A security team asks an administrator to set up port mirroring of a specific source VM to a target VM. What must the administrator ensure for this configuration to be possible?

Nutanix AHV traffic mirroring (port mirroring) is implemented at the host level within the Open vSwitch (OVS). For the OVS to capture traffic from a source VM's virtual network interface and forward a copy to a destination VM's interface, both VMs must be resident on the same physical host. This ensures they are connected to the same OVS instance that performs the mirroring operation. If either the source or target VM is migrated to a different host, the mirroring session for that VM will cease to function.

A. Source VM and Target VM are on the same VLAN. This is incorrect. Traffic mirroring operates at the virtual switch level and can capture traffic from VMs regardless of their VLAN assignment.
C. Source VM and Target VM are on the same subnet. This is incorrect. Subnetting is a Layer 3 logical construct, while port mirroring is a Layer 2 function performed by the host's virtual switch.
D. Source VM and Target VM are on the same VPC. This is incorrect. While they may be in the same Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), the fundamental technical requirement is co-location on the same physical host.

1. Nutanix Flow Network Security Guide v4.1, Section: "Traffic Mirroring", Subsection: "Restrictions for Traffic Mirroring". The document states, "The source VMs and the destination VM must be on the same host. If a source VM is migrated to another host, traffic mirroring stops for that VM. If the destination VM is migrated to another host, traffic mirroring stops for all the source VMs."

2. Nutanix University, Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) - Multicloud Infrastructure 6.5, Courseware Module: "AHV Networking". The course material explains that traffic mirroring is a host-specific feature configured on the OVS, which necessitates that both the source and destination VMs reside on that same host for the traffic redirection to occur.