Nutanix NCP-MCA Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA v6.5) Exam Exam Practice Test

When configuring Playbooks to automate the scaling of CPU and memory resources for VMs, the administrator should consider the following prerequisites:

CPU can be added to a powered on VM if the guest OS supports it. This is also known as hot-plug CPU. The administrator should check the compatibility of the guest OS and the hypervisor before enabling this feature. For example, Windows Server 2019 supports hot-plug CPU on AHV, ESXi, and Hyper-V, but not on XenServer1.

Memory can be removed from a powered on VM if the guest OS supports it. This is also known as hot-unplug memory. The administrator should check the compatibility of the guest OS and the hypervisor before enabling this feature. For example, Linux supports hot-unplug memory on AHV, ESXi, and XenServer, but not on Hyper-V2.

VM must be powered off to add CPU if the guest OS does not support hot-plug CPU. This is also known as cold-plug CPU. The administrator should plan for the downtime required to power off and power on the VM after adding CPU.

VM must be powered off to reduce memory if the guest OS does not support hot-unplug memory. This is also known as cold-unplug memory. The administrator should plan for the downtime required to power off and power on the VM after reducing memory. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 10; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 3; Nutanix Support Portal - Guest OS Compatibility Matrix

Calm can be deployed as a VM on ESXi or AHV hypervisors and leverage calm functionality without the Nutanix infrastructure. Calm can also be enabled inside of Prism Central, which is a VM that can run on any Nutanix supported hypervisor, including ESXi and AHV. However, Calm cannot be enabled inside of Prism Element, which is the management interface for each Nutanix cluster. Calm also cannot be deployed as a VM on Hyper-V, as this is not a supported hypervisor for Calm. References: Nutanix Calm Configuration and Training, Calm on ESXi Deployment | Nutanix Community, Nutanix Support & Insights

Categories are a way of organizing and managing resources in Nutanix Calm. Categories can be used to define access policies, filter resources, and group applications. By assigning new VMs to a category, the administrator can grant access to the OS Team based on their Active Directory Group membership. The OS Team can then use the web SSH console to access the Linux VMs from the Calm UI.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Categories”

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Accessing the Web SSH Console”

Nutanix Command Line Interface | Nutanix Community, section “SSH to any CVM as a nutanix user and type ncli and hit return to enter the ncli command shell and will be the same process for acli.”

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Customizing a Linux VM with Cloud-Init”

The Blueprint Editor in Nutanix Calm is the graphical interface that allows users to visualize and configure components and their dependencies within an environment. This tool provides a visual representation of application blueprints, enabling users to design, configure, and manage application deployments with ease.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Blueprint Editor.

Nutanix Best Practices for Designing Blueprints.

A Self-Service (formerly Calm) developer can find detailed and downloadable logs for analyzing a Blueprint deployment failure in the specific Application Audit tab. This tab provides insights and logs related to the deployment, helping to diagnose and resolve issues.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Application Audit.

Nutanix Best Practices for Troubleshooting Deployments.

A Playbook is a feature of Nutanix Calm that allows you to automate tasks based on certain triggers or events. You can use a Playbook to create a workflow that monitors the storage capacity of the cluster and sends an email notification to the IT Director when the capacity reaches a certain threshold. You can also use the Playbook to generate a forecast report that shows the projected storage usage and availability based on historical data and trends.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Playbooks”

Managing Storage Resiliency is now Simpler than Ever - Nutanix, section “Updates to the Storage Summary Widget”

Alert on resilient capacity of a cluster | Nutanix Community, section “What you can do is enable (check the warning checkbox) for this alert policy”

Runbooks are a feature of Calm that allows for the creation of task-based automation against dynamic lists of Windows or Linux VMs. A runbook is a collection of tasks that can be executed on one or more VMs or services. A task is a unit of automation that can perform actions such as executing commands, running scripts, invoking APIs, or sending notifications. A runbook can be triggered manually, on a schedule, or based on an event. Runbooks can be used to automate common operations such as backup, restore, patching, scaling, or troubleshooting. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 16; Nutanix Calm User Guide, section 3.4.

