Tell me about your self?

I am Rama Krishna; I am working as a Storage Administrator since 4 years

I have total 8 years of IT experience

I did work in HCL as a Desktop Engineer for 1 year and worked as a Solaris Administrator for 3
year and as a Storage Administrator for 1 year in Infosys. Presently working as a Storage
administrator since 3 years in current Organization

I am having working experience on EMC DMX-3/4 Arrays, Clariion CX series Arrays, IBM Storage,
SRDF, TimeFinder, Snapshots, clone, mirro view, symcli, ECC, Replication Manager, Zoning,
managing cisco and brocade switches, Windows, Linux and Solaries platforms, etc..

I have done Engineering in Computer Science from Andhra University In the year of 2002 with
the 78% of marks, completed Intermediate in the year of 1998 with the 70% of marks,
completed X Class in the year of 1996 with the 68% of marks

I have done Solaris and STF professional certifications

I am single, my father is school teacher and my mother is house wife

Explain about day to day activities in your current profile.

Example:
Monitoring alerts using Monitoring Tool like EMC Control Center

Follow-up for the pending service requests

Checking ticketing tool for any new tickets

Updating the tickets with the current status

Responding to the assigned service requests

Documenting the service request solutions

Performing Health checks

Preparing Job plans for changes

Participating bridge calls if any

Attending internal/customer meetings, etc.

Explain about roles and responsibilities in your current profile

Example:

Providing L2 support for the EMC DMX and Clariion storage

Performing upgrades/downgrades of Firmware

Storage Provisioning for new hosts

Storage Provisioning/ reclamation for existing hosts

Performing Zoning

Troubleshooting Switch issues

Troubleshooting storage issues

Troubleshooting Performance issues

Vendor /customer management during the hardware failure issues

Performing Changes and preparing job plans for changes

Performing TimeFinder/Mirror Operations

Performing SRDF Operations

Troubleshooting failed SRDF/TimeFinder jobs

Monitoring Storage environment using Monitoring Tools (ECC)

Preparing Storage Capacity planning reports

Performing Disaster Recovery Activities.etc.,

What is the first thing you will do at office?

Example:

Checking the mails for any escalations/ alerts/ new assignments

Checking the monitoring tools for any critical alerts on console

Checking the ticketing tools for newly logged service requests

Checking the pending issues.etc.,

Tell him the reason why do you want to leave the present company, keep in mind that the
answer should be positive.

Example:

Career growth.

Change of location necessity.

Expecting large scope of work, etc.,

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2

It is based on kernal version
6.0 ( the same of Windows It is based on kernal version 6.1 ( the same of Windows 7)
Vista)
  It use the same GUI
introduced with Windows  It use the same new GUI introduced with Windows 7
Vista
Is for both 32 bit & 64-bit
Is only for 64-bit platforms
platforms

Hyper-V provides a dynamic, reliable, and scalable virtualization

Its Hyper V does not have
platform combined with a single set of integrated management
that feature
tools to manage both physical and virtual resources

Not available in Windows

server 2008, It is only having
Basic Remote desktop
Services.
Normal Power Management
Service
Microsoft RemoteFX,  introduces a new set of remote user-
experience capabilities that enable a media-rich user environment
for virtual and session-based desktops.
Enhanced Power Management services which save up to 18 %
more power than previous version.

Normal Data management Enhanced Data Management server using File Classification
server Infrastructure (FCI)

Difference between Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 completed

The 10 best … Windows Server 2012 features

Opinion Microsoft's Windows Server 2012 is out. For many systems administrators, the
question about this latest iteration of Microsoft's server family is not "What's new?" but "Why
care?"
Server 2008 R2 is a great operating system, while Server 2012 bears the stigma of Metro and
the Windows 8 controversy. But the answer to "why care" is simple: Server 2012 is as big a leap
over 2008 R2 as 2008 R2 was over 2003.
Server 2012 comes with some great new features. It also refines previous versions of Server to
bring it past the "never use version 1.0" stage and up to parity, in features and stability, with
competing offerings.
In short Windows Server 2012 kicks ass. Here are the top 10 reasons why.
10. IIS 8
IIS 8 brings Internet Information Services up to feature parity with the rest of the world, and
surpasses it in places. More than a decade's worth of "you use Windows as your web server"
jokes officially end here.
IIS 8 sports script precompilation, granular process throttling, SNI support and centralised
certificate management. Add in a FTP server that finally, mercifully, doesn't suck (it even has
functional login restrictions) and IIS 8 becomes worth the cost of the operating system on its
own.
9. PowerShell
PowerShell 3.0 is an evolution rather than a revolution. Having more PowerShell scriptlets is not
normally something I would care about. That said, the 2012 line of products marks a revolution
in Microsoft's approach to server management.
Every element of the operating system and virtually every other companion server, such as SQL,
Exchange or Lync, are completely manageable through PowerShell. This is so ingrained that the
GUIs are just buttons that call PowerShell scripts underneath.
PowerShell should be tops on this list but to make proper use of it, your Google-fu has to be
strong. The official documentation is incomplete, Bing is still worthless for searching Microsoft's
web estate and the golden examples for making use of PowerShell lie in the blogs maintained
by Microsoft's staff.
Once you have assembled the list of scriptlets you need – printed, laminated and guarded by a
fire elemental as in days of old – you can make the 2012 stack of Microsoft software sing.
Thanks to PowerShell, Microsoft is ready to take on all comers at any scale.
8. DirectAccess
DirectAccess was a neat idea but it was poorly implemented in previous versions of Windows.
Server 2012 makes it easier to use, with SSL as the default configuration and IPSec as an option.
The rigid dependence on IPv6 has also been removed.
DirectAccess has evolved into a reasonable, reliable and easy-to-use replacement for virtual
private networks.
7. Cluster Shared Volumes
With Server 2012 Cluster Shared Volumes are officially supported for use beyond hosting virtual
hard disks for Hyper-V. You may now roll your own highly available multi-node replicated
storage cluster and do so with a proper fistful of best-practice documentation.
6. Deduplication
For years now, storage demand has been growing faster than hard drive density. Meeting our
voracious appetite for data storage has meant more and more spindles, and more controllers,
chassis, power supplies, electricity and cooling to keep those spindles spinning.
Deduplication has moved from nice to have to absolute must in recent years and Microsoft has
taken notice. Server 2012 supports deduplication on NTFS volumes – though tragically it does
not work with CSV – and deeply integrates it with BranchCache to save on WAN bandwidth.
5. Hyper-V 3.0
Server 2012 sees Hyper-V catch up with VMware's mainstream. While objectively I would have
to say that VMware retains the feature lead at the top end, when combined with System Center
2012, Hyper-V 3.0 will cheerfully handle two-sigma worth of use cases.
Microsoft is no longer an also-ran in the virtualisation space; it is a capable and voracious
predator stalking the wilds of the data centre for new prey.
Microsoft's Hyper-V Server – a free Windows Core version of Hyper-V – is feature complete. If
you have a yen to dive into PowerShell then you can run a complete 64-node, 8,000 virtual
machine Hyper-V cluster without paying Microsoft a dime.
It takes a very special kind of masochist to do so – Microsoft is betting you will spend the money
on System Center 2012 and it is probably right. System Center 2012 is amazing, even more so
with the newly launched Service Pack 1.
Microsoft's focus on PowerShell and its decision to put price pressure on VMware with Hyper-V
server has opened up a market for third-party management tools such as 5Nine. These are not
nearly as capable as System Center, but offer a great mid-point between free and impossible to
manage and awesome but too expensive. This emerging ecosystem should see Hyper-V's
market share explode.
4. Hyper-V Replica
Hyper-V Replica is a storage technology designed to continuously replicate your virtual
machines across to a backup cluster. It ensures that snapshots no more than 15 minutes old of
your critical virtual machines are available over any network link, including the internet.
It replicates the initial snapshot in full – after that it sends only change blocks – and it fully
supports versioning of your virtual machines.
3. iSCSI
With Windows Storage Server 2008, Microsoft first made an iSCSI target available. It eventually
became an optional download from Microsoft's website for Server 2008 R2 and is now finally
integrated into Server 2012 as a core component.
2. NFS 4.1
Microsoft's NFS 4.1 server is good code. Designed from the ground up it is is fast, stable and
reliable. It makes a great storage system for heterogenous environments and a wonderful
network storage point for VMware servers.
1. SMB 3.0
SMB 3.0 is the crown jewel of Server 2012. It is far removed from its laughingstock predecessor
CIFS. It supports multiple simultaneous network interfaces – including the ability to hot-plug
new interfaces on the fly to increase bandwidth for large or complex transfers – and supports
MPIO, thin provisioning of volumes and deduplication (assuming the underlying storage is
NTFS).
SMB 3.0 also supports SMB Direct and remote direct memory access, the ability for
appropriately kitted systems to move SMB data directly from one system's memory to the
other, bypassing the SMB stack. This has enabled Microsoft to hit 16GBps transfer rates for
SMB 3.0, a weighty gauntlet for any potential challenger to raise.
 I have found Server 2012 to be worth the cost of the upgrade, even where I have the excellent
Server 2008 R2 deployed. Given that I work with very limited IT budgets, that is a strong
endorsement.
If you have also taken the plunge, please share your take in the comments below

Hardware Specifications between these two

Windows Server 2008

Processor/Memory Feature Windows Server 2012
R2

RAM per VM 1TB 64GB

Virtual processors/VM 64 4

# of Active VMs 1,024 384

Virtual processors/VMs 64 4

Virtual processors/hosts 2,048 512

Maximum cluster nodes 64 16

Maximum cluster VMs 8,000 1,000

Physical Memory 4TB 1TB

Some of the new features introduced in

Server 2016

1. Nano Server
2. UEFI Secure Boot
3. The Resilient File System (ReFS)
4. Server & Hyper V Container
5. Nested Virtualization
6. Hyper V Hot-Add Virtual Hardware, to
add any hardware into VM while its
runing
7. Shielded VMs
8. PowerShell direct to the Hyper V host 

Before comparing the server 2012 R2 with

server 2016, let’s see some of the new
features which was included in the latest build
release of server 2016.

 Nano Server -> No GUI & headless

version of windows server.
 Windows Server Containers –>
Improves deployment & reliability of
applications.
 Hyper Containers -> Provides
enhanced isolation
 Docker Support -> Use to manage
window server & Hyper-V containers.
 Rolling upgrades for Hyper-V & storage
cluster

 Hot add VM Nic’s
 Nested Virtualization -> Can run
Hyper-V within Hyper-V
 PowerShell direct
 Secure boot -> Linux secure boot for
VM’s
Some of the new features introduced in
Server 2012

IPAM (IP Address Management) IPAM is a means of planning, tracking, and managing the
Internet Protocol address space used in a network.

ReFS (Resilient File System) :- Short for “Resilient File System”, ReFS is a new file system built
using code from the current NTFS file system. At the moment, ReFS is not just a replacement
for NTFS. ReFS Protects Against Data Corruption

Server Roles and Features

Windows Server 2012: Server Roles and Features

The newest version of Windows Server has new and enhanced features that greatly simplify a
server administrator’s job making it easier and more efficient. Planning is the most logical step
in the process of installing and configuring your network for Windows Server 2012.
Any administrator realizes the value in knowing the capabilities, server roles, features, versions,
and licensing information of the server. So that the server can be put to the best possible use to
allow for making the network to be more efficient and allow users to be more productive within
the organization.
The role that a server performs is a primary duty, service, or technology that the server
provides for an organization. Windows Server 2012 provides several primary sever roles.

Windows Server 2012 Server Role.

Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS) – enables Windows Server 2012 to provide
certificates to clients and servers.
Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) – configures server to host Active Directory database,
and to use this database to authenticate users to logon to the network and authorize their use
of resources.
Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) – enables a Windows Server 2012 sever to use
login information for a variety of severs and services so that a single login provides users with
access to all resources.
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (ADLDS) – used to setup a small version of
Active Directory database for the purpose of Active Directory – integrated applications.
Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS) – enables Active Directory to exchange
information with AD RMS- compatible software. Enabling an additional layer of security that
content owners can use to protect their documents. Content owners can specifically set
permissions that controls who can open, modify, forward or print each document.
Application Server – a server on which you have installed an server application such as
Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Exchange Server.
DHCP Server – enables a Windows server to automatically lease IP addresses to different clients
such as computers and printers instead of requiring you to manually configure each devices IP
address settings.
DNS Server – configures a Windows server to provide name resolution services the process by
which a computer finds a computer’s IP address based on a provide computer name.
FAX Server – a fax server sends and receives faxes for multiple users. When it receives faxes, a
fax server forwards those faxes to the relevant users mailbox.
File and Storage Services – a server service, used to manage access to files on the server. Also
used to implement Distributed File Services (DFS) and access to network storage.
Hyper-V – Hyper –V service is installed and configured to support the implementation of virtual
machines.
Print and Document Services – enables you to centrally manage printers and scanners, as well
as their queues on the network.
Network Policy and Access Services – enables you to secure remote access to the network,
meeting requirements that all remote users authenticate to the server running Network Policy
and Access Services before gaining access to the corporate network.
Remote Access - enables users to connect to the network remotely without requiring virtual
private network (VPN) connections.
Remote Desktop Services – enables a Windows server to provide access to virtual desktops,
session-based desktops, and applications that encompass Remote App.
Volume Activation Services – configures a Windows server to automate the process of tracking
volume license keys and their activation. The service can also be used to implement Key
Management Services (KMS) host or Active Directory-based license activation for domain
members.
Web Server (IIS) – enables the setup of a Windows server as a web server.
Windows Deployment Services (WDS) – a service used to install and configure Windows
operating systems across the network.
Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) – enables automated deployment of updates for
Microsoft products such as Windows and Microsoft Office.

Windows Server 2012 Features

Windows BitLocker® Drive Encryption – enable or disable encryption at the disk or volume
level. Enables encryption at the Windows startup environment.
Failover Clustering – used to set up server clusters, increasing the reliability of you your servers
by providing back up servers.
Group Policy Management – an administrative console used to implement Group Policy on an
organizations network.
Ink and Handwriting Services – enables the network to support input via pens, and recognition
of handwriting and math equations.
Internet Printing Client – configure support for user to connect and print to local printers or
Internet printers using the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP).
Network Load Balancing (NLB) – used to balance the user workload across multiple servers
running a stateless application. Stateless applications respond independently to each client
request, making it possible for multiple servers to balance the client requests.
Remote Assistance – enables support to clients that send invitations, by providing remote
assistance you can access the client desktop as if you were sitting at the actual computer.
Remote Server Administration Tools – enables remote management of servers running
Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012. It is also possible to manage Windows
Server 2003 servers as long as you connect to them through a server running either Windows
Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – use to configure a server to send email messages.
Telnet Client, Telnet Server – enables setup of server to support uses connecting and accessing
files using the Telnet Protocol. The Telnet Client is used to connect to Telnet servers.
Windows PowerShellä- provides a command-line interface for running commands or scripts to
perform administrative tasks.
Windows Server Backup – use to backup a Windows server and if necessary to restore a
backup after a server failure.
Windows System Resource Managerä(WSRM) - enables the configuration of the allocation of
both a server’s CPU and RAM resources.
Wireless Local Area Network Service (LAN) – configure the wireless LAN service to enable a
server to communicate using a wireless network adapter.
Windows on Windows (WoW) 64 Support – Windows Server 2012 64-Bit servers use this
feature to allow 32-Bit applications to run.

IP Address Management (IPAM) Server – enables central management of both DHCP and DNS
servers. Can also be used to discover, monitor, and audit DHCP and DNS servers.
New Cmdlets – new cmdlets for configuring and managing Active Directory replication and
replication topology.
Resilient File System (ReFS) – included in Windows Server 2012 is this new file system provides
enhanced reliability, better data integrity, and compatibility with existing API’s and file system
filters.
Revised Task Manager – The new Task Manager includes a new Processes Tab, enabling you to
identify the processes that are consuming server resources.
User interface – you are prompted during installation whether you want to install a Server Core
installation, a Minimal Server Interface, a server with a graphical user interface (GUI), or full
desktop experience interface. After installing a server different options can be chosen by using
PowerShell cmdlets.
Windows BrancheCache® - a bandwidth optimization technology designed to optimize the
traffic on a wide area network (WAN). BranchCache optimizes performance by caching content
from a headquarters office and storing it locally on the BranchCache Server.
What is the difference between Server Roles and Features?

