Tech Talk

ACTIVE DIRECTORY
Easier Deployment and Management

ADMT version 2.0—migrates password from NT4 to 2000 to 2003 or from 2000 to 2003

Domain Rename--- supports changing Domain Name System and/or NetBIOS name

Schema Redefine--- Allows deactivation of attributes and class definitions in the Active directory schema

AD/AM--- Active directory in application mode is a new capability of AD that addresses certain deployment scenarios related to directory enabled applications

Group Policy Improvements----introduced GPMC tool to manage group policy

UI—Enhanced User Interface

Grater Security

Cross-forest Authentication

Cross-forest Authorization

Cross-certification Enhancements

IAS and Cross-forest authentication

Credential Manager – caching the password at the first login

Software Restriction Policies

Improved Performance and Dependability

Easier logon for remote offices

Group Membership replication enhancements

Application Directory Partitions

Install Replica from media

Dependability Improvements--- updated Inter-Site Topology Generator (ISTG) that scales better by supporting forests with a greater number of sites than Windows 2000.

WINNT was flat database and the there was no different level of administration and security.Where as ADS has been built on hierarchy and has different level administration and security

FILE AND PRINT SERVICES

Volume shadow copy service

NTFS journaling file system

EFS

Improved CHDSK Performance

Enhanced DFS and FRS

Shadow copy of shared folders

Enhanced folder redirection

Remote document sharing (WEBDAV)

IIS
Fault-tolerant process architecture----- The IIS 6.0 fault-tolerant process architecture isolates Web sites and applications into self-contained units called application pools

Health Monitoring---- IIS 6.0 periodically checks the status of an application pool with automatic restart on failure of the Web sites and applications within that application pool, increasing application availability. IIS 6.0 protects the server, and other applications, by automatically disabling Web sites and applications that fail too often within a short amount of time

Automatic Process Recycling--- IIS 6.0 automatically stops and restarts faulty Web sites and applications based on a flexible set of criteria, including CPU utilization and memory consumption, while queuing requests
Rapid-fail Protection---- If an application fails too often within a short amount of time, IIS 6.0 will automatically disable it and return a "503 Service Unavailable" error message to any new or queued requests to the application

Edit-While-Running


http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2 ... fault.mspx


Difference between NT & 2000
NT SAM database is a flat database. Where as in windows 2000 active directory database is a hierarchical database.

In Windows NT only PDC is having writable copy of SAM database but the BDC is only read only database. In case of Windows 2000 both DC and ADC is having write copy of the database

Windows NT will not support FAT32 file system. Windows 2000 supports FAT32

Default authentication protocol in NT is NTLM (NT LAN manager). In windows 2000 default authentication protocol is Kerberos V5.

Windows 2000 depends and Integrated with DNS. NT user NetBIOS names

Active Directory can be backed up easily with System state data


Difference between 2000 & 2003
Application Server mode is introduced in windows 2003

Possible to configure stub zones in windows 2003 DNS

Volume shadow copy services is introduced

Windows 2003 gives an option to replicate DNS data b/w all DNS servers in forest or All DNS servers in the domain.

Refer Question 1 for all Enhancements


Difference between PDC & BDC
PDC contains a write copy of SAM database where as BDC contains read only copy of SAM database. It is not possible to reset a password or create objects with out PDC in Windows NT.


Difference between DC & ADC
There is no difference between in DC and ADC both contains write copy of AD. Both can also handles FSMO roles (If transfers from DC to ADC). It is just for identification. Functionality wise there is no difference.


What is DNS & WINS
DNS is a Domain Naming System, which resolves Host names to IP addresses. It uses fully qualified domain names. DNS is a Internet standard used to resolve host names

WINS is a Windows Internet Name Service, which resolves NetBIOS names to IP Address. This is proprietary for Windows


Types of DNS Servers
Primary DNS

Secondary DNS

Active Directory Integrated DNS

Forwarder

Caching only DNS


If DHCP is not available what happens to the client
Client will not get IP and it cannot be participated in network. If client already got the IP and having lease duration it use the IP till the lease duration expires.


