How to Break WinRAR Package Password in Ubuntu (Easy Way)

I’m gonna share to you some cool and easy way to break your Winrar Password Package in Ubuntu. You can use this method in case you forget your Winrar Password or kind like that. Ok, let’s get started.

First, you must know that software that will perform the RAR Package Crack, the software name is “RarCrack”. And this is the method to download and install RARCRACK. You can download the latest version (0.2) from this website  .

Or simply follow this simple tutorial to perform the installation.

First, download the rarcrack 0.2 by pasting this following code:

Download rarcrack 0.2

tar xvjf rarcrack-0.2.tar.bz2

Get into the RarCrack Folder

cd rarcrack-0.2

install some needed dependencies by typing this following code:

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

Install the RarCrack

make ; sudo make install

Alright! That’s the end of RarCrack Installation. Ok, that’s not entirely true, there’s one of the most important part that you forget, the cracking part  . To crack or break the RAR Package Password, type in terminal:

rarcrack /home/UserName/example.rar

Just simply put your .rar directory and perhaps if it’s not working try to rename your rar file, it probably will help.

This software is also works for other Package (zip and 7z), just simply replace .rar into .zip or .7z in case you must break zip or 7z passwd.

Thanks to melayubuntu that providing this simple and nice tutorial… Cheers!

Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows MySQL Server Installation

Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows MySQL Server Installation
When installing and running MySQL for the first time, you may encounter certain errors that prevent the MySQL server from starting. The purpose of this section is to help you diagnose and correct some of these errors.


Your first resource when troubleshooting server issues is the error log. The MySQL server uses the error log to record information relevant to the error that prevents the server from starting. The error log is located in the data directory specified in your my.ini file. The default data directory location is C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\data, or C:\ProgramData\Mysql on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. The C:\ProgramData diectory is hidden by default. You need to change your folder options to see the directory and contents. For more information on the error log and understanding the content, see Section 5.2.2, “The Error Log”.

Another source of information regarding possible errors is the console messages displayed when the MySQL service is starting. Use the NET START MySQL command from the command line after installing mysqld as a service to see any error messages regarding the starting of the MySQL server as a service. See Section 2.3.5.7, “Starting MySQL Server as a Microsoft Windows Service”.

The following examples show other common error messages you may encounter when installing MySQL and starting the server for the first time:

• If the MySQL server cannot find the mysql privileges database or other critical files, you may see these messages:

• System error 1067 has occurred.

Fatal error: Can't open privilege tables: Table 'mysql.host' doesn't exist

These messages often occur when the MySQL base or data directories are installed in different locations than the default locations (C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1 and C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\data, respectively).

This situation may occur when MySQL is upgraded and installed to a new location, but the configuration file is not updated to reflect the new location. In addition, there may be old and new configuration files that conflict. Be sure to delete or rename any old configuration files when upgrading MySQL.

If you have installed MySQL to a directory other than C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1, you need to ensure that the MySQL server is aware of this through the use of a configuration (my.ini) file. The my.ini file needs to be located in your Windows directory, typically C:\WINDOWS. You can determine its exact location from the value of the WINDIR environment variable by issuing the following command from the command prompt:

C:\> echo %WINDIR%

An option file can be created and modified with any text editor, such as Notepad. For example, if MySQL is installed in E:\mysql and the data directory is D:\MySQLdata, you can create the option file and set up a [mysqld] section to specify values for the basedir and datadir options:

[mysqld]

# set basedir to your installation path

basedir=E:/mysql

# set datadir to the location of your data directory

datadir=D:/MySQLdata

Note that Windows path names are specified in option files using (forward) slashes rather than backslashes. If you do use backslashes, double them:

[mysqld]

# set basedir to your installation path

basedir=C:\\Program Files\\MySQL\\MySQL Server 5.1

# set datadir to the location of your data directory

datadir=D:\\MySQLdata

The rules for use of backslash in option file values are given in Section 4.2.3.3, “Using Option Files”.

If you change the datadir value in your MySQL configuration file, you must move the contents of the existing MySQL data directory before restarting the MySQL server.

• If you reinstall or upgrade MySQL without first stopping and removing the existing MySQL service and install MySQL using the MySQL Config Wizard, you may see this error:

Error: Cannot create Windows service for MySql. Error: 0

This occurs when the Config Wizard tries to install the service and finds an existing service with the same name.

One solution to this problem is to choose a service name other than mysql when using the configuration wizard. This enables the new service to be installed correctly, but leaves the outdated service in place. Although this is harmless, it is best to remove old services that are no longer in use.

To permanently remove the old mysql service, execute the following command as a user with administrative privileges, on the command-line:

C:\> sc delete mysql

[SC] DeleteService SUCCESS

If the sc utility is not available for your version of Windows, download the delsrv utility from http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/delsrv-o.asp and use the delsrv mysql syntax.



C.5.4.1. How to Reset the Root Password

If you have never set a root password for MySQL, the server does not require a password at all for connecting as root. However, this is insecure. For instructions on assigning passwords, see Section 2.12.2, “Securing the Initial MySQL Accounts”.

If you know the root password, but want to change it, see Section 12.7.1.6, “SET PASSWORD Syntax”.

If you set a root password previously, but have forgotten it, you can set a new password. The following sections provide instructions for Windows and Unix systems, as well as generic instructions that apply to any system.

C.5.4.1.1. Resetting the Root Password: Windows Systems

On Windows, use the following procedure to reset the password for all MySQL root accounts:

1. Log on to your system as Administrator.

2. Stop the MySQL server if it is running. For a server that is running as a Windows service, go to the Services manager: From the Start menu, select Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Services. Find the MySQL service in the list and stop it.

If your server is not running as a service, you may need to use the Task Manager to force it to stop.

3. Create a text file containing the following statements. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.

4. UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass') WHERE User='root';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Write the UPDATE and FLUSH statements each on a single line. The UPDATE statement resets the password for all root accounts, and the FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory so that it notices the password change.

5. Save the file. For this example, the file will be named C:\mysql-init.txt.

6. Open a console window to get to the command prompt: From the Start menu, select Run, then enter cmd as the command to be run.

7. Start the MySQL server with the special --init-file option (notice that the backslash in the option value is doubled):

8. C:\> C:\mysql\bin\mysqld --init-file=C:\\mysql-init.txt

If you installed MySQL to a location other than C:\mysql, adjust the command accordingly.