A server, consist of one or more programs that enable a server to perform a specific function
for users and/or computers on a network.
In contrast, features are applications that can increase the functions the server can perform.
Features can add support or add functions, to server roles. In many cases, a single role contains
a number of features.

The following are new Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V features that were also in the
R2 beta.

 Live Migration
 Jumbo Frame Support
 Hot Add/Remove of storage (VHDs and Pass Through Disks)
 Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) processor support for both Intel (EPT) and
AMD (RVI)
 Core Parking
 Improved network performance via support for TCP Chimney and VMQ (specific
hardware NICs required)
 Improved VHD performance for dynamic and difference disks.

Clustering and Live Migration

Q:  Up to how many nodes on a cluster does Live Migration support?

A:   Live Migration is supported on up to 16 node failover clusters.

Q:  What is the maximum number of supported VMs per node?

A:  For production deployment, up to 32 VMs per node for server workloads and up to 64 VMs
per node for VDI workloads are supported.  Customers must plan for adequate capacity when a
failover occurs and VMs from the failed host are brought online on different nodes of the
cluster.

Difference between 2003 and 2008 .

1 2008 is combination of vista and windows 2003r2. Some new services are introduced in it
1. RODC one new domain controller introduced in it  [Read-only Domain controllers.]
2. WDS (windows deployment services) instead of RIS in 2003 server
3. shadow copy for each and every folders
4.boot sequence is changed
5.installation is 32 bit where as 2003 it is 16 as well as 32 bit, that’s why installation of 2008 is
faster
6.services are known as role in it
7. Group policy editor is a separate option in ads
2) The main difference between 2003 and 2008 is Virtualization, management.
2008 has more inbuilt components and updated third party drivers Microsoft introduces new
feature with 2k8 that is Hyper-V  Windows Server 2008 introduces Hyper-V (V for Virtualization)
but only on 64bit versions. More and more companies are seeing this as a way of reducing
hardware costs by running several ‘virtual’ servers on one physical machine. If you like this
exciting technology, make sure that you buy an edition of Windows Server 2008 that includes
Hyper-V, then launch the Server Manger, add Roles.

Windows Server 2008 R2 new features:

Active Directory Recycle Bin
Windows Power Shell 2.0
Active Directory Administrative Center (ADAC)
Offline domain join
Active Directory health check
Active Directory Web Services
Active Directory Management Pack
Windows Server Migration Tools
Managed Service Accounts.

What are RODCs? What are advantages?

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 are AD Snapshots? How do you use them?

A snapshot is a shadow copy—created by the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)—of the
volumes that contain the Active Directory database and log files. With Active Directory
snapshots, you can view the data inside such a snapshot on a domain controller without the
need to start the server in Directory Services Restore Mode.
Windows Server 2008 has a new feature allowing administrators to create snapshots of the
Active Directory database for offline use. With AD snapshots you can mount a backup of AD DS
under a different set of ports and have read-only access to your backups through LDAP.
There are quite a few scenarios for using AD snapshots. For example, if someone has changed
properties of AD objects and you need to revert to their previous values, you can mount a copy
of a previous snapshot to an alternate port and easily export the required attributes for every
object that was changed. These values can then be imported into the running instance of AD
DS. You can also restore deleted objects or simply view objects for diagnostic purposes.
It does not allow you to move or copy items or information from the snapshot to the live
database. In order to do that you will need to manually export the relevant objects or attributes
from the snapshot, and manually import them back to the live AD database.
Steps for using Snapshot:
1. Create a snapshot:
open CMD.exe, Ntdsutil, activate instance ntds, snapshot, create, list all.
2. Mounting an Active Directory snapshot:
Before connecting to the snapshot we need to mount it. By looking at the results of the List All
command in above step, identify the snapshot that you wish to mount, and note the number
next to it.
Type Ntdsutil, Snapshot, List all, Mount 2. The snapshot gets mounted to c:\
$SNAP_200901250030_VOLUMEC$. Now you can refer this path to see the objects in these
snapshots.

3. Connecting an Active Directory snapshot:

In order to connect to the AD snapshot you’ve mounted you will need to use the DSAMAIN
command. DSAMAIN 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) or Active Directory
Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) server role installed.
After using DSAMAIN to expose the information inside the AD snapshot, you can use any GUI
tool that can connect to the specified port, tools such as Active Directory Users and Computers
(DSA.msc), ADSIEDIT.msc, LDP.exe or others. You can also connect to it by using command line
tools such as LDIFDE or CSVDE, tools that allow you to export information from that database.
dsamain -dbpath ” c:\$SNAP_200901250030_VOLUMEC$\Windows\NTDS\ntds.dit” -ldapport
10289

The above command will allow you to access the database using port 10289.
Now you can use LDP.exe tool to connect to this mounted instance.
4. Disconnecting from the Active Directory snapshot:
In order to disconnect from the AD snapshot all you need to do is to type CTRL+C at the
DSAMAIN command prompt window. You’ll get a message indicating that the DS shut down
successfully.

5. Unmounting the snapshot:

Run command, Ntdsutil, Snapshot, List all, Unmount 2.

What is Offline Domain Join? How do you use it?

 You can use offline domain join to join computers to a domain without contacting a domain
controller over the network. You can join computers to the domain when they first start up
after an operating system installation. No additional restart is necessary to complete the
domain join. This helps reduce the time and effort required to complete a large-scale computer
deployment in places such as datacenters.
For example, an organization might need to deploy many virtual machines within a datacenter.
Offine domain join makes it possible for the virtual machines to be joined to the domain when
they initially start following the operating system installation. No additional restart is required
 to complete the domain join. This can significantly reduce the overall time required for wide-
scale virtual machine deployments.
A domain join establishes a trust relationship between a computer running a Windows
operating system and an Active Directory domain. This operation requires state changes to
AD DS and state changes on the computer that is joining the domain. To complete a domain
join in the past using previous Windows operating systems, the computer that joined the
domain had to be running and it had to have network connectivity to contact a domain
controller. Offline domain join provides the following advantages over the previous
requirements:
 The Active Directory state changes are completed without any network traffic to the
computer.
 The computer state changes are completed without any network traffic to a domain
controller.
 Each set of changes can be completed at a different time.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/offline-domain-join-djoin-step-by-step
%28WS.10%29.aspx
What are Fine-Grained Passwords? How do you use them?
 You can use fine-grained password policies to specify multiple password policies within a single
domain. You can use fine-grained password policies to apply different restrictions for password
and account lockout policies to different sets of users in a domain.
For example, you can apply stricter settings to privileged accounts and less strict settings to the
accounts of other users. In other cases, you might want to apply a special password policy for
accounts whose passwords are synchronized with other data sources.
Talk about Restartable Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008/R2. What is
this feature good for?
Restartable AD DS is a feature in Windows Server 2008 that you can use to perform routine
maintenance tasks on a domain controller, such as applying updates or performing offline
defragmentation, without restarting the server.
While AD DS is running, a domain controller running Windows Server 2008 behaves the same
way as a domain controller running Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server or
Windows Server 2003.
While AD DS is stopped, you can continue to log on to the domain by using a domain account if
other domain controllers are available to service the logon request. You can also log on to the
domain with a domain account while the domain controller is started in Directory Services
Restore Mode (DSRM) if other domain controllers are available to service the logon request.
If no other domain controller is available, you can log on to the domain controller where AD DS
is stopped in Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) only by using the DSRM Administrator
account and password by default, as in Windows 2000 Server Active Directory or
Windows Server 2003 Active Directory.
Benefits of restartable AD DS
Restartable AD DS reduces the time that is required to perform offline operations such as
offline defragmentation. It also improves the availability of other services that run on a domain
controller by keeping them running when AD DS is stopped. In combination with the Server
Core installation option of Windows Server 2008, restartable AD DS reduces the overall
servicing requirements of a domain controller.
In Windows 2000 Server Active Directory and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory, you must
restart the domain controller in DSRM when you perform offline defragmentation of the
database or apply security updates. In contrast, you can stop Windows Server 2008 AD DS as
you stop other services that are running locally on the server. This makes it possible to perform
offline AD DS operations more quickly than you could with Windows 2000 Server and
Windows Server 2003.
You can use Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, or the Net.exe command-line
tool, to stop or restart Active Directory® Domain Services (AD DS) in the Windows Server® 2008
operating system. You can stop AD DS to perform tasks, such as offline defragmentation of the
AD DS database, without restarting the domain controller. Other services that run on the
server, but that do not depend on AD DS to function, are available to service client requests
while AD DS is stopped. An example of such a service is Dynamic Host Configura

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.

October 19, 2011 4 Comments

1. What are the Important Windows port numbers:
RDP – 3389 – (windows rdp port number and remote desktop port number)
FTP – 21 – (file transfer protocol)
TFTP – 69 – ( tftp port number )
Telnet – 23 – ( telnet port number)
SMTP – 25 – ( SMTP port number)
DNS – 53 – ( dns port number and Domain Name System port number)
DHCP – 68 – (DHCP port number and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol port number )
POP3 – 110 – ( post office Protocol 3 port )
HTTP – 80 – (http port number)
HTTPS – 443 – (https port number)
NNTP – 119 – ( Network News Transfer Protocol Port number )
NTP – 123 – (ntp port number and network Time Protocol and SNTP port number )
IMAP – 143 – (Internet Message Access Protocol port number)
SSMTP – 465 – ( SMTP Over SSl )
SIMAP – 993 – ( IMAP Over SSL )
SPOP3 – 995 – ( POP# Over SS L)
Time – 123 – ( ntp port number and network Time Protocol and SNTP port number )
NetBios – 137 – ( Name Service )
NetBios – 139 – ( Datagram Service )
DHCP Client – 546 – (DHCP Client port number)
DHCP Server – 547 – (DHCP Server port number)
Global Catalog – 3268 – (Global Catalog port number)
LDAP – 389 – ( LDAP port number and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol port number )
RPC – 135 – (remote procedure call Port number)
Kerberos – 88 – ( Kerberos Port Number)
SSH – 22 – ( ssh port number and Secure Shell port number)
9. How many types of  queries DNS does?
Iterative Query
Recursive Query
Iterative Query
In this query the client ask the name server for the best possible answer, the name server check
the cache and zone for which it’s authoritative and returns the best possible answer to the
client, which would be the full answer like IP address or try the other name server
Recursive Query
Client demands either a full answer or an error message (like record or domain name does not
exist)
Client machine always send recursive query to the DNS server, if the DNS server does not have
the requested information, DNS server send the iterative query to the other name server
(through forwarders or secondary DNS server) until it gets the information, or until the name
query fails.

 
RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 Explained with Diagrams
by Ramesh Natarajan on August 10, 2010
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Independent) Disks.
On most situations you will be using one of the following four levels of RAIDs.
 RAID 0
 RAID 1
 RAID 5
 RAID 10 (also known as RAID 1+0)
This article explains the main difference between these raid levels along with an easy to
understand diagram.

In all the diagrams mentioned below:

 A, B, C, D, E and F – represents blocks
 p1, p2, and p3 – represents parity
RAID LEVEL 0

Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 0.

 Minimum 2 disks.
 Excellent performance ( as blocks are striped ).
 No redundancy ( no mirror, no parity ).
 Don’t use this for any critical system.
RAID LEVEL 1
 Following
are the key points to remember for RAID level 1.
 Minimum 2 disks.
 Good performance ( no striping. no parity ).
 Excellent redundancy ( as blocks are mirrored ).
RAID LEVEL 5
Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 5.
 Minimum 3 disks.
 Good performance ( as blocks are striped ).
 Good redundancy ( distributed parity ).
 Best cost effective option providing both performance and redundancy. Use this for DB
that is heavily read oriented. Write operations will be slow.
RAID LEVEL 10

Follo
wing are the key points to remember for RAID level 10.
  Minimum 4 disks.
 This is also called as “stripe of mirrors”
 Excellent redundancy ( as blocks are mirrored )
 Excellent performance ( as blocks are striped )
 If you can afford the dollar, this is the BEST option for any mission critical applications
(especially databases).
Additional RAID Tutorials:
 RAID 2, RAID 3, RAID 4, RAID 6 Explained with Diagram
 
In most critical production servers, you will be using either RAID 5 or RAID 10.
However there are several non-standard raids, which are not used except in some rare
situations. It is good to know what they are.
RAID 6

 Just like RAID 5, this does block level striping. However, it uses dual parity.
 In the above diagram A, B, C are blocks. p1, p2, p3 are parities.
 This creates two parity blocks for each data block.
 Can handle two disk failure
 This RAID configuration is complex to implement in a RAID controller, as it has to

 compressed
 LTO Tape  Native capacity
     
  LTO 3 400 GB  800 GB
 LTO 4   800GB  1.6 TB
 LTO 5  1.6 TG  3.TB
 LTO 6  3 TB  5 TB
     
     
     
     
     
     

RAID 10 Vs RAID 01 (RAID 1+0 Vs RAID 0+1) Explained with Diagram

RAID 10 is not the same as RAID 01.
This article explains the difference between the two with a simple diagram.

I’m going to keep this explanation very simple for you to understand the basic concepts well. In
the following diagrams A, B, C, D, E and F represents blocks.

RAID 10
 RAID 10 is also called as RAID 1+0
 It is also called as “stripe of mirrors”
 It requires minimum of 4 disks
 To understand this better, group the disks in pair of two (for mirror). For example, if you
have a total of 6 disks in RAID 10, there will be three groups–Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 as
shown in the above diagram.
 Within the group, the data is mirrored. In the above example, Disk 1 and Disk 2 belongs
to Group 1. The data on Disk 1 will be exactly same as the data on Disk 2. So, block A written
on Disk 1 will be mirroed on Disk 2. Block B written on Disk 3 will be mirrored on Disk 4.
 Across the group, the data is striped. i.e Block A is written to Group 1, Block B is written
to Group 2, Block C is written to Group 3.
 This is why it is called “stripe of mirrors”. i.e the disks within the group are mirrored.
But, the groups themselves are striped.
If you are new to this, make sure you understand how RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5 and RAID 2,
RAID 3, RAID 4, RAID 6 works.

RAID 01

 RAID 01 is also called as RAID 0+1

 It is also called as “mirror of stripes”
 It requires minimum of 3 disks. But in most cases this will be implemented as minimum
of 4 disks.
 To understand this better, create two groups. For example, if you have total of 6 disks,
create two groups with 3 disks each as shown below. In the above example, Group 1 has 3
disks and Group 2 has 3 disks.
 Within the group, the data is striped. i.e In the Group 1 which contains three disks, the
1st block will be written to 1st disk, 2nd block to 2nd disk, and the 3rd block to 3rd disk. So,
block A is written to Disk 1, block B to Disk 2, block C to Disk 3.
 Across the group, the data is mirrored. i.e The Group 1 and Group 2 will look exactly the
same. i.e Disk 1 is mirrored to Disk 4, Disk 2 to Disk 5, Disk 3 to Disk 6.
 This is why it is called “mirror of stripes”. i.e the disks within the groups are striped. But,
the groups are mirrored.

Main difference between RAID 10 vs RAID 01

 Performance on both RAID 10 and RAID 01 will be the same.

 The storage capacity on these will be the same.
 The main difference is the fault tolerance level. On most implementations of RAID
controllers, RAID 01 fault tolerance is less. On RAID 01, since we have only two groups of
RAID 0, if two drives (one in each group) fails, the entire RAID 01 will fail. In the above RAID
01 diagram, if Disk 1 and Disk 4 fails, both the groups will be down. So, the whole RAID 01
will fail.
 RAID 10 fault tolerance is more. On RAID 10, since there are many groups (as the
individual group is only two disks), even if three disks fails (one in each group), the RAID 10
is still functional. In the above RAID 10 example, even if Disk 1, Disk 3, Disk 5 fails, the RAID
10 will still be functional.
 So, given a choice between RAID 10 and RAID 01, always choose RAID 10.

What is a Cluster?
Cluster is a group of machines acting as a single entity to provide resources and services to the
network. In time of failure, a failover will occur to a system in that group that will maintain
availability of those resources to the network.

How Failover Clusters Work?

A failover cluster is a group of independent computers, or nodes, that are physically connected
by a local-area network (LAN) or a wide-area network (WAN) and that are programmatically
connected by cluster software. The group of nodes is managed as a single system and shares a
common namespace. The group usually includes multiple network connections and data
storage connected to the nodes via storage area networks (SANs). The failover cluster operates
by moving resources between nodes to provide service if system components fail.

Normally, if a server that is running a particular application crashes, the application will be
unavailable until the server is fixed. Failover clustering addresses this situation by detecting
hardware or software faults and immediately restarting the application on another node
without requiring administrative intervention—a process known as failover. Users can continue
to access the service and may be completely unaware that it is now being provided from a
different server

Figure . Failover clustering

Failover Clustering Terminology

1. Failover and Failback Clustering

Failover is the act of another server in the cluster group taking over where the failed server left
off. An example of a failover system can be seen in below Figure. If you have a two-node cluster
for file access and one fails, the service will failover to another server in the cluster. Failback is
the capability of the failed server to come back online and take the load back from the node the
original server failed over to.

2. Active/Passive cluster model:

Active/Passive is defined as a cluster group where one server is handling the entire load and, in
case of failure and disaster, a Passive node is standing by waiting for failover.

· One node in the failover cluster typically sits idle until a failover occurs. After a failover, this
passive node becomes active and provides services to clients. Because it was passive, it
presumably has enough capacity to serve the failed-over application without performance
degradation.
3. Active/Active failover cluster model

All nodes in the failover cluster are functioning and serving clients. If a node fails, the resource
will move to another node and continue to function normally, assuming that the new server has
enough capacity to handle the additional workload.
4. Resource. A hardware or software component in a failover cluster (such as a disk, an IP
address, or a network name).

5. Resource group.

A combination of resources that are managed as a unit of failover. Resource groups are logical
collections of cluster resources. Typically a resource group is made up of logically related
resources such as applications and their associated peripherals and data. However, resource
groups can contain cluster entities that are related only by administrative needs, such as an
administrative collection of virtual server names and IP addresses. A resource group can be
owned by only one node at a time and individual resources within a group must exist on the
node that currently owns the group. At any given instance, different servers in the cluster
cannot own different resources in the same resource group.
6. Dependency. An alliance between two or more resources in the cluster architecture.

7. Heartbeat.

The cluster’s health-monitoring mechanism between cluster nodes. This health checking allows
nodes to detect failures of other servers in the failover cluster by sending packets to each
other’s network interfaces. The heartbeat exchange enables each node to check the availability
of other nodes and their applications. If a server fails to respond to a heartbeat exchange, the
surviving servers initiate failover processes including ownership arbitration for resources and
applications owned by the failed server.

The heartbeat is simply packets sent from the Passive node to the Active node. When the
Passive node doesn’t see the Active node anymore, it comes up online
8. Membership. The orderly addition and removal of nodes to and from the cluster.

9. Global update. The propagation of cluster configuration changes to all cluster members.

10. Cluster registry. The cluster database, stored on each node and on the quorum resource,
maintains configuration information (including resources and parameters) for each member of
the cluster.

11. Virtual server.

A combination of configuration information and cluster resources, such as an IP address, a

network name, and application resources.

Applications and services running on a server cluster can be exposed to users and workstations
as virtual servers. To users and clients, connecting to an application or service running as a
clustered virtual server appears to be the same process as connecting to a single, physical
server. In fact, the connection to a virtual server can be hosted by any node in the cluster. The
user or client application will not know which node is actually hosting the virtual server.
12. Shared storage.

All nodes in the failover cluster must be able to access data on shared storage. The highly
available workloads write their data to this shared storage. Therefore, if a node fails, when the
resource is restarted on another node, the new node can read the same data from the shared
storage that the previous node was accessing. Shared storage can be created with iSCSI, Serial
Attached SCSI, or Fibre Channel, provided that it supports persistent reservations.
13. LUN

LUN stands for Logical Unit Number. A LUN is used to identify a disk or a disk volume that is
presented to a host server or multiple hosts by a shared storage array or a SAN. LUNs provided
by shared storage arrays and SANs must meet many requirements before they can be used with
failover clusters but when they do, all active nodes in the cluster must have exclusive access to
these LUNs.

Storage volumes or logical unit numbers (LUNs) exposed to the nodes in a cluster must not be
exposed to other servers, including servers in another cluster. The following diagram illustrates
this.

14. Services and Applications group

Cluster resources are contained within a cluster in a logical set called a Services and
Applications group or historically referred to as a cluster group. Services and Applications
groups are the units of failover within the cluster. When a cluster resource fails and cannot be
restarted automatically, the Services and Applications group this resource is a part of will be
taken offline, moved to another node in the cluster, and the group will be brought back online.

15.  Quorum

The cluster quorum maintains the definitive cluster configuration data and the current state of
each node, each Services and Applications group, and each resource and network in the cluster.
Furthermore, when each node reads the quorum data, depending on the information retrieved,
the node determines if it should remain available, shut down the cluster, or activate any
particular Services and Applications groups on the local node. To extend this even further,
failover clusters can be configured to use one of four different cluster quorum models and
essentially the quorum type chosen for a cluster defines the cluster. For example, a cluster that
utilizes the Node and Disk Majority Quorum can be called a Node and Disk Majority cluster.

A quorum is simply a configuration database for Microsoft Cluster Service, and is stored in the
quorum log file. A standard quorum uses a quorum log file that is located on a disk hosted on a
shared storage interconnect that is accessible by all members of the cluster

 Why quorum is necessary

When network problems occur, they can interfere with communication between cluster nodes.
A small set of nodes might be able to communicate together across a functioning part of a
network, but might not be able to communicate with a different set of nodes in another part of
the network. This can cause serious issues. In this “split” situation, at least one of the sets of
nodes must stop running as a cluster.

To prevent the issues that are caused by a split in the cluster, the cluster software requires that
any set of nodes running as a cluster must use a voting algorithm to determine whether, at a
given time, that set has quorum. Because a given cluster has a specific set of nodes and a
specific quorum configuration, the cluster will know how many “votes” constitutes a majority
(that is, a quorum). If the number drops below the majority, the cluster stops running. Nodes
will still listen for the presence of other nodes, in case another node appears again on the
network, but the nodes will not begin to function as a cluster until the quorum exists again.

For example, in a five node cluster that is using a node majority, consider what happens if
nodes 1, 2, and 3 can communicate with each other but not with nodes 4 and 5. Nodes 1, 2, and
3 constitute a majority, and they continue running as a cluster. Nodes 4 and 5 are a minority
and stop running as a cluster, which prevents the problems of a “split” situation. If node 3 loses
communication with other nodes, all nodes stop running as a cluster. However, all functioning
 nodes will continue to listen for communication, so that when the network begins working
again, the cluster can form and begin to run.

There are four quorum modes:

o Node Majority: Each node that is available and in communication can vote. The
cluster functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.

o Node and Disk Majority: Each node plus a designated disk in the cluster storage
(the “disk witness”) can vote, whenever they are available and in communication. The cluster
functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.

o Node and File Share Majority: Each node plus a designated file share created by
the administrator (the “file share witness”) can vote, whenever they are available and in
communication. The cluster functions only with a majority of the votes, that is, more than half.

o No Majority: Disk Only. The cluster has quorum if one node is available and in
communication with a specific disk in the cluster storage. Only the nodes that are also in
communication with that disk can join the cluster. This is equivalent to the quorum disk in
Windows Server 2003. The disk is a single point of failure, so only select scenarios should
implement this quorum mode.

16. Witness Disk

– The witness disk is a disk in the cluster storage that is designated to hold a copy of the cluster
configuration database. (A witness disk is part of some, not all, quorum configurations.)

Configuration of two node Failover Cluster and Quorum Configuration:

Multi-site cluster is a disaster recovery solution and a high availability solution all rolled into
one. A multi-site cluster gives you the highest recovery point objective (RTO) and recovery time
objective (RTO) available for your critical applications. With the introduction of Windows Server
2008 failover clustering a multi-site cluster has become much more feasible with the
introduction of cross subnet failover and support for high latency network communications.

Which editions include failover clustering?

The failover cluster feature is available in Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Windows
Server 2008 R2 Datacenter. The feature is not available in Windows Web Server 2008 R2 or
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

Network Considerations

All Microsoft failover clusters must have redundant network communication paths. This
ensures that a failure of any one communication path will not result in a false failover and
ensures that your cluster remains highly available. A multi-site cluster has this requirement as
well, so you will want to plan your network with that in mind. There are generally two things
that will have to travel between nodes: replication traffic and cluster heartbeats. In addition to
that, you will also need to consider client connectivity and cluster management activity

Quorum model:

For a 2-node multi-site cluster configuration, the Microsoft recommended configuration is a

Node and File Share Majority quorum

Step –1 Configure the Cluster

Add the Failover Clustering feature to both nodes of your cluster. Follow the below steps:

1. Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager. (If the User Account
Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click
Continue.)
2. In Server Manager, under Features Summary, click Add Features. Select Failover Clustering,
and then click Install

3. Follow the instructions in the wizard to complete the installation of the feature. When the
wizard finishes, close it.

4. Repeat the process for each server that you want to include in the cluster.

5. Next you will want to have a look at your network connections. It is best if you rename the
connections on each of your servers to reflect the network that they represent. This will make
things easier to remember later.

Go to properties of Cluster (or private) network and check out register the connection’s
addresses in DNS.
6. Next, go to Advanced Settings of your Network Connections (hit Alt to see Advanced Settings
menu) of each server and make sure the Public network (LAN) is first in the list:
7. Your private network should only contain an IP address and Subnet mask. No Default
Gateway or DNS servers should be defined. Your nodes need to be able to communicate across
this network, so make sure the servers can communicate across this network; add static routes
if necessary.

Step 2 – Validate the Cluster Configuration:

1. Open up the Failover Cluster Manager and click on Validate a Configuration.

2. The Validation Wizard launches and presents you the first screen as shown below. Add the
two servers in your cluster and click Next to continue.

3. we need this cluster to be supported so we must run all the needed tests

4. Select run all tests.

5. Click next till it gives the report like below

When you click on view report, it will display the report similar as below:

Step 2 – Create a Cluster:

In the Failover Cluster Manager, click on Create a Cluster.

The next step is that you must create a name for this cluster and IP for administering this
cluster. This will be the name that you will use to administer the cluster, not the name of the
SQL cluster resource which you will create later. Enter a unique name and IP address and click
Next.

Note: This is also the computer name that will need permission to the File Share Witness as
described later in this document.

Confirm your choices and click Next.

Click Next till finish, it will create the cluster by name MYCLUSTER.

Step 3 – Implementing a Node and File Share Majority quorum

First, we need to identify the server that will hold our File Share witness. This File Share witness
should be located in a 3rd location, accessible by both nodes of the cluster. Once you have
identified the server, share a folder as you normally would share a folder. In my case, I create a
share called MYCLUSTER on a server named NYDC01

The key thing to remember about this share is that you must give the cluster computer name
read/write permissions to the share at both the Share level and NTFS level permissions.  You
will need to make sure you give the cluster computer account read/write permissions in both
shared and NTFS for MYCLUSTER share.

Now with the shared folder in place and the appropriate permissions assigned, you are ready to
change your quorum type. From Failover Cluster Manager, right-click on your cluster, choose
More Actions and Configure Cluster Quorum Settings.
On the next screen choose Node and File Share Majority and click Next.
In this screen, enter the path to the file share you previously created and click Next.

Confirm that the information is correct and click Next till summary page and click Finish.

Now when you view your cluster, the Quorum Configuration should say “Node and File Share
Majority” as shown below.
The steps I have outlined up until this point apply to any multi-site cluster, whether it is a SQL,
Exchange, File Server or other type of failover cluster. The next step in creating a multi-site
cluster involves integrating your storage and replication solution into the failover cluster

What are GPT and GPC?

Ans:- A GPO (Group Policy Object) is a collection of Group Policy settings, it consists of GPC and
GPT.

GPC (Group Policy Container) contains the information of property of GPO like Security
Filtering, GPO Status, and GPO GUID etc.

GPT (Group Policy Template) contains the data of GPO in Sysvol folder that can be checked
after the configuration of the GPO that what settings have been configured to the client.

Locator)

Tools to analyze Memory Dump?

Ans:-

Windows Debugger (WinDbg.exe) tool

Dumpchk,exe

Tools to troubleshoot Group Policy issues?

Ans:- You can use AD inbuilt features to troubleshoot group policy issue like RSOP.msc or can
run RSOP by selecting users in Active Directory users and computers, gpresult -v, gpt.ini in
sysvol under Group Policy GUID folder can be checked to find out the GPO settings configured

Q: What is Active Directory?

A: Active Directory provides a centralized control for network administration and security.
Server computers configured with Active Directory are known as domain controllers. Active
Directory stores all information and settings for a deployment in a central database, and allows
administrators to assign policies and deploy and update software.

Q: What is a Domain?
A: A domain is defined as a logical group of network objects (computers, users, devices) that
share the same Active Directory database. A tree can have multiple domains.
Q: What is Domain Controller?
A: A domain controller (DC) or network domain controller is a Windows-based computer
system that is used for storing user account data in a central database. It is the centrepiece of
the Windows Active Directory service that authenticates users, stores user account information
and enforces security policy for a Windows domain.
A domain controller allows system administrators to grant or deny users access to system
resources, such as printers, documents, folders, network locations, etc., via a single username
and password.
Q: What is Group Policy?
A: Group Policy allows you to implement specific configurations for users and computers.
Group Policy settings are contained in Group Policy objects (GPOs), which are linked to the
following Active Directory service containers: sites, domains, or organizational units (OUs).
Q: What are GPOs (Group Policy Objects)?
A: A Group Policy Object (GPO) is a collection of settings that control the working environment
of user accounts and computer accounts. GPOs define registry-based policies, security options,
software installation and maintenance options, script options, and folder redirection options.
There are two kinds of Group Policy objects:

 * Local Group Policy objects are stored on individual computers.

 * Nonlocal Group Policy objects, which are stored on a domain controller, are available
only in an Active Directory environment.

Q: What is LDAP?
A: LDAP (Light-Weight Directory Access Protocol) determines how an object in an Active
Directory should be named. LDAP is the industry standard directory access protocol, making
Active Directory widely accessible to management and query applications. Active Directory
supports LDAPv2 and LDAPv3.

Q: Where is the AD database stored?

A: The AD database is stored in C:\Windows\NTDS\NTDS.DIT.
Q: What is the SYSVOL folder?
A: The SYSVOL folder stores the server copy of the domain’s public files that must be shared for
common access and replication throughout a domain.
All AD databases are stored in a SYSVOL folder and it’s only created in an NTFS partition. The
Active Directory Database is stored in the %SYSTEM ROOT%NDTS folder
What is LDAP?

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an Internet protocol that email and other programs
use to look up information from a server.

What is the Logical / Physical Structures of the AD Environment?

Physical structure:
Forest, Site, Domain, DC

logical structure:
Schema partition, configuration partition, domain
partition and application partition

Q: What is Garbage collection?

A: Garbage collection is the online defragmentation of the Active Directory which happens
every 12 hours.
Q: When do we use WDS?
A: Windows Deployment Services is a server role used to deploy Windows operating systems
remotely. WDS is mainly used for network-based OS installations to set up new computers

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.

 What are FMSO Roles? List them.

FMSO roles are server roles in a Forest
There are five types of FSMO roles
1-Schema master
2-Domain naming master
3-Rid master
4-PDC Emullator
5-Infrastructure master

Schema master—holds the only writable copy of the Active Directory Schema. This is a
configuration database that describes all available object and function types in the Active
Directory forest. Only one domain controller in the forest holds this role.

Domain naming master—ensures that any newly created domains are uniquely identified by
names that adhere to the proper naming conventions for new trees or child domains in existing
trees. Only one domain controller in the forest holds this role.

