ESX interview questions

1. What is Virtualization

Ans. Virtualization is an abstraction layer that decouples the physical hardware from the operating system to deliver greater IT resource utilization and flexibility. Virtualization allows multiple virtual machines, with heterogeneous operating systems to run in isolation, side-by-side on the same physical machine. Each virtual machine has its own set of virtual hardware (e.g., RAM, CPU, NIC, etc.) upon which an operating system and applications are loaded. The operating system sees a consistent, normalized set of hardware regardless of the actual physical hardware components

2. What is Hypervisor

Ans. A hypervisor, sometimes referred to as a virtualization manager, is a program that allows multiple operating systems, which can include different operating systems or multiple instances of the same operating system, to share a single hardware processor. A hypervisor must be designed for a particular processor architecture, such as the PowerPC or Intel's x86 processor. Each operating system appears to have the processor, memory, and other resources all to itself. However, the hypervisor actually controls the real processor and its resources, allocating what is needed to each operating system in turn.

Because an operating system is often used to run a particular application or set of applications in a dedicated hardware server, the use of a hypervisor can make it possible to run multiple operating systems (and their applications) in a single server, reducing overall hardware costs. Production and test systems can run at the same time in the same hardware. In addition, with a hypervisor such as the one recently discussed by Microsoft, different operating systems such as Windows and Linux can share the same server

3. How ESX do the Virtualization

Ans. It uses hypervisor to do the virtualization

4. What is Emulation

Ans. Refers to the ability of a program or device to imitate another program or device. Emulation, is quite simply the translation of software written for a different subset of hardware or for a different operating system into software which will run on the current platform. To put it quite simply its any computer program that mimics the behavior of any other piece of computer hardware, such as an older computer or video game console.

5. What is the difference between emulation and virtualization

Emulation is providing your user with a complete model of your emulated system for their use, requiring every little thing to be translated between your host and your target environments.

Virtualization is a way of exposing the "virtualized" object for shared use, in other (very loose) words, dividing the resources of your host computer into many "virtual copies" of those resources, fooling the user of each virtual copy of the host into believing that they are running on a "real" machine and have the whole machine to themselves.

Virtualization is much faster than emulation, due to the fact that you are using the "real" components rather than a software simulation.

In emulation the virtual machine simulates the complete hardware in software. This allows an operating system for one computer architecture to be run on the architecture that the emulator is written for.

6. What is Service Console

Ans. SC often called as COS (Console Operating System) is the interface

To access the ESX base operating system. ESX will interact with the

Hardware directly and SC will access the ESX in order to get the access to the hardware.

7. Is SC can be called as ESX

Ans. No Sc is merely an access point of ESX; mainly a interface of it.

8. How SC connects to the Hardware

Ans. SC mainly uses ESX to access the physical hardware layer

9. Can you VMotion the images.

Ans. No we can only VMotion the instances not the images.

10. Can you power on a template.

Ans. No. We cannot power on a template. In VI3 and VC2 we have a option to first convert the template to a Virtual Instance and then we can Power it on and do the required modifications on it and then we can again Convert it to a modified template. In ESX 2.x and VC 1.x we did not Have this capability Virtual Center 1 did not offer the ability to power on a template once Created. Now in VirtualCenter 2.,templates can be converted to virtual machines and powered on without deploying them.

11. How a VC communicate with the ESX

Ans. mgmt-vmware is service which starts and watchdogs hostd daemon.

mgmt-vmware is just a simple script that starts up hostd and vpxa. hostd

is an app that runs in the Service Console that is responsible for

managing most of the operations on the ESX machine. It knows about all the VMs that are registered on that host, the luns/vmfs volumes visible by the host, what the VMs are doing, etc. Most all commands or operations come down from VC through it. ie, powering on a VM, vmotion'ing it, creating it, etc. vpxa also runs on the Service Console and talks to VC. I believe it acts as an intermediary between VC and hostd. I think it also does some housekeeping on the ESX host, but not as much as hostd. vpxa also runs on the Service Console and talks to VC. vpxa stands for Virtual Center Agent.

vpxalogging can be modified with vpxa.cfg/etc/vmware/vpxa.cfg

Restart required for changes to take effect. service vmware-vpxa

restart is the command to restarst the vpxa.

So VC will communicate to the hostd that is in ESX via vpxa. The

service for the VC is vpxd. So vpxd will tralk to hostd via vpxa.

12. What is vpxd

Ans.

