How to Enlarge Data Partitions without losing data after Raid expansion in Linux

Scenario : Customer needs to expand Data volume after expanding array size in Linux.
Possibilities : only Last Partitions can be expanded through Resize2fs
Recommendation : Please ask customer to take backup of File systems/system.

Step to be followed: 

Suppose you have a Partition called c0d0p7 in last cylinder and mounted as a ext3.
#df -h
Filesystem                  Size   Used     Avail   Use%       Mounted on 

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2       15G       4.5G     9.3G    33%        /
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1       99M      12M     83M     12%       /boot
None                          4.0G      0          4.0G     0%        /dev/shm
/dev/cciss/c0d0p6       46G      85M     44G      1%        /name1
/dev/cciss/c0d0p7       46G      103M   44G      1%        /name2

1) Un mount  that file system/Mount point
2) Now you have to remove Journal feature ( if it is ext3 file system) from the file system
# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 # tune2fs 1.35 (Date)
Now you have to run e2fsck command to check file systems.
3) root@ff13manish /]# e2fsck -f -y /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 
e2fsck 1.35 (Date) Pass
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass
Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass
Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/Name2: 16/6111232 files (6.3% non-contiguous), 209772/12209392 blocks
4) Execute the fdisk -l command 
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 220.1 GB, 220122071040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 26761 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Devic Boot                         Start       End              Blocks           Id        System
System /dev/cciss/c0d0p1      1            13              104391            83       linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2                14           1925           15358140        83       linux
Linux /dev/cciss/c0d0p3       1926       3455           12289725        82      linux swap
/dev/cciss/c0d0p4               3456         26761       187205445      5         Extended
/dev/cciss/c0d0p5               3456         9535         48837568+      83       Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p6              9536          15615       48837568+       83      Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p7             15616        21695         48837568+       83    Linux Original Cylinder size with 46GB

Command (m for help): quit 

“Delete the Last partition and create it again”.

5) [root@ff13manish /]# fdisk /dev/cciss/c0d0

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 26761. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with:

a.Software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
b.Booting and partitioning software from other OS’s (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-7): 7

“Don’t Quit here  with save option , you have to continue without coming out from fdisk Menu”
Command (m for help): n
First cylinder (15616-26761, default 15616)
Using default value 15616
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (15616-26761, default 26761)

Using default value 26761
Command (m for help): p 
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 220.1 GB, 220122071040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 26761 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot                   Start        End        Blocks            Id     System
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 *           1             13        104391             83     linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2             14           1925     15358140         83     Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3             1926       3455     12289725         82     Linux swap
/dev/cciss/c0d0p4             3456       26761   187205445       5      Extended
/dev/cciss/c0d0p5             3456       9535     48837568+      83     Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p6             9536      15615    48837568+      83     Linux
/dev/cciss/c0d0p7             15616    26761    89530213+      83     Linux (Now Size moves to 89 GB)


Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot. Syncing disks.
6) Execute Partprobe command 
# partprobe
7) Execute Reszie2fs command
[root@ff13manish /]# resize2fs /dev/cciss/c0d0p7
resize2fs 1.35 (Date)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 to 22382553 (4k) blocks
The filesystem on /dev/cciss/c0d0p7 is now 22382553 blocks long.

8) Now enable ext3 feature in filesystems
tune2fs -j /dev/cciss/c0d0p7
tune2fs 1.35 (Date)
Creating  journal inode: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 22 mounts or 180 days, whichever comes first.
Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
Now check by mounting the filesystems
[root@ff13manish /]# mount  -t ext3 /dev/cciss/c0d0p7  /Name2
[root@ff13manish /]# df -h
Filesystem               Size         Used     Avail     Use%     Mounted on 

/dev/cciss/c0d0p2        15G      4.5G    9.3G        33%          /
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1        99M      12M     83M      12%         /boot
None                             4.0G     0       4.0G        0%          /dev/shm
/dev/cciss/c0d0p6        46G      85M     44G       1%          /Name1
/dev/cciss/c0d0p7        85G      107M    83G      1%         /Name2

Check your data :
[root@ff13vel /]# cd /name2
[root@ff13vel name2]# ls
lost+found  report-4b79378d-0000265d-00000003.zip  RHEL 4 AS UTILITY FOR LINUX
[root@ff13vel name2]# ls -al            
total 104
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root  4096 Feb 17 11:27 .
drwxr-xr-x  29 root root  4096 Feb 17 10:08 ..
drwx------2 root root 16384 Feb 16 17:01 lost+found
-rw-r--r--1 root root 67517 Feb 15 18:27 report-4b79378d-0000265d-00000003.zip
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Feb 15 16:57 RHEL 4 AS UTILITY FOR LIN

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Procedure to remove Khatra.exe virus manually

1. Go to task manager and select regsvr.exe(if found), gHost.exe , khatra.exe , Xplorer.exe rt click and select end process tree. press WIN+r or start>RUN

2.type cmd and hit enter
3.GO to the the drive where your OS is installed
4.In the command prompt make sure you get the command line as c:\ or d:\ (this can be achieved by the command "cd .." without quotes)
5.Type attrib -s -h -r khatra.exe Repeat the same process for the location c:\windows\system32
6.type del khatra.exe
7.Follow the same process for gHost.exe & Xplorer.exe as they are also part of the virus. To make sure that the virus is out of you pc ,
check your registry
1.win+R type regedit
2.ctrl+F type in search one by 1 the names of the
3.processes i.e khatra,gHost,Xplorer

4.search the entire registry n go-on deleting the values you find.

