Active Directory Interview Question and Answers
Active Directory Interview Question and Answers
Active Directory Interview Question and Answers
What is Active Directory schema?
Answer: The schema is the Active Directory component that defines all the objects and attributes
that the directory service uses to store data.
2. What is global catalog server?
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Answer: The global catalog is the set of all objects in an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
forest. A global catalog server is a domain controller that stores a full copy of all objects in the
directory for its host domain and a partial, read‐only copy of all objects for all other domains in the
forest.
3. Which is the default protocol used in directory services?
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Answer: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
4. What is IPv6?
Answer: IPv6 is short for "Internet Protocol Version 6". IPv6 is the Internet's next‐generation
protocol, designed to replace the current Internet Protocol, IP Version 4. IPv4 allows to connect 4.3
billion IP address, where as IPv6 allows 340 trillion IP addresses to be used.
5. What is the default domain functional level in Windows Server 2003?
Answer: Mixed mode functional level
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6. What are the physical & logical components of ADS?
Answer: The physical component of Active directory contain all the physical subnet present in your
network like domain controllers and replication between domain controllers.
The logical structures of active directory include forest, domains, tree, OUs and global catalogs.
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7. What is multimaster replication?
Answer: Multi‐master replication is a method of database replication which allows data to be stored
by a group of computers, and updated by any member of the group
8. What is a site?
Answer: Sites in Active Directory® represent the physical structure, or topology, of your network.
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Active Directory uses topology information, stored as site and site link objects in the directory, to
build the most efficient replication topology. You use Active Directory Sites and Services to define
sites and site links. A site is a set of well‐connected subnets. Sites differ from domains; sites
represent the physical structure of your network, while domains represent the logical structure of
your organization.
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9. Which is the command used to remove active directory from a domain controller?
Answer: Dcpromo /forceremoval
10. What is trust?
Answer: To allow users in one domain to access resources in another, Active Directory uses trusts.
Trusts inside a forest are automatically created when domains are created. The forest sets the
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default boundaries of trust, and implicit, transitive trust is automatic for all domains within a forest.
11. What is the file that’s responsible for keep all Active Directory database?
ANSWER: 1. ntds.dit : This is the main database file for active directory.
2. edb.log : When a transaction performed to ad database, like writing some data first the data will
be stored to this file. And after that it will be sent to database. So the system performance will be
depends on how this data from edb.log file will be written to ntds.dit
3. res1.log : Used as reserve space in the case when drive had low space. It is basically 10MB in size
and creted when we run dcpromo.
4. res2.log : Same as res1.log. It is also 10MB in size and the purspose also same.
4. res2.log : Same as res1.log. It is also 10MB in size and the purspose also same.
5. edb.chk : This file records the transactions committed to ad database. During shutdown,
shutdown statement is written to this file. If it is not found when the system rebooted, the ad
database tries to check with edb.log for the updated information.
12. What is the SYSVOL folder?
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Answer: All active directory data base security related information store in SYSVOL folder and its
only created on NTFS partition.
13. What are application partitions? When do I use them?
Answer: Application directory partitions: These are specific to Windows Server 2003 domains.
An application directory partition is a directory partition that is replicated only to specific domain
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controllers. A domain controller that participates in the replication of a particular application
directory partition hosts a replica of that partition. Only Domain controllers running Windows Server
2003 can host a replica of an application directory partition.
14. What is the Global Catalog?
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.
15. Feature of AD?
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Answer: Fully Integrated Security, integration with DNS, Policy Based Administration, Scalable,
Flexible, Extensible, inter operability with other directory services.
16. What is structure of AD?
Logical & Physical
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17. What is the Component of AD?
Logical Structure: Domains, Tress, Forests and OU.
Physical Structure: Sites and Domain Controllers.
18. What is a Domain?
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Domain is collection of computers connected together with a server and users.
19. What is a Tree?
Tree is a logical component of AD, is a collection of domains which share contiguous.
20. What is a Forest?
Collection of trees which contain domains
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21. What is a child DC?
CDC is a sub domain controller under root domain controller which share name space.
22. What is a roll of ADC?
It maintains backup of AD to provide fault tolerance and network load balancing.
