Netapp NetApp Certified Support Engineer ONTAP Specialist NS0-593 Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

According to the SAS cabling rules and concepts for shelves with IOM12/IOM12B modules1, one of the goals is to provide a single, easily understood universal algorithm for all SAS products and configurations. One of the rules is that of the two paths to a single disk storage stack from a single node, one should connect to the top and one to the bottom of the storage stack. This ensures maximum possible resilience and minimizes the reliance on controller takeovers. The exhibit shows that both SAS connections from one controller go to the same shelf, which violates this rule and causes the error message. This situation is not normal for a FAS2750 single-node system and can reduce reliability and availability. The cables should be reconnected according to the SAS cabling rules and the controller-to-stack cabling worksheet template for quad-pathed connectivity2. References = SAS cabling rules and concepts - shelves with IOM12/IOM12B modules, SAS cabling issue: Both SAS connections from one controller go to the same shelf, Controller-to-stack cabling worksheet template for quad-pathed connectivity.

= The NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Release Notes provide the most up-to-date and accurate information about the storage limits for different cloud platforms, licenses, and configurations. The release notes also include details about supported features, known issues, and limitations for each version of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. References = Storage limits - NetApp, Storage limits | NetApp Documentation, Storage limits in AWS | NetApp Documentation, Storage limits in Azure | NetApp Documentation

= CPU utilization in ONTAP is not a linear measure of the system load, nor can it be used alone as a measure of the overall system utilization. ONTAP uses a Coarse Symmetric Multiprocessing (CSMP) design which partitions system functions into logical processing domains, each with its own scheduling rules and resource availability. Therefore, a high CPU utilization does not necessarily indicate a performance problem, unless it is accompanied by other contributing factors such as high latency, low throughput, or high queue depth. ONTAP has several mechanisms to optimize CPU usage and balance the workload across the cores, such as WAFL parallelization, exempt processing, and CPU pinning. The CPU utilization reported by the sysstat command is an average across all cores and domains, and does not reflect the actual CPU activity or availability for each domain. Therefore, the CPU is not a first-order monitoring metric for ONTAP, and other metrics such as latency, throughput, and queue depth should be considered first. References = What is CPU utilization in Data ONTAP: Scheduling and Monitoring?, How to measure CPU utilization, What are CPU as a compute resource and the CPU domains in ONTAP 9?, Monitoring CPU utilization before ONTAP upgrade

The question refers to a scenario where the shelf firmware for an NS224 shelf has not been upgraded on one of the NVMe shelf modules (NSM) after a week of installation.

The NSM is responsible for managing the communication between the drives and the I/O modules (IOM) in the shelf1.

The shelf firmware for the NSM is automatically updated when the NSM is inserted into the shelf or when the system is rebooted2.

If the automatic update does not work, the manual update process involves reseating the NSM, which means removing it from the shelf and inserting it back3.

Reseating the NSM triggers the firmware update and also resets the NSM’s state3.

The other options are not correct, because:

B. Reseating the disk in Bay 0 will not affect the NSM firmware update, as the disk is not connected to the NSM1.

C. Power cycling the shelf will disrupt the I/O operations and may cause data loss or corruption4.

D. Reseating the PSU of the shelf will not affect the NSM firmware update, as the PSU is not connected to the NSM1. References:

NS224 NVMe drive shelf overview - NetApp

Shelf firmware update process - NetApp

Module firmware upgrade stuck on NS224 shelf - NetApp Knowledge Base

Power cycle a disk shelf - NetApp

= The “Urge” column in the flexgroup show command indicates the urgency of data rebalancing for each constituent volume. A non-zero value means that the data placement is uneven across the volumes, which can affect the performance of the FlexGroup. The target value is the desired percentage of data for each volume, and the difference value is the deviation from the target. The FlexGroup tries to balance the data placement by moving data between the volumes, but this process can be slow or interrupted by other factors. Therefore, it is recommended to monitor the “Urge” column and take corrective actions if the values are high orpersistent. References = What do “flexgroup show” target and urgency and other columns mean?, NetApp ONTAP FlexGroup volumes — Best practices and implementation guide

 FlexGroup requires CIFS shares to use the Continuously Available Feature, which enables transparent failover and recovery of SMB sessions in the event of a node failure or takeover. This feature is only supported by Windows 8 and later clients, and some printers and scanners may not support it either. Therefore, these older Windows XP clients and some printers and scanners are unable to access a FlexGroup over CIFS. References = Supported and unsupported configurations for FlexGroup volumes, NetApp ONTAP FlexGroup volumes — Best practices and implementation guide (page 24)

Here is my reasoning:

The system node hardware unified-connect show command displays the status and configuration of the Unified Connect ports on a node1. This command can help you identify if the ports are configured correctly and if they have any errors or faults.

