NETAPP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

This is not MY Contribution

These questions and answers are from following blog posts and IT Interview Sites
http://netapplines.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/san-interview-questions.html
http://www.nextstep4it.com/qa/storage_technology/NetApp/index7.php
Basic role of nas administrator
Creating the volumes, qtrees
Performing the snap mirrors
Taking the snapshots for the volumes
Raising the vendor case for the failed disk.
Mounting the qtrees on hosts
Exporting the volumes, qtrees and allocating the quotas to the qtrees as per the customer request
Qtree migration from source filer to target filer and mounting the qtrees at the target host
Expired snaps deletion from the filer
Renaming the volumes, qtrees and mounting on hosts
Deleting the qtrees and destorying the volumes
Adding and decreasing the space from the volume with respective qtree
Working netbackup requests like taking the backup and sending to the tape
Monitoring the filer uptime
Disk failure, disk full issues on hosts
Working on snap shot full alerts

Basic role of san administrator

LUN creation Masking
Mapping
Configuring fiber channel components/features
Data migration
Zoning
Storage array configuration changes
Participate in implementation of improvements to existing production storage environments
Support and manage SAN/NAS reporting, monitoring and management infrastructure
Troubleshooting, performance analysis, and issue escalation with vendors.
Day to day maintenance, monitoring, and reporting of key SAN metrics
DIRECT QUESTIONS & NOT Senario based
Q: - How can you "throttle" SnapValue updates and baseline transfers so that the primary or secondary is
not transmitting data as it can?
A. Use the k option in the snapvault start or snapshot modify commands.
B. SnapVault does not support throttling of network throughout.
C. Use the snapvault throttle command.
D. Use the k option in the snapvault initialize command.
Correct Answer: A

Q: - Node 1 in a clustered pair detects that it has lost connectivity to one of its disk shelves. Node 1 is still
up, but it cannot see one of its disk shelves. However, the partner node, Node 2, can see all of the Node
1's disk shelves. Which feature will cause Node 2 to monitor this error condition for a period of three
minutes by default, and then forcibly take over Node 1 if the error condition persists?
A. Auto enable of giveback
B. Negotiated Fail Over
C. Takeover on panic
D. Cf.quickloop.enable
Correct Answer: B
Q: - In Data ONTAP, the root user is exempt from those two quotas: ______________. (Choose two)
A. User quotas
B. Tree quotas
C. Root quotas
D. Group quotas
E. File quotas
Correct Answer: A D
Q: - Which two Volume SnapMirror (VSM) relationship are supported? (Choose two)
A. Data ONTAP 8.0.2 64-bit -->Data ONTAP 8.1 64-bit
B. Data ONTAP 8.0.2 32-bit --> Data ONTAP 8.0.2 64-bit
C. Data ONTAP 7.3.2 32-bit --> Data ONTAP 8.1 64-bit
D. Data ONTAP 7.3.2 32-bit --> Data ONTAP 8.0.2 64-bit
Correct Answer: A
Q: - An aggregate is composed of twelve 36-Gigabyte disks. A drive fails and only 72-Gigabyte spare disks
are available. Data ONTAP will then perform what action.
A. Chooses a 72-Gigabyte disk and use it as is.
B. Chooses a 72-Gigabyte disk and right-size it.
C. Halts after 24 hour of running in degraded mode.
D. Alerts you that there are no 36-Gigabyte disks and wait for one to be inserted.
Correct Answer: B
Q: - Which statement is true about expanding an aggregate from 32-bit to 64-bit in place?
A. All aggregates are automatically converted from 32-bit to 64-bit with the Data ONTAP 8.1 upgrade.
B. The expansion is triggered by an aggr convert command.
C. The expansion is triggered by adding disks to exceed 16 TB.
D. The 32-bit aggregates are degraded and must be Volume SnapMirrored to a new 64-bit aggregates with
Data ONTAP 8.1 upgrade.
Correct Answer: C
Q: - What utility on the storage system will allow you to capture network packet information?
A. Snoop
B. Netstats
C. Pktt
D. Traceroute
Correct Answer: C

Q: - The root admin on the UNIX box receives an "Access Denied" message when he attempts to access a
newly mounted qtree. What's the most likely cause of this error?
A. The qtree is missing from the /etc/hosts file.
B. NFS is turned off on the storage system.
C. The qtree is set to ntfs security style.
D. The qtree has not been exported.

