Free Practice Questions for Nutanix NCP-DB Exam

To assign the minimum permissions required for provisioning new databases in an NDB deployment, the IT manager should assign the Database Administrator role. This role provides the necessary privileges to provision, configure, and manage database instances within NDB, including creating new databases using software profiles and registering database servers. It is designed for database-specific tasks without granting broader infrastructure or administrative control, making it the least privileged role suited for this purpose.

Other options exceed the minimum requirements:

A. Infrastructure Administrator: Manages cluster infrastructure (e.g., storage, networking), which is more than needed for database provisioning.

B. Super Administrator: Grants full control over NDB, including user management and system configuration, far beyond provisioning.

C. Database Infrastructure Administrator: Includes infrastructure management in addition to database tasks, exceeding the minimum scope.

Thus, the verified answer is D, aligning with the principle of least privilege.

Official Nutanix Database Automation References

Nutanix Database Management & Automation (NDMA) course, Module 1: Introduction to NDB, Lesson 1.4: Managing Users and Roles.

Nutanix Certified Professional - Database Automation (NCP-DB) v6.5 Knowledge Objectives, Section 1: Understand NDB Basics, Objective 1.3: Manage User Permissions (applicable to v6.10).

Nutanix NDB Administration Guide: "Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)" section, detailing Database Administrator role.

For an NDB offline upgrade, you need to download the upgrade bundle from the Nutanix Support Portal and copy it to the NDB server. Then, you need to use the NDB CLI command upload upgrade_bundle with the path parameter to specify the location of the upgrade bundle file. This command will upload the upgrade bundle to the NDB server and verify its integrity. After uploading the upgrade bundle, you can use the upgrade command to perform the upgrade. References: Nutanix Support & Insights, Cisco Nexus Data Broker Deployment Guide, Release 3.10.x

Point in Time Recovery (PITR) is a feature of NDB that allows restoring a database to any point in time within the retention period of the SLA. To enable PITR, the SLA must support Continuous Log retention, which means that NDB captures and stores the database logs continuously. This allows NDB to replay the logs from the last snapshot to the desired point in time during the restore process. The other options do not enable PITR, but rather affect the frequency and timing of the snapshots and log catch up operations.

References: Nutanix Support & Insights, section “NDB Time Machine Point in Time Recovery”

To migrate an existing Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) database to NDB, the recommended approach is to:

Provision a new database server VM and database: Use the NDB interface to provision a new VM and configure an MSSQL database instance on the Nutanix platform. This leverages NDB’s automated provisioning capabilities to ensure compatibility with Nutanix infrastructure.

Migrate the data: Transfer the data from the existing MSSQL database to the newly provisioned database. This can be achieved using native MSSQL tools (e.g., backup/restore, log shipping, or replication) or NDB’s data migration features, such as cloning or restoring from a backup, depending on the source environment.

Other options are incorrect or incomplete:

A. Use Nutanix Move to migrate the database server VM: Nutanix Move is designed for VM migration between platforms, not for database-specific migrations within NDB, which requires data migration to a new instance.

C. Create a new database server VM and database then register it with NDB: Registering an existing VM with NDB does not handle data migration from the source MSSQL database.

D. Backup your database VM and import it into Nutanix: Backing up the entire VM and importing it does not integrate the database with NDB’s management framework, and data migration would still be required separately.

Thus, the verified answer is B, providing a structured migration process tailored to NDB’s capabilities.

Official Nutanix Database Automation References

Nutanix Database Management & Automation (NDMA) course, Module 3: Managing Database Instances, Lesson 3.5: Migrating Databases to NDB.

Nutanix Certified Professional - Database Automation (NCP-DB) v6.5 Knowledge Objectives, Section 3: Manage NDB Solutions, Objective 3.4: Migrate Databases (applicable to v6.10).

Nutanix NDB Administration Guide: "Migrating MSSQL Databases to NDB" section, outlining provisioning and data migration steps.

