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

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.

 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 projects and 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 a Category via automation in Nutanix, the required items are:

Name: The identifier for the category.

Value: The specific value assigned to the category.

Categories help in organizing and managing resources by tagging them with meaningful identifiers.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Creating Categories.

Nutanix Best Practices for Category Management.

 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

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.

To deploy Self-Service (formerly Calm), the Nutanix product version that must be compatible is Prism Central. Self-Service relies on Prism Central for orchestration, management, and automation of applications and services across multiple environments.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Self-Service (Calm) Requirements.

Nutanix Best Practices for Deploying Self-Service.

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 macro syntax in Nutanix Calm is @@{and}@@. This syntax is used to reference variables and parameters within blueprints and tasks, allowing for dynamic substitution of values during execution.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Macro Syntax.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Macros.

According to the Nutanix Calm Administration Guide1, the minimum system requirements for Prism Central are 32 GB of RAM and 8 vCPUs. If the production Prism Central has less than the minimum RAM, it may affect the performance of Calm and other services running on Prism Cen

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

The error message “INTERNAL_ERROR: ErrorCode: 9” typically indicates an issue with the SSH service on the VMs. In this context, where a playbook is being executed to shut down Linux VMs, it’s essential that the SSH service is running to allow for remote management and execution of commands. If the SSH service isn’t running, the playbook won’t be able to execute commands on the VMs, leading to an internal error.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 3: X-Play, Lesson 3.3: Creating and Managing Playbooks, Slide 19: Action Settings

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 3: Validate Blueprints, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, Objective 3.3: Determine the correct method to validate required Playbook configurations

UESTION NO: 80

An administrator is unable to launch a Calm blueprint (new and old). Launching an existing blueprint under this condition fails with the error message:

The project for this blueprint does not have any associated Nutanix account.

Downloading and uploading the new blueprint also fails with

Launch with Variables' Profile expected to fall as Windows Server VWs attached with deleted Account.

Please modify them to use different account and try again.

Why is the administrator seeing this issue?

A. The account is in a failed state.

B. The has not been created.

C. The account is not verified.

D. The account been deleted.

Answer: D

The error messages indicate that the blueprint is trying to use a Nutanix account that no longer exists. This could happen if the account was deleted by another administrator or by a playbook action. The administrator should check the project settings and verify that the Nutanix account is still available and associated with the project. If not, the administrator should create a new account or use an existing one and update the blueprint accordingly. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, page 9; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 3; Nutanix NCP-MCA Certification Exam Sample Questions, question 80.

The administrator should assign the VMs to an Inactive:VM category as an action and trigger a playbook on alert with the Inactive VM alert policy. By doing this, they can create a custom category to group and identify the inactive VMs and use a custom alert policy to trigger a playbook that can perform automated actions on them, such as powering them off, deleting them, or sending notifications. This is based on the general practices in managing VMs in a multicloud environment, as well as the specific features and requirements of Nutanix X-Play and Nutanix Calm. References:

How to create custom categories | Prism central | Nutanix Community

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 1: Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, Objective 1.4: List how to implement categories for the appropriate use cases

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 3: Nutanix X-Play, Lesson 2: Nutanix X-Play Playbooks

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 4: Nutanix Calm Governance, Lesson 2: Nutanix Calm Alerts

 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 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 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 best way to automate the entire database and application deployments is to use a combination of Nutanix Calm and Nutanix Era. Nutanix Calm is a multicloud automation platform that allows you to create blueprints to deploy and manage infrastructure and applications across different cloud environments. Nutanix Era is a database management platform that allows you to provision, clone, patch, refresh, and restore databases in a simplified and automated way. By creating a Calm blueprint that deploys applications and calls Era APIs to automate database deployments, you can achieve faster and consistent releases, as well as reduce the manual effort and complexity involved in the process. You can also leverage the features of Calm and Era, such as self-service, governance, showback, backup, and recovery, to enhance the efficiency and security of your deployments. References: 

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-multicloud-automation-v6-5

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

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]

To enable Quotas in Nutanix Self-Service (formerly Calm), the administrator should enable the Policy Engine. The Policy Engine manages and enforces various policies, including quotas for resource usage, to ensure that resource consumption stays within defined limits.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Enabling Policy Engine.

Nutanix Best Practices for Setting Quotas.

A provider is a configuration that allows Nutanix Calm to interact with a public cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. A provider contains the credentials, settings, and policies required to deploy and manage VMs on the public cloud. Before creating a blueprint for a new public cloud environment, the administrator should create a new provider for AWS and specify the region, access key, secret key, and other parameters. This will enable the administrator to select the AWS provider as the deployment location for the blueprint and configure the VM attributes accordingly. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 15; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 2.

