Bring-up on a new Data Domain head finished with the network settings typed in, but nothing has been exercised from the appliance itself. The lead wants basic testing to start in the right place. Where should it start?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Before you ask anyone else to prove the path works, make the box prove it itself. Fire the Data Domain's own tests at its gateway and its name services - outbound from the system, not inbound to it. Every other test is just a bigger, slower version of the same question.
Full Explanation
Configuration is intent; testing is proof, and the first proof should come from the system being tested. Appliance-originated checks - reaching the configured gateway, resolving the configured name servers - isolate faults on the system side (address, mask, gateway, VLAN membership, firewall return paths) before a client-side failure can mask them, and they run in seconds. Only after the appliance itself can talk outward does it make sense to ask hosts to talk to it. Starting with an end-to-end backup job is valid work, but it is the wrong order: a failure deep inside a long job mixes protocol, credential, and network faults, and costs minutes instead of seconds to attribute. Re-entering settings checks transcription, not behavior - correctly typed settings can still be unreachable because of a switch VLAN or firewall, so the act proves nothing about the path. Restarting services and re-checking the GUI exercises local services that were already running; a responsive GUI on the management address says nothing about gateway reachability or DNS. Exam caveat: outbound tests can pass while inbound management access is still blocked by a firewall rule - that is a separate, later test from a client segment. Operational check: gateway reachability and name-service resolution both proven from the appliance CLI and recorded on the bring-up sheet before any client test begins.