13. WHat is vpxa Service Console

Ans. vpxa also runs on the and talks to VC. I believe it acts as an intermediary between VC and hostd. I think it also does some housekeeping on the ESX host, but not as much as hostd. vpxa also runs on the Service Console and talks to VC. vpxa stands for Virtual

Center Agent. vpxalogging can be modified with vpxa.cfg/etc/vmware/vpxa.cfg Restart required for changes to take effect. service vmware-vpxa restart is the command to restarst the vpxa.

14. What is hostd

Ans. hostd is an app that runs in the Service Console that is responsible for managing most of the operations on the ESX machine. It knows about all the VMs that are registered on that host, the luns/vmfs volumes visible by the host, what the VMs are doing, etc. Most all commands or operations come down from VC through it. ie, powering on a VM, vmotion'ing it, creating it, etc.

15. What are the ports needs to be open in order to connect a ESX to a VC

Ans. There are lot of ports needs to be open but the main port which

talks to ESX from VC is TCP 902. 27000 is the port which is used for

License server.

16. What are the log files for ESX

Ans. There are plenty log files for ESX and they can be gather using a

command called vm-support. So in order to send the log files to VMware

for further troubleshooting you need to run vm-support command and it

will generate a zip file which will contain the esx log files. Those

files are:

vmkernel - /var/log/vmkernel

vmkernel warning - /var/log/vmkwarning

vmkernel summary - /var/log/vmksummary and vmksummary.txt

Host agent logs - /var/log/vmware/hostd.log

SC log - /var/log/messages

Web Access log - /var/log/vmware/webaccess

Auth log - /var/log/secure

VC Agent - /var/log/vmware/vpx

17. How do you consolidate those log files

Ans. As mentioned earlier we need to run vm-support command to

consolidate those logs

18. How do you check what are the LUNs are available to your ESX server

Ans. You can run esxcfg-mpath -l which can show this to us. vdf -h can

also show the sizes of those LUNs. fdisk -l also can show us the sizes

of the LUNs. esxcfg-vmhbadevs can show us the available LUNs to our

box.

19. How do you check the sizes available to those LUNs

Ans. vdf -h can also show the sizes of those LUNs. fdisk -l also can

show us the sizes of the LUNs.

20. Can you create a directory under VMFS2 file systems

Ans. VMFS2 is used by ESX Server v2.x and v3.x. While ESX Server 3.x

can read from VMFS2, it will not mount it for writing. VMFS2 is a flat

filesystem with no directory structure.

VMFS3 is used by ESX Server v3.x. As a most noticeable feature, it

introduced directory structure in the filesystem. Older versions of ESX

Server cannot read or write VMFS3 volumes. Beginning from ESX 3 and VMFS3,

also virtual machine configuration files are stored in the VMFS

partition by default.

21. Is vpxa required to be in middle to communicate the ESX and VC

Ans. Yes that is required. vpxa is the VC Agent which runs on esx and

act as a intermediate between hostd and vpxd.

22. What are the prerequisites for VMOTION

Ans. A dedicated Gigabit Ethernet link. A VSwitch created and dedicated

to it. The port need to be linked to the VSwitch. A portgroup needs to

be created towards this. Also a dedicated ip and a VLAN.

23. What are the prerequisites for VC2

Ans. Enough Space on this. One databse like SQL server, Oracle or

atleast MSDE.

24. What is VMNIX ?

Ans. ESX Server Service Console (vmnix). ESX Server kernel (Vmkernel).

The console is managed by vmnix kernel.

25. What is exact file where the VM data is stored

Ans. There are lot of files stored where a VM instance stored. They are

.vmdk, .nvram, -flat.vmdk, .vmsd, .vmtx, .vmxf, vmware.log. Now from

all these files the data file is the flat file. That file also can be

opened as a regular file in VI3.

25. Can you do a VMotion when processor affinity is enabled in HA.

Ans. No. When you have the processor affinity set to a VM Instance then

you cannot do a VMtion to it. As that VM is supposed to be run on

Processor X on ESX X so it does not matter whether this is a standard box

or is in Cluster.

26. What is HA and DRS?

VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduling) and

VMware HA (High Availability Options).



27. How do you take the screen shot of ESX issue and a VM Windows

Instance issue?

28. What would be the best practices in order to get your ESX up and


running

29. Will you be able to see the VM after creating a Template from it

Ans. No you cannot see the VM instance after you create the template

from it. Again what you can do is you can go ahead and make a instance

from that template.