 Nutanix Calm is a feature of Prism Central that enables you to automate the deployment and management of infrastructure and applications across multiple clouds. Prism Central is a centralized management plane that provides unified visibility and control over Nutanix clusters and services. Prism Element is the local management plane for each Nutanix cluster that runs the Acropolis Operating System (AOS). Both Prism Central and Prism Element are required for Nutanix Calm to function properly and access the resources and services of the Nutanix platform. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 2 - Deploy and Configure Nutanix Calm and Related Components, page 1

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 1 - Introduction to Nutanix Multicloud Automation, Lesson 1.1 - Nutanix Multicloud Automation Overview, page 4

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Introduction to Nutanix Calm, Nutanix Calm Architecture

 A Playbook is a set of actions that are triggered by an event or a schedule. To run a Playbook, it must be enabled first. If a Playbook is not enabled, it will not respond to any events or schedules, and no Plays will be recorded for it. Therefore, the most likely cause of the issue is that the administrator forgot to enable the Playbook after building it. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 13, section 3.2. Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, module 4, lesson 2.

When a task fails in a Multi VM Blueprint deployment within Nutanix Calm due to an issue such as a typographical error, and the error has been corrected, the administrator has options to handle the situation without needing to start the entire process from scratch.

According to Nutanix Calm documentation, the appropriate action after fixing the error is to choose the "Retry task" option. This allows the deployment process to continue from the point of failure, saving time and resources as opposed to deleting and relaunching the entire application or moving the blueprint to another project.

References:

Nutanix Calm Administration Guide

Nutanix Calm Troubleshooting and Best Practices

The error message indicates that the script failed to authenticate to the remote server using CredSSP. CredSSP is a security mechanism that allows a client to delegate its credentials to a remote server for authentication. To use CredSSP, both the client and the server need to enable it and configure the role and the trusted hosts. The command Enable-WSManCredSSP -Role Client enables CredSSP on the client side and specifies the remote server as a trusted host. This command should be added to the script before invoking the Invoke-Command cmdlet that runs the script block on the remote server. The other commands are either irrelevant or incorrect for this scenario. References: Nutanix Calm: PowerShell Scripts - Read the Docs and Enable-WSManCredSSP (Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) - PowerShell | Microsoft Docs.

The most optimal way to correct the failed deployment is to retry the failed deployment. This option allows the administrator to resume the deployment from the point of failure, without having to redeploy the entire application or create a new runbook. Retrying the failed deployment also preserves the application state and configuration, and avoids creating duplicate resources or conflicts.

Redeploying the application is not the best option, because it requires the administrator to delete the existing application and launch a new one from scratch. This option wastes time and resources, and may result in data loss or inconsistency.

Creating a runbook to retry is also not the best option, because it requires the administrator to write a custom script or workflow to handle the retry logic. This option adds complexity and overhead to the automation process, and may not be compatible with the original blueprint or application.

Rewriting the blueprint to have error handling is a valid option, but it is not the most optimal one. This option requires the administrator to modify the blueprint code and add logic to handle different types of errors and exceptions. This option improves the robustness and reliability of the blueprint, but it does not correct the failed deployment itself. The administrator still has to redeploy the application or retry the failed deployment after rewriting the blueprint.

References:

Nutanix Calm User Guide: Chapter 6: Managing Applications

Nutanix Calm DSL User Guide: Chapter 4: Blueprints

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide: Section 3: Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings

To enable Calm, the administrator needs to log on to Prism Central with a local ADMIN account and click Services -> Calm -> Enable. This will install the Calm service on Prism Central and allow the administrator to access the Calm UI and features. The other options are incorrect because they either refer to Prism Element, which is not the correct platform for Calm, or they involve unnecessary or incorrect steps. References: [Enabling and Accessing Calm | Nutanix Community] [Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide] section 2.1.

 According to the Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course1, you can create and configure multi-VM blueprints for the Nutanix, AWS, VMware, GCP, and Azure providers. However, according to the Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide2, the exam objectives only cover Nutanix and AWS as the providers for multi-VM blueprints. Therefore, the correct answer is C. Nutanix and E. Amazon AWS. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course and Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide

The error message indicates that the project for the blueprint does not have any associated Nutanix account. This typically means that the new account added in Self-Service (formerly Calm) has not been verified. Account verification is required to ensure the account is properly configured and has the necessary permissions to be used within a Self-Service project.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Account Management.

Nutanix Best Practices for Verifying Accounts.

