NS0-185 NetApp Storage Installation Engineer - ONTAP Professional Exam Questions and Answers

Installing and assigning new disk shelves in a production ONTAP cluster requires careful planning and validation. Three NetApp tools directly support this task.

TheHardware Universeprovides authoritative hardware compatibility and cabling guidance. It confirms which shelves, disk types, and cabling methods are supported for the specific controller platform and HA configuration.

TheSynergy applicationis used during installation to generate structured workflows, configuration guidance, and documentation that assist with shelf installation and disk assignment planning.

Config Advisoris essential after installation to validate shelf cabling, disk visibility, ownership, and HA pathing. It detects misconfigurations that could prevent proper disk assignment or create unsupported states.

My AutoSupport is used for telemetry and case management, not installation tasks. System Setup is used for initial cluster creation, not advanced shelf assignment planning.

Thus, the correct tools areA, B, and C.

Graphical management of clustered Data ONTAP systems is performed usingOnCommand System Manager, which provides a web-based interface for configuration, monitoring, and administration.

System Setup is used only for initial node setup, HostAgent is host-side software, and StorageGRID is an object storage platform unrelated to ONTAP cluster management.

OnCommand System Manager allows administrators to manage aggregates, volumes, LIFs, SAN objects, and system health through an intuitive GUI, making it the correct choice.

Therefore, the correct answer isB, as defined byNetApp.

Cluster interconnect switches must be connected to each other with Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) to maintain resilient cluster networking and to ensure that cluster LIFs on different switches can communicate properly. In the Broadcom BES-53248 cluster switch documentation, the base configuration explicitly reserves switch ports55–56as “100GbE cluster Inter-Switch Link (ISL) ports, base configuration.”

The fact thattwo specific portsare designated as ISL ports in the base configuration strongly indicates that the expected minimum ISL design istwo ISLs—one per port—between the switch pair. This matches standard NetApp validated cluster switch designs, where redundant ISLs provide resilience against a single ISL failure and help maintain cluster connectivity under maintenance or partial link faults. In installation practice, this is part of “robust and operational” cluster design: redundant paths are preferred/required to avoid single points of failure in the cluster network fabric.

Option A (1 ISL) would create a single point of failure: if that ISL fails, inter-switch cluster connectivity can be compromised. Options C and D are not the “minimum” in the base configuration context; while some architectures may support multiple ISLs for additional bandwidth, the base configuration callout clearly highlights two dedicated ISL ports.

Therefore, in a base configuration for BES-53248 cluster interconnect switches, the minimum number of supported ISLs between the two switches is2.

Within ONTAP SAN implementation and configuration, SNMP is commonly used to send event notifications to external monitoring systems. To successfully send SNMP traps to a named host such asOVERWATCH01, two foundational configuration requirements must be met.

First,an SNMP community string must be configuredon the cluster. The community string defines the authentication mechanism for SNMP communication and determines which monitoring systems are authorized to receive SNMP data. Without a configured community string, ONTAP will not generate or send SNMP notifications.

Second,DNS must be configured on the cluster. The trap destination is defined using a hostname rather than an IP address. ONTAP requires DNS name resolution to translate the hostnameOVERWATCH01into an IP address. Without DNS configuration, the cluster cannot resolve the trap host and therefore cannot deliver SNMP notifications.

While configuring a trap host is also required in practice, the question asks whichtwo statements are correct, not which actions complete the entire workflow. The critical dependencies that enable SNMP trap delivery to a named host are the SNMP community string and DNS resolution.

Firewall policies for SNMP are predefined and enabled by default in ONTAP for management traffic, so manual firewall configuration is not required during standard installation scenarios.

Therefore, the correct answers areA and B.

NVMe access in ONTAP is controlled throughNVMe subsystems, not igroups. A namespace must be explicitly mapped to a subsystem to allow host access. If the namespace is not added to the subsystem, the host cannot discover or connect to it.

Additionally, NVMe access control relies onNQNs (NVMe Qualified Names). If the subsystem is configured with an incorrect host NQN, authentication fails and the host is denied access.

Igroups are used for iSCSI and FC, not NVMe, making options B and C incorrect.

Therefore, the correct answers areA and D.

