350-601 Compute — Timed 50 Questions

Question 1

An engineer is deploying a new UCS chassis with two Fabric Interconnects. The design requires that server traffic can fail over to the secondary FI if the primary FI fails, without requiring any changes to the server's network configuration. Which technology must be enabled on the uplink ports of the Fabric Interconnects to the upstream switches to ensure transparent failover of server traffic?

Accepted Answer

Enable pin groups with 'failover' mode on the server ports.. Pin groups with 'failover' mode enable transparent server traffic failover by pinning server vNICs to a specific Fabric Interconnect (FI) and automatically repinning them to the secondary FI upon primary FI failure, without requiring any changes to the server's network configuration. This ensures that the server's MAC and IP addresses remain active on the secondary FI, maintaining connectivity without manual intervention.

Answer

Configure a virtual PortChannel (vPC) between the Fabric Interconnects and upstream switches.

Answer

Apply QoS policies to prioritize failover traffic.

Answer

Implement Private VLANs on the uplink ports to isolate traffic.

Question 2

A UCS administrator notices that a service profile associated with a vNIC template that uses 'fabric failover' is not failing over to the secondary Fabric Interconnect when the primary link goes down. The vNIC template is set to 'fabric failover' enabled, and both Fabric Interconnects are in the same VLAN. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The 'Primary Fabric' setting is not defined in the vNIC template.. When 'fabric failover' is enabled on a vNIC template, the UCS Manager requires the 'Primary Fabric' setting to be explicitly defined to determine which Fabric Interconnect (FI-A or FI-B) should be the active path. Without this setting, the system cannot properly orchestrate the failover behavior, causing the vNIC to remain pinned to the primary FI even when its link goes down. This is a common misconfiguration because the 'fabric failover' checkbox alone does not imply a primary fabric assignment.

Answer

The server is pinned to the primary Fabric Interconnect via a pin group.

Answer

The MTU size on the secondary Fabric Interconnect is set to 1500 instead of 9000.

Answer

The 'MAC Address' policy is set to 'pool-based' instead of 'static'.

Question 3

An engineer is configuring a UCS server profile for a database application that requires low latency. The server will use a Cisco UCS VIC 1340 adapter. Which vNIC placement policy should be selected to minimize latency?

Accepted Answer

Assigned. The Assigned vNIC placement policy binds each vNIC to a specific physical port on the Cisco UCS VIC 1340 adapter, ensuring deterministic traffic flow and predictable latency. For low-latency database applications, this eliminates the variability introduced by dynamic placement, allowing the engineer to align vNICs with the most direct PCIe path to the CPU or memory.

Answer

Any

Answer

Default

Answer

Round-Robin

Question 4

Which TWO statements correctly describe the use of Cisco UCS Manager service profiles for server deployment?

Accepted Answer

Service profiles decouple server identity from hardware, enabling rapid provisioning.. Service profiles decouple the logical server identity (UUID, MAC addresses, WWPNs) from the physical hardware. This allows an administrator to rapidly provision or repurpose a server by simply associating the profile with a different blade or rack server, without reconfiguring the OS or SAN/NIC settings. This abstraction is the core value of Cisco UCS Manager for scalable, stateless computing.

Answer

Service profiles can only be applied to servers of the same model.

Answer

A service profile can be associated with multiple servers simultaneously.

Answer

Service profiles are stored locally on the server's boot drive.

Question 5

Which THREE components are required to configure a Cisco UCS Direct-attached storage environment using SAS expanders?

Accepted Answer

SAS cables connecting the storage enclosure to the server's storage controller.. Option A is correct because in a Cisco UCS Direct-attached storage environment using SAS expanders, SAS cables are required to physically connect the storage enclosure to the server's storage controller (typically an LSI-based SAS HBA). This direct cabling enables the SAS protocol to carry SCSI commands and data between the server and the drives without any intervening network fabric.

Answer

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) uplinks from the storage enclosure to the Fabric Interconnect.

Answer

Fibre Channel switch for SAN connectivity.

