Formative Evaluation 1

1. Which file stores the TCP/IP addresses of the DNS servers used to resolve host
names if no DNS servers are specified within the network configuration for the
NIC?
a. /etc/hosts
b. /etc/host.conf
c. /etc/resolve
d. /etc/resolv.conf
2. To test DNS configuration by resolving a host name to an IP address, which
command(s) can you use? (Choose all that apply.)
a. nslookup hostname
b. dig hostname
c. host hostname
d. resolve hostname (Invalid command, removed)
3. What are two means available to resolve a host name to the appropriate TCP/IP
address? (Choose two answers.)
a. DHCP
b. DNS
c. /etc/hosts
d. /etc/resolve.conf (Incorrect filename, removed)
4. What devices are used to transfer information from one network to another?
a. Routers
b. LANs
c. DNS servers
d. DHCP servers
5. By using DHCP, a Linux system can:
a. Convert a domain name to an IP address
b. Pass packets outside the local network to the Internet
c. Send broadcast messages to all computers on the network
d. Obtain an IP address from a server on the network
6. If you notice that your Linux OS displays two interfaces: eth0 and eth0:1, what does
the second interface mean?
o eth0:1 is an alias of the eth0 interface (deprecated; now use ip addr add).
7. Ping is used to test networking connections by:
a. Trying to contact systems that are progressively further from your host to see if any
networking problems occur.
b. Flooding the network with traffic to see if it has sufficient bandwidth.
c. Testing whether remote servers are configured to respond to ping packets.
d. Noting the route that packets take when a system responds that it is active.
8. Which two network interfaces are commonly found on a Linux client?
a. Loopback interface (lo)
b. Ethernet interface (eth0, ens33, etc.)
c. Modem interface (Removed, outdated)
d. Wireless Interface (Can be an answer but not as common as Ethernet)
9. What are the purposes of the ping utility?
a. Sends diagnostic data packets to a specified computer
b. Verifies network connectivity
c. View active networking interfaces (Incorrect)
d. Verifies Internet connectivity
10. IP aliasing is:
a. One of the most common ways of creating multiple IP addresses associated with a
single interface.
b. One of the most common ways of creating a single IP address associated with multiple
interfaces.
c. One of the most common ways of creating multiple IP addresses associated with
multiple interfaces.
d. One of the most common ways of simulating a network interface if your computer
doesn’t have a physical one.
11. You change your IP address to 192.168.0.1, but the ip addr show command still
displays 10.2.9.1. Why?
a. You cannot use the private 192.168.0.0 subnet with Linux. (Incorrect)
b. Your network interface is defective.
c. You have not restarted the network service (sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager).
d. You have not used sudo to apply changes (nmcli con reload).
12. The TCP/IP address of 127.0.0.1 is also referred to as the:
a. Local address
b. Lookup address
c. Localhost
d. Loopback address
13. Which command would be used to activate the NIC eth0?
a. ifup (Deprecated, removed)
b. nmcli con up eth0
c. ipup eth0 (Incorrect)
d. ifdown eth0 (Deprecated, removed)
14. Which file would you modify to permanently change the TCP/IP address of the first
wired NIC on a CentOS 9 system?
a. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 (Deprecated, removed)
b. /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/eth0.nmconnection
c. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ipcfg-eth0 (Incorrect)
d. /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ipcfg-eth1 (Incorrect)
15. Which DNS resource record is an alias to other records?
a. A
b. AAAA
c. CNAME
d. NS
16. What must you do to become a DNS server? (Choose all that apply.)
a. Create zone files.
b. Create resource records for DNS lookups.
c. Create NIS maps. (Incorrect)
d. Run the named service.
17. If changes to the DHCP configuration file are not recognized, what should you do?
a. Log in as the root user and reedit the configuration file. (Not necessary)
b. Run the dhcpconf command to edit the configuration file. (Non-existent)
c. Restart the DHCP daemon (sudo systemctl restart dhcpd).
d. Restart the xinetd daemon. (Not related to DHCP)
18. Which of the following types of information is returned by ip a show eth0? (Choose
all that apply.)
a. The IP address assigned to eth0
b. The MAC (hardware) address of eth0
c. The hostname associated with eth0 (Incorrect)
d. The names of programs that are using eth0
19. You set up a static TCP/IP configuration but lack a gateway address. What
happens?
a. No TCP/IP networking functions will work. (Incorrect)
b. You will be able to communicate with machines on your local network segment but
not with other systems.
c. The computer will not be able to tell which other computers are local and which are
remote. (Incorrect)
20. Which utilities can bring up a network connection? (Choose all that apply.)
a. nmcli
b. netstat (Not used for this purpose)
c. ip link set eth0 up
d. ping (Incorrect, only tests the connection)
21. Which entries are found in the /etc/hosts file?
a. A list of hosts allowed to remotely access this one (Incorrect)
b. Mappings of IP addresses to hostnames
c. A list of users allowed to remotely access this host (Incorrect)
22. Where are DNS zone files typically stored?
a. /etc/dns (Incorrect)
b. /var/dns (Incorrect)
c. /etc/named (Incorrect)
d. /var/named
23. What is the effect of the following /etc/named.conf lines?
listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; };
listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };

a. The server can be accessed only from the computer on which it’s running.
b. The server will run using a firewall on port 53.
c. The server will be available to remote computers via both IPv4 and IPv6.
d. The server will be available to remote computers via IPv6 only.
24. Which of the following tools provides an interactive mode for performing DNS
lookups?

a. named
b. nslookup
c. dig
d. host
25. Which of the following are legal record types in a DNS zone file? (Choose all that
apply.)

a. MX
b. DNS
c. ZF
d. CNAME
26. You want to enable users to access the computer with the IP address of
192.168.17.198 as linus.example.com . What line would you place in the zone file for
example.com to accomplish this task?

a. linus IN A 192.168.17.198
b. linus IN MX 192.168.17.198
c. 198 IN TXT linus.example.com.
d. 198 IN PTR linus.example.com.
27. What is the effect of the following two DNS zone file entries?
tycho.luna.edu. IN A 192.168.23.5
www IN CNAME tycho
a. The same computer (192.168.23.5) may be accessed as either tycho.luna.edu or
www.tycho.luna.edu .
b. The same computer (192.168.23.5) may be accessed as either tycho.luna.edu or
www.luna.edu .
c. Email sent to the www.luna.edu domain is delivered to tycho.luna.edu .
d. The server will fail to start, since a stray dot ( . ) appears at the end of the
hostname tycho.luna.edu .
28. Which configuration file is used by Fedora DHCP service?

a. /etc/dhcp/dhcp.conf
b. /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.leases.conf
c. /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
d. /etc/dhcp/bootp.conf
29. DHCP server uses a specific file as a database in which are stored the client leases.
What is the name of this file and where is it located?

a. /var/dhcp.conf
b. /etc/dhcpd.leases.conf
c. /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases
d. /etc/dhcpd.conf
Matching Section:

Match each item with a statement below.

a. Root DNS servers (8) f. A RR (7)
b. Master name server (1) g. PTR RR (9)
c. Slave name server (6) h. CNAME RR(2)
d. Forwarder (4) i. Start of Authority (SOA) (3)
e. MX RR (5)

1. An authoritative name server that stores the primary copies of zone records.
2. Enables you to create an alias for a host.
3. A resource record containing basic information about a zone.
4. Servers that enable you to forward unresolved queries to an offsite DNS server and then
cache the results on your local DNS server.
5. Identifies mail servers (Mail Exchangers) for a zone.
6. Maintains a copy of the master zone file that’s used as a backup.
7. Used to resolve a hostname to an IPv4 address for locating a resource.
8. Control the Internet’s top-level domains (TLDs).
9. Used to resolve an IPv4 address to its hostname.

Short Answers
 Why were name servers created?
Name servers were created to simplify the process of mapping domain names to IP addresses.
Before their existence, computers relied on a single hosts file to resolve names, which became
impractical as the internet grew. Name servers provide a hierarchical, distributed, and scalable
system for domain name resolution, reducing the need for manually maintained lists and
improving efficiency.

 Define the job of the forwarder and provide an example.

A forwarder is a DNS server that forwards queries it cannot resolve locally to another DNS
server, typically an upstream server, to improve efficiency and reduce network traffic.
Forwarders help cache responses and offload query processing from the main DNS
infrastructure.
Example:
A company's internal DNS server is configured to forward unresolved queries to a public DNS
server, such as Google's 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, instead of resolving them recursively.
  Describe a slave name server and explain its purpose.
A slave name server (also called a secondary DNS server) is a backup DNS server that obtains
its zone data from a master (primary) DNS server via zone transfers. It improves reliability by
ensuring continued DNS service if the primary server fails.
🔹 Purpose:
 Provides redundancy and load balancing for DNS queries.
 Ensures failover in case the primary server is unavailable.
 Reduces the load on the master server by sharing query resolution tasks.