The NKPA course explains the role of a bootstrap cluster in NKP deployments, particularly in hybrid architectures involving Nutanix on-prem and Amazon EKS. A bootstrap cluster is a temporary Kubernetes cluster created during the deployment process to initialize Cluster API (CAPI) components, which manage the lifecycle of the target NKP clusters. The primary function of the bootstrap cluster is to use Cluster API for infrastructure-agnostic provisioning (Option D).

CAPI enables NKP to provision clusters across different infrastructures (e.g., Nutanix AHV, AWS EKS) in a consistent, infrastructure-agnostic manner. The bootstrap cluster runs the CAPI controllers (e.g., CAPX for Nutanix, CAPA for AWS) that orchestrate the creation of the target clusters, abstracting the underlying infrastructure details. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “The bootstrap cluster in NKP uses Cluster API to provide infrastructure-agnostic provisioning, enabling consistent cluster creation across diverse environments like Nutanix AHV and Amazon EKS.” This ensures that the same CAPI-based workflow can deploy clusters on both on-prem Nutanix and cloud-based EKS.

Incorrect Options:

A. Increases security from a single point of entry: A bastion host, not a bootstrap cluster, provides a single point of entry for security. The bootstrap cluster is temporary and focuses on provisioning.

B. Simplifies the networking requirements for Kubernetes: Networking is managed by the target cluster’s CNI (e.g., Calico), not the bootstrap cluster.

C. Saves cost by minimizing resources required for provisioning: The bootstrap cluster is temporary and does not significantly impact costs; its purpose is provisioning, not cost-saving.