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Maintenance Best Practices for Adaptec RAID Solutions

RAID is the most common method of data protection and most companies rely on the redundancy provided by RAID at various levels to protect them from disk drive failures. RAID’s ability to protect data has become increasingly challenging with the exponential increase in drive capacities and the increased use of less reliable drives.RAID cannot protect data against virus attack, human error, data deletion, or natural or unnatural disaster. RAID cannot protect data beyond its advertised disk drive redundancy (for RAID-1, RAID-10, and RAID-5 one drive failure, for RAID-6 two drive failures, for example). Adaptec Technical Support often sees cases where an array is in a degraded state for a longer period of time and data loss then occurs when a further drive finally fails. The best RAID controller cannot help in this situation. In addition to timely maintenance, periodic backup still remains one of the most critical practices in data operations

THE EFFECT OF MODERN LARGER DISK SIZES AND DRIVE QUALITY ISSUES ON RAID

Hard drive media defects and other drive quality issues have steadily improved over time, even as drive sizes have grown substantially. However, hard drives are not expected to be totally free of flaws. In addition, normal wear on a drive may result in an increase in media defects, or “grown defects,” over time. The data block containing the defect becomes unusable and must be “remapped” to another location on the drive. If a bad block is encountered during a normal write operation, the controller marks that block as bad and the block is added to the “grown defects list” in the drive’s NVRAM. That write operation is not complete until the data is properly written in a remapped location. When a bad block is encountered during a normal read operation, the controller will reconstruct the missing data from parity operations and remap the data to the new location. A condition known as a double fault (“bad stripe”) occurs when a RAID controller encounters a bad block on a drive in a RAID volume and then encounters an additional bad block on another hard drive in the same data stripe. This double fault scenario can also occur while rebuilding a degraded array, leaving the controller with insufficient parity information to reconstruct the data stripe. The end result is a rebuild failure with the loss of any data in that stripe, assuming the stripe is in the user data area.
Today, hard drive capacities have increased remarkably, and the likelihood has grown that one or more media defects will occur over the lifespan of the drive. In addition, large arrays take longer to rebuild than small arrays, thus increasing the amount of time the array is not redundant

OVERVIEW OF STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN IN KEEPING WITH RAID BEST PRACTICES 
Perform all recommended driver, controller firmware, and Storage Management application (Adaptec Storage Manager) updates

Install Adaptec Storage Manager:
 Adaptec Storage Manager helps you to monitor and maintain Adaptec RAID controllers, enclosures, and disk drives in your storage space from a single location. When Adaptec Storage Manager is installed on a system, the Adaptec Storage Manager Agent is also installed automatically as a service. It’s designed to run in the background, without user intervention, and its job is to monitor and manage system health, event notifications, tasks schedules, and other on-going processes on that system. It sends notices when tasks are completed successfully, and sounds an alarm when errors or failures occur on that system.

Run regular consistency checks on the system: 
Verification is designed to proactively detect hard disk media defects while the array is online and redundant. A RAID-5 or RAID-6 array is inconsistent when the data and parity do not match. Likewise, a RAID-1 array is inconsistent when the data and mirror do not match.
The verification process issues commands to each drive in the array to test all sectors. When a bad sector is found, the RAID controller instructs the hard drive to reassign the bad sector, and then reconstructs the data using the other drives. The affected hard drive then writes data to the newly assigned good sector. These operations continue so that all sectors of each configured drive are checked, including hot spares. As a result, bad sectors can be remapped before data loss occurs.

Two run modes are available to help enhance flexibility and data protection 
1. Background Consistency Check (auto mode): In this mode, the tool is always on. Adaptec Storage Manager continually and automatically checks your logical drives once they’re in use. Once Background Consistency Check has checked all sectors of the array, it repeats this check indefinitely. As its name indicates, Background Consistency Check is always a background or secondary process. Data I/O remains the highest priority for the RAID subsystem.
Note: With this feature enabled, there may be an impact to performance. To enable Background Consistency Check using Adaptec Storage Manager:

• In the Enterprise View, right-click the controller.
• Select Background Consistency Check and then click Enable

Once enabled, the Background Consistency Check period can be adjusted: 
• In the Enterprise view, right-click the controller.
• Click on Background Consistency Check, then select Change period. The Change Background Consistency Check period window opens.
• Adjust the slider control from Very Slow (365 days) to Fast (10 days). Alternatively, in the New Period field, use the arrow keys to increase or decrease the setting.
• Click OK.

