Nutanix NCP-MCA Dumps

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 cloud-agnostic automation and orchestration solution that can be deployed on Nutanix AHV or any public cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. Calm can also manage applications across multiple cloud environments, including hybrid clouds. Calm cannot be deployed on vSphere Essential Edition or VMware ESXi, as these are not supported hypervisors for Calm. However, Calm can manage existing VMs on vSphere or ESXi clusters through the VMware provider. References:

• Nutanix Calm Configuration and Training1
• Nutanix Calm Admin and Operations Guide2

The best way to automate the scale-out of the application layer using a third-party tool is to create a Playbook with a webhook as a trigger and a REST API call as an action. A webhook is a mechanism that allows a third-party service to send a notification to a Calm server when a certain event occurs, such as a code commit or a build completion. A REST API call is a way to interact with the Calm server programmatically, such as launching a blueprint or scaling out a service. By creating a Playbook that combines these two elements, the administrator can enable the third-party tool to trigger the scale-out action on the Calm server with a single command. The other options are either not feasible, not efficient, or not relevant for this task. References: Nutanix Calm: Playbooks - Read the Docs and Nutanix Calm: REST API - Read the Docs.

Scaling VM replica settings allow you to specify the minimum, maximum, and default number of VMs that can be created from a blueprint service. The minimum and default values must be equal to or greater than the number of VMs needed at any time and at time of deployment, which is 2 in this case. The maximum value must be equal to or less than the project quota divided by the VM resources, which is 100/12 = 8 for vCPUs and 300/24 = 12 for memory. The lowest of these two values is the limit for the maximum value, which is 8. Therefore, the only option that meets all the requirements is B. MIN: 2, MAX: 7, Default: 2.

References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10, Objective 3.1: Given a scenario, create a blueprint to deploy infrastructure and applications using Self-Service
• Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 5: Self-Service, Lesson 5.2: Blueprint Design, slide 23: Scaling VM Replica Settings
• Nutanix Certified Professional Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6 Exam, page 10, Objective 3.1: Given a scenario, create a blueprint to deploy infrastructure and applications using Self-Service

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.

 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.

Alerts are a way of monitoring the health and performance of the Nutanix cluster and the VMs running on it. Alerts can be triggered by various metrics, such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk space, network traffic, etc. Alerts can also be configured to send notifications to the administrator or other recipients via email, Slack, PagerDuty, etc. To satisfy the request from the Accounting department, the administrator should create an Alert with the following settings:

• Trigger: CPU Usage (%) > 90 OR Memory Usage (%) > 90
• Scope: VM
• Category: LOB:Accounting
• Notification: Email to accounting@company.com This way, the Alert will only apply to the VMs that belong to the Accounting department, and will send an email notification to the Accounting department when any of their VMs exceed the specified thresholds. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 9; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 1; [Nutanix Prism Central Guide - Alerts]

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.

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 basedon 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.

 If a Blueprint deployment fails, the administrator can use the Continue option in the Self-Service Portal to resume the deployment from the point of failure. This option will retry the failed task and continue with the remaining tasks in the Blueprint. The administrator does not need to delete the application or launch a new one, as this would waste time and resources. Saving the Blueprint will not automatically retry the task, as the Blueprint is only a template for the deployment.

References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 3, Objective 3.1: Determine the causes of a Blueprint or Runbook deployment failure.
• Nutanix NCP-MCA Certification Exam Sample Questions, Question 17.

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

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 Nutanixcluster. 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

The archived application logs within Prism Central can be found under Services > Calm > Settings. Calm automatically archives run logs of the deleted applications and custom actions that are older than three months. The administrator can download the archives within 7 days from the time of archive creation. For a running application, data is not archived for the system-generated Create actions. References: Nutanix Support & Insights

 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

 A variable is a placeholder for a value that can be used in a blueprint or a script. A variable can be defined at the global, project, or blueprint level. A global variable is available to all projectsand blueprints, while a project variable is available to all blueprints within a project, and a blueprint variable is available only to the blueprint where it is defined. To make a variable visible to a blueprint, the developer needs to share the variable with the project that contains the blueprint. This can be done by going to the Variables page in the Calm UI and clicking on the Share button next to the variable name. Then, the developer needs to select the project from the drop-down list and click on Save. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 14; Nutanix Calm User Guide, section 3.2.

