WINDOWS SERVER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1) What are different file systems in Windows NT based Systems---

Fat , Fat 32, Ntfs

2) Difference between FAT 16, Fat 32 and NTFS file systems----

Properties of FAT16

• Supports partition sizes of up to 2.1 GB under MS-DOS® and 4.0 GB under

Windows® NT 4.0.

• Each partition may contain a maximum of 65,536 files

• Restricted to 512 entries in the root directory of the hard drive and 128
entries in the root partition of a floppy disk

• No built-in support for long file names - Windows® 95/98 VFAT writes
additional entries to a modified file allocation table containing the long file
name (up to 255 characters); this reduces the maximum number of entries
into the root directory

Advantages

• Compatible with operating systems other than DOS (including Windows® 95,
Windows® 98, and Windows® NT)
• No size overhead

Disadvantages

• Large cluster size results in poor use of drive space for large partitions
• No compression available under Windows® NT
• Minimal security - may only set the read only and hidden attributes of files
• Updating the FAT table is slow - performance decreases as partition sizes
become greater than a few hundred MB

Properties of FAT32

• Theoretical maximum partition size of 2048 GB

• Each partition may contain a maximum of 2,097,152 files

• Restricted to 65,535 entries in root directory of the hard drive

• Long file names supported through Windows® 95/98 VFAT - VFAT writes
additional entries to a modified file allocation table containing the long file
name (up to 255 characters)

Advantages
 • Small cluster size (as small as 4K)
• Relocatable root directory allows for greater number of entries
• The file allocation table (FAT) and master boot record (MBR) may be relocated
• Backup copies of the FAT and MBR may be created with the proper tool
• May disable writing to the secondary FAT; can run directly from the secondary
FAT if the primary FAT lies on a bad cluster

Disadvantages

• Only compatible with Windows® 95 OSR2/98 - not accessible if FAT 32

partition is booted from media formatted under any operating system other
than Microsoft Windows® 95 OSR2 or Windows® 98
• Some size overhead - best used with larger hard drives
• Not compatible with many existing disk utilities

Properties of NTFS

• Partition support for up to 16 exabytes

• C2 level security (suitable for government use)
• Long file names supported

Advantages

• Small cluster size

• Performance does not degrade as partition size increases
• Compression on the directory and file levels
• Automatic bad cluster remapping
• Little need for drive repair utilities

Disadvantages

• Only compatible with Windows® NT, 2000, or XP

• Large overhead - should not be used with drives smaller than 400 MB
• Not possible to format a removable diskette (floppy/Zip®/CD-R) with the
NTFS file system

Cluster Size vs. Partition Size

The table below shows the partition and cluster size differences of each of the file
system types.

NOTE: FAT 16 partition sizes greater than 2.1 GB are only supported under
Windows® NT 4.0.
Cluster Size FAT Cluster Size FAT
Partition Size Cluster Size NTFS
16 32
16 MB - 127 MB 2K *** 512 bytes
128 MB - 255 MB 4K *** 512 bytes
256 MB - 511 MB 8K *** 512 bytes
512 MB - 1023 MB 16K 4 KB 1K
1024 MB - 2048 MB 32K 4 KB 2K
2048 MB - 4096 MB 64K 4 KB 4K
4096 MB - 8192 MB *** 4 KB 8K
8192 MB - 16384 MB *** 8 KB 16K
16384 MB - 32768 MB *** 16 KB 32K
greater than 32768
*** 32 KB 64K
MB

3) What is a Domain and Workgroup? Highlight advtgs and disadvtgs.

Domain Workgroup
Centralized way of administration Each computer is seen as a server
The current Windows should be a user authentication in a workgroup
member of the Domain Administrators network may be an issue if not setup
group, and that group, in turn, must be properly. In a Workgroup, there is no
in the local Administrators group of the common repository of usernames and
Clients passwords (and their associated
privileges as in a Domain) so usernames
must be manually created on each Client.
A user logged on to the Control Center
must have local Administrator
permissions on the Client computers.
Administrator user name and password
must be the same for all Clients and
Server components in the workgroup.
Network printer can be configured Need to remember the UN and PWD for
another comp always
The advantage is that you have a A Workgroup has not dedicated server(s)
dedicated server to log/track all users to track users and such, it's all done via
and shares via Active Directory and you each client machine on the LAN, this
can also use this server for other things includes shared objects and user logons.
such as a SQL server and/or SBS etc... Advantage, cheaper to run and maintain
The disadvantage to this is the cost and as you only need two machines running
maintanence required to keep this in the same workgroup to be called a
configuration running. workgroup
1. One location for all user accounts, Advantages
groups and computers, passwords are 1. Useful for small networks (10 or less
same for all computers. computers)
2. Easier and quicker to maintain 2. Very easy to setup
3. Scales easier if you add more users 3. No additional knowledge required
and computers 4. No server required.

Disadvantages Disadvantages
1. Requires a windows server 1. Need to setup account and password
2. Complex to set up on each and every machine.
2. Passwords can become out of sync, if
changed on one computer and not others

3. No easily scalable. If using more than

10 computers, the number of accounts to
set up increases a lot more
 4. More time required to setup for new
users!
5. If using file sharing, you may reach
the 10 max simultaneous connections
limit

4) Difference between Winnt4.0 Domain and Win2k ADS domain Model.----

Win 2003 Win 2000

Ntfs 5 5.2
Rename – Most Important No rename
32 trillio 60 mil
Large disk Mini
Better remote connec Not much
IIS 6 IIS 5

5) Which is the latest SP for Winnt4.0---

Ans :SP-6a

6) What are PDC and BDC? Highlight the difference between PDC and BDC---

A PDC is a Primary Domain Controller, and a BDC is a Backup Domain Controller. You
must install a PDC before any other domain servers. The Primary Domain Controller
maintains the master copy of the directory database and validates users. A Backup
Domain Controller contains a copy of the directory database and can validate users.
If the PDC fails then a BDC can be promoted to a PDC. Possible data loss is user
changes that have not yet been replicated from the PDC to the BDC. A PDC can be
demoted to a BDC if one of the BDC's is promoted to the PDC.

7) Can we reset password or make changes to domain in NT4.0 when PDC is down
and BDC is up.

NO, since it is read only, you have to first promote the BDC to PDC then make the
changes.

8) What are the NT authentication methods in Winnt4.0 domain model

9) What is Local and Global group in NT4.0

10) What is the Winnt systems boot sequence

Windows NT boot process occurs in these stages:

o The Power On Self Test (POST) Process

o The Initial Startup Process
o The Boot Loader Process
o The Boot Sequence
o The Load Phase
 • All these files MUST be in the root directory of the system partition

File File Function

Attributes

Ntldr H; R ; S o Loads OS

Boot.ini o Builds OS Loader V4.00

R;S
Operating System Selection menu

Bootsect.dos H o Loaded by Ntldr if another OS

(MS-DOS, Windows 95, OS/2 1.x ) is
selected instead of Windows NT.

o Contains a copy of the boot

sector that was on hard disk before
installing Windows NT

NTdetect.com H; R ; S o Used to examine available

hardware and to build a hardware list.
Information is passed back to Ntldr to
be added to registry later in boot

NTbootdd.sys H; R ; S o Only on systems booting from

BIOS-disabled SCSI hard disk,

o Driver accesses devices

attached to SCSI adapter during
Windows NT boot sequence.

