NCP-MCI 6.10 Practice Test

NCP-MCI 6.10 practice test: what's covered

• AOS & DSF
• AHV & VM Mgmt
• Prism & Cluster Ops
• AHV Networking
• Data Protection & DR
• LCM & Lifecycle

Free NCP-MCI 6.10 sample questions

1. A three-node hybrid cluster is configured with a storage container set to Redundancy Factor 2 (RF2). One physical node fails completely. What is the immediate data-availability impact on guest VMs whose data lived on that node?

   • A. VMs stay online because RF2 keeps a second copy of every extent on a different node, and the cluster self-heals from remaining replicas
   • B. All affected VMs power off until the failed node is physically replaced
   • C. Data is lost because RF2 only protects against a single disk failure, not a full node failure
   • D. The cluster immediately converts the container to RF3 to compensate for the lost node
   Show answer

   Correct: A. RF2 maintains two copies of data on different nodes, so a single node (or drive) failure leaves a surviving replica and the Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF) re-protects data using the spare capacity of the remaining nodes. RF2 tolerates one node failure; RF3 keeps three copies and tolerates two simultaneous failures.

2. An administrator wants random write I/O from VMs to be acknowledged with the lowest possible latency before later being drained sequentially to capacity tier. Which DSF component serves this purpose?

   • A. The OpLog, an SSD-backed persistent write buffer that coalesces random writes
   • B. The Extent Store, which is the long-term capacity tier
   • C. The Unified Cache, which only accelerates read I/O
   • D. The Curator scan, which periodically rebalances cold data
   Show answer

   Correct: A. The OpLog is a per-vDisk, SSD-resident write buffer that absorbs and coalesces bursty random writes, acknowledging them quickly, then sequentially drains them to the Extent Store (capacity tier). The Unified Cache accelerates reads; Curator handles background maintenance such as rebalancing and disk balancing.

3. On an AHV cluster, why does a guest VM typically read most of its data from the local node rather than across the network?

   • A. Data locality: DSF keeps a copy of a VM's frequently accessed data on the node where the VM runs, and migrates it locally if the VM moves
   • B. Because RF2 always stores both replicas on the same node the VM runs on
   • C. Because AHV disables network access to other CVMs during normal operation
   • D. Because the OpLog is shared cluster-wide and always reads from node 1
   Show answer

   Correct: A. Data locality means DSF serves reads from a local replica whenever possible, and when a VM live-migrates, its hot data follows it to the new node over time. This reduces network traffic and read latency. RF replicas are always placed on different nodes for fault tolerance.

4. A storage container hosts long-lived, write-cold data such as backups and archives across a cluster of four or more nodes. Which space-saving feature gives the best capacity efficiency for this cold, infrequently overwritten data?

   • A. Erasure Coding (EC-X), which replaces extra full replicas with parity strips for cold data
   • B. Inline compression only, because compression replaces the need for any redundancy
   • C. Deduplication of the performance tier, which is designed for write-hot data
   • D. Reducing the container to Redundancy Factor 1 to save space
   Show answer

   Correct: A. Erasure Coding (EC-X) encodes cold (write-cold) data into data + parity strips spread across nodes, recovering much of the capacity that RF2/RF3 full replicas consume while preserving fault tolerance. It is best for write-cold data; hot data continues to use RF replicas. RF1 has no redundancy and is not used for production protection.

5. An administrator enables capacity-tier deduplication and compression on a container. Which TWO statements about these AOS data-reduction features are correct? (Choose TWO)

   • A. Compression can run inline (on the write path) or post-process, depending on the container setting
   • B. Deduplication uses fingerprints (SHA-1) to detect and collapse identical data blocks
   • C. Deduplication and erasure coding cannot be enabled because RF must first be disabled
   • D. Compression permanently changes the container's Redundancy Factor to RF1
   • E. Data reduction features can only be configured from the CVM BIOS, not from Prism
   Show answer

   Correct: A and B. AOS supports inline or post-process compression per container, and deduplication fingerprints data (SHA-1) to eliminate duplicate copies. These reductions are independent of Redundancy Factor and are configured per container in Prism, not the BIOS. Erasure coding can coexist with compression/dedup on appropriate workloads.

Last updated: 2026-10-19

NCP-MCI 6.10 practice test FAQ