CompTIA · Free Practice Questions · Last reviewed May 2026
24 real exam-style questions organised by domain, each with the correct answer highlighted and a plain-English explanation of why it's right — and why the others are wrong.
A server administrator is tasked with ensuring that a critical database server remains available in the event of a hardware failure. The solution must provide automatic failover with minimal administrative overhead. Which of the following should be implemented?
Load balancing
Scheduled backups
RAID 1 mirroring
Server clustering
Server clustering links nodes so a surviving member automatically takes over the failed node's workload, delivering failover with minimal manual intervention. This satisfies the stem's automatic failover and low administrative overhead constraints, unlike standalone backups or manual restore procedures.
Which TWO of the following are considered best practices for securing a server's remote management access?
Use SSH key-based authentication
SSH key-based authentication replaces reusable passwords with cryptographic key pairs, so brute-force and credential-stuffing attacks against remote management access fail. This satisfies the stem's best-practise requirement by removing the weakest authentication factor from server administration channels.
Enable default administrative shares
Allow all inbound ICMP
Disable unused services
Disabling unused services shrinks the attack surface by removing listening daemons and open ports that remote attackers could exploit. This directly satisfies the stem's remote management hardening goal, since every unnecessary service left running is a potential entry point into the server.
Use telnet for remote CLI
Your organization is migrating a Windows Server 2019 file server with 2 TB of shared data to a new server running Windows Server 2022. The migration must minimize user downtime and ensure file permissions are preserved. Users access files during business hours (8 AM to 6 PM) and the migration must be completed within a four-hour window starting at 10 PM on Saturday. You plan to use DFS Replication (DFSR) for initial data copy and then perform a final synchronization during the cutover. After setting up DFSR between the old and new servers, you realize that the initial replication will take approximately 12 hours due to the large number of files. What should you do to complete the migration within the allowed window?
Use robocopy to pre-stage the data from old to new server during off-hours before the cutover, then enable DFSR to replicate only changes made after pre-staging; during the cutover window, do a final DFSR sync
Pre-staging reduces the data transferred during the cutover to only changes, allowing the final sync to complete within the window.
Disable DFSR and use robocopy with /MIR /COPYALL during the cutover window to copy all data
Perform a full backup of the old server and restore to the new server during the cutover window using Windows Backup
Increase the DFSR staging quota and bandwidth throttling to accelerate initial replication
A technician is installing a new server for a department. The server will run a single application that requires high reliability. The operating system should be protected against a single disk failure without sacrificing read performance. Which RAID configuration is MOST appropriate?
RAID 5
RAID 6
RAID 1
RAID 1 mirrors data across two disks, providing fault tolerance and excellent read performance for the OS.
RAID 0
A company operates a Windows Server 2019 machine that functions as a domain controller and file server. Over the past week, the server has randomly rebooted several times, often during periods of heavy file access. The administrator reviews the System event log and finds multiple Event ID 41 (Kernel-Power) entries with no preceding critical errors. The server is connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that reports stable input voltage. The server room temperature sensors indicate normal ambient temperature (22°C / 72°F). The server hardware is three years old and has not had any recent changes. The administrator has already run a full antivirus scan with no threats found. Which of the following should the administrator do NEXT to diagnose the issue?
Inspect and clean the CPU and chassis fans, and check for dust buildup
Internal fans may be clogged or failing, causing thermal throttling and random shutdowns despite normal ambient temperature.
Update the server's BIOS to the latest version
Replace the power supply unit
Disable the automatic restart feature in System Properties
A company is migrating a legacy line-of-business application from Windows Server 2012 R2 to a new Windows Server 2022 server that is a member of an Active Directory domain. The application runs as a Windows service under a domain service account named CORP\svc_app. The service account has been granted the 'Log on as a service' user right on the old server, and the application is configured to listen on a static TCP port 8443. After installing the application on the new server and configuring it with the same service account and port, the application fails to start. The administrator checks the Windows Event Viewer and sees two errors in the System log: 'The CORP\svc_app service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not start due to a logon failure' and 'The service cannot bind to the designated port 8443'. The administrator has already verified that the service account's password is correct and has not expired, that the account is enabled, that the port 8443 is not being used by another service, and that the Windows Firewall has an inbound rule allowing traffic on port 8443. The application's configuration file correctly points to port 8443. What should the administrator do to resolve the issue?
Restart the Windows Server 2022 server to apply any pending policy changes.
