NCP-MCA Sample Questions Answers

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.

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.

Pre-create and Post-delete tasks are actions that can be performed before creating or after deleting a blueprint deployment. They can be used to integrate with external systems, set variables, or add delays. The valid tasks are Execute, Set variable, HTTP, and Delay. Create, Start, Stop, and Delete are not valid tasks, as they are part of the deployment lifecycle, not the pre-create or post-delete actions. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 5: Blueprints.

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.

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.

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.

 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

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

In the context of deploying an application with Calm, if a customer receives an error for a Linux VM, it could be due to the absence of network adapters selected for the Address box in the Connection section within the blueprint. This means that there is no specified network connection for the VM, leading to a failure in script execution. 

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide: 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. The question you asked is similar to the one in section 3.1.1.

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA): This is a training course that teaches you the skills needed to install, configure, operate, and manage Nutanix X-Play and Nutanix Calm. It includes topics such as blueprint creation, connection configuration, and script execution.

Nutanix Calm User Guide: This is a user guide that explains how to use Nutanix Calm to automate the deployment and management of applications across different environments. It includes topics such as connection settings, blueprint validation, and error handling.

In Approval Policies within Nutanix Calm, "Conditions" are used to set the criteria for an approval to be triggered. Conditions define the specific circumstances under which an approval process should be initiated, such as specific actions or threshold limits.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Approval Policies.

Nutanix Best Practices for Defining Conditions.

In Nutanix Calm, the RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) role that enables adding VMs to a project is the Project Admin role. Project Admins have the necessary permissions to manage and configure resources within a project, including the addition of VMs, handling project settings, and managing application blueprints.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on RBAC Roles.

Nutanix Best Practices for Project Administration.

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

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

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

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

A variable can be updated during a Runbook execution only if it is marked as runtime editable. This setting allows the variable to be modified during the execution of the Runbook, providing flexibility and dynamic behavior based on runtime conditions.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Runtime Editable Variables.

Nutanix Best Practices for Runbook Variables.

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?

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.

 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.

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

In Nutanix's Multicloud Automation (formerly known as Calm), playbooks can be configured to respond to various conditions and events that occur within the infrastructure. If a VM, such as one named ORACLE, becomes CPU constrained, a playbook can be triggered to automatically add more virtual CPUs (vCPUs) to the VM. In addition, playbooks can integrate with various notification services such as Slack, allowing administrators to be informed of the changes being made.

Based on the provided options and according to Nutanix documentation, the correct action is that the playbook will add more vCPU and will send a Slack message. This ensures that the VM's performance can be adjusted dynamically while keeping the relevant personnel informed via Slack.

References:

Nutanix Calm Documentation

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Playbooks Guide

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

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

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Categories”

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

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

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

To make a custom variable type available for all deployments, the developer should publish the variable type to the Marketplace. By publishing it to the Marketplace, the variable type becomes accessible to all administrators and users across different projects, ensuring consistency and reusability.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Publishing to Marketplace.

Nutanix Best Practices for Variable 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.

 A time trigger is a type of playbook trigger that allows the user to specify a schedule for running a playbook. This trigger is useful for automating tasks that need to be performed periodically or at a specific time. A manual trigger requires the user to initiate the playbook execution manually, which is not ideal for a recurring task. A report trigger is a type of playbook trigger that allows the user to run a playbook when a specific report is generated. However, this trigger does not guarantee that the report will be generated on the first of every month, as it depends on the report settings. A wait until day of month action is a type of playbook action that pauses the playbook execution until a specified day of the month. This action is unnecessary if the playbook already has a time trigger that specifies the desired schedule.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 4: Playbooks, Lesson 4.1: Playbook Triggers

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 3.1: Create a playbook to automate IT operations using X-Play

The easiest way to automate the VM utilization and resource allocation is to use a playbook that has been already tested and validated in a test environment. A playbook is a collection of actions that can be triggered by events or schedules to perform various tasks on the Nutanix platform. By importing the playbook from the test environment to the production environment, the administrator can save time and effort in creating a new playbook from scratch. The administrator only needs to adjust the values of the playbook parameters, such as the VM name, the CPU and memory thresholds, the VCPU and memory increments, and the notification settings, to match the production environment. The playbook can then be executed manually or automatically based on the desired frequency and conditions.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 3 - Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, Objective 3.3 - Determine the correct method to validate required Playbook configurations

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 4 - X-Play, Lesson 4.2 - Playbooks

How to create and execute playbooks in Prism Central | Nutanix Community

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

When integrating with an IP Address Management (IPAM) solution within Nutanix Calm, an administrator would use a 'Pre-create' task to request a static IP address. This task is performed before the actual creation of the VM, ensuring that the IP address is allocated and can be assigned during the VM's creation process. Profiles (A) are used to define deployment environments, Guest Customization (C) is used for configuring the OS settings, and Create (D) is typically the task for provisioning the actual VM, not for requesting an IP.

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.

To run a blueprint deployment and tasks in a different Prism Central instance than the one running Self-Service (formerly Calm), the administrator should add the remote Prism Central instance as an account. This configuration allows Self-Service to interact with multiple Prism Central instances, enabling the management and deployment of blueprints across different environments.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Managing Accounts in Calm.

Nutanix Best Practices for Multi-Cluster Management.

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

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Guest Customization.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Cloud-init.

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.

Before a Single-VM Blueprint in Self-Service (formerly Calm) can be published to the Marketplace, it is necessary to create both a project and an environment. A project defines the scope and access control for the blueprint, while the environment provides the necessary configurations and settings for the deployment, such as network, credentials, and other resources.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Project Creation.

Nutanix Calm documentation on Environment Setup.

An administrator can look to view a list of executed playbooks in two locations: Executions and Plays. The Executions page shows the status and details of all the playbooks that have been executed across all the projects. The Plays page shows the status and details of all the playbooks that have been executed within a specific project. The Lists page shows the predefined and custom lists that can be used as inputs for playbooks. The Dashboard page shows the overview and statistics of the X-Play service. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 3 - Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, page 4

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 5 - X-Play, Lesson 5.3 - Playbook Management, page 2

Nutanix Calm User Guide, X-Play, Executions

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

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.

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.

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.

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

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on RBAC Roles.

Nutanix Best Practices for Prism Central Management.

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.

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

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

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

References:

Nutanix documentation on Category Management.

Nutanix Best Practices for Using Categories.

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

To manage and optimize the performance of virtual machines (VMs) within a playbook, administrators often need to adjust the resources allocated to VMs. Here are the appropriate actions:

VM Add Memory Action: This action allows the administrator to increase the memory allocation to a VM, which can be essential for applications requiring more RAM.

VM Add CPU Action with limits: Adding CPUs with defined limits ensures that the VM receives the necessary CPU resources without exceeding the cluster's capacity.

These actions enable the dynamic scaling of resources, improving VM performance and ensuring resource availability.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Playbook Actions.

Nutanix Best Practices for Resource Allocation.

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

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

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

References:

Nutanix documentation on Managing Applications.

Nutanix Best Practices for Manual VM Management.

This solution meets the requirements of creating a multicloud, three-tier application using Calm. It ensures that each tier of the application has a redundant copy running on both Nutanix and AWS, and that the application can tolerate either a cloud provider outage or a local Nutanix cluster outage. The other options do not provide full redundancy for each tier, or require manual intervention to create the AWS instances. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) Course, Module 5: Blueprints.

 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

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

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]

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.

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