SK0-005 server-administration Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A server has a RAID 5 array with four drives. One drive fails and is replaced. During the rebuild, a second drive reports a media error and the rebuild fails. What should the administrator do FIRST to minimize the risk of permanent data loss?

Accepted Answer

Back up all critical data before any further rebuilding. A media error on another drive during a RAID 5 rebuild indicates that drive may also be failing. If another drive fails completely, the entire array and its data will be lost. Therefore, the immediate priority is to back up critical data before any further rebuild action. Replacing the drive or restarting the controller could trigger another rebuild, risking complete array loss. A consistency check does not address the urgency.

Answer

Run a consistency check on the array

Answer

Replace the drive that reported the media error immediately

Answer

Restart the RAID controller to reinitialize the rebuild

Question 2

You are the lead server administrator for a mid-sized e-commerce company. The web application is hosted on a farm of four Linux servers running Apache, fronted by a hardware load balancer. The load balancer currently uses a round-robin algorithm. Recently, the customer support team has received numerous complaints about slow page load times and occasional timeouts during checkout. You log into the server monitoring console and observe that one of the web servers, web03, has a CPU utilization consistently above 95%, while the other three servers are at around 30-40%. You connect via SSH to web03 and run the 'top' command, identifying a process named 'imagick' consuming 99% CPU. Further investigation reveals that this process is related to image resizing for product thumbnails, and it appears to have entered an infinite loop due to a malformed image file. Meanwhile, the load balancer continues to send requests to all servers equally, including the overloaded web03, causing some requests to time out. You need to restore performance immediately and prevent recurrence. Which of the following actions should you take?

Accepted Answer

Kill the 'imagick' process on web03, change the load balancer algorithm to least connections, and clear the malformed image.. It directly addresses both issues: the runaway process (killing it stops the CPU drain) and the load balancer algorithm (switching to least connections prevents sending traffic to an already overloaded server). Additionally, clearing the malformed image addresses the root cause of the loop. Option A (adding servers) may temporarily hide the problem but does not fix the load distribution or the looping process; the overloaded server would still exist. Option C (rebooting all servers) is unnecessarily disruptive and does not address the root cause; the malformed image could trigger the loop again after reboot. Option D (increasing RAM) misidentifies the issue as memory-related when it is clearly CPU-bound; more RAM would not stop the infinite loop.

Answer

Reboot all four web servers to clear any stuck processes.

Answer

Increase RAM on web03 to handle the high CPU process better.

Answer

Add two more servers to the farm and keep the round-robin algorithm.

Question 3

A company runs a popular public-facing e-commerce website hosted on a farm of five Windows Server 2019 web servers behind a hardware load balancer. Recently, users have been reporting intermittent '503 Service Unavailable' errors during peak shopping hours. The administrator checks the load balancer and finds that all servers are marked as healthy with low CPU and memory usage. However, when inspecting a sample server, the administrator notices a large number of TCP connections in the TIME_WAIT state, consuming all available ephemeral ports. The application is ASP.NET based and uses IIS. The server configuration is as follows: Windows Server 2019 Standard, 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, default TCP/IP settings. The administrator needs to resolve the connectivity issues without making changes to the application code or altering the network architecture. Which of the following actions should the administrator take to fix the problem PERMANENTLY?

Accepted Answer

Increase the ephemeral port range using netsh, and consider reducing the TIME_WAIT delay via registry settings.. Ephemeral port exhaustion is the root cause. Increasing the ephemeral port range provides more ports, and reducing TIME_WAIT delay frees them faster. Option B adds servers, which is a temporary workaround and does not prevent port exhaustion on each server. Option C requires nightly restarts, causing brief outages and not solving the underlying issue. Option D limits concurrent connections but may degrade performance and does not address port exhaustion.

Answer

Add two additional web servers to the farm to distribute the load.

Answer

Schedule a nightly restart of the IIS application pools.

Answer

Reduce the maximum number of concurrent connections in the IIS application pool settings.

Question 4

A small law firm has a single Windows Server 2016 Essentials server that functions as a domain controller and file server. After a sudden power outage over the weekend, the server does not boot normally. Instead, it displays a black screen with the message: 'BOOTMGR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.' The IT support specialist arrives on Monday morning to find the server in this state. The firm's operations are at a standstill because all case files and email archives are inaccessible. The specialist has access to the Windows Server 2016 installation media and a recent system state backup stored on an external drive. The server hardware passed POST, and all disks are detected in the BIOS. The specialist needs to restore the server's ability to boot into Windows as quickly as possible, with minimal risk to existing data. Which of the following procedures should the specialist perform FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Boot from the installation media, select 'Repair your computer', and from the Command Prompt run 'bootrec /fixmbr' and 'bootrec /fixboot'.. The 'BOOTMGR is missing' error typically indicates a corrupt master boot record or boot sector. Using bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot from the installation media repairs the boot files without affecting data. Option A is a full system restore, which risks data loss and is overkill. Option B is hardware reseating, unnecessary since POST passed. Option D, Last Known Good Configuration, does not fix missing boot manager files.

Answer

Connect the external backup drive, boot from the installation media, and perform a full system restore from the backup.

Answer

Open the server case, reseat the RAM modules and SATA cables, and then attempt to boot again.

Answer

Press F8 during startup to access Advanced Boot Options and select 'Last Known Good Configuration'.

Question 5

A system administrator manages a collection of Linux web servers that store custom application configurations in /etc/app/config. The configuration changes frequently, and the admin needs to implement an automated daily backup solution that captures the directory at 1 AM, compresses it with gzip, and retains the last 5 days of backups on a central NFS-mounted backup volume /mnt/backups. The solution should be simple and use standard tools. Which approach best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Create a cron job that runs `tar -czf /mnt/backups/config-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/app/config` at 1 AM, and another cron job at 2 AM that runs `find /mnt/backups -name "config-*.tar.gz" -mtime +5 -delete`.. It uses tar with gzip compression and a dated filename to create daily compressed archives, and a separate cron job using find to delete files older than 5 days, fulfilling all requirements simply. Option A uses rsync which does not create a single compressed archive file and the retention method using find on directories is less suitable for daily snapshot rotation. Option C uses zip which does not easily support date-stamped filenames and relies on external NFS snapshots, which is not a self-contained solution. Option D uses Windows Server Backup on Linux, which is unsupported and inappropriate.

Answer

Use Windows Server Backup scheduled to back up the Linux server's directory via SMB share.

Answer

Create a cron job that runs `rsync -avz /etc/app/config /mnt/backups/` at 1 AM, with a separate cron job to delete old rsync snapshots using `find /mnt/backups -type d -mtime +5 -exec rm -rf {} \;`.

Answer

Write a shell script that uses `zip -r /mnt/backups/config.zip /etc/app/config`, schedule it via cron at 1 AM, and rely on the NFS server's built-in snapshot feature for retention.

Question 6

A company's primary file server runs Windows Server 2019 with four 1 TB SATA drives in a RAID 5 array controlled by a hardware RAID controller. The server hosts shared project data that is accessed continuously during business hours. The administrator notices that write performance has degraded significantly over the past month, and the RAID controller log shows an increasing number of medium errors on one drive. The administrator needs to replace the failing drive with minimal downtime and without losing data. Which of the following should the administrator do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Verify that a recent, restorable backup of the array exists.. Before replacing a drive in a degraded RAID 5 array, the administrator must ensure that a recent, restorable backup exists. RAID 5 can tolerate only one drive failure; during a rebuild, the array is extremely vulnerable, and a second failure would result in total data loss. Verifying a backup first protects the data and allows recovery if the rebuild fails.

Answer

Update the RAID controller firmware to the latest version.

Answer

Run a full surface scan on all drives in the array to identify additional errors.

Answer

Replace the failing drive with a new drive of equal or larger capacity, allowing the controller to rebuild the array.

Question 7

A system administrator manages a Windows Server 2019 environment with multiple physical servers. The administrator needs to implement a remote management solution that provides out-of-band access to the servers' console even when the operating system is unresponsive or powered off. The solution must also allow mounting virtual media for OS installation and support remote power cycling. Which TWO of the following should the administrator implement? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure the servers' baseboard management controllers (BMCs) with dedicated network access.. Out-of-band management requires a baseboard management controller (BMC) or an integrated lights-out interface like iLO or iDRAC. These components operate independently of the operating system, providing console access, virtual media mounting, and remote power cycling even when the server is off or unresponsive. Configuring dedicated network access for the BMC ensures reliable connectivity. Other options like RDP or VPNs do not provide the required out-of-band capabilities.

Answer

Set up a VPN connection for administrators to access the server management network.

Answer

Enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on all servers and restrict access via firewall rules.

Answer

Deploy a terminal server and use it as a jump host for administrative connections.

Question 8

A junior administrator is tasked with creating a new virtual machine on a Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V host. The VM will run a lightly used internal application and requires 4 GB of RAM, 2 virtual processors, and a 60 GB virtual hard disk. The administrator creates the VM using the default dynamic memory settings and a dynamically expanding VHDX. After a week, users report that the application occasionally becomes very slow. Performance monitoring shows that the VM's memory utilization frequently hits the configured maximum, and disk latency spikes during these times. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

The VM is experiencing memory pressure due to dynamic memory configuration, causing excessive paging.. Dynamic memory in Hyper-V adjusts the VM's memory within a configured minimum and maximum. If the maximum is set too low, the VM can run out of memory, causing the guest OS to page heavily to disk. This results in high disk latency and application slowdowns. The memory utilization hitting the maximum confirms memory pressure as the root cause. Adjusting the dynamic memory maximum or using static memory would resolve the issue.

Answer

The host's CPU is oversubscribed, causing the VM's virtual processors to wait.

Answer

The virtual switch is misconfigured, causing network latency.

Answer

The dynamically expanding VHDX is causing disk fragmentation and slow I/O.

Question 9

A company's file server is running low on disk space. The administrator notices that the disk holding the operating system and application logs is nearly full. Which of the following is the BEST immediate step to free up space while maintaining system stability?

