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What’s new at Nutanix University? Updated certifications NCP-US and NCP-DB, and beta exams opportunities

The year begins with the updated Nutanix certifications! Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US) and Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Management (NCP-DB) were updated to version 6.10.

Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US) – certification related to the Nutanix Storage Services: Files, Objects, and Volumes. Blueprint Guide;
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Management (NCP-DB) – as you can guess from the name, the certification is all about Nutanix Database Services (former ERA). Blueprint Guide.

As usual, both exams are in a beta state and available totally free for the first 250 participants; just use the discounts during checkout: NCPDB610BETA for NCP-DB and NCPUS610BETA for NCP-US exam. You can find those certifications on the PSI cert lists. The last test date to test is March 2, 2025.

Along with the certifications, two courses were updated, and you should use them during preparation:
Nutanix Unified Storage Administration (NUSA);
Nutanix Database Management & Automation (NDMA).

Both courses are available for free at Nutanix University.

What’s new at Nutanix University? New certification NCP-CN and beta exams opportunities

Nutanix released a new anticipated training and certification related to the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform, or NKP.

First, the new course, Nutanix Kubernetes Platform Administration (NKPA), is available for free online at Nutanix University! The course is based on AOS 6.10, Prism Central 2024.2, and Nutanix Kubernetes Platform 2.12, and teaches you how to deploy, configure, and manage the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP).

New certification Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Native (NCP-CN) developed to test your abilities in deploying, managing, and troubleshooting NKP.

For now, the certification is in a beta state and available totally free for the first 250 participants, just use the discount during checkout: NCPCN610BETA. You can find this certification on the PSI certs lists. The first test date is January 28, 2025, and you have time to prepare. The last test date is March 10, 2025.

Keep in mind, that during the beta state, you won’t get your results immediately after completing the exam. Usually, it takes a month or two after beta is over, and I can guess that the results of the exam could be at the end of April or in May.

Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 (NCP-MCI 6.10) Exam

I see that many people are interested in taking the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 exam, so I decided to revamp my previous guide based on version 6.5.

This guide describes the methodology I am using in preparing for certification exams, and it could be used for other Nutanix exams as well.

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)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Database Automation (NCP-DB)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Unified Storage (NCP-US)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA)
Nutanix Certified Professional – End User Computing (NCP-EUC)
Nutanix Certified Professional – Cloud Integration (NCP-CI)

In this article, we will look at the main topics from the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI) exam version 6.10, and I will also share materials, that you can use to prepare yourself.

Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Associate 6.10 (NCA 6.10) Exam

I see that many people are interested in taking the Nutanix Certified Associate 6.10 exam, so I decided to revamp my previous guide based on version 6.5.

This guide describes the methodology I am using in preparing for certification exams, and it could be used for other Nutanix exams as well.

Nutanix Certified Associate is the first step in the Nutanix certification track. This is an entry-level exam that tests knowledge of general Nutanix theory, basic cluster management skills, and an understanding of the Prism interface.

Below, I will share my experience of passing the Nutanix Certified Associate exam version 6.10 and also leave some tips for self-preparation.

Nutanix AOS 7.0 and AHV 10.0 release

New major versions of Nutanix AOS and AHV were released with a lot of new features. In addition to those major releases, a new version of Prism Central pc.2024.3 was also released.

AOS 7.0:

Cloud KMS support;
Optionally Disable CPU Hotplug on VMs – Check the documentation, and why it can be important;
Optionally Disable the SCSI Controller on VMs;
NVMe Software Serviceability;
One Node and One Disk (1N&1D) Cluster Fault Tolerance – I recommend to read more about this feature in the documentation;
Increased Maximum Supported Memory on AHV Hosts up to 8TB – By the way, you can find configuration maximums here;
Centralized Password Management for AHV System Accounts;
WSL2 Intra-Cluster Live Migration Support;
Support for Skylake server on ESXi 8.0 Update 3;
Support for Storage Policy for Volume Groups on ESXi.

AHV 10.0:

Added Support for the Intel Saphhire Rapids CPU instructions;
Semantic Versioning format for AHV;
PCIe Passthrough for Guest VMs;
Change Interface Ring Buffer Size on AHV;
Support of Repair Host Boot Disk and SS Repair functionality in Prism Element for Compute-Only and Storage-Only nodes;
Support for boot device order configuration from aCLI;
Support for NVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU card;
Support for NVIDIA H100 NVL GPU card.

Although both releases include a bunch of resolved issues.

Read release notes for AOS 7.0 here and for AHV 10.0 here (Requires authentication).