The server executes the contents of the file named by the --init-file option at startup, changing each root account password.

You can also add the --console option to the command if you want server output to appear in the console window rather than in a log file.

If you installed MySQL using the MySQL Installation Wizard, you may need to specify a --defaults-file option:

C:\> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\mysqld.exe"

--defaults-file="C:\\Program Files\\MySQL\\MySQL Server 5.1\\my.ini"

--init-file=C:\\mysql-init.txt

The appropriate --defaults-file setting can be found using the Services Manager: From the Start menu, select Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Services. Find the MySQL service in the list, right-click it, and choose the Properties option. The Path to executable field contains the --defaults-file setting.

9. After the server has started successfully, delete C:\mysql-init.txt.

You should now be able to connect to the MySQL server as root using the new password. Stop the MySQL server, then restart it in normal mode again. If you run the server as a service, start it from the Windows Services window. If you start the server manually, use whatever command you normally use.

C.5.4.1.2. Resetting the Root Password: Unix Systems

On Unix, use the following procedure to reset the password for all MySQL root accounts. The instructions assume that you will start the server so that it runs using the Unix login account that you normally use for running the server. For example, if you run the server using the mysql login account, you should log in as mysql before using the instructions. Alternatively, you can log in as root, but in this case you must start mysqld with the --user=mysql option. If you start the server as root without using --user=mysql, the server may create root-owned files in the data directory, such as log files, and these may cause permission-related problems for future server startups. If that happens, you will need to either change the ownership of the files to mysql or remove them.

1. Log on to your system as the Unix user that the mysqld server runs as (for example, mysql).

2. Locate the .pid file that contains the server's process ID. The exact location and name of this file depend on your distribution, host name, and configuration. Common locations are /var/lib/mysql/, /var/run/mysqld/, and /usr/local/mysql/data/. Generally, the file name has an extension of .pid and begins with either mysqld or your system's host name.

You can stop the MySQL server by sending a normal kill (not kill -9) to the mysqld process, using the path name of the .pid file in the following command:

shell> kill `cat /mysql-data-directory/host_name.pid`

Use backticks (not forward quotation marks) with the cat command. These cause the output of cat to be substituted into the kill command.

3. Create a text file containing the following statements. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.

4. UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass') WHERE User='root';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Write the UPDATE and FLUSH statements each on a single line. The UPDATE statement resets the password for all root accounts, and the FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory so that it notices the password change.

5. Save the file. For this example, the file will be named /home/me/mysql-init. The file contains the password, so it should not be saved where it can be read by other users. If you are not logged in as mysql (the user the server runs as), make sure that the file has permissions that permit mysql to read it.

6. Start the MySQL server with the special --init-file option:

7. shell> mysqld_safe --init-file=/home/me/mysql-init &

The server executes the contents of the file named by the --init-file option at startup, changing each root account password.

8. After the server has started successfully, delete /home/me/mysql-init.

You should now be able to connect to the MySQL server as root using the new password. Stop the server and restart it normally.

C.5.4.1.3. Resetting the Root Password: Generic Instructions

The preceding sections provide password-resetting instructions for Windows and Unix systems. Alternatively, on any platform, you can set the new password using the mysql client (but this approach is less secure):

1. Stop mysqld and restart it with the --skip-grant-tables option. This enables anyone to connect without a password and with all privileges. Because this is insecure, you might want to use --skip-grant-tables in conjunction with --skip-networking to prevent remote clients from connecting.

2. Connect to the mysqld server with this command:

3. shell> mysql

4. Issue the following statements in the mysql client. Replace the password with the password that you want to use.

5. mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass')

6. -> WHERE User='root';

7. mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

The FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory so that it notices the password change.

You should now be able to connect to the MySQL server as root using the new password. Stop the server, then restart it normally (without the --skip-grant-tables and --skip-networking options).






C.5.4.2. What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing

Each MySQL version is tested on many platforms before it is released. This doesn't mean that there are no bugs in MySQL, but if there are bugs, they should be very few and can be hard to find. If you have a problem, it always helps if you try to find out exactly what crashes your system, because you have a much better chance of getting the problem fixed quickly.

First, you should try to find out whether the problem is that the mysqld server dies or whether your problem has to do with your client. You can check how long your mysqld server has been up by executing mysqladmin version. If mysqld has died and restarted, you may find the reason by looking in the server's error log. See Section 5.2.2, “The Error Log”.

On some systems, you can find in the error log a stack trace of where mysqld died that you can resolve with the resolve_stack_dump program. See MySQL Internals: Porting. Note that the variable values written in the error log may not always be 100% correct.

Many server crashes are caused by corrupted data files or index files. MySQL updates the files on disk with the write() system call after every SQL statement and before the client is notified about the result. (This is not true if you are running with --delay-key-write, in which case data files are written but not index files.) This means that data file contents are safe even if mysqld crashes, because the operating system ensures that the unflushed data is written to disk. You can force MySQL to flush everything to disk after every SQL statement by starting mysqld with the --flush option.

The preceding means that normally you should not get corrupted tables unless one of the following happens:

• The MySQL server or the server host was killed in the middle of an update.

• You have found a bug in mysqld that caused it to die in the middle of an update.

• Some external program is manipulating data files or index files at the same time as mysqld without locking the table properly.

• You are running many mysqld servers using the same data directory on a system that doesn't support good file system locks (normally handled by the lockd lock manager), or you are running multiple servers with external locking disabled.

• You have a crashed data file or index file that contains very corrupt data that confused mysqld.

• You have found a bug in the data storage code. This isn't likely, but it is at least possible. In this case, you can try to change the storage engine to another engine by using ALTER TABLE on a repaired copy of the table.

Because it is very difficult to know why something is crashing, first try to check whether things that work for others crash for you. Please try the following things:

• Stop the mysqld server with mysqladmin shutdown, run myisamchk --silent --force */*.MYI from the data directory to check all MyISAM tables, and restart mysqld. This ensures that you are running from a clean state. See Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration.

• Start mysqld with the general query log enabled (see Section 5.2.3, “The General Query Log”). Then try to determine from the information written to the log whether some specific query kills the server. About 95% of all bugs are related to a particular query. Normally, this is one of the last queries in the log file just before the server restarts. See Section 5.2.3, “The General Query Log”. If you can repeatedly kill MySQL with a specific query, even when you have checked all tables just before issuing it, then you have been able to locate the bug and should submit a bug report for it. See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”.

