According to Nutanix Support & Insights3, you need to install the Nutanix AHV plugin for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on Delivery Controllers (also called the MCS plugin SDK) to create and manage Citrix-provisioned VMs in a Nutanix AHV infrastructure environment. 

an action that the administrator should take to identify the virtual desktops in the environment that are using the most resources and causing resource contention is Filter the virtual desktops by Constrained: High. Constrained is a metric that indicates how often a virtual machine is unable to get its requested CPU resources. A high value means that the virtual machine is frequently starved for CPU and may experience performance degradation. By filtering the virtual desktops by Constrained: High, the administrator can see which ones are suffering from resource contention and take appropriate actions such as migrating them to less loaded hosts or increasing their CPU allocation.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Central-Guide-Prism-v6_0:mul-tasks-view-page-pc-r.html

A high CPU Ready time means that the vCPU is waiting too long for the pCPU, which can result in poor performance and slow responsiveness of the virtual machine (VM).

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the factors that can affect CPU Ready time is the host power policy. The host power policy determines how aggressively the host will try to save power by reducing the frequency or voltage of the pCPUs.

The recommended host power policy for Nutanix clusters is High Performance, which disables any power saving features and ensures that the pCPUs run at their maximum frequency and voltage.

This answer seems to explain why desktops on one host are running slower and have higher CPU Ready times than on other hosts, as they may be suffering from reduced pCPU performance due to a lower host power policy.

Citrix NetScaler VPX is a virtual appliance that provides web and application load balancing, secure and remote access, acceleration, security and offload features1. To set up and configure a Citrix NetScaler VPX appliance, you need to download it from the Citrix website, install it on a hypervisor such as Citrix XenServer or Microsoft Azure23, and log on to the console using the nsroot credentials2.

To expose the Citrix NetScaler VPX private VIP to the internet in order for users to be able to access the Citrix VDI desktops upon a DR failover, one possible solution is to use a floating IP address. A floating IP address is an IP address that can be dynamically assigned to an instance by using API calls. It allows you to redirect network traffic from one instance to another without changing any DNS settings or client configuration.

The Citrix Optimizer tool is used to prepare Windows operating system images for use in a virtual desktop environment. Some of the actions that it takes to improve the gold image creation process include:

• Optimizes user environments for better performance: The tool removes unnecessary or redundant services, features, and applications from the image, which can improve performance and reduce resource usage.
• Uses built-in templates to perform optimizations: The tool comes with pre-configured templates that are optimized for specific environments, such as virtualdesktops or server workloads. These templates can be customized based on the specific needs of the organization.

https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX224676/citrix-optimizer-tool

https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/workspace-environment-management/service/using-environment-management/system-optimization/citrix-optimizer.html

One of them is Nutanix Frame, which is a cloud-based service that delivers virtual apps and desktops from any cloud provider or on-premises datacenter.

Nutanix Frame simplifies VDI deployment by providing automated cloud resource orchestration, user session brokering, and environment administration.

Another solution is Nutanix Citrix Cloud, which is a hybrid cloud solution that integrates Nutanix HCI with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service.

Nutanix Citrix Cloud enables VDI deployment by providing centralized management and delivery of virtual apps and desktops through Citrix Cloud Services.

According to Nutanix best practices2, one of the steps needed for deploying VDI with Nutanix Citrix Cloud is to configure the PE Citrix Connection.

This step involves creating a connection between the Nutanix Prism Element (PE) cluster and the Citrix Cloud account, which allows Nutanix to register as a resource location for Citrix Cloud Services.

This connection also enables Nutanix to provide performance metrics, alerts, and actions for the virtual apps and desktops running on Nutanix HCI.

The CPU usage percentage indicates how much of the allocated CPU resources the virtual desktop is consuming.

A high CPU usage percentage means that the virtual desktop is using a lot of CPU resources, which can affect the performance of other virtual desktops on the same host or cluster.

According to Nutanix best practices, the recommended CPU usage percentage for virtual desktops is less than 80%.

• VM-0001 (99%)
• VM-0002 (98%)
• VM-0003 (97%)
• VM-0004 (96%)
• VM-0005 (95%)
• VM-0010 (85%)
• VM-0016 (81%)

These virtual desktops are likely contributing to the performance issue by consuming too much CPU resources and starving other virtual desktops from performing adequately.

non-persistent VDI desktops are virtual desktops that do not save any changes made by the user after they log off or shut down12. They rely on a master image that contains the OS, configuration settings, and other customizations that replicate to multiple virtual desktops1.

gpumodeswitch is a command-line tool that is used to switch supported NVIDIA GPUs between compute and graphics mode. Compute mode allows multiple VMs to share a GPU for CUDA workloads. Graphics mode allows a single VM to use a GPU for graphics workloads12. 

View Composer API for Array Integration (VCAI) is a feature of VMware Horizon that leverages the native cloning abilities in the storage array to offload storage operations within a VMware View environment12. This feature allows customers to offload the creation of linked clones to the storage array3.