Prism Central pc.2024.3:

VM-VM Anti-Affinity Policies in Prism Central;
Multiple Cluster Configuration Through Prism Central;
Support for Flow Network Security Next-Gen with vLAN Policy Scope in Nutanix Disaster Recovery;
Cloud KMS Support;
Revamped Tasks Dashboard;
Centralized Password Management for AHV System Accounts;
Metro Availability with Nutanix Witness Service out of the Prism Central Instance: Automated Recovery of VMs and Volume Groups on Cluster Failure Across Prism Central Instances;
Multicloud Snapshot Technology (MST) DR with Zero Compute Deployment;
Node Maintenance Mode Management from Prism Central;
Protection and Recovery Scale Improvements for Nutanix Disaster Recovery;
Support for Flow Network Security Next-Gen in Nutanix Disaster Recovery ;(Clusters Registered to the Same Prism Central Instance)
Cisco Intersight Device Connector Integration;
Objects Lite;
Registration Dependency Removed Between Prism Central and the Hosting Cluster for Services Enablement;
Microservices Infrastructure Cluster Upgrade.

Read Prism Central pc.2024.3 release notes here.

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention the release type, STS or LTS. This is because the release model since AOS 7.0 has been changed and is now called the Unified ‘NCI Release Model’.

And this is not just a naming change, I recommend reading more here.

With the beginning of AOS 7.0, the new support cycle for release is 15 months of maintenance from GA, followed by 9 months of Support and we can expect two Unified releases per year.

Please note, that AOS 6.8 (eSTS) and AOS 6.10 (LTS) are under the Legacy Release Model and the End of Maintenance (EOM) and End of Support Life (EOSL) for AOS 6.10.x and pc.2024.2.x have been extended to align with the new NCI Release Model.

What’s new at Nutanix University? Free NCA 6.10 and NCP-MCI 6.10 exams opportunities

Update: this promotion is finished.

Free Nutanix exams again? – YES!

About a month ago I wrote about two new Nutanix exams:
Nutanix Certified Associate 6.10 (NCA 6.10). Blueprint guide;
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI 6.10). Blueprint guide.

Both exams are based on the recently released 6.10 LTS version of AOS.

Today both exams go live and are available to schedule with appointments starting December 10.

The good news is that you can take both exams for free, just register until December 13.

Use those discounts during checkout:
NCA 6.10 Discount Code: NXFRNCA24
NCP-MCI 6.10 Discount Code: NXFRNCP24

Recommended free online courses for preparing:
Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals (NHCF) and Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA).

Let me remind you that on this blog I have two prep guides for both NCA and NCP exams:
Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Associate 6.10 (NCA 6.10) Exam
Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.10 (NCP-MCI 6.10) Exam

What’s new at Nutanix University? Free NCA 6.10 and NCP-MCI 6.10 beta exams opportunities

Great news from Nutanix University!

Two new beta exams are available for scheduling:
Nutanix Certified Associate 6.10 (NCA 6.10) Beta exam. Blueprint guide;
Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI 6.10) Beta exam. Blueprint guide.

Both exams are based on the recently released 6.10 LTS version of AOS.

If you don’t know, Nutanix offers beta exams for free, and the first 250 participants can take the exam at no charge! Just use those discounts during checkout:
NCA 6.10 Beta Exam Discount Code: NCA610BETA
NCP-MCI 6.10 Beta Exam Discount Code: NCPMCI610BETA

The main difference between a beta exam and a regular one is that the beta exam is larger. It includes more questions and you need more time to complete it. The time limit for NCA 6.10 beta is 120 minutes and for NCP-MCI 6.10 beta is 180 minutes.

The deadline is November 3, and this is the last day to test.

Also, one thing to mention, is that you will not get your results immediately! Usually, it can take two or even three months after the deadline, so be patient.

Recommended free online courses for preparing:
Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Fundamentals (NHCF) and Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA).

Let me remind you that on this blog I have two prep guides for both NCA and NCP exams:
Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Associate 6.5 Exam
Preparing for the Nutanix Certified Professional – Multicloud Infrastructure 6.5 Exam

Both guides are based on version 6.5, but if you use the same documentation and courses based on the new version, you will be fine.

Using Nutanix Prism Central Categories with Veeam Backup 12.2

Categories (in other systems they can be called labels or tags) are used to group entities based on a key-value pairing. For example, we can group a set of VMs and mark them as production environments and apply some policies, while another part of VMs will be marked as tests with a different type of policy applied.

With the release of Veeam Backup 12.2 and the added Prism Central integration, VBR is now aware of Prism Central Categories and can back up all VMs under the specified category in a backup job.

In this article, we will look at how to create a category in Prism Central, how to attach it to the VM, and, sure, how to use VBR with categories.

Veeam Backup 12.2 and Nutanix Prism Central integration

With the release of 12.2, Veeam introduced a new long-awaited feature: Nutanix Prism Central integration, which simplifies the management of large Nutanix clusters, managed by Prism Central instance.

In this article, we will look at how to connect the VBR Server to the Prism Central Instance and perform backup and recovery tasks.

Deploying Prism Central on Nutanix Community Edition 2.1 using offline bundle

Sometimes deploying Prism Central using an Internet connection is not an option, or a specific version may not be available. In this case, we can download PC deployment files from the Support Portal and deploy it using the Prism Central 1-click deploy from Prism Element method.

In this article, we will look at how to deploy a PC using an offline bundle.