Nutanix Updated NCP-MCA Exam Questions and Answers by cerys

The Playbook is designed to manually reduce the vCPU count on any selected VM within the environment. However, it failed during a test run on VM2 because there was a running snapshot of the VM. According to Nutanix Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) principles, you cannot reduce the vCPU count on a VM that has an active snapshot1. This is because the snapshot captures the state of the VM configuration and data, and reverting to a snapshot will restore both the guest OS and the virtual hardware2. Therefore, changing the vCPU count while a snapshot is running will cause inconsistency and error. The other options are incorrect because:

• A. The Playbook can be executed against a VM on AHV, as long as there is no snapshot running3.
• B. The VM does not need to be powered off before vCPU can be reduced, as this can be done using hot-plug CPU feature4.
• D. The play will not cause the VM to go below the minimum vCPU, as the minimum number of vCPUs is set to 1 in the Playbook, and the VM has 4 vCPUs initially. References: Nutanix Support & Insights, Solved: Snapshot query !! - VMware Technology Network VMTN, Calm on ESXi Deployment | Nutanix Community, Virtual CPU Configuration and Limitations - VMware Docs

 Runtime variables are used to pass information between different components of a Blueprint, such as VMs, services, tasks, and replicas. They can be defined in the Blueprint YAML file or in the UI. By setting the mount_path as a runtime variable, the administrator can ensure that both database VMs use the same value for the mount_path during the deployment. This way, the backup files can be hosted on the same location for both VMs. References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) 6.5 Exam, page 25, section 2.1.1: “Runtime Variables”
• [Nutanix University: NCP-MCA 6.5 Exam Prep - Runtime Variables], video 2: “Runtime Variables”

To create and execute a scaling action using Calm, the administrator should create the action under the service profile section of the blueprint and the application profile section of the blueprint. The service profile section defines the properties and actions of each service in the blueprint, such as the VM configuration, the scripts to run, and the scaling parameters. The application profile section defines the properties and actions of the entire application, such as the number of instances, the dependencies, and the scaling triggers. The administrator can then execute the scaling action in the Overview tab or the Services tab of the application, depending on the scope of the scaling action. References:

• Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation, Page 18
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide
• Nutanix Calm User Guide