 What is an IP address?

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label that is

assigned to any device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for
communication between its nodes. In IP address consists of 32 bits
 What is a subnet mask?
 What is ARP?
 What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
 What is the ANDing process?
 What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
 Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a
default gateway? Without default gateway you cannot browse internet. It doesnt matter if you
are on public or private network. Default Gateway is required to route your IP packets from your
network to the other networks.
 What is a subnet?
 What is APIPA?
 What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas
behind them)
 What is RFC 1918?
 What is CIDR?
 You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your
network?
 You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per
network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
 You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
 How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
 What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
 What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
 Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
 What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
 What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
 Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
 What is DHCPINFORM?
 Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
 What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
 What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
 How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
 What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network
infrastructure?
 DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
 DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
 Describe the process of working with an external domain name
 Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
 Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
 What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
 What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
 What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
 What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
 What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
 How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
 Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
 What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
 You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV
records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
 What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
 What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
 What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and
Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
 How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
 How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
 What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
 What is WINS and when do we use it?
 Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the
"considerations" regarding not using WINS?
 Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
 What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
 Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered
in WINS.
 Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
 What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
 What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
 In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
 What is NAT?
 What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
 How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
 How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
 What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
 What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
 What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with
RRAS?
 What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
 What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
 What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
 How does SSL work?
 How does IPSec work?
 How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
 What types of authentication can IPSec use?
 What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
 How do I monitor IPSec?
 Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
 What can you do with NETSH?
 How do I look at the open ports on my machine?

Active Directory

 What is Active Directory?

 What is LDAP?
 Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few
options.
 Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?
 What is the SYSVOL folder?
 Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC
 What are application partitions? When do I use them
 How do you create a new application partition
 How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?
 What is the Global Catalog?
 How do you view all the GCs in the forest?
 Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?
 Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?
 What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?
 What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is
REPADMIN?
 What are sites? What are they used for?
 What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?
 What is the KCC?
 What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?
 What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?
 What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow
WAN link?
 How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? • Can I get
user passwords from the AD database?
 What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?
 Name some OU design considerations.
 What is tombstone lifetime attribute?
 What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 DC in a Windows 2000 AD?
 If you plan to install windows 2003 server domain controllers into an existing windows 2000
domain or upgrade a windows 2000 domain controllers to windows server 2003, you first need
to run the Adprep.exe utility on the windows 2000 domain controllers currently holding the
schema master and infrastructure master roles. The adprep / forestprer command must first be
issued on the windows 2000 server holding schema master role in the forest root doman to
prepare the existing schema to support windows 2003 active directory. The adprep
/domainprep command must be issued on the sever holding the infrastructure master role in
the domain where 2000 server will be deployed
 What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 R2 DC in a Windows 2003 AD?
 How would you find all users that have not logged on since last month?
 What are the DS* commands?
 What's the difference between LDIFDE and CSVDE? Usage considerations?
 What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one
fails?
 What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?
 I want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do I do?
 What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one
should you NOT seize? Why?
 How do you configure a "stand-by operation master" for any of the roles?
 How do you backup AD?
 How do you restore AD?
 How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
 Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 4 months ago?
 What are GPOs?
 What is the order in which GPOs are applied?
 Name a few benefits of using GPMC.
 What are the GPC and the GPT? Where can I find them?
 What are GPO links? What special things can I do to them?
 What can I do to prevent inheritance from above?
 How can I override blocking of inheritance?
 How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few ways
to do that.
 A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the
right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?
 Name a few differences in Vista GPOs
 Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.
 What are administrative templates?
 What's the difference between software publishing and assigning?
 Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?
 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?
What is Active Directory?
An active directory is a directory structure used on Microsoft Windows based computers and servers to
store information and data about networks and domains. It is primarily used for online information
and was originally created in 1996 and first used with Windows 2000. What is LDAP?

Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few
options.
Yes you can connect other vendors.
Examples: E-directory from Novell

Where is the AD database held? What other files are related to AD?
AD Database is saved in %systemroot%/ntds.You can see other files also in this folder. These are the
main files controlling the AD structure

 ntds.dit

 edb.log

 res1.log

 res2.log

 edb.chk
How to share AD folders

What is the SYSVOL folder?

