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Grading Rubric

Criterion Strong (3) Adequate (2) Weak (1)
Identified misleading symptom Tested TCP connectivity on port 3260 after ping worked; identified port-specific blocking within 10 min Checked iSCSI initiator config first, then noticed TCP was blocked Spent extended time on iscsid, fstab, or mount troubleshooting
Found root cause in datacenter domain Traced to inter-VLAN ACL change during hardening; identified missing port 3260 Found the ACL was blocking traffic but not the specific change that caused it Assumed the storage array was down or the iSCSI target was misconfigured
Remediated in networking domain Added iSCSI port to ACL, restored mounts on all affected servers, ran missed backups Fixed the ACL but only for one server Used a workaround (e.g., temporary permit-all rule)
Cross-domain thinking Explained the tension between security hardening and service availability; proposed storage fabric isolation Acknowledged the ACL/iSCSI interaction but missed the hardening project context Treated it as a single-domain Linux storage or networking issue

Prerequisite Topic Packs

  • backup-restore — needed for Domain A investigation (backup job lifecycle, mount dependencies)
  • disk-and-storage-ops — needed for Domain A (iSCSI, Linux mount management)
  • datacenter — needed for Domain B root cause (datacenter hardening, ACL changes, storage infrastructure)
  • vlans — needed for Domain C remediation (inter-VLAN routing, ACL design)
  • networking-troubleshooting — needed for cross-domain understanding (TCP vs ICMP, traceroute, port testing)