11) What are the two types of disks systems?

Ans Basic and Dynamic

12) What are the different versions of Win2k OS?

Ans: Win 2000 Pro, Win 2k server, Adv Srv, Data Centre

13) What is latest SP for win2k?

Ans :Service Pack 4

14) What are FSMO roles? Explain each FSMO roles

Overview of FSMO Roles

There are five different FSMO roles and they each play a different function in making
Active Directory work:
• PDC Emulator - This role is the most heavily used of all FSMO roles and has
the widest range of functions. The domain controller that holds the PDC
Emulator role is crucial in a mixed environment where Windows NT 4.0 BDCs
are still present. This is because the PDC Emulator role emulates the functions
of a Windows NT 4.0 PDC. But even if you've migrated all your Windows NT
4.0 domain controllers to Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, the domain
controller that holds the PDC Emulator role still has a lot to do. For example,
the PDC Emulator is the root time server for synchronizing the clocks of all
Windows computers in your forest. It's critically important that computer
clocks are synchronized across your forest because if they're out by too much
then Kerberos authentication can fail and users won't be able to log on to the
network. Another function of the PDC Emulator is that it is the domain
controller to which all changes to Group Policy are initially made. For
example, if you create a new Group Policy Object (GPO) then this is first
created in the directory database and within the SYSVOL share on the PDC
Emulator, and from there the GPO is replicated to all other domain controllers
in the domain. Finally, all password changes and account lockout issues are
handled by the PDC Emulator to ensure that password changes are replicated
properly and account lockout policy is effective. So even though the PDC
Emulator emulates an NT PDC (which is why this role is called PDC Emulator),
it also does a whole lot of other stuff. In fact, the PDC Emulator role is the
most heavily utilized FSMO role so you should make sure that the domain
controller that holds this role has sufficiently beefy hardware to handle the
load. Similarly, if the PDC Emulator role fails then it can potentially cause the
most problems, so the hardware it runs on should be fault tolerant and
reliable. Finally, every domain has its own PDC Emulator role, so if you have
N domains in your forest then you will have N domain controllers with the
PDC Emulator role as well.
• RID Master - This is another domain-specific FSMO role, that is, every
domain in your forest has exactly one domain controller holding the RID
Master role. The purpose of this role is to replenish the pool of unused relative
IDs (RIDs) for the domain and prevent this pool from becoming exhausted.
RIDs are used up whenever you create a new security principle (user or
computer account) because the SID for the new security principle is
constructed by combining the domain SID with a unique RID taken from the
pool. So if you run out of RIDS, you won't be able to create any new user or
computer accounts, and to prevent this from happening the RID Master
monitors the RID pool and generates new RIDs to replenish it when it falls
beneath a certain level.
• Infrastructure Master - This is another domain-specific role and its purpose
is to ensure that cross-domain object references are correctly handled. For
example, if you add a user from one domain to a security group from a
different domain, the Infrastructure Master makes sure this is done properly.
As you can guess however, if your Active Directory deployment has only a
single domain, then the Infrastructure Master role does no work at all, and
even in a multi-domain environment it is rarely used except when complex
user administration tasks are performed, so the machine holding this role
doesn't need to have much horsepower at all.
• Schema Master - While the first three FSMO roles described above are
domain-specific, the Schema Master role and the one following are forest-
specific and are found only in the forest root domain (the first domain you
create when you create a new forest). This means there is one and only one
Schema Master in a forest, and the purpose of this role is to replicate schema
 changes to all other domain controllers in the forest. Since the schema of
Active Directory is rarely changed however, the Schema Master role will rarely
do any work. Typical scenarios where this role is used would be when you
deploy Exchange Server onto your network, or when you upgrade domain
controllers from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003, as these situations
both involve making changes to the Active Directory schema.
• Domain Naming Master - The other forest-specific FSMO role is the Domain
Naming Master, and this role resides too in the forest root domain. The
Domain Naming Master role processes all changes to the namespace, for
example adding the child domain vancouver.mycompany.com to the forest
root domain mycompany.com requires that this role be available, so you can't
add a new child domain or new domain tree, check to make sure this role is
running properly.

To summarize then, the Schema Master and Domain Naming Master roles are found
only in the forest root domain, while the remaining roles are found in each domain of
your forest. Now let's look at best practices for assigning these roles to different
domain controllers in your forest or domain.

15) What is the use of PDC emulator in both Native and Mixed mode

PDC emulator

By default, Windows 2000 (Win2K) networks operate in a mixed mode, which lets
both Win2K and Windows NT domain controllers coexist. During migration to Win2K,
the mixed mode provides the functionality that lets NT domain controllers offer
domain services. After you upgrade all NT domain controllers to Win2K, switch from
mixed mode to native mode, which doesn’t support NT domain controllers. However,
before you switch to native mode, you need to understand the differences between
the two modes. Depending on your organization, when you convert to native mode
can be a critical decision with major implications. It’s a one-way conversion—there’s
no going back.

Mixed Mode: In mixed mode, a Win2K domain assigns a domain controller to act as a
PDC for NT BDCs. By default, the first domain controller in a Win2K domain acts as a
PDC emulator. There can be only one PDC emulator in a domain, and you can assign
the role to any domain controller in a domain. The PDC emulator performs several
important tasks in mixed mode, including:

• Emulating as a PDC and replicating account information to BDCs.

• Handling account modifications, including password changes.
• Acting as a master browser for NT clients.
• Providing NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication services.
• Supporting Active Directory (AD) replication to Win2K domain controllers and
NTLM replication to BDCs.

If a Win2K site in mixed mode contains Win2K clients, make sure there’s at least one
Win2K domain controller in that site because the Win2K clients first attempt to locate
Win2K domain controllers using DNS. If a client doesn’t find a Win2K domain
controller, it’ll try to use NTLM to log on to an NT domain controller. Obviously, NT
doesn’t support group policies so your Win2K client users won’t be able to take
advantage of either the group policies or the logon scripts. . . .
17) What are the 3 naming context in which ADS is divided.

18) What will be the effect on root and child domain if Schema master is down

19) What is Win2k Authentication method

Ans: Kerbrose and certificate

20) What is GC? Why is it recommended to have GC for each AD site and sub domain
Using a Global Catalog allows for circumventing this obstacle, when querying for
objects outside of requester's domain. Global Catalog contains index of all objects in
the forest and a small, most commonly used, subset (about 60 out of 1500) of their
attributes . This eliminates most of the time the need for requester's searches
through other domains in a forest (unless one of non-typical attributes is searched
for). The number of attributes stored on each Global Catalog server can be modifed
by using Schema Management snap-in (by selecting "Replicate this attribute to the
Global Catalog" option for selected attributes of an object)..

In addition, GCs are used by default in a native mode environment when looking up
universal group information during login. If any one of the GCs can not be contacted,
users are not allowed to logon to the domain (if cost of placing a high performance
server in a site is prohibitive, this requirement can be eliminated by modifying
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\IgnoreGCFailures registry entry - in
such case, though, the use of universal groups is discouraged). Therefore, at least
one Global Catalog per site should be available.

