NS0-593 Netapp NetApp Certified Support Engineer ONTAP Specialist Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

 According to the NetApp Knowledge Base, adding a second NS224 shelf to an existing stack can cause the first shelf ID to change to the serial number if the cables are not connected properly1. This can also result in a Medium Impact error message: Shelves with both connections via the same SAS path detected2. This situation is not normal for a NetApp AFF A800 system andcan affect performance and availability. The cables should be reconnected according to the SAS cabling rules and concepts for shelves with IOM12/IOM12B modules3 and the controller-to-stack cabling worksheet template for quad-pathed connectivity4. References = Shelves with both connections via the same SAS path detected, Adding a second NS224 shelf, changes first shelf ID to the serial number, SAS cabling rules and concepts - shelves with IOM12/IOM12B modules, Controller-to-stack cabling worksheet template for quad-pathed connectivity.

= ONTAP Select supports REST and Ansible as automation methods. REST is the primary foundation for the automation technologies, and Ansible is a popular tool for automating ONTAP Select deployments using roles and playbooks. References = ONTAP Automation documentation, Automate ONTAP Select deployments with Ansible

The error message “wafl.cp.toolong:error” indicates that a WAFL consistency point (CP) took longer than 30 seconds to complete. A CP is a process that flushes the data from the NVRAM buffer to the disk. A long CP can cause latency and performance issues for the system1

One possible cause for a long CP is excessive SSD load causing the wear leveling to become unbalanced. Wear leveling is a technique that distributes the write operations evenly across the SSD cells to extend the lifespan of the SSD. If some SSD cells are written more frequently than others, the wear leveling will become unbalanced and the SSD performance will degrade2

Another possible cause for a long CP is an SSD disk performing garbage collection to create a dense data layout. Garbage collection is a process that reclaims the space occupied by invalid or deleted data on the SSD. Garbage collection can improve the write performance and storage efficiency of the SSD, but it can also consume CPU and disk resources and cause long CPs3

A disk failing or being failed is not a likely cause for a long CP, because the system will automatically mark the disk as failed and remove it from the aggregate. The system will also initiate a disk reconstruction or a RAID scrub to restore the data protection and redundancy4

There is no evidence that the system has SATA HDDs, so there is no reason to assume that there is excessive SATA HDD load. Moreover, SATA HDDs are usually used for secondary or backup storage, not for primary or performance-sensitive workloads5

References:

1: Are long Consistency Points (wafl.cp.toolong) normal? - NetApp Knowledge Base 2: How to troubleshoot SSD performance issues - NetApp Knowledge Base 3: How to troubleshoot SSD garbage collection issues - NetApp Knowledge Base 4: How to troubleshoot disk failures and replacements - NetApp Knowledge Base 5: ONTAP 9 - Hardware Universe - The Open Group

A Twinax cable is a type of copper cable that is used to connect cluster ports to cluster switches1.

A cluster port is a network port that is configured for cluster communication and data access2.

A cluster switch is a network switch that is used to interconnect the nodes in a cluster and provide redundancy and load balancing3.

A cluster network is a network that enables cluster communication and data access between the nodes in a cluster and external clients4.

A cluster network can be degraded due to various reasons, such as misconfiguration, malfunction, or excessive link errors on the cluster ports or the cluster switches.

Link errors are errors that occur on the physical layer of the network, such as CRC errors, length errors, alignment errors, or dropped packets.

Link errors can indicate a problem with the cable, the switch port, the network interface card (NIC), or the cable connector.

In this scenario, the alert messages state that the cluster network has degraded and the errors are being generated from Node 2, interface e0b.

The first step to solve this problem is to replace the Twinax cable between Node 2, interface e0b and the NetApp CN1610 switch, as this could be the source of the link errors.

Replacing the cable could resolve the issue and restore the cluster network to a healthy state.

If replacing the cable does not solve the problem, then other steps may be required, such as checking the switch port, the NIC, or the cable connector, or replacing the switch or the motherboard. References:

1: Cluster network cabling, ONTAP 9 Documentation Center

2: Cluster ports, ONTAP 9 Documentation Center

3: Cluster switches, ONTAP 9 Documentation Center

4: Cluster network, ONTAP 9 Documentation Center

[5]: How to troubleshoot CLUSTER NETWORK DEGRADED error messages, NetApp Knowledge Base

[6]: Cluster network degraded due to high CRC errors on cluster ports, NetApp Knowledge Base

 The mgwd user space process is responsible for managing the cluster configuration and providing the management interface for ONTAP. If this process crashes, it may generate a core dump file in the /mroot/etc/mgwd/core directory of the node. To access this directory, you need to log in to the systemshell, which is a Linux shell that runs on the node. The systemshell can be accessed by logging in to the nodeshell using the node console and then running the systemshell command. The nodeshell is a custom shell that provides access to ONTAP commands and utilities. The service processor and the clustershell are not relevant for collecting core dumps from the mgwd process. References = ONTAP 9 Cluster Administration, page 29-30; ONTAP 9 Troubleshooting Guide, page 23-24.

