8/11/2015

Storage:SANInterviewquestions
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EMC,EVA,XP,SUN Storage,Storage,Brocade Switch,Switch

NOV

20

SAN Interview questions

Posted by Elumalai M

About this blog

Thisblogusefulforlearning
Storagetechnology.Thissite

1.WHATARETHEBENEFITSOFFIBRECHANNELSANS?

willbehelpfulforstorage
administratorintheirdayto

Fibre Channel SANs are the de facto standard for storage networking in the corporate data center
because they provide exceptional reliability, scalability, consolidation, and performance. Fibre Channel

dayactivities.Yourcomments
onpostsarewelcome.

SANs provide significant advantages over directattached storage through improved storage utilization,
higherdataavailability,reducedmanagementcosts,andhighlyscalablecapacityandperformance.

2.WHATENVIRONMENTISMOSTSUITABLEFORFIBRECHANNELSANS?
Typically,FibreChannelSANsaremostsuitableforlargedatacentersrunningbusinesscriticaldata,as
wellasapplicationsthatrequirehighbandwidthperformancesuchasmedicalimaging,streamingmedia,

Storage
EMC (2)
EVA (1)
NetAPP (1)
SAN (1)
Switch (1)

and large databases. Fibre Channel SAN solutions can easily scale to meet the most demanding
performanceandavailabilityrequirements.

SAN
3.WHATCUSTOMERPROBLEMSDOFIBRECHANNELSANSSOLVE?
The increased performance of Fibre Channel enables a highly effective backup and recovery approach,
includingLANfreeandserverfreebackupmodels.Theresultisafaster,morescalable,andmorereliable
backup and recovery solution. By providing flexible connectivity options and resource sharing, Fibre
Channel SANs also greatly reduce the number of physical devices and disparate systems that must be
purchased and managed, which can dramatically lower capital expenditures. Heterogeneous SAN
management provides a single point of control for all devices on the SAN, lowering costs and freeing
personneltodoothertasks.

NetAPP
SAN Reference site
Raid Manager
EMC Client installation and
checking
Configure lun for solaris

Storage Docs
Center
2011 (1)
November (1)

4.HOWLONGHASFIBRECHANNELBEENAROUND?

SAN Interview questions

2009 (5)

Developmentstartedin1988,ANSIstandardapprovaloccurredin1994,andlargedeploymentsbeganin
1998.FibreChannelisamature,safe,andwidelydeployedsolutionforhighspeed(1GB,2GB,4GB)
communicationsandisthefoundationforthemajorityofSANinstallationsthroughouttheworld.

5.WHATISTHEFUTUREOFFIBRECHANNELSANS?
Fibre Channel is a wellestablished, widely deployed technology with a proven track record and a very
large installed base, particularly in highperformance, businesscritical data center environments. Fibre
ChannelSANscontinuetogrowandwillbeenhancedforalongtimetocome.ThereducedcostsofFibre
Channelcomponents,theavailabilityofSANkits,andthenextgenerationofFibreChannel(4GB)are
helpingtofuelthatgrowth.Inaddition,theFibreChannelroadmapincludesplanstodoubleperformance

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everythreeyears

6.WHATARETHEBENEFITSOF4GBFIBRECHANNEL?
Benefits include twice the performance with little or no price increase, investment protection with
backwardcompatibilityto2GB,higherreliabilityduetofewerSANcomponents(switchandHBAports)
required,andtheabilitytoreplicate,backup,andrestoredatamorequickly.4GBFibreChannelsystems
are ideally suited for applications that need to quickly transfer large amounts of data such as remote
replicationacrossaSAN,streamingvideoondemand,modelingandrendering,andlargedatabases.4GB
technologyisshippingtoday.
7.HOWISFIBRECHANNELDIFFERENTFROMISCSI?
FibreChannelandiSCSIeachhaveadistinctplaceintheITinfrastructureasSANalternativestoDAS.
FibreChannelgenerallyprovideshighperformanceandhighavailabilityforbusinesscriticalapplications,
usually in the corporate data center. In contrast, iSCSI is generally used to provide SANs for business
applicationsinsmallerregionalordepartmentaldatacenters.
8.WHENSHOULDIDEPLOYFIBRECHANNELINSTEADOFISCSI?
For environments consisting of highend servers that require high bandwidth or data center
environments with businesscritical data, Fibre Channel is a better fit than iSCSI. For environments
consistingofmanymidrangeorlowendservers,anIPSANsolutionoftendeliversthemostappropriate
price/performance.
9.NamesomeoftheSANtopologies
Pointtopoint,arbitratedloop,andswitchedfabrictopologies
10.WhatstheneedforseparatenetworkforstoragewhyLANcannotbeused?
LAN hardware and operating systems are geared to user traffic, and LANs are tuned for a fast user
responsetomessagingrequests.
WithaSAN,thestorageunitscanbesecuredseparatelyfromtheserversandtotallyapartfromtheuser
network enhancing storage access in data blocks (bulk data transfers), advantageous for serverless
backups.

