NS0-521 Netapp Implementation Engineer - SAN ONTAP Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

To move SAN LIFs to new nodes that are members of a portset during maintenance of a NetApp AFF ONTAP cluster, you should take the following steps:

Remove the LIF from the portset: This ensures that the LIF is no longer associated with the current node, preparing it for the move to the new node.

Take the SAN LIF offline: This step is necessary to make configuration changes without causing disruption to the SAN hosts. Once offline, the LIF can be moved to the new node and reconfigured as needed.

These actions help maintain the integrity and performance of the SAN environment during the migration of LIFs.

For more details, see:

NetApp Documentation on Moving SAN LIFs

NetApp Community on Moving LIFs

To validate that the entire network path supports jumbo frames after an iSCSI implementation, you should perform a ping test from the host with fragmentation. This involves using the ping command with specific options to test jumbo frame support:

ping -M do -s 8972

In this command:

-M do ensures the packets are not fragmented.

-s 8972 sets the packet size to 8972 bytes (9000 bytes MTU minus 28 bytes for the ICMP header).

By confirming that the large packets are successfully transmitted without fragmentation, you can validate that the network path, including switches and adapters, supports jumbo frames.

For more details, you can check:

NetApp Documentation - iSCSI Configuration and Best Practices​ (NetApp)​​ (NetApp)​.

To move a WWPN from node1 to node2 in a NetApp ONTAP SAN environment where ALUA is used, you must take the Logical Interface (LIF) offline. Modifying LIFs involves changing their assignment between nodes, which requires them to be temporarily offline. This ensures that the path states are correctly updated without causing disruption to the SAN hosts.

For more details, see:

NetApp Community on Moving LIFs

NetApp Documentation on SAN LIFs

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 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)​.

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

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

To verify compatibility in an iSCSI storage environment before a NetApp ONTAP software upgrade, the following tools are recommended:

Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT): This tool helps verify the compatibility of different components, including network switches, hosts, and storage systems, ensuring that the planned upgrade will be supported.

Active IQ OneCollect: This tool collects comprehensive configuration and performance data from the storage environment, which can be used to assess the current setup and identify any compatibility issues before the upgrade.

For further details, refer to:

NetApp Interoperability Matrix Tool

Active IQ OneCollect Documentation

To configure a Snapshot copy of all LUNs simultaneously as a single unit in an application with multiple LUNs spread across several volumes, the command vserver consistency-group create should be used. This command creates a consistency group that allows for coordinated snapshot creation across multiple volumes, ensuring that the snapshots are consistent with each other.

For more information, you can refer to:

NetApp ONTAP Consistency Group Documentation

NetApp Community Discussions on Consistency Groups

In an NVMe environment, the storage construct that enables an NVMe client to store data in an SVM (Storage Virtual Machine) is aSubsystem. A subsystem is a collection of one or more namespaces, which are used to store data. This abstraction allows for efficient management and scaling of NVMe storage within the ONTAP environment.

For further information, refer to:

NetApp NVMe/FC Configuration​ (NetApp)​.

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 synchronous data replication between two sites with automatic failover in case of a site disaster for SAN workloads, the two NetApp features that provide these capabilities areSnapMirror SynchronousandMetroCluster IP.

SnapMirror Synchronous: This feature provides volume-granular, synchronous replication with zero RPO (Recovery Point Objective), ensuring that data is mirrored in real-time to a secondary site. This setup supports automatic failover, maintaining data availability even during site failures​

MetroCluster IP: This solution provides synchronous replication and combines high availability and disaster recovery capabilities. MetroCluster IP uses IP networking to extend the distance over which replication can occur and supports automatic failover and failback, making it suitable for critical SAN workloads

Based on the output of the command lun igroup show -instance, which lists the protocol as fcp and the initiator as server1.netapp.com, the initiator type is WWPN (World Wide Port Name). In Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) environments, WWPNs are used to uniquely identify Fibre Channel devices. This contrasts with IQNs used in iSCSI, and NQNs used in NVMe over Fabrics.

For more details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on Initiators

ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) is a protocol used in SAN environments to manage paths between a host and its storage. It enables the host to recognize and manage paths to the LUNs more efficiently by designating paths as either "Active/Optimized" or "Active/Nonoptimized". A significant event, such as shutting down all FC LIFs on the HA partner node, will trigger ALUA to change the pathstates. This action effectively causes the storage paths to transition from the HA partner node to the local node, switching the path states from Active/Nonoptimized to Active/Optimized on the paths that remain active.

For more information, you can refer to:

NetApp Community Discussion on ALUA

NetApp Documentation on ALUA

In a multitenant environment where a user needs access only to perform replication within a specific SVM to another cluster, the default rolevsadmin-backupis appropriate. This role provides thenecessary permissions to manage backup and replication tasks without granting broader administrative rights.

For more details, see:

NetApp Documentation on User Roles

NetApp Community Discussion on Roles

When configuring NVMe/FC (NVMe over Fibre Channel), it is necessary to enable N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) on all fabric switches. NPIV allows multiple Fibre Channel initiators to share a single physical Fibre Channel port, which is crucial for NVMe/FC environments where efficient utilization of available ports is needed.

NPIV support enables the creation of virtual ports, which can significantly optimize the configuration and management of Fibre Channel fabrics, thus supporting NVMe/FC operations.

For further details, you can refer to:

NetApp Community - NVMe/FC Configuration​ (NetApp Community)​.

NetApp Documentation - NVMe Overview​ (NetApp)​.

When moving a LUN between different HA pairs in the same SVM to prevent loss of connectivity, the reporting nodes must be modified. The reporting nodes configuration ensures that the initiator paths are properly updated to reflect the new physical location of the LUN. This prevents disruptions in connectivity by maintaining the correct pathing information for the host systems accessing the LUN.

For more details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on LUN Management

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