PDC emulator—Serves as a primary domain controller (PDC) for Windows NT 4.0 client
computers authenticating to the domain and processes any changes to user properties on these
clients, such as password changes. This server also acts as a time synchronization master to
synchronize the time on the remaining domain controllers in the domain. One domain
controller in each domain holds this role.

Infrastructure master—Updates references in its domain from objects such as domain group
memberships to objects in other domains. This server processes any changes in objects in the
forest received from global catalog servers and replicates these changes to other domain
controllers in its domain. One domain controller in each domain holds this role.

RID master—Assigns security identifiers (SIDs) to objects created in its domain. A SID consists of
a domain identifier common to all objects in its domain and a relative identifier (RID) that is
unique to each object. This server ensures that no two objects have the same RID and hands
out pools of RIDs to every domain controller in its domain. One domain controller in each
domain holds this role.

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.

What is the difference between a basic and dynamic drive in

theWindowsServer2008environment?

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.

Q: What are DNS and which port number is used by DNS?

A: The Domain Name System (DNS) is used to resolve human-readable hostnames like
www.intenseschool.com into machine-readable IP addresses like 69.143.201.22.

DNS servers use UDP port 53 but DNS queries can also use TCP port 53 if the former is not
accepted.

Q: What are main Email Servers and which are their ports?

A: Email servers can be of two types:

Incoming Mail Server (POP3, IMAP, HTTP)

The incoming mail server is the server associated with an email address account. There cannot
be more than one incoming mail server for an email account. In order to download your emails,
you must have the correct settings configured in your email client program.

Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)

Most outgoing mail servers use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for sending emails. The
outgoing mail server can belong to your ISP or to the server where you setup your email
account.

The main email ports are:

* POP3 – port 110

* IMAP – port 143

* SMTP – port 25

* HTTP – port 80

* Secure SMTP (SSMTP) – port 465

* Secure IMAP (IMAP4-SSL) – port 585

* IMAP4 over SSL (IMAPS) – port 993

* Secure POP3 (SSL-POP) – port 995

What do Forests, Trees, and Domains mean?

A: Forests, trees, and domains are the logical divisions in an Active Directory network.
A domain is defined as a logical group of network objects (computers, users, devices) that share
the same active directory database.
A tree is a collection of one or more domains and domain trees in a contiguous namespace
linked in a transitive trust hierarchy.
At the top of the structure is the forest. A forest is a collection of trees that share a common
global catalog, directory schema, logical structure, and directory configuration. The forest
represents the security boundary within which users, computers, groups, and other objects are
accessible

What is a DNS Zone?

1) Primary Zone

2) Secondary Zone

3) Active directory integrated zone

4) Stub Zone

What is the main purpose of a DNS server?

DNS servers are used to resolve FQDN hostnames into IP addresses and vice versa

Commonly Used DNS Records?

A-Records (Host address)

CNAME-Records (Canonical name for an alias)

MX-Records (Mail exchange)

NS-Records (Authoritative name server)

PTR-Records (domain name pointer)

SOA-Records (Start of authority

What are Lingering Objects?

A: A lingering object is a deleted AD object that still remains on the restored domain controller
in its local copy of Active Directory. They can occur when changes are made to directories after
system backups are created.
When restoring a backup file, Active Directory generally requires that the backup file be no
more than 180 days old. This can happen if, after the backup was made, the object was deleted
on another DC more than 180 days ago.

What is CIDR?
CIDR stands for classless inter domain routing. It was developed in the 1990s as a standard
scheme for routing network traffic across the Internet. It helps in preventing the wasting of IP
address and nowadays we are facing the shortage of the IP address. So this CIDR helps to
prevent the waste of IP address. CIDR notation is syntax of specifying IP addresses and their
associated routing prefix. It appends a slash character to the address and the decimal number
of leading bits of the routing prefix, e.g., 192.168.1.0/24
SOA records must be included in every zone. What are they used for?
SOA records contain a TTL value, used by default in all resource records in the zone. SOA
records contain the e-mail address of the person who is responsible for maintaining the zone.
SOA records contain the current serial number of the zone, which is used in zone transfers.

What is the main purpose of SRV records?

SRV records are used in locating hosts that provide certain network services.

What is a zone?

Also called a zone of authority, zone is a subset of the Domain Name System (DNS) namespace
that is managed by a name server.

A database of records is called a zone.

What is an iterative query?

The query that has been sent to the DNS server from a Client is called iterative query.
(i. e., iterative query is nothing but gives the answer for my question, don’t ask to contact that
person or this person or don’t say something else. Simply just answer to my question. That’s all)

What is Recursive query?

Your DNS server requests the root level DNS server for specific IP address. Now DNS server says
I don’t know but I can give the address other person who can help you in finding IP address.
What type of records do we find in DNS database?

The most general records found in DNS database are

 Host Record (A record)

 Mail Exchange Record (MX record)
 Canonical name or CNAME record (CNAME)

What is PTR record?

PTR record is created in Reverse lookup zone. It is the record to main database for reverse
lookup zone purposes (to convert from IP address to host names). Each host record in forward
lookup should have an associated pointer record in reverse lookup zone

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System. It is a hierarchical system for identifying hosts on the
Internet or on a private, corporate TCP/IP internetwork.
It resolves the IP addresses to host names (or friendly internet names) and Host names to IP
addresses.

What is the structure of DNS?

The structure of DNS starts with root domain. Then it (root domain) braches to TOP level
domains, then second level domains, and so on to the individual host names.
Root Domain –> Top level Domains–> Second level Domains–> So on so forth up to individual
host systems

What tabs are there on properties of Domain?

Domain properties contain the following tabs:

 General
 Start of Authority (SOA)
 Named servers
  WINS
 Zone transfers

7. What tabs are there on properties of Sever?

Server properties contain the following tabs:

 Interface
 Forwarders
 Advanced
 Root hints
 Logging
 Monitoring

What are the standard port numbers for SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, RPC, LDAP and Global
Catalog? – SMTP – 25, POP3 – 110, IMAP4 – 143, RPC – 135, LDAP – 389, Global Catalog –
3268

What is the Difference between Differential Backup & Incremental Backup?

Incremental Backup resets the Archieve bits

Differential Backup doesn’t reset the Archieve bits

What are hosts and lmhosts files explain?

• Hosts file used for DNS to resolve Hostnames to IP Address and Vice Versa
• LMHOSTS file is used for WINS to resolve NetBIOS names to IP Address and Vice Versa

What are commands used for troubleshooting dns issues in detail?

nslookup then flushdns or adebug

What are main Email Servers and which are their ports?
A: Email servers can be of two types:
Incoming Mail Server (POP3, IMAP, HTTP)
The incoming mail server is the server associated with an email address account. There cannot
be more than one incoming mail server for an email account. In order to download your emails,
you must have the correct settings configured in your email client program.

Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)

Most outgoing mail servers use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for sending emails. The
outgoing mail server can belong to your ISP or to the server where you setup your email
account.

The main email ports are:

POP3 – port 110

IMAP – port 143
SMTP – port 25
HTTP – port 80
Secure SMTP (SSMTP) – port 465
Secure IMAP (IMAP4-SSL) – port 585
IMAP4 over SSL (IMAPS) – port 993
Secure POP3 (SSL-POP) – port 995
What are DFS & its usage?

 DFS is a distributed file system used to provide common environment for users toaccess files
and folders even when they are shared in different servers physically.There are two types of
DFS domain DFS and Stand alone DFS. We cannot provideredundancy for stand alone DFS in
case of failure. Domain DFS is used in a domainenvironment which can be accessed by /domain
name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name).Stand alone DFS can be used in workgroup environment
which can be accessedthrough /server name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name). Both the cases we
need tocreate DFS root ( Which appears like a shared folder for end users) and DFS links
( Alogical link which is pointing to the server where the folder is physically shared)The
maximum number of Dfs roots per server is 1.The maximum numbers of Dfs root replicas are
31.The maximum number of Dfs roots per domain is unlimited.The maximum number of Dfs
links or shared folders in a Dfs root is 1,000

What is the difference between authoritative and non-authoritative restore?

 In authoritative restore, Objects that are restored will be replicated to all domaincontrollers in
the domain. This can be used specifically when the entire OU isdisturbed in all domain
controllers or specifically restore a single object, which isdisturbed in all DC’sIn non-
authoritative restore, Restored directory information will be updated by other domain
controllers based on the latest modification time

What is NIC Teaming?

Combining multiple network card together .for performance and redundancy

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 Explained with Diagrams

by Ramesh Natarajan on August 10, 2010

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Independent) Disks.

On most situations you will be using one of the following four levels of RAIDs.

RAID 0

RAID 1

RAID 5

RAID 10 (also known as RAID 1+0)

This article explains the main difference between these raid levels along with an easy to
understand diagram.

In all the diagrams mentioned below:

A, B, C, D, E and F – represents blocks

p1, p2, and p3 – represents parity

RAID LEVEL 0
Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 0.

Minimum 2 disks.

Excellent performance ( as blocks are striped ).

No redundancy ( no mirror, no parity ).

Don’t use this for any critical system.

RAID LEVEL 1

Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 1.

Minimum 2 disks.

Good performance ( no striping. no parity ).

Excellent redundancy ( as blocks are mirrored ).

RAID LEVEL 5
Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 5.

Minimum 3 disks.

Good performance ( as blocks are striped ).

Good redundancy ( distributed parity ).

Best cost effective option providing both performance and redundancy. Use this for DB that is
heavily read oriented. Write operations will be slow.

RAID LEVEL 10

Following are the key points to remember for RAID level 10.

Minimum 4 disks.

This is also called as “stripe of mirrors”

Excellent redundancy (as blocks are mirrored)

Excellent performance (as blocks are striped)

If you can afford the dollar, this is the BEST option for any mission critical applications
(especially databases).

RAID 6
Just like RAID 5, this does block level striping. However, it uses dual parity.

In the above diagram A, B, C is blocks. p1, p2, p3 are parities.

This creates two parity blocks for each data block.

Can handle two disk failures

RAID 10 is not the same as RAID 01.

This article explains the difference between the two with a simple diagram.

I’m going to keep this explanation very simple for you to understand the basic concepts well. In
the following diagrams A, B, C, D, E and F represents blocks.

RAID 10

 RAID 10 is also called as RAID 1+0

 It is also called as “stripe of mirrors”
 It requires minimum of 4 disks
 To understand this better, group the disks in pair of two (for mirror). For example, if you
have a total of 6 disks in RAID 10, there will be three groups–Groups 1, Group 2, Group 3 as
shown in the above diagram.
 Within the group, the data is mirrored. In the above example, Disk 1 and Disk 2 belongs
to Group 1. The data on Disk 1 will be exactly same as the data on Disk 2. So, block A written
on Disk 1 will be mirroed on Disk 2. Block B written on Disk 3 will be mirrored on Disk 4.
 Across the group, the data is striped. i.e Block A is written to Group 1, Block B is written
to Group 2, Block C is written to Group 3.
 This is why it is called “stripe of mirrors”. i.e the disks within the group are mirrored.
But, the groups themselves are striped.
If you are new to this, make sure you understand how RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5 and RAID 2,
RAID 3, RAID 4, RAID 6 works.

RAID 01

 RAID 01 is also called as RAID 0+1

 It is also called as “mirror of stripes”
 It requires minimum of 3 disks. But in most cases this will be implemented as minimum
of 4 disks.
 To understand this better, create two groups. For example, if you have total of 6 disks,
create two groups with 3 disks each as shown below. In the above example, Group 1 has 3
disks and Group 2 has 3 disks.
 Within the group, the data is striped. i.e In the Group 1 which contains three disks, the
1st block will be written to 1st disk, 2nd block to 2nd disk, and the 3rd block to 3rd disk. So,
block A is written to Disk 1, block B to Disk 2, block C to Disk 3.
 Across the group, the data is mirrored. i.e The Group 1 and Group 2 will look exactly the
same. i.e Disk 1 is mirrored to Disk 4, Disk 2 to Disk 5, Disk 3 to Disk 6.
 This is why it is called “mirror of stripes”. i.e the disks within the groups are striped. But,
the groups are mirrored.
Main difference between RAID 10 vs RAID 01

 Performance on both RAID 10 and RAID 01 will be the same.

 The storage capacity on these will be the same.
 The main difference is the fault tolerance level. On most implementations of RAID
controllers, RAID 01 fault tolerance is less. On RAID 01, since we have only two groups of
RAID 0, if two drives (one in each group) fails; the entire RAID 01 will fail. In the above RAID
01 diagram, if Disk 1 and Disk 4 fails, both the groups will be down. So, the whole RAID 01
will fail.
 RAID 10 fault tolerances are more. On RAID 10, since there are many groups (as the
individual group is only two disks), even if three disks fails (one in each group), the RAID 10
is still functional. In the above RAID 10 example, even if Disk 1, Disk 3, Disk 5 fails, the RAID
10 will still be functional.
 So, given a choice between RAID 10 and RAID 01, always choose RAID 10.

What is a Page File?

A page file (also known as a "paging file") is an optional, hidden system file on a hard disk. The
page file can be used to "back" (or support) system crash dumps and extend how much system-
committed memory (also known as “virtual memory”) a system can back.

What is new in Windows server 2012

Server core improvements: no need of fresh installation, you can add/remove GUI from server
manager

Remotely manage servers , add/remove roles etc using Server manager-manage 2008 and 2008
R2 with WMF 3.0 installation, installed by default in Server 2012

Remote server administration tools available for windows 8 to manage Windows server 2012
infrastructure

Powershell v3
Hyper-V 3.0

supports upto 64 processors and 1 TB RAM per virtual machine

upto 320 logical hardware processors and 4 TB RAM per host

Shared nothing live migration, move around VMs without shared storage

ReFS(Resilient file system), upgraded version of NTFS- supports larger file and directory sizes.
Removes the 255 character limitation on long file names and paths, the limit on the
path/filename size is now 32K characters!

Improved CHKDSK utility that will fix disk corruptions in the background without disruption

what is subnet mask ?

A mask used to determine what subnet an IP address belongs to. An IP address has two
components,the netwoek address and subnet address.

for example, consider the IP address 150.215.017.009 assumong this is part of a class B
network,the first two numbe(150.215) represent the class B network address,and the second
two number(017.009)identify a particular host on this network.

what is APiPA ?

stand for automatic Private IP addressing .

when a DHCP server fails,APIPA allocates IP addresses in the private range 169.254.0.1 to
169.254.255.254

what is loop back addres?

loopback address is 127.0.0.1

An address send outgoing signal back to thr same computer for testing .
what is MAC address ?

Short for medium access control.a Mac address also known as a physical address and hardware
address is a unique address number formatted in hexadecimal format.

What is ARP ?

address resolution protocol(ARP)is a protocol for mapping an internet Protocol address (IP
address) to aphysical machine address that is recognized in the local network.

what is a default gateway ?

In general,a gateway is a device on a network that acts as an entrance to another network.

Two types of lookup in DNS ?

Forward lookup:-Host name to IP address

Resverse lookup:-IP address to hostname

Theree types of zone ?

Primary zone

secondary zone

stube zone

what is DHCP ?
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network protcol that enables a server to
automatically assign an IP address to a computer from defined range of number.

Descirbe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP adres

A user turns on a computer with DHCP client

The client computer sends a brodcast request ( Discover)

the router direct the DISCOVER packet to the correct DHCP server.

the server receives the DISCOVER packet.

How to backup and restore DHCP in windows server 2008 ?

Backup DHCP server.

1) Open server Manager >DHCP role

2)Right click server name,chhose Backup

3)Choose a location for backup ,click ok

Restore DHCP server.

1)Open server Manager> DHCP role

2)Right click server name,choose restore

3)Choose the location of the backup,click OK

4) Restart the DHCP service.

DHCP Database loaction C:\WINDOWS\System2\DHCP directory.

differences between Server 2008 and windows 2012

Server 2012 can be swithed from GUI to CUI

server group can be created with this version,remote management of the member serers is also
supported.

if we compare windows server 2008 with server 2012 & server 2012R2 is been add by 19 roles
and 53 features and if we talk about 2012 the role and features are 20 55 respectively

In server 2008 physicsl RAM can be extened up to 1 TB but in server 2012 it can be extened up
to 4 TB.