Global Catalog is installed automatically on the first domain controller in the forest.
Subsequent installations (or relocation of original GC) are up to forest and domain
administrators.
OR

Windows 2000 Global Catalog Servers store all of the Active Directory object
attributes for all of the Active Directory objects from their own domain. This is
referred to as a full replica. They also contain some of the Active Directory object
attributes from all of the remaining Active Directory objects from all of the other
domains in the forest. This is referred to as a partial replica. This subset of data from
throughout the forest, allows for user and service queries for finding directory
information and directory objects from any domain in the forest regardless of which
domain that data and / or object exists. In a nutshell this means, for example, a user
from one domain can search for a printer that is published in the Active Directory
and locate it in any domain, even an external one, by using only the printer's name
or some other known (to the Active Directory database) attribute. This could be a
building number or floor or some other naming convention used within the given
organization.

21) What is TCP/IP port for GC.

3268/3269

22) What is the IIS version on win2k Servers

ANS :5.0

23) What type of Dynamic disks supported in Win 2k server

Windows 2000 supports the following types of volumes which can only be created on
dynamic disks:

• Simple Volumes - Formatted partition on a hard drive. Has no fault

tolerance.
• Spanned Volumes - Formatted partition or disk space on more than one
partition or hard drive that appears as one volume. In Windows NT, this is
called a volume set. Has no fault tolerance. The system or boot partitions
cannot be included in a spanned volume. FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems
may be included. Space from two to thirty two dynamic disks can be included.
If one disk on the spanned volume fails, all data is lost, and no part of a
spanned volume may be removed without destroying the entire volume.
• Striped Volumes - Also called disk striping or a striped set in Windows NT, it
is when two areas of disk space which are identical in size have half the
information written on one area and the other half written on the second
area. This effectively doubles the disk access speed, but provides no fault
tolerance. In Windows NT, this is called a stripe set which is created on a
basic disk.
• Mirrored Volumes - Also known as RAID 1 or a mirror set on Windows NT,
this is a fault tolerance method where data is stored on two volumes (that
appear as one) rather than a single volume. This costs access time, but is
fault tolerant.
• RAID-5 Volumes - Require three or more areas of formatted drive space.
Generating parity information can cost processor time.

24) What are local, global and Universal groups in ADS domain

25) What is the database for ADS services?

26) What is Sysvol used for?

The Windows Server 2003 System Volume (SYSVOL) is a collection of folders and
reparse points in the file systems that exist on each domain controller in a domain.
SYSVOL provides a standard location to store important elements of Group Policy
objects (GPOs) and scripts so that the File Replication service (FRS) can distribute them
to other domain controllers within that domain.

Note:

Only the Group Policy template (GPT) is replicated by SYSVOL. The Group Policy
container (GPC) is replicated through Active Directory replication. To be effective,
both parts must be available on a domain controller.

FRS monitors SYSVOL and, if a change occurs to any file stored on SYSVOL, then
FRS automatically replicates the changed file to the SYSVOL folders on the other
domain controllers in the domain.

The day-to-day operation of SYSVOL is an automated process that does not require
any human intervention other than watching for alerts from the monitoring system.
Occasionally, you might perform some system maintenance as you change your
network.

This objective describes the basic tasks required for managing SYSVOL in order to
maintain capacity and performance of SYSVOL, for hardware maintenance, or for
data organization.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/551f0123-26a7-4ce5-
be71-173e7aa79bd31033.mspx

27) What is Dcdiag, netdiag, replmon, repstat and dsadiag? & How to use ?

DCDiag is command-line tool which analyzes the state of domain controllers in a

forest or enterprise and reports any problems to assist in troubleshooting. As an end-
user reporting program, DCDiag encapsulates detailed knowledge of how to identify
abnormal behavior in the system.

DCDiag consists of a framework for executing tests and a series of tests to verify
different functional areas of the system. This framework selects which domain
controllers are tested according to scope directives from the user, such as enterprise,
site, or single server.

Netdiag

Netdiag is a command-line diagnostic tool that you can use to test network
connectivity and the key network status. These tests and information will give
network administrators and support personnel a more direct means of identifying
and isolating network problems.

Replication Monitor

Use REPLMON to query and control replication and to view the location of the FSMO
roles

You can use the DSADiag utility to display the current list of cached servers that
DSAccess is using (and thus supplying to DSProxy) and also to force DSAccess to
refresh the server list. DSADiag, which is available from http://www.exinternals.com,
is a single executable file. To use the utility, you must place the file in the
\exchsrvr\bin directory. Executing DSADiag from a command window

28) What are different types backup in windows 2000?

ANS: Normal, copy, Differential, Incremental, Daily

29) Explain by means of a scenario where would I require a tree, Child domain,
Additional Domain Controller?

30) What is TCP/IP?

31) What is Distributed File System?
The Distributed File System is used to build a hierarchical view of multiple file
servers and shares on the network. Instead of having to think of a specific machine
name for each set of files, the user will only have to remember one name; which will
be the 'key' to a list of shares found on multiple servers on the network. Think of it
as the home of all file shares with links that point to one or more servers that
actually host those shares. DFS has the capability of routing a client to the closest
available file server by using Active Directory site metrics. It can also be installed on
a cluster for even better performance and reliability. Medium to large sized
organizations are most likely to benefit from the use of DFS - for smaller companies
it is simply not worth setting up since an ordinary file server would be just fine.
32) What is unattended installation in 2000?

33) What are the Different types of RAID?

ANs: RAID 0 to 5
RAID 0 (Stripped)
RAID 1 Mirrored
RAID 2
RAID 3
RAID 4
RAID 5

34) What do you mean by Clustering?

35) What is the Difference between OU & Group?

Organizational Units

An organizational unit is an administrative-level container, depicted in Figure 6.1,

that is used to logically organize objects in Active Directory. The concept of the
organizational unit is derived from the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
standard upon which Active Directory was built, although there are some conceptual
differences between pure LDAP and Active Directory.

Figure 6.1 Active Directory organizational structure.

Objects within Active Directory can be logically placed into OUs as

defined by the administrator. Although all user objects are placed in the Users folder
by default and computer objects are placed in the Computers folder, they can be
moved at any time.

NOTE

The default Users and Computers folders in Active Directory are not technically
organizational units. Rather, they are technically defined as Container class objects.
It is important to understand this point because these Container class objects do not
behave in the same way as organizational units. To be able to properly utilize
services such as Group Policies that depend on the functionality of OUs, it is
recommended that you move your user and computer objects into an OU structure.
Each object in the Active Directory structure can be referenced via LDAP queries that
point to its specific location in the OU structure. You will often see objects referenced
in this format when you're writing scripts to modify or create users in Active
Directory or simply running LDAP queries against Active Directory. For example, in
Figure 6.2, a user named Andrew Abbate in the San Jose Users OU would be
represented by the following LDAP string:

Figure 6.2 Active Directory organizational structure.

NOTE

OU structure can be nested, or include sub-OUs that are many layers

deep. Keep in mind, however, that the more complex the OU
structure, the more difficult it becomes to administer and the more time-consuming
directory queries become. Microsoft recommends not nesting more than 10 layers
deep. However, it would be wise to keep the complexity significantly shorter than
that number to maintain the responsiveness of directory queries.

