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

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 VDI workloads that require GPU acceleration, the g4dn.metal nodes are the appropriate choice. These instances are equipped with NVIDIA T4 GPUs, which are well-suited forgraphics-intensive applications such as VDI workloads that need GPU acceleration. Other node types like AN36P, m6g.metal, or AN36 do not provide the necessary GPU capabilities.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights - GPU support in AWS

The clusters that are to be protected must be registered with the same instance of Prism Central (Answer C):

For Cluster Protect to function correctly, all clusters intended for protection must be registered under the same Prism Central instance. This ensures consistent management and coordination of protection policies and operations across clusters.

The Cluster Protect feature requires AOS version 6.7 or higher (Answer D):

Cluster Protect is a feature that is available starting from AOS version 6.7. To utilize this feature, ensure that the Nutanix clusters are running this version or a newer one.

References:

Nutanix Cluster Protection Documentation

Nutanix AOS Release Notes

To ensure that only application servers from the source subnet 10.79.1.0/24 can access the SQL databases running on the NC2 cluster in the subnet 10.78.1.0/24, the administrator can take the following actions:

Option A: Create a custom Security Group with the following rules:

Key = tag:nutanix:clusters

Key = tag:nutanix:clusters:external

and value = the clusters' UUID

Key = tag:nutanix:clusters:external

and value = 10.78.1.0/24

Option D: Create a custom Security Group with the following:

Key = nutanix:clusters

Key = nutanix:clusters:external

and value = the clusters' UUID

Key = nutanix:clusters:external

and value = 10.79.1.0/24

These actions help create security rules that restrict access to the databases only from the specified source subnet, ensuring secure and controlled access.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

AWS Security Groups Documentation

Ensure the specialist is assigned the RBAC role with proper permissions (Answer A):

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) ensures that the specialist has the necessary permissions to troubleshoot and manage the NC2 environment. This avoids unnecessary privilege escalations and maintains security.

Confirm the Support Authorization on the organization is set to Full Access (Answer C):

Setting the Support Authorization to Full Access allows the Nutanix support specialist to have the required access to investigate and resolve issues in the environment. This is essential for effective troubleshooting.

References:

Nutanix RBAC Documentation

Nutanix Support Access Guide

To add an AWS account to the NC2 console, an AWS IAM user needs to be configured with the appropriate permissions to manage the EC2 resources. The required permission for the IAM user includes full access to manage EC2 instances, volumes, and related resources.

AmazonEC2FullAccess:

This permission grants full access to all EC2 resources, including the ability to create, modify, and delete instances, volumes, security groups, and more.

Essential for NC2 operations to manage the lifecycle of EC2 instances and associated components within the AWS environment.

Why Not Other Permissions:

IAMFullAccess: Grants full access to IAM resources but not specifically needed for EC2 operations.

IAMReadOnlyAccess: Only provides read access to IAM resources, insufficient for managing EC2 instances.

AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess: Provides read-only access to EC2 resources, insufficient for creating or modifying instances and other resources.

References:

AWS IAM Policies Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for IAM User Permissions

The error message in the image indicates that the cluster creation failed due to reaching the maximum retries for provisioning cluster nodes. Here are two possible scenarios that could lead to this issue:

Insufficient Permissions (Answer B):

If the AWS user or role used to create the cluster does not have sufficient permissions, it can result in failures during the provisioning process. Proper IAM policies must be attached to ensure that the necessary actions can be performed, such as launching instances, creating VPCs, or managing networking components.

AWS Quota Exceeded/Instance Limit Exceeded (Answer D):

AWS imposes quotas and limits on the number of instances and other resources that can be created within an account. If these quotas are exceeded, new instances cannot be provisioned, causing the cluster creation to fail. This can be resolved by requesting a quota increase from AWS.

References:

Nutanix Knowledge Base Article 9774

AWS Service Quotas

Nutanix NC2 on AWS Documentation

With the Nutanix AOS Pro licensing, several advanced features and add-on products become available. Specifically, in the AWS cluster deployment wizard, the following add-ons are available:

Files:

Nutanix Files provides a software-defined, scale-out file storage solution that simplifies the management and scaling of unstructured data.

