RAID

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RAID, an acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (formerly Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), is a technology that provides increased storage reliability through redundancy, combining multiple relatively low-cost, less-reliable disk drives components into a logical unit where all drives in the array are interdependent. This concept was first defined by David A. Patterson, Garth A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987 as Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks.[1] Marketers representing industry RAID manufacturers later attempted to reinvent the term to describe a redundant array of independent disks as a means of dissociating a low-cost expectation from RAID technology.[2] RAID is now used as an umbrella term for computer data storage schemes that can divide and replicate data among multiple disk drives. The schemes or architectures are named by the word RAID followed by a number (e.g., RAID 0, RAID 1). The various designs of RAID systems involve two key goals: increase data reliability and increase input/output performance. When multiple physical disks are set up to use RAID technology, they are said to be in a RAID array.[3] This array distributes data across multiple disks, but the array is addressed by the operating system as one single disk. RAID can be set up to serve several different purposes.

Contents
[hide]

1 Standard levels 2 Nested (hybrid) RAID 3 RAID Parity 4 RAID 10 versus RAID 5 in Relational Databases 5 New RAID classification 6 Non-standard levels 7 Data backup

8 Implementations

8.1 Software-based RAID 8.2 Hardware-based RAID 8.3 Firmware/driver-based RAID 8.4 Network-attached storage 8.5 Hot spares

9 Reliability terms 10 Problems with RAID

10.1 Correlated failures 10.2 Atomicity 10.3 Write cache reliability 10.4 Equipment compatibility 10.5 Data recovery in the event of a failed array 10.6 Drive error recovery algorithms 10.7 Increasing recovery time 10.8 Operator skills, correct operation 10.9 Other problems and viruses

11 History 12 Vinum 13 Software RAID vs. Hardware RAID 14 Non-RAID drive architectures 15 See also 16 References 17 Further reading 18 External links

[edit] Standard levels

Main article: Standard RAID levels A number of standard schemes have evolved which are referred to as levels. There were five RAID levels originally conceived, but many more variations have evolved, notably several nested levels and many non-standard levels (mostly proprietary). Following is a brief textual summary of the most commonly used RAID levels.[4]

RAID 0 (block-level striping without parity or mirroring) provides improved performance and additional storage but no redundancy or fault tolerance (making it not true RAID, according to the acronym's definition). However, because of the similarities to RAID (especially the need for a controller to distribute data across multiple disks),

simple stripe sets are normally referred to as RAID 0. Any disk failure destroys the array, and the likelihood of failure increases with more disks in the array (at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is twice as likely compared to single drives without RAID). A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 volume, the data is broken into fragments called blocks. The number of blocks is dictated by the stripe size, which is a configuration parameter of the array. The blocks are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, increasing bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking, so any error is uncorrectable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.

In RAID 1 (mirroring without parity or striping), data is written identically to multiple disks (a "mirrored set"). Although many implementations create sets of 2 disks, sets may contain 3 or more disks. Array provides fault tolerance from disk errors or failures and continues to operate as long as at least one drive in the mirrored set is functioning. With appropriate operating system support, there can be increase to read performance, and only a minimal write performance reduction. Using RAID 1 with a separate controller for each disk is sometimes called duplexing. In RAID 2 (bit-level striping with dedicated Hamming-code parity), all disk spindle rotation is synchronized, and data is striped such that each sequential bit is on a different disk. Hamming-code parity is calculated across corresponding bits on disks and stored on one or more parity disks. Extremely high data transfer rates are possible. In RAID 3 (byte-level striping with dedicated parity), all disk spindle rotation is synchronized, and data is striped such that each sequential byte is on a different disk. Parity is calculated across corresponding bytes on disks and stored on a dedicated parity disk. Very high data transfer rates are possible. RAID 4 (block-level striping with dedicated parity) is identical to RAID 5 (see below), but confines all parity data to a single disk, which can create a performance bottleneck. In this setup, files can be distributed between multiple disks. Each disk operates independently which allows I/O requests to be performed in parallel, though data transfer speeds can suffer due to the type of parity. The error detection is achieved through dedicated parity and is stored in a separate, single disk unit. RAID 5 (block-level striping with distributed parity) distributes parity along with the data and requires all drives but one to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive. A single drive failure in the set will result in reduced performance of the entire set until the failed drive has been replaced and rebuilt. RAID 6 (block-level striping with double distributed parity) provides fault tolerance from two drive failures; array continues to operate with up to two failed drives. This makes larger RAID groups more practical, especially for high-availability systems. This becomes increasingly important as large-capacity drives lengthen the time needed to recover from the failure of a single drive. Single-parity RAID levels are as vulnerable to data loss as a RAID 0 array until the failed drive is replaced and its data rebuilt; the larger the drive, the longer the rebuild will take. Double parity gives time to rebuild the array

without the data being at risk if a single additional drive fails before the rebuild is complete. The following table provides an overview of the most important parameters of standard RAID levels. Space efficiency is given as an equation in terms of the number of drives, n, which results in a value between 0 and 1, representing the fraction of the sum of the drives' capacities that is available for use. For example, if three drives are arranged in RAID 3, this gives a space efficiency of 1-(1/3) = 0.66. If their individual capacities are 250 GB each, for a total of 750 GB over the three, the usable capacity under RAID 3 for data storage is 500 GB. Level Description Minimum Space Fault Read Write # of disks Efficiency Tolerance Benefit Benefit Image

Block-level striping RAID 0 without parity or mirroring.

0 (none)

nX

nX

Mirroring without RAID 1 parity or striping.

1/n

n-1 disks

nX

1X

Bit-level striping with RAID 2 dedicated Hammingcode parity.

1 disk when the corrupt disk is 1 - 1/n found by log2(n-1) the ( ) recoverrecord code.

Byte-level striping RAID 3 with dedicated parity.

1 - 1/n

1 disk

Block-level striping RAID 4 with dedicated parity. Block-level striping RAID 5 with distributed parity. Block-level striping RAID 6 with double distributed parity.

1 - 1/n

1 disk

1 - 1/n

1 disk

(n-1)X variable

1 - 2/n

2 disks

[edit] Nested (hybrid) RAID

Main article: Nested RAID levels In what was originally termed hybrid RAID,[5] many storage controllers allow RAID levels to be nested. The elements of a RAID may be either individual disks or RAIDs themselves. Nesting more than two deep is unusual. As there is no basic RAID level numbered larger than 9, nested RAIDs are usually unambiguously described by attaching the numbers indicating the RAID levels, sometimes with a "+" in between. The order of the digits in a nested RAID designation is the order in which the nested array is built: for RAID 1+0 first pairs of drives are combined into two or more RAID 1 arrays (mirrors), and then the resulting RAID 1 arrays are combined into a RAID 0 array (stripes). It is also possible to combine stripes into mirrors (RAID 0+1). The final step is known as the top array. When the top array is a RAID 0 (such as in RAID 10 and RAID 50) most vendors omit the "+", though RAID 5+0 is clearer. RAID 0+1: striped sets in a mirrored set ( minimum four disks; even number of disks) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity. The key difference from RAID 1+0 is that RAID 0+1 creates a second striped set to mirror a primary striped set. The array continues to operate with one or more drives failed in the same mirror set, but if drives fail on both sides of the mirror the data on the RAID system is lost. RAID 1+0: mirrored sets in a striped set (minimum two disks but more commonly four disks to take advantage of speed benefits; even number of disks) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity. The key difference from RAID 0+1 is that RAID 1+0 creates a striped set from a series of mirrored drives. In a failed disk situation, RAID 1+0 performs better because all the

remaining disks continue to be used. The array can sustain multiple drive losses so long as no mirror loses all its drives. RAID 5+1: mirrored striped set with distributed parity (some manufacturers label this as RAID 53).

Whether an array runs as RAID 0+1 or RAID 1+0 in practice is often determined by the evolution of the storage system. A RAID controller might support upgrading a RAID 1 array to a RAID 1+0 array on the fly, but require a lengthy offline rebuild to upgrade from RAID 1 to RAID 0+1. With nested arrays, sometimes the path of least disruption prevails over achieving the preferred configuration.

[edit] RAID Parity

Many RAID levels employ an error protection scheme called "parity". Parity calculation, in and of itself, is a widely used method in information technology to provide fault tolerance in a given set of data. But how does it work? It is actually very simple. In Boolean logic, there is a principle called "exclusive or", or shorthand, "XOR", meaning "one or the other, but not neither nor both." For example: 0 XOR 0 = 0 0 XOR 1 = 1 1 XOR 0 = 1 1 XOR 1 = 0 The XOR operator is central to how parity data is created and used within an array; It is used both for the protection of data, as well as for the recovery of missing data. Let's suppose for the sake of simplicity that we have simple RAID made up of 6 hard disks (4 for data, 1 for parity, and 1 for use as hot spare), where each drive is capable of holding just a single byte worth of storage. This is how our initial RAID configuration would look, keeping in mind no data has yet been written to it: Drive #1: -------- (Data) Drive #2: -------- (Data) Drive #3: -------- (Data) Drive #4: -------- (Data) Drive #5 -------- (Hot Spare) Drive #6 -------- (Parity) Now, let's write some random bits to each of our four data drives. Drive #1: 00101010 (Data) Drive #2: 10001110 (Data) Drive #3: 11110111 (Data) Drive #4: 10110101 (Data) Drive #5 -------- (Hot Spare) Drive #6 -------- (Parity) Every time we write anything on our data drives, we need to calculate parity to ensure we can recover if we have a disk failure. To calculate the parity for this RAID, we simply take the XOR of each drive's data. The resulting value is our parity data. 00101010 XOR 10001110 XOR 11110111 XOR 10110101 = 11100110

"11100110" is our parity data. We now write that data to our dedicated parity drive: Drive #1: 00101010 (Data) Drive #2: 10001110 (Data) Drive #3: 11110111 (Data) Drive #4: 10110101 (Data) Drive #5: -------- (Hot Spare) Drive #6: 11100110 (Parity) Now, lets suppose one of those drives has disappeared. You can pick any, but, for this example, let's say that Drive #3 has failed. In order to know what the contents of Drive #3 were, we perform the same XOR calculation against all the remaining drives, and substituting our parity value (11100110) in place of the missing/dead drive: 00101010 XOR 10001110 XOR 11100110 XOR 10110101 = 11110111 With the complete contents of Drive #3's now successfully recovered, the data is written to the hot spare, and the RAID can continue operating as it had before. Drive #1: 00101010 (Data) Drive #2: 10001110 (Data) Drive #3: --Dead-- (Data) Drive #4: 10110101 (Data) Drive #5: 11110111 (Hot Spare) Drive #6: 11100110 (Parity) Normally, someone at this point will replace the dead drive with a working one of the same size. When this happens, the hot spare's contents are then automatically copied to it by the array controller, allowing the hot spare to return to its original purpose as an emergency standby drive. The resulting array is identical to its pre-failure state: Drive #1: 00101010 (Data) Drive #2: 10001110 (Data) Drive #3: 11110111 (Data) Drive #4: 10110101 (Data) Drive #5 -------- (Hot Spare) Drive #6 11100110 (Parity) This same basic XOR principle applies to parity within RAID groups regardless of capacity or number of drives. As long as there are enough drives present to allow for an XOR calculation to take place, parity can be used to recover data from any single drive failure. (A minimum of three drives must be present in order for parity to be used for fault tolerance, since the XOR operator requires two operands, and a place to store the result.)