30. What is Server Consolidation

Ans. Server consolidation is an approach to the efficient usage of computer server resources in order to reduce the total number of servers or server locations that an organization requires. The practice developed in response to the problem of server sprawl, a situation in which multiple, under-utilized servers take up more space and consume more resources than can be justified by their workload.

According to Tony Iams, Senior Analyst at D.H. Brown Associates Inc. in Port Chester, NY, servers in many companies typically run at 15-20% of their capacity, which may not be a sustainable ratio in the current economic environment. Businesses are increasingly turning to server consolidation as one means of cutting unnecessary costs and maximizing return on investment (ROI) in the data center. Of 518 respondents in a

Gartner Group research study, six percent had conducted a server consolidation project, 61% were currently conducting one, and 28% were planning to do so in the immediate future.

Although consolidation can substantially increase the efficient use of server resources, it may also result in complex configurations of data, applications, and servers that can be confusing for the average user to contend with. To alleviate this problem, server virtualization may be used to mask the details of server resources from users while

optimizing resource sharing. Another approach to server consolidation is the use of blade servers to maximize the efficient use of space.

31. What are the minimum H/W requirements to install VirtualCenter Server ?

* VirtualCenter Server hardware must meet the following requirements:

Processor : 2.0GHz or higher Intel or AMD x86 processor. Processor requirements can be larger if your database server is also run on the same hardware.

Memory : 2GB RAM minimum. RAM requirements can be larger if your database is run on the same hardware .

Disk storage :Nearly 1GB free disk space

Networking : 10/100 Ethernet adapter minimum (Gigabit recommended).

Scalability : A VirtualCenter Server configured with the hardware minimums can support 20 concurrent clients, 50 ESX Server hosts, and over 1000 virtual machines.

A dual processor VirtualCenter Server with 3GB RAM can scale to 50 concurrent client connections, 100 ESX Server hosts, and over 2000 virtual machines

32. Which softwares are supported for Virtual Infrastructure Client ?

* The Virtual Infrastructure Client is designed for the 32 it versions of these operating systems:

o Windows 2000 Pro SP4

o Windows 2000 Server SP4

o Windows XP Pro (at any SP level)

o Windows 2003 (all releases except 64bit)

Beginners: Learn Linux

A beginners guide to Linux for those with little or no computer experience.

1.What is Linux?

2.Understanding files and folders

3.Understanding users and permissions
4.Who and what is root
5.Opening a command shell / terminal
6.Your first Linux commands
◦6.1. ls - short for list
◦6.2. pwd - print name of current/working directory
◦6.3. cd - Change directory
7.The basic commands
◦7.1. chmod - Make a file executable
◦7.2. df - view filesystem disk space usage
◦7.3. du - View the space used by files and folders
◦7.4. mkdir - makes folders
◦7.5. passwd - changes your login password
■7.5.1. KDE
◦7.6. rm - delete files and folders, short for remove
◦7.7. ln - make symbolic links
◦7.8. tar archiving utility - tar.bz2 and tar.gz
■7.8.1. tar files (.tar.gz)
■7.8.2. bzip2 files (.tar.bz2)

1. What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system for computer devices. The operating system is what makes the hardware work together with the software. The OS is the interface that allows you to do the things you want with your computer. Linux is freely available to everyone. OS X and Windows are other widely used OS.

Linux gives you a graphical interface that makes it easy to use your computer, yet it still allows those with know-how to change settings by adjusting 0 to 1.

It is only the kernel that is named Linux, the rest of the OS are GNU tools. A package with the kernel and the needed tools make up a Linux distribution. Mandrake , SUSE Linux, Gentoo and Redhat are some of the many variants. GNU/Linux OS can be used on a large number of boxes, including i386+ , Alpha, PowerPC and Sparc.

2. Understanding files and folders

Linux is made with one thought in mind: Everything is a file.

A blank piece of paper is called a file in the world of computers. You can use this piece of paper to write a text or make a drawing. Your text or drawing is called information. A computer file is another way of storing your information.

If you make many drawings then you will eventually want to sort them in different piles or make some other system that allows you to easily locate a given drawing. Computers use folders to sort your files in a hieratic system.

A file is an element of data storage in a file system (file systems manual page). Files are usually stored on harddrives, cdroms and other media, but may also be information stored in RAM or links to devices.

