HPE7-J02 Advanced HPE Storage Integrator Solutions Written Exam Questions and Answers

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

The exhibit shows an Alletra MP configuration delivering ~4.6 GB/s (256 KB sequential read) with four 10 Gb host ports. That throughput is close to the aggregate front-end bandwidth ceiling of 4×10 GbE (≈5 GB/s raw, less with protocol overhead). For large-block sequential workloads, the front-end link budget is often the bottleneck; adding additional 10 GbE ports (or moving to higher-speed links) increases available host bandwidth and raises sustained sequential read throughput. This aligns with HPE sizing guidance: scale host connectivity to meet sequential throughput targets before adding media.

Analysis of Incorrect Options (Distractors):

B: Adding a third node isn’t applicable to a 2-node HA block pair and would not address a front-end bandwidth limit.

C: More controller cores don’t raise link-level throughput if host I/O is already constrained by port bandwidth.

D: Adding NVMe media primarily boosts IOPS/parallelism; sequential read is bounded here by front-end ports.

Key Concept: Sequential throughput is front-end bandwidth bound; scale host ports to increase GB/s.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

In Brocade (HPE B-Series) SAN switches, FCIP trunking allows multiple IP circuits to be aggregated. This increases bandwidth and provides resiliency (if one link fails, traffic continues over remaining paths). It is the correct statement regarding HPE’s FCIP feature set.

Distractors:

B: High availability still requires redundant fabrics; FCIP trunking alone doesn’t replace fabric design best practices.

C: FCIP can run over shared IP WANs; no need for dedicated links.

D: Encryption adds overhead; performance impact exists (although minimal with hardware offload).

Key Concept: FCIP trunking = bandwidth + availability for multisite SAN.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

In an HPE Peer Persistence configuration (supported on HPE Alletra MP, Primera, and 3PAR), hosts see volumes presented from arrays at both sites. For optimal load balancing and transparent failover, the local array paths are shown as “Active Optimized” while the remote array paths are marked “Active Non-optimized”. The “Non-optimized” label indicates these paths are functional but involve remote access with higher latency. This design ensures automatic transparent failover if the local site becomes unavailable.

Distractors:

A: “Active Optimized” applies only to local array paths, not remote ones.

B: Passive paths are typical of ALUA implementations without Peer Persistence, not here.

D: “Standby” is not the term used in Peer Persistence multipathing.

Key Concept: MPIO with Peer Persistence (ALUA Active/Active configuration).

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

Option A is correct because Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is designed for large enterprise environments that already have Fibre Channel (FC) infrastructures but want to simplify cabling and reduce hardware by converging LAN and SAN traffic over a single Ethernet fabric. FCoE retains the efficiency, low latency, and reliability of Fibre Channel while leveraging Ethernet to minimize physical infrastructure costs. This aligns with HPE’s best practices for environments using HPE Alletra 9000/Primera or HPE Nimble arrays connected to converged networks where cost reduction and high performance are equally important.

Analysis of Incorrect Options (Distractors):

B: Real-time replication across WANs requires protocols like HPE 3PAR/Alletra Remote Copy, asynchronous/synchronous replication, or HPE Peer Persistence. FCoE is not suited for high-latency WANs because it is a LAN protocol designed for short distances within a data center.

C: For inter-data center SAN unification, FCIP (Fibre Channel over IP) or iSCSI are more suitable. FCoE does not handle long-distance high-latency links effectively.

D: A startup building AI applications with cloud workloads typically benefits from object storage (HPE Scality RING, HPE GreenLake for File and Object) or direct cloud-native APIs (S3/Blob). FCoE is irrelevant in this use case since it is on-prem and infrastructure-focused.

Key Concept:

The question is testing knowledge of FCoE and its appropriate deployment scenarios — specifically, its role in consolidating storage and network traffic inside enterprise data centers while preserving Fibre Channel protocol advantages.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

With Alletra and Primera Peer Persistence, the Quorum Witness is no longer a self-hosted VM. It is delivered as a cloud-based SaaS service managed by HPE. This eliminates customer responsibility for patching and ensures HPE automatically applies updates and security fixes. This resolves the audit concern.

Distractors:

A: Applies to older 3PAR environments, not Alletra/Primera.

C/D: Quorum Witness is no longer an appliance — it is SaaS managed, so these don’t apply.