= The FIFO message before NMI is useful for investigating the issue because it shows the state of the system before the non-maskable interrupt (NMI) was triggered by the L2 watchdog timeout. The FIFO message contains information about the CPU registers, the stack pointer, the instruction pointer, and the last executed instructions. This can help identify the cause of the system hang or deadlock that led to the watchdog reset. The other FIFO messages are not useful because they show the state of the system after the reset or shutdown, which may not reflect the original problem. References = https://kb.netapp.com/onprem/ontap/hardware/Handling_L2_Watchdog_Resets_on_the_FAS8200_and_AFF_A300_platforms

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap-metrocluster/install-ip/task_sw_config_restore_defaults.html

The maxdirsize is the maximum size of a directory in a FlexVol or FlexGroup volume. It is determined by the number of inodes allocated to the directory. If the directory contains more files than the maxdirsize can accommodate, then the ONTAP software will return an out of space error message to the host, even if the volume has enough free space. This can happen when a FlexGroup volume has a flat directory structure with millions of files, as the maxdirsize is not automatically adjusted for FlexGroup volumes12. References: 1: FlexGroup volumes: Frequentlyasked questions | NetApp Documentation 2: How to increase the maxdirsize of a FlexVol volume - NetApp Knowledge Base

 If both root aggregates are destroyed in a two-node cluster, the cluster will be inoperable and the data will be inaccessible. To recover from this situation, you need to perform the following actions:

Install ONTAP from a USB device on one of the nodes. This will create a new root aggregate and a new cluster on that node.

Rejoin the second node to the re-created cluster. This will also create a new root aggregate on the second node and synchronize it with the first node.

Restore the cluster configuration and data from a backup, if available. References =

ONTAP 9 Documentation Center

Storage System Recovery Troubleshooting

Recovering from a root aggregate failure

Having an Essentials package enables you to convert to another licensing option. This is true because the Essentials package is a capacity-based licensing option that allows you to pay for Cloud Volumes ONTAP per TiB of capacity. You can switch to another capacity-based package or to a Keystone Flex Subscription at any time1.

BYOL licenses are purchased directly from NetApp. This is true because BYOL stands for Bring Your Own License, which means you need to obtain a license from NetApp before deploying Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems in any cloud provider2.

Capacity-based license packages support only single-node configurations. This is false because capacity-based license packages support both single-node and HA configurations1.

AWS Marketplace contracts cannot be mixed with BYOL. This is false because you can mix AWS Marketplace contracts with BYOL as long as the license type matches the instance type3. References: 1: Cloud Volumes ONTAP licensing | NetApp Documentation 2: Set up licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP in Google Cloud - NetApp 3: Set up licensing for Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS - NetApp

 To enable DDNS updates to work, two actions should be performed:

Remove the NFS protocol from the cifs_01 data LIF. This is because DDNS updates are only supported for LIFs that have only one data protocol enabled1. The cifs_01 LIF has both NFS and CIFS protocols enabled, which prevents it from registering its DNS record dynamically. By removing the NFS protocol from the cifs_01 LIF, it will become eligible for DDNS updates.

Enable the -is-enabled parameter for the SVM DDNS services. This is because the -is-enabled parameter controls whether the SVM sends DDNS updates to the DNS servers2. The exhibit shows that the -is-enabled parameter is set to false for the svm1 SVM, which means that it does not send any DDNS updates. By enabling the -is-enabled parameter, the SVM will start sending DDNS updates for its eligible LIFs. References:

1: Configure dynamic DNS services3

2: Manage DNS/DDNS services with System Manager4

NFSv4 is a network file system protocol that supports security, performance, and scalability features. NFSv4 uses ID mapping to ensure that the permissions of files and directories are consistent across different NFSv4 servers and clients1

ID mapping is the process of translating the user and group identifiers (UIDs and GIDs) of the local system to the user and group names (user@domain and group@domain) of the remote system, and vice versa. ID mapping is done by the idmapd service, which uses the /etc/idmapd.conf file to determine the domain name of the system2

