NCP-MCA Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA v6.5) Exam Questions and Answers

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.

Calm Runbooks are a way to automate workflows that span across multiple applications, services, or platforms. They can be used to perform actions such as provisioning, scaling, backup, restore, etc. Calm Runbooks can be added to the Library and reused in different Blueprints or Projects. A Post VM Delete Task is a special type of Task that is executed after a VM is deleted from a Blueprint. By creating Calm Runbooks for each of the manual steps required to decommission a VM, and adding them to the Library, the administrator can simplify the VM Decommission Process by consuming them inside of a Post VM Delete Task. This way, the application owners only need to delete the application from the Calm project, and the rest of the steps will be automated by the Runbooks. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 16, section 4.3.1

Nutanix Calm Runbooks

Nutanix Calm Library

Nutanix Calm Tasks

 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 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.

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.

In Nutanix Calm, there are two types of blueprints: Single VM and Multi VM. Single VM blueprints are used to define and manage the deployment of individual virtual machines, while Multi VM blueprints are used to manage the deployment of applications that span multiple VMs with defined dependencies and configurations.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Blueprint Types.

Nutanix Best Practices for Blueprint Creation.

The image shows a failed status for an SSH_VM_Task, which is manually triggered. Since the task involves SSH, it’s likely that the IP Address SSH action has a timeout of 5 minutes, causing the playbook to fail if it cannot complete within this time frame. The IP Address SSH action is used to execute commands on a remote VM using SSH. It requires the IP address, username, password, and command to run as inputs. The timeout parameter specifies how long the action will wait for the command to finish before aborting. If the timeout is too short, the action may fail due to network latency, slow execution, or other factors. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam, page 16, section 1.3.2.2: “Playbooks”

[Nutanix University: NCP-MCA 6.5 Exam Prep - Playbooks], video 4: “Playbooks”

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.

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.

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 create an alert for idle VMs, the administrator needs to specify the following parameters:

Scope: Select the category value Environment:Production to filter the VMs that are affected by the alert.

Metric: Select CPU Usage (%) as the metric to monitor the VMs’ CPU utilization.

Condition: Select Less Than as the operator and enter 5 as the threshold value to define the idle state.

Duration: Enter 5 as the duration value and select Minutes as the unit to set the time period for the idle state.

To create a Playbook with the alert as the trigger, the administrator needs to do the following steps:

Name: Enter a descriptive name for the Playbook, such as Idle VM Alert.

Trigger: Select Alert as the trigger type and choose the alert that was created for idle VMs.

Action: Select Email as the action type and enter the recipient email address, subject, and message for the notification.

The Playbook will run whenever the alert is triggered and send an email to the administrator informing them about the idle VMs.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6 Exam, page 9

Nutanix University - NCP-MCA 6 Exam Prep - Alerts and Playbooks

To remove an application from Self-Service (formerly Calm) while keeping the VM up and running, the administrator should:

Go to the Manage tab of the application in Self-Service.

Select the Delete action.

By doing this, the application will be removed from the management of Self-Service, but the VM will remain running in the environment.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Managing Applications.

Nutanix Best Practices for Application Deletion.

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.

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 creating and assigning the Linux OS Category to the newly-created VM, 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 VM from the Calm UI.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Categories”

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

 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.

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.

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

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.

The administrator needs to add AWS as a provider in Calm. A provider is a cloud platform or infrastructure that hosts the application VMs or services. Calm supports various providers such as Nutanix, AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, and Kubernetes. To add a provider, the administrator needs to go to the Providers page in the Calm UI and click on the +Create Provider button. Then, the administrator needs to select the AWS provider type and enter the required information such as name, access key, secret key, and regions. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 11; Nutanix Calm User Guide, section 3.1.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Calm integrates natively with AWS and AHV as providers. A provider is a cloud platform or infrastructure that hosts the application VMs or services. Calm supports various providers such as Nutanix, AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, and Kubernetes. AWS and AHV are two of the most commonly used providers in Calm, as they offer scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency for deploying applications. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 11; Nutanix Calm User Guide, section 3.1.

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

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.

Test Script is a feature of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Self-Service that allows users to test or validate scripts before deployment. Test Script enables users to run scripts on a VM without creating a blueprint or a runbook. Users can select a VM, choose a script type, enter the script content, and execute the script. The output of the script is displayed in the Test Script window. Test Script can be used to troubleshoot errors, verify functionality, or preview the results of a script before using it in a blueprint or a runbook. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 14, section 3.1. Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, module 3, lesson 4. Validate Your Nutanix Cloud Manager Self-Service Skills + Access Special Offer.

The best option to automate the installation of the local agent on all Linux VMs is to create an Endpoint that includes all Linux VMs and include the Endpoint in a Runbook that executes a shell script for agent installation. This way, the administrator can leverage the Calm Runbook feature, which allows orchestrating tasks across multiple VMs without the need of a blueprint or an application. The administrator can also filter the VMs by name, tag, or other criteria to select the target VMs for the Endpoint. The shell script can be added as a task in the Runbook and run on the selected Endpoint.

Option A is not correct because a Brownfield deployment is used to create an application from existing VMs and an existing blueprint. It is not suitable for automating tasks across multiple VMs without a blueprint. Moreover, a Brownfield deployment cannot attach to post-Calm created VMs, as they are already managed by Calm.

