NCM-MCI 6.10: Nutanix Certified Master - Multicloud Infrastructure Practice Exam

What the NCM-MCI 6.10 exam covers

• Advanced Cluster Management and Design107 questions
• Advanced AHV and VM Management106 questions
• Advanced Networking110 questions
• Advanced Storage and Performance91 questions
• Advanced Data Protection and Disaster Recovery100 questions
• Security and Compliance91 questions
• Advanced Monitoring and Troubleshooting102 questions
• Lifecycle, Upgrades, and Migration104 questions

Free NCM-MCI 6.10 practice test questions

A sample of 10 questions with answers and explanations. Sign up free to practice all 811.

1. Question 1Advanced Cluster Management and Design

   A customer runs a 4-node RF2 cluster where each node holds 8 TB of physical SSD capacity (32 TB raw, 16 TB usable after RF2). They have provisioned guest VMs consuming 13 TB of effective data and are pushing close to 85% utilization. During a planned firmware upgrade one node is taken offline and the cluster begins to alert that it cannot maintain its resiliency target. What is the MOST accurate root cause?

   • AThe cluster did not reserve enough rebuild capacity for a single-node failure, so with one node down the remaining nodes cannot host a second full RF2 copy of all dataCorrect
   • BCurator stopped its background scans once utilization crossed 85%, so the stale replica map prevented the cluster from re-establishing its second copy on the surviving three nodes
   • CRF2 requires a minimum of five nodes to satisfy resiliency, so any 4-node cluster is unable to keep its target intact while a node is offline for firmware
   • DStargate switched every guest write to synchronous oplog draining during the upgrade, which doubled the space each write consumed and exhausted the free capacity
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   Resilient capacity is the amount of usable space a cluster can fill while still being able to re-protect every extent back to its configured RF after losing a fault domain. On a 4-node RF2 cluster you must keep roughly one node's worth of usable space free so Curator can recreate the second replica of the downed node's extents onto the three survivors. At 85% utilization the working set already exceeds that resilient-capacity threshold, so when firmware takes a node offline there is nowhere to rebuild the missing copies and Prism correctly raises a resiliency-target alert. The fix is to lower utilization below resilient capacity or add a node, not to change any background service behavior.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BCurator continues running background scans well past 85% utilization and never disables them at a fixed threshold, so a stalled scan is not what breaks the resiliency target here.
   • CRF2 has no five-node minimum and a 4-node cluster is a fully supported RF2 configuration, so node count is not the reason it cannot maintain resiliency with one node down.
   • DStargate does not switch to a synchronous oplog draining mode that doubles per-write space during an upgrade; oplog draining to the extent store is asynchronous and space-neutral.
2. Question 2Advanced AHV and VM Management

   An administrator wants to right-size a new analytics VM that will run on AHV hosts with two sockets of 16 physical cores each. The vendor recommends 20 vCPUs. To minimize NUMA-related performance variability while honoring the vendor sizing, which configuration is MOST appropriate?

   • AConfigure 20 vCPUs presented as a single vNUMA node spanning both sockets
   • BConfigure 32 vCPUs so the VM consumes both full sockets and avoids any partial-node placement
   • CConfigure 20 vCPUs presented as two vNUMA nodes of 10 vCPUs each, aligned to the two physical socketsCorrect
   • DConfigure 16 vCPUs pinned within one socket and rely on hot-add to reach 20 later
   ✓ Correct answer: C

   With 20 vCPUs and only 16 cores per socket, the VM must span both sockets, so its virtual topology should mirror the physical layout. Presenting two vNUMA nodes of 10 vCPUs each, aligned to the two sockets, lets the guest scheduler keep threads close to their local memory and minimizes remote-access variability. This honors the vendor's 20-vCPU recommendation while reducing NUMA penalties. Matching vNUMA to physical sockets is the standard way to size a cross-socket VM.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • AA single flat vNUMA node spanning both sockets hides the real topology from the guest, leading to scattered memory placement and the remote-access latency the design is trying to avoid.
   • BInflating to 32 vCPUs consumes both full sockets unnecessarily, wasting capacity and ignoring the vendor's 20-vCPU sizing without improving locality.
   • DPinning 16 vCPUs to one socket and relying on hot-add to reach 20 later does not honor the recommended size now and risks a poor topology when the extra vCPUs spill to the second socket.
3. Question 3Advanced Networking

   During a security incident, an administrator applies the Quarantine policy in Strict mode to a compromised VM. Other administrators report that an isolated forensic workstation can no longer connect to the quarantined VM to collect evidence, even though they added a rule permitting the forensic host. What did they most likely overlook?