When creating a Runbook in Nutanix Calm to perform a REST API call, the administrator should select the "HTTP" task type. This task type is specifically designed to make HTTP requests, including REST API calls, allowing integration with external services and APIs.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Runbook Task Types.

Nutanix Best Practices for HTTP Task in Runbooks.

Showback is a feature in Calm that allows administrators to track and report the costs of running applications and projects on different cloud platforms. Showback can be enabled in the Setting menu of Calm, under the Showback tab. There, the administrator can configure the cost models, cloud accounts, and currency for Showback. Showback can also be accessed from the Dashboard menu, where the administrator can view the cost reports and charts for different applications and projects. References: 

https://www.nutanix.com/support-services/training-certification/certifications/certification-details-nutanix-certified-professional-multicloud-automation-v6-5\

https://www.nutanix.com/content/dam/nutanix/resources/support/ebg-ncp-mca-6.pdf

 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 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

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.

When scripts are not specified under the Stop service-level actions, the system does not generate orchestration edges automatically. To prevent this issue, the administrator should manually update all system-defined actions. This involves defining the necessary scripts or actions to ensure proper orchestration and dependencies are in place.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Service-Level Actions.

Nutanix Best Practices for Orchestration Management.

A playbook REST API action allows the administrator to send an HTTP request to a specified endpoint, such as the Prism Central API, to perform an operation, such as deleting a VM. A playbook webhook action allows the administrator to send a payload to a specified URL, such as a ServiceNow webhook, to trigger an event, such as an approval flow. Both of these actions can be used to automate the deletion of VMs from a ServiceNow approval flow, where the developers can request and confirm the removal of their environments. A playbook webhook trigger and a playbook REST API trigger are not valid options, as they are used to initiate a playbook based on an external event, not to perform an action within a playbook. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 4; NCP-MCA Exam Dumps - Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud …, question 70.

The error message “Authentication by failed” typically indicates an issue with the authentication credentials being used. Since the administrator is using SSH key-based credential to authenticate, it’s essential to ensure that the private key associated with this credential is correct and accessible. If there’s an issue with the private key, such as it being incorrect or inaccessible, authentication will fail. Increasing the retries or modifying the timeout will not help if the credential is invalid. Changing to password authentication credential may work, but it’s not the best option as it may compromise security and require additional configuration. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 3 - Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, page 2

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 5 - X-Play, Lesson 5.2 - Credential Management, page 7

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Credential Management, SSH Key-Based Authentication

To run a resource-intensive script on separate test environments at different times, the administrator should publish a Runbook. Runbooks allow for the automation of tasks across multiple environments and can be scheduled to run at specific times. Additionally, they can be modified by the development team as needed to adapt to changes in the script.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Runbook Publishing.

Nutanix Best Practices for Automation and Scheduling.

The options for adding pre-create tasks and installing packages in the VM are grayed out because there are no credentials added yet. Nutanix Calm requires VM credentials to perform package installations and pre/post tasks, as these actions need access to the VM to execute the necessary commands and scripts.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Managing VM Credentials.

Nutanix Best Practices for Blueprint Configuration.

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.

When creating a Runbook in Nutanix Calm, the "Default Endpoint" field is optional. Essential fields such as Name, Project, and Task Name are required to define the Runbook's structure and execution parameters. The Default Endpoint can be specified if there is a preferred initial endpoint for executing tasks, but it is not mandatory.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Runbook Creation.

Nutanix Best Practices for Runbook Management.

 In the context of Nutanix Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), the order of actions in a playbook is crucial for its successful execution. In this case, the playbook is designed to execute a script to fix a known problem in an application but keeps failing because it attempts to power off the VM and take a snapshot before executing the script. The correct order should be to execute the script first, then power off the VM if necessary, and finally take a snapshot. 

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam: This is the official exam blueprint guide that covers the objectives, topics, and skills required for the certification. It also provides some sample questions and answers.

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide: This is another version of the exam blueprint guide that has similar content as the previous one.

Free Questions for NCP-MCA by certscare - p2pexams.com: This is a PDF document that contains 11 questions and answers for the NCP-MCA exam. The question you asked is one of them, and the answer is the same as mine.

 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.

Nutanix Calm supports various providers to manage and orchestrate applications across different cloud environments. Providers are the cloud platforms or services that host the VMs or containers that run the application components. Calm supports the following providers12:

Nutanix AHV

VMware vSphere

AWS

Azure

GCP

Kubernetes

Bare Metal

OpenStack

Cloud-Init

Terraform

Among the options given, only Kubernetes and GCP are supported providers in Calm. Oracle Cloud and IBM Cloud are not supported providers in Calm. References:

1: Nutanix Calm Admin and Operations Guide3

2: Nutanix Calm Configuration and Training4

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.