11.WhataretheadvantagesofRAID?
RedundantArrayofInexpensiveDisks
Dependingonhowweconfigurethearray,wecanhavethe
datamirrored[RAID1](duplicatecopiesonseparatedrives)
striped[RAID0](interleavedacrossseveraldrives),or
parityprotected[RAID5](extradatawrittentoidentifyerrors).
These can be used in combination to deliver the balance of performance and reliability that the user
requires.

12.DefineRAID?Whichoneyoufeelisgoodchoice?
RAID (Redundant array of Independent Disks) is a technology to achieve redundancy with faster I/O.
ThereareManyLevelsofRAIDtomeetdifferentneedsofthecustomerwhichare:R0,R1,R3,R4,R5,
R10,R6.
GenerallycustomerchoosesR5toachievebetterredundancyandspeedanditiscosteffective.
R0Stripedsetwithoutparity/[NonRedundantArray].
Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Any disk failure destroys
the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. A single disk failure destroys the
entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The
numberoffragmentsisdictatedbythenumberofdisksinthedrive.Thefragmentsarewrittentotheir
respectivediskssimultaneouslyonthesamesector.Thisallowssmallersectionsoftheentirechunkof

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datatobereadoffthedriveinparallel,givingthistypeofarrangementhugebandwidth.RAID0doesnot
implementerrorcheckingsoanyerrorisunrecoverable.Moredisksinthearraymeanshigherbandwidth,
butgreaterriskofdataloss
R1Mirroredsetwithoutparity.
Provides fault tolerance from disk errors and failure of all but one of the drives. Increased read
performanceoccurswhenusingamultithreadedoperatingsystemthatsupportssplitseeks,verysmall
performance reduction when writing. Array continues to operate so long as at least one drive is
functioning.UsingRAID1withaseparatecontrollerforeachdiskissometimescalledduplexing.
R3Stripedsetwithdedicatedparity/Bitinterleavedparity.
This mechanism provides an improved performance and fault tolerance similar to RAID 5, but with a
dedicatedparitydiskratherthanrotatedparitystripes.Thesingleparitydiskisabottleneckforwriting
sinceeverywriterequiresupdatingtheparitydata.Oneminorbenefitisthededicatedparitydiskallows
theparitydrivetofailandoperationwillcontinuewithoutparityorperformancepenalty.
R4Blocklevelparity.
IdenticaltoRAID3,butdoesblocklevelstripinginsteadofbytelevelstriping.Inthissetup,filescanbe
distributed between multiple disks. Each disk operates independently which allows I/O requests to be
performed in parallel, though data transfer speeds can suffer due to the type of parity. The error
detectionisachievedthroughdedicatedparityandisstoredinaseparate,singlediskunit.
R5Stripedsetwithdistributedparity.
Distributedparityrequiresalldrivesbutonetobepresenttooperatedrivefailurerequiresreplacement,
butthearrayisnotdestroyedbyasingledrivefailure.Upondrivefailure,anysubsequentreadscanbe
calculatedfromthedistributedparitysuchthatthedrivefailureismaskedfromtheenduser.Thearray
willhavedatalossintheeventofaseconddrivefailureandisvulnerableuntilthedatathatwasonthe
faileddriveisrebuiltontoareplacementdrive.
R6StripedsetwithdualdistributedParity.
Providesfaulttolerancefromtwodrivefailuresarraycontinuestooperatewithuptotwofaileddrives.
This makes larger RAID groups more practical, especially for high availability systems. This becomes
increasinglyimportantbecauselargecapacitydriveslengthenthetimeneededtorecoverfromthefailure
ofasingledrive.SingleparityRAIDlevelsarevulnerabletodatalossuntilthefaileddriveisrebuilt:the
largerthedrive,thelongertherebuildwilltake.Dualparitygivestimetorebuildthearraywithoutthe
databeingatriskifonedrive,butnomore,failsbeforetherebuildiscomplete.
13.WhatisthedifferencebetweenRAID0+1andRAID1+0
RAID0+1(MirroredStripped)
InthisRAIDlevelallthedataissavedonstrippedvolumeswhichareinturnmirrored,soanydiskfailure
savesthedatalossbutitmakeswholestripeunavailable.ThekeydifferencefromRAID1+0isthatRAID
0+1createsasecondstripedsettomirroraprimarystripedset.Thearraycontinuestooperatewithone
ormoredrivesfailedinthesamemirrorset,butifdrivesfailonbothsidesofthemirrorthedataonthe
RAID system is lost. In this RAID level if one disk is failed full mirror is marked as inactive and data is
savedonlyonestrippedvolume.
RAID1+0(StrippedMirrored)
InthisRAIDlevelallthedataissavedonmirroredvolumeswhichareinturnstripped,soanydiskfailure
savesdataloss.ThekeydifferencefromRAID0+1isthatRAID1+0createsastripedsetfromaseriesof
mirrored drives. In a failed disk situation RAID 1+0 performs better because all the remaining disks
continuetobeused.Thearraycansustainmultipledrivelossessolongasnomirrorlosesbothitsdrives.
This RAID level is most preferred for high performance and high data protection because rebuilding of
RAID1+0islesstimeconsumingincomparisontoRAID0+1.
14.WhenJBOD'sareused?

