The Controller VM (CVM) and its local AHV host communicate over a dedicated internal network. This communication is managed by a default Open vSwitch (OVS) bridge created on the AHV host during installation. The technically correct name for this default bridge is br0.

Among the provided options, bridge0 is the most plausible intended answer, representing the full, unabbreviated name for the br0 device. This bridge connects the CVM's primary network interface (eth0) to the AHV host's internal interface, facilitating essential management and storage I/O traffic between them.

A. vs0: This is the default naming convention for a standard virtual switch (vSwitch) in a VMware ESXi environment, not Nutanix AHV.

B. virbro: This is a typo for virbr0. The virbr0 bridge is a default Linux bridge created by libvirt for NAT and is not used for CVM-to-host communication.

C. bro: This is an incomplete name and a typo for the correct bridge name, br0.

1. Nutanix University, Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals Courseware

In the "Nutanix AHV Networking" module, diagrams and text explicitly identify the default Open vSwitch bridge as br0. It is described as the central component connecting the CVM, the AHV host, and user VMs to the physical network.

2. Nutanix, AHV Administration Guide v6.5, Section: "Host and Controller VM Networking"

This section states, "The AHV host and the CVM communicate through the br0 OVS bridge on a dedicated virtual network. The CVM has an IP address of 192.168.5.254 and the AHV host has an IP address of 192.168.5.1 on this internal network."

3. Nutanix, AHV Administration Guide v6.5, Section: "Default Configuration"

This section clarifies the default setup: "By default, the AHV host creates a single bridge, br0, in the OVS. All physical interfaces on the host are bonded in this bridge."

Nutanix Prism Central applies alert policies based on a hierarchy of specificity. When multiple policies are configured for the same alert and could apply to a single entity, the most specific policy takes precedence. A policy applied directly to an individual entity (e.g., a specific VM) is considered the most specific. This overrides policies applied to broader groups, such as a category the entity belongs to, or a general policy applied to all entities of that type (e.g., all VMs).

B. Policy are applied to all entities of an entity type. This is the least specific type of policy and has the lowest precedence. It is overridden by both category-specific and entity-specific policies.

C. Policy are applied to an entity type in a category. This policy is more specific than one applied to all entities of a type, but it is less specific than a policy applied directly to an individual entity.

D. Policy are applied to an entity type in a cluster. This is not a distinct level in the defined precedence hierarchy. A cluster is an entity, so a policy can be applied to a specific cluster, which would fall under the highest precedence rule.

1. Nutanix Prism Central Guide (AOS 6.5)

Section: Alerts and Events Management > Configuring an Alert Policy > Alert Policy Precedence

Content: "When multiple policies apply to an entity, the policy that is most specific to the entity takes precedence. The order of precedence is as follows: 1. A policy applied to a specific entity. 2. A policy applied to entities in a category. 3. A policy applied to all entities of that type." This directly supports that a policy applied to a specific entity (as described in option A) has the highest precedence.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is the offering specifically designed to extend on-premises private cloud environments into public clouds like AWS and Azure. It allows customers to run the full Nutanix HCI software stack, including AOS, AHV, and other services, on bare-metal instances within the public cloud. This creates a seamless hybrid cloud fabric, enabling application mobility, on-demand capacity bursting, and disaster recovery between the on-prem datacenter and the public cloud without needing to refactor applications. This model unifies management and operations across both environments through a single interface.

A. Nutanix Cloud Security: This refers to security features like Flow Network Security for microsegmentation and threat protection, which secure workloads but do not provide the infrastructure extension itself.

C. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine: This is a service for deploying, managing, and scaling Kubernetes clusters. While it can operate in a hybrid cloud, it is an application platform, not the underlying datacenter extension fabric.

D. Nutanix Data Services: This is a portfolio of storage solutions, including Nutanix Files, Objects, and Volumes. These are components that run on the Nutanix platform, not the solution for extending the platform to the public cloud.

1. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) Documentation: "Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS extends the simplicity and ease of use of Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and the full Nutanix software stack to public cloud."

Source: Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS v4.0 Documentation, "Introduction to Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS".

2. Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) Documentation: "Nutanix Kubernetes Engine (NKE) simplifies the provisioning and management of Kubernetes clusters. NKE creates and configures the infrastructure VMs for the Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes..."

Source: Nutanix Kubernetes Engine Guide v2.8, "Introduction to Nutanix Kubernetes Engine".

