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Remote Systems Administrator Interview Questions

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16 remote systems administrator interview questions shared by candidates

Q: Please walk us through your most recent work experience that qualifies you for this position. Q: What aspect of the role do you believe you would enjoy the most and why? Q: Briefly explain what DNS is and how it would impact an average end user if DNS were to become unavailable. (didn't go past that. Two incredibly generic interview questions that felt weird to answer without a person on the other end, followed by one nobrainer question that felt mildly insulting to be asked for a 'senior systems administrator' position. At this point decided it wasn't right for me, and bailed)
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Remote Senior Systems Administrator

Interviewed at SWAT Systems

3.1★
Nov 18, 2021

Q: Please walk us through your most recent work experience that qualifies you for this position. Q: What aspect of the role do you believe you would enjoy the most and why? Q: Briefly explain what DNS is and how it would impact an average end user if DNS were to become unavailable. (didn't go past that. Two incredibly generic interview questions that felt weird to answer without a person on the other end, followed by one nobrainer question that felt mildly insulting to be asked for a 'senior systems administrator' position. At this point decided it wasn't right for me, and bailed)

A client has performed some network maintenance on their side and, as part of the change, has modified the IP addresses of some of the servers we connect to, causing us to lose access. Our VPN tunnel terminates behind a firewall on their network. Some of the machines were already behind the firewall, while others were moved behind the firewall as part of the change. To further complicate the situation, the individual servers also run firewalls which only allow access from specific IP ranges 1. Please identify what changes (if any) need to be made on our VPN appliance to restore connectivity to the client's servers. 2. After verifying that the VPN configuration is correct, what would you do to confirm that we have access to the servers? Please indicate what specific commands you would run.  3. Assuming that we still do not have connectivity to the servers, what request would you make to the client to check that we have been given access to their network? What information would you request from them?
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Remote Linux Systems Administrator

Interviewed at Pythian

4.1★
Sep 16, 2015

A client has performed some network maintenance on their side and, as part of the change, has modified the IP addresses of some of the servers we connect to, causing us to lose access. Our VPN tunnel terminates behind a firewall on their network. Some of the machines were already behind the firewall, while others were moved behind the firewall as part of the change. To further complicate the situation, the individual servers also run firewalls which only allow access from specific IP ranges 1. Please identify what changes (if any) need to be made on our VPN appliance to restore connectivity to the client's servers. 2. After verifying that the VPN configuration is correct, what would you do to confirm that we have access to the servers? Please indicate what specific commands you would run.  3. Assuming that we still do not have connectivity to the servers, what request would you make to the client to check that we have been given access to their network? What information would you request from them?

Common questions about linux and networks: What is superblock What is difference between ext2 and ext3 How you will troubleshoote problem with remote server connection. hardlink/symlink difference write simple loop using python write regexp what is mpm what is virtualhost
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Remote Linux Systems Administrator

Interviewed at Pythian

4.1★
Feb 8, 2015

Common questions about linux and networks: What is superblock What is difference between ext2 and ext3 How you will troubleshoote problem with remote server connection. hardlink/symlink difference write simple loop using python write regexp what is mpm what is virtualhost

A client has an environment consisting of a mixture of CentOS and Ubuntu servers hosted at Amazon Cloud. The environment has reached a size where it makes sense to implement a configuration management system. The client has asked you to recommend a system to use. Their requirements are: ● The solution must use open source software ● It must be easy to deploy machines and have them operational as soon as possible ● It must be possible to add machines to the system with minimal manual effort ● The system must be able to scale with the environment ● There must be a web-based frontend to manage the system ● The system must provide reports of compliance and changes to the environment ● Managed systems must be added to a monitoring system (Nagios) automatically Please do the following: 1. Identify at least two solutions to consider for this project. 2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the two best solutions. 3. Recommend a solution, articulate why it was ultimately chosen, and indicate how it meets the requirements outlined above.
avatar

Remote Linux Systems Administrator

Interviewed at Pythian

4.1★
Sep 16, 2015

A client has an environment consisting of a mixture of CentOS and Ubuntu servers hosted at Amazon Cloud. The environment has reached a size where it makes sense to implement a configuration management system. The client has asked you to recommend a system to use. Their requirements are: ● The solution must use open source software ● It must be easy to deploy machines and have them operational as soon as possible ● It must be possible to add machines to the system with minimal manual effort ● The system must be able to scale with the environment ● There must be a web-based frontend to manage the system ● The system must provide reports of compliance and changes to the environment ● Managed systems must be added to a monitoring system (Nagios) automatically Please do the following: 1. Identify at least two solutions to consider for this project. 2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the two best solutions. 3. Recommend a solution, articulate why it was ultimately chosen, and indicate how it meets the requirements outlined above.

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