Using hands-on labs, this course teaches students how to perform common management tasks, including array installation, volume creation, and data protection/recovery using snapshots. This course also covers system monitoring basics using Nimble Storage’s InfoSight.

Audience

Customers, administrators and channel partner sales or technical sales

Course objectives

By the completion of this course, the learner will be able to complete the following tasks using the Nimble operating system:

• Perform initial configuration of a new array with NSM and GUI
• Perform post-installation tests
• Create volumes and zero-copy clones
• Attach and verify volumes/clones to Windows
• Create and modify data protection policies for volumes
• Restore volumes and individual files from a snapshot
• Use the Nimble GUI to monitor array capacity/performance

Detailed course outline

Module 1: Course Introduction and Overview 

• Agenda
• Documentation
• Capacity units

Module 2: AF and HF-Series Hardware 

• Portfolio overview
• AF-Series controllers and enclosures
• HF-Series controllers and enclosures

Module 3: Array Initialization and Setup 

• Networking overview
• Nimble Setup Manager
• Initialization
• Setup
• Post-setup test
• Basic events monitoring

Module 4: HPE Nimble StorageOS WebUI Introduction 

• How to access
• Tour
• User management
• Basic monitoring

Module 5: Working with HPE Nimble Storage Volumes 

• Concepts
• Provisioning and performance policies
• Access control and initiator groups
• Volume collections
• Space reclamation theory introduction
• Protection templates overview
• Presentation
• QoS and volume pinning
• HPE Nimble Storage Windows Toolkit
• HPE Nimble Storage Connection Manager

Module 6: Architecture and Advanced Features Overview 

• Read and write operations
• Nimble FS
• Triple+ Parity RAID
• Sparing
• Deduplication
• Encryption

Module 7: HPE Nimble Storage SmartSnap 

• Concepts
• Protection templates
• App synchronization
• Schedules
• Manual snapshots
• Clone
• Data recovery

Module 8: Introduction to HPE Nimble Storage Replication 

• Remote replication options overview
• Supported replication topologies
• Peer persistence overview
• Next training direction

Module 9: Introduction to HPE Nimble Scaling 

• Scale-to-fit options overview 
• Next training direction

Module 10: Introduction to Support and HPE InfoSight 

• Concepts
• Architecture
• Benefits

Detailed lab outline

Lab 0: vLabs Access 

• Objectives 
• Accessing HPE vLabs

Lab 1: Initialize an Array 

• Background
• Lab topology
• Task 1: Launch Nimble Setup Manager
• Task 2: Subnet configuration
• Task 3: Post setup testing
• OS upgrade

Lab 2: Basic Volume Creation 

• Task 1: Create a volume
• Task 2: Create a volume collection
• Task 3: Create an initiator and an initiator group

Lab 3: Windows Host SetUp (NCM) 

• Background
• Task 1: Launch NCM and connect to a volume
• Task 2: Examine the newly connected volume
• Task 3: Return to the Windows host to prepare and mount the volume

Lab 4: Working with Syslog and Event Logs 

• Task 1: Configuring and starting a syslog server and SNMP trap receiver
• Task 2: Testing the syslog and SNMP trap receiver
• Task 3: Event logs and audit logs

Lab 5: Snapshots and Data Recovery 

• Background
• Task 1: Create data
• Task 2: Simulate a data loss event
• Task 3: Create a zero-copy clone
• Task 4: Connect to the clone and recover the data
• Task 5: Disconnect and delete the clone

Lab 6: Using InfoSight 

• Exercise 1: Logging in and dashboard
• Exercise 2: Access InfoSight support
• Exercise 3: Array overview
• Exercise 4: Physical disk details
• Exercise 5: Reports
• Exercise 6: InfoSight scenarios (optional)
  • Exercise 6-1: Health check
  • Exercise 6-2: Planning for growth
  • Exercise 6-3: Using InfoSight to troubleshoot