XtremIO Maintenance D-XTR-MN-A-24 vs. Operate D-XTR-OE-A-24: What's the Difference?

Dell XtremIO remains a key all-flash storage solution for organizations that demand high performance, predictable latency, and efficient data services. As XtremIO has evolved from X1 to the X2 generation, Dell has provided structured learning achievements to validate professionals across different stages of the system lifecycle. Two of the most important achievements in this learning track are XtremIO Maintenance (D-XTR-MN-A-24) and XtremIO Operate (D-XTR-OE-A-24). Although these two achievements are related, they focus on different skill sets and roles within the IT environment. Understanding the difference helps individuals choose the right path and helps organizations assign responsibilities more effectively.

Focus: Installation, hardware lifecycle management, and non-disruptive upgrades.

This achievement is designed for professionals responsible for the physical deployment and ongoing hardware reliability of XtremIO X2 systems.

Focus: Daily management, configuration, provisioning, monitoring, and integration.

This achievement is intended for storage administrators who manage logical storage operations and performance in production environments.

Exams	XtremIO Maintenance (D-XTR-MN-A-24)	XtremIO Operate (D-XTR-OE-A-24)
Primary Focus	Hardware installation, replacement, expansion, upgrades	Storage provisioning, monitoring, host integration, and performance management
Target System	Primarily XtremIO X2	Both XtremIO X1 and X2
Key Skills	Racking, cabling, IB switch config, FRU procedures	XMS management, snapshots, host configuration, reporting
Ideal Roles	Field Engineers, Support Technicians, Deployment Specialists	Storage Administrators, System Engineers, Data Center Operations Teams

This achievement covers:

Differences between XtremIO X1 and X2 systems, including GUI enhancements

Hardware architecture and component identification

InfiniBand switch options and SuperCap/BBU power protection technologies

DAE capacity and available X-Brick configurations

Installation workflows, cabling topologies, and cluster expansion steps

Non-Disruptive Upgrade (NDU) procedures and health validation

This training ensures professionals can deploy systems correctly, avoid common installation pitfalls, and maintain hardware reliability over time.

This achievement focuses on:

XtremIO X1 and X2 architecture, use cases, and operational design

Deployment and configuration of the XtremIO Management Server (XMS)

Volume provisioning using GUI, CLI, and REST API

Host configuration requirements for Windows, Linux, and VMware

Snapshot cloning, bookmarks, and retention use cases

Integration with RecoverPoint, VPLEX, and AppSync

Managing performance metrics and interpreting reports

This ensures administrators know how to effectively run XtremIO in production and deliver optimal storage performance.

Your job responsibilities are the deciding factor:

Choose Maintenance if you install, upgrade, expand, or physically service XtremIO hardware.

Choose Operate if you manage storage for hosts, monitor performance, and configure data services.

Some professionals pursue both achievements-this is ideal for smaller environments where engineers manage both hardware and storage operations.

XtremIO remains a powerful flash storage platform designed for mission-critical workloads such as databases, VDI, and application development environments. The Maintenance (D-XTR-MN-A-24) and Operate (D-XTR-OE-A-24) achievements together form a complete skills framework covering the full lifecycle of XtremIO systems.

●Maintenance ensures the system is built correctly and runs reliably.

●Operate ensures the system supports workloads efficiently and securely.

Whether you are a deployment engineer, storage administrator, or architect, choosing the right achievement helps you build the expertise needed to support modern flash storage environments.