Chapter 12 Solutions

Review Questions
1.

You support computer systems in the cashiers office of a college. A new cashier system is being
installed on Windows Server 2008 and it is important that when a cashier takes in money and
updates a students records in a database that all parts of a transaction are fully synchronized in the
database, even if there is an unexpected server failure. What application server feature should you
install?
Answer: b. distributed transaction support

2.

Which of the following is a way in which a TS RemoteApp application can be started by a client?
(Choose all that apply.)
Answer: a. as a Web site link through TS Web Access, b. from the Start menu, and d. from a
desktop icon

3.

You have configured a shared folder to be accessed offline by all traveling sales reps in your
company. Right after you configure the offline access a rep calls to report she cannot access the
file offline from her laptop. Which of the following might be the problem?
Answer: d. The rep did not configure offline access for the shared folder on her laptop.

4.

One of the server administrators in your company wants to install Windows Server Update
Services, but is not sure what Windows Server 2008 tool to use to install it. What do you tell him?
Answer: d. It is a free software add-on that can be downloaded from Microsofts Web site.

5.

Your organization is planning to develop several in-house line-of-business applications. Which of

the following Microsoft .NET Framework elements can help reduce the amount of code that
programmers must write from scratch for commonly used functions, such as network and display
functions?
Answer: c. class library

6.

What .NET Framework service can help you reduce the number of TCP ports in use as a security
measure?
Answer: Net.TCP Port Sharing

7.

Windows Presentation Foundation uses the _____ Language

Answer: Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)

8.

List five tools that are provided by the Application Server Foundation on an application server.
Answer: Students can list any five of the following:
Microsoft .NET Framework
ASP.NET
COM+
Internet Information Services (IIS)
NET.TCP Port Sharing
Distributed transaction support
Message Queuing

9.

Which of the follow capabilities are offered through Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager? (Choose all that apply.)
Answer: a. software distribution, b. asset intelligence, c. Wake On LAN, and d. client status
reporting

10. You have set up an application server, but the performance seems slow at times. You are running
Terminal Services on this server. Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) is already
installed on the application server and so you decide to use this tool to optimize the server. Which
of the following WSRM resource policies should you set for the server?
Answer: c. equal per session
11. Which of the following are modes that can be used for running an application pool? (Choose all
that apply.)
Answer: b. integrated mode and d. classic mode
12. Your companys programmers need to test the applications they are writing by running the same
applications in different ways simultaneously. Which of following application environments can
work best in this situation?
Answer: d. Microsoft Application Virtualization Management
13. Server managers use the _____ tool to configure offline data capabilities.
Answer: Share and Storage Management
14. Your company is writing a new purchasing application. This application uses purchase orders and
in your company there is a specific flow of activities that must occur for every purchase order,
including obtaining a department head's signature first and then the purchasing director's signature
for each purchase order. Which of the following Windows .NET Framework features can help with
the design of this application to reflect the proper sequence of events?
Answer: d. WF
15. What application environment uses an .rdp file?
Answer: a. TS RemoteApp
16. The IT planning committee has asked you to install Windows Server Update Services on one of
the Windows Server 2008 servers in the computer room. Before installing this software you want
to do some planning to be sure that the server setup is compatible. Which of the following should
already be installed on the server?(Choose all that apply.)
Answer: a. Windows Authentication, b. ASP.NET, and c. IIS version 7 or higher
17. Name three types of servers that can particularly benefit from using a Network Load Balancing
Cluster.
Answer: Web servers, Terminal Servers, and VPN servers that offer applications
18. Your assistant has applied a resource policy in WSRM to optimize the performance of an
application server. What tool can you use to assess how the resource policy is affecting
performance?
Answer: c. Resource Monitor in the Windows System Resource Manager tool
19. What is the purpose of ASP.NET?
Answer: Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET) is used by application developers to create
Web-based applications. ASP.NET provides a Web development environment that is built on
Common Language Runtime and enables a Web-based server to run scripts.
20. Name four client operating systems that can be used with Microsoft Application Virtualization
Management.
Answer: Any four of the following:
Windows XP with service pack 2 or higher
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Hands-On Projects Tips and Solutions for Chapter 12

Activity 12-1
In this activity, students install the application server role using Server Manager.
In Step 8, the boxes that are checked automatically are under Distributed Transactions are:
Incoming Remote Transactions
Outgoing Remote Transactions
WS-Atomic Transactions

Activity 12-2
This activity enables students use the Share and Storage Management tool to configure offline access
on a shared folder.
In Step 4, the permissions that can be configured are:
Share Permissions
NTFS Permissions
In Step 7, the user limits options are:
Maximum allowed
Allow this number of users (with a box to set the number)

Activity 12-3
Students use this activity to install the WSRM feature to manage server resources.

Activity 12-4
In this activity, students configure WSRM.
In Step 3, students should record the resource policy currently in effect, which is the
Equal_Per_Process policy by default

Case Projects
Ticket General is a commercial entertainment and sports ticketing enterprise in Chicago. Ticket
General is a one-stop center for tickets to plays, musicals, concerts, museums, shows, and sporting
events. Tickets can be purchased in person at the Ticket General headquarters in downtown Chicago,
or customers can purchase tickets over the phone and through the Internet.
Ticket General is in the process of writing its own ticketing systems and moving away from a standard
ticketing software package. It needs more flexibility for different venues, to offer innovative sales
approaches, and to customize a system to meet the needs of the Chicago area.

