NCP-CI-AWS Practice Questions

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.

Reference:

Nutanix Cluster Protection Documentation

Nutanix AOS Release Notes

To deploy NC2 in AWS using an existing VPC, the following AWS resources should be configured

beforehand:

NAT Gateway: This allows instances in the private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS

services, while preventing the internet from initiating connections with those instances.

Public and Private Subnets: These are necessary to segregate the network traffic. Public subnets

provide a direct route to the internet gateway, while private subnets are used for internal resources

that do not need direct access to the internet.

Reference:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Deployment Guide

Nutanix Support & Insights

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.

Reference:

Nutanix Licensing Guide

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Advanced Features

To allow wide open access to a particular NC2 AWS cluster from an on-premises subnet

(10.19.160.0/24), the proper Custom Security Group formatting needs to include the necessary tags

that specify the external cluster UUID and the networks allowed.

Custom Security Group Configuration:

The configuration should include tags to identify the cluster and the networks that should be granted

access.

Key: nutanix:clusters

Key: nutanix:clusters:external

Value:

Explanation of Choice:

Option B includes the necessary tags and values, ensuring that the specific cluster UUID is recognized

and the on-premises subnet (10.19.160.0/24) can communicate with the NC2 cluster.

Security Group Tags:

nutanix:clusters:external - Identifies the cluster as external.

nutanix:clusters:external:cluster-uuid - Specifies the unique identifier for the cluster, enabling proper

traffic routing and access.

Reference:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Security Group Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Custom Security Group Configuration

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.

Reference:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix my.nutanix.com Portal Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Cluster Deployment

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.

Reference:

Refer to the AWS documentation on route table configuration and IAM roles and policies, and

Nutanix documentation on NC2 cloud connectivity and permissions.

For a new NC2 on AWS deployment where workload VMs have low storage and memory

requirements but high CPU frequency (>3.0 GHz) requirements, and the goal is to minimize the

number of CPU cores to reduce application licensing costs, the i3.metal instance type is the most

suitable.

i3.metal:

High CPU Frequency: i3.metal instances offer high-frequency Intel Xeon processors (up to 3.1 GHz)

which meet the high CPU frequency requirement.

Low Storage and Memory: These instances come with a balanced amount of storage and memory,

suitable for workloads with low requirements in these areas.

Minimized CPU Cores: i3.metal instances have fewer CPU cores compared to other high-frequency

instances like i4i.metal, making them ideal for minimizing application licensing costs.

Other Instance Types:

z1d.metal: While also offering high CPU frequency, these instances typically come with a higher core

count and more memory, which may not be optimal for minimizing licensing costs.

i4i.metal: Designed for I/O intensive applications with higher core counts.

m5d.metal: Balanced instance type but with more cores and not as high CPU frequency as required.

Reference:

AWS EC2 Instance Types Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Instance Selection

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.

Reference:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

AWS Security Groups Documentation

To establish full connectivity between the company’s on-premises datacenter and the AWS cloud, the

following AWS offerings will satisfy this requirement:

AWS VPN: This service allows you to create a secure connection between your on-premises network

or other remote network and your AWS VPC using an IPsec VPN tunnel. It is suitable for low to

moderate bandwidth requirements and provides secure, encrypted connections.

Direct Connect: AWS Direct Connect is a dedicated network connection from your premises to AWS.

It provides a private, high-bandwidth, low-latency connection which is ideal for high-throughput

applications and workloads that need consistent network performance.

Reference:

AWS VPN Documentation

AWS Direct Connect Documentation

When configuring a syslog server in the Prism Central Admin Center for Nutanix, one of the available

log modules is Acropolis.

The Acropolis module logs system events related to the Nutanix Acropolis operating system, which is

critical for monitoring and auditing system activities and performance.

Configuring syslog with the Acropolis module ensures that important events and issues related to the

Acropolis environment are captured and can be forwarded to an external syslog server for centralized

logging and analysis.

Reference:

Refer to the Nutanix documentation on Prism Central and syslog configuration for the full list of

available log modules and detailed steps for configuration.