350-601 Storage Network Practice Test 17 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which Fibre Channel port type is used to connect two Cisco MDS switches together to form an inter-switch link (ISL)?

Accepted Answer

E-port. An E-port (Expansion port) is the Fibre Channel port type specifically designed to connect two switches together to form an Inter-Switch Link (ISL). When two Cisco MDS switches are connected, the ports on both ends negotiate to become E-ports, which carry fabric traffic between switches including FSPF routing updates, zone information, and data frames. This is the standard port type used for switch-to-switch connectivity in a Fibre Channel fabric.

Answer

N-port

Answer

NP-port

Answer

F-port

Question 2

A Cisco MDS switch is being configured to support multiple isolated Fibre Channel fabrics over a single physical infrastructure. Which feature should be used to achieve this isolation?

Accepted Answer

VSANs. VSANs (Virtual SANs) are used to create multiple isolated Fibre Channel fabrics over a single physical infrastructure. Each VSAN operates as an independent fabric with its own fabric services, zoning, and domain ID. This provides isolation and allows multiple fabrics to share the same physical switches and links.

Answer

VLANs

Answer

PortChannels

Answer

Zoning

Question 3

In an FCoE environment, which protocol is responsible for discovering and initializing FCoE-capable endpoints, including the exchange of MAC addresses and establishing virtual links?

Accepted Answer

FIP. FIP (FCoE Initialization Protocol) is the protocol defined in FC-BB-5 that discovers FCoE-capable endpoints (ENodes and FCFs), exchanges MAC addresses, and establishes virtual links between them. It performs the FCoE equivalent of fabric login before FCoE data traffic flows. FCoE itself is the encapsulation of Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet, not the discovery/initialization protocol.

Answer

ARP

Answer

DCBX

Answer

FCoE

Question 4

Which RAID level provides both striping and mirroring for high performance and fault tolerance?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10. RAID 10 combines both striping (RAID 0) and mirroring (RAID 1) to provide high performance and fault tolerance. Data is striped across multiple mirrored pairs, so if one disk fails, the mirror still provides redundancy. This makes RAID 10 suitable for applications requiring both speed and reliability.

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

RAID 5

Answer

RAID 6

Question 5

A storage administrator is configuring a VSAN on a Cisco MDS switch. After creating the VSAN, what is the next step to ensure that the ports can communicate within that VSAN?

Accepted Answer

Assign ports to the VSAN. After creating a VSAN on a Cisco MDS switch, the next step is to assign ports to that VSAN so they participate in the virtual fabric. Without port assignment, the VSAN exists but has no member interfaces, and no devices can communicate within it. Zoning comes later, after ports are assigned and devices log in.

Answer

Enable NPV mode on the switch

Answer

Enable FCoE

Answer

Configure zoning

Question 6

What is the purpose of jumbo frames in an iSCSI storage network?

Accepted Answer

To increase throughput by reducing protocol overhead. Jumbo frames increase the MTU from 1500 to up to 9000 bytes, reducing the number of frames needed to transfer data. This reduces protocol overhead (headers per frame) and improves throughput for large data transfers. iSCSI benefits from jumbo frames by achieving higher efficiency.

Answer

To reduce latency

Answer

To provide authentication

Answer

To enable flow control

Question 7

In a Fibre Channel fabric using NPV mode, what is the role of the NP-port on the edge switch?

Accepted Answer

It connects to a core switch's F-port and proxies host logins. In NPV (N_Port Virtualization) mode, the edge switch's NP-port connects to a core switch's F-port and proxies host logins, allowing the edge switch to appear as an N-port to the core. This enables the edge switch to forward fabric logins from hosts without consuming domain IDs in the core fabric. The NP-port acts as both an N-port and a proxy, aggregating multiple host N-port logins.

Answer

It is used to connect to storage arrays

Answer

It is used for VSAN trunking

Answer

It acts as an E-port for ISL connectivity

Question 8

Which TWO statements correctly describe the benefits of thin provisioning in a storage array?

Accepted Answer

It allows over-provisioning of logical capacity beyond physical capacity. Option C is correct because thin provisioning decouples logical volume size from physical allocation, letting an array present logical capacity that exceeds the actual installed physical capacity (over-provisioning), which is the defining characteristic of thin provisioning. Option E is correct because physical blocks are allocated on demand as data is written, so unused logical space consumes no physical capacity, lowering acquisition and operational storage costs. Options A, B, and D do not belong: thin provisioning is independent of RAID and never replaces redundancy (A); it does not pre-allocate all storage upfront, which is the opposite of thin provisioning and would not improve performance that way (B); and replication granularity is a function of the replication technology and changed-block tracking, not a guaranteed benefit of thin provisioning (D).

Answer

It eliminates the need for RAID protection

Answer

It improves performance by pre-allocating all storage upfront

Answer

It simplifies disaster recovery by replicating only allocated blocks

Question 9

Which THREE components are required to implement Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) in a data center?