[edit] RAID 10 versus RAID 5 in Relational Databases

A common myth (and one which serves to illustrate the mechanics of proper RAID implementation) is that in all deployments, RAID 10 is inherently better for relational databases than RAID 5, due to RAID 5's need to recalculate and redistribute parity data on a per-write basis. [2] While this may have been a hurdle in past RAID 5 implementations, the task of parity recalculation and redistribution within modern SAN appliances is performed as a back-end process transparent to the host, not as an in-line process which competes with existing I/O. (i.e. the RAID controller handles this as a housekeeping task to be performed during a particular

spindle's idle timeslices, so as not to disrupt any pending I/O from the host.) The "write penalty" inherent to RAID 5 has been effectively masked over the past ten years by a combination of improved controller design, larger amounts of cache, and faster hard disks. The effect of a write penalty when using RAID 5 is mostly a concern when the workload has a high amount of random writes (such as in some databases) while in other workloads modern RAID 5 systems can be on par with RAID 10 performance. [3] In the vast majority of enterprise-level SAN hardware, any writes which are generated by the host are simply acknowledged immediately, and destaged to disk on the back end when the controller sees fit to do so. From the host's perspective, an individual write to a RAID 10 volume is no faster than an individual write to a RAID 5 volume; A difference between the two only becomes apparent when write cache at the SAN controller level is overwhelmed, and the SAN appliance must reject or gate further write requests in order to allow write buffers on the controller to destage to disk. While rare, this generally indicates poor performance management on behalf of the SAN administrator, not a shortcoming of RAID 5 or RAID 10. SAN appliances generally service multiple hosts which compete both for controller cache and spindle time with one another. This contention is largely masked, in that the controller is generally intelligent and adaptive enough to maximize read cache hit ratios while also also maximizing the process of destaging data from write cache. The choice of RAID 10 versus RAID 5 for the purposes of housing a relational database will depend upon a number of factors (spindle availability, cost, business risk, etc.) but, from a performance standpoint, it depends mostly on the type of I/O that database can expect to see. For databases that are expected to be exclusively or strongly read-biased, RAID 10 is often chosen in that it offers a slight speed improvement over RAID 5 on sustained reads. If a database is expected to be strongly write-biased, RAID 5 becomes the more attractive option, since RAID 5 doesn't suffer from the same write handicap inherent in RAID 10; All spindles in a RAID 5 can be utilized to write simultaneously, whereas only half the members of a RAID 10 can be used . [4] However, for reasons similar to what has eliminated the "write penalty" in RAID 5, the reduced ability of a RAID 10 to handle sustained writes has been largely masked by improvements in controller cache efficiency and disk throughput. What causes RAID 5 to be slightly slower than RAID 10 on sustained reads is the fact that RAID 5 has parity data interleaved within normal data. For every read pass in RAID 5, there is a probability that a read head may need to traverse a region of parity data. The cumulative effect of this is a slight performance drop compared to RAID 10, which does not use parity, and therefore will never encounter a circumstance where data underneath a head is of no use. For the vast majority of situations, however, most relational databases housed on RAID 10 perform equally well in RAID 5. The strengths and weaknesses of each type only become an issue in atypical deployments, or deployments on overcommitted or outdated hardware.[5] There are, however, other considerations which must be taken into account other than simply those regarding performance. RAID 5 and other non-mirror-based arrays offer a lower degree of resiliency than RAID 10 by virtue of RAID 10's mirroring strategy. In a RAID 10, I/O can continue even in spite of multiple drive failures. By comparison, in a RAID 5 array, any simultaneous failure involving greater than one drive will render the array itself unusable by virtue of parity recalculation being impossible to perform. For many, particularly in missioncritical environments with enough capital to spend, RAID 10 becomes the favorite as it provides the lowest level of risk.[6]

Additionally, the time required to rebuild data on a hot spare in a RAID 10 is significantly less than RAID 5, in that all the remaining spindles in a RAID 5 rebuild must participate in the process, whereas only half of all spindles need to participate in RAID 10. In modern RAID 10 implementations, all drives generally participate in the rebuilding process as well, but only half are required, allowing greater degraded-state throughput over RAID 5 and overall faster rebuild times.[7] Again, modern SAN design largely masks any performance hit while the RAID array is in a degraded state, by virtue of selectively being able to perform rebuild operations both in-band or out-of-band with respect to existing I/O traffic. Given the rare nature of drive failures in general, and the exceedingly low probability of multiple concurrent drive failures occurring within the same RAID array, the choice of RAID 5 over RAID 10 often comes down to the preference of the storage administrator, particularly when weighed against other factors such as cost, throughput requirements, and physical spindle availability. [8] In short, the choice of RAID 5 versus RAID 10 involves a complicated mixture of factors. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, as the choice of one over the other must be dictated by everything from the I/O characteristics of the database, to business risk, to worst case degraded-state throughput, to the number and type of disks present in the array itself. Over the course of the life of a database, you may even see situations where RAID 5 is initially favored, but RAID 10 slowly becomes the better choice, and vice versa.

[edit] New RAID classification

In 1996, the RAID Advisory Board introduced an improved classification of RAID systems[citation needed] . It divides RAID into three types: Failure-resistant disk systems (that protect against data loss due to disk failure), failure-tolerant disk systems (that protect against loss of data access due to failure of any single component), and disaster-tolerant disk systems (that consist of two or more independent zones, either of which provides access to stored data). The original "Berkeley" RAID classifications are still kept as an important historical reference point and also to recognize that RAID Levels 0-6 successfully define all known data mapping and protection schemes for disk. Unfortunately, the original classification caused some confusion due to assumption that higher RAID levels imply higher redundancy and performance. This confusion was exploited by RAID system manufacturers, and gave birth to the products with such names as RAID-7, RAID-10, RAID-30, RAID-S, etc. The new system describes the data availability characteristics of the RAID system rather than the details of its implementation. The next list provides criteria for all three classes of RAID: - Failure-resistant disk systems (FRDS) (meets a minimum of criteria 16): 1. Protection against data loss and loss of access to data due to disk drive failure 2. Reconstruction of failed drive content to a replacement drive 3. Protection against data loss due to a "write hole" 4. Protection against data loss due to host and host I/O bus failure 5. Protection against data loss due to replaceable unit failure 6. Replaceable unit monitoring and failure indication - Failure-tolerant disk systems (FTDS) (meets a minimum of criteria 715 ): 7. Disk automatic swap and hot swap 8. Protection against data loss due to cache failure 9. Protection against data loss due to external power failure

10. Protection against data loss due to a temperature out of operating range 11. Replaceable unit and environmental failure warning 12. Protection against loss of access to data due to device channel failure 13. Protection against loss of access to data due to controller module failure 14. Protection against loss of access to data due to cache failure 15. Protection against loss of access to data due to power supply failure - Disaster-tolerant disk systems (DTDS) (meets a minimum of criteria 1621): 16. Protection against loss of access to data due to host and host I/O bus failure 17. Protection against loss of access to data due to external power failure 18. Protection against loss of access to data due to component replacement 19. Protection against loss of data and loss of access to data due to multiple disk failure 20. Protection against loss of access to data due to zone failure 21. Long-distance protection against loss of data due to zone failure

[edit] Non-standard levels

Main article: Non-standard RAID levels Many configurations other than the basic numbered RAID levels are possible, and many companies, organizations, and groups have created their own non-standard configurations, in many cases designed to meet the specialised needs of a small niche group. Most of these nonstandard RAID levels are proprietary.

Storage Computer Corporation used to call a cached version of RAID 3 and 4, RAID 7. Storage Computer Corporation is now defunct. EMC Corporation used to offer RAID S as an alternative to RAID 5 on their Symmetrix systems. Their latest generations of Symmetrix, the DMX and the V-Max series, do not support RAID S (instead they support RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 6.) The ZFS filesystem, available in Solaris, OpenSolaris and FreeBSD, offers RAID-Z, which solves RAID 5's write hole problem. Hewlett-Packard's Advanced Data Guarding (ADG) is a form of RAID 6. NetApp's Data ONTAP uses RAID-DP (also referred to as "double", "dual", or "diagonal" parity), is a form of RAID 6, but unlike many RAID 6 implementations, does not use distributed parity as in RAID 5. Instead, two unique parity disks with separate parity calculations are used. This is a modification of RAID 4 with an extra parity disk. Accusys Triple Parity (RAID TP) implements three independent parities by extending RAID 6 algorithms on its FC-SATA and SCSI-SATA RAID controllers to tolerate threedisk failure. Linux MD RAID10 (RAID 10) implements a general RAID driver that defaults to a standard RAID 1 with 2 drives, and a standard RAID 1+0 with four drives, but can have any number of drives, including odd numbers. MD RAID 10 can run striped and mirrored, even with only two drives with the f2 layout (mirroring with striped reads, giving the read performance of RAID 0; normal Linux software RAID 1 does not stripe reads, but can read in parallel).[6][7] Infrant (now part of Netgear) X-RAID offers dynamic expansion of a RAID 5 volume without having to back up or restore the existing content. Just add larger drives one at a time, let it resync, then add the next drive until all drives are installed. The resulting

volume capacity is increased without user downtime. (It should be noted that this is also possible in Linux, when utilizing Mdadm utility. It has also been possible in the EMC Clariion and HP MSA arrays for several years.) The new X-RAID2 found on x86 ReadyNas, that is ReadyNas with Intel CPUs, offers dynamic expansion of a RAID 5 or RAID 6 volume (note X-RAID2 Dual Redundancy not available on all X86 ReadyNas) without having to back up or restore the existing content etc. A major advantage over XRAID, is that using X-RAID2 you do not need to replace all the disks to get extra space, you only need to replace two disks using single redundancy or four disks using dual redundancy to get more redundant space.

BeyondRAID, created by Data Robotics and used in the Drobo series of products, implements both mirroring and striping simultaneously or individually dependent on disk and data context. It offers expandability without reconfiguration, the ability to mix and match drive sizes and the ability to reorder disks. It supports NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and EXT3 file systems.[8] It also uses thin provisioning to allow for single volumes up to 16 TB depending on the host operating system support. Hewlett-Packard's EVA series arrays implement vRAID - vRAID-0, vRAID-1, vRAID-5, and vRAID-6. The EVA allows drives to be placed in groups (called Disk Groups) that form a pool of data blocks on top of which the RAID level is implemented. Any Disk Group may have "virtual disks" or LUNs of any vRAID type, including mixing vRAID types in the same Disk Group - a unique feature. vRAID levels are more closely aligned to Nested RAID levels - vRAID-1 is actually a RAID 1+0 (or RAID 10), vRAID-5 is actually a RAID 5+0 (or RAID 50), etc. Also, drives may be added on-the-fly to an existing Disk Group, and the existing virtual disks data is redistributed evenly over all the drives, thereby allowing dynamic performance and capacity growth. IBM (Among others) has implemented a RAID 1E (Level 1 Enhanced). With an even number of disks it is similar to a RAID 10 array, but, unlike a RAID 10 array, it can also be implemented with an odd number of drives. In either case, the total available disk space is n/2. It requires a minimum of three drives. Hadoop has a RAID system that generates a parity file by xor-ing a stripe of blocks in a single HDFS file. More details can be found here [9]

[edit] Data backup

A RAID system used as a main system disk is not intended as a replacement for backing up data. In parity configurations it will provide a backup-like feature to protect from catastrophic data loss caused by physical damage or errors on a single drive. Many other features of backup systems cannot be provided by RAID arrays alone. The most notable is the ability to restore an earlier version of data, which is needed to protect against software errors causing unwanted data to be written to the disk, and to recover from user error or malicious deletion. RAID can also be overwhelmed by catastrophic failure that exceeds its recovery capacity and, of course, the entire array is at risk of physical damage by fire, natural disaster, or human forces. RAID is also vulnerable to controller failure since it is not always possible to migrate a RAID to a new controller without data loss.[10] RAID drives can serve as excellent backup drives when employed as removable backup devices to main storage, and particularly when located offsite from the main systems. However, the use of RAID as the only storage solution does not replace backups.

[edit] Implementations
It has been suggested that Vinum volume manager be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) (Specifically, the section comparing hardware / software raid) The distribution of data across multiple drives can be managed either by dedicated hardware or by software. When done in software the software may be part of the operating system or it may be part of the firmware and drivers supplied with the card.

[edit] Software-based RAID

Software implementations are now provided by many operating systems. A software layer sits above the (generally block-based) disk device drivers and provides an abstraction layer between the logical drives (RAIDs) and physical drives. Most common levels are RAID 0 (striping across multiple drives for increased space and performance) and RAID 1 (mirroring two drives), followed by RAID 1+0, RAID 0+1, and RAID 5 (data striping with parity) are supported. New filesystems like btrfs may replace the traditional software RAID by providing striping and redundancy at the filesystem object level.

Apple's Mac OS X Server[11] and Mac OS X[12] support RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 1+0. FreeBSD supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 3, and RAID 5 and all layerings of the above via GEOM modules[13][14] and ccd.,[15] as well as supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID-Z, and RAID-Z2 (similar to RAID 5 and RAID 6 respectively), plus nested combinations of those via ZFS. Linux supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 4, RAID 5, RAID 6 and all layerings of the above, as well as "RAID10" (see above).[16][17] Certain reshaping/resizing/expanding operations are also supported.[18] Microsoft's server operating systems support RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. Some of the Microsoft desktop operating systems support RAID such as Windows XP Professional which supports RAID level 0 in addition to spanning multiple disks but only if using dynamic disks and volumes. Windows XP supports RAID 0, 1, and 5 with a simple file patch.[19] RAID functionality in Windows is slower than hardware RAID, but allows a RAID array to be moved to another machine with no compatibility issues. NetBSD supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 4 and RAID 5 (and any nested combination of those like 1+0) via its software implementation, named RAIDframe. OpenBSD aims to support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 4 and RAID 5 via its software implementation softraid. OpenSolaris and Solaris 10 supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 (or the similar "RAID Z" found only on ZFS), and RAID 6 (and any nested combination of those like 1+0) via ZFS and now has the ability to boot from a ZFS volume on both x86 and UltraSPARC. Through SVM, Solaris 10 and earlier versions support RAID 1 for the boot filesystem, and adds RAID 0 and RAID 5 support (and various nested combinations) for data drives. Linux and Windows FlexRAID is a snapshot RAID implementation. HP's OpenVMS provides a form of RAID 1 called "Volume shadowing", giving the possibility to mirror data locally and at remote cluster systems.

