Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Dell PowerFlex Solutions Design 2023 > System Design Guide for Dell PowerFlex family > Flashcards

System Design Guide for Dell PowerFlex family Flashcards

1
Q

What is a benefit of two layer vs HCI build?

A

can help in lowering Enterprise Software licensing cost - only applied to compute nodes compared to HCI where it’s included in all the nodes

can make day 2 operations easier

allow external SDC nodes to connect to PowerFlex

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

How does data traffic work in an HCI build?

A

SDC to SDS (front end) and SDS to SDS (back end) data traffic runs on shared VLANs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

How does deployment work in a hybrid build?

A

HCI nodes deployed separately from SO/CO nodes

recommendation is to have all homogenous nodes in the same PD to ensure consistent performance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

How is storage consumed in a hybrid build?

A

SDCs in HC and CO nodes can consume storage from either or both PDs (HC or SO nodes)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

How does ESXi deployment work on PowerFlex?

A

supported on HCI and CO nodes w/ full deployment and LCM through PFxM

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

How does non-ESXi deployment work on PowerFlex?

A

RHEL/CentOS/SUSE can be deployed on CO nodes through PFxM

customers responsible for providing OS Image (supported only deployment no LCM)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is customer responsible for specifically to RHEL deployments on PowerFlex?

A

for configuring hypervisors such as KVM/THV on top of RHEL

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is included w/ PowerFlex Rack?

A

Smart PDUs
IPI
PFlex Management Controller
PFlex HW/SW
Networking

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What OSs are supported specifically on PFlex Rack if using NVMe/TCP?

A

RHEL
ESXi
SLES

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is the minimum SO nodes for PFlex Rack?

A

4 SO nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

How is networking built out in PFlex Rack?

A

each cabinet has redundant acc/agg or leaf/spine switches

pair are installed in first cabinet/configured in correct topology

if more than one cabinet exists the switches can be spread across or put in other cabinets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What vendors does PFlex Rack support?

A

Acc/Agg - Cisco and Dell
Leaf/Spine - Cisco

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is the support level on PFlex Rack?

A

guaranteed one call support

Release Certification Matrix upgrade of code upgrade to all components

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What are the file node sizes on PowerFlex?

A

small - 2 x 12 cores
medium - 2 x 16 cores
large - 2 x 28 cores

19.2-76.8TB
128-256GB

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What are the specs for NSX-T nodes?

A

2 x 14 cores
256GB
5 x 800GB SSD
6 x 25 GbE
PERC H755

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is the networking recommendation for all PFlex Rack builds?

A

select Leaf-Spine option (especially for high performance or greater scaling)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

When can you use acc/agg networking topology in PFlex Rack builds?

A

when high performance/scalability aren’t big factors

when PDs are not crossing multiple pairs of ToRs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

How are Access switches connected?

A

all nodes including management controller nodes connect to access switches

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

How many nodes can an access switch pair support?

A

24 nodes (1RU or 2RU)

physically 42U rack can only support 12 2U nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

How are Aggregation Switches connected?

A

uplinks to customer’s core network (10/40/100Gbps) links

connect to acc switches using dual (100Gbps) uplinks

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What is not supported by NSX-T nodes?

A

SDC and SDS traffic across it

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What customer provided infrastructure is necessary for ESXi and Hyper-V deployments?

A

Windows Server 2016/2019
vCenter Server

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What are the minimum requirements for customers that want to use their own switches for PowerFLex Appliance?

A

less than or equal to 1ms round trip time latency
min 4 x 25GbE SFP28 per node
min 2 x 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks per switch
Jumbo Frames
VLANs
802.1 VLAN Encapsulation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

What is true about Partial Network Automation?

A

only available on PowerFlex Appliance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

What is important to tell customers about partial network automation?

A

need to be aware of impact and need of peer-link bandwidth

switch peerlink bandwidth must be greater than or equal to uplink bandwidth (400G Peerlink bandwidth recommended)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

What are the hardware components of the PFlex Management Controller?

A

controller nodes
management switches
software defined storage
system management software components

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

What are the controller nodes in the PFlex Management Controller?

A

based on PE Servers - use PFlex to provide a reliable and highly available storage cluster for the management plane

separate from the PFlex production nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

What are the two configurations for controller nodes?

A

large
small

depends on compute/storage capacity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

What are the management switches in PFlex Management Controller?

A

Cisco or Dell for OOB Management

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
30
Q

What is the automation difference between Full and partial network automation?

