Network Attached Storage (NAS) certification is provided by EMC to Implementation Engineers who proves their knowledge and skills in the implementation of NAS and Celerra Solutions. This is one of the EMC Implementation Engineer (EMCIE) track certification. NAS is a storage device, shared in an open system network to provide file based storage services and each device possess a unique IP address. NAS certification is attained by passing three level of certification exams such as Associate level, Specialist level and Expert level.

NAS Associate Level Exam (E10-001)

NAS Associate level certification is gained by passing Information Storage and Management (ISM) Version 2 Exam. EMCISA is the basic requirement for all other certifications. The topics covered in this exam are Storage Systems, RAID, intelligent storage methods, FC SAN, NAS, IP SAN, object based storage, replication, backup and archive, Cloud Computing, management and security of data storage.

The exam is for 90 minutes with 65 questions. It offers Instructor-led training and Video Instructor-led training which takes totally 40 hours to complete the course. The course fee is around USD $600. The main book to be followed for this exam is 'Information Storage and Management' - 2nd Ed, by John Wiley & Sons. This book covers the entire syllabus of this exam.

NAS Specialist Level Exam (E20-361)

Network Attached Storage (NAS) Specialist Exam for Implementation Engineers focuses on the operation of Celerra architecture, Celerra components and Celerra Solutions. This exam is for 1:30 hours with 60 questions. To pass this exam the candidate need to attain knowledge about the products such as Celerra NS Series, Celerra Unified storage, Unisphere Manager, and CLARiiON.

The topics to be covered for this exam includes:

• Implementing Celerra solutions: This includes Celerra NFS, CIFS and iSCSI solutions, CAVA, Celerra backup solutions and Celerra replicator.
• Core Components of Celerra: This topic includes the network environment for Celerra, features of Data Mover and its management, implementation and management of Data Mover failover, implementation of network configuration and its features, backend storage, Creation and management of Celerra storage quotas and file systems.
• Celerra Architecture: This includes Connection of Data Mover to public network, private network, storage subsystems.

The recommended training for this exam on CLARiiON foundations, Celerra foundations, Connectrix foundations, Celerra Antivirus Agent will be offered by EMC either through e-learning mode or VILT mode. The study materials provided in the training course and the hands-on practice on the products are more than enough to pass this Specialist level exam.

NAS Expert Level Exam (E20-860)

NAS Expert Exam for Implementation Engineers focuses on the implementation of NAS solutions. This exam is for 1:30 hours with 60 questions. The products to be understood for this exam includes Celerra replicator, Unisphere, Celerra Antivirus, Ether channel, Celerra MPFS, NDMP, Manual and automatic Volume Manager, Celerra Hardware, LACP.

The main topics to be covered for this exam includes:

• Benchmark Considerations and Performance overview of NAS: It includes the Celerra benchmark according to EMC and NAS performance to analyse and troubleshoot issues with appropriate tools.
• CLARiiON Performance Considerations: It includes the topics such as the explanation of CLARiiON information caching and its functionalities, important performance features.
• Considerations of Automatic Volume Management (AVM): it includes the description and implementation of AVM with CLARiiON, description of CLARiiON concepts for disk configuration, manual volume management in sensitive performance environments.
• Best practices for RAID and Disk types: It includes the identification of Celerra support RAID and placing it in suitable performance sensitive surroundings, description of CX4 drives.
• Considerations of Network Environments: It comprises of the implementation of network availability, performance and connection technologies, identification of potential bottlenecks.
• EMC Features: Analysing and measuring the performance of Celerra replicator, identifying and describing performance implications for Celerra anti-virus agent.
• Tools and Performance Statistics of Celerra: it describes the server statistics and Celerra performance.
• Celerra Replicator: It describes the VDM functionality, Usermapper functionality.
• Workload considerations: It comprises the performance of NAS devices due to the characteristics of workload.

On covering all the above topics and having in-depth knowledge in their products helps to attain the certificate. Recommended training, practice test and the materials provided on the training course helps a lot to prepare for this Certification exam.

Trevor Kilson, Developer, Web-Solutions Ltd.