what are the different types of trust relationships
Implicit Trusts

Explicit Trusts—NT to Win2k or Forest to Forest


what is the process of DHCP for getting the IP address to the client
There is a four way negotiation process b/w client and server

DHCP Discover (Initiated by client)

DHCP Offer (Initiated by server)

DHCP Select (Initiated by client)

DHCP Acknowledgement (Initiated by Server)

DHCP Negative Acknowledgement (Initiated by server if any issues after DHCP offer)

Difference between FAT,NTFS & NTFSVersion5
NTFS Version 5 features
Encryption is possible

We can enable Disk Quotas

File compression is possible

Sparse files

Indexing Service

NTFS change journal


In FAT file system we can apply only share level security. File level protection is not possible. In NTFS we can apply both share level as well as file level security

NTFS supports large partition sizes than FAT file systems

NTFS supports long file names than FAT file systems


What are the port numbers for FTP, Telnet, HTTP, DNS
FTP-21, Telnet – 23, HTTP-80, DNS-53, Kerberos-88, LDAP-389


what are the different types of profiles in 2000
Local Profiles

Roaming profiles

Mandatory Profiles


what is the database files used for Active Directory
NTDS.DIT

What is the location of AD Database
%System root%/NTDS/NTDS>DIT

What is the authentication protocol used in NT
NTLM (NT LAN Manager)

What is subnetting and supernetting
Subnetting is the process of borrowing bits from the host portion of an address to provide bits for identifying additional sub-networks


Supernetting merges several smaller blocks of IP addresses (networks) that are continuous into one larger block of addresses. Borrowing network bits to combine several smaller networks into one larger network does supernetting


what is the use of terminal services
Terminal services can be used as Remote Administration mode to administer remotely as well as Application Server Mode to run the application in one server and users can login to that server to user that application.

what is the protocol used for terminal services
RDP

what is the port number for RDP
3389


Medium Level


what is the difference between Authorized DHCP and Non Authorized DHCP
To avoid problems in the network causing by mis-configured DHCP servers, server in windows 2000 must be validate by AD before starting service to clients. If an authorized DHCP finds any DHCP server in the network it stop serving the clients


Difference between inter-site and intra-site replication. Protocols using for replication.
Intra-site replication can be done between the domain controllers in the same site. Inter-site replication can be done between two different sites over WAN links

BHS (Bridge Head Servers) is responsible for initiating replication between the sites. Inter-site replication can be done B/w BHS in one site and BHS in another site.

We can use RPC over IP or SMTP as a replication protocols where as Domain partition is not possible to replicate using SMTP


How to monitor replication
We can user Replmon tool from support tools

Brief explanation of RAID Levels
RAID 0 – Striping

RAID 1- Mirroring (minimum 2 HDD required)

RAID 5 – Striping with Parity (Minimum 3 HDD required)

RAID levels 1 and 5 only gives redundancy

What are the different backup strategies are available
Normal Backup

Incremental Backup

Differential Backup

Daily Backup

Copy Backup


What is a global catalog
Global catalog is a role, which maintains Indexes about objects. It contains full information of the objects in its own domain and partial information of the objects in other domains. Universal Group membership information will be stored in global catalog servers and replicate to all GC’s in the forest.


What is Active Directory and what is the use of it
Active directory is a directory service, which maintains the relation ship between resources and enabling them to work together. Because of AD hierarchal structure windows 2000 is more scalable, reliable. Active directory is derived from X.500 standards where information is stored is hierarchal tree like structure. Active directory depends on two Internet standards one is DNS and other is LDAP. Information in Active directory can be queried by using LDAP protocol


what is the physical and logical structure of AD
Active directory physical structure is a hierarchal structure which fallows Forests—Trees—Domains—Child Domains—Grand Child—etc

Active directory is logically divided into 3 partitions

1. Configuration partition 2. Schema Partition 3. Domain partition 4. Application Partition (only in windows 2003 not available in windows 2000)

Out of these Configuration, Schema partitions can be replicated between the domain controllers in the in the entire forest. Where as Domain partition can be replicated between the domain controllers in the same domain


What is the process of user authentication (Kerberos V5) in windows 2000
After giving logon credentials an encryption key will be generated which is used to encrypt the time stamp of the client machine. User name and encrypted timestamp information will be provided to domain controller for authentication. Then Domain controller based on the password information stored in AD for that user it decrypts the encrypted time stamp information. If produces time stamp matches to its time stamp. It will provide logon session key and Ticket granting ticket to client in an encryption format. Again client decrypts and if produced time stamp information is matching then it will use logon session key to logon to the domain. Ticket granting ticket will be used to generate service granting ticket when accessing network resources


what are the port numbers for Kerberos, LDAP and Global catalog
Kerberos – 88, LDAP – 389, Global Catalog – 3268

what is the use of LDAP (X.500 standard?)
LDAP is a directory access protocol, which is used to exchange directory information from server to clients or from server to servers


what are the problems that are generally come across DHCP
Scope is full with IP addresses no IP’s available for new machines

If scope options are not configured properly eg default gateway

Incorrect creation of scopes etc


what is the role responsible for time synchronization
PDC Emulator is responsible for time synchronization. Time synchronization is important because Kerberos authentication depends on time stamp information


what is TTL & how to set TTL time in DNS
TTL is Time to Live setting used for the amount of time that the record should remain in cache when name resolution happened.

We can set TTL in SOA (start of authority record) of DNS

How to take DNS and WINS,DHCP backup
%System root%/system32/dns

%System root%/system32/WINS

%System root%/system32/DHCP


What is recovery console
Recovery console is a utility used to recover the system when it is not booting properly or not at all booting. We can perform fallowing operations from recovery console

We can copy, rename, or replace operating system files and folders

Enable or disable service or device startup the next time that start computer

Repair the file system boot sector or the Master Boot Record

Create and format partitions on drives


what is DFS & its usage
DFS is a distributed file system used to provide common environment for users to access files and folders even when they are shared in different servers physically.

There are two types of DFS domain DFS and Stand alone DFS. We cannot provide redundancy for stand alone DFS in case of failure. Domain DFS is used in a domain environment which can be accessed by /domain name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name). Stand alone DFS can be used in workgroup environment which can be accessed through /server name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name). Both the cases we need to create DFS root ( Which appears like a shared folder for end users) and DFS links ( A logical link which is pointing to the server where the folder is physically shared)

The maximum number of Dfs roots per server is 1.

The maximum numbers of Dfs root replicas are 31.

The maximum number of Dfs roots per domain is unlimited.

The maximum number of Dfs links or shared folders in a Dfs root is 1,000


what is RIS and what are its requirements
RIS is a remote installation service, which is used to install operation system remotely.

Client requirements
PXE DHCP-based boot ROM version 1.00 or later NIC, or a network adapter that is supported by the RIS boot disk.

Should meet minimum operating system requirements

Software Requirements
Below network services must be active on RIS server or any server in the network

Domain Name System (DNS Service)

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Active directory “Directory” service


How many root replicas can be created in DFS
31

What is the difference between Domain DFS and Standalone DFS
Refer question 17.


High Level


Can we establish trust relationship between two forests
In Windows 2000 it is not possible. In Windows 2003 it is possible


What is FSMO Roles
Flexible single master operation (FSMO) roll are

Domain Naming Master

Schema Master

PDC Emulator

Infrastructure Master

RID Master

Brief all the FSMO Roles
Domain Naming master and schema master are forest level roles. PDC emulator, Infrastructure master and RID master are Domain level roles;

First server in the forest performs all 5 roles by default. Later we can transfer the roles

Domain Naming Master: Domain naming master is responsible for maintaining the relation ship between the domains. With out this role it is not possible to add or remove any domain.

Schema Master: Schema contains set of classes and attributes. Eg User, computer, printer are the objects in AD which are having their own set of attributes.. Schema master is responsible for maintaining this schema. Changes to the schema will affect entire forest.

PDC Emulator: Server, which is performing this role, acts as a PDC in a mixed mode to synchronize directory information between windows 2000 DC to Windows NT BDC. Server, which is performing this role, will contain latest password information. This role is also responsible for time synchronization in the forest.

Infrastructure Master: It is responsible for managing group membership information in the domain. This role is responsible for updating DN when name or location of the object is modified.

