A consultant is using a customer’s switch for installation. Although the 10GbE ports for each of the hosts are connected to the switch, the nodes fail to be discovered. What is causing the issue?

--- QUESTION #181 --- Correct Answer: A
Explanation: The Nutanix Foundation discovery process relies on IPv6 link-local multicast messages to find new, unconfigured nodes on the same Layer 2 network. The nodes broadcast their presence, and the Foundation VM listens for these broadcasts. If the switch connecting the nodes and the Foundation VM does not have IPv6 enabled or is configured to block IPv6 multicast traffic (e.g., via MLD snooping without a querier), the Foundation VM will never receive the discovery packets, and the nodes will not appear. Why Incorrect Options are Wrong:
B. IPMI port is not plugged in: IPMI is used for power management and the imaging process itself, but initial node discovery occurs over the 10GbE data ports.

C. Foundation VM is running on a Windows host: The Foundation Applet and VM are supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux; the host OS is not the cause.

D. 10GbE ports are configured with the incorrect duplex setting: 10GbE interfaces typically auto-negotiate correctly, and a duplex mismatch is highly unlikely to cause a complete failure of IPv6 multicast discovery.
References: Nutanix Field Installation Guide v4.5, "Network Requirements", Page 10. It states, "Foundation uses IPv6 link-local discovery to find unconfigured Nutanix nodes in the same broadcast domain... Ensure that your network switches allow IPv6 multicast traffic between the Foundation VM and the nodes to be imaged." Nutanix University, "Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals" courseware, Module "Installing Nutanix Software". The module describes the node discovery process as being dependent on IPv6 link-local addressing.