A

PFxM automates server facing ports and node OS networking in FNA

PFxM automates node OS networking only in PNA

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
31
Q

How does automation of server facing ports work in FNA?

A

once physical connection to OOB management/server facing ports - PFxM can assign IP address, bonding, port speed, port changes etc.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
32
Q

How does automation of OS networking work?

A

OS network = VMkernel, port groups, distributed switches, VLANs etc.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
33
Q

When would a customer be capable of deploying their own network for PowerFlex?

A

proficient in configuring networks

have access to network experts

must comply with specific security measures outside of PowerFlex’s best practices

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
34
Q

How much space is reserved in PowerFlex Rack for nodes?

A

28RU

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
35
Q

How much space is reserved in PowerFlex Rack for support shelves?

A

1RU support shelf reserved for every 8RU used for equipment

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
36
Q

What is the sizing rule for CO nodes running ESXi?

A

2 node minimum per CO service in PFxM

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
37
Q

What is the rule w/ Intel and AMD CO nodes in an ESXi environment?

A

can’t mix since vMotion will fail when crossing between Intel and AMD

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
38
Q

What is the formula to calculate the number of nodes you can house in a PowerFlex rack cabinet?

A

1.125 * X + 2.25 * Y <= 28
Where
X = # of 1 RU nodes
Y = # of 2 RU nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
39
Q

What is the compatability between PFlex Appliance and other offerings?

A

must only use PFlex appliance nodes within appliance systems

Rack Nodes and ready nodes not compatible and not supported by appliance systems

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
40
Q

What does it mean when PDs should be homogenous?

A

Node Type (SO/HC)
Disk type (SAS, SATA, NVMe)
Disk count (number of disks)
Disk size (GB)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
41
Q

What is the storage controller in SO and HC nodes?

A

HBA355

specifically for SSDs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
42
Q

What is the available power option on PowerFlex?

A

DC

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
43
Q

What is a networking limitation of PowerFlex?

A

can’t mix network vendors in a single node

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
44
Q

What is important to know about using NVMe drives?

A

dual CPU nodes required

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
45
Q

What is important to know about using NVDIMMs?

A

Can be supported in single CPU nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
46
Q

Why is R840 not used for SO nodes?

A

quad CPU would be of no benefit since SO nodes service no compute

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
47
Q

What OS must all SO nodes be running?

A

RHEL or Embedded PFlex OS

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
48
Q

What software components do file nodes have?

A

FSN and SDC

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
49
Q

How much RAM should you have for SO nodes over 51.5TBs?

A

32GB NVDIMM
56GB RAM

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
50
Q

How much RAM should you have for SO nodes between 51.5 - 96TBs?

A

64GB NVDIMM
56-73GB RAM

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
51
Q

How much RAM should you have for SO nodes between 96-128TBs?

A

96GB NVDIMM
90GB RAM

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
52
Q

How much RAM does the MDM take?

A

5.4GB

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
53
Q

How much memory does the OS take up in SO nodes?

A

1GB

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
54
Q

What are the components of the Intelligent Physical Infrastructure (IPI)?

A

Smart PDUs
Physical Cabinets
Access Controls
Associated Cables

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
55
Q

What are Smart PDUs?

A

work in parrallel w/ v4.5 cabinets

PDU connections to the IPI are pre-cabled w/ the v4.5 cabinet and power data is accessible through the IPI GUI

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
56
Q

How can Smart PDUs be mounted?

A

whip up or whip down configurations

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
57
Q

How are Smart PDUs/racks connected?

A

single Cat 5/6 connection and single IP address to the management switch

up to 3 pairs of PDUs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
58
Q

What are the dimensions on v4.5 racks?

A

27in wide
47 in deep

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
59
Q

How many PDUs can go in a cabinet in PowerFlex Rack?

A

2-6

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
60
Q

How many outlets per PDU?

A

36 - 24 10amp - 12 16amp

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
61
Q

What are the hardware components of the PowerFlex Management Controller?

A

PFlex Rack Management Controller Nodes
NSX-T Edge Node
Management Switch

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
62
Q

What are PFlex Rack Management Controller Nodes?

A

PowerEdge servers designed to provide compute power/storage capacity to run software components of PFlex Rack management

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
63
Q

What are management switches connected to?

A

controller nodes
PFlex Nodes
NSX-T edge nodes
IPI v4.5 and PDUs

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
64
Q

What is the management switch used by PowerFlex Rack in Cisco configurations?

A

Cisco 9238GC-X

1G

one recommended per rack

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
65
Q

How many management switches should you have for 4-32 nodes?

