SAN Questions

http://www.totalinterviewquestions.com/san-interview-questions/78-san-interview-questionsand-answers SAN Interview questions (EMC Storage Clariion, DMX and VMAX)---> PART-I 1 What is UAS? The USB Attached SCSI is the computer protocol for transferring data from the USB connected devices through the SCSI commands. This helps us in avoiding the Mass Storage classs Bulk-Only transports. There are two standards governing the USB + SCSI combination, which are referred to as the USB Attached SCSI and USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP). 2 What are the different fields found in the IQN? The different fields present in the iSCSI Qualified Name are: IQN string representation. Date field representing the ownership begin date. Reversed domain name of the owner. Storage target name representing the exact target that is meant to be connected to, which is optionally done with a : mark. 3. What is an initiator? What are the different types of initiators? Initiator is the client side of the network which is trying to get some data through the iSCSI connected device. This can typically be compared to simulation of the SCSI bus that is meant to transfer the data from the disks. There are two different types of initiators: Software initiator: This refers to the Operating system level or kernel level code that can simulate the SCSI interface to higher level application. The kernel level drivers which act on the TCP/IP data transform them into the raw SCSI commands and data packets. Hardware Initiator: There is dedicated hardware for having the transformation done from TCP/IP to SCSI based protocols. This avoid the overhead on the processing side from the OS level as these have their own connectivity adapter and firmware meant for deciphering data. 4 What is 8b/10b encoding? What is its use? The 8b/10b encoding is concept of mapping 8 bit symbols to 10 bit symbols thus avoiding the problems involving bounded disparity, DC-balance. The transmission can achieve good reliability with clock recovery made possible. The first 3 bits of data are transformed into a 4bit code and the lower 5 bits are coded as 6 bits (5b/6b encoding). Thus each 8 bit information is transferred into a 10 bit line code. 5 What are the advantages of using SATA over ATA? The SATA is a more advantaged technology than ATA. The hot swapping and hot plugging is possible in SATA and the cost of installation can be minimal in SATA, so is the cable usage and the data speeds are as high as 1.5gbps. 6 What is RAID? What are the advantages of using one? The RAID refers to Redundant Array of Independent Disks. This is a mechanism where data is stored in multiple disks and each disk content has another copy lying in another independent disk. This way it is possible to have redundant data which helps us in avoiding loss of data due to malfunction of a single disk in a RAID. The management layer for configuring and using the RAID appropriately is referred to as RAID Controller, which offers interface to RAID access. 7 What are the FC3 level services? The FC-3 level gives the following services: Striping: Single chunk of data can be transmitted parallel across multiple N_ports thus maximising bandwidth utilization. Hunt groups: The ability for multple N_Ports to respond to the incoming requests from specific alias address makes it possible to have an uninterrupted access at times of heavy load. This level offers the broadcast services where a single unit of information can be transmitted to be received by multiple N_ports on a FC network. 8 What is flow control? What are the different flow control mechanisms used by the different types of

frames? Flow control refers to process control mechanism in the FC 2 standard, where the data transmissions across the different N_ports and N_port and the fabrics are coordinated to avoid overflow. The Class 1 type of frames use end-to-end flow control, Class 2 uses the buffer-to-buffer flow control while the class 3 may use either of them. 9 What is an ordered set and what are the uses of the different ordered sets? The ordered set is a four byte data that are meant for coordinating the data transfers across the FC networks. The 3 different ordered sets and their uses are: The Frame delimiters are the ordered sets that indicate the commencing or end of a particular chunk of data that is being transferred. Idle and R_RDY ordered sets are meant for signaling the availability of server and client to send and receive data, so that unintentional loss of data is avoided. Primitive sequence ordered set is the one that is used to give out the status of the devices and ports during transmission and reception. 10 What is DAS? What are the advantages of SAN over DAS? The DAS refers to the Direct Attached Storage. This is the way of maintaining storage where the physical disks are directly attached to the computers (servers). This is quite feasible solution for a stand alone server with less data needs and single point of operation. But when it comes to an application or server infrastructure that is dependent on a number of different servers which has to have a very stable backup and redundant data management mechanism, the Storage Area Networks offer a better option. The advantages are: Multiple point of access. Stability of the infrastrucure. Avoidance of single point of failure. Safeguarding against data loses 11 What is use of the Logical Unit Number? The Logical Unit Number or LUN is the unique number that identifies a specific device or a specific volume inside a device that has to be used for a particular read/write operation in a SAN. All the storage protocols like SCSI, iSCSI, FC etc have the storage mounted as different volumes and the accesses to such devices have to be identified with the LUN to specify which volume is under consideration. This comes practically used in all RAID installations and management. 12 What is WWPN and WWNN? Can same WWNN be assigned to different ports? The World Wide Port Number is a unique identifier for the FC storage port. This can be accessed from any connection worldwide. This is similar to the MAC addresses used in the IP and ethernet standards. The WWNN stands for the World Wide Node Name which is the unique name assigned to a device connected to FC network. Yes, the same node name can be assigned to multiple ports symbolizing the multiple interfaces to the specific node or device in the network. 13 What is SCSI and iSCSI? The SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface which is data transfer standard for the computer systems buses connecting the storage disks. The iSCSI is the Internet SCSI which is the internet (TCP/IP) protocol based simulation of the SCSI interface where commands are exchanged just similar to SCSI bus interfaces for fetching data. 14 How can you compare FC with iSCSI? The FC is the network layer technology that offers higher speeds and reliability in transfer of data in storage systems. Internet SCSI on the other hand is a TCP/IP based protocol that allows for systems to communicate and exchange data over the already existing TCP/IP protocol. Thus the speed of the iSCSI is limited but the FC is one that can give you speeds upto 10 Gigabytes/sec. 15 What is FCoE? The Fibre Channel over Ethernet is the technology that combines the merits of Fibre channel and the common data transfer protocol of ethernet. The combination offers the Storage Area Networks a better fibre channel oriented protocol of accesses. The Server-Server and Client-Server connectivity

