350-601 Storage Network Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A data center architect is designing a Fibre Channel fabric using Cisco MDS switches. To reduce the number of domain IDs and simplify management, the edge switches will operate in NPV mode. However, the core switches must be configured appropriately. Which port type must be used on the core switches to connect to NPV edge switches?

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

Accepted Answer

F-port. In NPV (N-Port Virtualization) mode, the edge switch acts as an NP-port (N-port proxy) toward the core, and the core switch must present an F-port (fabric port) to the NPV edge switch. The NPV edge switch proxies FLOGI from its connected nodes to the core, so the core sees the edge as an N-port and responds as an F-port. Therefore, the core switch port connecting to an NPV edge must be configured as an F-port.

Answer

N-port

Answer

E-port

Answer

NP-port

Question 2

An engineer is configuring a Fibre Channel PortChannel between two Cisco MDS switches. What is the maximum number of physical links that can be aggregated into a single PortChannel in Fibre Channel?

Accepted Answer

16. In Fibre Channel, a PortChannel (also called a SAN port channel) can aggregate a maximum of 16 physical links into a single logical link. This is a hard limit defined by Cisco MDS NX-OS and the FC standards for port-channel bundling. Exceeding 16 links requires multiple port channels.

Answer

8

Answer

32

Answer

4

Question 3

A data center team is implementing FCoE and needs to ensure that FCoE traffic is not dropped during congestion. The network switches support Data Center Bridging (DCB). Which two DCB features are required for FCoE?

Accepted Answer

Priority Flow Control (PFC) and Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX). PFC provides lossless transport, and DCBX is used for capability exchange between peers to configure PFC and other DCB features.

Answer

Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) and Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX)

Answer

Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) and jumbo frames

Answer

Priority Flow Control (PFC) and jumbo frames

Question 4

An engineer is configuring a Fibre Channel SAN with a Cisco MDS switch. To ensure high availability and load balancing, the engineer plans to use PortChannels. Which two statements about Fibre Channel PortChannels are true? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

PortChannels provide redundancy by automatically failing over to another link.. Option A is correct because a Fibre Channel PortChannel bundles multiple physical ISLs into one logical link, so if a member link fails, traffic is redistributed across the remaining links automatically, providing redundancy and continued connectivity. Option C is correct because all member ports of a PortChannel must belong to the same VSAN; the VSAN membership must match across every link in the bundle for the PortChannel to form. Option B is incorrect because Fibre Channel PortChannels do not use LACP (which is an Ethernet protocol); they use FC-specific negotiation such as exchange link parameters (ELP) and the PortChannel protocol. Option D is incorrect because PortChannels can be formed between E-ports (ISLs between switches) as well as between TE-ports, not only F-ports. Option E is incorrect because a Fibre Channel PortChannel can aggregate up to 16 physical links (with 8 active and 8 standby in some configurations), not just 4.

Answer

PortChannels require the use of the LACP protocol.

Answer

PortChannels are supported only between F-ports.

Answer

PortChannels can aggregate up to 4 physical links.

Question 5

An engineer is configuring FCoE on a Cisco Nexus switch. Which two components are required for FCoE initialization? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

VN-port (Virtual N-port). FCoE initialization requires the FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP), which is the dedicated protocol defined in FC-BB-5 that performs VLAN discovery, FCF discovery, and fabric login so an ENode can establish a virtual link over Ethernet. It also requires a VN-port (Virtual N-port), the virtualized N-port instance on the server/converged network adapter that logs into the fabric and exchanges FCoE frames after FIP completes; without the VN-port there is no endpoint identity to initialize. FC-SP (option A) is an authentication/security protocol (DH-CHAP) that can protect the fabric but is not mandatory for FCoE initialization. ETS (option C) is a DCB bandwidth-allocation feature under IEEE 802.1Qaz used for QoS, not for FCoE login. VF-port (option E) is the virtual F-port on the switch side that pairs with the VN-port, but the question asks for the components needed to initialize FCoE from the endpoint, which are FIP and the VN-port.

Answer

Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP)

Answer

Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS)

Answer

VF-port (Virtual F-port)

Question 6

An engineer configures zoning on a Cisco MDS switch to restrict access between storage arrays and servers. They use the command 'zone name ZONE1 vsan 10' and 'member pwwn 21:00:00:1b:32:12:34:56'. Which type of zoning is being configured?

Accepted Answer

Hard zoning by WWN. The command 'member pwwn 21:00:00:1b:32:12:34:56' specifies a port WWN as the zone member, which is hard zoning by WWN. Hard zoning enforces access control at the hardware level based on WWN, providing strict isolation.

Answer

VSAN zoning

Answer

Soft zoning by port

Answer

Lun zoning

Question 7

A storage array is configured with RAID 10 across 8 disks. How many disks can fail without data loss, assuming optimal configuration?

Accepted Answer

4. RAID 10 (mirrored stripes) requires that each mirror pair retain at least one healthy disk. With 8 disks arranged as 4 mirrored pairs, one disk from each pair can fail simultaneously without data loss, giving a fault tolerance of 4 disks — provided no two failures occur within the same mirror pair.

Answer

8

Answer

1

Answer

2

Question 8

An engineer is configuring Fibre Channel PortChannels on a Cisco MDS switch. Which statement about Fibre Channel PortChannels is true?

Accepted Answer

They load-balance based on the source and destination WWPNs.. Fibre Channel PortChannels require all member ports to be of the same type (e.g., all E-ports). They load-balance across links and are compatible with VSAN trunking. They do not require the same speed on all ports, but it is recommended.

Answer

They require all member ports to be on the same VSAN.