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JustaBunchofDisks
Itisacollectionofdisksthatshareacommonconnectiontotheserver,butdontincludethemirroring,
striping, or parity facilities that RAID systems do, but these capabilities are available with hostbased
software.

15.DifferentiateRAID&JBOD?
RAID:RedundantArrayofInexpensiveDisks
Faulttolerantgroupingofdisksthatserverseesasasinglediskvolume
Combinationofparitychecking,mirroring,striping
Selfcontained,manageableunitofstorage
JBOD:JustaBunchofDisks
DrivesindependentlyattachedtotheI/Ochannel
Scalable,butrequiresservertomanagemultiplevolumes
Donotprovideprotectionincaseofdrivefailure

16.WhatisaHBA?

Hostbusadapters(HBAs)areneededtoconnecttheserver(host)tothestorage.
17.WhataretheadvantagesofSAN?
Massivelyextendedscalability
Greatlyenhanceddeviceconnectivity
Storageconsolidation
LANfreebackup
Serverless(activefabric)backup
Serverclustering
Heterogeneousdatasharing
DisasterrecoveryRemotemirroring
WhileansweringpeopledoNOTportrayclearlywhattheymean&whatadvantageseachofthemhave,
whicharecosteffective&whicharetobeusedfortheclient'srequirements.
18.Whatisthedifferenceb/wSANandNAS?
ThebasicdifferencebetweenSANandNAS,SANisFabricbasedandNASisEthernetbased.
SANStorageAreaNetwork
Itaccessesdataonblocklevelandproducesspacetohostinformofdisk.
NASNetworkattachedStorage
Itaccessesdataonfilelevelandproducesspacetohostinformofsharednetworkfolder.
19.What is a typical storage area network consists of if we consider it for implementation in a small
businesssetup?
IfweconsideranysmallbusinessfollowingareessentialscomponentsofSAN
FabricSwitch
FCControllers
JBOD's

20.CanyoubrieflyexplaineachoftheseStorageareacomponents?
Fabric Switch: It's a device which interconnects multiple network devices .There are switches starting
from16portto32portswhichconnect16or32machinenodesetc.vendorswhomanufacturethese
kindofswitchesareBrocade,McData.

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21.FCControllers:TheseareDatatransfermediatheywillsitonPCIslotsofServeryoucanconfigure
Arraysandvolumesonit.
JBOD:JustBunchofDisksisStorageBox,itconsistsofEnclosurewheresetofharddrivesarehostedin
manycombinationssuchSCSIdrives,SAS,FC,SATA.
22.WhatisthemostcriticalcomponentinSAN?
Eachcomponenthasitsowncriticalitywithrespecttobusinessneedsofacompany.
23.HowisaSANmanaged?
TherearemanymanagementsoftwaresusedformanagingSAN'stonameafew
Santricity
IBMTivoliStorageManager.
CAUnicenter.
VeritasVolumemanger.
24.WhichoneistheDefaultIDforSCSIHBA?
GenerallythedefaultIDforSCSIHBAis7.
SCSISmallComputerSystemInterface
HBAHostBusAdaptor

25.WhatisthehighestandlowestpriorityofSCSI?
Thereare16differentIDswhichcanbeassignedtoSCSIdevice7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0,15,14,13,12,
11,10,9,8.
HighestpriorityofSCSIisID7andlowestIDis8.
26.HowdoyouinstalldevicedriversfortheHBAfirsttimeduringOSinstallation?
InsomescenariosyouaresupposedtoinstallOperatingSystemonthedrivesconnectedthruSCSIHBA
orSCSIRAIDControllers,butmostoftheOSwillnotbeupdatedwithdriversforthosecontrollers,that
timeyouneedtosupplydriversexternally,ifyouareinstallingwindows,youneedtopressF6duringthe
installationofOSandprovidethedriverdiskorCDwhichcamealongwithHBA.
IfyouareinstallingLinuxyouneedtotype"linuxdd"forinstallinganydriver.