To organize our files into a system we use folders. The lowest possible folder is root / where you will find the user homes called /home/.
/

/home/

/home/mom/

/home/dad/

Behind every configurable option there is a simple human-readable text file you can hand-edit to suit your needs. These days most programs come with nice GUI (graphical user interface) like Mandrakes Control Center and Suses YAST that can smoothly guide you through most configuration. Those who choose can gain full control of their system by manually adjusting the configuration files from foo=yes to foo=no in an editor.

Almost everything you do on a computer involves one or more files stored locally or on a network.

Your filesystems lowest folder root / contains the following folders:

/bin Essential user command binaries (for use by all users)

/boot Static files of the boot loader, only used at system startup

/dev Device files, links to your hardware devices like /dev/sound, /dev/input/js0 (joystick)

/etc Host-specific system configuration

/home User home directories. This is where you save your personal files

/lib Essential shared libraries and kernel modules

/mnt Mount point for a temporarily mounted filesystem like /mnt/cdrom

/opt Add-on application software packages

/usr /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable, read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between various FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.

/var /var contains variable data files. This includes spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, and transient and temporary files.

/proc System information stored in memory mirrored as files.

The only folder a normal user needs to use is /home/you/ - this is where you will be keeping all your documents.

/home/elvis/Documents

/home/elvis/Music

/home/elvis/Music/60s

Files are case sensitive, "myfile" and "MyFile" are two different files.

For more details, check out:

3. Understanding users and permissions

Linux is based on the idea that everyone using a system has their own username and password.

Every file belongs to a user and a group, and has a set of given attributes (read, write and executable) for users, groups and all (everybody).

A file or folder can have permissions that only allows the user it belongs to to read and write to it, allowing the group it belongs to to read it and at the same time all other users can't even read the file.

4. Who and what is root

Linux has one special user called root (this is the user name). Root is the "system administrator" and has access to all files and folders. This special user has the right to do anything.

You should never log on as this user unless you actually need to do something that requires it!

Use su - to temporary become root and do the things you need, again: never log into your sytem as root!

Root is only for system maintenance, this is not a regular user (LindowsOS don't have any user management at all and uses root for everything, this is a very bad idea!).

You can execute a command as root with:

su -c 'command done as root'
Gentoo Linux: Note that on Gentoo Linux only users that are member of the wheel group are allowed to su to root.
5. Opening a command shell / terminal

To learn Linux, you need to learn the shell command line in a terminal emulator.

In KDE: K -> System -> Konsoll to get a command shell)

Pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 to CTRL-ALT-F6 gives you the console command shell windows, while CTRL-ALT-F7 gives you XFree86 (the graphical interface).

xterm (manual page) is the standard XFree console installed on all boxes, run it with xterm (press ALT F2 in KDE and Gnome to run commands).
Terminals you probably have installed:

•xterm http://dickey.his.com/xterm/

•konsole (KDEs terminal)

•gnome-terminal (Gnomes terminal)

Non-standard terminals should install:

•rxvt http://www.rxvt.org/

•aterm http://aterm.sourceforge.net

6. Your first Linux commands

Now you should have managed to open a terminal shell and are ready to try your first Linux commands. Simply ask the computer to do the tasks you want it to using it's language and press the enter key (the big one with an arrow). You can add a & after the command to make it run in the background (your terminal will be available while the job is done). It can be practical to do things like moving big divx movies as a background process: cp movie.avi /pub &. Jobs - the basics of job control

6.1. ls - short for list

ls lists the files in the current working folder. This is probably the first command to try out. It as a number of options described on the ls manpage.

Examples:

ls

ls -al --color=yes

6.2. pwd - print name of current/working directory

pwd prints the fully resolved name of the current (working) directory. pwd manpage.

6.3. cd - Change directory

cd stands for change (working) directory and that's what it does. The folder below you (unless you are in /, where there is no lower directory) is called "..".

To go one folder down:

cd ..

Change into the folder Documents in your current working directory:

cd Documents

Change into a folder somewhere else:
cd /pub/video

The / in front of pub means that the folder pub is located in the / (lowest folder).

7. The basic commands

7.1. chmod - Make a file executable

To make a file executable and runnable by any user:

chmod a+x myfile

Refer to the chmod manual page for more information.

7.2. df - view filesystem disk space usage

df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/hda3 73G 67G 2.2G 97% /

tmpfs 2.0M 24K 2.0M 2% /mnt/.init.d

tmpfs 252M 0 252M 0% /dev/shm

The flags: -h, --human-readable Appends a size letter such as M for megabytes to each size.

df manpage

7.3. du - View the space used by files and folders

Use du (Disk Usage) to view how much space files and folders occupy. Read the du manual page for flags and usage.

du is a part of fileutils.

