HP HPE2-K45 Using HPE SimpliVity Exam Practice Test

HPE SimpliVity 380 Ge10G is a hyperconverged solution that combines compute, storage, and networking in a 2U form factor. It supports up to two NVIDIA GPU accelerators per node, which can enhance the performance and user experience of VDI applications. It also offers high availability, data efficiency, and built-in data protection and disaster recovery. It supports VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors, and integrates with HPE InfoSight for AI-driven operations and insights. References: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10; Technical Positioning of HPE SimpliVity for VDI solutions

 According to the HPE SimpliVity Solution Design Guide1, Lanamark is a cloud-based service that collects and analyzes data from customer environments to support the solution design process. Lanamark can collect data from various sources, such as vCenter Server, Hyper-V, XenServer, physical servers, and storage arrays. However, if the customer environment is not connected to the internet, Lanamark Snap can be used to collect the data offline and then upload it manually to the Lanamark portal. Lanamark Snap is a portable tool that can be downloaded from the Lanamark portal and run on any Windows workstation that has access to the customer environment. Lanamark Snap can connect to the vCenter Server and collect the performance data from the ESXi hosts and virtual machines. Lanamark Snap can also collect data from other sources, such as physical servers and storage arrays, by using agents or scripts. Lanamark Snap saves the collected data in a compressed file that can be uploaded to the Lanamark portal for analysis and reporting.

Therefore, the correct answer is D. Download Lanamark Snap and use it to collect the data, and then upload manually to the Lanamark portal, as this is the best option to collect data from an ESXi infrastructure that is not connected to the internet. References:

• 1: HPE SimpliVity Solution Design Guide, https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00019351enw, page 15-16

You can apply a backup policy at the datastore level, as this is the level at which HPE SimpliVity manages the virtual machines and their backups1. A backup policy consists of one or more rules that specify the destination, frequency, and retention of the backups. You can assign a backup policy to a datastore, and all the virtual machines in that datastore will inherit the backup policy. You can also override the backup policy for individual virtual machines, if needed2. Applying a backup policy at the cluster level (option A), the datacenter level (option B), or the vCenter Server level (option C) is not possible, as these are not the levels at which HPE SimpliVity manages the virtual machines and their backups. These levels are used for organizing and managing the ESXi hosts and the HPE SimpliVity nodes, but not for applying backup policies. References:

• 1: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 28.
• 2: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, p. 8.

• HPE SimpliVity is a hyperconverged infrastructure solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and data services in a single platform. HPE SimpliVity integrates with HPE StoreOnce, a disk-based backup appliance, to provide efficient and reliable data protection and disaster recovery for distributed edge sites12.
• HPE SimpliVity uses HPE StoreOnce Catalyst, a deduplication protocol, to replicate data from HPE SimpliVity clusters to HPE StoreOnce appliances. HPE SimpliVity leverages its global deduplication and compression capabilities to send only the unique data blocks to HPE StoreOnce, reducing the bandwidth and storage requirements34.
• To optimize the replication performance, the design aspects that need to be evaluated are the number of the HPE SimpliVity clusters and Catalyst stores used. According to the HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture document, the following best practices are recommended:
• The other options are not relevant for optimizing the replication performance. The performance optimization features provided by VMFS datastores compared to NFS datastores are not applicable for HPE SimpliVity, as it uses its own file system and data virtualization platform. The intelligent workload optimizer settings are not related to the replication performance, but to the VM placement and load balancing within the HPE SimpliVity cluster. The HPE SimpliVity model used does not affect the replication performance, as long as it meets the minimum requirements for the HPE StoreOnce integration.

References:

1: SimpliVity Hyperconverged | HPE 2: Expand backups to secondary storage with HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure and HPE StoreOnce 3: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce 4: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce: A better together story : [HPE SimpliVitywith HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture] : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer]

According to the HPE SimpliVity Administration Guide1, one of the possible solutions to avoid the potential problem of CPU intensive applications impacting the performance of other virtual machines is to deploy the CPU intensive virtual machines on HPE SimpliVity, and configure for them CPU affinity parameter. This parameter allows you to specify which physical CPU cores are used by a virtual machine, and thus isolate the CPU intensive workloads from the rest of the virtual machines. This way, you can still leverage the HPE SimpliVity features, such as data efficiency, backup and restore, and federation management, for these virtual machines. The other options are not correct because:

