Foundational Concepts & Principles Flashcards

What is the primary function of a load balancer in a web infrastructure?

Answer: To distribute incoming requests across multiple servers to optimize performance

A load balancer distributes client requests across a pool of servers to prevent any single server from becoming a bottleneck.

In the context of disaster recovery, what does RTO stand for?

Answer: Recovery Time Objective — the maximum acceptable downtime after a disruption

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) defines how quickly systems must be restored after a disaster to meet business requirements.

Which service translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses?

Answer: DNS

DNS (Domain Name System) resolves fully qualified domain names to their corresponding IP addresses so clients can reach servers.

What is a key characteristic of an incremental backup strategy?

Answer: Backs up only data changed since the last backup of any type

Incremental backups capture only changes since the last backup run (full or incremental), resulting in smaller and faster backups than differential.

What does 'idempotency' mean in the context of system administration scripts?

Answer: Running a script multiple times produces the same result as running it once

Idempotent scripts can be safely re-run without causing unintended side effects, making automation more reliable.

Which log file on a Linux system typically records authentication and login events?

Answer: /var/log/auth.log

/var/log/auth.log records login attempts, sudo usage, and other authentication events on Debian-based Linux systems.

What is the purpose of network address translation (NAT)?

Answer: To map private IP addresses to a public IP address for internet communication

NAT allows multiple devices with private IP addresses to share a single public IP address when communicating with the internet.