For administrators operating Dell Unity, Unity XT, and Unity VSA systems — covering platform architecture, system administration, block/file/VMware storage provisioning, data efficiency technologies, and data protection with snapshots and replication.
Master Unity platform architecture, system administration, block/file/VMware provisioning, data efficiency technologies, and data protection with snapshots and replication.
Module 01
Unity Platform Concepts, Features, and Architecture
›Unity XT hardware architecture — dual Storage Processors (SP A and SP B) active-active; back-end SAS/NVMe DAE expansion; front-end FC/iSCSI/NAS ports; hybrid and all-flash models
›Unity VSA (Virtual Storage Appliance) — software-defined storage on vSphere; three license editions (Developer, Community 4 TB, Subscription); network adapter configuration
›Unisphere for Unity — HTML5 management GUI; REST API; uemcli command-line interface; SP management port access; role-based access control
›Dynamic vs. traditional storage pools — dynamic pool: flexible RAID with mixed tiers; traditional pool: user-defined RAID-5/6/10; pool expansion and drive mixing
Module 02
Unity XT and Unity VSA System Administration
›User interfaces for monitoring and managing Unity — Unisphere GUI navigation: system dashboard, storage tree, settings; hardware status indicators; alert log
›System administration — configure DNS and NTP settings; manage user accounts with RBAC roles (Administrator, StorageAdmin, Operator, VM Administrator); AD/LDAP integration
›Support settings — ESRS (Embedded Service Enabler) registration for proactive support; call home configuration; SSL certificate management; SP firmware management
›Performance and capacity monitoring — storage pool utilization dashboards; performance heatmaps; set threshold alerts; schedule health check reports
›CLI administration with uemcli — common uemcli commands for storage, hosts, snapshots, replication; connect uemcli to management interface; output formatting
Module 03
Storage Provisioning and Access
›Dynamic and traditional pool provisioning — create dynamic pool with Flash and SAS drives; assign RAID type in traditional pool; monitor pool capacity; expand pool online
›Block storage (LUNs) — create thin and thick LUNs; host access: add FC/iSCSI initiators; create hosts and host groups; LUN masking and access path management
›File storage — create NAS Server with SP affinity; configure NFS and SMB file interfaces; create NFS exports with access rules; create SMB shares with AD authentication
›VMware datastore storage — create VMFS datastores for ESXi; create NFS datastores; Unity vSphere Plugin for Unisphere integration; vVols Protocol Endpoint and Storage Container
›Host access management — FC SAN zoning requirements; iSCSI portal configuration and CHAP authentication; multi-path I/O (PowerPath/MPIO) for block; NFS client/SMB client access setup
Module 04
Storage Efficiency, Scalability, and Performance Features
›FAST Cache — configure all-flash SSD FAST Cache pool; enable FAST Cache for individual LUNs or file systems; FAST Cache read caching and write caching behavior; monitor cache hit rate
›File Level Retention (FLR) — enable FLR on file system; minimum, maximum, and default retention periods; auto-lock vs. compliance mode; FLR event log
›UFS64 file system and File System Quotas — create UFS64 (64-bit) file systems beyond 64 TB; configure per-user and per-tree quotas; quota alert notification
›Data Reduction — enable inline deduplication and compression for dynamic pools; monitor data reduction ratio and space savings in Unisphere
›Thin Clones — create writable thin copies of LUNs; use thin clones for dev/test environments; promote thin clone to production
Module 05
Data Protection and Mobility
›Local LUN Move and Local NAS Server Mobility — move LUNs between storage pools online; move NAS Servers between SPs; use cases for load balancing and maintenance
›Snapshots — create block, file, and VMware datastore snapshots; Consistency Groups for multi-resource application-consistent snapshots; attach snapshot for read-only or writable host access; restore snapshot to source
›Snapshot operations — refresh snapshot from source; delete snapshot; manage snapshot schedules with retention policy; monitor snapshot capacity consumption in Unisphere
›Synchronous replication — Unity Metro sync replication; configure sync replication session between two Unity systems; RPO = 0; failover and failback procedures
›Asynchronous replication — configure async replication session with RPO target (minimum 5 minutes); bandwidth throttling; pause and resume replication; modify RPO interval; reverse replication after DR recovery
Technologies You Will Master
Unity XT
Unity VSA
Block LUNs
NFS/SMB File
VMware Datastores
FAST Cache
Data Reduction
FAST VP
FLR
Thin Clones
Snapshots
Async Replication
Sync Replication
Unisphere
vVols
uemcli CLI
Unity XT
Unity VSA
Block LUNs
NFS/SMB File
VMware Datastores
FAST Cache
Data Reduction
FAST VP
FLR
Thin Clones
Snapshots
Async Replication
Sync Replication
Unisphere
vVols
uemcli CLI
Full Curriculum
5-Module D-UN-OE-23 Programme
Complete Unity operations curriculum — platform concepts, system admin, storage provisioning, data efficiency, and data protection covering all exam domains.
Earn the D-UN-OE-23 Dell Proven Professional certification and validate your ability to administer Unity systems — from block/file provisioning through FAST Cache, data reduction, snapshots, and replication.