Free Nutanix NCM-MCI Exam Actual Questions & Explanations

Here is the step-by-step solution to correct the API payload and deploy the VM.

This task is performed using the REST API Explorer within Prism Central.

1. Get Required UUIDs

To create a VM, you first need the unique IDs (UUIDs) for the target cluster and network.

From the Prism Central dashboard, click the question mark (?) icon in the top-right corner and select REST API Explorer.

Find Cluster 1 UUID:

In the API Explorer, search for and select the clusters/list (POST) endpoint.

In the Body field, paste a simple filter: { 'kind': 'cluster' }

Click Send.

In the 'Response' body, find the entry for Cluster 1 and copy its metadata.uuid value.

Find default-net UUID:

Search for and select the subnets/list (POST) endpoint.

In the Body field, paste: { 'kind': 'subnet' }

Click Send.

In the 'Response' body, find the entry where spec.name is default-net and copy its metadata.uuid value.

2. Correct the API Payload File

The error message ''metadata' is a required property' and ''spec' is a required property' indicates the JSON in the file is malformed and missing the required root-level objects. The file content also does not match the VM specifications.

On the desktop, open API_Create_VM.txt in Notepad.

Delete all existing text in the file (including the POST Call and Body: lines).

Paste the following corrected and complete JSON payload into the file.

Replace <UUID_for_Cluster_1> and <UUID_for_default-net> with the actual UUIDs you copied in the previous step.

JSON

{

'spec': {

'name': 'API_VM_Task15',

'resources': {

'power_state': 'OFF',

'num_sockets': 2,

'num_vcpus_per_socket': 1,

'memory_size_mib': 8192,

'disk_list': [

{

'disk_size_mib': 51200,

'device_properties': {

'device_type': 'DISK'

}

}

],

'nic_list': [

{

'subnet_reference': {

'kind': 'subnet',

'uuid': '<UUID_for_default-net>'

}

}

],

'guest_customization': {

'is_overridable': true,

'override_branding': true

}

},

'cluster_reference': {

'kind': 'cluster',

'uuid': '<UUID_for_Cluster_1>'

}

},

'metadata': {

'kind': 'vm'

}

}

Save and close the API_Create_VM.txt file.

Correction Summary:

JSON Structure: The original file was malformed. The new payload provides the required spec and metadata objects at the root level.

vCPUs: Set to 2 sockets (2 vCPUs total).

Memory: Set to 8192 MiB (8 GB).

Disk: Set to 51200 MiB (50 GB) and removed the unneeded CDROM.

Cluster/Network: Placeholders are added for the required UUIDs.

Branding: guest_customization.override_branding: true is added to disable branding for the VM.

3. Deploy the VM via API

Return to the REST API Explorer.

Search for and select the vms (POST) endpoint (the one with the description 'Create a new vm').

Open the corrected API_Create_VM.txt file, copy its entire contents (which now includes your specific UUIDs).

Paste the complete JSON payload into the Body field of the vms (POST) endpoint.

Click Send.

The API will return a 202 Accepted response, and the VM will be created (and remain powered off) on Cluster 1.

To create a report named Weekends that meets the requirements, you can follow these steps:

Log in to Prism Central and click on Entities on the left menu.

Select Virtual Machines from the drop-down menu and click on Create Report.

Enter Weekends as the report name and a description if required. Click Next.

Under the Custom Views section, select Data Table. Click Next.

Under the Entity Type option, select Cluster. Click Next.

Under the Custom Columns option, add the following variable: CPU Usage (%). Click Next.

Under the Aggregation option for CPU Usage (%), select Max. Click Next.

Under the Filter option, select Current Cluster from the drop-down menu. Click Next.

Click on Add to add this custom view to your report. Click Next.

Under the Custom Views section, select Data Table again. Click Next.

Under the Entity Type option, select VM. Click Next.

Under the Custom Columns option, add the following variables: Name, I/O Read Latency (ms), VM Ready Time (%). Click Next.

Under the Aggregation option for I/O Read Latency (ms) and VM Ready Time (%), select Max. Click Next.

Under the Filter option, enter ORA* in the Name field. This will include any future VM with the prefix ORA. Click Next.

Click on Add to add this custom view to your report. Click Next.

Under the Report Settings option, select Weekly from the Schedule drop-down menu and choose Sunday as the day of week. Enter 12:00 AM as the time of day. Enter [email protected] as the Email Recipient. Select CSV as the Report Output Format. Click Next.

Review the report details and click Finish.

Here is the step-by-step solution to apply the security requirements to Cluster 2.

1. Access Cluster 2 Prism Element

First, we must access the Prism Element (PE) interface for Cluster 2, as most security settings are cluster-specific.

From the Prism Central dashboard, navigate to Hardware > Clusters.

Find Cluster 2 in the list and click its name. This will open the Prism Element login page for that specific cluster in a new tab.

