CompTIA SK0-005 Practice Test

Explanation

The key to answering this question is understanding how modern virtualization and backup systems achieve high efficiency. The backup type that is specifically designed to only record changes to the data blocks on a virtual machine (VM) is the Incremental backup.

After an initial full backup is taken, subsequent incremental backups leverage advanced hypervisor features—such as Changed Block Tracking (CBT) in VMware or Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) in Hyper-V. These technologies operate at the virtualization layer to identify and log exactly which blocks of data on the VM's virtual disk have been modified since the immediately preceding backup, regardless of whether that preceding backup was a full or another incremental one. The backup job then only copies these small, modified blocks, making it the fastest and most storage-efficient daily backup method.

Comparison to Other Backup Types

Differential:
A differential backup, while also copying changes, copies all data blocks that have changed since the last full backup. This means each differential backup file gets progressively larger over time until the next full backup runs.

Snapshot:
A snapshot is a temporary, point-in-time image of the VM's state and data. It is primarily used for quick rollback (e.g., before installing a patch) and is not a comprehensive, long-term backup strategy.

Synthetic Full:
This is a process performed on the backup storage itself, not on the source VM. It creates a new full backup file by merging the existing full backup data with the subsequent incremental or differential data that is already stored in the repository. It avoids re-reading the full data from the production VM, but the initial data is still captured using an incremental or full method.

Reference
This concept is vital for the CompTIA Server+ exam and is covered under Objective 4.1: Summarize disaster recovery methods and concepts, which requires an understanding of the trade-offs between various backup types in terms of their impact on storage consumption, backup window duration, and restoration complexity (RTO/RPO).

Explanation:

D. Maintenance and support is the correct answer. This type of license is explicitly designed to include vendor assistance as a core component of the agreement.

What it includes:
A maintenance and support license (often bundled with a software license or sold separately) typically provides the customer with direct access to the vendor's technical support team, assistance with troubleshooting, and often includes rights to software patches, updates, and new versions. The primary value proposition is the vendor assistance it guarantees.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Open-source:
Open-source licenses (like GPL, MIT, Apache) grant users the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the software. They generally do not come with any guarantee of vendor assistance. Support for open-source software is typically community-driven (forums, documentation) or available through a separate, paid support contract from a third-party company, not the original "vendor" per se.

B. Version compatibility:
This is a technical feature or a specification, not a type of license. It describes the ability of different software versions to work together. It says nothing about the terms of service or the inclusion of vendor assistance.

C. Subscription:
A subscription license grants the right to use software for a specific period (e.g., monthly or annually). While many modern subscription models (like Microsoft 365) bundle maintenance and support into the subscription fee, this is not a guarantee. The core definition of a subscription is about the payment and usage model, not the inclusion of support. A subscription could, in theory, be for the software alone without any support. Maintenance and support is the more precise and direct answer.

Reference:
This topic relates to CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Objective 5.2, "Explain the purpose and operation of virtualization and cloud computing," and general IT procurement best practices. Understanding the key differences between license types, especially what is included in a Maintenance and Support agreement, is critical for server administrators who need to ensure business continuity and have access to expert help.

Explanation:

To provide a virtual machine (VM) with high availability, the most efficient method is to clone the original VM.
Cloning creates an exact copy of the existing VM, including its configuration, OS, and applications. This allows the clone to serve as a standby instance that can quickly replace the original VM in case of failure, minimizing downtime.

Many virtualization platforms (like VMware vSphere or Hyper-V) use cloning or templates to support high-availability and failover configurations efficiently.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. Take a snapshot of the original VM:
A snapshot captures the VM’s state at a specific moment but isn’t suitable for high availability. It’s used for rollback or backup, not live redundancy.

C. Convert the original VM to use dynamic disks:
Dynamic disks manage storage space more flexibly but have nothing to do with availability or failover.

D. Perform a P2V of the original VM:
P2V (Physical-to-Virtual) converts a physical machine into a VM. Since the question already involves a VM, this step is unnecessary and inefficient.

Reference:
CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Exam Objectives, Domain 1.5: “Explain high availability and disaster recovery concepts.”
VMware vSphere Documentation: “Cloning Virtual Machines and Templates”
Microsoft Hyper-V Docs: “High availability and virtual machine replication.”

In summary:
Cloning the VM (Option B) provides a fast, efficient way to ensure high availability in a virtualized environment.

Explanation

The goal is fastest possible restoration of an important fileshare. A snapshot is the optimal solution because:

Instantaneous creation:
A snapshot is a point-in-time, near-zero-downtime copy using metadata pointers (copy-on-write or redirect-on-write).

Near-instant restore:
Restoring from a snapshot involves simply reverting the volume or share to the snapshot state—often in seconds, even for terabytes of data.
No…

Tape seek/restore delays (LTO-4)
Rebuilding full + incremental chains
Manual file copying or partition management


Why the others fail the "as quickly as possible" requirement:

A. LTO-4 tape:
Tape is slow to restore (mount, seek, sequential read). Even with fast LTO-4 (120 MB/s), restoring large shares takes minutes to hours, plus offsite retrieval delays.

