Linux+ Filesystem and Storage Management Flashcards

Which RAID level provides striping with distributed parity and requires a minimum of 3 disks?

Answer: RAID 5

RAID 5 stripes data and parity across all disks (minimum 3), tolerating one disk failure while maintaining read performance.

A developer runs 'ln file1 file2' then deletes file1. What happens to file2?

Answer: file2 remains intact with the data

Hard links share the same inode; deleting one filename only decrements the link count, so file2 remains fully accessible until all links are removed.

What does the 'noatime' mount option do?

Answer: Disables access time updates on file reads

noatime stops the filesystem from updating the access time (atime) each time a file is read, reducing unnecessary disk writes.

Which command converts a physical partition to an LVM physical volume?

Answer: pvcreate /dev/sdb1

pvcreate initializes a disk or partition as an LVM physical volume by writing LVM metadata to it.

A XFS filesystem is full. Which command increases its size to use newly added space?

Answer: xfs_growfs /mount/point

xfs_growfs expands a mounted XFS filesystem to fill available space; it takes the mount point, not the device, as its argument.

What is the effect of the 'discard' mount option on an SSD-backed filesystem?

Answer: Enables TRIM to free unused blocks on the SSD

The discard option enables online TRIM, sending discard commands to the SSD to free blocks as files are deleted, maintaining SSD performance.

Which file contains the kernel's current list of recognized partition types and their identifiers?

Answer: /proc/partitions

/proc/partitions is a virtual file that lists all block devices and partitions currently known to the running kernel.