A

1

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
66
Q

How many management switches should you have for 33-78 nodes?

A

2

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
67
Q

How many management switches should you have for 79-123 nodes?

A

3

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
68
Q

How many management switches should you have for 123 and over nodes?

A

add 1 more switch every 45 nodes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
69
Q

Why can the first management switch only support up to 32 nodes?

A

since it’s partially consumed by management controller nodes, IPI appliance, PDUs, and customer uplink

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
70
Q

What is the main benefit of having an OOB management network?

A

you can still access a switch even if a part of the network between you and the switch goes down

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
71
Q

How are management switches connected?

A

one cable from the management switch to each device on the network to be managed

connected to OOB ports on switches

connected to iDRAC ports on servers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
72
Q

What is the management switch used by PowerFlex Rack in Dell configurations?

A

S4148T

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
73
Q

What is the management controller requirement for PowerFlex appliance configurations?

A

single management node based on R650/640

multiple drives paired to internal RAID controller for redundancy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
74
Q

What is the general network setup in PowerFlex Rack for ToR Switches?

A

2 in each rack
can support up to 24 nodes and controllers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
75
Q

What are the standard connections for PowerFlex Rack nodes?

A

5

first 4 connected to ToR (access/leaf) via DAC (25G) or AOC (100G) cables

last connection to the management switch

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
76
Q

What are the standard connections for PowerFlex Rack Management Controller?

A

6

first 4 connected to ToR (access/leaf) via DAC (25G) or AOC (100G) cables

last 2 connection to the management switch

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
77
Q

What is the benefit of having dual networks in PowerFlex Rack?

A

enables Dell to install PFlex rack into environment w/ customer’s existing software defined network

78
Q

What is the hardware requirement for dual network PowerFlex Rack?

A

two new acc switches
two additional ports per host
distributed virtual switch to funnel customer traffic into the SDN

79
Q

What nodes are affected by the dual network design?

A

HC and CO nodes

SO nodes don’t require changes to function within dual network design

80
Q

How many data networks should you design for dual network design?

A

2

can support up to 8 but more than 2 leads to design errors

81
Q

What are the standard connections for PowerFlex HC and SO nodes in a dual network design?

A

7

first 4 connected to ToR (access/leaf) via DAC (25G) or AOC (100G) cables

next 2 connected to customer ACI leaves through DAC/AOC/25G optics

last connection to the management switch

82
Q

How is L2 networking handled in an acc/agg configuration?

A

agg switches handle L2 connectivity down to all nodes

83
Q

What protocols can agg switches run?

A

L2 or L3 protocols

L2 is default

84
Q

What is the recommendation when running an acc/agg network topology?

A

multi-chassis ling aggregation (MLAG) recommended to ensure high bandwidth for expected performance and resiliency

customer can still choose no MLAG if they want

85
Q

How is MLAG referred to by different vendors?

A

VLT - Dell
VPC - Cisco

86
Q

What is the PD recommendation when deploying acc/agg topology?

A

PDs should reside under a single pair of acc switches due to amount of east/west traffic

for greater east/west traffic leaf spine option is recommended if PDs need to cross ToR boundaries

87
Q

What types of spine/leaf configurations are supported on PowerFlex?

A

3-spine
6-spine

88
Q

What effect does adding more spines to spine leaf topology do?

A

does not enable a larger environment but will increase amount of east west traffic that environment can support

89
Q

What are the types of switches in spine leaf topology?

A

spine

leaf (ToR)

border leaf (BL)

90
Q

What are spine switches?

A

backbone of network responsible for interconnecting leaves and borders

91
Q

What are leaf switches?

A

provide connectivity to nodes/controllers in environment

92
Q

What are border leaf switches?

A

provides connectivity to the customer network

93
Q

What leaf spine topology is supported by Dell?

A

Cisco

SONiC Leaf w/ Dell Switches (PNA only)

94
Q

What is the standard of a 25G leaf spine configuration?

A

4 25G connections to each node w/ 100G uplink to spines

supports up to 24 nodes per leaf pair

95
Q

What is the standard of a 100G leaf spine configuration?

A

4 100G connections to each node

100G to 10G connections to controllers

supports up to 8-16 nodes per leaf pair depending the switch model

96
Q

What PowerFlex offerings support NSX-T?

A

Rack and Appliance

97
Q

What additional components are needed to run NSX-T in PowerFlex environment?

A

additional 4th controller to support NSX-T Manager software

2 or more NSX Edge nodes to run NSX-T Edge Service Gateway instances

98
Q

What are the configuration options for controller nodes on PowerFlex?

