EX200 Deploy, configure, and maintain systems Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✓

  lvcreate -n mylv -L 10G vg1 && mkfs.xfs /dev/vg1/mylv && mount /dev/vg1/mylv /mnt/data && echo "/dev/vg1/mylv /mnt/data xfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

  Why this is correct

  This command correctly creates a 10GB logical volume named mylv, formats it as XFS, mounts it to /mnt/data, and persists the mount in /etc/fstab. `lvcreate -n mylv -L 10G vg1` creates the LV and exposes it at `/dev/vg1/mylv`, which is then formatted with `mkfs.xfs` and mounted. The `echo` command appends a properly formatted fstab entry — device, mount point, filesystem type, options, dump, and pass fields — to `/etc/fstab` using `>>`, which preserves all existing entries. This is the only option that correctly leaves the system configured to mount the LV automatically after a reboot.

• ✗

  lvcreate -n mylv -L 10G vg1 && mkfs.xfs /dev/vg1/mylv && mount /dev/vg1/mylv /mnt/data && blkid /dev/vg1/mylv >> /etc/fstab

  Why it's wrong here

  This option successfully creates and formats the LV and mounts it, but the final persistence step is invalid. `blkid /dev/vg1/mylv` outputs a line such as `/dev/vg1/mylv: UUID="..." TYPE="xfs"`, which is not in the six-field format that `/etc/fstab` requires; it lacks mount point, options, dump, and pass fields. Appending this raw blkid output to `/etc/fstab` would corrupt the file and prevent the system from parsing it correctly, so the LV would not be automatically mounted at boot. This is why `blkid` output cannot be used as an fstab entry and is not an acceptable replacement for a manually written line.

• ✗

  lvcreate -n mylv -L 10G vg1 && mkfs.xfs /dev/vg1/mylv && mount /dev/vg1/mylv /mnt/data && echo "/dev/vg1/mylv /mnt/data xfs defaults 0 0" > /etc/fstab

  Why it's wrong here

  This option is almost correct, but it uses the redirection operator `>` instead of `>>` when writing to `/etc/fstab`. The `>` operator truncates the entire file first, overwriting all existing mount definitions and leaving only the new line, whereas `>>` appends to the end of the file. Because `/etc/fstab` typically contains critical entries for `/`, `/boot`, and other filesystems, truncating it could make the system unbootable or drop you into emergency mode at the next reboot. Therefore, although the text being written is a valid fstab entry, the method of writing it is dangerously wrong.

• ✗

  lvcreate -n mylv --size 10G vg1 && mkfs.xfs /dev/mylv && mount /dev/mylv /mnt/data && echo "/dev/mylv /mnt/data xfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

  Why it's wrong here

  The `lvcreate` command here is valid because `--size 10G` is equivalent to `-L 10G`, but every subsequent command references `/dev/mylv` instead of `/dev/vg1/mylv`. In LVM, logical volumes are exposed at `/dev/<volume_group>/<logical_volume>`, so the correct device path is `/dev/vg1/mylv`, not `/dev/mylv`; a device node like `/dev/mylv` does not exist. As a result, `mkfs.xfs /dev/mylv`, `mount /dev/mylv`, and the fstab entry `/dev/mylv /mnt/data ...` would all fail because the kernel cannot find the device. This option tests the common misconception that the volume group name is omitted from the device path.

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