Storage Network

A data center engineer is planning software maintenance on a Cisco Nexus switch. In addition to the NX-OS image upgrade, Cisco has released a new EPLD (Electronic Programmable Logic Device) image to address a hardware programming issue on the I/O modules. The engineer wants to understand the operational impact before scheduling the change window. Which statement correctly describes the EPLD upgrade behavior?

A storage administrator is extending a Fibre Channel ISL between two data centers 80 km apart over dark fiber at 8 Gbps. After bringing up the link, throughput is far below line rate even though no errors are logged and the link stays up. Which action is most likely to resolve the performance problem?

A storage administrator is editing the zoning configuration on a Cisco MDS 9000 fabric that uses enhanced zoning across VSAN 20. A colleague on another switch in the same fabric attempts to make zoning changes at the same time and reports an error that the operation cannot proceed. When the first administrator finishes, they modify a zone and then run 'zoneset activate name PROD-ZS vsan 20'. What behavior of enhanced zoning explains the colleague's error and ensures configuration consistency?

A storage administrator is hardening a MDS/Nexus Fibre Channel fabric that spans two data centers. Management requires that only explicitly approved switches be allowed to join VSAN 20, and any unauthorized switch attempting to merge into the fabric must be prevented from doing so and have its E_Port isolated. Which security feature meets this requirement?

A storage administrator connects a new server HBA to a Cisco MDS switch port configured in F mode. The port comes up, but the server cannot access its LUNs on the target array. On the MDS, the 'show flogi database' output lists the HBA's pWWN with an assigned FCID, but 'show fcns database' does not display the target array's pWWN as accessible to the initiator. What is the most likely cause?

A storage administrator is extending a Fibre Channel SAN between two data centers over a shared IP WAN link with 200 ms round-trip latency and limited bandwidth. The primary requirement is to reduce the amount of replication data traversing the WAN to fit within the available bandwidth. Which FCIP feature should be enabled on the MDS switches to meet this goal?

A storage administrator is configuring an iSCSI deployment on a Cisco Nexus/MDS environment and wants to reduce the frequency of full LUN rescans on hosts. A new storage array with additional targets has just been added to the same portal IP. Which iSCSI mechanism allows an already-logged-in initiator to learn about the newly added targets without manually reconfiguring each host?

A storage administrator is extending a Fibre Channel SAN between two data centers 600 km apart using an FCIP tunnel over an existing IP WAN link. Users report that remote tape backup jobs are extremely slow, and analysis shows that each SCSI write command must wait for a status response before the next command is sent, causing the round-trip WAN latency to dominate throughput. Which FCIP feature should the administrator enable to improve backup performance across the tunnel?

A storage administrator is troubleshooting an ESXi host connected to a Cisco MDS fabric. The host's initiator successfully completes FLOGI and its zone with the target array is active, but the host cannot discover any LUNs presented by the target. On the MDS switch, the 'show fcns database' output lists both the initiator and target FC4 features, and 'show zone status' confirms the zone is fully activated in the correct VSAN. Which action should the administrator take NEXT to resolve the missing LUN visibility?

A storage administrator is hardening an MDS Fibre Channel fabric. A junior engineer accidentally cabled an unauthorized HBA into interface fc1/12, and it successfully performed FLOGI and began accessing the fabric. The administrator wants to ensure that only pre-approved pWWNs can log in on specific physical ports, and that any unauthorized device attempting FLOGI is automatically rejected without requiring manual zoning changes. Which feature should be implemented to enforce this?

A storage administrator is troubleshooting suboptimal path selection in a Fibre Channel fabric. Traffic between two MDS switches is traversing a 8 Gbps ISL instead of a parallel 32 Gbps ISL. Both ISLs are in the same VSAN and are up. What is the most likely cause, and what mechanism determines the preferred FC route?

A data center engineer is deploying a new Cisco MDS 9148 fabric switch at the edge of an existing storage fabric. The core directors are already at their maximum supported domain ID count, and adding another domain ID would exceed the fabric's scalability limits. The engineer needs the edge switch to connect servers to the fabric without consuming an additional domain ID, while the core switches must be able to allow multiple logins over a single uplink. Which combination of features must be enabled to meet these requirements?

A storage engineer is connecting two Cisco MDS/Nexus FC switches with two 32G Fibre Channel links bundled into a port channel. The port channel must carry traffic for VSAN 10 and VSAN 20 across the ISL. After configuration, VSAN 20 traffic is not passing, though VSAN 10 works. The engineer confirms both member ports are up and the port channel is operational. What is the MOST likely cause?

A storage administrator is configuring zoning on a Cisco MDS fabric that connects 40 servers to a dual-controller storage array. To follow Cisco and industry best practices while minimizing RSCN disruption and simplifying troubleshooting, how should the administrator structure the zones?

A storage engineer is integrating a Cisco MDS 9000 fabric with a legacy third-party FC switch fabric that requires standards-based interoperability. The engineer must place the connecting VSAN into interop mode to allow the fabrics to merge without proprietary features breaking the ISL. What is a primary consequence the engineer must plan for when enabling interop mode 1 on the VSAN?

A storage engineer is troubleshooting FCoE connectivity on a Nexus switch acting as an FCF. During FIP fabric login, an ENode successfully completes FLOGI. The engineer inspects the source MAC address used by the ENode for subsequent FCoE data frames and notices it is different from the CNA's burned-in MAC address. What determines the MAC address the ENode now uses for FCoE traffic?

A data center engineer is deploying FCoE on a Nexus switch to consolidate Ethernet and Fibre Channel traffic on the same 10G links. During validation, FCoE frames are occasionally being dropped under heavy LAN load, causing SCSI timeouts on the storage array. The engineer confirms PFC is enabled on the no-drop class for FCoE. Which additional configuration ensures FCoE traffic receives a guaranteed minimum share of link bandwidth so it is not starved by LAN traffic during congestion?

A storage administrator is provisioning block storage on a new Nexus-connected server that must reach an iSCSI target array. The server's software iSCSI initiator is configured, but no LUNs appear after saving the target's portal IP address. The array requires the initiator to authenticate and dynamically learn the list of available targets from a single management portal address before mapping LUNs. Which iSCSI mechanism must the administrator ensure is functioning to allow the initiator to obtain the list of exported targets from that portal?

A storage administrator is deploying an iSCSI SAN where each server has two NICs connecting to two separate physical switches, and the storage array presents its targets on two subnets. The goal is to achieve both redundancy AND active/active load distribution across both paths to the same LUN. Which host-side configuration should be implemented to meet this requirement correctly?

A data center architect is designing storage connectivity for a new virtualization cluster. The application team requires a datastore that presents raw block-level LUNs to the hypervisor hosts over the existing IP network, allowing the hypervisor to format the volumes with its own clustered file system. No dedicated Fibre Channel infrastructure is available, and the solution must run over standard Ethernet with TCP/IP. Which storage access method best meets these requirements?