Correct Answer: C

Q: - Which two modes support using SnapMirror over multiple paths?

A. Standalone
B. Partner
C. Multi
D. Failover
E. Give back

Q: - Identify the two commands that could be entered on the SnapMirror destination storage system.
(Choose two)
A. Options snapmirror.access on
B. Options snapmirror.resync on
C. Snapmirror initialize
D. Snap mirror resync
Correct Answer: CD

Q: - Which two operations can be performed with the SnapDrive for windows graphical user interface?
A. Create volume
B. Create Snapshot copies
C. Create File
D. Create Disk
Correct Answer: BD
Q: - Which storage system command would display the WWPNs of hosts that have logged into storage
system using a Fibre Channel connection?
A. fcp config
B. fcp initiator show
C. fcp show i
D. fcp show initiator
Correct Answer: D
Q: - In a Fiber Channel configuration, the host's HBA is referred to as the ___________, and the storage
system's HBA to as the _____________.
A. Target, initiator
B. Primary, secondary
C. Initiator, target
D. Secondary, primary
Correct Answer: C
Q: - Which action will cause a currently in-sync SnapMirror relationship to fail out of sync?
A. Running snapmirroe update on the source storage system.
B. Running snapmirror release on the source storage system.
C. Modifying the /etc/snapmirror.conf file for the relationship on the source storage system
D. Modifying the /etc/snapmirror.conf file for the relationship on the destination storage system.
Correct Answer: D

Q: - You are trying to do a single file SnapRestore for a file, but you are receiving an error message that
the directory structure no longer exists. Which is the most likely explanation?
A. Once the directory structure has been deleted, you cannot restore the file using single file SnapRestore.
You must now SnapRestore the volume.
B. Snapshot copies have been created since the original directory structure was deleted.
C. You must recreate the directory structure before trying to restore the file.
D. You cannot restore a file to an alternate location.
Correct Answer: C

Q: - Which mechanism allows you to make LUNs available to some initiators and unavailable to others?
A. LUN masking
B. LUN grouping
C. LUN cloning
D. LUN hiding
Correct Answer: A

Q: - An iSCSI ______________ is established when the host initiator logs into the iSCSI target. Within a
______________ you can have one or more ____________.
A. session, session, connections
B. connection, session, connection
C. connection, connection, sessions
D. session, connection, sessions
Correct Answer: A

Q: - Which NetApp Virtual Storage Tier component works at the host level?
A. Flash Pool
B. Flash Disk
C. Flash Accel
D. Flash Cache
E. Flash IO
Correct Answer: C

Q: - When using a Protection Manager policy to manage Open systems SnapValut backups on a UNIX
server, which three valid objects to include in the data set? (Choose three)
A. The entire client
B. A directory
C. A file
D. A qtree
Correct Answer: ABC

Q: - What does it signify if the disks are "not owned" in a FAS2020 system?
A. The disks are mailbox disks.
B. The disks are spare disks.
C. The disks are data disks.
D. The disks are not used.
Correct Answer: D

Q: - For each Open Systems platform directory to be backed up to the SnapVault secondary storage
system you must execute _____________.
A. An initial baseline copy
B. A temporary copy
C. An incremental copy
D. A scheduled update copy
Correct Answer: A

Q: - What is the maximum distance between a standard clustered pair at 2Bbps?

A. 10 meters
B. 50 meters
C. 500 meters
D. 100 meters
Correct Answer: C

Q: - Which exportfs command will temporally export the resource while ignoring the options specified in
the /etc/exports file?
A. exportfs v <path>
B. exportfs u <path>
C. exportfs a <path>
D. exportfs i <path>
Correct Answer: D

Q: - Is NetApp storage Encryption supported in Data ONTAP 8.1.1 Cluster-Mode?