A

Large or Small

Always recommended to do large

99
Q

What is the instance limit of NSX-T Edge Service Gateway?

A

each Edge Node can run max of two ESG VMs

100
Q

How are the NSX-T Managment and Control Plane mounted?

A

host on NSX Manager VMs that live on Management Controller cluster

101
Q

How do NSX-T Edge nodes work?

A

in band nodes that have app/workload traffic forwarded under the control of the NSX-T controllers

102
Q

What is the data path of NSX-T Edge nodes?

A

data runs through ESG

all outbound/inter-VLAN traffic will pass through ESGs in route to external/ between zones in the NSX-T environment

why they have dedicated ports

103
Q

How is the customer’s physical network connected to the ESGs in an NSX-T setup?

A

external network not physically attached

connected via uplinks to from the Agg or Spine Layer

104
Q

What is a limitation with an appliance configuration using NSX-T Edge Nodes?

A

appliance do not allow customers to bring their own management controllers

105
Q

What does the multinetwork feature of PowerFlex allow?

A

customer can have different VLANs and subnets in each cabinet and PowerFlex can span them

multiple VLANs and subnets can be assigned per role

106
Q

What is the node minimum for PFlex Rack?

A

4 HC nodes

recommendation of 6

107
Q

How many nodes can PFlex Rack scale to?

A

168 in acc/agg
1000 in spine/leaf

108
Q

What is the PD/SP limit for PFlex Rack?

A

32 nodes per PD

300 drives per SP

109
Q

What is best practice for PD and SP configuration in PFlex Rack?

A

1:2 ratio for PD:SP

110
Q

What are the networking minimums for Pflex Rack?

A

1 pair of agg or 3 spines
1 pair of acc or leafs

111
Q

How many management controller nodes do you need in PFlex Rack?

A

3 minimum

1 management switch minimum

112
Q

What is the minimum for PFlex nodes for file?

A

2-16

113
Q

What is the shared storage pool available for PowerFlex file to work?

A

5.5TBs

114
Q

What is the max nodes that can fit in a single cabinet in PowerFlex Rack?

A

21 1RU nodes

115
Q

Why does the first PFlex Rack cabinet have agg switches built in if its an agg acc configuration?

A

to help smooth expansion beyond one cabinet (a pair of acc switches)

116
Q

What is the max nodes that can fit in a 2 rack PowerFlex Rack configuration?

A

45 1RU nodes

117
Q

What is the minimum node configuration for PFlex appliance?

A

4 SO or HC nodes

6 recommended (min of 6 for a PD)

118
Q

What are the minimum network configurations for PowerFlex appliance?

A

1 pair of acc/leaf switches

min 1 management switch (up to 47 nodes)

119
Q

What kind of replication is available on PowerFlex?

A

asynchronous storage based replication

120
Q

What is the default MDM cluster mode for a 4 node minimum configuration?

A

3 MDMs (primary, secondary, tiebreaker)

two copies of repository so can withstand one MDM cluster failure

121
Q

What is the default MDM cluster mode for a configuration 5 nodes or more?

A

5 MDMs (primary, 2 secondary, 2 tiebreakers)

three copies of repository so can withstand two MDM cluster failures

122
Q

How do the MDM, SDS, and SDC interact in a VMWare environment?

A

MDM and SDS are hosted inside a dedicated VM (SVM)

SDC installed in ESXi

123
Q

What is PowerFlex capacity licensing based on?

A

Raw capacity - price per TB get’s cheaper the higher capacity tier the licensing is

124
Q

What is the static route setup for internal SDCs in PowerFlex Rack?

A

layer 3 routing from SDC to SDS enables IP subnet separation between groups of SDC’s to a common SDS pool

enables multi-tenancy capability on PFlex Rack

125
Q

What kind of multi-site replication is available on PowerFlex?

A

up to 5 separate sites on 4.0 and up releases

multi-site multi-directional replication also supported

126
Q

What happens if an SDR fails?

A

there is a minimum number of SDRs deployed on a system

therefore MDM directs SDC to send the IO to available SDR

127
Q

What are the rules for SDRs?

A

SDRs are specific to a PD and each PD will require a minimum number of SDRs for availability

SDRs must be installed along with SDSs

128
Q

What kind of checksum is supported MG pools?

A

inflight checksum

does not support persistent checksum

129
Q

What are MG pools best suited for?

