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Exam Information
Official specifications published by Dell
Exam Format
Registration
Skills this practice test covers
- Identify Unity XT hardware components and explain how UnityVSA runs as software-defined storage.
- Install and initialize a Unity XT system and deploy a UnityVSA virtual machine on VMware ESXi.
- Create dynamic and traditional pools, then provision LUNs, file systems and VMware datastores.
- Give hosts access to block storage and give SMB and NFS clients access to file storage.
- Configure FAST Cache, FAST VP, Data Reduction and File-level Retention on the right resources.
- Create snapshots and set up synchronous and asynchronous replication sessions.
Explore related topics
D-UN-DY-23 exam content
6 domains · 22 topics · 238 questions
Dell Unity Platform Concepts, Features, and Architecture20 questions
This domain is the base for the rest of the exam. Candidates describe what the Unity platform does, how UnityVSA delivers it as a virtual machine, and which hardware parts make up a Unity XT system.
Skills tested
- Describe the roles of the Storage Processors, the DPE and the DAEs in a Unity XT system.
- Explain the difference between UnityVSA Community Edition, Professional Edition and UnityVSA HA.
- List the main Unity features for block, file and VMware storage.
Questions by topic
- Describe the Dell Unity VSA software defined storage solution4
- Identify the Dell Unity XT hardware components10
- Describe the Dell Unity platform architecture, features, and functions6
Dell Unity XT and UnityVSA Installation and Service22 questions
Candidates bring a new system online and keep it serviceable. The tasks run from first discovery and the initial setup wizard to the service functions an engineer uses after deployment.
Skills tested
- Assign the management IP address of a new Unity XT system with the Connection Utility.
- Complete the Initial Configuration Wizard at the first Unisphere login.
- Deploy UnityVSA on a VMware ESXi host and initialize it.
- Identify the service tasks and service commands used for diagnostics and recovery.
Questions by topic
- Deploy and initialize a Dell UnityVSA system7
- Perform key service tasks and identify related resources7
- Install and initialize a Dell Unity XT storage system7
- Describe the Dell Unity Platform service functions1
Dell Unity XT and UnityVSA System Administration18 questions
This smaller domain covers the tools used to manage a Unity system and the settings made after installation. It includes the management interfaces, support settings and basic system settings.
Skills tested
- Compare Unisphere, Unisphere CLI (uemcli) and the REST API as ways to manage a system.
- Configure support settings and basic system settings for administration.
- Manage user accounts and roles for system access.
Questions by topic
- Identify and describe the user interfaces for monitoring and managing the Dell Unity family of storage systems8
- Configure the Dell Unity XT support and basic system settings for system administration10
Dell Unity XT and UnityVSA Storage Provisioning and Access62 questions
Here candidates turn raw drives into storage that hosts can use. They build pools, provision block, file and VMware storage, and give each kind of client access to it.
Skills tested
- Choose between a dynamic pool and a traditional pool, and plan its RAID width and spare space.
- Expand a dynamic pool and explain what happens during a drive rebuild.
- Provision LUNs, consistency groups, NAS servers, file systems and VMFS, NFS or vVols datastores.
- Configure host access to LUNs, and SMB share and NFS share access for NAS clients.
- Connect VMware ESXi hosts to Unity datastores.
Questions by topic
- Provision block, file and VMware datastore storage17
- Configure NAS client access to SMB and NFS file storage resources15
- Configure VMware ESXi hosts to access VMware datastore storage resources9
- Describe dynamic pool expansion, considerations for mixing drive sizes and the rebuild process9
- Configure host access to block storage resources7
- Describe dynamic and traditional storage pools and how they are provisioned5
Storage Efficiency, Scalability, and Performance Features56 questions
This domain asks which feature solves which problem and where each feature is allowed. Candidates describe and configure FAST Cache, FAST VP, Data Reduction and File-level Retention.
Skills tested
- Configure FAST Cache on SAS Flash drives in a hybrid system.
- Set a FAST VP tiering policy and schedule data relocation.
- Turn on Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication for thin resources, and use LUN Move for existing data.
- Choose FLR-E or FLR-C for a file system and set its retention period.
Questions by topic
- Describe and configure Data Reduction15
- Describe and configure FAST VP14
- Describe and configure File Level Retention14
- Describe and configure FAST Cache13
Data Protection and Mobility60 questions
Candidates protect data with point-in-time copies and remote copies. They create snapshots, choose a replication mode, and build replication sessions between Unity systems.
Skills tested
- Create snapshots manually and with a protection schedule.
- Create a thin clone from a LUN snapshot.
- Set up a replication connection and replication interfaces between two systems.