Example du usage:

du -sh Documents/

409M Documents

7.4. mkdir - makes folders

Folders are created with the command mkdir:

mkdir folder
To make a long path, use mkdir -p :
mkdir -p /use/one/command/to/make/a/long/path/

Like most programs mkdir supports -v (verbose). Practical when used in scripts.

You can make multiple folders in bash and other shells with {folder1,folder2} :

mkdir /usr/local/src/bash/{old,new,dist,bugs}

mkdir manual page

The command rmdir removes folders.

7.5. passwd - changes your login password

To change your password in Linux, type:

passwd

The root user can change the password of any user by running passwd with the user name as argument:

passwd jonny

will change jonnys password. Running passwd without arguments as root changes the root password.

If you need to add several new users and give them password you can use a handy program like Another Password Generator to generate a large set of "random" passwords.

7.5.1. KDE

From KDE you can change your password by going:

•K -> Settings -> Change Password

•K -> Settings -> Control Center -> System Administration -> User Account

7.6. rm - delete files and folders, short for remove

Files are deleted with the command rm:

rm /home/you/youfile.txt

To delete folders, use rm together with -f (Do not prompt for confirmation) and -r (Recursively remove directory trees):

rm -rf /home/you/foo/

Like most programs rm supports -v (verbose).
rm manual page

7.7. ln - make symbolic links

A symbolic link is a "file" pointing to another file.

To make a symbolic link :

ln /original/file /new/link

This makes /original/file and /new/link the same file - edit one and the other will change. The file will not be gone until both /original/file and /new/link are deleted.

You can only do this with files. For folders, you must make a "soft" link.

To make a soft symbolic link :

ln -s /original/file /new/link

Example:

ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.20 /usr/src/linux

Note that -s makes an "empty" file pointing to the original file/folder. So if you delete the folder a symlink points to, you will be stuck with a dead symlink (just rm it).

ln manual page

7.8. tar archiving utility - tar.bz2 and tar.gz

tar (manual page) is a very handle little program to store files and folders in archives, originally made for tapestreamer backups. Tar is usually used together with gzip (manual page) or bzip2 (manual page), comprepssion programs that make your .tar archive a much smaller .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 archive.

kde

You can use the program ark (K -> Utilities -> Ark) to handle archives in KDE. Konqueror treats file archives like normal folders, simply click on the archive to open it. The archive becomes a virtual folder that can be used to open, add or remove files just as if you were working with a normal folder.

7.8.1. tar files (.tar.gz)

To untar files:

tar xvzf file.tar.gz

To tar files:

tar cvzf file.tar.gz filedir1 filedir2 filedir2...

Note: A .tgz file is the same as a .tar.gz file. Both are also often refered to as tarballs.

The flags: z is for gzip, v is for verbose, c is for create, x is for extract, f is for file (default is to use a tape device).

7.8.2. bzip2 files (.tar.bz2)

To unpack files:

tar xjvf file.tar.bz2

To pack files:

tar cvjf file.tar.bz2 filedir1 filedir2 filedir2...

The flags: Same as above, but with j for for bzip2

You can also use bunzip2 file.tar.bz2 , will turn it into a tar.

For older versions of tar, try tar -xjvf or -xYvf or -xkvf to unpack.There's a few other options it could be, they couldn't decide which switch to use for bzip2 for a while.

How to untar an entire directory full or archives?

.tar:

for i in `ls *.tar`; do tar xvf $i; done

.tar.gz: for i in `ls *.tar.gz`; do tar xvfz $i; done

.tar.bz2: for i in `ls *.tar.bz2`; do tar xvfj $i; done





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What is group policy in active directory ? What are Group Policy objects (GPOs)?

Group Policy objects, other than the local Group Policy object, are virtual objects. The policy setting information of a GPO is actually stored in two locations: the Group Policy container and the Group Policy template.

The Group Policy container is an Active Directory container that stores GPO properties, including information on version, GPO status, and a list of components that have settings in the GPO.

The Group Policy template is a folder structure within the file system that stores Administrative Template-based policies, security settings, script files, and information regarding applications that are available for Group Policy Software Installation.
The Group Policy template is located in the system volume folder (Sysvol) in the \Policies subfolder for its domain.

Windows 2008

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.