OUs primarily satisfy the need to delegate administration to separate groups of

administrators. Although there other possibilities for the use of OUs, this type of
administration delegation is, in reality, the primary factor that exists for the creation
of OUs in an AD environment. See the "OU Design" section of this chapter for more
details on this concept.

The Need for Organizational Units

While there is a tendancy to use organizational units to structure the design of Active
Directory, OUs should not be created to just document the organizational chart of
the company. The fact that the organization has a Sales department, a
Manufacturing department, and a Marketing department doesn't suggest that there
should be these three Active Directory OUs. An administrator should create
organizational units if the departments will be administered separately and/or
policies will be applied differently to the various departments. However if the
departments will all be administered by the same IT team, and the policies being
applied will also be the same, having multiple OUs is not necessary.

Additionally, organizational units are not exposed to the directory, meaning that if a
user wants to send an e-mail to the members of an OU, he would not see the OU
structure nor the members in the OU grouping.

To see members of an organizational structure, Active Directory groups should be

created. Groups are exposed to the directory and will be seen when a user wants to
list members and groups in the organization.

Groups

The idea of groups has been around in the Microsoft world for much longer than OUs
have been. As with the OU concept, groups serve to logically organize users into an
easily identifiable structure. However, there are some major differences in the way
that groups function as opposed to OUs. Among these differences are the following:
 • Group Membership Viewable by Users—Whereas OU visibility is restricted
to administrators using special administrative tools, groups can be viewed by
all users engaged in domain activities. For example, users who are setting
security on a local share can apply permissions to security groups that have
been set up on the domain level.
• Membership in Multiple Groups—OUs are similar to a file system's folder
structure. In other words, a file can reside in only one folder or OU at a time.
Group membership, however, is not exclusive. A user can become a member
of any one of a number of groups, and her membership in that group can be
changed at any time.
• Groups as Security Principals—Each security group in Active Directory has
a unique Security ID (SID) associated with it upon creation. OUs do not have
associated Access Control Entries (ACEs) and consequently cannot be applied
to object-level security. This is one of the most significant differences because
security groups allow users to grant or deny security access to resources
based on group membership. Note, however, that the exception to this is
distribution groups, which are not used for security.
• Mail-Enabled Group Functionality—Through distribution groups and (with
the latest version of Microsoft Exchange) mail-enabled security groups, users
can send a single e-mail to a group and have that e-mail distributed to all the
members of that group. The groups themselves become distribution lists,
while at the same time being available for security-based applications. This
concept is elaborated further in the "Distribution Group Design" section later
in this chapter.

Group Types: Security or Distribution

Groups in a Windows .NET Server 2003 come in two flavors: security and
distribution. In addition, groups can be organized into different scopes: machine
local, domain local, global, and universal.

Security Groups

The type of group that administrators are most familiar with is the security group.
This type of group is used to apply permissions to resources en masse so that large
groups of users can be administered more easily. Security groups can be established
for each department in an organization. For example, users in the Marketing
department can be given membership in a Marketing security group, as shown in
Figure 6.3. This group is then allowed to have permissions on specific directories in
the environment.

Figure 6.3 Security group permission sharing.

This concept should be familiar to anyone who is used to

administering down-level Windows networks such as NT or Windows
2000. As you will soon see, however, some fundamental changes in
Windows .NET Server 2003 change the way that these groups
function.

As previously mentioned, security groups have a unique Security ID (SID) associated

with them, much in the same way that individual users in Active Directory have an
SID. The uniqueness of the SID is utilized to apply security to objects and resources
in the domain. This concept also explains why you cannot simply delete and rename
a group to have the same permissions that the old group previously maintained.

Distribution Groups

The concept of distribution groups in Windows .NET Server 2003 was introduced in
Windows 2000 along with its implementation of Active Directory. Essentially, a
distribution group is a group whose members are able to receive Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail messages that are sent to the group. Any application
that can use Active Directory for address book lookups can utilize this functionality in
Windows .NET Server 2003.

Distribution groups are often confused with mail-enabled groups, a concept in

environments with Exchange 2000. In addition, in most cases distribution groups are
not utilized in environments without Exchange 2000 because their functionality is
limited to infrastructures that can support them.

NOTE

In environments with Exchange 2000, distribution groups can be utilized to create e-

mail distribution lists that cannot be utilized to apply security. However, if separation
of security and e-mail functionality is not required, you can make security groups
mail-enabled.

Mail-Enabled Groups

With the introduction of Exchange 2000 into an Active Directory environment comes
a new concept: mail-enabled groups. These groups are essentially security groups
that are referenced by an e-mail address, and can be used to send SMTP messages
to the members of the group. This type of functionality becomes possible only with
the inclusion of Exchange 2000 or higher. Exchange 2000 actually extends the forest
schema to allow for Exchange-related information, such as SMTP addresses, to be
associated with each group.

Most organizations will find that mail-enabled security groups satisfy most of their
needs, both security-wise and e-mail–wise. For example, a single group called
Marketing that contains all users in that department could also be mail-enabled to
allow Exchange users to send e-mails to everyone in the department.

Group Scope

There are four primary scopes of groups in Active Directory. Each scope is used for
different purposes, but all simply serve to ease administration and provide a way to
view or perform functions on large groups of users at a time. The group scopes are
as follows:

• Machine local groups

• Domain local groups
• Global groups
• Universal groups
Group scope can become one of the most confusing aspects of Active Directory, and
it can often require a doctorate degree in Applied BioGroupology to sort it all out.
However, if certain design criteria are applied to group membership and creation, the
concept becomes more palatable.

Machine Local Groups

Machine local groups are essentially groups that are built into the operating system
and can be applied only to objects local to the machine in which they exist. In other
words, they are the default local groups such as Power Users, Administrators, and
the like created on a standalone system. Before networking simplified administration,
local groups were used to control access to the resources on a server. The downside
to this approach was that users needed to have a separate user account on each
machine that they wanted to access. In a domain environment, utilizing these groups
for permissions is not recommended because the administrative overhead would be
overwhelming.

NOTE

Domain controllers in an Active Directory forest do not contain local groups. When
the dcpromo command is run on a server to promote it to a domain controller, all
local groups and accounts are deleted in favor of domain accounts. Essentially, the
local groups and users are replaced with a copy of the domain groups and users. Any
special permissions using local users must be reapplied using domain accounts.

Domain Local Groups

Domain local groups, a term that may seem contradictory at first, are domain-level
groups that can be used to establish permissions on resources in the domain in
which they reside. Essentially, domain local groups are the evolution of the old
Windows NT local groups.

Domain local groups can contain members from anywhere in an Active Directory
forest or any trusted domain outside the forest. A domain local group can contain
members from any of the following:

• Global groups
• User accounts
• Universal groups (in AD Native mode only)
• Other domain local groups (nested, in Native mode only)

Domain local groups are primarily used for access to resources because different
domain local groups are created for each resource and then other accounts and/or
groups are added to them. This helps to readily determine which users and groups
have access to a resource.

