You are setting up a peer relationship between two ONTAP clusters.

Explanation (250–350 words):

Cluster peering authentication is a foundational ONTAP SAN concept that ensures secure trust between clusters before data replication can occur. Authentication is performed during the peering process and establishes mutual trust.

ONTAP supportspassphrase-based authentication, where a passphrase is either user-defined orautomatically generated by ONTAP. This passphrase is exchanged between clusters to authenticate the peer relationship. LDAP is not used for cluster peering authentication.

Administrators can verify the authentication and status of cluster peering relationships using thecluster peer showcommand, which displays peer state, availability, and authentication status.

Peering encryption can be enabled independently and does not require authentication to be completed first, making option C incorrect.

Therefore, the correct answers areA and D.