50 IBM PowerHA SystemMirror V7.2 Implementation Practice Questions: Question Bank 2025

A two-node PowerHA cluster is being planned. Each node has two VLAN-backed interfaces on separate switches. Which approach is a PowerHA best practice for network redundancy used for heartbeating?

An administrator needs a resource group that will automatically start on the highest-priority node after cluster startup, but can fail over to the other node on failure. Which resource group policy best matches this requirement?

A cluster uses shared volume groups for application data. The application requires the same service IP to move during failover. Which PowerHA component provides the movable IP identity for clients?

During maintenance, an operator wants to move a resource group from node A to node B without inducing a failure condition. Which action is most appropriate?

A two-node cluster hosts a database on shared SAN LUNs. The SAN team reports occasional path flaps. The cluster sometimes triggers a takeover even though the nodes are healthy. Which configuration change most directly reduces false takeovers due to transient storage path issues?

A resource group contains an application start script and a service IP. After failover, the service IP comes online, but the application does not start. The start script returns success when run manually on the takeover node. Which PowerHA configuration issue is the most likely cause?

A customer wants near-zero data loss between a primary and standby site and plans to use SAN-based mirroring with PowerHA managing site failover. Which design choice best supports the lowest RPO for replicated storage?

A new cluster has been created and synchronized. When starting cluster services, one node reports it cannot join the cluster due to communication issues. Basic IP connectivity (ping) works on the service network. Which is the best next troubleshooting step specifically for PowerHA cluster communications?

A cluster uses shared storage with a shared volume group. After an unplanned crash of the primary node, the standby node fails to varyon the volume group due to an apparent lock/reservation. Which action is the MOST appropriate to restore service while minimizing risk of data corruption?

A three-node cluster has two nodes in site A and one node in site B. The network between sites is less reliable than intra-site networking. The customer wants to prevent a split-brain scenario where both sites could simultaneously run the same resource group during an inter-site communication failure. Which architecture choice best addresses this requirement?

An administrator is preparing to install PowerHA on two AIX nodes. Corporate policy requires the cluster configuration to be consistent after any future reinstall of a node. Which best practice helps meet this requirement?

A two-node cluster uses IP address takeover. During failover, clients intermittently fail to reconnect because ARP caches are not updated quickly on the upstream switch. Which PowerHA setting most directly mitigates this issue?

An administrator needs to verify the current state of all resource groups (online/offline and on which node) using a command-line tool. Which command is most appropriate?

A cluster has two networks: a public client network and a private heartbeat network. During verification, PowerHA reports a possible single point of failure on the public network. The customer requires continued client access if one NIC fails on a node. What is the recommended design change?

A resource group contains application start/stop scripts and a service IP. During failover tests, the application starts before the service IP is active, causing the application to bind to the wrong interface. What PowerHA configuration best addresses this ordering requirement?

A cluster uses shared SAN disks for a volume group. After a failover, the volume group fails to vary on because it remains active on the previous node (stale reservation/lock). Which PowerHA feature is intended to resolve this scenario safely?

A customer wants to perform rolling maintenance on one node without triggering a resource group failover, while keeping the cluster stable and avoiding accidental takeovers. Which approach is most appropriate?

A PowerHA cluster uses asynchronous replication between sites. The customer requires that the cluster never automatically fails over to the remote site if replication is behind, but still wants manual disaster recovery procedures available. What is the best configuration choice?

During troubleshooting, a node is declared DOWN even though the OS is responsive. Logs show intermittent loss on the private heartbeat network while the public network remains stable. The cluster has only one heartbeat network. What is the best-practice remediation to prevent false node-down events?

A two-node cluster is configured with shared storage. A network partition occurs, and both nodes remain up. The customer is concerned about split-brain and simultaneous disk access. Which architectural control most directly prevents both nodes from writing to the shared disks during a partition?

A two-node PowerHA cluster has already been installed and verified. You want an application to start only on the node that currently owns the service IP address and stop cleanly during fallover/failover. Which PowerHA mechanism is the best practice to control this application lifecycle?

During planning, a customer wants to use PowerHA with an application that binds to a hostname and requires the hostname to resolve to the service IP after failover. What is the recommended approach?

You need to verify cluster communication quickly from the command line after a network change. Which tool is most appropriate to validate that all nodes can communicate on the cluster networks and to highlight any missing paths?

A PowerHA cluster uses shared SAN storage for a volume group. After a storage migration, the resource group varies on but the file system mount fails because device names changed (different hdisk numbers). What is the best way to make disk identification robust across nodes and future SAN changes?

A resource group contains an application, a service IP, and a shared file system. The customer wants the service IP to come online only after the file system is mounted to prevent clients from connecting before the application data path is ready. Which configuration element primarily enforces this ordering?

