Windows & systen admin Interview Questions and Answers- Part 1

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.

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
The key AD database files—edb.log, ntds.dit, res1.log, res2.log, and edb.chk—all of which reside in \%systemroot%\ntds on a domain controller (DC) by default. During
AD installation, Dcpromo lets you specify alternative locations for these log files and database files

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
Port Number-3389    


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 

Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 offer two types of disk storage: basic and dynamic

Basic Disk Storage
Basic storage uses normal partition tables supported by MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. A disk initialized for basic storage is called a basic disk. A basic disk contains basic volumes, such as primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Additionally, basic volumes include multidisk volumes that are created by using Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, such as volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, and stripe sets with parity. Windows XP does not support these multidisk basic volumes. Any volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, or stripe sets with parity must be backed up and deleted or converted to dynamic disks before you install Windows XP Professional

Dynamic Disk Storage
Dynamic storage is supported in Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk. A dynamic disk contains dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes. With dynamic storage, you can perform disk and volume management without the need to restart Windows.
Note: Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers or on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers.
You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers. However, you can use a Windows XP Professional-based computer to create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on remote computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or the Standard, Enterprise and Data Center versions of Windows Server 2003.
Storage types are separate from the file system type. A basic or dynamic disk can contain any combination of FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions or volumes.
A disk system can contain any combination of storage types. However, all volumes on the same disk must use the same storage type.

To convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk

Use the Disk Management snap-in in Windows XP/2000/2003 to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk. To do this, follow these steps: 

1Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. 

2Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 

3Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. You can also right-click My Computer and choose Manage if you have My Computer displayed on your desktop. 

4In the left pane, click Disk Management. 

5In the lower-right pane, right-click the basic disk that you want to convert, and then click Convert to Dynamic Disk. You must right-click the gray area that contains the disk title on the left side of the Details pane. 

6Select the check box that is next to the disk that you want to convert (if it is not already selected), and then click OK. 

7Click Details if you want to view the list of volumes in the disk. Click Convert. 

8Click Yes when you are prompted to convert the disk, and then click OK. 

Warning: After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, local access to the dynamic disk is limited to Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Additionally, after you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, the dynamic volumes cannot be changed back to partitions. You must first delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then convert the dynamic disk back to a basic disk. If you want to keep your data, you must first back up the data or move it to another volume. 

Dynamic Storage Terms 

A volume is a storage unit made from free space on one or more disks. It can be formatted with a file system and assigned a drive letter. Volumes on dynamic disks can have any of the following layouts: simple, spanned, mirrored, striped, or RAID-5. 

A simple volume uses free space from a single disk. It can be a single region on a disk or consist of multiple, concatenated regions. A simple volume can be extended within the same disk or onto additional disks. If a simple volume is extended across multiple disks, it becomes a spanned volume. 

A spanned volume is created from free disk space that is linked together from multiple disks. You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of 32 disks. A spanned volume cannot be mirrored and is not fault-tolerant. 

A striped volume is a volume whose data is interleaved across two or more physical disks. The data on this type of volume is allocated alternately and evenly to each of the physical disks. A striped volume cannot be mirrored or extended and is not fault-tolerant. Striping is also known as RAID-0. 

A mirrored volume is a fault-tolerant volume whose data is duplicated on two physical disks. All of the data on one volume is copied to another disk to provide data redundancy. If one of the disks fails, the data can still be accessed from the remaining disk. A mirrored volume cannot be extended. Mirroring is also known as RAID-1. 

A RAID-5 volume is a fault-tolerant volume whose data is striped across an array of three or more disks. Parity (a calculated value that can be used to reconstruct data after a failure) is also striped across the disk array. If a physical disk fails, the portion of the RAID-5 volume that was on that failed disk can be re-created from the remaining data and the parity. A RAID¬5 volume cannot be mirrored or extended. 

The system volume contains the hardware-specific files that are needed to load Windows (for example, Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com). The system volume can be, but does not have to be, the same as the boot volume. 

The boot volume contains the Windows operating system files that are located in the %Systemroot% and %Systemroot%\System32 folders. The boot volume can be, but does not have to be, the same as the system volume. 

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 

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