Dell PowerScale Design v2 Free Sample Questions

Description

Covers gathering customer requirements, PowerScale solution and networking design, OneFS architecture and SmartConnect, data protection and security governance, and performance monitoring.

12 free sample questions150 in the full practice test

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D-PSC-DS-01 Sample Questions

  1. Question 1

    Intermediate

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · Requirements discovery and workload characterization

    An architect is sizing a new PowerScale solution for a healthcare customer. The workload consists of a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The customer has 4 PB of existing image data that is rarely accessed after 90 days, but they generate about 5 TB of new, highly active data daily that requires sub-millisecond latency for immediate physician review. Which node architecture best meets these requirements while optimizing for cost?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    This is the optimal design. The highly active new data requiring sub-millisecond latency is best suited for F-series (all-flash) nodes. The massive 4 PB of rarely accessed data is best suited for A-series (archive) nodes to keep costs down. SmartPools is the OneFS feature that automates the tiering of this data based on age or access patterns.

  2. Question 2

    Advanced

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · Requirements discovery and workload characterization

    A financial analytics firm is planning to migrate their high-frequency trading data analysis workload to Dell PowerScale. The workload profile shows a massive amount of small files (average size 4KB to 8KB) that are heavily metadata-driven. Which architectural consideration is most critical when sizing the PowerScale cluster for this specific workload?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: A

    In OneFS, files smaller than 128KB (depending on protection level and node pool) are typically mirrored rather than FEC striped. This means a 4KB file with 3x mirroring takes 12KB of raw space, plus 8KB of inode metadata (which is also mirrored). Therefore, small file workloads require significantly more raw capacity per logical terabyte than large file workloads.

  3. Question 3

    Beginner

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · PowerScale use-case identification

    A media and entertainment company requires a storage solution for 8K video rendering. They need a system capable of extreme sequential throughput to feed their render farm. Which PowerScale node family is specifically engineered and best suited as the active tier for this unstructured data use case?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    The F-series (All-Flash) nodes are designed for extreme performance, delivering the massive sequential throughput and low latency required for demanding workloads like 8K video rendering, HPC, and AI/Analytics.

  4. Question 4

    Beginner

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · PowerScale use-case identification

    True or False: When discovering customer requirements for a PowerScale deployment, a transactional SQL database requiring low-latency block-level storage (iSCSI/Fibre Channel) is considered a primary and highly recommended use case for OneFS.

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    False. PowerScale/OneFS is a scale-out NAS designed for unstructured data (file and object workloads) using protocols like SMB, NFS, S3, and HDFS. It does not provide block-level storage (iSCSI or Fibre Channel), making it unsuitable for traditional transactional SQL databases requiring block storage.

  5. Question 5

    IntermediateMultiple answers

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · Requirements discovery and workload characterization

    You are leading a discovery workshop with an enterprise customer. They have an existing NAS environment with 200 distinct departments. The IT director states, 'We need to migrate to PowerScale, but we must ensure that no single department can consume more than their allocated 10 TB of storage, and we need daily reports on their usage.' Which two OneFS software features must be included in your solution design to meet these requirements? (Select TWO)

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answers: B, C

    SmartQuotas is required to enforce the 10 TB hard limit per department (directory, user, or group quotas). InsightIQ (or DataIQ/CloudIQ) is required to generate the daily usage reports the IT director requested.

  6. Question 6

    Advanced

    Discover Customer Infrastructure and Requirements · PowerScale use-case identification

    A university research department needs a storage solution for genomic sequencing. The workflow involves instruments writing small sequence files continuously, followed by an immediate assembly phase requiring massive read throughput, and finally long-term retention of the assembled genomes for 10 years. Which combination of features and node types provides the most optimal end-to-end design?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    This is the classic genomics workflow design. F-series (all-flash) handles the high IOPS of ingest and the massive read throughput of assembly. A-series (archive) provides deep, cost-effective storage for the 10-year retention. SmartPools automates the lifecycle movement between these tiers within the single namespace.

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