Portworx-Enterprise-Professional Pure Certified Portworx Enterprise Professional (PEP) Exam Questions and Answers

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After configuring credentials for AWS S3 object storage, the administrator uses the command pxctl cloudsnap backup -cred-id to create a cloud snapshot backup of a Portworx volume. This command instructs Portworx to take a point-in-time snapshot of the specified volume and upload it securely to the configured S3 bucket using the referenced credentials. The command leverages Portworx’s cloud snapshot feature for disaster recovery and long-term retention. Option B relates to creating credentials and is not the backup command. Option C creates a local snapshot but does not back it up to the cloud. The Portworx CLI documentation highlights pxctl cloudsnap backup as the core method to perform backups to cloud object storage, enabling data protection strategies aligned with cloud-native architectures【Pure Storage Portworx Cloud Snapshot Guide†source】.

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To enable Portworx metrics exposure compatible with external Prometheus servers, administrators must set the exportMetrics flag inside the Prometheus monitoring section of the StorageCluster spec. The correct configuration is:

spec:

monitoring:

prometheus:

exportMetrics: true

This declarative configuration directs Portworx to expose its internal metrics on Prometheus endpoints, allowing external monitoring tools to scrape these metrics for observability, alerting, and dashboarding. The operator-managed Portworx cluster leverages this configuration for integration with cloud-native monitoring stacks, ensuring seamless visibility into cluster health, performance, and resource utilization. Using CLI commands alone is insufficient for operator-managed clusters since they don’t persist settings or integrate with Kubernetes manifests. The official Portworx observability guide and operator documentation endorse this method as the recommended approach for metrics exposure and integration with Prometheus-compatible systems【Pure Storage Portworx Monitoring Guide†source】.

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The Portworx OCI monitor pod primarily monitors the health of Kubernetes nodes within the cluster. It collects telemetry data and status updates about node health, resource availability, and connectivity to ensure the Kubernetes environment hosting Portworx pods remains stable and reliable. This monitoring is vital to detect node failures, performance degradation, or resource bottlenecks early, enabling prompt remedial action. The OCI monitor acts as a specialized component interacting with the Kubernetes control plane and Portworx services to provide real-time node health insights. This role is distinct from installation facilitation or network policy management, focusing instead on operational observability. Official Portworx operator and observability documentation describe the OCI monitor’s function as critical for node health monitoring and overall cluster reliability within Kubernetes environments running Portworx storage【Pure Storage Portworx Observability Docs†source】.

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During Portworx upgrades via the Kubernetes Operator, if the deployment uses a px-versions ConfigMap to manage available Portworx versions, the administrator must update the version manifest within this ConfigMap to include the new version. This update informs the Operator of the target version for upgrades and ensures that the correct container images are pulled and deployed. Simply creating a new namespace or deleting the ConfigMap is insufficient and can cause upgrade failures or inconsistent version deployments. The Portworx Operator upgrade documentation emphasizes updating the px-versions ConfigMap manifest as a necessary step in orchestrated upgrades, enabling controlled, predictable version management within Kubernetes clusters【Pure Storage Portworx Upgrade Guide†source】.

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To verify a Portworx upgrade on Kubernetes, administrators use the pxctl get storagenodes command. This Portworx CLI command lists all storage nodes with detailed information including version, status, and health. By inspecting the version column, administrators can confirm whether all nodes have been successfully upgraded to the desired Portworx release. This command specifically queries Portworx daemons for accurate cluster version details, unlike kubectl get nodes which shows Kubernetes node info but not Portworx versioning. Portworx upgrade best practices stress using pxctl commands for detailed verification after an upgrade to ensure consistent cluster software versions and successful upgrade completion【Pure Storage Portworx Upgrade Guide†source】.

