Exam NCA-7.5 Topic 1 Question 19 Discussion

A Nutanix storage-only node operates with AHV even when the hyperconverged compute nodes in the same cluster use VMware ESXi. The storage-only node contributes storage capacity and runs the Controller VM and required Nutanix services, but it does not host ordinary user VMs. Using AHV on the storage-only node preserves compatibility with the Nutanix storage-only architecture and avoids requiring an additional third- party hypervisor licence solely for a node that supplies storage.
This creates a supported mixed-hypervisor cluster configuration: ESXi remains on the compute-capable HCI nodes, while AHV runs on the storage-only nodes. Administrators must observe the documented restrictions for cluster expansion, network segmentation, maintenance, and workload placement in this configuration.
User workloads remain on the ESXi compute nodes because the AHV storage-only nodes are not available as general VM execution targets.
Hyper-V is not used for this ESXi storage-only-node design. Although AHV is based on KVM technology, the supported Nutanix hypervisor product and configuration is specifically AHV, making generic KVM an incorrect selection. Reference: Prism 7.5 - Storage-Only Nodes . NHCF alignment: compute-only and storage- only node configurations.