220-1101 Practice Test 11 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A systems administrator manages a virtualized environment with a hypervisor hosting multiple virtual machines (VMs). A critical database VM experiences performance degradation during peak hours because other VMs consume a large amount of CPU resources. The administrator wants to ensure that the database VM always receives at least 2 vCPUs worth of processing power, regardless of the demand from other VMs. Which virtualization feature should the administrator configure?

Accepted Answer

Resource reservation. Resource reservation guarantees a minimum amount of CPU capacity (in MHz or vCPUs) to a specific VM, ensuring the database VM always has at least 2 vCPUs worth of processing power even when other VMs are highly active. This feature is configured on the hypervisor (e.g., VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V) and prevents resource starvation by reserving physical CPU cycles for that VM.

Answer

Load balancing

Answer

CPU affinity

Answer

Dynamic memory allocation

Question 2

A technician is replacing a 10/100 Mbps network switch with a new Gigabit switch. After connecting all devices, the technician notices that the link LEDs on several ports are showing amber instead of green. The switch documentation states that green indicates a 1000 Mbps link, and amber indicates a 10/100 Mbps link. All connected devices support Gigabit Ethernet. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The Ethernet cables between the switch and devices are faulty or of poor quality.. The amber link LED indicates that the switch is operating at 10/100 Mbps rather than the expected 1000 Mbps. Since all connected devices support Gigabit Ethernet, the most likely cause is that the Ethernet cables are faulty or of poor quality, as Gigabit Ethernet requires all four twisted pairs (8 wires) to be fully functional, whereas 10/100 Mbps only uses two pairs. A marginal or damaged cable can cause auto-negotiation to fall back to a lower speed.

Answer

The devices are configured for half-duplex, causing auto-negotiation to fail.

Answer

The power supply of the switch is insufficient for all ports.

Answer

The switch is not properly configured for Gigabit mode.

Question 3

A technician assembles a new desktop computer using a third-party CPU cooler. After powering on, the CPU temperature rapidly rises to 95°C within a few seconds, and the CPU fan spins at maximum speed. The technician verifies that the thermal paste is applied correctly and that the CPU fan is connected to the CPU_FAN header. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the high temperature?

Accepted Answer

The heatsink is not properly seated or the mounting pressure is uneven. The rapid temperature spike to 95°C within seconds, despite correct thermal paste application and fan connection to the CPU_FAN header, indicates that the heatsink is not making proper thermal contact with the CPU. Uneven mounting pressure or an improperly seated heatsink creates air gaps that drastically reduce heat transfer efficiency, causing the CPU to overheat immediately under even idle power draw.

Answer

The CPU is not compatible with the motherboard

Answer

The CPU fan connector is plugged into a chassis fan header

Answer

The power supply unit is underpowered for the CPU

Question 4

A technician installed a used SATA SSD from another computer into a desktop workstation. The BIOS correctly detects the SSD, but Windows does not show any new drive in File Explorer. The technician opens Disk Management and sees no uninitialized disks listed. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Change the SATA controller mode in BIOS from RAID to AHCI. Option B is correct because when a SATA SSD is detected in BIOS but not in Windows Disk Management, and no uninitialized disks appear, the most likely cause is that the SATA controller mode is set to RAID or Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) in BIOS, which prevents Windows from recognizing the drive as a standard AHCI device. Changing the mode to AHCI allows the OS to properly enumerate and initialize the SSD, as AHCI is the native driver interface for SATA devices in Windows.

Answer

Check the SATA cable power connection and ensure the drive is receiving power

Answer

Run the format command from a command prompt with administrative privileges

Answer

Update the chipset drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website

Question 5

A technician connects a new workstation to a wall jack in an office. The link lights on both the workstation's NIC and the switch port are solid green. The workstation cannot obtain an IP address via DHCP. The technician manually assigns a static IP address in the same subnet as other working workstations (192.168.1.100/24, gateway 192.168.1.1), but the workstation still cannot ping the gateway or any other device on the network. Other workstations connected to the same switch can access network resources normally. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The switch port has port security enabled, and the workstation's MAC address is not allowed. The solid link lights indicate Layer 1 connectivity is good, ruling out a faulty cable. The inability to obtain an IP via DHCP and the failure to ping the gateway even with a manually assigned static IP in the correct subnet point to a Layer 2 filtering mechanism. Port security on the switch port is the most likely cause, as it would block all traffic from an unauthorized MAC address, preventing DHCP discovery and any subsequent communication, even with a valid static IP.

