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XK0-006 Practice Question: A storage administrator is troubleshooting high…
A storage administrator is troubleshooting high disk I/O latency. Which THREE tools can provide detailed block I/O statistics at the device level? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The Linux+ exam often tests the distinction between tools that show I/O statistics (iostat, iotop, blktrace) versus tools that perform I/O operations (dd, fstrim), leading candidates to mistakenly select dd because it involves disk activity.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
iostat
B (iostat) is correct because it reports CPU utilization and device I/O statistics, including metrics like await, svctm, and %util, which are essential for diagnosing high disk I/O latency at the device level. It reads data from /proc/diskstats and provides per-device block I/O statistics.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
dd
Why it's wrong here
Used for low-level copying, not for monitoring I/O statistics.
- ✓
iostat
Why this is correct
Reports I/O statistics per device and partition.
- ✓
iotop
Why this is correct
Shows I/O usage per process in real time.
- ✗
fstrim
Why it's wrong here
Used for trimming SSD free space, not for I/O statistics.
- ✓
blktrace
Why this is correct
Traces block layer I/O events for detailed analysis.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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