SK0-005 server-administration — 10 Questions

Question 1

A SQL Server database administrator wants to backup a large database (500 GB) with minimal impact on transaction log growth and recovery time. Which TWO backup strategies should the administrator implement? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Perform weekly full backups. Weekly full backups (B) are correct because they establish a regular recovery baseline for the 500 GB database without generating excessive log growth, since a full backup does not truncate the log but sets the foundation for the recovery chain. Transaction log backups every 15 minutes (C) are correct because frequent log backups truncate the inactive portion of the transaction log, keeping log growth minimal and enabling point-in-time recovery with a short recovery time objective (RTO). Together, B and C form a standard full + log recovery model that limits log file expansion and minimizes data loss. A tail-log backup (A) is only needed before restoring a database or when the database is damaged/offline, not before every full backup. Daily differential backups (D) reduce restore time but do not control transaction log growth, and hourly copy-only backups (E) do not truncate the log or participate in the recovery chain, so they fail to address the stated goals.

Answer

Perform a tail-log backup before each full backup

Answer

Perform daily differential backups

Answer

Perform hourly copy-only backups

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. A Linux server is reporting slow I/O on the root filesystem. Which of the following actions should the administrator take to resolve the immediate storage bottleneck?

Accepted Answer

Move non-essential data from / to /backup.. The exhibit shows the root filesystem is the bottleneck, so the immediate remediation is to reduce I/O pressure on / by relocating non-essential data to a separate volume or mount point such as /backup. This directly addresses the root cause — contention on the root device — without risky operations like resizing or RAID changes. It is the least invasive action that resolves the immediate bottleneck.

Answer

Delete log files in /var/log.

Answer

Resize /dev/sda1 to 30G.

Answer

Change the RAID level of /dev/sda.

Question 3

Refer to the exhibit. A server administrator configured iptables rules on a Linux server. Immediately afterward, they are unable to connect to the server via SSH. The output of 'iptables -L INPUT -n' is shown. What is the most likely cause of the connectivity issue?

Accepted Answer

The DROP rule for port 22 appears before the ACCEPT rule, causing all SSH packets to be dropped.. iptables processes rules in order. The DROP rule for destination port 22 appears before the ACCEPT rule, so all incoming SSH packets are dropped before the ACCEPT rule can permit new connections.

Answer

The last DROP rule blocks all traffic, including established SSH sessions.

Answer

The default INPUT policy is set to ACCEPT, allowing all traffic.

Answer

The ACCEPT rule for port 22 is missing the ESTABLISHED state, preventing return traffic.

Question 4

A server administrator receives an alert that a critical server's disk is almost full. Upon investigation, the administrator finds a large log file that has grown significantly. The log file is rotated daily, but today's rotation failed. Which command should the administrator use FIRST to free up space immediately?

Accepted Answer

> /var/log/large.log to truncate the file.. The `> /var/log/large.log` command truncates the file to zero bytes while keeping the file handle open, which immediately frees disk space without disrupting any process that is actively writing to the log. This is the safest first step because it avoids breaking logging continuity and does not require stopping services.

Answer

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf to force log rotation.

Answer

rm -rf /var/log/large.log to delete the file.

Answer

mv /var/log/large.log /backup/ to move the file.

Question 5

A medium-sized organization runs several critical virtual machines on a Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V host with 64 GB of RAM and two 12-core processors. One of the VMs, a database server, has been experiencing intermittent performance degradation, specifically during peak hours. The VM is configured with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of static memory. The host's overall CPU utilization rarely exceeds 40%, and memory usage is around 50%. The administrator logs into the host and checks the VM's CPU usage in Hyper-V Manager, which shows it averaging 65% with occasional spikes to 95%. However, inside the VM, Task Manager shows constant 95-100% CPU usage on all logical processors. No other VMs are reporting performance issues. The administrator needs to determine the root cause and apply a fix that does not involve adding more physical resources or rebooting the production VM during business hours. Which of the following actions should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Use Performance Monitor on the host to examine 'Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual Processor' metrics for the VM and compare with in-guest CPU usage to identify scheduling issues. The discrepancy between host-side Hyper-V Manager CPU (65% average) and in-guest Task Manager (95-100% on all logical processors) points to a virtual processor scheduling or measurement issue, not a raw resource shortage. Using Performance Monitor on the host to examine 'Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual Processor' counters for the VM and compare them with in-guest metrics is the correct diagnostic step to identify whether the VM is being throttled, waiting on a virtual processor, or misreporting CPU usage.

Answer

Increase the VM's memory from 16 GB to 32 GB to reduce paging and improve performance

Answer

Increase the VM's vCPU count to 8 to handle the workload and reduce contention

Answer

Check the host's overall CPU usage in Task Manager and increase the VM's vCPU count if the host has spare capacity

Question 6

A junior administrator is managing a Linux server used by a development team. The root filesystem (/) has reached 98% capacity, causing the system to slow down and some applications to fail. The server has an LVM volume group with 20 GB of free space, but the root logical volume is 50 GB with an ext4 filesystem. The administrator needs to free space quickly and safely without rebooting or adding new disks. They log in via SSH and want to identify where the large files are and then take action. There are concerns about accidentally deleting critical system files or logs that might be needed for auditing. The server has the following typical directories: /var (with logs), /home (user files), /opt (application files), /tmp. Which of the following sequences of actions is the most appropriate to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Run 'du -sh /*' to locate large directories, then examine and compress or truncate old log files in /var/log. Option A is correct because it uses 'du -sh /*' to safely identify the largest directories, then targets specific log files in /var/log that can be compressed or moved, freeing space without deleting required files. Option B is wrong because blindly removing all files in /tmp may delete needed temporary files for running applications. Option C is wrong because using 'find' with 'exec rm' is very dangerous and could delete critical files if misused. Option D is wrong because resizing the filesystem, while possible with LVM, should be considered after attempting to free space safely; also the free space in VG might be needed elsewhere.

