SK0-005 server-hardware-installation-management Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

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?

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

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 2

A rack-mounted server must be installed in a datacenter cabinet that is only 30 inches deep, while the server's rails require a minimum depth of 35 inches for the rear brackets to attach. The server is currently supported only by the front flanges. Which of the following should the technician do?

Accepted Answer

Relocate the server to a cabinet that meets the rail's minimum depth requirement and mount it with both front and rear brackets secured.. Server rails are designed to attach at both the front and rear of the cabinet, distributing the chassis weight and keeping the unit square. A cabinet that does not meet the rail's minimum depth cannot accept the rear brackets, so the correct action is to install the server in a cabinet that satisfies the rail specification rather than improvising support.

Answer

Mount the server in the shallow cabinet using a universal rail kit that does not require rear attachment.

Answer

Trim the rear rails to fit the 30-inch cabinet and torque the front flanges to compensate for the missing rear support.

Answer

Install the server using only the front mounting flanges and support the rear with a shelf.

Question 3

A technician is installing a new server into a rack and needs to ensure the chassis does not tip forward when a heavy component is pulled out on its rails. Which of the following should the technician install FIRST?

Accepted Answer

A stabilizer or anti-tip foot on the bottom front of the rack before extending any equipment.. Anti-tip feet or stabilizers widen the rack's base and prevent it from pitching forward when a server on sliding rails is fully extended. They should be deployed before equipment is pulled out, making them the correct first step to protect the technician and the installed hardware from an overturn.

Answer

A vertical PDU mounted in the rear of the rack to add weight to the back of the cabinet.

Answer

Cage nuts and screws at the front of the server to secure the chassis to the front uprights.

Answer

A cable management arm attached to the rear of the rails to limit forward travel.

Question 4

A technician is tasked with installing a new 2U server into a rack that currently has two servers. The rack is located in a small server room with limited airflow. The technician notices that the rack does not have a blanking panel installed above the new server. What is the most likely consequence of not installing the blanking panel?

Accepted Answer

Hot air recirculation causing overheating of components. Blank server rack units allow hot exhaust air to recirculate to the front intake, especially in confined spaces with limited airflow. This raises intake temperatures and can cause overheating. Blanking panels are inexpensive and easy to install; they block these gaps and ensure that cold air from the front is drawn through the servers and exhausted out the back. This maintains proper cooling and prevents thermal issues. Therefore, the most likely consequence of omitting the blanking panel is hot air recirculation and overheating.

Answer

Increased cooling efficiency due to better air circulation

Answer

Electromagnetic interference affecting network signals

Answer

Increased power consumption due to higher fan speeds

Question 5

A server administrator is installing a new 2U rack server that will use four 960GB SATA SSDs in a hardware RAID 10 array for the operating system. The server's RAID controller supports both SATA and SAS drives. After physically installing the drives in the front bays, the administrator powers on the server but the RAID controller does not detect any drives. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The drives are not properly seated in the backplane connectors.. The most likely cause is that the drives are not fully seated in the backplane connectors. In hot-swap bays, drives must be pushed firmly until they click. If not seated, the RAID controller sees no drives. Reseating is a simple first step before investigating firmware or configuration.

Answer

The power supply units are insufficient to power the SSDs.

Answer

The RAID controller firmware needs to be updated to support SATA SSDs.

Answer

The drives are not initialized in the RAID controller BIOS.

Question 6

A technician is installing a new PCIe 4.0 x16 network adapter into a server that has a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot available. The server's BIOS is configured to auto-negotiate PCIe link speed. After installation, the adapter is detected but operates at reduced throughput. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The adapter is operating at PCIe 3.0 speeds due to slot limitations.. The adapter operates at reduced throughput because it is installed in a PCIe 3.0 slot. PCIe is backward compatible, so a PCIe 4.0 adapter will negotiate down to the slot's maximum speed, which is PCIe 3.0. This limits bandwidth but does not prevent operation.

Answer

The BIOS needs to be updated to support PCIe 4.0.

Answer

The adapter is not compatible with the server's chipset.

Answer

The PCIe slot is electrically wired for x8 only.

Question 7

A data center technician is installing a new 2U server that will host a virtualized environment. The server supports hot-swappable 2.5-inch NVMe drives in the front bays, but the operating system does not detect any drives after installation. The technician confirms the drives are properly seated and the backplane is connected to the motherboard. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The backplane's NVMe ports are not connected to the motherboard's PCIe lanes or the correct HBA/RAID controller.. NVMe drives communicate over PCIe, and in a hot-swap backplane, the backplane must be cabled to PCIe lanes on the motherboard or a compatible controller. If those cables are missing or misconnected, the drives receive power but no data path, so they are invisible to the OS. Verifying the backplane cabling is the critical step before assuming drive or controller failure.

Answer

The NVMe drives require a U.2 to M.2 adapter to be recognized by the backplane.

Answer

The drives must be initialized in the RAID controller BIOS before they appear to the operating system.

Answer

The drives are not compatible with the backplane because they are SATA instead of NVMe.

Question 8

A server administrator is replacing a failed hot-swap SAS hard drive in a production server that uses a hardware RAID controller. The drive is part of a RAID 5 array. After physically swapping the drive, the administrator notices the drive activity LED is blinking green but the array status still shows 'degraded' in the management software. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The RAID controller is performing a rebuild but the management software has not yet updated the status.. The blinking green LED indicates the drive is active, which is consistent with an automatic rebuild in progress. RAID controllers often start rebuilding immediately upon insertion of a replacement drive, but the management software may lag in updating the array status. The array remains 'degraded' until the rebuild completes, so the administrator should monitor the rebuild progress rather than assuming a failure.

Answer

The drive was inserted into the wrong bay, so the controller cannot map it to the array.

