LPIC-2 Practice Test 22 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A server uses an initramfs generated by dracut. After replacing a storage controller, the system boots but drops to the dracut emergency shell because the root device is not found. The administrator confirms the new controller's driver module exists in /lib/modules and that the device is present at boot. Which action best ensures the driver is included in the next initramfs so the root device can be mounted automatically?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Add the module name to /etc/dracut.conf.d/10-drivers.conf using add_drivers+=" modulename " and rebuild with dracut -f. dracut builds the initramfs from the running host configuration and the current root device, so a controller installed after the image was generated may be omitted. Explicitly listing the module with add_drivers in a dracut conf drop-in and regenerating with dracut -f guarantees the driver ships inside the early boot image. depmod, fstab edits, and modules-load.d entries all act too late or on unrelated mechanisms.

Answer

Edit /etc/fstab to reference the root device by UUID instead of by device path

Answer

Add the module to /etc/modules-load.d/controller.conf and reboot

Answer

Run depmod -a to regenerate module dependencies and reboot the system

Question 2

A Linux server has a 500 GB disk /dev/sdb that will be used exclusively as a single XFS filesystem mounted at /data. The administrator wants to create the filesystem directly on the whole disk without a partition table. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb. Creating an XFS filesystem directly on a whole disk is done with mkfs.xfs followed by the block device path. Since no partition table exists, /dev/sdb1 is invalid, and xfs_growfs only expands existing filesystems. Adding a label with -L is optional and does not change where the filesystem is created.

Answer

xfs_growfs /dev/sdb

Answer

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1

Answer

mkfs -t xfs -L /data /dev/sdb

Question 3

A Linux server has an LVM volume group named vg_data containing a 200 GB logical volume lv_archive formatted with XFS and mounted at /srv/archive. The volume group has 300 GB of unallocated space on a single physical volume. The administrator must expand /srv/archive by 100 GB while the filesystem remains mounted and accessible. Which command sequence accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

lvextend -L +100G /dev/vg_data/lv_archive, then xfs_growfs /srv/archive. Growing an XFS filesystem on LVM requires two distinct operations: first extend the logical volume with lvextend so more extents back it, then grow the filesystem into that space with xfs_growfs using the mount point. XFS supports online growth, so neither unmounting nor a repair step is needed. Because vg_data already has unallocated extents, no vgextend or pvresize is required beforehand.

Answer

vgextend vg_data /dev/sdb1, then xfs_growfs /srv/archive

Answer

lvextend -L 100G /dev/vg_data/lv_archive, then xfs_growfs /srv/archive

Answer

lvextend -L +100G /dev/vg_data/lv_archive, then resize2fs /srv/archive

Question 4

A technician is preparing a new 4 TB external USB disk on a Linux server. The disk currently has an old MBR partition table and must be repartitioned to use a single partition spanning the entire disk. The technician wants to use parted in non-interactive mode. Which command should the technician run to create a GPT label and a single partition covering the whole disk on /dev/sdc?

Accepted Answer

parted -s /dev/sdc mklabel gpt mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%. The non-interactive parted syntax uses -s followed by subcommands in order. mklabel gpt replaces the MBR table with GPT, which is required to address the full 4 TB. mkpart primary ext4 0% 100% then creates one partition spanning from the beginning to the end of the disk using percentages.

Answer

parted -s /dev/sdc mklabel msdos mkpart primary ext4 1MiB 4TB

Answer

parted -s /dev/sdc unit TB mklabel gpt mkpart primary ext4 0TB 4TB

Answer

parted /dev/sdc print | grep -i gpt && parted /dev/sdc mkpart primary ext4 0 100

Question 5

An administrator manages an LVM volume group vg_app with several logical volumes. A monitoring alert shows the volume group is out of free extents, and a new logical volume must be created for a staging database. Which command should the administrator run first to determine how much space can be reclaimed or added?

Accepted Answer

vgs vg_app. The volume group summary command vgs shows total and free space for a named group in one line, making it the fastest way to confirm whether extents are available. lvs and pvs provide logical-volume and physical-volume detail respectively, and pvdisplay requires a device path rather than a group name, so none of them answer the capacity question as directly.