Answer

The IP address 192.168.1.100 is already in use by another device

Answer

The Ethernet cable is faulty

Answer

The DHCP server has exhausted its IP address pool

Question 6

A financial services company needs to migrate its customer transaction processing system to the cloud. Regulatory requirements mandate that all customer data must reside on servers physically located within the country’s borders and that the hardware must be dedicated solely to the company (no multi-tenancy at the hardware level). The company wants to retain the ability to scale resources on demand and manage the operating system and applications. Which cloud deployment model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Private cloud. A private cloud provides dedicated physical resources that are not shared with other organizations, offering the required isolation and control. It can be hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider with exclusive hardware. A public cloud would involve shared hardware, violating the requirement. A hybrid cloud combines public and private but does not guarantee full isolation. A community cloud is shared among several organizations with common concerns, but still not dedicated to one company.

Answer

Public cloud

Answer

Hybrid cloud

Answer

Community cloud

Question 7

A small office has a network with a router providing DHCP. A user's computer can access the internet but cannot print to a network printer by its IP address. Other computers on the same network can print to the printer. The technician pings the printer's IP from the affected computer and gets a response. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Printer's port configuration on the computer (e.g., RAW vs LPR). Since the ping succeeds, Layer 3 connectivity to the printer is confirmed, ruling out network cabling and basic IP issues. The problem is specific to the print service on the affected computer, and the most common cause is an incorrect port configuration (e.g., using RAW port 9100 when the printer expects LPR on port 515, or vice versa). This mismatch prevents the print job from being accepted even though the printer is reachable.

Answer

Printer driver installation

Answer

Windows Firewall on the computer

Answer

Network cable between switch and printer

Question 8

A small e-commerce company hosts its website on a public cloud IaaS platform. During a promotional sale, traffic increases dramatically. The cloud platform automatically provisions additional virtual machines within minutes to handle the load. The company only pays for the additional resources used during that time. Which essential cloud characteristic does this scenario BEST demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes the cloud platform automatically provisioning additional virtual machines within minutes to handle a sudden traffic spike, and the company only paying for the extra resources used during that time. This directly demonstrates rapid elasticity, which is the ability to scale resources up or down automatically and quickly in response to demand. The key is the automatic scaling and the pay-per-use model for the additional capacity, which are hallmarks of elasticity in cloud computing.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 9

A system administrator is configuring a virtual machine (VM) on a VMware ESXi host. The VM runs a critical database application that requires a guaranteed minimum amount of memory to perform well. The host has memory overcommitment enabled. Which setting should the administrator configure to ensure the VM always has at least 4 GB of physical memory available?

Accepted Answer

Memory reservation. A memory reservation guarantees that the ESXi host will allocate at least the specified amount of physical memory to the VM, even when memory overcommitment is enabled. This ensures the critical database application always has a minimum of 4 GB of physical RAM available, preventing performance degradation due to contention.

Answer

Memory limit

Answer

Memory ballooning

Answer

Swap file size

Question 10

A technician installs a new M.2 SSD into a desktop computer. The motherboard has two M.2 slots: one labeled M.2_1 (PCIe only) and one labeled M.2_2 (PCIe/SATA). The technician places the SSD into the M.2_1 slot, but the drive is not detected in the BIOS. The SSD is a M.2 SATA drive. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason for the detection failure?

Accepted Answer

The SSD is a SATA M.2 drive, but the M.2_1 slot only supports PCIe/NVMe. The M.2_1 slot is labeled as 'PCIe only,' meaning it exclusively supports PCIe-based NVMe SSDs. The installed SSD is a SATA M.2 drive, which uses the AHCI protocol and requires a SATA interface. Since the slot lacks SATA signal lines, the drive cannot be detected during POST.

