CompTIA Server+ SK0-006: Configuration and Administration

Topic snapshot

Sample questions

These original IT Mastery practice questions are aligned to this topic area. Use them for self-assessment, scope review, and deciding what to drill next.

Question 1

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A server administrator is validating a new virtualization host build before purchase. The workload needs at least 40 physical CPU cores and 512GB RAM. Policy requires ECC memory. The platform HCL supports only matched CPUs in a two-socket configuration and DDR5 ECC RDIMMs. The hypervisor edition supports up to 1TB physical RAM. Which configuration is the best professional decision?

Options:

• A. One 48-core CPU with 8 x 64GB ECC RDIMMs under one socket

• B. Two identical 24-core CPUs with 16 x 32GB ECC RDIMMs balanced across both CPUs

• C. Two identical 24-core CPUs with 16 x 32GB non-ECC UDIMMs

• D. Two non-matched 24-core CPUs with 16 x 32GB ECC RDIMMs

Best answer: B

Explanation: CPU and memory validation must satisfy the workload, operating system or hypervisor limits, and platform compatibility at the same time. The host needs at least 40 physical cores, so two identical 24-core CPUs provide enough capacity and comply with the HCL requirement for matched CPUs in a two-socket configuration. Sixteen 32GB RDIMMs provide 512GB total RAM, meet the ECC policy, match the supported memory type, and remain below the 1TB hypervisor limit. Balancing DIMMs across both CPUs also supports better memory-channel and NUMA behavior than placing memory under one socket. The closest distractors meet only part of the requirement while violating compatibility or policy constraints.

• Single-socket build provides enough cores and RAM, but it does not follow the stated two-socket matched-CPU platform requirement.
• Non-matched CPUs create a platform compatibility risk even though the core count and memory amount look acceptable.
• Non-ECC UDIMMs violate both the ECC policy and the HCL-supported RDIMM requirement.

Question 2

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A systems team maintains scripts and infrastructure definitions that configure web servers in production and staging. Three administrators make changes, an audit requires identifying who approved each production change, and failed releases must be rolled back during a short maintenance window. Which action is the BEST professional decision?

Options:

• A. Store the latest generated scripts in an AI chat history

• B. Copy each working script to every server before making changes

• C. Use a Git repository with pull requests, protected main branch, and release tags

• D. Keep the current scripts on a shared file share with dated filenames

Best answer: C

Explanation: Version control is the appropriate control for scripts and infrastructure definitions when teams need accountability, rollback, and controlled change. A Git-based workflow can record who changed what, require review before production updates, protect the main branch from direct edits, and tag known-good releases. If a deployment fails, the team can revert or redeploy a tagged version instead of guessing which file copy is correct. This also supports audit evidence because commits, reviews, and release history are retained in one system.

Dated files or ad hoc copies may preserve some history, but they do not reliably enforce approval, prevent overwrite conflicts, or provide clean rollback points.

• Dated filenames can create informal backups, but they do not enforce approvals or provide reliable change history.
• Server-local copies increase configuration drift and make rollback inconsistent across servers.
• AI chat history is not a controlled source of record and may expose sensitive data or lack approval evidence.

Question 3

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A virtualization host has enough physical RAM for a new database VM. The database vendor requires 64 GB of RAM to be continuously available, does not support memory ballooning, and warns that host memory reclamation can cause latency spikes. Which hypervisor setting best matches this workload requirement?

Options:

• A. Use device passthrough for the database disk

• B. Reserve 64 GB and disable dynamic memory

• C. Set a low memory limit with hot-add enabled

• D. Enable memory overcommit with ballooning

Best answer: B

Explanation: Latency-sensitive VMs, especially database servers with vendor memory requirements, often need predictable memory allocation. A hypervisor memory reservation guarantees that the specified RAM is available to the VM, while disabling dynamic memory or ballooning prevents the host from reclaiming memory during contention. This matches the stated requirement that 64 GB remain continuously available and avoids a known source of latency spikes.

Overcommit and ballooning are useful for improving consolidation on general-purpose hosts, but they are poor fits when the workload requires fixed, guaranteed memory.

• Overcommit with ballooning conflicts with the vendor warning because the host could reclaim memory from the VM.
• Low limit with hot-add restricts usable memory first and only expands later, which does not guarantee continuous 64 GB availability.
• Device passthrough may help certain I/O workloads, but it does not solve the stated memory management requirement.

