Cisco and NetApp Certified FlexPod Design Specialist Practice Test

Skills this practice test covers

• Choose Cisco UCS servers, Nexus switches and NetApp storage to fit a described customer workload.
• Size a FlexPod design for capacity, performance, high availability and disaster recovery.
• Plan vPC pairs, VLANs and jumbo frames from the fabric interconnects to the storage controllers.
• Separate tenants with ONTAP storage virtual machines and VLAN and VRF boundaries.
• Confirm supported components in the NetApp IMT and the Cisco UCS Hardware Compatibility List.
• Trace a fault across compute, network and storage with Cisco Intersight and NetApp Active IQ.

4 domains · 15 topics · 150 of 353 questions are written for NS0-177

Requirements

• No formal prerequisites: anyone can book the exam.
• Recommended: six to 12 months of field work with the tools and standards for assessing FlexPod performance and requirements.
• Recommended: knowledge of the Cisco and NetApp hardware in a FlexPod and how it is chosen for a customer's requirements.

About the NS0-177 exam

How to earn the certification

Earns

Cisco and NetApp Certified FlexPod Design SpecialistSpecialist

The certification stays valid for two years and expires unless it is renewed.

After

• NS0-176 Cisco and NetApp FlexPod Implementation and Administration

  The companion FlexPod exam, on deploying and running the systems that the design exam plans.

How to prepare for NS0-177

1. 1

   Read one FlexPod CVD end to end

   Pick a FlexPod Datacenter design from the Cisco Validated Designs and follow how compute, network and storage connect. Note why it picks each component, because the FlexPod Design domain asks for the same reasoning.

2. 2

   Size a FlexPod for one workload

   Write down a sample workload's capacity, performance and availability needs. Then choose UCS servers, Nexus switches and an AFF or FAS system, with headroom for peak load and a disaster recovery plan.

3. 3

   Draw the network from server to storage

   Sketch the fabric interconnects, the Nexus vPC pair and the ONTAP controllers with every VLAN and storage path. Mark which links carry iSCSI, NFS or FC traffic and where jumbo frames must match.

4. 4

   Check parts in the support matrices

   Look up one ONTAP release, one UCS server and one host operating system in the NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool and the Cisco UCS Hardware Compatibility List. Note which resource answers which support question.

5. 5

   Time a full run, then review misses

   Take the NS0-177 practice test in Timed Mode, then rework the missed security and troubleshooting questions in Study Mode. Ask Brainy AI Assistant to trace one fault from the servers through the network to storage.

   Start a timed NS0-177run

Who NS0-177 is for

• Solutions architects who plan FlexPod systems around a customer's workloads and growth.
• Pre-sales engineers who turn a customer's requirements into a FlexPod bill of materials.
• Data center engineers who own the network or storage side of a FlexPod and want the whole-stack view.

Typical job titles: Solutions architect · Data center architect · Pre-sales systems engineer · Converged infrastructure engineer · Storage architect

NS0-177 glossary

16 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.

Cisco Intersight

Cisco's cloud-based service for managing, monitoring and updating UCS servers and other data center infrastructure.

Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect

The Cisco device that connects UCS servers to the LAN and the SAN and serves as their management point.

Cisco UCS Hardware Compatibility List

Cisco's list of the operating systems, adapters and drivers that each UCS server model supports.

FlexPod Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs)

Tested reference designs from Cisco and NetApp that describe how to build and configure a FlexPod for a given use.

FlexPod Cooperative Support

The joint support model in which Cisco and NetApp work on a FlexPod problem together, whichever vendor the customer calls first.

FlexPod Datacenter

The main FlexPod design for data centers, built from Cisco UCS servers, Cisco Nexus switches and NetApp ONTAP storage.

FlexPod Express

A smaller FlexPod design for small and midsize sites, such as a remote or branch office.

jumbo frames

Ethernet frames larger than the standard size, often used for storage traffic. Every device on the path must accept the same size.

NetApp Active IQ Unified Manager

NetApp's software for monitoring the health, capacity and performance of ONTAP clusters.

NetApp AutoSupport

An ONTAP feature that sends system health and configuration data to NetApp, where it feeds Active IQ and support cases.

NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT)

NetApp's online tool that shows which product versions, such as ONTAP releases, host operating systems and adapters, are supported together.

NetApp ONTAP Storage Virtual Machines

Separate virtual storage servers inside one ONTAP cluster, each with its own data, network addresses and administrators.

RADIUS/TACACS+

Protocols that check administrator logins against a central server instead of separate local accounts on each device.

RBAC

Role-based access control: each administrator gets a role that permits only the tasks the job needs.

Secure multi-tenancy (SMT)

A design in which several tenants share one FlexPod while their compute, network and storage resources stay isolated.

virtual Port Channel (vPC)

A Cisco Nexus feature that lets a device's links to two switches act as one port channel, so traffic keeps flowing if one switch fails.