• Try to make a test case that we can use to repeat the problem. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

• Try running the tests in the mysql-test directory and the MySQL benchmarks. See Section 21.1.2, “The MySQL Test Suite”. They should test MySQL rather well. You can also add code to the benchmarks that simulates your application. The benchmarks can be found in the sql-bench directory in a source distribution or, for a binary distribution, in the sql-bench directory under your MySQL installation directory.

• Try the fork_big.pl script. (It is located in the tests directory of source distributions.)

• If you configure MySQL for debugging, it is much easier to gather information about possible errors if something goes wrong. Configuring MySQL for debugging causes a safe memory allocator to be included that can find some errors. It also provides a lot of output about what is happening. Reconfigure MySQL with the --with-debug or --with-debug=full option to configure and then recompile. See MySQL Internals: Porting.

• Make sure that you have applied the latest patches for your operating system.

• Use the --skip-external-locking option to mysqld. On some systems, the lockd lock manager does not work properly; the --skip-external-locking option tells mysqld not to use external locking. (This means that you cannot run two mysqld servers on the same data directory and that you must be careful if you use myisamchk. Nevertheless, it may be instructive to try the option as a test.)

• Have you tried mysqladmin -u root processlist when mysqld appears to be running but not responding? Sometimes mysqld is not comatose even though you might think so. The problem may be that all connections are in use, or there may be some internal lock problem. mysqladmin -u root processlist usually is able to make a connection even in these cases, and can provide useful information about the current number of connections and their status.

• Run the command mysqladmin -i 5 status or mysqladmin -i 5 -r status in a separate window to produce statistics while you run your other queries.

• Try the following:

a. Start mysqld from gdb (or another debugger). See MySQL Internals: Porting.

b. Run your test scripts.

c. Print the backtrace and the local variables at the three lowest levels. In gdb, you can do this with the following commands when mysqld has crashed inside gdb:

d. backtrace

e. info local

f. up

g. info local

h. up

info local

With gdb, you can also examine which threads exist with info threads and switch to a specific thread with thread N, where N is the thread ID.

• Try to simulate your application with a Perl script to force MySQL to crash or misbehave.

• Send a normal bug report. See Section 1.7, “How to Report Bugs or Problems”. Be even more detailed than usual. Because MySQL works for many people, it may be that the crash results from something that exists only on your computer (for example, an error that is related to your particular system libraries).

• If you have a problem with tables containing dynamic-length rows and you are using only VARCHAR columns (not BLOB or TEXT columns), you can try to change all VARCHAR to CHAR with ALTER TABLE. This forces MySQL to use fixed-size rows. Fixed-size rows take a little extra space, but are much more tolerant to corruption.

The current dynamic row code has been in use for several years with very few problems, but dynamic-length rows are by nature more prone to errors, so it may be a good idea to try this strategy to see whether it helps.

• Do not rule out your server hardware when diagnosing problems. Defective hardware can be the cause of data corruption. Particular attention should be paid to your memory and disk subsystems when troubleshooting hardware.

C.5.4.6. Time Zone Problems

If you have a problem with SELECT NOW() returning values in UTC and not your local time, you have to tell the server your current time zone. The same applies if UNIX_TIMESTAMP() returns the wrong value. This should be done for the environment in which the server runs; for example, in mysqld_safe or mysql.server. See Section 2.14, “Environment Variables”.

You can set the time zone for the server with the --timezone=timezone_name option to mysqld_safe. You can also set it by setting the TZ environment variable before you start mysqld.

The permissible values for --timezone or TZ are system dependent. Consult your operating system documentation to see what values are acceptable.

C.5.4.4. Where MySQL Stores Temporary Files

On Unix, MySQL uses the value of the TMPDIR environment variable as the path name of the directory in which to store temporary files. If TMPDIR is not set, MySQL uses the system default, which is usually /tmp, /var/tmp, or /usr/tmp.

On Windows, Netware and OS2, MySQL checks in order the values of the TMPDIR, TEMP, and TMP environment variables. For the first one found to be set, MySQL uses it and does not check those remaining. If none of TMPDIR, TEMP, or TMP are set, MySQL uses the Windows system default, which is usually C:\windows\temp\.

If the file system containing your temporary file directory is too small, you can use the --tmpdir option to mysqld to specify a directory in a file system where you have enough space.

In MySQL 5.1, the --tmpdir option can be set to a list of several paths that are used in round-robin fashion. Paths should be separated by colon characters (“:”) on Unix and semicolon characters (“;”) on Windows, NetWare, and OS/2.

Note

To spread the load effectively, these paths should be located on different physical disks, not different partitions of the same disk.

If the MySQL server is acting as a replication slave, you should not set --tmpdir to point to a directory on a memory-based file system or to a directory that is cleared when the server host restarts. A replication slave needs some of its temporary files to survive a machine restart so that it can replicate temporary tables or LOAD DATA INFILE operations. If files in the temporary file directory are lost when the server restarts, replication fails.

MySQL creates all temporary files as hidden files. This ensures that the temporary files are removed if mysqld is terminated. The disadvantage of using hidden files is that you do not see a big temporary file that fills up the file system in which the temporary file directory is located.

When sorting (ORDER BY or GROUP BY), MySQL normally uses one or two temporary files. The maximum disk space required is determined by the following expression:

(length of what is sorted + sizeof(row pointer))

* number of matched rows

* 2

The row pointer size is usually four bytes, but may grow in the future for really big tables.

For some SELECT queries, MySQL also creates temporary SQL tables. These are not hidden and have names of the form SQL_*.

ALTER TABLE creates a temporary table in the same directory as the original table.

C.5.4.5. How to Protect or Change the MySQL Unix Socket File

The default location for the Unix socket file that the server uses for communication with local clients is /tmp/mysql.sock. (For some distribution formats, the directory might be different, such as /var/lib/mysql for RPMs.)

On some versions of Unix, anyone can delete files in the /tmp directory or other similar directories used for temporary files. If the socket file is located in such a directory on your system, this might cause problems.

On most versions of Unix, you can protect your /tmp directory so that files can be deleted only by their owners or the superuser (root). To do this, set the sticky bit on the /tmp directory by logging in as root and using the following command:

shell> chmod +t /tmp

You can check whether the sticky bit is set by executing ls -ld /tmp. If the last permission character is t, the bit is set.