Question 4

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A server team receives a maintenance request for a reporting application. The requester has an application administrator role but no server-level privileges.

Exhibit: Access finding

What is the best interpretation of this request?

Options:

• A. It requires administrative server access

• B. It can be completed with app administrator access

• C. It only requires database read access

• D. It should be handled by a report viewer role

Best answer: A

Explanation: Application-user roles control actions inside the application, such as managing app users, reports, or templates. They do not automatically grant rights to manage the server operating system. Restarting ReportAPI is an operating system service action, so it should be performed by an account or process with appropriate administrative server privileges and change approval. The key distinction is the management boundary: app configuration inside the application versus service control on the host.

• App administrator access is tempting because the requester manages the application, but the exhibit limits that role to application-level actions.
• Database read access does not provide permission to control services on the operating system.
• Report viewer role is even more limited and is intended for consuming reports, not performing maintenance.

Question 5

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A systems team is integrating an AI assistant to summarize patch failures on production servers. The assistant will not deploy patches or run commands; it only needs evidence for human review. Which change best protects permissions and access scope?

Exhibit: Access review

Integration: AI patch triage
Requested account: svc-ai-admin
Groups: ServerAdmins, Domain Admins
Data sources: all file shares, all system logs, CMDB
Enabled actions: read logs, list users, run scripts
Intended use: summarize patch errors only

Options:

• A. Use a scoped read-only account and disable script execution.

• B. Grant temporary admin access during maintenance windows.

• C. Mirror the patch service account permissions.

• D. Keep the admin account and add prompt instructions.

Best answer: A

Explanation: AI tools integrated into server workflows should receive only the permissions needed for the approved task. In this case, the assistant is only summarizing patch evidence for human review, so it does not need domain administrator rights, broad file-share access, user-enumeration privileges, or script execution. A scoped read-only service account limited to relevant patch logs and approved CMDB fields protects access boundaries and reduces the impact of tool misuse, prompt failure, or vendor-side exposure. Prompts and convenience do not replace access controls. The key takeaway is to enforce least privilege at the identity, data-source, and action levels before connecting AI to server management systems.

• Prompt-only control fails because model instructions do not technically prevent overbroad access or unauthorized actions.
• Temporary admin access still grants unnecessary privileges for a read-only summarization workflow.
• Patch account reuse can expose deployment privileges that the AI assistant does not need.

Question 6

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A systems administrator must migrate an aging physical server that runs a stateful inventory application with a local database. The vendor supports the application on full VMs but not in containers. Clients must continue reaching the workload by its current IP address on the production VLAN, and monitoring shows consistently high memory utilization. Which migration approach is the BEST professional decision?

Options:

• A. Create a new VM with minimal memory and rely on memory overcommitment

• B. Perform a V2V conversion to a VM on a host-only vSwitch

• C. Rebuild the application as a container using NAT networking and ephemeral storage

• D. Perform a P2V migration to a VM on a bridged production vSwitch with right-sized memory

Best answer: D

Explanation: The core decision is workload fit during virtualization migration. Because the source is a physical server and the vendor supports VMs but not containers, a P2V migration is the lowest-risk fit. The workload also needs to remain reachable on the same production VLAN, so a bridged or external virtual switch is appropriate instead of NAT or host-only networking. Consistently high memory utilization means the VM should be right-sized from monitoring data, and reservations may be justified if the platform supports them. Containers are better suited to portable, container-supported application lifecycles, not unsupported stateful server lift-and-shift migrations.

• Containerizing the app ignores the vendor support constraint and uses NAT plus ephemeral storage, which conflicts with the stateful database need.
• Using V2V does not match a physical source server, and host-only networking would prevent normal client access on the production VLAN.
• Relying on overcommitment ignores the observed memory demand and creates avoidable performance risk for a stateful workload.

Question 7

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A small internal reporting service runs on three identical application servers behind a load balancer. The service is stateless, and the team wants new client requests distributed in a simple repeating sequence so each server receives a roughly equal share over time. Which load balancing method best matches this requirement?

Options:

• A. Weighted round-robin

• B. Most-recently-used

• C. Least-connections

• D. Round-robin

Best answer: D

Explanation: Round-robin load balancing fits a stateless service when the goal is simple, predictable distribution across equivalent servers. It rotates requests through the available pool, so each healthy server receives traffic in turn. This does not require the load balancer to evaluate current connection counts, server capacity weights, or session affinity. Most-recently-used behavior is not appropriate when the requirement is equal rotation because it tends to favor the server that was selected most recently rather than cycling evenly through all servers.