All active directory data base security related information store in SYSVOL folder and its only created
on NTFS partition.

Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC

*Schema NC, *Configuration NC, * Domain NC
Schema NC This NC is replicated to every other domain controller in the forest. It contains information
about the Active Directory schema, which in turn defines the different object classes and attributes
within Active Directory.
Configuration NC Also replicated to every other DC in the forest, this NC contains forest-wide
configuration information pertaining to the physical layout of Active Directory, as well as information
about display specifiers and forest-wide Active Directory quotas.
Domain NC This NC is replicated to every other DC within a single Active Directory domain. This is the
NC that contains the most commonly-accessed Active Directory data: the actual users, groups,
computers, and other objects that reside within a particular Active Directory domain.

What are application partitions? When do I use them

Application Directory Partition is a partition space in Active Directory which an application can use to
store that application specific data. This partition is then replicated only to some specific domain
controllers.
The application directory partition can contain any type of data except security principles (users,
computers, groups).

How do you create a new application partition

The DnsCmd command is used to create a new application directory partition. Ex. to create a partition
named �NewPartition � on the domain controller DC1.contoso.com, log on to the domain controller
and type following command.

DnsCmd DC1/createdirectorypartition NewPartition.contoso.com

How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?

By using replication monitor --- go to start > run > type replmon

What is the Global Catalog?

The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every
object in every domain in a multidomain Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) forest.
How do you view all the GCs in the forest?

C:\>repadmin /showreps
domain_controller
OR
You can use Replmon.exe for the same purpose.
OR
AD Sites and Services and nslookup gc._msdcs.%USERDNSDOMAIN%

Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?

With too many DCs are configured to become the GC servers, it will cause the replication overhead
between the DCs across the forest.

Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?

register schmmgmt.dll using this command
c:\windows\system32>regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll
Open mmc --> add snapin --> add Active directory schema
name it as schema.msc
Open administrative tool --> schema.msc

What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?

Support Tools are the tools that are used for performing the complicated tasks easily. These
can also be the third party tools. Some of the Support tools include DebugViewer,
DependencyViewer, RegistryMonitor, etc.

What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is REPADMIN?
What is LDP?
A: The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP is an application protocol for querying and modifying
directory services running over TCP/IP.[1]
A directory is a set of objects with attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. The most common
example is the telephone directory, which consists of a series of names (either of persons or organizations)
organized alphabetically, with each name having an address and phone number attached.
An LDAP directory tree often reflects various political, geographic, and/or organizational boundaries, depending on
the model chosen. LDAP deployments today tend to use Domain name system (DNS) names for structuring the
topmost levels of the hierarchy. Deeper inside the directory might appear entries representing people, organizational
units, printers, documents, groups of people or anything else that represents a given tree entry (or multiple entries).
Its current version is LDAPv3, which is specified in a series of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Standard
Track Requests for comments (RFCs) as detailed in RFC 4510.
LDAP means Light-Weight Directory Access Protocol. It determines how an object in an Active directory should be
named. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a proposed open standard for accessing global or local
directory services over a network and/or the Internet. A directory, in this sense, is very much like a phone book.
LDAP can handle other information, but at present it is typically used to associate names with phone numbers and
email addresses. LDAP directories are designed to support a high volume of queries, but the data stored in the
directory does not change very often. It works on port no. 389. LDAP is sometimes known as X.500 Lite. X.500 is
an international standard for directories and full-featured, but it is also complex, requiring a lot of computing
resources and the full OSI stack. LDAP, in contrast, can run easily on a PC and over TCP/IP. LDAP can access
X.500 directories but does not support every capability of X.500  
What is REPLMON?
A: Replmon is the first tool you should use when troubleshooting Active Directory replication issues. As it is a
graphical tool, replication issues are easy to see and somewhat easier to diagnose than using its command line
counterparts. The purpose of this document is to guide you in how to use it, list some common replication errors and
show some examples of when replication issues can stop other network installation actions.

for more go to http://www.techtutorials.net/articles/replmon_howto_a.html  

What is ADSIEDIT?

