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When launching Calm blueprints, there are two view options available: Developer and Consumer. The Developer view allows you to create, edit, and manage blueprints, as well as access advanced features such as macros, actions, and scripts. The Consumer view allows you to launch and manage applications from the Marketplace, as well as access basic features such as variables, tasks, and alerts. The view option is determined by the role assigned to the user in the project. Users with the Project Admin or Project Auditor role can switch between the Developer and Consumer views, while users with the Project User role can only access the Consumer view. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 1 - Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, page 3

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 2 - Nutanix Calm, Lesson 2.1 - Nutanix Calm Overview, page 9

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Introduction to Nutanix Calm, Nutanix Calm User Interface

To update the running configuration for a multi-VM application in AWS using the Manage tab for the application in Calm, the administrator needs to provide the provider information for the AWS account. This includes the access key, secret key, region, and VPC ID. If the provider information is missing, the administrator will not be able to perform any actions on the application from Calm. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 16, section 4.1.1. 

The error message “Authentication by failed” typically indicates an issue with the authentication credentials being used. Since the administrator is using SSH key-based credential to authenticate, it’s essential to ensure that the private key associated with this credential is correct and accessible. If there’s an issue with the private key, such as it being incorrect or inaccessible, authentication will fail. Increasing the retries or modifying the timeout will not help if the credential is invalid. Changing to password authentication credential may work, but it’s not the best option as it may compromise security and require additional configuration. References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 3 - Validate Blueprints, Runbooks, Playbooks, and Automation Settings, page 2

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 5 - X-Play, Lesson 5.2 - Credential Management, page 7

Nutanix Calm User Guide, Credential Management, SSH Key-Based Authentication

Categories are a way of organizing and managing resources in Nutanix Calm. Categories can be used to define access policies, filter resources, and group applications. By assigning new VMs to a category, the administrator can grant access to the OS Team based on their Active Directory Group membership. The OS Team can then use the web SSH console to access the Linux VMs from the Calm UI.

References:

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Categories”

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Accessing the Web SSH Console”

Nutanix Command Line Interface | Nutanix Community, section “SSH to any CVM as a nutanix user and type ncli and hit return to enter the ncli command shell and will be the same process for acli.”

Nutanix Support & Insights, section “Customizing a Linux VM with Cloud-Init”

 The Developer role is the most appropriate role for the end user who needs to modify the blueprints for the project. The Developer role allows the user to create, edit, and delete blueprints and runbooks within the project, as well as launch and manage applications from the Marketplace. The Developer role does not have the privileges to create or manage projects, users, roles, or categories, which are reserved for the Project Admin role. The Consumer role only allows the user to launch and manage applications from the Marketplace, but not to modify the blueprints or runbooks. The Operator role allows the user to monitor and manage the infrastructure and applications within the project, but not to create or edit the blueprints or runbooks.

References:

Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) v6.5, Section 1 - Describe and Differentiate Automation Concepts and Principles, Objective 1.5 - Identify the capabilities of Projects

Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), Module 3 - Self-Service Projects, Lesson 3.1 - Project Roles and Permissions

Autopilot is a feature of Nutanix Calm that allows the administrator to automate the execution of playbooks based on predefined conditions or triggers. Autopilot can optimize the performance, availability, and cost of applications by applying the appropriate actions in response to events or metrics. Before configuring autopilot, the administrator must be aware of the following limitations12:

Autopilot never waits for approvals. This means that the administrator must ensure that the playbooks are tested and verified before enabling autopilot. Autopilot will execute the playbooks without any human intervention or confirmation.

Autopilot feature only applies to metric-based alerts as triggers. This means that the administrator can only use metrics from the Nutanix Prism Central or the Nutanix Karbon clusters as the conditions for triggering the playbooks. Autopilot does not support other types of triggers such as schedules, webhooks, or manual triggers. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 10; Nutanix Calm SaaS User Guide, section 4.3.

The Calm Marketplace acts as an application store, providing end users with a catalog of available applications. By default, Calm comes pre-seeded with validated Blueprints for multiple open source and enterprise applications. These are the set of pre-seeded application Blueprints. Additionally, Marketplace Manager acts as a staging area for publishing default and user-created Blueprints to your local Marketplace. These are the published and versioned Blueprints. The other two options, library of executable tasks and store of all Blueprints created in Calm, are not features of the Calm Marketplace. References: Calm: Marketplace - Read the Docs and Calm: Marketplace - Read the Docs

To share a Runbook across projects in Nutanix Calm, it should be published to the Calm Marketplace. The Calm Marketplace allows administrators to publish and share blueprints, runbooks, and other resources, making them available for use across different projects within the organization.

References:

Nutanix Calm documentation on Marketplace Publishing.

Nutanix Best Practices for Sharing Runbooks.

 A Playbook is a set of actions that are triggered by an event or a schedule. To run a Playbook, it must be enabled first. If a Playbook is not enabled, it will not respond to any events or schedules, and no Plays will be recorded for it. Therefore, the most likely cause of the issue is that the administrator forgot to enable the Playbook after building it. References: Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA) Exam Blueprint Guide, page 13, section 3.2. Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA) course, module 4, lesson 2.

A provider is a configuration that allows Nutanix Calm to interact with a public cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP. A provider contains the credentials, settings, and policies required to deploy and manage VMs on the public cloud. Before creating a blueprint for a new public cloud environment, the administrator should create a new provider for AWS and specify the region, access key, secret key, and other parameters. This will enable the administrator to select the AWS provider as the deployment location for the blueprint and configure the VM attributes accordingly. References: Nutanix Multicloud Automation Administration (NMCAA), page 15; Nutanix Certified Professional - Multicloud Automation (NCP-MCA), section 2.