Global Groups

Global groups are the reincarnation of the NT global group, but with slightly different
characteristics. These groups can contain the following types of objects:
 • User accounts
• Global groups from their own domain (Native mode only)

Global groups are primarily useful in sorting users into easily identifiable groupings
and using them to apply permissions to resources. What separates global groups
from universal groups, however, is that global groups stop their membership
replication at the domain boundary, limiting replication outside the domain.

Universal Groups

The concept of universal groups was new with the release of Windows 2000 and has
become even more useful in Windows .NET Server 2003. Universal groups are just
that—universal. They can contain objects from any trusted domain and can be used
to apply permissions to any resource in the domain.

Universal groups are available only in Native Windows .NET Server 2003 or Windows
2000 modes and cannot be used in Interim or Windows NT Mixed mode. This is
because Windows NT4 backup domain controllers (BDCs) cannot replicate the
functionality present in universal groups.

Although simply making all groups within a domain into universal groups may seem
practical, the limiting factor has always been that membership in universal groups is
replicated across the entire forest. To make matters worse, Windows 2000 Active
Directory universal group objects contained a single multi-entry attribute that
defined membership. This meant that any time membership was changed in a
universal group, the entire group membership was re-replicated across the forest.
Consequently, universal groups were limited in functionality.

Windows .NET Server 2003 introduces the concept of incremental universal group
membership replication, which accomplishes replication of membership in universal
groups on a member-by-member basis. This drastically reduces the replication
effects that universal groups have on an environment and makes the concept of
universal groups more feasible for distributed environments.

36) What is the Difference between Basic Disk & Dynamic disk?

• Basic Disks - A standard disk with standard partitions (primary and

extended).
• Dynamic Disks - Disks that have dynamic mounting capability to add
additional local or remote partitions or directories to a disk drive. These are
called dynamic volumes. This is new with the Windows 2000 operating system
and is not supported by any other operating systems. Any volume that is on
more than one hard drive must be created with dynamic disks. A disk can
only be converted from dynamic to basic by first deleting all the volumes in
the dynamic disk.

37) What is Host file, LMHOST file, WINS & DNS?

hosts file, stored on the computer's filesystem, is used to look up the Internet
Protocol address of a device connected to a computer network. The hosts file
describes a many-to-one mapping of device names to IP addresses. When accessing
a device by name, the networking system will attempt to locate the name within the
hosts file if it exists. Typically, this is used as a first means of locating the address of
a system, before accessing the Internet domain name system. The reason for this is
that the hosts file is stored on the computer itself and does not require any network
access to be used,

Lmhost

A local hosts file used by Microsoft Wins Clients such as Microsoft Windows 98 or
Windows NT to provide mappings of IP addresses to NT computer names (NetBIOS
name). The lmhost file is generally located in either root Windows directory or the
Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory and is called "lmhost.sam". The lmhost file
will likely already contain data in the file, such as commented instructions and
examples similar to the below example.

127.0.0.1 localhost #example of the local host

123.0.123.7 example #example of a fake IP and name.

In the above two examples, you can see that we have specified the IP address, the
name, and the # remark for that line. In the above example, "localhost" or
"example" would be the NetBIOS name; therefore, when typing "localhost" or
"example" in Internet Explorer, for example, the computer would attempt to resolve
that name by accessing the IP address corresponding with that name. This is also
commonly used when unable to access or having difficulties with the DNS server.

38) What are NTFS permission & shared Permission?

NTFS permissions are an attribute of the folder or file for which they are configured.
The NTFS permissions include both standard and special levels of settings. The
standard settings are combinations of the special permissions, making the
configuration more efficient and easier to establish. These permissions include the
following, as shown in Figure 2:

 Full Control
 Modify
 Read & Execute
 List Folder Contents
 Read
 Write
There are 14 special permissions for folders, which include detailed control over
creating, modifying, reading, and deleting subfolders and files contained within the
folder where the permissions are established.

NTFS permissions are associated with the object, so the permissions are always
connected with the object during a rename, move, or archive of the object.

Share permissions are only associated with the folder that is being shared. For
example, if there are 5 subfolders below the folder that is shared, only the initial
shared folder can have share permissions configured on it. NTFS permissions can be
established on every file and folder within the data storage structure, even if a folder
is not shared.

Share permissions are configured on the Sharing tab of the shared folder. On this
tab, you will have a Permissions button, which exposes the share permissions when
selected, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Share permissions on a shared folder

As you can see, the share permissions standard list of options is not as robust as the
NTFS permissions. The share permissions only provide Full Control, Change, and
Read. There are no special permissions available for share permissions, so the
standard permissions are as granular as you can go for this set of access control.

The share permissions are not part of the folder or file, so when the share name is
changed, the folder is moved, or the folder is backed up, the share permissions are
not included. This makes for a fragile control of the share permissions if the folder is
modified.

39) What is Symmetric & asymmetric processing?

• Aysmmetric: one CPU does the work of the system, the other CPUs service
user requests.
• Symmetric: All processors can be used by the system and users alike. No
CPU is special.

The asymmetric variant is potentially more wasteful, since it is rare that the system
requires a whole CPU just to itself. This approach is more common on very large
machines with many processors, where the jobs the system has to do is quite
difficult and warrants a CPU to itself.

40) What is routing & remote access?

41) What IS VPN & What is the difference between PPTP & L2TP?
42) What is the mean by subnet?
subnet
A subnet (short for "subnetwork") is an identifiably separate part of an organization's
network. Typically, a subnet may represent all the machines at one geographic
location, in one building, or on the same local area network (LAN). Having an
organization's network divided into subnets allows it to be connected to the Internet
with a single shared network address. Without subnets, an organization could get
multiple connections to the Internet, one for each of its physically separate
subnetworks, but this would require an unnecessary use of the limited number of
network numbers the Internet has to assign. It would also require that Internet
routing tables on gateways outside the organization would need to know about and
have to manage routing that could and should be handled within an organization.

The Internet is a collection of networks whose users communicate with each other.
Each communication carries the address of the source and destination networks and
the particular machine within the network associated with the user or host computer
at each end. This address is called the IP address (Internet Protocol address). This
32-bit IP address has two parts: one part identifies the network (with the network
number) and the other part identifies the specific machine or host within the network
(with the host number). An organization can use some of the bits in the machine or
host part of the address to identify a specific subnet. Effectively, the IP address then
contains three parts: the network number, the subnet number, and the machine
number.

The standard procedure for creating and identifying subnets is provided in Internet

The IP Address
The 32-bit IP address (we have a separate definition of it with IP address) is often
depicted as a dot address (also called dotted quad notation) - that is, four groups (or
quads) of decimal numbers separated by periods. Here's an example:
130.5.5.25

Each of the decimal numbers represents a string of eight binary digits. Thus, the
above IP address really is this string of 0s and 1s:

10000010.00000101.00000101.00011001

As you can see, we inserted periods between each eight-digit sequence just as we
did for the decimal version of the IP address. Obviously, the decimal version of the IP
address is easier to read and that's the form most commonly used.

