate new clones is broken, causing provisioning tasks to fail immediately.

To change the account lockout behavior from the default (which is typically a temporary 15-minute lockout) to a permanent lockout required for high-security environments, the administrator must enable the DoD (Department of Defense) configuration compliance.

This is managed through the Security Configuration Management Automation (SCMA) framework, often found within the "Cluster Hardening" or "Security Dashboard" settings (sometimes referenced as "Additional Settings" in exam contexts). Applying the DoD STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide) policy modifies the underlying Linux PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) configuration (pam_faillock) to enforce strict rules, including permanently locking user accounts after a specific number of failed attempts until an administrator manually unlocks them. "Cluster Lockdown" (Option A) refers to disabling password authentication entirely in favor of SSH keys, which does not fit the requirement of locking accounts after incorrect login attempts.1

Here are the 100% verified answers for Questions 12, 13, 14, and 15, derived from Nutanix End User Computing architectural best practices.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract of Nutanix End User Computing documents:

According to Nutanix AHV Best Practices for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI):

Power Management: The most critical "optimal" configuration for latency-sensitive EUC workloads is to ensure the host power management policy is set to High Performance. This prevents the CPU from entering power-saving states (C-states/P-states) which can introduce latency during user interaction.

Memory Configuration: While Nutanix AHV typically disables memory overcommit by default (or does not use it in the same way as other hypervisors for VDI), the active configuration step required by an administrator to guarantee optimal performance is the Power Management setting. Memory reservation should generally be 100% (not 50%) to avoid swapping, and CPU/Memory shares are usually left at default unless there is specific contention, but Power Management is the baseline requirement for EUC optimization.

Why not D? While memory overcommit should be disabled for VDI, in many AHV versions this is the default behavior or inherent architecture. "High performance power management" represents the specific tuning parameter that administrators must validate or configure (often in the BIOS or via AHV command) to ensure the environment is "optimized" for desktop workloads.