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LPIC-2 · domain

Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage

Practise Linux Professional Institute Certification Level 2 LPIC-2 Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

46 questions13 easy19 medium14 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage

Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage exam traps

  • Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Question index

All Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage questions (46)

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1

Refer to the exhibit. A system administrator wants to replace disk sdb1 in the RAID1 array. After physically removing sdb, which sequence of commands should be used?

Easy
2

Refer to the exhibit. The administrator wants to mount /dev/sdb1 at /data using its UUID. Which /etc/fstab entry is correct?

Medium
3

After adding a new LUN to an existing SAN, the administrator runs multipath -ll but sees the new LUN as 'failed'. The multipathd service is running. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
4

A storage administrator sees the following output from multipath -ll: 'dm-3 (3600605b0038f1f0019f1f7e00000000) size=10G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw' but the paths are all 'failed'. The scsi devices are listed in /proc/scsi/scsi. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
5

Order the steps to configure a Linux system as a DHCP client using dhclient.

Medium
6

An administrator observes that only one path is shown as active for mpathb. What is the most likely cause?

Hard
7

A system administrator needs to create a new 500 MB ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 and mount it persistently at /data. Which set of commands accomplishes this task?

Medium
8

Which TWO statements about LVM thin provisioning are correct?

Hard
9

A server running Linux with an ext4 filesystem on /dev/sda1 has experienced an unexpected power loss due to a faulty power supply. After replacing the power supply and rebooting, the system fails to mount /dev/sda1 with an error message indicating 'wrong superblock magic number' or 'superblock corrupted'. The administrator recalls that ext4 filesystems have backup superblocks created during mkfs. Using the command 'dumpe2fs /dev/sda1 | grep -i backup' is not possible because the device is not mountable. However, the administrator remembers that for this specific filesystem, a backup superblock is located at block offset 32768 based on the output of 'mke2fs -n' from the original creation. What is the correct course of action to recover the filesystem and mount it?

Easy
10

A system's root filesystem on /dev/sda1 is offline. The administrator boots into rescue mode and needs to check the filesystem integrity. Which command should be used first?

Hard
11

Refer to the exhibit. The /data filesystem is nearly full. The administrator has added a new disk /dev/sdc with 10GB capacity. The VG currently has no free space. Which steps will increase the available space for /data using LVM and ext4?

Hard
12

A database server uses LVM with an XFS filesystem on /dev/vg_data/lv_db, mounted at /var/lib/mysql. The LV is at 95% capacity. A new 50GB disk /dev/sdd has been added and initialized as a physical volume, then added to the volume group vg_data. The database is running and cannot be stopped. The administrator must extend the LV and filesystem. What is the correct course of action?

Hard
13

Which THREE of the following are correct statements about LVM thin provisioning? (Select THREE)

Hard
14

An administrator creates a new XFS filesystem on /dev/vg/data and needs to mount it at /data with noatime and a stripe unit of 1 MiB. Which /etc/fstab entry is correct?

Medium
15

An administrator runs the command shown. However, when a user tries to execute a binary from /mnt/tmp, it fails with 'Permission denied'. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
16

An administrator needs to create an ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 with a block size of 4096 bytes and reserve 2% of blocks for root. Which command accomplishes this?

Easy
17

Which two commands can be used to create a swap space on a partition /dev/sdb2? (Choose two.)

Medium
18

An administrator wants to create a thin provisioned LVM pool and a thin volume. Which sequence of commands is correct?

Hard
19

A filesystem is reported as 'read-only' after an unexpected power failure. Which command should be used to attempt repair without data loss?

Easy
20

Which three conditions must be met for a filesystem to be mounted by UUID in /etc/fstab? (Choose three.)

Hard
21

An administrator needs to configure iSCSI multipathing. After setting up two paths, which command should be used to verify the multipath topology?

Hard
22

A system administrator notices that a new 1TB NVMe drive (/dev/nvme0n1) is not detected by the kernel. The hardware is confirmed working. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first to check if the drive is recognized by the system's PCI subsystem?