Software RAID has advantages and disadvantages compared to hardware RAID. The software must run on a host server attached to storage, and server's processor must dedicate processing time to run the RAID software. The additional processing capacity required for RAID 0 and RAID 1 is low, but parity-based arrays require more complex data processing during write or integrity-checking operations. As the rate of data processing increases with the number of disks in the array, so does the processing requirement. Furthermore all the buses between the processor and the disk controller must carry the extra data required by RAID which may cause congestion. Over the history of hard disk drives, the increase in speed of commodity CPUs has been consistently greater than the increase in speed of hard disk drive throughput.[20] Thus, over-time for a given number of hard disk drives, the percentage of host CPU time required to saturate a given number of hard disk drives has been dropping. e.g. The Linux software md RAID subsystem is capable of calculating parity information at 6 GB/s (100% usage of a single core on a 2.1 GHz Intel "Core2" CPU as of Linux v2.6.26). A three-drive RAID 5 array using hard disks capable of sustaining a write of 100 MB/s will require parity to be calculated at the rate of 200 MB/s. This will require the resources of just over 3% of a single CPU core during write operations (parity does not need to be calculated for read operations on a RAID 5 array, unless a drive has failed). Software RAID implementations may employ more sophisticated algorithms than hardware RAID implementations (for instance with respect to disk scheduling and command queueing), and thus may be capable of increased performance. Another concern with operating system-based RAID is the boot process. It can be difficult or impossible to set up the boot process such that it can fall back to another drive if the usual boot drive fails. Such systems can require manual intervention to make the machine bootable again after a failure. There are exceptions to this, such as the LILO bootloader for Linux, loader for FreeBSD,[21] and some configurations of the GRUB bootloader natively understand RAID 1 and can load a kernel. If the BIOS recognizes a broken first disk and refers bootstrapping to the next disk, such a system will come up without intervention, but the BIOS might or might not do that as intended. A hardware RAID controller typically has explicit programming to decide that a disk is broken and fall through to the next disk. Hardware RAID controllers can also carry battery-powered cache memory. For data safety in modern systems the user of software RAID might need to turn the write-back cache on the disk off (but some drives have their own battery/capacitors on the write-back cache, a UPS, and/or implement atomicity in various ways, etc.). Turning off the write cache has a performance penalty that can, depending on workload and how well supported command queuing in the disk system is, be significant. The battery backed cache on a RAID controller is one solution to have a safe write-back cache. Finally operating system-based RAID usually uses formats specific to the operating system in question so it cannot generally be used for partitions that are shared between operating systems as part of a multi-boot setup. However, this allows RAID disks to be moved from one computer to a computer with an operating system or file system of the same type, which can be more difficult when using hardware RAID (e.g. #1: When one computer uses a hardware RAID controller from one manufacturer and another computer uses a controller from a different manufacturer, drives typically cannot be interchanged. e.g. #2: If the hardware controller 'dies' before the disks do, data may become unrecoverable unless a hardware controller of the same type is obtained, unlike with firmware-based or software-based RAID).

Most operating system-based implementations allow RAIDs to be created from partitions rather than entire physical drives. For instance, an administrator could divide an odd number of disks into two partitions per disk, mirror partitions across disks and stripe a volume across the mirrored partitions to emulate IBM's RAID 1E configuration. Using partitions in this way also allows mixing reliability levels on the same set of disks. For example, one could have a very robust RAID 1 partition for important files, and a less robust RAID 5 or RAID 0 partition for less important data. (Some BIOS-based controllers offer similar features, e.g. Intel Matrix RAID.) Using two partitions on the same drive in the same RAID is, however, dangerous. (e.g. #1: Having all partitions of a RAID 1 on the same drive will, obviously, make all the data inaccessible if the single drive fails. e.g. #2: In a RAID 5 array composed of four drives 250 + 250 + 250 + 500 GB, with the 500 GB drive split into two 250 GB partitions, a failure of this drive will remove two partitions from the array, causing all of the data held on it to be lost).

[edit] Hardware-based RAID

Hardware RAID controllers use different, proprietary disk layouts, so it is not usually possible to span controllers from different manufacturers. They do not require processor resources, the BIOS can boot from them, and tighter integration with the device driver may offer better error handling. A hardware implementation of RAID requires at least a special-purpose RAID controller. On a desktop system this may be a PCI expansion card, PCI-e expansion card or built into the motherboard. Controllers supporting most types of drive may be used IDE/ATA, SATA, SCSI, SSA, Fibre Channel, sometimes even a combination. The controller and disks may be in a standalone disk enclosure, rather than inside a computer. The enclosure may be directly attached to a computer, or connected via SAN. The controller hardware handles the management of the drives, and performs any parity calculations required by the chosen RAID level. Most hardware implementations provide a read/write cache, which, depending on the I/O workload, will improve performance. In most systems the write cache is non-volatile (i.e. battery-protected), so pending writes are not lost on a power failure. Hardware implementations provide guaranteed performance, add no overhead to the local CPU complex and can support many operating systems, as the controller simply presents a logical disk to the operating system. Hardware implementations also typically support hot swapping, allowing failed drives to be replaced while the system is running. However, inexpensive hardware RAID controllers can be slower than software RAID due to the dedicated CPU on the controller card not being as fast as the CPU in the computer/server. More expensive RAID controllers have faster CPUs, capable of higher throughput speeds and do not present this slowness.

[edit] Firmware/driver-based RAID

Operating system-based RAID doesn't always protect the boot process and is generally impractical on desktop versions of Windows (as described above). Hardware RAID controllers are expensive and proprietary. To fill this gap, cheap "RAID controllers" were introduced that do not contain a RAID controller chip, but simply a standard disk controller chip with special firmware and drivers. During early stage bootup the RAID is implemented by the firmware; when a protected-mode operating system kernel such as Linux or a modern version of Microsoft Windows is loaded the drivers take over.

These controllers are described by their manufacturers as RAID controllers, and it is rarely made clear to purchasers that the burden of RAID processing is borne by the host computer's central processing unit, not the RAID controller itself, thus introducing the aforementioned CPU overhead from which hardware controllers don't suffer. Firmware controllers often can only use certain types of hard drives in their RAID arrays (e.g. SATA for Intel Matrix RAID), as there is neither SCSI nor PATA support in modern Intel ICH southbridges; however, motherboard makers implement RAID controllers outside of the southbridge on some motherboards. Before their introduction, a "RAID controller" implied that the controller did the processing, and the new type has become known by some as "fake RAID" even though the RAID itself is implemented correctly. Adaptec calls them "HostRAID". Various Linux distributions will refuse to work with "fake RAID".[9].

[edit] Network-attached storage

Main article: Network-attached storage While not directly associated with RAID, Network-attached storage (NAS) is an enclosure containing disk drives and the equipment necessary to make them available over a computer network, usually Ethernet. The enclosure is basically a dedicated computer in its own right, designed to operate over the network without screen or keyboard. It contains one or more disk drives; multiple drives may be configured as a RAID.

[edit] Hot spares

Both hardware and software RAIDs with redundancy may support the use of hot spare drives, a drive physically installed in the array which is inactive until an active drive fails, when the system automatically replaces the failed drive with the spare, rebuilding the array with the spare drive included. This reduces the mean time to recovery (MTTR), though it doesn't eliminate it completely. Subsequent additional failure(s) in the same RAID redundancy group before the array is fully rebuilt can result in loss of the data; rebuilding can take several hours, especially on busy systems. Rapid replacement of failed drives is important as the drives of an array will all have had the same amount of use, and may tend to fail at about the same time rather than randomly.[citation needed] RAID 6 without a spare uses the same number of drives as RAID 5 with a hot spare and protects data against simultaneous failure of up to two drives, but requires a more advanced RAID controller. Further, a hot spare can be shared by multiple RAID sets.

[edit] Reliability terms

Failure rate Two different kinds of failure rates are applicable to RAID systems. Logical failure is defined as the loss of a single drive and its rate is equal to the sum of individual drives' failure rates. System failure is defined as loss of data and its rate will depend on the type of RAID. For RAID 0 this is equal to the logical failure rate, as there is no redundancy. For other types of RAID, it will be less than the logical failure rate, potentially approaching zero, and its exact value will depend on the type of RAID, the number of drives employed, and the vigilance and alacrity of its human administrators. Mean time to data loss (MTTDL) In this context, the average time before a loss of data in a given array.[22] Mean time to data loss of a given RAID may be higher or lower than that of its constituent hard drives, depending upon what type of RAID is employed. The referenced report assumes times to

data loss are exponentially distributed. This means 63.2% of all data loss will occur between time 0 and the MTTDL. Mean time to recovery (MTTR) In arrays that include redundancy for reliability, this is the time following a failure to restore an array to its normal failure-tolerant mode of operation. This includes time to replace a failed disk mechanism as well as time to re-build the array (i.e. to replicate data for redundancy). Unrecoverable bit error rate (UBE) This is the rate at which a disk drive will be unable to recover data after application of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes and multiple retries. Write cache reliability Some RAID systems use RAM write cache to increase performance. A power failure can result in data loss unless this sort of disk buffer is supplemented with a battery to ensure that the buffer has enough time to write from RAM back to disk. Atomic write failure Also known by various terms such as torn writes, torn pages, incomplete writes, interrupted writes, non-transactional, etc.

[edit] Problems with RAID

[edit] Correlated failures
The theory behind the error correction in RAID assumes that failures of drives are independent. Given these assumptions it is possible to calculate how often they can fail and to arrange the array to make data loss arbitrarily improbable. In practice, the drives are often the same ages, with similar wear. Since many drive failures are due to mechanical issues which are more likely on older drives, this violates those assumptions and failures are in fact statistically correlated. In practice then, the chances of a second failure before the first has been recovered is not nearly as unlikely as might be supposed, and data loss can, in practice, occur at significant rates.[23] A common misconception is that "server-grade" drives fail less frequently than consumer-grade drives. Two independent studies, one by Carnegie Mellon University and the other by Google, have shown that the "grade" of the drive does not relate to failure rates.[24][25]

[edit] Atomicity
This is a little understood and rarely mentioned failure mode for redundant storage systems that do not utilize transactional features. Database researcher Jim Gray wrote "Update in Place is a Poison Apple"[26] during the early days of relational database commercialization. However, this warning largely went unheeded and fell by the wayside upon the advent of RAID, which many software engineers mistook as solving all data storage integrity and reliability problems. Many software programs update a storage object "in-place"; that is, they write a new version of the object on to the same disk addresses as the old version of the object. While the software may also log some delta information elsewhere, it expects the storage to present "atomic write semantics," meaning that the write of the data either occurred in its entirety or did not occur at all. However, very few storage systems provide support for atomic writes, and even fewer specify their rate of failure in providing this semantic. Note that during the act of writing an object, a RAID storage device will usually be writing all redundant copies of the object in parallel, although overlapped or staggered writes are more common when a single RAID processor is

responsible for multiple drives. Hence an error that occurs during the process of writing may leave the redundant copies in different states, and furthermore may leave the copies in neither the old nor the new state. The little known failure mode is that delta logging relies on the original data being either in the old or the new state so as to enable backing out the logical change, yet few storage systems provide an atomic write semantic on a RAID disk. While the battery-backed write cache may partially solve the problem, it is applicable only to a power failure scenario. Since transactional support is not universally present in hardware RAID, many operating systems include transactional support to protect against data loss during an interrupted write. Novell Netware, starting with version 3.x, included a transaction tracking system. Microsoft introduced transaction tracking via the journaling feature in NTFS. Ext4 has journaling with checksums; ext3 has journaling without checksums but an "append-only" option, or ext3COW (Copy on Write). If the journal itself in a filesystem is corrupted though, this can be problematic. The journaling in NetApp WAFL file system gives atomicity by never updating the data in place, as does ZFS. An alternative method to journaling is soft updates, which are used in some BSDderived system's implementation of UFS. This can present as a sector read failure. Some RAID implementations protect against this failure mode by remapping the bad sector, using the redundant data to retrieve a good copy of the data, and rewriting that good data to the newly mapped replacement sector. The UBE (Unrecoverable Bit Error) rate is typically specified at 1 bit in 1015 for enterprise class disk drives (SCSI, FC, SAS) , and 1 bit in 1014 for desktop class disk drives (IDE/ATA/PATA, SATA). Increasing disk capacities and large RAID 5 redundancy groups have led to an increasing inability to successfully rebuild a RAID group after a disk failure because an unrecoverable sector is found on the remaining drives. Double protection schemes such as RAID 6 are attempting to address this issue, but suffer from a very high write penalty.