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When using Portworx Asynchronous Disaster Recovery (DR) to migrate workloads and storage across clusters, network policies can sometimes interfere with seamless failover. The label skipNetworkPolicyCheck: true can be used to instruct the DR mechanism to bypass strict network policy checks during migration. This allows applications and volumes to migrate even if network policies differ or are incompatible between source and destination clusters. Without this label, migration might be blocked or fail due to network restrictions. By default, network policies are not always migrated, and strict checks are performed unless explicitly skipped. Portworx DR documentation details this option as a means to increase migration flexibility, reduce operational friction, and enable faster recovery during disaster scenarios while administrators work on aligning network configurations【Pure Storage Portworx DR 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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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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Portworx primarily relies on Direct Attached Storage (DAS) for its storage provisioning. DAS refers to physical disks or SSDs directly connected to the nodes running Portworx. Using DAS enables high-performance, low-latency access to storage resources, crucial for stateful containerized applications. Portworx aggregates and abstracts these local devices into distributed storage pools, providing features like replication, encryption, and snapshots. While Portworx integrates with Object Storage for cloud snapshots and disaster recovery, and can support NFS for certain use cases, the core storage provisioning and volume management depend on DAS. The Portworx architecture documentation clarifies that leveraging local node storage is essential for delivering performant, resilient, and scalable persistent storage in Kubernetes environments【Pure Storage Portworx Architecture Guide†source】.

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When integrating Portworx with an S3 Object Store secured by a custom or third-party certificate that is not signed by a public Certificate Authority (CA), administrators must manually provide the relevant CA certificate to Portworx. This involves creating a Kubernetes secret that contains the custom CA certificate and referencing this secret in the StorageCluster manifest through environment variables. This allows Portworx components to trust the certificate during TLS handshake with the S3 endpoint, avoiding connection failures due to untrusted certificates. Without this step, Portworx cannot securely communicate with the object store. The Portworx security and installation documentation highlights this practice as essential for secure Object Store integration in private or regulated environments where internal or custom PKIs are used【Pure Storage Portworx Security Guide†source】.

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Portworx requires a minimum Linux kernel version of 3.10 or greater to operate properly. This requirement stems from Portworx’s dependencies on certain kernel features and modules that became standard from kernel version 3.10 onwards. The kernel version affects support for device-mapper, overlay filesystems, network stack enhancements, and other low-level capabilities essential for Portworx’s block storage functionality and performance. Although newer kernels (like 4.15+) offer additional features and improvements, Portworx maintains compatibility back to 3.10 to support a wide range of enterprise Linux distributions such as RHEL, CentOS, and Ubuntu LTS releases. The official Portworx system requirements document explicitly states kernel 3.10 as the minimum supported version to ensure stability and compatibility in production environments【Pure Storage Portworx System Requirements†source】.

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If a drive fails and the associated storage pool contains critical metadata, the safest and recommended action is to decommission the entire node. Metadata loss can compromise the integrity of volume allocations and cluster state. Decommissioning the node allows Portworx to safely remove the node from the cluster, replicate data, and redistribute workloads, preventing data loss or corruption. Deleting the pool or reformatting the disk without proper precautions risks losing metadata and causing cluster inconsistencies. Portworx’s operational guidelines emphasize that nodes with failed drives holding metadata require careful decommissioning procedures to maintain cluster health and data durability, ensuring data is rebalanced and availability is preserved【Pure Storage Portworx Operations Guide†source】.

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Portworx primarily supports deployment on Kubernetes and is well-integrated with major cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS offers native infrastructure and storage services that complement Portworx’s capabilities for cloud-native storage, including integration with Elastic Block Store (EBS) and S3 Object Storage. While Portworx historically supported container orchestrators like Docker Swarm and Mesosphere DC/OS (DCOS), the primary and recommended platform for production deployments today is Kubernetes on cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. AWS’s ecosystem allows Portworx to leverage scalable compute and storage infrastructure, advanced networking, and cloud security features, making it a preferred platform. Portworx official platform support documentation lists AWS as a key supported environment for its container storage solutions【Pure Storage Portworx Platform Support Guide†source】.

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Skinny Snapshots are a space-efficient snapshot technique used by Portworx for replicated volumes (Repl 2 or 3) when storage capacity is limited and no external Object Store is configured. Unlike full snapshots that duplicate data blocks, skinny snapshots capture only the differences (deltas) since the last snapshot, minimizing space consumption. This method allows administrators to take frequent snapshots without significantly impacting storage availability. Skinny Snapshots are particularly useful for on-premises environments or clusters without access to cloud object storage, balancing snapshot granularity with resource constraints. Official Portworx snapshot documentation explains how skinny snapshots work internally, improving backup and recovery capabilities under tight storage conditions without requiring cloud integration【Pure Storage Portworx Snapshot Guide†source】.