   • AStrict quarantine blocks all traffic except flows explicitly permitted by rules added to the Quarantine policy itselfCorrect
   • BQuarantine policies cannot have exceptions; the administrator must instead use an isolation environment policy
   • CThe forensic workstation must be placed in the same VPC overlay subnet as the quarantined VM for any exception to apply
   • DStrict quarantine only blocks inbound traffic, so the forensic host must initiate the connection rather than the quarantined VM
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   Strict quarantine isolates a compromised VM by denying all traffic except what is explicitly allowed within the Quarantine policy, not in some other application policy. The administrators added a forensic-host permit, but if it was not placed inside the Quarantine policy it has no effect, so the forensic workstation is still blocked. The exception must live in the Quarantine policy that is actually enforcing the isolation. Adding the forensic-host rule there allows evidence collection while keeping the VM otherwise contained.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BQuarantine policies do support exceptions; the rule simply has to be added within the Quarantine policy, so there is no need to switch to a different policy type.
   • CAn exception does not require the forensic workstation to share a VPC overlay subnet with the quarantined VM; the permit is expressed by rule, not subnet co-location.
   • DStrict quarantine blocks traffic in both directions, not inbound only, so having the forensic host initiate the connection does not bypass the block without an explicit rule.
4. Question 4Advanced Storage and Performance

   A storage architect must present a 60 TB shared LUN set to a bare-metal SQL Server failover cluster using Volumes, and the cluster spans nodes that must all access the same disks with SCSI-3 persistent reservations. Which Nutanix Volumes capability makes this possible, and what is the key requirement?

   • AVolumes supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations on Volume Group disks, so multiple initiators can share the same vDisksCorrect
   • BEach clustered host must be given its own private Volume Group; reservations are emulated at the data services IP
   • CShared access requires NFS datastores instead of Volume Groups because iSCSI cannot support reservations
   • DPersistent reservations are only available when the Volume Group is attached to an AHV VM, not to external bare-metal initiators
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   A bare-metal SQL Server failover cluster needs all nodes to access the same shared disks and arbitrate ownership using SCSI-3 persistent reservations. Nutanix Volumes through Volumes supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations on Volume Group disks, so multiple initiators can attach the same vDisks and the clustering software can fence and own them correctly. The key requirement is that the shared Volume Group be presented to all the clustered initiators. This is what makes the shared-LUN failover cluster possible on Nutanix.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BA shared cluster needs one shared Volume Group that all hosts attach, not a private VG per host; reservations are real SCSI-3 reservations on shared disks, not emulated at the data services IP.
   • CiSCSI through Volumes does support SCSI-3 persistent reservations, so NFS datastores are not required for shared clustered access.
   • DPersistent reservations are available to external bare-metal initiators through Volumes, not only to AHV-attached VMs, so this restriction is false.
5. Question 5Security and ComplianceSelect all that apply

   An architect is designing a highly available external KMS deployment for a multi-cluster Nutanix estate that uses software encryption. Which TWO design choices directly improve resilience of the key-management layer? (Choose TWO)

   • AConfigure multiple KMIP endpoints so one KMS node failure does not block key retrievalCorrect
   • BPlace every KMS node on the same Nutanix cluster whose data it protects
   • CPlace the redundant KMS nodes in separate failure domains from each other and the clusterCorrect
   • DReduce the number of KMS replicas to one to simplify certificate management
   ✓ Correct answer: A, C