 A Playbook is a collection of tasks that can be executed based on a trigger, such as a time, a webhook, or a manual action. A Playbook can be used to automate workflows across different systems and services, such as Nutanix Prism, VMs, hosts, and external APIs. A Playbook can also use variables, conditions, and loops to customize the execution logic and data.

In this scenario, the administrator wants to automate the batch processing application on the Linux VM, which can only be controlled by a command on the VM console. The application should run only outside of business hours, and the VM should send REST API calls to Prism to report its status.

The best way to configure a Playbook for this process is to use a Time Trigger, which allows the administrator to specify a schedule for the Playbook execution, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. The Time Trigger can also be configured to run only on certain days or hours, such as weekdays or nights. This way, the administrator can ensure that the Playbook runs only outside of business hours, without requiring any manual intervention.

The Playbook should then have two VM SSH tasks, one to initiate the batch processing application, and one to terminate it. A VM SSH task is a task that executes a command or script on a target VM using SSH. A VM SSH task can be used to control applications or services that do not have a programmatic interface, such as the batch processing application in this scenario. The VM SSH task can also use variables to pass data to or from the command or script, such as the VM name, IP address, or output.

The Playbook should also have a Wait for Some Time task, which is a task that pauses the Playbook execution for a specified duration or until a condition is met. A Wait for Some Time task can be used to ensure that the batch processing application has enough time to complete its work, or to wait for a certain event or state to occur, such as a file creation, a service status, or a VM power state.

The Playbook should also have two REST API tasks, one before and one after the Wait for Some Time task. A REST API task is a task that executes an HTTP request to a specified URL, with optional headers, body, and authentication. A REST API task can be used to interact with external systems or services that expose an API, such as Nutanix Prism in this scenario. The REST API task can also use variables to pass data to or from the HTTP request, such as the VM name, IP address, or response.

The REST API tasks should be configured to send the VM status to Prism, such as the start and end time of the batch processing, the CPU and memory usage, or the output of the application. This way, the administrator can monitor and manage the VM and the application from Prism, without having to connect to the VM console.

The Playbook configuration should look something like this:

Time Trigger: Set the schedule to run daily, only on weekdays, and only at night (e.g., 10 PM to 6 AM).

VM SSH: Set the target VM to the Linux VM, and set the command or script to initiate the batch processing application (e.g., ./batch.sh start).

REST API: Set the URL to the Prism API endpoint, and set the HTTP method, headers, body, and authentication as required. Use variables to pass the VM name, IP address, and start time of the batch processing to the HTTP request (e.g., {"vm_name": "{{vm_name}}", "vm_ip": "{{vm_ip}}", "start_time": "{{start_time}}"}).

Wait for Some Time: Set the duration to the expected time for the batch processing to finish, or set a condition to wait until a certain event or state occurs (e.g., wait until file /tmp/batch.done exists).

REST API: Set the URL to the Prism API endpoint, and set the HTTP method, headers, body, and authentication as required. Use variables to pass the VM name, IP address, end time, and output of the batch processing to the HTTP request (e.g., {"vm_name": "{{vm_name}}", "vm_ip": "{{vm_ip}}", "end_time": "{{end_time}}", "output": "{{output}}"}).

VM SSH: Set the target VM to the Linux VM, and set the command or script to terminate the batch processing application (e.g., ./batch.sh stop).

References: 

The role required to create a remote Prism Central account within Self-Service (formerly Calm) is the Prism Admin role. Prism Admins have the necessary permissions to manage infrastructure components, including creating and configuring remote Prism Central accounts which are crucial for integrating and managing multi-cluster environments.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on RBAC Roles.

Nutanix Best Practices for Prism Central Management.

A service dependency is a feature of Nutanix Calm that allows you to define the order of execution and the conditions for starting and stopping services in a blueprint. By creating a service dependency between the application and the database, you can ensure that the application will not start until the database is fully installed and ready. This avoids the need for manual intervention or inefficient workarounds like loops or sleep statements. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 41; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 2.