B. Incremental backup job:
Requires full restore + all incrementals in order. Restore time grows with backup age and data change rate—not fast.

C. Additional partition with copied files:
Requires manual or scripted copying (robocopy, rsync), which takes time proportional to data size. Also risks inconsistency during copy and not instant.

Reference
CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Exam Objectives
4.1 – Explain the importance of backup and restore procedures → Includes snapshots as a rapid recovery method for volumes and filesystems (especially in SAN/NAS environments).

Storage Best Practices: Snapshots are standard for near-instant recovery in NetApp, Dell EMC, Windows VSS, Linux LVM, ZFS, etc.

Final Answer: D. Create a snapshot of the fileshare
It enables the fastest restoration—typically in seconds—making it the best solution for rapid recovery.

Explanation:

A. A S.M.A.R.T. error is a predictive failure notice.
This is the correct answer. S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a monitoring system built into hard drives and SSDs. Its primary purpose is to detect and report on various indicators of drive reliability, with the goal of predicting impending drive failures.

Why the drive appears normal:
When a S.M.A.R.T. error is reported, the drive is still functioning.
It has not suffered a complete electronic or mechanical failure yet.
The operating system can still read from and write to it.
The error is an early warning based on degrading performance or an increasing count of reallocated sectors, spin-up time, etc.

The Core Issue:
The error signifies that the drive's internal diagnostics have detected attributes that have crossed a failure threshold. While it works "normally" for now, the risk of a complete and sudden failure is high. This explains the scenario perfectly: the technician checks the drive and it appears fine, but the S.M.A.R.T. system has already raised a red flag.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B. A S.M.A.R.T. error is a write operation error.
This describes a specific, immediate I/O error, not a S.M.A.R.T. event. A corrupted write packet would result in an I/O error from the controller, not a S.M.A.R.T. alert. S.M.A.R.T. monitors the health of the drive hardware over time, not individual data packets.

C. A S.M.A.R.T. error is simply a bad sector.
While a growing count of reallocated sectors (bad sectors that have been mapped out) is a common trigger for a S.M.A.R.T. warning, it is not the definition of the error itself. The S.M.A.R.T. error is the predictive alert based on that event. Furthermore, a single bad sector may not always trigger a critical S.M.A.R.T. error; it's the trend that matters.

D. A S.M.A.R.T. error is an ECC error.
ECC (Error-Correcting Code) is a mechanism used constantly during drive operations to detect and correct minor bit errors on the fly. A correctable ECC event is a routine occurrence and is not reported as a S.M.A.R.T. error. If uncorrectable ECC errors become frequent, that trend might be reflected in a S.M.A.R.T. attribute, but the error itself is not defined as an ECC error.

Reference:
This is a core concept in CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Objective 3.1, "Given a scenario, perform server hardware maintenance." A key part of hardware maintenance is understanding and proactively responding to predictive failures to prevent downtime. Replacing a drive based on a S.M.A.R.T. alert is a classic example of proactive maintenance, as opposed to waiting for the drive to fail completely and reactively replacing it.

Explanation:

For secure remote access, the technician should use Port 22, which is the default port for SSH (Secure Shell).
SSH encrypts all communication between the client and the server, including login credentials and command data. It’s the standard protocol for securely managing servers remotely via the command line.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. 21 (FTP):
Used for file transfers, but not secure—transmits credentials and data in plain text.

C. 23 (Telnet):
Provides remote access but is insecure, as it also sends data unencrypted. SSH replaced Telnet for secure administration.

D. 443 (HTTPS):
Used for secure web traffic, not remote server management. It secures browser-based communication, not shell access.

Reference:
CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Exam Objectives, Domain 3.1: “Summarize security best practices for server installation and management.”
IANA Port Registry: Port 22 — Secure Shell (SSH)
NIST SP 800-77: Guide to IPsec VPNs and SSH for Secure Remote Access

In summary:
Use Port 22 (SSH) for secure, encrypted remote server access.

Explanation:

On a Linux system, the most appropriate scripting language for a logon script is a Shell script (commonly written for Bash, the Bourne Again Shell).
Shell scripts are native to Linux and Unix environments and can automate user logon tasks such as mounting network drives, setting environment variables, or launching startup applications. They are executed automatically through files like .bash_profile, .bashrc, or /etc/profile.

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. VBS (Visual Basic Script):
Designed for Windows environments — not compatible with Linux without special tools (like Wine).

C. Java:
A full programming language, not typically used for simple system logon scripts. Overkill for this purpose.

D. PowerShell:
Used primarily on Windows systems (though PowerShell Core is cross-platform, Bash remains standard for Linux).

E. Batch:
Windows command-line scripting language — not used in Linux environments.

Reference:
CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Exam Objectives, Domain 2.4:
“Explain scripting basics for server administration.”

GNU Bash Manual:
Bash Startup Files and Shell Initialization

In summary:
Use Shell scripting for Linux logon automation — it’s native, efficient, and fully supported.