To create and execute a scaling action using Calm, the administrator should create the action under the service profile section of the blueprint and the application profile section of the blueprint. The service profile section defines the properties and actions of each service in the blueprint, such as the VM configuration, the scripts to run, and the scaling parameters. The application profile section defines the properties and actions of the entire application, such as the number of instances, the dependencies, and the scaling triggers. The administrator can then execute the scaling action in the Overview tab or the Services tab of the application, depending on the scope of the scaling action. References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation, Page 18
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide

Plays are event-driven automation workflows that can be triggered by alerts, schedules, or manual actions. They consist of one or more actions that run on specified hosts or clusters. An administrator can obtain the following information from Plays:

• Host where the action runs: Each action in a Play can be configured to run on a specific host or cluster, or on the host or cluster where the alert was triggered. The administrator can view the host or cluster name for each action in the Play details page.
• Execution result status: Each action in a Play has an execution result status that indicates whether the action was successful, failed, skipped, or cancelled. The administrator can view the status for each action in the Play details page, as well as the overall status of the Play.

The other options are incorrect because:

• Start time and end time of each action: Plays do not show the start time and end time of each action, only the duration of the action. The administrator can view the duration for each action in the Play details page, as well as the overall duration of the Play.
• CVM IP where the alert was triggered: Plays do not show the CVM IP where the alert was triggered, only the host or cluster name where the alert was triggered. The administrator can view the host or cluster name for the alert in the Play details page.

References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 1.2
• Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 4: X-Play
• Training Spotlight: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Video 4: X-Play

Runtime variables are variables that can be modified by the Consumer during the deployment of a Blueprint or after the deployment is complete. They allow the Consumer to customize the attributes of the infrastructure and applications according to their needs. Runtime variables can be defined in the Blueprint settings or in the Blueprint YAML file. They can also be used in the Blueprint tasks to pass dynamic values to the scripts or commands. Runtime variables can be of different types, such as text, number, boolean, list, or password. They can also have default values, constraints, and descriptions to guide the Consumer.

References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 2, Objective 2.1
• Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 4, Lesson 4.3
• Nutanix Calm User Guide, Chapter 4, Section 4.2

A Developer permission level grants access to create, update, delete, and duplicate blueprints in Nutanix Calm12. A Developer can also launch, manage, and delete applications from blueprints, as well as create, update, delete, and duplicate runbooks2. A Consumer can only launch and manage applications from blueprints, but cannot modify them2. An Operator can launch, manage, and delete applications from blueprints, as well as run and manage runbooks, but cannot create or modify them2. A Domain Admin can perform all the actions of a Developer and an Operator, as well as manage projects, categories, and endpoints2. References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5
• Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA)

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 easiest way to satisfy the request is to add an Email action to the end of the existing playbook and use the {{action[index] .stdout}} parameter in the Message field. This way, the administrator does not need to modify the script or create a file to store the output. The {{action[index] .stdout}} parameter will capture the standard output of the previous action, which is the VM SSH action that executes the script. The Email action will then send the output as the message body to the specified recipients. References: You can find more information about this topic in the following sources:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 3 - Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, page 10
• Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 4 - X-Play, Lesson 2 - Playbooks, page 4-11

A Branch Condition is a type of action in X-Play that allows you to create conditional logic based on the output of a previous action or a custom expression. A Branch Condition can have multiple branches, each with a different condition and a different set of actions to execute if the condition is met. The minimum number of actions required in a Branch Condition is two: one for the condition itself, and one for the action to perform if the condition is true. If the condition is false, the Branch Condition will skip to the next action in the Playbook. You can add more branches to a Branch Condition, but you cannot have less than two. References: Nutanix Calm: Playbooks - Read the Docs and Nutanix Calm: Branch Condition - Read the Docs.

 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 inthis 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 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.