A. No, but you can file a PVR to request support.
B. No. it is targeted for a future release of Data ONATP.
C. Yes, only with a special license installed.
D. Yes, it has been supported since 8.0.1.
Correct Answer: A

Q: - Which two cp types would indicate a busy storage system? (Choose two).
A. cp_from_log_full
B. cp_from_busy
C. cp_from_cp
D. cp_from_timer
Correct Answer: AC

Q: - There are three phases of Non Disruptive Volume Movement (NDVM). What is the correct sequence of
these phases?
A. Setup Phase, Mirror Phase, Cutover Phase
B. Initialization phase, Copy Phase, Migrate Phase
C. Begin Phase, Move Phase, Complete Phase
D. Setup Phase, Data Copy Phase, Cutover Phase
Correct Answer: D

Q: - Which statement describes the results of the SnapMirror resynce command?

A. Resynchronization finds the newest common snapshot shared by the two volumes or qtree, and removes
all newer information on the storage system on which the command is run.
B. Resynchronization will cause the loss of all data written to the destination after the original base snapshot
was made.
C. Resynchronization will update the snapshot on the destination filer.
D. Resynchronization will update the snapshot on the source filer.
Correct Answer: A

Q: - If you were troubleshooting and wanted to look at SnapMirror log files, what is the path to these
files?
A. /vol/vol0/etc/log/snaplog/
B. /vol/vol0/etc/snapmirror/
C. /vol/vol0/etc/snaplog/
D. /vol/vol0/etc/log/
Correct Answer: D

Q: - Host multi-pathing describes a ____________ solution that has at least two distinct
______________ paths to a LUN.
A. Token ring, physical
B. FC SAN, virtual
C. FC or IP SAN, virtual
D. FC or IP SAN, Physical
Correct Answer: D

Q: - Which two will allow you to read and analyze a packet trace file generated by the storage system?
(Choose two)
A. WireShark
B. Pktt
C. Netmon
D. Eternal View
Correct Answer: AC

NETAPP SAN Interview Questions:

1. What is LUN?

lun is logical unit of number, which represent the physical unit of storage disk
It is block level access
Supporting operating system like Windows, Solaris, Linux, aix, and more
Supporting protocols is FC and ISCSI

4. What distinguishes FCP from iSCSI in a SAN environment?

FC
Block level access
transfer through Fc switch
fast and flexible

ISCSI
Block level access
Ethernet
slower than Fc

5. Give an example of an attribute that needs to specified when creating a LUN

lun size, volume or qtree name, igroup name, operating system type
6. Name three ways to create a LUN

lun create in cmd

Lun setup in cmd
Filer view
Snap drive in host side

7. TO DISPLAY LUN:
lun show [path] [/vol/vol_name/lun_name]
8. TO CHECK ALL LUN/IGROUP/FCP SETTINGS FOR CORRECTNESS:
lun config_check [lun path]
9. TO GET THE SERIAL NUMBER, TYPE AND MAPPING OF A LUN:
lun show -v
10. SHOW THE MAPPING OF A LUN:
lun show

11. TO SHOW SPLITTING LUN CLONES:

lun show -c
12. TO CREATE A LUN:
Syntax : lun create s(size) t (os type) lun path
Example: lun create s 100g t windows /vol/vol_name/lun_name
13. TO DESTROY A LUN:
lun destroy [-f] lun_path [lun_path ...]
14. TO ENABLE THE LUN and TO DISABLE THE LUN:
Enable lun : lun online [lun path]
Disable lun : lun offline[ lun path]
TO MAP THE LUN TO THE IGROUP and TO UNMAP A LUN:
lun map: lun map /vol/vol1/lun1 igroup_name
lun un map: lun unmap /vol/vol1/lun1 igroup_name
15. TO FIND MAXIMUM SIZE OF A LUN FOR A VOLUME OR QTREE:
lun maxsize /vol/vol3/
It shows:
With out snapshot reserve: 102.0m (106928640)
With snapshot reserve: no space
With complete snapshot reserve: no space

16. TO CHANGE THE SIZE OF A LUN:

lun resize /vol/vol3/lun3 +20m
17. TO CREATE A LUN CLONE:
To create lun clone we must create one snapshot for lun contain volume
Snap create vol_name snap_name
lun clone create [new lun path] b [parent lun path] snaphot name
18. TO SPLIT A LUN CLONE FROM A PARENT LUN:
Once we created lun clone, new colne is attached to the parent lun, manually we need to split.
lun clone split start -d /vol/vol3/clone_lune
19. TO STOP A LUN CLONE SPLITTING PROCESS:
lun clone split stop <lun_path>
20. TO SEE THE STATUS OF LUN CLONNING:
lun clone split status

