A Platform Engineer manages an NKP environment and is preparing a machine image to become...

The NKPA course details the default node preparation process for NKP cluster nodes, which involves creating a machine image that is compliant with Cluster API (CAPI) standards. The primary tool used in this process isPacker, which automates the creation of machine images by provisioning a base OS image (e.g., Ubuntu or Rocky Linux) with the necessary components for Kubernetes, such as kubeadm, containerd, and other dependencies.

Packer ensures the image is CAPI-compliant by installing the required Kubernetes binaries, configuring the container runtime, and setting up networking and storage components. The Nutanix Cloud Native (NCP-CN) 6.10 Study Guide states: “In the default node preparation process for NKP, Packer is used to build a CAPI-compliant OS image, installing Kubernetes components and dependencies for use as an NKP node.” This process is typically orchestrated by NKP Image Builder (NIB) or Kubernetes Image Builder (KIB), both of which rely on Packer for image creation.

Incorrect Options:

B. Ansible is used to make the OS image CAPI-compliant: Ansible is used by KIB/NIB to apply configurations during the Packer build process, but Packer is the primary tool for creating the image. Ansible alone does not make the image CAPI-compliant.

C. Goss is used to harden the OS image: Goss is a validation tool that can be used for image hardening, but it is not part of the default NKP node preparation process. Hardening is an optional step.

D. Terraform is utilized to clone an existing OS image: Terraform is for infrastructure provisioning, not image creation or cloning. Packer handles image creation in NKP.