Another approach is to change the place where the server creates the Unix socket file. If you do this, you should also let client programs know the new location of the file. You can specify the file location in several ways:

• Specify the path in a global or local option file. For example, put the following lines in /etc/my.cnf:

• [mysqld]

• socket=/path/to/socket

• [client]

socket=/path/to/socket

• Specify a --socket option on the command line to mysqld_safe and when you run client programs.

• Set the MYSQL_UNIX_PORT environment variable to the path of the Unix socket file.

• Recompile MySQL from source to use a different default Unix socket file location. Define the path to the file with the --with-unix-socket-path option when you run configure. See Section 2.11.4, “MySQL Source-Configuration Options”.

You can test whether the new socket location works by attempting to connect to the server with this command:

shell> mysqladmin --socket=/path/to/socket version

DNS Records Commonly Used Records

Commonly used Record Types

The most commonly used record types are: A, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR and SOA.

A-Records (Host address)

• The A-record is the most basic and the most important DNS record type.

• They are used to translate human friendly domain names such as “www.jhsoft.com” into IP-addresses such as 23.211.43.53 (machine friendly numbers).

• A-records are the DNS server equivalent of the hosts file – a simple domain name to IP-address mapping.

• A-records are not required for all computers, but is needed for any computer that shares resources on a network.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

CNAME-Records (Canonical name for an alias)

CNAME-records are domain name aliases.

• Often computers on the Internet have multiple functions such as web-server, ftp-server, chat-server etc.

• To mask this, CNAME-records can be used to give a single computer multiple names (aliases).

• For example computer “xyz.com” may be both a web-server and an ftp-server, so two CNAME-records are defined:

• “www.xyz.com” = “xyz.com” and “ftp.xyz.com” = “xyz.com”.

• Sometimes a single server computer hosts many different domain names (take ISPs), and so CNAME-records may be defined such as “www.abc.com” =

• “www.xyz.com”.

• The most popular use the CNAME-record type is to provide access to a web-server using both the standard “www.domain.com” and “domain.com” (without the

• www).

• This is usually done by creating an A-record for the short name (without www), and a CNAME-record for the www name pointing to the short name.

• CNAME-records can also be used when a computer or service needs to be renamed, to temporarily allow access through both the old and new name.

• A CNAME-record should always point to an A-record to avoid circular references.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

MX-Records (Mail exchange)

MX-records identify mail server(s) responsible for a domain name.

• When sending an e-mail to “user@xyz.com”, your mail server must first look up the MX-record for “xyz.com” to see which mail server actually handles mail for

• “xyz.com” (this could be “mail.xyz.com” – or someone else’s mail server like “mail.isp.com”).

• Then it looks up the A-record for the mail server to connect to its IP-address.

• An MX-record has a “Preference” number indicating the order in which the mail server should be used.

• (Only relevant when multiple MX-records are defined for the same domain name).

• Mail servers will attempt to deliver mail to the server with the lowest preference number first, and if unsuccessful continue with the next lowest and so on.

• An MX-record identifies the name of a mail server server – not the IP-address.

• Because of this, it is important that an A-record for the referenced mail server exists (not necessarily on your server, but wherever it belongs), otherwise there may

• not be any way to find that mail server and communicate with it.

• Do not point an MX record to a CNAME-record. Many e-mail servers don’t handle this. Add another A-record instead.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

NS-Records (Authoritative name server)

NS-records identify DNS servers responsible (authoritative) for a zone.

• A zone should contain one NS-record for each of its own DNS servers (primary and secondaries).

• This mostly is used for zone transfer purposes (notify).

• These NS-records have the same name as the zone in which they are located.

• But the most important function of the NS-record is delegation.

• Delegation means that part of a domain is delegated to other DNS servers.

• For example all “.com” sub-names (such as “jhsoft.com”) are delegated from the “com” zone (hosted by the “InterNic”).

• The “com” zone contains NS-records for all “.com” sub-names (a lot!).

• You can also delegate sub-names of your own domain name (such as “subname.yourname.com”) to other DNS servers.

• You are in effect the “InterNic” for all sub-names of your own domain name (if you have a really cool domain name, you might even be able to sell sub-names for

• profit).

• To delegate “subname.yourname.com”, create NS-records for “subname.yourname.com” in the “yourname.com” zone.

• These NS-records must point to the DNS server responsible for “subname.yourname.com” for example “ns1.subname.yourname.com” – or a DNS server

• somewhere else like “ns1.othername.net”.

• An NS-record identifies the name of a DNS server – not the IP-address.

• Because of this, it is important that an A-record for the referenced DNS server exists (not necessarily on your server, but wherever it belongs), otherwise there may

• not be any way to find that DNS server and communicate with it.

• If an NS-record delegates a sub-name (“subname.yourname.com”) to a DNS server with a name in that sub-name (“ns1.subname.yourname.com”), an A-record for

• that server (“”ns1.subname.yourname.com”) must exist in the parent zone (“yourname.com”).

• This A-record is referred to as a “glue” record, because it doesn’t really belong in the parent zone, but is necessary to locate the DNS server for the delegated

• sub-name.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

PTR-Records (domain name pointer)

PTR-records map IP addresses to domain names (reverse of A-records).

• A PTR-record’s name is the IP address written in backward order with “in-addr.arpa.” appended to the end.

• As an example, looking up the domain name for IP address “1.2.3.4″ is done through a query for the PTR-record for “4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa.”

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

SOA-Records (Start of authority)

Each zone contains exactly one SOA-record, which holds the following properties for the zone:

• Name of primary DNS server

• The domain name of the primary DNS server for the zone.

• The zone should contain a matching NS-record.

• Mailbox of responsible person

• The email address (replace @ with a dot) of the person responsible for maintenance of the zone.

• The standard for this is the “hostmaster” username – such as “hostmaster.jhsoft.com” (= hostmaster@jhsoft.com).

• Serial number (Zone Transfers)

• Used by secondary DNS servers to check if the zone has changed.

• If the serial number is higher than what the secondary server has, a zone transfer will be initiated.

• Refresh Interval (see Zone Transfers)

• How often secondary DNS servers should check if changes are made to the zone.

• Retry Interval (see Zone Transfers)

• How often secondary DNS server should retry checking if changes are made – if the first refresh fails.

• Expire Interval (see Zone Transfers)

• How long the zone will be valid after a refresh.

