NCP-US

About this course

Target exam: Nutanix Certified Professional - Unified Storage (NCP-US) 6.10

Software under test:

• AOS 6.10
• Prism Central pc2024.2
• Volumes 6.10
• Files 5.0
• File Analytics 3.4
• Data Lens DL2024.6
• Objects 5.0

Exam facts:

• 75 multiple-choice / multiple-response questions
• 120 minutes
• passing score 3000 (scaled 1000–6000)
• English
• $200 USD
• valid 3 years

Structured as 4 sections · 17 chapters · 95 sub-sections, with a 300-question practice bank weighted by objective. Recommended course: Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA).

How this course is built

Each sub-section follows the same frame, so it doubles as a study guide and a revision checklist:

1. Why it matters - the exam/operational relevance.
2. How it works - the mechanism, with concrete examples.
3. Exam traps & edge cases - the classic confusions and boundary conditions.
4. Key facts to memorize - the pinned numbers (thresholds, ports, minima, limits).

Sources are cited inline against the pinned v5.0 corpus; any point not confirmable is flagged ⚠️ (often because it lives in the Files Manager / Nutanix Central / Data Lens guides, or is version-sensitive between the corpus v5.3 docs and the exam-pinned 5.0). Practice questions have 4 options and a balanced A/B/C/D answer key.

Preparation course

95 sections across 4 parts.

Log in to start & track your progress

Part I - Deploy and Upgrade Nutanix Unified Storage

• 1.1 Files deployment prerequisites and limitations
• 1.2 Client network vs storage network
• 1.3 NTP, DNS, and Active Directory configuration
• 1.4 Supported protocols (SMB / NFS)
• 1.5 Integrating Files with Data Lens
• 1.6 Deploying File Analytics
• 1.7 Integration with Nutanix Central
• 1.8 VDI Sync for user-profile sync between sites
• 1.9 Subdomains vs. folder structures for FQDN pathing

• 2.1 Objects deployment prerequisites and limitations
• 2.2 NTP, DNS, and Active Directory for Objects
• 2.3 Requirements for enabling fault tolerance
• 2.4 Integrating Objects with Data Lens
• 2.5 Validating connectivity before handoff

• 3.1 Files/Objects dependencies and prerequisites
• 3.2 Files/Objects upgrade process (LCM)
• 3.3 Maintenance impact: distributed vs. standard shares
• 3.4 When to scale up vs. scale out

• 4.1 Capacity and performance requirements for Files/Objects
• 4.2 Capacity and performance requirements for Volumes
• 4.3 Network segmentation requirements per product

Part II - Configure and Utilize Nutanix Unified Storage

• 5.1 Configure Smart DR, File Analytics, and Smart Tiering
• 5.2 Onboard Nutanix Files instances to Data Lens
• 5.3 Create CIFS/SMB, NFS, and multi-protocol shares
• 5.4 Manage permissions
• 5.5 Nested shares and exports

• 6.1 Present Nutanix Volumes to physical servers
• 6.2 Present Nutanix Volumes to virtual machines
• 6.3 Add / remove volumes to Volume Groups
• 6.4 Configure CHAP authentication
• 6.5 Cluster whitelists vs. volume whitelists

• 7.1 Validate connectivity within an Objects environment
• 7.2 Generate access keys
• 7.3 Configure Objects for endpoint access
• 7.4 Create and configure buckets
• 7.5 Create additional namespaces
• 7.6 Configure Federation
• 7.7 Secure Objects (RBAC, WORM, encryption)

• 8.1 Match storage technology to product (iSCSI / NFS / SMB / S3)
• 8.2 Object lifecycle rules
• 8.3 Access-Based Enumeration (SMB only)
• 8.4 Share/export management and multi-protocol design

• 9.1 RPO/RTO fundamentals and choosing the platform solution
• 9.2 Metro Availability for Nutanix Files
• 9.3 Protection Domains and Protection Policies
• 9.4 Smart DR for Files
• 9.5 Self-Service Restore and cloning a file server
• 9.6 Integrating Mine with Objects

• 10.1 Smart DR (data-management view)
• 10.2 Smart Tiering
• 10.3 Data Sync
• 10.4 Self-Service Restore
• 10.5 Protection Domains and Protection Policies (capability view)
• 10.6 HA options within Files and Objects
• 10.7 Data recoverability using Mine for Objects

Part III - Analyze and Monitor Unified Storage

• 11.1 Anomalies: suspicious activity and deletions
• 11.2 Audit file access, usage, and modifications
• 11.3 Top active users, resource demands, file distribution by type
• 11.4 Detect ransomware and security threats
• 11.5 Ransomware protection features and enabling
• 11.6 SMTP configuration for alerting

• 12.1 When to scale up/out Files and Objects
• 12.2 Metrics for scaling decisions
• 12.3 Performance constraints from a cluster-utilization perspective
• 12.4 Management/monitoring interfaces
• 12.5 Objects Prometheus Explorer

• 13.1 Data Lens use cases
• 13.2 Requirements and supported features per use case
• 13.3 Smart vs. Standard vs. Advanced Tiering
• 13.4 File Analytics vs. Data Lens
• 13.5 Data Lens licensing (Premium vs. Basic)
• 13.6 Data Lens risk profiles and reports

Part IV - Troubleshoot Nutanix Unified Storage

• 14.1 User permissions issues
• 14.2 Shared visibility issues (Access-Based Enumeration)
• 14.3 Deployment failures (AD service account, DNS records)
• 14.4 Data not being tiered
• 14.5 Directory Services and DNS not changing in Smart DR
• 14.6 Failover / failback file server issues
• 14.7 Cross-cluster user-profile issues

• 15.1 Deployment failures
• 15.2 Read/write capability issues
• 15.3 Appropriate access for troubleshooting
• 15.4 Objects CLI commands
• 15.5 Objects replication issues
• 15.6 Cloud Tiering issues

• 16.1 Proper authentication (CHAP)
• 16.2 Firewall settings
• 16.3 Correct IQNs / whitelists
• 16.4 iSCSI timeout settings
• 16.5 Adding capacity to a Volume Group
• 16.6 Inability to see newly added capacity (rescan / SCSI UNMAP)

• 17.1 AOS / Nutanix Central / Prism Central compatibility
• 17.2 Appropriate logs to review
• 17.3 File Analytics compatibility
• 17.4 Data Lens compatibility

Training

300 questions available.

Log in to take mock exams & practice

Source corpus mapping