 2. Verify with fix (manual mode):
 This mode is used to perform a single, quick check of the array. After the verification process has checked all sectors of the array, it stops and will not start again until started manually by the administrator. In manual mode, the verification process commands are given a higher priority than in Auto mode so that the check completes significantly faster.
Verify with fix is a data-level check and requires more controller resources to read and compare data. Also, because of the additional resources required, verify with fix is not designed to run continuously. Rather, it should be scheduled to run at a regular interval, preferably during periods of low drive activity, or during system maintenance.

To verify and fix a logical drive using Adaptec Storage Manager:

• In the Logical Devices View, right-click the logical drive.
• Select Verify with fix and confirm that you want to verify
• To begin the verification immediately, click Yes. To schedule the verification, click Schedule, and then set the date and time. You can also choose to set the verification as a recurring task. While the verification is in progress,
the logical drive is shown as an animated icon to indicate that the task is in progress. When the verification is complete, an event notice is generated in the local system’s event log.

Monitor Storage Manager Event Logs: You can see status information and messages about the activity (or events) occurring on your storage space by checking component properties and looking at the Event Viewer and status icons in Adaptec Storage Manager. To open a full-screen version of the event log, click the Events button in the tool bar The event log lists activity occurring in your storage space, with the most recent event listed at the top. Double-click any event to open the Configuration Event Detail window to see more information in an easier-to-read format. Adaptec Storage Manager can be configured to send email messages (or notifications) about events on a system in your storage space. We recommend doing this if your storage space is not managed by a dedicated person, or if that particular system is off-site or not connected to a monitor. Email notifications can help you monitor activity on your entire storage space from any location, and are especially useful in storage spaces that include multiple systems running the Adaptec Storage Manager Agent only.

To set up email notifications:

1.In the Configure menu (on the tool bar), select the system you want, and then select Email Notifications. 2.The Email Notifications window opens. The SMTP Server Settings window opens if you haven’t set up email notifications previously.
3.Enter the address of your SMTP server and the “From” address to appear in email notifications. If an email recipient will be replying to email notifications, be sure that the “From” address belongs to a system that is actively monitored.
4.Click OK to save the settings.
5.In the Email Notifications window tool bar, click Add email recipient. The Add Email Recipient window opens.
6.Enter the recipient’s email address, select the level of events for which the recipient will receive an email, and then click Add. Repeat this Step to add more email recipients. Click Cancel to close the window.

You can also set Adaptec Storage Manager to send status alerts about a specified system to all users who are logged into your storage space. When you set Adaptec Storage Manager to broadcast event alerts, all logged-in users receive messages about all types of events. In Windows, these alerts appear as pop-up messages; in all other operating systems, these alerts appear as console messages

Note:Replace drives that have either failed completely, or are starting to show signs of failing (medium errors, S.M.A.R.T. errors, etc.) immediately

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Install Windows Recovery Console in Windows Boot Menu

If you want to repair Windows installation but can’t get into the Recovery Console of the CD Rom as was the problem of one of our readers, then here is way to install the Recovery Console directly inside the Windows Boot Menu

if you want to access the recovery console but you can do this directly from your drive and not CD, so that you don’t have to search the CD in case of a Windows Failure this will be a good procedure
Steps:
1. Insert the Windows XP CD in the CD Drive but make sure that both the service pack in the CD and the one installed are same.
2. Now open Run Box, and type the command X:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where X is your CD drive letter.
3. A Windows Setup box will come up, click Yes to proceed

4. Another dialog box will come up reading “Windows Recovery Console has been successfully installed”.

Just restart the computer to start using the Recovery Console directly in the computer without the CD

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Hide or Show ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon from Taskbar

A small informative post for today that lets you know (in case you don’t already know), how to remove and show the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon from Taskbar.

Hiding or removing the icon is not that difficult and if you want to clear your task bar of the green icon then following are the steps

Steps:

1. Right click on the Task Bar and select properties 

2. Now click on the Customize button and in case if it is greyed out then check the box “Hide Inactive Icons” 3. In the list of the Current Items, change the behavior of “safely Remove Hardware” from Hide when Inactive to Always Hide

This is it; the icon will not appear again. Reverse process will make the icon to appear again

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Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode

Windows Vista or Windows 7, will have problems running some older versions of applications, just because so much has changed under the hood from Windows XP days. There is a compatibility mode that can be easily set per application. To configure the compatibility mode for an application, just locate the installation directory and right click on the .exe, selecting Properties from the menu.

Select the Compatibility tab:
You can choose to run the program in Windows XP compatibility mode, or even all the way back to Windows 95 compatibility.

Probably the most useful setting to start off with would be to disable the visual themes and desktop composition, if you can’t get things working. If you are trying to run a video game, you will often need to choose “Run this program as an administrator”. You’ll have to play around with it, but most likely you can get your application working this way.

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Disable AutoPlay in Windows Vista

Windows Vista’s AutoPlay options are a great improvement over Windows XP in terms of flexibility, but unfortunately there are so many options that it can be confusing, especially since there’s no specific mention of USB Flash drives in the options. Open your Control Panel, and then click on “Play CDs or other media automatically” to open the AutoPlay dialog.