Answer

pvdisplay vg_app

Answer

pvs vg_app

Answer

lvs vg_app

Question 6

A Linux administrator needs to rebuild the initramfs for the currently running kernel on a Debian 12 system after adding a new storage driver. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r). The correct command for Debian 12 is update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r). This updates the initramfs for the running kernel, incorporating the new storage driver. The other commands are specific to other distributions: dracut for Red Hat, mkinitcpio for Arch, and genkernel for Gentoo. Using them on Debian would not produce the desired result.

Answer

dracut -f --kver $(uname -r)

Answer

mkinitcpio -p linux

Answer

genkernel --initramfs

Question 7

A system administrator needs to change the default kernel that GRUB 2 boots on a UEFI-based Linux server. The system has multiple kernels installed. Which file should be edited to set the default boot entry persistently?

Accepted Answer

/etc/default/grub. The persistent way to change the default GRUB 2 boot entry is to edit /etc/default/grub, set GRUB_DEFAULT to the desired entry, and run update-grub. This regenerates grub.cfg correctly. Directly editing grub.cfg or other files is either temporary or incorrect. The EFI path is not the standard configuration file for GRUB 2 on Linux.

Answer

/etc/grub.d/40_custom

Answer

/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Answer

/boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.cfg

Question 8

A Linux router uses nftables for packet filtering. The administrator wants to log all new TCP connections to port 22 from the 10.0.0.0/24 network but only once per connection, and then accept them. Which nftables rule accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

nft add rule ip filter INPUT ip saddr 10.0.0.0/24 tcp dport 22 ct state new log prefix "SSH: " accept. The rule must match new connections, then log, then accept. In nftables, matches such as 'ct state new' come before statements like 'log' and 'accept'. The correct rule uses 'ct state new' to limit logging to the first packet of each connection, then logs with a prefix, then accepts. Placing 'accept' before 'log' or using 'established' fails the requirement.

Answer

nft add rule ip filter INPUT ip saddr 10.0.0.0/24 tcp dport 22 log prefix "SSH: " ct state new accept

Answer

nft add rule ip filter INPUT ip saddr 10.0.0.0/24 tcp dport 22 accept log prefix "SSH: "

Answer

nft add rule ip filter INPUT ip saddr 10.0.0.0/24 tcp dport 22 ct state established log prefix "SSH: " accept

Question 9

An administrator must ensure that a custom kernel module named 'acme_sensor' loads with the parameter 'poll_interval=500' automatically at every boot on a systemd server. The module is installed in /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/. Which approach is correct and persistent?

Accepted Answer

Create /etc/modprobe.d/acme.conf with 'options acme_sensor poll_interval=500' and add 'acme_sensor' to /etc/modules-load.d/acme.conf.. On systemd systems, modules to load at boot are listed in /etc/modules-load.d/*.conf, and module parameters are set with options lines in /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf. This pairing ensures the module loads automatically and always uses poll_interval=500, regardless of who triggers the load. It is persistent, distribution-standard, and works with modules under /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/ because modprobe searches the full module tree for the running kernel.

Answer

Run 'insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/acme_sensor.ko poll_interval=500' and add it to /etc/rc.local.

Answer

Use 'modprobe acme_sensor poll_interval=500' in a systemd unit of Type=oneshot enabled at multi-user.target.

Answer

Add 'acme_sensor poll_interval=500' to /etc/modules and rebuild the initramfs with dracut -f.

Question 10

A server uses a bcache device with a slow HDD as the backing device and an SSD as the cache. Users report that recently written data is missing after an unclean shutdown, even though the application called fsync. Which configuration change best addresses this?

Accepted Answer

Set the cache mode to writethrough so writes are committed to the backing device before being acknowledged.. bcache writeback mode acknowledges writes once they land in the SSD cache, so an unclean shutdown can lose data that the application believed was durable. Writethrough mode forces writes to the backing device before acknowledgment, honoring fsync semantics and eliminating the reported data loss. Tuning bucket size or writeback thresholds does not change that fundamental durability behavior.

Answer

Recreate the cache set with a larger bucket size and keep the default cache mode.

Answer

Enable the writeback_percent tunable and set it to zero.

Answer

Set the cache mode to writeback and increase the writeback delay.

Question 11

A Linux administrator manages a BIND 9.18 authoritative server for the zone 'corp.example'. The zone file contains an MX record pointing to 'mail.corp.example'. The administrator wants the zone to remain valid if the mail host is temporarily removed, and wants to avoid the zone failing to load due to a missing address record. Which record should be added to ensure the MX target is resolvable within the zone?