Some portion of the IP address represents the network number or address and some
portion represents the local machine address (also known as the host number or
address). IP addresses can be one of several classes, each determining how many
bits represent the network number and how many represent the host number. The
most common class used by large organizations (Class B) allows 16 bits for the
network number and 16 for the host number. Using the above example, here's how
the IP address is divided:

<--Network address--><--Host address-->

130.5 . 5.25
If you wanted to add subnetting to this address, then some portion (in this example,
eight bits) of the host address could be used for a subnet address. Thus:

<--Network address--><--Subnet address--><--Host address-->

130.5 . 5 . 25

To simplify this explanation, we've divided the subnet into a neat eight bits but an
organization could choose some other scheme using only part of the third quad or
even part of the fourth quad.

The Subnet Mask

Once a packet has arrived at an organization's gateway or connection point with its
unique network number, it can be routed within the organization's internal gateways
using the subnet number as well. The router knows which bits to look at (and which
not to look at) by looking at a subnet mask. A mask is simply a screen of numbers
that tells you which numbers to look at underneath. In a binary mask, a "1" over a
number says "Look at the number underneath"; a "0" says "Don't look." Using a
mask saves the router having to handle the entire 32 bit address; it can simply look
at the bits selected by the mask.

Using the previous example (which is a very typical case), the combined network
number and subnet number occupy 24 bits or three of the quads. The appropriate
subnet mask carried along with the packet would be:

255.255.255.0
Or a string of all 1's for the first three quads (telling the router to look at these) and
0's for the host number (which the router doesn't need to look at). Subnet masking
allows routers to move the packets on more quickly.
If you have the job of creating subnets for an organization (an activity called
subnetting) and specifying subnet masks, your job may be simple or complicated
depending on the size and complexity of your organization and other factors.

Ans : Subnets are part of a network

43) What is NAT?

Network Address Translation allows a single device, such as a router, to act as an

agent between the Internet (or "public network") and a local (or "private") network.
This means that only a single, unique IP address is required to represent an entire
group of computers. But the shortage of IP addresses is only one reason to use NAT

44) Explain the procedure for migrating from Windows NT4.0 to Windows 2000?

Upgrading from Win NT to Win 2000 Domains

1. Upgrade the PDC in the master domain that will be the root domain. Upgrade
the PDC to Windows 2000.
2. Use mixed mode for active directory.
3. Upgrade BDCs and servers to Windows 2000.
 4. Update client computers in the domain to Windows 2000 or install Directory
Service Client onm.
5. Follow the same procedure for each succeeding domain down through the
domain tree.
6. Once all updates are complete, the multiple domains may be merged into one
or reconfigured using Windows 2000 tools.

When the NT Domain controller is upgraded to Windows 2000, the following changes
are made:

• The PDC computer account is placed in the domain controller's AD container

object.
• Computer accounts are placed in the Computers AD container object.
• User accounts, global groups, local groups, and created groups are placed in
the Users AD container object.
• Default groups are put in the Built-in AD container object.

45) How to enable auditing in files & folder?

ANS: Through group Policy

46) What is software Distribution?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/howto/instmain.m
spx
Software Installation and Maintenance for the Windows® 2003 operating system
allows administrators to manage software for their organizations, including
applications, service packs, and operating system upgrades.

47) What is trusting Domain & and what is Trusted Domain?

• Trusting domain - The domain that allows access to users on another

domain.
• Trusted domain - The domain that is trusted, whose users have access to
the trusting domain.

New Features in Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has done quite a bit of tuning on Active Directory in Windows Server 2003
to improve scalability and speed and to correct a couple of key deficiencies. Some of
these updates might not make much sense until you read further, but here is a
synopsis to use for reference. The first three features require having Windows Server
2003 on every domain controller:

• Site scalability. The calculations for determining replication topology

between sites have been streamlined. This corrects a problem where large
organizations with hundreds of sites might experience replication failure
because the topology calculations cannot be completed in the time allotted to
them.
• Backlink attribute replication. Group members are now replicated as
discrete entities instead of replicating the entire group membership list as a
single unit. This corrects a problem where membership changes made to the
same group on different domain controllers in the same replication interval
overwrite each other.
• Federations. A new trust type called Forest was added to simplify transitive
trust relationships between root domains in different forests. Using Forest
trusts, it is possible to build a federation of independent Active Directory
forests. This feature does not implement true “prune and graft” in Active
Directory, but it goes a long way toward simplifying operations within
affiliated organizations.
• Simplified domain logon. Universal group membership can be cached at
non-global catalog servers. This permits users to log on even if connectivity to
a global catalog server is lost. This enhancement is coupled with a feature in
XP where the domain\name result of cracking a User Principal Name (UPN) is
cached locally. This permits a user at an XP desktop to log on with the format
[email protected] even if a global catalog server is not available.
• Application naming contexts. Windows Server 2003 introduces the
capability to create new naming contexts to hold DNS record objects for
Active Directory Integrated zones. One naming context holds domain zone
records and one holds the _msdcs records used throughout a forest. These
naming contexts make it possible to target replication of DNS zones only to
domain controllers that are running DNS.
• Eliminate piling onto new domain controllers. There is potential for a
problem when an NT4 primary domain controller (PDC) is upgraded to
Windows Server 2003. In this circumstance, all existing Windows 2000 and
XP desktops will use the newly promoted PDC as a logon server. In Windows
Server 2003, domain controllers can be configured to respond to modern
Windows clients as if they were still classic NT domain controllers until
sufficient domain controllers are available to handle local authentication. This
feature is also available in Windows 2000 SP2 and later.
• DNS diagnostics. Proper DNS configuration is critical for proper Active
Directory operation. The Domain Controller promotion utility now performs a
suite of DNS diagnostics to ensure that a suitable DNS server is available to
register the service locator resource records associated with a Windows
domain controller.
• Fewer global catalog rebuilds. Adding or removing an attribute from the
Global Catalog no longer requires a complete synchronization cycle. This
minimizes the replication traffic caused by adding an attribute to the GC.
• Management console enhancements. The Active Directory Users and
Computers console now permits drag-and-drop move operations and
modifying properties on multiple objects at the same time. There is also the
capability of creating and storing custom LDAP queries to simplify managing
large numbers of objects. The new MMC 2.0 console includes scripting support
that can eliminate the need to use the console entirely.
• Real-time LDAP. Support was added for RFC 2589, “LDAPv3: Extensions for
Dynamic Directory Services.” This permits putting time-sensitive information
in Active Directory, such as a user's current location. Dynamic entries
automatically time out and are deleted if they are not refreshed.
• Enhanced LDAP security. Support was added for digest authentication as
described in RFC 2829, “Authentication Methods for LDAP.” This makes it
easier to integrate Active Directory into non-Windows environments. Support
was also added for RFC 2830, “LDAPv3: Extension for Transport Layer
Security.” This permits using secure connections when sending LDAP
(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) queries to a domain controller.
• Schema enhancements. The ability was added to associate an auxiliary
schema class to individual objects rather than to an entire class of objects.
This association can be dynamic, making it possible to temporarily assign new
attributes to a specific object or objects. Attributes and object classes can
also be declared defunct to simplify recovering from programming errors.
• LDAP query enhancements. The LDAP search mechanism was expanded to
permit searching for individual entries in a multivalued Distinguished Name
(DN) attribute. This is called an Attribute Scoped Query, or ASQ. For example,
an ASQ could be used to quickly list every group to which a specific user
belongs. Support was also added for Virtual List Views, a new LDAP control
that permits large data sets to be viewed in order instead of paging through a
random set of information. This change permits Windows Server 2003 to
show alphabetically sorted lists of users and groups in pick lists.
• Interoperability. Support was added for RFC 2798, “Definition of the
inetOrgPerson LDAP Object Class.” This enhances interoperability with
Netscape and NetWare directory services, both of which use the
inetOrgPerson object class to create User objects.
• Speedier domain controller promotions. The capability was added for
using a tape backup of the Active Directory database to populate the
database on a new domain controller. This greatly simplifies domain controller
deployments in situations where it is not practical to ship an entire server.
 • Scalability. The maximum number of objects that can be stored in Active
Directory was increased to over one billion.

