NS0-522 Exam Questions & Answers

Selective LUN Mapping (SLM) and portsets are ONTAP mechanisms specifically used to control the number of paths visible between hosts and mapped LUNs. SLM automatically limits LUN access to paths through the node that owns the LUN and its HA partner, reducing unnecessary paths in larger clusters. A portset provides additional restriction by defining exactly which FCP or iSCSI LIFs an igroup can use to reach its mapped LUNs. NetApp notes that portsets can be combined with SLM when further path restriction is required. ALUA identifies optimized and non-optimized paths but does not itself reduce the number of visible paths. An igroup controls which initiators can access a LUN but does not independently restrict target LIF visibility. Relevant topics include SLM, portsets, igroups, SAN multipathing, and path-count optimization.

The Auto FabricPool tiering policy permits ONTAP to identify cold blocks in both the active filesystem and Snapshot data and move those blocks from the performance tier to the configured object-store capacity tier, including Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Unlike the all policy, Auto does not immediately classify all blocks as cold; active data remains on the performance tier until it satisfies the cooling criteria. The default cooling period for Auto is 31 days and can be adjusted within supported limits. snapshot-only restricts tiering primarily to Snapshot-related blocks, while none prevents additional blocks from being tiered. Because the customer specifically wants to reclaim performance-tier capacity while retaining active SAN workload behavior, the Auto policy provides the appropriate balance between cloud-tier space reclamation and performance.

For a small remote site with two ESXi servers requiring SAN storage and no switches, the recommended protocol is iSCSI. iSCSI allows for direct connectivity between the servers and the NetApp ONTAP storage system using standard Ethernet infrastructure, which is suitable for environments without Fibre Channel switches.

For more information, see:

NetApp iSCSI Configuration Guide

To enable CHAP (Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol) authentication on iSCSI sessions, the command vserver iscsi security create should be used. This command sets up the necessary security policies and passwords required for CHAP authentication, ensuring secure access to iSCSI targets.

For more details, refer to:

NetApp Documentation on iSCSI Configuration (NetApp).

To configure SnapMirror active sync across two data centers using FC (Fibre Channel), the required connectivity between NetApp ONTAP clusters is cluster peering. Cluster peering involves establishing a trust relationship between the clusters, allowing them to replicate data seamlessly. This setup ensures that data synchronization and disaster recovery processes are effective and reliable.

For more detailed information, you can check:

NetApp Documentation on SnapMirror and Cluster Peering