SK0-005 Practice Test 7 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A technician is installing a new SSD into a server that supports NVMe drives. The server has an M.2 slot that supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA. The technician installs an M.2 NVMe SSD into the slot, but the server does not detect the drive. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

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

Accepted Answer

The M.2 slot is configured for SATA mode in the BIOS/UEFI.. The most likely cause is that the M.2 slot is set to SATA mode in the BIOS/UEFI. Many server motherboards allow M.2 slots to be configured for either SATA or PCIe/NVMe operation. If set to SATA, an NVMe drive will not be recognized. The technician should enter the BIOS/UEFI and change the M.2 slot mode to PCIe/NVMe.

Answer

The SSD is not compatible with the server because it is not a 2.5-inch drive.

Answer

The server's power supply is insufficient to power the NVMe SSD.

Answer

The SSD requires a U.2 connection instead of M.2.

Question 2

A company has a Windows Server 2022 server that runs a critical application. The server has a single power supply. The IT manager wants to ensure that the server can continue to operate during a brief power outage and can shut down gracefully during an extended outage. Which solution should the administrator implement?

Accepted Answer

Connect the server to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with a network management card. A UPS with a network management card provides both battery backup and the ability to initiate a graceful shutdown when the battery is depleted. This directly addresses the need to ride through short outages and to shut down safely during longer ones. Other options address hardware redundancy but not power outage protection.

Answer

Install a second power supply and connect it to a different power circuit

Answer

Install a redundant power supply

Answer

Configure the server to use a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) for the operating system drive

Question 3

A system administrator is configuring a backup schedule for a critical database server that must be available 24/7. The company's recovery point objective (RPO) is 1 hour and recovery time objective (RTO) is 4 hours. The database files change frequently, but the operating system and application binaries rarely change. Which of the following backup strategies would BEST meet these requirements while minimizing storage and backup window impact?

Accepted Answer

Full backup daily, incremental backup every hour. Option D is correct because daily full backups provide a recent recovery base, and hourly incremental backups are small and fast, meeting the 1-hour RPO with minimal backup window. Restoration applies at most 24 incrementals to the latest full, which fits within the 4-hour RTO. Option A is wrong because weekly full backups with hourly incrementals may require restoring too many incrementals, risking the RTO. Option B is wrong because hourly differential backups grow in size throughout the day, increasing backup time and storage. Option C is wrong because weekly fulls with hourly differentials cause exponential growth in differential size over the week.

Answer

Full backup daily, differential backup every hour

Answer

Full backup weekly, differential backup every hour

Answer

Full backup weekly, incremental backup every hour

Question 4

A system administrator is notified that a server with a RAID 5 array of four 2TB drives has a single failed drive. The server uses hot-swappable drives and a hardware RAID controller. Which of the following actions should the administrator perform FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Replace the failed drive and allow the array to rebuild.. With a hot-spare, the array can rebuild automatically after replacing the failed drive, minimizing data vulnerability. Option B (Perform a full backup) is prudent but not immediate; the array is still functional in degraded mode. Option C (Reboot the server and access the RAID controller BIOS) delays recovery and may cause unnecessary downtime. Option D (Replace all drives to increase storage) is unnecessary and wasteful.

Answer

Replace all four drives with larger capacity drives to expand storage.

Answer

Reboot the server and enter the RAID controller BIOS to mark the drive as offline.

Answer

Perform a full backup of the array before taking any action.

Question 5

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a production web server that randomly stops accepting connections. The system log shows 'kernel: TCP: request_sock_TCP: Possible SYN flooding on port 443' followed by dropped connections. The server is behind a load balancer and legitimate traffic is high but expected. The administrator suspects the SYN backlog is too small for the current connection rate. Which of the following should the administrator adjust to increase the number of half-open connections the kernel will queue?

Accepted Answer

Increase the value of net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog in /etc/sysctl.conf and apply it with sysctl -p.. The SYN flooding warning appears when the half-open connection queue fills faster than handshakes complete. The net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog setting defines that queue's depth, so raising it lets the server hold more pending handshakes under the legitimate load generated by the load balancer.

Answer

Disable SYN cookies by setting net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies to 0.