- Create synchronous and asynchronous replication sessions and choose an RPO.
Questions by topic
- Create synchronous and asynchronous replication sessions for storage resources16
- Descibe the Replication data protection feature24
- Describe the Snapshots data protection feature and snapshot creation20
Requirements
- No formal prerequisites: anyone can book the exam.
- Recommended: hands-on experience with Dell Unity products, the recommended Dell training, or both.
About the D-UN-DY-23 exam
D-UN-DY-23 checks whether an engineer can install a Dell Unity XT array or a UnityVSA system and make its storage ready for use. Dell's exam covers the platform architecture, installation and service, system administration, storage provisioning, efficiency features and data protection. Provisioning, efficiency and protection are the three largest domains, and each carries a quarter of the exam. Passing earns the Dell Unity Deploy 2023 certification.
The PlanetCert practice test spends most of its questions on pools, host and NAS access, FAST Cache, FAST VP, Data Reduction, snapshots and replication. Each explanation says why a setting fits or does not fit. For example, FAST Cache works only on hybrid systems, so an All-Flash answer is wrong. Study Mode suits the pool and replication questions, where one small detail changes the answer. Brainy AI Assistant can compare synchronous and asynchronous replication, or explain why a dynamic pool rebuilds faster than a pool with hot spares.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- Dell Unity Deploy 2023
How to prepare for D-UN-DY-23
- 1
Stand up a UnityVSA lab
Deploy UnityVSA Community Edition on an ESXi host. It gives a working Unisphere for most provisioning, efficiency and replication tasks without array hardware.
- 2
Walk through a first install
Follow the Unity XT installation steps on paper: discovery with the Connection Utility, the first Unisphere login and the Initial Configuration Wizard. Learn the main hardware parts by name.
- 3
Build pools and share storage
Storage Provisioning and Access is one of the three largest domains. Create LUNs for a host, a NAS server with SMB and NFS shares, and a VMware datastore, and note what each one needs first.
- 4
Map each feature to its limits
Make a table for FAST Cache, FAST VP, Data Reduction and File-level Retention: what it does, which systems and resources allow it, and which license or setting it depends on.
- 5
Replicate, then test in timed runs
Create snapshots and both kinds of replication session in the lab. Then work through the PlanetCert practice test domain by domain in Study Mode, and finish with a full run in Timed Mode.
Start a timed D-UN-DY-23run
Who D-UN-DY-23 is for
- Implementation engineers who install Unity XT arrays at customer sites.
- Storage administrators who deploy UnityVSA on VMware ESXi.
- Partner and services staff who set up block, file and VMware storage on Unity systems.
Typical job titles: Storage implementation engineer · Storage administrator · Systems engineer · Data center engineer · Infrastructure engineer
D-UN-DY-23 glossary
20 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Advanced Deduplication
- A deeper form of deduplication that stores identical blocks once; Data Reduction must be on first.
- Asynchronous replication
- Replication that updates the remote copy at a set interval, so some recent data can be lost after a failure.
- Connection Utility
- A Windows tool that finds a new Unity system on the network and gives it a management IP address.
- Data Reduction
- A setting that saves space on thin resources by compressing data and removing repeated patterns.
- Dynamic pool
- A pool that spreads its RAID groups and spare space across extents on many drives instead of fixed drive sets.
- FAST Cache
- A cache on Flash drives that copies busy data from slower drives, used on hybrid systems.
- FAST VP
- A feature that moves data between drive tiers in a pool, so busy data sits on faster drives.
- File-level Retention (FLR)
- A file system feature that locks files against change or deletion until their retention period ends.
- Initial Configuration Wizard
- The Unisphere wizard that opens at the first login and walks through the basic setup of a new system.
- NAS server
- A virtual file server on a Unity system that holds file systems and shares them over SMB, NFS or both.
- RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
- The largest amount of data loss, measured in time, that is acceptable after a failure.
- Spare space
- Capacity kept free inside a dynamic pool so the data of a failed drive can be rebuilt there.
- Storage Processor (SP)
- One of the two controllers in a Unity system that serve host input and output and run the operating environment.
- Synchronous replication
- Replication that writes every change to the remote system at once, so no committed data is lost.
- Thin clone
- A read and write copy of a LUN made from a snapshot that uses space only for changed data.
- Tiering policy
- The FAST VP setting on each storage resource that decides which tier its data should go to.
- Traditional pool
- A pool built from fixed RAID groups with separate hot spare drives.
- Unisphere
- The web-based interface used to manage and monitor a Unity system.
- UnityVSA
- The software-only version of Dell Unity that runs as a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi host.
- vVols
- VMware Virtual Volumes, a way to store each virtual machine disk as its own object on the array.