E20-526 XtremIO Solutions and Design Specialist Exam for Technology Architects Questions and Answers

It is related to TRIM/UNMAP, which is enabled per default in Server 2012(R2).

References:https://serverfault.com/questions/679211/quick-format-of-lun-in-server-2012r2-hosted-on-a-thin-provisioned-san-vol-take

An example of a generic wrapper function that queries XtremIO REST API using HTTP/POST to create a new object with specified properties.

References: https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14980-wp-accelerate-sql-lifecycle-management.pdf

The workflow for refreshing XtremIO Snapshots, containing Oracle Database files, consists of the following five simple steps:

1. Shut down the database instances with files in the target Snapshot Set.

2. Dismount the ASM disk group (or file systems) involved.

3. Refresh the Snapshot via XtremIO GUI (or CLI or RESTful API).

4. Mount the ASM disk groups (or file system) involved.

5. Start the database instances.

This entire workflow is measured in seconds (not minutes).

XtremIO Data Protection (XDP) doesn’t require any configuration, nor does it need hot spare drives. Insteadit uses "hot spaces" – free space in the array.

References:https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-paper/h13036-wp-xtremio-data-protection.pdf , page 23

DIFF protocol - A vendor specific SCSI command which RecoverPoint uses to query XtremIO with in order to obtain a bitmap of changes between two snapshot sets.

RecoverPoint uses the output of DIFF command to read the actual data and transfer it to the target side.

References: EMC RECOVERPOINT REPLICATION OF XTREMIO, Understanding the essentials of RecoverPoint Snap-based replication for XtremIO, page 9

https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14296-wp-recoverpoint-replication-of-xtremio.pdf

In an environment where a host with two HBAs (VMware Best Practice) is connected to two fabrics and storage array with two Storage Controllers (EMC VNX, for example) the host will have four paths to a LUN: 2 Controllers x 2 HBAs = 4 paths

If you go to the extreme and configure your XtremIO with eight X-Brick, you have 16 controllers. Again, two HBAs per host and the max number of LUNs you can attach to an ESXi host will be 32… I understand, different OS’es may have different limits than VMware and this logic will not be applicable.

If you have hit the limit of 1024 paths per host (1024 / 4 controllers / 2 HBAs = 128 LUNs) and need to provision more LUNs, the best way will be to re-zone the host to limit the number of X-Bricks / Controllers the host HBA can connect to.

The following diagram displays the logical connection topology for 4 paths.