NCP-AIO Administration Practice Question
An administrator manages an NVIDIA AI Enterprise deployment on Kubernetes and needs to ensure that GPU telemetry is exported to an existing Prometheus instance. The administrator deploys the NVIDIA DCGM Exporter but sees no GPU metrics in Prometheus. Which configuration should the administrator verify first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a running DCGM Exporter automatically gets scraped, when operator-managed Prometheus only scrapes targets whose monitor labels match its selector.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The DCGM Exporter ServiceMonitor or PodMonitor selector labels match the Prometheus operator's serviceMonitorSelector.
In Prometheus Operator deployments, scrape targets are selected by label matching between the ServiceMonitor or PodMonitor and the Prometheus custom resource. If the DCGM Exporter's monitor labels do not align with the operator's selector, Prometheus never scrapes it, producing exactly the symptom of no GPU metrics. Verifying label alignment is therefore the correct first check.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The NVIDIA GPU Operator's device plugin is configured to advertise GPUs with the correct resource name.
Why it's wrong here
The device plugin controls GPU scheduling and resource advertisement, not telemetry export. If the device plugin were misconfigured, workloads would fail to schedule GPUs, but DCGM Exporter could still run and expose metrics. This is a scheduling-layer concern, so checking it does not address why Prometheus sees no metrics, making it an incorrect first step for this symptom.
- ✗
The GPU driver version installed on the nodes matches the version bundled in the DCGM Exporter container.
Why it's wrong here
DCGM Exporter communicates with the driver through DCGM and generally tolerates minor version differences within supported ranges. A mismatch would typically produce exporter errors or partial metrics, not a complete absence of scrape targets. Since the symptom is that no metrics appear at all, the issue is more likely in the scrape configuration than in driver compatibility, making this a less probable first check.
- ✗
The cluster's CNI plugin supports multicast so that Prometheus can discover the exporter.
Why it's wrong here
Prometheus discovers scrape targets through Kubernetes service endpoints and monitor objects, not multicast. CNI multicast support is irrelevant to how the Prometheus Operator selects and scrapes exporters. Focusing on multicast misdiagnoses the discovery mechanism and would not resolve the missing metrics, so it is not a valid first configuration check in this scenario.
- ✓
The DCGM Exporter ServiceMonitor or PodMonitor selector labels match the Prometheus operator's serviceMonitorSelector.
Why this is correct
When Prometheus is managed by the Prometheus Operator, it only scrapes targets whose ServiceMonitor or PodMonitor labels match the operator's serviceMonitorSelector or podMonitorSelector. If the DCGM Exporter's monitor labels do not match, Prometheus silently ignores the endpoint even though the exporter is running. Verifying selector label alignment is the correct first step because it is the most common cause of missing metrics in operator-managed Prometheus.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official NVIDIA exam blueprint
This NCP-AIO practice question is part of Courseiva's free NVIDIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the NCP-AIO exam.