A

workloads w/ high performance and low latency requirements

does not support data compression

supports thin or thick LUNs

130
Q

How can pools be layed out in an SDS?

A

FG and MG pools can live side by side in each SDS

volumes can be migrated between the two layouts

131
Q

What hardware is required to deploy FG pools?

A

can only be used w/ SSD/NVMe

require an acceleration pool with NVDIMMs/SPDM

132
Q

What kind of compression is supported on FG pools?

A

in line compression

133
Q

What kind of workloads are supported on FG pools?

A

only thin LUNs

best choice for compressable data and space efficiency

recommended when thin provisioning and snapshots are key requirements

134
Q

What kind of checksum is performed on FG pools?

A

persistent and in flight checksum

135
Q

What is the design rule for SP layout?

A

PDs can have multiple pools of MG but multiple FG Pools or FG pools with MG pools in same PD is not recommended

136
Q

What is the rule for sizing fault sets?

A

minimum of 2 nodes per FS but recommended of 4

137
Q

What is the rule for replication consistency groups?

A

one RCG consists of one source and up to 4 targets

source and target must reside in separate SPs

source and target SP should be of identical size

138
Q

How much space should be reserved on SPs for replication journals?

A

10%

139
Q

What is the performance rule for asynchronous replication in regard to SPs?

A

performance character of any SP where a journal volume resides must meet or exceed the performance character of the SP where the replicated volume resides

MG/MG or MG/FG or FG/FG allowed basically

140
Q

What are the RPO min and max on PowerFlex?

A

15sec - 1hr on 4.0 or greater update

141
Q

What is the bandwidth rule for replicated volumes on PowerFlex?

A

replicated volumes require 3 times the network bandwidth vs non-replicated volumes

sustained bandwidth of all volumes being replicated should not exceed 80% of available WAN bandwidth

142
Q

What is the latency limit for asynchronous remote replication?

A

200ms

143
Q

What are the different configuration options for file nodes?

A

small - 24 cores - 128GB RAM - 4 x 25G
medium - 32 cores - 256GB RAM - 4 x 25G
large - 32 cores - 1024GB RAM - 4 x 25/100G

144
Q

What do NAS Servers allow for PowerFlex to enable?

A

Multitenancy

file systems assigned to NAS Servers upon creation and can’t be moved to another NAS Server

145
Q

How are new NAS Servers assigned in PowerFlex?

A

round robin fashion

146
Q

How are NAS Servers provided high availability on PowerFlex?

A

primary node acts as marker to indicate to node that the NAS Server should be running on

once provisioned the primary node for NAS Server never changes

backup node in place NAS Server is backed up for fault tolerance purposes (Created automatically through node balancing algorithm)

147
Q

How is Powerflex file managed?

A

PowerFlex Unified Manager GUI

148
Q

What is the PowerFlex Gateway?

A

serves as the PowerFlex REST API gateway and SNMP trap sender

provisioned as separate VM on PFMC or customer provided hw (appliance config only)

149
Q

What is true about deploying the PFlex Gateway in modern configurations?

A

deploying Gateway only for v3.8 or below

not required for v4.0 and above - two gateways installed automatically

150
Q

What is the PowerFlex Presentation Server?

A

provisioned as a separate VM which provides the UI

only required to be installed in v3.8 or below - automatically in place for 4.0 and above installations

151
Q

How is PFxM deployed in v3.8 or earlier?

A

supplied as a virtual appliance in OVA format

runs as single VM and must be deployed on ESXi

single instance of PFxM 3.8 can be used to manage multiple clusters

still deploy separate instances of PFlex Gateway to presentation server

152
Q

How is PFxM deployed in v4.0 or later?

A

PFxM 4.0 is now container based architecture deployed across 3 management VMs

supplied VM based installer must be used to deploy the cluster

integrates functionality of both Gateway and presentation server

single instance of PFxM can be used to manage one cluster

153
Q

What features are only available with PFxM 4.0 and above?

A

NVMe/TCP
file services

154
Q

How is PFxM deployed in Rack configuration?

A

deployed on the 3 node management controllers

155
Q

How is PFxM deployed in Appliance configurations?

A

can be on Dell provided single management controller/multi-node controller or customer provided hardware

156
Q

What are the resource allocations for PFxM 4.0 or above if customer is using own hardware?

A

42 cores
96GB
1.8TB

157
Q

When can a customer deploy PFxM 4.0 on their own management infrastructure?

A

ESXi or KVM environments

158
Q

How would customers integrate their management infrastructure if they’re already ESXi or KVM customers?

