NCP-CI-AWS Questions and Answers

For issues related to cloud hardware support such as EC2 instances, VPC, etc., the public cloud vendor (AWS in this case) should be contacted. AWS provides support and documentation for their infrastructure and services, ensuring that users can get assistance for any hardware or cloud-specific queries.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights

The exhibit shows two cloud accounts, one for Azure and one for AWS, with their statuses indicated. The AWS cloud account status is marked as "U" (which likely stands for "Unavailable" or "Unreachable"). This indicates that the AWS cloud account configuration is not properly connected or accessible.

Status Check:

The AWS cloud account is marked with an "U" status, meaning it is not active or accessible.

This status prevents the creation of an NC2 cluster because the necessary cloud resources cannot be allocated or managed without a proper connection.

Action:

The best course of action is to create a new cloud account in the organization. This involves setting up the cloud account details correctly and ensuring it is properly configured to communicate with Nutanix and AWS.

Steps to Create a New Cloud Account:

Log in to the Nutanix console.

Navigate to the "Organizations" section.

Select "Add Cloud Account" and provide the required AWS credentials and permissions.

Ensure the new cloud account is active and correctly configured.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

Nutanix Best Practices for Cloud Account Management

For VDI workloads that require GPU acceleration, the g4dn.metal nodes are the appropriate choice. These instances are equipped with NVIDIA T4 GPUs, which are well-suited forgraphics-intensive applications such as VDI workloads that need GPU acceleration. Other node types like AN36P, m6g.metal, or AN36 do not provide the necessary GPU capabilities.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights - GPU support in AWS

To allow wide open access to a particular NC2 AWS cluster from an on-premises subnet (10.19.160.0/24), the proper Custom Security Group formatting needs to include the necessary tags that specify the external cluster UUID and the networks allowed.

Custom Security Group Configuration:

The configuration should include tags to identify the cluster and the networks that should be granted access.

Key: nutanix:clusters

Key: nutanix:clusters:external

Value:

Explanation of Choice:

Option Bincludes the necessary tags and values, ensuring that the specific cluster UUID is recognized and the on-premises subnet (10.19.160.0/24) can communicate with the NC2 cluster.

Security Group Tags:

nutanix:clusters:external- Identifies the cluster as external.

nutanix:clusters:external:cluster-uuid- Specifies the unique identifier for the cluster, enabling proper traffic routing and access.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Security Group Documentation

Nutanix Best Practices for Custom Security Group Configuration

When a node is marked as "Condemned," it indicates that the system has determined that the node is no longer reliable for operations. As part of the automated recovery and protection process, the following action is typically taken:

The node has a power reset sent to it (Answer A):

In most cases, a condemned node undergoes a power reset as an initial recovery attempt. This action attempts to reboot the node to bring it back to a healthy state. If the reset fails,further manual or automated steps may be required to address the hardware or software issue.

References:

Nutanix Cluster Management Documentation

Nutanix Support Knowledge Base

When deploying a new NC2 cluster, the AWS Directory Service must be able to resolve the addressgateway-external-api.cloud.nutanix.com.

This external API gateway is critical for the NC2 cluster to communicate with Nutanix services for operations such as management, updates, and licensing.

Ensuring that this address can be resolved allows the cluster to interact properly with the Nutanix cloud infrastructure and services.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on network and DNS requirements for NC2 deployments, specifically the addresses that need to be resolvable for proper functionality.

To ensure that NC2 VMs can access AWS resources without traversing the internet, the administrator can use AWS VPC Peering and Interface Endpoints. Both methods ensure that traffic stays within the AWS network, maintaining security and efficiency.

Interface Endpoint:

Interface Endpoints allow you to privately connect your VPC to supported AWS services. They use AWS PrivateLink to route traffic directly to services within the AWS network, bypassing the public internet.

Steps:

Create an interface endpoint for the required service in the AWS VPC console.

Ensure the security groups and route tables are configured to allow traffic to the interface endpoint.

VPC Peering:

VPC Peering allows the routing of traffic between VPCs using private IP addresses, without the need for internet gateways, NAT devices, or VPN connections.

Steps:

Create a VPC peering connection between the VPCs.

Update the route tables to direct traffic between the peered VPCs.

Ensure security group rules allow the necessary traffic between VPCs.

References:

AWS VPC Peering Documentation

AWS Interface Endpoint Documentation

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

The error message in the image indicates that the cluster creation failed due to reaching the maximum retries for provisioning cluster nodes. Here are two possible scenarios that could lead to this issue:

Insufficient Permissions (Answer B):

If the AWS user or role used to create the cluster does not have sufficient permissions, it can result in failures during the provisioning process. Proper IAM policies must be attached to ensure that the necessary actions can be performed, such as launching instances, creating VPCs, or managing networking components.

AWS Quota Exceeded/Instance Limit Exceeded (Answer D):

AWS imposes quotas and limits on the number of instances and other resources that can be created within an account. If these quotas are exceeded, new instances cannot be provisioned, causing the cluster creation to fail. This can be resolved by requesting a quota increase from AWS.

References:

Nutanix Knowledge Base Article 9774

AWS Service Quotas

Nutanix NC2 on AWS Documentation

The 192.168.5.0/24 range is often reserved for internal cluster communication within Nutanix deployments.

Using this CIDR range for other purposes could lead to network conflicts and connectivity issues, as it might interfere with the internal operations and communication channels of the Nutanix cluster.