Question 6

Refer to the exhibit. A UCS administrator has configured vNIC templates as shown. Both Fabric Interconnects have identical uplink configurations. The vNIC templates have 'Failover: Enabled'. However, when Fabric Interconnect A fails, servers using vNIC-A do not fail over to Fabric Interconnect B. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The server's service profile does not include a secondary vNIC for Fabric B.. Option D is correct because the server's service profile must include both a primary vNIC (for Fabric Interconnect A) and a secondary vNIC (for Fabric Interconnect B) to enable failover. The 'Failover: Enabled' setting on the vNIC template only allows the vNIC to use the other fabric's uplink if a secondary vNIC is explicitly defined in the service profile; without it, the vNIC is pinned to its original fabric and cannot fail over.

Answer

A pin group is configured that forces traffic to Fabric Interconnect A.

Answer

The native VLAN (10) is not allowed on Fabric Interconnect B's trunk.

Answer

The uplink interfaces are configured with 'spanning-tree port type edge trunk', which blocks failover traffic.

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. A server with vNIC eth0 is experiencing packet drops on its Ethernet interface. The server is sending jumbo frames (MTU 9000) on VLAN 100. The QoS system class 'Class-Platinum' has an MTU of 9216 and is configured with 'Drop'. The vNIC is not assigned to any QoS policy. What is the most likely reason for the drops?

Accepted Answer

The vNIC is not mapped to a QoS policy, so it uses the default best-effort class which has an MTU of 1500 and drops jumbo frames.. When a vNIC is not assigned to a QoS policy, it defaults to the best-effair class, which typically has an MTU of 1500 bytes. Since the server is sending jumbo frames (MTU 9000) on VLAN 100, these frames exceed the default MTU and are dropped at the Ethernet interface. The 'Class-Platinum' system class with MTU 9216 is irrelevant because the vNIC is not mapped to it.

Answer

The QoS system class for jumbo frames requires a 'No Drop' policy to avoid drops.

Answer

The server is sending frames larger than 9216 bytes.

Answer

The native VLAN setting on the vNIC causes the QoS system class to be ignored.

Question 8

A company is deploying a new Cisco UCS Mini with a single Fabric Interconnect 6324. They need to connect to an existing Fibre Channel SAN. Which action is required to enable Fibre Channel connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Add a Cisco MDS 9148S Fibre Channel switch and connect it to the Fabric Interconnect via FC uplinks.. The Cisco UCS Mini with a single Fabric Interconnect 6324 does not have native Fibre Channel ports; it only supports Ethernet uplinks. To connect to an existing Fibre Channel SAN, an external Fibre Channel switch (such as the Cisco MDS 9148S) must be added, and the Fabric Interconnect connects to it via FC uplinks, which are typically configured as unified ports. This allows the UCS Mini to leverage the MDS switch for Fibre Channel connectivity, as the 6324 itself cannot directly terminate Fibre Channel links.

Answer

Enable NPV mode on the Fabric Interconnect to connect to the SAN.

Answer

Install a Fibre Channel module in the Fabric Interconnect.

Answer

Configure the uplink Ethernet ports as unified ports to support Fibre Channel.

Question 9

A UCS administrator needs to deploy 20 identical servers with the same firmware, BIOS, and boot order. Which approach is the most efficient?

Accepted Answer

Create a service profile template and then generate service profiles from it.. Creating a service profile template and then generating service profiles from it is the most efficient approach because it allows you to define the firmware, BIOS, and boot order once in a reusable template, then automatically create multiple service profiles with unique identities (e.g., UUID, MAC, WWN) for each of the 20 identical servers. This leverages Cisco UCS Manager's built-in template-to-instance workflow, ensuring consistency and reducing manual effort.

Answer

Use a UUID suffix pool to auto-generate identities.

Answer

Use a Cisco UCS Central 'Gold' template to deploy the servers.

Answer

Create a service profile for each server manually.

Question 10

A data center engineer is deploying a new application on Cisco UCS Manager. The application requires consistent low-latency access to storage. The engineer decides to use SAN boot from a Fibre Channel SAN. Which configuration change is necessary on the UCS service profile to enable SAN boot?

Accepted Answer

Assign a persistent WWPN to the vHBA. To enable SAN boot from a Fibre Channel SAN, the UCS service profile must assign a persistent WWPN to the vHBA. The WWPN is used by the Fibre Channel fabric to identify the initiator and to zone the storage LUNs; a persistent WWPN ensures that after a server reboot or vHBA reconfiguration, the same WWPN is presented to the SAN, allowing the boot LUN to remain accessible. Without a persistent WWPN, the vHBA would use a dynamically generated WWPN, which would break the SAN zoning and boot path.

