350-601 Storage Network Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A storage administrator has been tasked with integrating a new Cisco MDS 9706 switch into an existing Fibre Channel SAN. The existing SAN consists of two Cisco MDS 9148S switches configured in a VSAN 100 with a single zone set that contains all initiator and target WWPNs. The administrator connects the new switch to one of the existing switches using an ISL and configures the new switch with VSAN 100 and the same zone configuration. The administrator activates the zone set on the new switch and verifies that the ISL is up and both switches see each other's Fibre Channel IDs. However, servers attached to the existing switches still cannot discover the storage targets that are connected to the new switch. The administrator has confirmed that the ISL is operational and that the zone set on the new switch is activated with the correct WWPNs. What should the administrator check next?

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

Accepted Answer

Verify that the new switch's target-facing interfaces are not in shutdown state.. The scenario states that the ISL is up, both switches see each other's FCIDs, and the zone set is activated with correct WWPNs. However, servers cannot discover targets on the new switch. The most likely remaining physical-layer issue is that the target-facing interfaces on the new switch are administratively down (shutdown). If those ports are shut down, the targets will not be able to log in to the fabric, and thus will not be visible to initiators even though zoning and ISL are correct. Therefore, verifying that the target-facing interfaces are not in shutdown state is the next logical step.

Answer

Confirm that the zone set on the new switch is activated and contains correct WWPNs.

Answer

Ensure that the trunk protocol is enabled on the ISL and that allowed VSANs include VSAN 100.

Answer

Check that the new switch's domain ID is unique and not conflicting.

Question 2

An engineer is deploying FCoE on a Cisco Nexus 9000v switch in a converged network. The storage array is connected via native Fibre Channel to an MDS switch, and the MDS is connected to the Nexus using an FCoE link. The engineer creates a virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) interface on the Nexus, binds it to an Ethernet interface, and maps VSAN 200 to VLAN 200. The MDS side has an FCoE port configured and enabled. Servers connected to the Nexus with FCoE initiators can successfully log into the storage targets, but performance is very poor and intermittent. The engineer checks for drops on all interfaces and finds none. The engineer also verifies that the FCoE VLAN is not blocked by spanning tree. What is the most likely cause of the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

The Ethernet interface MTU is set to 1500 instead of 2500.. FCoE requires a jumbo MTU (typically 2500 bytes) to encapsulate Fibre Channel frames without fragmentation. An MTU of 1500 forces fragmentation and reassembly, causing retransmissions and poor performance. Option B is incorrect because the engineer verified that the FCoE VLAN is not blocked by spanning tree. Option C is incorrect because servers can log in, indicating FCoE is enabled on the MDS interface. Option D is incorrect because the VFC binding was already verified as correct.

Answer

The FCoE VLAN is blocking spanning tree.

Answer

The MDS has not enabled FCoE on the interface.

Answer

The VFC interface is not bound to the correct port-channel.

Question 3

A company has two data centers connected via a WAN link using an FCIP tunnel between two Cisco MDS 9700 switches. The FCIP link is configured on a GigabitEthernet port with an MTU of 1500 bytes and uses IPSec for encryption. Recently, storage replication traffic has become slow, and the administrator notices high TCP retransmissions on the FCIP interface. The administrator checks the bandwidth utilization and sees it is only 50% of the link capacity. The storage arrays report no errors or performance issues on their local switches. The administrator also verifies that the FCIP profile is configured correctly and that compression is enabled but not causing any errors. What is the most likely cause of the TCP retransmissions?

Accepted Answer

The TCP window size is too small for the latency.. FCIP relies on TCP to carry Fibre Channel frames over IP, and TCP throughput is governed by the bandwidth-delay product (BDP). With a 1 Gbps link and high WAN latency, a small TCP window cannot fill the pipe, so the sender stalls waiting for acknowledgments; this manifests as high TCP retransmissions and low utilization (50%). The most likely cause is that the TCP window size is too small for the latency, and the fix is to tune the FCIP TCP window (or enable TCP window scaling) to match the BDP.

Answer

The WAN link has packet loss due to a duplex mismatch.