Option C is not correct because creating a new golden image and deploying all VMs again is a very time-consuming and disruptive process. It also requires the administrator to migrate the data and configuration of the existing VMs to the new ones. This option does not leverage the Calm automation capabilities and is not recommended. References: Nutanix Calm Runbooks & API Automation, Nutanix Support & Insights, Calm 3.0 is Here!, Nutanix Cloud Manager

A Playbook action has a default memory limit of 256 MB, which can be increased up to 1024 MB in the advanced settings of the action. If the action requires more memory than the limit, it will fail with the error message “Internal Error, Maximum Memory size limit reached”. To resolve this issue, the administrator can edit the action and increase the memory limit to a suitable value, depending on the complexity and requirements of the action.

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

To create an application blueprint for AWS and Azure in Nutanix Calm, the Blueprint Developer needs to complete the following actions:

Create AWS and Azure Accounts: These accounts must be created and configured within Nutanix Calm to allow integration with the respective cloud providers.

Add the provider Accounts to the project: Once the accounts are created, they need to be added to the specific project in which the blueprint will be developed. This ensures that the blueprint can use the resources and configurations associated with these accounts.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Creating Cloud Accounts.

Nutanix Best Practices for Project Configuration.

The Task Library is a centralized repository of tasks that can be reused across multiple blueprints. The administrator can publish a task to the Task Library by clicking on the Publish icon in the task editor. The task will then be available in the Task Library tab under the Tasks section in the Calm UI. The administrator can select the task from the Task Library and drag and drop it into another blueprint. This way, the administrator can reuse the task with the least amount of effort.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6 Exam, page 11

Nutanix University - NCP-MCA 6 Exam Prep - Tasks and Task Library

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

 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 PagerDuty Integration service allows you to create and manage incidents in PagerDuty based on events in Nutanix X-Play. To configure the PagerDuty Integration service, you need to provide the following information:

Service Name: The name of the PagerDuty service that you want to integrate with X-Play.

API Key: The API key generated from the PagerDuty service settings.

Plays: The plays that you want to trigger incidents in PagerDuty. You can select one or more plays from the list of available plays in X-Play. You can also specify the incident priority, escalation policy, and alert details for each play.

Alert Grouping: (Optional) The alert grouping strategy that you want to use for the PagerDuty incidents. You can choose from the following options:

Intelligent: PagerDuty will group alerts based on their content and context.

Time: PagerDuty will group alerts based on the time they are received.

None: PagerDuty will not group alerts and create a new incident for each alert. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Guide, Process Automation | PagerDuty

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.

The administrator should use a conditional playbook and create a playbook using alert to accomplish this task. A conditional playbook is a type of playbook that allows the administrator to define different actions based on certain conditions or criteria1. A playbook using alert is a type of playbook that is triggered by an alert policy that monitors the VM status2. By using these two features, the administrator can create a playbook that checks if the rebooted VM is the mission-critical VM and sends a notification to the on-call administrator, or else sends an email to the Operations team.

References:

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

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 4: Nutanix Calm Governance, Lesson 2: Nutanix Calm Alerts, Topic: Alert Policies and Playbooks

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 1: Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, Objective 1.3: Define the components of X-Play

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.

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.

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 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.

A post-create task is a task that runs after a blueprint or runbook deployment is completed. A post-create task can be used to perform additional configuration or automation on the deployed resources. An HTTP task is a task that executes an HTTP request to a specified URL, with optional headers, body, and authentication. An HTTP task can be used to trigger an API call to another system or service, such as creating a front end application. A predefined task is a task that uses a predefined script or command to perform a common operation, such as installing a package or running a service. A predefined task cannot be used to trigger an API call to another system or service. An eScript task is a task that executes a custom script written in JavaScript or Python. An eScript task can be used to perform complex logic or operations that are not available in predefined tasks. However, an eScript task requires more coding skills and testing than an HTTP task. A simple task is a task that executes a simple command or script on the target VM or host. A simple task cannot be used to trigger an API call to another system or service. References: 

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

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

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

 A macro is a placeholder for a value that is resolved at runtime. Macros can be used to reference various Calm objects, such as variables, secrets, credentials, tasks, and services. The correct syntax for using a macro within a Calm blueprint is @@{calm.object}(@@, where calm.object is the name of the object to be referenced. For example, @@{username}(@@ would resolve to the value of the username variable at runtime. The other options are incorrect syntaxes for macros and would not be resolved by Calm. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6 Exam, Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation

According to the Nutanix Prism Central Guide1, categories are key-value pairs that can be assigned to entities such as VMs, images, blueprints, etc. Categories can be used to filter, group, and manage entities based on their attributes. To review and clean up all existing categories within the Nutanix environment, the administrator should filter on the name, value, entities, and policies of the categories. The name and value of the categories identify the category type and the category value respectively. The entities show how many and which entities are assigned to the category. The policies show how many and which policies are associated with the category. By filtering on these information, the administrator can organize the findings and eliminate unused categories. References:

1 Nutanix Prism Central Guide: Categories2

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

To trigger a series of actions (taking a snapshot, expanding the vDisk, and sending a Slack message) from a pipeline CI/CD, the appropriate trigger to use is "Webhook." Webhooks allow external systems, such as CI/CD pipelines, to trigger playbooks in Nutanix Calm via HTTP requests, making them suitable for integrating with CI/CD tools.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Webhook Triggers.

Nutanix Best Practices for CI/CD Integration.

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

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

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.