Free Nutanix NCP-MCA Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

To automate a remediation action (like restarting a VM) based on a specific performance threshold (like CPU usage > 90%), the administrator must useIntelligent Operations (X-Play)with an event-driven trigger.

Alert-Based Trigger:The administrator first ensures there is an Alert Policy in Prism Central for "VM High CPU" configured with a threshold of 90%.

Playbook Configuration:The administrator then creates a Playbook and selects theAlerttrigger (orAlerts Matching Criteriatrigger). They link this trigger to the specific CPU alert policy.

Action:The administrator adds theVM Reboot(or Power Cycle) action to the Playbook.

Result:As soon as the system detects the CPU exceeding 90%, the Alert fires, which immediately triggers the Playbook to reboot the VM without human intervention.

Options A (Scheduled) and C (Manual) do not meet the requirement of "whenever it exceeds," which implies real-time reaction. Option B is incorrect because Project Quotas manage resource allocation limits, not runtime performance monitoring or remediation.

When a Blueprint is designed to trigger external automation (like a Playbook via Webhook or API) or perform post-deployment actions (like applying categories via script), these actions must be explicitly defined asTaskswithin the Blueprint's lifecycle.

The Symptom:The VM provisioning (Substrate) succeeded, but the subsequent logic (Categories/Notifications) failed to happen.

The Cause:In Self-Service, simply creating a Blueprint does not automatically link it to an Intelligent Operations Playbook. The developer must add a specific task (e.g., an HTTP Request task targeting the Playbook trigger, or a specific "Execute Playbook" action) to theService Profile(specifically the Post-Create or Create phase).

If this task is missing, disabled, or misconfigured (e.g., wrong URL or payload), the VM will deploy, but the call to the Playbook will never occur, resulting in missing categories and notifications.

Option A is incorrect because deployment would not start at all without a Project. Option D is incorrect because Playbooks are not published to the Marketplace (Blueprints are).

In the Nutanix Self-Service (Calm) Blueprint lifecycle, tasks are executed in a specific order relative to the provisioning of the infrastructure (Substrate).

Pre-Create Task:This is the specific phase designed to run scripts or set variablesbeforethe VM provision call is sent to the provider (AHV).

Workflow:

The developer creates a pre-create task (e.g., a Python script) to generate the custom hostname string based on logic (e.g., date, user input, or sequence).

The script outputs this string to a variable (e.g., @@{vm_hostname}@@).

The VM Service configuration (Substrate) references this variable in the "VM Name" or "Hostname" field.

Execution:When the blueprint launches, the pre-create task runs first, populates the variable, and then the VM creation occurs using that calculated name.

Tasks in post-create or package-install (Options B and C) runafterthe VM has already been provisioned and named, making them too late for this requirement.

Nutanix Self-Service (Calm) is designed to model complex applications using Multi-VM Blueprints.

To support a multi-tier stack (Web, App, DB) deployable in a single action:

Multiple Services:The administrator defines three distinct Services within the blueprint editor, one for each tier.

Dependencies:The administrator defines boot dependencies (e.g., Database must be up before App Server; App Server must be up before Web Server).

Single Action:Once published to the Project, the end-user sees a single catalog item. Clicking "Launch" triggers the orchestration engine to provision all VMs and configure them in the correct order automatically.

AProjectin Nutanix Self-Service (formerly Calm) acts as a logical container that defines the scope of operations for a group of users.

Primary Capability:The core purpose of a Project, once Self-Service is enabled, is to allow the users assigned to that project (Consumers, Developers, Operators) todeploy Blueprints(launch applications) andmanage the lifecyclesof the resulting workloads (VMs/Applications).

Scope:The Project restricts these users to specific Infrastructure (Clusters/VPCs), Environments, and Quotas defined by the administrator.

Exclusions:

Changing cluster-wide networking (A) and modifying global user roles (D) arePrism Admintasks, not capabilities granted to a Self-Service Project.

Managing global image repositories (B) is a Prism Central infrastructure task; Projectsconsumeimages but do not manage the global repository itself.

According to the Self-Service Blueprint and Task configuration settings, the specific parameter that enables and controls the number of retries for a failed task is theRetry Count.

Retry Count:This integer value determines how many times the system will attempt to re-execute the task if it returns a failure status. If this is set to 0 (default in some views), no retries occur. Setting it to a value of 1 or higher enables the retry logic.

Retry Interval (Option A):This setting defines thewait time(in seconds) between the attempts, but without a positiveRetry Count, the interval is irrelevant.

Timeout (Option B):This defines how long the system waits for a single attempt to complete before marking it as failed.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation

Nutanix Calm documentation states:

TheBlueprint Editoris the graphical interface used to design, visualize, and modify a blueprint’s components, such as services, packages, substrates, dependencies, and tasks.

The editor provides avisual topologyof the multi-tier application.

Thus, the correct answer isC. Blueprint Editor.

Nutanix Playbooks (part of Prism Central Automation) support multiple trigger types—Alert, Event, Webhook—and each trigger defines how automation workflows begin. The Nutanix Automation documentation highlights the following key rules:

1. Event Triggers (Correct Answer)

Playbooks using anEventtrigger supportmultiple playbook tasks, including script tasks, VM power operations, Prism actions, and more.

Nutanix documents specify that:

Event-based Playbooks activate when specificPC or cluster eventsoccur.

After an event trigger fires, administrators may definemultiple sequential actionsinside the Playbook.

This allows complex automation chains such as remediation actions, notification flows, or branching logic.

Therefore,Option D is correct, because Event-triggered Playbooks allow multiple actions to be added.

Why the other options are incorrect

❌Option A — Alert Trigger

Alert triggers only allowone alert definition per Playbook trigger.

Nutanix documentation states that an Alert trigger is mapped toa single alert policy, not multiple alerts.

Thus, Option A is incorrect.

❌Option B — Branch Step

ABranchisnot a trigger; it is aflow control elementusedafterthe Playbook has already started.

Branch steps define conditional paths but do not permit the addition of multiple "actions" as a trigger.

Therefore, Option B is incorrect.

❌Option C — Webhook Trigger

Webhook-triggered Playbooks start when external systems send an HTTP POST request.

While the Playbook may contain multiple tasks after triggering, the question specifically refers to addingmultiple scriptable tasks as part of the trigger, which is not possible.

Webhook triggers acceptonly one incoming webhook definition, not multiple script tasks embedded in the trigger.

Thus, Option C is incorrect.

According to the Self-Service Administration Guide regardingError Handling in Runbook and Blueprint Tasks, there is a specific documented limitation regarding VM Power actions.

General Behavior:The error handling mechanism is designed to allow workflows to continue or alert when tasks (including VM Power On/Off) fail for reasons such as the Prism Central being unreachable or the VM being deleted.

The Exception (Option D):The documentation explicitly states:"Error handling, however, does not take into account the power on, power off, or restart task failures because of authentication errors."

If the "VM Power On" task fails specifically due to an authentication issue (e.g., token expiry or connectivity preventing authentication with the host), the standard error handling flow may not trigger as expected, matching the scenario described.

Option A is incorrect because Self-Servicecanhandle infrastructure task failures (like Power On), with specific exceptions like the one noted in D.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation

Nutanix Calm supports OS customization throughGuest Customization, which:

AppliesSysprepfor Windows

Injects configuration files

Sets hostnames, time zones, networking, and more

Runs scripts post-deployment

Sysprep is specifically executed duringWindows Guest Customization.

Therefore,Option C: Guest Customizationis correct.