Free Nutanix NCM-MCI-6.5 Practice Test & Real Exam Questions
Task 11
An administrator has noticed that after a host failure, the SQL03 VM was not powered back on from another host within the cluster. The Other SQL VMs (SQL01, SQL02) have recovered properly in the past.
Resolve the issue and configure the environment to ensure any single host failure affects a minimal number os SQL VMs.
Note: Do not power on any VMs
An administrator has noticed that after a host failure, the SQL03 VM was not powered back on from another host within the cluster. The Other SQL VMs (SQL01, SQL02) have recovered properly in the past.
Resolve the issue and configure the environment to ensure any single host failure affects a minimal number os SQL VMs.
Note: Do not power on any VMs
Correct Answer:
See the Explanation for step by step solution.
Explanation
One possible reason why the SQL03 VM was not powered back on after a host failure is that the cluster was configured with the default (best effort) VM high availability mode, which does not guarantee the availability of VMs in case of insufficient resources on the remaining hosts. To resolve this issue, I suggest changing the VM high availability mode to guarantee (reserved segments), which reserves some memory on each host for failover of VMs from a failed host. This way, the SQL03 VM will have a higher chance of being restarted on another host in case of a host failure.
To change the VM high availability mode to guarantee (reserved segments), you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Central and select the cluster where the SQL VMs are running.
Click on the gear icon on the top right corner and select Cluster Settings.
Under Cluster Services, click on Virtual Machine High Availability.
Select Guarantee (Reserved Segments) from the drop-down menu and click Save.
To configure the environment to ensure any single host failure affects a minimal number of SQL VMs, I suggest using anti-affinity rules, which prevent VMs that belong to the same group from running on the same host. This way, if one host fails, only one SQL VM will be affected and the other SQL VMs will continue running on different hosts.
To create an anti-affinity rule for the SQL VMs, you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Central and click on Entities on the left menu.
Select Virtual Machines from the drop-down menu and click on Create Group.
Enter a name for the group, such as SQL Group, and click Next.
Select the SQL VMs (SQL01, SQL02, SQL03) from the list and click Next.
Select Anti-Affinity from the drop-down menu and click Next.
Review the group details and click Finish.
I hope this helps. How else can I help?
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=AHV-Admin-Guide-v6_5:ahv-affinity-policies-c.htm A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated with medium confidence
Explanation
One possible reason why the SQL03 VM was not powered back on after a host failure is that the cluster was configured with the default (best effort) VM high availability mode, which does not guarantee the availability of VMs in case of insufficient resources on the remaining hosts. To resolve this issue, I suggest changing the VM high availability mode to guarantee (reserved segments), which reserves some memory on each host for failover of VMs from a failed host. This way, the SQL03 VM will have a higher chance of being restarted on another host in case of a host failure.
To change the VM high availability mode to guarantee (reserved segments), you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Central and select the cluster where the SQL VMs are running.
Click on the gear icon on the top right corner and select Cluster Settings.
Under Cluster Services, click on Virtual Machine High Availability.
Select Guarantee (Reserved Segments) from the drop-down menu and click Save.
To configure the environment to ensure any single host failure affects a minimal number of SQL VMs, I suggest using anti-affinity rules, which prevent VMs that belong to the same group from running on the same host. This way, if one host fails, only one SQL VM will be affected and the other SQL VMs will continue running on different hosts.
To create an anti-affinity rule for the SQL VMs, you can follow these steps:
Log in to Prism Central and click on Entities on the left menu.
Select Virtual Machines from the drop-down menu and click on Create Group.
Enter a name for the group, such as SQL Group, and click Next.
Select the SQL VMs (SQL01, SQL02, SQL03) from the list and click Next.
Select Anti-Affinity from the drop-down menu and click Next.
Review the group details and click Finish.
I hope this helps. How else can I help?
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=AHV-Admin-Guide-v6_5:ahv-affinity-policies-c.htm A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated with medium confidence
Task 9
Part1
An administrator logs into Prism Element and sees an alert stating the following:
Cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196)
Correct this issue in the least disruptive manner.
Part2
In a separate request, the security team has noticed a newly created cluster is reporting.
CVM [35.197.75.196] is using the
They have provided some new security requirements for cluster level security.