[edit] Write cache reliability

The disk system can acknowledge the write operation as soon as the data is in the cache, not waiting for the data to be physically written. This typically occurs in old, non-journaled systems such as FAT32, or if the Linux/Unix "writeback" option is chosen without any protections like the "soft updates" option (to promote I/O speed whilst trading-away data reliability). A power outage or system hang such as a BSOD can mean a significant loss of any data queued in such a cache. Often a battery is protecting the write cache, mostly solving the problem. If a write fails because of power failure, the controller may complete the pending writes as soon as restarted. This solution still has potential failure cases: the battery may have worn out, the power may be off for too long, the disks could be moved to another controller, the controller itself could fail. Some disk systems provide the capability of testing the battery periodically, however this leaves the system without a fully charged battery for several hours. An additional concern about write cache reliability exists, specifically regarding devices equipped with a write-back cachea caching system which reports the data as written as soon as it is written to cache, as opposed to the non-volatile medium.[27] The safer cache technique is write-through, which reports transactions as written when they are written to the non-volatile medium.

[edit] Equipment compatibility

The methods used to store data by various RAID controllers are not necessarily compatible, so that it may not be possible to read a RAID array on different hardware, with the exception of RAID 1, which is typically represented as plain identical copies of the original data on each disk. Consequently a non-disk hardware failure may require the use of identical hardware to recover the data, and furthermore an identical configuration has to be reassembled without triggering a rebuild and overwriting the data. Software RAID however, such as implemented in the Linux kernel, alleviates this concern, as the setup is not hardware dependent, but runs on ordinary disk controllers, and allows the reassembly of an array. Additionally, individual RAID1 disks (software, and most hardware implementations) can be read like normal disks when removed from the array, so no RAID system is required to retrieve the data. Inexperienced data recovery firms typically have a difficult time recovering data from RAID drives, with the exception of RAID1 drives with conventional data structure.

[edit] Data recovery in the event of a failed array

With larger disk capacities the odds of a disk failure during rebuild are not negligible. In that event the difficulty of extracting data from a failed array must be considered. Only RAID 1 stores all data on each disk. Although it may depend on the controller, some RAID 1 disks can be read as a single conventional disk. This means a dropped RAID 1 disk, although damaged, can often be reasonably easily recovered using a software recovery program. If the damage is more severe, data can often be recovered by professional data recovery specialists. RAID 5 and other striped or distributed arrays present much more formidable obstacles to data recovery in the event the array fails.

[edit] Drive error recovery algorithms

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Many modern drives have internal error recovery algorithms that can take upwards of a minute to recover and re-map data that the drive fails to easily read. Many RAID controllers will drop a non-responsive drive in 8 seconds or so. This can cause the array to drop a good drive because it has not been given enough time to complete its internal error recovery procedure, leaving the rest of the array vulnerable. So-called enterprise class drives limit the error recovery time and prevent this problem, but desktop drives can be quite risky for this reason. A fix specific to Western Digital drives used to be known: a utility called WDTLER.exe could limit the error recovery time of a Western Digital desktop drive so that it would not be dropped from the array for this reason. The utility enabled TLER (time limited error recovery) which limits the error recovery time to 7 seconds. As of October 2009 Western Digital has locked out this feature in their desktop drives such as the Caviar Black.[28] Western Digital enterprise class drives are shipped from the factory with TLER enabled to prevent being dropped from RAID arrays. Similar technologies are used by Seagate, Samsung, and Hitachi. As of late 2010, support for ATA Error Recovery Control configuration has been added to the Smartmontools program, so it now allows configuring many desktop class hard drives for use on a RAID controller.[28]

[edit] Increasing recovery time

Drive capacity has grown at a much faster rate than transfer speed, and error rates have only fallen a little in comparison. Therefore, larger capacity drives may take hours, if not days, to rebuild. The re-build time is also limited if the entire array is still in operation at reduced

capacity.[29] Given a RAID array with only one disk of redundancy (RAIDs 3, 4, and 5), a second failure would cause complete failure of the array. Even though individual drives' mean time between failure (MTBF) have increased over time, this increase has not kept pace with the increased storage capacity of the drives. The time to rebuild the array after a single disk failure, as well as the chance of a second failure during a rebuild, have increased over time.[30]

[edit] Operator skills, correct operation

In order to provide the desired protection against physical drive failure, a RAID array must be properly set up and maintained by an operator with sufficient knowledge of the chosen RAID configuration, array controller (hardware or software), failure detection and recovery. Unskilled handling of the array at any stage may exacerbate the consequences of a failure, and result in downtime and full or partial loss of data that might otherwise be recoverable. Particularly, the array must be monitored, and any failures detected and dealt with promptly. Failure to do so will result in the array continuing to run in a degraded state, vulnerable to further failures. Ultimately more failures may occur, until the entire array becomes inoperable, resulting in data loss and downtime. In this case, any protection the array may provide merely delays this. The operator must know how to detect failures or verify healthy state of the array, identify which drive failed, have replacement drives available, and know how to replace a drive and initiate a rebuild of the array.

[edit] Other problems and viruses

While RAID may protect against physical drive failure, the data is still exposed to operator, software, hardware and virus destruction. Many studies[31] cite operator fault as the most common source of malfunction, such as a server operator replacing the incorrect disk in a faulty RAID array, and disabling the system (even temporarily) in the process.[32] Most well-designed systems include separate backup systems that hold copies of the data, but don't allow much interaction with it. Most copy the data and remove the copy from the computer for safe storage.

[edit] History
Norman Ken Ouchi at IBM was awarded a 1978 U.S. patent 4,092,732[33] titled "System for recovering data stored in failed memory unit." The claims for this patent describe what would later be termed RAID 5 with full stripe writes. This 1978 patent also mentions that disk mirroring or duplexing (what would later be termed RAID 1) and protection with dedicated parity (that would later be termed RAID 4) were prior art at that time. The term RAID was first defined by David A. Patterson, Garth A. Gibson and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987. They studied the possibility of using two or more drives to appear as a single device to the host system and published a paper: "A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)" in June 1988 at the SIGMOD conference.[1] This specification suggested a number of prototype RAID levels, or combinations of drives. Each had theoretical advantages and disadvantages. Over the years, different implementations of the RAID concept have appeared. Most differ substantially from the original idealized RAID levels, but the numbered names have remained. This can be confusing, since one implementation of RAID 5, for example, can differ substantially from another. RAID 3 and RAID 4 are often confused and even used interchangeably. One of the early uses of RAID 0 and 1 was the Crosfield Electronics Studio 9500 page layout system based on the Python workstation. The Python workstation was a Crosfield managed

international development using PERQ 3B electronics, benchMark Technology's Viper display system and Crosfield's own RAID and fibre-optic network controllers. RAID 0 was particularly important to these workstations as it dramatically sped up image manipulation for the pre-press markets. Volume production started in Peterborough, England in early 1987.

[edit] Vinum
Vinum is a logical volume manager, also called Software RAID, allowing implementations of the RAID-0, RAID-1 and RAID-5 models, both individually and in combination. Vinum is part of the base distribution of the FreeBSD operating system. Versions exist for NetBSD, OpenBSD and DragonFly BSD. Vinum source code is currently maintained in the FreeBSD source tree. Vinum supports raid levels 0, 1, 5, and JBOD. Vinum is invoked as "gvinum" on FreeBSD version 5.4 and up.

[edit] Software RAID vs. Hardware RAID

The distribution of data across multiple disks can be managed by either dedicated hardware or by software. Additionally, there are hybrid RAIDs that are partly software- and partly hardwarebased solutions. With a software implementation, the operating system manages the disks of the array through the normal drive controller (ATA, SATA, SCSI, Fibre Channel, etc.). With present CPU speeds, software RAID can be faster than hardware RAID. A hardware implementation of RAID requires at a minimum a special-purpose RAID controller. On a desktop system, this may be a PCI expansion card, or might be a capability built in to the motherboard. In larger RAIDs, the controller and disks are usually housed in an external multibay enclosure. This controller handles the management of the disks, and performs parity calculations (needed for many RAID levels). This option tends to provide better performance, and makes operating system support easier. Hardware implementations also typically support hot swapping, allowing failed drives to be replaced while the system is running. In rare cases hardware controllers have become faulty, which can result in data loss. Hybrid RAIDs have become very popular with the introduction of inexpensive hardware RAID controllers. The hardware is a normal disk controller that has no RAID features, but there is a boot-time application that allows users to set up RAIDs that are controlled via the BIOS. When any modern operating system is used, it will need specialized RAID drivers that will make the array look like a single block device. Since these controllers actually do all calculations in software, not hardware, they are often called "fakeraids". Unlike software RAID, these "fakeraids" typically cannot span multiple controllers. Example configuration. A simple example to mirror drive enterprise to drive excelsior (RAID1) drive enterprise device /dev/da1s1d drive excelsior device /dev/da2s1d volume mirror plex org concat sd length 512m drive enterprise plex org concat sd length 512m drive excelsior

[edit] Non-RAID drive architectures

Main article: Non-RAID drive architectures Non-RAID drive architectures also exist, and are often referred to, similarly to RAID, by standard acronyms, several tongue-in-cheek. A single drive is referred to as a SLED (Single Large Expensive Drive), by contrast with RAID, while an array of drives without any additional control (accessed simply as independent drives) is referred to as a JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks). Simple concatenation is referred to a SPAN, or sometimes as JBOD, though this latter is proscribed in careful use, due to the alternative meaning just cited.

[edit] See also

Disk Data Format Structure (DDFS) Disk array controller Redundant Array of Inexpensive Nodes Stable storage Hard drives Disk array Storage area network (SAN)

[edit] References
1. ^ a b David A. Patterson, Garth Gibson, and Randy H. Katz: A Case for Redundant Arrays

of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). University of California Berkley. 1988.

2. ^ "Originally referred to as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, the concept of RAID

was first developed in the late 1980s by Patterson, Gibson, and Katz of the University of California at Berkeley. (The RAID Advisory Board has since substituted the term Inexpensive with Independent.)" Storage Area Network Fundamentals; Meeta Gupta; Cisco Press; ISBN 978-1-58705-065-7; Appendix A.
3. ^ See RAS syndrome. 4. ^ "SNIA Dictionary". Snia.org. http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary. Retrieved

2010-08-24.
5. ^ Vijayan, S.; Selvamani, S. ; Vijayan, S (1995). "Dual-Crosshatch Disk Array: A Highly

Reliable Hybrid-RAID Architecture". Proceedings of the 1995 International Conference on Parallel Processing: Volume 1. CRC Press. pp. I146ff. ISBN 084932615X. http://books.google.com/?id=QliANH5G3_gC&dq=%22hybrid+raid%22.
6. ^ [1], question 4 7. ^ "Main Page - Linux-raid". Linux-raid.osdl.org. 2010-08-20. http://linux-raid.osdl.org/.

Retrieved 2010-08-24.
8. ^ "Data Robotics, Inc". Drobo.com. http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo. Retrieved

2010-08-24.
9. ^ "Hdfs Raid". Hadoopblog.blogspot.com. 2009-08-28.

http://hadoopblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/hdfs-and-erasure-codes-hdfs-raid.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.

10. ^ "The RAID Migration Adventure". http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/RAID-

MIGRATION-ADVENTURE,1640.html. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

11. ^ "Apple Mac OS X Server File Systems".

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/technology/file-system.html. Retrieved 2008-0423.

12. ^ "Mac OS X: How to combine RAID sets in Disk Utility".

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24359. Retrieved 2010-01-04.

13. ^ "FreeBSD System Manager's Manual page for GEOM(8)".

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=geom. Retrieved 2009-03-19.

14. ^ "freebsd-geom mailing list - new class / geom_raid5".

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-geom/2006-July/001356.html. Retrieved 200903-19.

15. ^ "FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual for CCD(4)". http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?

query=ccd. Retrieved 2009-03-19.

16. ^ "The Software-RAID HOWTO". http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-

HOWTO.html. Retrieved 2008-11-10.

17. ^ "RAID setup". http://linux-raid.osdl.org/index.php/RAID_setup. Retrieved 2008-11-

10. [dead link] 30.

18. ^ "RAID setup". https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/RAID_setup. Retrieved 2010-0919. ^ "Using WindowsXP to Make RAID 5 Happen". Tomshardware.com.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windowsxp-make-raid-5-happen,925.html. Retrieved 2010-08-24.

20. ^ "Rules of Thumb in Data Engineering".

http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/68636/ms_tr_99_100_rules_of_thumb_in_data_engin eering.pdf. Retrieved 2010-01-14.

21. ^ "FreeBSD Handbook". Chapter 19 GEOM: Modular Disk Transformation Framework.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/geom-mirror.html. Retrieved 2009-03-19.