A: ADSIEdit is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that acts as a low-level editor for Active
Directory. It is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool. Network administrators can use it for common administrative
tasks such as adding, deleting, and moving objects with a directory service. The attributes for each object can be
edited or deleted by using this tool. ADSIEdit uses the ADSI application programming interfaces (APIs) to access
Active Directory. The following are the required files for using this tool:
· ADSIEDIT.DLL
· ADSIEDIT.MSC
Regarding system requirements, a connection to an Active Directory environment and Microsoft Management
Console (MMC) is necessary  
What is NETDOM?
A: 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

Enables administrators to manage Active Directory domains and trust relationships from the command prompt.
Netdom is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008. It is available if you have the Active
Directory Domain Services (AD DS) server role installed. To use netdom, you must run the netdom command from
an elevated command prompt. To open an elevated command prompt, click Start, right-click Command Prompt, and
then click Run as administrator.
You can use netdom to:

Join a computer that runs Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista to a Windows Server 2008 or Windows
Server 2003 or Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 domain.
Provide an option to specify the organizational unit (OU) for the computer account.
Generate a random computer password for an initial Join operation.
Manage computer accounts for domain member workstations and member servers. Management operations include:
Add, Remove, Query.
An option to specify the OU for the computer account.
An option to move an existing computer account for a member workstation from one domain to another while
maintaining the security descriptor on the computer account.
Establish one-way or two-way trust relationships between domains, including the following kinds of trust
relationships:
From a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain to a Windows NT 4.0 domain.
From a Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain to a Windows 2000 or Windows
Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain in another enterprise.
Between two Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domains in an enterprise (a shortcut
trust).
The Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server half of an interoperable Kerberos
protocol realm.
Verify or reset the secure channel for the following configurations:
Member workstations and servers.
Backup domain controllers (BDCs) in a Windows NT 4.0 domain.
Specific Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 replicas.
Manage trust relationships between domains, including the following operations:
Enumerate trust relationships (direct and indirect).
View and change some attributes on a trust.

What are sites? What are they used for?

One or more well-connected (highly reliable and fast) TCP/IP subnets. A site allows administrators to
configure Active Directory access and replication topology to take advantage of the physical network.

What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?

Schedule enables you to list weekdays or hours when the site link is available for replication to happen
in the give interval. Interval is the re occurrence of the inter site replication in given minutes. It
ranges from 15 - 10,080 mins. The default interval is 180 mins.

What is the KCC?

The Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) is a built-in process that runs on each domain controller
and regenerates the replication topology for all directory partitions that are contained on that domain
controller. The KCC runs at specified intervals of every 15 minutes by default and designates
replication routes between domain controllers that are most favorable connections that are available
at the time.

What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?

Intersite Topology Generator (ISTG), which is responsible for the connections among the sites. By
default Windows 2003 Forest level functionality has this role.

What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?

· An NTFS partition with enough free space (250MB minimum)
· An Administrator's username and password
· The correct operating system version
· A NIC
· Properly configured TCP/IP (IP address, subnet mask and - optional - default gateway)
· A network connection (to a hub or to another computer via a crossover cable)
· An operational DNS server (which can be installed on the DC itself)
· A Domain name that you want to use
· The Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 CD media (or at least the i386 folder)

What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow WAN
link?
you will create a copy of the system state from an existing DC and copy it to the new remote server.
Run "Dcpromo /adv". You will be prompted for the location of the system state files

How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? � Can I get user
passwords from the AD database?

Demote the server using dcpromo /forceremoval, then remove the metadata from Active
directory using ndtsutil. There is no way to get user passwords from AD that I am aware of, but
you should still be able to change them.

Another way out too

Restart the DC is DSRM mode
a. Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ProductOptions
b. In the right-pane, double-click ProductType.
c. Type ServerNT in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Restart the server in normal mode
its a member server now but AD entries are still there. Promote teh server to a fake domain say ABC.com and then remove
gracefully using DCpromo. Else after restart you can also use ntdsutil to do metadata as told in teh earlier post