EX200 Essential Tools Practice Question
A system administrator notices that a server is responding slowly. The administrator runs `top` and sees a process named `backup_script` consuming 95% CPU. The process runs as root and is supposed to run nightly backups. However, the system load average is low. The administrator wants to investigate without killing the process. Which of the following is the best course of action?
⚠ Common exam trap
Red Hat often tests the distinction between `nice` (for starting a new process) and `renice` (for adjusting an existing process), and candidates may confuse the two or think `nice` can be applied to a running process.
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
✓
Use `renice -n 19 -p <PID>` to lower the priority of the process.
`renice -n 19 -p <PID>` lowers the CPU scheduling priority of the running `backup_script` process to the lowest possible value (19), which reduces its CPU consumption without killing it. This allows the administrator to investigate the cause of the high CPU usage while minimizing the impact on other processes and system responsiveness.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use `renice -n 19 -p <PID>` to lower the priority of the process.
Why this is correct
renice changes the nice value of an already-running process; specifying -n 19 with -p <PID> sets it to the lowest dynamic priority while leaving the process in a Running (or sleepable) state. This reduces its CPU scheduler share so interactive workloads are less affected, and the backup continues making progress rather than being suspended or restarted.
- ✗
Use `nice -n 19 ./backup_script` to start the process with lower priority next time.
Why it's wrong here
The nice utility only assigns a modified nice value to a command before it is launched, so it has zero effect on the backup that is already running. You would have to re-execute the backup script with nice, which restarts the job and loses any progress, whereas the current process's priority can only be lowered using renice.
- ✗
Use `chrt -i 0 <PID>` to set the scheduling policy to idle.
Why it's wrong here
chrt -i 0 <PID> changes the process to the SCHED_IDLE scheduling class, which is an extremely low-priority policy intended for deferential background tasks. Because SCHED_IDLE processes yield almost entirely to every other runnable thread, the backup may stall for excessively long periods and I/O or network timeouts could cause it to fail, and this also requires root privileges.
- ✗
Use `kill -STOP <PID>` to pause the process and then resume later.
Why it's wrong here
kill -STOP <PID> sends SIGSTOP, which uncondionally halts the process — it cannot be caught or ignored by the application. The backup is frozen in place without flushing output files or updating metadata, so subsequent SIGCONT might resume from an invalid state, and a forgotten resume leaves the backup permanently stopped.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This EX200 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat 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 EX200 exam.