27.WhatisArray?
ArrayisagroupofIndependentphysicaldiskstoconfigureanyVolumesorRAIDvolumes.
28.Canudescribeatleast3troubleshootingscenarioswhichyouhavecomeacrossindetail?
SCENARIO1:Howdoyoufind/debugwhenthereiserrorwhileworkingSCSIdevices?
InourdailySANtroubleshootingtherearemanymanagementandconfigurationtoolsweusethemto
seewhenthereisafailurewithtargetdeviceorinitiatordevice.
Sometimeitisevenhardtotroubleshootsomeofthethingssuchasmediaerrorsinthedrives,orsome
ofthedrivestakinglongtimetospinup.Insuchcasestheseutilitieswillnotcometohelp.Todebugthis
kindofinformationmostofthecontrollerwillbeimplementedwith3pinserialdebugport.Withserial
portdebugconnectorcableyoucancollectthedebuginformationwithhyperterminalsoftware.
SCENARIO2:Iamhavinganissuewithacontrolleritstakinglotoftimetobootanddetectallthedrives
connectedhowcanIsolvethis.?
Therearemanypossibilitiesthatmightcausethisproblem.Oneofthereasonmightbeyouareusing
baddrivesthatcannotberepaired.Inthosecasesyoureplacethediskswithworkingones.
Anotherreasonmightbeslotsyouconnectedyourcontrollertoaslotwhichmightnotbesupported.

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Trytoconnectwithothertypesofslots.
OnemoreprobablereasonisifyouhaveflashedthefirmwarefordifferentOEMsonthesamehardware.
TogetridofthistheflashutilitieswillbehavingoptiontoeraseallthepreviousandEEPROMandboot
blockentryoption.Usethatoptiontorectifytheproblem.
SCENARIO 3: I am using tape drive series 700X, even the vendor information on the Tape drive says
700X,butthePOSTinformationwhilebootingtheserverisshowingas500Xwhatcouldbetheproblem?
Firstyoushouldmakesureyourhardwareisofwhichseries,youcanfindoutthisintheproductwebsite.
Generally you can see this because in most of the testing companies they use same hardware to test
differentseriesofsamehardwaretype.Whattheydoistheyflashthedifferentseriesfirmware.Youcan
alwaysflashbacktoexacthardwaretype.
29.WhicharetheSANtopologies?
SANcanbeconnectedin3typeswhicharementionedbelow:
PointtoPointtopology
FCArbitratedLoop(FC:FibreChannel)
SwitchedFabric

30.Whicharethe4typesofSANarchitecturetypes
a.Coreedge
b.FullMesh
c.PartialMesh
d.Cascade
31.Whichcommandisusedinlinuxtoknowthedriverversionofanyhardwaredevice?

dmesg
32.HowmanyminimumdrivesarerequiredtocreateR5(RAID5)?

Youneedtohaveatleast3diskdrivestocreateR5.

33.CanyounamesomeofthestatesofRAIDarray?
TherearestatesofRAIDarraysthatrepresentthestatusoftheRAIDarrayswhicharegivenbelow
a.Online
b.Degraded
c.Rebuilding
d.Failed
34.NamethefeaturesofSCSI3standard?

QAS:Quickarbitrationandselection
DomainValidation
CRC:Cyclicredundancycheck

35.CanweassignahotsparetoR0(RAID0)array?

No,sinceR0isnotredundantarray,failureofanydisksresultsinfailureoftheentirearraysowecannot
rebuildthehotsparefortheR0array.

36.Canyounamesomeoftheavailabletapemediatypes?

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Therearemanytypesoftapemediaavailabletobackupthedatasomeofthemare
DLT: digital linear tape technology for tape backup/archive of networks and servers DLT technology
addressesmidrangetohighendtapebackuprequirements.
LTO:lineartapeopenanewstandardtapeformatdevelopedbyHP,IBM,andSeagate.
AIT: advanced intelligent tape a helical scan technology developed by Sony for tape backup/archive of
networksandservers,specificallyaddressingmidrangetohighendbackuprequirements.