A

customer deploys our ESLES VMs on their hypervisor to run management

images provided as OVA for ESXi

images provided as QCOW for KVM

159
Q

What is vCenter used for in ESXi configurations?

A

to manage the management control plane cluster VMs and nodes as well as customer VM environment/nodes

deployed in VHCA (vCenter High Availability) mode

160
Q

What is Dell Secure Connect Gateway?

A

enterprise monitoring application that is delivered as an appliance or software

monitors devices and proactively detects hw issues

161
Q

What is a jump host?

A

VM that resides on the management controller

provides working environment with access to all PFlex Rack internal networks and troubleshooting ability

162
Q

What is important to know about customers that want to use NSX-T?

A

we don’t sell or install NSX-T as part of PowerFlex system (Customer acquires licenses from VMWare)

163
Q

What are the configuration min and max for NSX-T edge nodes?

A

2-8

164
Q

What are the storage configuration options for NSX-T edge nodes?

A

RAID 10/vSAN

165
Q

What is the role of CloudLink?

A

integrates w/ PFlex to orchestrate D@RE and key management

166
Q

How does CloudLink work?

A

selectively enables device level encryption using software based encryption

167
Q

How is CloudLink deployed on Rack configurations?

A

CloudLink Center deployed on PFMC

168
Q

How is CloudLink deployed on Appliance configurations?

A

customer provides management platform and CloudLink Agent deployed by PFxM on HC and SO nodes

169
Q

How is CloudLink licensed?

A

by raw TB

170
Q

What are the SecureVM CloudLink licenses?

A

enable use of CloudLink to encrypt VM or bare metal volumes

171
Q

What are KMIP KMS licenses for CloudLink?

A

enable use of CloudLink as the key store if customer wants to use native vSphere encryption and need secure key location

172
Q

How is PFMC deployed in a Rack configuration?

A

3 node offering w/ HBA355

173
Q

How is PFMC deployed in a Appliance configuration?

A

single node (HBA755) or 3 node

174
Q

What are the rules w/ acceleration pools?

A

acceleration pool can serve multiple SPs but a single SP can’t use multiple acceleration pools

an acceleration device can serve multiple SDS devices but SDS devices can’t span across multiple acceleration devices

175
Q

What can you use as an alternate to FSN nodes?

A

PowerScale nodes in a Rack configuration

no orchestration or automation through PFxM if using PScale nodes for file data

176
Q

What is true about PowerFlex scalability with legacy nodes?

A

14, 15, 16 gen nodes can reside in the same cluster

177
Q

What is the maximum node limit for a PD in PFlex Rack?

A

30 nodes

178
Q

What are the node limits per rack on PFlex Rack?

A

21 1U nodes - (first rack

24 - 1U

12 - 2U

179
Q

What is the management switch requirement for smaller PFlex Rack clusters?

A

recommended to have one per cabinet but not required if node count is lower than 24

180
Q

What are the max switches supported by PFlex Rack?

A

only one pair of agg switches under acc/agg topology

3/6 spines

pair of acc/leaf switches required per cabinet

181
Q

What are the max node counts for each spine configuration for PFlex Rack?

A

3 spine - 144 leafs - 168 nodes (1RU)
6 spine - 14 leafs - 168 nodes (1RU)

182
Q

How can you achieve more than 168 node max in PFlex Rack?

A

using switches w/ higher port density

183
Q

What is the recommendation for spine switch installation for PFlex Rack?

A

install spine switches in separate cabinets to ensure resiliency

184
Q

When should you use IMM instead of PMM?

A

if you plan to place a node in maintenance mode for less than 30 minutes

185
Q

What mode is the cluster put into when IMM is initialized?

A

degraded mode - should not leave node in IMM once completed

186
Q

What is the capacity calculation for journal capacity requirements?

A

must equal at least 28GB of the SP per SDR

at least 5% of the usable capacity of the replicated volumes

of SDRs x 28

187
Q

What is the rule when sizing journal capacity by RPO?

A

as RPO decreases amount of journal capacity needs to increase

188
Q

What is the rule when sizing journal capacity by RTO?

A

as RTO increases amount of journal capacity needs to increase

189
Q

What is a replication consistency group?

A

logical container for volumes whose application data needs to be replicated consistently to each other

190
Q

What is defined by the RCG?

A

RPO
Consistency Mode
Pause Mode
Freeze Mode

191
Q

What type of nodes support asynchronous replication?

A

SO nodes and ESXi based HCI nodes

Dell PowerFlex Solutions Design 2023 (11 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions