Skip to content

Storage-Questions.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
executable file
·
67 lines (48 loc) · 4.12 KB

Storage-Questions.md

File metadata and controls

executable file
·
67 lines (48 loc) · 4.12 KB

Linux Storage Skills Challenge

Welcome to the Linux Storage Skills Challenge! This set of tasks is designed to test your ability to manage storage, work with LVM, format filesystems, and handle mounts in a Linux environment.

Instructions for Candidates

  • You will be working on a pre-configured Linux virtual machine.
  • Perform all tasks as the candidate user. Use sudo for commands requiring root privileges.
  • Achieve the desired state as described in each task. Changes should be effective immediately and persist where typically expected (e.g., mount points in /etc/fstab).
  • You may use man pages or other on-system documentation.
  • The system is equipped with standard Linux storage utilities.
  • Two unused block devices (e.g., /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc - verify exact names using lsblk) of approximately 10GB each are available for your use.
  • An additional unused block device (e.g., /dev/sdd - verify exact name) of approximately 5GB is available for Task 3.

Tasks

Task 1: Basic Partitioning, Filesystem, and Mounting (15 points)

  • Problem: A new, dedicated storage area is required for application logs.
  • Desired State (using /dev/sdd or your third available 5GB disk): a. Create a single primary partition that utilizes all available space on the disk. b. Format this new partition with the XFS filesystem. c. Create a directory /var/log/applogs. d. Mount the XFS formatted partition persistently (i.e., it should mount automatically on boot) at /var/log/applogs. e. Ensure the mount point /var/log/applogs is owned by the user syslog and group adm, with permissions rwxrwxr-x (0775).

Task 2: LVM Setup and Initial Use (25 points)

  • Problem: A flexible and expandable storage solution is needed for critical application data.
  • Desired State (using your two 10GB disks, e.g., /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc): a. Initialize both provided 10GB block devices as LVM Physical Volumes (PVs). b. Create an LVM Volume Group (VG) named appvg utilizing both of these PVs. c. Within appvg, create an LVM Logical Volume (LV) named data01 with a size of 8G. d. Format data01 with the ext4 filesystem. e. Create a directory /srv/appdata. f. Mount data01 persistently at /srv/appdata.

Task 3: LVM Expansion (15 points)

  • Problem: The existing data01 Logical Volume in appvg is running out of space and needs to be expanded.
  • Desired State: a. Extend the data01 Logical Volume to a new total size of 12G. b. After extending the LV, ensure the ext4 filesystem on data01 is resized to utilize all the newly available space. c. Verify that data can still be written to /srv/appdata after the expansion (e.g., by creating a small test file).

Task 4: Filesystem Check and Repair (Conceptual - 5 points)

  • Problem: You suspect potential filesystem corruption on a non-critical, unmounted ext4 filesystem located at /dev/externals/reports_fs (assume this device and filesystem exist and are currently unmounted).
  • Desired Output: a. Create a file named ~/fs_check_plan.txt. b. In this file, describe the command(s) you would use to safely check this ext4 filesystem for errors and attempt to repair them non-interactively if possible. c. Briefly explain any important options you would use with the command(s) and why. (You do not need to actually create or corrupt a filesystem for this task; describe your approach).

Task 5: Inode Usage Monitoring (Conceptual - 5 points)

  • Problem: A filesystem mounted at /opt/project_files is reported to be "full", but df -h shows there is still some disk space available. You suspect an inode exhaustion issue.
  • Desired Output: a. Create a file named ~/inode_check_plan.txt. b. In this file, list the command(s) you would use to check inode usage on the /opt/project_files filesystem. c. If inode exhaustion is confirmed, briefly describe one common cause and one potential way to mitigate it in the future for that directory structure (assuming many small files are legitimate).