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E20-357 Failed...
Hi Guys,
I wrote the Isilon Specialist exam for implementation engineers twice recently but had a bad luck. I felt the exam questions are more on "best practices" but not on actual implementation. I also felt few questions which even any EMC implementation engineer cannot answer. I can give an example question to start a debate with the design team but what is the point of designing such questions which truly don't give value in real-time. But on the other side even am not saying the questions should be one liners.
Saying this, I would not give up but will keep running until I achieve success.
Any comments - suggestions.
Phil.Lam
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
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592 Posts
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August 31st, 2015 09:00
tazatemc,
Go ahead and list some examples that an "EMC implementation engineer cannot answer".
virtualphoton
44 Posts
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September 1st, 2015 00:00
As you have asked to post an example, here is one:
[REMOVED]
[Mod Edit - by EMC policy, exam test questions may not be posted to a public forum]
Can we really get an exact timeframe of any real life firmware upgrades ? (Whether it be drive firmware or the code upgrade itself). I would say it depends on the performance of the Isilon during that particular drive firmware upgrade process, but how would one really sit in front of the screen counting the number of hours, minutes and seconds a drive firmware upgrade would take ??
I want the EMC team to justify this scenario.
Regards
Taz
Stdekart
104 Posts
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September 1st, 2015 06:00
Tazatemc,
I can't say exactly what is covered in the training leading up to this test.
When I took the EMC Proven Professional, the more general EMC test. I did find the supplied documentation (pdf files) to be more helpful then the videos as far as useful information for the test.
There are now 2 different ways to upgrade drive firmware, I'm assuming this question is covering DFP (Drive firmware package).
One being with a Drive firmware package (this requires a reboot):
See page 9 for time frame.
https://support.emc.com/docu59139_Isilon-Drive-Firmware-Package-1.11-Release-Notes.pdf?language=en_US
The other being Drive Support package (No reboot required):
Impact would be negligible.
Typically from a support standpoint (DFP) ~15 min a node, I do know when doing this, it will say "please allow up to 60 minutes" just before the node actually reboots.
I can see how this question could be incredibly frustrating, as there are outlying variables, How many nodes are we upgrading? How much RAM do these nodes have (as it will take longer to drain 256GB then 8GB) Do I assume a standard 3 node cluster but then I still have a window of 45 min - 3 hours.
Or is the question assuming 1 node?
If this question was to show up on a test I would go with 1 hour, as drive firmware is per node so installing the package and running the upgrade would have to be on one node at a time, and assuming worst case scenario seeing that the firmware upgrade itself states "please allow up to 60 minutes".
virtualphoton
44 Posts
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September 1st, 2015 07:00
Appreciate your brief response to this Shane.
To add something more, I got the question for 10 X NL400 nodes. But there was nothing like 60 minutes in the options I had. It did had one option as 1 Hour and 15 minutes, but nothing like 1 hour exactly.
I have the same DFP document you shared above but I never expected this type of question with respect to "exact timeframe".
Regards
Taz
pacmanchamp
3 Posts
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September 1st, 2015 11:00
And if you ask a local EMC tech he will say. "It depends"
Anonymous
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274.2K Posts
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September 2nd, 2015 10:00
Taz:
If you feel a question is unfair, you should go through the Proven Exam channel to report it for examination. We also do not post exam questions nor exam question answers on open forums such as ECN. I can understand your frustration with the question and answer choices. This is not the appropriate forum to have the question resolved. I can tell you the answer marked as correct is in the course materials. In planning, and not necessarily in actual execution, certain assumptions are applied. The answer comes from those assumptions.
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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September 2nd, 2015 12:00
Here is the proper contact URL information to reach the Proven Help Desk with questions or concerns - http://emc.force.com/EducationSupport