NCP-CI-AWS Nutanix Certified Professional - Cloud Integration - AWS (NCP-CI-AWS6.7) Exam Questions and Answers

For the NC2 cluster deployed in the North Virginia region (us-east-id), consuming IPs from the 10.78.2.0/24 range, the subnets configured within the same CIDR range of 10.78.0.0/16 will be recognized.

The subnetDR01 (10.78.2.0/24)is directly within the range of the deployed cluster.

The subnetL2stretch (10.19.101.0/24)is also configured in the NC2 AWS VPC, although not in the immediate range of the cluster, it may show up due to broader network configurations for stretched L2 operations.

SubnetsVDI (10.78.130.0/22)andDR02 (10.79.120.0/24), although part of the same VPC, are not directly within the immediate CIDR range or may not be recognized in this specific configuration scenario.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on NC2 AWS VPC subnet configurations and Prism Element settings for detailed guidelines on network visibility and configuration.

The steps, in order, to recover a cluster protected using the Cluster Protect feature when the Prism Central instance was not on the failed cluster are as follows:

Step 1: Set the cluster to the Failed state using the NC2 console to start the recovery workflow.

Step 2: Redeploy the cluster using the NC2 console.

Step 3: Redeploy the Multicloud Snapshot Technology.

Step 4: Recover UVM data by running CLI commands.

Set the cluster to the Failed state using the NC2 console to start the recovery workflow: This step involves marking the cluster as failed to initiate the recovery process.

Redeploy the cluster using the NC2 console: Once the cluster is marked as failed, the next step is to redeploy it using the tools available in the NC2 console.

Redeploy the Multicloud Snapshot Technology: After the cluster is redeployed, the Multicloud Snapshot Technology needs to be redeployed to ensure data consistency and availability.

Recover UVM data by running CLI commands: The final step is to recover the User VM (UVM) data by executing the necessary CLI commands to restore the data from the snapshots or backups.

References:

Nutanix Documentation on Cluster Protect and Recovery Processes

Nutanix Support & Insights

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

The maximum number of nodes supported in an NC2 cluster on AWS is 24 nodes. This limit ensures optimal performance and manageability within the AWS infrastructure while leveraging the benefits of the Nutanix architecture.

References:

Nutanix Clusters on AWS Deployment Guide

Nutanix Support & Insights

AHV (Answer A):

AHV (Acropolis Hypervisor) can be upgraded using Lifecycle Manager (LCM). LCM simplifies the upgrade process and ensures that all components are updated in a coordinated manner.

BIOS (Answer C):

BIOS upgrades can also be performed using LCM. This helps in maintaining hardware compatibility and performance by ensuring that the latest firmware is installed.

References:

Nutanix Lifecycle Manager (LCM) Documentation

Nutanix AHV Upgrade Guide

Nutanix BIOS Upgrade Documentation

The requirement for two private subnets in the NC2 cluster configuration workflow serves the same purposes:

One subnet is designated for user VMs, ensuring user workloads are separated from management operations.

The other subnet is designated for cluster management, maintaining the integrity and security of management processes and internal communications.

References:

Nutanix Clusters on AWS Deployment Guide

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

When creating an NC2 cluster in AWS, the account used to run the CloudFormation script requires specific permissions to ensure the deployment is successful. The required permissions are:

IAMFullAccess: Provides full access to IAM resources.

AmazonEC2FullAccess: Allows full access to EC2 resources.

AWSCIoudFormationFullAccess: Grants full access to manage AWS CloudFormation stacks.

These permissions are necessary to create, manage, and deploy the required AWS resources for the NC2 cluster.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights

AWS IAM Documentation

For issues related to cloud hardware support such as EC2 instances, VPC, etc., the public cloud vendor (AWS in this case) should be contacted. AWS provides support and documentation for their infrastructure and services, ensuring that users can get assistance for any hardware or cloud-specific queries.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights

To create a CloudFormation stack, the AWSCloudFormationFullAccess role is required.

This role grants the necessary permissions to create, update, and delete CloudFormation stacks, which are essential for deploying and managing AWS infrastructure using CloudFormation templates.

CloudFormation stacks are often used to automate the deployment of complex infrastructures, including those required for NC2 on AWS.

Proper permissions ensure that the deployment process is seamless and adheres to the security and operational policies of the organization.

References:Refer to the AWS IAM documentation for details on the AWSCloudFormationFullAccess role and Nutanix documentation on prerequisites for deploying NC2 on AWS.

The alert indicates a potential issue with the VPC/Subnet settings, preventing the cluster nodes from contacting Nutanix services.

To resolve this, the administrator needs to ensure that the subnet 10.0.1.0/24, which is assigned for Bare metal hosts, has an outbound Internet connection.

This connection is necessary for the cluster nodes to communicate with external Nutanix services for updates, license validation, and other essential operations.

Verify that there are appropriate route tables and security group rules allowing outbound traffic to the Internet from the 10.0.1.0/24 subnet.

Ensure that there is either an Internet Gateway (IGW) attached to the VPC or a NAT Gateway configured if using private subnets.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation and AWS VPC configuration guides to ensure proper Internet connectivity and routing setups.

Within an NC2 environment, the Cluster Protect feature can ensure the protection of:

Nutanix Files: This provides file services within the Nutanix ecosystem, and Cluster Protect can safeguard the data stored in Nutanix Files.