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Defragmentation in Portworx reorganizes storage blocks to reduce fragmentation caused by frequent write and delete operations. Scheduling defragmentation during low workload periods ensures minimal impact on application performance while improving storage efficiency and I/O throughput. This optimization leads to faster read/write operations and prolongs the lifespan of storage devices by minimizing random I/O. Portworx provides administrators the ability to define defragmentation windows and recurrence policies within cluster configurations to automate this process. The official Portworx documentation explains that carefully timed defragmentation is critical to maintaining optimal cluster performance without disrupting business-critical workloads, making it an essential part of ongoing cluster maintenance and operational health【Pure Storage Portworx Performance Guide†source】.

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To collect a comprehensive support bundle for Portworx Autopilot, the proper procedure is to create a dedicated directory, send a support signal to the running Autopilot process to trigger diagnostics collection, and then the generated support bundle files from that directory. This approach ensures all relevant Autopilot logs, configuration files, and runtime metrics are gathered in a structured way, enabling effective troubleshooting and root cause analysis. Simply restarting or deleting pods is insufficient, as it does not guarantee a full diagnostics capture. The Portworx troubleshooting and support documentation outlines this method as the standard for collecting detailed Autopilot support information, facilitating accelerated support response and issue resolution in production clusters【Pure Storage Portworx Support Guide†source】.

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To ensure Portworx volumes for an ElasticSearch application are created only on specific Kubernetes nodes, the Volume Placement Strategy feature is used. This feature allows administrators to define node affinity or anti-affinity rules that restrict volume provisioning to a subset of nodes. By tagging the six nodes with appropriate labels and configuring the StorageClass or volume parameters to respect these labels, Portworx guarantees that volumes will only be provisioned on those nodes. This targeted volume placement is critical for performance optimization, data locality, and compliance with infrastructure constraints. Autopilot automates scaling and Stork manages storage-aware scheduling but does not directly control volume node placement. The Portworx deployment documentation highlights Volume Placement Strategy as the tool for precise volume-to-node mapping in Kubernetes clusters【Pure Storage Portworx Deployment Guide†source】.

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The Portworx diagnostics bundle, known as “diags,” aggregates comprehensive diagnostic data for troubleshooting. This includes Portworx journal logs, which record detailed system and service events essential for identifying errors or malfunctions. Additionally, the bundle contains outputs from key CLI commands such as pxctl status and pxctl volume list that provide snapshots of the cluster’s health, volume states, and configuration at the time of collection. Basic operating system information, including kernel version, disk hardware details, and network interfaces, is also captured to understand the underlying environment. Together, these components equip Portworx support and administrators with the contextual data needed for effective root cause analysis and faster issue resolution. The official Portworx support documentation recommends collecting and submitting this bundle for all significant troubleshooting cases as it expedites problem diagnosis and resolution【Pure Storage Portworx Support Guide†source】.

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Upgrading Portworx clusters managed by the Kubernetes Operator requires a declarative update to the StorageCluster Custom Resource Definition (CRD). Specifically, the administrator must edit the StorageCluster resource and update the .spec.image field to point to the new version image, such as changing portworx/oci-monitor:3.0 to portworx/oci-monitor:3.1. This change instructs the Operator to roll out the new image across the cluster nodes, performing a seamless upgrade with minimal downtime. The pxctl CLI does not perform upgrades in Operator-managed environments; it is primarily for direct cluster management. The Operator ensures orderly upgrade sequencing, node by node, handling pod restarts and health checks. Automatic upgrades without manual intervention are not currently supported to prevent unintentional disruptions. Official Portworx upgrade documentation details this procedure, emphasizing the importance of version pinning and controlled rollout for production stability and rollback capabilities during upgrades【Pure Storage Portworx Upgrade Guide†source】.