LPIC-2 Practice Test 3 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A Samba server is experiencing slow authentication for domain users. The logs show repeated winbind connections to the domain controllers. The administrator suspects that winbind is not caching credentials properly. Which parameter should be checked or increased to improve caching?

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

Accepted Answer

winbind cache time. The `winbind cache time` parameter controls how long winbindd caches user and group information retrieved from domain controllers. Increasing this value reduces the frequency of authentication requests to the DCs, improving performance. The default is 300 seconds; a higher value (e.g., 900 or 1800) can significantly reduce repeated connections.

Answer

winbind rpc only

Answer

winbind offline logon

Answer

winbind request timeout

Question 2

A Linux server with two NICs bonded in mode 1 (active-backup) was working correctly until a switch was replaced. Now, although both interfaces are up, the bond always shows only one active slave, and if that slave fails, traffic does not fail over. The bonding configuration uses miimon=100 and neither arp_interval nor arp_ip_target is set. You run 'cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0' and see that the MII status of both slaves is 'up' but the link failures count is 0 for the backup slave. What is the most likely cause, and which parameter should be adjusted?

Accepted Answer

Configure arp_interval and arp_ip_target to enable ARP monitoring.. Without ARP monitoring (arp_interval and arp_ip_target), the bond relies solely on MII status to detect link failures. MII monitoring only detects physical link loss at the NIC level, not upstream switch failures or misconfigurations. In this scenario, the switch replacement likely caused a layer-2 or layer-3 issue that does not bring the NIC link down, so MII reports 'up' but traffic cannot pass. Enabling ARP monitoring forces the bond to verify reachability of a target IP, triggering failover when ARP replies are lost.

Answer

Change bonding mode to mode 4 (802.3ad) with LACP.

Answer

Use ifenslave to manually reassign the backup slave.

Answer

Decrease miimon to 50 for faster detection.

Question 3

A server with multiple network cards needs a specific kernel module loaded before network configuration. Where should loading be configured for early boot?

Accepted Answer

/etc/modules-load.d/. Systemd-based systems use /etc/modules-load.d/ to specify kernel modules that must be loaded early in the boot process, before network configuration. Files in this directory are processed by systemd-modules-load.service, which runs before network services, ensuring the module is available when interfaces are brought up.

Answer

/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Answer

/etc/modprobe.d/

Answer

/etc/sysconfig/modules/

Question 4

A company runs a DNS server using BIND9 on a Linux server. The server is configured with two network interfaces: one internal (192.168.1.10) and one external (203.0.113.10). The server is configured to be authoritative for example.com. Internal clients can resolve example.com, but external clients receive "SERVFAIL" responses. The host command from an external client returns "Host not found". The administrator checks the named configuration and finds the following in /etc/bind/named.conf.options:

options {
  directory "/var/cache/bind";
  listen-on { 127.0.0.1; 192.168.1.10; 203.0.113.10; };
  allow-query { 192.168.1.0/24; };
  recursion no;
  dnssec-validation auto;
};

The zone configuration for example.com has proper allow-transfer and allow-update settings. What change should be made to resolve external queries?

Accepted Answer

Change 'allow-query' to '{ any; };'. The 'allow-query' directive restricts which clients can send queries to the server. With 'allow-query { 192.168.1.0/24; };', only internal clients on that subnet are permitted to query, causing external clients to receive SERVFAIL. Changing it to '{ any; };' allows all clients to query the server, resolving the issue while still keeping recursion disabled for security.

Answer

Add 'recursion yes;' to the options block.

Answer

Add 'listen-on port 53 { 203.0.113.10; };' to the options block.

Answer

Change 'listen-on' to '{ any; };'

Question 5

A system administrator is troubleshooting a hardware issue that occurs during boot. To monitor the kernel messages in real-time, which command should be run?

Accepted Answer

dmesg -w. `dmesg -w` (or `dmesg --follow`) provides real-time monitoring of kernel ring buffer messages, which is essential for troubleshooting hardware issues during boot. The `-w` flag waits for new messages and prints them as they appear, similar to `tail -f`, but specifically for kernel messages. This command directly accesses the kernel ring buffer via `/dev/kmsg`, ensuring you see hardware-related errors, driver messages, and device initialization logs as they occur.

Answer

journalctl -f

Answer

tail -f /var/log/kern.log

Answer

less /var/log/messages

Question 6

After modifying /etc/samba/smb.conf, an administrator runs a command to validate the configuration. Which command is correct?

Accepted Answer

testparm. The correct command is `testparm`, which is specifically designed to validate the syntax and configuration of the `/etc/samba/smb.conf` file. It checks for errors in parameters, missing sections, and logical inconsistencies without restarting the Samba services, making it the standard tool for configuration verification.

Answer

smbpasswd

Answer

smbcontrol

Answer

samba-tool

Question 7

Windows clients cannot see the Samba server in Network Neighborhood, but they can access shares by typing the UNC path. Which Samba daemon must be running?

Accepted Answer

nmbd. The nmbd daemon is responsible for NetBIOS name resolution and browsing, which enables Windows clients to discover Samba servers in Network Neighborhood. When nmbd is not running, clients can still connect via UNC paths because smbd handles file sharing directly, but browsing and name resolution fail.

Answer

smbd

Answer

samba

Answer

winbindd

Question 8

Given the smb.conf exhibit, which share(s) allow write access to user 'alice' who is a member of the 'staff' group?

Accepted Answer

share1 only. In the smb.conf exhibit, share1 has 'write list = @staff' which grants write access to all members of the staff group, including user alice. share2 has 'read only = yes' and no write list, so it is read-only for everyone. share3 has 'valid users = bob' and 'write list = bob', so only bob can write; alice is not listed and is not in the bob group, so she has no write access.

Answer

share1 and share3

Answer

share3 only

Answer

share2 only

Question 9

Arrange the steps to configure a Linux server as an NFS client that mounts a remote export.

Accepted Answer

1. Install the nfs-common package
2. Create a mount point directory
3. Add an entry to /etc/fstab
4. Mount the remote export
5. Verify the mount. The NFS client needs the nfs-common package, a mount point, an fstab entry, then mounting and verification.

Answer

1. Install the nfs-common package
2. Add an entry to /etc/fstab
3. Create a mount point directory
4. Mount the remote export
5. Verify the mount

Answer

1. Create a mount point directory
2. Mount the remote export
3. Add an entry to /etc/fstab
4. Install the nfs-common package
5. Verify the mount

Answer

1. Add an entry to /etc/fstab
2. Create a mount point directory
3. Install the nfs-common package
4. Mount the remote export
5. Verify the mount

Question 10

Order the steps to configure a Linux system as a DHCP client using dhclient.

Accepted Answer

Configure the interface for DHCP, then run dhclient, then check the IP address, then verify the default route, then test connectivity.. First configure the interface for DHCP, then run dhclient, check address, verify route, and test.

Answer

Run dhclient first, then configure the interface for DHCP, then check the IP address, then verify the default route, then test connectivity.

Answer

Check the IP address first, then configure the interface for DHCP, then run dhclient, then verify the default route, then test connectivity.

Answer

Configure the interface for DHCP, then check the IP address, then run dhclient, then verify the default route, then test connectivity.