Virtual Machine Disks: This ensures that the data stored on virtual machine disks is protected, providing backup and recovery options for the virtual machines running within the cluster.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

Nutanix AOS 6.7 Documentation

To backup Prism Central configuration data to an Amazon S3 bucket, thepcdr-clicommand with theprotectparameter is used. This parameter is specifically designed for creating protection policies and backing up Prism Central data.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Documentation

Nutanix pcdr-cli Command Reference

For a new NC2 on AWS deployment where workload VMs have low storage and memory requirements but high CPU frequency (>3.0 GHz) requirements, and the goal is to minimize the number of CPU cores to reduce application licensing costs, thei3.metalinstance type is the most suitable.

i3.metal:

High CPU Frequency: i3.metal instances offer high-frequency Intel Xeon processors (up to 3.1 GHz) which meet the high CPU frequency requirement.

Low Storage and Memory: These instances come with a balanced amount of storage and memory, suitable for workloads with low requirements in these areas.

Minimized CPU Cores: i3.metal instances have fewer CPU cores compared to other high-frequency instances like i4i.metal, making them ideal for minimizing application licensing costs.

Other Instance Types:

z1d.metal: While also offering high CPU frequency, these instances typically come with a higher core count and more memory, which may not be optimal for minimizing licensing costs.

i4i.metal: Designed for I/O intensive applications with higher core counts.

m5d.metal: Balanced instance type but with more cores and not as high CPU frequency as required.

References:

AWS EC2 Instance Types Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Instance Selection

When creating user VM subnets for multiple NC2 clusters in AWS, the best approach is to create guest-VM subnets for each cluster. This ensures that each cluster has its own dedicated subnets, which simplifies network management and avoids potential IP conflicts.

Advantages of Dedicated Subnets:

Isolation: Each cluster operates in its own subnet, providing better isolation and security.

Management: Easier to manage and troubleshoot network issues when each cluster has its own subnets.

Scalability: More scalable as each subnet can be managed and expanded independently.

Steps to Create Guest-VM Subnets:

Identify the IP range for each subnet.

In the AWS VPC console, create a new subnet for each cluster using the identified IP ranges.

Associate the new subnets with the respective clusters during or after the cluster deployment process.

Why Not Shared Subnets:

Shared subnetscould lead to IP conflicts and make network management more complex, especially as the number of clusters grows.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS VPC Subnet Creation Documentation

When selecting the NC2 subscription plan from the Nutanix Billing portal, the available options include:

Pay-as-you-Go (PayG): A flexible payment option where users are billed based on their actual usage, providing cost efficiency for variable workloads.

Bring your own License (BYOL): Allows users to utilize existing Nutanix licenses they have purchased, offering a cost-effective way to leverage existing investments in Nutanix software.

References:Refer to the Nutanix billing and subscription documentation for detailed descriptions of subscription plans and their benefits.

Amazon CloudWatch is the service that enables the monitoring of key metrics on various AWS services, including EC2, EBS, and VPC, for NC2 cluster deployments.

Amazon CloudWatch:

Amazon CloudWatch provides monitoring for AWS cloud resources and applications. It collects and tracks metrics, collects and monitors log files, and sets alarms.

Specifically, for NC2 deployments, CloudWatch can be used to monitor key metrics such as CPU utilization, disk I/O, network I/O for EC2 instances, EBS volume performance, and VPC network traffic.

Features:

Metrics Monitoring: Collects and visualizes operational data in the form of metrics, including utilization, performance, and health.

Logs Monitoring: Collects log data, monitors it in real-time, and triggers alarms based on predefined thresholds.

Alarms: Notifies when operational performance thresholds are breached.

Integration with NC2:

By setting up CloudWatch, administrators can ensure they have visibility into the performance and health of their Nutanix clusters on AWS, aiding in proactive management and troubleshooting.

References:

Amazon CloudWatch Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Monitoring Best Practices

The exhibit indicates a replication operation with specific details about the protection domain, remote site, and snapshot. Key points to note are:

Bytes Completed: 0 bytes completed.

Complete Percent: 0.0%

Paused: false

Aborted: false

Given these details:

No ongoing replication: The operation has started, but there is no progress in terms of bytes completed or percentage completed. Since the status shows 0 bytes and 0 percent completed, it indicates that no data has been replicated yet.

References:

Nutanix Protection Domain and Replication Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Monitoring Replication

Gateway Endpoint:

A Gateway Endpoint in AWS allows you to connect to supported AWS services privately without going through the public internet. This setup provides secure and efficient connectivity directly from the corporate VPC to the required AWS services.

Gateway Endpoints support services such as Amazon S3 and DynamoDB and are ideal for scenarios where private connectivity to these services is needed.

References:Refer to the AWS documentation on VPC endpoints, specifically Gateway Endpoints, and the Nutanix documentation on configuring private connectivity for NC2 deployments.

The 192.168.5.0/24 range is often reserved for internal cluster communication within Nutanix deployments.

Using this CIDR range for other purposes could lead to network conflicts and connectivity issues, as it might interfere with the internal operations and communication channels of the Nutanix cluster.

Ensuring that the CIDR range is not overlapping with any reserved ranges is crucial for maintaining proper network connectivity and cluster functionality.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on network configuration and best practices for NC2 deployments to confirm reserved IP ranges and their appropriate use.

To deploy an NC2 cluster using an existing AWS network, the NAT Gateway should be placed in a public subnet. A public subnet is one that has a route to an Internet Gateway, allowing the NAT Gateway to provide outbound internet access for resources in private subnets. The NAT Gateway is used to enable instances in private subnets to access the internet while keeping them secure by not exposing them directly to the public internet.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on AWS Documentation