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CompTIA Server+ Practice Test (SK0-005)

Use the form below to configure your CompTIA Server+ Practice Test (SK0-005). The practice test can be configured to only include certain exam objectives and domains. You can choose between 5-100 questions and set a time limit.

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CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Information

The CompTIA Server+ (SK0‑005) certification is tailored for IT professionals aiming to validate their proficiency in installing, managing, securing, and troubleshooting server systems across data center, on‑premises, and hybrid environments. Launched in May 2021, this mid‑level exam comprises up to 90 multiple‑choice and performance‑based questions, to be completed in 90 minutes, and requires a passing score of 750 on a 100–900 scale. Candidates are expected to have approximately two years of hands‑on experience in server environments and should possess foundational knowledge equivalent to CompTIA A+ certification.

The exam covers four core domains: Server Hardware Installation and Management (18%), Server Administration (30%), Security and Disaster Recovery (24%), and Troubleshooting (28%).

The hardware domain includes tasks like racking servers, managing power and network cabling, configuring RAID, and maintaining various drive types, from SSDs to hybrid systems.

The administration domain focuses on OS installation (GUI, core, virtualized, or scripted), network configuration, server roles and virtualization, scripting basics, asset documentation, backup of configurations, and licensing concepts .

Security and disaster recovery encompass server hardening techniques, physical and data security, identity and access management, backup strategies (full, incremental, snapshot), and recovery planning including hot, warm, cold, and cloud-based site setup .

The troubleshooting domain emphasizes systematic problem-solving across hardware, storage, OS and software, network connectivity, and security issues, involving techniques such as diagnostics, log analysis, reseating components, and resolving boot errors or DHCP/DNS issues .

Aspiring candidates should follow a structured preparation plan using official exam objectives to guide their study. Practical experience and familiarity with real-world scenarios—especially using hands-on labs, performance-based exercises, scripting tasks, RAID configuration, virtualization, and disaster recovery setups—can significantly enhance readiness. This targeted strategy helps ensure both technical competence and confidence when tackling the SK0-005 Server+ exam.

Free CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Practice Test

Press start when you are ready, or press Change to modify any settings for the practice test.

  • Questions: 20
  • Time: Unlimited
  • Included Topics:
    Server Hardware Installation and Management
    Server Administration
    Security and Disaster Recovery
    Troubleshooting
Question 1 of 20

During a post-incident review you discover that one senior administrator temporarily stopped event logging on several production servers, made unauthorized changes, and then re-enabled logging to hide the activity. Management wants to implement a control that prevents any single individual from both altering system settings and validating the related audit information. Which of the following actions BEST satisfies this goal?

  • Install host-based intrusion detection on each server and alert when the logging service is stopped.

  • Copy all server logs to write-once, read-many (WORM) storage so they cannot be altered after the fact.

  • Enforce 15-character complex passwords for all privileged accounts and require rotation every 90 days.

  • Assign log collection and analysis to a security operations group that has no server administration privileges, while system configuration remains with the existing administrators.

Question 2 of 20

During weekend maintenance a systems administrator notices that the organization's Windows Server 2022 file server reaches nearly 100 percent disk I/O and CPU utilization every night around 01:30. A full Microsoft Defender Antivirus scan starts at 01:00, and a Veeam Backup & Replication job that writes to a local disk repository begins at 01:15. The backup job now routinely overruns its maintenance window and reports failures. Compliance requirements mandate keeping the nightly full scan in place, and the backup schedule cannot be moved. Which antivirus configuration change is MOST likely to let the backup finish successfully while still protecting the host?

  • Raise the antivirus scan priority to High so it completes before the backup starts.

  • Schedule a PowerShell script to disable real-time protection for the duration of the backup job.

  • Change the nightly task to a cloud-delivered quick scan instead of a full local scan.

  • Add folder and process exclusions in Microsoft Defender for all Veeam Backup & Replication executables and the disk-to-disk repository.

Question 3 of 20

A systems administrator can ping a legacy Windows file server at 10.15.20.45 but cannot map its shared folder by using the server's NetBIOS name. The administrator wants to confirm whether another device is registering the same NetBIOS name by displaying the remote host's NetBIOS name table directly via its IP address. Which nbtstat switch should the administrator use with the IP address to retrieve that information?

  • -A

  • -n

  • -R

  • -a

Question 4 of 20

A systems administrator is tasked with decommissioning a legacy file server. The administrator has already followed company policy to verify non-utilization by monitoring network traffic and confirming with application owners that the server is no longer accessed. According to best practices, what is the MOST appropriate next step for the administrator to take?

  • Update the asset management database to mark the server as 'decommissioned'.

  • Terminate any vendor maintenance contracts associated with the server hardware.