Domain Structure and Relationships

Terms:

• Domain tree - A hierarchial group of one or more domains with one root
domain. Only one domain is required to make a tree.
• Parent domain - One domain above another in a domain tree.
• Child domain - One domain below another in a domain tree. The child
inherits the domain name of its parent in a DNS hierarchial naming
convention. Example: "child.parent.root.com".
• Forest root domain The first domain created in a forest.
• Tree root - The first domain created in a tree.

Trusts and Trust Relationships

Trust relationship is a description of the user access between two domains consisting
of a one way and a two way trust. Terms:

• One way trust - When one domain allows access to users on another
domain, but the other domain does not allow access to users on the first
domain.
• Two way trust - When two domains allow access to users on the other
domain.
• Trusting domain - The domain that allows access to users on another
domain.
• Trusted domain - The domain that is trusted, whose users have access to
the trusting domain.
• Transitive trust - A trust which can extend beyond two domains to other
trusted domains in the tree.
• Intransitive trust - A one way trust that does not extend beyond two
domains.
• Explicit trust - A trust that an administrator creates. It is not transitive and
is one way only.
• Cross-link trust - An explicit trust between domains in different trees or in
the same tree when a descendent/ancestor (child/parent) relationship does
not exist between the two domains.

Windows 2000 only supports the following types of trusts:

• Two way transitive trusts

• One way non-transitive trusts.

This means the two way non transitive trust supported by Windows NT is no longer
supported. The way to deal with this is to create two one way trusts in Windows
2000.
Controllers

The program "dcpromo.exe" is used to make a Windows 2000 domain member

server a domain controller or demote it from domain controller status back to a
member server. It can be used to add a domain controller for an existing domain or
create a domain controller for a new domain.

Terms:

• Forest root controller - The first domain controller created when Active
Directory is first installed on any computer if there are no previously installed
controllers available on the network.

Active Directory Trusts

Windows NT 4.0 does not support transitive trusts. All windows 2000 Active
Directory trusts are transitive by default with trusts existing between parents and
children. Transitive trusts do not exist between children even if they are of the same
parent. Transitive trusts extend up and down through parents to children to
grandchildren and so on. Administrators may create explicit trusts between any
two domains.

It is good policy for the administrator to set up a root domain with the administrator
account. This will allow all child domains to be controlled from that domain.

Domain Controller Data Replication

Replicated data between domain controllers contains:

• Schema
• Configuration data - Forest, tree, and domain information.
• Domain data - Information about all domain objects sent to domain
controllers in the domain.

Domain Controllers

Windows NT uses a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) and Backup Domain Controllers
(PDC) to control the operations of its domains. The BDC or BDCs back up the
operations of the PDC in the event that it fails. Data is constantly replicated between
these controllers. Windows 2000 has changed this method of controlling the domain.

Windows 2000 may be operated in one of two modes:

• Native mode - In this mode Active Directory interfaces only with Windows
2000 domain controllers and directory service client software. Windows 2000
is more efficient in native mode. In this case, the PDC emulator will get
password changes faster.
• Mixed mode - Used to support domains where there are still Windows NT
domain controllers. Mixed mode occurs when Active Directory interfaces with
NT 4.0 BDCs or ones without Windows 2000 Directory Service client software.
 In mixed mode, computers without Windows 2000 client software must
contact the PDC emulator to change user account information

A domain cannot be changed from native mode to mixed mode. An NT domain

controller cannot be added to a Windows 2000 network runing in native mode.

1. local group
2. domain local group
3. domain global group
4. domain univesal group

Remember that "local", "global", "universal" refers to where these groups may be
assigned permissions and are not related to the group membership itself. But let's
define each of them now:

1. Local group: The members of this group type can be assigned permissions only
localy on the computer where the group exist. It cannot be used to assign
permissions on the domain and this group is not known by other computers.
However, it can contain local security accounts (created on the same computer - in
the local security database SAM) or other domains members accounts (when the
machine/computer is part of a domain) from any domain.

Example: when you join the computer to a domain, the domain administrator
account is automaticaly added to the local Administrators group. That's why a
domain administrator can handle administrative tasks on any domain client
computer. But you cannot use this local "Administrators" group to assign permissions
on any other computer/resource on the domain. You will use this group only locally
on the computer it exists. "Administrators" membership could be domain1\user1,
domain2\user2, localuser3, etc.

2. Domain Local group: can have as their members, accounts, global groups, and
universal groups FROM ANY DOMAIN, as well as domain local groups from the same
domain. This groups can belong to another domain local groups and assigned
permissions only in the same domain. Can be converted to universal scope, as long
as it does not have as its member another group having domain local scope.

Example: Suppose you were the network administrator for a three domains network.
Now you have to give permissions to some users from domain2 and domain3 to
resources located in domain1. What you do? Well ... You can create a domain local
group in the domain1 and then assign the respective users from domain2 and
domain3 to the group you have just created in domain1. Then use this group to
assign permissions to resources inside domain1 only. You will not be able to assign
permissions for this group in other domains resources!! However, you did add users
from other domains.

3. Domain Global group: can have as their members accounts and global groups
FROM THE SAME DOMAIN. Can be converted to universal scope, as long as it is not a
member of any other group having global scope.

Example: You create a "group1" in the "domain1" domain. Then you add accounts,
other global groups from the same domain to it. You can use this group to assign
permissions to resources located on other domains or for other domain
administrators to assign permissions to your domain users in their own domains
resources.

4. Domain Unversal group: can have as their members accounts FROM ANY DOMAIN,
global groups from any domain and universal groups FROM ANY DOMAIN. This group
cannot be converted to any other group scope.

Example/Some more detail: This is the less restrictive group. For some
administrators it might be a better solution for easy administration. However the use
of Universal Group have a big impact on active directory performance because the
universal group memebership is stored on the global catalog. There might algo occur
problems with the login. When a user login, if the user belongs to a Universal group,
a global catalog most be found otherwise the user would not be able to login. If the
user doesn't belong to a universal group, cached credentials are used if a global
catalog cannot be found. In that case, if the user had never before loged in, cached
credentials doesn't exist, therefore the user will not be able to login also.

The following conversion can be made between groups types:

· Global to universal :: this is only allowed if the group is not a member of another
group having global scope.
· Domain local to universal :: However, the group being converted cannot have as its
member another group having domain local scope.

Note1: If you have multiple forests, users defined in only one forest cannot be placed
into groups defined in another forest, and groups defined in only one forest cannot
be assigned permissions in another forest.

Note2: Group nesting is available only when in Native mode. In mixed mode,
universal groups cannot be used. There are also some differences about the way the
PDC emulator works. But you will learn about it ... It's related with AD authentication
and with the mster operation roles.

