Pass the Nutanix Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) NCP-CN Questions and answers with CertsForce

TheNKPA 6.10 documentationconfirms thatVelerois the built-in backup and recovery solution provided as part of the NKP platform. It provides cluster-level and namespace-level backup, restore, and migration capabilities.

Exact extract from the documentation:

“Velero is the integrated, out-of-the-box backup and restore solution in NKP. It supports scheduled backups, disaster recovery, and application migration workflows.”

Continuous Deployment (CD) is the practice of automatically deploying new software releases across environments after a successful build and testing phase. In the context of NKP, enabling CD ensures that software changes are consistently and reliably rolled out to all clusters associated with a project, ensuring operational uniformity and rapid feature adoption.

The NKPA course covers user authentication for NKP clusters as part of Day 2 operations, emphasizing integration with external identity providers (IdPs) to manage user access securely. NKP usesDex, an OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity provider, to facilitate authentication by acting as a connector between the Kubernetes cluster and external IdPs, such as LDAP, SAML, or OAuth-based systems.

The course explains that to set up user authentication, a Platform Engineer must configure aDex connectorto the user base’s identity provider. Dex integrates with the Kubernetes API server to enable OIDC-based authentication, allowing users to log in using their IdP credentials. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “NKP supports user authentication through Dex, which provides OIDC integration with external identity providers, enabling single sign-on (SSO) for cluster access.” The process involves deploying Dex as a platform application, configuring the IdP connector (e.g., specifying client IDs, secrets, and endpoints), and updating the Kubernetes API server to use OIDC authentication.

Incorrect Options:

A. Enable Gatekeeper and create a connector to the user base’s identity provider: Gatekeeper is a Kubernetes policy engine used for enforcing admission control policies, not for authentication. The NKPA course does not associate Gatekeeper with user authentication.

B. Disable native NKP authentication, enable Traefik, and create a connector to the user base’s identity provider: Traefik is an ingress controller for managing external traffic, not authentication. Disabling native authentication is unnecessary, as NKP supports OIDC alongside native methods. The NKPA course does not mention Traefik in the context of authentication.

C. Create a MetalLB connector to the user base’s identity provider: MetalLB is a load balancer for bare-metal Kubernetes clusters, not an authentication component. This option is irrelevant, as per the NKPA course.

NKP Platform Applications (e.g., Rook Ceph, Prometheus, Fluent Bit) are pre-integrated tools that can be deployed to Kubernetes clusters within a workspace to provide services like storage, monitoring, and logging. The NKPA course specifies that to deploy a platform application to all clusters in a workspace from the command line, the engineer uses thenkp create appdeploymentcommand. This command creates an application deployment resource that targets the specified workspace and clusters.

The required parameters include theapplication ID(to identify the platform application), theversion(to specify the desired version of the application), and theNKP workspace(to define the scope of clusters). For example: nkp create appdeployment --app-id prometheus --version 2.30.0 --workspace fin-vd. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “Use the nkp create appdeployment command to deploy platform applications, specifying the application ID, version, and target workspace to apply the deployment across all clusters in that workspace.”

Incorrect Options:

B. nkp deploy platform-app: This is not a valid NKP command. The correct command is nkp create appdeployment.

C. nkp deploy app: This is not a recognized command in the NKPA documentation.

D. kubectl create appdeployment: kubectl interacts with Kubernetes resources, not NKP-specific platform applications.

According to theNKPA 6.10 documentationand Nutanix licensing details, NKP Starter is bundled with theNCI Starterentitlement. This basic licensing tier includes essential capabilities for deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters within a Nutanix environment.

Key reference:

“NKP Starter is included with NCI Starter, providing foundational Kubernetes cluster lifecycle management features for small-scale or starter deployments.”