Accepted Answer

Run Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files and old updates.. Disk Cleanup is the safest and most efficient immediate solution because it targets unnecessary files without risking system integrity. Other options either jeopardize stability, offer limited benefit, or introduce performance penalties. The goal is to quickly reclaim space while ensuring the server remains operational and compliant.

Answer

Delete the largest log files in the Windows directory.

Answer

Compress the entire operating system drive.

Answer

Move the pagefile to a different volume.

Question 10

A company's file server is running low on disk space. The administrator notices that the volume hosting user home directories is nearly full, with only 10 GB free out of 2 TB. Users report that they cannot save new files. The administrator needs to free up space immediately without deleting any user data. Which of the following should the administrator do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Use File Server Resource Manager to generate a storage report and identify large files.. The administrator should first identify what is consuming disk space before taking any action. File Server Resource Manager provides detailed storage reports that show large files, duplicates, and usage by owner, enabling targeted cleanup without risking user data. Other options either do not address the specific volume or are not immediate or effective enough.

Answer

Enable NTFS compression on the volume.

Answer

Move the pagefile to another volume.

Answer

Run Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files and system caches.

Question 11

A company runs a critical application on a physical server with four 15,000 RPM SAS drives in a hardware RAID 5 array. Users report that write performance has degraded significantly during peak hours. Performance monitoring shows high disk queue length. The administrator wants to improve write performance without sacrificing redundancy or adding more drives. Which of the following should the administrator implement?

Accepted Answer

Configure the RAID controller to use write-back caching with a battery-backed cache module.. RAID 5 suffers from a write penalty because each write requires reading old data and parity, calculating new parity, and writing both. Write-back caching with a battery-backed module allows the controller to buffer writes and acknowledge them quickly, dramatically improving write throughput while preserving redundancy. The battery ensures data is not lost if power fails before the cache is flushed to disk.

Answer

Change the RAID level to RAID 0 to eliminate parity overhead.

Answer

Increase the RAID stripe size to 256 KB.

Answer

Enable disk defragmentation on the server's data volume.

Question 12

A company runs a critical file server on Windows Server 2022 with a RAID 5 array of four 4-TB SAS drives. During a routine check, the administrator notices that the array is in a degraded state because one drive has failed. While waiting for a replacement drive to arrive, a second drive fails. The administrator needs to restore access to the data as quickly as possible. Which of the following should the administrator do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Restore the most recent backup to a new array or server.. In a RAID 5 array, a single drive failure is tolerated, but a second failure renders the array inoperable. The administrator must recover from backup to restore data and service. Replacing drives or forcing them online will not recover the data and may cause further damage. Restoring from backup is the only reliable method to regain access.

Answer

Force the second failed drive online using the RAID controller management utility.

Answer

Replace both failed drives and let the RAID controller rebuild the array automatically.

Answer

Swap the failed drives with new ones and initialize the array, then restore from backup.

Question 13

A server administrator is configuring a new server that will host a database. The server has four 1 TB SAS drives. The administrator wants to maximize performance while providing fault tolerance that can survive a single drive failure. Which RAID level should be used?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10. RAID 10 is the best choice because it offers both fault tolerance and improved performance through striping and mirroring. It can tolerate a single drive failure and provides better write performance than RAID 5, which is crucial for database operations.

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

RAID 1

Answer

RAID 5

Question 14

A company’s file server runs Windows Server 2022 and hosts a 4 TB volume. Users report that saving large files to a shared folder occasionally fails with an error about insufficient disk space, even though the volume shows 800 GB of free space. Performance Monitor shows high Avg. Disk sec/Transfer and frequent paging. Which action should the administrator take first to resolve the file‑save failures?

Accepted Answer

Increase the amount of RAM in the server.. The server’s symptoms—high disk transfer times, frequent paging, and file‑save failures despite free space—point to insufficient RAM. When memory is low, Windows pages heavily to disk, causing I/O bottlenecks and timeouts. Adding RAM reduces paging, improves disk responsiveness, and resolves the file‑save errors. Other options do not address the memory constraint and could introduce unnecessary changes.

Answer

Enable Data Deduplication on the volume to reclaim space.

Answer

Convert the volume to ReFS to improve file handling.

Answer

Move the shared folder to a different volume with more free space.

Question 15

A company runs a critical application on a physical Windows Server 2022 with four 146 GB SAS drives in a RAID 5 array and a single hot-spare. The server has been in production for five years. The IT manager asks you to recommend two proactive measures to reduce the risk of unplanned downtime due to drive failures. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Configure a weekly scheduled consistency check (patrol read) on the RAID controller.. A consistency check (patrol read) proactively scans the RAID array for media errors and corrects them using parity, while SMART monitoring predicts drive failures before they occur. Together, they provide early warning and maintenance that can prevent a drive failure from causing downtime. The other options either increase risk, do not address drive failure, or only help after an outage.

Answer

Schedule a nightly full backup of the server to an external USB drive.

Answer

Convert the RAID 5 array to RAID 0 to improve performance.

Answer

Replace all drives with higher-capacity drives to increase the array size.