NCP-MCA Exam Dumps - Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) Questions and Answers

Protection Domains are a Nutanix feature that allows you to replicate data across clusters or to a remote site. You can use Protection Domains to replicate images from one cluster to another, and then use them for workload automation. This is one of the methods documented in the Nutanix Solutions Portal for Citrix MCS on Nutanix AHV1. Alternatively, you can also use Prism Central to manage multiple clusters and use Protection Policies to replicate images across clusters2. However, this option is not listed in the question, so the best answer is A. References:

1: Multi Cluster Image Replication for Citrix MCS on Nutanix

2: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide

The macro @@{calm_runbook_name}@@ is included in the Macros Virtual Machine Common Properties. This macro provides the name of the runbook that is being executed, which is useful for referencing and logging purposes within tasks and scripts.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Macros.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Macros in Calm.

One prerequisite for deploying Self-Service (formerly Calm) is that a unique Virtual IP address (VIP) must be configured in the Prism web console cluster that is running on Prism Central. This VIP is necessary for high availability and to ensure that Self-Service can be accessed reliably.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Deployment Requirements.

Nutanix Best Practices for Configuring VIP.

 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: 

https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/datasheets/ds-ncp-mca-6-5.pdf

https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/support/ds-ncp-mca.pdf

The error message "A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated" is often caused by the lack of CredSSP (Credential Security Support Provider) being enabled on the Windows Operating System. CredSSP is necessary for certain remote operations, including executing PowerShell scripts remotely.

References:

Microsoft documentation on Enabling CredSSP.

Nutanix documentation on Troubleshooting PowerShell Scripts.

According to the Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course1, one of the prerequisites for using X-Play to automate tasks on VMs is to have SSH enabled and configured on the target VMs. This allows X-Play to connect to the VMs and execute commands or scripts remotely. If the SSH service is not running on the VMs, then X-Play will fail to connect and perform the actions, resulting in the error message shown in the exhibit. The other options are not likely to cause this error, as they are either unrelated to X-Play (A and B) or not required for X-Play to work ©. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course

The image is unavailable for deployment on the cluster because the cluster and the image do not have the proper categories assigned for the placement policy. A placement policy is a set of rules that determines which clusters and images are available for VM deployment based on the categories and values assigned to them. If the cluster and the image do not match the placement policy criteria, they will not be shown as options for VM deployment. Therefore, the administrator needs to assign the appropriate categories and values to the cluster and the image to make them compatible with the placement policy. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 12; Nutanix NCP-MCA Questions, question 111.

To enable scaling for a blueprint, the developer needs to add scaling actions to the application profile. Scaling actions are scripts that define how to scale out (add more instances) or scale in (remove instances) of an application tier. The developer can also specify the minimum and maximum number of instances allowed for each tier, and the scaling policy (manual or automatic) based on metrics or schedules. The developer can access the application profile from the Blueprint Editor by clicking on the application name and then selecting the Actions tab. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Guide, [Nutanix Calm User Guide]

The Playbook is designed to manually reduce the vCPU count on any selected VM within the environment. However, it failed during a test run on VM2 because there was a running snapshot of the VM. According to Nutanix Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) principles, you cannot reduce the vCPU count on a VM that has an active snapshot1. This is because the snapshot captures the state of the VM configuration and data, and reverting to a snapshot will restore both the guest OS and the virtual hardware2. Therefore, changing the vCPU count while a snapshot is running will cause inconsistency and error. The other options are incorrect because:

A. The Playbook can be executed against a VM on AHV, as long as there is no snapshot running3.

B. The VM does not need to be powered off before vCPU can be reduced, as this can be done using hot-plug CPU feature4.

D. The play will not cause the VM to go below the minimum vCPU, as the minimum number of vCPUs is set to 1 in the Playbook, and the VM has 4 vCPUs initially. References: Nutanix Support & Insights, Solved: Snapshot query !! - VMware Technology Network VMTN, Calm on ESXi Deployment | Nutanix Community, Virtual CPU Configuration and Limitations - VMware Docs