SK0-005 troubleshooting Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Verify the integrity of the structured cabling between the wall jack and the patch panel.. Intermittent link loss after replacing the patch cable points to the structured cabling or the switch port. Checking the permanent link between the wall jack and patch panel, and reviewing switch port statistics for errors or flapping, are the next logical diagnostic steps to isolate the fault.

Answer

Update the NIC driver to the latest version from the vendor's website.

Answer

Reconfigure the switch port to use a fixed speed and duplex instead of auto-negotiation.

Answer

Replace the server's network interface card with a known-good spare.

Question 2

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

The default gateway is misconfigured on the server.. The correct answer is that the default gateway is misconfigured on the server. The ability to ping locally but not remotely indicates a routing issue. The server can reach local hosts directly but needs a correct gateway to reach other subnets. Checking and correcting the default gateway configuration restores connectivity.

Answer

The switch port is configured for the wrong VLAN.

Answer

A firewall on the server is blocking ICMP from remote subnets.

Answer

The server's NIC is faulty.

Question 3

A server administrator is troubleshooting a server that is experiencing slow response times. After logging in, the administrator runs the command 'iostat -x 5' on the Linux server and observes that the %util for the sda device is consistently at 100%. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The disk is experiencing a high number of read/write operations, causing a bottleneck.. A %util of 100% on a disk device means the disk is continuously busy servicing I/O requests, indicating a disk bottleneck. The most likely cause is that the disk cannot handle the current I/O load, whether from a specific process or overall system activity. Further investigation with tools like iotop can identify the culprit.

Answer

The CPU is overwhelmed and cannot process I/O requests fast enough.

Answer

The network interface card is dropping packets, causing retransmissions.

Answer

The server's memory is insufficient, causing excessive swapping to disk.

Question 4

A server administrator is diagnosing a Windows Server 2019 server that reboots unexpectedly about once a day. Windows Event Viewer shows Event ID 6008 (unexpected shutdown) and a BugCheck entry with stop code 0x00000050 (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA). The server has 512 GB of RAM and the page file is system-managed. Which tool should the administrator use to analyze the memory dump and identify the faulty driver?

Accepted Answer

WinDbg with the !analyze -v command against the MEMORY.DMP file. The stop code 0x00000050 indicates a page fault in nonpaged pool, and Windows has captured a kernel dump. WinDbg with the !analyze -v command parses that dump, resolves the call stack, and names the faulting driver. Performance Monitor and Resource Monitor are live-monitoring tools, while msconfig is an isolation method; none analyze dump files. The administrator needs the exact driver to remediate the recurring bugcheck.

Answer

Performance Monitor with the Memory\Pool Nonpaged Bytes counter

Answer

Resource Monitor's Memory tab to inspect hard faults per second

Answer

System Configuration (msconfig) to perform a diagnostic startup

Question 5

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Back up critical data immediately before taking further action.. A degraded RAID 5 array with a second drive showing medium errors is in a precarious state. The rebuild is stalled, and another drive failure could cause data loss. The immediate priority is to back up critical data. Only after a backup should the administrator attempt to replace the problematic drive or take other corrective actions, ensuring data can be restored if the array fails completely.

Answer

Restart the server to reset the RAID controller and resume the rebuild.

Answer

Force the rebuild to complete by setting the drive with medium errors offline.

Answer

Replace the drive with medium errors and allow the rebuild to continue.

Question 6

A server administrator is troubleshooting a server that intermittently loses network connectivity. The administrator suspects a hardware issue. Which two components should the administrator check first? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Network cable. The correct answers are the NIC and the network cable. Intermittent network connectivity often stems from these components. Checking the NIC involves driver updates and event log review, while the cable should be reseated or replaced. These steps are quick, non-disruptive, and address the most probable causes.

Answer

CPU

Answer

Hard drive

Answer

Power supply unit (PSU)

Question 7

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Enable the platform's crash dump or NMI-on-hang feature so hardware state is saved on the next fault. When a server resets with no SEL, thermal, power, or OS log evidence, the fault is likely below the OS, so capturing platform-level state at the moment of failure is the only way to obtain actionable data. A hardware crash dump or NMI-triggered dump preserves CPU, memory, and firmware context that would otherwise be lost on reboot, making it the correct configuration for this scenario.

Answer

Enable the baseboard management controller's System Event Log (SEL) with a higher severity threshold

Answer

Enable the BMC's integrated management log and configure chassis intrusion detection alerts

Answer

Configure a memory dump of the operating system kernel to be written to a dedicated dump partition

Question 8

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 9

A server administrator notices that a production file server intermittently loses network connectivity for a few seconds, and users report dropped SMB sessions. The switch port shows no errors, and the server's NIC link LED stays solid. The administrator suspects a duplex mismatch. Which tool should the administrator use to verify the NIC's current speed and duplex settings on a Linux server?

Accepted Answer

ethtool. A duplex mismatch occurs when one side of a link is set to full-duplex and the other to half-duplex, leading to collisions, dropped packets, and intermittent connectivity without a complete link loss. The NIC's link LED remains solid because the physical link is up. The ethtool utility directly reports the negotiated duplex and speed, allowing the administrator to confirm whether the server NIC is operating at half-duplex while the switch port is full-duplex. Other tools show symptoms or unrelated configuration but not the duplex setting itself.

Answer

netstat -i

Answer

ip addr show

Answer

tcpdump

Question 10

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

The boot order in the UEFI/BIOS was reset during the firmware update.. The correct answer is that the boot order in the UEFI/BIOS was reset during the firmware update. Firmware updates often reset BIOS settings to defaults, which can remove the RAID volume from the boot order. Since the RAID controller and drives are online, the data is safe. Reconfiguring the boot order restores bootability.

Answer

The operating system boot files are corrupted.

Answer

The RAID array is degraded and needs to be rebuilt.

Answer

The firmware update failed and corrupted the RAID controller.

Question 11

A server administrator is troubleshooting a server that intermittently loses network connectivity. The server is connected to a managed switch, and the administrator notices that the switch port shows a high number of CRC errors. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The network cable is damaged or poorly terminated.. CRC errors on a switch port almost always indicate a physical layer problem, such as a bad cable or connector. Intermittent connectivity with high CRC errors strongly suggests the cable is damaged or poorly terminated. Other options like duplex mismatch or driver issues do not typically produce CRC errors.

Answer

The server's network adapter driver is outdated.

Answer

The switch is experiencing a broadcast storm.

Answer

The switch port is configured for the wrong duplex setting.

Question 12

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

journalctl -b -1. When a Linux server becomes unresponsive, the administrator needs to inspect logs from the previous boot to identify a kernel panic or other fatal event. The systemd journal retains logs across reboots if persistent storage is configured. The journalctl -b -1 command specifically selects the boot before the current one, allowing review of kernel messages, service failures, and panic traces. Other commands either show only the current boot or require a live, responsive system.

Answer

tail -f /var/log/messages

Answer

cat /proc/kmsg

Answer

dmesg

Question 13

A server administrator is investigating a Linux file server that periodically becomes unresponsive for several minutes. During an outage, the administrator runs top and iostat and observes that %iowait is extremely high while CPU utilization remains low. Disk latency on the data volume spikes to several seconds. The storage is a hardware RAID 10 array with healthy member disks, and no rebuild or patrol read is active. Which of the following are the MOST likely causes of the observed latency? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The RAID controller's write-back cache has been disabled or switched to write-through mode. High %iowait with low CPU utilization and multi-second latency on a healthy RAID 10 array points to storage-side saturation. Disabling write-back caching forces synchronous writes to media, and heavy small-block random I/O from a backup or antivirus sweep can exhaust the array's IOPS, both producing the episodic stalls described. Eliminating rebuild activity and memory or network causes leaves these two as the most likely culprits.

Answer

The server's memory is running in single-channel mode instead of dual-channel mode

Answer

The network interface has negotiated a lower speed, causing the file server's clients to time out

Answer

The array is rebuilding after a member disk replacement, consuming all available controller bandwidth

Question 14

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Verify that the target's access control list includes the initiator's IQN.. The target is discovered but unavailable, while IP connectivity and the iSCSI service are confirmed. This points to an access control issue, such as the initiator IQN not being in the target's ACL. Verifying and adding the IQN to the target's allowed list is the correct next step. Firewall, driver reinstallation, and IP changes are either less likely or inappropriate given the symptoms.

Answer

Reinstall the iSCSI initiator driver on the server.

Answer

Check the Windows Firewall inbound rules for iSCSI traffic on the server.

Answer

Change the iSCSI adapter's IP address to be on the same subnet as the LAN adapter.

Question 15

A server administrator is troubleshooting intermittent network connectivity issues on a server. Users report that connections to the server sometimes time out, and the administrator notices that the server's link LED on the switch occasionally goes dark. The administrator has already replaced the patch cable from the server to the wall jack. Which of the following should the administrator check NEXT? (Choose two.)

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

Accepted Answer

Hot-swap the failed drive with the replacement and allow the controller to automatically rebuild the array.. A degraded RAID 5 array with a failed drive should be restored by replacing the failed drive and allowing the controller to rebuild. Hot-swapping is supported on most server backplanes and minimizes downtime. Recreating the array or replacing all drives destroys data, and forcing a failed drive online does not address the hardware failure. The correct action is to replace the single failed drive and rebuild.

Answer

Shut down the server, replace the drive, and then recreate the RAID array from scratch.

Answer

Replace all three drives simultaneously to ensure compatibility and rebuild the array.

Answer

Run a consistency check on the array and mark the failed drive as online.