• Secondary servers will discard the zone if no refresh could be made within this interval.

• Minimum (default) TTL

• Used as the default TTL for new records created within the zone.

• Also used by other DNS server to cache negative responses (such as record does not exist etc.).

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

Less commonly used / experimental record types

The following are all less commonly used / experimental record types.

A6-Records (IPv6 host address)

• IPv6 is the future replacement for the current IP address system (also known as IPv4).

• The current IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long ( x . x . x . x = 4 bytes), and therefore “only” support a total of 4,294,967,296 addresses – less than the global

• population.

• With this limitation there is an increasing shortage of IPv4 addresses.

• To solve the problem, the whole Internet will eventually be migrated to IPv6.

• IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long and and are written in hexadecimal numbers separated by colons (:) at every four digits.

• Zeros can be skipped – for example: 4C2F::1:2:3:4:567:89AB.

• Few applications and network devices currently support IPv6 and IPv6 addresses are not yet generally available., but this is expected to change rapidly.

• An A6-record is used to specify the IPv6 address (or part of the IPv6 address) for a host.

• A6-records expands the functionality of A- and AAAA-records by adding support for aggregation and renumbering.

• A lookup for an IPv6 records could involve several A6-records which each specify only part of the final address.

• This is achieved through the additional prefix-length and prefix name fields.

• A6-records are supposed to replace AAAA-records (see below).

• This record type is defined in RFC2874.

AAAA-Records (IPv6 host address)

• An AAAA-record specifies an absolute IPv6 address.

• This record type is supposed to be replaced by the A6 record type (see above).

• This record type is defined in RFC1886.

AFSDB-Records (AFS Data Base location)

• An AFSDB-record maps a domain name to an AFS (Andrew File System) database server.

• The server name points to an A-record for the database server, and the sub-type indicates server type:

1. AFS version 3.0 volume location server for the named AFS cell.

2. DCE authenticated server

• This record type is defined in RFC1183.

ATMA-Records (Asynchronous Transfer Mode address)

• An ATMA-record maps a domain name to an ATM address.

• The ATM address can be specified in either E.164 format (decimal) or NSAP format (hexadecimal).

• This record type is defined in “ATM Name System Specification Version 1.0″ published by the ATM Forum.

• DNAME-Records (Non-Terminal DNS Name Redirection)

• A DNAME-record is used to map / rename an entire subtree of the DNS name space to another domain.

• It differs from the CNAME-record which maps only a single node of the name space.

• This record type is defined in RFC2672.

HINFO-Records (Host information)

• A HINFO-record specifies the host / server’s type of CPU and operating system.

• This information can be used by application protocols such as FTP, which use special procedures when communicating with computers of a known CPU and

• operating system type.

• Standard CPU and operating system types are defined in RFC1700 (Page 206 / 214).

• The standard for a Windows PC is “INTEL-386″ / “WIN32″.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

ISDN-Records (ISDN address)

• The ISDN-record maps a domain name to an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) telephone number.

• The ISDN phone numbers / DDI (Direct Dial In) used should follow ITU-T E.163/E.164 international telephone numbering standards.

• For example 12121234567 ( 1=USA, 212=New York area code, 1234567=number)

• The ISDN sub-address is an optional hexadecimal number.

• This record type is defined in RFC1183.

MB, MG, MINFO, MR Records (mailbox records)

• Most Internet mail servers only support MX-records.

• Only use MB, MG, MINFO and MR records if you have specific requirements for these.

• To specify “mailbox” names, replace the email address @ sign with a dot (.).

• MB-records (Mailbox)

• Maps a mailbox to a host (server).

• The host must be the same as a valid A-record already defined in the same zone.

• MG-records (Mail group member)

• Used to specify mail group members (one MG-record per member).

• Each member mailbox must be identical to a valid mailbox (MB-record).

• MINFO-records (Mailbox or mail list information)

• Specifies the mailbox of the responsible person and optionally a mailbox for errors for this mailbox or list.

• Each mailbox must be the same as a valid mailbox (MB-record) that already exist in the zone.

• MR-records (Renamed mailbox)

• Specifies a renamed mailbox.

• An MR-record can be used as a forwarding entry for a user who has moved to a different mailbox.

• These record types are defined in RFC1035.

NSAP-Records (NSAP address)

• An NSAP-record maps a domain name to an NSAP address.

• The NSAP address is entered using hexadecimal digits – any NSAP address format is allowed.

• This record type is defined in RFC1706.

RP-Records (Responsible person)

• An RP-record specifies the mailbox of the person responsible for the host (domain name).

• A SOA-record defines the responsible person for an entire zone, but a zone may contain a large number of individual hosts / domain names for which different

• people are assigned responsibility.

• The RP-record type makes it possible to identify the responsible person for individual domain names contained within the zone.

• To specify the “mailbox”, replace the email address @ sign with a dot (.).

• Optionally specify the domain name for a TXT-record with additional information (such as phone and address).

• This record type is defined in RFC1183.

RT-Records (Route through)

• An RT-record specifies an intermediate host that provides routing to the domain name (host) of the record.

• This can be used by computers which are not directly connected to the Internet, or wide area network (WAN).

• A preference value is used to set priority if multiple intermediate routing hosts are specified – lower values tried first.

• For each intermediate host specified, a corresponding host (A) address resource record is needed in the current zone.

• This record type is defined in RFC1183.

SRV-records (location of service)

• SRV-records are used to specify the location of a service.

• They are recently being used in connection with different directory servers such as LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), and Windows 2000 directory

• services.

• They can also be used for advanced load balancing and to specify specific ports for services – for example that a web-server is running on port 8080 instead of the

• usual port 80.

• This record type is however still considered experimental, and is NOT supported by most programs in use today, including web-browsers.

• The name of a SRV-record is defined as “_service._protocol.domain” – for example “_ftp._tcp.xyz.com”.

• Most internet services are defined in RFC1700 (page 15), and the protocol is generally TCP or UDP.

• The “service location” is specified through a target, priority, weight, and port:

• - Target is the domain name of the server (referencing an A-record).

• - Priority is a preference number used when more servers are providing the same service (lower numbers are tried first).

• - Weight is used for advanced load balancing.

• - Port is the TCP/UDP port number on the server that provides this service.

• This record type is defined in RFC2782.

TXT-Records (Descriptive text)

• TXT-records are used to hold descriptive text.