   Because encrypted clusters cannot serve data without their keys, the key-management layer must be highly available and independent. Configuring multiple KMIP endpoints as a clustered or replicated KMS ensures key retrieval continues if one KMS node fails. Spreading those redundant nodes across separate failure domains, away from shared power, network, and from the protected cluster's fate, prevents a single event from taking down both the data and its keys. Together these choices make key availability resilient.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BPlacing KMS nodes on the same cluster they protect couples key availability to the very cluster that needs the keys to boot, creating a chicken-and-egg failure dependency.
   • DReducing to a single KMS replica removes redundancy and makes the KMS a single point of failure, which is the opposite of improving resilience.
6. Question 6Advanced Monitoring and TroubleshootingSelect all that apply

   You are building a Prism analysis chart to isolate a storage bottleneck for a single latency-sensitive VM. Which TWO metric pairs should you overlay to distinguish a queue-depth/saturation problem from a back-end media problem? (Choose TWO)

   • AVM I/O latency overlaid with VM outstanding I/O (queue depth)Correct
   • BController latency overlaid with read-source breakdown (oplog/SSD/HDD)Correct
   • CCluster license expiry overlaid with CVM uptime
   • DContainer dedup ratio overlaid with snapshot count
   ✓ Correct answer: A, B

   Overlaying latency with outstanding I/O reveals whether latency rises because the queue depth is climbing (saturation/back-pressure) versus a flat queue with high per-op service time. Overlaying controller latency with the read-source breakdown shows whether reads are increasingly served from HDD rather than oplog/SSD, pointing to a media/tiering problem. Together these two overlays separate a queuing/concurrency bottleneck from a back-end media bottleneck, which is the core of storage performance triage.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • CCluster license expiry overlaid with CVM uptime is an administrative/health correlation that has no bearing on per-VM storage latency.
   • DContainer dedup ratio overlaid with snapshot count measures space efficiency and protection density, not the latency-versus-saturation question being investigated.
7. Question 7Lifecycle, Upgrades, and Migration

   After a successful seed, a critical VM's cutover fails during the final stage with an error that the guest could not be powered on cleanly on AHV. The data delta transferred fine. The team needs to return the production workload to service immediately on the original ESXi host while they investigate. What is the correct rollback action in Move?

   • AThe source VM is left untouched and powered off only at cutover, so power the original ESXi VM back on; Move never deletes the source, allowing immediate fallbackCorrect
   • BRestore the source VM from the last Move-created VMware snapshot, because Move overwrites the original ESXi disks in place during the cutover stage
   • CRe-run the same migration plan in the reverse direction to copy the failed AHV VM's disks back onto the original ESXi datastore and boot it there
   • DDelete the failed migration plan in Move, which automatically powers the original source VM back on and returns it to production service
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   Move performs a non-destructive migration: it reads the source through snapshots and CBT but never alters or deletes the source VM, and it only powers the source off at cutover. When cutover fails, the original ESXi VM is intact, so the correct rollback is simply to power it back on and return the workload to service immediately while the AHV side is investigated. The clean fallback is possible precisely because Move preserves the source. No restore or reverse copy is needed.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BMove does not overwrite source disks; the original VM is intact, so restoring from a snapshot is unnecessary and the premise is false.
   • CThere is no reverse-copy of the plan back to ESXi; the source VM already exists intact and simply needs to be powered on.
   • DDeleting a migration plan does not power on the source VM; the administrator must power it on manually since it was only shut down at cutover.
8. Question 8Advanced Networking

   On an AHV host, an administrator wants to confirm at the CLI which uplink interfaces are members of the vs0 (br0) bond, the current bond mode, and per-interface up/down state, before changing the load-balancing mode. Which command provides the bond membership, mode, and member link status directly?

   • Aovs-appctl bond/show br0-up (or the bond name) on the AHV hostCorrect
   • Bacli net.list on a CVM, which displays OVS bond modes and member NIC states
   • Cncli host ls, which reports the bond mode and uplink link states per host
   • Dvirsh net-dumpxml br0, which renders the OVS bond configuration and member status
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   On AHV, Open vSwitch manages uplink bonds, and ovs-appctl bond/show <bond> prints the active bond mode (active-backup, balance-slb, balance-tcp), the member interfaces, and whether each member is enabled and its link is up. This is the authoritative CLI source for bond membership and state before a mode change.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • Bacli net.list enumerates virtual networks/subnets, not OVS bond membership or physical uplink status.
   • Cncli host ls returns host inventory details but does not expose OVS bond mode or per-uplink link state.
   • Dvirsh manages libvirt domains, not OVS bonds; there is no br0 bond definition to dump via virsh net-dumpxml.
9. Question 9Advanced Monitoring and Troubleshooting

   An administrator sees a Prism alert that 'auto-resolved' a short time after it was raised. The team is unsure whether the underlying condition was actually fixed or whether the alert simply cleared. What is the correct interpretation of an auto-resolved alert in Nutanix?

