XtremIO Solutions and Design Specialist Exam for Technology Architects v7.0
Question 1
Where is the XtremIO VSS hardware provider package installed?
- A. On all X-Bricks in the cluster
- B. On the XMS
- C. Factory-installed on the array
- D. On the backup server
Answer : D
Explanation:
In order to use the XtremIO VSS provider it must be installed on the server where we want to do an application consistent snapshot.
References:http://muegge.com/blog/tag/xtremio/
Question 2
A customer is considering XtremIO storage for their current Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
(VDI) deployment. The customer wants information on the benefits of an XtremIO solution.
What are the benefits of an XtremIO solution for this environment?
- A. Latency is less than 1 ms for all large I/O sizes, deduplication with compression, and scales linearly
- B. Latency is less than 1 ms for large I/O sizes, deduplication and compression, and no reduction in power and cooling costs
- C. Latency is less than 1 ms for small I/O sizes, scales linearly, and slightly higher cost/IOP/GB than hybrid arrays
- D. Latency is less than 1 ms for small I/O sizes, deduplication and compression, and scales linearly
Answer : A
Explanation:
Storage capacity and performance scale linearly, such that two X-Bricks supply twice the
IOPS, four X-Bricks supply four times the IOPS, six X-Bricks supply six times the IOPS and eight X-Bricks supply eight times the IOPS of the single X-Brick configuration. However, the latency remains consistently low (less than 1ms) as the system scales out. The sub- millisecond latency is validated by actual test results, and is determined according to the worst-case scenario.
References: Introduction to the EMC XtremIO STORAGE ARRAY (April 2015), page 37
Question 3
A customer is interested in transitioning their traditional infrastructure to the Cloud by implementing ViPR software-defined storage in an XtremIO environment. Which capabilities will EMC ViPR software-defined storage provide to XtremIO?
- A. Delivers SaaSCentralized management and monitoringChargeback and billing capabilities
- B. Chargeback reporting capabilityCentralizes reactive monitoring capabilityPolicy-driven configuration management
- C. Automatically grows storage volumesSlows growth of dataCentralized auto-deletes of aging files
- D. Creates virtual storage poolsAutomates disaster recoveryReplaces chargeback capabilities
Answer : A
Explanation:
EMC ViPR Controller is a software-defined storage platform that abstracts, pools and automates a data center's underlying physical storage infrastructure. It provides data center administrators with a single control plane for heterogeneous storage systems.
ViPR enables software-defined data centers by providing features including:
* Comprehensive and customizable platform reporting capabilities that include capacity metering, chargeback, and performance monitoring through the included ViPR
SolutionPack -
References: Introduction to the EMC XtremIO STORAGE ARRAY (April 2015), page 60
Question 4
A customer has a requirement to replicate their VDI to a newly purchased data center located 5 miles away. They require 10-day retention at each site and a continuous replication RPO. However, they want to have the same storage platform at each site. They have a limited budget but need to meet their requirements.
Which solution should be recommended to the customer?
- A. XtremIO and OpenStack
- B. XtremIO with VPLEX and RecoverPoint
- C. XtremIO and RecoverPoint
- D. XtremIO and MirrorView/A replication
Answer : C
Explanation:
The EMC RecoverPoint family provides cost-effective, local continuous data protection
(CDP), continuous remote replication (CRR), and continuous local and remote replication
(CLR) that allows for any-point-in-time data recovery and a new "snap and replicate" mechanism for local and remote replication (XRP).
Native replication support for XtremIO
The native replication support for XtremIO is designed for high-performance and low- latency applications that provides a low Recovery Point Objective of one minute or less and immediate RTO.
The benefits include:
Question 5
A customer is interested in purchasing XtremIO for their mission critical database applications that require the lowest possible response times. They have two data centers in which they want to introduce All-Flash arrays. However, they need a way to maintain true active/active access to all databases and application LUNs across both sites.
What is the recommended solution to address the requirements?
- A. ViPR Controller with XtremIO
- B. RecoverPoint with XtremIO
- C. VPLEX Metro with XtremIO
- D. ViPR SRM with XtremIO
Answer : C
Explanation:
The EMC VPLEX family is the next-generation solution for data mobility and access within, across and between data centers.
VPLEX supports two configurations, local and metro. In the case of VPLEX Metro with the optional VPLEX Witness and Cross-Connected configuration, applications continue to operate in the surviving site with no interruption or downtime. Storage resources virtualized by VPLEX cooperate through the stack, with the ability to dynamically move applications and data across geographies and service providers.
Question 6
Which operation is performed when an XtremIO Snapshot is created?
- A. Pointers to the ancestor metadata are created for the snapshot
- B. Space equal to the size of the ancestor is allocated to the snapshot
- C. A reserved space is created for new snapshot data
- D. A deduplication pass is immediately run against the snapshot
Answer : A
Explanation:
When a snap is created, the following steps occur:
1) Two empty containers are created in-memory
2) Snapshot SCSI personality is pointing to the new snapshot sub-node
3) The SCSI personality which the host is using, is linked to the second node in the internal data tree
References: EMC RECOVERPOINT REPLICATION OF XTREMIO, Understanding the essentials of RecoverPoint Snap-based replication for XtremIO, page 8 https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14296-wp-recoverpoint-replication-of- xtremio.pdf
Question 7
You need to design an Oracle solution for a customer. Which XtremIO best practices should be used in Oracle environments?
