350-601 Storage Network Practice Test 10 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A small business SAN consists of a single Cisco MDS 9148S switch with 16 Gb Fibre Channel ports. The storage array has four active paths to the switch, and four servers each have two HBAs. The administrator wants to ensure that all paths are utilized and that no single point of failure exists. Currently, all devices are in a single VSAN and zoning is permissive (default deny). After powering on all devices, the administrator notices that the storage array only logs in on two of its four ports. The other two ports show 'no light'. The switch has not been configured with any port settings. What is the most likely cause?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The storage array's other two ports are not physically connected or are disabled on the array end.. The most likely cause is that the storage array's other two ports are not physically connected or are disabled on the array end. Since the switch is unconfigured and all ports are in the same VSAN with default configuration, the switch does not disable ports. Port speed auto-negotiation is standard. Zoning affects traffic, not link state. Therefore, option D is correct.

Answer

The switch ports need to have their speed manually configured to match the array.

Answer

The unused ports are in a different VSAN.

Answer

The zoning configuration prevents the array from logging in on those ports.

Question 2

A company is deploying a new storage network using Cisco MDS 9700 switches. They have multiple host servers and storage arrays. The security policy requires that each host can only access its own LUNs. The solution must be efficient and not require reconfiguration when new hosts are added. Which approach best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Smart Zoning. Smart Zoning is correct because it automatically creates LUN-specific access controls based on the host initiator and target storage port, ensuring each host can only see its own LUNs without manual reconfiguration when new hosts are added. This approach reduces the number of zone objects and simplifies management by using LUN-level granularity within a single zone, unlike traditional zoning which requires per-LUN zones.

Answer

Traditional zone-based zoning with pWWNs

Answer

VSAN zoning

Answer

FSPF metric tuning

Question 3

An engineer notices that the CPU utilization on a Cisco Nexus 5548UP switch is consistently above 80%. The switch is used for FCoE storage traffic. Which action is most likely to reduce CPU utilization?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the number of FCoE VLANs. High CPU utilization on a Cisco Nexus switch handling FCoE storage traffic is often caused by excessive FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) keepalive processing. Reducing the number of FCoE VLANs directly decreases the number of FIP sessions and associated control-plane overhead, lowering CPU load. This is the most effective action because each FCoE VLAN requires separate FIP keepalive handling, and consolidating storage traffic into fewer VLANs reduces the control-plane burden.

Answer

Configure DCBx will-say mode

Answer

Enable FCoE NPV mode

Answer

Disable FIP snooping

Question 4

A storage network using Cisco MDS 9700 switches has two VSANs (100 and 200). The engineer wants to share a physical ISL between both VSANs while maintaining traffic isolation. Which feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

VSAN trunking. VSAN trunking allows a single physical ISL to carry traffic for multiple VSANs by adding a VSAN tag to each frame, ensuring traffic isolation between VSANs 100 and 200. This is the native Cisco MDS feature designed for sharing inter-switch links across VSANs without merging their control planes or forwarding tables.

Answer

PortChannel with trunk mode on

Answer

Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR)

Answer

FSPF metric manipulation

Question 5

An administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue in an FC SAN. The initiator and target are in the same VSAN. The link is 16 Gbps but throughput is only 4 Gbps. The engineer checks the BB_Credit utilization and sees a high count of BB_Credit zero. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Buffer-to-buffer credit exhaustion. BB_Credit zero indicates buffer-to-buffer credit exhaustion, which pauses transmission and reduces throughput. This is typically due to distance or small credit pool. Link errors would show CRC errors, congestion would cause other symptoms, and zoning is unrelated.

Answer

Congestion on the target port

Answer

High link error rates

Answer

Incorrect zoning configuration

Question 6

An engineer needs to connect a new server to an existing FC SAN. The server is located 50 km away from the data center. Which technology should be used to extend the FC SAN over this distance?

Accepted Answer

FCIP. FCIP (Fibre Channel over IP) is the correct choice because it encapsulates Fibre Channel frames inside TCP/IP packets, enabling the extension of FC SANs over long distances (beyond the 10 km limit of standard optics) by leveraging existing IP WAN infrastructure. This allows the 50 km connection while preserving native Fibre Channel semantics and fabric services.

Answer

iSCSI

Answer

FCoE

Answer

Direct FC connection with 10km optics

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using Smart Zoning in Cisco MDS switches?

