XK0-005 System Management Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An administrator runs 'systemctl list-units' and sees that httpd.service is in a failed state. To quickly see the error message that caused the failure, which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

systemctl status httpd.service. Option B is correct. systemctl status displays the unit's state and recent journal entries showing the error. Option A filters errors but may not show the immediate failure cause as concisely. Option C shows properties. Option D analyzes boot time.

Answer

systemctl show httpd.service -p ExecMainStatus

Answer

journalctl -p err -u httpd.service

Answer

systemd-analyze blame

Question 2

Based on the exhibit, which file has an incorrect SELinux context for serving web content via Apache?

Accepted Answer

index.html. Option A is correct. index.html has user_home_t, which is not the proper context for web content; it should be httpd_sys_content_t. style.css has the correct context. Therefore, both are not incorrect, and neither is not correct.

Answer

Neither

Answer

style.css

Answer

Both

Question 3

A system administrator notices that a critical application's process is consuming too much CPU, affecting other services. The administrator needs to reduce the CPU priority of that process without affecting its memory or other resources. The process PID is 4521. Which command should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

renice -n 10 -p 4521. The renice command changes the niceness of an existing process. The correct syntax is 'renice -n 10 -p 4521'. Option A uses nice, which is for starting processes. Option C has incorrect order. Option D uses chrt for real-time scheduling, not niceness.

Answer

nice -n 10 -p 4521

Answer

renice -p 4521 10

Answer

chrt -p 10 4521

Question 4

A system administrator needs to configure a Linux server to automatically synchronize time with the NTP pool servers. The server should also act as an NTP peer for other servers on the local network. Which file should be modified, and which directive should be added?

Accepted Answer

/etc/chrony/chrony.conf with "pool pool.ntp.org iburst" and "allow 192.168.1.0/24". Chrony is the default NTP implementation on modern RHEL/CentOS 7+ and many distributions. The configuration file is /etc/chrony/chrony.conf. The 'pool' directive with 'iburst' synchronizes with NTP servers, and 'allow' specifies which networks can query the server as an NTP peer. Option A uses ntpd but lacks the 'allow' directive. Option C uses timesyncd which is client-only. Option D has typo and incorrect directive.

Answer

/etc/npt.conf with "peer pool.ntp.org"

Answer

/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf with "NTP=pool.ntp.org" and "LocalPort=123"

Answer

/etc/ntp.conf with "server pool.ntp.org iburst"

Question 5

An administrator runs the command `ls -l /data/file.txt` and sees the output: `-rw-r-----+ 1 root project 1024 Mar 15 10:00 file.txt`. The administrator wants to view the current ACL entries on this file. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

getfacl /data/file.txt. The getfacl command is used to display the ACL entries of a file or directory. Option A is correct. The other commands do not exist or are not standard (lsacl, chacl, aclshow).

Answer

chacl /data/file.txt

Answer

lsacl /data/file.txt

Answer

aclshow /data/file.txt

Question 6

A Linux administrator receives reports that the system's log files are growing rapidly and consuming disk space. The administrator needs to configure the system to rotate logs weekly, keep 4 weeks of logs, compress old logs, and ensure that log rotation does not cause logs to be lost if the log file is still being written. Which configuration file and setting should be used?

Accepted Answer

/etc/logrotate.d/syslog with directives: weekly, rotate 4, compress, delaycompress. The logrotate utility is responsible for log rotation. The configuration snippet 'weekly, rotate 4, compress, delaycompress' in /etc/logrotate.d/syslog will rotate logs weekly, keep 4 rotations, compress older logs, and delay compression by one rotation to avoid losing data if the log is still being written. Option B uses rsyslog which does not handle rotation. Option C is for journald. Option D is a cron job but not specific.

Answer

/etc/rsyslog.conf with action(type="omfile" file="/var/log/syslog" rotate="weekly" keep="4" compress)

Answer

/etc/systemd/journald.conf with Settings=MaxRetentionSec=4weeks and Compress=yes

Answer

/etc/cron.daily/logrotate script that calls logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf

Question 7

A developer needs to grant a colleague read and write access to a directory /project, but the colleague should not have permission to delete any files created by the developer. The developer wants to set the directory so that all new files created in it automatically belong to the group 'project' and are writable by group. Which combination of configuration should be used?

Accepted Answer

chmod g+s /project && setfacl -m default:g:project:rw /project. To achieve automatic group ownership and default permissions, set the setgid bit (chmod g+s) on the directory and use a default ACL to grant group read/write. Option C does both: chmod g+s sets the setgid bit so new files inherit the group, and setfacl with default:g:project:rw ensures new files get group rw. Option A gives rwx on directory but not default. Option B sets setgid and permissions but does not use default ACL, so new files may not get group rw. Option D sets sticky bit (1) which prevents users from deleting others' files, but does not automatically set group ownership or permissions.

Answer

chmod 1770 /project && usermod -aG project colleague

Answer

chmod g+s /project && setfacl -m g:project:rwx /project

Answer

chown .project /project && chmod 2775 /project

Question 8

A system administrator notices that a service fails to start at boot with the message "Failed to start MyApp.service: Unit not found". The administrator checks the service unit file at /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service. The target wanted-by is multi-user.target. The administrator runs `systemctl enable myapp.service` successfully, but the service still does not start at boot. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The systemd daemon has not been reloaded after enabling.. When a new unit file is added, systemctl daemon-reload must be run before systemd recognizes the unit. Even though enable succeeded, if daemon-reload was not performed after creating the unit file, systemd may not have the unit in its internal cache and may fail to find it at boot. Option A would produce a different error. Option B is incorrect because enable creates the symlink. Option C would show a dependency error.

