Free Nutanix NCP-MCA Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 5

When configuring a Playbook in Intelligent Operations (X-Play), the "User Execution" settings allow the administrator to define a specific user context (impersonation) under which the playbook actions run.

However, for alocal user accountcreated in Prism Central to be available and valid for this impersonation, that usermust have logged into the Prism Central interface at least once. This login event creates the necessary user profile and mapping within the Prism Central database that X-Play requires to authenticate and execute actions on their behalf. If the user has been created but never logged in, they cannot be successfully used for playbook execution.

Nutanix Data Protection (Leap) and Flow Security policies rely on Categories to dynamically assign policies to entities.6

In this scenario, the administrator likely set up the Protection Policy to target the Protection: Silver category (standard practice for tiered Service Level Agreements, e.g., Gold, Silver, Bronze). While Environment: Prod is used for the Security Policy (isolation), the Protection Policy specifically requires the protection category to function as intended in a tiered architecture.

If the blueprint (Marketplace item) only assigned Environment: Prod, the VM is missing the critical tag (Protection: Silver) required to associate it with the 1-hour snapshot schedule. To fix this, the blueprint must be updated to assignbothcategories (Environment: Prod AND Protection: Silver) to the VM during provisioning.

To automate the provisioning of a VM and the subsequent application installation within a Nutanix Self-Service (Calm) Blueprint, the administrator must configure a Service.

The definition of a Service in a blueprint involves three distinct components to achieve this requirement:

VM Resource:Configuring the underlying infrastructure specifications (vCPUs, Memory, Disks).

Guest Customization:Configuring Cloud-init (Linux) or Sysprep (Windows) to handle the initial OS bootstrap (hostname, user creation).

Tasks (Package Install):Adding a script task (e.g., Shell or PowerShell) under the "Service Installation" action or a dedicated Package install step. This task executesafterthe VM is provisioned and running to install the web server application.

In Nutanix Self-Service (Calm), Macros are used to reference variables and properties dynamically using the syntax @@{Entity.Attribute}@@.

Servicesare a primary supported entity for macros. You can reference properties of other services within the same application blueprint. For example, a web server service might need the IP address of a database service. This can be achieved using a macro like @@{Database_Service.address}@@. This allows for dynamic orchestration where values are populated at runtime based on the actual deployment details of the Service entity.

The "Environment" construct in Nutanix Self-Service is designed specifically to abstract infrastructure details from the end user while ensuring correct placement.

Within a single Project, an administrator can define multipleEnvironments(e.g., "Development" and "Production").

TheDevelopment Environmentis configured to map to theDevelopment Clusterand its associated networks.

TheProduction Environmentis configured to map to theProduction Clusterand its associated networks.

When a blueprint is launched, the user (or the application profile) simply selects the target Environment. The Self-Service engine then automatically directs the provisioning to the specific cluster defined in that Environment's settings, ensuring correct placement without requiring the user to know cluster details or manual intervention.

TheLibraryin Nutanix Self-Service (formerly Calm) serves as a central repository for reusable automation assets that can be shared across multiple Blueprints and Projects. According to the Self-Service Administration Guide, the Library specifically contains:

Tasks (Scripts):The "Task Library" allows administrators to save Shell, PowerShell, Python (eScript), or HTTP tasks. These published tasks can then be imported into any blueprint, ensuring code reusability and standardization.

Variable Types (Variables):The Library also hostsVariable Types(often simply referred to as user-defined variables in the context of the library). Administrators can create and save complex variable definitions (such as lists or static values) in the Library to be reused in different blueprints without redefining them every time.

Endpoints(Option C) are configured in the global Settings or Project settings, not within the Library tab.Apps and Blueprints(Options A and D) have their own dedicated "Apps" and "Blueprints" tabs in the navigation bar.

Among the options provided, calm_unique is the standard built-in macro provided by the Self-Service engine.

Purpose:The @@{calm_unique}@@ macro generates a unique, short alphanumeric string at runtime.

Use Case:It is widely used in Blueprints to ensure uniqueness for VM names, hostname prefixes, or other resources that cannot have duplicate identifiers within the infrastructure (e.g., naming a VM Web-@@{calm_unique}@@ to prevent naming collisions).

Other Options:calm_date, calm_generate_uuid, and calm_math are not standard built-in macro names in the Self-Service macro library (though calm_time and calm_now exist for time-based operations).

ThePolicy Engineis the core component in Prism Central that enables governance and scheduling capabilities for Self-Service.

Requirement:According to the Administration Guide, thePolicy Enginemust be enabled to useQuotas,Approvals, andSchedulerfeatures.

Function:The Scheduler relies on the Policy Engine to enforce timing and execution rules for Application Actions and Runbooks. Without this engine running, the Scheduler tab and functionality are unavailable.

In Nutanix Self-Service (Calm), a Quota Policy limits the total infrastructure resources that can be consumed by a Project.5

When configuring a Project, the administrator sets limits for the following specific resources:

vCPUs:The total number of virtual CPUs allocated to VMs in the project.

Memory:The total amount of RAM (in GiB) allocated to VMs.

Disk:The total storage capacity (in GiB) allocated to VMs.

These quotas are enforced during the provisioning process. If a user attempts to launch a blueprint that would cause the project to exceed these defined limits (vCPU, Memory, or Disk), the deployment will fail. Quotas do not monitor IOPs, NIC counts, or the number of blueprints stored.

To ensure that Prism Central sends the appropriate notifications (Alerts/Events) to ServiceNow—allowing ServiceNow's Event Management to process them viaEvent Rules—the administrator must configure an X-Play Playbook that exports these alerts.

According to the Prism Central Intelligent Operations Guide (ServiceNow Integration):

Export of alertsfrom Prism Central is achieved by creating an X-Play playbook.

The administrator should use theAlerts Matching Criteriatrigger. This trigger allows the administrator to define the scope of the export (e.g., "All Critical Alerts" or specific categories).

The Playbook then uses theSend Alert to ServiceNowaction to push these matching alerts to the ServiceNow Event API.

By configuring a Playbook with theAlerts Matching Criteriatrigger, the administrator ensures a continuous, policy-based flow of event data into ServiceNow, satisfying the requirement for Event Rules to have data to process. Option A describes the action but lacks the governing trigger mechanism (matching criteria) that defines "appropriate" events for the integration.