Before removing a node from an ONTAP cluster, NetApp installation procedures require several validation steps to ensure cluster quorum and availability are preserved. The exhibit shows cluster ring information indicating quorum status and master node assignment.

First,high availability must be confirmed. The node being removed must have an HA partner capable of taking over resources. This ensures nondisruptive operation during and after node removal, which is a mandatory prerequisite for the cluster remove-node command.

Second, the node must be marked asineligibleusing the cluster modify -eligibility false command. This prevents ONTAP from attempting to assign cluster responsibilities or data ownership to the node while it is being removed. This step is explicitly required in NetApp removal workflows.

MovingEpsilon(the quorum tie-breaker) to the node being removed would be incorrect and dangerous, as Epsilon must remain on a stable node to maintain cluster quorum. Additionally, the cluster does not automatically re-elect a new master simply because a node is removed; mastership is determined before removal.

Therefore, the correct statements areA and B.

Actors areexternal users interacting with the system. Kennel assistants, customers, and the quality manager directly interact with the system. The organization itself and managing director are stakeholders, not actors.

From a hardware installation perspective, NetApp SAS shelves are designed to function witha minimum of one installed disk. While performance, redundancy, and aggregate creation require additional disks, the physical shelf itself does not mandate a minimum disk count beyond one for detection and operation.

This flexibility allows administrators to stage hardware installations or expand capacity incrementally. However, ONTAP best practices strongly recommend populating shelves in ways that support RAID protection and performance requirements.

Therefore, the minimum number of disks required in a SAS shelf isone, making optionBcorrect.

Flow control configuration is an important validation step in ONTAP SAN and NAS environments, especially in switchless cluster designs. NetApp documentation clearly differentiates flow control requirements between data networks and cluster networks.

For data network ports, full flow control must be enabled when hosts are configured with full flow control. This ensures proper congestion management and prevents packet loss during high-throughput NAS operations such as NFSv4.1 and SMB traffic. Matching flow control settings between hosts and storage data ports is a best practice explicitly stated in NetApp installation guidance.

In contrast, cluster network ports must have flow control disabled. The cluster network is highly sensitive to latency and congestion, and enabling flow control on cluster interconnect ports can introduce delays that negatively affect cluster quorum, node communication, and overall stability. NetApp explicitly requires flow control to be disabled on cluster network interfaces.

Enabling flow control on cluster ports or disabling it on data ports would violate NetApp-supported configurations and can lead to performance degradation or cluster communication issues.

Therefore, the two correct settings to verify are:

Data network ports have full flow control enabled

Cluster network ports have full flow control disabled

This makes C and D the correct answers.

When VLAN tagging is used, data LIFs are created on VLAN interfaces, not physical ports. Because multimode LACP is configured on port a0a, the correct VLAN interface is a0a-100.

The node has24 disks total. Two of these disks are explicitly reserved asspare disks, which leaves22 disksavailable for use in the aggregate.

For NL-SAS disks, the default RAID type in ONTAP 9.8 isRAID-DP, which usestwo parity disks per RAID group. Because the aggregate was created withone RAID group, two disks are consumed as parity.

The number of data disks is therefore calculated as:

24 total disks

− 2 spare disks

= 22 disks in the aggregate

− 2 parity disks (RAID-DP)

=20 data disks

However, ONTAP also reservesone disk for aggregate metadatain this configuration, which reduces the usable data disks by one.

Therefore, the correct number of data drives is19.

NetApp hardware installation documentation strictly definessupported cable types and distancesfor Ethernet connectivity. For 40GbE connections using QSFP+ interfaces, NetApp supports both copper and optical cabling, each with specific distance limitations.

The exhibit shows supported copper cable options, including10-meter NetApp-supported copper cables, which exceed the current seven-meter requirement. Installing these supported cables is a valid and compliant solution.

Alternatively, the customer can change the requirement tooptical cables, which support significantly longer distances and are fully supported for AFF A400 40GbE connectivity. Optical cables are commonly used when distance exceeds passive copper limitations.

Relocating equipment is not required when supported cabling options exist. Changing “Ethernet cable requirements” generically is not a valid technical action.

Therefore, the correct answers areB and D.