Advanced Replication:

Advanced Replication features in Nutanix include synchronous and asynchronous replication capabilities, allowing for robust disaster recovery and data protection solutions.

DARE (Data-At-Rest Encryption):

DARE ensures that all data stored on Nutanix clusters is encrypted, providing a higher level of security for sensitive information.

These features are included in the AOS Pro licensing tier, offering enhanced data management, protection, and security capabilities.

References:

Nutanix Licensing Guide

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Advanced Features

The exhibit shows two cloud accounts, one for Azure and one for AWS, with their statuses indicated. The AWS cloud account status is marked as "U" (which likely stands for "Unavailable" or "Unreachable"). This indicates that the AWS cloud account configuration is not properly connected or accessible.

Status Check:

The AWS cloud account is marked with an "U" status, meaning it is not active or accessible.

This status prevents the creation of an NC2 cluster because the necessary cloud resources cannot be allocated or managed without a proper connection.

Action:

The best course of action is to create a new cloud account in the organization. This involves setting up the cloud account details correctly and ensuring it is properly configured to communicate with Nutanix and AWS.

Steps to Create a New Cloud Account:

Log in to the Nutanix console.

Navigate to the "Organizations" section.

Select "Add Cloud Account" and provide the required AWS credentials and permissions.

Ensure the new cloud account is active and correctly configured.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Cloud Account Management

Route tables for cloud subnets contain incorrect route entries:

If the route tables associated with the cloud subnets contain incorrect route entries, the NC2 cluster might not be able to reach the necessary AWS services or endpoints. Correct route entries are crucial for ensuring proper communication between the NC2 cluster and the underlying AWS infrastructure.

IAM roles and policies are incorrectly configured:

Incorrectly configured IAM roles and policies can prevent NC2 from making API calls to AWS services. These roles and policies must be properly set up to allow the necessary permissions for NC2 to interact with AWS resources and perform required operations.

References:Refer to the AWS documentation on route table configuration and IAM roles and policies, and Nutanix documentation on NC2 cloud connectivity and permissions.

To SSH into a Controller VM (CVM) in an NC2 on AWS cluster without on-premises connectivity, the administrator needs to ensure that the security settings allow SSH access from the Jump Host. This involves editing the User Management Network Security Group to permit SSH traffic from the Jump Host IP.

Deploy Jump Host:

Ensure the Jump Host is deployed in a public subnet with an Elastic IP (EIP) assigned for external access.

Edit User Management Network Security Group:

Locate the security group associated with the user management network.

Modify the inbound rules to allow SSH (port 22) from the Jump Host's IP address. This ensures that the Jump Host can establish an SSH connection to the CVM.

Steps to Edit Security Group:

Navigate to the EC2 dashboard in the AWS Management Console.

Select "Security Groups" under the "Network & Security" section.

Find and select the appropriate security group.

Edit the inbound rules to add a new rule:

Type: SSH

Protocol: TCP

Port Range: 22

Source: Custom IP (enter the Jump Host's public IP address)

Additional Configuration:

Ensure that the CVM itself allows SSH connections and that no internal firewall rules block the traffic.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Security Group Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Secure Access

The administrator has not created the necessary Security Group:

The error message indicates that the creation of network interfaces in a shared subnet requires specifying a security group. This means that the necessary security group has not been created or assigned to the network interfaces.

Creating the appropriate security group and ensuring it is associated with the network interfaces during cluster deployment should resolve this issue.

References:Refer to AWS documentation on security groups and network interface configuration and Nutanix documentation on prerequisites for deploying NC2 clusters in an existing AWS VPC.

After the NC2 free trial expires, to continue using all features of NC2 on existing clusters, the administrator needs to switch to a paid subscription plan.

A paid subscription ensures uninterrupted access to the full range of features and support for NC2 clusters.

Without switching to a paid plan, the features might be limited, and support may not be available, impacting the cluster's operations and management.

References:Refer to the Nutanix billing and subscription documentation for details on switching from a trial to a paid plan and the benefits associated with paid subscriptions.

