Storage and Data Services (Primera, Nimble, MSA, StoreOnce)
What this domain tests
Storage and Data Services tests workload placement across HPE Primera, Alletra, Nimble, MSA, and StoreOnce, plus data protection and availability claims. You must know which platform fits mission-critical block, entry SAN, hybrid arrays, and backup, and which features are real on each.
Core rules
- Primera targets mission-critical block with NVMe, Peer Persistence, and a six-nines availability claim; Alletra 9000 is Primera-based.
- Alletra 6000 is Nimble-based all-NVMe; Alletra 5000 is Nimble-based hybrid; Alletra 4000 is MSA-based entry storage.
- MSA is simple entry SAN or DAS; do not attribute Primera-class replication to it.
- StoreOnce is deduplicating backup storage, with Catalyst support for backup applications and Cloud Bank to object storage.
- InfoSight and Active IQ provide AIOps telemetry; use them as operational differentiators, not magic.
Worked example
A hospital needs 24x7 block storage for clinical applications, plus a backup target. Reason: Primera or Alletra 9000 for the clinical tier because Peer Persistence supports transparent failover between sites. A second-tier analytics workload can use Alletra 6000, and backups land on StoreOnce with deduplication and replication. Putting the clinical tier on MSA would save acquisition cost but break the availability and replication requirements.
Traps
Mixing Alletra 9000 and 6000 architectures; assuming every Alletra model runs the same OS; treating StoreOnce as primary storage; claiming replication equals backup; ignoring support and replication licensing.