Answer

Execute 'rm -rf /tmp/*' to clear temporary files and regain space

Answer

Use 'find / -type f -size +100M -exec rm {} \;' to delete all files larger than 100MB

Answer

Extend the root logical volume by 10 GB using 'lvextend' and then resize the filesystem with 'resize2fs'

Question 7

A corporation's backup strategy currently involves a weekly full backup every Saturday night and daily differential backups Monday through Friday. The company has a 5 TB dataset with a daily change rate of about 10%. The full backup takes 12 hours and runs into Monday morning, impacting production performance. The backup window is from 10 PM to 6 AM. The company requires faster backups that can complete within the window, and they also want an offsite copy of the backups for disaster recovery. The existing backup server has direct-attached disk storage and a tape library. The network bandwidth to the offsite location is limited to 100 Mbps. The administrator is evaluating changes to the backup methodology and infrastructure to meet these requirements. Which of the following solutions best addresses the speed and offsite requirements?

Accepted Answer

Implement a disk-to-disk-to-cloud solution using changed block tracking for daily incrementals and replication to the cloud. A disk-to-disk-to-cloud design with changed block tracking (CBT) addresses both requirements: CBT-based incrementals capture only changed blocks, shrinking daily backup time well within the 10 PM–6 AM window, and cloud replication provides the offsite copy without being bottlenecked by the 100 Mbps WAN link during the backup window. Local disk staging also eliminates the tape-handling overhead that currently pushes the full backup into Monday morning.

Answer

Upgrade the tape library to use multiple tape drives for parallel backups and rotate tapes offsite daily

Answer

Switch to synthetic full backups combined with incremental forever; store backups locally on disk

Answer

Continue weekly fulls but perform daily incremental backups instead of differentials; keep tapes on-site

Question 8

A company has an internal web application running on a Windows Server 2019 IIS server. Recently, users have been experiencing intermittent slow responses and occasional '503 Service Unavailable' errors. The server has 32 GB RAM and currently hosts only this application. The application pool is configured to use a private memory limit of 2 GB and a request queue limit of 1000. Performance monitoring reveals that the application pool's private memory gradually increases over several hours until it reaches 2 GB, at which point the pool recycles. The slow responses and errors coincide with the recycling events. The administrator suspects a memory leak in the application code but cannot modify the application immediately. The server must remain available during business hours (8 AM to 8 PM). Which of the following is the best short-term mitigation?

Accepted Answer

Configure Performance Monitor alerts to recycle the application pool when memory usage reaches 1.8 GB, and schedule it during low-usage hours. Configuring Performance Monitor alerts to recycle the application pool when memory usage reaches 1.8 GB (before the 2 GB limit) and scheduling it during low-usage hours mitigates the issue by proactively recycling before the pool hits its limit and causes 503 errors. This avoids service disruption during business hours.

Answer

Use a script to stop and start the application pool service every hour

Answer

Increase the physical RAM to 64 GB and raise the private memory limit to 4 GB

Answer

Schedule a nightly reboot of the server to clear memory and reset the application pool

Question 9

A server has two NICs configured in a team using LACP. The server loses network connectivity when one NIC is physically disconnected, even though both links show as active in the teaming software before the failure. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

LACP is not correctly configured on the switch. For LACP to work properly, the switch must be explicitly configured to bundle the ports into a port channel. If the switch is not configured for LACP, it may not handle the failover correctly, causing a loss of connectivity when one link drops. NIC driver issues or STP are less likely to cause this specific symptom, and setting the team to Switch Independent would not use LACP.

Answer

The teaming mode is set to 'Switch Independent' instead of LACP

Answer

Spanning Tree Protocol is blocking the failover path

Answer

NIC driver version mismatch between the two adapters

Question 10

A MySQL database server on Linux is experiencing high CPU utilization during peak business hours. Upon investigation, the administrator finds that the query cache hit ratio is below 20%, and the query_cache_size is set to 0. The server has 64 GB of RAM and the database workload is primarily read-heavy. Which of the following actions should the administrator take FIRST to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Set query_cache_size to an appropriate value, such as 256M, and monitor.. The query cache hit ratio is below 20% and query_cache_size is set to 0, meaning the query cache is effectively disabled. Since the workload is read-heavy and the server has ample RAM (64 GB), enabling the query cache by setting query_cache_size to a reasonable value like 256M is the most direct and immediate fix to improve performance. This allows repeated SELECT queries to be served from memory instead of hitting the disk, reducing CPU load.

Answer

Add more RAM to the server.

Answer

Rebuild all indexes on the database tables.

Answer

Enable the slow query log to identify inefficient queries.