Accepted Answer

Converged Network Adapter (CNA). Option B, the Converged Network Adapter (CNA), is correct because FCoE requires a hardware adapter that combines a standard Ethernet NIC and a Fibre Channel HBA, encapsulating FC frames into Ethernet frames while offloading FCoE and FIP processing. Option D, the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP), is correct because FIP is the protocol used to discover FCFs (FCoE Forwarders), perform fabric login (FLOGI), and maintain virtual links between ENodes and the FC fabric over Ethernet. Option E, Data Center Bridging (DCB)-capable switches, is correct because FCoE depends on DCB features such as Priority Flow Control (PFC, 802.1Qbb) and Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS, 802.1Qaz) to provide lossless, class-based Ethernet transport for storage traffic. Option A is not required because FCoE uses Ethernet switches with FCF capability rather than a traditional Fibre Channel switch with an E-port, which is used for FC-to-FC ISL connections. Option C is not required because iSCSI initiator software is used for iSCSI over TCP/IP, not for FCoE, which encapsulates native Fibre Channel frames rather than SCSI over TCP.

Answer

Fibre Channel switch with E-port

Answer

iSCSI initiator software

Question 10

Which TWO statements correctly describe active zone sets in a Cisco MDS Fibre Channel fabric?

Accepted Answer

The active zone set is propagated to all switches in the fabric. Option A is correct because in a Cisco MDS Fibre Channel fabric, the active zone set is distributed fabric-wide via the zone server (using CFS distribution) so that every switch in the VSAN enforces the same zoning. Option B is correct because a VSAN can have only one active zone set at a time; activating a different zone set replaces the previously active one. Option C is incorrect because individual zones within an active zone set cannot be selectively deactivated — you must modify and reactivate the zone set. Option D is incorrect because the active zone set is stored in the zone database (nonvolatile) and is not limited to the running configuration. Option E is incorrect because only one zone set can be active per VSAN, not multiple simultaneously.

Answer

Zones within the active zone set can be selectively deactivated

Answer

The active zone set is stored in the running configuration only

Answer

Multiple zone sets can be active simultaneously

Question 11

Which TWO statements correctly describe the difference between synchronous and asynchronous replication?

Accepted Answer

Asynchronous replication has lower impact on application performance. Option B is correct because asynchronous replication acknowledges writes to the host as soon as they hit the local primary storage, without waiting for the remote site to confirm receipt, so the added write latency and throughput penalty on the application are minimal. Option C is correct because synchronous replication only returns write acknowledgment after the remote replica has committed the data, meaning every acknowledged write exists at both sites and the recovery point objective (RPO) is effectively zero. Option A is wrong because asynchronous replication does not require dedicated links; it is typically used over shared or higher-latency WAN links precisely because it tolerates distance and delay. Option D is wrong because synchronous replication is the least tolerant of high latency, since each write must complete a round trip to the remote site before acknowledgment. Option E is wrong because asynchronous replication can lose the most recent writes that have not yet been transmitted, so it cannot guarantee zero data loss.

Answer

Asynchronous replication requires dedicated links

Answer

Synchronous replication is more tolerant of high latency links

Answer

Asynchronous replication guarantees zero data loss

Question 12

Which FC port type is used for end-device connection in Fibre Channel fabric, and is typically found on a host bus adapter?

Accepted Answer

N-port. An N-port (Node Port) is the Fibre Channel port type used on end devices such as host bus adapters (HBAs) to connect to the fabric. It is the standard port on a node that communicates with an F-port on a switch. This is the port type typically found on an HBA.

Answer

NP-port

Answer

E-port

Answer

F-port

Question 13

A Cisco MDS switch is connected to another MDS via a Fibre Channel link. The two switches need to carry traffic for multiple VSANs over a single physical link. Which feature should be configured?

Accepted Answer

EISL trunking. EISL (Enhanced Inter-Switch Link) trunking allows multiple VSANs to be carried over a single physical ISL between Cisco MDS switches. This is configured by enabling trunking on the ISL ports, which encapsulates frames with VSAN tags. NPV mode is used for fabric port reduction, PortChannel aggregates links for bandwidth, and VSAN-based zoning is for access control, not for carrying multiple VSANs over a single link.

Answer

NPV mode

Answer

PortChannel

Answer

VSAN-based zoning

Question 14

An engineer is configuring FCoE on a Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect. The network requires lossless Ethernet to support FCoE traffic. Which Data Center Bridging (DCB) feature must be enabled first to ensure no frames are dropped due to congestion?

Accepted Answer

PFC. Priority Flow Control (PFC) is the DCB feature that ensures lossless Ethernet for FCoE by pausing specific traffic classes when congestion occurs, preventing frame drops. PFC must be enabled first because FCoE requires a lossless fabric to avoid dropping storage frames, which would cause I/O errors. Without PFC, congestion could lead to dropped FCoE frames, breaking the storage network.

Answer

ETS

Answer

DCBX

Answer

FIP

Question 15

A storage administrator wants to isolate two Fibre Channel fabrics on the same physical switch infrastructure. Which technology should be used to achieve this isolation similar to VLANs in Ethernet?

Accepted Answer

VSANs. VSANs (Virtual SANs) partition a physical Fibre Channel fabric into logically isolated fabrics, analogous to VLANs in Ethernet. Each VSAN has its own fabric services, zoning, and domain IDs, providing true isolation on shared hardware. Zoning, PortChannels, and NPV do not create separate fabrics.

Answer

PortChannels

Answer

Zoning

Answer

NPV