Windows Administrator L1 Interview

Question
1. What is the different between Workgroup and Domain?
Domain Server has Centralized Control Where else Workgroup
has no Centralized Control
Domain Network has higher level of security when compared to
Workgroup.
Domain Network Implementation and Maintained cost is very less
when compared to that of workgroup.
Time constrain is very less when compared to that of a
Workgroup.
Administrator has overall control on the network where else
workgroup has no control.
2. How will assign Local Administrator rights for domain
user? Navigate to Local User and Groups add the domain users to
administrators
group
in
the
local
system.
3. How will you restrict user logon timing in domain?Navigate to
Active Directory Users and Computers, User Properties select logon
times
and
restrict
the
user
logon
timing
as
needed.
4. What is the purpose of sysvol?
The sysvol folder stores the server's copy of the domain's public files.
The contents such as group policy, users, and groups of the sysvol
folder are replicated to all domain controllers in the domain. The
sysvol
folder
must
be
located
on
an
NTFS
volume.
5.

What

is

OU?

Explain

its

Uses.

Organization Unit is set of active directory object within a domain. It is

used to design an organization structure, Restrict users visibility and
to delegate control.
6. Explain different edition of windows 2003 Server?
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition: - is aimed towards
small to medium sized businesses. Standard Edition supports file and

printer sharing, offers secure Internet connectivity, and allows

centralized desktop application deployment.
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition: - is aimed towards
medium to large businesses. It is a full-function server operating
system that supports up to eight processors and provides enterpriseclass features and support for up to 32 GB of memory.
Windows Server 2003, Web Edition: - is mainly for building and
hosting Web applications, Web pages, and XML Web Services.
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition: - is the flagship of the
Windows Server line and designed for immense infrastructures
demanding high security and reliability.
7. What is DNS Server?
Domain Name System is used to resolve domain name to IP Address
and also used to resolve IP Address to Domain Name. It has two zones
Forward and Reverse Lookup Zone. Forward Lookup Zone resolve
Domain name to IP address. Reverse Lookup Zone is used to resolve
IP address to Domain Name. Some records associate with DNS

A Record binds Name with IP Address

PTR Record binds IP Address to Name
8. Why DNS server is required for Active Directory?
The key reason for integrating DNS with AD is that client server
communication takes place with Domain Name. Network needs IP
address to reach the destination; In order to resolve Domain Name to
IP Address we need DNS Server. If DNS Server is not configured
properly the network becomes slow.
9. What is the Purpose of A and PTR Record?
A Record OR Host Record is used to bind a Name with IP
Address.
PTR Record is used to bind an IP Address with Name.
10. What is the purpose of DHCP Server?
DHCP Server is used to assign IP address automatically to all the
clients computers. It is useful in large enterprise network, where we
may not able track the IP address and also used to avoid IP conflict.
11.

Explain

about

Scope

in

DHCP

Server?

Scope is collective information of assigning IP address for clients. It

contains information like IP Address Range, Exclusion Range, Lease

Period, Reservation, Router IP Address, DNS Address, etc. Based on

the scope configuration DHCP allocates IP address to its entire client.
12.
Explain
about
Group
Scopes?
13.

How

will

you

backup

DNS

Server?

Backup the directory %System Root%\System32\DNS.

14. How will backup DHCP Server?
First Method: Backup the directory in the %System Root
%\System32\DHCP
folder.
Alternate method: Open DHCP Console select server to backup and
restore
DHCP
database.
15.

Explain

APIPA.

A Windows-based computer that is configured to use DHCP can

automatically assign itself an Internet Protocol (IP) address if a DHCP
server is not available or does not exist. The Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved 169.254.0.0-169.254.255.255
for Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA).
16. Explain about AD Database.
Windows 2003 Active Directory data store, the actual database file, is
%System Root%\NTDS\NTDS.DIT. AD Database all information such
as User Accounts, Groups, Computer Information, Domain Controller
information, Group Policy, Organization Unit,etc.
17.
Explain
about
Group
Policy.
Group policies are used by administrators to configure and control
user environment settings. Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are used to
configure group policies which are applied to sites, domains, and
organizational units (OUs) .There is a maximum of 1000 applicable
group policies.
18. What is the default time for group policy refresh interval
time?
The default refresh interval for policies is 90 minutes. The default
refresh interval for domain controllers is 5 minutes. Group policy
object's group policy refresh intervals may be changed in the group
policy
object.