Frame is a cloud-native desktop-as-a-service platform that allows you to deliver virtual desktops and applications from any cloud. Frame supports multiple public clouds, such as AWS, Azure, GCP, and Alibaba Cloud2. You can bring your own public cloud account and use Frame to provision and manage your virtual desktops on demand.

Frame also supports Nutanix private cloud model running AHV, which is a native hypervisor for Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform. You can use Frame to deliver virtual desktops and applications from your own data center using Nutanix AHV clusters3. You can benefit from the simplicity, scalability, and performance of Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure.

Nutanix Frame allows administrators to configure capacity settings for their virtual machines (VMs) that run virtual apps and desktops.

Capacity settings include:

• Default capacity, which defines how many VMs are turned on when there is no user activity on the account. This setting helps reduce costs by turning off unused VMs.
• Active capacity, which defines how many VMs are turned on when there is user activity on the account. This setting helps improve performance by ensuring enough VMs are available for user sessions.
• Quick Publish, which defines how many VMs are updated with the latest changes when publishing a new version of an app or desktop. This setting helps speed up the publishing process by updating only a subset of VMs instead of all of them.

According to Nutanix Frame documentation1, Quick Publish value should be equal to or less than the active capacity value for each instance type.

If Quick Publish value is set higher than active capacity value, then Frame will ignore Quick Publish value and perform regular publishing instead.

https://docs.frame.nutanix.com/platform/admin/capacity/

Based on the given information, the administrator is deploying 1000 instant clone virtual desktops, 500 full clone virtual desktops, and 150 applications. To support these workloads, the Nutanix solution will need multiple storage containers.

According to the Nutanix Certified Professional - End User Computing (NCP-EUC) v6 guide, for VDI workloads, it is recommended to create a separate storage container for each type of desktop (e.g. instant clone, full clone) and another container for AppStacks. It is also recommended to have at least one container for metadata and one container for replicas.

Therefore, for this scenario, a total of 3 storage containers should be created:

• One container for 1000 instant clone virtual desktops
• One container for 500 full clone virtual desktops
• One container for 150 applications delivered via AppStacks

So the answer is C. 3.

Citrix Workspace includes several components that can replace or integrate with the traditional Citrix infrastructure components, such as:

• Citrix Cloud Services, which provide management and orchestration capabilities for Citrix Workspace, such as Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, Citrix Gateway service, Citrix Endpoint Management service, etc.
• Citrix Workspace app, which is a client software that enables users to access their apps and desktops from any device.
• Citrix Cloud Connectors, which are software agents that establish a secure connection between Citrix Cloud Services and the on-premises or cloud-based resources, such as Active Directory, hypervisors, VDAs, etc.

According to Citrix documentation2, an administrator who chooses to move all of the backend Citrix infrastructure to be managed as a service by Citrix can use the following components:

• Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service, which replaces the Citrix Delivery Controllers and provides centralized management and delivery of virtual apps and desktops.
• Citrix Studio, which is still available as a web-based console for configuring and managing the virtual apps and desktops environment.
• Citrix Gateway service, which replaces the Citrix NetScaler and provides secure remote access to virtual apps and desktops through a single URL.
• Citrix StoreFront, which is still available as an optional component for providing users with self-service access to their apps and desktops through a web portal or native receiver.

Shadow Clones are a feature of the AOS storage that enables distributed caching of virtual disks (vDisks) that are read by multiple VMs on different nodes. This can improve performance and reduce network traffic in scenarios such as VDI deployments.

Therefore, if Shadow Clones were disabled, it could cause delays in the deployments of VD’ desktops, as they would have to read the vDisk from a remote node instead of a local cache.

alert policies are rules that define the conditions for generating alerts on Nutanix clusters1. You can create custom alert policies based on your specific needs and preferences2Playbooks are automated workflows that perform actions based on triggers such as alerts3. You can create playbooks using predefined alerts or alerts matching criteria3.

To ensure that the vice president of IT infrastructure has the best possible experience and to be notified if any CPU resource constraints on the virtual desktop, one possible solution is to create a new alert policy to alert if the CPU on the virtual desktop is over a certain threshold (for example, 80%) and configure a playbook to send a notification (forexample, via email or Slack) to the administrator23. This way, the administrator can monitor the performance of the virtual desktop and take appropriate actions if needed.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Prism-Central-Guide-vpc_2022_6:mul-alert-policies-customize-system-pc-t.html

Writable AppVolumes are a feature of VMware App Volumes that provides users with a dedicated virtual disk for storing user profile data and user-installed applications1. Writable AppVolumes are stored as VMDK files on a datastore2.

To protect Writable AppVolumes during a disaster in a Nutanix environment, one possible solution is to use asynchronous DR between two sites. Asynchronous DRallows you to replicate VMs and their associated data from one site to another at regular intervals using protection domains and remote sites3.

https://www.nutanix.com/blog/vmware-app-volumes-on-nutanix

Nutanix is the only vendor that supports replication of linked clones. This means that option A is correct. However, I cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of this information, so please verify it with other sources before using it.