Best 45 System Admin Interview Questions and Answers – 2024

System Admin Interview. The duties of a system administrator include maintaining, configuring, and ensuring the reliable operation of computer systems, particularly servers. They focus on maintaining security and performance for both servers and client computers. This blog presents a compilation of top system admin interview questions and answers categorized for freshers and experienced professionals.

Top 10 System Admin Interview Questions

1. Can you tell us about the experience you have with hardware components?
2. What, according to you, could be the personal characteristics of a person administering a system?
3. Can you give us one of the examples of the systems you have been working with as an Administrator?
4. What do you know about the active directory in system administration?
5. Can you differentiate between firewall and antivirus?
6. According to you, what is the difference between FAT and NTFS?
7. Describe the concept of DHCP.
8. What is a domain controller?
9. What is group policy?
10. What do you know about proxy servers?

System Admin Interview Questions for Freshers

For newcomers interested in system administration, here’s a compilation of common interview questions and answers in that field.

1. What do you know about the active directory in system administration?

The active directory provides centralized network security control, storing information and settings for development in a central database that includes user account details such as job title, phone number, and password.

2. What is group policy?

Group policy is a tool used by network administrators to regulate the environment in which users and computer accounts operate within an active directory. It serves as a centralized platform to handle and set up operating systems, applications, and user preferences.

3. Why is it said that we should restore a domain controller that was backed up 9 months ago?

Using a backup older than 180 days might lead to problems since there could be remaining objects. Typically, the active directory mandates that the backup file should not exceed 180 days.

4. Can you tell us about your experience with hardware components?

A system administrator must have the ability to conduct installation and replacement tasks with hardware, including rebuilding hardware components as needed.

5. What do forest, trees, and domain mean?

In a Microsoft active directory network, a domain is a logical group of network objects such as computers, users, and devices. A tree consists of domains within the network. A forest is a collection of active directory trees.

6. What do you know about WINS servers?

WINS, which stands for Windows Internet Name Service, enables users to reach resources by computer name instead of IP address. It utilizes a central computer to offer particular functions and regulations for users and computers linked to a network.

7. What, according to you, could be the personal characteristics of a person administering a system?

System administrators possess a comprehensive understanding of software, hardware, and networks, acting as troubleshooters and coordinators. They oversee system performance and develop solutions for computer systems, promptly organizing replacements for hardware failures.

8. Can you give us one of the examples of the systems you have been working with as an Administrator?

This typically includes Windows and Linux systems, which support asset management or GIS.

9. What is a lingering object? What is the command that we use to remove lingering objects?

A lingering object is a deleted active directory object that persists on a restored domain controller and can be removed using the console utility command REPADMIN.EXE.

10. Can you differentiate between firewall and antivirus?

Antivirus: Protects the system from viruses, actively monitoring for threats and quarantining viruses if found.

Firewall: Protects the system from unauthorized access, preventing hackers from controlling the system remotely.

11. Why is backing up an active directory important, and how can you back up an active directory?

Maintaining the health of the AD database involves backing up Active Directory. For Windows Server 2003, utilize NTBACKUP or third-party tools. For Windows Server 2008, utilize the command line.

12. What is a domain controller?

A domain controller (DC) is a Windows-based computer system that stores user account data in a central database, allowing or denying access to system resources.

13. According to you, what is the difference between FAT and NTFS?

FAT:

• No security for local logins
• Supports filenames with only 8 characters
• Partition and file size up to 4 GB
• No security permission for file and folder levels

NTFS:

• Security for local and remote users
• Supports filenames with 255 characters
• Supports file compression
• Partition size up to 16 exabytes
• Security for file and folder levels
• Supports bad cluster mapping and transaction logging

14. What is a loopback address, and why is it useful?

The loopback address facilitates testing by sending outgoing signals back to the same computer. It is controlled within the operating system and enables client and server processes on a single system to communicate without physical network connections.

15. What do you know about proxy servers?

A proxy server functions as an intermediary between a local network and a broader network such as the internet, improving performance and security by restricting access to unsuitable or diverting websites.

16. What is the Windows registry?

The Windows registry contains databases with low-level configuration settings that store crucial information, such as program and file locations. Incorrectly editing the registry can lead to issues with installed applications or the operating system.

17. What is the Sysvol Folder?

The Sysvol Folder is a centralized location for group policy information and public files within a domain, allowing domain users access. It plays a role in distributing policy and login scripts to domain members.

18. Why is VOIP important?

VOIP enables users to utilize contemporary communication methods over conventional infrastructure by transmitting voice packets tailored for telephone calls.

19. What do you know about Windows deployment services?

Windows deployment services (WSD) facilitate the deployment of the Windows operating system without requiring manual installation from a CD or DVD. Server management tools include the Windows deployment services MMC, Windows PowerShell cmdlets for WSD, and the WSDUTIL command-line tool.