ID mapping requires that the NFSv4 server and client have the same domain name configured in the /etc/idmapd.conf file. If the domain names do not match, the idmapd service cannot map the UIDs and GIDs to the user and group names, and the permissions of the files and directories will be shown as nobody:nobody, which is the default anonymous user3

Therefore, if a customer enabled NFSv4.0 on an SVM and changed the client mount from NFSv3 to NFSv4, and found that the directory owner was changed from root to nobody, the most likely cause is that the ID mapping domains do not match between the client and server. The customer should check and correct the /etc/idmapd.conf file on both systems, and restart the idmapd service and remount the NFSv4 share4

References:

1: ONTAP 9 - Network File System (NFS) - The Open Group 2: ONTAP 9 - NFSv4 and NFSv4.1 Enhancements - The Open Group 3: NFSv4 mount incorrectly shows all files with ownership as nobody:nobody - Red Hat Customer Portal 4: NFSv4 mountpoint shows incorrect ownerships as nobody:nobody in CentOS/RHEL - The Geek Diary

= The error message indicates that the volume my_data_vol is WAFL inconsistent, which means that there is a discrepancy between the data blocks and the metadata in the file system. This can be caused by various factors, such as hardware failures, software bugs, power outages, or network disruptions. The first action to correct this issue is to determine the root cause behind the inconsistency before attempting any recovery procedure, as recommended by the NetApp documentation1. This is because some recovery procedures, such as wafliron or storage takeover, may not work or may cause further damage if the underlying cause is not resolved. For example, if the inconsistency is due to a faulty disk or shelf, running wafliron may not fix the problem and may even corrupt more data. Therefore, it is important to identify and isolate the cause of the inconsistency before taking any further steps. References = 1 Volume Showing WAFL Inconsistent - NetApp Knowledge Base

= A user quota is a limit on the amount of disk space or the number of files that a user can consume on a volume. A user can be represented by multiple IDs, such as UNIX user ID (UID), Windows user ID (SID), or name mapping ID. A file owned by any of these IDs is subject to the restriction of the user quota. If a user has files in different directories or qtrees within the same volume, all of those files count towards the user’s quota limit. Therefore, if other files within the volume are also owned by the user, they could exceed the user quota and prevent the user from saving more files to their home drive, even if the home drive itself shows minimal data usage. References = How quotas work with users and groups overview, ONTAP - How quotas work with users and groups

= The NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Release Notes provide the most up-to-date and accurate information about the storage limits for different cloud platforms, licenses, and configurations. The release notes also include details about supported features, known issues, and limitations for each version of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. References = Storage limits - NetApp, Storage limits | NetApp Documentation, Storage limits in AWS | NetApp Documentation, Storage limits in Azure | NetApp Documentation

 FlexGroup requires CIFS shares to use the Continuously Available Feature, which enables transparent failover and recovery of SMB sessions in the event of a node failure or takeover. This feature is only supported by Windows 8 and later clients, and some printers and scanners may not support it either. Therefore, these older Windows XP clients and some printers and scanners are unable to access a FlexGroup over CIFS. References = Supported and unsupported configurations for FlexGroup volumes, NetApp ONTAP FlexGroup volumes — Best practices and implementation guide (page 24)

A MetroCluster configuration requires the ISLs between the sites to be up and running for the switchover to occur. If the ISLs are down, the MetroCluster configuration cannot communicate with the other site and cannot perform the switchover. Additionally, a MetroCluster configuration requires all aggregates to be mirrored across the sites for data protection and availability. If a site has unmirrored aggregates, the switchover will fail because the data on those aggregates will not be accessible from the other site. References = Configuring the MetroCluster software in ONTAP, NetApp MetroCluster FC for ONTAP 9.8

 The ONTAP command that will help isolate a possible MTU mismatch is network ping -lif jumbo_01 -vserver svm1_cluster1 -destination 192.168.0.210 -disallow-fragmentation true -packet-size 5000. This command will send a ping packet of 5000 bytes from the logical interface (LIF) jumbo_01 to the destination IP address 192.168.0.210, without allowing fragmentation. If the ping fails, it means that there is an MTU mismatch somewhere along the path. If the ping succeeds, it means that the MTU is consistent and the problem is elsewhere12. References: 1: Check the MTU network setting on the storage system |NetApp Documentation 2: How to adjust the MTU for an ONTAP interface - NetApp Knowledge Base