  • Submit a change management request for the decommissioning.

  • Physically disconnect the server's network and power cables.

Question 5 of 20

A systems administrator needs to install a new high-performance GPU, which is a PCIe x16 card, into a server to accelerate data analytics workloads. To achieve maximum throughput, the card must be installed in a slot that provides the full bandwidth. The administrator identifies the following available PCIe 3.0 expansion slots on the motherboard:

  • Slot A: PCIe x16 (physical), x8 (electrical)
  • Slot B: PCIe x16 (physical), x16 (electrical)
  • Slot C: PCIe x8 (physical), x8 (electrical)
  • Slot D: PCIe x4 (physical), x4 (electrical)

Which slot MUST the administrator use for the new GPU?

  • Slot D

  • Slot C

  • Slot A

  • Slot B

Question 6 of 20

A systems administrator is collaborating with business stakeholders to update the disaster recovery plan for a critical database server. The stakeholders have determined that in the event of a catastrophic failure, the business can withstand a maximum of 15 minutes of data loss. Which of the following metrics does this requirement define?

  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

  • Mean Time to Recover (MTTR)

  • Service Level Agreement (SLA)

  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Question 7 of 20

A systems administrator is scheduled to swap the existing 95 W 8-core Intel Xeon in a 2U virtualization host for a recently released 165 W 24-core model that uses the same LGA socket. A heat-sink kit rated for 225 W has already been ordered so thermal limits will be met. To reduce the risk that the server will fail to POST after the CPU is fitted, which action should the administrator perform before powering the system down for the hardware change?

  • Move the CMOS-reset jumper to clear NVRAM and force firmware defaults on the next power-on.

  • Apply the latest BIOS/UEFI update that includes microcode support for the new processor before shutting the server down.

  • Disable Hyper-Threading in the current firmware configuration so core counts match the outgoing CPU.

  • Lower the DDR memory speed to the minimum value supported by the platform prior to the change.

Question 8 of 20

Your organization's business-continuity plan specifies a recovery time objective of four days and a 24-hour recovery point objective for a non-critical archival records system. Senior management insists on the lowest possible recurring cost for the alternate facility. Only power, climate control, and network connectivity need to be in place ahead of time; the IT staff is prepared to ship in hardware and restore data from nightly backups after a disaster occurs. Which type of disaster-recovery site BEST meets these requirements?

  • Active-active metropolitan cluster running live workloads in multiple datacenters

  • Cold site that supplies only basic utilities and floor space

  • Partially provisioned warm site with pre-installed servers but inactive data

  • Fully equipped hot site synchronized with production systems

Question 9 of 20

During a memory upgrade, a technician adds four 64 GB DDR4 load-reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs) to a dual-socket rack server that already contains eight 32 GB DDR4 registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) operating at the same speed. When the server is powered on, it halts during POST with a fatal memory-initialization error and will not boot. According to common vendor memory-population rules, which corrective action will allow the server to start while letting the larger modules remain in service?

  • Replace all RDIMMs with LRDIMMs so every populated slot uses the same DIMM type and speed.

  • Install the LRDIMMs only in the channels assigned to CPU 0 and leave the RDIMMs in the channels for CPU 1.

  • Reduce the memory clock speed in BIOS to the lowest speed supported by both DIMM types.

  • Move the LRDIMMs to the priority (blue) slots and leave the RDIMMs in the secondary (black) slots within each channel.

Question 10 of 20

A systems administrator is tasked with deploying 50 new virtual web servers. Each server must have the same operating system, patch level, and a pre-installed web server application. The administrator's primary goals are to ensure configuration consistency and minimize deployment time. Which of the following installation methods BEST meets these requirements?

  • Template deployment

  • Unattended installation

  • Bare metal installation

  • P2V conversion

Question 11 of 20

During post-deployment checks on a Windows Server 2019 file server, you discover that a brand-new 4 TB SATA disk shows a single NTFS primary partition that is exactly 2 TB. About 1.8 TB of capacity appears as Unallocated, and the Extend Volume option is unavailable even though SMART and controller diagnostics report no faults. Which action will correct the underlying partition error and let the server use the disk's full capacity?

  • Back up the data, delete the current partition table, initialize the disk as GPT, recreate the volume, and then restore the data.

  • Replace the disk because sectors beyond the 2 TB boundary are physically defective.

  • Update the drive firmware so the disk reports 4 KB native sectors instead of 512-byte emulation.

  • Reformat the existing 2 TB partition with a larger (64 KB) NTFS cluster size to correct the bitmap and then extend the volume.

Question 12 of 20

A company's security policy states that archived web-server logs must be deleted after 180 days. The logs are stored on a Linux server that already rotates /var/log/httpd/access.log every day. Which single logrotate directive will ensure that any rotated log files older than the 180-day limit are automatically removed?