Answer

The SSD requires a driver to be loaded during POST

Answer

The M.2_1 slot shares bandwidth with a SATA port that must be enabled first

Answer

The motherboard does not support booting from NVMe drives

Question 11

A technician installs a new M.2 NVMe SSD into an M.2 slot on a desktop motherboard. The drive is detected in the BIOS, but it does not appear in Windows Disk Management. Which of the following is the MOST likely first step to make the drive usable?

Accepted Answer

Initialize the disk in Disk Management. When a new M.2 NVMe SSD is detected in the BIOS but not in Windows Disk Management, the drive is physically recognized but lacks a partition structure. The first step is to initialize the disk in Disk Management, which writes a master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) to the drive, making it visible and ready for partitioning and formatting. Without initialization, the disk remains in an 'Unknown' or 'Not Initialized' state and cannot be used.

Answer

Enable RAID in the BIOS

Answer

Format the drive with NTFS in Disk Management

Answer

Update the NVMe driver from the manufacturer's website

Question 12

A technician builds a new desktop computer. After connecting all components and pressing the power button, the system turns on for about three seconds and then shuts down. It repeatedly tries to restart in a loop. The technician has already reseated the CPU, RAM, and all power cables. The power supply unit passes the paperclip test and works in another system. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard standoffs are causing a short circuit. The system powering on for a few seconds and then shutting down in a loop, after the CPU, RAM, and power cables have been reseated and the PSU is verified working, strongly points to a short circuit. The most common cause in a new build is incorrect or missing motherboard standoffs, which can allow solder points on the motherboard's underside to contact the metal case, triggering the PSU's overcurrent protection (OCP) and causing the immediate shutdown.

Answer

The CPU cooling fan is not spinning

Answer

The CMOS battery is dead

Answer

The front panel power button is stuck

Question 13

A technician installs a new SATA SSD into a desktop computer. The drive is not detected in the BIOS or the operating system. The technician has confirmed that the SATA data cable and power cable are securely connected to both the drive and the motherboard/PSU. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Ensure the SATA controller mode is set to AHCI or RAID in BIOS.. The SATA controller mode in the BIOS must be set to AHCI or RAID for modern SATA SSDs to be recognized. If the mode is set to IDE (or Legacy), the SSD may not be detected because IDE mode does not support the native command queuing and hot-plug features that AHCI provides. Since the technician has already verified physical connections, the next logical step is to check this BIOS setting.

Answer

Update the motherboard chipset drivers.

Answer

Replace the SATA data cable with a different one.

Answer

Verify that the drive jumper is set to Master.

Question 14

A small business wants to migrate its on-premises database to the cloud. The business wants to avoid managing the operating system and database software, but needs full control over the database schema, queries, and data. They want the cloud provider to handle patching, backup, and replication of the database engine. Which cloud service model best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed database environment where the cloud provider handles the underlying OS, database engine patching, backups, and replication, while the customer retains full control over the database schema, queries, and data. This aligns with the requirement to avoid managing the OS and database software but still needing schema-level control.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 15

A technician has assembled a new desktop computer. When the power button on the case is pressed, the system does not power on at all—no fans spin and no LEDs light up. The technician has verified that the power supply unit (PSU) is connected to the motherboard and that the PSU switch is in the ON position. Using a multimeter, the technician tests the PSU and confirms that it outputs the correct voltages on the 24-pin and CPU power connectors when the power button is pressed. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

The power button header is connected to the correct pins on the motherboard.. Since the PSU outputs correct voltages when the power button is pressed, the issue is likely that the power button signal is not reaching the motherboard. The power button header must be connected to the correct front panel pins (typically labeled PWR_SW or PWRSW) on the motherboard; an incorrect or loose connection prevents the system from turning on despite functional PSU and motherboard.

Answer

The CPU is seated correctly.

Answer

The RAM is seated in the correct slots.

Answer

The graphics card is properly installed.