Log in to Cluster 2's Prism Element using the admin credentials.

2. Requirement: Update Node Root Password

This task syncs the root password for all AHV hypervisor nodes with the cluster's admin user password.

In the Cluster 2 PE interface, click the gear icon (Settings) in the top right corner.

Select Cluster Lockdown from the left-hand menu.

Click the Set Root Password on All Hosts button.

A dialog box will appear. Enter the current admin password (the one you just used to log in) into both the New Password and Confirm New Password fields.

Click Save. This will propagate the admin password to the root user on all nodes in Cluster 2.

3. Requirement: Add CVM SSH Key

This task adds the security team's public key to the admin user, which is required before we can disable password-based login.

On the desktop, navigate to the Files > SSH folder.

Open the id_rsa.pub file (or equivalent public key file) with Notepad.

Copy the entire string of text (e.g., ssh-rsa AAAA...).

In the Cluster 2 PE interface, go to Settings (gear icon) > User Management.

Select the admin user and click Modify User.

Paste the copied public key into the Public Keys text box.

Click Save.

4. Requirement: Apply SCMA Policies (All other requirements)

The remaining requirements are all applied via the command line on a CVM using Nutanix's Security Configuration Management Automation (SCMA).

Access the CVM:

Find a CVM IP for Cluster 2 by going to Hardware > CVMs in the PE interface.

Open an SSH client (like PuTTY) and connect to that CVM's IP address.

Log in with the username admin and the corresponding password.

Output Current Policy (Req 2):

Before making changes, run the following command to see the current policy:

ncli scma status

Copy the entire output from your SSH terminal.

Open Notepad on the desktop, paste the copied text, and Save the file to the desktop as output.txt.

Apply New Policies (Req 3, 4, 5):

Run the following commands one by one. The cluster will apply them immediately without a reboot.

Enable AIDE (Req 3):

ncli scma update aide-status=enabled aide-schedule=weekly

Enable High-Strength Passwords (Req 4):

ncli scma update password-policy=high

Require SSH Keys for CVMs (Req 5):

ncli scma update ssh-login=keys-only

Verification

You can verify all changes by running the status command again. The output should now reflect the new, hardened security posture.

ncli scma status

AIDE Status: should show Enabled

AIDE Schedule: should show Weekly

Password Policy: should show High

SSH Login: should show keys-only

To configure the storage for the Citrix-based VDI, you can follow these steps:

Log in to Prism Central using the credentials provided.

Go to Storage > Storage Pools and click on Create Storage Pool.

Enter a name for the new storage pool, such as VDI_Storage_Pool, and select the disks to include in the pool. You can choose any combination of SSDs and HDDs, but for optimal performance, you may prefer to use more SSDs than HDDs.

Click Save to create the storage pool.

Go to Storage > Containers and click on Create Container.

Enter a name for the new container for the non-persistent pool, such as MCS_Pool_Container, and select the storage pool that you just created, VDI_Storage_Pool, as the source.

Under Advanced Settings, enable Deduplication and Compression to reduce the storage footprint of the non-persistent desktops. You can also enable Erasure Coding if you have enough nodes in your cluster and want to save more space. These settings will help you optimize the storage capacity for the non-persistent pool.

Click Save to create the container.

Go to Storage > Containers and click on Create Container again.

Enter a name for the new container for the persistent pool, such as Persist_Pool_Container, and select the same storage pool, VDI_Storage_Pool, as the source.

Under Advanced Settings, enable Capacity Reservation and enter 20 GiB as the reserved capacity. This will guarantee that 20 GiB of space is always available for the persistent desktops. You can also enter 100 GiB as the advertised capacity to limit the maximum space that this container can use. These settings will help you control the storage allocation for the persistent pool.

Click Save to create the container.

Go to Storage > Datastores and click on Create Datastore.

Enter a name for the new datastore for the non-persistent pool, such as MCS_Pool_Datastore, and select NFS as the datastore type. Select the container that you just created, MCS_Pool_Container, as the source.

Click Save to create the datastore.

Go to Storage > Datastores and click on Create Datastore again.

Enter a name for the new datastore for the persistent pool, such as Persist_Pool_Datastore, and select NFS as the datastore type. Select the container that you just created, Persist_Pool_Container, as the source.

Click Save to create the datastore.

The datastores will be automatically mounted on all nodes in the cluster. You can verify this by going to Storage > Datastores and clicking on each datastore. You should see all nodes listed under Hosts.

You can now use Citrix Studio to create your VDI pools using MCS or full clones on these datastores. For more information on how to use Citrix Studio with Nutanix Acropolis, see Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on Nutanix or Nutanix virtualization environments.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/solutions/details?targetId=BP-2079-Citrix-Virtual-Apps-and-Desktops:bp-nutanix-storage-configuration.html

To correct the issue of cluster services down on Controller VM (35.197.75.196) in the least disruptive manner, you need to do the following steps:

Log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to the Alerts page and click on the alert to see more details.