19.

Explain

Hidden

Share.

Hidden or administrative shares are share names with a dollar sign ($)
appended to their names. Administrative shares are usually created
automatically for the root of each drive letter. They do not display in
the network browse list.
20. What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
Requests are on UDP port 68, Server replies on UDP 67.
21. How do I configure a client machine to use a specific IP
Address?
By reserving an IP Address using client machine MAC or Physical
address.
22. Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
AD Integrated Zones allow Secure Dynamic Updates. I.e. there
will not be any duplicate or unwanted records. Since all the
information are validated in active directory.
By creating AD- integrated zone you can also trace hacker and
spammer by creating reverse zone.
AD integrated zones are stored as part of the active directory
and support domain-wide or forest-wide replication through application
partitions in AD.
23. How do you backup & Restore AD?
Using Windows NTBackup Utility. In Backup select systemstate will
include active directory backup. Restore the Same using NTBackup
Utility.
24. How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
Using
25.

NTDSUTIL
How

can

you

forcibly

remove

tool.
AD

from

server?

Using the command dcpromo /forceremoval

26. What will be the problem if DNS Server fails?
If your DNS server fails, No Client will able to reach the Domain
Controller, which will create authentication and Control Issues.

27. How can you restrict running certain applications on a

machine?
The Group Policy Object Editor and the Software Restriction Policies
extension of Group Policy Object Editor are used to restrict running
certain applications on a machine. For Windows XP computers that are
not participating in a domain, you can use the Local Security Settings
snap-in
to
access
Software
Restriction
Policies.
28.

What

Using
29.

can

you

do

to

promote

the
How

will

server

command
map

folder

to

DC?

dcpromo
through

AD?

Specify the network share path (UNC) in the active directory users
home
directory.
30.

Explain

Quotas.

Disk Quota is a feature or service of NTFS which helps to restrict or

manage the disk usage from the normal user. It can be implemented
per user user per volume basis.By default it is disabled. Administrative
privilege is required to perform the task. In 2003server we can control
only drive but in 2008server we can establish quota in folder level.
31. Explain Backup Methodology.
The different types of backup methodologies are:
Normal Backup:-This is default backup in which all files are
backed up even if it was backed up before.
Incremental Backup:-In this type of backup only the files that
havent been backed up are taken care of or backed up.
Differential Backup:-This backup is similar to incremental backup
because it does not take backup of those files backed up by normal
backup but different from incremental because it will take backup of
differentially backed up files at next time of differential backup.
System Backup:-This type of backup takes backup of files
namely, Boot file, COM+Class Registry, Registry. But in server it takes
backup of ADS.
ASR Backup:-This type of backup takes backup of entire boot

partition including OS and user data. This should be the last

troubleshooting method to recover an os from disaster.
32. Explain how to publish printer through AD.
Navigate to Active Directory Users and Computers, Create new printer
and add the printer i.e. the printer share name (UNC) Path.
Automatically the printer will be published in Active Directory.
33.

Explain

the

functionality

of

FTP

Server?

File Transfer Protocol is used transfer large volume of files and huge
number of files simultaneous between different geographic locations.
34. Specify the Port Number for AD, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, HTTPS,
SMTP, POP3 & FTP
AD - 389
DNS - 53
DHCP - 67,68
HTTP - 80
HTTPS - 443
SMTP - 25
POP3 - 110
FTP - 21,22
35. Explain Virtual Directory in IIS?
A virtual server can have one home directory and any number of other
publishing directories. These other publishing directories are referred
to
as
virtual
directories.
36.

What

is

Exclusion

Range

in

DHCP

Server?

Exclusion Range is used to hold a range IP addresses. Those IP

Address can be used or may not be used in the network, but DHCP
server
does
not
assign
those
IP
to
its
client.
37.

Explain

SOA

Record.

Start Of Authority (SOA) Records indicate that Name Server is

authoritative server for the domain.
38. What command is used to clear DNS cache in client PC?

Ipconfig
39.

Explain

/flushdns
Secure

Dynamic

Updates

in

DNS

Server.

Only when installing active directory and DNS in the same server (AD
Integrated Zones) we can select Secure Dynamic Updates. Then all the
records will automatically be updated in DNS. Since all the information
is validated in active directory there will not be any duplicate or
unwanted
records.
40.

Explain

FRS

in

detail.