A two-site PowerHA design uses synchronous storage replication. The business requires automated failover to the remote site if the primary site is lost, but they want to prevent a split-brain when inter-site links fail while both sites remain up. Which approach best addresses this requirement?

A cluster has frequent, brief network disruptions. The administrator observes resource groups moving even though the affected node is otherwise healthy. Which PowerHA feature is most appropriate to reduce unnecessary failovers while still detecting real failures?

A PowerHA cluster uses shared storage. During a site incident, both nodes remain running but lose SAN access. The administrator wants the application to stop quickly to avoid data corruption and to prevent clients from continuing writes. Which configuration is most relevant to handle this condition safely?

In a two-node cluster, an administrator runs a manual move of a resource group to the standby node for maintenance. After maintenance, the resource group does not automatically return to the original node even though it is higher priority. Which setting most directly controls whether the RG returns automatically when the preferred node becomes available?

A cluster is configured with replicated data and an application that requires consistent point-in-time recovery on takeover. During testing, failover completes but the application reports inconsistent data because replication was still in-flight. Which design choice best improves consistency during takeover?

A two-node PowerHA cluster will use IP address takeover for a service subnet. What is a best practice to ensure clients can reliably reconnect after a takeover?

A resource group includes an application controller and a service IP. The requirement is that the application must be stopped on the source node before the service IP is taken over by the target node. Which resource group behavior best matches this requirement?

You need to validate the cluster communication paths between nodes after adding a new VLAN. Which action is the most appropriate first step from a PowerHA perspective?

A cluster uses shared SAN LUNs with concurrent access possible at the SCSI layer. What PowerHA mechanism primarily prevents both nodes from writing to the same shared disks during a split-brain scenario?

A resource group fails to start on the target node after takeover. The service IP comes online, but the application controller remains in an error state. The application start script runs successfully when executed manually as root. What is the most likely PowerHA-related cause?

A customer wants to minimize planned outage during AIX maintenance by moving the application to the standby node, patching the first node, then moving back. Which PowerHA approach best supports this goal with controlled, predictable movement of resources?

You are designing a PowerHA cluster with storage replication between sites. The business requires automatic failover across sites when the primary site is unreachable, but wants to avoid failover for transient WAN blips. What design choice best meets this requirement?

A resource group contains a filesystem that must be mounted after volume group activation and before the application starts. The application sometimes starts before the filesystem is available after failover. What is the best PowerHA configuration improvement?

After a site failover, the cluster comes up but refuses to start the resource group, reporting that storage replication is not in the expected direction/state for the target site. What is the most appropriate corrective action?

A cluster experiences intermittent node fallovers. Logs show brief loss of multiple heartbeat networks simultaneously, but the public network remains stable. The environment uses virtual switches and shared NIC uplinks. What is the best next troubleshooting step to isolate the root cause?

During initial planning, a team wants to ensure that a node failure is detected even when both networks between the nodes are down, to avoid a "split brain" condition. Which PowerHA design approach best addresses this requirement?

An administrator is configuring a resource group with an application IP label. The application must continue to accept connections after failover with minimal client changes. Which option is the BEST practice for client connectivity?

A cluster is operational, but the operator wants a quick command-line view of current cluster state (nodes, resource groups, and key status) without opening SMIT. Which is the most appropriate tool?

A two-node cluster uses shared SAN LUNs. After a failover, the resource group comes online but the application cannot open its data files. The volume group appears varied on, but file systems are not mounted. Which PowerHA configuration issue is MOST likely?

A customer wants to reduce downtime during planned maintenance by moving the workload to the standby node without triggering an unplanned failover. Which action should the administrator perform?

An administrator is configuring storage replication for a critical database that requires automatic site failover and coordinated start/stop of replication relationships during resource group events. Which approach best fits this requirement in PowerHA?

A cluster shows intermittent node-down events that recover quickly, and the application stays up. The error log indicates frequent link flaps on one heartbeat interface. What is the BEST next troubleshooting step?

A resource group is configured with fallover to a secondary node. After maintenance, the primary node returns, but the workload stays on the secondary node even though the primary is healthy. Which resource group behavior setting would explain this?

In a multi-site cluster design, the business requires automatic failover between sites but must ensure that the storage at the target site is fully consistent before bringing applications online. Which design element is MOST critical to validate in PowerHA?

A two-node cluster uses shared SAN disks with SCSI-3 persistent reservations to prevent concurrent access. After a node crashes and reboots, it cannot vary on the shared volume group when it becomes the takeover node; logs indicate reservation conflicts. What is the MOST likely cause?