In server 2008 Virtual Processor per virtual machine 4 Processor it can be extned 64 Processor.

server 2008:-384 VMs /server 2012 1024 Vms.

New features of server 2016

>Nano server.:No Graphical interface

>Storage replica

>Storage spaces Direct

>Hyper-v rolling upgardes.

>Hyper-v hot add NICs and memory

>networking enchancement.

>Storage Qos updates

?PoerShell updates.
what id RFC ?

A Request for comments document defines a protocol or policy used on the internet.

SMB

So what is SMB? SMB stands for “Server Message Block.” It’s a file sharing protocol that was
invented by IBM and has been around since the mid-eighties. Since it’s a protocol (an agreed
upon way of communicating between systems) and not a particular software application, if
you’re troubleshooting, you’re looking for the that is said to implement the SMB protocol.

The SMB protocol was designed to allow computers to read and write files to a remote host
over a local area network (LAN). The directories on the remote hosts made available via SMB
are called “shares.”

CIFS

CIFS stands for “Common Internet File System.” CIFS is a dialect of SMB. That is, CIFS is
a particular implementation of the Server Message Block protocol, created by Microsoft.

This is among top 10 interview questions asked for Windows Server Administrator profile. Here
I have summarized the difference between WIndows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012
R2.Hope you find it useful.

Windows Server 2008 had two releases i.e 32 bit and 64 bit but Windows Server 2012 is only 64
but Operating System.

The Active directory in Windows Server 2012 has a new feature that allows you to add personal
devices like tablets to the domain.

The Active directory recycle bin is another feature of windows Server which allows us to restore
deleted AD objects using a GUI.

Windows Server 2012 has IIS version 8.0.

Windows Server 2012 uses Powershell version 3.0.

Server core was introduced in Windows Server 2008. Windows Server has additional feature
that allows you to switch between Server core and GUI and vice versa.

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 has a feature called live migration which allows you to move
virtual machine from one Hyper-V server to another Hyper-V Server while virtual machine is
running. This feature was there in Windows Server 2008 but the virtual machine had to be
clustered for migration to happen.

In Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V the merging of a snapshot in the virtual machine required the
virtual machine to be turned off where as in windows Server 2012 it can be done while the
machine is running.

In Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V the dynamic memory cant be given to the virtual machine is
its running where as in Windows Server 2012 the running virtual machine can take dynamic
memory from host while its runn
New Live Migration options in Windows Server 2012

Here are the new Live Migration options introduced in Windows Server 2012

         Live Migration without shared infrastructure or Shared Nothing Migration

         Live Migration using SMB

         Live Migration between clusters

         Live Storage Migration

The underlying principle will remain same irrespective of the migration solution “the VM will always be running somewhere”. This principle ensures that before

source VM is shut down and deleted from the source Hyper-V host, all necessary checks should be performed to ensure that new VM is healthy and should be

running properly. It also ensures that there should always be failback option- so that if migration fails, the source VM will still be running and available.

Live Migration without shared infrastructure or Shared Nothing Migration

This option allows administrator to move virtual machines directly between two Hyper-V hosts without any shared infrastructure. Only prerequisites are:

         Both Hyper-V servers should be the member of same domain

         There should be gigabit connectivity to ensure that there should not be any downtime

It moves entire virtual machine disk with its running state without any downtime.

Live Migration with SMB

This migration doesn’t move the storage, but only running virtual machine. It requires SMB 3.0 and both users and computers need access to the share. Before

moving virtual machines, make sure permissions are set correctly, means the users account initiating the migration and the source and destination computer

accounts need security access on the share. Permissions must be configured both on the folder and file level.
Live Migration between clusters

As we know, Windows Server 2012 now supports up to 64 nodes in a cluster so moving of nodes between or within clusters is now more flexible. Windows Server

2012 now supports VM migrations both between clusters and within clusters. Similarly, we can migrate VMs from a stand-alone host into a cluster and from a cluster

to a stand-alone host.

A VM can be moved from one cluster to another in simple steps:-

         Remove the VM from the source cluster

         Use Hyper-V Manager to Live Migrate the VM to a node in the destination cluster

         Join the VM to the destination cluster

Live Storage Migration

Through this feature, we can now move virtual machine with its associated VHDs, without any downtime to a new location. The need of this migration arises if you

are upgrading your existing storage for any maintenance and want to move machines located on this storage to the new storage device. Live Storage migration is

available for both SAN-based and file-based storage. Virtual machines can now be moved between SAN, local disks and SMB in any of the combination

iSCSI Target in Windows Server 2012

Details

Parent Category: WinServer2012_Section

Created on Monday, 26 November 2012 10:39

Written by Administrator

Hits: 2434

Most of us would be aware of iSCSI Target for Windows Server 2008 R2 that was available to download from the internet. Windows Server 2012 contains a native

iSCSI Target that doesn’t any requires to download any software, any license, any separate installation as it comes as a build-in feature.

Windows Server 2012 can now be configured as iSCSI Target. Windows Server 2012 allows block-based access to storage from an iSCSI initiator over the network. In

other words, we can start up a server from network storage on the iSCSI Target. With this feature, we can create a Storage Area Network (SAN) device on hardware

running the Windows operating system.

The iSCSI Software Target feature in Windows Server 2012 supports diskless network boot without the need for special hardware or additional software. iSCSI

Software Target fully complies with the iSCSI protocol in RFC 3720.

There are few components that you should know:

         iSCSI Initiator: This is generally an application server, the system that consumes the storage. For example, the SQL Server can be an iSCSI initiator storing

its database on iSCSI Target.

         iSCSI Target: This is an object accepting iSCSI initiator connections. It keeps track of initiators that are allowed to connect and also, iSCSI virtual disks

associated with it.

         iSCSI virtual Disk: Also referred to as iSCSI LUN, which can be mounted by the iSCSI initiator. The iSCSI virtual disk is backed by the VHD file.

         IQN: It is a unique identifier of the Target and Initiator. The Target IQN is shown when it is created on the server.

Follow below steps to configure iSCSI Target and Initiator that could be done via Server manager or PowerShell Cmdlet

1.       Enable iSCSI Target Server

 2.       Create iSCSI LUN on iSCSI Target

3.       Configure iSCSI Initiator

4.       Create new volume from iSCSI Initiator

How to enable iSCSI Target Server

Using Server Manager

iSCSI Target can be enabled using Add roles and features in the Server Manager as shown below:

Using Cmdlet

Open the PowerShell cmdlet and run the below command to install iSCSI Target Server:

Add-WindowsFeature FS-iSCSITarget-Server

How to create iSCSI LUN on iSCSI Target

Using Server Manager

iSCSI LUN, also known as iSCSI virtual disk, should be created to share the storage. Use the Server Manager to create iSCSI LUN as shown below. After clicking the

highlighted link, complete the remaining windows to create iSCSI LUN.

 

Using Cmdlet

Perform these three tasks to create iSCSI LUN:

         LUN creation

         Target creation

         Assign VHD to Target

LUN creation:

New-IscsiVirtualDisk c:\VM\1.vhd –size 2GB

Target creation:

New-IscsiServerTarget ServerTarget1 –InitiatorIds “IQN: iqn.1991-05.com.Microsoft:VM1.learnmsexchange.com”

Assign VHD to Target

Add-IscsiVirtualDiskTargetMapping ServerTarget1 c:\VM\1.vhd

Configure iSCSI Initiator

Once iSCSI virtual is created and assigned, iSCSI Initiator needs to be created so that application server can connect to the iSCSI Target. For this, you will need to

provide the iSCSI Target server hostname or IP address to the initiator. Once Initiator is connected to the Target, all the Targets would be listed to the Initiator.

Using Server Manager

Once you click the iSCSI Initiator, you will be asked to enter the Target IP or DNS name. Also, make sure to check the “Enable CHAP log on” box from the Advanced

tab.
 

Using Cmdlet

By default iSCSI initiator service is stopped. You must start this service from this command:

Start-Service msiscsi

Specify the iSCSI Target Server name:

New-IscsiTargetPortal –TargetPortalAddress Netboot-1

Get the list of Targets (optional):

Get-IscsiTarget

Connect:

Connect-IscsiTarget –NodeAddress “iqn.1991-05.com.microsoft:netboot-1-nettarget-target”

Create new volume

Once the connection is established, the iSCSI virtual disk will be presented to the initiator. This disk will be offline, by default, that can be bring online by simply right

clicking on it, else you can create a new volume and assign any drive letter to it once formatted.

Shared Nothing Live Migration in Windows Server 2012

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Parent Category: WinServer2012_Section
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Also known as Live Migration without shared storage, allows us to move VMs between stand-
alone Hyper-V hosts without the use of any shared storage. Before VMs are migration between
hosts, below prerequisites should be met. As the name implies, Nothing…there is no shared
storage, no shared cluster membership… all we need is a Gigabit Ethernet connection between
the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V hosts. Once network connection is established, VMs can be
moved between Hyper-V hosts, including VM’s virtual hard disk (VHDs), processor, memory
content and VM state with no downtime to the VM.
 
In other cases, we can also move a VM running on a laptop local hard disk to another laptop
connected by a single Gigabit Ethernet network cable as shown below:
 
Don’t confuse yourself by considering Shared Nothing Live Migration as an alternate to Failover
Clustering. Shared Nothing Live Migration provides us a new solution for moving VMs between
Hyper-V hosts, whereas Failover Clustering provides a high availability solution.
 
Prerequisites:
         Both hosts use the processors from the same manufacturer, all Intel or AMD,
for instance
         Both hosts should be running Windows Server 2012 installation with the
Hyper-V role installed
         Servers must be connected by at least 1Gbps connection
         Both hosts should be joined in the same Active Directory domain
         User account should be a member of Domain Administrator Group
 
Live migration without shared storage saves lot of downtime and migration process works like
this (see below figure):-
 

 
 
1.       The first host negotiates the Virtual Machine Management Service, Vmms.exe,
(where the VM originally resides) negotiates and establishes a Live Migration
connection with the VMMS on the second host.
2.       A storage migration is performed, which creates a mirror on the second host of
the VM’s VHD fi le on the first host.
 3.       The VM state information is migrated from the first host to the second host.
4.       The original VHD fi le on the first host is then deleted

Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012

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There are many third-party software available in the market that backup and restores the VMs
running on Hyper-V hosts, the Hyper-V Replica is an in-box solution being offered in Windows
Server 2012.

With this feature, administrators can replicate their Hyper-V virtual machines from their
primary site to the replica site during disaster recovery or similar kind of situations. VMs can be
replicated between Hyper-V hosts located at different geographical locations periodically and
asynchronously over IP-based networks across different storage subsystems. This feature
doesn’t require any shared storage or any other replication technologies.

Using Failover Clustering with Hyper-V allows VMs to maintain availability by moving them
between nodes in the same datacenter. Hyper-V Replica allows VMs to maintain availability
across the datacenter where each node is located at the different physical location.

Hyper-V Replica is an application-agnostic solution as it operates at a VM level irrespective of

guest operating system or applications installed in the VMs. It is storage-agnostic solution as
backend storage can be of any combination of SAN, DAS or SMB for storing VMs. It also works
in both clustered and non-clustered environments which means we can replicate from a host
on a shared cluster to a stand-alone replica host.

Hyper-V Replica can be used in different scenarios like replicating VMs from head office to
branch office, between two datacenters owned by a hosting provider to provide disaster
recovery services etc.

Hyper-V Replica keep on tracking the write operations on the primary site and replicate those
changes to the replica site over a WAN by using HTTP protocol. Authentication is supported by
Kerberos and Certificates with optional support for encryption.

Also, we can store VHDs in remote locations to assist recovery in the case the datacenter goes
down.

Always remember below key points:

         Data that is rapidly changing and not used by the Replica server after failover, such as
page file disk, should we excluded from replication to preserve network bandwidth.

         Servers specs of Primary and Replica server (like CPU and RAM) need not be same.
Replica server will take the load to its maximum limits if Primary server has more resources.
However, if some resources are missing in the Replica server, those resources will not be used
during failover.

         Test failover can be conducted at any time. A temporary virtual machine is created on the
Replica server during test failover. Any application can be tested without interrupting the
ongoing replication. Once test is completed, the temporary virtual machine is deleted.

         These firewall rules must be opened for replication:

           o   Kerberos authentication: Hyper-V Replica HTTP Listener (TCP-In)

           o   certificate-based authentication: Hyper-V Replica HTTPS Listener (TCP-In

DHCP Load Balance mode in Windows Server 2012

Details
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Created on Sunday, 30 September 2012 07:16
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Windows Server 2012 provides two types of DHCP failover solution:-

         Hot Standby: Provides Active-Passive configuration

         Load Balance: Active-Active configuration

This article will elaborate Load Balance failover mechanism.

As the name implies, in load balance relation, both servers respond to client requests. Let us
see how each DHCP server receives client’s request:

As we know, each client has their own unique MAC address. Once DHCP server receives client’s
request, it calculate hash on the client’s MAC address as per hashing algorithm specified in the
RFS 3074. Each DHCP server can hashes any MAC address to a value between 1 and 256. We
can configure the two DHCP servers to equally distribute the load that is 50:50, of default. If
this is the scenario, and MAC address hash falls between 1 and 128, the first server will respond
to the client request and if the hash is between 129 and 256, the other server responds to the
client.

This process ensures that only one DHCP server should respond for a specific client.
Administrator can change this load balance proportion as shown below:
How IP Address pool managed in load balance
Just like the load balancing ration, the free IP addresses in each failover scope are distributed in
the same proportion. Example, let’s say you have the failover scope- 192.168.0.0/24 with an IP
address range of 192.168.0.1 through 192.168.0.250. Suppose first 50 addresses are already
leased out and rest of the IPs starting from 192.168.0.51 are free. We have now 200 IP
addresses left in the address pool. As load balance ratio is set to 50:50, the first 100 IPs, from
192.168.0.51 through 192.168.0.150 would be assigned to the first server and rest of the range
to the second server.
 

Below figure shows two DHCP servers in load balancing mode sharing lease information.
In load sharing mode, you enable both DHCP servers to respond to IPv4 lease requests and
grant leases to devices on connected subnets for which there is a corresponding DHCP scope.

 NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012

 NIC Teaming is a new feature in Windows Server 2012 that allows multiple network
adapters to work together as a team. NIC Teaming is now part of the operating system,
unlike in the past where NIC teaming was handled by the NIC vendor’s driver. Failure of
one card will not prevent connectivity loss. NIC Teaming also enables you to aggregate
bandwidth from multiple network adapters. Example: four 1-GB network adapters can
provide an aggregate of 4 GB/s of throughput.
 Network adapters from different vendors are supported.
 Enables teams of up t0 32 network adapters in one team and up to 32 teams per server.
 NIC teaming is not compatible with Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), remote direct
memory access (RDMA), or TCP Chimney offloading.

 

  
 NIC Teaming Options
 Windows Server 2012 NIC teaming features offers a choice of teaming mode and load
balancing mode.
 The following teaming modes are available:-
 ·         Switch-Independent Teaming - Switch doesn’t require becoming a member of
teaming. The adapters may be connected to different switches.
 ·         Active/Standby Teaming - Network adapters can be configured for failover by
binding them in Active/Standby Teaming mode without leveraging the benefits of
bandwidth aggregation capabilities in NIC Teaming. Set the team in Switch-Independent
Teaming to use this feature.
 ·         Switch-Dependent Teaming - This configuration require switch to be participating
in the teaming. All members of the team should be connected to the same physical
switch.
  