Accepted Answer

Reduces number of zone objects. Smart Zoning reduces the number of zone objects by automatically grouping initiator-target pairs into a single zone entry, rather than requiring a separate zone for each pair. This minimizes the size of the zone database and reduces the processing overhead on the switch during fabric reconfigurations.

Answer

Provides faster FLOGI processing

Answer

Eliminates the need for VSANs

Answer

Allows automatic LUN masking

Question 8

Which THREE factors should be considered when sizing buffer credits for a long-haul FC link?

Accepted Answer

Link speed. Link speed (A) is a critical factor because higher speeds require more buffer credits to maintain full throughput over a given distance. The buffer credit requirement scales linearly with link speed, as each credit represents the ability to send one frame before receiving an acknowledgment. For example, a 16 Gbps link needs twice as many buffer credits as an 8 Gbps link for the same distance.

Answer

Number of targets

Answer

Buffer-to-buffer credit pool size

Question 9

Which TWO of the following are valid methods to configure zoning in a Cisco MDS 9000 series switch?

Accepted Answer

Domain/port (DID) zoning. C is correct because Domain/Port (DID) zoning uses the Fibre Channel domain ID and port number to identify members, which is a standard zoning method on Cisco MDS switches. DID zoning is configured using the `zone` command with the `domain-id,port-number` syntax, providing a hardware-based zoning approach that does not rely on WWNs.

Answer

IP address zoning

Answer

MAC address zoning

Answer

Interface (fc-port) zoning

Question 10

A data center uses a Cisco MDS 9710 director with multiple line cards. The storage network includes several host servers connected to the director via 16 Gbps FC connections. Recently, the engineering team deployed a new storage array that supports 32 Gbps FC. To take advantage of the higher speed, they upgraded the host HBAs to 32 Gbps. However, after the upgrade, some hosts are experiencing intermittent connection drops. The team notices that when a host disconnects, it takes approximately 30 seconds to reconnect. The link lights on the host and switch ports are green. The switch logs show 'VSAN 100: Port fc1/1 is down (link failure)' messages. No other errors are reported. The MDS line cards support 32 Gbps, and the ports are configured with the 'speed 32000' command. What is the most likely cause of the intermittent drops?

Accepted Answer

Mismatched port speed configuration between host and switch. The most likely cause is a speed mismatch between the host HBA and the switch port. Although the switch port is set to 32 Gbps, the HBA might be set to auto-negotiate or default to 16 Gbps, causing instability. The 30-second reconnect time is typical of speed negotiation failures. Incompatible SFPs would cause persistent link failure, buffer credits cause throughput drops but not disconnects, and zoning would block connectivity.

Answer

Insufficient buffer credits on the host ports

Answer

Incompatible SFP+ modules

Answer

Inconsistent zoning configuration

Question 11

A large enterprise uses Cisco Nexus 5548UP switches in FCoE mode. The storage array is connected via native FC to an MDS 9700. The FCoE switches are connected to the MDS via FC uplinks. Recently, the storage team deployed a new FCoE initiator that requires access to a specific LUN. After configuring the zone and VSAN, the initiator cannot discover the target. The zone includes the pWWN of the target and the FCoE initiator's pWWN (derived from its MAC address). The initiator is in VSAN 100, and the target is in the same VSAN. The MDS show flogi database shows the initiator. The show fcoe database on the Nexus shows the initiator but the session is not active (state: FIP-VN_Port not logged in). The engineer checks the FIP snooping policy and notices that the FCoE VLAN to VSAN mapping is correct. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The FIP snooping policy is blocking the FLOGI. The FCoE initiator appears in the FCoE database but is not logged in, indicating the FLOGI is being dropped. The FIP snooping policy on the Nexus switch may be blocking the FLOGI traffic because the initiator's MAC address is not in the allowed FCoE MAC list or the policy is misconfigured. Incorrect VN_Port MAC would prevent FCoE database entry, NPV is not required for FCoE native mode, and routing is not an issue within the same VSAN.

