LPIC-2 Network Client Management Practice Question
An administrator notices that an NFS mount on a client becomes unresponsive when the NFS server goes offline. The admin wants the mount to return an error to the application after a short timeout instead of hanging indefinitely. Which mount option should be added to the fstab entry?
⚠ Common exam trap
LPI often tests the distinction between `hard` and `soft` mounts, and the trap here is that candidates may confuse `intr` (which only makes hard mounts interruptible) with a timeout-based error return, or think `bg` affects runtime behavior instead of mount-time retries.
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
✓
soft
The `soft` mount option causes the NFS client to return an error to the application after a short timeout (typically 60 seconds by default) if the NFS server becomes unresponsive, rather than hanging indefinitely. This is the correct choice because the administrator specifically wants the mount to return an error after a short timeout instead of hanging.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
intr
Why it's wrong here
intr allows signals to interrupt a hard mount but does not cause immediate failure.
- ✗
bg
Why it's wrong here
bg only affects the mount attempt itself, not the behavior after mount.
- ✗
hard
Why it's wrong here
hard retries indefinitely, causing the mount to hang.
- ✓
soft
Why this is correct
The soft option allows NFS to time out and return an error.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every LPIC-2 question from scratch — 507 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LPIC-2 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-2 exam.