 The following load balancing modes are available:-
 Below algorithms are supported to distribute the outbound traffic from the available
links:
 ·         Hyper-V Switch Port - Decision taken on the basis of VM’s MAC address or the
port it’s connected on the Hyper-V switch.
 ·         Address Hashing - Hash is created on address components of the packets like
Source/Destination MAC/IP addresses and port numbers.
 o   MAC Address hashing
 o   2-tuple hashing (Source and destination IP address, with or without MAC addresses)
 o   4-tuple hashing (Source and destination TCP ports, usually with IP addresses, this is
the default hashing mode).
 How to enable NIC Teaming
 Configuring NIC Teaming in Windows Server 2012 is pretty easy. Again, use Server
Manager to enable this feature as shown below in RED:
  


 In Windows Server 2012, NIC teaming is vendor, hardware, and line-speed agnostic. For
example, you can configure a NIC team by using a combination of a one-gigabit
Broadcom NIC, a one-gigabit Intel NIC, and a 100-megabit Realtek NIC.
 When you create a NIC team, Windows Server 2012 creates a default team NIC (tNIC) to
represent the team interface.
 What are the new Features in Windows Server 2012
 Details
 Parent Category: WinServer2012_Section
 Created on Monday, 24 October 2011 04:53
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  
 Microsoft claimed to have introduced more than 300 new features in Windows Server
2008, but for the sake of this article, let’s share with you the key features in Windows
Server 2008. Other features will be incorporated in the later stages.
 ·         Support of Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual switch
 ·         Deduplication of files within a VHD file
 ·         Turn on- off GUI version for a Hyper-V host
 ·         Virtual machines on a Windows File server through SMB 2.2
 ·         Replicate a VM to another Hyper-V host without replication software
 ·         Startup on Task Manager
 ·         IE 10
 ·         PowerShell 3.0
 ·         ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) for extended battery life
 ·         USB 3.0
 ·         AD Recycle Bin GUI Interface
 ·         Intellisense PowerShell auto fills appropriate command line syntax as you type
 ·         NIC Teaming-To provides aggregate bandwidth & failover. Upto 32 NICs. Earlier
dependent upon Vendors support. NIC Teaming in Win 2008 R8 is achieved through
Failover Cluster Virtual Adapter
 ·         Cluster Aware Updating without downtime of cluster nodes when performing
Windows updates
 ·         Claim Definitions is used for controlling access and auditing information like file
having social security nos. will be provided limited access from GPO
 ·         Large Hyper-V Clusters by supporting 64 hosts and 4,000 VMs per Cluster
 ·         Fibre Channel support to Hyper-V guests
 ·         Live storage migration, the ability to migrate virtual hard disks or configuration
files for a running VM without interruption

1. Maximum number of LUNs that can be attached to a host (ESXi 5.0)

o 256

2. Maximum number of vCPUs that can be assigned to a VM (ESXi 5.0)

o 32

3. What are the uses of ntdsutil tool?

o Some of the main uses of ntdsutil tool

i. Authoritative Restore - Authoritatively restores the Active Directory

database or AD LDS instance
ii. ifm  - Create installation media for writable and RODC setups (Offline DC
provisioning)
iii. metadata cleanup - Cleans up objects of decommissioned servers
iv. roles - Transfers and seizes operations master roles
v. set DSRM password - Resets DSRM administrator password
vi. snapshot - Manages snapshots of the volumes that contain the Active
Directory database and log files

5. Pv6 addresses and its DNS record

 o 128 bit address
o Represented as 8 groups of 4 hexadecimel digits seperated by colons
o Represented by ‘AAAA’ record in DNS
o Uses DHCP v6 for addressing

6. Loadbalancer vs Clustering
o Clustering

i. Cluster is a group of resources that are trying to achieve a common

objective, and are aware of one another.
ii. Clustering usually involves setting up the resources (servers usually) to
exchange details on a particular channel (port) and keep exchanging their
states, so a resource’s state is replicated at other places as well.
iii. It usually also includes load balancing, wherein, the request is routed to
one of the resources in the cluster as per the load balancing policy
o Load Balancing

i. Used to forward requests to either one server or other, but one server
does not use the other server’s resources. Also, one resource does not
share its state with other resources.

7. Software installation using group policy

o This can be done using 2 methods

i. Assigning
ii. Publishing
o Assign :

i. If you assign the program to a user, it is installed when the user logs on to
the computer. When the user first runs the program, the installation is
completed.
ii. If you assign the program to a computer, it is installed when the
computer starts, and it is available to all users who log on to the
computer. When a user first runs the program, the installation is
completed.
o Publish :

i. You can publish a program distribution to users.

 ii. When the user logs on to the computer, the published program is
displayed in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, and it can be
installed from there.
o msi packages are used for installation. Normal exe would not work.
o Windows cannot install the software while the user is already logged on. The
user need to log off and log in

8. Group policy security filtering for users. Which all users are in there by default.
Members of Authenticated Users group
o Security filtering is a way of refining which users and computers will receive and
apply the settings in a Group Policy object (GPO)
o In order for the GPO to apply to a given user or computer, that user or computer
must have both Read and Apply Group Policy (AGP) permissions on the GPO,
either explicitly, or effectively through group membership
o By default, all GPOs have Read and AGP both Allowed for the Authenticated
Users group.
o The Authenticated Users group includes both users and computers. This is how
all authenticated users receive the settings of a new GPO when it is applied to an
organizational unit, domain or site

9. Relevance of host file and its location

o Came before the concept of DNS
o An FQDN is first checked in Host file
o Location : C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc

10. L3 switch vs Routers

 o L3 switches just have the ethernet ports only whereas the routers have WAN
interfaces
o QoS is not available with L3 switches whereas in routers it can be enabled
o Routers have expansion slots and cards that allow them to use different media
types, like serial connections for T1 and T3 circuits
o Routers are more intelligent in handling packets
o L3 switches does not support NAT

13. VLAN vs SubnetIncremental vs Differential backups

o Incremental backup - Will take the backup of files whose archive bits are set and
resets it after backup
o Differential backup - Will take the backup of files whose archive bits are set but
does not reset it after backup

11.
o VLAN works at layer 2 while subnet is at layer 3
o Subnets are more concerned about IP addresses.
o VLANs bring more network efficiency
o Subnets have weaker security than VLANs as all the subnet uses the same
physical network

16.
Explain GPO, GPC & GPT
o GPO - Group Policy Object : Refers to the policy that is configured at the Active
Directory level and is inherited by the domain member computers. You can
configure a GPO at the site level, domain level or OU level. GPO stores policy
settings in two locations GPC and GPT
o GPO behaviour : Local Policy > Site GPO > Domain GPO > OU GPO > Child OU
GPO
o GPC - Group Policy Container :This is the AD portion of the group policy. This can
be viewed using ADSI edit.  It stores version information, status information, and
other policy information. When you create a new GPO, an AD object of class
groupPolicyContainer gets created under the System\Policies container within
your AD domain
o GPT - Group Policy Template :  The GPT is where the GPO stores the actual
settings. It stores software policy script, and deployment information.
 o GPT is stored in SYSVOL share (\\DomainNameHere\SYSVOL\Policies) whereas
GPC is stored in the AD

20. What is new in Windows server 2012

o Server core improvements: no need of fresh installation, you can add/remove
GUI from server manager
o Remotely manage servers , add/remove roles etc using Server manager-manage
2008 and 2008 R2 with WMF 3.0 installation, installed by default in Server 2012
o Remote server administration tools available for windows 8 to manage Windows
server 2012 infrastructure
o Powershell v3
o Hyper-V 3.0

i. supports upto 64 processors and 1 TB RAM per virtual machine

ii. upto 320 logical hardware processors and 4 TB RAM per host
iii. Shared nothing live migration, move around VMs without shared storage

o ReFS(Resilient file system), upgraded version of NTFS- supports larger file and
directory sizes. Removes the 255 character limitation on long file names and
paths, the limit on the path/filename size is now 32K characters!
o Improved CHKDSK utility that will fix disk corruptions in the background without
disruption

 Shutdown

11. vMotion
o vMotion enables live migration of running virtual machines from one host to
another with zero downtime
o Prerequisites

i. Host must be licensed for vMotion

ii. Configure host with at least one vMotion n/w interface (vmkernel port
group)
iii. Shared storage (this has been compromised in 5.1)
iv. Same VLAN and VLAN label
v. GigaBit ethernet network required between hosts
vi. Processor compatibility between hosts
 vii. vMotion does not support migration of applications clustered using
Microsoft clustering service
viii. No CD ROM attached
ix. No affinity is enabled
x. vmware tools should be installed
12. RODC
o New feature in Windows 2008
o Only have the read only copy of directory database
o RODC will have all the objects of a normal DC in read only mode. But this doesn’t
include passwords. RODC does not store password of accounts.
o Updates are replicated to RODC by writable DC
o Password caching : A feature which enables RODC to cache password of the
logged in users.
o Password Replication Policy: Determines whether the password can be cached or
not.
o DNS can be integrated with RODC but will not directly register client updates. For
any DNS change, the RODC refers the client to DNS server that hosts a primary or
AD integrated zone

19. NAS vs SAN

o Both used as storage solution
o NAS can be used by any device connected using LAN whereas SAN is used only
by server class devices with SCSI
o NAS is file based whereas SAN is block based storage
o NAS is cheap while SAN is expensive
o SAN is comparatively faster than NAS

20. What is DRS? Types of DRS

o Distributed Resource Scheduler
o It is a feature of a cluster
o DRS continuously monitors utilization across the hosts and moves virtual
machines to balance the computing capacity
o DRS uses vMotion for its functioning
o Types of DRS

i. Fully automated - The VMs are moved across the hosts automatically. No
admin intervention required.
ii. Partially automated - The VMs are moved across the hosts automatically
during the time of VM bootup. But once up, vCenter will provide DRS
recommendations to admin and has to perform it manually.
iii. Manual - Admin has to act according to the DRS recommendations
21. DRS prerequisites
o Shared storage
o Processor compatibility of hosts in the DRS cluster
o vMotion prerequisites

22. vMotion is not working. What are the possible reasons?

o Ensure vMotion is enabled on all ESX/ESXi hosts
o Ensure that all vmware pre requisites are met
o Verify if the ESXi/ESX host can be reconnected or if reconnecting the ESX/ESXi
host resolves the issue
o Verify that time is synchronized across environment
o Verify that the required disk space is available

23. What happens if a host is taken to maintenance mode

o Hosts are taken to maintenance mode during the course of maintenance
o In a single ESX/ESXi setup, all the VMs need to be shutdown before getting into
maintenance mode
o In a vCenter setup If DRS is enabled, the VMs will be migrated to other hosts
automatically.
o

23. How will you clone a VM in an ESXi without vCenter

o Using vmkftools
o Copy the vmdk file and attach to a new VM
o Using VMware converter

20. What is new in Windows server 2012

o Server core improvements: no need of fresh installation, you can add/remove
GUI from server manager
o Remotely manage servers , add/remove roles etc using Server manager-manage
2008 and 2008 R2 with WMF 3.0 installation, installed by default in Server 2012
o Remote server administration tools available for windows 8 to manage Windows
server 2012 infrastructure
o Powershell v3
o Hyper-V 3.0
 i. supports upto 64 processors and 1 TB RAM per virtual machine
ii. upto 320 logical hardware processors and 4 TB RAM per host
iii. Shared nothing live migration, move around VMs without shared storage

o ReFS(Resilient file system), upgraded version of NTFS- supports larger file and
directory sizes. Removes the 255 character limitation on long file names and
paths, the limit on the path/filename size is now 32K characters!
o Improved CHKDSK utility that will fix disk corruptions in the background without
disruption

o What is IPAM server in Windows server 2012?

o  IPAM is IP Address Management server in Windows Server 2012. It enables
central management of both DHCP and DNS servers. It can also be used to
discover, monitor, and audit DHCP and DNS servers.

1) A Records.

A record is used to map a domain name to an IPv4 address.

The Who is® DNS lookup (A record) result includes;

 IPv4 address of the host server

 Time To Live (TTL) of the domain
 Trace route link that originates from Telstra in
Australia

2) NS Records.
NS ( Name Server ) records are normally given to you by your webhost.

The Who is DNS lookup (NS record) result includes;

 Fully Qualified Domain Name ( FQDN ) of the host

server
 Time To Live (TTL) of the record

3) MX Records.

MX (Mail Exchanger ) records are used to map a domain to a list of Message Transfer Agents
(MTAs ).

The Who is DNS lookup (MX record) result includes;

 Fully Qualified Domain Name ( FQDN ) of the host

server
 Priority
 Time To Live (TTL) of the record

4) AAAA Records.

AAAA records are used to map a domain to an IPv6 address.

The Who is DNS lookup (AAAA record) result includes;

  IPv6 address of the host server,
 Time To Live of the domain,
 Tracer oute link that originates from Telstra
inAustralia.

5) SOA (Start of Authority) Records.

SOA records are used to specify authoritative information about a domain/DNS zone.

The Who is DNS lookup (SOA record) result includes;

 Domain
 Time To Live of the domain,
 Data contained in the SOA.

6) TXT Records

TXT records are used to map a domain to an IPv6 address.

The Who is DNS lookup (TXT record) result includes;

 IPv6 address of the host server,

 Time To Live of the domain,
 SPF, Domain Keys, DNS SD, etc

7) PTR - Maps IP addresses to hosts for use in a reverse DNS lookup.

8) CNAME - Canonical Name - Used to create an alias to reference one host by multiple
names.
When you want to guide traffic from a sub domain, e.g. www.example.com or
mail.example.com to another server, you can use CNAME records.
10) A DNAME-record is used to map / rename an entire sub-tree of the DNS name space to
another domain.
It differs from the CNAME-record which maps only a single node of the name space.
Windows DNS Server Interview Question and Answers:-
Q . What is DNS?
DNS (Domain Name System) it resolves the IP Address to host names (or friendly internet
names) and Host names to IP Address.
DNS is a hierarchical system for identifying hosts on the internet or on a private corporate
TCP/IP Intranet or internet
Q . What is the structure of DNS?
The Structure of DNS (Domain Name System) starts with root domain. then it root Domain
braches to TCP Level Domains then second level domain, and so on to the individual host
names
ROot Domain
Top Level Domains
Second Level Domains
Q . What is Name Resolution in DNS?
that process of translating the name into some object or information that the name represent is
called name resolution a telephone books forms a namespace in which the names of
telephones subscribers can be resolved to the phone number
Q . What is ZONE in DNS
DNS (Domain Name System) Zone is the name space that is allocated for a specific servers. also
called DNS ZONE Zone files on these servers contain information about one or more domain
name
Also Called a ZONE of authority a Subnet of the Domain Name System namespace that is
managed by a name server
A Database of records is called a Zone
Q . What is an Interative Quary
Iterative : – where your client makes a DNS query to your primary DNS server asking it for the
best information it has without requesting information form other DNS Server ForEX . you ask
for the IP Address of MSN.com your primary DNS Server dose not know and refers you to
another Server
Q . What is Recursive Quary?
Recursive :- where your client Makes a DNS query to your Primary DNS Server Asking for a
Definitive Answer even if it has to ask other DNS Servers. forEX . you ask for the IP address of
MSN.com your primary Server dose not know so it ask another DNS Server if it has the
information if so your primary Server returns the answer if not the primary Server ask yet
another server and so on until it can return the answers to you
Q . What is the main purpose of DNS Server?
DNS (DOmain Name System sre used to reslove FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) Hostname
into IP Addresses and vice versa
Q . DNS Server Port Number?
DNS Server Port Number. is 53
Q . What is Forward Lookup Zone?
Resolving Host Names to the IP Addresses
Q . What is Reverse Lookup ZOne?
Reverse lookup is is a file contains host names to IP Mapping Information
Q . What is a Resource Record
It is a records provides the information about the resource available in the Network
infrastructure
in other word
Name and address in the DNS zone are referred to as resource records
Q . what is Caching Only Server?
A Caching only server refer to a DNS (Domain Name System) Server with no Configuration Zone
it resolveHOT  name to IP Address and stores the Mapping info in it’s cache. if a  client request
a host name the DNS Server Provide the mapping information in its cache’s
Q .  what are Forwarder in DNS ?
Forwarder : when a DNS Server Dose not know the answer of a particular name resolution the
query is sent to forwarder
Active Directory Group Policy Interview Questions

Find below best group policy interview questions asked in windows server, active directory and
system admin interviews. The answers provide you immense knowledge on group policies and
you can use these answers for latest windows 2008 and 2012 servers.

