C100DBA Server Administration Practice Question
An administrator needs to create a restricted user for a third-party monitoring tool. The user must be able to perform backups and monitor server status but cannot read actual document data. Which TWO built-in roles should be combined?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select roles like 'readAnyDatabase' or 'dbAdmin' which grant excessive permissions, failing to realize that 'backup' and 'clusterMonitor' provide sufficient access without exposing sensitive document data.
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
✓
backup
MongoDB's Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) allows for granular permission management. The 'backup' role provides the necessary privileges to use tools like mongodump without granting general read access to all collections. The 'clusterMonitor' role allows the user to run commands like 'serverStatus' and 'top', which are essential for monitoring performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
readAnyDatabase
Why it's wrong here
The 'readAnyDatabase' role provides read access to every document in every collection across the entire server. This explicitly violates the requirement that the user should not be able to read actual document data, making it an inappropriate choice for a restricted monitoring or backup user.
- ✗
dbAdmin
Why it's wrong here
The 'dbAdmin' role allows for administrative tasks like index creation and collection deletion within a specific database. However, it does not inherently grant the cluster-wide monitoring permissions needed by many tools, and it also does not provide the specific privileges required to perform a full system backup.
- ✓
backup
Why this is correct
The 'backup' role provides the minimal privileges required to use MongoDB backup tools. It allows the user to read the data for the purpose of backing it up but is designed to be used in conjunction with other roles to limit the user's ability to perform standard ad-hoc queries.
- ✓
clusterMonitor
Why this is correct
The 'clusterMonitor' role is specifically designed for monitoring tools. It grants read-only access to monitoring-related commands and statistics, such as 'serverStatus', 'hostInfo', and 'replSetGetStatus', without allowing the user to view the actual data stored within the user collections, satisfying the security requirement.
- ✗
hostManager
Why it's wrong here
The 'hostManager' role provides more aggressive administrative capabilities, such as shutting down the server or managing services. This exceeds the requirements for a monitoring tool and introduces unnecessary risk, as a monitoring user should generally not have the power to alter the server's operational state.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
About these practice questions
This C100DBA question is part of Courseiva's 222-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official MongoDB exam blueprint
This C100DBA practice question is part of Courseiva's free MongoDB 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 C100DBA exam.