Explanation

Meeting the Recovery Goal
The primary requirement is recovery in the shortest possible time, which translates to having the lowest possible Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

Hot Site:
A hot site is a fully operational mirror of the primary data center. It has all the necessary hardware, software, network connectivity, and, crucially, live-synchronized data. In a disaster, operations can switch over almost immediately (minutes to a few hours), giving it the shortest RTO of all options. This feature makes it the best option for the shortest recovery time.

Meeting the Security Goal
The second, non-negotiable requirement is that the security team will not allow customer data to egress to non-company equipment.

A Hot Site is typically a second data center owned or completely controlled by the company, meaning all the equipment and infrastructure are considered company assets.

Cloud Recovery (Option C) often involves replicating data to a public cloud provider like AWS or Azure. Although it can provide an excellent RTO, the act of replicating and storing customer data on the cloud provider's infrastructure constitutes data egress to non-company equipment and therefore violates the security requirement.

Eliminating Other Options

A Warm Site has the necessary hardware pre-installed but does not have live data synchronization. Data must be restored from recent backups, leading to a much longer RTO (hours to days) than a hot site.

A Cold Site is a bare-bones facility with only power and cooling. All hardware, software, and data must be physically acquired, transported, and installed after the disaster, leading to the longest RTO (days to weeks).

A hot site is the only listed option that satisfies the dual requirement of providing the shortest RTO while allowing the company to retain full ownership and control over all infrastructure, preventing data egress to third-party equipment.

Reference (SK0-005 Objective):
This topic falls under CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005) Objective 4.1: Summarize disaster recovery methods and concepts, which covers the differences between disaster recovery sites (Cold, Warm, and Hot) and their corresponding Recovery Time Objective (RTO) values.

Explanation

The scenario suggests that the server administrator has checked and confirmed the most basic layers of connectivity, yet the server still lacks network access.

Verified Steps (Hardware & Initial Configuration):

Cables connected in the IDF: This verifies Layer 1 (Physical) connectivity. The server is physically plugged in.

Server is patched: This verifies the OS and network driver software are current and stable.

DHCP configured: This means the server is actively attempting to communicate on the network to obtain an IP address.

Most Likely Point of Failure: The VLAN: In a modern enterprise network, an IDF (Intermediate Distribution Frame) connects to a managed switch where ports are logically separated using VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks). The most likely reason for a complete lack of connectivity in a new setup is a mismatch in Layer 2 (Data Link) configuration:
The switch port to which the server is connected is assigned to the wrong VLAN (e.g., the Voice VLAN instead of the Server VLAN).
Alternatively, the port is set as a trunk port when it should be an access port, or the native VLAN is incorrect.

In all these cases, the switch immediately drops the server's traffic (including the critical DHCP request) because it doesn't trust the incoming frame's source or destination, resulting in a total failure to connect.

Why Other Options Are Less Likely

B. The DNS configuration is invalid:
An invalid DNS configuration prevents the server from resolving domain names (e.g., converting "https://www.google.com/search?q=google.com" to an IP address). It does not prevent the server from acquiring an IP address via DHCP or communicating with other devices on its local subnet by IP address.

C. The OS version is not compatible with the network switch vendor:
Given the reliance on universal, non-proprietary standards like Ethernet and 802.1Q for basic network connectivity, fundamental incompatibility between modern server OS vendors (like Microsoft or Linux) and major network switch vendors is virtually nonexistent.

D. The HIDS is preventing the connection:
A Host Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) or its firewall component could technically block a connection. However, a VLAN mismatch is a fundamental infrastructure misconfiguration error that prevents traffic from being correctly switched at Layer 2, making it the MOST likely initial setup error compared to a software-based security configuration issue.

Reference:
This topic relates to foundational knowledge required in network administration and server certifications, such as CompTIA Server+ (SK0-005) Objective 2.2 (configuring network infrastructure services) and CompTIA Network+ (N10-008) Objective 1.2 (explaining network components and topology), where understanding VLAN implementation and troubleshooting is critical.

Explanation

The scenario involves a Linux server connecting to a NAS share. The most appropriate native protocol for this is NFS (Network File System) because:

NFS is Unix/Linux-native — designed specifically for file sharing between Unix-like systems.
It provides transparent, high-performance access to remote directories as if they were local (via mount).
Most NAS devices (NetApp, Synology, QNAP, EMC, etc.) natively support and recommend NFS for Linux clients.
Integration is seamless with Linux filesystems, permissions (UID/GID), and kernel-level caching.

Why the others are not ideal:

A. CIFS (SMB)
Windows-native (now SMB). Works on Linux via cifs-utils or smbclient, but not native — requires extra packages, slower, and less efficient than NFS for Linux-to-NAS.

B. FTP
File transfer protocol, not file sharing. No mountable filesystem — requires manual upload/download. Not suitable for ongoing access.

C. SFTP
Secure file transfer over SSH. Like FTP, it’s for transferring files, not mounting a share as a local directory.

Reference
CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Exam Objectives 3.5 – Compare and contrast network file sharing protocols → NFS = Native for Linux/Unix environments → CIFS/SMB = Native for Windows

Final Answer: D. NFS
It is the native, efficient, and standard protocol for Linux servers accessing NAS shares.