Security requirements:
Update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password: Note:
192.168.x.x is not available. To access a node use the Host IP (172.30.0.x) from a CVM or the supplied external IP address.
Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password.
Resolve the alert that is being reported.
Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made.
Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.
Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.
Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords. (SSH keys are located in the Desktop\Files\SSH folder).
Ensure the clusters meets these requirements. Do not reboot any cluster components.
Part1
An administrator logs into Prism Element and sees an alert stating the following:
Cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196)
Correct this issue in the least disruptive manner.
Part2
In a separate request, the security team has noticed a newly created cluster is reporting.
CVM [35.197.75.196] is using the
They have provided some new security requirements for cluster level security.
Security requirements:
Update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password: Note:
192.168.x.x is not available. To access a node use the Host IP (172.30.0.x) from a CVM or the supplied external IP address.
Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password.
Resolve the alert that is being reported.
Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made.
Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.
Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.
Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords. (SSH keys are located in the Desktop\Files\SSH folder).
Ensure the clusters meets these requirements. Do not reboot any cluster components.
Correct Answer:
See the Explanation for step by step solution.
Explanation
To correct the issue of cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196) in the least disruptive manner, you need to do the following steps:
Log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to the Alerts page and click on the alert to see more details.
You will see which cluster services are down on the Controller VM. For example, it could be cassandra, curator, stargate, etc.
To start the cluster services, you need to SSH to the Controller VM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the Controller VM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.
Once you are logged in to the Controller VM, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This will show you which services are down on the Controller VM.
To start the cluster services, run the command:
cluster start
This will start all the cluster services on the Controller VM.
To verify that the cluster services are running, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This should show no output, indicating that all services are up.
To clear the alert, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To meet the security requirements for cluster level security, you need to do the following steps:
To update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the node using the root user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the node. You will need the IP address and the password of the root user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\root.txt.
Once you are logged in to the node, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the root user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the CVM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the CVM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.
Once you are logged in to the CVM, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the nutanix user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To resolve the alert that is being reported, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To output the cluster-wide configuration of SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > SCMA Policy and click on View Policy Details. This will show you the current settings of SCMA policy for each entity type.
Copy and paste these settings into a new text file named Desktop\Files\output.txt.
To enable AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > AIDE Configuration and click on Enable AIDE. This will enable AIDE to monitor file system changes on all CVMs and nodes in the cluster.
Select Weekly as the frequency of AIDE scans and click Save.
To enable high-strength password policies for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Password Policy and click on Edit Policy. This will allow you to modify the password policy settings for each entity type.
For each entity type (Admin User, Console User, CVM User, and Host User), select High Strength as the password policy level and click Save.
To ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Cluster Lockdown and click on Configure Lockdown. This will allow you to manage SSH access settings for the cluster.
Uncheck Enable Remote Login with Password. This will disable password-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click New Public Key and enter a name for the key and paste the public key value from Desktop\Files\SSH\id_rsa.pub. This will add a public key for key-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click Save and Apply Lockdown. This will apply the changes and ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords.
Part1
Enter CVM ssh and execute:
cluster status | grep -v UP
cluster start
If there are issues starting some services, check the following:
Check if the node is in maintenance mode by running the ncli host ls command on the CVM. Verify if the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to False for the node where the services are down. If the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to True, remove the node from maintenance mode by running the following command:
nutanix@cvm$ ncli host edit id=<host id> enable-maintenance-mode=false
You can determine the host ID by usingncli host ls.
See the troubleshooting topics related to failed cluster services in the Advanced Administration Guide available from the Nutanix Portal'sSoftware Documentationpage. (Use the filters to search for the guide for your AOS version). These topics have information about common and AOS-specific logs, such as Stargate, Cassandra, and other modules.