21. TO SEE THE COMMENT FOR A LUN:

lun comment <lun path>
22. TO RENAME A LUN:
lun move <old lun_path> <new_lun_path>
23. TO GET THE SERIAL NUMBER OF LUN:
lun serial [lun path]
lun show -v
24. TO GET SERIAL NUMBER OF LUN IN HEX FORMAT:
lun serial -x [lun path]
25. TO SET THE SERIAL NUMBER OF LUN:
lun set

How to improve the Netapp storage performance?

There is no direct answer for this question but we shall do it in several way.
If volume/lun present in ATA/SATA hard disk aggregate, then the volume can be migrated to FC/SAS
disk aggregate.
For NFS/CIFS instead of accessing from single interface, multi mode vif can be configured to get
better bandwidth and fault tolerance.
Always advised to keep aggr/vol utilization below 90%.
Avoid doing multiple volume backup in single point of time.
Aggr/volume/lun reallocation can be done to redistribute the data to multiple disk for better
striping performance.
Schedule scrubbing and deduplication scanning after business hours.
Avoid connecting different types of shelf in a same loop.
Avoid mixing up different speeds of disk and different types of disk in a same aggregate.
Always keep sufficient spare disk to replace in-case of disk failure. Because reconstruction time will
take more time and cause negative performance.
Keep the advised version of firmware/software which is recommended by netapp.
Better to have nearstore functionality to avoid backing up data from source filer.
Unable to map lun to solaris server, but solaris server side no issue. How to resolve the issue?
FROM STORAGE SIDE:
Verify iscsi/fcp license is added in storage
Verify iscsi/fcp session is logged in from server side
Verify luns are mapped to the corresponding igroup.
Verify whether correct host type is mentioned while creating igroup and lun
Verify whether correct iqn/wwpn number is added to igroup
Verify zoning is properly configured from switch side.

How to create the LUN for solaris server?

lun create s size t solaris /vol/vol1/lunname

How to create qtree and provide the security?

Qtree create /vol/vol1/qtreename
Qtree security /vol/vol1/qtree unix|ntfs|mixed

How to copy filer to filer?

ndmpcopy or snapmirror

How to resize the aggregate?

Aggr add agg(name) no.of.disk

How to increase the volume?

Traditional Vol add vol(name) no.of.disk
Flexiable Vol size vol(name) +60g

What is qtree?
Qtree are Logical partition of the volume

What is the default snap reserve in aggregate?

5%

What is snapshot?
Copy(read only) of active file system

What are the raid groups netapp supporting?, what is the difference between them?
Raid_dp(double parity,diagonal parity) ,raid4(striping&dedicated parity)

What are the protocols you are using?

NFS, CIFS, ISCSI and FC

What is the difference between iscsi and fcp?

Iscsi-sending block through(tcp,ip)
Fcp-send through fibre medium

What is the iscsi port number your are using?

860 and 3260

What is the difference between ndmp copy and vol copy?

Ndmp copy network data management protocol(used for tape backup)
Vol copy is used to transfer volume to same or another aggr

What is the difference between ONTAP 7 & 8?

In ONTAP 7 the individual aggregate is limited to maximum of 16 TB. Where ONTAP 8
supports the new 64 bit aggregate and hence the size of the individual aggregate extends to
100 TB.

What are the steps need to perform to configure SnapMirror?

The SnapMirror configuration process consists of the following four steps:

1) Install the SnapMirror license on the source and destination systems: license add <code>
On the source, specify the host name or IP address of the SnapMirror destination
systems You wish to authorize to replicate this source system.
options snapmirror.access host=dst_hostname1,dst_hostname2

For each source volume or qtree to replicate, perform an initial baseline transfer. For
volume SnapMirror,

restrict the destination volume first: vol restrict dst_vol

Then initialize the volume SnapMirror baseline, using the following syntax on the
destination:
snapmirror initialize -S src_hostname:src_v oldst_hostname:dst_vol

For a qtree SnapMirror baseline transfer, use the following syntax on the destination:
snapmirror initialize S src_hostname:/vol/src_vol/src_qtree
dst_hostname:/vol/dst_vol/dst_qtree
After the initial transfer completes, set the SnapMirror mode of replication by creating
the
/etc/snapmirror.conf file in the destinations root volume.

