Take Exam NS0-507 - NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer — SAN Specialist

    Hello, Habr! In my very first article on NCDA certification, almost two years ago, I mentioned plans for further NetApp NCIE certification, and, waiting for the moment when the current NCDA certification began to come to an end, I decided to recertify to a higher level, thereby extending the old certification and getting a new one.

    Under the cut, I will share information about how the training went, what I read, what I studied, and maybe it will come in handy for you too.

    Briefly about the exam


    NetApp currently offers three types of NCIE-SAN exams:

    • NS0-502 - NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer — SAN, Data ONTAP 7-Mode
    • NS0-505 - NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer — SAN, E-Series
    • NS0-507 - NetApp Certified Implementation Engineer — SAN, ONTAP

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

    Exam preparation


    As a general guideline for passing this exam, NetApp offers the following :

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

    I would like to note that, if possible, I would highly recommend a Data ONTAP SAN Implementation course, which is quite familiar with SAN networks and the operation of NetApp storage systems in these networks.

    It is also recommended that you familiarize yourself with topics that may be raised in the exam.

    Self preparation


    Even if you do not plan to take the exam, I would really like to recommend you to read two wonderful books that expand your horizons very well 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) - a book not only about storage systems and storage networks, but this topic is touched quite tightly, especially the first half. Available in Russian.

    First of all, for self-preparation, I would recommend taking the free practice tests available on the NetApp portal:

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

    According to the results of the test exams, you can determine your strengths and weaknesses and understand what is better to tighten, and with which there are no problems.

    There is also the opportunity to undergo free Web-Based training , available on the NetApp Learning Center(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 the passing test, thereby checking the acquired knowledge. It is worth mentioning that not all of these courses are on ONTAP 9, but in any case they well explain the basic principles of NetApp in SANs.

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

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

    1. SAN Configuration Guide - Highlights of connecting NetApp storage to SANs;
    2. SAN Administration Guide - Configuring SVM, LIF, LUN mapping, etc .;
    3. System Administration Reference - Management of nodes, licenses, AutoSupport;
    4. Disks and Aggregates Power Guide - Manage disks, aggregates, raid groups;
    5. High-Availability Configuration Guide - Configure and manage fault tolerance of 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 through 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 - Upgrade 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 for version 8.3. It also has a lot of interesting things, and, according to observations, it is "2 times" thicker than the documentation for versions 9.x. The main thing is not to get confused on the exam in the highs 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’s nice to read the basics of SAN configuration on Cisco Nexus, Cisco MDS, and Brocade devices. Documentation links are in the reference guide . I advise you to read the basic information on initializing switches, setting up zoning and Troubleshoot. Reading from cover to cover is optional.

    When reading the documentation, I highly recommend starting a “draft”, in which you should take out interesting points found during 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 remember in general everything that was read earlier, as well as structure knowledge.

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

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

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

    In custody


    That’s all for preparing for the exam. I would like to add that, according to personal feelings, this exam was easier than the NCDA exam, perhaps because of a narrower focus.

    Good luck to those who plan to certify. I hope this article will help you in the preparation.

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