IKM - International Knowledge Measurement System Administration Fundamentals Questions and Answers

Question 1

A user reports they can access a local file server by its IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.10) but not by its hostname (e.g., fileserv.local). Other network services seem to be working correctly. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The DNS server is unreachable or has an incorrect record for the hostname.

Answer

The ability to connect via an IP address confirms that basic network connectivity (cabling, switches, routing via default gateway) between the user and the server is functional. The failure to connect by hostname specifically points to a problem with name resolution, which is the primary function of the Domain Name System (DNS).

Question 2

A system administrator needs to set the permissions on a critical configuration file, `config.conf`, so that the file's owner can read and write to it, members of the group can only read it, and all other users have no permissions at all. Which of the following `chmod` commands will accomplish this?

Accepted Answer

chmod 640 config.conf

Answer

The `chmod` command uses octal notation where Read=4, Write=2, and Execute=1. For the owner to have read and write permissions, the value is 4+2=6. For the group to have only read permissions, the value is 4. For others to have no permissions, the value is 0. Combining these gives the command `chmod 640`.

Question 3

A backup strategy involves performing a full backup on Sunday. On Monday through Saturday, a type of backup is performed that only copies files that have changed since the *last full backup* on Sunday. What is this type of backup called?

Accepted Answer

Differential backup

Answer

A differential backup copies all data that has changed since the last full backup was performed. In this scenario, each daily backup from Monday to Saturday will contain all changes made since Sunday's full backup. An incremental backup, by contrast, would only copy data changed since the previous day's backup.

Question 4

A system administrator needs to run a script that cleans up temporary log files on multiple servers every morning at 3:00 AM. Which of the following is the MOST appropriate and standard tool for this scheduled, repetitive task on a Linux system?

Accepted Answer

A `cron` job

Answer

Cron is a standard time-based job scheduler in Unix-like operating systems. It is specifically designed to automate and execute repetitive tasks (cron jobs) at specified intervals or times, such as 3:00 AM every day, making it the ideal tool for this scenario.

Question 5

While troubleshooting a performance issue on a Linux server with 4 CPU cores, an administrator observes a 15-minute load average of 8.50. What does this value indicate?

Accepted Answer

The system is overloaded, with more processes waiting for CPU time than available cores.

Answer

The load average represents the average number of processes in the run queue (running or waiting for CPU time). A load average that is consistently higher than the number of CPU cores indicates the system is overloaded. In this case, a load of 8.50 on a 4-core system means that, on average, there were more than twice as many processes needing CPU resources than the hardware could handle simultaneously.

IKM - International Knowledge Measurement Practice Test

IKM - International Knowledge Measurement Practice Test

IKM - International Knowledge Measurement System Administration Fundamentals Questions and Answers