Use round-robin for simple even distribution across similar nodes; use other algorithms when connection load, capacity differences, or affinity behavior matters.

• Most-recently-used fails because it does not provide the requested repeating rotation across all servers.
• Least-connections is useful when active connection counts should drive placement, but that is not the stated requirement.
• Weighted round-robin is better when servers have different capacities, but the servers are identical here.

Question 8

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A systems administrator is configuring a two-node virtualization cluster in a rack with two top-of-rack switches. Each host has two 10GbE NICs. The switches are independent and do not support MLAG or cross-switch LACP. The requirement is to keep management and VM traffic online if one NIC, cable, or switch fails, without adding unsupported switch configurations. Which option is the BEST professional decision?

Options:

• A. Configure switch-independent NIC teaming with active-standby adapters.

• B. Connect both NICs to one switch using static link aggregation.

• C. Configure LACP across both switches for all host NICs.

• D. Add a global hot spare drive to each host.

Best answer: A

Explanation: NIC teaming should match both the resilience goal and the switching capability. Because the two switches are independent and do not support MLAG or cross-switch LACP, an LACP bundle spanning both switches is not a safe design. A switch-independent active-standby team lets one adapter carry traffic while the other is ready to take over if a NIC, cable, or connected switch fails. It prioritizes availability over bandwidth aggregation, which matches the stated requirement. Static aggregation to one switch may increase link capacity but leaves that switch as a single point of failure. A hot spare drive improves storage recovery, not network path resilience.

• Cross-switch LACP fails because independent switches cannot safely form one aggregation group without MLAG or equivalent support.
• Single-switch aggregation fails because the connected switch remains a single point of failure.
• Hot spare storage fails because it addresses disk failure, not NIC, cable, or switch failure.

Question 9

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A server team runs a latency-sensitive database VM on a hypervisor cluster. During busy periods, monitoring shows memory ballooning and occasional host swapping. Recent host rebuilds also left different CPU and memory settings because administrators applied them manually. The application has no requirement for GPU, HBA, or NIC passthrough. Which action is the BEST professional decision?

Options:

• A. Enable dynamic memory to improve cluster utilization

• B. Define a desired-state profile with a fixed memory reservation

• C. Configure PCIe passthrough for the database VM

• D. Manually increase memory after each host rebuild

Best answer: B

Explanation: Latency-sensitive workloads, especially databases, should not be exposed to hypervisor memory reclamation when host contention is already causing ballooning or swapping. A fixed memory reservation protects the VM’s required memory so the hypervisor does not reclaim it under pressure. Defining that setting in a desired-state profile, template, or configuration management policy also addresses the operational drift caused by manual rebuild steps. The key is to preserve both runtime performance and repeatable configuration, not simply maximize consolidation.

• Dynamic memory improves utilization, but it can worsen latency when the workload already shows ballooning and swapping symptoms.
• PCIe passthrough is unnecessary because the application has no device-passthrough requirement and it may reduce mobility.
• Manual changes may temporarily add capacity, but they do not prevent configuration drift after rebuilds.

Question 10

Topic: Configuration and Administration

A company is deploying a clustered internal web application. The requirement is to use both servers for live client traffic during normal operations and continue service if either server fails. A private network link will be used only to let the nodes monitor each other’s health.

Which clustering configuration best meets this requirement?

Options:

• A. Single active server with RAID redundancy

• B. Heartbeat-only cluster without shared service routing

• C. Active-passive cluster with a heartbeat link

• D. Active-active cluster with a heartbeat link

Best answer: D

Explanation: Active-active clustering is the availability design where multiple nodes actively serve the workload at the same time. In this scenario, the key requirement is that both servers handle live client traffic during normal operation and that service continues if one node fails. The private heartbeat link is not the workload path; it is the health-check mechanism nodes use to detect failure and trigger the cluster response. Active-passive would keep one node on standby, so it would not meet the requirement to use both servers for live traffic. The main distinction is workload state: active-active shares production work, active-passive reserves capacity for failover, and heartbeat supports failure detection.

• Standby node design fails because active-passive keeps one server idle or reserved until failover.
• Heartbeat-only design fails because heartbeat detects health but does not by itself provide workload distribution.
• Local disk redundancy fails because RAID protects storage availability inside one server, not service continuity across servers.

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