NS0-165 Sample Questions & Answers
SAN and NAS connectivity carries the most weight, alongside network components, logical storage features, SVM administration paired with ONTAP system management, storage platforms, physical or software-defined, data protection, security hardening, and performance.
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Real questions from the NetApp Certified Data Administrator, ONTAP (NS0-165) practice test — answers and explanations included. Showing 6 of 12 free samples.
- Question 1Intermediate
Storage Platforms · Physical storage systems
A systems engineer is converting an existing two-node switchless AFF A250 cluster into a four-node switched cluster by adding two AFF A400 nodes. Which configuration change must be performed on the cluster ports of the existing nodes before connecting them to the new cluster network switches?
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Correct answer: C
When transitioning a two-node switchless cluster to a switched cluster to support scaling beyond two nodes, the cluster network configuration must be updated. The administrator must set the switchless-cluster option to 'false' (using 'network options switchless-cluster modify -enabled false') and configure the cluster switches in ONTAP so the cluster management software properly detects the switched topology and enables switch health monitoring.
- Question 2Beginner
Storage Platforms · Software-defined on-premises or cloud storage systems
True or False: Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP supports direct administrative access through the native ONTAP command-line interface (CLI) and ONTAP REST APIs for managing SVMs, volumes, and data protection features.
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Correct answer: B
Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP provides full ONTAP feature parity, allowing storage administrators to manage the file systems using native ONTAP tools including the ONTAP CLI (via SSH to the administrative endpoint), ONTAP REST APIs, NetApp Cloud Manager / BlueXP, and System Manager.
- Question 3Intermediate
Core ONTAP · High availability concepts
In an ONTAP cluster with four nodes (Node-01, Node-02, Node-03, Node-04), an administrator is analyzing quorum mechanics and cluster ring databases. What occurs if Node-01, which currently holds epsilon, suffers an unexpected hardware failure while all other nodes and network links remain healthy?
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Correct answer: A
In an even-node cluster (4 nodes), one node is assigned epsilon to serve as a tiebreaker, giving it an additional vote weighting (effectively 5 total voting units across the cluster). To maintain quorum, more than 50% of the votes are required. The surviving three nodes hold 3 votes out of 5 (>50%), meaning quorum is maintained, management ring applications remain healthy, and Node-02 can execute storage failover takeover of Node-01.
- Question 4Advanced
Core ONTAP · ONTAP system management
A security auditor requires that a newly formed DevOps team be granted administrative access to create and manage volumes on a specific storage virtual machine (SVM-AppDev) without allowing them to modify cluster-level configurations, network interfaces, or other SVMs. Which ONTAP role-based access control (RBAC) approach fulfills this requirement using the principle of least privilege?
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Correct answer: A
ONTAP provides multi-tenancy and delegated administration through SVM-scoped user accounts. Creating the administrator accounts under the context of the data SVM (SVM-AppDev) using the predefined 'vsadmin-volume' role or a customized SVM role strictly restricts their administrative visibility and command scope to SVM-AppDev objects only. They cannot see or modify cluster-wide configurations, physical networking, or other tenant SVMs.
- Question 5Intermediate
Core ONTAP · High availability concepts
During planned maintenance on Node-A of an HA pair, an administrator runs the command 'storage failover takeover -ofnode Node-A'. Which sequence of operations accurately describes how ONTAP executes this negotiated takeover without disrupting client data access?
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Correct answer: B
In a planned/negotiated takeover, the partner node (Node-B) coordinates with Node-A. Node-A flushes all dirty data from its NVRAM cache to persistent disks (Consistency Point / CP), migrates eligible NAS and management LIFs to available failover targets, quiesces operations, and halts cleanly. Node-B then seamlessly mounts Node-A's aggregates and assumes storage servicing, minimizing failover time and eliminating uncommitted log replay.
- Question 6Beginner
Core ONTAP · Storage Virtual Machine management
When provisioning a new data Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) in ONTAP, what is the role and characteristic of the SVM's root volume?
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Correct answer: A
The SVM root volume is created automatically when the SVM is provisioned. It serves as the top-level root ('/') of the SVM's file system namespace. All subsequent NAS volumes containing user data are mounted into this namespace via junction paths. Best practice dictates that the SVM root volume should contain no user data files and remain small, protected by Snapshot copies or SnapMirror.
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