Ensuring that the CIDR range is not overlapping with any reserved ranges is crucial for maintaining proper network connectivity and cluster functionality.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on network configuration and best practices for NC2 deployments to confirm reserved IP ranges and their appropriate use.

To ensure that alert emails are sent properly from Prism Central within an NC2 environment, configuring an SMTP server in the Prism Central settings is required. The SMTP server facilitates the sending of email notifications for alerts and other communications.

SMTP Configuration:

Prism Central requires an SMTP server to send email alerts. This involves specifying the SMTP server address, port, and authentication details if needed.

The configuration must include the email address from which the alerts will be sent and the recipient addresses.

Steps to Configure SMTP Server in Prism Central:

Log in to Prism Central.

Navigate to the "Settings" menu.

Select "Email Server" under the "Alerts" section.

Enter the SMTP server details, including the server address, port, and authentication credentials.

Test the configuration to ensure emails are sent correctly.

References:

Nutanix Prism Central Administration Guide

Nutanix Support Documentation on Email Alert Configuration

Best Practices for Configuring SMTP Servers in Cloud Environments

Upon creation, each node within an AWS NC2 cluster has3 Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)volumes attached.

These volumes are used for different purposes, such as operating system storage, Nutanix services, and user data storage.

The number of EBS volumes is designed to ensure adequate storage performance and capacity for the NC2 cluster's operations and workload demands.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on NC2 cluster setup and AWS EBS volume configurations to confirm the details on the number and purpose of EBS volumes attached to each node.

The steps, in order, to recover a cluster protected using the Cluster Protect feature when the Prism Central instance was not on the failed cluster are as follows:

Step 1: Set the cluster to the Failed state using the NC2 console to start the recovery workflow.

Step 2: Redeploy the cluster using the NC2 console.

Step 3: Redeploy the Multicloud Snapshot Technology.

Step 4: Recover UVM data by running CLI commands.

Set the cluster to the Failed state using the NC2 console to start the recovery workflow: This step involves marking the cluster as failed to initiate the recovery process.

Redeploy the cluster using the NC2 console: Once the cluster is marked as failed, the next step is to redeploy it using the tools available in the NC2 console.

Redeploy the Multicloud Snapshot Technology: After the cluster is redeployed, the Multicloud Snapshot Technology needs to be redeployed to ensure data consistency and availability.

Recover UVM data by running CLI commands: The final step is to recover the User VM (UVM) data by executing the necessary CLI commands to restore the data from the snapshots or backups.

References:

Nutanix Documentation on Cluster Protect and Recovery Processes

Nutanix Support & Insights

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

When creating a new NC2 cluster using an existing AWS VPC infrastructure, two private subnets are needed. These subnets are used as follows:

One private subnet for user VMs, which houses the virtual machines that users interact with.

Another private subnet for cluster management, which is used for internal cluster operations and management tasks, ensuring that management traffic is isolated from user traffic for security and performance reasons.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration

When setting up a landing zone for Nutanix clusters on AWS, having only private subnets for cluster management and user VMs is not sufficient for full cluster functionality. Nutanix clusters often need to communicate with the internet for updates, patches, and other cloud services.

VPC Configuration:

The VPC already has two private subnets (one for cluster management and one for user VMs).

Additional Requirements:

To access public services like S3 or for the cluster nodes to reach Nutanix services for updates, a public subnet is essential.

Why Public Subnet for Internet Access?:

A public subnet allows resources within it to communicate directly with the internet, which is necessary for accessing Nutanix's update servers, applying patches, and other maintenance tasks.

This subnet typically includes an internet gateway, enabling instances in the public subnet to receive and send traffic directly to the internet.

References:

Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS Administration Guide

AWS Networking Best Practices

Nutanix Networking and Subnet Configuration Guidelines

To provide VMs with outbound internet connectivity in AWS using a private subnet, the administrator needs to create the following components in the VPC:

Private Subnet: A private subnet is required to house the VMs that need outbound internet access but do not require direct inbound access from the internet.

NAT Gateway: A NAT (Network Address Translation) Gateway is necessary to allow instances in the private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS services while preventing the internet from initiating a connection with those instances.

Public EIP (Elastic IP Address): An EIP is associated with the NAT Gateway to provide a persistent public IP address that allows outbound internet traffic from the private subnet to be routed correctly.

Route Table: A route table is configured to route traffic from the private subnet to the NAT Gateway for outbound internet access.

References:

AWS NAT Gateway Documentation

AWS VPC Subnet Basics

A valid CIDR range: A CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) range is necessary for creating the subnets within the VPC. This range defines the IP address space for the cluster and its components.

A my.nutanix.com account: This account is required to access Nutanix services, including the NC2 console, manage licenses, and perform other administrative tasks.

AWS Direct Connect and an on-premises Prism Central environment are not prerequisites for deploying an NC2 on AWS cluster. While Direct Connect can be used for enhanced network performance and connectivity, it is not a requirement for deployment. Similarly, having an on-premises Prism Central environment is not mandatory for NC2 deployment on AWS.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on NC2 prerequisites and setup guides, and AWS documentation on VPC and subnet creation.

To create a cluster in Nutanix Cloud Integration with AWS, the role needed is Cluster Super Admin.

The Cluster Super Admin role provides the highest level of privileges required to perform critical operations such as creating, managing, and deleting clusters.

This role is essential for overseeing the cluster setup and configuration processes, ensuring the user has full control over the cluster lifecycle.

References:Refer to the Nutanix documentation on roles and permissions for NC2 on AWS for further details on the capabilities and required permissions for cluster creation.