NGT is a software package that enables advanced VM management features provided by Nutanix, such as file-level restore, VM mobility, and application-consistent snapshots12.To use NGT, you need to enable the NGT feature for a VM in the Prism Element web console, mount the NGT installer (ISO disk file) in the VM, and install NGT in the VM1.However, before installing NGT, you need to ensure that the VM can communicate with the NGT-Controller VM service, which runs on the Controller VM (CVM) of each Nutanix node3.The NGT-Controller VM service listens on port 9943 for incoming requests from the guest VMs3. Therefore, you need to enable port 9943 on the ESXi-hosted VM to allow communication with the NGT-Controller VM service.

According to the Nutanix Volumes - Recommendations And Best Practices web search result3, two actions that the administrator should take when designing the Volume Group are:

Distribute workload across multiple virtual disks: Use multiple disks rather than a single large disk for an application. Consider using a minimum of one disk per Nutanix node to distribute the workload across all nodes in a cluster. Multiple disks per Nutanix node may also improve an application's performance. For performance-intensive environments, we recommend using between four and eight disks per CVM for a given workload.

Enable RSS (Receive Side Scaling): Receive-side scaling (RSS) allows the system to use multiple CPUs for network activity. With RSS enabled, multiple CPU cores process network traffic, preventing a single CPU core from becoming a bottleneck. Enabling RSS within hosts can be beneficial for heavy iSCSI workloads. For VMs running in ESXi environments, RSS requires VMXNET3 VNICs. For Hyper-V environments, enable VMQ to take full advantage of Virtual RSS.

The node is automatically re-imaged using the software currently running in the cluster. This is because Nutanix supports a feature calledAuto Re-Imagethat allows adding nodes with different AOS versions to an existing cluster without manual intervention. The Auto Re-Image feature detects the AOS version mismatch and automatically downloads and installs the same AOS version as the cluster on the new node. This ensures that the cluster remains in a consistent state and avoids any compatibility issues.

A GPU (graphics processing unit) is a specialized hardware device that can accelerate graphics rendering and computation for applications that use APIs such as DirectX, OpenGL, CUDA, and OpenCL. A GPU can also offload the CPU from encoding and decoding tasks for remote display protocols such as Frame Remote Desktop Protocol (FRP). A VM can use a GPU either by directly accessing a physical GPU (pGPU) on the host or by using a virtual GPU (vGPU) that shares a pGPU with other VMs. A user running a computer aided design (CAD) application may benefit from using a GPU or a vGPU to improve the performance and responsiveness of the application, especially when moving windows or rendering images. However, if the GPU or vGPU is not properly configured or provisioned, the user may experience slow response time within the VM. Therefore, to diagnose the problem, the administrator should monitor the GPU Usage metric for the VM.The GPU Usage metric shows the percentage of GPU resources that are consumed by the VM over time3.The administrator can use Prism Central to view the GPU Usage metric for each VM in a chart or a widget4.The administrator can also use Prism Central to view other metrics related to GPU performance, such as GPU Memory Usage, GPU Encoder Usage, and GPU Decoder Usage3. By analyzing these metrics, the administrator can determine if the VM is using the GPU efficiently and optimally, or if it needs more or less GPU resources.

LCM (Life Cycle Manager) is a feature that allows Nutanix administrators to perform one-click firmware and software upgrades for Nutanix clusters and components. LCM fetches inventory and update information from a pre-configured URL that contains the latest versions of firmware and software packages. However, upgrading Nutanix AOS does not automatically update the fetch URL. To update the fetch URL, the administrator needs to update the LCM framework.The LCM framework is the core component of LCM that provides the logic and functionality for inventory, download, and upgrade operations1.

To upgrade the LCM framework, the administrator needs to perform an LCM inventory. An LCM inventory is a process that scans the cluster and its components for their current firmware and software versions and compares them with the available versions from the fetch URL. If there is a newer version of the LCM framework available, it will be shown as an update option under Cluster Software Component in the Available Updates page.The administrator can then select and apply the LCM framework update to upgrade it to the latest version2.

The administrator can perform an LCM inventory using Prism Element or Prism Central.The steps are as follows3:

In Prism Element, go to the Network Configuration page and click Life Cycle Management.

In Prism Central, go to the Services page and click Life Cycle Management.

Click Inventory in the toolbar and select Perform Inventory from the drop-down menu.

Wait for the inventory process to complete and check for any available updates.