Accepted Answer

An A or AAAA record for mail.corp.example in the same zone. For an MX record to be usable, its target hostname must resolve to an A or AAAA record. Adding that address record inside the same zone ensures the MX target is resolvable without relying on external zones, keeping the zone valid and mail flow operational even if the host is temporarily removed elsewhere.

Answer

A CNAME record for mail.corp.example pointing to the MX target

Answer

A PTR record for mail.corp.example in the same zone

Answer

An NS record for mail.corp.example in the same zone

Question 12

A Linux server has a single network interface eth0 and must act as a router for two directly connected subnets: 10.0.1.0/24 on eth0 and 10.0.2.0/24 on a VLAN subinterface eth0.10. IP forwarding is enabled. A host on 10.0.1.0/24 can ping the router's 10.0.1.1 address but cannot reach 10.0.2.10. Which nftables rule is required to allow the forwarded traffic?

Accepted Answer

nft add rule inet filter forward ip saddr 10.0.1.0/24 ip daddr 10.0.2.0/24 accept. Routed packets between two subnets are handled by the forward chain of the inet or ip filter table, not by input or output. Adding an accept rule that matches the source and destination subnets in the forward chain permits the traffic, whereas input and output hooks see only locally destined or locally generated packets. NAT is irrelevant when both networks are directly connected and routable.

Answer

nft add rule ip filter input ip saddr 10.0.1.0/24 ip daddr 10.0.2.0/24 accept

Answer

nft add rule ip nat postrouting ip saddr 10.0.1.0/24 ip daddr 10.0.2.0/24 masquerade

Answer

nft add rule ip filter output ip saddr 10.0.1.0/24 ip daddr 10.0.2.0/24 accept

Question 13

A system administrator needs to assign multiple IP addresses to a single network interface on a Linux server. The server runs a distribution that uses systemd-networkd for network configuration. Which method should the administrator use to add a second IP address to the interface?

Accepted Answer

Create a .network file with multiple Address= lines under the [Network] section.. systemd-networkd uses .network files to configure interfaces. Multiple Address= lines under [Network] assign multiple IP addresses. This is the persistent and correct method for a systemd-networkd managed system. The other options either use a different network manager or make non-persistent changes.

Answer

Edit /etc/network/interfaces and add an additional iface stanza.

Answer

Use the ip addr add command to add the second address.

Answer

Run nmcli con mod to add a second IP address.

Question 14

A company runs BIND 9 as a caching-only recursive resolver for its office LAN. Users on the LAN suddenly report that lookups for external names are slow, and packet captures show that the server repeatedly queries the root and TLD servers for the same names within a few minutes. The zone file for the root hints is valid, and the server is not authoritative for any zone. Which directive in named.conf is MOST likely misconfigured or missing, causing the cache not to retain answers?

Accepted Answer

max-cache-ttl 0;. A caching-only resolver must retain answers for their TTL so subsequent identical queries are served locally. When max-cache-ttl is set to zero, BIND treats every cached record as immediately expired, producing the repeated root and TLD queries observed while clients still receive answers. Correcting or removing that directive restores normal cache retention.

Answer

recursion no;

Answer

dnssec-validation no;

Answer

allow-query { none; };

Question 15

A Linux router uses two interfaces, eth0 (203.0.113.2/24) and eth1 (198.51.100.2/24). The administrator wants traffic from the internal network 192.168.50.0/24, reachable via eth0, to be source-NATed when leaving eth1. Which iptables rule correctly implements this?

Accepted Answer

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.50.0/24 -o eth1 -j SNAT --to-source 198.51.100.2. Source NAT for forwarded traffic must be applied in the nat table's POSTROUTING chain after the routing decision has selected the outgoing interface. Matching the internal source subnet and the eth1 output interface, then using SNAT to the router's fixed external address, produces the required translation. PREROUTING, OUTPUT, and interface matches that do not apply in POSTROUTING fail to accomplish this.

Answer

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.50.0/24 -i eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Answer

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -s 192.168.50.0/24 -o eth1 -j SNAT --to-source 198.51.100.2

Answer

iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -s 192.168.50.0/24 -o eth1 -j SNAT --to-source 198.51.100.2