Grant the 'Log on as a service' user right to the CORP\svc_app account via Local Security Policy or Group Policy.
The 'Log on as a service' right is required for a service account to start a service. It must be assigned on the new server; without it, the service cannot start, causing the logon failure error.
Configure the application to use a dynamic port instead of the static port 8443.
Reset the service account password and update the service configuration.
Want more server-administration practice?
Practice this domainA technician is installing a new server in a data center. To prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage, which of the following should the technician do FIRST?
Place an anti-static mat on the floor
Spray anti-static solution on the server rack
Wear rubber-soled shoes
Attach an ESD wrist strap to a grounded surface
Attaching an ESD wrist strap to a grounded surface equalises the technician's body potential with the equipment before any contact, preventing static discharge into sensitive components. This satisfies the stem's "FIRST" constraint because grounding must precede handling or installation; antistatic mats or bags alone cannot drain charge from the technician's body.
A technician is replacing a failed hard drive in a hot-swap RAID 5 array. After inserting the new drive, the RAID controller does not automatically rebuild. What should the technician do first?
Check the SAS cable connection
Reboot the server
Replace the drive with a different model
Manually initiate a rebuild from the RAID controller utility
Hot-swap insertion alone does not guarantee the controller detects and rebuilds the array; many controllers require an explicit rebuild command. Initiating the rebuild manually from the RAID controller utility restores redundancy using parity data, satisfying the requirement to recover the degraded RAID 5 array.
A company has a virtualized server environment with two physical hosts running VMware vSphere. Each host has 2 CPUs, 128GB RAM, and 6x 600GB SAS drives in RAID 10. Recently, host A experienced a power surge that caused it to shut down abruptly. After restarting, the host boots but the RAID controller reports that one of the drives in the RAID 10 array is missing. The administrator has a replacement drive of the same model. What should the administrator do first?
Use the RAID controller utility to set the new drive as a hot spare and then reboot
Replace the missing drive with the new one and allow the RAID controller to automatically rebuild
Check the RAID controller logs to determine if the drive is faulty or if it's a connection issue, and then reseat the drive or replace cables before replacing
Checking logs and reseating is the safest first step to confirm the drive is actually faulty.
Rebuild the entire RAID array after backing up data from the surviving drives
Refer to the exhibit. A server administrator runs a dmidecode command to check memory configuration and obtains the output shown. The system supports DDR4-2666, but all DIMMs are running at 1866 MT/s. Which action will allow the memory to run at the maximum supported speed?
Enable XMP profile in the BIOS to force all DIMMs to 2666 MT/s.
Replace the DIMM in slot A1 with a DDR4-2666 registered module.
All memory runs at the speed of the slowest module. Replacing the 2133 MT/s DIMM removes the bottleneck.
Clear the CMOS to reset the memory training data.
Move the DIMM from A1 to A2 and the DIMM from A2 to A1.
Refer to the exhibit. A server in a well-maintained data center has triggered upper critical and non-recoverable temperature alerts for CPU1. The server's chassis fans are operating at full speed, and the data center ambient temperature is normal. Which of the following is the FIRST action the administrator should take?
Open the chassis and verify that the CPU air baffle/duct is in place.
Air baffles direct airflow over the CPU heatsinks; if missing or displaced during a previous service, the CPU can overheat even with fans at full speed.
Check for failure of the liquid cooling system for CPU1.
Replace CPU1 because the high temperature indicates an internal short.
Install additional high-speed fans to increase static pressure.
A technician installs additional RAM in a server. After powering on, the server emits a continuous beep code and does not POST. The server documentation indicates this beep code signifies a memory error. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
The total RAM exceeds the server's maximum supported capacity.
The new RAM is not fully seated in the memory slot.
A memory error beep with no POST most commonly results from a module not fully latched into its slot, breaking contact with the DIMM socket. Reseating the new RAM until the retention clips click restores proper electrical connection.
The new RAM is ECC and the existing RAM is non-ECC.
The server BIOS needs to be updated to support the new RAM type.
Want more server-hardware-installation-management practice?
Practice this domainA server administrator is restoring a file server from a full backup taken 7 days ago and incremental backups taken daily. The restoration fails with an error about missing catalog files. What is the most likely cause?
The hard drive on the file server has failed
The backup software is not compatible with the current OS version
The full backup media is corrupted
The incremental backup chain is broken
Incremental backups depend on every prior increment plus the full backup; a missing or corrupt link in that chain leaves catalog references unresolvable. The restoration therefore fails with missing catalog files, matching a broken incremental chain.
