Cisco 350-601 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 20

The correct option to associate a UCS B-Series server with a specific service profile when it becomes available is B. server. In Cisco UCS Manager, associating a service profile with a server can be done directly by selecting the server from the list of available hardware. This direct association ensures that when the server becomes available, it will be associated with the specified service profile, which contains the settings and policies for the server's operation within the UCS environment.

Changing the default host firmware policy in Cisco UCS Manager affects any service profile that uses the global-default host firmware policy. This is because the global-default host firmware policy serves as a template for service profiles that do not have a specific host firmware policy defined. When changes are made to the default policy, they propagate to all service profiles that reference it, potentially affecting the firmware version and settings across multiple servers.

To prevent unauthorized changes at the root level and to restrict access up to the organization level, the appropriate action is to assign users to a specific Cisco UCS locale. A locale is a logical grouping that defines the scope of user permissions in Cisco UCS Manager. By assigning users to a locale, their access can be limited to specific organizations or service profiles, preventing them from modifying policies at the root level.

An advantage of NFS (Network File System) as compared to Fibre Channel is that NFS provides the dynamic allocation of storage capacity. This means that NFS allows the storage space to be allocated and released on demand, depending on the needs of the applications and users. NFS also enables the sharing of files and directories across different servers and clients, simplifying the management and access of data. Fibre Channel, on the other hand, is a protocol that provides high-speed and low-latency communication between storage devices and servers, but it requires fixed and pre-allocated storage capacity, which can lead to underutilization or overprovisioning of resources. Fibre Channel also requires dedicated hardware and cabling, which can increase the cost and complexity of the storage network.

DCCOR: Fibre Channel & Storage Networking

iSCSI vs. Fibre Channel

The statement that is true about upgrading the firmware on a Cisco MDS storage switch with dual supervisors is that the new firmware is load on the standby supervisor first. This is part of the non-disruptive upgrade process that allows the switch to continue operating while the firmware is updated. The standby supervisor receives the new firmware image and reloads with the new version, while the active supervisor remains in service with the old version. Then, a switchover occurs, making the standby supervisor the new active one, and the old active supervisor receives the new firmware image and reloads. Finally, the modules are upgraded one by one, starting from the lowest numbered module. The other statements are not true because:

The standby supervisor does not need to be offline before the firmware upgrade begins. It can be online and in standby mode, ready to receive the new firmware image and reload.

Both supervisors do not load the new firmware and then the active supervisor reboots. This would cause a disruption of service and a loss of configuration. The firmware upgrade is done in a sequential manner, with one supervisor at a time.

Supervisors cannot be upgraded independently to test the new firmware. The firmware versions on both supervisors must match, otherwise the switchover will fail and the switch will not operate properly.

How to Perform an MDS 9000 Series Switch Non-Disruptive Upgrade

Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 6.2(x)

The location where the engineer can look for the latest core dump file after a Cisco MDS 9000 series storage switch has reloaded unexpectedly is /mnt/core. A core dump file is a file that contains the memory state of the kernel at the time of a system failure. The core dump file can help the engineer or the Cisco technical support to analyze the cause of the problem and to fix it. The core dump file is stored in the /mnt/core directory on the switch, and it can be accessed using the CLI command 'show cores' or 'utils core active list'. The other directories (/mnt/pss, /mnt/logs, and /mnt/recovery) do not contain the core dump file, but they may contain other useful information for troubleshooting, such as process state information, log files, and recovery files.

Troubleshooting Core Dumps

Cisco MDS 9000 Family Kernel Core Server Installation and Configuration Guide

In an FCoE environment, the PAUSE mechanism is used to provide lossless behavior for Fibre Channel traffic over Ethernet. The PAUSE mechanism allows a receiver to send a PAUSE frame to a sender when its ingress buffer is full or close to full, instructing the sender to stop transmitting for a specified period of time. This prevents packet loss due to buffer overflow at the receiver. However, the PAUSE mechanism also introduces latency and jitter, which can affect the performance of FCoE applications.Therefore, the receiver must provision sufficient ingress buffer to accommodate the following two sets of data12:

Frames that were processed and transmitted by the transmitter before the PAUSE frame left the sender. These frames are already on the wire and cannot be stopped by the PAUSE frame. They will arrive at the receiver and consume ingress buffer space.

Frames that were sent on the link but not yet received. These frames are also on the wire and will arrive at the receiver after the PAUSE frame. They will also consume ingress buffer space.

The amount of ingress buffer required depends on the link speed, the link distance, and the PAUSE duration.The receiver must ensure that the ingress buffer can hold at least twice the link distance worth of data, plus some margin for safety3.For example, if the link speed is 10 Gbps, the link distance is 10 km, and the PAUSE duration is 100 microseconds, the receiver must have at least 25 MB of ingress buffer for each FCoE virtual lane4.

The issue with the implementation is that zones are local to the MDS switch, and name service must be used to activate the connection between E ports. In Cisco MDS switches, zoning is enforced at the switch level. Each switch in a fabric can have a different active zone set or none at all. The name server for each switch only contains information about devices that are logged into that specific switch.

FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) requires a lossless Ethernet network to ensure that no frames are dropped, which is crucial for storage traffic. DCBXP (Data Center Bridging Exchange Protocol) is part of the DCB (Data Center Bridging) suite of protocols that help to create a lossless Ethernet by providing a means to exchange parameters between peers to ensure consistent configuration across the network. For FCoE to function correctly on a Cisco Nexus switch, it is essential that LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) transmit and receive capabilities are enabled on the interface where FCoE is configured. This allows the switch to advertise and receive configuration information for parameters like priority-based flow control (PFC) and Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS), which are critical for the lossless operation required by FCoE.