• They are often used to hold general information about a domain name such as who is hosting it, contact person, phone numbers, etc.

• TXT-records are informational for people only and are not required for any DNS functions.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

X25-Records (X.25 PSDN address)

• An X25-records maps a domain name to a Public Switched Data Network (PSDN) address number.

• Numbers used with this record should follow the X.121 international numbering plan.

• This record type is defined in RFC1183.

WKS Records (Well Known Services)

• The Well Known Services (WKS) record lists the Well Known Services a host provides on a particular IP protocol. The common protocols are TCP and UDP.

• The common services are TIME, TELNET, FTP, or SMTP.

• This record type is defined in RFC1035.

system administrator interview question with answer Part -2

System administrator interview question with answer Part -2

What is the KCC
The KCC is a built-in process that runs on all domain controllers and generates replication topology for the Active Directory forest. The KCC creates separate replication topologies depending on whether replication is occurring within a site (intrasite) or between sites (intersite). The KCC also dynamically adjusts the topology to accommodate new domain controllers, domain controllers moved to and from sites, changing costs and schedules, and domain controllers that are temporarily unavailable.

How do you view replication properties for AD?
By using Active Directory Replication Monitor.
Start–> Run–> Replmon

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

Name some OU design considerations?
OU design requires balancing requirements for delegating administrative rights – independent of Group Policy needs – and the need to scope the application of Group Policy. The following OU design recommendations address delegation and scope issues:
Applying Group Policy An OU is the lowest-level Active Directory container to which you can assign Group Policy settings. Delegating administrative authority usually don’t go more than 3 OU levels
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783140.aspx

What are FMSO Roles? List them.
Fsmo 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

Logical Diagram of Active Directory ?, What is the difference between child domain & additional domain Server?
Well, if you know what a domain is then you have half the answer. Say you have the domain Microsoft.com. Now microsoft has a server named server1 in that domain, which happens to the be parent domain. So it’s FQDN is server1.microsoft.com. If you add an additional domain server and name it server2, then it’s FQDN is server2.microsoft.com.
Now Microsoft is big so it has offices in Europe and Asia. So they make child domains for them and their FQDN would look like this: europe.microsoft.com & asia.microsoft.com. Now lets say each of them have a server in those child domains named server1. Their FQDN would then look like this: server1.europe.microsoft.com & server1.asia.microsoft.com..

What are Active Directory Groups?
Groups are containers that contain user and computer objects within them as members. When security permissions are set for a group in the Access Control List on a resource, all members of that group receive those permissions. Domain Groups enable centralized administration in a domain. All domain groups are created on a domain controller.
In a domain, Active Directory provides support for different types of groups and group scopes. The group type determines the type of task that you manage with the group. The group scope determines whether the group can have members from multiple domains or a single domain.
Group Types
* Security groups: Use Security groups for granting permissions to gain access to resources. Sending an e-mail message to a group sends the message to all members of the group. Therefore security groups share the capabilities of distribution groups.
* Distribution groups: Distribution groups are used for sending e-main messages to groups of users. You cannot grant permissions to security groups. Even though security groups have all the capabilities of distribution groups, distribution groups still requires, because some applications can only read distribution groups.
Group Scopes
Group scope normally describe which type of users should be clubbed together in a way which is easy for there administration. Therefore, in domain, groups play an important part. One group can be a member of other group(s) which is normally known as Group nesting. One or more groups can be member of any group in the entire domain(s) within a forest.
* Domain Local Group: Use this scope to grant permissions to domain resources that are located in the same domain in which you created the domain local group. Domain local groups can exist in all mixed, native and interim functional level of domains and forests. Domain local group memberships are not limited as you can add members as user accounts, universal and global groups from any domain. Just to remember, nesting cannot be done in domain local group. A domain local group will not be a member of another Domain Local or any other groups in the same domain.
* Global Group: Users with similar function can be grouped under global scope and can be given permission to access a resource (like a printer or shared folder and files) available in local or another domain in same forest. To say in simple words, Global groups can be use to grant permissions to gain access to resources which are located in any domain but in a single forest as their memberships are limited. User accounts and global groups can be added only from the domain in which global group is created. Nesting is possible in Global groups within other groups as you can add a global group into another global group from any domain. Finally to provide permission to domain specific resources (like printers and published folder), they can be members of a Domain Local group. Global groups exist in all mixed, native and interim functional level of domains and forests.
* Universal Group Scope: these groups are precisely used for email distribution and can be granted access to resources in all trusted domain as these groups can only be used as a security principal (security group type) in a windows 2000 native or windows server 2003 domain functional level domain. Universal group memberships are not limited like global groups. All domain user accounts and groups can be a member of universal group. Universal groups can be nested under a global or Domain Local group in any domain.

What are the types of backup? Explain each?
Incremental
A “normal” incremental backup will only back up files that have been changed since the last backup of any type. This provides the quickest means of backup, since it only makes copies of files that have not yet been backed up. For instance, following our full backup on Friday, Monday’s tape will contain only those files changed since Friday. Tuesday’s tape contains only those files changed since Monday, and so on. The downside to this is obviously that in order to perform a full restore, you need to restore the last full backup first, followed by each of the subsequent incremental backups to the present day in the correct order. Should any one of these backup copies be damaged (particularly the full backup), the restore will be incomplete.
Differential
A cumulative backup of all changes made after the last full backup. The advantage to this is the quicker recovery time, requiring only a full backup and the latest differential backup to restore the system. The disadvantage is that for each day elapsed since the last full backup, more data needs to be backed up, especially if a majority of the data has been changed.

What is the SYSVOL folder?
The Windows Server 2003 System Volume (SYSVOL) is a collection of folders and reparse points in the file systems that exist on each domain controller in a domain. SYSVOL provides a standard location to store important elements of Group Policy objects (GPOs) and scripts so that the File Replication service (FRS) can distribute them to other domain controllers within that domain.
You can go to SYSVOL folder by typing : %systemroot%/sysvol

What is the ISTG Who has that role by default?
The first server in the site becomes the ISTG for the site, The domain controller holding this role may not necessarily also be a bridgehead server.

