Linux System Administration

Group – A
(Multiple Choice Type Question)

1. Bootstrap Loader looks for __________ in the boot sector

(a) GRUB
(b) Kernel
(c) init
(d) initrd

2. Significance of Runlevel “2” is

(a) Multi User Mode
(b) Multi User Mode with network support
(c) Multi User Mode without network support
(d) Administrative Mode

3. Which command is used to change the “expire” date

of a user account
(a) usermod
(b) chmod
(c) chage
(d) None of the above

4. “POSTROUTING” function in “iptables” firewall used for

(a) NAT , converting private ipaddress to public ipaddress
(b) NAT , converting public ipaddress to private ipaddress
(c) MASQUERADE function, convert many to one ipaddress
(d) All of the above

5. The following network 172.16.0.0/255.255.254.0 has

(a) 5 subnets with 509 hosts per subnet
(b) 3 subnets with 510 hosts per subnet
(c) 5 subnets with 510 hosts per subnet
(d) 3 subnets with 509 hosts per subnet
6. What keep track of all files within the file system
(a) boot-block
(b) super-block
(c) inode table
(d) fstab file

7. The command “nmap -sS –A 10.10.10.1” will show

(a) Operating System of the PC having the above ip
(b) Number of open ports of that particular PC
(c) MAC address of that particular PC
(d) Only options (a) & (b)

8. NFS uses port number

(a) TCP port 2049
(b) UDP port 2049
(c) Both options (a) & (b)
(d) None of the above

9. “nohup” permits a user

(a) To execute a process even when she is logged out
(b) To execute a process in background mode
(c) To execute a process only in ‘C’ Shell & ‘Bash’ Shell
(d) All of the above

10. “uname –r” command returns

(a) Username of a system User
(b) Runlevel of current system
(c) Kernel version of current system
(d) Both options (b) and (c)
 Group – B
(Short Answer type Question)
(Answer any three questions)

2. Write down the difference between “Differential Backup”

and “Incremental Backup”. What is the significance of
stikybit, write an example. Write with proper example the
usage of “tcpdump” command. [2+1+2]

3. Using a PERL script accept a four digit number from

Keyboard & check whether it’s a Leap Year or not.
What do you mean by priority message queue ? What is the
advantage of shared memory over message queue ? Which
system calls are required by UDP sockets for read & write
operation ? [2+1+1+1]

4. Create a group “students” with guid 2000. Assign this group

as a secondary-group for two users user1 & user2. Assign
user1 as an administrator of the “students” group.
Create a file sample.txt & assign it’s attribute in such a way
so that only append operation is permitted for that file.
What is the significance of “nslookup” ? [2+1+2]

5. What is swap space & virtual memory. How they differ from
each other ? Describe all the relevant fields in/etc/shadow.
What is the significance of DROP,FORWARD,MASQUERADE
with respect to iptables-firewall ? [2+1+2]

6. What is supernetting . Demonstrate using suitable example.

Assign the ip-address “10.0.0.0” with proper subnet mask.
What is the significance if “TTL” value ? [2+1+2]
 Group –C
(Long Answer Type Question)
(Answer any three questions)

7. We have a Linux Server having three NIC (eth0, eth1, eth2).

eth0 is directly connected with ISP network. “eth1” & “eth2”
is connected with two private networks 172.16.0.0/24 &
10.10.10.0/24 respectively. Now configure the Linux Server
to perform the following tasks
(i) Users of both network get ip automatically from Server
(ii) Users of both network will be able to surf INTERNET.
(iii) Any unregistered port will be blocked for all end users.

What is the difference between SNAT & DNAT, give suitable

examples with proper diagram.
What is DMZ (demilitarized zone) ? [(4+4+2)+3+2]

8. Write down a CRON job that will take the backup of /home
partition every 4 hour daily between 9:00 am to 21:00 pm.
State the importance between “soft-mount” & “hard-mount”
“root_squash”, with respect to NFS server. What is SUID ?

Create two users emp1 & emp2 under group employee and
then assign a quota limit of maximum 100 Mb for each user
emp1& emp2 & also limit group quota of maximum 500 Mb.

You have two users u1 & u2. u1 has created a file u1.txt
under her home directory. Now create an ACL so that user
u2 can access the file u1.txt & also edit it’s content.
[3+3+2+4+3]

9. Write down short notes on any three of the following

(a) Working principle of DNS Server

(b) Common Gateway Interface
(c) POSIX Thread
(d) NAT
(e) DDoS & IP-Spoofing [5+5+5]
10. Your organization needs a web server with CGI capability
and virtual hosting. Configure the Apache Web Server in
such a way, that it can hosts two sites www1.example.com
and www2.example.com with two different ports from the
same server & also test the CGI capability.

Create a group name “legal” to which users “karl”,“joe”

“marry” & “jen” belong. Users must not be able to access
the system , except samba. Create the directory path
/home/depts./legal. Set the ownership & permission on
the directory such that people of legal group can add/del
files but other can’t. Also set the SGID & stiky permission
so that group ownership on all files created in the “legal”
directory will be set to the group owner of legal & no body
can delete each other file. [7+8]