20. What is the difference between a workgroup and a domain?

In a workgroup, systems operate with individual rules and local user logins, much like a P2P network. However, in a domain, a centralized authentication server supervises rules, creating a standard client/server relationship.

System Admin Interview Questions for Experienced

For professionals with experience preparing for a system admin interview, here are some top system admin interview questions to review.

21. What can you tell us about the lightweight directory access protocol?

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is used to name objects in an active directory, providing a central place to store usernames and passwords.

22. What do you know about the PPP protocol?

PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) helps communication between two computers (routers). Its derivatives include Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet and Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM.

23. What is IP Spoofing, and how can we prevent it?

IP Spoofing involves attackers sending messages from a trusted IP address in order gain unauthorized access. To prevent this, packets are filtered using specialized routers and firewalls.

24. What is garbage collection?

Garbage collection frees memory occupied by objects no longer in use. It relieves users from dealing with memory deallocation, primarily found in higher-level programming languages.

25. Tell us something about frame relay.

Frame relay operates at the physical and data link layers in the OSI model, using frames for high-speed data transmission.

26. What is DNS?

DNS (Domain Name System) translates IP addresses into human-friendly names. It updates regularly, enabling quick responses to repeated queries.

27. Can you tell the difference between domain admin groups and Enterprise admin groups in the AD (Active Directory)?

Domain admin groups: Members have complete control of the domain. Enterprise admin groups: Members have complete control of domains in the forest.

28. What is the authoritative restoration of the active directory?

Authoritative restore involves incrementing the version number of attributes to restore an object in the directory. It follows a non-authoritative restore, which contacts replication partners to determine changes since the last backup.

29. What will be your daily routine if you are a system administrator?

A system administrator’s daily tasks include software installation and updates, providing system access control, creating backups, and data recovery.

30. What do you know about the object server?

The client/server application is written as communication objects. Client objects communicate with server objects using ORB (Object Request Broker), supporting concurrency and sharing.

31. What is the working of traceroute, and what protocol does it use?

Traceroute shows the path routers take to reach the final destination, using the ICMP protocol and sometimes the first step of TCP for sending SYN requests.

32. What do you know about NETBIOS and NetBEUI?

NETBIOS: Network Basic Input/Output System, a layer 5 protocol for LAN communication, running over TCP/IP. NetBEUI: An extended version of NETBIOS, used for LAN manager and Windows for workgroups, suitable for small networks.

33. Can you differentiate between hyper-v and VMware?

Hyper-v: A Microsoft product integrated into Windows Server, supports various Linux and Windows operating systems. VMware: A suite of virtualization products from VMware, suitable for servers, desktops, and cloud environments.

34. What do you know about the file server, and how do you secure it?

A file server stores files accessible to all connected systems, protecting data with credentials, permissions, data encryption, and NTFS for folder-level security.

35. What is an OSI model?

The OSI model defines communication rules between devices on a network, dividing tasks into seven layers (Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application).

36. What is the distributed file system?

Distributed file systems allow network clients to access and process data on the server as if it were on their own computer.

37. What are the sites and what are their uses?

Sites allow clients to log on to the closest domain controller using the site link, increasing access speed for large-scale distributed environments.

38. What is the difference between TCP/IP model and OSI model?

TCP/IP model: Consists of four layers (Application, Transport, Internet, Network Access). OSI model: Consists of seven layers (Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, Physical).

39. What are loopback interfaces and why are they important?

Loopback interfaces (127.0.0.1) enable testing and development by sending outgoing signals back to the same computer, ensuring IP stack integrity.

40. What is a reverse proxy?

A reverse proxy routes requests from clients to backend servers, improving security, performance, and scalability by handling client connections and distributing load.

41. What do you understand about the distributed file system?

Distributed file systems allow clients to access and process data on a server as if it were on their own computer, using network file sharing.

42. Can you differentiate between 401 and 403 errors in web server configuration?

401 Unauthorized: Authentication is required and has failed or not been provided. 403 Forbidden: Server understands the request but refuses to authorize it.

43. How does a VPN work?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates a secure connection over the internet between two networks, encrypting data to protect it from interception.

44. What is RAID, and what are its levels?

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) combines multiple disk drives into a single unit for redundancy and performance. Levels include RAID 0 (striping), RAID 1 (mirroring), RAID 5 (striping with parity), and more.

45. How would you handle a situation where a server is experiencing high CPU usage?

Identify the cause of high CPU usage by monitoring system performance, analyzing processes, and addressing issues such as misconfigured applications, resource-intensive processes, or insufficient hardware resources.

System Admin Interview Question FAQs:

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