What is the order in which GPOs are applied?
Local, Site, Domain, OU

system administrator interview question with answers- Part 1

1. Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
If we are using public ip address, we can browse the internet. If it is having an intranet address a gateway is needed as a router or firewall to communicate with internet.
2. What is CIDR?
CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing, sometimes known as supernetting) is a way to allocate and specify the Internet addresses used in inter-domain routing more flexibly than with the original system of Internet Protocol (IP) address classes. As a result, the number of available Internet addresses has been greatly increased. CIDR is now the routing system used by virtually all gateway hosts on the Internet’s backbone network. The Internet’s regulating authorities now expect every Internet service provider (ISP) to use it for routing.
3. What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
DHCP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. In a networked environment it is a method to assign an ‘address’ to a computer when it boots up.
Advantages
All the IP configuration information gets automatically configured for your client machine by the DHCP server.
If you move your client machine to a different subnet, the client will send out its discover message at boot time and work as usual. However, when you first boot up there you will not be able to get back the IP address you had at your previous location regardless of how little time has passed.
Disadvantage
Your machine name does not change when you get a new IP address. The DNS (Domain Name System) name is associated with your IP address and therefore does change. This only presents a problem if other clients try to access your machine by its DNS name.
4. How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
To create SRV records in DNS do below steps: -
Open DNS
Click on Zone —– Select domain abc.local ——-
Right Click to domain and go to Other New Records——
And choose service location (SRV)
5. Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones?
Benefits as follows
a. you can give easy name resolution to ur clients.
b. By creating AD- integrated zone you can also trace hacker and spammer by creating reverse zone.
c. AD integrated zoned all for incremental zone transfers which on transfer changes and not the entire zone. This reduces zone transfer traffic.
d. AD Integrated zones suport both secure and dmanic updates.
e. AD integrated zones are stored as part of the active directory and support domain-wide or forest-wide replication through application pertitions in AD.
6. How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
Go to cmd prompt and type “ipconfig/flushdns” without quotes
7. What is NAT?
NAT (Network Address Translation) is a technique for preserving scarce Internet IP addresses. For more details go to Microsoft link
8. How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
For above answer go to below link
Configure NAT
9. How to configure special ports to allow inbound connections?
a. Click Start, Administrative Tools, and then click Routing and Remote Access to open the Routing and Remote Access management console.
b. Locate the interface that you want to configure.
c. Right-click the interface and then select Properties from the shortcut menu.
d. Click the Special Ports tab.
e. Under Protocol, select TCP or UDP and then click the Add button.
f. Enter the port number of the incoming traffic in Incoming Port.
g. Select On This Address Pool Entry, and provide the public IP address of the incoming traffic.
h. Enter the port number of the private network resource in Outgoing Port.
i. Enter the private network resource’s private IP address in Private Address.
j. Click OK.

Windows Server 2008 System / Network Administrator Questions with Answers -Part 3

What is DHCP’s purpose?
DHCP’s purpose is to enable individual computers on an IP network to extract their configurations from a server (the ‘DHCP server’) or servers, in particular, servers that have no exact information about the individual computers until they request the information. The overall purpose of this is to reduce the work necessary to administer a large IP network. The most significant piece of information distributed in this manner is the IP address.

What protocol and port does DHCP use?
DHCP, like BOOTP runs over UDP, utilizing ports 67 and 68.

What is Global Catalog? The Global Catalog authenticates network user logons and fields inquiries about objects across a forest or tree. Every domain has at least one GC that is hosted on a domain controller. In Windows 2000, there was typically one GC on every site in order to prevent user logon failures across the network.
What is Stub Zone in DNS Server?
A stub zone is a copy of a zone that contains only those resource records necessary to identify the authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) servers for that zone. A stub zone is used to resolve names between separate DNS namespaces. This type of resolution may be necessary when a corporate merger requires that the DNS servers for two separate DNS namespaces resolve names for clients in both namespaces.
A stub zone consists of:

• The start of authority (SOA) resource record, name server (NS) resource records, and the glue A resource records for the delegated zone.
• The IP address of one or more master servers that can be used to update the stub zone.

The master servers for a stub zone are one or more DNS servers authoritative for the child zone, usually the DNS server hosting the primary zone for the delegated domain name.
Where is the file of Active Directory data file stored?
Active Directory data store in %SystemRoot%\ntds\NTDS.DIT. The ntds.dit file is the heart of Active Directory including user accounts
What are the types of records in DNS?
To see the records of DNS Server checks this path - DNS Records
What is DHCP and at which port DHCP work?
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. DHCP assigns an IP address when a system is started
DHCP client uses port 67 and the DHCP server uses port 68.
What is DORA process in DHCP and How it works?
DHCP (D)iscover
DHCP (O)ffer
DHCP (R)equest
DHCP (A)cknowledge
1) Client makes a UDP Broadcast to the server about the DHCP discovery.
2) DHCP offers to the client.
3) In response to the offer Client requests the server.
4) Server responds all the Ip Add/mask/gty/dns/wins info along with the acknowledgement packet.
What is Super Scope in DHCP?
A superscope allows a DHCP server to provide leases from more than one scope to clients on a single physical network. Before you can create a superscope, you must use DHCP Manager to define all scopes to be included in the superscope. Scopes added to a superscope are called member scopes. Superscopes can resolve DHCP service issues in several different ways; these issues include situations in which:

• Support is needed for DHCP clients on a single physical network segment—such as a single Ethernet LAN segment—where multiple logical IP networks are used. When more than one logical IP network is used on a physical network, these configurations are also known as multinets.
• The available address pool for a currently active scope is nearly depleted and more computers need to be added to the physical network segment.
• Clients need to be migrated to a new scope.
• Support is needed for DHCP clients on the other side of BOOTP relay agents, where the network on the other side of the relay agent has multiple logical subnets on one physical network. For more information, see “Supporting BOOTP Clients” later in this chapter.
• A standard network with one DHCP server on a single physical subnet is limited to leasing addresses to clients on the physical subnet.

What is Stub zone DNS?
A stub zone is a copy of a zone that contains only those resource records necessary to identify the authoritative Domain Name System (DNS) servers for that zone. A stub zone is used to resolve names between separate DNS namespaces. This type of resolution may be necessary when a corporate merger requires that the DNS servers for two separate DNS namespaces resolve names for clients in both namespaces.
A stub zone consists of:

• The start of authority (SOA) resource record, name server (NS) resource records, and the glue A resource records for the delegated zone.
• The IP address of one or more master servers that can be used to update the stub zone.