Key Concept: Alletra Quorum Witness is SaaS-managed, removing patching responsibility.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

HPE Morpheus can run as a single VM in non-critical environments, but for high availability (HA) without distributed databases, the recommendation is to deploy 3 VMs in a cluster. This ensures quorum and redundancy across application nodes, protecting against single VM failure. Distributed database mode requires more VMs, but is not needed in this scenario.

Distractors:

A: 4 VMs are required only if distributed DB is enabled (PostgreSQL cluster), not here.

B/D: A single VM (with or without VMware HA) doesn’t provide native Morpheus HA resilience.

Key Concept: Morpheus HA = 3-node cluster minimum without distributed DB.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

A Capital Lease (also known as a finance lease) spreads costs over time like OpEx, while giving the customer the ability to own the equipment at the end of the lease term. This matches the desire for predictable payments, eventual ownership, and full control.

Distractors:

A (Consumption model): GreenLake provides OpEx flexibility but does not lead to ownership.

B (Operating lease): Pure rental; equipment must be returned, no ownership.

C (Capital purchase): Requires large upfront payment, which the customer wants to avoid.

Key Concept: Capital Lease = predictable payments + ownership path.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

The exhibit shows a system delivering ~2.3 GB/s sequential read. For large-block sequential workloads, aggregate host link bandwidth (number × speed of front-end ports) is the primary limiter. Increasing the count of 10/25 Gb iSCSI NICs adds parallel lanes, raising sustained read GB/s to the hosts. This is a recommended first step in HPE sizing before changing protocols.

Analysis of Incorrect Options (Distractors):

A: Adding an expansion shelf increases capacity, not front-end bandwidth.

C: Moving to 32 Gb FC can help, but simply adding more existing 10/25 Gb ports achieves the same goal without a protocol/adapter change and is the straightforward, supported scale-out path.

D: SCM (Storage Class Memory) targets latency/IOPS; it doesn’t materially lift sequential GB/s if the link budget is the bottleneck.

Key Concept: Scale front-end connectivity to increase sequential throughput; capacity or media class changes won’t fix a link-limited system.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

In the Zerto Vault architecture, production workloads replicate continuously to a Replication Target (secondary site). From there, data is further replicated periodically and encrypted into the Vault (air-gapped, isolated site). This two-step process ensures ransomware resilience and immutability, as the Vault acts as a hardened third copy.

Distractors:

A: Production-to-replication target traffic is continuous synchronous/asynchronous replication, not periodic. Periodic replication applies to Replication Target → Vault.

C: The Resilience Automation Server (RAS) is responsible for orchestrating failover and immutability enforcement, but it does not control port access between production and replication target.

D: Snapshots of Zerto components are not what is replicated — it’s application data VMs/volumes. The Vault ensures immutability of replicated data, not ZVM components.

Key Concept: Zerto Vault = encrypted, periodic replication from replication target to immutable vault.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

The SAF (Storage Assessment Framework) requires engineers to manually email the collected assessment data to HPE for processing. This is different from fully automated tools like CloudPhysics or Backup assessments that integrate directly with portals. This distinction is important for new engineers performing customer assessments.

Distractors:

A: Backup assessments are usually tool-driven (StoreOnce, RMC, etc.) and automated.

C: Non-HPE assessments are outside scope and not part of HPE standard process.

D: CloudPhysics is fully automated and cloud-based — no manual email required.

Key Concept: SAF = requires manual email submission to HPE.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

Option B (All) is correct because in an Active Peer Persistence deployment where both arrays and hosts are in close proximity (metro or campus cluster scenario), the hosts should be configured with Host Proximity = All. This ensures that the host (ESX31) can access both arrays symmetrically and concurrently, enabling active-active paths. This is essential to deliver seamless failover and load balancing across the arrays in an HPE Alletra MP Peer Persistence environment.

Analysis of Incorrect Options (Distractors):

A (Secondary): This is used for hosts located closer to the secondary array, to bias access toward it in asymmetric deployments. Not applicable here since the hosts are near both arrays.

C (Exclusive): This option assigns the host to a single array exclusively, preventing dual-active access. This would defeat the purpose of symmetric Peer Persistence.

D (Primary): Similar to Secondary, this biases access to only the primary array, which is not correct when arrays and hosts are in the same site for active-active.

Key Concept:

This question focuses on Host Proximity parameters in HPE Peer Persistence.

Primary/Secondary = asymmetric designs (hosts closer to one array).

All = symmetric design (hosts equidistant to both arrays, enabling active-active).

Exclusive = restricts access to one array only.