   • AThe monitored condition returned to a normal/healthy state, so the system automatically cleared the active alert; it does not by itself prove the root cause was permanently remediatedCorrect
   • BAn administrator manually acknowledged the alert through the Prism console, which is what suppresses that specific alert permanently so it can never be raised again on this cluster
   • CThe alert was automatically determined to be a false positive by the system and has therefore been permanently deleted from the cluster's entire alert history without any record remaining
   • DThe cluster automatically disabled the corresponding NCC health check because that particular check had failed too many consecutive times during recent scheduled runs
   ✓ Correct answer: A

   Many Nutanix alerts are tied to a condition that the system re-evaluates; when the metric returns within threshold, the alert auto-resolves and moves to resolved state. This is useful for transient events, but a recurring auto-resolve pattern can indicate an intermittent underlying problem that still needs investigation. The alert remains in history for trend analysis.

   Why the other options are wrong

   • BAuto-resolution is triggered by the condition clearing, not by a manual acknowledgment, and acknowledging does not suppress an alert permanently.
   • CAn auto-resolved alert remains in history as resolved; it is not deleted, and auto-resolution does not label it a false positive.
   • DAlerts auto-resolve when the condition normalizes; the cluster does not disable NCC checks after repeated failures.
10. Question 10Advanced Data Protection and Disaster Recovery

    A 20 TB VM has a measured daily unique-data change rate of 2% before any data reduction, and the change data reduces by roughly 50% after compression during replication. An architect must estimate the average sustained WAN bandwidth needed to replicate this VM once per day within a 4-hour replication window. Which calculation approach is correct?

    • ACompute the daily changed data (400 GB at 2%), apply the 50% compression reduction to get 200 GB, then divide by the 4-hour windowCorrect
    • BSize the WAN link for the entire 20 TB dataset divided by the 4-hour window, since replication always retransmits the whole dataset on every cycle regardless of change rate
    • CBandwidth sizing should ignore the compression ratio, since compression only affects stored capacity and never affects the amount of data actually sent over the wire
    • DBecause the daily change rate is only 2%, essentially no meaningful WAN bandwidth is required and the replication window can safely be ignored during sizing
    ✓ Correct answer: A

    Ongoing replication only transmits changed data since the last cycle, not the full dataset, so the correct sizing approach computes the daily change, 400 GB from the 2% change rate, applies the compression reduction to arrive at roughly 200 GB actually transmitted, and divides that by the 4-hour replication window to derive the required average sustained throughput.

    Why the other options are wrong

    • BSteady-state replication transmits only changed data, not the entire 20 TB dataset on every cycle, so sizing off the full dataset dramatically overstates the requirement.
    • CCompression reduces the actual bytes transmitted over the wire during replication, so it is directly relevant to bandwidth sizing, not just storage capacity.
    • DA 2% change rate on 20 TB is still a substantial 400 GB of daily changed data; the replication window is essential to correctly compute the required throughput.

Who this NCM-MCI 6.10 practice exam is for

This practice set is for anyone preparing for the NCM-MCI 6.10: Nutanix Certified Master - Multicloud Infrastructure exam - from first-time candidates building a foundation to experienced Nutanix practitioners doing a final review before test day. If you learn best by working through realistic questions and reading why each answer is right or wrong, it is built for you.

How to use this NCM-MCI 6.10 practice exam

1. Start with the free sample questions above to gauge your current baseline.
2. Read the full explanation on every question, including why each wrong option is wrong.
3. Track your weak domains and focus your study where you are losing the most marks.
4. Once you are scoring consistently well, take a timed, full-length mock exam.
5. Treat your readiness score as knowledge readiness, then validate it with hands-on practice in a real environment before booking the NCM-MCI 6.10 exam.

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