An HTTP task is a type of task that can be added to a blueprint or a runbook to perform REST API calls to external systems. An HTTP task can be used to reserve an IP address in the IPAM system before deploying a VM or an application, by sending a POST request with the required parameters and headers. The HTTP task can also capture the response from the IPAM system and store it as a variable for later use. This is the simplest and most efficient way to integrate with an IPAM system, as it does not require any additional configuration or scripting.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 2: Self-Service, Lesson 2.4: Creating and Managing Blueprints, Slide 23: HTTP Task

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 2: Deploy and Configure Self-service and Related Components, Objective 2.1: Given a scenario, create a blueprint to deploy infrastructure and applications using Self-Service

Substrates are the components of a blueprint that define the cloud resources and configurations for deploying VMs or applications. Substrates can be associated with different cloud accounts, such as AWS, Azure, GCP, or Nutanix, to enable multicloud deployments. By using substrates, an administrator can create a blueprint that can deploy VMs to multiple clouds, depending on the availability, cost, or performance requirements.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 3: Blueprints, Lesson 3.2: Substrates1

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 2.1: Create a blueprint to deploy infrastructure and applications using Nutanix Calm2

When a VM managed by Self-Service (formerly Calm) is deleted manually from Prism Central, the associated application in Self-Service cannot be deleted using the standard delete action because the substrate is no longer present. In this scenario, the administrator should use the "Soft Delete" action in Self-Service, which will remove the application from management without requiring the substrate to be present.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Soft Delete.

Nutanix Best Practices for Managing Self-Service Applications.

The hercules.log file is the log file for the Calm service, which is responsible for managing the integration with various cloud providers, including Azure. The administrator can check this log file to troubleshoot any issues related to the Azure integration, such as authentication, configuration, or communication errors. The other log files are not relevant for the Azure integration. The sytx.log file is the log file for the Sytx service, which is responsible for managing the Calm UI and API. The durga.log file is the log file for the Durga service, which is responsible for managing the Calm Marketplace and blueprints. The arjun.log file is the log file for the Arjun service, which is responsible for managing the Calm runbooks and playbooks.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 2 - Deploy and Configure Nutanix Calm and Related Components, Objective 2.4 - Identify required configuration settings for a Nutanix Calm deployment

[Troubleshooting Calm | Nutanix Community]

To effectively automate the scaling of the environment, the administrator needs to know the steady state resource utilization and the expected resource utilization under load of the application, database, and web VMs. These two pieces of information will help the administrator to define the scaling policies, thresholds, and actions for the blueprint service that deploys the infrastructure. The administrator can use the Self-Service feature of Nutanix Multicloud Automation to create a blueprint service that can scale up or down based on the resource utilization metrics. The administrator can also use the Runbook feature to automate the scaling actions using scripts or APIs.

The other options are incorrect because:

SLA uptime of the application: This is not a piece of information that is needed to automate the scaling of the environment. The SLA uptime of the application is a performance indicator that measures the availability and reliability of the application. The administrator can use the X-Play feature of Nutanix Multicloud Automation to create event-driven playbooks that can trigger actions based on alerts or schedules to ensure the SLA uptime of the application.

If the application needs to be highly available: This is not a piece of information that is needed to automate the scaling of the environment. The high availability of the application is a design consideration that affects the architecture and configuration of the infrastructure and the application. The administrator can use the Projects feature of Nutanix Multicloud Automation to create projects that can define the availability domains, networks, and storage for the infrastructure and the application.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 2.5

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 2: Self-Service, Module 3: Runbook, Module 5: Projects

Training Spotlight: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Video 2: Self-Service, Video 3: Runbook, Video 5: Projects

When launching Calm blueprints, there are two view options available: Developer and Consumer. The Developer view allows you to create, edit, and manage blueprints, as well as access advanced features such as macros, actions, and scripts. The Consumer view allows you to launch and manage applications from the Marketplace, as well as access basic features such as variables, tasks, and alerts. The view option is determined by the role assigned to the user in the project. Users with the Project Admin or Project Auditor role can switch between the Developer and Consumer views, while users with the Project User role can only access the Consumer view. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 1 - Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, page 3

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 2 - Nutanix Calm, Lesson 2.1 - Nutanix Calm Overview, page 9

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Introduction to Nutanix Calm, Nutanix Calm User Interface

In the Guest Customization section of a blueprint for an AHV Linux service, you can apply a Cloud-init script. Cloud-init is a widely used method for customizing cloud instances during boot time, allowing for automated configuration of the virtual machine's operating system.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Guest Customization.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Cloud-init.