Now, why add a global group to domain local group? This is because it's a best
practice to always assign permissions to groups and not to users individualy. I will
try to give you a practical approach.

Let's assume again that you are a network administrator for a company with 50
users. If you were to assign permissions for a network resource it's better (from the
administrator's point of view) to define permissions only once (for a group) than
assigning permissions for every time a user have to be given access. So, that's the
reason why even having a single user, you put it inside a group and then assign
permissions to the group itself. In the future when you need to assign permissions to
other users, you just add them to the group and usualy, they will have to log-off and
log-in again. Don't you agree ? :)

Now the A G DL P concept goes all arround this. It's just a bit more generic and does
make a lot sense when in an environement with multiple domains !! So you put
ACCOUNT inside a GLOBAL GROUP. Then the GLOBAL GROUP you put it inside the
DOMAIN LOCAL GROUP and finaly, you assign PERMISSIONS.

One practical example: There are 2 domains (dom1 and dom2). You are
administering dom1. If the dom2 administrator tells you that some of his users need
access to some resources located in your domain (in dom1). You say to the dom2
administrator to create a global group in domain dom2 and put the users inside it.
Then you take that global group in put it inside a domain local group and assign
permissions for this domain local group to the specified resources in your domain.
Now, for everytime the dom2 administrator wants to add/remove a user he just need
to remove the user/users from the global group in his domain (because he doesn't
have permission on dom1 domain).

If you were assigning users to a domain local group, every time the dom2
administrator wanted to add a user, he will have to contact you and only you would
be the person allowed to make the change because only you have permissions in
your domain (it might be the case).

some advantages:
1. You, as dom1 domain administrator assign permissions only once.
2. you will not have to worry in the future if the dom2 domain administrator wants to
add/remove users from the users list witch might have access to specified resources.

• Active Directory Users and Computers - Active Directory Users and

Computers is a Microsoft Management Console snap-in. It is started by
selecting "Start", "Programs", "Administrative Tools", and "Active Directory
Users and Computers". Only members of the Domain Admins or Enterprise
Admins group can use this tool. This tool is used to create, configure, locate,
move, and delete objects including:
o User (automatically published) - Domain user accounts may be copied.
o Group (automatically published)
o Computer (Those in the domain are automatically published)
o Contact (automatically published)
o Domain
o Organizational Unit (automatically published)
o Shared folder
o Printer (Most are automatically published) - Windows NT shared
printers are not published automatically.

Tabs from the OU Properties dialog box:

o Group policy - Group policy object selections:

 Windows Settings
 Security Settings
 Public key policies
 Automatic certificate request menu items:
 Action
 New
 Automatic Certificate
Request
• Active Directory Domains and Trusts
• Active Directory Sites and Services
• DCPROMO Domain controller management tool which is run from the
command line.
• LDIFDE bulk schema modification tool.
• CSVDE bulk schema update tool. Parameters:
o -? - Help
o -i - Mode for command. Choices are import, export, or modify.
o -f - File name
o -v - Verbose mode
o -p - Specify the port for the socket. The LDAP default is 389.
• Active Directory Connector (ADC) It simplifies administration among
multiple directory services. The ADC can aid Windows 2000 implementations
where Exchange Server is deployed. It can replicate Active Directory
information, and Exchange Server 5.5 information as well. It comes with
Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000. It:
o Uses LDAP to perfrom replication.
o Only replicates changes.
o Hosts all active Active Directory replication components.
o Supports multiple connections on one server.
o Maps objects for replication.

Requirements:

o Windows 2000 Server

o Available TCP Port
o Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 or 2000.
o LDAP version 3

Connection agreements configure directory synchronization between

Exchange and Active Directory and one or more are supported with ADC.
Items used to configure a connection agreement:

o Server name
o Targer containers
o Objects to be synchronized
o Synchronization schedule

ADC Installation:

1. ADC requires a service user account and password.

2. Put the Windows 2000 Server installation CDROM in the computer.
3. Enter the directory \Valueadd\MSFT\Mgmt\ADC.
4. Double click on setup.exe.
5. Select the "Microsoft Active Directory Connector Service component"
to install ADC and the"Microsoft Active Directory Connector
Management component" to install the ability to manage the service.
The Management component can be installed on Windows 2000
Professional computers to allow ADC management from them.
6. Choose a directory to install the components to.
7. Enter the account name and password for the service to use.
8. Continue and finish the installation.
ADC Configuration:

9. Run the Administrative tool, "Active Directory Connector (ADC)

Management".
10. Right click the server to configure and select "properties" to see
the properties dialog box. This is used to configure connection
agreements between Active Directory and the Exchange 5.5 directory
service. The following tabs exist in the box:
 General - Select replication direction as "Two way", "From
Exchange to Windows", or "From Windows to Exchange". Set
the connection name, and the server to run the connection
agreement. For slow network connections, the agreement can
use Exchange Server's Site Replication Service (SRS).
 Connections - Configure the bridgehead servers to handle the
connection. The servers receiving updates only require write
permission. Select the Windows server name, the Windows
authentication protocol, the Exchange server, The Exchange
server port, and the Exchange server authentication protocol.
 Schedule - Set synchronization schedule. The registrey setting
at
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\System\CurrentControlSet\S
ervices\MSADC\Parameters" can be used to reduce the
default polling schedule. The parameters that are configurable
are:
 Name - The delay in seconds to wait between checking
for updates. The default value is every 5 seconds.
 Type - DWORD
 Data - Seconds to wait between cycles.
 From Exchange - Specify the objects to replicate and the
Exchange receipient containers.
 From Windows - Specify objects to be synchronized and the
containers that will receive objects. The option "Replicate
secured Active Directory objects to the Exchange Directory" can
be checked and the objects can be filtered using Discretionary
Access Control Lists (DACLs).
 Deletion - Use this tab to configure object deletion behavior.
When objects are deleted, the deletions are stored in
SystemRoot\System32\MSADC\Connection_Agreement_Name\
NT5.LDF for Active Directory and
SystemRoot\System32\MSADC\Connection_Agreement_Name\
Ex55.CSV for Exchange.
 Advanced - Configure "Paged results" configures the quantity of
entries to be synchronized for each request. The settings are
"Windows Server entries per page" and "Exchange Server
entries per page". Checkbox options include "This is a primary
Connection Agreement for the connected Exchange
organization", and "This is a primary Connection Agreement for
the connected Windows Domain". Choices for "When replicating
a Mailbox whose Primary Windows Account does not exist in the
domain" are:
 Create a Windows Contact
 Create a Disabled Windows User Account
  Create a New Windows User Account

ADC Event logging levels:

o None - Only log critical events

o Minimum - Log LDAP session errors, success or failure of added or
removed user accounts.
o Medium - Log directory object events and proxy errors.
o Maximum

The Administrative tool "Active Directory Connector Management" is used to

set up event logging. ADC Event Logging categories:

o Replication
o Account Management - Events while writing to or deleting an objects.
o Attribute Mapping - Events while attributes are mapped between AD
and Exchange.
o Service Controller - Events when the ADC service is stopped or
started.
o LDAP Operations - Events when LDAP accesses the directory.