350-601 Storage Network Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

In a Fibre Channel SAN, flow control is managed by buffer credits. Which statement about buffer credits is accurate?

Accepted Answer

Buffer credits help manage congestion and ensure lossless delivery over distance. Buffer credits are a flow control mechanism in Fibre Channel that manage congestion by tracking the number of frames a sender can transmit before receiving an acknowledgment. They ensure lossless delivery over distance by preventing buffer overflow at the receiver, which is critical for maintaining data integrity in SANs. Option D correctly states this dual role of congestion management and lossless delivery.

Answer

Buffer credits are allocated per VSAN to isolate traffic

Answer

Increasing buffer credits always improves I/O performance

Answer

Buffer credits are used in FCoE to ensure lossless delivery

Question 2

A company wants to consolidate multiple physically separate Fibre Channel SANs into one switch infrastructure while keeping each SAN's traffic isolated. Which technology best achieves this?

Accepted Answer

Virtual SANs (VSANs). VSANs (Virtual SANs) allow multiple physically separate Fibre Channel SANs to be consolidated onto a single switch infrastructure by creating isolated virtual fabrics. Each VSAN maintains its own fabric services, such as name server and zone server, ensuring traffic isolation without requiring separate physical switches or cabling.

Answer

Reduce the number of switches by using a single director

Answer

Use a single VSAN with extensive zoning

Answer

Deploy separate physical cabling for each SAN

Question 3

In a multipath Fibre Channel SAN, which component is responsible for selecting the active path for I/O operations?

Accepted Answer

The initiator (host HBA and multipath driver). In a multipath Fibre Channel SAN, the initiator (host HBA and multipath driver) is responsible for selecting the active path for I/O operations. The multipath driver, such as Cisco MDS N-Port Virtualization or native OS multipathing (e.g., Linux DM-Multipath), uses path selection policies (e.g., round-robin, least-queued, or active/passive) to choose the path for each I/O request. The storage target, switch, and fabric name server do not make per-I/O path decisions; they only provide connectivity or discovery services.

Answer

The storage target

Answer

The Fibre Channel switch

Answer

The fabric name server

Question 4

A Cisco MDS switch is configured with fabric binding to restrict which switches can join the fabric. A new switch is added, but it fails to establish an E-port connection. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The new switch's WWN is not included in the fabric binding configuration. Fabric binding on a Cisco MDS switch uses the fabric-binding database to enforce a whitelist of allowed switch WWNs. When a new switch attempts to bring up an E-port, the principal switch checks the new switch's WWN against this database. If the WWN is not present, the E-port is automatically isolated, preventing the switch from joining the fabric. This is the most direct cause of the failure described.

Answer

Incompatible SFP modules between the switches

Answer

Incorrect zoning configuration on the existing switch

Answer

The new switch has a higher priority than the principal switch

Question 5

Which TWO of the following are best practices when interconnecting two Cisco MDS 9700 directors via Fibre Channel ISLs?

Accepted Answer

Configure the ISL ports as trunking E_ports. Trunking E_ports (TE_ports) are the standard configuration for inter-switch links (ISLs) in Cisco MDS fabrics. TE_ports enable the exchange of fabric services, VSAN trunking, and support for multiple VSANs over a single ISL, which is essential for scalable and efficient Fibre Channel SAN designs.

Answer

Enable NPIV on the ISL ports to allow multiple FCIDs

Answer

Use Fibre Channel port channels to bundle multiple ISLs

Answer

Configure the ISL ports as F_ports to increase scalability

Question 6

A team is configuring FCoE on a Cisco Nexus switch. Which TWO steps are mandatory to establish a lossless FCoE link?

Accepted Answer

Enable FCoE on the interface using the 'fcoe' command. The 'fcoe' interface command is mandatory to enable FCoE processing on a specific interface. Without this command, the interface will not participate in FCoE traffic. Option C is correct because a VSAN must be created and mapped to an FCoE VLAN for the Fibre Channel fabric to recognize the FCoE link. This mapping allows the switch to associate the Ethernet VLAN with a VSAN for FC forwarding. Options B and D are not mandatory because Priority Flow Control (PFC) and Data Center Bridging eXchange (DCBX) are automatically enabled when FCoE is configured on the interface. Option E is not mandatory because although FCoE requires jumbo frames, the MTU can be set globally or is often already set to support FCoE, and it is not a separate mandatory step for link establishment.

Answer

Enable Priority Flow Control (PFC) as a separate CLI

Answer

Configure DCBX to advertise and negotiate FCoE capabilities

Answer

Set the MTU to 9216 bytes to accommodate FCoE frames

Question 7

Which THREE statements accurately describe FCIP (Fibre Channel over IP) configurations on Cisco MDS switches?

Accepted Answer

FCIP uses VE_port (Virtual E_port) interfaces to connect to the FC fabric. FCIP encapsulates Fibre Channel frames into IP packets and uses VE_ports (Virtual E_ports) to connect separate FC fabrics over an IP network. VE_ports behave like standard E_ports but operate over an FCIP tunnel, allowing Fibre Channel fabric services to extend across the IP link.

