NCP-MCA study plan

Map the Prism Central automation surface: identify where Playbooks, Runbooks, Calm blueprints, and X-Play live in the UI and which objects each one operates on

Define the core Playbook vocabulary in your own notes: trigger, condition, action, execution target, and approval step

Compare event-driven Playbook execution against scheduled Runbook execution and list two scenarios where each is the correct choice

Sketch the anatomy of a Playbook (trigger, conditions, actions, error handling) on one page without consulting documentation

Enumerate the trigger categories available to Playbooks and describe what event data each supplies to downstream actions

Build a Playbook that reacts to a VM lifecycle event and performs at least two sequential actions, including one conditional branch

Add an approval step or manual gate to the Playbook and verify the run pauses and resumes correctly

Test failure behavior by forcing an action to fail and recording what the execution log shows

Decompose a Calm blueprint into its parts: project, environment, service, profile, and action

Create a single-VM blueprint with a package install action and deploy it end to end in a sandbox project

Trace how a blueprint deployment action can be invoked from a Playbook and note the required identifiers

Document the variable and credential handling used in your blueprint so secrets are not hard-coded

Build a multi-service blueprint with at least two services and an explicit dependency between them

Configure a deployment profile that differs from the default (for example, alternate network or credential) and deploy against it

Implement a lifecycle action that runs only on a specific operation such as stop or delete

Explain how projects and role-based access scope who can deploy and manage the blueprint

Perform a blueprint version update on an existing deployment and record what changes propagate versus what requires redeploy

Create a Runbook that executes a multi-step operational task across several VMs with a defined execution order

Add conditional logic and a failure path to the Runbook so a failed step halts or branches as intended

Compare Runbook task types and select the correct one for a shell command, an API call, and a manual approval

Write an X-Play script that calls a REST endpoint and parses the response into a usable variable

Invoke the same REST operation from the CLI and from within a Playbook action, noting differences in authentication and output handling

Build a Runbook that calls a script and passes its output to a later step

Document the credential and secret handling model used across scripts, REST calls, and CLI invocations

Configure audit and execution logging review so you can locate the record of a specific automation run

Diagnose a deliberately broken Playbook or Runbook by reading its execution log and identifying the failing step

Define two governance controls (for example, approval requirements or scoped projects) and apply one to an existing automation

List the metrics or alerts you would watch to detect automation failures before users report them

Re-run one Playbook, one blueprint deployment, and one Runbook from a clean state to confirm reproducibility

Complete a timed set of practice questions weighted toward Playbooks and Calm and review every miss against source documentation

Build a one-page decision guide for choosing Playbook, Runbook, blueprint, or X-Play for a given requirement

Close remaining gaps by re-testing the two weakest objectives identified in practice