SK0-004 · Question #867
Users at a company cannot log into a server. An administrator reboots the server with liveCD and executes a df -h command. The following is returned: Which of the following should be done NEXT?
The correct answer is B. Compress or delete log files. The df -h output implies a filesystem is 100% full, which prevents users from logging in because the system cannot write session or temporary files. The immediate fix is to free space by compressing or removing log files.
Question
Users at a company cannot log into a server. An administrator reboots the server with liveCD and executes a df –h command. The following is returned:
Which of the following should be done NEXT?
Options
- AReformat the boot partition.
- BCompress or delete log files.
- CReconfigure the server with a larger primary partition.
- DAsk users to clean out their home directories from another server.
How the community answered
(30 responses)- A17% (5)
- B73% (22)
- C7% (2)
- D3% (1)
Why each option
The df -h output implies a filesystem is 100% full, which prevents users from logging in because the system cannot write session or temporary files. The immediate fix is to free space by compressing or removing log files.
Reformatting the boot partition would destroy existing data and is a last resort, not the immediate next step when a full filesystem is detected.
When a Linux filesystem reaches 100% capacity, login processes fail because the OS cannot write PAM session files, shell history, or other runtime artifacts. Booting with a liveCD allows the admin to mount the filesystem read-write and compress or delete large log files under /var/log to restore free space without reformatting or repartitioning, which would destroy data.
Reconfiguring with a larger primary partition requires repartitioning and data migration, which is a long-term solution and not the immediate corrective action.
Asking users to clean home directories from another server addresses one possible cause of disk usage but is not the most direct admin-controlled action when log files are the typical culprit of a full /var filesystem.
Concept tested: Linux disk full troubleshooting with df command
Source: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/df.1.html
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