Free NVIDIA NCP-AIN Actual Exam Questions - Question 15 Discussion

B, since nvidia-smi and tcpdump don't handle physical link diagnostics.

B. nvidia-smi is mostly for GPU stuff and tcpdump only captures network packets, so mlxlink is clearly the tool that works on the physical InfiniBand layer to check link issues.

I agree that mlxlink (B) is the best fit since it’s designed for inspecting and managing the physical link status in InfiniBand. The other options just don’t deal with the hardware layer directly. Also, tcpdump is more about capturing traffic, which won’t help with link flapping at the physical level. Has anyone seen issues where mlxlink might miss certain errors if the drivers aren’t up to date? That could be a tricky catch when troubleshooting.

It’s B. Since the question is about physical link flapping in an InfiniBand fabric, mlxlink is the only tool that directly interacts with the hardware layer. nvidia-smi mainly handles GPU stats and tcpdump is for packet capture, so they don’t really help with physical link issues. Mlxlink lets you check and manipulate link states, which is exactly what you need here.

It’s B for sure, only mlxlink deals directly with InfiniBand physical link problems.

B imo, mlxlink is tailored for checking physical link states and errors in InfiniBand. nvidia-smi and tcpdump just don’t have the right focus for hardware-level issues here.

Option B makes sense here since mlxlink is built specifically for managing and troubleshooting InfiniBand links at the physical level. The other tools don’t really offer direct control or diagnostics over the physical connection itself. Also, mlxlink lets you check link status and perform resets, which is exactly what you’d want to do when dealing with link flapping issues. So it’s a good starting point before moving higher up the stack.

Probably B here. Since we're focusing on the physical layer in InfiniBand, mlxlink fits best because it’s designed to manage and troubleshoot link-level issues. The other options don’t really touch the hardware or physical link status directly. Nvidia-smi is more GPU-specific, and tcpdump is for packet capture, which is more of a higher-layer network task. So for starting at the physical layer, mlxlink seems the most logical choice.

B imo, mlxlink is the only option that directly deals with the InfiniBand physical layer. Since nvidia-smi is for GPUs and tcpdump captures packets, they don't fit this troubleshooting step.

D imo, mlxlink is definitely for physical layer checks. tcpdump (C) is more for network packets, so that’s out. Nvidia-smi (A) is for GPUs, not InfiniBand links.

I’d go with B, mlxlink utility, since it’s made for checking InfiniBand links at the physical layer.