Disable AutoPlay Globally

The quickest way to disable AutoPlay entirely is to just uncheck the box for “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices”, which should usually work.

Disable for a Single 

Type You can choose a setting in the drop-down menu for a single type of drive, for instance Audio CD in this example. For this to work you’ll have to make sure to keep the global autoplay option on, and then choose the specific setting in the drop-down.

Disable for just Removable (flash) Drives 

The problem here is that while there are settings for Audio CDs and DVDs, there’s nothing specifically for USB flash drives. Windows will determine the drive type based on the content it finds on the flash drive itself, so that’s what we’ll need to change In order to disable AutoPlay for the removable drives, you should change all of the following to Take no action: Software and games, Pictures, Video files, Audio files, and Mixed content.

Disable Through Group Policy 

If you’d like to disable it entirely you can use the Group Policy editor on the Business and Ultimate versions of Vista Open up gpedit.msc through the start menu search box, browse to Windows Components \ AutoPlay Policies, and change the value of “Turn off Autoplay” to enabled.

You can choose whether to disable for just removable devices, or entirely.

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Run Windows XP on Windows 7

it’s been a long time since the release of Windows 7 but there are few individuals who are not impressed with Windows 7 and want to continue with XP

Windows XP is so simple and easy to use that not everyone wants to come out of XP. So if you are using Windows 7 but also wants XP back then Windows 7 has something interesting for you.

 The feature is called “XP mode on windows 7” and it can enable you to continue with XP while using Windows 7. This feature works with the feature called Windows Virtual PC. Other advantage of this feature is that while Windows 7 is compatible with most of the applications in XP, in case there is some application that runs only on XP then you can run it easily.

The only thing to note is that you must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode. Download link for the same is given below

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

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Troubleshooting Driver Problems with Tape Drives, Library or Autoloaders

Tape drives and Libraries or Autoloaders do not necessarily require drivers, like a hard drive or CD-Rom. But they do need a 3rd Party Backup Software to manage the transfer of data from the server or hard drive, to the tape drive. If the software requires a driver, it will be included by that software vendor as part of the package. When the software is installed, it will search the bus for supported hardware, and will install the appropriate driver. If the software vendor does not provide a driver, they will give you information on the driver that is required. 

Backup utilities that are provided with operating systems may not include drivers. Generic drivers are available on the Principal Vendor website for use with these utilities

DO NOT INSTALL THE GENERIC DRIVER IF YOUR SOFTWARE PROVIDES ONE. The generic driver will interfere with your software’s ability to communicate with the tape drive. They are also difficult to fully remove once installed. 

DO NOT INSTALL MULTIPLE DRIVERS. Doing so will cause conflicts and failures. If you install multiple backup utilities, it also means multiple drivers are installed. It’s best to remove a backup utility before installing another one to avoid problems

YOU MUST TURN OFF THE SERVICES OF YOUR BACKUP SOFTWARE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO USE ANY PRINCIPAL VENDOR DIAGNOSTICS TOOL. The backup services and drivers will prohibit diagnostics tools from communicating with the tape drive. 

Following are indications of multiple driver installation problems: 

•The Diagnostics tool fails

•The tape driver and/or library are reported in the SCSI bios and environment, but not in the backup software. 

To determine what driver is installed

1. Right click on My Computer. 

2. Select Manage then Device Manager. 

3. Right click in Plus Box next to Device Category

4. Right click on Device name and select Properties

5. Click the Driver Tab. The 2nd line shows the Driver Provided. 

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VMware ESXi interview questions answer

