NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer - San Ontap Free Sample Questions

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NS0-520 Sample Questions

  1. Question 1

    A solutions architect is designing a new ONTAP SAN for a healthcare provider's VDI environment. The key requirements are predictable low latency and the ability to scale performance and capacity independently. The existing network infrastructure is 10GbE. Which ONTAP SAN protocol and configuration best meet these requirements?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    iSCSI is the optimal choice as it leverages the existing 10GbE infrastructure, reducing costs and complexity. ONTAP QoS policies can be applied at the SVM or LUN level to guarantee performance for the VDI workload, providing predictable low latency. This approach allows for independent scaling of storage performance (by adding more nodes or faster media) and capacity without requiring a separate SAN fabric.

  2. Question 2

    During the initial assessment for a new AFF A400 deployment, the implementation engineer discovers the customer's data center uses a top-of-rack switching design with limited physical rack space. The plan includes both FC and iSCSI connectivity. Which physical connectivity aspect is most critical to validate with the customer's facilities team?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    In a top-of-rack design with limited space, ensuring the correct cable types (e.g., SFP+ DAC for short-run iSCSI, optical for FC) and lengths are available is critical to a smooth installation. Ordering incorrect cables can cause significant delays. While power and cooling are important, cable management and connectivity are often overlooked and are particularly challenging in dense, top-of-rack environments.

  3. Question 3

    Multiple answers

    A customer is migrating from a legacy SAN environment to ONTAP. They want to ensure their host bus adapters (HBAs), FC switch firmware, and guest OS versions are fully supported. Which two NetApp tools should be used to validate the complete I/O path? (Select TWO)

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answers: B, C

    The IMT is the primary tool for verifying end-to-end support for software and firmware components, including HBA drivers, switch firmware, and operating system versions.

    The Hardware Universe is used to validate the compatibility of physical hardware components, such as HBA models, SFPs, and switches, with the NetApp storage controllers.

  4. Question 4

    True or False: When using Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA) with NVMe/FC in ONTAP, all paths to a given namespace are reported to the host as 'Optimized/Active'.

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    This statement is false. Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA) is designed to inform the host about optimal and non-optimal paths. Paths to the node that owns the aggregate where the namespace resides are reported as 'Optimized/Active', while paths to other nodes in the cluster are reported as 'Non-Optimized/Active'. This allows the host's multipathing software to prioritize I/O on the most efficient paths.

  5. Question 5

    A financial institution uses SnapMirror Synchronous (SM-S) to protect a critical database LUN. During a disaster recovery test, the primary site goes offline. What is the state of the LUN on the secondary site, and what action is required to bring it online for host access?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    With SnapMirror Synchronous, the destination LUN is not directly accessible until the relationship is broken. In a disaster recovery scenario where the primary is unavailable, the snapmirror break command must be run on the destination SVM. This action promotes the destination volume to read/write, allowing the LUN to be brought online and mapped to hosts.

  6. Question 6

    An administrator is provisioning a new 5 TB LUN for a VMware datastore. To optimize space savings, they want to use thin provisioning and enable deduplication. What is the correct sequence of operations in ONTAP?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    Storage efficiency features like deduplication and compression are enabled at the FlexVol volume level, not on individual LUNs. To achieve the goal, the administrator must first ensure deduplication is enabled on the volume that will contain the LUN. Then, the LUN should be created with space reservation disabled (-space-reserve disabled), which is how thin provisioning is implemented for a LUN in ONTAP.

  7. Question 7

    An administrator is investigating a performance issue where a Linux host connected via FC is experiencing intermittent high latency. The ONTAP cluster has four nodes. The administrator suspects the host is sending I/O over non-optimal paths. Which ONTAP CLI command would help verify the LUN's logical path and its physical location?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    The lun show command with the -fields node parameter is the most direct way to identify which node currently owns the volume containing the LUN. This information is crucial for determining the optimal I/O paths. If the host is primarily using LIFs on a different node, it indicates a pathing issue that would cause higher latency due to cluster interconnect traffic.

  8. Question 8

    A new iSCSI LIF is created on an ONTAP node, but the host initiator is unable to log in to the target portal. A packet capture on the host shows it is sending discovery requests, but no response is received from the storage. The LIF can be pinged from the host. What is the most likely cause of this issue?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    Since the LIF is reachable via ping (ICMP), basic network connectivity is confirmed. However, the lack of response to iSCSI discovery requests (typically on TCP port 3260) points to a higher-level block. In ONTAP, each LIF has an associated firewall policy. If this policy does not explicitly allow the 'iscsi' service, the node will drop the incoming discovery packets, leading to this exact symptom.

  9. Question 9

    A new SAN implementation requires migrating LUNs from a third-party storage array to a new ONTAP cluster with minimal host-side disruption. The implementation engineer plans to use Foreign LUN Import (FLI). Which step is essential for the cutover phase of the FLI process?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: B

    The cutover for FLI requires a brief outage. The correct procedure involves shutting down the application/host, removing the zoning for the old storage array paths, creating new zones for the ONTAP paths, and then bringing the host back up. Once online, a rescan of the storage bus will discover the LUNs presented from the ONTAP system, completing the migration.

  10. Question 10

    What is the primary function of a portset in an ONTAP FCP environment?

    Answer and explanation

    Correct answer: C

    A portset is a mechanism used to control which FCP target LIFs are visible to a specific initiator group (igroup). By binding an igroup to a portset, you limit the paths that the initiators in that group can use to access LUNs. This is often used to enforce specific pathing policies or to isolate traffic in multi-tenant environments.

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