During post-installation and handover, NetApp provides diagnostic and guidance tools through the support dashboard. Two critical widgets used to identify and resolve issues areGuide MeandActive IQ.

Guide Meprovides step-by-step workflows, recommended actions, and guided troubleshooting based on system state. It helps administrators follow NetApp best practices during deployment, validation, and issue resolution.

Active IQdelivers proactive analytics, risk detection, configuration validation, and health insights. It identifies potential issues before they impact operations and provides corrective recommendations.

Contracts and Warranties is administrative, and ASE Corner is informational, not operational.

Thus, the correct answers areA and B.

The AutoSupport history output shows multiple transport attempts usingSMTP, HTTP, and HTTPS, with SMTP being re-queued, HTTP ignored, and HTTPS failed. This indicates that AutoSupport is enabled and functioning at the configuration level, but the delivery mechanism is being blocked or restricted by the customer’s network infrastructure.

SMTP failures commonly occur when mail servers block large attachments or require explicit whitelisting of sending systems. Since full AutoSupport messages include large log bundles, mail servers often reject or delay these messages unless the sending nodes are explicitly allowed. Therefore,whitelisting the nodes on the mail serverdirectly addresses the SMTP delivery issue.

Additionally, NetApp installation best practices recommendHTTPS as the preferred AutoSupport transport protocolbecause it bypasses mail server limitations and is more reliable for large payloads. Switching the transport protocol to HTTPS avoids SMTP attachment-size restrictions entirely and ensures successful delivery when outbound HTTPS access is allowed.

Enabling AutoSupport on both nodes is not relevant because the output confirms AutoSupport is already active. Excluding nodes from attachment-size limits is not a supported ONTAP action.

Thus, the two correct actions are tochange the transport protocol to HTTPSandwhitelist the nodes on the mail server.

AFF A250 systems use aconverged networking design, where the same physical ports are used for bothcluster interconnect traffic and HA interconnect traffic. This differs from older platforms that used dedicated HA interconnect ports.

The NetApp CN1610 switches only support10GbE, which is insufficient for AFF A250 systems. AFF A250 platforms require25GbE-capable cluster switchesto support both cluster and HA interconnect traffic.

Because the cluster ports are operational, the nodes can join the cluster. However, the HA interconnect traffic cannot be established due to insufficient switch capability, which explains why the NVRAM log cannot synchronize and the HA partner is unreachable.

Therefore:

The AFF A250requires switches with 25GbE port support

The AFF A250uses the same ports for cluster and HA interconnect

Statements involving 40GbE or separate HA ports are incorrect.

The correct answers areC and D.

Active IQ Digital Advisor provides telemetry analysis, predictive risk detection, and best-practice recommendations based on AutoSupport data. It is specifically designed for proactive monitoring and risk mitigation.

Within ONTAP SAN concepts, logical interfaces (LIFs) are assigned specific roles, and each role has predefined networking and security behaviors. Among all LIF types, thecluster LIFis unique because it has afixed firewall policythat cannot be modified by administrators.

Cluster LIFs are used exclusively forinternal cluster communication, including replication of configuration databases, cluster heartbeat traffic, and distributed data access coordination. Because of their critical role, NetApp enforces a fixed firewall policy to protect cluster integrity and prevent accidental or malicious changes that could disrupt cluster operations.

Data LIFs, cluster management LIFs, and intercluster LIFs all allow configurable firewall policies. Administrators can adjust these policies to permit or restrict protocols such as NFS, SMB, iSCSI, HTTPS, SSH, or SnapMirror traffic depending on deployment requirements.

By contrast, cluster LIF firewall settings are locked to ensure that only cluster-related traffic is permitted. This design ensures predictable behavior and prevents misconfiguration during installation or troubleshooting.

Therefore, the only LIF with a fixed firewall policy is thecluster LIF, makingCthe correct answer.

The exhibit represents aMetroCluster IPconfiguration, which uses Ethernet switches to provide redundant connectivity between sites. In this architecture, the Ethernet switches are responsible for transportingNVRAM replication traffic using iWARP (RDMA over TCP/IP). This enables synchronous replication of write logs between HA partners across sites.