37.WhatisHA?
HAHighAvailabilityisatechnologytoachievefailoverwithverylesslatency.Itsapracticalrequirement
of data centers these days when customers expect the servers to be running 24 hours on all 7 days
around the whole 365 days a year usually referred as 24x7x365. So to achieve this, a redundant
infrastructureiscreatedtomakesureifonedatabaseserverorifoneappserverfailsthereisareplica
DatabaseorAppserverreadytotakeovertheoperations.Endcustomerneverexperiencesanyoutage
whenthereisaHAnetworkinfrastructure.
38.Whatisvirtualization?
Virtualizationislogicalrepresentationofphysicaldevices.Itisthetechniqueofmanagingandpresenting
storagedevicesandresourcesfunctionally,regardlessoftheirphysicallayoutorlocation.Virtualizationis
the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single
storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in a
storage area network (SAN). The management of storage devices can be tedious and timeconsuming.
Storage virtualization helps the storage administrator perform the tasks of backup, archiving, and
recoverymoreeasily,andinlesstime,bydisguisingtheactualcomplexityoftheSAN.
39.DescribeinbriefthecompositionofFCFrame?

StartoftheFramelocator
Frameheader(includesdestinationidandsourceid,24bytes/6words)
DataPayload(encapsulateSCSIinstructioncanbe02112bytesinlength)
CRC(errorchecking,4bytes)
EndofFrame(1byte)

40.Whatisstoragevirtualization?

Storagevirtualizationisamalgamationofmultiplen/wstoragedevicesintosinglestorageunit.

41.Whataretheprotocolsusedinphysical/datalinkandnetworklayerofSAN?
a)Ethernet
b)SCSI
c)FibreChannel
42.WhatarethetypesofdiskarrayusedinSAN?
a)JBOD
b)RAID
43.WhataredifferenttypesofprotocolsusedintransportationandsessionlayersofSAN?
a)FibreChannelProtocol(FCP)
b)InternetSCSI(iSCSI)
c)FibreChannelIP(FCIP)
44.WhatisthetypeofEncodingusedinFibreChannel?

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8b/10b,astheencodingtechniqueisabletodetectallmostallthebiterrors

45.HowmanyclassesofserviceareavailableinFibreChannel?

7ClassesofserviceareavailableinFibreChannel
Class1:Dedicatedconnectionbetweentwocommunicatorswithacknowledgementofframedelivery.
Inclass1service,adedicatedconnectionsourceanddestinationisestablishedthroughthefabricforthe
duration of the transmission. It provides acknowledged service. This class of service ensures that the
framesarereceivedbythedestinationdeviceinthesameorderinwhichtheyaresent,andreservesfull
bandwidthfortheconnectionbetweenthetwodevices.Itdoesnotprovideforagoodutilizationofthe
availablebandwidth,sinceitisblockinganotherpossiblecontenderforthesamedevice.Becauseofthis
blockingandnecessarydedicatedconnection,class1israrelyused.
Class2:connectionlessbutprovidesacknowledgement
Class2isaconnectionless,acknowledgedservice.Class2makesbetteruseofavailablebandwidthsince
itallowsthefabrictomultiplexseveralmessagesonaframebyframebasis.Asframestravelthrough
thefabrictheycantakedifferentroutes,soclass2servicedoesnotguaranteeinorderdelivery.Class2
relies on upper layer protocols to take care of frame sequence. The use of acknowledgments reduces
availablebandwidth,whichneedstobeconsideredinlargescalebusynetworks.
Class3:connectionlessandprovidesnonotificationofdelivery
Thereisnodedicatedconnectioninclass3andthereceivedframesarenotacknowledged.Class3isalso
calleddatagramconnectionlessservice.Itoptimizestheuseoffabricresources,butitisnowupperlayer
protocoltoensurethatallframesarereceivedintheproperorder,andtorequesttothesourcedevice
the retransmission of missing frames. Class 3 is a commonly used class of service in Fibre Channel
networks.
Class4:allowsfractionalbandwidthforvirtualcircuits
Class 4 is a connectionoriented service like class 1, but the main difference is that it allocates only a
fraction of available bandwidth of path through the fabric that connects two N_Ports. Virtual Circuits
(VCs) are established between two N_Ports with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS), including
bandwidth and latency. Like class 1, class 4 guarantees inorder delivery frame delivery and provides
acknowledgmentofdeliveredframes,butnowthefabricisresponsibleformultiplexingframesofdifferent
VCs.Class4serviceismainlyintendedformultimediaapplicationssuchasvideoandforapplicationsthat
allocateanestablishedbandwidthbydepartmentwithintheenterprise.Class4wasaddedintheFCPH2
standard.
Class5:Class5iscalledisochronousservice,anditisintendedforapplicationsthatrequireimmediate
deliveryofthedataasitarrives,withnobuffering.Itisnotclearlydefinedyet.Itisnotincludedinthe
FCPHdocuments.
Class6:Providesmulticast,dedicatedconnectionwithacknowledgment
Class6isavariantofclass1,knownasmulticastclassofservice.Itprovidesdedicatedconnectionsfora
reliablemulticast.AnN_Portmayrequestaclass6connectionforoneormoredestinations.Amulticast
server in the fabric will establish the connections and get acknowledgment from the destination ports,
andsenditbacktotheoriginator.Onceaconnectionisestablished,itshouldberetainedandguaranteed
bythefabricuntiltheinitiatorendstheconnection.Class6wasdesignedforapplicationslikeaudioand
videorequiringmulticastfunctionality.ItappearsintheFCPH3standard.
ClassF:usedforswitchtoswitchcommunicationinthefabric.
Class F service is defined in the FCSW and FCSW2 standard for use by switches communicating
through ISLs. It is a connectionless service with notification of nondelivery between E_Ports used for
control,coordination,andconfigurationofthefabric.ClassFissimilartoclass2themaindifferenceis
that Class 2 deals with N_Ports sending data frames, while Class F is used by E_ports for control and
managementofthefabric.
46.WhatarethemainconstrainsofSCSIinstoragenetworking?
a)Deploymentdistance(max.of25mts)
b)Numberofdevicesthatcanbeinterconnected(16)