A medium-sized company uses a backup strategy that includes a full backup every Sunday at 2:00 AM and differential backups Monday through Saturday at 2:00 AM. The backups are written to a network-attached storage (NAS) device. On Thursday morning, the company experiences a ransomware attack that encrypts all data on the file server, including the NAS. The administrator needs to restore the file server with minimal data loss. The last successful full backup was from the previous Sunday, and differential backups were successful on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. However, Thursday's differential was not completed because the attack occurred before the scheduled time. The administrator attempts to restore using the Sunday full backup and Thursday's differential, but the restore fails because the differential backup on the NAS is also encrypted. Which of the following is the best course of action?
Pay the ransom to decrypt the differential backup
Restore from the Sunday full backup and Wednesday's differential backup
This is the most recent complete and uncorrupted backup set, providing the best recovery point.
Reinstall the operating system and restore files from cloud storage
Restore using only Wednesday's differential backup
A small business has a single file server running Windows Server 2019. The server uses two internal SATA drives in a RAID 1 mirror for the operating system and data. The company's backup solution performs a full backup every night to an external USB hard drive, which is stored in the server room. The IT administrator recently noticed that the server's system volume is running low on space and decides to migrate the data to a larger drive. During the migration, the server crashes and will not boot. The administrator attempts to restore from the latest backup but finds that the backup drive is corrupted and cannot be read. The company has no offsite backups. What should the administrator have done to prevent this situation?
Regularly test backup restorations to verify data integrity.
The administrator should perform periodic restore tests to confirm that backups are valid and can be successfully recovered. This would have identified the corrupted backup drive before it was needed.
Implement a RAID 5 array instead of RAID 1 for better redundancy.
Document the backup procedure and create a disaster recovery plan.
Use a cloud-based backup service with offsite storage.
A medium-sized company runs an e-commerce platform on a cluster of three physical servers hosting virtual machines. The disaster recovery plan includes daily backups to a remote data center using Veeam Backup & Replication. The company's annual disaster recovery drill is scheduled for next week. During the drill, the IT team plans to simulate a complete site failure by powering off the primary data center. The recovery time objective (RTO) is 4 hours, and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 1 hour. The team successfully restores the VMs at the remote site, but the application experiences significant performance degradation and many transactions fail due to database inconsistency. Investigation reveals that the backup was taken at 2:00 AM, but the failure occurred at 10:00 AM, and the application's database had transactions between 2:00 AM and 10:00 AM that were not captured. What should the IT team do to improve the recovery process?
Configure RAID 10 on all database servers to improve disk performance.
Upgrade the WAN connection between sites to reduce backup transfer times.
Enable log shipping with point-in-time recovery for the database.
Log shipping allows transaction log backups to be taken frequently (e.g., every 15 minutes) and applied to the standby database, enabling recovery to any point in time, thus meeting the 1-hour RPO.
Adjust the RTO to 8 hours to allow for more comprehensive backups.
A large enterprise uses a centralized backup solution with a backup server running Commvault. Backups are stored on a deduplicated disk array and replicated to a secondary site for disaster recovery. The company's security team detects ransomware activity that has encrypted several file servers. The backup administrator checks the backup repository and finds that the backup data is also encrypted because the backup service account had permissions to modify backup files, and the ransomware propagated to the repository. The last known good backup is from two weeks ago, which is too old for the organization's RPO of 24 hours. The backup administrator is under pressure to restore operations quickly. Which of the following should the administrator implement to prevent this from recurring?
Immutable backup storage and a dedicated service account with least-privilege access.
Immutable storage ensures backups cannot be altered or deleted, and a least-privilege service account reduces the attack surface. This prevents ransomware from encrypting or destroying backups.
Encrypt all backup data at rest and in transit.
Require multi-factor authentication for the backup service account.
Air-gap the backup repository by disconnecting it from the network except during backup windows.
A company uses a two-node failover cluster for a critical application. The cluster nodes are located in the same data center, and the quorum configuration uses a file share witness on a separate server in the same data center. During a major power outage, both cluster nodes and the file share witness server lose power. What is the impact on cluster availability?
The cluster will automatically fail over to a third site because the witness server is unavailable.
The cluster continues operating because the nodes can use a dynamic quorum and adjust the vote count.
The cluster will be offline until one of the nodes or the witness comes back online.
