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Top30LinuxSystemAdminInterviewQuestions&Answers

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by Pradeep Kumar Published April 5, 2014

Updated August 17, 2015
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In this article we will discuss top 30

linux system admin interview
questions with the answers for
experience professionals. Below
mentioned questions may help the
readers to clear Linux interviews. If
you like these questions , please dont
hesitate to share on Facebook, google+
and Twitter.
Q:1 Why LVM is required ?
Ans: LVM stands for Logical Volume
Manager , to resize lesystems size
online we required LVM partition in
Linux. Size of LVM partition can be
extended and reduced using the
lvextend & lvreduce commands
respectively.

SeeDeals

Q:2 How To check Memory stats and

CPU stats ?
Ans: Using free & vmstat command
we can display the physical and virtual
memory statistics respectively.With
the help of sar command we see the
CPU utilization & other stats.
T&Csapply.

Q:3 What does Sar provides and at

which location Sar logs are stored ?
Ans: Sar Collect, report, or save system
activity information. The default
version of the sar command (CPU
utilization report) might be one of the
rst facilities the user runs to begin
system activity investigation, because
it monitors major system resources. If
CPU utilization is near 100 percent
(user + nice + system), the workload
sampled is CPU-bound.
By default log les of Sar command is
located at /var/log/sa/sadd le, where
the dd parameter indicates the current
day.

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Q:4 How to increase the size of LVM

partition ?
Ans: Below are the Logical Steps :
Use the lvextend command (lvextend
-L +100M /dev/<Name of the LVM
Partition> , in this example we are
extending the size by 100MB.
resize2fs /dev/<Name of the LVM
Partition>
check the size of partition using df h command

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Q:5 How to reduce or shrink the

size of LVM partition ?
Ans: Below are the logical Steps to
reduce size of LVM partition :
-Umount the lesystem using umount
command,
-use resize2fs command , e.g resiz2fs
/dev/mapper/myvg-mylv 10G
-Now use the lvreduce command , e.g
lvreduce -L 10G /dev/mapper/myvgmylv

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Above Command will shrink the size &

will make the lesystem size 10GB.
Q:6 How to create partition from
the raw disk ?
Ans: Using fdisk utility we can create
partitions from the raw disk.Below are
the steps to create partition from the
raw dsik :
fdisk /dev/hd* (IDE) or /dev/sd*
(SCSI)
Type n to create a new partition
After creating partition , type w
command to write the changes to the
partition table.

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Q:7 Where the kernel modules are

located ?
Ans: The /lib/modules/kernelversion/ directory stores all kernel
modules or compiled drivers in Linux
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operating system. Also with lsmod

command we can see all the installed
kernel modules.
Q:8 What is umask ?
Ans: umask stands for User le
creation mask, which determines the
settings of a mask that controls which
le permissions are set for les and
directories when they are created.

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Q:9 How to set the umask

permanently for a user?
Ans: To set this value permanently for
a user, it has to be put in the
appropriate pro le le which depends
on the default shell of the user.
Q:10 How to change the default run
level in linux ?
Ans: To change the run level we have
to edit the le /etc/inittab and
change initdefault entry (
id:5:initdefault:). Using init
command we change the run level
temporary like init 3 , this command
will move the system in runlevl 3.
Q:11 How to share a directory using
nfs ?
Ans: To share a directory using nfs ,
rst edit the con guration le
/etc/exportfs , add a entry like
/<directory-name> <ip or Network>
(Options) and then restart the nfs
service.
Q:12 How to check and mount nfs
share ?
Ans: Using showmount command we
can see what directories are shared via
nfs e.g showmount -e <ip address of
nfs server>.Using mount command we
can mount the nfs share on linux
machine.
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Q:13 What are the default ports

used for SMTP,DNS,FTP,DHCP,SSH
and squid ?
Ans: Service Port
SMTP 25
DNS 53
FTP 20 (data transfer) , 21 (
Connection established)
DHCP 67/UDP(dhcp server) ,
68/UDP(dhcp client)
SSH 22
Squid 3128
Q:14 What is Network Bonding ?
Ans: Network bonding is the
aggregation of multiple Lan cards into
a single bonded interface to provide
fault tolerance and high performance.
Network bonding is also known as NIC
Teaming.
Q:15 What are the different modes
of Network bonding in Linux ?
Ans: Below are list of modes used in
Network Bonding :
balance-rr or 0 round-robin mode
for fault tolerance and load balancing.
active-backup or 1 Sets activebackup mode for fault tolerance.
balance-xor or 2 Sets an XOR
(exclusive-or) mode for fault tolerance
and load balancing.
broadcast or 3 Sets a broadcast
mode for fault tolerance. All
transmissions are sent on all slave
interfaces.
802.3ad or 4 Sets an IEEE 802.3ad
dynamic link aggregation mode.
Creates aggregation groups that share
the same speed & duplex settings.
balance-tlb or 5 Sets a Transmit
Load Balancing (TLB) mode for fault
tolerance & load balancing.
balance-alb or 6 Sets an Active