Answer

Enable VIF (Virtual Interface) on the vHBA

Answer

Configure a QoS policy for the vHBA

Answer

Set the vNIC to use dynamic MAC address

Question 11

An engineer is troubleshooting a Cisco UCS B-Series blade that fails to boot. The service profile is associated and the boot policy is set to 'SAN Boot'. The storage administrator confirms the LUN is properly mapped to the WWPN. Which check should the engineer perform first?

Accepted Answer

Verify that the UCS Fabric Interconnect is connected to the SAN switches. Since the service profile is associated, the boot policy is set to SAN Boot, and the LUN is properly mapped to the WWPN, the most likely cause is a physical or Layer 2 connectivity issue between the UCS Fabric Interconnect and the SAN switches. Without this link, the fabric interconnect cannot forward FCP frames to the storage array, preventing the blade from discovering the boot LUN. Verifying this connection is the logical first step before investigating other configuration or zoning issues.

Answer

Reboot the chassis to reinitialize the IOM

Answer

Check that the vHBA has a dynamic WWPN assigned

Answer

Ensure the local disk is set as primary boot device

Question 12

A company is deploying a Cisco UCS Mini in a remote office. They need to support both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V on the same UCS domain. What is the best practice for deploying compute resources for both hypervisors?

Accepted Answer

Create separate service profile templates for each hypervisor. Separate service profile templates are required because VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V have different boot and storage configuration requirements. Each hypervisor needs its own boot policy (e.g., SAN boot vs. local disk), firmware settings, and potentially different vNIC/vHBA configurations. Using distinct templates ensures that each hypervisor's compute resources are correctly provisioned without conflicts.

Answer

Use a single service profile but assign different VLANs for management traffic

Answer

Place each hypervisor in a separate UCS Organization within the same service profile template

Answer

Create a single service profile template and use different identity pools for each hypervisor

Question 13

A Cisco UCS Manager administrator notices that a newly provisioned service profile is showing 'Config Error' for the vNIC. The vNIC is configured to use a dynamic MAC address from a pool that has no free addresses. What is the correct remediation?

Accepted Answer

Add more MAC addresses to the MAC pool used by the vNIC. The 'Config Error' for the vNIC indicates that the dynamic MAC address assignment failed because the MAC pool is exhausted. Adding more MAC addresses to the pool resolves the issue by providing available addresses for the vNIC to consume, allowing the service profile to deploy successfully.

Answer

Upgrade the firmware on the Fabric Interconnect

Answer

Change the vNIC to use a static MAC address

Answer

Reassociate the service profile to a different blade

Question 14

A data center engineer is planning a Cisco UCS deployment for a virtualized environment. The requirement is to maximize performance for virtual machine traffic while minimizing latency. Which feature should be enabled on the UCS Manager to offload packet processing from the host CPU?

Accepted Answer

Hardware VLAN tagging and checksum offload. Hardware VLAN tagging and checksum offload offloads packet processing tasks (VLAN insertion/stripping and checksum calculation) from the host CPU to the Cisco UCS virtual interface card (VIC) adapter. This reduces CPU overhead and minimizes latency for virtual machine traffic, directly meeting the requirement to maximize performance in a virtualized environment.

Answer

Data Center Ethernet (DCE) priority flow control

Answer

vNIC failover policy

Answer

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) offload

Question 15

Which TWO are valid methods to configure a Cisco UCS service profile for stateless computing? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Create a service profile from a template. Option A is correct because creating a service profile from a template is a core method for stateless computing in Cisco UCS. Stateless computing abstracts hardware identity (e.g., WWPNs, MAC addresses, UUIDs) from physical blades, allowing a service profile to be applied to any compatible blade without reconfiguration. Templates enable rapid, consistent deployment of these stateless profiles across multiple servers.

Answer

Use boot from SAN to store OS images

Answer

Assign persistent WWPNs to vHBAs

Answer

Configure local storage on the blade

Question 16

Which THREE are benefits of using Cisco UCS Manager to manage compute resources? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Centralized management of multiple chassis. Option A is correct because Cisco UCS Manager provides a single-pane-of-glass management interface that can centrally manage up to 160 chassis (including UCS 5108 and UCS 9508) in a single domain. This eliminates the need to configure each chassis individually, reducing operational overhead and ensuring consistent configuration across the entire compute infrastructure.