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47.WhatisaFabric?
InterconnectionofFibreChannelSwitches
48.WhataretheservicesprovidedbyFabrictoallthenodes?
a)FabricLogin
b)SNS
c)FabricAddressNotification
d)Registeredstatechangenotification
e)BroadcastServers
49.WhatisthedifferencebetweenLUNandWWN?
LUN:uniquenumberthatisassignedtoeachstoragedeviceorpartitionofthestoragethatthestorage
cansupport.
WWN:64bitaddressthatishardcodedintoafibrechannelHBAandthisisusedtoidentifyindividualport
(N_PortorF_Port)inthefabric.

50.WhatarethedifferenttopologiesinFibreChannel?
a)PointtoPoint
b)ArbitraryLoop
c)SwitchedFabricLoop
51.WhatarethelayersofFibreChannelProtocol?
a)FCPhysicalMedia
b)FCEncoderandDecoder
c)FCFramingandFlowcontrol
d)FCCommonServices
e)FCUpperLevelProtocolMapping
52.Whatiszoning?

Fabric management service that can be used to create logical subsets of devices within a SAN. This
enablesportioningofresourcesformanagementandaccesscontrolpurpose.
53.Whatarethetwomajorclassificationofzoning?

Twotypesofzoningare
a)SoftwareZoning
b)HardwareZoning

54.Whataredifferentlevelsofzoning?
a)PortLevelzoning
b)WWNLevelzoning
c)DeviceLevelzoning
d)ProtocolLevelzoning
e)LUNLevelzoning
55.Whatarethe3prominentcharacteristicsofSASProtocol?
a)NativeCommandQueuing(NCQ)
b)PortMultiplier
c)PortSelector
56.Whatarethe5statesofArbitraryLoopinFC?

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a)LoopInitialization
b)LoopMonitoring
c)Looparbitration
d)OpenLoop
e)CloseLoop
57.HowdoesFCSwitchmaintaintheaddresses?

FCSwitchusessimplenameserver(SNS)tomaintainthemappingtable
58.Whatisthepurposeofdiskarray?
Probabilityofunavailabilityofdatastoredonthediskarrayduetosinglepointfailureistotallyeliminated.
59.Whatisdiskarray?

Set of high performance storage disks that can store several terabytes of data. Single disk array can
supportmultiplepointsofconnectiontothenetwork.

60.Whatisvirtualization?
A technique of hiding the physical characteristics of computer resources from the way in which other
systemapplicationorenduserinteractwiththoseresources.Aggregation,spanningorconcatenationof
thecombinedmultipleresourcesintolargerresourcepools.
61.WhatisMultipathI/O?

Faulttoleranttechniquewhere,thereismorethanonephysicalpathbetweentheCPUinthecomputer
systemsanditsmainstoragedevicesthroughthebuses,controllers,switchesandotherbridgedevices
connectingthem.

62.WhatisRAID?

Technologythatgroupsseveralphysicaldrivesinacomputerintoanarraythatyoucandefineasoneor
more logical drive. Each logical drive appears to the operating system as single drive. This grouping
enhancestheperformanceofthelogicaldrivebeyondthephysicalcapabilityofthedrives.