The NKPA course explains that upgrading an NKP license to the Ultimate tier unlocks advanced features such as fleet management, air-gapped deployments, and additional platform services (e.g., monitoring, logging, backup/restore). These services are deployed on the Management cluster and require sufficient resources to operate effectively. A key prerequisite is tosize the Control Plane nodes appropriately to support the installation of default platform services(Option C).

The Control Plane nodes in the NKP Management cluster run critical components like the API server, controller manager, and Kommander, as well as platform services such as Prometheus, Grafana Loki, and Velero. The Ultimate license increases resource demands due to the expanded functionality, and undersized Control Plane nodes can lead to performance issues or failed deployments. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “Before upgrading to an NKP Ultimate license, ensure the Control Plane nodes of the Management cluster are sized appropriately (e.g., sufficient CPU, memory, and storage) to support the additional default platform services enabled by the license.” For example, Control Plane nodes might need to be scaled to at least 4 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM, depending on the workload.

Incorrect Options:

A. Size the Sidecar containers appropriately: Sidecar containers are typically used for specific workloads (e.g., logging agents), not for platform services deployment, and are not a licensing prerequisite.

B. Size the ETCD nodes appropriately: While etcd is part of the Control Plane, the course refers to the Control Plane nodes as a whole, not etcd specifically, as the sizing requirement.

D. Size the Worker nodes appropriately: Worker nodes run user workloads, not the platform services, which are deployed on the Control Plane in the Management cluster.

According to theNKPA 6.10 documentation,Rook Cephis the recommended out-of-the-box storage solution integrated with NKP forpersistent data storage, backups, and object storagewithin the Kubernetes environment.

Key Reference:

“Rook Ceph is integrated with NKP for providing persistent storage and backup support within the cluster.”

TheNKPA 6.10 documentationand Nutanix Best Practices recommend using workspaces to segment cluster deployments and their associated infrastructure providers, as well as to manage access control through RBAC. The typical workflow is:

Create an NKP workspace dedicated to the R&D environment.

Create an infrastructure provider (e.g., vSphere, AHV) scoped to that workspace.

Create an NKP group for the R&D team and assign admin roles to this group within the workspace.

Deploy workload clusters in this workspace, leveraging the scoped infrastructure provider.

This ensures that:

The R&D team has full administrative control over their resources.

Clusters and infrastructure are logically isolated in the R&D workspace.

RBAC policies are applied cleanly within the workspace context.

The NKPA course details that backup and restore functionality in NKP is provided through integration with Velero, which supports backing up persistent volumes, cluster resources, and application data to S3-compatible storage. This functionality is considered an advanced feature and is included in higher-tier NKP licenses:NKP UltimateandNKP Pro.

NKP Ultimate: This top-tier license includes all NKP features, such as air-gapped deployments, fleet management, and backup/restore capabilities. It is designed for enterprise-grade environments requiring comprehensive disaster recovery.

NKP Pro: This mid-tier license also includes backup and restore functionality, catering to organizations needing robust data protection but not necessarily all the features of the Ultimate tier (e.g., air-gapped support).

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “Backup and restore functionality, powered by Velero, is available in NKP Pro and NKP Ultimate license tiers, enabling protection of persistent volumes and cluster resources.” These licenses provide the necessary tools and support for configuring Velero with S3-compatible storage, scheduling backups, and performing restores in production environments.

Incorrect Options:

A. NKP Starter: The Starter tier is entry-level and does not include advanced features like backup and restore. It focuses on basic cluster management.

B. NKP Essential: This tier, if it exists in NKP’s licensing model, would be a lower tier and unlikely to include backup/restore functionality, as it is not mentioned in the NKPA course.

The Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) is designed to simplify the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters on Nutanix infrastructure, including on-premises AHV-based clusters in dark site environments with no Internet connectivity. The requirements specified in the question—dark site, Nutanix-provided Rocky Linux VM image, and AHV-based cluster—point to a deployment scenario where the environment must be self-contained and rely on Nutanix-specific tools and resources to meet the air-gapped constraints.

