Exam Objectives and Commonly Referenced Documentation for Platform Architect Expert Study Guide

Certifications
Audience
Public
Product
FlashBlade
FlashArray
FlashStack
Evergreen
Pure1
Portworx
Source Type
Documentation

The following tables list the Platform Architect Expert exam objectives and how these objectives align to the corresponding commonly referenced product documentation and resources. Candidates are encouraged to review the applicable topics as part of their preparation for the exam.

Note: For Knowledge Portal documents, be sure to reference all subtopics, PDFs, and/or links that are part of the document link provided.

Section 1: Analysis (37%)

Exam Objectives

Applicable Documentation and Resources

1.01 - Interpret existing customer environment

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify customer pain points and performance requirements

  • Evaluate existing SAN/NAS infrastructure and connected systems

  • Review current Everpure product deployments and integrations

  • Assess SLAs, data protection goals, and operational constraints

  • Leverage Pure sizing and assessment tools to validate environment readiness and capacity planning

  1. Fusion Requirements

  2. Purity Release Recommendations

  3. Effective Used Capacity (EUC) - Reference Guide for Evergreen//One, //Flex and Everpure Cloud Dedicated

  4. Virtual Machine and Guest Configuration

  5. Part 1: Deploy FlashStack with SmartConfig

  6. Architectural Design Decisions Directly Impact IT Agility for Everpure FlashArray and FlashBlade Users

  7. Drive Transformational Change

1.02 - Analyze customer workload requirements and current state

Objective Subtopics:

  • Gather workload characteristics including IOPS, latency, and throughput expectations

  • Map workloads to appropriate Everpure solutions

  • Assess capacity, performance, and scalability requirements across environments

  • Use Pure sizing and assessment tools to validate design feasibility

  • Identify optimization opportunities for efficiency and resilience

  • Validate workload placement strategies to meet business and technical goals

  1. How to Simplify Application Deployment Planning with Pure1

  2. Kubernetes Persistent volumes

  3. Connect and Configure Async Replication

  4. Pure1 Manage - Planning Page

  5. Introduction to Real World Workloads

1.03 - Review network for potential issues or slowdowns

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify network design factors that impact latency, throughput, and reliability

  • Evaluate supporting infrastructure for bandwidth, redundancy, and routing efficiency

  • Validate compatibility between customer network configurations and Everpure solutions

  • Assess opportunities to enhance availability through improved design or segmentation

  • Recommend performance optimizations aligned with Pure best practices

  1. DFM Capacities and Supported Platforms

  2. Examples

  3. Alert 1004 - Ethernet Connector Status

  4. FlashBlade//S, //E Transceiver and Cable Support

  5. FlashBlade//S Single-Chassis Installation Guides

1.04 - Determine data center physical requirements and planning

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify power, cooling, and rack requirements for Everpure hardware

  • Validate site readiness for installation and integration

  • Review cabling, access, and environmental considerations

  • Assess connectivity and operational requirements for Dark Site environments

  • Coordinate with facilities to ensure infrastructure supports scalability and serviceability

  1. FlashArray//ST FAQ

  2. FlashBlade//E Technical Specifications

  3. FlashArray//XR5 Technical Specifications

  4. NVMe-oF Overview

  5. FlashBlade//S Technical Specifications

  6. FlashArray Transceiver and Cable Support

  7. ESG Report 2023

  8. Everpure FlashBlade//E Data Sheet

1.05 - Determine physical and logical networking requirements

Objective Subtopics:

  • Define VLANs, subnets, and IP schema to support solution design

  • Validate network connectivity between Everpure components, hosts, and dependent systems

  • Confirm routing, segmentation, and access-control configurations

  1. FlashArray Asynchronous Replication Best Practices Guide

  2. FlashBlade Best Practices For NFS Nconnect

  3. FlashBlade//S Best Practices for GDS

  4. FlashBlade Best Practices for Networking

  5. Configuring FlashBlade: Multiple DataVip Creation

  6. Enabling NVMe-TCP

  7. FlashArray File - Requirements and Best Practices

1.06 - Determine if Portworx is an appropriate solution for the customer

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify workloads suitable for containerization or Kubernetes environments