Answer

The MDS does not have a route to the FCoE initiator's VSAN

Answer

The FCoE initiator is not using the correct VN_Port MAC address

Answer

The FCoE NPV is not enabled on the Nexus

Question 12

A small business has a Cisco MDS 9148S switch with a single fabric. Two hosts are connected to ports fc1/1 and fc1/2, and a storage array is connected to ports fc1/3 and fc1/4. The administrator wants to ensure that each host can only see its own assigned LUNs on the array. They have configured a zone for each host containing the host pWWN and the target pWWN for the respective LUNs. However, Host A is able to see Host B's LUNs. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The zoning configuration is using a zone alias that includes both hosts. The administrator likely used a zone alias that inadvertently includes both hosts' pWWNs. In Cisco MDS zoning, a zone alias is a named set of pWWNs; if the alias contains both Host A and Host B, then any zone using that alias will include both hosts, allowing Host A to see Host B's LUNs. This violates the intended hard-zoning isolation, as zones must contain only the specific host-target pairs to enforce LUN masking.

Answer

The zone is not active

Answer

The zones are not in the same VSAN

Answer

The target ports are using soft zoning

Question 13

An organization has four Cisco MDS 9700 directors connected in a full-mesh topology. They use VSANs to separate production, backup, and management traffic. The backup VSAN is experiencing high latency and occasional timeouts. The engineer runs the 'show fcspf routes' command and notices that the path from the backup host to the backup target has an uneven hop count across different paths. The links are all 16 Gbps. The engineer also notes that the backup target is connected to a different director than the backup host. Which action is most likely to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Decrease the FSPF cost on the direct links. Decreasing the FSPF cost on the direct links encourages traffic to take shorter paths, reducing hop count and latency. Increasing cost would push traffic away, making it worse. IVR is for inter-VSAN routing, not intra-VSAN. Load balancing via PortChannels increases bandwidth but does not directly reduce latency from long paths.

Answer

Configure IVR to route backup traffic over a dedicated path

Answer

Increase the FSPF cost on the direct links

Answer

Implement load balancing using multiple PortChannels

Question 14

A large data center uses a Cisco Nexus 9000 switch with FCoE NPV feature. The switch is connected to an MDS 9700 upstream. The network team recently replaced the MDS 9700 with a new one. After the replacement, the FCoE hosts are unable to log in to the storage fabric. The Nexus switch shows that the FCoE NPV uplinks are up but no FLOGIs are being forwarded. The show npv flogi-table on the Nexus is empty. The upstream MDS shows that the uplinks are in VSAN 100, and the zoning is correct. The Nexus switch configuration includes 'feature npv' and 'npv enable' on the relevant interfaces. The FCoE VLAN 100 is mapped to VSAN 100. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The upstream MDS is not configured to accept NPV connections. The most likely cause is that the upstream MDS is not configured to accept NPV connections. For NPV to work, the upstream switch (MDS) must have NPIV enabled on the uplink interfaces. Without NPIV, the MDS will reject FLOGI requests from the Nexus. Other options: FKA-adv-period affects keep-alives, not login; FIP snooping is on the Nexus but would not cause empty flogi-table if uplinks are up; VLAN mapping is correct.

Answer

The FIP snooping policy is blocking the FLOGI traffic

Answer

The Nexus switch is missing the 'fcoe fka-adv-period' configuration

Answer

The FCoE hosts are not in the same VLAN as the FCoE NPV uplinks

Question 15

A company is consolidating its storage network into a single fabric using a Cisco MDS 9509. They want to use VSANs to isolate different departments. The VSANs will be 10, 20, and 30. They have a single ISL between two MDS switches. The engineers want to carry all three VSANs over the ISL. They configure both ends of the ISL as E ports and enable trunking. After configuration, they notice that only VSAN 10 traffic passes over the ISL. The other VSANs appear isolated. The show vsan membership shows all three VSANs are present on both switches. The show interface trunk on the ISL shows that the trunk is up but only VSAN 10 is allowed. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The allowed VSAN list on the trunk port is limited to only VSAN 10. The show interface trunk output indicates that only VSAN 10 is in the allowed list. The allowed VSAN list on the trunk port must be configured to include all three VSANs. The trunk mode (on/desirable) does not limit VSANs. Error-disabled would show in different status. VSAN membership on the interface is not applicable for trunk ports.

Answer

The other VSANs are not configured on the trunk interface

Answer

The trunk mode is set to 'on' instead of 'desirable'/'auto'

Answer

The ISL is in an error-disabled state for VSAN 20 and 30