Ticket General has recently completed upgrading all of its 28 servers to Windows Server 2008. The
company is in the process of building a large ticket customer database. It is also building a database for
all ticket clients the company represents such as theaters, sports stadiums, concert halls, and museums.
Ticket General uses Microsoft's SQL Server for all databases.
The company has created an Application Development Coordination committee to oversee the new
application development. The committee includes representatives from the marketing, customer
service, accounting, and IT departments as well as the two vice presidents of the company. The
committee has hired you through Aspen Consulting to advise on the planning and implementation of
the new ticketing applications.
Case Project 12-1: Advantages of Using Application Servers
For your next meeting with the Application Development Coordination committee, you plan to
recommend using application servers for their new ticketing application system. In support of your
recommendation, create a presentation or slide show to discuss the following:
Microsoft .NET Framework
Windows Communication Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation
Windows Presentation Foundation
Answer:
Students should discuss the following:
Microsoft .NET Framework provides a consistent environment within which to develop
applications and run them. It is intended to enable programmers to develop object-oriented
and XML-based applications. .NET Framework provides the following elements:
Common language runtime (CLR ) which is a runtime layer that sits just above the
operating system and enables quick program execution, code management, memory
management, remote services management, thread execution management, and security
enforcement. Common language runtime enables smoother and more reliable program
execution than through other typical means, including using shells to run scripts.
Class library which is a library of commonly used applications and application
programming interfaces (APIs) that can be reused over and over by programmers in the
larger applications that they write. APIs offer functions or programming features and
interfaces that programmers can access from larger programs to perform network
functions, display functions, messaging services, and many other purposes. The class
library offers consistent interfaces and helps to achieve a consistent user experience while
saving the programmer hours of development time. Another advantage is that APIs are
kept consistent, so that updates to on API are synchronized with other APIs that may be
affected Elements that students can discuss for saving time and money include (students
should expand on each of these and can also add their own):
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) unites several Web-based, transaction, and
message queue communications into a common programming model and enabling
applications to communicate with one another efficiently. It is in the form of an API and
enables loose coupling. Coupling relates to how much one module in a program must rely on
another. Loose coupling means that program modules are less reliant on other modules to
enable different systems to interoperate. Importantly, WCF provides a stronger programming
model, enabling a single model for application-to-application communication, better
distributed computing, and better integration between Web services and applications.
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a development environment and runtime engine that
helps programmers build applications that more closely follow the actual program or human
workflow process.
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides a framework in which to develop user
interfaces in a program that can be very appealing visually and that are flexible.
Case Project 12-2: Protecting Databases

One of the vice presidents is aware that three months ago there was a failure of the main battery
backup system to the server room causing all of the servers to crash during a city-wide brown out.
Because this happened in the middle of the afternoon, many updates to the database servers were in
progress. When the servers where powered back on, two of the databases were disastrously out of
synchronization and had to be restored from the last backup, resulting in loss of one days data. The
vice president asks you to fully describe any features of a Windows Server application server that can
be used to prevent this kind of problem.
Answer:
One of the services that can be installed in an application server is support for distributed transactions.
When you install the application server role with the option for distributed transactions support,
updates to databases are performed in an "all-or-none" fashion. Either all of the transactions are posted
or none of them are posted. This is a vital protection to ensure that databases cannot get out of
synchronization, such as after a power failure or server crash. It saves organizations immense time and
money in rebuilding databases or trying to capture lost data.
Case Project 12-3: Web Applications
Ticket General will be developing new Web applications for ticket sales and for internal company use.
The Application Development Coordination committee asks you if there are advantages to using the
application server role with Web application development. Prepare a presentation that discusses the
advantages of developing Web applications on an application server.
Answer:
There are three important advantages for using the application server role with IIS:
Windows Server 2008 can offer Web sites for internal company use and for access
outside the company over the Internet, with the advantage of using Microsoft Web
development tools
Web applications can be built using the capabilities of WCF, WF, and WPF.
Web applications can take advantage of ASP.NET capabilities for general applications
and applications that require a Web brows:
An additional advantage is the option to use Windows Process Activation Service. WAS enables
IIS applications that are built using WCF to use IIS features that do not require message-derived
activation via HTTP, such as process recycling and rapid fail protection. WAS is also used to help
manage the creation and configuration of application pools in IIS.
Students may also come up with other advantages, such as Net.TCP port sharing or by discussing
ASP.NET in more detail.
Case Project 12-4:
The Application Development Coordination committee mentions that there have been times when
servers are slow on the current ticketing system and they are worried this will happen on the new
system. Slow servers during business hours slows down sales, which costs the business money.
You mention there is a tool that can help and the committee asks you to write a brief report for the
IT department to:
Explain the tool
Describe how to install or obtain it
Suggest how it might be used on the Ticket General servers
Answer:
Students should describe the Windows System Resource Manager. This tool is used to
optimize processor and memory use.
Windows System Resource Manager is a feature that comes with Windows Server 2008. It
can be installed as a feature using Server Manager and these general steps: click Start, point to

Administrative Tools, click Server Manager, click Add Features, check the box for Windows
System Resource Manager, click Next, click Install, and click Close.
After it is installed, Windows System Resource Manager can be started from the
Administrative Tools menu or as an MMC snap-in. There are four default resource policies
that can be used depending on how the application server is used:
Equal per user is a resource policy that can be used on an application server
Equal per session is a policy that can be used on a Terminal Server.
Equal per process might be useful on database servers or for specific use situations,
such as in customer service contexts.
Equal per IIS application pool is appropriate for an IIS server that use application
pools