  • Evaluate requirements for persistent storage and data services

  • Assess readiness for Portworx deployment and integration with Everpure platforms

  • Validate compatibility with performance, scalability, and recovery goals

  • Recommend Portworx when it aligns with business outcomes and platform strategy

  1. Portworx Backup Documentation - Concepts

  2. Kafka with Zookeeper on Portworx

  3. Portworx with CSI

  4. Install Portworx with Everpure FlashBlade as a Direct Access volume

  5. Install Portworx with Everpure FlashArray Direct Access volumes with ActiveCluster setup

  6. Create Sharedv4 PVCs

  7. What is Portworx Enterprise

  8. Apache Kafka on Kubernetes with Portworx

1.07 - Determine if and where cloud is a fit

Objective Subtopics:

  • Evaluate customer requirements for hybrid or cloud-based deployments

  • Identify opportunities to integrate Everpure Cloud Dedicated for scalability and resilience

  • Assess connectivity, latency, and data-sovereignty considerations

  • Determine workload placement and replication strategies across environments

  1. How to Best Utilize Purity CLI Scripting

  2. ActiveCluster Planning and Design Guide

  3. ActiveCluster FAQ

  4. Everpure Cloud Dedicated for AWS Overview

  5. Replicating Data from the FlashArray to Everpure Cloud Dedicated

  6. White Paper | Everpure Cloud Dedicated for AWS

  7. Replication

  8. White Paper | Everpure Cloud Dedicated on Azure

  9. Everpure Cloud Dedicated Solutions for SQL Server

  10. Solution Brief: Everpure Cloud Dedicated

1.08 - Determine customer security requirements

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify organizational, regulatory, and compliance security standards

  • Evaluate encryption, authentication, and access-control needs

  • Verify network and data-path security configurations across Everpure solutions

  • Recommend security architectures that align with enterprise frameworks and best practices

  1. Security Guidelines for Storage Infrastructure

  2. Purity//FA Administration Guide Version 6.10.0 (See Ch. 2 FlashArray Concepts and Features)

  3. Create a Cert with SAN entries from command line using OpenSSL

  4. FlashArray Security - Comprehensive FAQ

  5. FlashBlade Administration Guide 4.6.3 (See Ch. 8 The Purity//FB GUI Policies Page)

  6. FlashBlade Multi-tenancy Overview

Section 2: Design (45%)

Exam Objectives

Applicable Documentation and Resources

2.01 - Design for Pure product

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify the Everpure platform components that meet performance, availability, and scale requirements

  • Differentiate product capabilities across block, file, and object storage

  • Validate product interoperability within the overall architecture

  • Evaluate performance, scalability, resiliency, and growth paths for each platform

  • Recommend the optimal product mix to meet workload and availability objectives

  1. ActiveWorkload FAQ

  2. FlashArray File Multi-Server Feature Overview (starting Purity//FA 6.8.7)

  3. FlashArray Multi-Tenancy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  4. FlashBlade Object Services Limits

  5. FlashBlade Zero Move Tiering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  6. FlashBlade Zero Move Tiering Storage Configuration Rules

  7. FlashBlade//S Product Information

  8. Everpure Fusion FAQ

  9. FlashBlade Capacity and Feature Limits

2.02 - Design for storage network

Objective Subtopics:

  • Define physical and logical network requirements (bandwidth, latency, redundancy)

  • Validate connectivity models (FC, iSCSI, NFS/SMB, S3, NVMe-oF) and host personalities

  • Establish segmentation, VLANs/subnets, and access controls

  • Plan for high availability, failover, and path resiliency

  • Assess network designs for scalability and integration with Everpure solutions

  • Recommend network topologies that align with architectural standards

  1. Azure ExpressRoute FastPath: Features, availability, and limitations

  2. FlashArray Connectivity Reference

  3. NVIDIA GPU Direct Storage (GDS) Solution for Flashblade//S - Using NFS over RDMA

  4. FlashBlade Networking

  5. FlashBlade Best Practices for Networking

  6. FlashArray Best Practices for Networking

  7. Enabling NVMe-TCP

  8. Link Aggregation Control Protocol for File VIFs

2.03 - Design for OS

Objective Subtopics:

  • Validate OS interoperability with Everpure environments

  • Assess multipathing, filesystem, and driver requirements

  • Recommend configuration parameters to optimize performance and reliability

  • Verify plug-in and integration support for target OS distributions

  • Evaluate upgrade and lifecycle requirements for connected hosts

  1. 5.6. Online Data Relocation

  2. Use of XCOPY offloads in migrations from Virtual Volume datastores

  3. [MS-FSCC]: Alternate Data Streams

  4. Native SQL Server Backup Compression (See the "Compression and Encryption" section)

  5. Self-Service Purity Upgrades with Pure1 Manage: FAQ

  6. Installing the vSphere Plugin with the Everpure VMware Appliance

  7. Volume Shadow Copy Management

  8. Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

  9. Everpure and VMware Compatibility

  10. ESXi Host Configuration

2.04 - Design for automation and scheduling

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify which tools, plug-ins, and APIs to use for automation

  • Integrate Pure1, Fusion, and other supported platforms for automated management and scheduling

  • Define orchestration workflows, scheduling windows, and change controls

  • Validate automation workflows for reliability, error handling, and recovery

  • Apply best practices for implementing scalable and maintainable automation strategies

  1. Introducing the Pure1 REST API

  2. How to Best Utilize Purity CLI Scripting

  3. Everpure REST API + Windows PowerShell

  4. Try the REST API Using a REST Client

  5. Automatically grow PVCs

  6. What is Portworx Enterprise

  7. Everpure Fusion FAQ

  8. Everpure Fusion Best Practices

  9. FlashArray REST API Reference Guides

  10. Pure1 Manage - Reporting

  11. Part 1: Deploy FlashStack with SmartConfig

2.05 - Design for observability and monitoring

Objective Subtopics:

  • Define monitoring and observability requirements across Everpure environments

  • Integrate Fusion, Pure1 Manage, and supported plug-ins for unified visibility

  • Establish alerting thresholds, escalation paths, and health baselines

  • Correlate metrics for capacity, performance, and availability analysis

  • Design monitoring strategies for Dark Site environments

  • Validate observability architecture supports proactive operations and automation

  1. Your Platform, Your Metrics: Observability on Your Terms

  2. Exploring the Pure1® REST API, Part 1

  3. Exploring the Pure1® REST API, Part 3

  4. purefa-metrics.md — Pure FA OpenMetrics Exporter

  5. How To: Scrub Dark Site Logs (Puremagic LogObfuscate)

  6. Unconnected "Dark" Site Assets

  7. FlashBlade Alerting Mechanisms

  8. Monitoring 101: Investigating performance issues

2.06 - Design for Cyber Resilience

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify recovery-point and recovery-time objectives for business-critical data

  • Define replication strategies (synchronous and asynchronous) and snapshot policies aligned with SLAs

  • Incorporate SafeMode protections and ransomware-resilient recovery methods

  • Design backup integration and disaster-recovery (DR) architectures supporting rapid restoration

  • Validate protection workflows for compliance and recovery readiness

  • Recommend resilient architectures that meet business-continuity objectives

  1. FlashBlade Object Replication FAQ

  2. WORM File Systems on FlashBlade

  3. SafeMode Best Practices

  4. FlashArray SafeMode

  5. FlashArray File - FAQ

  6. FlashArray File Services Hardware Support

  7. ActiveCluster Planning and Design Guide

  8. ActiveDR FAQ

  9. ActiveDR Best Practices Guide

  10. Purity Replication Requirements and Interoperability Matrix

  11. Pure1 Manage - Planning Page

  12. What is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)?

  13. DORA Regulation in the UK

2.07 - Design for storage in the cloud

Objective Subtopics:

  • Evaluate hybrid and multi-cloud architecture options using Everpure Cloud Dedicated

  • Assess connectivity, latency, and data-sovereignty requirements

  • Define replication, failover, and recovery models between on-premises and cloud environments

  • Integrate cost, performance, and availability considerations into design recommendations

  • Validate architectural alignment with business continuity and scalability objectives

  1. ActiveDR FAQ

  2. Azure VMware Solution Requirements

  3. What is Everpure Cloud Azure Native

  4. Interfaces/Subnets

  5. Everpure Cloud Dedicated for AWS Overview

2.08 - Implement security standards

Objective Subtopics:

  • Align storage design with enterprise and regulatory security requirements

  • Apply encryption, authentication, and role-based access principles

  • Integrate secure connectivity, certificate management, and identity federation

  • Validate configurations against compliance frameworks and best practices

  • Recommend security enhancements to improve overall platform posture

  1. What Is Certificate Verification for Root CA, Intermediate CA, and End-Entity CA

  2. Create a Cert with SAN entries from command line using OpenSSL

  3. FIPS 140-2 and FIPS 140-3 Certification

  4. FlashArray Security Overview and Best Practices

  5. FlashBlade Multi-tenancy Overview

  6. Purity//FA Release Notes

  7. Purity//FA 6.4.x Release Notes

  8. Working with Single Sign-On (SSO)

  9. VMware NFS Datastores on FlashArray Quick Start Guide

  10. How Does the SSL Certificate Chain of Trust Work?

Section 3: Configuration (18%)

Exam Objectives

Applicable Documentation and Resources

3.01 - Determine storage configuration

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify host and cluster layout requirements that support performance, scalability, and isolation

  • Apply volume sizing, mapping, and protocol (NVMe or iSCSI) configurations aligned with workload needs

  • Validate ActiveCluster (synchronous) and ActiveDR (asynchronous) replication configurations for multi-site environments

  • Recognize how configuration policies and naming standards ensure operational consistency

  • Validate configurations align with Everpure best practices and design objectives.

  1. FlashArray SafeMode FAQ

  2. WORM File Systems on FlashBlade

  3. FlashBlade Multi-Tenancy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  4. FlashBlade Administration Guide 4.6.3 (See Ch 2. Purity//FB Overview)

  5. Connecting the Host to the FlashArray NVMe-TCP Controller

  6. How to apply a Backup Operators GPO policy in Active Directory

  7. ActiveCluster: Configuring Preferred Arrays

  8. FlashBlade Best Practices for Object Storage

  9. Configuring FlashArray

  10. Rubrik + Everpure: Cyber Resilience Stack

3.02 - Integrate OS/Server

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify required host personalities for connectivity

  • Configure and validate multipathing policies

  • Recognize common host setting adjustments for remediation

  • Understand interoperability across Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS, and SMB

  • Validate host integration for ActiveCluster and ActiveDR environments

  • Assess host compatibility and support for diverse operating systems (Linux, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris)

  1. iSCSI Setup with FlashArray

  2. Deprecation of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) in VCF 9.0 and VVF 9.0

  3. FlashBlade Best Practices for Native SMB

  4. FlashBlade SMB Performance FAQ

  5. Encrypted and Non-Encrypted Connections

  6. Configuring Linux Host for iSCSI with FlashArray

  7. Networking: FlashBlade Connectivity to SN5600 Leaf Switches

  8. Host Personality in Purity

  9. ESXi Host Configuration

3.03 - Configure replication

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify when to use ActiveCluster (synchronous) or ActiveDR (asynchronous) replication

  • Define replication groups, schedules, and retention requirements

  • Validate replication connectivity and performance meet recovery objectives

  • Confirm configurations support data-protection and business-continuity goals

  1. Active-Active Asynchronous Replication

  2. ActiveCluster On-Premises Mediator Deployment Guide

  3. Active - Active Object Replication Deployment Guide

  4. Connecting the Buckets for Replication

  5. ActiveCluster FlashArray Relocation Procedure

3.04 - Integrate with third-party products

Objective Subtopics:

  • Identify supported integrations and interoperability use cases

  • Configure and validate required APIs, plug-ins, or adapters

  • Understand authentication, security, and connectivity considerations

  • Assess support and lifecycle alignment across integrated solutions

  1. Falling in Love with Veeam Backup & Replication v12

  2. Visualizing Prometheus Data with Grafana Dashboards for FlashBlade

  3. Using Prometheus and Grafana with Everpure

  4. Configure Everpure FlashArray as a Direct Access volume

  5. ActiveCluster FAQ

  6. Using FlashArray Volume Snapshots with SQL Server

  7. Working with Single Sign-On (SSO)

  8. Professional Services Service Briefs

  9. Snowflake Data Cloud on Everpure Flashblade