With all three voting members down, there are zero votes, below the quorum majority. The cluster will not start until at least two members are available (e.g., both nodes, or one node and the witness).
The cluster remains online because the nodes can communicate directly and form quorum without the witness.
Want more security-disaster-recovery practice?
Practice this domainA RAID 5 array is degraded due to a failed disk. What is the best practice for recovery?
Replace the failed disk and restore from backup
Replace the failed disk and allow the array to rebuild automatically
RAID 5 stores parity across remaining disks, so replacing the failed disk lets the controller reconstruct its contents automatically. This satisfies best practise by restoring redundancy without rebuilding the array from scratch or risking unnecessary data loss.
Replace the failed disk and perform a manual rebuild from backup
Delete the logical drive and recreate the array
A technician is troubleshooting a server that fails to boot. The server displays a 'Boot Device Not Found' error. The technician verifies that the hard drives are spinning and appear in the RAID controller's BIOS. What should the technician check next?
Boot order in BIOS
With drives detected by the RAID controller, the failure lies in the boot sequence rather than hardware. Checking the BIOS boot order confirms whether the correct logical volume or device is listed first, resolving the 'Boot Device Not Found' error.
Operating system files
SATA cable connections
RAID array status
A server administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue on a VMware vSphere host. The host has multiple VMs, and one VM is experiencing high latency on its virtual disk. The administrator checks the datastore and sees it is a RAID 5 array of 4 SAS drives with 50% utilization. Latency for the VM's virtual disk is reported as 200ms. Which action would most likely improve performance?
Add a second disk to the RAID 5 array (convert to RAID 6).
Migrate the VM to a different datastore with SSD storage.
The RAID 5 SAS datastore is the bottleneck, delivering 200ms latency. Migrating the VM to SSD-backed storage removes the spinning-disk seek penalty, directly addressing the high virtual disk latency constraint rather than merely shifting load.
Increase the VM's memory allocation.
Change the virtual disk type from thin to thick.
A server administrator is troubleshooting a physical server that randomly crashes once or twice a week. The administrator has already verified that the power supply is functioning correctly and has checked the event logs for critical errors. According to standard troubleshooting methodology, what should the administrator do next?
Check network cables and switch connections.
Run memory diagnostics (e.g., MemTest86) to test RAM.
With power and logs already cleared, memory is the prime suspect for intermittent crashes. MemTest86 exercises RAM outside the OS, exposing faulty modules that cause random reboots. This follows the methodology's next step: test the most probable remaining hardware cause before escalating.
Reinstall the operating system.
Replace the CPU with a known good one.
A server administrator notices that a database server is responding slowly to queries. The CPU utilization is at 30%, memory at 40%, and disk latency is normal. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT?
Network bandwidth utilization
With CPU, memory and disk latency all healthy, the bottleneck lies elsewhere. Checking network bandwidth utilisation reveals whether saturated links or packet loss are delaying query responses between the database server and its clients, which is the remaining resource constraint the stem leaves unexamined.
Power supply status
Database index fragmentation
Operating system patch level
A server in a virtualized environment is experiencing VM performance degradation. The host server has adequate resources. The hypervisor logs show excessive 'ready' time for the CPU. Which of the following is the BEST action to resolve this issue?
Disable hyper-threading on the host
Increase the number of vCPUs for the VM
Reduce the number of VMs on the host
Excessive CPU ready time indicates VMs are queuing for physical CPU despite adequate host resources, meaning the host is overcommitted on vCPU allocation. Reducing the number of VMs lowers contention, satisfying the stem's constraint that host resources are otherwise sufficient.
Migrate the VM to a different host
Want more troubleshooting practice?
Practice this domainThe vendor does not publish an exact question count for the SK0-005; the exam lasts 90 minutes. The passing score is 750 (scale 100–900). Always confirm current details on the vendor's official exam page.
Multiple-choice and performance-based questions covering IT security, networking, and operations. Some questions are performance-based (PBQs), asking you to complete tasks in a simulated environment.
The exam covers 4 domains: server-administration, server-hardware-installation-management, security-disaster-recovery, troubleshooting. Questions are weighted by domain — higher-weight domains appear more on your actual exam.
No. These are original exam-style practice questions written against the official CompTIA SK0-005 exam objectives. They are not copied from the real exam. Courseiva focuses on genuine understanding, not memorisation of braindumps.
Courseiva tracks your accuracy per domain and routes you toward weak areas automatically. Free, no account required.