NCA 6.10 Study Guide · Section 1 of 4
One tool owns this whole section: LCM, the Life Cycle Manager. The exam wants you to know what LCM is, what it can update, the order of operations (inventory first), and how it works when the cluster has no internet (dark site). This maps to Module 4 (Prism).
The Life Cycle Manager (LCM) is the framework that inventories and updates the software and firmware running across a Nutanix cluster from a single place. It gives a real-time view of installed component versions, flags which ones have updates available, and applies those updates with one-click, in the correct order, resolving dependencies for you.
The single most important idea: LCM does both software and firmware. It is not just a firmware tool and not just a software tool, it is the unified updater for the cluster.
Before LCM can update anything, you run an Inventory operation. Inventory scans the cluster and reports the running versions of every supported software and firmware component, then compares them against what is available so it can show you the update candidates.
Order of operations on the exam: Inventory → review available updates → Update. You cannot meaningfully update before an inventory has populated the available versions.
Why it matters: LCM intelligently resolves dependencies and sequencing in advance. That is why you do not hand-pick firmware order, you let LCM plan it. A node may reboot as part of an update; LCM handles the rolling sequence so the cluster stays up.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Nutanix software | AOS, Foundation, Prism (and its components), Licensing/NCC where applicable |
| Firmware | BIOS/BMC, disk (HDD/SSD/NVMe), HBA, NIC and other qualified hardware firmware |
| Hardware platforms | Nutanix NX, plus qualified OEM/server vendors: Dell, HPE, Cisco, Lenovo, Fujitsu/Fsas, and Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) |
Prism Element is part of AOS and rides along with AOS upgrades; Prism Central is a separate component with its own LCM/upgrade path (see Section 2). That distinction shows up on the exam.
Many Nutanix customers run clusters with no connection to the Nutanix Support Portal (secure, regulated, or air-gapped sites). LCM supports these with a dark-site bundle: you download the LCM bundle on a connected machine, host it on a local web server inside your network, and point LCM at that URL. From there the inventory-and-update experience is the same, just sourced locally.
LCM is the one-click, dependency-aware updater for both software and firmware. Always inventory first to discover versions and updates, then update; LCM plans the safe order and rolls through nodes. No internet? Point LCM at a dark-site bundle on a local web server.
1. What two broad categories of components does LCM update?
2. What operation must run before you can apply updates, and why?
3. A regulated cluster has no Support Portal connectivity. How do you run LCM updates?
4. Is Prism Element updated as a separate LCM component, or with AOS?