• Presenting HPE SimpliVity datastores to external ESXi system that will house the CPU intensive virtual machines is not a recommended solution, as it will reduce the data efficiency and availability benefits of HPE SimpliVity, and introduce additional complexity and overhead in managing the external ESXi system1.
• Adding an external ESXi cluster to HPE SimpliVity Federation, and enabling Intelligent Workload Optimizer is not a recommended solution, as it will require additional hardware and software costs, and may not guarantee the optimal performance of the CPU intensive virtual machines, as the Intelligent Workload Optimizer is based on heuristics and not on strict rules2.
• Adding an external ESXi system to HPE SimpliVity cluster, and enabling DRS functionality for CPU intensive virtual machines is not a recommended solution, as it will violate the HPE SimpliVity cluster requirements, and may cause issues with the HPE SimpliVity federation and data protection features1. References: 1: HPE SimpliVity Administration Guide (A00019350ENW), pages 23, 25, 28, 32, 342: HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer User Guide (A00019354ENW), pages 5, 7, 9.

• HPE SimpliVity is a hyperconverged infrastructure solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and data services in a single platform. HPE SimpliVity integrates with HPE StoreOnce, a disk-based backup appliance, to provide efficient and reliable data protection and disaster recovery for distributed edge sites12.
• HPE SimpliVity uses HPE StoreOnce Catalyst, a deduplication protocol, to replicate data from HPE SimpliVity clusters to HPE StoreOnce appliances. HPE SimpliVity leverages its global deduplication and compression capabilities to send only the unique data blocks to HPE StoreOnce, reducing the bandwidth and storage requirements34.
• To optimize the replication performance, HPE SimpliVity uses a dynamic stream allocation algorithm that determines how many streams it needs to copy data to an HPE StoreOnce target. According to the HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture document, the algorithm considers the following factors:
• The document states that “The available bandwidth is the most important factor in determining the number of streams. The more bandwidth available, the more streams can be used to copy data. However, the number of streams is limited by the latency and the size of the data. If the latency is too high or the data size is too small, adding morestreams will not improve the performance.” Therefore, the available bandwidth is the criteria that HPE SimpliVity uses to decide how many streams it needs to copy data to an HPE StoreOnce target.

References:

1: SimpliVity Hyperconverged | HPE 2: Expand backups to secondary storage with HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure and HPE StoreOnce 3: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce 4: HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce: A better together story : [HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture] : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer] : [HPE SimpliVity Federation Design and Scaling Guide]

 The difference between crash consistent and application consistent cloning methods is that the application consistent method ensures that the cloned virtual machine is in a consistent state with respect to the application and database, while the crash consistent method does not guarantee that1. The application consistent method uses the VMware snapshot or the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to quiesce the application and flush the pending I/O operations to the disk before creating the clone, which prevents data corruption or loss2. The crash consistent method does not quiesce the application or flush the pending I/O operations, and creates the clone as if the virtual machine had crashed, which may result in data inconsistency or recovery issues3. The application consistent method is recommended for virtual machines that run database applications, such as SQL Server or Oracle, while the crash consistent method is suitable for virtual machines that run non-database applications, such as web servers or file servers4. The application consistent method is not available only for Linux operating systems (option D), as it also supports Windows Server operating systems that have VMware Tools or VSS installed5. The crash consistent method should not be used only for the virtual machines with Fault Tolerance enabled (option C), as it can be used for any virtual machine that does not require application consistency. Both methods are not the same,and the speed of cloning is not the only difference (option B), as they have different implications for the data integrity and availability of the cloned virtual machine. References:

• 1: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 28.
• 2: Clone a virtual machine - techhub.hpe.com, HPE, 2021, 3.
• 3: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, p. 8.
• 4: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 29.
• 5: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, p. 9.
• [6]: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 28.
• [7]: Clone a virtual machine - techhub.hpe.com, HPE, 2021, 3.

According to the HPE SimpliVity documents and learning resources, each datastore in an HPE SimpliVity cluster is presented to the HPE SimpliVity nodes as a VMFS datastore. A VMFS datastore is a VMware-specific file system that allows multiple ESXi hosts to access the same storage device concurrently. HPE SimpliVity uses VMFS datastores to store virtual machine files and provide shared storage to all virtual machines on the hosts. HPE SimpliVity does not use vSAN, NFS, or vVol as the datastore type. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 41; SimpliVity Video - How to Create a HPE SimpliVity Datastore

 According to the HPE SimpliVity REST API Reference Guide1, the svtcli account is a local emergency account that can be used to access HPE SimpliVity data using REST API whenthe hypervisor-based user is unavailable. This account can only perform a limited set of operations, such as getting information about hosts, clusters, backups, datastores, and virtual machines, and restoring backups of virtual machines. The svtcli account can request an authentication token using the emergency grant type, which is valid for 10 minutes of inactivity or 24 hours of continuous activity. The other options are not correct because:

• The svtcli account is not used when two or more VCs are not available. In that case, the federation management is transferred to the remaining VCs2.
• The svtcli account is not used when the hypervisor-based user is unavailable. In that case, the emergency grant type is used to access the REST API using the svtcli account1.
• The svtcli account is not used for daily management tasks performed using CLI. For that purpose, the hypervisor-based user is used, which has full access to the CLI commands3. References: 1: HPE SimpliVity REST API Reference Guide (A00019351ENW), pages 9-10, 14-152: HPE SimpliVity Administration Guide (A00019350ENW), page 303: HPE SimpliVity CLI Reference Guide (A00019352ENW), page 9.

According to the HPE SimpliVity documents and learning resources, mixing nodes with different drive configurations within a cluster is not recommended, as it can result in unbalanced 10 performance and capacity utilization. This is because the HPE SimpliVity nodes use a distributed file system that replicates data across all nodes in the cluster, and the data efficiency and backup features depend on the consistent performance of the underlying storage devices. Therefore, it is best to use nodes with the same drive configuration and capacity within a cluster, and avoid mixing All-flash and hybrid nodes, or nodes with different drive types, sizes, or speeds. The other options are incorrect because they are either false or irrelevant. Mixing nodes with different drive configuration does not require an additional license, nor is it available only for AMD-based nodes. Mixing All-flash and hybrid nodes in the same cluster is not supported, as it can causeperformance and capacity issues. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 42; HPE SimpliVity networking explained; HPE SimpliVity Releases

• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR is a disaster recovery orchestration tool that automates and simplifies the recovery process of VMs protected by HPE SimpliVity backups. It can be used in the event of disaster to efficiently restore VMs across the primary and secondary sites, which consist of multiple HPE SimpliVity nodes12.
• HPE SimpliVity RapidDR requires VMware vCenter Server, a centralized management platform for VMware vSphere environments, to perform the recovery operations. VMware vCenter Server is licensed per instance, which means that each vCenter Server installation requires a separate license3 .
• To reduce the vCenter Server license cost, a customer can use only a single vCenter Server instance to manage the HPE SimpliVity federation, which is a group of HPE SimpliVity clusters that share the same configuration and policies. This deployment scenario is possible when the federation is managed centrally, which means that all the HPE SimpliVity nodes are registered to the same vCenter Server instance, regardless of their physical location .
• The other options are not valid for reducing the vCenter Server license cost. The number of VMs covered by a single recovery plan does not affect the vCenter Server license requirement, as long as the VMs are managed by the same vCenter Server instance. Enabling Enhanced Linked Mode for vCenter allows multiple vCenter Server instances to share information and provide a single pane of glass view, but it does not eliminate the need for separate licenses for each vCenter Server instance. Disabling Intelligent Workload Optimizer, a feature that balances the VM workload across the HPE SimpliVity cluster, has no impact on the vCenter Server license requirement.

References:

1: HPE SimpliVity RapidDR 2: HPE SimpliVity RapidDR - Starter License - 25 VMs - CDW 3: VMware vCenter Server - VMware : VMware vCenter Server Licensing, Pricing and Packaging : [HPE SimpliVity Federation Design and Scaling Guide] : [HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce Reference Architecture] : [HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform] : [HPE SimpliVity Intelligent Workload Optimizer] : [HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster Guide] : [HPE SimpliVity Remote RapidDR Software Installation and Startup Service]

 According to the HPE InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity Getting Started document1, HPE InfoSight provides the following functionality for HPE SimpliVity:

• Monitoring of cluster, node, and virtual machine performance, capacity, and health
• Reporting of system configuration, inventory, and compliance
• Analysis of trends, anomalies, and root causes
• Prediction of future resource needs and potential issues
• Recommendation of best practices and optimization actions

One of the key features of HPE InfoSight is the ability to monitor the latency of virtual machines, which is the time it takes for a request to be processed by the system. Latency is an important indicator of the performance and efficiency of the system, and HPE InfoSight provides detailed and granular data on the latency of each virtual machine, as well as the breakdown of the latency components, such as CPU, memory, network, and storage. HPE InfoSight also provides alerts and notifications when the latency exceedsthe predefined thresholds, and helps to identify and resolve the root causes of the latency issues.

Therefore, the correct answer is D. monitoring of virtual machine latency, as this is one of the functionality that HPE InfoSight provides for HPE SimpliVity. References:

• 1: HPE InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity Getting Started, https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/api/document/a00089726en_us?docLocale=en_US