GrenadePod » Sysadmin Quiz

Automatically mount filesystems on demand

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:57:38 +0000

It is convenient to mount some filesystems on when-needed basis. What deamon provides this functionality? What configuration files are involved? How to check the status of this daemon? List some common use cases when this functionality is useful. Related posts:Query data from Django site with jQuery Related posts:

Query data from Django site with jQuery

Kickstarting server over the network

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:52:09 +0000

What infrastructure is required to kickstart a server from network? Briefly describe configuration of each component that is involved in the kickstart process. What are alternatives for retrieving the installation packages? Related posts:Sorting out YUM repositories on CentOS 5.4 Related posts:

Sorting out YUM repositories on CentOS 5.4

File system attributes vs file permissions

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:28:33 +0000

What is the difference between changing file system attributes for a file and file permissions?

What are the commands to set filesystem attributes and permissions?

No related posts.

Journaling filesystems

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:25:10 +0000

What is a journaling file system? What are the advantages of journaling filesystem? Name several journaled filesystems? When would you not use journaling filesystem?

No related posts.

Disk partitions: primary vs extended

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:22:25 +0000

What is the difference? How many primary and how many extended partition can be defined on a disk? Which one to use when and why?

No related posts.

Issue with server initialisation

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:10:16 +0000

Scenario: You are booting your server, but it appears to start in run level 1. You check your /etc/inittab and the default run level is set to run level 3:

id:3:initdefault:

What could be the possible cause for the server to start in different run level, and to confirm that?

No related posts.

Runlevels

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:02:04 +0000

Why do we need different runlevels? What are they on a typical Linux system? For advanced users: what are the runlevels on non-Linux systems?

Briefly discuss the purpose of each runlevel.

No related posts.

The very first process

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:59:52 +0000

What is the very first process started by the Linux kernel? What does the first process do and in what order?

No related posts.

Device drivers

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:57:30 +0000

It is possible to build device drivers into the Linux kernel or load them as modules. Discuss the differences between drivers being built in and drivers being available as modules. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? When it is recommended to build the drivers into the kernel? Related posts:Electronic contact lens Related posts:

Electronic contact lens

Kernel boot messages

pulegium — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:54:29 +0000

When GRUB (or other boot loader) loads Linux kernel. Linux kernel goes through various initialisation stages and prints some status messages. How to retrieve those messages after the OS is booted?

No related posts.