Can I run virtual machines created by Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Virtual PC, or VMware Server on VMware ESXi? 
Yes. You can use the free VMware vCenter Converter to import virtual machines that were created using VMware Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, or Microsoft Virtual PC version 7 or higher. VMware vCenter Converter also supports conversions from sources such as physical machines and certain 3rd party disk image formats.
What is the difference between VMware ESX and VMware ESXi?
VMware ESX and VMware ESXi are both bare-metal hypervisors that install directly on the server hardware. Both provide industry-leading performance and scalability; the difference resides in the architecture and the operational management of VMware ESXi. Although neither hypervisor relies on an OS for resource management, VMware ESX relies on a Linux operating system, called the service console, to performtwo management functions: executing scripts and installing third party agents for hardware monitoring, backup or systems management. The service console has been removed from ESXi, drastically reducing the hypervisor footprint and completing the ongoing trend of migrating management functionality from the local command line interface to remote management tools. The smaller code base of ESXi represents a smaller “attack surface” and less code to patch, improving reliability and security. The functionally of the service console is replaced by remote command line interfaces and adherence to system management standards
How is VMware ESXi different than VMware vSphere?
VMware ESXi is a hypervisor that partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines.VMware vSphere is the industry’s first cloud operating system that drastically reduces ongoing costs and increases control over delivery of service levels while still preserving the flexibility to choose between any type of OS, application and hardware architecture. VMware vSphere offers organizations high availability and centralized management functionality that span across multiple ESXi hosts such as live migration, protection against hardware failures, power management, and automatic load balancing. VMware vSphere relies on a hypervisor to partition servers. Customers can choose to deploy either VMware ESX or VMware ESXi as part of the VMware vSphere suite. All the functionality of VMware vSphere is supported on both VMware ESX and VMware ESXi. In fact, VMware vSphere supports server resource pools that contain both hypervisors.
How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware ESXi hosts? 
VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. To manage an ESXi host with vCenter Server, you must have a vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all editions of VMware vSphere
What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware Server?
VMware ESXi is an enterprise-class hypervisor that offers a bare-metal architecture for near-native performance, features like memory de-duplication to increase consolidation ratios and a cluster file system for managing VM files on shared storage. VMware ESXi and VMware ESX are the critical foundations for a dynamic and flexible virtual infrastructure.
VMware Server installs as an application on Windows or Linux, relying on the operating system for resource management. This limits the performance and scalability. VMware Server is popular for test and development activities. Virtual machines created using VMware Server can run on VMware ESXi, but they must first be converted using the free VMware Converter.
Is it possible to download a virtual appliance into an ESXi environment for evaluation? 
Yes. If you are running VMware vSphere Client 2.5 and later along with ESXi 3.5 or ESX 3.5 or later, it is possible to access a list of downloadable virtual appliances for evaluation into an ESXi environment. To access that list of virtual appliances, open your VMware vSphere client, select "Virtual Appliance" from the file menu, and then select "Import...". When you select “Import from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace” and click “Next”, you will be sent to a page where you can download the appliances
How do I use VMware vCenter Server to manage my VMware ESXi hosts?
VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. To manage an ESXi host with vCenter Server, you must have a vCenter Server Agent license, which is included in all editions of VMware vSphere.

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Windows 2003 Server evaluation copy expiration behavior

This article describes the behavior of the evaluation version of Windows Server 2003. It also contains information about the 14-day activation grace period and the 180-day evaluation period, and it describes what occurs when these time periods expire.

Windows Product Activation (WPA) 

The End User License Agreement (EULA) for an evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 requires that you activate your installation of Windows Server 2003 within 14 days from the time that you install it. If you choose not to activate Windows the first time that you start it, an Activate icon is displayed in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar. This icon periodically displays notifications to remind you of the number of days remaining in the 14-day grace period. After this period expires, you must activate your installation of Windows Server 2003 before you can continue to use Windows

None of the information that is collected during product activation will be used to personally identify you. For more information about Windows Product Activation, visit the following Microsoft Web site

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http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/default.mspx

Evaluation time period 

The evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 expires 180 days from the time that you install and start it. You are reminded periodically of the number of days that are remaining in the 180-day evaluation period. Messages are logged to the Application Event log, and you also receive notification messages that are similar to the following when you log on to the computer

The evaluation period for this product will expire in Number days. Please upgrade this version to the retail product.

When the kernel time bomb period expires, you receive an error message that is similar to the following

The evaluation period for this installation of Windows has expired. This system will shut down in 1 hour. To restore access to this installation of Windows, please upgrade this installation using a licensed distribution of this product.

After approximately one hour (this time period may vary), you may receive the following Stop error message, and the computer may automatically restart:

*** STOP: 0x00000098 (parameter1, parameter2, parameter 3, parameter 4) END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD

When the WPA time bomb period expires, you receive an error message after you log on to Windows that is similar to the following:

STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000268 (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system has been shut down.

When you receive this error message, you can no longer use the evaluation copy of Windows Server 2003. You must obtain and install the retail, released version of Windows Server 2003

Important You can log on to the computer in safe mode only if you log on to the computer by using the local administrator account. You can upgrade to the retail, released version of Windows Server 2003 while you are in safe mode. The option to upgrade in safe mode may not be available if your computer is running as a domain controller.

Use Winver.exe to Determine the Expiration Date 

You can run the Winver.exe command-line tool to determine the version of Windows Server 2003 that is installed on your computer and the date when your evaluation copy of Windows Server 2003 expires. To do so:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type winver.exe, and then press ENTER.

Upgrade an evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 to a retail version 

To remove the 180-day expiration period for an evaluation version of Windows Server 2003, upgrade your computer to the full retail, released version of Windows Server 2003. For more information about Windows Server 2003, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx 

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Solve Ms Office for windows Installer Preparing to Install

It is a common problem that whenever we try to open an Office application we come across a dialog box with the following message

Preparing to install… Please wait while Windows configures Office Edition

These messages may appear if any one (or all) of the following DWORD values in the registry is missing from

the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\LanguageResources key

UILanguage

HelpLanguage

InstallLanguage

Solution: 

1. The problem has been solved and can be read in detail at the

   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265194.

2.Or just try the following method; it can also remove the problem

3.Uninstall the Office application from the computer. Restart the computer and open IE to see if the problem is solved

4.If the message box doesn’t appear again, reinstall the Office. The problem will be solved.