In Nutanix Self-Service (formerly known as Calm), substrates refer to the combination of the underlying cloud infrastructure and the virtual machine instances. Substrates define the environment where applications will be deployed and managed, encompassing cloud providers, virtualization platforms, and the associated VM configurations.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Substrates.

Nutanix Best Practices for Application Deployment.

The Consumer can ensure all underlying VMs are deleted with the removal of the application by going to the Manage tab of the application and selecting the Hard Delete action. This option will delete the application and all its associated resources from the Nutanix platform, without leaving any traces or backups. This option is useful when the application is no longer needed or has to be removed for compliance reasons.

From the Applications page, selecting the checkbox next to the application and selecting Delete from the action’s menu will not delete all underlying VMs. This option will only delete the application from the Calm UI, but not from the Nutanix platform. The application and its resources will still be available in the Nutanix cluster and can be restored from the Calm UI using the Restore action.

From the Marketplace page, selecting the checkbox next to the application and selecting Delete from the actions menu will not delete the application or its underlying VMs. This option will only delete the application from the Marketplace, but not from the Calm UI or the Nutanix platform. The application and its resources will still be available in the Calm UI and the Nutanix cluster.

Going to the Manage tab of the application and selecting the Delete action will also not delete all underlying VMs. This option will only delete the application from the Calm UI, but not from the Nutanix platform. The application and its resources will still be available in the Nutanix cluster and can be restored from the Calm UI using the Restore action.

References:

Nutanix Calm User Guide: Chapter 6: Managing Applications

Nutanix Calm DSL User Guide: Chapter 4: Blueprints

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide: Section 2: Deploy and Configure Self-service and Related Components

Within a Calm blueprint, an administrator can apply two actions to a Service under the Guest Customization section: Apply a Cloudinit Script and Apply a Sysprep file. These actions allow the administrator to customize the configuration and behavior of the virtual machines that are provisioned from the blueprint. A Cloudinit Script is a set of commands or scripts that run on Linux-based virtual machines during the boot process. A Sysprep file is a configuration file that specifies the Windows settings and options for the virtual machines. These actions can be used to perform tasks such as setting the hostname, network configuration, user accounts, software installation, and more. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 2 - Deploy and Configure Nutanix Calm and Related Components, page 3

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 2 - Nutanix Calm, Lesson 2.2 - Blueprint Management, page 9

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Blueprint, Guest Customization

The warnings in the exhibit indicate that certain variables are missing or incorrectly defined. To resolve these warnings, the administrator should:

Create the variable under the action: Ensure that the necessary variables are defined in the scope of the action where they are required.

Create an add_worker_node_count variable: Specifically, the blueprint requires a variable named add_worker_node_count. This variable should be defined and given an appropriate value to ensure the action can execute properly.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Blueprint Variables.

Nutanix Best Practices for Blueprint Development.

From the exhibit, it is clear that Prism Central needs to communicate with Calm managed target Linux VMs via SSH and with Calm managed target Windows VMs via PowerShell or Shell scripts. The appropriate ports to open for these communications are:

TCP 22: This port is used for SSH, which is necessary for managing Linux VMs.

TCP 5985 and 5986: These ports are used for PowerShell remoting, which is essential for managing Windows VMs.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Network Ports.

Best practices for Nutanix Network Configuration.

To launch application deployments on any remote Prism Central (PC) from the PC hosting Calm Global, the administrator must create a Nutanix account for each remote PC on the local PC (the one hosting Calm Global) and add these accounts to the relevant project. This setup allows Calm to manage and orchestrate resources across multiple Prism Central instances.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Multi-Cluster Management.

Nutanix Best Practices for Global Deployments.

The correct method to result in unique names per VM when scaling out a Service in a Calm Blueprint is to use the macro variable @@{calm_array_index}@@ in the Service VM Name field (Option B). This variable will append a unique index number to each VM name based on the scale-out count. For example, if the Service VM Name is MyAppVM-@@{calm_array_index}@@ and the scale-out count is 3, the resulting VM names will be MyAppVM-0, MyAppVM-1, and MyAppVM-2. Option A is incorrect because the tag in the sysprep file will only affect the hostname of the guest OS, not the VM name in the cloud provider. Option C is incorrect because calling an external Python eScript to register the VM name in DNS will not change the VM name in the cloud provider either. Option D is incorrect because setting the VM Name field to allow user edits at launch will require manual input from the user for each VM, which is not scalable or automated.