A Prism Admin or Super Admin role can perform the following operations related to X-Play and Nutanix Calm12:

Create, read, update, or delete an action template in the action gallery

Create, read, update, delete, enable, and run playbooks

Create, read, update, delete, enable, and run blueprints and runbooks

Manage applications and projects

Configure endpoints and plug-ins

Access the library and categories Option A is incorrect because the action gallery does not support automation of action templates. Option C is incorrect because only a Prism Admin or Super Admin role can enable and run playbooks, not a Prism User role3. References:

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

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA)

Prism user permissions – what are the options?

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Calm-Admin-Operations-Guide-v3_6_2:nuc-macros-variables-overview-c.html

The default connection timeout value for an HTTP endpoint in Nutanix Calm is 60 seconds. This timeout defines how long the system will wait for a connection to be established before timing out.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on HTTP Endpoints.

Nutanix Best Practices for Configuring Endpoints.

After upgrading Self-Service (formerly Calm) from version 3.3 to 3.6, the administrator noticed that Policy Engine scheduled jobs were failing and an alert was being presented in Prism Central. This issue is likely due to a version mismatch between the upgraded components. The recommended solution is to use Lifecycle Manager (LCM) to upgrade the Policy Engine to ensure compatibility with the new version of Self-Service.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Upgrading Components with LCM.

Nutanix Best Practices for Managing Upgrades.

Autopilot is a feature of Nutanix Calm that allows the administrator to automate the execution of playbooks based on predefined conditions or triggers. Autopilot can optimize the performance, availability, and cost of applications by applying the appropriate actions in response to events or metrics. Before configuring autopilot, the administrator must be aware of the following limitations12:

Autopilot never waits for approvals. This means that the administrator must ensure that the playbooks are tested and verified before enabling autopilot. Autopilot will execute the playbooks without any human intervention or confirmation.

Autopilot feature only applies to metric-based alerts as triggers. This means that the administrator can only use metrics from the Nutanix Prism Central or the Nutanix Karbon clusters as the conditions for triggering the playbooks. Autopilot does not support other types of triggers such as schedules, webhooks, or manual triggers. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Calm SaaS User Guide, section 4.3.

The administrator should modify the alert by adding the correct category and assign the category Environment:Development to development VMs. By doing this, they can filter out alerts for development VMs that are expected to have memory constrained alerts and focus on those that are critical, such as production VMs. This is based on the general practices in managing alerts in a multicloud environment, as well as the specific features and requirements of Nutanix Calm and Prism Central. References:

How to create custom alert policies | Prism central | Nutanix Community

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 3: Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, Objective 3.1: Determine the causes of a Blueprint or Runbook deployment failure

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 4: Nutanix Calm Governance, Lesson 1: Nutanix Calm Governance

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

To ensure that checks can be implemented in a single task while creating an application using NDB (Nutanix Database Service), the administrator should run an eScript task. eScript tasks allow for more complex scripting and logic to be executed, including performing checks, handling conditions, and interacting with APIs.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on eScript Tasks.

Nutanix Best Practices for Automating Database Management.

Categories in Self-Service (formerly Calm) are metadata labels that are assigned to cloud resources. These categories help organize and manage resources by tagging them with specific attributes, making it easier to apply policies and manage the infrastructure.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Using Categories.

Nutanix Best Practices for Category Management.

 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

The Audit tab of the Calm application shows the history of actions performed on the application, such as create, update, delete, launch, stop, etc. It also shows the status of the synchronization between Prism Central and Calm, which indicates if the changes made to the VMs on the AHV cluster are reflected in the Calm application. The administrator can check the Audit tab to verify the changes and troubleshoot any issues with the synchronization. References:

Nutanix NCP-MCA Certification Exam Sample Questions, Question 15

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation, Page 17

Nutanix Calm User Guide

The error message indicates that the password parameter is not a secret parameter, which means it is not encrypted and stored securely in the Calm database. This can happen when a Playbook is cloned from another Playbook that has a password parameter defined as a secret parameter. The cloned Playbook will inherit the password value from the original Playbook, but it will not be a secret parameter. To resolve this issue, the administrator needs to either delete the password parameter and create a new one as a secret parameter, or edit the password parameter and mark it as a secret parameter. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 15, section 4.2.1

Nutanix Calm Playbooks

Nutanix Calm Parameters

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

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 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.