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Set and Save Process Priority Permanently

There are several processes running in the system at a specific time and Windows automatically sets the priority of each process

Priority to any process can be set using the Task Manager however it will be till the process gets completed and if you run the process again it will start again with the default priority.

So if you want to save some priority to a process. This compact program allows you to save the priority you specify for any process.

Steps: 

1.Start the Task Manager

2.Right click on the process and select set priority

3.Set the priority you want

4.Just click Save Priority. The process will run with the same priority each time.

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Thin Clint Concepts and Overview

Thin Clients are low powered computers that do not have a hard disk drive. Since there is no hard disk drive, there is also no operating system. Since these are low powered systems, all processing is done on the server instead of the thin client itself. Certain types of thin clients (running on embedded X

P or embedded Linux) may have full fledged OS capabilities complete with installed applications such as Microsoft or Open Office and browsers such as Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox. 

BOOTING PROCESS WITHOUT LOCALD HDD AND OS All Thin Clients boot up directly from a server which is running the operating system (Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or even Linux). Thin Clients may boot either directly from the server via PXE boot and then connect to it or boot up from locally installed mini disk running Windows XP embedded (Win XPe), Windows CE embedded (Win CEe) or Linux embedded (Le) and then connect to the server. Once connected to the server, the user gets the log in screen of the operating system running on the server. Please bear in mind that booting from a server and connecting to a server are two different processes, since you can have more than one server -one simply for booting up and the second or even a third or more for connecting to (where the applications are installed and processing takes place) depending upon architecture. If required, an enterprise can also go in for a hybrid architecture consisting of both Windows and Linux Terminal servers. 

Applications installation and user data storage 

All applications are installed on the connecting server and every user has his own "My Documents" folder created where his profile, documents, etc. are stored.Applications and software to be installed and run in a Thin Client environment All common programs can be used with Thin Clients...to name a few MS Office; various browsers for surfing; e-mail clients like Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, etc.; ERP packages -including SAP; Coreldraw, Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker, Tally, MS SQL based packages, chatting (using keyboard) programs and even open source and customized packages. 

Software packages that cannot be used on Thin Clients Heavy graphical games, animation packages like Maya and such others that require a very fast screen refresh cannot be used. 

No Of Thin Clients can be made to run on a single server This depends upon the server hardware configuration, the choice of operting system and the programs/applications that are installed on that particular server. Typically, a small office with 10 Thin Clients can be well served by a P-IV machine with 1GB of RAM with Windows Server 2003 Standard edition (that supports up to 4GB of RAM. Enterprise edition + SP2 supports upto 64GB. For increased RAM support, 64 bit versions are apt wherein the Standard edition + SP2 can support 32GBwhile Enterprise + SP2 can support 2TB ). Increase the RAM to 2GB and the users to 20 to 25 without any problem. For users on an enterprise level, a Xeon based server with dual or more processors, a minimum of 4GB RAM and redundancy on storage devices by way of RAID, network adaptors and power supply unit is recommended. Load balancing technology with additional servers prevents any single server from reaching critical levels. These are of course, broad guidelines. Actual server hardware and architecture will most definitely vary from case to case

Connecting Printers on a Thin Client node 

Printers can be installed on a Thin Client node either on a parallel port or USB port. The printer is physically installed on the Thin Client node but in configured on the server as a local printer printing to a TCP/IP port. In case of embedded systems, the printer in configured locally on the Thin Client itself

Devices a Thin Client access locally Most devices like local hard disk drives, pen drives, floppy disk drives and optical drives can be accessed by the Thin Client without any problem. For other devices like scanners, multi function devices and CD/DVD writer, if required on a Thin Client, our embedded systems are recommended, one that is running Win XPe. 

Thin Clients and Citrix Citrix metaframe server installed on the Remote Server will enable the Thin Clients to work across a relatively slow WAN link also by using the ICA protocol instead of Remote Desktop (RDP). 

Hard disk on my Thin Client Though not required, but if we do have or want a hard disk, we can have a dual boot system, whereby you can work either on the server or on the local hard disk 

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Windows & systen admin Interview Questions and Answers- Part 2

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

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) roles are

Domain Naming Master
Schema Master
PDC Emulator
Infrastructure Master
RID Master

Brief all the FSMO Roles 


Windows 2000/2003 Multi-Master Model 
A multi-master enabled database, such as the Active Directory, provides the flexibility of allowing changes to occur at any DC in the enterprise, but it also introduces the possibility of conflicts that can potentially lead to problems once the data is replicated to the rest of the enterprise. One way Windows 2000/2003 deals with conflicting updates is by having a conflict resolution algorithm handle discrepancies in values by resolving to the DC to which changes were written last (that is, "the last writer wins"), while discarding the changes in all other DCs. Although this resolution method may be acceptable in some cases, there are times when conflicts are just too difficult to resolve using the "last writer wins" approach. In such cases, it is best to prevent the conflict from occurring rather than to try to resolve it after the fact.