RID Master: Server, which is performing this role, will provide pool of RID to other domain controllers in the domain. SID is the combination of SID and RID SID=SID+RID where SID is Security identifier common for all objects in the domain and RID is relative identifier unique for each object


How to manually configure FSMO Roles to separate DC’s
We can configure manually by two ways

Through MMC
We can configure Domain Naming Master role through Active directory domains and trusts

We can configure Schema Master role through Active Directory schema

Other Three roles we can configure by Active directory users and computers

Through command prompt
By using command NTDSUTIL—type ROLES—type CONNECTIONS—CONNECT TO SERVER SERVERNAME where server name is the name of the domain controller that you want to assign role---- Type transfer role, where role is the role that you want to transfer. For a list of roles that you can transfer, type ? at the fsmo maintenance prompt, and then press ENTER, or see the list of roles at the start of this article. For example, to transfer the RID master role, type transfer rid master. The one exception is for the PDC emulator role, whose syntax is transfer pdc, not transfer pdc emulator.



What is the difference between authoritative and non-authoritative restore
In authoritative restore, Objects that are restored will be replicated to all domain controllers in the domain. This can be used specifically when the entire OU is disturbed in all domain controllers or specifically restore a single object, which is disturbed in all DC’s

In non-authoritative restore, Restored directory information will be updated by other domain controllers based on the latest modification time.


what is Active Directory De-fragmentation
De-fragmentation of AD means separating used space and empty space created by deleted objects and reduces directory size (only in offline De-fragmentation)


Difference between online and offline de-fragmentation
Online De-fragmentation will be performed by garbage collection process, which runs for every 12 hours by default which separate used space and white space (white space is the space created because of object deletion in AD eg User) and improves the efficiency of AD when the domain controller up and running


Offline defragmentation can be done manually by taking domain controller into Restoration mode. We can only reduce the file size of directory database where as the efficiency will be same as in online defragmentation


What is tombstone period
Tombstones are nothing but objects marked for deletion. After deleting an object in AD the objects will not be deleted permanently. It will be remain 60 days by default (which can be configurable) it adds an entry as marked for deletion on the object and replicates to all DC’s. After 60 days object will be deleted permanently from all Dc’s.


what is white space and Garbage collection
Refer question 7


What are the monitoring tools used for Server and Network Heath. How to define alert mechanism
Spot Light, SNMP Need to enable.


How to deploy the patches and what are the software’s used for this process


Using SUS (Software update services) server we can deploy patches to all clients in the network. We need to configure an option called “Synchronize with Microsoft software update server” option and schedule time to synchronize in server. We need to approve new update based on the requirement. Then approved update will be deployed to clients

We can configure clients by changing the registry manually or through Group policy by adding WUAU administrative template in group policy


What is Clustering, Briefly define & explain it
Clustering is a technology, which is used to provide High Availability for mission critical applications. We can configure cluster by installing MCS (Microsoft cluster service) component from Add remove programs, which can only available in Enterprise Edition and Data center edition.


In Windows we can configure two types of clusters


NLB (network load balancing) cluster for balancing load between servers. This cluster will not provide any high availability. Usually preferable at edge servers like web or proxy.

Server Cluster: This provides High availability by configuring active-active or active-passive cluster. In 2 node active-passive cluster one node will be active and one node will be stand by. When active server fails the application will FAILOVER to stand by server automatically. When the original server backs we need to FAILBACK the application


Quorum: A shared storage need to provide for all servers which keeps information about clustered application and session state and is useful in FAILOVER situation. This is very important if Quorum disk fails entire cluster will fails

Heartbeat: Heartbeat is a private connectivity between the servers in the cluster, which is used to identify the status of other servers in cluster.


How to configure SNMP
SNMP can be configured by installing SNMP from Monitoring and Management tools from Add and Remove programs.

For SNMP programs to communicate we need to configure common community name for those machines where SNMP programs (eg DELL OPEN MANAGER) running. This can be configured from services.msc--- SNMP service -- Security


Is it possible to rename the Domain name & how?
In Windows 2000 it is not possible. In windows 2003 it is possible. On Domain controller by going to MYCOMPUTER properties we can change.