While doing baseline transfer youre getting error message. What are the
troubleshooting steps youll do?
Check both the hosts are reachable by running ping command
Check whether the TCP port 10566 & 10000 are open
Check whether the snapmirror license are installed in both and destination

Explain the different types of replication modes.

The SnapMirror Async mode replicates Snapshot copies from a source volume or qtree
to a destination volume or qtree. Incremental updates are based on a schedule or are
performed manually using the snapmirror update command. Async mode works with
both volume SnapMirror and qtree SnapMirror.
SnapMirror Sync mode replicates writes from a source volume to a destination volume
at the same time it is written to the source volume. SnapMirror Sync is used in
environments that have zero tolerance for data loss.
SnapMirror Semi-Sync provides a middle-ground solution that keeps the source and
destination systems moreclosely synchronized than Async mode, but with less impact on
performance.

How do you configure multiple path in Snapmirror?

Add a connection name line in the snapmirror.conf file
/etc/snapmirror.conf
FAS1_conf = multi (FAS1-e0a,FAS2-e0a) (FAS1-e0b,FAS2-e0b)

Explain how De-Duplication works?

In the context of disk storage, deduplication refers to any algorithm that searches for
duplicate data objects (for example, blocks, chunks, files) and discards those duplicates.
When duplicate data is detected, it is not retained, but instead a data pointer is
modified so that the storage system references an exact copy of the data object already
stored on disk. This deduplication feature works well with datasets that have lots of
duplicated date (for example, full backups).

What is the command used to see amount of space saved using deduplication?
df s <volume name>

Command used to check progress and status of deduplication?

sis status

How do you setup Snapvault Snapshot schedule?

pri> snapvault snap sched vol1 sv_hourly 22@0-22
This schedule is for the home directories volume vol1
Creates hourly Snapshot copies, except 11:00 p.m.
Keeps nearly a full day of hourly copies

What is metadata?
Metadata is defined as data providing information about one or more aspects of the
data,
1. Inode file
2. Used block bitmap file
3. Free block bitmap file

How do you shutdown filer through RLM?

telnet rlm ip address
RLM_Netapp> system power on

After creating LUN (iSCSI) & mapped the lun to particular igroup, the client not able to
access the LUN. What are the trouble shooting steps you take?
Check whether IQN number specified is correct
Check whether the created LUN is in restrict mode
Check the iscsi status

In CIFS how do you check who is using most?

Cifs top

How to check cifs performance statistics

cifs stat

What do you do if a customer reports a particular CIFS share is responding slow?

Check the r/w using "cifs stat" & "sysstat -x 1".
If disk & cpu utilization is more then problem is with filer side only.

CPU utilization will be high if more disk r/w time, i.e.,during tapeback up & also during
scrub activities.

what is the degraded mode? You have parity for failed disks then why the filer goes to
degraded mode?
If the spare disk is not added within 24hours,then filer will be shutdown auomatically to
avoid further disk failures and data loss.

Did you ever do ontap upgrade? From which version to which version and for what
reason?
Yes i have done ontap upgrade from version 7.2.6.1 to 7.3.3 due to lot of bugs in old
version.

How do you create a lun ?

lun create -s <lunsize> -t <host type> <lunpath>

Production Manager?
Production manager will do the planning,co-ordinating and controlling the process.

Performance Manager?
Performance manager will analyses the performance trends of application.systems and
services.

How do you monitor the filers?

Using DFM(Data Fabric Manager) or also using SNMP you can monitor the filer.

What are the prerequisites for a cluster?

cluster interconnect cable should be connected.
shelf connect should be properly done for both the controllers
cluster license should be enabled on both the nodes
Interfaces should be properly configured for fail over
cluster should be enabled

What are the scenarios you have for a cluster failover?

If disk shelf power or shelf port is down, then failover will not happen. It cannot access
the mail box disk. Mail box disk stores the cluster configuration data.

What is the diff bet cf takeover and cf force takeover?

If partner shelf power is off (metrco cluster), the forcetakover will work else normal
takeover will work.