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]

The Calm Marketplace acts as an application store, providing end users with a catalog of available applications. By default, Calm comes pre-seeded with validated Blueprints for multiple open source and enterprise applications. These are the set of pre-seeded application Blueprints. Additionally, Marketplace Manager acts as a staging area for publishing default and user-created Blueprints to your local Marketplace. These are the published and versioned Blueprints. The other two options, library of executable tasks and store of all Blueprints created in Calm, are not features of the Calm Marketplace. References: Calm: Marketplace - Read the Docs and Calm: Marketplace - Read the Docs

According to the Nutanix Calm documentation1, the Snapshots tab allows the administrator to view, create, and restore snapshots of the VMs that are part of a blueprint. The Manage tab only shows the status and actions of the blueprint, and the Recovery tab is used for disaster recovery operations2. References:

• 1 Nutanix Calm: Introducing Snapshot and Restore Actions3
• 2 Nutanix Calm User Guide: Blueprint Operations

 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

An X-Play Trigger is a condition that initiates a Playbook. There are four types of X-Play Triggers: Alert, Audit, Event, and Time1. An Alert Trigger is based on a Prism alert, such as a VM power state change or a disk failure. An Audit Trigger is based on a Prism audit entry, such as a user login or a cluster operation. An Event Trigger is based on a Prism event, such as a VM creation or deletion. A Time Trigger is based on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or monthly2. In this scenario, the administrator needs to create a Playbook to be notified when VMs are deleted. Therefore, the appropriate X-Play Trigger would be an Event Trigger, since VM deletion is a Prism event. References: 1: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 42: Getting Started with Nutanix X-Play – Nutanix.dev

 The alert in Prism Central indicates that Calm showback is not able to reach the beam service. This could be due to network connectivity issues or incorrect configurations. The administrator should check the DNS configuration in Prism Central (Option A) to ensure that it is correctly configured to allow communication with the Beam service. Additionally, checking if Prism Element is configured with Proxy settings (Option C) is essential as it can also affect the communication between Calm and Beam. Pulse (Option B) and Flow (Option D) are not related to the Calm showback feature and do not impact its functionality.

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
• Enabling and Disabling Showback in Calm | Nutanix Community

The error message in the exhibit indicates a mismatch between the number of network settings and the number of NICs on the VM. This is a common validation error when saving Calm Blueprints for VMware, where it is essential to ensure that these configurations match to avoid issues with VM deployment and operation1. References: 1: Nutanix NCP-MCA Certification Exam Sample Questions2

The administrator should use a trigger based on an event when creating a playbook to automate the scaling of the VDI solution. An event trigger is a type of trigger that executes a playbook when a specific event occurs in the Nutanix environment or in a third-party system. An event trigger can be configured to listen to events from various sources, such as Prism alerts, Calm actions, or external webhooks. In this scenario, the administrator can use an event trigger to listen to the webhook from the third-party monitoring tool and execute a playbook that creates additional resources and adds them to the VDI solution.

A trigger based on a REST API is not the best option, because it requires the administrator to manually invoke the playbook using an API call. This is not as efficient or reliable as using an event trigger that automatically executes the playbook when the capacity threshold is reached.

A trigger based on an email is also not the best option, because it requires the administrator to configure an email server and a mailbox to receive the notification from the third-party tool. This adds complexity and overhead to the automation process and may not be as secure or timely as using an event trigger.

A trigger based on an alert is a valid option, but it depends on the availability and compatibility of the Prism alert system with the third-party tool. If the third-party tool can send alerts to Prism, then the administrator can use an alert trigger to execute the playbook. However, if the third-party tool does not integrate with Prism, then the administrator cannot use an alert trigger and has to use an event trigger instead.

References:

• Nutanix Calm User Guide: Chapter 8: X-Play
• Nutanix Calm DSL User Guide: Chapter 5: Playbooks
• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide: Section 1: Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles

Nutanix provides a documented process to seed Github based scripts into the Calm Task Library, which allows users to import and use custom tasks from the Nutanix public Github repository or any other Github repository. This process is described in the Nutanix Calm DSL User Guide and the Nutanix Calm DSL Tutorial.