63.Whatisstripeunitsize?

Itisdatadistributionschemethatcomplementsthewayoperatingsystemrequestdata.Granularityat
whichdataisstoredononedriveofthearraybeforesubsequentdataisstoredonthenextdriveofthe
array.StripeunitsizeshouldbeclosetothesizeofthesystemI/Orequest.

64.WhatisLUNMasking?

A method used to create an exclusive storage area and access control. And this can be achieved by
storagedevicecontrolprogram.
65.WhatisthesmallestunitofinformationtransferinFC?

Frame
66.HowisthecapacityoftheHDDcalculated?

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NumberofHeadsXNumberofCylindersXSectorspertrackXSectorSize

67.Whatisbadblockreallocation?

Abadsectorisremappedorreallocatedtogoodspareblockandthisinformationisstoredintheinternal
tableontheharddiskdrive.ThebadblocksareidentifiedduringthemediatestoftheHDDaswellas
during various types of read write operations performed during the I/O tests. Apart from the new
generation of HDD comes with a technology called BGMS (background media scan) which continuously
scanstheHDDmediafordefectsandmapsthemwhenthedriveisidle(thisisperformedaftertheHDD
isattachedtothesystem).
68.Whataretwotypesofrecordingtechniquesonthetapes?
a)LinearRecording
b)HelicalScanRecording.
69.Whatissnapshot?

Asnapshotofdataobjectcontainsanimageofdataataparticularpointoftime.
70.WhatisHSM?

HierarchicalstoragemanagementAnapplicationthatattemptstomatchthepriorityofdatawiththe
costofstorage.

71.Whatishotswapping?

Devicesareallowedtoberemovedandinsertedintoasystemwithoutturningoffthesystem.
72.WhatisHotSparing?

A spare device is available to be inserted into the subsystem operation without having to remove and
replaceadevice.
73.Whataredifferenttypesofbackupsystem?
a)Offline
b)Online
c)NearLine
74.Whatisthedifferentbetweenmirroring,Routingandmultipathing?
RedundancyFunctionsRelationshipsRole
MirroringGenerates2iosto2storagetargetsCreates2copiesofdata
RoutingDeterminedbyswitchesindependentofSCSIRecreatesn/wrouteafterafailure
MultipathingTwoinitiatortoonetargetSelectstheLUNinitiatorpairtouse

75.NamefewtypesofTapestorage?
a)DigitalLinearTape
b)AdvancedIntelligentTape
c)LinearTapeOpen
76.WhatisasequenceinFC?

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Group of one or more frames that encompasses one or more information units of a upper layer
protocol.
Example:
Itrequires
i)Onesequencetotransferthecommand
ii)Oneormoresequencetotransferthedata
iii)Oncesequencetotransferthestatus.
77.WhatisExchangeinFC?

Exchangeistoestablisharelationshipbetween2N_PORTsandthenthesetwoportstransferdatavia
oneormoresequencewithinthisrelationship.
Example:Exchangeexisttotransferthecommand,dataandthestatusofoneSCSItask
78.WhydoweneedLogininFC?

PortLogin:ToexchangeserviceparametersbetweenN_PortsandN_Ports
ProcessLogin:ToestablishtheSCSIoperatingenvironmentbetweentwoN_PORTS
Fabric Login: Similar to port login, FLOGI is an extended link service command that sets up a session
between two participants. With FLOGU a session is created between an N_Port or NL_Port and the
switch.
79.Whatarethedifferenttypesofclusters?
a)Highavailabilityclusters
b)HighPerformanceClusters
c)LoadBalancingClusters.
80.Whatarethreelevelsofmanagementinstorage?
a)StorageLevelManagement
b)NetworkLevelManagement
c)EnterpriseLevelManagement
81.WhatarethekeyactivitiesinSANmanagement?
a)Monitoring
b)Configuring
c)Controlling
d)Troubleshooting
e)Diagnosing
82.WhatisthedifferencebetweenHBAandNIC?

HBA=>HostbusadaptersareusedinstoragebasedtrafficwhileNIC(NetworkInterfaceCardsareused
inIPbasedLANtraffic.

83.Whatisthemeasuringunitofdataactivity?

Gigabitspersecond(Gb/ps)
84.Whatarethebasicstoragepolicies?
a)Securityandauthentication
b)Capacity,Contentandquotamanagement
c)QualityofService

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85.Whatisbypasscircuitry?

Acircuitthatautomaticallyremovesthestoragedevicefromthedatapath(FCdeviceoutofFCALloop)
whensignalingislost(thissignaliscalledportbypasssignal).