What is SOA Record
SOA is a Start Of Authority record, which is a first record in DNS, which controls the startup behavior of DNS. We can configure TTL, refresh, and retry intervals in this record.


What is a Stub zone and what is the use of it.
Stub zones are a new feature of DNS in Windows Server 2003 that can be used to streamline name resolution, especially in a split namespace scenario. They also help reduce the amount of DNS traffic on your network, making DNS more efficient especially over slow WAN links.


What are the different types of partitions present in AD
Active directory is divided into three partitions

Configuration Partition—replicates entire forest

Schema Partition—replicates entire forest

Domain Partition—replicate only in domain

Application Partition (Only in Windows 2003)


What are the (two) services required for replication
File Replication Service (FRS)

Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC)


Can we use a Linux DNS Sever in 2000 Domain
We can use, But the BIND version should be 8 or greater


What is the difference between IIS Version 5 and IIS Version 6
Refer Question 1


What is ASR (Automated System Recovery) and how to implement it
ASR is a two-part system; it includes ASR backup and ASR restore. The ASR Wizard, located in Backup, does the backup portion. The wizard backs up the system state, system services, and all the disks that are associated with the operating system components. ASR also creates a file that contains information about the backup, the disk configurations (including basic and dynamic volumes), and how to perform a restore.

You can access the restore portion by pressing F2 when prompted in the text-mode portion of setup. ASR reads the disk configurations from the file that it creates. It restores all the disk signatures, volumes, and partitions on (at a minimum) the disks that you need to start the computer. ASR will try to restore all the disk configurations, but under some circumstances it might not be able to. ASR then installs a simple installation of Windows and automatically starts a restoration using the backup created by the ASR Wizard.


What are the different levels that we can apply Group Policy
We can apply group policy at SITE level---Domain Level---OU level


What is Domain Policy, Domain controller policy, Local policy and Group policy
Domain Policy will apply to all computers in the domain, because by default it will be associated with domain GPO, Where as Domain controller policy will be applied only on domain controller. By default domain controller security policy will be associated with domain controller GPO. Local policy will be applied to that particular machine only and effects to that computer only.


What is the use of SYSVOL folder
Policies and scripts saved in SYSVOL folder will be replicated to all domain controllers in the domain. FRS (File replication service) is responsible for replicating all policies and scripts


What is folder redirection?


Folder Redirection is a User group policy. Once you create the group policy and link it to the appropriate folder object, an administrator can designate which folders to redirect and where To do this, the administrator needs to navigate to the following location in the Group Policy Object:

User Configuration\Windows Settings\Folder Redirection

In the Properties of the folder, you can choose Basic or Advanced folder redirection, and you can designate the server file system path to which the folder should be redirected.

The %USERNAME% variable may be used as part of the redirection path, thus allowing the system to dynamically create a newly redirected folder for each user to whom the policy object applies.


What different modes in windows 2003 (Mixed, native & intrim….etc)
Different Active Directory features are available at different functional levels. Raising domain and forest functional levels is required to enable certain new features as domain controllers are upgraded from Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003

Domain Functional Levels: Windows 2000 Mixed mode, Windows 2000 Native mode, Windows server 2003 and Windows server 2003 interim ( Only available when upgrades directly from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2003)

Forest Functional Levels: Windows 2000 and Windows 2003


Ipsec usage and difference window 2000 & 2003.


Microsoft doesn’t recommend Internet Protocol security (IPSec) network address translation (NAT) traversal (NAT-T) for Windows deployments that include VPN servers and that are located behind network address translators. When a server is behind a network address translator, and the server uses IPSec NAT-T, unintended side effects may occur because of the way that network address translators translate network traffic

If you put a server behind a network address translator, you may experience connection problems because clients that connect to the server over the Internet require a public IP address. To reach servers that are located behind network address translators from the Internet, static mappings must be configured on the network address translator. For example, to reach a Windows Server 2003-based computer that is behind a network address translator from the Internet, configure the network address translator with the following static network address translator mappings:


• Public IP address/UDP port 500 to the server's private IP address/UDP port 500.
• Public IP address/UDP port 4500 to the server's private IP address/UDP port 4500.