1. Why should we use Group Policy?

 For deploying software

 We can apply security
 For controlling Users environment, settings, per computer settings
 To manage desktop environment (To standardize environment)
 To modify the registry

2. What is Group policy object?

We call the actual unit that we are creating, deleting, managing, working with is called Group
Policy object. Group Policy objects have two components:

 Group Policy container

  Group Policy template

3. What is Group policy container?

It is the container in the Active Directory where the Group Policy can be applied. (i.e., either
Organizational unit or Domain or Site)

4. What is Group policy template?

When you create a group policy container automatically a template will be created in the hard
drive, in sysvol folder of the Domain Controller that is called Group Policy template.

5. Where is Group policy template stored?

Group Policy template stored in sysvol folder.

6. How to create a Group Policy?

Start –>Programs –>Administrative tools ->Active Directory Users and computers ->Right click
on the container on which you want to apply Group Policy->Select properties-> Click on Group
Policy tab->Click on New

7. What are the steps do we have when we are creating Group Policy?

There are two steps, one is creating Group policy and linking to the container. Generally we
create the group policy at container only so when you click on New it creates and links the GPO
to that container at a time. Suppose if you want to link a group policy object to a container
which is already created click on Add select the group policy.

8. What are the buttons available on Group policy tab in properties of a container?

 New (Creates new GPO)

 Add (links a GPO to this container which has created already)
  Edit (Edits the existing GPO)
 Delete Deletes the GPO
 Options (here you get the following check boxes): (i) No override – Prevent other GPO
from overriding policy set in this one; and (ii) Disabled – This GPO is not applicable to this
container
 Properties

Note: When you are deleting a GPO it asks two things:

 Remove the link from this list

 Remove the link and delete the GPO permanently

9. What is no override option in GPO?

Generally the policies set at one level will be overridden in other level, so if don’t want to
override this policy under the sub levels of this one you can set this.
EX : If you set No override at Domain level then that GPO will be applied through out the
Domain, even though you have the same policy differently at OU level.

10. What is Block inheritance of GPO and where it is?

The Block inheritance GPO option blocks the group policies inheriting from the top level, and
takes effect of this present GPO.
Right click on the container –> click on Group Policy –ègo to properties >on the bottom of the
General tab you will find Block inheritance check box
EX : If you select Block inheritance at OU level then no policy from the Domain level, or Site
level or local policy will not applied to this OU.

11. You have set the No override option at Domain level and Block inheritance at OU level.
Which policy will take effect?

If you have set both then No override wins over the Block inheritance. So No override will take
effect.
12. What are the options that are available when you click on option button on general tab?

 General
 Disable computer configuration settings (The settings those are set under computer
configuration of this GPO will not take effect.)
 Disable user configuration settings (The settings those are set under User configuration
of this GPO will not take effect.)
 Links (Displays the containers which have links to this GPO)
 Security (With security option you can set level of permissions and settings to the
individual users and groups.EX : If you want to disable this GPO to a particular user on
this container, on security tab select that user and select the deny check box for apply the
Group Policy. Then the GPO will not take effect to that user even though he is in that
container.)

13. What will you see in the Group Policy snap in?

You will see two major portions, and under those you have sub portions, they are

 Computer Configuration
 Software settings
 Software installations
 Windows settings
 Administrative templates
 User configuration
 Software settings
 Software installations
 Windows settings
 Administrative templates

Note: Administrative templates are for modifying the registry of windows 2000 clients.

14. What is the hierarchy of Group Policy?

  Local policy
 Site Policy
 Domain Policy
 OU Policy
 Sub OU Policy (If any are there)

15. Who can create site level Group Policy?

Enterprise Admin

16. Who can create Domain lever Group Policy?

Domain Admin

17. Who can create Organization Unit lever Group Policy?

Domain Admin

18. Who can create Local Group Policy?

Local Administrator or Domain Administrator

19. What is the Refresh interval for Group Policy?

Refresh interval for Domain Controllers is 5 minutes, and the refresh interval for all other
computers in the network is 45 minutes (this one doubt).

20. Why do we need to manage and control desktop environment?

 To decrease support time

 Eliminate potential for problems
 One standard environment to support
 Eliminate distractions
  To increase productivity

21. What is Group policy loop back process? How to set it?

Start –>programs –>Administrative tools –>Active Directory users and computers –>Right click
on the container –>click on Group policy tab –>Click on edit –>click on Computer settings –
>click on Administrative templates –>system –>Group policy –>click on User group policy loop
back processing mode –> click OK –> Select enable

22. What are the players that are involved in deploying software?

 Group Policy: Within GP we specify that this software application gets installed to this
particular computer or to this particular user.
 Active Directory: Group Policy will be applied somewhere in Active Directory.
 Microsoft Installer service
 Windows installer packages: The type of package that can be used by Group Policy to
deploy applications is .msi packages i.e., Microsoft Installer packages.

23. What is the package that can be used to deploy software through Group Policy?

Windows installer packages (.msi files)

24. What is Microsoft installer service?

Microsoft Installer Service runs on the client machines in the Windows 2000 domain. It installs
the minimum amount of an application, as you extend functionality it installs the remaining
part of application. It is responsible for installing software in the client. It is also responsible for
modifying, upgrading, applying service packs.

25. What is Local security policy, Domain security policy, and Domain controller security
policy in the administrative tools?

 Local Security policy: This is group policy applied to local machine

  Domain Security Policy: Group Policy applied at domain level
 Domain Controller Security Policy: Group Policy applied at domain controller level.

26. What are the design considerations for Group policy?

The following should be considered for designing group policies.

 Minimize linking: Because there may be a chance deleting the original one with seeing
who else are using this GPO. Minimizing linking for simplicity.
 Minimum number of GPO’s: Microsoft suggests that one GPO with 100 settings will
process faster than 100 GPO’s each with one setting. This is for performance.
 Delegate
 Minimize filtering: To keep simple your environment, try to minimize filtering.

If you have more number of GPO’s for a container, whatever GPO is on top will be applied first.
If you want, you can move GPO’s up and down.

If there is conflict between two GPO’s of same container, the last applied GPO will be effective.
i.e., the bottom one will be effective.

1. What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?

UDP Port 68 used for Requests.
UDP Port 67 used for server Replies.
2. What is DORA in DHCP?
DORA – Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledgement.
DORA means DHCP server Lease process short-form.
3. What is dhcp ?
DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It is a network protocol it enables
automatically assigns IP address to client machine from a defined range of scope in
the network.
4. What is DHCP Scope?
DHCP scope is used to define range of IP address in the DHCP Server. Scope is used to assign the
IP address appropriate clients.
5. Define Types of Scopes.
There are three types of scopes are available in DHCP.
(i)  Normal Scope or Unicast Scope
(ii)  Multicast Scope
(iii) Super-scope
 Normal Scope or Unicast Scope:
The Normal scope it allows sub-net masks, exclusions and reservations, and classes A, B, and C
IP address ranges to be specified.
Multicast Scope :
Multicast scope uses class D address it allow direct communication from one point to multiple
points. It is very easy to configure. Multicast scopes does not support DHCP assignable options.
if a computer  wants to receive a multicast IP address, it must first have a valid primary
computer address on a class A, B, or C network.
Superscope :
Superscope is administrative scope. Collection of scopes together to manage logical IP subnets
on the same physical segment which means that they can be enabled and disabled as a single
entity.
6. What is BOOTP ?
BOOTP (bootstrap protocol) is a host configuration protocol. It is developed before DHCP.
7.  DHCP Database storage default location ?
Systemroot\System32\Dhcp
example:
C:\windows\system32\dhcp
8.   What is DHCP Database file extension ?
DHCP database file extension is .mdb
9.  DHCP Automatic Backup default Interval time?
60 Minutes
10. Where we can Change the default DHCP database Interval Time ?
We can change the default interval time for DHCP database by modifying the Registry
value BackupInterval in the following location in registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters
11. What are the Switches are used with IPCONFIG ?
IPCONFIG/ all, Release/ Renew/ FLUSHDNS
Below is the list of Basic Windows Server DHCP Interview Questions asked in Interviews for the
post of Windows System Administrator/ L1/L2/L3 Windows Support Engineer.
What is dhcp ?
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network protocol that enables a server to
automatically assign an IP address to a computer from a defined range of numbers (i.e., a
scope) configured for a given network.
 What is the dhcp process for client machine?
1. A user turns on a computer with a DHCP client.
2. The client computer sends a broadcast request (called a DISCOVER or DHCPDISCOVER),
looking for a DHCP server to answer.
3. The router directs the DISCOVER packet to the correct DHCP server.
4. The server receives the DISCOVER packet. Based on availability and usage policies set on the
server, the server determines an appropriate address (if any) to give to the client. The server
then temporarily reserves that address for the client and sends back to the client an OFFER (or
DHCPOFFER) packet, with that address information. The server also configures the client’s DNS
servers, WINS servers, NTP servers, and sometimes other services as well.
5. The client sends a REQUEST (or DHCPREQUEST) packet, letting the server know that it intends
to use the address.
6. The server sends an ACK (or DHCPACK) packet, confirming that the client has a been given a
lease on the address for a server-specified period of time.
 What is dhcp scope ?
DHCP scopes are used to define ranges of addresses from which a DHCP server can assign IP
addresses to clients.
Types of scopes in windows dhcp ?
Normal Scope – Allows A, B and C Class IP address ranges to be specified including subnet
masks, exclusions and reservations. Each normal scope defined must exist within its own
subnet.
Multicast Scope – Used to assign IP address ranges for Class D networks. Multicast scopes do
not have subnet masks, reservation or other TCP/IP options.
Multicast scope address ranges require that a Time To Live (TTL) value be specified (essentially
the number of routers a packet can pass through on the way to its destination).
Super scope – Essentially a collection of scopes grouped together such that they can be enabled
and disabled as a single entity.
What is Authorizing DHCP Servers in Active Directory?
If a DHCP server is to operate within an Active Directory domain (and is not running on a
domain controller) it must first be authorized.
This can be achieved either as part of the DHCP Server role installation, or subsequently using
either DHCP console or at the command prompt using the netsh tool.
If the DHCP server was not authorized during installation, invoke the DHCP console (Start -> All
Programs -> Administrative Tools -> DHCP),
right click on the DHCP to be authorized and select Authorize. To achieve the same result from
the command prompt, enter the following command:
netsh dhcp server serverID initiate auth
In the above command syntax, serverID is replaced by the IP address or full UNC name of
system on which the DHCP server is installed.
What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients ?
Requests are on UDP port 68, Server replies on UDP 67 .
List some Benefits of using DHCP
DHCP provides the following benefits for administering your TCP/IP-based network:
Safe and reliable configuration.DHCP avoids configuration errors caused by the need to
manually type in values at each computer. Also, DHCP helps prevent address conflicts caused by
a previously assigned IP address being reused to configure a new computer on the network.
Reduces configuration management.
Using DHCP servers can greatly decrease time spent to configuring and reconfiguring computers
on your network. Servers can be configured to supply a full range of additional configuration
values when assigning address leases. These values are assigned using DHCP options. Also, the
DHCP lease renewal process helps assure that where client configurations need to be updated
often (such as users with mobile or portable computers who change locations frequently),
these changes can be made efficiently and automatically by clients communicating directly with
DHCP servers.
The following section covers issues that affect the use of the DHCP Server service with other
services or network configurations. Using DNS servers with DHCP Using Routing and Remote
Access servers with DHCP Multihomed DHCP servers.
Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure ?
Open Windows Components Wizard. Under Components , scroll to and click Networking
Services. Click Details . Under Subcomponents of Networking Services , click Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and then click OK .
Click Next . If prompted, type the full path to the Windows Server 2003 distribution files, and
then click Next. Required files are copied to your hard disk.
How to authorize a DHCP server in Active Directory Open DHCP ?.
In the console tree, click DHCP
. On the Action menu, click Manage authorized servers.
. The Manage Authorized Servers dialog box appears. Click Authorize.
. When prompted, type the name or IP address of the DHCP server to be authorized, and then
click OK.
What is DHCPINFORM?

DHCPInform is a DHCP message used by DHCP clients to obtain DHCP options. While PPP
remote access clients do not use DHCP to obtain IP addresses for the remote access
connection, Windows 2000 and Windows 98 remote access clients use the DHCPInform
message to obtain DNS server IP addresses, WINS server IP addresses, and a DNS domain name.
The DHCPInform message is sent after the IPCP negotiation is concluded. The DHCPInform
message received by the remote access server is then forwarded to a DHCP server. The remote
access server forwards DHCPInform messages only if it has been configured with the DHCP
Relay Agent.
Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS?
Traditionally, DNS and DHCP servers have been configured and managed one at a time.
Similarly, changing authorization rights for a particular user on a group of devices has meant
visiting each one and making configuration changes.
DHCP integration with DNS allows the aggregation of these tasks across devices, enabling a
company’s network services to scale in step with the growth of network users, devices, and
policies, while reducing administrative operations and costs. This integration provides practical
operational efficiencies that lower total cost of ownership.
Creating a DHCP network automatically creates an associated DNS zone, for example, reducing
the number of tasks required of network administrators. And integration of DNS and DHCP in
the same database instance provides unmatched consistency between service and
management views of IP address-centric network services data.

A cluster quorum disk is the storage medium on which the configuration database is stored for

a cluster computing network. The cluster configuration database, also called the quorum, tells
the cluster which physical server(s) should be active at any given time. The quorum disk
comprises a shared block device that allows concurrent read/write access by all nodes in a
cluster.

Voting Towards Quorum

Having ‘quorum’, or a majority of voters, is based on voting algorithm where more than half of
the voters must be online and able to communicate with each other.  Because a given cluster
has a specific set of nodes and a specific quorum configuration, the cluster will know how many
“votes” constitutes a majority of votes, or quorum.  If the number of voters drop below the
majority, the cluster service will stop on the nodes in that group.  These nodes will still listen for
the presence of other nodes, in case another node appears again on the network, but the
nodes will not begin to function as a cluster until the quorum exists again.

It is important to realize that the cluster requires more than half of the total votes to achieve
quorum.  This is to avoid having a ‘tie’ in the number of votes in a partition, since majority will
always mean that the other partition has less than half the votes.  In a 5-node cluster, 3 voters
must be online; yet in a 4-node cluster, 3 voters must also be online to have majority.  Because
of this logic, it is recommended to always have an odd number of total voters in the cluster. 
This does not necessarily mean an odd number of nodes is needed since both a disk or a file
share can contribute a vote, depending on the quorum model.

A voter can be:

 A node
 1 Vote
 Every node in the cluster has 1 vote
 A “Disk Witness” or “File Share Witness”
 1 Vote
 Either 1 Disk Witness or 1 File Share Witness may have a vote in the cluster, but
not multiple disks, multiple file shares nor any combination of the two 
Quorum Types
There are four quorum types.  This information is also available
here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731739.aspx#BKMK_choices.
Node Majority
This is the easiest quorum type to understand and is recommended for clusters with an odd
number of nodes (3-nodes, 5-nodes, etc.).  In this configuration, every node has 1 vote, so there
is an odd number of total votes in the cluster.  If there is a partition between two subsets of
nodes, the subset with more than half the nodes will maintain quorum.  For example, if a 5-
node cluster partitions into a 3-node subset and a 2-node subset, the 3-node subset will stay
online and the 2-node subset will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 nodes.

Node & Disk Majority

This quorum configuration is most commonly used since it works well with 2-node and 4-node
clusters which are the most common deployments.  This configuration is used when there is an
even number of nodes in the cluster.  In this configuration, every node gets 1 vote, and
additionally 1 disk gets 1 vote, so there is generally an odd number of total votes. 

This disk is called the Disk Witness (sometimes referred to as the ‘quorum disk’) and is simply a
small clustered disk which is in the Cluster Available Storage group.  This disk is highly-available
and can failover between nodes.  It is considered part of the Cluster Core Resources group,
however it is generally hidden from view in Failover Cluster Manager since it does not need to
be interacted with.

Since there are an even number of nodes and 1 addition Disk Witness vote, in total there will be
an odd number of votes.  If there is a partition between two subsets of nodes, the subset with
more than half the votes will maintain quorum.  For example, if a 4-node cluster with a Disk
Witness partitions into a 2-node subset and another 2-node subset, one of those subsets will
also own the Disk Witness, so it will have 3 total votes and will stay online.  The 2-node subset
will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 voters.  This means that the cluster can lose
communication with any two voters, whether they are 2 nodes, or 1 node and the Witness Disk.