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23. What are the tools found after installing a DC?
Active Directory User and Computers,
Active Directory Sites and Services,
Active Directory Domain & Trust,
Domain Controller Security Policy,
Domain Security Policy
24. What is the diff. functional level of 2003?
Domain functional level & Forest functional level
Domain functional level & Forest functional level
25. What is a standalone server?
Server which is not a part of domain
26. What is a Schema?
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Schema is design of AD, defines objects and classes, set of rules.
27. What is an FSMO?
Flexible Single Master Operation
28. What is the diff. operation master of 2003?
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Schema Master, Domain Naming Master, PDC Emulator, Infrastructure Master, RID Masters.
29. What is a Schema Master?
Is responsible for overall management, structure and design of schema Only one schema master in
entire forest
30. What is domain naming master?
Is responsible for addition or removal of domains and maintaining unique domain names only one
domain naming master in entire forest
31. What is a PDC Emulator?
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Is responsible for providing backup compatibility for NT BDCs, in mixed mode it acts like a PDC for
BDCs. It updates the password changes, synchronizes time between DCs. Only one PDC Emulator per
domain.
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32. What is infrastructure Master?
Is responsible for updating user and group information and updating Global Catalog Only one
infrastructure master per domain
33. What is RID Master?
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Relative identifier is responsible for assigning unique IDs to the object s created in the AD. Only one
RID Master per domain.
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> What is domain contr oller ?
A Domain controller (DC) is a server that responds to security authentication requests (logging in, checking
permissions, etc.) within the Windows Server domain. A domain is a concept introduced in Windows NT whereby
a user may be granted access to a number of computer resources with the use of a single username and
password combination.
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> What is LDAP ?
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LDAP is the industry standard directory access protocol, making Active
Directory widely accessible to management and query applications. Active Directory supports LDAPv3 and LDAPv2.
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KCC (knowledge consistency checker) is used to generate replication topology for inter site replication and for
intra-site replication. Within a site replication traffic is done via remote procedure calls over ip, while between
sites it is done through either RPC or SMTP.
(B DC) in Ser v er 2003? m
etc of the sysvol folder are replicated to all domain controllers in the domain.
> Wher e ar e the Window s N T P r imar y Domain Contr oller (P DC) and its B ack up Domain Contr oller
The Active Directory replaces them. Now all domain controllers share a multi master peer-to-peer read and write
relationship that hosts copies of the Active Directory.
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> Cannot cr eate a new univ er sal user gr oup. Why?
Universal groups are allowed only in native-mode Windows Server 2003 environments. Native mode requires that
all domain controllers be promoted to Windows Server 2003 Active Directory.
> What is LSDOU ?
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Its group policy inheritance model, where the policies are applied toLocal machines, Sites, Domains
and Organizational U nits.
> How many number of per mitted unsuccessful logons on Administr ator account? Unlimited.
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Remember, though, that it’s the Administrator account, not any account that’s part of the Administrators group.
> How many passw or ds by default ar e r emember ed w hen you check “En for ce P assw or d Histor y
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Remember ed”?
User’s last 6 passwords.
> Which is ser v ice in your w indow s is r esponsible for r eplication of Domain contr oller to another
domain contr oller .
KCC generates the replication topology.
Use SMTP / RPC to replicate changes.
> What Intr asite and Inter site Replication?
Intrasite is the replication within the same site & intersite the replication between sites.
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Ex: you created a user in OU which is deleted in other DC & when replication happed ADS didn’t find the OU then
it will put that in Lost & Found Folder.
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> What System State data contains?
Contains Startup files,
Registry
Com + Registration Database
Memory Page file
System files
AD information
Cluster Service information
SYSVOL Folder
Windows 2003 Active Directory introduced a number of new security features, as well as convenience features
such as the ability to rename a domain controller and even an entire domain
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Windows Server 2003 also introduced numerous changes to the default settings that can be affected by Group
Policy – you can see a detailed list of each available setting and which OS is required to support it by downloading
the Group Policy Settings Reference.
ADS stands for Automated Deployment Services, and is used to quickly roll out identically-configured servers in
large-scale enterprise environments. You can get more information from the ADS homepage.
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