N10-009 Network Operations Practice Test 5 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A network administrator wants to centrally monitor the bandwidth utilization on a router's serial interface over time. The monitoring tool needs to periodically poll the router for current interface counters. Which protocol should be used for this polling?

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

Accepted Answer

SNMP. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is the correct choice because it is specifically designed for polling network devices to retrieve operational statistics such as interface counters (e.g., ifInOctets, ifOutOctets) from a Management Information Base (MIB). The network administrator can configure an SNMP manager to periodically poll the router's serial interface OIDs, enabling centralized bandwidth utilization monitoring over time.

Answer

Syslog

Answer

NetFlow

Answer

ICMP

Question 2

A network administrator needs to implement a solution that allows for centralized management of user authentication, authorization, and accounting for network device access. The solution must support encryption of the entire authentication process. Which protocol should be selected?

Accepted Answer

TACACS+. TACACS+ is the correct choice because it separates authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) into distinct processes and encrypts the entire authentication payload, including the username, password, and all other traffic between the client and the server. This full-packet encryption ensures that credentials and session details are protected during transit, meeting the requirement for centralized management with encrypted authentication.

Answer

RADIUS

Answer

LDAP

Answer

Kerberos

Question 3

A network administrator is configuring a monitoring system to collect metrics from network devices. The administrator needs to ensure that the monitoring system can automatically discover the devices and obtain detailed information about their configuration and status, such as interface descriptions and software versions. Which protocol is best suited for this purpose?

Accepted Answer

SNMP. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is the correct choice because it is specifically designed for network management and monitoring. It allows a management system to automatically discover devices (via SNMP walks or queries to MIBs) and retrieve detailed configuration and status information, such as interface descriptions and software versions, by reading OIDs from the device's MIB. This matches the requirement for automatic discovery and detailed data collection.

Answer

LLDP

Answer

NetFlow

Answer

Syslog

Question 4

A network administrator is configuring a syslog server to receive logs from network devices. The administrator wants to capture all messages with a severity level of 'critical' (2) and higher (more severe). What severity threshold should be set on the devices?

Accepted Answer

2 (critical). Syslog severity levels are numbered 0 (most severe) through 7 (least severe). When you set a severity threshold on a device, it captures messages at that level and all lower-numbered (more severe) levels. To capture 'critical' (2) and higher (i.e., levels 0, 1, and 2), you must set the threshold to 2. Option C is correct because level 2 includes itself and all more severe levels (0 and 1).

Answer

0 (emergency)

Answer

1 (alert)

Answer

3 (error)

Question 5

A network administrator needs to ensure that in the event of a switch failure, the switch can be replaced and brought online with minimal downtime. Which of the following tasks should the administrator perform regularly?

Accepted Answer

Back up the configuration files of all switches. Regularly backing up the configuration files of all switches ensures that when a failed switch is replaced, the exact configuration can be restored quickly, minimizing downtime. This is a core best practice in network operations because a replacement switch typically ships with factory defaults and requires the original configuration to resume normal operations. Without a recent backup, the administrator would have to reconfigure the switch manually, leading to extended outage and potential human error.

Answer

Perform a firmware upgrade on all switches

Answer

Monitor the switch's CPU utilization

Answer

Create a network performance baseline

Question 6

A network administrator wants to configure routers to send syslog messages only for events of severity 'error' (3) or higher (more severe). Which severity level should be set as the trap level?

Accepted Answer

3 (errors). Setting the trap level to 3 (errors) instructs the router to send syslog messages for severity 3 and all numerically lower (more severe) levels (0, 1, 2, 3). This matches the requirement to capture events of severity 'error' (3) or higher severity.

Answer

0 (emergencies)

Answer

2 (critical)

Answer

4 (warnings)

Question 7

A network administrator must monitor network devices using SNMP. The security policy mandates strong encryption for both authentication and data integrity. Which SNMP version and security level should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

SNMPv3 with authPriv. SNMPv3 with authPriv is correct because it provides both authentication (to verify the source of messages) and encryption (to ensure data integrity and confidentiality). The security policy mandates strong encryption for both authentication and data integrity, which only the authPriv security level fulfills by using HMAC-SHA/MD5 for authentication and AES/DES for encryption.

Answer

SNMPv1

Answer

SNMPv2c

Answer

SNMPv3 with noAuthNoPriv

Question 8

A network administrator needs to monitor bandwidth utilization on a router interface in real time. Which of the following protocols is best suited for this purpose?

