Windows Server 2008 Interview Questions And Answers

What are some of the new tools and features provided by Windows Server 2008?

Windows Server 2008 now provides a desktop environment similar to Microsoft Windows Vista and includes tools also found in Vista, such as the new backup snap-in and the BitLocker drive encryption feature. Windows Server 2008 also provides the new IIS7 web server and the Windows Deployment Service.

What are the different editions of Windows Server 2008?

The entry-level version of Windows Server 2008 is the Standard Edition. The Enterprise Edition provides a platform for large enterprisewide networks. The Datacenter Edition provides support for unlimited Hyper-V virtualization and advanced clustering services. The Web Edition is a scaled-down version of Windows Server 2008 intended for use as a dedicated web server. The Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions can be purchased with or without the Hyper-V virtualization technology.

What two hardware considerations should be an important part of the planning process for a Windows Server 2008 deployment?

Any server on which you will install Windows Server 2008 should have at least the minimum hardware requirement for running the network operating system. Server hardware should also be on the Windows Server 2008 Hardware Compatibility List to avoid the possibility of hardware and network operating system incompatibility.

What are the options for installing Windows Server 2008?

You can install Windows Server 2008 on a server not currently configured with NOS, or you can upgrade existing servers running Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003.

How do you configure and manage a Windows Server 2008 core installation?

This stripped-down version of Windows Server 2008 is managed from the command line.

Which Control Panel tool enables you to automate the running of server utilities and other applications?

The Task Scheduler enables you to schedule the launching of tools such as Windows Backup and Disk Defragmenter.

What are some of the items that can be accessed via the System Properties dialog box?

You can access virtual memory settings and the Device Manager via the System Properties dialog box.

When a child domain is created in the domain tree, what type of trust relationship exists between the new child domain and the trees root domain?

Child domains and the root domain of a tree are assigned transitive trusts. This means that the root domain and child domain trust each other and allow resources in any domain in the tree to be accessed by users in any domain in the tree.

What is the primary function of domain controllers?

The primary function of domain controllers is to validate users to the network. However, domain controllers also provide the catalog of Active Directory objects to users on the network.

What are some of the other roles that a server running Windows Server 2008 could fill on the network?

A server running Windows Server 2008 can be configured as a domain controller, a file server, a print server, a web server, or an application server. Windows servers can also have roles and features that provide services such as DNS, DHCP, and Routing and Remote Access.

Which Windows Server 2008 tools make it easy to manage and configure a servers roles and features?

The Server Manager window enables you to view the roles and features installed on a server and also to quickly access the tools used to manage these various roles and features. The Server Manager can be used to add and remove roles and features as needed.

What Windows Server 2008 service is used to install client operating systems over the network?

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) enables you to install client and server operating systems over the network to any computer with a PXE-enabled network interface.

What domain services are necessary for you to deploy the Windows Deployment Services on your network?

Windows Deployment Services requires that a DHCP server and a DNS server be installed in the domain

How is WDS configured and managed on a server running Windows Server 2008?

The Windows Deployment Services snap-in enables you to configure the WDS server and add boot and install images to the server.

What is the difference between a basic and dynamic drive in the Windows Server 2008 environment?

A basic disk embraces the MS-DOS disk structure; a basic disk can be divided into partitions (simple volumes).
Dynamic disks consist of a single partition that can be divided into any number of volumes. Dynamic disks also support Windows Server 2008 RAID implementations.

What is RAID in Windows Server 2008?

RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a strategy for building fault tolerance into your file servers. RAID enables you to combine one or more volumes on separate drives so that they are accessed by a single drive letter. Windows Server 2008 enables you to configure RAID 0 (a striped set), RAID 1 (a mirror set), and RAID 5 (disk striping with parity).

What conceptual model helps provide an understanding of how network protocol stacks such as TCP/IP work?

The OSI model, consisting of the application, presentation, session, transport, network, data link, and physical layers, helps describe how data is sent and received on the network by protocol stacks.

What protocol stack is installed by default when you install Windows Server 2008 on a network server?

TCP/IP (v4 and v6) is the default protocol for Windows Server 2008. It is required for Active Directory implementations and provides for connectivity on heterogeneous networks.

How is a server running Windows Server 2008 configured as a domain controller, such as the domain controller for the root domain or a child domain?

Installing the Active Directory on a server running Windows Server 2008 provides you with the option of creating a root domain for a domain tree or of creating child domains in an existing tree. Installing Active Directory on the server makes the server a domain controller.