22. ^ Jim Gray and Catharine van Ingen, "Empirical Measurements of Disk Failure Rates and

Error Rates", MSTR-2005-166, December 2005

23. ^ Disk Failures in the Real World: What Does an MTTF of 1,000,000 Hours Mean to

You? Bianca Schroeder and Garth A. Gibson

24. ^ "Everything You Know About Disks Is Wrong". Storagemojo.com. 2007-02-22.

http://storagemojo.com/2007/02/20/everything-you-know-about-disks-is-wrong/. Retrieved 2010-08-24.

25. ^ Eduardo Pinheiro, Wolf-Dietrich Weber and Luiz Andr Barroso (February 2007).

"Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population". Google Inc. http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf.

26. ^ Jim Gray: The Transaction Concept: Virtues and Limitations (Invited Paper) VLDB

1981: 144-154
27. ^ "Definition of write-back cache at SNIA dictionary".

http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary/w/.

28. ^ a b "Error recovery control with smartmontools".

http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~greg/projects/erc/. Retrieved 2010-09-30.

29. ^ Patterson, D., Hennessy, J. (2009). Computer Organization and Design. New York:

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. pp 604-605.

30. ^ Newman, Henry (2009-09-17). "RAID's Days May Be Numbered".

EnterpriseStorageForum. http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/technology/features/article.php/3839636. Retrieved 2010-09-07.

31. ^ These studies are: Gray, J (1990), Murphy and Gent (1995), Kuhn (1997), and

Enriquez P. (2003). See following source.

32. ^ Patterson, D., Hennessy, J. (2009), 574. 33. ^ US patent 4092732, Norman Ken Ouchi, "System for recovering data stored in failed

memory unit", issued 1978-05-30

[edit] Further reading

Charles M. Kozierok (2001-04-17). "Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks". The PC Guide. Pair Networks. http://pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/index.htm. RAID Level 2

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Redundant array of independent disks

Tutorial on RAID 6 & performance implications Learning about RAID Tutorial, Levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 RAID at the Open Directory Project Introduction to RAID Working RAID illustrations RAID Levels Tutorial and Diagrams Tutorial on Reed-Solomon Coding for Fault-Tolerance in RAID-like Systems Parity Declustering for Continuous Operation in Redundant Disk Arrays An Optimal Scheme for Tolerating Double Disk Failures in RAID Architectures Linux RAID and LVM Management RAIF: Redundant Array of Independent Filesystems Vinum page in the official FreeBSD handbook Sourceforge page Bootstrapping vinum - FreeBSD documentation project Vinum performance measurement

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID"

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Related phrases: outlook express microsoft outlook flexity outlook outlook magazine microsoft outlook express microsoft office outlook outlook web access saturn outlook outlook 2003

Definitions of outlook on the Web:

mentality: a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations expectation: belief about (or mental picture of) the future lookout: the act of looking out wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn Outlook is one of India's four top-selling English weekly newsmagazines. Like many other Indian magazines it is reluctant to reveal its circulation, but the

2007 National Readership Survey suggested 1.5 million copies. Outlook's competitors are India Today, The Week, and Tehelka. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_(magazine) The Outlook (1870 - 1935) was a weekly magazine, published in New York City. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlook_(New_York) Outlook: Canada's Progressive Jewish Magazine is an independent, secular Jewish periodical based in Vancouver, British Columbia and published six times a year. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_(Jewish_magazine) The Outlook is a newspaper published in Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is owned by the Pamplin Media Group. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlook_(Gresham) The Outlook is a newspaper based in Rathfriland, County Down, Northern Ireland, serving the south of the county. It is published by Alpha Newspapers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlook_(Rathfriland) A place from which something can be viewed; The view from such a place; An attitude or point of view; Expectation for the future en.wiktionary.org/wiki/outlook OUTLOOKS is a Canadian LGBT magazine, published 10x a year. Originally founded in 1997 as a newsprint monthly, the publication is now a full gloss lifestyle magazine magazine for the LGBT community. Outlooks is leading nationally distributed LGBT publication in Canada. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlooks Open the email. Right-click the sender's email address. Click Add to contacts. Click Save and close. www.netlingo.com/more/whitelist.php (Microsoft Outlook) - An email software that allows a user to send and receive email, keep an address book, sort and organize messages, filter messages. Often it is just used as an email client and users are unaware of the other information management features of the tool. ... www.fullcirc.com/community/interactionterms.htm The existence of pain, the effects of some medications, poor family interactions, these are just some factors that can affect a person's view of their current situation and likely future. cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/article.php Like the wine industry, glass bottle packaging remains the material of choice among domestic olive oil producers. www.oliveoilsource.com/scripts/dictionary.asp A hazardous weather outlook is issued daily to indicate that a hazardous weather or hydrologic event may occur in the next several days. The outlook will include information about potential severe thunderstorms, heavy rain or flooding, winter weather, extremes of heat or cold, etc. ... www.answers.com/topic/severe-weather-terminology

Microsoft Outlook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For the e-mail and news client bundled with certain versions of Microsoft Windows, see Outlook Express.

Microsoft Outlook

Outlook 2010 running on Windows 7 Developer(s) Microsoft 2010 (14.0.4760.1000) / June 15, 2010; 5 months ago (2010-0615)

Stable release

Operating system Type License

Microsoft Windows

Personal information manager Proprietary commercial software office.microsoft.com/enus/outlook/en-us/outlook

Website

Microsoft Outlook for Mac

Outlook 2011 running on Mac OS X Snow Leopard Developer(s) Microsoft 2011 (14.0.0.100825) / October 26, 2010; 41 days ago (2010-1026)

Stable release

Operating system Type License Website

Mac OS X

Personal information manager Proprietary commercial software microsoft.com/mac/outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. The current version is Microsoft Outlook 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac. Although often used mainly as an e-mail application, it also includes a calendar, task manager, contact manager, note taking, a journal and web browsing.

It can be used as a stand-alone application, or can work with Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SharePoint Server for multiple users in an organization, such as shared mailboxes and calendars, Exchange public folders, SharePoint lists and meeting schedules. There are third-party add-on applications that integrate Outlook with devices such as BlackBerry mobile phones and with other software like Office & Skype internet communication. Developers can also create their own custom software that works with Outlook and Office components using Microsoft Visual Studio.[1] In addition, Windows Mobile devices can synchronize almost all Outlook data to Outlook Mobile.

Contents
[hide] 1 Versions 1.1 Windows 1.1.1 Outlook 2007 1.1.2 Outlook 2010

1.2 Macintosh 2.1 HTML rendering 2.2 Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format 2.3 Calendar compatibility

2 Internet standards compliance

3 Security concerns 4 Outlook Add-ins 5 Outlook Express 6 Importing from other email clients 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Versions
Outlook has replaced Microsoft's previous scheduling and mail program, Schedule+ and Exchange Client. Versions of Microsoft Outlook include:
Name Version Number[2] Release Date[3] Notes Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5 Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5

Outlook for MS-DOS Outlook for Windows

3.1x[4] Outlook for Macintosh Outlook 97 8.0 Bundled with Exchange Server 5.5

January 16, Included in Office 97 and also bundled with 1997 Exchange Server 5.5. June 21, 1998 June 7, 1999 May 31, 2001 Freely distributed with books and magazines for coping with newest Internet standard such as HTML mail[5] Included in Office 2000 and also bundled with Exchange 2000 Server. Included in Office XP.

Outlook 98 8.5

Outlook 2000 9.0 Outlook 2002 10 Office 11 Outlook 2003 Office 12 Outlook 2007 Outlook 2010 14 Outlook 2011 14 for Mac

Included in Office 2003 (incl. Standard October 21, Edition for Students and Teachers) and also 2003 bundled with Exchange Server 2003. November 30, 2006 April 15, 2010 Included in Office 2007, except Office Home and Student edition. Included in Office 2010 Home and Business, Standard, Professional, and Professional Plus.

October 26, Included in Office for Mac 2011 Home and 2010 Business

Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 could be installed in one of two configurations:

Internet Mail Only or IMO mode: A lighter application mode with specific emphasis on POP3 accounts and IMAP accounts and including a lightweight Fax application. Corporate Workgroup or CW mode: A full MAPI client with specific emphasis on Microsoft Exchange accounts.

[edit] Windows

[edit] Outlook 2007

Microsoft Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 was available in retail stores at the end of January 2007. Features that debuted in Outlook 2007 include:[6]
A to-do bar added to the shell UI that shows a snapshot of the user's upcoming appointments and active tasks for better time and project management Improved calendar views that display the tasks due below each day on the week view and supports overlaying multiple calendars Send your calendar information with calendar snapshots, which creates an HTML representation of your calendar so you can share this information with anyone Ability to publish calendars in Internet Calendar format to Microsoft Office Online or to a WebDAV server Send text and picture messages from Outlook with Outlook Mobile Service to a mobile phone. Forward Outlook e-mail messages, contacts, appointments, and tasks as text messages. Automatically send e-mail messages, reminders, and your daily calendar as text messages to a mobile phone Integrated RSS aggregator 'Instant Search' through a context indexer based search engine with Windows Desktop Search Enhanced integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server New programmability features[7] Preview Handler extension for previewing email attachment without leaving Outlook Ability to add a picture or company logo to a contact or electronic business card[8] Office Fluent user interface (though not for the main window) Color Categories give you an easy, visual way to distinguish any type of information from one another, so it's easy to organize your data and search your information

Save as PDF or XPS Discontinuation of Common User Access cut and paste support Improved anti-phishing filters Office Outlook 2007 E-mail Postmark is designed to make it very timeconsuming and technologically detrimental for users to send mass e-mail like spam, yet they do not change the user experience of sending e-mail. Information Rights Management (IRM) restricts and/or expires distribution of email using Windows Server 2003 or later running Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) Managed policy compliance features integration with Exchange Server 2007

[edit] Outlook 2010 This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)

All features of Outlook 2007 Ribbon interface in all views Grouping of conversations Social Networking features

[edit] Macintosh
Microsoft also released several versions of Outlook for Mac OS, though it was only for use with Exchange servers. It was not provided as a component of Microsoft Office for Mac, but instead made available to users from administrators or by download. The final version was Outlook for Mac 2001, which was fairly similar to Outlook 2000 and 2002 apart from being exclusively for Exchange users. Microsoft Entourage was introduced as an Outlook-like application for Mac OS in Office 2001, but it lacked Exchange connectivity. Partial support for Exchange server became available natively in Mac OS X with Entourage 2004 Service Pack 2. Entourage is not directly equivalent to Outlook in terms of design or operation; rather, it is a distinct application which has several overlapping features including Exchange client capabilities. Somewhat improved Exchange support was added in Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition. Entourage was replaced by Outlook for Mac 2011, which features greater compatibility and parity with Outlook for Windows than Entourage offered. It is the first native version of Outlook for Mac OS X. Outlook 2011 only supports Mac OS X's Sync Services for Contacts, not Events, Tasks or Notes. It also does not have a Project Manager equivalent to that in Entourage.[9]

[edit] Internet standards compliance

[edit] HTML rendering
Outlook 2007 was the first Outlook to switch from Internet Explorer HTML rendering to Microsoft Word 2007 HTML rendering. This means HTML and CSS items not handled by Word

are no longer supported. On the other hand, HTML messages composed in Word will look more or less as they appeared to the author.[10] This affects publishing newsletters and HTML/CSS reports, because they frequently use intricate HTML and/or CSS to form their layout. For example, forms can no longer be embedded in email. Microsoft Entourage is the only modern form of Outlook that properly supports CSS and allows for seamless rendering between web browsers and email clients with little to no modifications to the original HTML or CSS code.[11]

[edit] Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format

Main article: Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format

Outlook uses a proprietary attachment format called Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) when editing messages in Rich Text Format, using embedded (OLE) documents or Outlook-specific features. It is usually present in a form of attached files winmail.dat or win.dat in the message. These files may also contain any regular files attached to the message. TNEF is not RFC compliant. In addition, no e-mail clients other than Outlook support it natively, although numerous tools for decoding TNEF files exist.

[edit] Calendar compatibility

Outlook does not fully support data and syncing specifications for calendaring and contacts, such as iCalendar, CalDAV, SyncML and vCard 3.0. Outlook 2007 claims to be fully iCalendar compliant; however, it does not support all core objects, such as VTODO, VJOURNAL.[12] Also, Outlook supports vCard 2.1 and does not support multiple contacts in the vCard format as a single file. Outlook has also been criticized for having proprietary "Outlook extensions" to these Internet standards.