Nutanix also publishes official vetted blueprints and tasks to Nutanix’s public Github Calm repository, which is located at  . These blueprints and tasks are created and maintained by Nutanix engineers and can be used as reference or templates for building Calm applications. Some examples of these blueprints and tasks are:

• Kubernetes Cluster: A blueprint that deploys a Kubernetes cluster on Nutanix AHV using Calm.
• MySQL HA: A blueprint that deploys a MySQL cluster with high availability on Nutanix AHV using Calm.
• Windows Server: A blueprint that deploys a Windows Server 2019 VM on Nutanix AHV using Calm.
• [Install Python]: A task that installs Python on a Linux VM using Calm.

Calm’s public repository does not contain Nutanix-vetted custom scripts created and published by community members. These scripts are hosted in a separate repository called [Automation], which is a centralized repo for community driven Nutanix automation. These scripts are not officially supported or endorsed by Nutanix and may not be compatible with the latest versions of Calm or Nutanix products.

Nutanix does not provide documented processes to seed scripts from any source repository. Users can only import scripts from Github repositories using the Calm Task Library. Other source repositories are not supported by Calm.

References:

• Nutanix Calm DSL User Guide
• Nutanix Calm DSL Tutorial
• Nutanix Calm Blueprints
• Kubernetes Cluster
• MySQL HA
• Windows Server
• [Install Python]
• [Automation]

A Brownfield Application is a type of application that allows you to import and manage existing VMs that were not deployed by Calm. You can use a Brownfield Application to perform actions such as start, stop, restart, delete, or execute scripts on the imported VMs. You can also add services, credentials, variables, and policies to the Brownfield Application blueprint. To create a Brownfield Application, you need to select a multi-VM blueprint and then choose the VMs that you want to include in the application from the drop down list. You can also filter the VMs by name, cluster, or power state.

A Greenfield Application is a type of application that allows you to deploy new VMs from scratch using Calm. You can use a Greenfield Application to provision and configure VMs on different cloud platforms, such as Nutanix AHV, VMware ESXi, AWS, Azure, or GCP. You can also add services, credentials, variables, and policies to the Greenfield Application blueprint. To create a Greenfield Application, you need to select a single-VM or a multi-VM blueprint and then specify the VM properties, such as name, image, flavor, network, storage, etc.

References:

• Nutanix Calm DSL – Brownfield Apps the Easy Way
• Nutanix Support & Insights
• Getting started with Nutanix Calm

 The alert in Prism Central indicates that Calm showback is not able to reach the beam service. This could be due to network connectivity issues or incorrect configurations. The administrator should check the DNS configuration in Prism Central (Option A) to ensure that it is correctly configured to allow communication with the Beam service. Additionally, checking if Prism Element is configured with Proxy settings (Option C) is essential as it can also affect the communication between Calm and Beam. Pulse (Option B) and Flow (Option D) are not related to the Calm showback feature and do not impact its functionality.

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
• Enabling and Disabling Showback in Calm | Nutanix Community

Playbooks are a feature of X-Play that allow you to automate tasks based on events or alerts. You can use the actions gallery to select from a variety of actions that can be executed by a playbook. These actions are categorized into three types: VM, alert, and communication1. VM actions allow you to perform operations on virtual machines, such as power on, power off, snapshot, clone, etc. Alert actions allow you to create, update, or close alerts in Prism Central. Communication actions allow you to send messages to various channels, such as email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams2. Therefore, the correct answer is B. References:

• 1: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide
• 2: Playbooks – Nutanix.dev

According to the Nutanix Calm documentation1, to scale out an existing Calm environment, the administrator needs to back up the data and create three Calm VMs from the Calm VM OVA template. The administrator then needs to configure the Calm VMs as a cluster and restore the data from the backup. The other options are incorrect because they either do not use the correct image format, do not create a cluster of Calm VMs, or destroy the existing Calm VM. References:

• 1 Nutanix Calm User Guide: Scaling Out the Calm Cluster2