References: The information can be verified from Nutanix official training and certification documents available at Nutanix Training & Certification. You can also check out the Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam guide for more details on the exam objectives and format. Additionally, you can watch the Nutanix Calm - Multicloud Automation playlist on YouTube for some video tutorials on Nutanix Calm features and functionalities.

 Runtime variables are used to pass information between different components of a Blueprint, such as VMs, services, tasks, and replicas. They can be defined in the Blueprint YAML file or in the UI. By setting the mount_path as a runtime variable, the administrator can ensure that both database VMs use the same value for the mount_path during the deployment. This way, the backup files can be hosted on the same location for both VMs. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam, page 25, section 2.1.1: “Runtime Variables”

[Nutanix University: NCP-MCA 6.5 Exam Prep - Runtime Variables], video 2: “Runtime Variables”

 The Developer role is the most appropriate role for the end user who needs to modify the blueprints for the project. The Developer role allows the user to create, edit, and delete blueprints and runbooks within the project, as well as launch and manage applications from the Marketplace. The Developer role does not have the privileges to create or manage projects, users, roles, or categories, which are reserved for the Project Admin role. The Consumer role only allows the user to launch and manage applications from the Marketplace, but not to modify the blueprints or runbooks. The Operator role allows the user to monitor and manage the infrastructure and applications within the project, but not to create or edit the blueprints or runbooks.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 1 - Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, Objective 1.5 - Identify the capabilities of Projects

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 3 - Self-Service Projects, Lesson 3.1 - Project Roles and Permissions

The Calm SaaS API key consists of two components: name and token. The name component is analogous to the ID or username you provide when you configure your Calm tunnel client VM to establish the tunnel connection. The token component is analogous to the password portion of the HTTP basic authentication. The Calm SaaS API key is used along with the Calm APIs and Calm DSL to access Calm. The API key file that you download will have the name and token components in the JSON format. References: Nutanix Support & Insights

 The Snapshot tab allows you to view the captured snapshots, restore applications from snapshots, and delete the snapshots for an application. Use this tab to create snapshots of single VM applications that are running with Nutanix as the provider1. You can also view the date and time, and the name of the snapshot, and perform actions like Delete, Clone, Restore2. The AMIS tab is for Amazon Machine Images, the Recovery point tab is for Calm applications, and the Manage tab is for day 2 actions3. References: Nutanix Support & Insights, List VMs with snapshots on Nutanix AHV, Nutanix Calm: Introducing Snapshot and Restore Actions

When creating a Category in Nutanix, the "Purpose" field is optional. The mandatory fields are "Name" and "Value". The "Purpose" field is used to provide a description or context for the category but is not required for the category creation.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Category Management.

Nutanix Best Practices for Defining Categories.

To enable Self-Service (formerly Calm) policies for scheduling and approval tasks, the minimum requirement is the Policy Engine VM. The Policy Engine VM is responsible for managing and enforcing policies, including scheduling and approval processes within Nutanix Calm.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Policy Engine.

Nutanix Best Practices for Scheduling and Approval.

An event trigger is a type of trigger that can be used to execute a playbook when a specific event occurs in the Nutanix platform. An event trigger can be configured with various parameters, such as the event type, the target VM, the target VM category, the target project, and the target user. In this scenario, the administrator wants to be notified when a subset of VMs within the Environment:Dev category is restored from snapshot. Therefore, the event trigger should have the following parameters:

Event type: Snapshot Restoration. This is the event that indicates a VM has been restored from a snapshot.

Target VM: VMS in Environment: Dev. This is the filter that specifies which VMs are relevant for the trigger. By selecting VMS in Environment: Dev, the trigger will only apply to the VMs that belong to the Environment:Dev category.