Answer

IPSec encryption introduces too much overhead.

Answer

The FCIP profile is configured with compression that is causing delays.

Question 4

An engineer is configuring a new Fibre Channel switch in a Cisco MDS environment. The switch will connect to end devices such as servers and storage arrays. Which two port types will be used on the switch to connect to these end devices?

Accepted Answer

F_port and FL_port. On a Fibre Channel switch, F_ports connect to N_ports on hosts and storage. N_ports are on end devices, not on the switch. E_ports are for ISLs between switches. NP_ports are used in NPV mode.

Answer

NP_port and VF_port

Answer

E_port and TE_port

Answer

N_port and NL_port

Question 5

Which Fibre Channel port type is used to connect a host bus adapter (HBA) to a Fibre Channel switch in a point-to-point topology?

Accepted Answer

N-port. In Fibre Channel, an N-port (Node port) is the port on a node (such as a host bus adapter) that connects to a switch port in a point-to-point topology. The N-port is the endpoint that initiates or receives communication, and it connects directly to an F-port on the switch. This is the standard connection model for a host HBA attaching to a fabric switch.

Answer

E-port

Answer

F-port

Answer

NP-port

Question 6

A network administrator needs to configure iSCSI multipath I/O (MPIO) for a host connecting to a storage array. Which requirement must be met to ensure that MPIO functions correctly with load balancing?

Accepted Answer

The host must have multiple network interfaces on different subnets. For iSCSI MPIO to function correctly with load balancing, the host must have multiple network interfaces on different subnets. This ensures that multiple independent paths exist between the host and the storage array, allowing the MPIO driver to distribute I/O across them. If interfaces are on the same subnet, they may not provide true redundancy or load balancing because they often share the same physical path.

Answer

The iSCSI initiator must use CHAP authentication

Answer

Jumbo frames must be enabled on all switches

Answer

The storage array must support synchronous replication

Question 7

Which iSCSI authentication method provides mutual authentication between initiator and target using a shared secret?

Accepted Answer

CHAP. CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) provides mutual authentication between iSCSI initiator and target using a shared secret. In mutual CHAP, both the initiator and target authenticate each other by exchanging challenges and responses based on the shared secret. This ensures both parties are legitimate.

Answer

Kerberos

Answer

IPsec

Answer

RADIUS

Question 8

Which THREE of the following are required to configure Fibre Channel PortChannels on Cisco MDS switches?

Accepted Answer

All member ports must be in the same VSAN. Option A is correct because all ports in a Fibre Channel PortChannel must belong to the same VSAN, since a PortChannel interface is itself associated with a single VSAN and its member ports must match that VSAN. Option B is correct because you must explicitly create the PortChannel interface (for example, with the 'interface port-channel' command) before adding physical member ports to it. Option C is correct because all member ports in a PortChannel must operate at the same speed; otherwise the PortChannel cannot come up or will not aggregate them properly. Option D is not required because NPV (N_Port Virtualization) is an edge-switch feature for connecting to core switches and is unrelated to forming PortChannels. Option E is not required because PortChannel members can be E-ports, F-ports, or TE-ports depending on the topology, so they do not all have to be F-ports.

Answer

NPV mode must be enabled on the switch

Answer

All member ports must be configured as F-ports

Question 9

An engineer is configuring disk redundancy for a storage array that requires high write performance and can tolerate up to two disk failures. Which RAID level should be used?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10. RAID 10 combines mirroring and striping, offering high write performance because writes are performed on both mirrors simultaneously without parity calculations. It can tolerate up to two disk failures as long as each failed disk is in a different mirror set, meeting the requirement for high write performance and two-disk fault tolerance.

Answer

RAID 6

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

RAID 5

Question 10

An engineer is configuring a new Cisco MDS switch to connect to an existing Fibre Channel fabric. The switch will be deployed in NPV mode to scale the number of edge ports. Which port type should be used on the upstream switch to connect to this NPV switch?