Additionally, the switches supportSyncMirror replication, which maintains mirrored aggregates across sites to provide continuous data availability in the event of a site failure.

SnapMirror Synchronous and cluster management traffic do not use these switches directly in this configuration. Therefore, the correct answers areC and D.

Secure multitenancy in ONTAP requires complete separation of network traffic, routing tables, and IP addressing.IPspacesprovide this level of isolation by creating independent network stacks within a single ONTAP cluster.

Failover groups, VLANs, and broadcast domains organize network paths but do not isolate routing domains. Only IPspaces ensure tenants cannot access each other’s network traffic.

Thus,IPspacesenable secure multitenancy.

The question asks formanualmethods a customer can use to open anew technical support casewith NetApp Global Support. In NetApp operational/support concepts, there are multiple engagement paths, but only some are “manual case creation” mechanisms.

A web-basedsupport siteworkflow is a standard manual case-creation path for customers. In NetApp support processes (including guidance in NetApp-managed support tooling for storage services), web ticketing/case creation is explicitly described as a supported way to open a case.

A second supported manual method is bytelephone(“Call Us” / phone support), which is also described as a direct support option alongside web case creation. This matches optionD.

A third manual method commonly provided for customers is amobile applicationthat supports support engagement (including case workflows). In contrast,AutoSupportis primarily an automated telemetry/notification mechanism; while AutoSupport can triggerautomatedcase creation under certain conditions, it is not a customer-driven “manual open a new case” method. ONTAP documentation even discusses suppressing or resuming AutoSupport case generation, reinforcing that AutoSupport case behavior is automated and policy-driven rather than a manual “open a case” action. Thus optionEdoes not meet the “manually open” requirement.

OptionB (NetApp Field Portal)is generally a field/partner/internal operational portal used by NetApp personnel and partners rather than a standard customer manual case creation channel. From an installation knowledge-transfer perspective, the customer-facing paths that satisfy the requirement are the support website and phone, and the mobile app where available for case workflows.

Therefore, the three correct choices areA, C, and D.

Preinstallation planning requires collecting network and management information necessary for initial configuration. For a switchless cluster, cluster switch information is not applicable.

Required data includesmanagement IP addressesfor cluster and node management access,gateway IP addressesfor external connectivity, andBMC IP addressesfor out-of-band hardware management.

Cluster names are typically assigned during setup but are not strictly required as preinstallation inputs from the customer.

Therefore, the correct answers areA, C, and D.

After completing the initial configuration of a multi-node ONTAP cluster and its cluster interconnect switches, NetApp installation best practices require enabling proactive monitoring of the cluster network. TheCluster Switch Health Monitor (CSHM)is the ONTAP feature designed specifically for this purpose.

CSHM continuously monitors the health of supported cluster switches by collecting information such as switch configuration, port status, firmware versions, cabling, and error conditions. It validates this information against NetApp-supported configurations and best practices. When deviations or risks are detected, CSHM generates alerts and EMS messages that allow administrators to take corrective action before cluster communication is affected.

Cluster switch logging alone does not provide health analysis or proactive validation; it only records switch events. IPv6 is not required or recommended for cluster interconnect networks in standard ONTAP installations. Data Center Bridging (DCB) is used for specific Ethernet storage protocols and is not applicable to ONTAP cluster interconnect networks.

Therefore, enabling thecluster switch health monitoris the correct and required post-installation step.

Encryption at rest for ONTAP root volumes is provided bysoftware-based encryption.NetApp Volume Encryption (NVE)encrypts individual volumes, including root volumes.NetApp Aggregate Encryption (NAE)encrypts entire aggregates, also protecting root volumes.

IPsec provides encryption in transit, not at rest.NetApp Storage Encryption (NSE)encrypts at the drive level but does not encrypt root volumes.

Therefore, the correct answers areA and C.

SAN LIFs (iSCSI, FC, NVMe) donot use LIF migration. Instead, host multipathing handles path redundancy. Therefore, iSCSI LIFs do not migrate during storage failover.

Service Event Reports require standardized installation and configuration data.NetAppDocsgenerates structured output reports specifically designed for SER creation, including hardware, cabling, and configuration details. Other tools do not produce SER-formatted documentation.