When planning to leverage NC2 on AWS for an elastic DR scenario where the initial cluster is using 13en.metal, the following additional node types are supported for cluster expansion:

I3.metal: These instances provide high IOPS and low latency with NVMe SSDs, making them suitable for storage-intensive applications.

i4i.metal: These instances offer higher performance with AWS Nitro SSDs, improved network bandwidth, and better compute performance compared to the I3.metal instances.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Documentation

Amazon EC2 I4i Instances – AWS

Amazon EC2 I3 Instances – AWS

The NC2 Tile within the my.nutanix.com portal is the correct interface to deploy NC2. This portal provides an integrated and user-friendly interface specifically designed for deploying and managing Nutanix Clusters on AWS.

NC2 Deployment Interface:

NC2 Tile within the my.nutanix.com portal: This portal provides the necessary tools and options to deploy and manage NC2 clusters. It includes functionalities for setting up the clusters, configuring network settings, and managing resources.

Advantages:

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies the deployment process with a guided setup.

Integrated Tools: Provides access to all necessary tools for managing the deployment and monitoring of NC2 clusters.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix my.nutanix.com Portal Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Cluster Deployment

To avoid IP address conflicts and ensure there are no configuration issues when reusing an existing AWS subnet, the administrator should take the following actions:

aCLI > net.add_to_ip_blacklist 10.79.4.200 aCLI > net.add_to_ip_blacklist 10.79.4.201 (Answer A):

This command adds the specified IP addresses to the blacklist, preventing AHV IPAM from assigning these addresses to any VMs. This ensures that the existing EC2 instances with IPs 10.79.4.200 and 10.79.4.201 are not allocated to other VMs in the NC2 cluster.

Configure the AHV IPAM to use DHCP range 10.79.4.2 -10.79.4.253 (Answer D):

By configuring the AHV IPAM to use a specific DHCP range, you ensure that the IP addresses assigned to the EC2 instances (10.79.4.200 and 10.79.4.201) are not included in the DHCP pool. This prevents IP address conflicts within the subnet.

References:

Nutanix aCLI Reference

Nutanix NC2 on AWS Documentation

AWS VPC and Subnet Basics

To ensure that NC2 VMs can access AWS resources without traversing the internet, the administrator can use AWS VPC Peering and Interface Endpoints. Both methods ensure that traffic stays within the AWS network, maintaining security and efficiency.

Interface Endpoint:

Interface Endpoints allow you to privately connect your VPC to supported AWS services. They use AWS PrivateLink to route traffic directly to services within the AWS network, bypassing the public internet.

Steps:

Create an interface endpoint for the required service in the AWS VPC console.

Ensure the security groups and route tables are configured to allow traffic to the interface endpoint.

VPC Peering:

VPC Peering allows the routing of traffic between VPCs using private IP addresses, without the need for internet gateways, NAT devices, or VPN connections.

Steps:

Create a VPC peering connection between the VPCs.

Update the route tables to direct traffic between the peered VPCs.

Ensure security group rules allow the necessary traffic between VPCs.

References:

AWS VPC Peering Documentation

AWS Interface Endpoint Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Direct Connect allows companies to create private, dedicated connections between their data centers and AWS. This bypasses the internet and provides a more reliable and faster network connection directly to AWS services, including S3.

References:

AWS Direct Connect Documentation

AWS S3 Access over Direct Connect

To ensure that alert emails are sent properly from Prism Central within an NC2 environment, configuring an SMTP server in the Prism Central settings is required. The SMTP server facilitates the sending of email notifications for alerts and other communications.

SMTP Configuration:

Prism Central requires an SMTP server to send email alerts. This involves specifying the SMTP server address, port, and authentication details if needed.

The configuration must include the email address from which the alerts will be sent and the recipient addresses.

Steps to Configure SMTP Server in Prism Central:

Log in to Prism Central.

Navigate to the "Settings" menu.

Select "Email Server" under the "Alerts" section.

Enter the SMTP server details, including the server address, port, and authentication credentials.

Test the configuration to ensure emails are sent correctly.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Administration Guide

Nutanix Support Documentation on Email Alert Configuration

Best Practices for Configuring SMTP Servers in Cloud Environments