Answer

Direct management of virtual machines

Answer

Improved performance by disabling hardware features

Question 17

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator updates template-B but its associated profile SP2 shows 'unassigned'. The administrator wants SP2 to reflect the changes. What should be done first?

Accepted Answer

Associate SP2 with template-B using the 'bind' operation. In Cisco UCS Manager, a service profile (SP2) must be explicitly bound to a template (template-B) to inherit updates. The 'bind' operation associates the profile with the template, allowing changes made to the template to propagate to the profile. Simply disabling and re-enabling the template or waiting for automatic association does not establish this binding; the profile remains 'unassigned' until it is bound.

Answer

Disable and re-enable template-B

Answer

Wait for the automatic association to occur

Answer

Rebind all profiles to template-B

Question 18

A data center engineer notices that a UCS B-Series blade server is failing to boot from a SAN LUN that is correctly mapped to the server's WWPN. The SAN switch shows that the LUN is accessible and the zone is configured correctly. The UCS Manager shows the server's vNIC is associated with a vHBA that has the correct WWPN, but the server's BIOS does not list the Fibre Channel boot target. Which configuration is most likely missing?

Accepted Answer

The boot policy is not defined or not attached to the service profile.. The boot policy defines the boot order and parameters (such as the SAN LUN target WWPN and LUN ID) for the server. If the boot policy is not defined or not attached to the service profile, the UCS Manager will not program the BIOS with the Fibre Channel boot target information, even though the SAN zoning and vHBA WWPN are correct. Without this policy, the server's BIOS has no instruction to attempt a SAN boot, resulting in the failure described.

Answer

The SAN connectivity policy is missing the Fibre Channel uplink pinning.

Answer

The vNIC/vHBA placement policy is incorrectly set to 'Express' mode.

Answer

A QoS policy is not applied to the vHBA.

Question 19

Refer to the exhibit. An engineer applies this QoS policy to a Cisco Nexus 9000 switch in a data center. After applying the policy, storage traffic (iSCSI) is experiencing high latency and occasional drops. The engineer verifies that the iSCSI traffic is not matching the 'BulkData' class. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The policy-map does not specify a priority queue for latency-sensitive traffic.. The correct answer is A because iSCSI is a latency-sensitive storage protocol that requires a strict priority queue to ensure low latency and minimal jitter. Without a priority queue configured in the policy-map, iSCSI traffic competes with other traffic classes on a best-effort basis, leading to high latency and drops even if it is not matching the 'BulkData' class.

Answer

The policy-map is applied at the system level, but iSCSI traffic is not classified under any class-map.

Answer

The bandwidth percent for class-default is too low, causing iSCSI to be starved.

Answer

The class-map 'BulkData' does not match the correct traffic because the match statement uses qos-group instead of dscp.

Question 20

A financial services firm has deployed Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers running VMware vSphere 7.0. They use Cisco Intersight for management. Recently, a critical application server (Server-A) became unresponsive. The Intersight dashboard shows the server's health status as 'Warning' with a firmware compliance alert: the server's Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) firmware version is 4.0(1a), while the Intersight firmware baseline is 4.2(1c). The server is running ESXi 7.0u2 on a local datastore. The storage is provided by a Cisco MDS switch via Fibre Channel. The server has two 10GbE uplinks to the fabric interconnect. The engineer notices that the vCenter Server cannot communicate with Server-A, and all VMs on that host are isolated. The engineer suspects the issue is related to the firmware mismatch. What is the most appropriate first step to resolve this issue while minimizing downtime?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade the CIMC firmware on Server-A from 4.0(1a) to 4.2(1c) using Intersight's firmware update capability.. The CIMC firmware mismatch (4.0(1a) vs. baseline 4.2(1c)) is a known cause of management-plane instability in Cisco UCS C-Series servers managed by Intersight. Upgrading the CIMC firmware to match the Intersight baseline using Intersight's built-in firmware update capability directly addresses the root cause, restoring proper communication between the server, Intersight, and vCenter, while minimizing downtime by avoiding disruptive OS-level changes.

Answer

Check vCenter logs to determine why communication failed.

Answer

Reinstall ESXi on Server-A to ensure a clean operating system.

Answer

Change the Intersight firmware baseline to match the current CIMC version (4.0(1a)).