is enhanced the infrastructure is more stable and all the systems operate with the FC protocol which gives a better scope of integrating the latest standards in storage devices. 16 List out the advantages of iSCSI over others. There is minimal modifications required to be done on present networks. The Servers can just be the normal low cost ones. The dependence of the servers over the actual physical storage is taken off. More performance from server computation side. All types of data storage medium SATA, SCSI etc. can be integrated easily. Creating snapshots of data comes in handy during server replacements, as opposed to backups. Simpler management and storage enhancements. 17 What are the different topologies and the number of devices for each in case of Fibre Channel? The three different topologies and corresponding number of devices that can be connected are: Point to Point topology that can support 2 devices. The FC Arbitrated loop that can can support 127 devices. The Switched fabric topology can support 2^24 devices max. 18 What is the concept of Storage Virtualization? The usage of a intermediate interface for managing storage logically which gives the end user the independence from the physical storage is called storage virtualization. This gives the abstraction for the applications and other data accesses making it simple and generic for the end user of the data.

SAN Interview questions (EMC Storage Clariion, DMX and VMAX)---> PART-II 1. What is Power path? PowerPath is a host-based software that provides path management. EMC PowerPath operates with several SAN storage systems, on several operating systems, with Fibre Channel and iSCSI data channels. PowerPath 5.3 Windows is version of PowerPath that should be used for Microsoft HyperV. PowerPath provide dynamic multipath load balancing. PowerPath distributes I/O requests to a logical device across all available paths, thus improving I/O performance and reducing management time and downtime.

2. Power path CLI to manage disks

3. List Power path policy 4. What is Vault drive? 5. What is the PSM Lun? 6. Basic of Storage 7. Define RAID? Which one you feel is good choice? 8. Storage Array used in DAS 9. Explain iSCSI login, fabric login 10. Advantage of migration from DAS to SAN 11. What is Meta Lun? 12. Explain Clariion architecture

13. Explain DMX architecture 14. Explain Enginuity operation layers 15. What is hard and soft zoning? 16. Explain WWN 17. What is zoning and how to create? 18. What is VSAN and how to create? 19. Hardware Models of clarion 20. What is FCID? 21. Explain Navishere/Symmtric Management console /ECC 22. Initialization of clarion array 23. Explain rule 17 in DMX 24. Why and how symmask, symld and symdg are used in DMX? 25. Symdev 26. Explain about symcfg 27. What is SYMAPI? 28. Configuration change in DMX 29. What is VCMDB? 30. Can windows, Linux, Solaris share the same FA in DMX? 31. What is Snap view? 32. What is Mirror view? 33. What is SAN Copy? 34. Explain Time finder and SRDF 35. Difference in iSCSI and NAS 36. What is IQN? 37. Explain SAN, NAS and CAS using devices used in these model 38. Difference in iFCP and FCIP 39. What is fabric? 40. What is RAID? Explain RAID3, RAID5 and RAID1/0 41. What is Hot Spare Disk? 42. What are the bay in DMX-3

43. Version and Model 44. Brief the Symmetrix CLI command 45. Create Storage group and add device into storage group in DMX. 46. Create Time Finder Clone using CLI 47. Composite Device group 48. create SRDF 49. What is iSCSI? 50. What is Disk Controller? 51. How does data got saved in case of striping and incase of concatenation? 52. What is the minimum no. of disks required for RAID 5 and RAID 6? 53. Difference between time finder and clone? 54. What is SRDF R1 & R2? 55. What is the version of Symmetrix DMX4? 56. In 4-24 what do 24 mean? 57. What is fabric? 58. Importance of RAID6? 59. How many disk failures RAID 5 supports? 60. Importance of masking? 61. Different RAID levels? 62. What is quorum disk and it is importance? 63. How to manually restore failed paths in Clariion? 64. Flash drives in DMX4? 65. What is LCC? Link Control Card 66. Storage provisioning in DMX? 67. Steps for zoning using CLI? 68. Describe SMCLI commands you have used 69. LUN, Base LUN and Metalun? 70. Difference between HP EVA 5000 and 8000? 71. What is CMI? Clariion Message Interface 72. What are the I/O operations in Clariion? 73. Use of SPs?

74. What is VMCDB? 75. What is Hyper? 76. What is a device in DMX? 77. What is SAN Kit? 78. Channel directors and disk directors? 79. What is global memory? 80. Difference between Emulex and Qlogic? 81. What is storage array in Clariion? 82. What FCID? 83. What is F-LOGI and P-LOGI? How authentication happens?
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