You will see which cluster services are down on the Controller VM. For example, it could be cassandra, curator, stargate, etc.

To start the cluster services, you need to SSH to the Controller VM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the Controller VM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.

Once you are logged in to the Controller VM, run the command:

cluster status | grep -v UP

This will show you which services are down on the Controller VM.

To start the cluster services, run the command:

cluster start

This will start all the cluster services on the Controller VM.

To verify that the cluster services are running, run the command:

cluster status | grep -v UP

This should show no output, indicating that all services are up.

To clear the alert, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.

To meet the security requirements for cluster level security, you need to do the following steps:

To update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the node using the root user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the node. You will need the IP address and the password of the root user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\root.txt.

Once you are logged in to the node, run the command:

passwd

This will prompt you to enter a new password for the root user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.

To update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM to match the admin user password, you need to SSH to the CVM using the nutanix user credentials. You can use any SSH client such as PuTTY or Windows PowerShell to connect to the CVM. You will need the IP address and the password of the nutanix user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\nutanix.txt.

Once you are logged in to the CVM, run the command:

passwd

This will prompt you to enter a new password for the nutanix user. Enter the same password as the admin user, which you can find in Desktop\Files\SSH\admin.txt.

To resolve the alert that is being reported, go back to Prism Element and click on Resolve in the Alerts page.

To output the cluster-wide configuration of SCMA policy to Desktop\Files\output.txt before changes are made, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > SCMA Policy and click on View Policy Details. This will show you the current settings of SCMA policy for each entity type.

Copy and paste these settings into a new text file named Desktop\Files\output.txt.

To enable AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > AIDE Configuration and click on Enable AIDE. This will enable AIDE to monitor file system changes on all CVMs and nodes in the cluster.

Select Weekly as the frequency of AIDE scans and click Save.

To enable high-strength password policies for the cluster, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > Password Policy and click on Edit Policy. This will allow you to modify the password policy settings for each entity type.

For each entity type (Admin User, Console User, CVM User, and Host User), select High Strength as the password policy level and click Save.

To ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords, you need to log in to Prism Element using the admin user credentials.

Go to Security > Cluster Lockdown and click on Configure Lockdown. This will allow you to manage SSH access settings for the cluster.

Uncheck Enable Remote Login with Password. This will disable password-based SSH access to the cluster.

Click New Public Key and enter a name for the key and paste the public key value from Desktop\Files\SSH\id_rsa.pub. This will add a public key for key-based SSH access to the cluster.

Click Save and Apply Lockdown. This will apply the changes and ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords.

Part1

Enter CVM ssh and execute:

cluster status | grep -v UP

cluster start

If there are issues starting some services, check the following:

Check if the node is in maintenance mode by running the ncli host ls command on the CVM. Verify if the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to False for the node where the services are down. If the parameter Under Maintenance Mode is set to True, remove the node from maintenance mode by running the following command:

nutanix@cvm$ ncli host edit id=<host id> enable-maintenance-mode=false

You can determine the host ID by using ncli host ls.

See the troubleshooting topics related to failed cluster services in the Advanced Administration Guide available from the Nutanix Portal's Software Documentation page. (Use the filters to search for the guide for your AOS version). These topics have information about common and AOS-specific logs, such as Stargate, Cassandra, and other modules.

Check for any latest FATALs for the service that is down. The following command prints all the FATALs for a CVM. Run this command on all CVMs.

nutanix@cvm$ for i in `svmips`; do echo 'CVM: $i'; ssh $i 'ls -ltr /home/nutanix/data/logs/*.FATAL'; done

NCC Health Check: cluster_services_down_check (nutanix.com)

Part2

Update the default password for the root user on the node to match the admin user password

echo -e 'CHANGING ALL AHV HOST ROOT PASSWORDS.\nPlease input new password: '; read -rs password1; echo 'Confirm new password: '; read -rs password2; if [ '$password1' == '$password2' ]; then for host in $(hostips); do echo Host $host; echo $password1 | ssh root@$host 'passwd --stdin root'; done; else echo 'The passwords do not match'; fi

Update the default password for the nutanix user on the CVM

sudo passwd nutanix

Output the cluster-wide configuration of the SCMA policy

ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config

Output Example:

nutanix@NTNX-372a19a3-A-CVM:10.35.150.184:~$ ncli cluster get-hypervisor-security-config

Enable Aide : false

Enable Core : false

Enable High Strength P... : false

Enable Banner : false

Schedule : DAILY

Enable iTLB Multihit M... : false

Enable the Advance intrusion Detection Environment (AIDE) to run on a weekly basis for the cluster.

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-aide=true

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params schedule=weekly

Enable high-strength password policies for the cluster.

ncli cluster edit-hypervisor-security-params enable-high-strength-password=true

Ensure CVMs require SSH keys for login instead of passwords

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA0600000008gb3CAA