Other parameters: These can be left as default or customized as needed.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 3: X-Play, Lesson 3.2: Creating and Managing Playbooks, Slide 13: Event Trigger

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 3: Validate Blueprints, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, Objective 3.1: Determine the causes of a Playbook execution failure

When configuring Calm to use Kubernetes as a provider, the administrator can choose between two Kubernetes types: Karbon and Vanilla. Karbon is Nutanix’s own Kubernetes distribution that is integrated with Prism and AHV. Vanilla is any other Kubernetes distribution that is not Karbon, such as OpenShift, Rancher, or EKS. The administrator needs to provide the Kubernetes API endpoint and credentials for the Vanilla type, while the Karbon type is automatically discovered by Calm. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 14; Nutanix NCP-MCA Questions, question 102.

A category is a key-value pair that can be assigned to an entity in Prism Central to simplify daily operations and management. Categories can be used to filter, search, and group entities based on common attributes. Categories can also be used to define policies and permissions for different entities. A category can be assigned to a cluster, a VM, an image, a network, a blueprint, an application, or a project. A category cannot be assigned to a hypervisor, a protection domain, or a storage container, as these are not entities in Prism Central. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 12; Nutanix Prism Central Guide, section 4.1.

The most likely reason for this behavior is that the developer created a post-create task for reserving the IP address. A post-create task is executed after the VM is created and powered on, which means that the VM already obtained a DHCP IP address before the task is run. To reserve the IP address in IPAM as part of the deployment process, the developer should create a pre-create task instead. A pre-create task is executed before the VM is created and powered on, which allows the task to reserve the IP address in IPAM and assign it to the VM. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 15; Nutanix NCP-MCA Questions, question 57.

The port 5986 is used for PowerShell Remoting over HTTPS, which is a secure way of executing PowerShell commands on a remote Windows VM. Calm uses PowerShell Remoting to run scripts on Windows VMs as part of the blueprint actions. Therefore, the port 5986 needs to be opened on the VM firewall to allow the communication between Calm and the VM. The other ports are not related to PowerShell Remoting, as they are used for SQL Server (1433), Remote Desktop Protocol (3389), and PowerShell Remoting over HTTP (5985). References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 3; Nutanix Calm User Guide, page 93.

To automate the task of growing vDisks on multiple classes of VMs using Nutanix Playbooks, the administrator should follow these steps:

Create a custom Alert Policy:

Create an alert policy that triggers when the server's disk usage reaches 85% or above. This ensures the playbook is triggered based on the specified threshold.

Select Alert as the trigger:

Set the alert created in step 1 as the trigger for the playbook. This ties the alert condition to the execution of the playbook.

Select Email Action with custom message:

Add an action to send an email notification. This email should be sent prior to any work being started, to inform relevant stakeholders about the impending vDisk growth operation.

Add Action to Grow vDisks:

Add the action to grow the vDisks on the VMs. This step should include the necessary script or task that performs the vDisk growth operation on the specified VMs.

Based on the requirements and steps, the playbook should be structured as follows:

Step 1: Create a custom Alert Policy

Define the alert policy with the condition that disk usage on the VMs reaches 85% or higher.

Step 2: Select Alert as the trigger

Use the alert policy created in Step 1 as the trigger for the playbook.

Step 3: Select Email Action with custom message

Add an email action to notify relevant stakeholders before the vDisk growth task is initiated.

Step 4: Add Action to Grow vDisks

Include the necessary action to grow the vDisks on the VMs as required.

This structure ensures that the playbook is dynamically responsive to changes in server usage, sends notifications prior to execution, and performs the required vDisk growth operation automatically.

 Categories are key-value pairs that you can use to tag and filter entities in Nutanix. There are two types of categories: system defined and user defined. System defined categories are built-in and cannot be deleted. User defined categories are created by the administrator and can be deleted if they are not used in any policy. Policies are rules that apply actions or restrictions to entities based on their categories. Flow policies are policies that control the network security and visibility of VMs. If a category is part of a flow policy, it cannot be deleted unless the policy is removed or modified. Therefore, the two conditions that could prevent an administrator from deleting a category are: the category is system defined, or the category is part of a flow policy. References:

Nutanix Support & Insights: This is the official Nutanix documentation for categories, where you can find information about the types, usage, and deletion of categories.

Nutanix Exam NCP-MCA Topic 1 Question 12 Discussion: This is a forum where you can find discussions and explanations for Nutanix certification exam questions, including question 12 from topic 1, which is related to your question.

Nutanix Flow Overview: This is a Nutanix community post where you can learn more about Nutanix Flow and its policies.

