NCP-CN Nutanix Certified Professional - Cloud Native (NCP-CN-6.10) Free Practice Exam Questions (2026 Updated)

The NKPA 6.10 documentation and Nutanix Best Practices recommend using workspaces to segment cluster deployments and their associated infrastructure providers, as well as to manage access control through RBAC. The typical workflow is:

Create an NKP workspace dedicated to the R&D environment.

Create an infrastructure provider (e.g., vSphere, AHV) scoped to that workspace.

Create an NKP group for the R&D team and assign admin roles to this group within the workspace.

Deploy workload clusters in this workspace, leveraging the scoped infrastructure provider.

This ensures that:

The R&D team has full administrative control over their resources.

Clusters and infrastructure are logically isolated in the R&D workspace.

RBAC policies are applied cleanly within the workspace context.

Attaching an existing Amazon EKS cluster to NKP for fleet management involves integrating the cluster into NKP’s management plane, which requires specific preparatory steps. The NKPA course outlines that the first step is to create a service account with cluster-admin permissions in the EKS cluster. This service account is used by NKP to authenticate and manage the cluster, enabling operations like monitoring, scaling, and application deployment.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide explains: “To attach an external Kubernetes cluster, such as Amazon EKS, to NKP, a service account with cluster-admin role bindings must be created to allow NKP to interact with the cluster’s API server.” The service account is configured with a token that NKP uses to authenticate requests. The NKPA course provides detailed steps, including creating the service account, assigning the cluster-admin ClusterRole, and generating a token for NKP integration. This step is critical to ensure NKP has the necessary permissions to manage the EKS cluster.

Incorrect Options:

A. Configure a ConfigMap according to EKS configuration: While ConfigMaps may be used for specific configurations, they are not the first step for attaching an EKS cluster. The NKPA course prioritizes service account creation.

C. Configure HAProxy to get connected to EKS clusters: HAProxy is a load balancer, not required for attaching EKS clusters to NKP. EKS uses AWS-native load balancers, and NKP connects via the Kubernetes API.

D. Deploy cert-manager in the EKS clusters: Cert-manager is used for certificate management, not a prerequisite for attaching EKS clusters. The NKPA course does not list it as a required step.

The NKPA course details the default node preparation process for NKP cluster nodes, which involves creating a machine image that is compliant with Cluster API (CAPI) standards. The primary tool used in this process is Packer, which automates the creation of machine images by provisioning a base OS image (e.g., Ubuntu or Rocky Linux) with the necessary components for Kubernetes, such as kubeadm, containerd, and other dependencies.

Packer ensures the image is CAPI-compliant by installing the required Kubernetes binaries, configuring the container runtime, and setting up networking and storage components. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “In the default node preparation process for NKP, Packer is used to build a CAPI-compliant OS image, installing Kubernetes components and dependencies for use as an NKP node.” This process is typically orchestrated by NKP Image Builder (NIB) or Kubernetes Image Builder (KIB), both of which rely on Packer for image creation.

Incorrect Options:

B. Ansible is used to make the OS image CAPI-compliant: Ansible is used by KIB/NIB to apply configurations during the Packer build process, but Packer is the primary tool for creating the image. Ansible alone does not make the image CAPI-compliant.

C. Goss is used to harden the OS image: Goss is a validation tool that can be used for image hardening, but it is not part of the default NKP node preparation process. Hardening is an optional step.

D. Terraform is utilized to clone an existing OS image: Terraform is for infrastructure provisioning, not image creation or cloning. Packer handles image creation in NKP.

The scenario describes an isolated environment in Antarctica, implying an air-gapped NKP deployment where the bastion host serves as the primary management point for deploying and managing NKP clusters without Internet access. The NKPA course outlines the essential tools that must be installed on a bastion host to facilitate NKP deployment and management in such environments.

The required programs are kubectl and nkp:

kubectl: This is the Kubernetes command-line tool used to interact with Kubernetes clusters, essential for managing cluster resources, debugging, and applying configurations during and after deployment.

nkp: The NKP CLI (nkp) is the primary tool for deploying, managing, and scaling NKP clusters, including creating bootstrap clusters, deploying clusters, and managing platform applications. In an air-gapped setup, the nkp CLI is critical for executing deployment commands using the Air-Gapped Bundle.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “For an air-gapped NKP deployment, ensure the bastion host has kubectl and the nkp CLI installed to manage the deployment process and interact with the resulting Kubernetes clusters.” These tools are sufficient for the engineer to deploy and operate NKP in an isolated environment.

Incorrect Options:

A. awscli and nkp: The awscli is specific to AWS environments, but the question does not specify AWS infrastructure. Additionally, in an isolated environment, awscli is less relevant without Internet access.

B. oc and kubectl: oc is the OpenShift CLI, not used for NKP deployments. NKP uses nkp CLI instead.

C. oc and az: az is the Azure CLI, and oc is for OpenShift—neither is relevant to NKP deployment.

As per the NKPA 6.10 documentation, the primary requirement for attaching external (self-managed) Kubernetes clusters to NKP is network connectivity. Specifically, the NKP management cluster must be able to communicate with the Kubernetes API server and relevant services of the target cluster. This allows NKP to collect metrics, perform health checks, and manage the attached cluster through Kommander and associated tools.

Exact extract:

“For attaching existing Kubernetes clusters, ensure the NKP management cluster can reach the Kubernetes API server of the target cluster and that the kubeconfig used has sufficient permissions.”

There is no requirement that the Kubernetes versions be exactly matched or within N-1, nor that an NKP admin account be directly established on the target clusters; the connectivity and valid kubeconfig file are the essential requirements.

The NKPA course details that NKP Platform Applications, such as Grafana Logging, Grafana Loki, and Project Logging, are deployed to Kubernetes clusters to provide monitoring and logging capabilities. To ensure these components are automatically deployed to new workload clusters in a workspace, the administrator must enable them in the Application section under the workspace configuration in the NKP UI.

The course explains that the Application section allows administrators to select and configure platform applications that should be applied to all clusters within a workspace. By enabling Grafana Logging, Grafana Loki (for log aggregation), and Project Logging (for project-specific log management), these components are automatically deployed as part of the cluster provisioning process. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “To deploy platform applications like Grafana Loki and logging components to new clusters, configure them in the Application section of the workspace settings in the NKP UI.”

Incorrect Options:

A. Enable them in the Insights section under workspace: The Insights section is for analytics and monitoring dashboards, not for deploying logging components.

B. Enable them in the Projects section under workspace: Projects are sub-divisions within workspaces for resource allocation, not for configuring platform applications.

C. Enable them in the Clusters section under workspace: The Clusters section is for managing cluster settings, not for enabling platform applications.

NKPA 6.10 recommends leveraging workspaces to isolate different tenants (clients) in a multi-tenant environment. LDAP connectors can be scoped to individual workspaces, allowing separate authentication and RBAC configurations per client.

Key reference from documentation:

“In multi-tenant scenarios, create a dedicated workspace for each tenant and configure a unique LDAP connector within that workspace to integrate their identity source.”

The NKPA course explains that NKP’s fleet management capabilities allow centralized policy federation and management of multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single pane of glass, while workspaces provide isolation for different teams or groups. To meet the requirement of federating policy while separating clusters by group, the IT team needs the NKP Ultimate license, which includes advanced fleet management features.

With NKP Ultimate, the IT team can:

Create three workspaces (one for each group: Fin VD, Fin Insurance, Fin Travel).

Assign the corresponding Kubernetes clusters to each workspace, ensuring isolation between groups.

Use NKP’s fleet management to apply policies (e.g., RBAC, monitoring, logging) across all clusters from a single pane of glass, such as the NKP UI or CLI.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “NKP Ultimate provides fleet management for centralized policy federation across multiple clusters, using workspaces to isolate clusters for different teams or groups.” This setup ensures that each group’s clusters are separated while maintaining centralized policy management, aligning with the IT team’s requirements.

Incorrect Options:

B. NKP Starter: The Starter license lacks fleet management and workspace isolation features, making it unsuitable for this scenario.

C. NKP Pro with projects: Projects are sub-divisions within workspaces for resource allocation, not for cluster isolation or fleet management. NKP Pro may not include full fleet management capabilities.

D. NKP Pro with workspaces: While NKP Pro supports workspaces, it may not provide the full fleet management needed for centralized policy federation across all clusters. NKP Ultimate is the better fit.

The NKP documentation recommends using a combination of RBAC assignments and exported manifests to manage access across multiple clusters. By exporting the role assignments to YAML, the engineer can consistently apply these settings across the different environments, ensuring the new team has the necessary resources and limits. This approach is especially useful for environments with multiple clusters and standardized configurations.

The NKPA course specifies that the Nutanix Image Builder (NIB), used for creating custom machine images for NKP cluster nodes, supports specific Linux distributions that are compatible with Nutanix infrastructure and Kubernetes requirements. For NKP v2.12.x, the supported distributions for NIB are Ubuntu and Rocky Linux, as these are tested and optimized for NKP deployments, ensuring stability and compatibility with Cluster API (CAPI) and Nutanix AHV.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “NKP Image Builder (NIB) supports Ubuntu and Rocky Linux as base distributions for creating custom images for NKP cluster nodes, ensuring compatibility with Kubernetes and Nutanix infrastructure.” Ubuntu provides a widely-used, well-supported base with long-term support (LTS) versions, while Rocky Linux is a CentOS replacement that Nutanix has adopted for its reliability and enterprise focus, especially after CentOS 8’s end-of-life in 2021.

Incorrect Options:

B. Fedora: Fedora is not a supported distribution for NIB in NKP, as it is more suited for bleeding-edge development rather than production Kubernetes environments.

D. CentOS: CentOS 8 reached end-of-life in December 2021, and Nutanix has shifted to Rocky Linux as its replacement for NKP image building. The course does not list CentOS as a supported option for NIB in NKP v2.12.x.