Medium
23

A Linux administrator is managing a database server running on CentOS 7 that uses ext4 filesystems on LVM. The server has three physical volumes: /dev/sda (200GB), /dev/sdb (200GB), and /dev/sdc (200GB) all in volume group 'vg_db'. The logical volume 'lv_data' (400GB) is used for database files. Recently, the DBA reports that database writes are slower than expected. Iostat shows high average wait times (>100ms) on /dev/sdc but normal on /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. The LVM stripes data across all three PVs with a stripe size of 64KB. Which action should the administrator take to improve performance?

Medium
24

Which two commands display information about LVM physical volumes? (Choose two.)

Easy
25

A company runs a database server on Linux with a 4-disk RAID 10 array using mdadm. The server recently experienced a power outage. After reboot, the array is not assembling automatically. The administrator runs `mdadm --assemble --scan` and it fails with a message: 'mdadm: /dev/md0 has been found but is not a valid md superblock.' The administrator checks /proc/mdstat and sees no arrays. The disks /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd are present. Running `mdadm --examine /dev/sda` shows no md superblock, but the disk contains data partitions. The administrator suspects that the superblock may be corrupted or that the disks were accidentally overwritten. The administrator has documentation that the array was created with the following parameters: RAID level 10, 4 disks, chunk size 512 KiB, metadata 1.2. What is the best course of action to recover the array?

Hard
26

An administrator wants to convert an ext4 filesystem to Btrfs without losing data. Which procedure should be used?

Hard
27

Match each security tool to its function.

Medium
28

Arrange the steps to configure a Linux system as a PostgreSQL database server.

Medium
29

An administrator wants to use /dev/sdb for a new ext4 filesystem. Which step must be performed first?

Medium
30

Which file contains the filesystem table that is read during system boot to mount filesystems?

Easy
31

Which THREE of the following are correct about RAID 1 in mdadm? (Select THREE)

Easy
32

Match each LVM term to its definition.

Medium
33

A filesystem check on an XFS filesystem reports corruption. What is the recommended way to repair it?

Medium
34

A Linux administrator notices that a newly added disk /dev/sdc is not recognized by the system. Which command should be used to rescan the SCSI bus without rebooting?

Easy
35

The administrator wants to create a RAID 1 array using /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdc1, then create a filesystem and mount it at /mnt/raid1. Which command sequence should be used first?

Easy
36

An administrator is designing a high-availability storage solution using DRBD. The requirement is to have two nodes with synchronous replication and automatic failover in case of primary node failure. Which configuration best achieves this?

Hard
37

A system administrator needs to create a RAID 10 array using four disks: /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd, /dev/sde. Which TWO commands correctly achieve this?

Easy
38

An organization runs a critical application on a Linux server that stores its data on a 500GB LVM logical volume named /dev/vg_data/lv_app. The application must remain operational with minimal disruption, so unmounting the volume is not acceptable. The administrator needs to create a full backup of the logical volume to an external 1TB USB drive attached via eSATA. The backup must capture a point-in-time consistent state of the filesystem. The logical volume is formatted with XFS. Which of the following procedures best achieves this goal while minimizing downtime?

Medium
39

Which command can be used to create a swap partition on /dev/sdb1?

Easy
40

Which TWO statements about LVM thin provisioning are correct?

Medium
41

A system administrator notices that a new iSCSI target is not appearing as a block device after running iscsiadm. The target is known to be online and reachable. What is the most likely cause?

Medium
42

An administrator needs to extend an ext4 filesystem on logical volume 'home' by 5 GB. The volume group 'vg' has free extents. Which sequence of commands is correct?

Medium
43

Which of the following is the primary configuration file for the udev device manager?

Easy
44

Which TWO commands display UUIDs of block devices? (Select TWO)

Easy
45

A filesystem created with mkfs.ext4 on /dev/sda1 has a reserved block count of 5%. How can the administrator reduce it to 1% without reformatting?

Medium
46

A database server experiences performance degradation. Analysis shows high I/O wait on a LVM logical volume that uses striping across two physical volumes. What is the most effective way to improve performance?

Hard

Frequently asked questions

What does the Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage domain cover on the LPIC-2 exam?
Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 46 Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage questions in the LPIC-2 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Block Devices, Filesystems and Advanced Storage questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
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