In Nutanix, Categories can be assigned to various entities to help organize and manage resources. The two entities that can be assigned categories are:

Hosts: Categories can be used to tag and manage hosts within the infrastructure.

VMs: Categories can also be assigned to virtual machines, allowing for better organization and management based on specific attributes or requirements.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Category Management.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Categories.

To deploy blueprints to Calm SaaS and execute them, the administrator must first configure a site-to-site VPN tunnel and a tunnel entity in the environment where the blueprint will be deployed. A site-to-site VPN tunnel is a secure connection between two networks over the internet that allows Calm SaaS to communicate with the on-premises or cloud environment. A tunnel entity is a logical representation of the VPN tunnel in Calm SaaS that contains the tunnel configuration and credentials. The administrator must also register the environment and the provider accounts in Calm SaaS before deploying the blueprints. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 9; Nutanix Calm SaaS User Guide, section 3.1.1 and 3.1.2.

The error indicates that there is an issue with DNS resolution while executing the delete script. To resolve this and successfully delete the deployment, the administrator can:

Perform a Stop: Stop the application or VM to ensure that no processes are actively using the resources. This might resolve any temporary network or DNS issues.

Manually delete the VM: If stopping the application does not resolve the issue, manually deleting the VM from the Prism Central or the respective hypervisor management console is necessary. This will bypass the script error.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Managing Applications.

Nutanix Best Practices for Manual VM Management.

The alert indicates that Calm Showback is unable to reach the Beam service. One possible cause mentioned is that there is no DNS configured in Prism Central. To resolve this issue, the administrator should ensure that DNS is properly configured in Prism Central to allow for name resolution and internet connectivity required to communicate with Beam services.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Configuring DNS in Prism Central.

Nutanix Best Practices for Calm and Beam Integration.

The Plays dashboard in Prism Central provides a centralized view of all the Playbooks that have been executed across the clusters registered with Prism Central. It shows the status, duration, and output of each Playbook run, as well as the details of the triggers, targets, and actions involved. An administrator can use the Plays dashboard to troubleshoot why a Playbook failed to grow the memory of a VM by checking the error messages, logs, and output of the Playbook run. The other options are not the correct places to check for Playbook failures, as they do not provide the same level of information and visibility as the Plays dashboard. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6 Exam, Nutanix Exam NCP-MCA Topic 4 Question 20 Discussion

 In order to enable the developer to complete the requested task, AWS and Azure Providers need to be created (Option A). This is because, in the context of Nutanix Calm, providers are integrations with public and private cloud infrastructures. The developer is trying to deploy an application on AWS and Azure clouds but currently only has Nutanix as a configured provider. After creating the providers, they need to be added to the project (Option B) so that applications can be deployed on them. Option C is incorrect because environments are not required for multicloud deployments. Option D is also incorrect because Calm version 3.2.x is not relevant to the question.

References: The information can be verified from Nutanix official training and certification documents available at Nutanix Training & Certification. You can also check out the Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam guide for more details on the exam objectives and format. Additionally, you can watch the Nutanix Calm - Multicloud Automation playlist on YouTube for some video tutorials on Nutanix Calm features and functionalities.

Playbooks are a collection of tasks that can be executed on demand or based on a trigger. There are two types of triggers available for executing Playbooks: manual and alert. A manual trigger allows you to run a Playbook on demand from the Prism Central UI or the Calm API. An alert trigger allows you to run a Playbook automatically when a specific alert is generated by Prism Central or a third-party system. Report and audit are not valid trigger types for Playbooks. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 9; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 1.

To reduce the manual effort for the NOC personnel, the administrators can create a new Action that contains the custom Python script as an Execute task with a script type of EScript. This will allow the NOC personnel to run the script on any VM from the Calm UI or API without logging into each VM. To ensure the process is repeatable across all applications, the administrators can create a new Runbook that contains the same Action and assign it to the relevant Projects. This will enable the NOC personnel to run the script on multiple VMs across different applications in a single workflow. To provide audit history for management of the actions, the administrators can view the Execution History tab under the Runbook page for audit purposes. This will show the details of each Runbook execution, such as the status, duration, user, and logs. Alternatively, the administrators can also view the Audit tab under the Application view for audit purposes. This will show the history of all actions performed on the application, such as launch, update, delete, and run actions. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 18, section 4.2.1.