Pure Storage Portworx-Enterprise-Professional - Pure Certified Portworx Enterprise Professional (PEP) Exam

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Once two Portworx clusters are paired, for example in disaster recovery setups, data migration between them can be initiated. The command pxctl cloudmigrate start triggers this migration process. It synchronizes volumes, ensuring that data is copied securely and consistently from the source cluster to the destination. This migration is transparent to applications and supports incremental syncs, which helps reduce downtime. The CLI command also provides operational feedback and logs for administrators to monitor progress. Portworx’s documentation on disaster recovery workflows emphasizes this command as essential for starting volume migration post-cluster pairing, streamlining data protection and business continuity strategies across multiple sites or cloud regions【Pure Storage Portworx Disaster Recovery 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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Labeling Kubernetes nodes with rack information is achieved using the kubectl label nodes command. The syntax would be something like kubectl label nodes px/rack=. This label allows Portworx to understand the physical or logical topology of nodes, enabling placement strategies that optimize data locality, fault tolerance, and availability based on rack awareness. Taints and annotations serve different purposes; taints affect pod scheduling by repelling pods, while annotations provide metadata without influencing scheduling. Portworx uses node labels extensively for topology-aware volume placement and disaster recovery planning. Official Portworx documentation recommends labeling nodes with topology identifiers like rack or zone to enable advanced placement strategies and maintain application resiliency in distributed environments【Pure Storage Portworx Placement Guide†source】.

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Portworx uses node labeling as a mechanism to control on which Kubernetes nodes Portworx is installed and allowed to operate. To restrict Portworx installation on specific nodes, those nodes should be labeled with px/enabled=false. This label tells the Portworx Operator or installation scripts to exclude these nodes from Portworx deployment, preventing Portworx daemons from running there. This feature is useful for reserving nodes for non-storage workloads or avoiding unsupported hardware. Labels like px/service=stop or px/storage-node=false are not recognized by Portworx as controls for installation exclusion. The official Portworx deployment and node labeling documentation specify px/enabled=false as the standard method for controlling node participation in the storage cluster, offering administrators fine-grained control over cluster topology and resource allocation【Pure Storage Portworx Deployment 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 officially recommended method to install Portworx with Kubernetes Operator support is using the PX-Operator manifest. This is done by applying the manifest URL with the comp=pxoperator parameter. The command:

kubectl apply -f "https://install.portworx.com/ ?comp=pxoperator&kbver=&ns=portworx"

deploys the Portworx Operator, which manages Portworx lifecycle operations such as installation, upgrades, and configuration changes within the Kubernetes cluster. Specifying the Kubernetes version (kbver) and namespace (ns) ensures compatibility and proper scoping. This operator-centric installation enables more efficient management and automation compared to standalone scripts or manual installations. Portworx official operator installation documentation confirms this approach as the best practice for production deployments, streamlining Portworx management in Kubernetes environments【Pure Storage Portworx Operator Installation Guide†source】.

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The ApplicationRestore Custom Resource Definition (CRD) object in Portworx is specifically designed to restore an application from an existing ApplicationBackup. This object orchestrates the process of recovering a consistent snapshot of an application, including all its associated volumes, in Kubernetes environments. Using ApplicationRestore, administrators can define the source backup, restore location, and any necessary transformations during restoration. This facilitates disaster recovery, migration, or rollback scenarios for complex stateful applications. The Portworx backup and restore documentation clearly defines ApplicationRestore as the controller responsible for application-level recovery operations, ensuring data integrity and consistency throughout the restore workflow【Pure Storage Portworx Backup and Restore Guide†source】.

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Adding a new drive to an existing Portworx storage cluster involves bringing the physical device online for Portworx management. The correct command for this is pxctl service drive add -drive /dev/dm-1 -operation start. This command instructs Portworx to recognize and incorporate the new drive specified by the device path (e.g., /dev/dm-1) into its storage pool. After this operation, Portworx can use the drive for provisioning volumes or expanding capacity. The -operation start flag signals Portworx to initialize and prepare the drive for use. This method is part of Portworx’s dynamic storage management capabilities, allowing flexible scaling of storage resources without downtime. Official CLI documentation outlines this command as the supported approach to adding drives to running clusters safely and efficiently【Pure Storage Portworx CLI Guide†source】.

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To view current alerts raised by Portworx within the cluster, the primary command is pxctl alerts show. This CLI command lists all active alerts with details such as severity, affected resources, and timestamps. It helps administrators quickly identify issues impacting cluster health, storage pools, volumes, or nodes. While Grafana is a powerful visualization tool often used alongside Prometheus for monitoring, it requires additional setup and does not directly replace the immediate, real-time alert query functionality of pxctl. The pxctl cd list alerts is not a valid command. Portworx documentation emphasizes pxctl alerts show as the go-to tool for alert inspection during operational checks and troubleshooting, offering a concise and focused alert view integrated with Portworx’s internal alerting system【Pure Storage Portworx Alerting Guide†source】.

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Portworx requires a minimum of 4 CPU cores per node to operate efficiently. This minimum ensures sufficient compute resources to handle storage management operations, volume I/O, replication, and metadata services without performance bottlenecks. While more cores can improve throughput and scalability, 4 cores is the documented baseline for supporting production workloads and maintaining cluster responsiveness. The Portworx system requirements specify this CPU baseline to guarantee stable operation alongside other Kubernetes node workloads. Deployments with fewer CPU resources may face degraded performance or instability. Official Portworx hardware requirements recommend 4 cores or more per node to meet performance and reliability objectives in typical enterprise environments【Pure Storage Portworx System Requirements†source】.