Pass the Pure Storage Portworx Enterprise Portworx-Enterprise-Professional Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

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When troubleshooting a Portworx node that appears down, the first step is to verify the overall Kubernetes cluster health, particularly the node’s readiness. Running kubectl get node -o wide provides detailed information about all cluster nodes, including their status, roles, and network details. Ensuring the affected node is marked “Ready” or identifying any abnormal conditions helps isolate whether the problem is at the Kubernetes level or specific to Portworx. If the node is not Ready, issues may lie with Kubernetes components or node-level hardware/network problems. After confirming node status, further investigation using pxctl status or examining kubelet logs with journalctl can pinpoint Portworx-specific or system-level failures. Portworx operational best practices recommend starting with Kubernetes node health checks before delving into Portworx or system logs to effectively triage issues【Pure Storage Portworx Troubleshooting Guide†source】.

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To create a StorageClass in Kubernetes for Portworx volumes that are encrypted and replicated twice, the correct parameters are encrypted: "true" to enable encryption and repl: "2" to specify two replicas. Option A accurately sets these parameters, ensuring volumes provisioned with this StorageClass will be encrypted at rest and maintain two replicas for data redundancy. Option B uses sharedv4: "true", which relates to NFS-like sharing, not encryption. Option C uses secure: "true", which is not the recognized parameter for enabling encryption in Portworx StorageClass definitions. The official Portworx StorageClass parameter documentation confirms encrypted as the correct flag for encryption and repl to specify replication factor, enabling administrators to enforce data security and availability policies declaratively through Kubernetes manifests【Pure Storage Portworx StorageClass Guide†source】.

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Portworx provides a declarative method to schedule automatic backups by configuring schedule policies within its Backup and DR framework. These policies specify when and how frequently backups should occur, retention rules, and target storage locations. By applying schedule policies, administrators enable Portworx to perform backups automatically without manual intervention or external scripting. Using cron jobs to run pxctl snapshot create is possible but less integrated, error-prone, and not recommended for scalable environments. The command px backup volume is not a valid Portworx CLI command. The Portworx backup documentation encourages using native schedule policies for reliable, maintainable, and policy-driven backup automation, supporting compliance and disaster recovery strategies【Pure Storage Portworx Backup Guide†source】.

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Restricting Portworx installation on certain Kubernetes nodes is achieved by labeling those nodes with px/enabled=false. This label signals the Portworx Operator or installer to exclude these nodes from Portworx deployment. This allows admins to reserve nodes for other workloads or prevent Portworx from running on unsupported hardware. The label px/service=stop or px/storage-node=false are not recognized controls in the Portworx installation process. Portworx deployment guides consistently document the use of px/enabled=false for node exclusion, providing a simple, declarative way to control cluster topology and resource assignment during Portworx installations and upgrades【Pure Storage Portworx Deployment Guide†source】.

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Portworx requires swap to be disabled on Linux hosts where it runs. Disabling swap is necessary because swap usage can cause unpredictable latency and performance degradation for storage operations. Portworx relies on consistent and predictable I/O performance for managing block devices and volumes, which is incompatible with the potential delays caused by swapping memory pages to disk. Additionally, many Kubernetes environments recommend disabling swap to meet Kubernetes scheduler requirements, aligning with Portworx’s needs. Portworx installation and system requirements documentation explicitly state that swap should be disabled on nodes running Portworx to ensure cluster stability, optimal performance, and predictable behavior of storage operations【Pure Storage Portworx System Requirements†source】.

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Adding a new drive to an existing Portworx storage cluster involves bringing the physical device online for Portworx management. The correct command for this is pxctl service drive add -drive /dev/dm-1 -operation start. This command instructs Portworx to recognize and incorporate the new drive specified by the device path (e.g., /dev/dm-1) into its storage pool. After this operation, Portworx can use the drive for provisioning volumes or expanding capacity. The -operation start flag signals Portworx to initialize and prepare the drive for use. This method is part of Portworx’s dynamic storage management capabilities, allowing flexible scaling of storage resources without downtime. Official CLI documentation outlines this command as the supported approach to adding drives to running clusters safely and efficiently【Pure Storage Portworx CLI Guide†source】.

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To perform an ApplicationBackup in Portworx, two Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) are essential: BackupLocation and ApplicationBackup. The BackupLocation CRD defines the target backup storage, such as an S3 bucket or NFS share, including credentials and endpoints. ApplicationBackup defines the specifics of the backup operation, including which application volumes to back up, schedules, and retention policies. Together, they enable declarative backup management within Kubernetes, allowing administrators to configure, automate, and monitor backups of stateful applications using Portworx. These CRDs provide flexibility and integration with Kubernetes-native tools, improving disaster recovery capabilities. Portworx backup documentation describes these CRDs as the foundation of its application-aware backup and restore system【Pure Storage Portworx Backup Docs†source】.

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Portworx recommends using Prometheus, Alertmanager, and Grafana as the core technologies for monitoring Portworx clusters within Kubernetes. Prometheus scrapes metrics exposed by Portworx components and stores time-series data for analysis. Alertmanager handles alert rules and notification delivery, enabling administrators to respond to critical events promptly. Grafana provides a powerful visualization platform to build dashboards from Prometheus data, helping teams visualize cluster health, performance metrics, and capacity trends. This combination is widely adopted due to its native Kubernetes integration, scalability, and extensibility. Portworx documentation includes detailed guidance on configuring these tools to monitor metrics such as volume latency, node health, pool usage, and snapshot status, forming a comprehensive monitoring and alerting solution for production environments【Pure Storage Portworx Monitoring Guide†source】.

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The command pxctl list autopilotrules is used to list all Autopilot rule objects across namespaces within a Portworx cluster. Autopilot rules define automated policies for storage operations like scaling and volume migration. This CLI command queries the Portworx control plane to retrieve and display all configured Autopilot rules, regardless of the Kubernetes namespace they reside in. Using kubectl commands alone is insufficient because Autopilot rules are managed internally by Portworx and may not correspond directly to Kubernetes resources. Official Portworx CLI documentation confirms pxctl list autopilotrules as the primary command for comprehensive Autopilot rule enumeration, enabling administrators to audit and manage storage automation policies efficiently【Pure Storage Portworx Autopilot Guide†source】.

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Labeling Kubernetes nodes with rack information is achieved using the kubectl label nodes command. The syntax would be something like kubectl label nodes px/rack=. This label allows Portworx to understand the physical or logical topology of nodes, enabling placement strategies that optimize data locality, fault tolerance, and availability based on rack awareness. Taints and annotations serve different purposes; taints affect pod scheduling by repelling pods, while annotations provide metadata without influencing scheduling. Portworx uses node labels extensively for topology-aware volume placement and disaster recovery planning. Official Portworx documentation recommends labeling nodes with topology identifiers like rack or zone to enable advanced placement strategies and maintain application resiliency in distributed environments【Pure Storage Portworx Placement Guide†source】.