NCP-CN Exam Dumps - Nutanix Certified Professional - Cloud Native (NCP-CN-6.10)

According to the NKPA 6.10 documentation under the “Preparing for FIPS Compliance” section, the first step for enabling FIPS in an NKP environment is to ensure that the underlying operating system (OS) or OS images are correctly configured for FIPS mode. The Nutanix Kubernetes Platform can only leverage FIPS-compliant cryptographic modules if the underlying OS is already configured for FIPS operation.

Specifically, the documentation states:

"Before enabling FIPS in NKP, ensure that the OS or OS images are prepared and configured to operate in FIPS mode, following the vendor’s guidelines. Once the OS is in FIPS mode, the NKP cluster components can be provisioned with FIPS support."

This foundational step is critical to ensure cryptographic consistency and compliance throughout the NKP stack.

In an air-gapped NKP installation, the engineer starts with the NKP Air-Gapped Bundle, a tarball containing all necessary components (e.g., container images, binaries, configuration files) for deployment without Internet access. The NKPA course specifies that the first step is to extract this bundle on the bastion host to make its contents available for the installation process. The correct command is tar -xzvf nkp-air-gapped-bundle_v2.12.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz, which extracts the bundle into a directory, revealing the container images, CLI tools, and other resources needed for the deployment.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “To begin an air-gapped NKP installation, first extract the NKP Air-Gapped Bundle using tar -xzvf .tar.gz on the bastion host to access the installation artifacts.” After extraction, the engineer can proceed with loading container images (e.g., using docker load) and running NKP CLI commands to deploy the cluster, ensuring all dependencies are available locally.

Incorrect Options:

A. nkp push bundle --bundle: This is not a valid command. The bundle must be extracted before its contents can be used.

B. docker load -i konvoy-bootstrap-image-v2.12.0.tar: Loading the bootstrap image is a subsequent step after extracting the bundle, which contains this image tarball.

D. nkp create cluster nutanix: This command creates a cluster but cannot be run until the bundle is extracted and its images are loaded.

To push the NKP Catalog Applications image bundle to a private registry, the official nkp push bundle command must be used with the specified parameters to authenticate and push the bundle to the registry.

Exact extract:

“Use the nkp push bundle command to upload the NKP catalog applications image bundle to the specified private registry, ensuring secure and complete image upload.”

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 an Air-Gapped Bundle and an existing local container registry as critical components for such deployments.

Air-Gapped Bundle (Option B):

The NKPA course explains that for dark site deployments, Nutanix provides an Air-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.

The NKPA course recommends using a S3-compatible API for backup and restore operations in production NKP environments, as it integrates with Velero, NKP’s backup and restore tool. Velero supports S3-compatible storage (e.g., AWS S3, Nutanix Objects, or MinIO) as a backup storage location, allowing persistent data, including volumes and cluster resources, to be backed up and restored during disaster recovery scenarios. This approach ensures compatibility with cloud-native backup workflows and provides scalability and reliability for production use cases.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “For production backup and restore in NKP, use Velero with an S3-compatible API to store backups, ensuring persistent data availability during disaster recovery.” Nutanix Objects, which provides an S3-compatible API, is often used in Nutanix environments for this purpose, but any S3-compatible storage (e.g., an off-site S3 bucket) can be configured.

Incorrect Options:

A. Protection Domain: Protection Domains are a Nutanix AOS feature for VM-level replication, not for Kubernetes backup/restore.

B. Rook Ceph: Rook Ceph provides persistent storage for NKP clusters but is not a backup solution; it can be backed up using Velero with S3 storage.

C. External Storage Class: Storage Classes define how volumes are provisioned, not how they are backed up or restored.

As per the NKPA 6.10 documentation and cluster autoscaler behavior, when nodes are scaled down in NKP (or any CAPI-managed environment), the node is deleted from the infrastructure provider (vSphere, AWS, Nutanix, etc.). This effectively removes it from both the cluster and the underlying hypervisor or cloud provider, thus freeing up resources and reducing costs.

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 details that NKP Platform Applications, such as Grafana Logging, Grafana Loki, and Project Logging, are deployed to Kubernetes clusters to provide monitoring and logging capabilities. To ensure these components are automatically deployed to new workload clusters in a workspace, the administrator must enable them in the Application section under the workspace configuration in the NKP UI.

The course explains that the Application section allows administrators to select and configure platform applications that should be applied to all clusters within a workspace. By enabling Grafana Logging, Grafana Loki (for log aggregation), and Project Logging (for project-specific log management), these components are automatically deployed as part of the cluster provisioning process. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “To deploy platform applications like Grafana Loki and logging components to new clusters, configure them in the Application section of the workspace settings in the NKP UI.”

Incorrect Options:

A. Enable them in the Insights section under workspace: The Insights section is for analytics and monitoring dashboards, not for deploying logging components.

B. Enable them in the Projects section under workspace: Projects are sub-divisions within workspaces for resource allocation, not for configuring platform applications.

C. Enable them in the Clusters section under workspace: The Clusters section is for managing cluster settings, not for enabling platform applications.