Answer

The service unit file has a syntax error.

Answer

The service requires a dependency that is not installed.

Answer

The service is not symlinked into the correct .wants directory.

Question 9

A Linux administrator needs to mount a new ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 to /mnt/data. The administrator wants the filesystem to be mounted automatically at boot with noatime and with user ownership of files to be preserved (i.e., the filesystem should be owned by a specific user). Which line should be added to /etc/fstab?

Accepted Answer

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/data ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2. For ext4, the uid mount option does not exist; ownership is based on the files themselves. The default mount options are specified by 'defaults', which includes rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, async, and relatime. Adding 'noatime' replaces relatime. A typical /etc/fstab entry for a data filesystem uses 'defaults,noatime' and pass number 2 for non-root filesystems. Option B uses uid which is invalid for ext4. Option C uses rw but pass 0 prevents fsck. Option D uses user which allows non-root users to mount.

Answer

LABEL=DATA /mnt/data ext4 noatime,user 0 2

Answer

UUID=xxxx /mnt/data ext4 defaults,noatime,uid=1000 0 2

Answer

/dev/sdb1 /mnt/data ext4 rw,noatime 0 0

Question 10

A Linux administrator needs to check which process is using the most memory on a system. The administrator wants to view dynamically updating list of processes sorted by memory usage. Which command should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

top -o %MEM. The top command provides a real-time, dynamically updating view of system processes. Using the -o %MEM flag sorts processes by memory usage. Option A (ps) shows a static snapshot. Option C (htop) is not installed by default on many systems and uses -s for sort. Option D (vmstat) shows system-wide stats, not per process.

Answer

ps aux --sort=-%mem

Answer

htop -s MEM

Answer

vmstat 1 5

Question 11

An administrator is troubleshooting a server that is experiencing intermittent high load. The administrator wants to identify processes that are using excessive CPU. Which two of the following commands can provide real-time CPU usage per process? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

htop. top and htop provide real-time, dynamic views of process CPU usage. ps provides a static snapshot, iostat monitors I/O, and vmstat shows system-wide statistics.

Answer

iostat

Answer

ps -aux

Answer

vmstat

Question 12

A Linux administrator needs to configure a service to start automatically after a network connection is established. The service should only run when the network is up, and should stop when the network goes down. Which two systemd unit options should be used? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

BindsTo=network.target. After=network.target ensures the service starts after network is configured. BindsTo=network.target ties the service lifecycle to the network target; if network goes down, the service stops. Requires does not imply ordering; Wants is weaker; PartOf is for resource partitioning.

Answer

Requires=network.target

Answer

PartOf=network.service

Answer

Wants=network.target

Question 13

A Linux administrator is configuring secure remote access to a server. Which three of the following are recommended best practices for securing SSH? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Enable public key authentication.. Disabling root login (PermitRootLogin no), using public key authentication (PubkeyAuthentication yes), and restricting allowed users/groups (AllowUsers or AllowGroups) are common best practices. Changing the default port (Port 2222) is optional and considered security through obscurity, not a true security measure. Password authentication is less secure than key-based.

Answer

Use password authentication only.

Answer

Change the default SSH port to a non-standard port.

Question 14

A company runs a web application on a Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04). The application writes log files to /var/log/app/access.log and error.log. Over time, these logs have grown to several gigabytes, causing the /var partition to reach 98% capacity. The administrator decides to implement log rotation using logrotate. They create a configuration file at /etc/logrotate.d/app with the following content:

/var/log/app/*.log {
    weekly
    rotate 7
    compress
    delaycompress
    size 100M
    missingok
}

They then run `logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.d/app` for debugging, which indicates no errors. However, after several days, the logs are not being rotated. Which step should the administrator take to resolve this?

Accepted Answer

Ensure that the logrotate cron job is enabled and that the configuration file is readable (644) and owned by root.. The most likely cause is that the logrotate cron job (typically /etc/cron.daily/logrotate) is not being executed, or the configuration file has incorrect permissions. The administrator should verify that the cron job is enabled and running daily, and that the config file is readable by the cron process (owned by root, permissions 644). Option A only forces a one-time rotation, not a permanent fix. Option B is unnecessary because logrotate runs daily by default. Option C is not the root cause; ownership of logs doesn't prevent rotation.

Answer

Change the ownership of /var/log/app to appuser:appgroup.

Answer

Run `logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/app` to force rotation immediately.

Answer

Add a cron job to run logrotate hourly.

Question 15

A Linux server running RHEL 9 has SELinux in enforcing mode. A web application (Apache) is serving content from a custom directory /var/www/html/myapp. The application needs to write to a subdirectory /var/www/html/myapp/uploads. The administrator sets the context of the uploads directory to httpd_sys_content_t and also runs `restorecon -Rv /var/www/html/myapp`. However, Apache still cannot write to the uploads directory. The administrator checks the SELinux denials in /var/log/audit/audit.log and sees AVC denials related to writing. Which step should the administrator take next?

Accepted Answer

Change the type of the uploads directory to httpd_sys_rw_content_t.. The httpd_sys_content_t type is for read-only content. For read-write access, the directory must have type httpd_sys_rw_content_t (or httpd_sys_script_rw_t for scripts). Setting this type via `chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/html/myapp/uploads` will allow Apache to write. Option A (boolean httpd_enable_homedirs) is unrelated. Option D (add to group) does not address SELinux.

Answer

Disable SELinux temporarily.

Answer

Set the boolean httpd_enable_homedirs to on.

Answer

Add the apache user to the group that owns uploads.

XK0-005 System Management Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Exhibit

XK0-005 System Management Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Exhibit