File Replication Service is a Microsoft service which replicates folders

stored in sysvol shared folders on domain controllers and distributed
file system shared folders. This service is a part of Microsofts active
directory service.
41. Explain the protocol involved in ADC replication.
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is the protocol used in ADC replication.
42. Explain the difference between Patches and Service pack.
Patches are fixes, updates or enhancements for a particular program
whereas
service
packs
include
a
collection
of
43.

What

is

WSUS?

WSUS is Windows Software Update Services. It is server provided by

Microsoft free of cost to manage patches for windows environment
centralized.
44. How client server communication takes place in WSUS
server?
Using
Web
Server
or
Web
Services
45. What is the difference between Dynamic Disk and Basic
Disk?
Basic Disk: Basic Disk uses a partition table to manage all partitions
on the disk, and it is supported by DOS and all Windows versions. A
disk with installed OS would be default initialized to a basic one. A
basic disk contains basic volumes, such as primary partitions,

extended partition, and all logical partitions are contained in extended

partition.
Dynamic Disk: Dynamic Disk is supported in Windows 2000 and later
operating system. Dynamic disks do not use a partition table to track
all partitions, but use a hidden database (LDM) to track information
about dynamic volumes or dynamic partitions on the disk. With
dynamic disks you can create volumes that span multiple disks such
as spanned and striped volumes, and can also create fault-tolerant
volumes such as mirrored volumes and RAID 5 volumes. Compared to
a
Basic
Disk,
Dynamic
Disk
offers
greater
flexibility.
46. What is maximum Size of file system NTFS and FAT32?
NTFS
- 16TB
FAT32 - 4GB
47.

What

is

hosts

files?

The hosts file is a computer file used in an operating system to map

hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain-text file and is
traditionally
named
hosts.
48.

What

is

lmhosts

files?

The lmhosts files are a computer file used in an operating system to

map NetBIOS name. It is equivalent that of WINS.
49. Explain About Global Catalog.
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.
50.

Name

some

OU

design

considerations.

It is used to design an organization structure, Restrict users visibility

and to delegate control.
51. Name a few benefits of using GPMC.
GPMC is used to customize group policy.
It is easy to maintain different OU policy effectively.
Provide option to take backup and restore group policy.

52. You want to standardize the desktop environments

(wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the
computers in one department. How would you do that?
Configure
Group
Policy
based
on
OU.
53. By default, if the name is not found in the cache or local
hosts file, what is the first step the client takes to resolve the
FQDN
name
into
an
IP
address?
Create

record

in

DNS

Server

54. You are administering a network connected to the Internet.

Your users complain that everything is slow. Preliminary
research of the problem indicates that it takes a considerable
amount of time to resolve names of resources on the Internet.
What
is
the
most
likely
reason
for
this?
DNS Issues
55. Describe how the DHCP lease is obtained.
Its a four-step process consisting of (a) IP request, (b) IP offer, (c) IP
selection
and
(d)
acknowledgement.
56. I cant seem to access the Internet, dont have any access
to the corporate network and on ipconfig my address is
169.254.*.*.
What
happened?
The 169.254.*.* netmask is assigned to Windows machines running
98/2000/XP if the DHCP server is not available. The name for the
technology is APIPA (Automatic Private Internet Protocol Addressing).
57. Weve installed a new Windows-based DHCP server,
however, the users do not seem to be getting DHCP leases off
of it.
The server must be authorized first with the Active Directory.
58.

How

do

Rename
59.

What

you

configure

ntuser.dat
is

Page

mandatory
to

File

and

profiles?
ntuser.man

Virtual

Memory?

Page File Is Storage Space For The Virtual Memory, Page File Uses
Hard Disk Space As a Memory To Provide Memory Allocation...
60. What is the difference between DNS in Windows 2000 &
Windows 2003 Server?
We can rename or moved the domain name without rebuilding in
windows 2003 server, but in windows 2000 server, we can't do that.
61.

Where

are

group

policies

%SystemRoot%System32\Group
62.
Group

What
policy

Policy

are
template

stored?

GPT
and

and

group

63.

Where

is

%System

Root%\SYSVOL\sysvol\domain

policy

GPT

GPC?
container.
stored?

name\Policies\GUID

64. You change the group policies, and now the computer and
user settings are in conflict. Which one has the highest
priority?
The

computer

settings

take

priority.

65. What hidden shares exist on Windows Server 2003

installation?
Admin$, Drive$, IPC$, NETLOGON, print$ and SYSVOL.