Node & File Share Majority

This quorum configuration is usually used in multi-site clusters.  This configuration is used when
there is an even number of nodes in the cluster, so it can be used interchangeably with the
Node and Disk Majority quorum mode.  In this configuration every node gets 1 vote, and
additionally 1 remote file share gets 1 vote. 

This file share is called the File Share Witness (FSW) and is simply a file share on any server in
the same AD Forest which all the cluster nodes have access to.  One node in the cluster will
place a lock on the file share to consider it the ‘owner’ of that file share, and another node will
grab the lock if the original owning node fails.  On a standalone server, the file share by itself is
not highly-available, however the file share can also put on a clustered file share on an
independent cluster, making the FSW clustered and giving it the ability to fail over between
nodes.  It is important that you do not put this vote on a node in the same cluster, nor within a
VM on the same cluster, because losing that node would cause you to lose the FSW vote,
causing two votes to be lost on a single failure.  A single file server can host multiple FSWs for
multiple clusters.

Generally multi-site clusters have two sites with an equal number of nodes at each site, giving
an even number of nodes.  By adding this additional vote at a 3rd site, there is an odd number of
votes in the cluster, at very little expense compared to deploying a 3 rd site with an active cluster
node and writable DC.  This means that either site or the FSW can be lost and the cluster can
still maintain quorum.  For example, in a multi-site cluster with 2 nodes at Site1, 2 nodes at
Site2 and a FSW at Site3, there are 5 total votes.  If there is a partition between the sites, one of
the nodes at a site will own the lock to the FSW, so that site will have 3 total votes and will stay
online.  The 2-node site will offline until it can reconnect with the other 3 voters.
Legacy: Disk Only
Important: This quorum type is not recommended as it has a single point of failure.

The Disk Only quorum type was available in Windows Server 2003 and has been maintained for
compatibility reasons, however it is strongly recommended to never use this mode unless
directed by a storage vender.  In this mode, only the Disk Witness contains a vote and there are
no other voters in the cluster.  This means that if the disk becomes unavailable, the entire
cluster will offline, so this is considered a single point of failure.  However some customers
choose to deploy this configuration to get a “last man standing” configuration where the cluster
remain online, so long as any one node is still operational and can access the cluster disk. 
However, with this deployment objective, it is important to consider whether that last
remaining node can even handle the capacity of all the workloads that have moved to it from
other nodes.

Default Quorum Selection

When the cluster is created using Failover Cluster Manager, Cluster.exe or PowerShell, the
cluster will automatically select the best quorum type for you to simplify the deployment.  This
choice is based on the number of nodes and available storage.  The logic is as follows:

 Odd Number of Nodes – use Node Majority

 Even Number of Nodes
 Available Cluster Disks – use Node & Disk Majority
 No Available Cluster Disk – use Node Majority
The cluster will never select Node and File Share Majority or Legacy: Disk Only.  The quorum
type is still fully configurable by the admin if the default selections are not preferred.

Changing Quorum Types

Changing the quorum type is easy through Failover Cluster Manager.  Right-click on the name of
the cluster, select More Actions…, then select Configure Cluster Quorum Settings… to launch
the Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard.  From the wizard it is possible to configure all 4 quorum
types, change the Disk Witness or File Share Witness.  The wizard will even tell you the number
of failures that can be sustained based on your configuration.

Why a Disk Witness is Better than a File-Share Witness

Q: Is it better to use a file-share witness or disk witness for my cluster?

A: In Windows Server 2012 R2, you always configure a witness, and clustering automatically
decides when it needs a vote based on if there are an even or odd number of nodes in the
cluster. Prior to Server 2012 R2, there were still many scenarios where you would configure a
witness, especially if you had an even number of nodes, as an additional vote is required for
quorum reasons. The decision has to be made to use a file-share witness or a disk witness.
If you have a multi-site cluster, then most likely you will have to use a file-share witness as
there wouldn't be shared storage between the two sites. Additionally the file-share witness
should be placed in a third site to provide protection from a site failure.

In a cluster where shared storage is available, always use a disk witness over a file-share cluster,
and there's a very good reason for this.

When you use a file-share witness, a folder is created on the file share named with the GUID of
the cluster. Within that folder, a file is created that's used in times of arbitration, so only one
partition of a cluster can lock the file. The file shows a timestamp (see screen shot below) of the
last time a change was made to the main cluster database, although the file share doesn't
actually have a copy of the cluster database.

Consider a scenario of a two-node cluster: node A and node B. If Node A goes down, then Node
B carries on running and makes updates to the cluster database, such as new resources added.
It would update the timestamp of the Witness.log on the fileshare witness.

Then Node B goes down and Node A tries to start. Node A would see the timestamp is in
advance of its own database and realize its cluster database is stale, and so wouldn't start the
cluster service. This prevents partition-in-time occurring, since Node A is out-of-date, which is a
good thing, as you don't want the cluster to start out of date (that would mean different cluster
states on different nodes). You can't start the cluster without Node B coming back or forcing
quorum on Node A.

Now consider a disk witness which actually stores a complete copy of the cluster database.
In the same two-node cluster scenario, when Node A tries to start and sees its database is out
of date, it can just copy the cluster database from the disk witness, which is kept up-to-date.
Thus a file-share witness prevents partition-in-time occurring, and a disk witness solves
partition-in-time.

For this reason, always use a disk witness over a file-share witness, if possible.
  

Windows Server 2008: Installing Distributed File System (DFS)

By Dave Lawlor on August 4, 2008

DFS stands for Distributed File System and provides two very important benefits for system
administrators of Wide Area Networks (WAN) with multiple sites that have a need to easily store,
replicate, and find files across all locations.

The first is the benefit of being able to have one Namespace that all users can use, no matter what
their location, to locate the files they share and use.

The second is a configurable automatic replication service that keeps files in sync across various
locations to make sure that everyone is using the same version.

Let's take a look at these two very important aspects of DFS.

DFS NameSpaces – Each namespace appears as a folder with subfolders underneath.

The trick to this is that those folders and files can be on any shared folder on any server in your
network without the user having to do any complicated memorization of server and share names.
This logical grouping of your shares will also make it easier for users at different sites to share files
without resorting to emailing them back and forth.

DFS Replication – This service keeps multiple copies of files in sync.

Why would you need this? Well if you want to improve performance for your DFS users you can
have multiple copies of your files at each site. That way a user would be redirected to the file local
to them, even though they came through the DFS Namespace. If the user changed the file it would
then replicate out to keep all copies out in the DFS Namespace up to date. This feature of course is
completely configurable.
What's New in DFS Server 2008?
Distributed File System in Server 2008 has added some additional functionality and improved
stability from some of the problems that might have plagued earlier DFS implementations.

Most new features are contingent on running your DFS NameSpace in Server 2008 mode which
means all servers are Windows Server 2008 AND the domain is running at Server 2008 domain
functional level.
DFS NameSpaces Changes in Server 2008:

Access-based Enumeration – Users are only allowed to see files and folders that they have access
to through permissions.

This feature requires either a standalone Server 2008 NameSpace or a domain based NameSpace
running in 2008 domain functional level. It is not enabled by default and has to be activated
through the following command line:

       dfsutil property abde enable \\‹namespace_root›

Improved Command Line Tools – Windows Server 2008 DFS NameSpaces has a new version
of dfsUtil and a diagnostic tool to help troubleshoot issues named dfsdiag.

Search within the DFS NameSpace – Windows Server 2008 has the ability to run a search through
the NameSpace and target folders.

Convenient if you want to do a targeted search across all the documents in the NameSpace instead
of having to attach to each server.
Improved Functionality in DFS Replication in Server 2008:

Performance Improvements – Server 2008 DFS Replication includes several improvements

including: Faster replication both for small and large files, Initial synchronization is faster, Network
bandwidth is utilized better.

Improved Unexpected Shutdowns Handling – There are a few reasons for unexpected shutdown
of the DFS NameSpace, and when they occur it can cause the NameSpace database to become
corrupt or out of sync. In earlier versions of DFS, this could cause the entire database to be rebuilt
which would be very time consuming and resource intensive. The Windows Server 2008 DFS rarely
has to rebuild its database after an unexpected shutdown and allows a much quicker recovery.

Content Freshness – A new feature in Windows Server 2008 DFS keeps servers that are part of the
DFS NameSpace that might be offline for an extended period of time from overwriting other servers
when it comes back online.

Replicate Now – Administrators now have the ability to force replication in the NameSpace on
demand, temporarily ignoring the replication schedule.

Support for Read Only Domain Controllers (RODC) - Any changes detected on the RODC are rolled
back by the DFS Replication service.

SYSVOL Replication – Server 2008 replaces the use of FRS (File Replication Service) with DFS
Replication for Active Directory DS for domains that are running at the Server 2008 functional level.

Propagation Report – Shows a report based on a test file created during a diagnostic propagation
test.
Install DFS Role on Windows Server 2008

Now that we know more than we probably wanted to about Windows Server 2008 DFS
NameSpaces let's go ahead and run through installing the role on a server. For our example I am
using a Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller running Active Directory DS at the Server 2008
functional level.

1. Open Server Manager.

2. Go to Roles in the left pane, then click Add Roles in the center pane.
3. Select File Services from the list of roles.

You will see a short description of what the File Services role provides in the upper right corner in
case you needed it. Click Next when done.
4. Now you will get an Introduction to File Services information screen; read through it and move
on by clicking Next.
5. In Select Service Roles you can click on Distributed File System and it should also place a check
next to DFS Namespaces & DFS Replication; after this click Next.

NOTE: At the bottom you will see Windows Server 2003 File Services and File Replication Service.
You would only choose this if you were going to be synchronizing the 2008 server with old servers
using the FRS service.
6. On the Create a DFS Namespace screen you can choose to create a namespace now or later.

For this tutorial I am going to create one later as I will have another article going into greater details.
So I am going to choose Create a namespace later using the DFS Management snap-in in Server
Manager and then click Next.
7. The next screen allows you to confirm your installation selections, so review and then
click Install.
8. After a short interval of loading you will see the Installation Results screen which will hopefully
have Installation succeeded in the top right. Go ahead and click Close.
9. In Server Manager you should now see File Services and under the Role Services you will see the
installed components:

Distributed File System

      DFS Namespaces

      DFS Replication
Now that you have DFS installed the next step is to create a namespace and configure replication. I
will be covering these in my next article.

Type Definition Benefits Drawbacks

Restoration is fast, The backing up

Full A complete backup of everything since you only need process is slow.
Backup: you want to backup. one set of backup High storage
data. requirements.

Differential The backup software looks at which Faster to create than Restoration is slower
Backup: files have changed since you last a full backup. than using a full
did a full backup. Then creates backup.
 copies of all the files that are
different from the ones in the full
backup.

If you do a differential backup more Restoration is faster

than once, it will copy all the files, than using
Creating a
or parts of files that have changed incremental backup.
differential backup is
since the last full backup, even if
slower than creating
you already have identical copies of Not as much storage
an incremental
those files in a previous differential needed as in a full
backup.
backup. backup.

For restoring all the data, you will

only need the the last full backup,
and the last differential backup.

Restoring from
incremental backups
The backup software creates copies
is the slowest
of all the files, or parts of files that
because it may
have changed since previous
require several sets
backups of any type (full,
This method is the of data to fully
differential or incremental).
fastest when restore all the data.
Incrementa creating a backup. For example if you
For example if you did a full backup
l Backup: had a full backup and
on Sunday. An incremental backup
The least storage six incremental
made on Monday, would only
space is needed. backups. To restore
contain files changed since Sunday,
the data would
and an incremental backup on
require you to
Tuesday, would only contain files
process the full
changed since Monday, and so on.
backup and all six
incremental backups.

Storage Replica: “Shared Nothing” SMB3 Failover File Server

This is the first test in the series, dedicated to Microsoft Storage Replica – a new solution
introduced in Windows Server 2016. It shows a step-by-step process of “Shared Nothing”
Failover File Server building, based on the Server Message Block protocol (SMB3).
Microsoft Storage Replica is a versatile data replication solution. It performs replication
 between servers, between volumes in a server, between clusters, etc. The typical use case
for Microsoft Storage Replica is Disaster Recovery, which is basically replication to a
remote site. It allows easy recovery of data in case the main site operation is disrupted by
some sort of a force majeure, like natural disasters. The test is performed by StarWind
engineers with a full report on the results.

Content
All in all, this configuration will use three servers:

1. First cluster node for Storage Replica

2. Second cluster node for Storage Replica
3. The server with the MS iSCSI Target, which provides iSCSI storage (not shared – for
the sake of testing the capabilities of Storage Replica) for the cluster nodes. We also have
to create SMB 3.0 share to use as a witness (because Storage Replica cannot fulfill this
task).
Cluster nodes are first joined into the domain.

Note: Though the manual says that SSD and SAS disks are supported for Storage Replica,
I couldn’t get them connected. As the same thing went with virtual SAS disks, emulated
by Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi, I tried to connect the iSCSI devices created in the
MS Target. It seems like the only option that managed to work somehow.
I’m starting MS iSCSI Target on a separate machine and create 2 disks for each node (4
disks total). As this is not shared storage, the first and the second disks are connected to
the first node, while the third and the fourth – to the second node. One disk from the first
pair will be used as a replica source, while the other one – as a source log disk. On the
second pair, the disks will be respectively – replica destination and destination log. The log
disk must be at least 2 GB or a minimum 10% of the source disk.

The screenshot shows the two 35 Gb disks, created for source and destination, as well as
two 10 Gb disks for the source log and destination log.

Now we’re all set.

Connecting the devices through the initiator on both the nodes, where I’m going to test
Storage Replica. Initializing them, choosing GPT (this is important!) and formatting the
disks. For both the nodes, I choose the same letters (this is important too!).
Using Add Roles and Features wizard, I’ll add Failover Clustering, Multipath I/O and
Windows Volume Replication on the nodes.

Reboot. After it’s complete, I will create a cluster (as we mentioned above, SMB 3.0 share is
used for witness).

Going to the Storage->Disks in the cluster, adding disk by clicking Add Disk. Here’s what
we see in the next window (2 disks on each node):
Adding all of them.
Now I’ll go to Add Roles and choose the file server role.
Going through the standard wizard, I see the Select Storage step, where I’m choosing only
the data disk, not the disk for logs.
Successfully finishing the wizard, I’m getting the role. Highlight it and choose the Resource
stab. Right-click the added cluster disk and choose Replication – Enable.
Choose the log disk in the replica creation wizard that appears.
The next step is choosing the replica destination. The list on the next screenshot is empty. If
you get an empty list (as shown on the next screenshot), return to the Storage – Disks.
You need to change the owner of all the disks to the replica destination node. This can be
done through Move Available Storage – Best Possible Node.
Here’s what I got:

Getting back to the Storage Replica creation wizard – now the disk is available there.
Setting the log disk for the replication.
The disks are not synchronized, so I’m choosing the second option.
Confirm the creation.
The data is being synchronized.
The next screenshot shows my success.
Note: If you’re getting an error like the one on the next screenshot, recreate the devices
and connect them again. Otherwise, you’d have a hard time getting the disks to operate
normally.
The replica and a slightly changed disk display are the signs of success.
Here on the screenshot, you can see that cluster disk 1 and others have different sizes from
the initial ones. The reason is in the need to create them again – so they were added under
new numbers.

The next step is to create a file share – it’s a standard wizard dialog, so you’ll surely figure it
out without my instructions. The only thing I’d like to point out the log disk is also available
as the share location. I sure hope Microsoft will repair this issue, because it may cause
some trouble for inexperienced users.
After having created the share, I’ll upload something there and crash the owner node of the
cluster during the process.
The Continuous Availability option is enabled in the share, so when a node crashes, SMB
Transparent Failover must occur. Well, it did not. At the moment of the node crash, the
speed went down, so the copying died as well because of the timeout.

Conclusion
As you can clearly see, Failover Cluster in File Server role works fine with Storage Replica
with only a slight trouble. Though we’ve enabled Continuous Availability in the SMB share,
the operation was disrupted during failover. Doesn’t look like transparent failover at all.