These mappings are required so that all Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and IPSec NAT-T traffic that is sent to the public address of the network address translator is automatically translated and forwarded to the Windows Server 2003-based computer

How to create application partition windows 2003 and its usage?
An application directory partition is a directory partition that is replicated only to specific domain controllers. A domain controller that participates in the replication of a particular application directory partition hosts a replica of that partition. Only domain controllers running Windows Server 2003 can host a replica of an application directory partition.

Applications and services can use application directory partitions to store application-specific data. Application directory partitions can contain any type of object, except security principals. TAPI is an example of a service that stores its application-specific data in an application directory partition.

Application directory partitions are usually created by the applications that will use them to store and replicate data. For testing and troubleshooting purposes, members of the Enterprise Admins group can manually create or manage application directory partitions using the Ntdsutil command-line tool.


Is it possible to do implicit transitive forest to forest trust relation ship in windows 2003?
Implicit Transitive trust will not be possible in windows 2003. Between forests we can create explicit trust

Two-way trust

One-way: incoming

One-way: Outgoing


What is universal group membership cache in windows 2003.


Information is stored locally once this option is enabled and a user attempts to log on for the first time. The domain controller obtains the universal group membership for that user from a global catalog. Once the universal group membership information is obtained, it is cached on the domain controller for that site indefinitely and is periodically refreshed. The next time that user attempts to log on, the authenticating domain controller running Windows Server 2003 will obtain the universal group membership information from its local cache without the need to contact a global catalog.

By default, the universal group membership information contained in the cache of each domain controller will be refreshed every 8 hours.


GPMC & RSOP in windows 2003?
GPMC is tool which will be used for managing group policies and will display information like how many policies applied, on which OU’s the policies applied, What are the settings enabled in each policy, Who are the users effecting by these polices, who is managing these policies. GPMC will display all the above information.


RSoP provides details about all policy settings that are configured by an Administrator, including Administrative Templates, Folder Redirection, Internet Explorer Maintenance, Security Settings, Scripts, and Group Policy Software Installation.

When policies are applied on multiple levels (for example, site, domain, domain controller, and organizational unit), the results can conflict. RSoP can help you determine a set of applied policies and their precedence (the order in which policies are applied).


Assign & Publish the applications in GP & how?
Through Group policy you can Assign and Publish the applications by creating .msi package for that application

With Assign option you can apply policy for both user and computer. If it is applied to computer then the policy will apply to user who logs on to that computer. If it is applied on user it will apply where ever he logs on to the domain. It will be appear in Start menu—Programs. Once user click the shortcut or open any document having that extension then the application install into the local machine. If any application program files missing it will automatically repair.

With Publish option you can apply only on users. It will not install automatically when any application program files are corrupted or deleted.


DFS in windows 2003?
Refer Question 17 on level 2


How to use recovery console?
The Windows 2000 Recovery Console is a command-line console that you can start from the Windows 2000 Setup program. Using the Recovery Console, you can start and stop services, format drives, read and write data on a local drive (including drives formatted to use NTFS), and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is particularly useful if you need to repair your system by copying a file from a floppy disk or CD-ROM to your hard drive, or if you need to reconfigure a service that is preventing your computer from starting properly. Because the Recovery Console is quite powerful, it should only be used by advanced users who have a thorough knowledge of Windows 2000. In addition, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.



There are two ways to start the Recovery Console:

If you are unable to start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from your Windows 2000 Setup disks or from the Windows 2000 Professional CD (if you can start your computer from your CD-ROM drive).

As an alternative, you can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case you are unable to restart Windows 2000. You can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems



PPTP protocol for VPN in windows 2003?
Point-to-Point-Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a networking technology that supports multiprotocol virtual private networks (VPN), enabling remote users to access corporate networks securely across the Microsoft Windows NT® Workstation, Windows® 95, and Windows 98 operating systems and other point-to-point protocol (PPP)-enabled systems to dial into a local Internet service provider to connect securely to their corporate network through the Internet


Netdom.exe is domain management tool to rename domain controller

SID history