86.HowmanyconnectionsarepossibleinFabrictopology?

2^24(24bitaddresstotheport),andthelargestpossiblefabricwillhave239interconnectedswitches.
87.Whatisoneoftheconstrainofusingstorageswitch?

Latency
88.WhatisthedifferencebetweenNASandSAN?
NAS
Cablesusedinthen/w
n/wprotocols(TCP/IP,IPx)andfilesharingprotocols(CIFS&NFS)
LowerTCO
Supportheterogeneousclients
Slow
SAN
HighspeedconnectivitysuchasFC
Donotusen/wprotocolsbecausedatarequestarenotmadeoverLAN
HigherTCO
Requiresspecials/wtoprovideaccesstoheterogeneousclients
Fast

89.WhatisJitter?

Jitterreferstoanydeviationintimingthatabitstreamsuffersasittraversesthephysicalmediumand
thecircuitryonboardtheenddevices.Acertainamountofdeviationfromtheoriginalsignalingwilloccur
naturallyasserialbitstreampropagatesoverfibreopticorcoppercabling.

Mainlycausedbyelectromagneticinterference
90.WhatisBER/Biterrorrate?

Probability that a transmitted bit will be erroneously received is the measure of number of bits
(erroneous)attheoutputofthereceiveranddividingbythetotalnumberofbitsintransmission.

91.WhatisWWPN?

WWPN is the 16bit character that is assigned to the port, SAN volume controller uses it to uniquely
identifythefibrechannelHBAthatisinstalledinthehostsystem.
92.Whatisconnectionallegiance?

Givenmultipleconnectionsareestablished,individualcommand/responsepairmustflowoverthesame
connection.Thisconnectionallegianceensuresthatspecificreadorwritescommandsarefulfilledwithout
any additional overhead of monitoring multiple connections and to see whether a particular request is

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completed.
93.WhatisburstLength?

TheburstlengthisthenumberofbytesthattheSCSIinitiatorsendstotheSCSItargetintheFCP_DATA
sequence.

94.WhatisNASindetail?

NASorNetworkAttachedStorage
NASisusedtorefertostorageelementsthatconnecttoanetworkandprovidefile
accessservicestocomputersystems.ANASStorageElementconsistsofaninterfaceorengine,which
implementsthefileservices,andoneormoredevices,onwhichdataisstored.NASelementsmaybe
attached to any type of network. When attached to SANs, NAS elements may be considered to be
membersoftheSAS(SANAttachedStorage)classofstorageelements.
A class of systems that provide file services to host computers. A host system that uses network
attachedstorageusesafilesystemdevicedrivertoaccessdatausingfileaccessprotocolssuchasNFSor
CIFS. NAS systems interpret these commands and perform the internal file and device I/O operations
necessarytoexecutethem.
ThoughtheNASdoesspeedupbulktransfers,itdoesnotoffloadtheLANlikeaSANdoes.Moststorage
devicescannotjustplugintogigabitEthernetandbesharedthisrequiresaspecializedfileserverthe
variety of supported devices is more limited.NAS has various protocols established for such needed
featuresasdiscovery,accesscontrol,andnameservices.

95.BrieflylisttheadvantagesofSAN?

SANsfullyexploithighperformance,highconnectivitynetworktechnologies
SANsexpandeasilytokeeppacewithfastgrowingstorageneeds
SANsallowanyservertoaccessanydata
SANshelpcentralizemanagementofstorageresources
SANsreducetotalcostofownership(TCO).

iSCSIfundamentals
iSCSIisaprotocoldefinedbytheInternetEngineeringTaskForce(IETF)whichenablesSCSIcommands
tobeencapsulatedinTCP/IPtraffic,thusallowingaccesstoremotestorageoverlowcostIPnetworks.
96.What advantages would using an iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) give to your organization over
usingDirectAttachedStorage(DAS)oraFibreChannelSAN?
iSCSIiscosteffective,allowinguseoflowcostEthernetratherthanexpensiveFibrearchitecture.
Traditionally expensive SCSI controllers and SCSI disks no longer need to be used in each server,
reducingoverallcost.
ManyiSCSIarraysenabletheuseofcheaperSATAdiskswithoutlosinghardwareRAIDfunctionality.
TheiSCSIstorageprotocolisendorsedbyMicrosoft,IBMandCisco,thereforeitisanindustrystandard.
Administrative/Maintenancecostsarereduced.
Increasedutilisationofstorageresources.
Expansionofstoragespacewithoutdowntime.
Easyserverupgradeswithouttheneedfordatamigration.
Improveddatabackup/redundancy.

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