What are some of the tools used to manage Active Directory objects in a Windows Server 2008 domain?

When the Active Directory is installed on a server (making it a domain controller), a set of Active Directory snap-ins is provided. The Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in is used to manage Active Directory objects such as user accounts, computers, and groups. The Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in enables you to manage the trusts that are defined between domains. The Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in provides for the management of domain sites and subnets.

How are domain user accounts created and managed?

The Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in provides the tools necessary for creating user accounts and managing account properties. Properties for user accounts include settings related to logon hours, the computers to which a user can log on, and the settings related to the user’s password.

What type of Active Directory objects can be contained in a group?

A group can contain users, computers, contacts, and other nested groups.

What type of group is not available in a domain that is running at the mixed-mode functional level?

Universal groups are not available in a mixed-mode domain. The functional level must be raised to Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 to make these groups available.

What types of Active Directory objects can be contained in an Organizational Unit?

Organizational Units can hold users, groups, computers, contacts, and other OUs. The Organizational Unit provides you with a container directly below the domain level that enables you to refine the logical hierarchy of how your users and other resources are arranged in the Active Directory.

What are Active Directory sites in Windows Server 2008?

Active Directory sites are physical locations on the network’s physical topology. Each regional domain that you create is assigned to a site. Sites typically represent one or more IP subnets that are connected by IP routers. Because sites are separated from each other by a router, the domain controllers on each site periodically replicate the Active Directory to update the Global Catalog on each site segment.

Can servers running Windows Server 2008 provide services to clients when they are not part of a domain?

Servers running Windows Server 2008 can be configured to participate in a workgroup. The server can provide some services to the workgroup peers but does not provide the security and management tools provided to domain controllers.

What does the use of Group Policy provide you as a network administrator?

Group Policy provides a method of controlling user and computer configuration settings for Active Directory containers such as sites, domains, and OUs. GPOs are linked to a particular container, and then individual policies and administrative templates are enabled to control the environment for the users or computers within that particular container.

What tools are involved in managing and deploying Group Policy?

GPOs and their settings, links, and other information such as permissions can be viewed in the Group Policy Management snap-in.

How do you deal with Group Policy inheritance issues?

GPOs are inherited down through the Active Directory tree by default. You can block the inheritance of settings from upline GPOs (for a particular container such as an OU or a local computer) by selecting Block Inheritance for that particular object. If you want to enforce a higher-level GPO so that it overrides directly linked GPOs, you can use the Enforce command on the inherited (or upline) GPO.

How can you make sure that network clients have the most recent Windows updates installed and have other important security features such as the Windows Firewall enabled before they can gain full network access?

You can configure a Network Policy Server (a service available in the Network Policy and Access Services role). The Network Policy Server can be configured to compare desktop client settings with health validators to determine the level of network access afforded to the client.

What is the purpose of deploying local DNS servers?

A domain DNS server provides for the local mapping of fully qualified domain names to IP addresses. Because the DNS is a distributed database, the local DNS servers can provide record information to remote DNS servers to help resolve remote requests related to fully qualified domain names on your network.

In terms of DNS, what is a caching-only server?

A caching-only DNS server supplies information related to queries based on the data it contains in its DNS cache. Caching-only servers are often used as DNS forwarders. Because they are not configured with any zones, they do not generate network traffic related to zone transfers.

How the range of IP addresses is defined for a Windows Server 2008 DHCP server?

The IP addresses supplied by the DHCP server are held in a scope. A scope that contains more than one subnet of IP addresses is called a superscope. IP addresses in a scope that you do not want to lease can be included in an exclusion range.

What is Active Directory Domain Services 2008?

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), formerly known as Active Directory Directory Services, is the central location for configuration information, authentication requests, and information about all of the objects that are stored within your forest. Using Active Directory, you can efficiently manage users, computers, groups, printers, applications, and other directory-enabled objects from one secure, centralized location.

What is the SYSVOL folder?

The Sysvol folder on a Windows domain controller is used to replicate file-based data among domain controllers. Because junctions are used within the Sysvol folder structure, Windows NT file system (NTFS) version 5.0 is required on domain controllers throughout a Windows distributed file system (DFS) forest.

This is a quote from microsoft themselves, basically the domain controller info stored in files like your group policy stuff is replicated through this folder structure

What’s New in Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services?

Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008 provides a number of enhancements over previous versions, including these:

Auditing—AD DS auditing has been enhanced significantly in Windows Server 2008. The enhancements provide more granular auditing capabilities through four new auditing categories: Directory Services Access, Directory Services Changes, Directory Services Replication, and Detailed Directory Services Replication. Additionally, auditing now provides the capability to log old and new values of an attribute when a successful change is made to that attribute.

Fine-Grained Password Policies—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 now provides the capability to create different password and account lockout policies for different sets of users in a domain. User and group password and account lockout policies are defined and applied via a Password Setting Object (PSO). A PSO has attributes for all the settings that can be defined in the Default Domain Policy, except Kerberos settings. PSOs can be applied to both users and groups.

Read-Only Domain Controllers—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 introduces a new type of domain controller called a read-only domain controller (RODC). RODCs contain a read-only copy of the AD DS database. RODCs are covered in more detail in Chapter 6, “Manage Sites and Replication.”

Restartable Active Directory Domain Services—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 can now be stopped and restarted through MMC snap-ins and the command line. The restartable AD DS service reduces the time required to perform certain maintenance and restore operations. Additionally, other services running on the server remain available to satisfy client requests while AD DS is stopped.

AD DS Database Mounting Tool—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 comes with a AD DS database mounting tool, which provides a means to compare data as it exists in snapshots or backups taken at different times. The AD DS database mounting eliminates the need to restore multiple backups to compare the AD data that they contain and provides the capability to examine any change made to data stored in AD DS.

What is the Global Catalog?

A global catalog server is a domain controller. It is a master searchable database that contains information about every object in every domain in a forest. The global catalog contains a complete replica of all objects in Active Directory for its host domain, and contains a partial replica of all objects in Active Directory for every other domain in the forest.

It has two important functions:

Provides group membership information during logon and authentication

Helps users locate resources in Active Directory

What are RODCs? And what are the major benefits of using RODCs?

A read-only domain controller (RODC) is a new type of domain controller in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. With an RODC, organizations can easily deploy a domain controller in locations where physical security cannot be guaranteed. An RODC hosts read-only partitions of the Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) database.

Before the release of Windows Server 2008, if users had to authenticate with a domain controller over a wide area network (WAN), there was no real alternative. In many cases, this was not an efficient solution. Branch offices often cannot provide the adequate physical security that is required for a writable domain controller. Furthermore, branch offices often have poor network bandwidth when they are connected to a hub site. This can increase the amount of time that is required to log on. It can also hamper access to network resources.

Beginning with Windows Server 2008, an organization can deploy an RODC to address these problems. As a result, users in this situation can receive the following benefits:

* Improved security

* Faster logon times

* More efficient access to resources on the network

What does an RODC do?

Inadequate physical security is the most common reason to consider deploying an RODC. An RODC provides a way to deploy a domain controller more securely in locations that require fast and reliable authentication services but cannot ensure physical security for a writable domain controller.

However, your organization may also choose to deploy an RODC for special administrative requirements. For example, a line-of-business (LOB) application may run successfully only if it is installed on a domain controller. Or, the domain controller might be the only server in the branch office, and it may have to host server applications.

In such cases, the LOB application owner must often log on to the domain controller interactively or use Terminal Services to configure and manage the application. This situation creates a security risk that may be unacceptable on a writable domain controller.

An RODC provides a more secure mechanism for deploying a domain controller in this scenario. You can grant a nonadministrative domain user the right to log on to an RODC while minimizing the security risk to the Active Directory forest.

You might also deploy an RODC in other scenarios where local storage of all domain user passwords is a primary threat, for example, in an extranet or application-facing role.

What is REPADMIN?

Repadmin.exe: Replication Diagnostics Tool

This command-line tool assists administrators in diagnosing replication problems between Windows domain controllers.

Administrators can use Repadmin to view the replication topology (sometimes referred to as RepsFrom and RepsTo) as seen from the perspective of each domain controller. In addition, Repadmin can be used to manually create the replication topology (although in normal practice this should not be necessary), to force replication events between domain controllers, and to view both the replication metadata and up-to-dateness vectors.

Repadmin.exe can also be used for monitoring the relative health of an Active Directory forest. The operations replsummary, showrepl, showrepl /csv, and showvector /latency can be used to check for replication problems.

What is NETDOM?

NETDOM is a command-line tool that allows management of Windows domains and trust relationships. It is used for batch management of trusts, joining computers to domains, verifying trusts, and secure channels