Nutanix Updated NCP-CI-AWS Exam Questions and Answers by advik

When extending a Layer 2 subnet from on-premises to NC2 on AWS, the default gateway often remains at the on-premises location.

For Virtual Machines (VMs) running on the NC2 cluster in AWS to communicate with resources outside their immediate subnet, their traffic must be directed back through the tunnel to the on-premises gateway. This is achieved by configuring arouting policyon the NC2 cluster with aForward action. This policy identifies traffic destined for the gateway and encapsulates it via the VTEP (VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint) using port 4789. Without this forward action policy, the AWS-based VMs would attempt to find a local gateway within the AWS VPC, resulting in a loss of connectivity for any North-South traffic.

Post-deployment, Nutanix provides flexibility in managing the software capabilities and licensing models of an NC2 cluster to adapt to changing workload requirements. Administrators canswitch the software tier from Pro to Ultimateto unlock advanced features such as synchronous replication, Nutanix Flow, and advanced security. Additionally, users can transition between different licensing portfolios, such asswitching from the NCI (Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure) portfolio to the legacy AOS portfolio, depending on their contract terms and desired consumption model. These changes are typically managed through the Nutanix portal and applied to the cluster without requiring a full redeployment of the bare-metal instances. However, it is important to note that switching tiers may result in changes to the billing rate or require additional license reservations to cover the upgraded feature set.

WhenFlow Virtual Networking (FVN)is enabled for an NC2 cluster, Nutanix orchestrates the creation of aTransit VPCto handle traffic between the overlay and external networks. The core subnet created within this Transit VPC is namedoverlay-external-subnet-nonat. This subnet is critical as it serves as the entry and exit point for traffic that should not be subjected to address translation, such as traffic moving between the cloud overlay and an on-premises data center via a Transit Gateway or VPN. While administrators can manually add a NAT-enabled subnet later, the " nonat " variant is the primary default used to ensure that internal corporate communications remain transparent across the hybrid cloud boundary.

While Nutanix provides multiple management interfaces, each serves a distinct purpose in the hybrid cloud lifecycle. Prism Central and Prism Element are used for managing software-level entities like VMs, storage containers, and replication policies. However, for thedefinitive status of the cluster ' s cloud infrastructure—including whether the bare-metal nodes are provisioned, if the cluster is in a " Healthy, " " Degraded, " or " Failed " state, or if a " boot timeout " has occurred—administrators must usethe NC2 Portal. The NC2 Portal acts as the primary orchestration layer that bridges Nutanix and AWS; it is the only console that displays specific cloud deployment tasks, hardware replacement status, and AWS-raised infrastructure events in a unified view.