Free Pure Storage Portworx-Enterprise-Professional Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

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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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Using encrypted Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) with Portworx requires that an administrator first configure a secret provider responsible for managing the encryption keys. The secret provider could be an external Key Management System (KMS) such as AWS KMS, Google Cloud KMS, Hashicorp Vault, or Kubernetes Secrets. This step is critical because encryption keys are essential to securely encrypt and decrypt data on volumes. Although enabling encryption in the StorageClass via parameters like secure: enabled is necessary to activate encryption on volumes, it is insufficient without a properly configured secret provider to manage the keys. The secret provider ensures keys are securely stored, rotated, and accessed, fulfilling compliance and security requirements. Portworx documentation stresses this as a foundational step to enable encrypted PVCs, highlighting that without a configured secret provider, encrypted volumes cannot be provisioned or used effectively【Pure Storage Portworx Encryption Docs†source】.

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Once two Portworx clusters are paired, for example in disaster recovery setups, data migration between them can be initiated. The command pxctl cloudmigrate start triggers this migration process. It synchronizes volumes, ensuring that data is copied securely and consistently from the source cluster to the destination. This migration is transparent to applications and supports incremental syncs, which helps reduce downtime. The CLI command also provides operational feedback and logs for administrators to monitor progress. Portworx’s documentation on disaster recovery workflows emphasizes this command as essential for starting volume migration post-cluster pairing, streamlining data protection and business continuity strategies across multiple sites or cloud regions【Pure Storage Portworx Disaster Recovery Guide†source】.

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Portworx requires a minimum of 4 CPU cores per node to operate efficiently. This minimum ensures sufficient compute resources to handle storage management operations, volume I/O, replication, and metadata services without performance bottlenecks. While more cores can improve throughput and scalability, 4 cores is the documented baseline for supporting production workloads and maintaining cluster responsiveness. The Portworx system requirements specify this CPU baseline to guarantee stable operation alongside other Kubernetes node workloads. Deployments with fewer CPU resources may face degraded performance or instability. Official Portworx hardware requirements recommend 4 cores or more per node to meet performance and reliability objectives in typical enterprise environments【Pure Storage Portworx System Requirements†source】.

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Portworx uses node labeling as a mechanism to control on which Kubernetes nodes Portworx is installed and allowed to operate. To restrict Portworx installation on specific nodes, those nodes should be labeled with px/enabled=false. This label tells the Portworx Operator or installation scripts to exclude these nodes from Portworx deployment, preventing Portworx daemons from running there. This feature is useful for reserving nodes for non-storage workloads or avoiding unsupported hardware. Labels like px/service=stop or px/storage-node=false are not recognized by Portworx as controls for installation exclusion. The official Portworx deployment and node labeling documentation specify px/enabled=false as the standard method for controlling node participation in the storage cluster, offering administrators fine-grained control over cluster topology and resource allocation【Pure Storage Portworx Deployment Guide†source】.

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The recommended approach to managing Portworx snapshots is to configure retention policies that automatically govern the lifecycle of snapshots, including their expiration and deletion. These policies ensure that snapshots are retained only as long as needed, preventing uncontrolled accumulation that can consume excessive storage and degrade performance. By setting retention rules, administrators can automate snapshot cleanup, enforce compliance requirements, and optimize resource usage. Manual deletion is error-prone and inefficient at scale, and retaining all snapshots indefinitely can lead to capacity exhaustion and management challenges. Portworx documentation provides detailed guidance on defining snapshot retention schedules, including time-based expiration and count limits, enabling administrators to maintain a balance between data protection and storage efficiency【Pure Storage Portworx Snapshot Management Guide†source】.

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Stork version 2.3 is the minimum version required to support Application Backup features in Portworx. Application Backup allows for consistent snapshots and restores of complex, multi-volume, and multi-pod stateful applications. This capability depends on enhancements introduced in Stork 2.3 that enable application-aware backup orchestration, coordination between Kubernetes and storage layers, and integration with backup policies. Earlier Stork versions lack these features, making them unsuitable for application-level backups. Portworx release notes and Stork documentation confirm that version 2.3 introduced key functionalities that underpin the reliable backup and restore workflows for stateful workloads, making it a baseline requirement for disaster recovery and business continuity implementations involving application backups【Pure Storage Portworx Backup Docs†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】.

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A local snapshot in Portworx refers to a point-in-time of a volume’s data that is stored within the same storage cluster as the original volume. Local snapshots use efficient -on-write techniques to minimize storage overhead while preserving the volume state for backup, recovery, or rollback operations. Unlike cloud or remote snapshots, local snapshots do not require network transfer or object storage integration, enabling fast snapshot creation and restoration with low latency. They are ideal for short-term data protection, testing, or recovery scenarios where immediate access to snapshots is required. Portworx’s snapshot documentation describes local snapshots as the foundational snapshot type, essential for operational backups and data consistency within Kubernetes clusters using Portworx storage【Pure Storage Portworx Snapshot Guide†source】.

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Portworx classifies alerts into three main severity levels to help administrators prioritize response actions. These levels are INFO, WARNING, and CRITICAL. INFO alerts provide informational messages about non-critical events, such as configuration changes or normal operational milestones. WARNING alerts indicate potential issues that could impact performance or availability if left unaddressed, such as increased latency or approaching capacity limits. CRITICAL alerts signal severe problems requiring immediate attention, such as node failures or data corruption risks. This severity categorization supports effective alert management and escalation policies, allowing operational teams to focus on high-impact issues first. The Portworx observability and alerting guide explains these levels in detail and recommends integrating alerts with external monitoring systems for centralized management【Pure Storage Portworx Alerting Guide†source】.