NS0-521 Implementation Engineer - SAN ONTAP Exam Question and Answers

To ensure that all network traffic is encrypted for iSCSI on an SVM, configuring IPsec is required. IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) provides end-to-end encryption for IP traffic, ensuring that data transmitted over the network is secure.

For more details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on Configuring IPsec

The vserver nvme namespace convert-from-lun command in a NetApp ASA cluster is used to convert a LUN to an NVMe namespace to increase host performance. This process involves modifying themetadataof the storage object to make it compatible with the NVMe protocol, allowing for faster access and reduced latency​

The feature that enables simultaneous snapshots of multiple LUNs in different volumes isConsistency Groups. This feature ensures that snapshots taken across different LUNs and volumes are consistent with each other, making it possible to recover a consistent state across multiple storage objects.

For further information, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on Consistency Groups

To create a consistent Snapshot copy of a LUN without disruptions, it is necessary to quiesce I/O to the LUN. This process involves pausing or temporarily stopping the input/output operations to ensure that the data is in a consistent state when the snapshot is taken. This method is crucial for maintaining data integrity and consistency in the snapshot.

For further details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on Snapshot Consistency

NetApp Best Practices for Snapshot Management

For automatic host discovery in a four-node NetApp AFF cluster using NVMe/TCP, the protocol used is mDNS (Multicast DNS). mDNS allows for the discovery of controllers and other networked devices without the need for a centralized DNS server, simplifying the setup process in environments that support NVMe over TCP.

For further information, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on NVMe/TCP

NetApp Community on Host Discovery

When using Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), the minimum number of FC switches needed to redundantly attach three ESXi hosts is 2. This setup ensures that each host has multiple paths to the storage, providing high availability and fault tolerance. Each ESXi host should be connected to both switches, allowing for continuous operation even if one switch fails.

For more information, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on FC Switch Configurations

NetApp Community Discussion on Redundant FC Setup

To restore a LUN from a SnapMirror Synchronous destination, the following steps must be taken:

Release the relationship: This step is necessary to break the SnapMirror relationship, allowing the LUN to be restored independently.

Delete the relationship: After releasing the relationship, deleting it ensures that there are no residual dependencies or configurations that might interfere with the restore process.

For more information, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on SnapMirror Synchronous​ (NetApp)​​ (NetApp)​.

When a LUN shows 90% used space in the NetApp ONTAP CLI but a Windows Server shows only 10% used space, the discrepancy is often due to how space allocation is handled between the two systems. Enabling space allocation ensures that the ONTAP system accurately reflects the actual space usage as reported by the host system, in this case, the Windows Server. This adjustment allows ONTAP to reclaim and manage space more effectively, aligning the reported usage between the ONTAP system and the host.

For more information, refer to:

NetApp Community Discussion on Space Allocation

NetApp Documentation on Space Usage

In the scenario where a storage failover is performed on Node 1 in an HA pair, the path marked in the exhibit would becomeActive/Nonoptimized. After the failover, the LIFs from Node 1 that were activeand optimized will switch to Node 2. Paths that were previously optimized will become nonoptimized because they are now served through the partner node.

For more details, see:

NetApp Documentation on ALUA

To verify if jumbo frames have been configured correctly for an iSCSI workload, the command ping -lif -vserver -destination -disallow-fragmentation true -packet-size 9000 should be used. This command tests the network path with the jumbo frame size (9000 bytes) and ensures that the packets are not fragmented, confirming that jumbo frames are supported end-to-end.

For more details, you can check:

NetApp Documentation on iSCSI Configuration

NetApp Community Discussions on Jumbo Frames

To concurrently serve a namespace over NVMe/FC, a LUN over FCP, a LUN over iSCSI, and an NFS export, only one data SVM (Storage Virtual Machine) is required. NetApp ONTAP allows a single SVM to supportmultiple SAN and NAS protocols simultaneously, enabling efficient and consolidated management of storage resources.

For more information, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on SVM Configuration

NetApp SVM Best Practices

When setting up a NetApp ONTAP AFF system for both NVMe/TCP and iSCSI, a critical task required for SAN configuration is to configure Logical Interfaces (LIFs). LIFs are necessary for network connectivity and are used by both NVMe/TCP and iSCSI protocols to communicate between the storage system and the host.

The configuration of LIFs involves creating and managing these interfaces to ensure they are correctly mapped and available for use by the respective protocols. This step is essential for the SAN setup to function properly.

For more detailed steps on configuring LIFs, you can refer to NetApp's documentation:

How to Configure NVMe/TCP with ONTAP​ (NetApp Community)​.

SAN Configuration with ONTAP​ (NetApp)​.

For a two-node cluster serving iSCSI LUNs, it is recommended to createtwo iSCSI LIFs per node. This configuration provides redundancy and load balancing, ensuring that each node can handle failover scenarios effectively and maintain high availability for the iSCSI connections.

For more details, see:

NetApp Documentation on iSCSI LIF Configuration

To enable CHAP (Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication on iSCSI sessions, the command vserver iscsi security create should be used. This command sets up the necessary security policies and passwords required for CHAP authentication, ensuring secure access to iSCSI targets.

For more details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on iSCSI Configuration​ (NetApp)​.

Selective LUN Mapping (SLM) is the feature that presents LUNs only within the HA pair. SLM allows administrators to control which LUNs are visible to which hosts, ensuring that LUNs are only accessible through the designated HA pair, thus improving security and manageability.

For more information, see:

NetApp Documentation on Selective LUN Mapping

NetApp Community on LUN Mapping

To increase security and optimize performance in a SAN deployment, configuring an access list is essential. Access lists restrict initiator access to specific LIFs, ensuring that only authorized hosts can connect to the storage system. This helps in enhancing security by preventing unauthorized access and optimizes performance by controlling and managing the paths used for storage access.

For additional details, you can refer to:

NetApp SAN Administration Guide