Check for any latest FATALs for the service that is down. The following command prints all the FATALs for a CVM. Run this command on all CVMs.
nutanix@cvm$ for i in `svmips`; do echo "CVM: $i"; ssh $i "ls -ltr /home/nutanix/data/logs/*.FATAL"; done NCC Health Check: cluster_services_down_check (nutanix.com) Part2 Vlad Drac2023-06-05T13:22:00I'll update this one with a smaller, if possible, command Update the default password for the rootuser on the node to match the admin user password echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin root"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM sudo passwd nutanix Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Output Example:
nutanix@NTNX-372a19a3-A-CVM:10.35.150.184:~$ ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Enable Aide : false Enable Core : false Enable High Strength P... : false Enable Banner : false Schedule : DAILY Enable iTLB Multihit M... : false Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-aide=true
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params schedule=weekly
Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008gb3CAA
Explanation
To correct the issue of cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196) in the least disruptive manner, you need to do the following steps:
Log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to the Alerts page and click on the alert to see more details.
You will see which cluster services are down on the Controller VM. For example, it could be cassandra, curator, stargate, etc.
To start the cluster services, you need to SSH to the Controller VM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the Controller VM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.
Once you are logged in to the Controller VM, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This will show you which services are down on the Controller VM.
To start the cluster services, run the command:
cluster start
This will start all the cluster services on the Controller VM.
To verify that the cluster services are running, run the command:
cluster status | grep -v UP
This should show no output, indicating that all services are up.
To clear the alert, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To meet the security requirements for cluster level security, you need to do the following steps:
To update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the node using the root user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the node. You will need the IP address and the password of the root user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\root.txt.
Once you are logged in to the node, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the root user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the CVM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the CVM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.
Once you are logged in to the CVM, run the command:
passwd
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the nutanix user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.
To resolve the alert that is being reported, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.
To output the cluster-wide configuration of SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > SCMA Policy and click on View Policy Details. This will show you the current settings of SCMA policy for each entity type.
Copy and paste these settings into a new text file named Desktop\Files\output.txt.
To enable AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > AIDE Configuration and click on Enable AIDE. This will enable AIDE to monitor file system changes on all CVMs and nodes in the cluster.
Select Weekly as the frequency of AIDE scans and click Save.
To enable high-strength password policies for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Password Policy and click on Edit Policy. This will allow you to modify the password policy settings for each entity type.
For each entity type (Admin User, Console User, CVM User, and Host User), select High Strength as the password policy level and click Save.
To ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.
Go to Security > Cluster Lockdown and click on Configure Lockdown. This will allow you to manage SSH access settings for the cluster.
Uncheck Enable Remote Login with Password. This will disable password-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click New Public Key and enter a name for the key and paste the public key value from Desktop\Files\SSH\id_rsa.pub. This will add a public key for key-based SSH access to the cluster.
Click Save and Apply Lockdown. This will apply the changes and ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords.
Part1
Enter CVM ssh and execute:
cluster status | grep -v UP
cluster start
If there are issues starting some services, check the following:
Check if the node is in maintenance mode by running the ncli host ls command on the CVM. Verify if the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to False for the node where the services are down. If the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to True, remove the node from maintenance mode by running the following command:
nutanix@cvm$ ncli host edit id=<host id> enable-maintenance-mode=false
You can determine the host ID by usingncli host ls.
See the troubleshooting topics related to failed cluster services in the Advanced Administration Guide available from the Nutanix Portal'sSoftware Documentationpage. (Use the filters to search for the guide for your AOS version). These topics have information about common and AOS-specific logs, such as Stargate, Cassandra, and other modules.
Check for any latest FATALs for the service that is down. The following command prints all the FATALs for a CVM. Run this command on all CVMs.
nutanix@cvm$ for i in `svmips`; do echo "CVM: $i"; ssh $i "ls -ltr /home/nutanix/data/logs/*.FATAL"; done NCC Health Check: cluster_services_down_check (nutanix.com) Part2 Vlad Drac2023-06-05T13:22:00I'll update this one with a smaller, if possible, command Update the default password for the rootuser on the node to match the admin user password echo -e "CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: "; read -rs password1; echo "Confirm new password: "; read -rs password2; if [ "$password1" == "$password2" ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host "passwd --stdin root"; done; else echo "The passwords do not match"; fi Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM sudo passwd nutanix Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Output Example:
nutanix@NTNX-372a19a3-A-CVM:10.35.150.184:~$ ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config Enable Aide : false Enable Core : false Enable High Strength P... : false Enable Banner : false Schedule : DAILY Enable iTLB Multihit M... : false Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-aide=true
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params schedule=weekly
Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.
ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords
https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008gb3CAA