Accepted Answer

F-port. An NPV (N-Port Virtualization) switch acts as an edge device that presents its uplinks to the core as N-ports, so the upstream switch must present an F-port (Fabric port) to accept those N-port logins. In other words, the NPV switch's NP-port connects to an F-port on the upstream switch, allowing the NPV switch to proxy fabric logins for its downstream devices. This is the standard NPV topology: core switch F-port ↔ NPV switch NP-port.

Answer

E-port

Answer

N-port

Answer

NP-port

Question 11

A storage administrator wants to implement Fibre Channel zoning to ensure that only specific initiators can access specific targets. The administrator prefers a method that does not require reconfiguration when a host's HBA is replaced with a new one with a different WWPN. Which zoning type meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Soft zoning by port. Soft zoning by port uses the physical port number, not the WWPN. If the HBA is replaced but the same port is used, the zoning remains valid. Hard zoning by WWN would require updating the zone if the WWPN changes.

Answer

Hard zoning by port

Answer

Soft zoning by WWN

Answer

Hard zoning by WWN

Question 12

An engineer is configuring iSCSI multipath I/O (MPIO) for a storage array. The initiator has two NICs connected to two different switches, and the target has two iSCSI ports on different subnets. Which condition must be met for MPIO to function correctly?

Accepted Answer

Each path must be on a separate subnet.. MPIO requires that the initiator and target have multiple paths that are not on the same subnet to avoid routing issues. Typically, each path should be on a separate subnet.

Answer

CHAP authentication must be disabled.

Answer

Both paths must be on the same subnet.

Answer

Jumbo frames must be enabled on all interfaces.

Question 13

A storage administrator is configuring Fibre Channel zoning on a Cisco MDS switch. The administrator creates a zone, adds members, and activates the zone set. However, the hosts still cannot access the storage targets. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The zone set was not activated.. The most likely cause is that the zone set was not activated. Even if zones are created and added to a zone set, the zoning configuration does not take effect until the zone set is explicitly activated. The administrator may have created and added members but forgot to activate the zone set, so the active zone set remains empty or unchanged, preventing host access to storage.

Answer

The WWPNs are incorrectly typed.

Answer

The VSAN was not created.

Answer

The ports are in trunk mode.

Question 14

A storage administrator is configuring Fibre Channel zoning on a Cisco MDS switch to restrict access between initiators and targets. Which two statements about hard zoning vs. soft zoning are true? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Hard zoning provides security against WWPN spoofing.. Option C is correct because hard zoning is enforced in the switch's hardware (the FLOGI/name-server and port-level ACLs based on physical port or domain/port ID), so a device that spoofs another device's WWPN cannot gain access to a zone it is not physically permitted to reach. Option E is correct because soft zoning relies only on the Fibre Channel name server to tell initiators which targets they may access; a device that ignores the name server and directly addresses another device's FCID can still communicate with it, so soft zoning is not a true security boundary. Option A is wrong because it is soft zoning, not hard zoning, that uses the name server to restrict access. Option B is wrong because soft zoning depends on the active zone set being distributed to the name server, whereas hard zoning is enforced by the switch's port-level hardware configuration and does not require the active zone set for enforcement. Option D is wrong because soft zoning is enforced in software/name-server responses, not at the hardware level.

Answer

Hard zoning uses the Fibre Channel name server to restrict access.

Answer

Both hard and soft zoning require the active zone set to be configured.

Answer

Soft zoning enforces access at the hardware level.

Question 15

An engineer is configuring a new Cisco MDS 9148 switch to connect to an existing Fibre Channel fabric. The switch will be used at the edge of the SAN and must not participate in fabric services. Which port mode should be used for the ports connecting to the core switches?

Accepted Answer

NP-port. The NP-port (N-Port Proxy) mode is used on Cisco MDS switches to allow an edge switch to connect to a core switch without participating in fabric services. When a port is configured as NP-port, it acts as a proxy for N-ports, allowing the edge switch to forward traffic but not engage in fabric initialization, zoning, or other fabric-wide services. This is ideal for a switch at the edge of the SAN that must remain isolated from core fabric management.

Answer

F-port

Answer

E-port

Answer

N-port