Effective capacity is calculated from total raw capacity divided by the Replication Factor (RF2=50% usable, RF3=33% usable).

The logical troubleshooting flow starts with VM-specific metrics, then checks the host resources, followed by storage performance, and finally network connectivity.

LCM manages Nutanix infrastructure components including AOS, hypervisors, and firmware, but does not manage software installed within guest virtual machines or applications.

Alert policies can be configured with email actions to send notifications to specified email addresses when alert conditions are met.

Dark Site mode allows administrators to download updates to a local repository and deploy them in air-gapped environments without direct internet access.

The proper sequence is to physically cable the node, image it with Foundation, discover it in Prism, and finally expand the cluster to include it.

Multiple containers with the same replication factor can share a storage pool regardless of compression or deduplication settings, as these are container-level features.

CVMs and hypervisor hosts typically use static IP addresses configured during initial deployment to ensure consistent management network connectivity.

The workflow starts by navigating to alert configuration, creating a new policy, defining the conditions that trigger the alert, and configuring the actions to take.

Nutanix supports AHV (native), VMware ESXi, and Microsoft Hyper-V as certified hypervisors, with AHV included at no additional licensing cost.

The proper workflow begins by accessing the Health Dashboard, initiating NCC checks, reviewing the results for any warnings or errors, and then exporting the report if needed.

The CVM is responsible for all storage I/O operations, data management, and cluster services, running on each node in the Nutanix cluster.

A minimum of three CVMs is required to form a quorum and maintain cluster operations, as this provides majority consensus for distributed operations.

Email alerts require an SMTP server to be configured in Prism settings to deliver alert notifications to specified email addresses.

Live Migration (or vMotion in VMware) transfers a running VM‘s memory and execution state to another host without shutting down the VM.

Pre-upgrade checks ensure the cluster is healthy, meets requirements, and is compatible with planned updates, helping prevent issues during the actual update process.

First verify prerequisites and health, update the cluster leader CVM, then update remaining nodes one by one, and finally validate the cluster post-upgrade.

Curator service performs background disk balancing operations to ensure data is evenly distributed across all nodes for optimal performance and capacity utilization.

Access Settings in Prism, navigate to the Alerts section, select Email Configuration, and enter the SMTP server details including authentication if required.

Compression can be configured to run inline, compressing data as it is written to storage, reducing capacity usage immediately during the write operation.

The Acropolis Command Line Interface (acli) is a powerful CLI tool for managing AHV clusters, VMs, networks, and storage from the command line.

Containers within the same storage pool can have independent compression and deduplication settings, but must share the pool‘s replication factor setting.

Shadow Clones optimize read performance by creating shared read cache for identical blocks accessed by multiple VMs, reducing storage reads.

Capacity runway calculates how long current storage will last based on historical growth trends, helping administrators plan capacity expansions proactively.

Start by checking overall storage performance metrics, identify which containers or VMs have high latency, review physical disk health, and analyze workload patterns.

Prism Central provides centralized, multi-cluster management capabilities, allowing administrators to manage multiple Nutanix clusters from a single interface.

OpLog is a staging area on SSDs that buffers incoming writes for quick acknowledgment before data is written to the Extent Store for persistent storage.

The typical workflow is to access the support portal, create a new case with the appropriate severity, provide initial details, and then gather/upload logs as needed.

The Metadata service maintains information about where data blocks are located across the cluster and their attributes like RF, compression state, and ownership.

Curator is a background service that performs maintenance tasks like disk balancing, compression, deduplication, and snapshot management across the cluster.

AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) is Nutanix‘s own KVM-based hypervisor, included with AOS at no additional licensing cost.

The Replication Factor must be set when creating a storage container and cannot be modified afterward without recreating the container and migrating data.

Hot-add CPU must be enabled on the VM before you can add vCPUs while the VM is running, otherwise the VM must be powered off first.

With RF2, data is replicated twice, so raw capacity is divided by 2. Four nodes × 10TB = 40TB raw ÷ 2 (RF2) = 20TB usable capacity.

The VM console is accessed directly from the VM list in Prism Element by selecting the VM and launching the console viewer for troubleshooting.

Hypervisor updates typically require nodes to be rebooted one at a time in a rolling fashion to apply the new hypervisor version while maintaining cluster availability.

RF3 requires a minimum of five nodes to ensure that three copies of data can be distributed across different nodes while maintaining cluster functionality.

Failed NCC checks should be investigated by reviewing the detailed output to understand which specific checks failed and why before taking further action.

Hot-add capabilities allow adding disks and increasing memory on running VMs if the feature is enabled, while other operations typically require shutdown.

Deduplication identifies and eliminates duplicate data blocks, storing only one copy and using pointers for subsequent references, reducing overall storage consumption.

The Nutanix storage stack consists of the Distributed Storage Fabric, OpLog for write optimization, and Extent Store for persistent data storage on physical drives.

RF3 maintains three copies of data across different nodes, allowing the cluster to survive two simultaneous node failures, providing higher availability than RF2.

The proper workflow ensures LCM Framework is current, performs inventory to detect available updates, selects the desired AOS version, and applies the update.

Data-at-rest encryption is an advanced security feature available only with the Ultimate edition license in Nutanix environments.

Linked clones share a common base disk image, requiring only delta changes to be written, making them the fastest provisioning method for multiple VMs.

All Nutanix license editions allow unlimited VM deployment; licensing differences are in advanced features, not VM quantity restrictions.

The acli vm.create command is the correct syntax for creating new virtual machines in AHV through the command-line interface.

Before making changes, analyze current storage usage to understand what is consuming space and identify opportunities for cleanup or optimization.

Before taking action, review the capacity runway dashboard to understand usage trends, growth rate, and which containers or VMs are consuming the most storage.

Flow microsegmentation and advanced network security features are only available with the Ultimate edition license in Nutanix environments.

LCM inventory scans the cluster to identify current versions of all software and firmware components and compares them against the latest available updates.

The “Scheduled“ status means the administrator has configured the update to run automatically at a specific date and time in the future.

The support case creation workflow in Prism Element is accessed through the Support menu where you can enter case details and submit directly to Nutanix support.

When an LCM update fails for a specific component, the administrator must manually troubleshoot and update that component before proceeding with other updates.

Open vSwitch (OVS) is the virtual switching technology in AHV that provides network connectivity for virtual machines within the cluster environment.

When a node goes offline during an LCM update, the system pauses to prevent incomplete updates and requires administrator intervention to resolve the issue.

Critical alerts indicate severe issues that could impact cluster availability or data integrity and require immediate investigation and resolution.

LCM is specifically designed to simplify and automate the process of updating Nutanix software, hypervisor versions, and firmware components across the entire cluster infrastructure.

RF2 is the minimum production-recommended setting, maintaining two copies of data across different nodes, allowing the cluster to survive one node failure.

Data locality ensures that VM data is preferentially read from and written to storage on the same node where the VM is running, reducing network traffic.