The ports 0e and 0f on the AFF A300 are 10GbE ports that support both Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols2. These ports are part of the Unified Connect feature, which enables you to use the same physical port for different protocols without requiring additional hardware3.

If the ports are offline, it could indicate a problem with the port configuration, the cable connection, the switch configuration, or the protocol settings. The system node hardware unified-connect show command can help you troubleshoot these issues by showing you the port mode, speed, duplex, state, and error count1.

The other commands in the options are not as helpful for troubleshooting the port issue, because they show different information that is not related to the Unified Connect feature or the port status. For example:

The vserver fcp wwpn-alias show command displays the World Wide Port Name (WWPN) aliases for the Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) logical interfaces (LIFs) on a Vserver4. This command can help you manage the FCP LIFs, but it does not show the status of the physical ports or the Unified Connect feature.

The storage port show command displays the status and configuration of the storage ports on a node5. This command can help you manage the storage ports, but it does not show the status of the Unified Connect ports or the FCoE protocol.

The vserver fcp interface show command displays the status and configuration of the FCP LIFs on a Vserver6. This command can help you manage the FCP LIFs, but it does not show the status of the physical ports or the Unified Connect feature.

Here are some references that might help you:

1: system node hardware unified-connect show - NetApp 2: AFF A300 system installation - NetApp 3: Unified Connect - NetApp 4: vserver fcp wwpn-alias show - NetApp 5: storage port show - NetApp 6: vserver fcp interface show - NetApp

 The wafl.dir.size.max event occurs when a directory has reached its maximum directory size (maxdirsize) limit, which prevents new file creation in that directory. The maxdirsize is a volume-level option that can be modified using the volume modify command. To solve this issue, you should increase the maximum directory size for the volume that contains the CIFS share, as long as it does not exceed 3% of the physical memory. Alternatively, you can reorganize the directory structure to avoid having too many files in one directory. References =

Max Directory size error - NetApp Knowledge Base

How to identify the target directory of wafl.dir.size.warning - NetApp Knowledge Base

Post about wafl.dir.size.max | Source.kohlerville.com

WAFL Max dirsize | uadmin

The error message “wafl.cp.toolong:error” indicates that a WAFL consistency point (CP) took longer than 30 seconds to complete. A CP is a process that flushes the data from the NVRAM buffer to the disk. A long CP can cause latency and performance issues for the system1

One possible cause for a long CP is excessive SSD load causing the wear leveling to become unbalanced. Wear leveling is a technique that distributes the write operations evenly across the SSD cells to extend the lifespan of the SSD. If some SSD cells are written more frequently than others, the wear leveling will become unbalanced and the SSD performance will degrade2

Another possible cause for a long CP is an SSD disk performing garbage collection to create a dense data layout. Garbage collection is a process that reclaims the space occupied by invalid or deleted data on the SSD. Garbage collection can improve the write performance and storage efficiency of the SSD, but it can also consume CPU and disk resources and cause long CPs3

A disk failing or being failed is not a likely cause for a long CP, because the system will automatically mark the disk as failed and remove it from the aggregate. The system will also initiate a disk reconstruction or a RAID scrub to restore the data protection and redundancy4

There is no evidence that the system has SATA HDDs, so there is no reason to assume that there is excessive SATA HDD load. Moreover, SATA HDDs are usually used for secondary or backup storage, not for primary or performance-sensitive workloads5

References:

1: Are long Consistency Points (wafl.cp.toolong) normal? - NetApp Knowledge Base 2: How to troubleshoot SSD performance issues - NetApp Knowledge Base 3: How to troubleshoot SSD garbage collection issues - NetApp Knowledge Base 4: How to troubleshoot disk failures and replacements - NetApp Knowledge Base 5: ONTAP 9 - Hardware Universe - The Open Group

 = The panic message indicates that the node encountered a fatal error while accessing the PCI card in slot 31. This could be due to a hardware failure, a firmware issue, or a driver problem. The first component to troubleshoot is the PCI card in slot 3, as it is the most likely source of the error. You can use the system node hardware pci show command to check the status of the PCI card and the system node hardware firmware update command to update the firmware if needed2. You can also use the Panic Message Analyzer tool from the NetApp Support Site to determine whether your panic was caused by a known software issue3. References = 1: REBOOT (panic) ALERT - AutoSupport message 2: [system node hardware pci show] 3: [Panic Message Analyzer tool]