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A customer is planning a new AFF A400 SAN deployment for a database workload requiring FC connectivity to a mix of Windows and Linux hosts. During the pre-installation assessment, which two items are most critical to verify before racking and configuring the cluster?
Proper pre-installation assessment requires validating interoperability via the IMT for both switch firmware/zoning and host multipathing software, since FC SAN deployments depend on ALUA-aware MPIO for path management. NAS-only licensing is irrelevant to FC SAN, single-path designs eliminate redundancy (violating best practice), and ALUA should be enabled, not disabled, for proper path management in ONTAP SAN environments.
An implementation engineer is designing a two-node ONTAP SAN cluster that must survive a controller failure without loss of host connectivity to LUNs. The design uses FC and relies on ALUA for path state reporting. Which statement correctly describes how data protection and path management work together in this scenario?
In an ONTAP SAN cluster, ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) informs host multipathing software which paths are optimized versus non-optimized. During a takeover event, the partner node inherits the failed node's identity and LIFs, and ALUA path states update so host MPIO software can reroute I/O to the new active-optimized paths, achieving non-disruptive operations. ALUA applies to both FC and iSCSI, LUNs do not go read-only during a supported failover, and multiple paths are expected as part of redundant SAN design.
During implementation of an NVMe/FC solution on an ONTAP cluster, the engineer needs to create the appropriate SVM configuration to support NVMe hosts. Which task is required as part of this configuration that is not applicable to a traditional FCP SVM setup?
NVMe/FC configuration differs from traditional FCP in that it uses namespaces (not LUNs) and subsystems that map host NQNs (NVMe Qualified Names) instead of igroups with WWPNs. CHAP is an iSCSI authentication mechanism, not applicable to NVMe/FC. NFS is unrelated to block protocols, and ALUA-like path management (ANA, Asymmetric Namespace Access) is still relevant to NVMe, just under a different name, so it is not disabled.
A storage administrator configures thin-provisioned LUNs within a volume that also has a snapshot policy enabled, without adjusting the default fractional reserve or enabling any additional space guarantees. Over time, snapshot retention combined with data growth in the LUN could cause the volume to run out of space, potentially taking LUNs offline. Is this statement accurate?
This is true. With thin-provisioned LUNs and default fractional reserve settings, if a volume runs out of space due to combined growth of active data and retained Snapshot copies, ONTAP can take LUNs offline to prevent data corruption. Proper space management practices, such as monitoring volume autogrow, adjusting snapshot reserve, or implementing volume autodelete policies for snapshots, are necessary to avoid this risk in thin-provisioned SAN environments.
After completing an iSCSI SAN implementation, hosts intermittently lose connectivity to LUNs, and event logs show frequent iSCSI session drops. The engineer suspects a network-related issue rather than a storage controller problem. Which troubleshooting step should be performed first to isolate the root cause?
Intermittent iSCSI session drops are commonly caused by MTU mismatches between hosts, switches, and storage LIFs, resulting in fragmented or dropped packets. This is a standard first troubleshooting step for network-related iSCSI issues before more disruptive actions. Rebooting controllers, deleting igroups, converting protocols, or disabling multipathing do not address the likely root cause and could cause additional disruption or are impractical mid-implementation.
107 questions covering all exam domains, starting from $20
Exam domains verified against: Official NetApp NS0-522 exam guide, last checked September 2026.
Assess prerequisites and inventory for SAN component installation during planning phases. Configure solution components using appropriate tools and design solutions with properly provisioned hardware to meet customer requirements. Consider environmental and physical factors affecting deployment.
Sample question from this domain above: Q1
Understand data protection concepts, storage controller configuration principles, and switch or host configuration requirements. Learn storage space utilization and management concepts that underpin SAN architecture and operations.
Sample question from this domain above: Q4
Configure clustered storage systems, nodes, SVMs, and FCP protocols. Set up NVMe and iSCSI configurations, manage switches and host systems, implement data protection, and optimize storage space utilization and management across the SAN environment.
Execute testing tasks to validate SAN implementations and apply troubleshooting techniques to resolve issues. Plan and execute data migration activities while maintaining system stability and performance.
Sample question from this domain above: Q5
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