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

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

HPE CloudPhysics begins collecting performance and capacity data immediately after deployment of the Observer VM/collector. Some initial assessment results (e.g., environment inventory, early utilization stats) can be visible within 2 hours, while deeper trending insights require longer data collection (days/weeks).

Distractors:

B: Tokens are not required for customers to view results; reports are available via the portal.

C: Customers get a full dashboard view of results, not partial.

D: Assessments can run for longer periods (days–weeks), not fixed at 5 days.

Key Concept: CloudPhysics delivers initial insights within hours.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

Zerto, now part of HPE, provides continuous data protection (CDP) with near-zero RPOs and very low RTOs. It supports VMware workloads, as well as hybrid cloud deployments with AWS and Azure. Zerto is specifically designed for disaster recovery orchestration, enabling automated failover, failback, and application-consistent protection across sites and cloud environments.

Distractors:

B (CommVault): Primarily a backup/recovery and data management platform — RPOs are not near-zero.

C (Cohesity): Strong in backup, secondary storage, and ransomware recovery, but not near-zero RPO DR orchestration.

D (SimpliVity): Hyperconverged infrastructure with built-in backup, but not optimized for large-scale multi-cloud DR.

Key Concept: Continuous Data Protection (Zerto) for hybrid/multi-cloud disaster recovery.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

From the exhibit, the system shows maximum estimated IOPS performance (over 250K IOPS read, 115K IOPS mixed, 62K write). These values align with HPE’s published performance specifications for this model with full cores enabled. The network interface count and disk count are balanced relative to controller capability. Therefore, no further upgrades are required to achieve maximum performance.

Distractors:

A: Adding NICs/HBAs may improve throughput but will not exceed controller-bound IOPS.

B: Adding disks increases capacity, not peak IOPS, as performance is primarily controller-driven.

D: The system already matches controller capability; upgrading cores is not an option in Alletra MP B10000 mid-range systems.

Key Concept: Understanding performance sizing based on controller and architecture limits, not just capacity or NICs.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

In Alletra 6000 Peer Persistence environments, operations like resizing Peer Persistence volumes must be performed via the HPE Data Services Cloud Console (DSCC), which manages volume collections and replication consistency groups. Attempting to grow the upstream volume locally will fail because the changes need to propagate across both sites consistently.

Distractors:

A/B: Removing upstream or downstream volumes would break replication and is not required.

D: Expanding in VMware only extends the VMFS datastore, not the underlying replicated volume.

Key Concept: Peer Persistence volume resizing is done in DSCC, not local web GUI.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

HPE is one of the leading infrastructure providers for SAP HANA, with ~40% of global SAP HANA deployments running on HPE platforms (ProLiant, Alletra, Nimble/Primera for storage). This is an official HPE statistic repeatedly cited in white papers and customer references.

Distractors:

A: SAP HANA licensing is provided directly by SAP, not custom-issued by HPE.

B: Licensing costs are tied to SAP metrics (memory size), not Alletra storage type.

C: “77% prefer” is a marketing exaggeration and not the accurate documented figure.

Key Concept: HPE’s strong positioning in SAP HANA infrastructure market share.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

HPE GreenLake for File Storage (powered by VAST Data) delivers scale-out NAS capabilities with native data protection, snapshots, and disaster recovery integration. It is designed for enterprises that need both scalability and integrated protection in a single consumption or CapEx model.

Distractors:

A (Qumulo): Excellent scale-out file, but lacks deep HPE ecosystem integration.

B (Scality): Primarily focused on object storage, not file workloads.

D (Cohesity): Strong in backup and secondary storage, but not primary enterprise file services.

Key Concept: HPE GreenLake for File Storage = enterprise-grade file storage + integrated protection.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

HPE Alletra 6000 is a scale-out architecture array. Adding more arrays to a single scale-out group increases both performance (IOPS, throughput) and capacity, while maintaining single-pane management via HPE Data Services Cloud Console. This is the most efficient way to address both capacity growth and latency reduction for SQL workloads.

Distractors:

B: Adding NICs may help with throughput but not backend latency or capacity scaling.

C: Flash-to-cache ratios can optimize read caching but don’t fundamentally increase system-wide performance.

D: Timeless storage is a procurement/licensing option, not a performance/capacity scaling method.

Key Concept: Alletra 6000 scale-out clustering for balanced growth of capacity and performance.

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.

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:

After installing the HPE CSI driver and creating backend secrets, the next critical step is to define a StorageClass that references the backend driver and parameters. Without the StorageClass, Kubernetes cannot dynamically provision PersistentVolumes (PVs). Once the StorageClass is created, workloads can request storage using PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs).

Distractors:

A: Helm repo update only refreshes Helm charts; it does not enable CSI provisioning.

B: A PVC requires a StorageClass to bind dynamically — it cannot be created successfully beforehand.

C: Manually creating PVs is possible, but not the HPE best practice with CSI, which relies on StorageClass for dynamic provisioning.

Key Concept: Kubernetes CSI workflow: Secret → StorageClass → PVC → Pod.

Detailed Explanation:

Rationale for Correct Answer:

The requirements align with a Capital Purchase — outright ownership with a one-time CapEx expense. This provides complete lifecycle control and no ongoing payments, fitting the financial services company’s budgeting and governance model.

Distractors:

A: Operating lease is OpEx, variable payments, and no ownership.

B: Capital lease provides eventual ownership but still requires periodic lease payments.

C: Consumption model (e.g., GreenLake) uses variable OpEx, opposite of the customer’s request.

Key Concept: CapEx model = one-time purchase, ownership, full control.