According to the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Administration (NKPA) course, deploying NKP in a dark site environment requires specific prerequisites to ensure all necessary components, such as container images, dependencies, and configuration files, are available without Internet access. The course emphasizes the use of anAir-Gapped Bundleand anexisting local container registryas critical components for such deployments.

Air-Gapped Bundle (Option B):

The NKPA course explains that for dark site deployments, Nutanix provides anAir-Gapped Bundle, which is a comprehensive package containing all the software components, container images, and dependencies required to deploy and manage an NKP cluster without Internet connectivity. This bundle includes the Kubernetes binaries, NKP platform applications (e.g., Rook Ceph, monitoring tools), and other necessary artifacts.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide specifically states: “For air-gapped environments, the Nutanix Air-Gapped Bundle is required to provide all dependencies, including container images and installation files, to deploy NKP clusters.” This bundle is typically downloaded from the Nutanix Support Portal in an Internet-connected environment and then transferred to the dark site for deployment.

The bundle ensures that the Nutanix-provided Rocky Linux VM image, which serves as the base operating system for the Kubernetes nodes, can be provisioned with all required software components. The NKPA course further notes that the Air-Gapped Bundle is tailored for AHV-based clusters, ensuring compatibility with the Nutanix hypervisor.

Existing Local Container Registry (Option C):

In a dark site environment, a local container registry is a prerequisite to store and distribute container images required by the NKP cluster. The NKPA course highlights that NKP relies on container images for Kubernetes components, platform applications, and user workloads. In an air-gapped setup, these images cannot be pulled from public registries like Docker Hub or Quay.io.

The course instructs administrators to set up a local container registry (e.g., Harbor, Nexus, or a Nutanix-managed registry) and populate it with the container images included in the Air-Gapped Bundle. The Nutanix Cloud Bible reinforces this, stating: “In air-gapped deployments, a local container registry must be pre-configured to host all required images, which are provided as part of the Nutanix Air-Gapped Bundle.”

The local container registry ensures that the Kubernetes nodes, running on the Nutanix-provided Rocky Linux VM image, can access the necessary images during cluster bootstrapping and operation. The NKPA course provides guidance on configuring the registry and integrating it with the NKP deployment process.

Incorrect Options:

Konvoy Image Builder (Option A):

Konvoy Image Builder is a tool associated with D2iQ’s Konvoy platform, used to create custom machine images for Kubernetes deployments. While it can be used to build images for Kubernetes nodes, it is not a Nutanix-specific tool nor a prerequisite for NKP deployments. The NKPA course and NCP-CN 6.10 Study Guide do not mention Konvoy Image Builder, as NKP uses the Nutanix-provided Rocky Linux VM image, which is pre-configured for AHV-based clusters. This option is irrelevant to the Nutanix ecosystem.

Self-managed AWS cluster (Option D):

A self-managed AWS cluster is unrelated to the requirements of deploying NKP on an AHV-based cluster in a dark site. The question specifies an AHV-based cluster, which is Nutanix’s Acropolis Hypervisor running on-premises, not a cloud-based AWS environment. The NKPA course focuses on Nutanix infrastructure (AHV, Prism Central) for NKP deployments and does not include AWS as a supported platform for this scenario. This option is incorrect as it contradicts the deployment environment.

Deployment Context:

The Nutanix-provided Rocky Linux VM image is a pre-configured operating system image optimized for NKP deployments on AHV. The NKPA course notes that this image includes the necessary kernel settings, drivers, and configurations to run Kubernetes nodes efficiently on Nutanix infrastructure.

The AHV-based cluster requirement indicates that the deployment leverages Nutanix’s hypervisor, managed through Prism Central, to provision and manage the Kubernetes nodes. The Air-Gapped Bundle and local container registry ensure that all software components are available in the dark site, aligning with the NKPA course’s guidelines for air-gapped deployments.