Explanation
The best disk type for a high-performance financial application is a SAS SSD. A SAS SSD (Serial Attached SCSI Solid State Drive) is a type of storage device that uses flash memory chips to store data and has a SAS interface to connect to a server or a storage array. A SAS SSD offers high speed, low latency, high reliability, and high durability compared to other types of disks, such as SATA SSDs, SAS HDDs, or SATA HDDs. A SAS SSD can handle high I/O workloads and deliver consistent performance for applications that require fast data access and processing.

Explanation: This option would reduce power consumption and maintenance costs by consolidating the physical servers into virtual machines on the hypervisors. This would also free up space and resources in the data center. The other options would either not address the request, increase power consumption, or require more maintenance.

Explanation: To make a new drive available on a server, the administrator needs to partition the drive first.
Partitioning is a process that divides the drive into one or more logical sections that can be formatted and assigned drive letters or mount points. Partitioning can be done using tools such as Disk Management on Windows or fdisk on Linux. Creating a new disk quota would not help, as disk quotas are used to limit the amount of disk space that users or groups can use on a partition. Configuring the drive as dynamic would not help either, as dynamic disks are used to create volumes that span multiple disks or use RAID features. Setting the compression would not help, as compression is used to reduce the size of files on a partition. References:
https://www.howtogeek.com/school/using-windows-admin-tools-like-a-pro/lesson2/
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/17001/how-to-format-a-usb-drive-in-ubuntu-using-gparted/

Explanation
The tool that the administrator should use to check for unnecessary running services across 12 servers is a port scanner. A port scanner is a tool that scans a network device for open ports and identifies the services or applications that are running on those ports. A port scanner can help detect any unauthorized or unwanted services that may pose a security risk or consume network resources. A port scanner can also help troubleshoot network connectivity issues or verify firewall rules.

Explanation
A port scanner is the tool that would most likely help the analyst determine if the applications are running on a remote server. A port scanner is a software tool that scans a network device for open ports. Ports are logical endpoints for network communication that are associated with specific applications or services. By scanning the ports on a remote server, the analyst can identify what applications or services are running on that server and what protocols they are using. A port scanner can also help detect potential vulnerabilities or misconfigurations on a server.