For certain types of changes, Windows 2000/2003 incorporates methods to prevent conflicting Active Directory updates from occurring.

Windows 2000/2003 Single-Master Model 
To prevent conflicting updates in Windows 2000/2003, the Active Directory performs updates to certain objects in a single-master fashion
In a single-master model, only one DC in the entire directory is allowed to process updates. This is similar to the role given to a primary domain controller (PDC) in earlier versions of Windows (such as Microsoft Windows NT 4.0), in which the PDC is responsible for processing all updates in a given domain
In a forest, there are five FSMO roles that are assigned to one or more domain controllers. The five FSMO roles are

Schema Master
The schema master domain controller controls all updates and modifications to the schema. Once the Schema update is complete, it is replicated from the schema master to all other DCs in the directory. To update the schema of a forest, you must have access to the schema master. There can be only one schema master in the whole forest.

Domain naming master
The domain naming master domain controller controls the addition or removal of domains in the forest. This DC is the only one that can add or remove a domain from the directory. It can also add or remove cross references to domains in external directories. There can be only one domain naming master in the whole forest.
Infrastructure Master
When an object in one domain is referenced by another object in another domain, it represents the reference by the GUID, the SID (for references to security principals), and the DN of the object being referenced. The infrastructure FSMO role holder is the DC responsible for updating an object's SID and distinguished name in a cross-domain object reference. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the infrastructure master in each domain.

Note: The Infrastructure Master (IM) role should be held by a domain controller that is not a Global Catalog server (GC). If the Infrastructure Master runs on a Global Catalog server it will stop updating object information because it does not contain any references to objects that it does not hold. This is because a Global Catalog server holds a partial replica of every object in the forest. As a result, cross-domain object references in that domain will not be updated and a warning to that effect will be logged on that DC's event log. If all the domain controllers in a domain also host the global catalog, all the domain controllers have the current data, and it is not important which domain controller holds the infrastructure master role.

Relative ID (RID) Master:
The RID master is responsible for processing RID pool requests from all domain controllers in a particular domain. When a DC creates a security principal object such as a user or group, it attaches a unique Security ID (SID) to the object. This SID consists of a domain SID (the same for all SIDs created in a domain), and a relative ID (RID) that is unique for each security principal SID created in a domain. Each DC in a domain is allocated a pool of RIDs that it is allowed to assign to the security principals it creates. When a DC's allocated RID pool falls below a threshold, that DC issues a request for additional RIDs to the domain's RID master. The domain RID master responds to the request by retrieving RIDs from the domain's unallocated RID pool and assigns them to the pool of the requesting DC. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the RID master in the domain.

PDC Emulator
The PDC emulator is necessary to synchronize time in an enterprise. Windows 2000/2003 includes the W32Time (Windows Time) time service that is required by the Kerberos authentication protocol. All Windows 2000/2003-based computers within an enterprise use a common time. The purpose of the time service is to ensure that the Windows Time service uses a hierarchical relationship that controls authority and does not permit loops to ensure appropriate common time usage.
The PDC emulator of a domain is authoritative for the domain. The PDC emulator at the root of the forest becomes authoritative for the enterprise, and should be
configured to gather the time from an external source. All PDC FSMO role holders
follow the hierarchy of domains in the selection of their in-bound time partner
In a Windows 2000/2003 domain, the PDC emulator role holder retains the following
functions: 
Password changes performed by other DCs in the domain are replicated preferentially
to the PDC emulator
Authentication failures that occur at a given DC in a domain because of an incorrect password are forwarded to the PDC emulator before a bad password failure message is reported to the user.

Account lockout is processed on the PDC emulator
Editing or creation of Group Policy Objects (GPO) is always done from the GPO copy found in the PDC Emulator's SYSVOL share, unless configured not to do so by the administrator.
The PDC emulator performs all of the functionality that a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server-based PDC or earlier PDC performs for Windows NT 4.0-based or earlier clients.
This part of the PDC emulator role becomes unnecessary when all workstations, member servers, and domain controllers that are running Windows NT 4.0 or earlier are all upgraded to Windows 2000/2003. The PDC emulator still performs the other functions as described in a Windows 2000/2003 environment.
At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC emulator
master in each domain in the forest.