 NDB HA is a feature that provides high availability and resilience for the NDB service and its components. NDB HA creates a cluster of API server VMs, repository VMs, and HAProxy VMs across multiple Nutanix clusters. Each component has a leader and a set of followers that are synchronized and can take over the leader role in case of a failure. NDB HA also monitors the health and status of the NDB components and performs automatic failover and recovery actions when possible. However, some failure scenarios may require manual intervention from the administrator to restore the NDB service. One such scenario is when more than one API server VM is down. The API server VMs are responsible for handling the requests from the NDB UI and CLI, as well as communicating with the repository VMs and the HAProxy VMs. If more than one API server VM is down, the NDB service may become unavailable or unstable, and the administrator will need to manually restart or redeploy the affected API server VMs. The other options do not require manual interaction for the recovery, as NDB HA can handle them automatically. If one repository VM is down, NDB HA will fail over to another repository VM that has the latest data. If more than one HAProxy VM is down, NDB HA will route the traffic to the remaining HAProxy VMs. If the NDB server process is down, NDB HA will restart the process or fail over to another API server VM. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Database Automation (NCP-DB) v6.5, Section 2 - Deploy and Configure an NDB Solution, Objective 2.3: Configure NDB High Availability

Nutanix Database Management & Automation (NDMA) Course, Module 3: Nutanix Database Service (NDB) Installation and Configuration, Lesson 3.3: Configuring NDB High Availability, Topic: NDB HA Architecture and Components

Nutanix Support & Insights, RA-2035: Nutanix Database Service High Availability, Section: NDB HA Failure Scenarios and Recovery Actions

To install NDB on a Nutanix AHV cluster, you need to download the QCOW2 image file of NDB from the Nutanix Support Portal and upload it to Prism Element. This image file contains the NDB software and the CentOS operating system. After uploading the image, you need to create a VM from the image and configure the network settings. Then, you need to register the NDB VM with Prism Central and enable the NDB service in the settings menu. References: Nutanix Support & Insights, Professional Services: NDB Database Cloning

When an administrator is asked to add a database to a PostgreSQL instance already managed by NDB, the most appropriate task is to add a new database to the existing source database. In NDB, a PostgreSQL instance refers to a managed database server or cluster, and adding a new database involves creating it within the existing instance using NDB’s database management capabilities. This can be done through the NDB GUI or CLI by selecting the source database and adding the new database, leveraging the current configuration and resources without requiring new VM provisioning.

Option A (Add a new database to a source DB) is correct as it directly addresses adding a database to an existing managed instance.

Option B (Register a new DB VM to add the DB) is incorrect because a new VM registration is unnecessary when the instance is already managed.

Option C (Provision a new DB server VM and add the new DB) is incorrect because provisioning a new VM is overkill for adding a database to an existing instance.

Option D (Update a database clone to add a new DB) is incorrect because clones are read-only copies, not suitable for adding new databases.

This approach ensures efficiency and leverages the existing NDB-managed infrastructure.

References

Nutanix Database Service (NDB) User Guide, Chapter 4: Managing Database Engines, Section: Managing Databases in an Instance

Nutanix Certified Professional - Database Automation (NCP-DB) v6.5 Blueprint, Section 4: Manage Database Engines

NDB sends notifications when alerts are generated via email. The email notifications can be configured to send to one or more recipients, and can be customized to include the alert severity, category, description, and resolution steps. The email notifications help to inform the database administrator and other stakeholders about the status and issues of the NDB-managed databases and operations.

NDB does not send notifications via SNMP, APIs, or Pulse. SNMP is a protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on a network. APIs are interfaces for communicating and exchanging data between different applications or systems. Pulse is a feature of the Nutanix cluster that collects and sends diagnostic and usage data to Nutanix for analysis and support.

References:

Nutanix Database Management & Automation Training Course, Module 3: Nutanix Era Deployment, Lesson 3.2: Nutanix Era Deployment, slide 11.

Nutanix Database Management & Automation Training Course, Module 5: Nutanix Era Operations, Lesson 5.1: Nutanix Era Operations, slide 6.

Nutanix Database Management & Automation Training Course, Module 5: Nutanix Era Operations, Lesson 5.2: Nutanix Era Alerts and Notifications, slides 5-7.