  • Add "maxage 180" to the logrotate configuration

  • Add the "delaycompress" directive to the rotation stanza

  • Add "rotate 180" to the logrotate configuration

  • Add "size 180M" to the logrotate configuration

Question 13 of 20

Your organization follows a backup policy that performs a full backup every Sunday at 01:00 and an incremental backup at 01:00 on every other day of the week. At 15:30 on Thursday a critical file server fails and must be restored to its most recent state. Which backup set(s) must be restored - and in what order - to complete the recovery?

  • The Sunday full backup, followed by the incremental backups from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in chronological order.

  • The Sunday full backup and the Thursday incremental backup.

  • The Sunday full backup, followed by the incremental backups from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in chronological order.

  • Only the Thursday incremental backup.

Question 14 of 20

A systems administrator must validate the organization's disaster-recovery plan by running a simulated failover of several virtual machines that continuously replicate to a warm site. Management requires that production workloads keep running, replication remain active, and no duplicate IP addresses appear on the corporate network during the test. Which action is required to meet these objectives?

  • Modify internal DNS and default-gateway records so users resolve services at the DR site.

  • Start the replica VMs on an isolated test network segment that is not routable to production.

  • Pause the replication job, then attach the replicas to the production VLAN at the DR site.

  • Shut down the primary VMs before powering on their replicas at the warm site.

Question 15 of 20

A systems administrator applies the latest OS security patches to a production Linux server that hosts a custom financial application. Following the mandatory reboot, the application service fails to start. The administrator inspects the application's error logs and discovers messages stating, "error while loading shared libraries... cannot open shared object file: incompatible version". The server and the application were fully functional before the update. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this application failure?

  • The patch file was corrupted during download and did not install correctly.

  • The security patch updated a shared library to a version that is incompatible with the application.

  • The server has insufficient disk space, preventing the application from starting.

  • The application's service account permissions were reset during the patching process.

Question 16 of 20

A systems administrator is tasked with upgrading an aging production database server to improve I/O performance for a new application. The plan is to install a new PCIe-based NVMe RAID controller and several high-capacity NVMe drives. To minimize project risk and ensure system stability, which of the following is the most critical first step for the administrator to take before purchasing the new components?

  • Verify that the combined power draw of the new components does not exceed the server's PSU capacity.

  • Update the server's BIOS/UEFI and all other firmware to the latest available versions.

  • Ensure the selected NVMe drives are certified as compatible by the RAID controller's manufacturer.

  • Consult the server vendor's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

Question 17 of 20

A systems administrator is building a direct-attach, high-availability storage solution that will be shared by two rack servers. Each server has its own 12 Gb/s SAS HBA, and the external JBOD enclosure routes two independent links from every drive bay-one link to each HBA. The design goal is for the disk set to remain online if an HBA, cable, or I/O module on either path fails, without using interposer boards or additional electronics. Which type of disk interface must the administrator order for the eight drive bays to satisfy these requirements?

  • NVMe U.2 solid-state drives over PCIe Gen3 x4

  • 12 Gb/s SAS drives that use a single wide x4 port for bandwidth aggregation

  • SATA III (6 Gb/s) drives attached through a port multiplier

  • Dual-port 12 Gb/s SAS drives

Question 18 of 20

A financial institution requires a disaster recovery solution for its primary online transaction processing (OLTP) database. A key requirement is to ensure zero data loss (RPO of zero) in case of a site failure. The solution must guarantee that a transaction is written to both the primary and the secondary data centers before it is considered complete. Which of the following replication methods BEST meets this requirement?

  • Asynchronous replication

  • Synchronous replication

  • Bidirectional replication

  • Snapshot replication

Question 19 of 20

During a quarterly security audit, the facilities team wants to know how often the biometric fingerprint readers at each data-center entrance mistakenly permit an individual who is not enrolled in the system. Which biometric performance metric best quantifies this specific risk?

  • False acceptance rate

  • Crossover error rate

  • False rejection rate

  • Failure to enroll rate

Question 20 of 20

A company's backups complete successfully every night, but the servers have never been restored from those backups. An auditor instructs the systems administrator to implement regular testing intervals to validate recoverability without placing an excessive burden on staff or hardware. Which practice BEST meets this requirement?

  • Review the backup application logs every morning; if no errors are reported, assume the restore process will also succeed.

  • Perform a full restore of every backup job immediately after it completes to a dedicated sandbox environment.

  • Document a schedule to restore each critical workload at least monthly or quarterly and repeat the test after any significant system or data change.

  • Once per year, decrypt a randomly selected backup set to confirm the tape drive operates, then return the media to off-site storage.