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Pass the NS0-507 exam - NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer — SAN Specialist

Hi, Habr! In my very first article about NCDA certification, almost two years ago, I mentioned plans for further certification of NetApp NCIE, and, waiting for the moment when the current NCDA certification began to end, I decided to re-certify to a higher level, thereby extending the old certification and getting a new one.

Under the cut, I will share information about how I was trained, what I read, what I studied, maybe it will be useful to you.

Briefly about the exam


NetApp currently offers three types of NCIE-SAN exams:


Our NS0-507 exam is based on ONTAP 9.1 version, consists of 60 questions for which 1.5-2 hours of time are allotted, which is quite sufficiently prepared for the exam specialist. The passing score is 62% (37 questions out of 60), which makes this testing too easy. The main requirement for the exam - the status of NCDA .
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Exam Preparation


NetApp offers the following guidelines for taking this exam :

  1. Have experience with SAN networks from 6 months and up;
  2. Listen to the online course ONTAP SAN Fundamentals;
  3. Listen online course SAN Implementation - Switch Configuration;
  4. Listen to the official course with a Data ONTAP SAN Implementation instructor;
  5. Read the documentation.

I would like to note that, subject to availability, I would highly recommend visiting Data ONTAP SAN Implementation course, which is quite familiar with SAN networks and NetApp storage systems in these networks.

Also, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the topics that can be raised on the exam.

Self-training


Even if you do not plan to take the exam, I would very much like to recommend you to read two great books that very well expand the horizons in the field of storage systems and networks:

  1. IBM - Introduction to Storage Area Networks - about 300 pages of the most useful information;
  2. EMC - From data storage to information management (2nd edition) - the book is not only about storage systems and storage networks, but this topic is quite dense, especially the first half. Available in Russian.

First of all, for self-training, I would recommend to pass free practice tests available on the NetApp portal:

For exam NS0-507 - the main test, contains questions close to the real exam;
And for the NS0-158 exam - the NCDA status exam. Here, too, there are questions about SAN, and storage configuration.

According to the results of these test exams, you can determine your strengths and weaknesses and understand what is better to tighten, and with what problems do not arise.

It is also possible to get free Web-based training available on the NetApp Learning Center portal (registration is required on the portal). Among the available materials, I noted for myself the following:

  1. ONTAP SAN Fundamentals;
  2. SAN Design;
  3. SAN Fundamentals on Data ONTAP;
  4. SAN Implementation - Switch Configuration;
  5. Data Network Fundamentals;
  6. Fiber Channel Basiscs in a NetApp;
  7. Fiber Channel SAN Troubleshooting;
  8. Fiber Channel Switching Concepts.

Each of these courses will take about an hour, and at the end it will be possible to pass a passing test, thereby verifying the acquired knowledge. It is worth mentioning that not all of these courses are on ONTAP version 9, but in any case they explain well the basic principles of NetApp work in SAN networks.

Now about the most interesting - useful documentation. NetApp has a great document that provides links to materials that can help you prepare for exams. At the time of this writing, the recommended documentation for the NS0-507 exam is on page 11.

To date, about 50 documents are listed for preparing for the NS0-507 exam. Each of which contains from 30 to 200 and above pages. I selected the most interesting ones in my opinion. All of them are available for downloading by reference from the reference document:

  1. SAN Configuration Guide - Highlights connecting NetApp storage systems to SANs;
  2. SAN Administration Guide - Configuring SVM, LIF, LUN mapping, etc .;
  3. System Administration Reference - Manage nodes, licenses, AutoSupport;
  4. Disks and Aggregates Power Guide - Management of disks, aggregates, raid-groups;
  5. High-Availability Configuration Guide - Configuring and managing failover nodes;
  6. Logical Storage Management Guide - Volume management, deduplication, compression, volume migration;
  7. Network Management Guide - Network Management;
  8. FC Configuration for ESX / Windows / Red Hat - Configure and connect NetApp on FC to popular systems;
  9. iSCSI Configuration for ESX / Windows / Red Hat - Configure and connect NetApp via iSCSI to popular systems;
  10. SAN Migration Using Foreign LUN Import - A very interesting document. Data migration from third-party storage systems to NetApp;
  11. Upgrade and Revert / Downgrade Guide - Update version of ONTAP controllers;
  12. Fiber Channel over Ethernet. End-to-End Deployment Guide;
  13. Best Practices for Scalable SAN;
  14. Ethernet Storage Best Practices.

A separate list will add documentation on version 8.3. There, too, there are many interesting things and, according to observations, it is “thicker” 2 times than the documentation for versions 9.x. The main thing is not to be confused on the exam in the maxima of different versions:

  1. Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3. Physical Storage Management Guide;
  2. Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3. SAN Administration Guide;
  3. Clustered Data ONTAP 8.3. SAN Configuration Guide.

In addition to the NetApp documentation, it is also a good idea to read the basics of SAN configuration on Cisco Nexus, Cisco MDS, and Brocade devices. Links to the documentation are in the reference guide . I advise you to read the basic information on the initialization of switches, setting up the zoning and troubleshooting. Reading from cover to cover is not necessary.

When reading the documentation, I strongly recommend to start a “draft”, into which you should take out the interesting moments found during the reading, which can fly out of your head, or be forgotten. This draft is very convenient to read a couple of days before the exam and recall in general everything that was read before, as well as structure knowledge.

In addition to the theoretical part, those who can use ONTAP Simulator, have an excellent opportunity to assemble a circuit: ONTAP + ESX + vCSA + VSC + Windwos + Red Hat. This scheme will allow to understand the issues of connecting ONTAP to various users via iSCSI, as well as look at the VSC and its capabilities.

Based on the above, after preparing for the exam, you need to understand the following:

  1. The basic concepts of SAN networks. Distinguish between factory topologies. Understand how addressing occurs;
  2. Basic initialization, minimum configuration of SAN and zoning on Cisco and Brocade equipment, troubleshooting;
  3. Connecting storage to networks, types of fiber optic cables, twinax;
  4. Basic storage initialization, licensing, EMS configuration and autosupport. Creating aggregates;
  5. Work with volumes, snapshots, FlexClone, migration of volumes;
  6. Configuring SVM, LIF, creating moons, mapping moons to hosts, according to all protocols;
  7. Connection of dedicated moons from the side of Windows clients, Red Hat Linux, ESX, OpenStack;
  8. Basic troubleshooting of “classic” situations;
  9. Multipathing, ALUA, Windows MPIO, ONTAP DSM, DM Multipath;
  10. NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) for VMware vSphere ;
  11. Purpose of the Hardware Universe (HWU) , Interoperability Matrix Tool (IMT) , basic usage;
  12. Differences in ONTAP versions 8.2-8.3-9.1 with respect to SAN;
  13. All sorts of best practices for building fast, reliable and fault-tolerant storage networks, and similar NetApp storage systems in these networks.

In custody


In this exam preparation I have everything. I would like to add that according to personal feelings, this exam was easier than the exam for the status of NCDA, possibly due to a narrower focus.

Good luck to those who are planning to be certified. I hope that this article will help you in the preparation.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/343938/

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