NCP-MCA Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA v6.5) Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

 A Playbook is a set of actions that are triggered by an event or a schedule. To run a Playbook, it must be enabled first. If a Playbook is not enabled, it will not respond to any events or schedules, and no Plays will be recorded for it. Therefore, the most likely cause of the issue is that the administrator forgot to enable the Playbook after building it. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 13, section 3.2. Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, module 4, lesson 2.

To automate routine tasks such as acknowledging alerts, generating reports, and looking up cluster details on a set interval, the administrator should implement a Time Trigger. Time Triggers allow actions to be scheduled to run at specific times or intervals, ensuring consistent execution without manual intervention.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Triggers.

Nutanix Best Practices for Automating Routine Tasks.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

The 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”

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.

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

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”

To wait for 60 seconds before continuing with the next task in a Nutanix Calm blueprint, you should use the "Wait" task and specify 60 seconds. This task is designed specifically to introduce a delay in the execution flow without the need for additional scripting.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Wait Task.

Nutanix Best Practices for Blueprint Task Management.

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.

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 share a Runbook across projects in Nutanix Calm, it should be published to the Calm Marketplace. The Calm Marketplace allows administrators to publish and share blueprints, runbooks, and other resources, making them available for use across different projects within the organization.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Marketplace Publishing.

Nutanix Best Practices for Sharing Runbooks.

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.

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

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

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

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

When a VM managed by Self-Service (formerly Calm) is deleted manually from Prism Central, the associated application in Self-Service cannot be deleted using the standard delete action because the substrate is no longer present. In this scenario, the administrator should use the "Soft Delete" action in Self-Service, which will remove the application from management without requiring the substrate to be present.

References:

Nutanix documentation on Soft Delete.

Nutanix Best Practices for Managing Self-Service Applications.

Substrates are the components of a blueprint that define the cloud resources and configurations for deploying VMs or applications. Substrates can be associated with different cloud accounts, such as AWS, Azure, GCP, or Nutanix, to enable multicloud deployments. By using substrates, an administrator can create a blueprint that can deploy VMs to multiple clouds, depending on the availability, cost, or performance requirements.

References:

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, Module 3: Blueprints, Lesson 3.2: Substrates1

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, Section 2.1: Create a blueprint to deploy infrastructure and applications using Nutanix Calm2