Which tool would an administrator use to test connectivity to a server in the cloud?

Which tool would an administrator use to test connectivity to a server in the cloud?

• A. ping
• B. FTP
• C. nslookup
• D. netstat

Answer: (A)

To verify basic reachability to a cloud server, you want something that confirms the host can be reached over the network and also gives you a sense of latency. Ping does exactly that: it sends an ICMP Echo Request to the server and waits for an Echo Reply. If you receive replies, you know the path is working and you can gauge round-trip time and packet loss. This makes ping the most direct way to test connectivity to a remote cloud host. The other tools serve different purposes. FTP is used for transferring files between machines, not simply checking connectivity. nslookup queries DNS to resolve a domain name to an IP address, which is about name resolution rather than actual connectivity. netstat shows active connections and listening ports on your own machine, helping diagnose local network activity rather than the ability to reach a distant server. Keep in mind that some cloud environments or firewalls block ICMP, so a lack of replies might not always mean the host is unreachable—it could be a policy setting. In such cases you’d use additional diagnostics, but ping remains the simplest and most direct method to test basic connectivity.

To verify basic reachability to a cloud server, you want something that confirms the host can be reached over the network and also gives you a sense of latency. Ping does exactly that: it sends an ICMP Echo Request to the server and waits for an Echo Reply. If you receive replies, you know the path is working and you can gauge round-trip time and packet loss. This makes ping the most direct way to test connectivity to a remote cloud host.

The other tools serve different purposes. FTP is used for transferring files between machines, not simply checking connectivity. nslookup queries DNS to resolve a domain name to an IP address, which is about name resolution rather than actual connectivity. netstat shows active connections and listening ports on your own machine, helping diagnose local network activity rather than the ability to reach a distant server.

Keep in mind that some cloud environments or firewalls block ICMP, so a lack of replies might not always mean the host is unreachable—it could be a policy setting. In such cases you’d use additional diagnostics, but ping remains the simplest and most direct method to test basic connectivity.