Accepted Answer

SNMP polling. SNMP polling is the best choice for real-time bandwidth monitoring because it allows the network management system (NMS) to actively query the router's interface MIB (e.g., ifInOctets, ifOutOctets) at short intervals, calculating utilization from the delta between successive polls. This provides near-real-time data without waiting for unsolicited events, making it ideal for live dashboards and threshold alerts.

Answer

Syslog

Answer

NetFlow

Answer

CDP

Question 9

A network administrator needs to remotely manage multiple routers and switches. The management traffic must be encrypted. Which protocol should be used for the remote terminal sessions?

Accepted Answer

SSH. SSH (Secure Shell) encrypts all traffic, including authentication credentials and session data, making it the correct choice for securely managing routers and switches over a network. Telnet transmits everything in plaintext, while SNMP and HTTP lack the interactive encrypted terminal session required for remote CLI management.

Answer

Telnet

Answer

SNMP

Answer

HTTP

Question 10

A network administrator needs to monitor network devices using SNMP. The security policy requires that both authentication and data encryption must be enforced for all SNMP operations. Which SNMPv3 security level should be configured?

Accepted Answer

authPriv. The authPriv security level is correct because it enforces both authentication (via HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA) and data encryption (via DES or AES) for SNMPv3 operations, satisfying the security policy requirement. SNMPv3 defines three security levels: noAuthNoPriv, authNoPriv, and authPriv, with authPriv being the only one that provides both authentication and encryption.

Answer

noAuthNoPriv

Answer

authNoPriv

Answer

noAuthPriv

Question 11

A network administrator needs to analyze bandwidth usage on a WAN link to determine which applications are generating the most traffic. The administrator requires detailed flow-level data including source/destination IP, ports, and protocol. Which technology should be used to collect this information?

Accepted Answer

NetFlow. NetFlow is the correct choice because it provides detailed flow-level data, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols, which is exactly what the administrator needs to analyze bandwidth usage per application on a WAN link. Unlike SNMP or Syslog, NetFlow captures per-flow metadata that allows identification of which applications are generating the most traffic.

Answer

SNMP

Answer

Syslog

Answer

ICMP

Question 12

Which SNMPv3 security level provides both authentication and encryption?

Accepted Answer

authPriv. (authPriv) is correct because SNMPv3 defines three security levels: noAuthNoPriv, authNoPriv, and authPriv. The authPriv level provides both authentication (using HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA) and encryption (using CBC-DES or AES) to ensure data integrity, origin verification, and confidentiality. This is the highest security level defined in RFC 3414.

Answer

noAuthNoPriv

Answer

authNoPriv

Answer

noAuthPriv

Question 13

A network technician needs to capture and analyze packets on a specific network segment to identify the source of a performance slowdown. Which tool is best suited for this task?

Accepted Answer

Protocol analyzer (e.g., Wireshark). A protocol analyzer like Wireshark is the correct tool because it captures and decodes packets at the data-link layer, allowing the technician to inspect frame headers, IP addresses, TCP/UDP ports, and payload contents on a specific network segment. This deep packet inspection is essential for identifying the root cause of performance slowdowns, such as excessive retransmissions, high latency, or application-layer issues. Unlike other tools, a protocol analyzer provides granular visibility into traffic patterns and protocol behavior.

Answer

Port scanner (e.g., Nmap)

Answer

Ping

Answer

Traceroute

Question 14

A network administrator wants to monitor network devices using SNMP. The security policy requires both authentication and encryption of SNMP packets. Which SNMP version and security level should be configured?

Accepted Answer

SNMPv3 with authPriv. SNMPv3 is the only version that supports both authentication and encryption. The security level 'authPriv' enables both authentication (via HMAC-MD5 or HMAC-SHA) and encryption (via CBC-DES or CFB128-AES), meeting the policy requirement. SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c use only plaintext community strings with no security, while 'authNoPriv' provides authentication without encryption.

Answer

SNMPv2c with a community string

Answer

SNMPv3 with authNoPriv

Answer

SNMPv1 with a community string

Question 15

A network administrator needs to analyze bandwidth utilization and application traffic patterns on a WAN link. The administrator requires detailed flow-level data, including source/destination IP addresses, ports, and protocol. Which technology should be deployed?

Accepted Answer

NetFlow. NetFlow is the correct choice because it provides detailed flow-level data, including source/destination IP addresses, ports, and protocol information, which is essential for analyzing bandwidth utilization and application traffic patterns on a WAN link. Unlike simpler monitoring tools, NetFlow captures metadata about each network flow, allowing administrators to identify which applications and hosts are consuming bandwidth.

Answer

SNMP

Answer

Syslog

Answer

ICMP