NCP-MCA flashcards
NCP-MCA · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Prism Central vs Prism Element
- Prism Central is the multi-cluster management plane hosting automation (Playbooks, Runbooks, X-Play, Calm); Prism Element manages a single cluster. Automation objects are created and scoped in Prism Central.
- Categories vs projects
- Categories are key-value labels driving policy and placement (AppType, Environment); projects scope RBAC, quotas, and which blueprints and environments a team may consume. Both are governance axes in Prism Central.
- Playbook versus Runbook
- A Playbook is event- or alert-triggered remediation; a Runbook is a manually or scheduled orchestrated procedure not requiring an alert source. Both execute ordered tasks against registered endpoints.
- X-Play automation anatomy
- An X-Play automation has a trigger (manual, alert, event, schedule, webhook), optional decision steps, and actions such as REST API calls, scripts, or Playbook and Runbook invocations.
- Calm blueprint definition
- A Calm blueprint is a declarative application model describing services, dependencies, substrate (AHV or VMware), variables, profiles, and lifecycle actions such as create, start, stop, and delete.
- Endpoint registration requirement
- Actions target registered endpoints (Prism Element, Prism Central, or third-party systems). An unregistered or disconnected endpoint causes execution-time failure, not design-time failure, so validate connectivity first.
- Prism Central RBAC roles
- Roles such as Super Admin, Prism Admin, Project Admin, Developer, Consumer, and Viewer determine which automation objects a user can create, run, or view within a project scope.
- Playbook trigger types
- Alert-based triggers fire when a matching alert is raised, event-based triggers react to audit or event streams, and manual triggers run on demand against selected entities.
- Alert trigger matching
- A Playbook alert trigger fires only when the incoming alert matches all configured criteria, including alert policy and entity scope. Partial matches do not execute the Playbook.
- Approval action behavior
- An approval action pauses the Playbook until a user holding the appropriate project role approves or rejects. Rejection terminates the run and is recorded in run history.
- Playbook action ordering
- Playbook actions run sequentially by default. A failed action stops the run unless the Playbook is designed to continue, so order destructive steps after verification steps.
- Playbook run history
- Run history shows per-action status (success, failed, skipped), timestamps, and output. It is the primary artifact for diagnosing why a Playbook did not remediate as intended.
- Playbook entity context
- Playbooks operate on entities discovered by Prism Central, such as VMs, hosts, clusters, and disks. Entity context is passed into actions so scripts can reference the affected object.
- Narrow trigger scoping
- Scoping alert triggers narrowly avoids alert storms that launch many Playbook runs at once. Broad triggers can overwhelm endpoints and cause execution failures or duplicate remediation.
- Calm lifecycle actions
- Blueprint lifecycle actions include create (deploy), start, stop, restart, delete, and custom actions. Each can be scripted and bound at the VM or service level.
- Calm profiles
- Profiles override blueprint defaults per environment, for example dev versus prod CPU, memory, network, and credentials, without editing the base blueprint definition.
- Calm variables and secrets
- Variables have types including string, integer, credential, and secret. Secrets are masked in the UI and logs, so credentials should never be hard-coded in blueprint scripts.
- Marketplace publishing
- Marketplace items are published blueprints. Publishing requires a valid blueprint and project permissions; consumers then deploy approved blueprints from the Marketplace within their project.
- Self-Service quotas
- NCM Self-Service lets end users provision approved blueprints within project quotas. Quota enforcement blocks deployments that exceed project limits before provisioning begins.
- Blueprint validation failures
- Blueprint validation runs before deployment. Common failures include missing variables, invalid substrate references, and dependency cycles between services in the application model.
- Application lifecycle states
- Application states progress through provisioning, running, stopped, and deleted. Delete actions should clean up dependent resources such as disks and IPs to avoid orphans.
- Runbook task types
- Runbook tasks include script execution via an execution environment, REST API calls, approvals, conditional branching, and Playbook invocations. Task output can feed subsequent tasks through variables.
- Runbook scheduling
- Runbooks run manually or on cron-like schedules configured in Prism Central. Schedules use the Prism Central timezone, which must be verified before relying on scheduled execution.
- Runbook exit codes
- Runbook run history captures task-level logs and exit codes. A non-zero exit code marks the task failed and stops execution unless the Runbook is configured to continue.
- Execution environment reachability
- Script tasks require a reachable execution environment with valid credentials and installed runtimes. Unreachable endpoints or invalid credentials cause task failure at runtime.
- Runbook orchestration role
- Runbooks serve as orchestration for multi-step operational procedures, while X-Play automations are the reusable unit of action. Runbooks may call X-Play automations to reuse logic.
- Nutanix API versioning
- Nutanix REST APIs are versioned v1, v2, v3, and v4. Prism Central v3 commonly uses POST /api/nutanix/v3/<resource>/list with a JSON body specifying kind and filter.
- v3 update semantics
- In Nutanix v3 APIs, updating an object with POST to /{uuid} requires resending the full spec. GET retrieves a single object; DELETE removes it by UUID.
- API pagination and backoff
- v3 list APIs return metadata including length and offset. Loop with increasing offset for large result sets and add retry with backoff when receiving HTTP 429 responses.
- CLI tool selection
- ncli targets Prism Element, acli covers AHV host and VM operations, and the nutanix CLI wraps Prism Central v3 and v4 APIs. Choose the tool matching the target scope.
- Troubleshooting with Tasks and Audit
- Automation troubleshooting starts with the Tasks view for per-action status and the Audit Trail for who, what, and when. Inspect the first failing step, its output, and exit code.
- Automation RBAC and governance
- Verify the automation service account holds the role required for the target project and object. Project-scoped roles do not grant cluster-wide access, and least privilege should be enforced.