[edit] Security concerns

As part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft took corrective steps to fix Outlook's reputation in Office Outlook 2003. Among the most publicized security features are that Office Outlook 2003 does not automatically load images in HTML e-mails or permit opening executable attachments by default, and includes a built-in Junk Mail filter.[13] Service Pack 2 has augmented these features and adds an anti-Phishing filter.[14]

[edit] Outlook Add-ins

Main article: Outlook add-ins

(Other possible and frequently used names: Microsoft Outlook add-ons, Microsoft Outlook plugins, Microsoft Outlook extensions, etc.) Outlook Add-ins are small helping programs for the Microsoft Outlook application. The main purpose of the add-ins is to add new functional capabilities into Microsoft Outlook and automate some routine operations. Add-in also refers to programs where the main function is to work on Outlook files such as synchronisation or backup utilities. From Outlook 97 on, Exchange Client Extensions are supported in Outlook. Outlook 2000 and later support specific COM components called Outlook AddIns. The exact supported features (such as .NET components) for later generations were extended with each release.

[edit] Outlook Express

Main article: Outlook Express

Outlook Express was an e-mail client, newsgroup client, and contact management software application that Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer 4, 5 and 6 and all version of Microsof Windows from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003. Other than the similar name there is no connection between the two products and they originate from different divisions of Microsoft. While both offer access to POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail accounts, only Outlook offers client access (MAPI) to Microsoft Exchange. Outlook Express is succeeded by Windows Mail and subsequently by Windows Live Mail.

[edit] Importing from other email clients

Currently, Outlook supports importing messages from Outlook Express and Lotus Notes. There are some ways to get the emails from Thunderbird; the first is to use a tool[15] that can convert a Thunderbird folder to a format that can be imported from Outlook Express. This method must be processed folder by folder. The other method is to use a couple of free tools that keep the original folder structure.[1
These are the minimum requirements for basic functionality. Actual requirements vary, depending on the system configuration and the programs and features that you choose to install. If you are installing Windows XP over a network, you may need additional available hard-disk space.

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP Home Edition are:

Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended) At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended) At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution Sound card Speakers or headphones

For more information about system requirements for Windows XP Home Edition, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx) For more information about Windows XP Home Edition, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.mspx) The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP Professional include: Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended) At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended) At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution Sound card Speakers or headphones

Hardware requirements
The minimum hardware specification required to run each release of the professional workstation version of Windows NT has been fairly slow-moving until the 6.0 Vista release, which requires a minimum of 15 GB of free disk space, a 10-fold increase in free disk space alone over the previous version.
Windows NT desktop (x86) minimum hardware requirements NT version NT 3.1 NT 3.1 Advanced Server CPU RAM Free disk space

386, 25 MHz

12 MB 90 MB 16 MB 12 MB 90 MB[29] 16 MB 12 MB 90 MB[29] 16 MB 12 MB 124 MB[30] 16 MB 32 MB 128 650 MB[31] MB

NT 3.5 Workstation 386, 25 MHz NT 3.5 Server NT 3.51 Workstation NT 3.51 Server 386, 25 MHz

NT 4.0 Workstation 486, 25 MHz NT 4.0 Server 2000 Professional 2000 Server Pentium, 133 MHz

XP Server 2003 Vista 7

Pentium, 233 MHz Pentium, 133 MHz Pentium III, 800 MHz Pentium III, 1 GHz

64* MB 128 MB 512 MB 1 GB

1.5 GB[32] 1.5 GB[31] 15 GB[33] 16 GB[34]

*Windows XP can be run at 64 MB RAM. Some features require 128 MB RAM.[35] As of June 2010[update], Microsoft have released seventeen editions for the x64 processor architecture:[citation needed]
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition Windows Vista Home Basic x64 Edition Windows Vista Home Premium x64 Edition Windows Vista Enterprise x64 Edition Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Edition Windows Server 2008 Web Server x64 Edition Windows Server 2008 Standard x64 Edition Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 Edition Windows Server 2008 Datacenter x64 Edition Windows 7 Home Basic x64 Edition Windows 7 Home Premium x64 Edition Windows 7 Professional x64 Edition Windows 7 Enterprise x64 Edition Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition.

Reasons to Use Hard Disk Partitions

DISK PARTITION A hard disk partition is a defined storage space on a hard drive. Most operating systems allow users to divide a hard disk into multiple partitions, in effect making one physical hard disk into several smaller logical hard disks. A user may decide to split a hard disk into multiple partitions in order to organize his data more effectively. On Microsoft Windows machines, it is common to store the OS and applications on one hard disk partition and user data on another hard disk partition. When

Creating Hard Disk Partitions

a problem occurs with Microsoft Windows, the OS partition can be completely formatted and reinstalled without affecting the data partition. A user may decide to split a hard disk into multiple partitions because smaller partitions often have smaller cluster sizes. A cluster size is the smallest chunk of data which a partition can store. A large partition might have a cluster size of 16KB. This mens that a file with one character in it will occupy 16KB of space on the disk. In a smaller partition, that file might only require 4KB to store. This is a useful strategy if you are storing a large number of small files. A user may have to split a large hard disk into multiple partitions if the hard disk is larger than the partition size supported by the operating system. Most operating system use the `fdisk` command to create hard disk partitions. Many ooperating systems also have graphical tools which accomplish the same task.

Hard Disk Partitions and File Systems

The Partition Table

You don't actually store data in hard disk partitions. You store file systems in hard disk partitions and then you store data in these file systems. Some operating systems blur the lines between partitions and filesystems. Partition information is stored in the partition table, a reserved area at the beginning of a hard disk. A standard partition table is only able to store information about four partitions. At one time this meant that a hard disk could have a maximum of four partitions. To work around this limitation, extended partitions were created. An extended partition stores information about other partitions. By using an extended partition, you can create many more than four partitions on your hard disk. The four standard partitions are often called the primary partitions. Partitions configured into an extended partition are often referred to as logical partitions. When a partition is created, a special byte of data is written to record what type of partition it is. Because one hard disk may be shared by multiple operating systems, operating systems tend to agree on the meaning of these values.

Extended Partitions

Partition Types

1.

What is a hard disk partition

2.

Why make partitions

What is a hard disk partition When a hard drive is installed in a computer, it must be partitioned before you can format and use it. Partitioning a drive is when you divide the total storage of a drive into different pieces. These pieces are called partitions. Once a partition is created, it can then be formatted so that it can be used on a computer. When partitions are made, you specify the total amount of storage that you would like to allocate to that partition from the total size of the drive. For example, if you have an 80 GB drive, then it would be possible to make one partition consisting of the entire 80 GB of available storage. Alternatively, you could make two partitions consisting of a 20 GB partition that will be used for the operating system and programs and a 60 GB partition set aside for data, music, and images. In the current IBM PC architecture, there is a partition table in the drive's Master Boot Record (section of the hard dirve that contains the commands necessary to start the operating system), or MBR, that lists information about the partitions on the hard drive. This partition table is then further split into 4 partition table entries, with each entries corresponding to a partition. Due to this it is only possible to have four partitions. These 4 partitions are typically known as primary partitions. To overcome this restriction, system developers decided to add a new type of partition called the extended partition. By replacing one of the four primary partitions with an extended partition, you can then make an additional 24 logical partitions within the extended one. The table below illustrates this.
Partition Table Primary Partition #1 Primary Partition #2 Primary Partition #3 Primary Partition #4 (Extended Partition) Logical Partition #1 Logical Partition #1

As you can see, this partition table is broken up into 4 primary partitions. The fourth partition, though, has been flagged as an extended partition. This allows us to make more logical partitions under that extended partition and therefore bypassing the 4 partition limit. Each hard drive also has one of its possible 4 partitions flagged as an active partition. The active partition is a special flag assigned to only one partition on a hard drive that the Master Boot Record (MBR) uses to boot your computer into an operating system. As only one partition may be set as the active partition, you may be wondering how people can have multiple operating systems installed on different partitions, and yet still be able to use them all. This is accomplished by installing a boot loader in the active partition. When the computer starts, it will read the MBR and determine the partition that is flagged as active. This partition is the one that

contains the boot loader. When the operating system boots off of this partition the boot loader will start and allow you to choose which operating systems you would like to boot from. Why make partitions Now that you know what a partition is, you may be wondering why you would even need to make multiple partitions instead of just making one. Though there are quite a few reasons, we will touch on some of the more important ones below:
Multiple Filesystems - When you create a partition, you then need to format it before it can be used. When formatting a partition you tell the operating system what filesystem you would like that partition to be formatted in. Once you format a partition, and therefore assign the type of filesystem you want to use with it, you can not change that filesystem without formatting the partition again and losing all the data contained on it. If you require different filesystems on your computer, whether it be for security or for a specific application, you can then make multiple partition and assign one type of filesystem to one of the partitions and another to one of the other partitions. Partition Size - On older operating systems the maximum size of a partition was limited. Therefore if you had more storage space on a hard drive than was usable in a single partition, you would need to create other partitions to utilize this unused space. Multiple Operating Systems - Some operating systems use filesystems that are not compatible with other operating systems. If you want to use two operating systems on the same computer that are not compatible in this way, you could then make two partitions, one for each operating system. Then a boot loader could be used to switch between them when you start your computer. Wasted disk Space - When a filesystems store data in a partition, the larger the partition, the greater the chance of wasted space. By having multiple partitions of smaller size, you reduce the amount of waste that filesystems may create. Seperate system files from users files - Some components of an operating system require storage space to operate. For example, in Windows if you have no hard drive space available on the drive that Windows is installed on, you will not be able to print. By creating a partition solely devoted to the operating system and then another partition dedicated to your own data and programs, there is less of a chance of you using up the space on the operating system partition with your data, and thus not causing problems.

PC partition types
This section describes the master boot record (MBR) partitioning scheme, as used in DOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux on PC compatible computer systems. For examples of partitioning schemes used in other operating systems, see GUID Partition Table, Slice (disk), or BSD disklabel.

The total data storage space of a PC hard disk can be divided into at most four primary partitions, or alternatively three primary partitions and an "extended partition". These partitions are described by 16-byte entries that constitute the Partition Table, located in the master boot record. The partition type is identified by a 1-byte code found in its partition table entry. Some of these codes (such as 0x05 and 0x0F) may be used to indicate the presence of an extended partition. Most are used by an operating system's bootloader (that examines partition tables) to decide if a partition contains a file system that can be used to mount / access for reading or writing data. Once a specific partition's type has been identified, additional information about its purpose and probable contents may be found (see: list of partition types). For example, some partition type codes are used to hide a partition's contents from various operating systems. However, if an OS or some partitioning tool has been programmed to also examine the boot sectors of any partition, then its file system may no longer remain hidden. (Note: There are no officially assigned partition types; thus, more than one kind of file system may lay claim to the same code value.) Additionally, partition types and boot indicators can be easily modified using applications such as MBRWizard if required.

[edit] Primary partition

A primary partition contains one file system. In DOS and earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, the system partition was required to be the first partition. Windows operating systems must be located in a primary partition. Other operating systems do not have this peculiar requirement. However, other factors, such as a PC's BIOS (see Boot sequence on standard PC) may also impart specific requirements as to which partition must contain the primary OS. The partition type code for a primary partition can either correspond to a file system contained within (e.g. 0x07 means either an NTFS or an OS/2 HPFS file system) or indicate that the partition has a special use (e.g. code 0x82 usually indicates a Linux swap partition). The FAT16 and FAT32 file systems have made use of a number of partition type codes due to the limits of various DOS and Windows OS versions. Though a Linux operating system may recognize a number of different file systems (ext4, ext3, ext2, ReiserFS, etc.), they have all consistently used the same partition type code: 0x83 (Linux native file system).

[edit] Extended partition

A hard disk may contain only one extended partition; the extended partition can be subdivided into multiple logical partitions. In DOS/Windows systems, each logical partition may then be assigned an additional drive letter. Linux operating systems can be installed into (and run from) logical partitions, whereas Windows operating systems are restricted to primary partitions. See extended boot record for information on the structure of an extended partition.

[edit] Partitioning schemes

[edit] DOS, Windows, and OS/2
With DOS, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2, a common practice is to use one primary partition for the active file system that will contain the operating system, the page/swap file, and all utilities, applications, and user data. On most Windows consumer computers, the drive letter C: is routinely assigned to this primary partition. Other partitions may exist on the hard disk that may or may not be visible as drives, such as recovery partitions or partitions with diagnostic tools or

data. (Microsoft drive letters do not correspond to partitions in a one-to-one fashion, so there may be more or less drive letters than partitions.) Proponents of multiple partitions assert that a benefit of having multiple partitions is the ability to store data files on a partition separate from one containing the system files. If the system partition then become corrupted for any reason, irreplaceable user files stored on the independent partition would be able to be more easily retrieved (or recovered), not having been corrupted along with the system files. Another operating system (loaded from a LiveCD or USB, for example) could access the files on the (presumably) uncorrupted independent data partition without having to worry about the corrupted system partition at all. Further, when data files are kept in a separate partition, if an operating system needs to be reinstalled / restored (due to malware infiltration, for example), this can be done without risking damage to the data files (that in a single-partition system are stored along with the operating system files). Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 include an inbuilt 'Disk Management' program which allows for the creation, deletion and movement of Windows (but not other types of) partitions. The Windows 7/Vista Disk Manager is not compatible with Windows 2000 or XP, nor, for the most part, other operating systems. Other examples of partition management programs for Windows are Acronis Disk Director, Easeus Partition Master, Norton Ghost, and Perfect Disk. In some instances specialized recovery programs are supplied with retail consumer computers.