Answer

The RAID 5 array requires a manual rebuild command to be issued from the controller BIOS.

Answer

The replacement drive is not a certified spare and must be manually added to the array.

Question 9

A technician is installing a new PCIe expansion card into a rack-mounted server. The server's chassis has a riser card to accommodate low-profile cards. After installing the card and powering on, the server POSTs but the operating system does not detect the card. The card is known to work in another server. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Whether the riser card is properly seated in its slot and the expansion card is fully inserted into the riser.. The most common cause of a newly installed expansion card not being detected is improper physical seating. Riser cards add an extra connection point that can easily become loose. Ensuring both the riser and the card are fully seated is a quick and logical first step. Other causes like BIOS settings or drivers are less likely given the card's known functionality.

Answer

Whether the server's BIOS has the PCIe slot enabled and configured for the correct generation.

Answer

Whether the expansion card requires an external power connector that is not connected.

Answer

Whether the operating system has the correct driver installed for the expansion card.

Question 10

A server administrator is tasked with replacing a failed power supply in a redundant power configuration. The server has two hot-swappable power supplies. Which of the following should the administrator do FIRST to safely replace the failed unit?

Accepted Answer

Verify that the remaining power supply is functioning and the server is not drawing power from the failed unit.. In a redundant power supply configuration, each supply can independently power the server. Before hot-swapping a failed unit, you must confirm that the other supply is healthy and carrying the load. This is typically indicated by a green LED or a management console status. Once verified, the failed supply can be removed and replaced without downtime.

Answer

Remove the failed power supply immediately to prevent electrical damage.

Answer

Power down the server and disconnect all power cords.

Answer

Update the firmware on the remaining power supply before replacement.

Question 11

A server technician is replacing a failed hot-swappable 2.5-inch SAS drive in a production 2U server while it remains powered on. The drive bay is populated and the array is in a degraded state. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST before physically removing the failed drive?

Accepted Answer

Identify the failed drive's bay location using the drive LED status indicators or the RAID controller management utility. Before touching a live array, the technician must positively identify the failed member's physical bay. Fault LEDs on the drive carrier or the controller's management interface map logical members to physical slots, preventing removal of a healthy drive that would push a degraded array into a failed state. Shutting down, deleting configuration, or checking performance specs do not address the immediate risk of removing the wrong component.

Answer

Verify the replacement drive has a higher spindle speed and larger cache than the failed unit

Answer

Shut down the server and place it in maintenance mode before opening the chassis

Answer

Delete the failed member from the RAID configuration to prevent rebuild conflicts

Question 12

A technician is installing a new server with a hardware RAID controller. The server will host a database that requires high write performance and redundancy. The technician configures four SSDs in a RAID 10 array. After installation, the operating system reports the array as 1.2TB, but the technician expected 2.4TB. Which of the following explains the discrepancy?

Accepted Answer

RAID 10 uses mirroring and striping, so only half of the raw capacity is available for data.. RAID 10 requires a minimum of four drives and provides both striping and mirroring. The usable capacity is always 50% of the total raw capacity because each block is written to two drives. In this scenario, four 600GB drives yield 2.4TB raw and 1.2TB usable. The technician's expectation of 2.4TB would only be correct for RAID 0 or a non-redundant configuration.

Answer

The operating system is using a 512-byte sector size instead of 4K, reducing usable capacity.

Answer

The RAID controller is configured for RAID 5, which uses one drive for parity.

Answer

The SSDs are not compatible with the RAID controller, causing a size mismatch.

Question 13

A server administrator is installing a new internal tape drive into a server that will be used for backups. The server has an available parallel SCSI (SPI) interface on the motherboard. The administrator connects the tape drive to the SCSI bus but forgets to install a terminator on the last device. Which of the following is the MOST likely result?

Accepted Answer

The SCSI bus will experience signal reflection and data corruption.. Missing termination on a parallel SCSI bus causes signal reflection, leading to data corruption and errors. Termination is required at both ends of the bus to maintain signal integrity. The tape drive may be detected but will likely experience intermittent failures during backups.

Answer

The tape drive will operate at reduced speed but without errors.

Answer

The tape drive will not be detected by the operating system.

Answer

The server will fail to POST.

Question 14

A server administrator is installing a new 2U rack server into a datacenter rack. The server has two hot-swap 1100W power supplies. The rack currently has a 30A/208V single-phase PDU that is only 40% loaded. The administrator connects both power supplies to the same PDU. After a few months, one power supply fails, but the server remains operational. Which of the following should the administrator do to improve power redundancy?

Accepted Answer

Connect one power supply to a different PDU on a separate power feed.. The server currently has both power supplies connected to the same PDU, creating a single point of failure. To achieve true power redundancy, each power supply must be connected to a separate power source, ideally on different circuits or feeds. This ensures that if one PDU or feed fails, the server continues to operate on the remaining supply.

Answer

Install a redundant PDU in the same rack and connect both power supplies to it.

Answer

Enable power capping on the server to reduce the load on the PDU.

Answer

Replace the 1100W power supplies with higher-wattage units.

Question 15

A server administrator is replacing a failed hard drive in a RAID 5 array on a production server. The server supports hot-swap drives. Which of the following should the administrator do FIRST to replace the drive?

Accepted Answer

Remove the failed drive and insert the replacement drive.. With hot-swap support, the failed drive can be removed and replaced while the server remains online. The RAID controller will detect the new drive and begin rebuilding the array. Powering down, reconfiguring RAID, or performing a full backup first are unnecessary and would introduce downtime or delay. The correct first action is to physically replace the drive.

Answer

Reconfigure the RAID array to RAID 6 before replacing the drive.

Answer

Power down the server before replacing the drive.

Answer

Back up all data on the server before replacing the drive.