Nutanix Certified Professional is the second stage in the Nutanix certification track. This certification requires the candidate to have good theoretical and practical knowledge of working with Nutanix solutions and is divided into several tracks:
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) v6.5
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Automation (NCP-DB) v6.5
Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US) v6.5
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5
Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC) v6
Update: I have a new guide based on version 6.10.
In this article we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) exam version 6.5, and I will also share materials, that you can use to prepare yourself.
Briefly about the exam and the passing procedure:
The exam is a test consisting of 75 questions. 120 minutes of time are given for answers. The maximum number of points that can be scored in the exam is 6000. The passing score is 3000. Questions have different weights, which means that simply answering half of them may not be enough.
The cost of the exam is $199, but very often you can get a promo code for a 50% or even 100% discount, so you should stay tuned for news on next.nutanix.com, as well as follow the Nutanix University Twitter account.
You can take the exam either at the PSI test center or online.
Since I took the exam online, I will briefly describe the requirements:
- You must have a document confirming your identity. The first and last name must be in Latin;
- Having a computer/laptop with a webcam and microphone is mandatory;
- Stable Internet connection;
- There should be nothing unnecessary in the room, especially behind the workplace where the exam is being taken. Preferably, a completely free table with only a keyboard and mouse. Additional displays, TVs, etc. will need to be turned off;
- Of course, there should be no one in the room and it should be quiet.
Let’s move on to preparation:
When preparing for any exam, you should begin by studying the official document that lists the topics that will be covered in the exam.
The Blueprint Guide for the NCP-MCI 6.5 exam can be found here.
In addition to the topics that will appear on the exam, Blueprint provides a list of recommended documents for preparing for each topic, as well as general preparation guidelines.
Nutanix recommends taking this exam to specialists with at least two years of experience in IT infrastructure maintenance and at least one year of experience working with Nutanix solutions, in particular.
The candidate must be well-versed in configuring clusters, support, and maintenance. Skills in identifying faults and troubleshooting are also required.
Let’s look at the sections from Blueprint:
Section 1. – Manage Cluster, Nodes, and Features
- Perform initial cluster configuration tasks – checking the status of the cluster using NCC, Cluster IP, and Data Services IP, licensing;
- Manage supporting infrastructure tasks – Setting up NTP, SMTP, DNS, connecting to AD and LDAP, installing SSL certificates, setting up authentication;
- Upgrade the platform using Life Cycle Manager – everything related to the procedure for updating clusters using LCM;
- Maintain a Nutanix cluster – Cluster management. Checking status, stopping, and starting. Adding and removing nodes in a cluster. License renewal. Security. Redundancy and Replication Factor configuration, understanding how it works in the context of block and rack awareness;
- Manage user roles and permissions – role configuration and access control in Prism Central and Prism Element.
Section 2. – Manage Cluster Storage
- Describe Nutanix storage concepts – Everything related to data storage in Nutanix. Storage Containers, Volume Groups, how data replication works in a cluster, fault tolerance, encryption;
- Configure Nutanix storage optimization features – Deduplication, compression, Erasure-Coding, and basic requirements for use.
Section 3. – Configure Cluster Networking and Network Security
- Deploy and configure networking – creating networks and configuring IPAM;
- Describe Nutanix networking concepts – general theory, network segmentation, methods for balancing network traffic;
- Given a scenario, troubleshoot basic cluster networking – detecting and troubleshooting network problems. Using ethtool and Open vSwitch management commands.
Section 4. – Analyze and Remediate Performance Issues
- Determine how to use reporting tools – workspace and widgets where to obtain information and statistics. Generating reports;
- Given a scenario, determine which metrics and entities are relevant – Obtaining the necessary information about performance and errors. Metric and Entity Chart. Alerts, Analysis, Health Dashboards;
- Given a scenario, interpret anomaly detection events – Anomaly Detection functionality in Prism Central and how it works;
- Determine how to resolve a performance issue – solving performance problems in various situations;
- Identify VM inefficiencies – Bully VMs, Over-Provisioned VMs, Inactive VMs in Prism Central.
Section 5. – Configure, Analyze, and Remediate Alerts and Events
- Configure Remote Syslog Server settings – logging and sending logs using rsyslog;
- Identify common Nutanix services – what services run in the Nutanix cluster and what are they responsible for (Cassandra, Curator, Stargate, etc.)? How to find logs for a specific service;
- Configure Nutanix alert policies – configure event notification policies.
Section 6. – Manage VM Deployment and Configuration
- Create, modify, and optimize VMs and their components – creation and management of virtual machines;
- Manage the image service – management of templates, images, and image placement policies;
- Describe VM storage policies – Configuring Storage Policies and applying them to virtual machines;
- Manage VM placement options – How Affinity and Anti-Affinity policies work. Placing virtual machines with GPU in a cluster. Live migration. High availability. How does resource reservation for HA work?
More details on all topics can be found in the Blueprint Guide. Also, in this guide, under each topic there is a list of documents recommended for review.
Having understood the list of topics, you can build a preparation plan for the exam.
Online courses:
The main course that covers most of the exam is Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA). And I recommend starting your preparation for the exam with this.
The course is available online absolutely free of charge at Nutanix University.
Literature:
Nutanix Bible is the most important source of information about Nutanix.
If reading this book was more of a recommendation for the NCA exam, in this case it is a mandatory item. The book covers most, if not all, points that you should know when preparing for the exam.
The book has been translated into several languages, but the most relevant information always appears first in the English version and it is recommended to read it.
Official documentation:
Again, this was more of a recommendation for the NCA exam, but when preparing for the NCP-MCI exam, I recommend reading some of the documents. By the way, they are often referred to in the Blueprint guide.
AHV Administration Guide – The main document covering the issues of administering Nutanix clusters;
Security Guide – Document dedicated to security;
Prism Central Guide – A document describing work in Prism Central;
Prism Web Console Guide – Working in the Prism Web interface.
The last two documents are quite lengthy, so I recommend that you read only necessary topics where you feel a lack of knowledge.
Video:
For those who like to learn through video, I can recommend visiting the Nutanix University YouTube channel, where you can find many videos on all sorts of topics. There are also thematic playlists here.
One of these playlists was compiled specifically for preparing for the exam and is called NCP-MCI Certification Exam Prep.
Practice:
The best recommendation to practice without damaging a productive cluster is Nutanix Community Edition (Nutanix CE). You can even deploy Nutanix CE on a virtual machine; it’s not difficult and absolutely free. Just recently, CE was updated to version 2.0, which corresponds to Nutanix AOS 6.5 and is just right for preparing for the exam.
With one or even multiple Nutanix CE clusters, you can practice virtually every aspect of cluster management, including Prism Central, data protection, replication, and backup.
Let me remind you that I have an article on my website on how to deploy Nutanix Community Edition 2.0 in a VMware vSphere environment (You need to use Google Translate here).
Check of knowledge:
A great way to test your knowledge and understand the gaps is to take the NCP-MCI practice exam on the Nutanix University portal.
The questions in the exam are as close as possible to the real ones and will help you understand your weaknesses before the exam, and you will have time to master those areas.
Also, the Nutanix University Twitter account publishes questions from the NCP-MCI exam once a week under the tag #WarmupWednesday. By the way, for correct answers you can win souvenirs.
As a conclusion:
When studying, I strongly recommend writing down what you didn’t know before in a special cheat sheet. This will help you quickly repeat what you need the day before the exam and refresh your memory.
I wish everyone good luck. I hope someone may find this material useful in their preparation.
