Nutanix Certified Professional (NCP) NCP-CN Nutanix Study Notes

The NKPA course explains that NKP supports auto-scaling for clusters using Cluster API (CAPI), which manages the lifecycle of Kubernetes nodes. When auto-scaling is enabled, NKP monitors cluster workloads and automatically adjusts the number of nodes based on demand. The behavior involvesCAPI creating or deleting nodesas needed to scale the cluster up or down, ensuring optimal resource utilization.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “NKP auto-scaling uses Cluster API to dynamically create or delete nodes in response to workload demands, ensuring the cluster scales efficiently.” For example, if the workload increases, CAPI provisions additional worker nodes; if demand decreases, CAPI deletes nodes to reduce costs.

Incorrect Options:

A. CPU is hot-added or hot-removed: Hot-adding/removing CPU is not a Kubernetes auto-scaling behavior; scaling involves adding/removing nodes.

B. Memory is hot-added or hot-removed: Similar to CPU, memory scaling at the node level is not supported in this context.

C. Power-On Status/Mode of a node is changed: Auto-scaling does not involve changing node power states; it adds or removes nodes.

The exhibit shows the NKP UI with the "Create Cluster" option grayed out in a new workspace, indicating that a prerequisite for cluster creation is missing. The NKPA course explains that to create a new Kubernetes cluster in a workspace, anInfrastructure Providermust be configured for that workspace. An Infrastructure Provider defines the underlying infrastructure (e.g., Nutanix AHV, AWS, vSphere) where the cluster will be provisioned, and without it, the Create Cluster option remains disabled in the UI.

The NKP Ultimate license supports creating clusters across various infrastructures, but the workspace must be associated with an Infrastructure Provider to enable cluster creation. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “Before creating a cluster in a new workspace, ensure an Infrastructure Provider is configured for the workspace in the NKP UI; otherwise, the Create Cluster option will be grayed out.” The engineer should navigate to the Infrastructure Providers section in the NKP UI (typically under the Global or Administration view), create a provider (e.g., for Nutanix AHV, AWS, or vSphere), and associate it with the workspace. Once this is done, the Create Cluster option will become available.

Incorrect Options:

A. Create the cluster only using YAML and not the GUI: The issue is not with the GUI itself but with the missing Infrastructure Provider, which affects both GUI and CLI cluster creation. YAML alone does not resolve this.

B. Attach existing clusters instead of creating a new cluster: Attaching existing clusters is an alternative but does not address the requirement to create a new cluster.

D. Ensure NKP is upgraded to a minimum version of 2.12: The NKP Ultimate license implies a recent version, and the course does not indicate that version 2.12 is specifically required for this functionality. The issue is configuration-related, not version-related.

When an Amazon EKS cluster is attached to NKP for fleet management, NKP uses GitOps principles, leveragingFlux(a GitOps operator) to synchronize application deployments and configurations from a management Git repository to the attached cluster. The NKPA course explains that detaching a cluster from NKP removes it from the NKP management plane, but the Flux installation on the cluster may continue to reconcile with the Git repository, causing application changes to persist post-detachment.

To resolve this, the engineer must manually disconnect the Flux installation by suspending the Git repository reconciliation. The correct command, as per the NKPA course, is: kubectl -n kommmander-flux patch gitrepo management -p '{"spec":{"suspend":true}}' --type merge. This command suspends Flux’s synchronization with the management Git repository, stopping further application updates. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “After detaching an external cluster from NKP, the Flux GitOps operator may continue to apply changes unless its GitRepo resource is suspended using kubectl patch in the kommmander-flux namespace.”

Incorrect Options:

A. Forcefully detach EKS cluster: The --force flag is not a standard option for the nkp detach cluster command, and forceful detachment does not address the Flux reconciliation issue.

B. Detached cluster must also be deleted from NKP: The cluster is already detached, and deletion is not necessary to stop GitOps updates. The issue lies with Flux, not NKP’s state.

C. Developers must have some bad configuration: The issue is not with developer configurations but with Flux’s ongoing synchronization, as explained in the NKPA course.

Attaching an existing Amazon EKS cluster to NKP for fleet management involves integrating the cluster into NKP’s management plane, which requires specific preparatory steps. The NKPA course outlines that the first step is tocreate a service account with cluster-admin permissionsin the EKS cluster. This service account is used by NKP to authenticate and manage the cluster, enabling operations like monitoring, scaling, and application deployment.

The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide explains: “To attach an external Kubernetes cluster, such as Amazon EKS, to NKP, a service account with cluster-admin role bindings must be created to allow NKP to interact with the cluster’s API server.” The service account is configured with a token that NKP uses to authenticate requests. The NKPA course provides detailed steps, including creating the service account, assigning the cluster-admin ClusterRole, and generating a token for NKP integration. This step is critical to ensure NKP has the necessary permissions to manage the EKS cluster.

Incorrect Options:

A. Configure a ConfigMap according to EKS configuration: While ConfigMaps may be used for specific configurations, they are not the first step for attaching an EKS cluster. The NKPA course prioritizes service account creation.

C. Configure HAProxy to get connected to EKS clusters: HAProxy is a load balancer, not required for attaching EKS clusters to NKP. EKS uses AWS-native load balancers, and NKP connects via the Kubernetes API.

D. Deploy cert-manager in the EKS clusters: Cert-manager is used for certificate management, not a prerequisite for attaching EKS clusters. The NKPA course does not list it as a required step.