Answer

Increase net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range to allow more ephemeral connections.

Answer

Increase the value of net.core.somaxconn and reload the kernel module.

Question 6

A technician is troubleshooting a server that intermittently reboots under heavy load. The server has dual power supplies connected to separate PDUs. The technician notices that one PDU is on a branch circuit that also powers a large air compressor. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the reboots?

Accepted Answer

Electrical noise or voltage sags from the air compressor are causing power quality issues.. The intermittent reboots are most likely caused by electrical noise or voltage sags from the air compressor sharing the branch circuit. Large motors cause voltage drops when they start, which can disrupt server power supplies. Even with dual power supplies on separate PDUs, if one circuit is compromised, the server may still experience issues if the other supply cannot fully compensate or if the sag is severe. This is a classic power quality problem.

Answer

The server's power supplies are configured for 220V but the PDU is providing 110V.

Answer

The power supplies are not rated for the server's power draw.

Answer

The server's power supplies are not redundant because they are connected to the same PDU.

Question 7

A Linux server administrator notices that a production server's root filesystem is 100% full. The server is still running but new log entries are failing to write. The administrator runs `df -h` and sees /dev/sda3 at 100% usage, but `du -sh /` reports only 45 GB used on a 100 GB filesystem. Which command should the administrator use to identify the large deleted file that is still held open by a process?

Accepted Answer

lsof +L1. The difference between df (100 GB used) and du (45 GB used) indicates that space is allocated to a file no longer visible in the directory tree, typically a deleted file still open by a process. lsof +L1 lists such files, showing the PID and size. Restarting the process releases the handle and frees the space. Other commands either show disk layout, existing files, or I/O performance, none of which identify the hidden space consumer.

Answer

iostat -x 1

Answer

find / -type f -size +1G -exec ls -lh {} \;

Answer

fdisk -l /dev/sda

Question 8

A technician is installing a new 2U server into an existing rack. The rack is fully populated with servers that use front-to-back airflow. The new server also uses front-to-back cooling. The technician notices gaps between some servers and several open rack units without equipment. To ensure optimal airflow and prevent potential thermal issues, which of the following actions should the technician take FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Install blanking panels in all unused rack spaces.. Blanking panels are the correct first action because unused rack units create a path for hot exhaust air to recirculate to the cold aisle, raising intake temperatures and causing thermal issues. Filling every empty U with blanking panels restores the front-to-back pressure differential that front-to-back airflow servers depend on. This is a low-cost, non-invasive fix that directly addresses the root cause before considering fan or cooling changes.

Answer

Install additional exhaust fans at the rear of the rack to pull hot air out.

Answer

Increase the fan speed of the new server to compensate for recirculated air.

Answer

Leave the gaps to allow passive air movement and reduce pressure.

Question 9

A 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?

Accepted Answer

Attach an ESD wrist strap to a grounded surface. Attaching an ESD wrist strap to a grounded surface is the first step to safely discharge static electricity from the technician's body before handling server components. This prevents ESD damage to sensitive electronics.

Answer

Place an anti-static mat on the floor

Answer

Spray anti-static solution on the server rack

Answer

Wear rubber-soled shoes

Question 10

A systems administrator is configuring a new server that will host a mission-critical database. The server has two redundant power supplies. The organization's data center has two separate power circuits, each backed by a different UPS. Which of the following power configurations provides the BEST redundancy?

Accepted Answer

Connect each power supply to a different power circuit.. Connecting each power supply to a different power circuit ensures that if one circuit or UPS fails, the server continues to receive power from the other source. Option B is correct because it eliminates single points of failure in the power path. Option A is incorrect because connecting both to the same circuit creates a single point of failure; a circuit trip would take down the server. Option C is incorrect because using a single live PSU with a cold spare does not provide automatic failover and would cause downtime if the active PSU fails. Option D is incorrect because a single high-capacity UPS is still a single point of failure, and does not protect against UPS failure or circuit issues.

Answer

Connect both power supplies to a single, high-capacity UPS.

Answer

Use a single power supply and keep the second as a cold spare.

Answer

Connect both power supplies to the same circuit to balance load.