About the Exam

This is a 90-minute Cisco CCNP Data Center concentration exam that tests troubleshooting of a data center infrastructure. It covers network, compute platforms, storage network, automation, management, and operations. Passing it earns the Cisco Certified Specialist - Data Center Operations certification and can satisfy the CCNP Data Center concentration exam requirement.

Exam Topics

Network25%
Compute Platforms25%
Storage Network15%
Automation15%
Management and Operations20%

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Last updated June 27, 2026 at 12:04 PM

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QuestionQ1

Network

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Refer to the exhibit. The vPC between switch1 and switch2 is not working. Which two actions resolve the issue?

Choose two

Explanation

Both vPC peers must use the same vPC domain ID. The vPC peer link and peer-keepalive link must also be correctly configured and operational; an unreachable peer-keepalive destination prevents the peer relationship from forming. Cisco NX-OS requires the peer-keepalive link before the vPC peer link can form.

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Cisco Nexus 9000 Series NX-OS Interfaces Configuration Guide—Configuring vPCs

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QuestionQ2

Network

A mission-critical server is connected to site A. Connectivity to this server from site B is lost because the MAC route is absent from the OTV VDC on the Cisco Nexus 7000 at site B as a result of MAC aging. Which action permits flooding of the unknown-unicast MAC on the Nexus 7000 in the OTV VDC?

Explanation

Cisco Nexus 7000 OTV supports selective unicast flooding with the otv flood mac mac-address vlan vlan-id command. It configures flooding for the specified destination MAC when the OTV MAC route is unavailable, such as after MAC aging. Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS OTV Configuration Guide—Configuring Advanced OTV Features

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QuestionQ3

Network

A customer configures HSRP between two data centers interconnected through OTV. The configuration succeeds, but traffic between two ESXi virtual hosts at the same site is routed suboptimally through the OTV overlay. Which two actions optimize the traffic?

Choose two

Explanation

An OTV-edge Layer 3 VACL blocks HSRP control packets from crossing sites, and a Layer 2 MAC list prevents the HSRP virtual MAC from being advertised or used across the overlay. This localizes first-hop gateway behavior and keeps same-site traffic from taking an unnecessary OTV path.

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QuestionQ4

Network

A client reports frequent flapping and server-cluster disconnects in its data center. While investigating the problem, an engineer finds that a network attack is targeting Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches and that its source IP addresses are spoofed. Which first-line security solution resolves this problem?

Explanation

Unicast RPF checks ingress packets against the forwarding information base to verify that the source address has a valid reverse path. Packets with forged or unverifiable source IP addresses are dropped, mitigating spoofed-source attacks.

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Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide 8.x — Configuring Unicast RPF

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QuestionQ5

Management and Operations

A Cisco ACI environment includes three Cisco APICs, two spine switches, and four leaf switches. An engineer erases and reboots all APICs first, then erases and reboots the leaf and spine switches individually, and completes the Initial Setup dialog from the APIC1 CIMC KVM console. After logging in to the APIC1 web GUI, the engineer finds that no directly connected leaf switches are being discovered under Fabric > Inventory > Fabric Membership. What is causing the issue?

Explanation

A clean-reloaded leaf can receive stale infrastructure fabric parameters through LLDP from a switch that has not yet been cleaned. Those mismatched parameters prevent the leaf from registering or appearing in fabric membership. Cisco documents that all leaf switches must be clean rebooted simultaneously when infrastructure parameters change; otherwise a clean-reloaded leaf can learn the old infrastructure VLAN and fail to register with the APIC.

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Troubleshoot ACI Fabric Discovery - Device Replacement

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QuestionQ6

Network

A request to activate the port-security database is denied. Which action can be used to investigate the cause of the problem?

Explanation

Port-security database activation can be rejected when entries are missing from, or conflict between, the configuration database and the active database. Comparing those databases reveals the conflicting or missing entries that caused the rejection.

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