Pass the Netapp NCSIE ONTAP NS0-185 Questions and answers with CertsForce

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.

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.

During cluster setup, nodes usecluster interconnect LIFs, which are automatically assignedlink-local IP addresses in the 169.254.x.x range. Management IP addresses (192.168.x.x) are not used for node join operations.

The address169.254.212.198corresponds to node02’s cluster LIF and would therefore be used to join the cluster.

The customer’s environment uses aCisco MDSSAN fabric, so a Cisco-focused management/visibility tool is the most direct way to gain insight into the fabric’s configuration, health, zoning state, and operational status.Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM)is a Cisco tool designed for managing Cisco SAN (including MDS) and therefore is the correct selection for Cisco fabric configuration insight.

From a NetApp installation and assessment perspective, the second tool that provides valuable insight—especially in the context of deploying NetApp storage into an existing fabric—isActive IQ Config Advisor. Config Advisor is used to validate installation-related configuration and cabling and to detect configuration issues across the environment, including SAN connectivity/cabling checks from the NetApp side. While it is not a Cisco fabric manager, it is the NetApp tool used during installation and verification phases to identify configuration and connection problems that affect successful deployment into a SAN environment (for example, incorrect connectivity patterns or misconfigurations that would impact host/storage access).

Option A (Brocade SAN Health) is purpose-built for Brocade environments and does not match “Cisco MDS fabric configuration.” Option C (Active IQ) focuses on NetApp system health, telemetry, and risks for NetApp arrays rather than providing direct insight into a Cisco MDS fabric configuration.

Therefore, the two tools that best satisfy “insight into their existing Cisco MDS fabric configuration” in the context of deploying NetApp SAN storage areB. Cisco DCNM(Cisco-side fabric visibility) andD. Active IQ Config Advisor(NetApp-side installation validation and connectivity/configuration checks relevant to the fabric integration).

This scenario is about iSCSI SAN path visibility after cluster expansion. ONTAP usesSelective LUN Map (SLM)concepts so that hosts do not automatically see every LUN through every node, which would create unnecessary paths. ONTAP documentation explains that with SLM, when a LUN map is created, the LUN is accessible through paths on the node that owns the LUN and its HA partner, and this behavior is controlled through thereporting-nodeslist.

If you wantadditional paths(including non-optimized paths) from newly added nodes, you must ensure the new nodes can be included in the reporting scope for those LUN mappings. ONTAP provides an explicit mechanism for this: the lun mapping add-reporting-nodes command is used before or after data mobility events to add nodes to the reporting-nodes list for a LUN mapping. This directly matches optionC (reporting nodes).

However, even if reporting-nodes is expanded, hosts only gain usable iSCSI access if the target LIFs are reachable/allowed. ONTAP documentation describes thatportsetscan be used with SLM to further restrict access, and when using SLM with portsets, LUNs are accessible on the set of LIFs included in the portset (on the owning node and its HA partner). Therefore, to “allow non-optimized paths from the AFF A250 nodes,” you must verify whether portsets are being used and that the appropriate new iSCSI LIFs are included (or that no restrictive portset blocks them). That makes optionA (port sets)the second correct configuration item.

Option B (switch zoning) applies to FC fabrics, not iSCSI. Option D (failover groups) affects NAS/management LIF failover behavior and does not control SAN LUN reporting visibility in the way SLM/reporting-nodes and portsets do.

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.