Answer

FCIP requires IPsec for security over public networks

Answer

FCIP compression reduces the latency of the IP transport

Question 8

A Fibre Channel switch port is experiencing a high number of CRC errors. Which action should be taken to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Replace the fiber optic cable between the switch and the storage device.. CRC errors in Fibre Channel typically indicate physical-layer issues such as damaged or dirty fiber optic cables, faulty connectors, or signal degradation. Replacing the cable directly addresses the most common root cause of CRC errors, which is physical-layer corruption of frames. Other options like reducing speed or adjusting buffer credits do not fix the underlying physical integrity problem.

Answer

Reduce the port speed to 2 Gbps.

Answer

Reconfigure the zone to include only the affected device.

Answer

Increase the buffer credits on the port.

Question 9

Which feature allows a single Fibre Channel port to log in with multiple N-port IDs, enabling a host to connect to multiple targets through one port?

Accepted Answer

NPIV. NPIV (N_Port ID Virtualization) allows a single Fibre Channel N_Port to register multiple N_Port IDs (FCIDs) with the fabric. This enables a host with one physical port to appear as multiple virtual initiators, each connecting to different targets, which is essential for virtualized environments like VMware ESXi with multiple VMs requiring separate FC connections.

Answer

FCoE

Answer

VSAN

Answer

NPV

Question 10

An engineer is designing a SAN for a virtualized environment with 20 hosts and 4 storage arrays. Each host requires a separate zone per storage array for security. What is the minimum number of zones required?

Accepted Answer

80. In a Fibre Channel SAN with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), each host requires a separate zone per storage array to enforce strict isolation. With 20 hosts and 4 storage arrays, the minimum number of zones is 20 hosts × 4 arrays = 80 zones. This ensures that each host-array pair is isolated, preventing unauthorized access and aligning with security best practices.

Answer

40

Answer

20

Answer

100

Question 11

An MDS switch is configured with VSANs 100 and 200. The engineer wants to isolate traffic between two storage arrays on the same physical fabric. Which best practice should be applied?

Accepted Answer

Place each array in a different VSAN.. VSANs provide complete isolation of traffic at Layer 2, creating separate fabric topologies within the same physical infrastructure. Placing each storage array in a different VSAN ensures that Fibre Channel frames from one array never reach the other, even though they share the same MDS switch hardware. This is the recommended best practice for separating storage traffic that must not interact.

Answer

Use zones within the same VSAN to separate arrays.

Answer

Enable QoS to prioritize storage traffic.

Answer

Configure a port channel between the switches.

Question 12

Which statement about Fibre Channel buffer credits is true?

Accepted Answer

They control the flow of frames between directly connected ports.. Fibre Channel buffer credits implement a credit-based flow control mechanism between directly connected ports (Nx_Port to Fx_Port or E_Port to E_Port). Each port advertises its available buffer credits (BB_Credit) to the directly attached peer, and the sender can only transmit a frame when it has a positive credit count. This prevents frame loss due to buffer overflow at the receiver, ensuring lossless transmission over the link.

Answer

They are used for load balancing across multiple paths.

Answer

They are allocated per VSAN.

Answer

They detect CRC errors in frames.

Question 13

A storage administrator notices that a host is unable to see a LUN after zoning is configured. The zone contains the host WWPN and the target WWPN. The LUN is not masked at the storage array. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

LUN masking is not configured on the storage array.. The host cannot see the LUN because LUN masking is not configured on the storage array. Even with correct zoning (host WWPN to target WWPN), the storage array must explicitly grant access to specific LUNs for a given initiator WWPN. Without LUN masking, the target will not present the LUN to the host, regardless of zone membership.

Answer

The host requires NPIV to be enabled.

Answer

The host is in a different VSAN.

Answer

The zone is incorrectly configured.

Question 14

Which FCoE feature allows multiple VLANs to be carried over a single physical link when using FIP snooping?

Accepted Answer

FIP snooping. FIP snooping is the correct answer because it is the FCoE feature that enables multiple VLANs to be carried over a single physical link by snooping FIP (FCoE Initialization Protocol) frames. FIP snooping builds a forwarding table that maps FCoE sessions to specific VLANs, allowing the switch to forward FCoE traffic for different VLANs on the same physical interface while maintaining isolation and security.

Answer

NPV

Answer

VSANs

Answer

Port channels

Question 15

An engineer is troubleshooting a SAN performance issue. The show interface counters command shows high output discard counts on a particular Fibre Channel interface. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Insufficient buffer credits on the transmitting port.. High output discard counts on a Fibre Channel interface indicate that the transmitting port is attempting to send frames faster than the receiving port can accept them. This is most commonly caused by insufficient buffer credits on the transmitting port, which limits the number of frames that can be in flight before an acknowledgment is required. When buffer credits are exhausted, frames are discarded at the transmit side, leading to output discards.

Answer

High CRC errors on the link.

Answer

Insufficient bandwidth due to latency.

Answer

Mismatched zone configurations.