[edit] Unix, Linux and Mac OS X

On Unix-based and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X, it is possible to use multiple partitions on a disk device. Each partition can be used for a file system or as a swap partition. Multiple partitions also allow directories such as /tmp, /usr, /var, or home directory space to be allocated their own file system. Such a scheme has a number of potential advantages:
If one file system gets corrupted, the data outside that filesystem/partition stay intact, minimizing data loss. Specific file systems can be mounted read-only, or with the execution of setuid files disabled (thus enhancing security). Performance may be enhanced due to less disk head travel. A program which produces too much output (such as a system logging daemon) fills up only a single filesystem, therefore does not fill up more critical filesystems. (Often systems will not function correctly if / or /tmp fills up.)

However, the disadvantage of subdividing the drive into fixed-size partitions is that a file system in one partition may become full, even though other file systems still have plenty of usable space. A good partitioning scheme requires the user to predict how much space each partition will need, which may be a difficult task; especially for new users. Logical volume management (LVM), often used in servers, increases flexibility by allowing data in volumes to expand into separate physical disks (which can be added when needed). Another option is to resize existing partitions when necessary. LVM allows this easily by resizing (shrinking) a filesystem, reducing the size of

the logical volume containing that filesystem, allocating that freed space to another logical volume, and expanding (resizing) this other filesystem. Typical Linux desktop systems use two partitions: one holding a file system mounted on "/" (the root directory) and a swap partition. (However, an almost unlimited number of partitions can be accommodated by Linux operating systems.) By default, Mac OS X systems also use a single partition for the entire filesystem, but use a swap file inside the file system (like Windows) rather than a swap partition.

[edit] Multi-boot and mixed-boot systems

Main article: Multi-boot

A GRUB startup menu showing Ubuntu Linux (with three different boot modes) and Windows Vista options

Multi-boot systems are computers where the user can boot into one of two or more distinct operating systems (OS) stored in separate storage devices or in separate partitions of the same storage device. In such systems a menu at startup gives a choice of which OS to boot/start (and only one OS at a time is loaded). This is distinct from virtual operating systems, in which one operating system is run as a selfcontained virtual "program" within another already-running operating system. (An example is a Linux OS "virtual machine" running from within a Windows OS). Multi-boot systems are typically mixed-boot systems, with different OSes installed, although multiple copies of the same OS can be installed for safety, testing, and redundancy. A mixture of Windows, Mac OSX (facilitated by the switch to the x86 processor architecture), and Linux OSs (such as Ubuntu) on the same computer can therefore be accommodated. On computers with a single hard disk multi-boot systems require multiple partitions on that hard disk. Each OS requires one or more special types of partitions whose file system may or may not be compatible with the those of other OSs on the hard disk. Tools to manipulate different types of filesystems may be specific for that type of filesystem. In general, Windows-based filesystem and partition tools have historically been used to manipulate partitions with Windows filesystems

but not Linux or Mac OS X partitions. Linux-based partition managers can often (but not always) manage both Linux/Mac OS X and Windows partitions. A particular problem of multi-boot systems is the mutual incompatibility between the bootloaders of different operating systems, which may compete with each other and independently overwrite important settings. When most computers boot up, an MBR is referenced by the BIOS. This record indicates the partition in which the bootloader to be initially run is located. Each operating system usually attempts to change the MBR so that it points to the partition of the particular bootloader program installed by that OS. In other words, when Windows loads, it changes the MBR to point to the Windows partition in which the Windows bootloader is stored. When Mac OS X loads, it changes the MBR to point to the Mac OS X partition in which the Mac OS X bootloader is stored. When a Linux OS is loaded, it changes the MBR to point to the Linux partition in which the Linux OS bootloader (Grub) is stored. Although all modern OSs include bootloaders that claim to be able to load other OSs as well as the primary OS, in practice this is not guaranteed. Subtle differences in file systems and ongoing changes to the various operating systems can eventually make the bootloaders of each OS unable to recognize the file systems of the competing OSs (and therefore prevent correct bootloading). One or more OSs may then appear to be "unbootable" on that computer. To rectify this, a new bootloader must be installed and configured and the MBR reset to point to the new bootloader. A popular way to circumvent this problem is to install a small, independent "boot" partition (must be a primary partition) in which one specific bootloader is permanently stored. The MBR is then permanently set to always refer to the partition of this primary bootloader (and is never allowed to be changed or to refer to the partition of any other bootloader). This primary bootloader (in the boot partition) loads no OS directly. It merely presents a menu of operating system choices, and when one is chosen, its only function is to chainload the particular secondary bootloader of whichever OS is selected. Each secondary bootloader resides in the partition of the OS to which it belongs, and is only used to load its native OS (not any other OS). By utilizing this scheme, incompatibilities between different bootloaders, file systems and operating systems are avoided.[2]

[edit] Partition recovery

When a partition is deleted, in general, only its partition table entry is removed from a table; and although the data are no longer accessible, some still remain on the disk until being overwritten. Specialized recovery utilities, (such as TestDisk and gpart), can locate lost file systems and recreate a partition table which includes entries for these recovered file systems. However, some disk utilities may also overwrite a number of beginning sectors of a partition they delete. For example, if Windows Disk Management (Windows 2000/XP, etc.) is used to delete a partition, it will overwrite the first sector (relative sector 0) of the partition before removing it. It may be possible to restore a FAT32 or NTFS partition if a backup boot sector is available.

[edit] Compressed disks

Hard disks can be compressed to create additional space. In DOS and early Microsoft Windows, programs such as Stacker (DR-DOS except 6), SuperStor (DR-DOS 6), DoubleSpace, or DriveSpace (Windows 95) were used. This compression was done by creating a very large file on the partition, then storing the disk's data in this file. At startup, device drivers opened this file and assigned it a separate letter. Frequently, to avoid confusion, the original partition and the

compressed drive had their letters swapped, so that the compressed disk is C:, and the uncompressed area (often containing system files) is given a higher name. (SuperStor required a separate device driver to be loaded, DEVSWAP.COM). Versions of Windows using the NT kernel, including the most recent versions, XP and Vista, contain intrinsic disk compression capability. The use of separate disk compression utilities has declined sharply.

DOS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the family of operating systems for IBM PC-compatible computers. For other uses, see DOS (disambiguation).

The FreeDOS startup sequence.

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System",[1] is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition. Related systems include MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, FreeDOS, PTS-DOS, ROM-DOS, JMOS, and several others. In spite of the common usage, none of these systems were simply named "DOS" (a name given only to an unrelated IBM mainframe operating system in the 1960s). A number of unrelated, non-x86 microcomputer disk operating systems had "DOS" in their name, and are often referred to simply as "DOS" when discussing machines that use them (e.g. AmigaDOS, AMSDOS, ANDOS, Apple DOS, Atari DOS, Commodore DOS, CSI-DOS, ProDOS, and TRS-DOS). While providing many of the same operating system functions for their respective computer systems, programs running under any one of these operating systems would not run under others.

Design
All MS-DOS-type operating systems run on machines with the Intel x86 or compatible CPUs, mainly the IBM PC and compatibles. Machine-dependent versions of MS-DOS were produced for many non-IBM-compatible x86-based machines, with variations from relabelling of the

Microsoft distribution under the manufacturer's name, to versions specifically designed to work with non-IBM-PC-compatible hardware. DOS-C's predecessor DOS/NT ran on Motorola 68000 CPU's.[citation needed] DOS is a single-user, single-task operating system with basic kernel functions that are nonreentrant: only one program at a time can use them. There is an exception with Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs, and some TSRs can allow multitasking. However, there is still a problem with the non-reentrant kernel: once a process calls a service inside of operating system kernel (system call), it must not be interrupted with another process calling system call, until the first call is finished.[2] The DOS kernel provides various functions for programs (an application program interface), like displaying characters on-screen, reading a character from the keyboard, accessing disk files and more. DOS by default provides a primitive ability for shell scripting, via batch files (with the filename extension .BAT). These are text files that can be created in any DOS text editor, such as the MSDOS Editor. They are executed in the same fashion as compiled programs, and run each line of the batch file as a command. Batch files can also make use of several internal commands, such as goto and conditional statements.[3] gosub and simple arithmetic is supported in some third-party shells but can also be faked via strange workarounds; however, no real form of programming is usually enabled. The operating system offers a hardware abstraction layer that allows development of characterbased applications, but not for accessing most of the hardware, such as graphics cards, printers, or mice. This required programmers to access the hardware directly, usually resulting in each application having its own set of device drivers for each hardware peripheral. Hardware manufacturers would release specifications to ensure device drivers for popular applications were available.[4]

[edit] Drive naming scheme

Main article: Drive letter assignment

In DOS, drives are referred to by identifying letters. Standard practice is to reserve "A" and "B" for floppy drives. On systems with only one floppy drive DOS assigns both letters to the drive, prompting the user to swap disks as programs alternate access between them. This facilitates copying from floppy to floppy or having a program run from one floppy while accessing its data on another. Hard drives were originally assigned the letters "C" and "D". DOS could only support one active partition per drive. As support for more hard drives became available, this developed into first assigning a drive letter to each drive's active primary partition, then making a second pass over the drives to allocate letters to logical drives in the extended partition, then a third pass to give any other non-active primary partitions their names (where such additional partitions existed and contained a DOS-supported file system.) Lastly, DOS allocates letters for optical disc drives, RAM disks, and other hardware. Letter assignments usually occur in the order the drivers are loaded, but the drivers can instruct DOS to assign a different letter; drivers for network drives, for example, typically assign letters nearer the end of the alphabet.[5] Because DOS applications use these drive letters directly (unlike the /dev directory in Unix-like systems), they can be disrupted by adding new hardware that needs a drive letter. An example is the addition of a new hard drive having a primary partition where a pre-existing hard drive contains logical drives in extended partitions; the new drive will be assigned a letter that was previously assigned to one of the extended partition logical drives. Moreover, even adding a new

hard drive having only logical drives in an extended partition would still disrupt the letters of RAM disks and optical drives. This problem persisted through the 9x versions of Windows until NT, which preserves the letters of existing drives until the user changes them.[5]

[edit] Reserved device names

Main article: Device file system

There are reserved device names in DOS that cannot be used as filenames regardless of extension; these are used to send application output to hardware peripherals. These restrictions also affect several Windows versions, in some cases causing crashes and security vulnerabilities.
[6]

A partial list of these reserved names is: NUL:, COM1: or AUX:, COM2:, COM3:, COM4:, CON:, LPT1: or PRN:, LPT2:, LPT3:, and CLOCK$.[7]

A Short History of MS-DOS

Known variously as Seattle Computer 86-DOS, IBM Personal Computer DOS, and Zenith ZDOS, MS-DOS was developed by Seattle Computer Products for its 8086-based computer system. The MS-DOS history is intertwined with the general development of software for 8086based computers. In May 1979, Seattle Computer made the first prototype of its 8086 microprocessor card for the S-100 bus. There were brief discussions with Digital Research about using one of Seattle Computer's prototypes to aid in developing CP/M-86, which was to be ready "soon." Although Seattle Computer was considering using CP/M-86 when it became available (expected no later than the end of 1979), there were only two working prototypes of the 8086 processor card, and it was felt that both were needed in house. Therefore, there wasn't one free for Digital Research. Microsoft had already started a strong 8086 software-development program. The firm was ready to try the 8086 version of Stand-Alone Disk BASIC, which is a version of its BASIC interpreter with a built-in operating system. During the last two weeks of May 1979, this BASIC was made completely functional using the hardware that Seattle Computer provided for Microsoft. Seattle Computer Products displayed the complete package (8086 running disk BASIC) in New York the first week of June at the 1979 National Computer Conference. (This was the first-ever public display of an 8086 BASIC and of an 8086 processor card for the S-100 bus.) Seattle Computer shipped its first 8086 cards in November 1979, with Stand-Alone Disk BASIC as the only software to run on it. The months rolled by, and CP/M-86 was nowhere in sight. Finally, in April 1980, Seattle decided to create its own DOS. This decision resulted just as much from concern about CP/M's shortcomings as from the urgent need for a general-purpose operating system. The first versions of the operating system, called QDOS 0.10, were shipped in August 1980. QDOS stood for Quick and Dirty Operating System because it was thrown together in such a hurry (two man-months), but it worked surprisingly well. It had all the basic utilities for assembly-language development except an editor. One week later, Seattle Computer had created an operating system with an editor, an absurdity known as EDLIN (editor of lines). A primitive line-oriented system, it was supposed to last less than six months. (Unfortunately, it has lasted much longer than that as part MS-DOS.) In the last few days of 1980, a new version of the DOS was released, now known as 86-DOS version 0.3. Seattle Computer passed this new version on to Microsoft, which had bought non-

exclusive rights to market 86-DOS and had one customer for it at the time. Also about this time, Digital Research released the first copies of CP/M-86. In April 1981, Seattle Computer Products released 86-DOS version 1.00, which was very similar to the versions of MS-DOS that are widely distributed today. In July 1981, Microsoft bought all rights to the DOS from Seattle Computer, and the name MSDOS was adopted. Shortly afterward, IBM announced the Personal Computer, using as its operating system what was essentially Seattle Computer's 86-DOS 1.14. Microsoft has been continuously improving the DOS, providing version 1.24 to IBM (as IBM's version 1.1) with MS-DOS version 1.25 as the general release to all MS-DOS customers in March 1982. Now version 2.0, released in February 1983, has just been announced with IBM's new XT computer.
Desktop Support Interview Questions
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SMS Update A PC did not receive an update from SMS. What steps would we take to resolve this? View Question | Asked by : msid82

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Connectivity Troubleshooting

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A user in a corporate network contacts service desk saying he/she has lost network connectivity: How will you troubleshoot the issue? What are the steps to followed? Latest Answer: First you check to see if the cable is in plugged in the machine. Then you check to see if you can connect to a web site. ... Read Answers (1) | Asked by : kalahari

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Windows XP Firewall How would you Enable or Disable the Firewall in Windows XP?

