Nutanix Certified Associate Practice Exam

Which action can negatively impact the High Availability feature if not managed properly during a VM restart?

1. Unconfiguration of the host

2. Improper shutdown of Nutanix CVMs

3. Setting VM affinity to specific hosts

4. Consistent resource utilization monitoring

The correct answer is: Setting VM affinity to specific hosts

Setting VM affinity to specific hosts can negatively impact the High Availability feature because it restricts the flexibility of distributing VMs across the cluster. High Availability in Nutanix is designed to ensure that VMs are running on healthy hosts and can quickly restart on alternative hosts in case of hardware failures or host issues. When VM affinity is set, it enforces a rule that certain VMs should only run on specified hosts, which limits the system's ability to relocate VMs when a host is down or undergoing maintenance. This can lead to situations where VMs cannot restart properly during a high availability event, potentially leading to downtime and affecting overall service availability. In contrast, unconfiguring the host, improper shutdown of Nutanix CVMs, and consistent resource utilization monitoring do not inherently restrict the potential benefits of High Availability when managed correctly, though they can have other operational implications. For instance, unconfiguring a host can be managed without impacting High Availability directly, as long as failover mechanisms are in place. Similarly, while improper shutdown of CVMs can affect individual VM performance, well-architected systems should mitigate this risk. Lastly, monitoring resource utilization is critical for performance but does not directly interact with High Availability features.