Answer

They can include both E-ports and F-ports in the same PortChannel.

Answer

They are supported only in NPV mode.

Question 9

A data center is implementing iSCSI with MPIO. Which three components are required for MPIO to function? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Multiple network interfaces on the initiator. Option A is correct because MPIO requires multiple network interfaces (NICs or vNICs) on the initiator so that separate physical or logical paths can be established to the storage target, allowing traffic to be distributed and providing path redundancy. Option D is correct because MPIO operates by creating multiple iSCSI sessions (each bound to a different initiator interface and target portal), which the MPIO DSM then aggregates into a single logical device with load balancing and failover. Option E is correct because multiple target IP addresses (portals) are needed so each initiator interface can connect to a distinct target endpoint, forming independent paths that MPIO can manage. Option B is not required because CHAP is an optional authentication mechanism for securing iSCSI logins and has no role in establishing or managing multiple I/O paths. Option C is not required because jumbo frames are a performance tuning option that reduces per-packet overhead but is not a prerequisite for MPIO functionality.

Answer

CHAP authentication

Answer

Jumbo frames enabled

Question 10

A network engineer is configuring a new Fibre Channel switch to connect to an existing storage fabric. The switch will be used to aggregate multiple edge switches and must appear as a single Fibre Channel device to the core. Which port type should be used on the edge switch facing the core switch to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

NP-port. When an edge switch is in NPV mode and connects to a core switch, its uplink port must be configured as an NP-port. This allows the edge switch to appear as a single Fibre Channel device (an N-port) to the core, proxying logins from its attached devices without consuming a domain ID.

Answer

F-port

Answer

N-port

Answer

E-port

Question 11

An engineer is configuring zoning on a Cisco MDS switch. The requirement is to allow a single host HBA to access two storage array ports. Which zone configuration meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Create one zone with the host's WWPN and one storage port WWPN, and another zone with the host's WWPN and the second storage port WWPN.. The recommended practice for Fibre Channel zoning is to use single-initiator zones, where each zone contains one host WWPN and one storage port WWPN. To allow a single host HBA to access two storage array ports, two zones should be created: the first zone includes the host's WWPN and the first storage port's WWPN, and the second zone includes the same host's WWPN and the second storage port's WWPN. This prevents direct communication between storage ports (which could cause issues) and follows Cisco best practices for MDS zoning. Option C correctly implements this configuration. Options A and B use port IDs or a single zone with multiple targets, which are less secure and not recommended. Option D creates a single zone with all three WWPNs, which allows the storage ports to communicate with each other, potentially leading to errors or instability.

Answer

Create a zone with the host's port ID and both storage port IDs.

Answer

Create one zone with all three WWPNs.

Answer

Create a zone with the host's WWPN and both storage ports as a single zone.

Question 12

An engineer is configuring a Cisco MDS switch to connect two SAN islands using a Fibre Channel ISL. The interfaces on both switches are set to auto mode. However, the link does not come up. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The ports are in auto mode and neither side is configured as E-port.. On Cisco MDS switches, ports in auto mode negotiate to become F-ports by default. For an ISL, at least one side must be configured as E-port to force the link to become an E-port.

Answer

Both switches have the same domain ID.

Answer

The ISL link requires a minimum speed of 8 Gbps.

Answer

The ports are configured in F-port mode.

Question 13

A storage engineer is configuring replication between two data centers. The distance is 500 km with a round-trip latency of 10 ms. The application requires zero data loss in the event of a primary site failure. Which replication method should be chosen?

Accepted Answer

Synchronous replication. Synchronous replication writes data to both the primary and secondary sites before acknowledging the write to the application, ensuring zero data loss (RPO=0). Although 10 ms round-trip latency is relatively high for synchronous replication, it is within the acceptable range for many arrays and meets the zero data loss requirement. Therefore, synchronous replication is the correct choice.

Answer

Snapshot-based replication

Answer

Asynchronous replication

Answer

RAID-10 mirroring

Question 14

A Cisco MDS switch is configured with NPV mode. A host NPIV-capable HBA is connected to this switch. The HBA needs to log in with multiple N-port IDs to support multiple virtual machines. What must be configured on the MDS switch to allow this?

Accepted Answer

NPIV. NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization) must be configured on the MDS switch to allow an NPIV-capable HBA to register multiple N-port IDs. In NPV mode, the edge switch itself uses NPIV to proxy multiple host logins to the core, but the feature must be enabled on the switch to permit multiple virtual N-port IDs from the HBA. This enables multiple VMs to share a single physical HBA port while each having its own FC ID.

Answer

PortChannel

Answer

VSAN trunking

Answer

Zoning

Question 15

A storage administrator is configuring iSCSI security. Which two methods can be used to authenticate iSCSI initiators to a target? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

CHAP. CHAP (A) is correct because Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol is a native iSCSI authentication method in which the target challenges the initiator (and optionally vice versa) with a shared secret, providing mutual or one-way authentication at the session level. IP-based access control lists (C) are correct because iSCSI targets can restrict which initiator IP addresses or subnets are permitted to establish sessions, effectively authenticating/authorizing initiators by source address. WWN zoning (B) is incorrect because it is a Fibre Channel fabric function based on World Wide Names, not an iSCSI authentication mechanism. FCoE VLANs (D) are incorrect because they are Layer 2 segmentation for Fibre Channel over Ethernet, not initiator authentication. VSAN membership (E) is incorrect because VSANs are a Cisco MDS/Nexus Fibre Channel fabric isolation feature, unrelated to iSCSI initiator authentication.

Answer

WWN zoning

Answer

FCoE VLANs

Answer

VSAN membership