- A. Use a 512 byte LUN sector size for databases. Use Eager Zeroed Thick formatting for ESXi
- B. Use a 4 kB LUN sector size for databases. Use Lazy Zeroed Thick formatting for ESXi
- C. Align data on 4 kB boundaries. Use Thin formatting on ESXi
- D. Align data on 4 kB boundaries. Use Lazy Zeroed Thick formatting on ESXi
Answer : A
Explanation:
The default setting for XtremIO volumes is 512e. It is recommended not to alter this in order to use 4K Advanced Format for Oracle Database deployments. There are no performance ramifications when using 512e volumes in conjunction with an Oracle database. On the contrary, 4K Advanced Format is rejected by many elements of the
Oracle and Linux operating system stack.
References:https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h13497-oracle-best-practices- xtremio-wp.pdf, page 20
Question 8
When using XtremIO storage with Solaris (SPARC), what is the EMC recommended I/O size that will deliver sequential I/O more efficiently to XtremIO?
- A. 1 MB
- B. 2 MB
- C. 4 MB
- D. 8 MB
Answer : C
Explanation:
EMC recommended setting for Solaris include that the /etc/system file be modified to include the following parameter:
* Set maximum IO size
set maxphys = 0x400000
This also requires increase of the maximum I/O size for the disk driver. The corresponding entry and file for this change are different for different Solaris versions, as follows:
For Solaris 10 (SPARC):
File: /kernel/drv/ssd.conf -
Setting: ssd_max_xfer_size=0x400000;
For Solaris 10 (x86):
File: /kernel/drv/sd.conf -
Setting: sd_max_xfer_size=0x400000;
Etc.
References:EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Oracle Solaris, page 167 https://www.emc.com/collateral/TechnicalDocument/docu5132.pdf
Question 9
Which part of the XtremIO architecture do host ports use to access an XtremIO volume?
- A. FA
- B. Initiator
- C. Target
- D. Zone
Answer : D
Explanation:
All XtremIO's enterprise features (including Inline Data Reduction, snapshots, XDP, HA, etc.) have been developed as part of the scale-out architecture. All data and metadata are evenly distributed across the entire cluster. I/Os are admitted to the array via all the host ports, utilizing SAN zones and multi-pathing.
References: Introduction to the EMC XtremIO STORAGE ARRAY (April 2015), page 39
Question 10
How many management IP addresses are required on a single XtremIO storage controller?
- A. 1
- B. 2
- C. 3
- D. 4
Answer : A
Explanation:
References:https://docs.openstack.org/juno/config-reference/content/XtremIO-cinder- driver.html#xtremio-management-ip
Question 11
Based on best practice, what is the maximum number of paths a host should have to an
XtremIO volume?
- A. 4
- B. 8
- C. 16
- D. 32
Answer : C
Explanation:
The recommended maximum number of paths to storage ports per host is 16 as per the table below.
References:https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14475-wp-xtremio-brocade- best-practices.pdf?isPublic=false, page 12
Question 12
Which SCSI instructions are used to build a bitmap of the changes between the first snapshot and subsequent snapshots when RecoverPoint is used with XtremIO?
- A. SCSI Delta
- B. SCSI Transfer
- C. SCSI DIFF
- D. SCSI Update
Answer : C
Explanation:
DIFF protocol - A vendor specific SCSI command which RecoverPoint uses to query
XtremIO with in order to obtain a bitmap of changes between two snapshot sets.
RecoverPoint uses the output of DIFF command to read the actual data and transfer it to the target side.
References: EMC RECOVERPOINT REPLICATION OF XTREMIO, Understanding the essentials of RecoverPoint Snap-based replication for XtremIO, page 9 https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14296-wp-recoverpoint-replication-of- xtremio.pdf
Question 13
When installing a physical XtremIO Management Server (XMS) station, which requirement must be met?
- A. XMS must be able to access one of the management ports on one X-Brick storage controller in the cluster
- B. XMS must be able to access only the management ports on the first X-Bricks storage controllers
- C. XMS must be able to access all management ports on the X-Brick storage controllers
- D. XMS must be able to access all management ports on at least two X-Brick storage controllers in the cluster
Answer : C
Explanation:
The XMS must access all management ports on the X-Brick Storage Controllers, and must be accessible by any GUI/CLI client host machine.
References: Introduction to the EMC XtremIO STORAGE ARRAY (April 2015), page 48
Question 14
A new 500 GB VM disk is created on a database that resides on an XtremIO LUN. The
VMware administrator plans to provision the disk using the thick provisioned eager zeroed format.
How much physical XtremIO capacity will be allocated during this process?
- A. 5 GB
- B. 10 GB
- C. 50 GB
- D. None
Answer : D
Explanation:
XtremIO storage is natively thin provisioned, using a small internal block size. This provides fine-grained resolution for the thin provisioned space.
All volumes in the system are thin provisioned, meaning that the system consumes capacity only when it is actually needed. XtremIO determines where to place the unique data blocks physically inside the cluster after it calculates their fingerprint IDs. Therefore, it never pre-allocates or thick-provisions storage space before writing.
References: Introduction to the EMC XtremIO STORAGE ARRAY (April 2015), page 22
Question 15
Based on XtremIO best practice, which byte sector size should be used for volumes hosting Oracle database files?
- A. 256
- B. 512
- C. 1024
- D. 4096
Answer : D
Explanation:
Architecting a database on an All Flash Array (AFA) like EMCs XtremIO is best done by reviewing practices to optimize I/O performance. One consideration is the use of Advanced
Format and how it impacts the performance of the database Redo logs. Advanced Format refers to a new physical sector size of 4096 bytes (4KB) replacing original 512 byte standard.
References:https://community.emc.com/community/connect/everything_oracle/blog/2014/0
7/18/xtremio-best-practices-advanced-format-512e-and-native-modes