Practise Red Hat Certified System Administrator EX200 Configure local storage practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.
Courseiva uses original exam-style practice questions designed for learning and revision. The goal is to understand the concepts, recognise exam patterns, and improve through explanations — not memorise copied exam dumps.
A system administrator needs to add a new 10GB disk to an existing volume group 'vgdata' to extend logical volumes. Which of the following is the correct sequence of commands?
An administrator has created a RAID 1 array using mdadm with two 1TB disks. After a disk failure, the array is in a degraded state. Which command should be used to replace the failed disk with a new one?
An administrator needs to ensure that a specific LVM logical volume is automatically mounted at boot with the 'noexec' option. Which configuration file and entry should be used?
After creating a new partition on /dev/sdc, the administrator runs 'partprobe' to inform the kernel of the change. What is the primary purpose of partprobe?
An administrator wants to extend an XFS filesystem that resides on an LVM logical volume. The volume group has free physical extents. Which is the correct sequence?
A server has a software RAID 5 array /dev/md0. One of its disks fails. The administrator wants to replace it without rebooting. Which command should be used to mark the disk as failed?
An administrator needs to create a new logical volume named 'lvdata' of size 5G in vgdata, format it with ext4, and mount it persistently at /mnt/data. The system currently has /dev/sdc as a physical volume in vgdata. Which command sequence accomplishes this?
Mounting before fstab update is okay, but the mount point /mnt/data must exist; the sequence is otherwise correct, but best practice is to create mount point first. However, the missing mount point creation is a minor issue; still the command sequence works if directory exists. But option A includes mount -a which ensures persistence. However, option D is also plausible. The question expects A as the most complete.
Why wrong: Mounting before fstab update is okay, but the mount point /mnt/data must exist; the sequence is otherwise correct, but best practice is to create mount point first. However, the missing mount point creation is a minor issue; still the command sequence works if directory exists. But option A includes mount -a which ensures persistence. However, option D is also plausible. The question expects A as the most complete.
You are a Red Hat administrator at a company that runs a critical database server. The server has a single 500GB SSD (/dev/sda) with a default partition layout: /boot (1GB), swap (8GB), and / (491GB) using LVM. The database stores data in /var/lib/mysql, which is on the root logical volume. Recently, the /var/lib/mysql directory has been growing rapidly and is now at 95% usage. The server has an additional 1TB HDD (/dev/sdb) installed but not configured. You need to provide additional storage to /var/lib/mysql without downtime. The database is currently running and must remain accessible. You have root access via SSH. Which of the following is the best course of action?
Trap 1: Add /dev/sdb as a physical volume, extend the root volume group,…
Extending root LV with more space does not isolate database storage and may still fill up.
Trap 2: Use lvreduce to shrink the root LV by 10GB, then lvextend to create…
Shrinking a filesystem is risky and may require downtime; also XFS cannot be shrunk.
Trap 3: Partition /dev/sdb with a single partition, format with ext4, mount…
Using a raw partition is less flexible; LVM is preferred for manageability.
Create a physical volume on /dev/sdb, create a new volume group named vgdb, create a logical volume lvdb of 900GB, format with XFS, mount temporarily at /mnt, copy /var/lib/mysql to /mnt using rsync while the database is running, then unmount and remount at /var/lib/mysql after updating /etc/fstab and stopping the database momentarily.
Correct: uses LVM, creates dedicated storage, and migrates data with minimal downtime.
B
Add /dev/sdb as a physical volume, extend the root volume group, extend the root logical volume, and grow the filesystem. Then move /var/lib/mysql to a new directory on the extended space.
Why wrong: Extending root LV with more space does not isolate database storage and may still fill up.
C
Use lvreduce to shrink the root LV by 10GB, then lvextend to create a new LV for /var/lib/mysql, format with ext4, mount, and copy data.
Why wrong: Shrinking a filesystem is risky and may require downtime; also XFS cannot be shrunk.
D
Partition /dev/sdb with a single partition, format with ext4, mount at /var/lib/mysql, and copy the data. Then update /etc/fstab.
Why wrong: Using a raw partition is less flexible; LVM is preferred for manageability.
An administrator wants to add the two 2G disks (sdc and sdd) as physical volumes, extend the 'data' logical volume in volume group 'vg' by 2G, and grow the filesystem. Which sequence of commands should be used?
A system administrator is setting up storage for a new application server. The application requires two separate filesystems: one for the database (needs to be at least 10GiB) and one for logs (needs at least 5GiB). The server has a single 20GiB disk /dev/sda. The administrator plans to use LVM and a single volume group 'vg_app'. They create physical volume on /dev/sda, create the volume group, and then create two logical volumes: 'lv_db' of 10GiB and 'lv_logs' of 5GiB. They format lv_db as ext4 and lv_logs as xfs, and mount them at /db and /logs respectively. After rebooting, the system fails to mount /logs. What is the most likely cause?
Trap 1: The logical volume 'lv_logs' overlaps with 'lv_db'.
LVM does not allow overlapping LVs; creation would have failed.
Trap 2: The physical volume /dev/sda is not recognized by LVM after reboot.
LVM scan at boot typically recognizes PVs; this is unlikely the cause.
Trap 3: The volume group 'vg_app' is not automatically activated.
By default, LVM activates VGs at boot; this is unlikely.
What does the EX200 exam test about Configure local storage?
Configure local storage questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How should I use these practice questions?
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. Then read why each option is right or wrong — this active recall approach builds retention far faster than re-reading notes.
Can I practise just Configure local storage questions in a focused session?
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws every question from the Configure local storage domain. Use a 10-question session first to gauge your baseline, then move to 20 or 30 once the weak spots are clear.
Where can I practise other EX200 topics?
Use the topic links above to move to related areas, or go back to the EX200 question bank to see all topics.
Are these real exam questions or dumps?
These are original practice questions written to test the same concepts the EX200 exam covers. They are not copied from any real exam or dump site.