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 
The size of NTDS.DIT will often be different sizes across the domain controllers in a domain. Remember that Active Directory is a multi-master independent model where updates are occurring in each of the domain controllers with the changes being replicated over time to the other domain controllers.
The changed data is replicated between domain controllers, not the database, so there is no guarantee that the files are going to be the same size across all domain controllers.
Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 servers running Directory Services (DS) perform a directory online defragmentation every 12 hours by default as part of the garbage-collection process. This defragmentation only moves data around the database file (NTDS.DIT) and doesn’t reduce the file’s size - the database file cannot be compacted while Active Directory is mounted.
Active Directory routinely performs online database defragmentation, but this is limited to the disposal of tombstoned objects. The database file cannot be compacted while Active Directory is mounted (or online).
An NTDS.DIT file that has been defragmented offline (compacted), can be much smaller than
the NTDS.DIT file on its peers. However, defragmenting the NTDS.DIT file isn’t something you should really need to do. Normally, the database self-tunes and automatically tombstoning the records then sweeping them away when the tombstone lifetime has passed to make that space available for additional records
Defragging the NTDS.DIT file probably won’t help your AD queries go any faster in the long run.
So why defrag it in the first place? One reason you might want to defrag your NTDS.DIT file is to save space, for example if you deleted a large number of records at one time.
To create a new, smaller NTDS.DIT file and to enable offline defragmentation, perform the following steps: Back up Active Directory (AD). Reboot the server, select the OS option, and press F8 for advanced options. Select the Directory Services Restore Mode option, and press Enter. Press Enter again to start the OS. W2K will start in safe mode, with no DS running. Use the local SAM’s administrator account and password to log on. You’ll see a dialog box that says you’re in safe mode. Click OK. From the Start menu, select Run and type cmd.exe In the command window, you’ll see the following text. (Enter the commands in bold.) C:\> ntdsutil ntdsutil: files file maintenance:info .... file maintenance:compact to c:\temp
You’ll see the defragmentation process. If the process was successful, enter quit to return to the command prompt.
Then, replace the old NTDS.DIT file with the new, compressed version. (Enter the commands in bold.)
C:\> copy c:\temp\ntds.dit %systemroot%\ntds\ntds.dit

Restart the computer, and boot as normal.

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 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 softwares 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 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


Domain Functional Level 
Domain functionality activates features that affect the whole domain and that domain only. The four domain functional levels, their corresponding features, and supported domain controllers are as follows:

Windows 2000 mixed (Default)
Supported domain controllers: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003
Activated features: local and global groups, global catalog support

Windows 2000 native
Supported domain controllers: Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003
Activated features: group nesting, universal groups, SidHistory, converting groups between security groups and distribution groups, you can raise domain levels by increasing the forest level settings

Windows Server 2003 interim 
Supported domain controllers: Windows NT 4.0, Windows Server 2003
Supported features: There are no domain-wide features activated at this level. All domains in a forest are automatically raised to this level when the forest level increases to interim. This mode is only used when you upgrade domain controllers in Windows NT 4.0 domains to Windows Server 2003 domain controllers.

Windows Server 2003
Supported domain controllers: Windows Server 2003
Supported features: domain controller rename, logon timestamp attribute updated and replicated. User password support on the InetOrgPerson objectClass. Constrained delegation, you can redirect the Users and Computers containersDomains that are upgraded from Windows NT 4.0 or created by the promotion of a Windows Server 2003-based computer operate at the Windows 2000 mixed functional level. Windows 2000 domains maintain their current domain functional level when Windows 2000 domain controllers are upgraded to the Windows Server 2003 operating system. You can raise the domain functional level to either Windows 2000 native or Windows Server 2003. After the domain functional level is raised, domain controllers that are running earlier operating systems cannot be introduced into the domain. For example, if you raise the domain functional level to Windows Server 2003, domain controllers that are running Windows 2000 Server cannot be added to that domain
The following describes the domain functional level and the domain-wide features that are activated for that level. Note that with each successive level increase, the feature set of the previous level is included.

Forest Functional Level 
Forest functionality activates features across all the domains in your forest. Three forest functional levels, the corresponding features, and their supported domain controllers are listed below

Windows 2000 (default) 
Supported domain controllers: Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003
New features: Partial list includes universal group caching, application partitions, install from media, quotas, rapid global catalog demotion, Single Instance Store (SIS) for System Access Control Lists (SACL) in the Jet Database Engine, Improved topology generation event logging. No global catalog full sync when attributes are added to the PAS Windows Server 2003 domain controller assumes the Intersite Topology Generator (ISTG) role.

Windows Server 2003 interim
Supported domain controllers: Windows NT 4.0, Windows Server 2003. See the "Upgrade from a Windows NT 4.0 Domain" section of this article.
Activated features: Windows 2000 features plus Efficient Group Member Replication using Linked Value Replication, Improved Replication Topology Generation. ISTG Aliveness no longer replicated. Attributes added to the global catalog. ms-DS-Trust-Forest-Trust-Info. Trust-Direction, Trust-Attributes, Trust-Type, Trust-Partner, Security-Identifier, ms-DS-Entry-Time-To-Die, Message Queuing-Secured-Source, Message Queuing-Multicast-Address, Print-Memory, Print-Rate, Print-Rate-Unit

Windows Server 2003 
Supported domain controllers: Windows Server 2003
Activated features: all features in Interim Level, Defunct schema objects, Cross Forest Trust, Domain Rename, Dynamic auxiliary classes, InetOrgPerson objectClass change, Application Groups, 15-second intrasite replication frequency for Windows Server 2003 domain controllers upgraded from Windows 2000
After the forest functional level is raised, domain controllers that are running earlier operating systems cannot be introduced into the forest. For example, if you raise forest functional levels to Windows Server 2003, domain controllers that are running Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Server cannot be added to the forest.
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 informationRSoP 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.

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