3. Nutanix Security Documentation: "Flow Network Security provides policy-based network segmentation to protect applications from network threats... It provides a rich visualization of the communication between VMs..."

Source: Nutanix Security Guide v6.5, "Flow Network Security".

4. Nutanix Data Services (Unified Storage) Documentation: "Nutanix Unified Storage delivers a distributed and scalable software-defined storage platform that natively supports file, object, and block storage protocols."

Source: Nutanix Unified Storage Solution Brief, Page 3, "Introduction".

The Nutanix upgrade process for software like AHV is a rolling, sequential operation designed to be non-disruptive. The Life Cycle Manager (LCM) orchestrates this process by placing only one node into maintenance mode at a time. It live-migrates the virtual machines from that node, performs the upgrade, restarts the node, and verifies its health before bringing it back into the cluster. Only after the first node has successfully rejoined the cluster does the process begin on the next node. This one-at-a-time method ensures the cluster maintains its data redundancy and availability throughout the entire upgrade procedure.

B. 2: Placing two nodes in maintenance mode simultaneously in an RF3 cluster would leave the cluster with no further fault tolerance, a risk the automated process avoids.

C. 3: This is incorrect. Placing three nodes into maintenance mode in an RF3 cluster would cause data to become unavailable, as all three replicas of some data blocks would be offline.

D. 4: This would far exceed the cluster's fault tolerance capabilities (two-node failure for RF3) and would result in significant data unavailability.

3. References

1. Nutanix Prism Web Console Guide (AOS 6.5): In the "Software and Firmware Updates" section, the 1-Click Upgrade process is described. It states, "The upgrade process is non-disruptive. The process upgrades one node at a time in a rolling fashion through the cluster." This confirms the sequential, one-node-at-a-time nature of the operation. (Reference: Prism Web Console Guide v6.5, Chapter: Life Cycle Management, Section: Software and Firmware Updates).

2. Nutanix Life Cycle Manager (LCM) Guide (v2.5): This guide details the LCM workflow. In the "LCM Update Process" section, it outlines the sequential steps for updating a node: "LCM selects a node in the cluster... puts the Controller VM in maintenance mode... puts the host in maintenance mode... performs the update... brings the host out of maintenance mode... brings the CVM out of maintenance mode... LCM moves to the next node." This explicitly confirms the one-by-one process. (Reference: Life Cycle Manager Guide v2.5, Chapter: LCM Updates, Section: LCM Update Process).

3. Nutanix University - Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals Courseware: The course material on cluster maintenance and upgrades emphasizes that automated procedures like 1-click upgrades are "rolling upgrades." This industry term implies a sequential, node-by-node process to prevent service interruption and maintain the cluster's high availability characteristics. (Reference: Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals, Module: Acropolis Platform Management, Lesson: Upgrading a Nutanix Cluster).

In a Nutanix cluster running VMware ESXi, the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM) on each host aggregates the local storage devices into a single, distributed storage pool called the Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF). The CVM then presents this storage to its local ESXi hypervisor as a datastore using the Network File System (NFS) protocol. Each ESXi host mounts this unique NFS datastore, which is used to store virtual machine disks (VMDKs) and other VM files. This architecture leverages the robust and mature NFS client built into ESXi while providing advanced storage features like data locality, snapshots, and replication through the DSF.

A. iSCSI: This protocol is used by the CVM to present storage to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor and for the Nutanix Volumes feature, not for primary ESXi datastores.

B. SMB: This protocol is used by the CVM to present storage to Microsoft Hyper-V hosts, not to VMware ESXi hosts.

C. LVM: Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is a disk management technology used within the CVM's Linux operating system; it is not a network protocol for presenting storage to a hypervisor.

1. Nutanix Official Documentation. vSphere Administration Guide for Acropolis (AOS 6.5). Section: "Storage Configuration for a vSphere Cluster". The document states, "The Nutanix cluster provides storage to the ESXi hosts through the NFS protocol. The Controller VM is an NFS server, and the ESXi hypervisor is an NFS client."

2. Nutanix Official Documentation. Nutanix Acropolis: Distributed Storage Fabric White Paper. Section: "Hypervisor I/O Path". The paper details the I/O path for different hypervisors, specifying, "For VMware vSphere, the DSF is presented as an NFS v3 datastore."

3. Nutanix University. Nutanix Core: Enterprise Cloud Concepts (v6.5). Module: "Nutanix Cluster Architecture". The courseware explains that for vSphere environments, the CVM acts as an NFS server, presenting a datastore to the hypervisor over a dedicated internal network interface.