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Load Balancing (ALB) mode for fault

tolerance & load balancing.
Q:16 How to check and verify the
status the bond interface.
Ans: Using the command cat
/proc/net/bonding/bond0 , we can
check which mode is enabled and what
lan cards are used in this bond. In this
example we have one only one bond
interface but we can have multiple
bond interface like bond1,bond2 and
so on.
Q:17 How to check default route
and routing table ?
Ans: Using the Commands netstat -nr
and route -n we can see the default
route and routing tables.
Q:18 How to check which ports are
listening in my Linux Server ?
Ans: Use the Command netstat
listen and lsof -i
Q:19 List the services that are
enabled at a particular run level in
linux server ?
Ans: With the help of command
chkcon g list | grep 5:on we can list
all the service that are enabled in run
level5. For other run levels just replace
5 with the respective run level.
Q:20 How to enable a service at a
particular run level ?
Ans: We can enable a service using the
Command chkcon g <Service-Name>
on level 3
Q:21 How to upgrade Kernel in
Linux ?
Ans: We should never upgrade Linux
Kernel , always install the new New
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kernel using rpm command because

upgrading a kenel can make your linux
box in a unbootable state.
Q:22 How To scan newly asssigned
luns on linux box without rebooting
?
Ans: There are two ways to scan newly
assigned luns :
Method:1 if sg3 rpm is installed , then
run the command rescan-scsi-bus.sh
Method:2 Run the Command , echo
>
/sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/scan
Q:23 How to nd WWN numbers of
HBA cards in Linux Server ?
Ans: We can nd the WWN numbers of
HBA cards using the command systool
-c fc_host -v | grep port_name
Q:24 How to add & change the
Kernel parameters ?
Ans: To Set the kernel parameters in
linux , rst edit the le
/etc/sysctl.conf after making the
changes save the le and run the
command sysctl -p , this command
will make the changes permanently
without rebooting the machine.
Q:25 What is Puppet Server ?
Ans: Puppet is an open-source &
enterprise software for con guration
management toll in UNIX like
operating system. Puppet is a IT
automation software used to push
con guration to its clients (puppet
agents) using code. Puppet code can
do a variety of tasks from installing
new software, to check le
permissions, or updating user accounts
& lots of other tasks.

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Q:26 What are manifests in Puppet

?
Ans: Manifests in Puppet are the les
in which the client con guration is
speci ed.
Q:27 Which Command is used to
sign requested certi cates in
Puppet Server ?
Ans: puppetca sign hostname-ofagent in (2.X) & puppet ca sign
hostname-of-agent in (3.X)
Q:28 At which location Puppet
Master Stores Certi cates ?
Ans: /var/lib/puppet/ssl/ca/signed
Q:29 How to nd all the regular
les in a directory ?
Ans: using the command nd
/<directory -type f.
Q:30 What is load average in a linux
?
Ans: Load Average is de ned as the
average sum of the number of process
waiting in the run queue and number
of process currently executing over the
period of 1,5 and 15 minutes. Using
the top and uptime command we
nd the load average of a linux sever.

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How To

LVM : A

Install

good way

phpMyAdmin
in

to utilize
disks space

Linux(Ubuntu/CentOS/RHEL)

28 Responses
Comments 28
Pingbacks 0
manish meshram

May 13, 2014 at 4:50 pm

I like your Linux interview

questions you put some more
question on this site
Reply
admin

May 18, 2014 at 6:23 am

Thanks Manish , In
Coming Future we will
posting lot of interview
questions on different
categories.
Reply
praveen

November 22, 2014 at 6:55 pm

hi admin i will be much happy if

you post some of real time roles
and responsiblity of linux admin
for freshers:-)
in fact there is not doubt in your
articles they are really helpful
Reply
Hemant Singh

December 27, 2014 at 3:01 pm

Thanks for providing such type of

collective tutorials
Reply
LinuxPune Online Linux Training
and placement
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December 28, 2014 at 1:42 pm

Great !! Thanks admin for sharing

the details
Reply
lokesh karri

January 26, 2015 at 5:36 pm

Great..! If possible please post real

time scenario based questions.,
Reply
P.V.Satheesh

February 3, 2015 at 12:17 pm

Well Explained !!!

