HPE2-K45 Using HPE SimpliVity Questions and Answers

According to the HPE SimpliVity documents and learning resources, the best practice for designing an HPE SimpliVity solution is 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. This is because mixing nodes with different drive configurations can result in unbalanced 10 performance and capacity utilization, as well as compatibility issues.Therefore, the recommended option for this design is to create a new cluster with HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 H SFF nodes at the remote site, and keep the existing cluster with HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 hardware accelerated nodes at the primary site. The other options are incorrect because they do not follow the best practice and can cause performance and capacity problems. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 42; HPE SimpliVity networking explained; HPE SimpliVity Releases

The best way to migrate virtual machines from the existing infrastructure to HPE SimpliVity is to share HPE SimpliVity datastores with standard ESXi hosts, and migrate the virtual machines using VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion®1. This method allows the virtual machines to be moved to the HPE SimpliVity datastores without any downtime or impact on the performance. The HPE SimpliVity datastores are automatically created and managed by the HPE SimpliVity Virtual Controller, and they can be shared with any ESXi host that is in the same vCenter Server® as the HPE SimpliVity cluster2. Connecting VMFS datastores holding the virtual machine files to HPE SimpliVity nodes, and migrating the virtual machines (option A) is not a supported method, as the HPE SimpliVity nodes do not have direct access to the VMFS datastores, and they can only use the HPE SimpliVity datastores3. Mapping VMFS datastores holding the virtual machine files as an RDM to HPE SimpliVity nodes, and migrating the virtual machines (option C) is not a supported method, as the HPE SimpliVity nodes do not support RDM devices, and they can only use the HPE SimpliVity datastores4. Adding ESXi system to the HPE SimpliVity cluster, and migrating the virtual machines to HPE SimpliVity datastores (option D) is not a recommended method, as it requires the ESXi system to be converted to an HPE SimpliVity node, which involves installing the HPE OmniStack software and the HPE SimpliVity Virtual Controller, and reconfiguring the network settings. This method may cause downtime and data loss, and it is only advised for specific scenarios, such as replacing a failed node or expanding the cluster. References:

• 1: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide (HPE2-K45), HPE Press, 2019, p. 29.
• 2: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, p. 8.
• 3: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 Node Data sheet, HPE, 2019, p. 5.
• 4: HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.2.0, HPE, 2021, p. 9.
• [5]: HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 Node Installation and Startup Service, HPE, 2019, p. 3.

 HPE Storence Management Console is a web-based management interface for HPE StoreOnce Systems, which are backup appliances that provide deduplication and replication capabilities. One of the features that can be configured using HPE Storence Management Console is the Catalyst store, which is a logical container for backup data that supports Catalyst protocol. Catalyst protocol is a proprietary protocol that enables source-side deduplication, low-bandwidth replication, and direct backup from application servers. Backup policy, storage policy, and deduplication ratio are not specific to HPE Storence Management Console, and can be configured using other tools or interfaces. References: HPE StoreOnce system software, section “Software Details”. The StoreOnce System Management Console, section “The StoreOnce System GUI and CLI together make up the Management Console”. HPE StoreOnce Catalyst User Guide, section “Introduction to HPE StoreOnce Catalyst”.

According to the HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster Technical Overview1, one of the configuration requirements for implementing a stretched cluster is that the storage network in each physical location must use the same subnet. This ensures that the HPE OmniStack System can communicate with each other across the sites and maintain data synchronization and availability. The other options are not correct because:

• The arbiter must be located in a third site that is independent from the two stretched cluster sites1.
• The round trip latency must be below 5ms, not 50ms, to avoid performance degradation and data inconsistency1.
• A direct-connected network configuration is not required, as long as the network supports jumbo frames and VLAN tagging1. References: 1: HPE SimpliVity Stretched Cluster Technical Overview (51462)

HPE SimpliVity 2600 is a compact solution optimized for edge and remote office, branch office (ROBO) environments. It is available on HPE Apollo 2000 servers, which are designed for high-density computing and can fit up to four nodes in a 2U chassis. HPE SimpliVity 2600 provides enterprise-grade data protection and resiliency for virtualized workloads, as well as simplified management and scalability. It is ideal for customers who have very limited rack space and need a hyperconverged solution that can deliver high performance and efficiency. References: HPE SimpliVity 2600 - Product Information Reference, HPE SimpliVity 2600 | HPE Store US, Introducing Our New High-Density Hyperconverged Solution: HPE SimpliVity 2600

Hyper Protected is one of the four pillars of HPE SimpliVity’s value proposition, along with Hyper Simple, Hyper Efficient, and Hyper Manageable. Hyper Protected refers to the ability of HPE SimpliVity to provide built-in data protection and disaster recovery for virtual machines (VMs) with unprecedented speed and efficiency. HPE SimpliVity can backup or restore 1TB VM in less than 1 minute, thanks to its unique data architecture that deduplicates, compresses, and optimizes data at inception, and its global federated management that enables policy-based automation across multiple sites. Restoring individual files from a VM backup, defining a storage policy using RAID 6 or RAID 60 to protect the VM, and integrating with Veeam to provide an external backup solution are not specific to HPE SimpliVity’s Hyper Protected capability, and can be done by other solutions as well. References: Using HPE SimpliVity Official Certification Study Guide, page 11, section 1.2. SimpliVity Hyperconverged, section “Hyper Protected”. HPE SimpliVity 380 Gen10 Node, section “Features”. SimpliVity HyperGuarantee, section “Remain online and recoverable — always”.

 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.

 HPE SimpliVity allows customers to connect ESXi compute nodes to HPE SimpliVity datastores without additional license or configuration. This enables customers to leverage the data efficiency and protection features of HPE SimpliVity for their compute-intensive workloads. However, the compute nodes must reside in the same cluster as HPE SimpliVity nodes, and they must be authorized by HPE SimpliVity to access the NFS datastores. The number of compute nodes per cluster is limited by the maximum number of hosts supported by VMware vSphere. References: HPE SimpliVity User Guide; HPE SimpliVity Compute Node Software Installation and Startup Service

• Register External Store …1

This option allows you to register an HPE StoreOnce Catalyst Store as an external backup target for HPE SimpliVity. This enables you to store VM backups on an HPEStoreOnce system, which is a disk-based backup solution that offers deduplication, compression, encryption, remote replication, and direct application-managed integration2.

To use this option, you need to have an HPE StoreOnce appliance connected to your HPE SimpliVity cluster, and configure a Catalyst Store on it. Then, you can select the All HPE SimpliVity Actions menu, and click Register External Store. You will be prompted to enter the following information:

• The name of the external store
• The IP address or hostname of the HPE StoreOnce appliance
• The name of the Catalyst Store
• The credentials of the Catalyst Store

After you enter the required information, click OK to register the external store1.