The master servers for a stub zone are one or more DNS servers authoritative for the child zone, usually the DNS server hosting the primary zone for the delegated domain name
What is Active Directory? Active Directory is a network-based object store and service that locates and manages resources, and makes these resources available to authorized users and groups. An underlying principle of the Active Directory is that everything is considered an object—people, servers, workstations, printers, documents, and devices. Each object has certain attributes and its own security access control list (ACL).
What’s the difference between forward lookup zone and reverse lookup zone in DNS?
Forward lookup is name-to-IP address; the reverse lookup is IP address-to-name.
How to transfer roles in Active Directory?
Using Ntdsutil.exe we can transfer roles in Active Directory. To know more regarding role transfer click this link.
How to backup Active Directory and which main file you take in backing of Active Directory?
We can take backup with Ntbackup utility.
Active Directory is backed up as part of system state, a collection of system components that depend on each other. You must backup and restore system state components together.
Components that comprise the system state on a domain controller include:

• System Start-up Files (boot files). These are the files required for Windows 2000 Server to start.
• System registry.
• Class registration database of Component Services. The Component Object Model (COM) is a binary standard for writing component software in a distributed systems environment.
• SYSVOL. The system volume provides a default Active Directory location for files that must be shared for common access throughout a domain. The SYSVOL folder on a domain controller contains:
  • NETLOGON shared folders. These usually host user logon scripts and Group Policy objects (GPOs) for non-Windows 2000based network clients.
  • User logon scripts for Windows 2000 Professionalbased clients and clients that are running Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0.
  • Windows 2000 GPOs.
  • File system junctions.
  • File Replication service (FRS) staging directories and files that are required to be available and synchronized between domain controllers.
• Active Directory. Active Directory includes:
  • Ntds.dit: The Active Directory database.
  • Edb.chk: The checkpoint file.
  • Edb*.log: The transaction logs, each 10 megabytes (MB) in size.
  • Res1.log and Res2.log: Reserved transaction logs.

Check my previous articles regarding system administrator questionnaire

(Windows Server 2008) System Administrator Interview Question and Answer – Part 2

What is Active Directory Domain Services 2008?

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), formerly known as Active Directory Directory Services, is the central location for configuration information, authentication requests, and information about all of the objects that are stored within your forest. Using Active Directory, you can efficiently manage users, computers, groups, printers, applications, and other directory-enabled objects from one secure, centralized location.

What is the SYSVOL folder?

The Sysvol folder on a Windows domain controller is used to replicate file-based data among domain controllers. Because junctions are used within the Sysvol folder structure, Windows NT file system (NTFS) version 5.0 is required on domain controllers throughout a Windows distributed file system (DFS) forest.

This is a quote from microsoft themselves, basically the domain controller info stored in files like your group policy stuff is replicated through this folder structure

What’s New in Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services?

Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008 provides a number of enhancements over previous versions, including these:

Auditing—AD DS auditing has been enhanced significantly in Windows Server 2008. The enhancements provide more granular auditing capabilities through four new auditing categories: Directory Services Access, Directory Services Changes, Directory Services Replication, and Detailed Directory Services Replication. Additionally, auditing now provides the capability to log old and new values of an attribute when a successful change is made to that attribute.

Fine-Grained Password Policies—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 now provides the capability to create different password and account lockout policies for different sets of users in a domain. User and group password and account lockout policies are defined and applied via a Password Setting Object (PSO). A PSO has attributes for all the settings that can be defined in the Default Domain Policy, except Kerberos settings. PSOs can be applied to both users and groups.

Read-Only Domain Controllers—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 introduces a new type of domain controller called a read-only domain controller (RODC). RODCs contain a read-only copy of the AD DS database. RODCs are covered in more detail in Chapter 6, “Manage Sites and Replication.”

Restartable Active Directory Domain Services—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 can now be stopped and restarted through MMC snap-ins and the command line. The restartable AD DS service reduces the time required to perform certain maintenance and restore operations. Additionally, other services running on the server remain available to satisfy client requests while AD DS is stopped.

AD DS Database Mounting Tool—AD DS in Windows Server 2008 comes with a AD DS database mounting tool, which provides a means to compare data as it exists in snapshots or backups taken at different times. The AD DS database mounting eliminates the need to restore multiple backups to compare the AD data that they contain and provides the capability to examine any change made to data stored in AD DS.

What is the Global Catalog?

A global catalog server is a domain controller. It is a master searchable database that contains information about every object in every domain in a forest. The global catalog contains a complete replica of all objects in Active Directory for its host domain, and contains a partial replica of all objects in Active Directory for every other domain in the forest.

It has two important functions:

Provides group membership information during logon and authentication

Helps users locate resources in Active Directory

What are RODCs? And what are the major benefits of using RODCs?

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 does an RODC do?

Inadequate physical security is the most common reason to consider deploying an RODC. An RODC provides a way to deploy a domain controller more securely in locations that require fast and reliable authentication services but cannot ensure physical security for a writable domain controller.

However, your organization may also choose to deploy an RODC for special administrative requirements. For example, a line-of-business (LOB) application may run successfully only if it is installed on a domain controller. Or, the domain controller might be the only server in the branch office, and it may have to host server applications.

In such cases, the LOB application owner must often log on to the domain controller interactively or use Terminal Services to configure and manage the application. This situation creates a security risk that may be unacceptable on a writable domain controller.

An RODC provides a more secure mechanism for deploying a domain controller in this scenario. You can grant a nonadministrative domain user the right to log on to an RODC while minimizing the security risk to the Active Directory forest.

You might also deploy an RODC in other scenarios where local storage of all domain user passwords is a primary threat, for example, in an extranet or application-facing role.

What is REPADMIN?

Repadmin.exe: Replication Diagnostics Tool

This command-line tool assists administrators in diagnosing replication problems between Windows domain controllers.

Administrators can use Repadmin to view the replication topology (sometimes referred to as RepsFrom and RepsTo) as seen from the perspective of each domain controller. In addition, Repadmin can be used to manually create the replication topology (although in normal practice this should not be necessary), to force replication events between domain controllers, and to view both the replication metadata and up-to-dateness vectors.

Repadmin.exe can also be used for monitoring the relative health of an Active Directory forest. The operations replsummary, showrepl, showrepl /csv, and showvector /latency can be used to check for replication problems.

What is NETDOM?

NETDOM is a command-line tool that allows management of Windows domains and trust relationships. It is used for batch management of trusts, joining computers to domains, verifying trusts, and secure channels

windows server 2008 interview questions and answers

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.