Reply
Raghavendra

March 7, 2015 at 9:52 am

Very Good and unique questions as

like Real time. Great Job!! keep
doing
Raghavendra Gujjar
Reply
anno

March 24, 2015 at 1:48 pm

Very good Linux Admin question.

Really very good knowledge
sharing.
Reply
sreenu

March 29, 2015 at 3:53 am

these question are very good but

please add some more question
Reply
stephane

April 28, 2015 at 12:15 pm

tanks very much for the linux

questions.
Reply
noor ahmed

May 15, 2015 at 2:39 pm

hi admin its really good to study

this article please keep moving live
this ..
& please post real time scenario ..
i have few questions to ask
1.if we what to mount a directory
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permanently in # /etc/fstab at last

what it means defaults 0 0
2. if i want to kill 20 or 30 process
id [PID] at a time? what would be
the cmd ? is that possible to like
that
3. i have created a user hare and i
have added to vi /etc/sudoers for
giving root privileges, now can i
able to acess /root home
directory?? i want to read
/root/projetc le? and i have added
the le to a group hello & added
a hareuser to that group
Reply
Pradeep Kumar

May 18, 2015 at 2:52 am

Hi Ahmed ,
Please nd the answer of your
queries below :
1. Meaning of defaults the fstab
le : it will mount the le system
with default mounting option like
rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser &
async. First zero (0) after defaults
is dump frequency ,if it is set to
zero then the le system wouldnt
be dumped.
Second Zero (0) after defaults
shows fsck frequency , if it is set to
0 , then fsck will not check the le
system for errors after corruption
or improper shutdown.
2. To kill a process of pid 20 or 30 ,
use the kill command like : # kill -9
20 ; kill -9 30
3. To give root privileges to a user
via sudoers , you need to add the
user to group like sudo or wheel.
After that user have to use sudo in
front of every command to
perform all the administrative
task.
Reply

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surya

June 4, 2015 at 12:32 pm

hi sir.. very useful interview

questions.. no site is providing
topic-wise interview questions ..
so if u can provide them topic wise
it will be very helpful for all.
Reply
shailendra

June 19, 2015 at 3:27 pm

I like your Linux interview

questions..
i have que.. if any one can help on
this .
1. i have schedule 1000 jobs at
same time with cron, need to know
if all will run at same time or they
run one by one ..
thanks you
Reply
Mohi Gupta

September 29, 2015 at

6:35 am

They all will be executed at

the same time.
Reply
Anil

July 29, 2015 at 5:09 am

good job . really useful

information
Reply
Solomon

August 4, 2015 at 5:49 pm

Good stuff,
Q11>>>Little error: the
con guration le for NFS;
/etc/exports not /etc/exportfs. the
command to populate it is:
exportfs
Q19>>>chkcon g list not
chkcon g -list
Overall: well presented. Keep
sharing
Reply
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Karn

August 10, 2015 at 4:48

pm

@Noor ahmed : there is no

such single command to
Kill 20-30 PIDs . You can
either manually kill them
or setup a small script..as
below..
lets suppose you have
PIDs to Kill with you:
$ for i in `cat`;do kill
$i;done
12
13
101
99
.etc
Ctrl+d
or if you want to kill all the
process related to a
particular service , like
have an example of ssh
service..you can do as
below
$ pgrep sshd | while read
p;do kill $p;done (it will
kill all the process related
to sshd in one go)
Reply
nagaraju marella

August 13, 2015 at 2:26 pm

good questions and answers admin

but we need more Real time
questions.
Reply
sandeep

September 29, 2015 at 5:48 pm

hai friends this is very useful

interview quations
Reply
Chandu

October 12, 2015 at 7:16 am

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What is the scope of linux admin

???
Reply
Vignesh J

January 20, 2016 at 4:09 pm

Hello Admin,
How to con gure to shutdown the
server immediately once the
normal user login the server? Is
there any possibility to con gure
it? share me steps if its possible. I
got this question from an
interview.
Reply
Y SyamSundar

March 23, 2016 at 4:20 am

Good Questions and answers

it would be helpful if you mention
the booting process also.
Reply
Varsha

May 10, 2016 at 7:05 pm

Hi Pradeep.. Thank you so much

for the questions. Very helpful
Reply
vinod

June 3, 2016 at 11:09 am

Nice information sir can u please

add the more question like whats
your daily activity and two major
issue resolved by you,boot process
related issue like if error in grub
con g le what message come,if
issue with initrd le and kernel le
then when error message
come..thanks for the
information
Reply
GAnesh

July 5, 2016 at 7:51 am

Well question and answer if you

possible plz can u add more
question thank you so much
Reply
laxmi

July 7, 2016 at 10:18 am

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hi admin
very useful question and answers
send me boot process details
Reply

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