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Latest Answer: Press window+r key on keyboard than type firewall.cpl than you can easily On or Off firewall. ... Read Answers (4) | Asked by : navaneethreddy

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Set IP address from CMD Prompt How do you set the IP address by using the command prompt?

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Latest Answer: There are Two ways to Set the IP address from CMD Prompt1. Go to start, select run, type CMD, and in CMD Prompt type the command C:>netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp2.Go to start, select ... Read Answers (3) | Asked by : dreamcast

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Troubleshooting a Slow Computer

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A User calls in and complains that her computer and network is running very slow. How would go about troubleshooting it? Latest Answer: First question, when did the problem start? Is anyone else in the same work group experience slowness.Does it happen all the time, or is it intermittent, any patterns of timings eg, in the morning or late at night. If they are you need to take the ... Read Answers (8) | Asked by : sanj108

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Blackberry Synchronization

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If a customers blackberry stopped syncing their calendar wirelessly, what would you do? Latest Answer: The first step before wiping the Blackberry is to remove the battery for 20 sec. put it back and check the sync again. While all other steps are correct, most BB issues will be resolve by a hard reset. ... Read Answers (6) | Asked by : Rrahul Arora

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Add a User to Network Explain how will you add a user to network?

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Latest Answer: First you need to figure out what role the user is going to have and if there is anyone on that has the correct set of permissions as the user. If this is true, on the server or on your desktop if you are an admin and have the admin tools installed. then ... Read Answers (5) | Asked by : charla

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Artribation Process Which layer provides Physical link, Flow control, Artribation process? Latest Answer: Its the Data Link Layer ...

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Read Answers (1) | Asked by : rameshrgen

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Low Level Formatting Define Low Level Formatting?

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Latest Answer: Low level formatting is a type of formatting where new track and sector are created after erasing old one. This type of formatting is very slow. Actually it is a outlining the track and sector of hard disk where actual data will be store and writing the ... Read Answers (1) | Asked by : parameshg

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FireWire Port What is Firewire Port? What are its uses?

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Latest Answer: Firewire port is a form of Serial Port that make use of FireWire Technology to transfer data rapidly from one electronic device to another.FireWire port has the ability to interact with a number of different devices. For example FireWire can provide ... LDAP on OutlookWhat is the IP range in networking side? How do we troubleshoot Outlook? How do we configure ldap on Outlook? I am hoping I am submiting the correct answer. IP range in netwroking side is related to DHCP and Address pools. Ex: 192.168.0.10 to 192.168.0.200 -> Can be defined as address range allowed to distribute and 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.9 are restricted to destribute to client computers. LDAP on outlook can be configured through Tools menu->Account settings-Address books-Select new address book->Select LDAP address book->in next window add server details. Windows XP Boot OptionsWhat advance boot options are available for Windows XP?

Following are the Windows XP advance boot Options. Safe Mode Safe Mode With Networking Safe Mode With Command Prompt Enable Boot Logging Enable VGA Mode Last Known Good Configuration Directory Services Restore Mode Debugging Mode Disable automatic restart on system failure

Start Windows Normally Reboot Return to OS Choice Menu

Bootloader What is bootloader? Bootloader is called Master Boot Record(MBR), where our os is loaded. Restore Windows XPHow to restore Windows XP in Command Mode

To start System Restore using the Command prompt, follow these steps: 1. Restart your computer, and then press and hold F8 during the initial startup to start your computer in safe mode with a Command prompt.
2. Use the arrow keys to select the Safe mode with a Command prompt option.

3. If you are prompted to select an operating system, use the arrow keys to select the appropriate operating system for your computer, and then press ENTER. 4. Log on as an administrator or with an account that has administrator credentials. 5. At the command prompt, type %systemroot%system32restorerstrui.exe, and then press ENTER. 6. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to a functional state.
Install Operating System on more than 50 PCHow will you install Operating System in more than 50 PC at a time when the all Pcs having same configuration. it is very simple. just install the os and all the drivers in one system and make a ghost image using norton ghost and restore it in remaining 49 systems. restoring a ghost takes 5-6 mins while os and drivers will take more than one hour for each.

Windows XP Core Files What are the core files required to boot Windows XP? Latest Answer: ntldr, boot.ini, bootsect.dos, ntdetect.com, ntbootdd.sys, ntoskrnl.exe, hal.dll, system, device drivers (s.sys) ... Read Answers (1) | Asked by : rrsain

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Desktop Support & Help Desk What is the technical difference between Desktop Support & Help Desk ? The difference between desktop support and helpdesk are the following:

1. Desktop support is the one doing the troubleshooting on hand. 2. Helpdesk support is the one receiving the call and troubleshoot it remotely Installing PrinterYou are required to install a new printer on the Print Server what are your steps? Remember this will be a shared printer if you want to set up a network printer Start > Settings > Printers >add printer. after that you can configure it to your own preference. XP First Start--->Control Panel--->Printers---->Add printer--->Local (or) Network Printer--->Choose which brand printer and which one type of printer (if it's needed drivers push the driver CD in that PC)---->Select TYPE (LPT1 or USB)-->Finish. It's ready to use printer. now printer is online. What is APIPA stand for?what does APIPA stand for and how can you tell if your computer is using it? why would your computer be using it? APIPA - Automatic Priavte IP addressing. This is a dynamic service (I mentioned here dynamic means you have not need to start & stop this service, computer will automatically started this service when DHCP is down & stop this service when DHCP is up) that means this service is related with DHCP. APIPA assign private IP address from 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254. APIPA also check presence DHCP server every 5 miniute ( according to microsoft ) removal of virusyou have a virus that loaded several processes every time you stop the process it restarts itself you tried going into safe mode but it does the same thing...you found the DLL files associated with it but you cant stop or delete them what is the easiest way to repair? Encourage your users to back up their important files constantly 1) Run virus removal software in Safe mode 2) Disable all unknown start up protocols using msconfig. 3) Be ready to format or restore a ghost image if neccessary. If this is an office network teach users to save and store important data on a mapped network drive.

What is the difference between LCD and TFT ? A liquid crystal display (commonly abbreviated LCD) is a thin flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector. It is prized by engineers because it uses very small amounts of electric power and is therefore suitable for use in battery-powered electronic devices. TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) is a variant of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) which uses Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality. TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD though it is usually synonymous with LCD. It is used in both flat panel displays and projectors. In computing TFT monitors are rapidly displacing competing CRT technology and are commonly available in sizes from 12 to 30 inches. How will you install Operating System in more than 50 PC at a time when the all Pcs having same configuration.
Create a image of Operating System and the softwares which you want to install on all systems from Symantec ghost and paste or distribute the image on the network.

what type of problems are associated with operating system like window XP? If that PC having Windows XP Operating System Given below are the problems 1. Select boot device in BIOS 2. If you are installed Multiple operating system, select which one you want it (that files Boot.ini) 3. ntldr misssing press ctrl+alt+del to restart 4. ntdetect.com file is missing press 5. Kernel file is missing press c+a+d to restart (ntkernol) 6. Chkdsk error 7. No media device 8. Bad RAM 9. Fatal Error (Blue Screen) 10. Once enter the OS it is showing low disk space / low virtual memory, etc.. 11. Not properly installed hardware and software drivers (see the device manager) 12. Your HDD having Bad Sectors 13. Again and again restart 14. System is hanging

What is the difference between Outlook & Outlook Express? What is IP range in networking side? How we will troubleshoot Outlook?

How we will configure LDAP on Outlook?

Express Version is Limited features cannot work with the exchange server use POP as a protocol. Outlook is Fully featured version and you can customize as you want. Work with email servers. Also you can used Ldap servers.

Outlook Express is a POP3- and IMAP-compatible mail client with a built-in newsreader. It is available with Internet Explorer for Windows or as a stand-alone client. Outlook is also an email client but unlike Outlook Express it is also a personal information manager. We can use it for viewing and maintaining calendars organizing contacts and managing tasks. When we use it with an Exchange server account you can use it for group scheduling and sharing your contacts and tasks with others.
What is IMAP? How does it work? IMAP is short for Internet Message Access Protocol, and this is precisely what it is for. When you retrieve your email messages from your ISP's mail server in your email program, the server and your program (the client) probably use the Post Office Protocol (POP) to talk to each other. Providing a way to get email messages to your computer is what IMAP and POP share. While POP was designed to do merely that, IMAP does provide more useful functionality IMAP is basically for when your using multiple computers to check your email. With POP3 it will download to your computer.. but with IMAP I believe the emails stay on the server.
UNC

Universal Naming Convention \\servername\shared name (It is used to access the shared folder) MAC Media Access Control PDC Primary Domain Controllers BDC Backup Domain Controllers SMP Symmetric Multi Processors AMP Asymmetric Multi Processing EFS Encrypted File System FAT File Allocation Table HCL

Hardware Compatibility List IIS Internet Information Service LSA Local Security Authority MMC Microsoft Management Console OU Organizational Unit RAS Remote Access Service RDP Remote Desktop Protocol (used for Terminal Services) RRAS Routing and Remote Access Service SID Security Identifier WINS Windows Internet Name Service GUID Globally Unique identifier IAS UNC Universal Naming Convention \\servername\shared name (It is used to access the shared folder) MAC Media Access Control PDC Primary Domain Controllers BDC Backup Domain Controllers SMP Symmetric Multi Processors AMP Asymmetric Multi Processing EFS Encrypted File System FAT File Allocation Table HCL Hardware Compatibility List IIS Internet Information Service LSA Local Security Authority MMC Microsoft Management Console OU Organizational Unit RAS Remote Access Service RDP Remote Desktop Protocol (used for Terminal Services) RRAS Routing and Remote Access Service SID

Security Identifier WINS Windows Internet Name Service GUID Globally Unique identifier IAS Internet Authentication Service UPN User Principle Name ([email protected]) BIOS Basic Input Output System Net BIOS Network Basic Input/Output System ARP Address Resolution Protocol DVD Digital Video Disk GPO Group Policy Object (LGPO Local Group Policy Object) IPsec Internet Protocol Security ISP Internet Service Provider NAT Network Address Translation MBT Master Boot Record USB Universal Serial Bus POST Power On Self Test SCSI Small Computer System Interface SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol URL Uniform Resource Locator RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disk IDE Intelligent drive Electronicsor Integrated Drive Electronics FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name (full computer name) [computername.domainname.com] OSPF Open Shortest Path First (these two are routing protocols) RIP Routing Information Protocol POP3 Post Office Protocol (used to receive the mails) SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (Used to send the mails) SMPS Switch Mode Power Supply

PING

Packet Internet Grope VNC Virtual Network Computing EULA End User License Agreement CAL Client Access License TSCAL Terminal Services Client Access License UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply BIND Berkeley Internet Name Domain PXE Pre boot eXecutable Environment UDF Uniqueness Database file LDAP Light weight Directory Access Protocol ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network VLSM Variable Length Subnet Mask CIDR Classless Inter Domain Routing IGMP Internet Group Management Protocol FSMO Flexible Single Master Operations APIPAAutomatic IP addressing NetBEUI Net Bios Enhanced User Interface UDP User Datagram Protocol FTP File Transfer Protocol Mbps Mega bits per second Ntds.dit Nt directory services.directory information tree. ICMP Internet Control message Protocol IGMP Internet group Management Protocol NNTP Network News Transfer Protocol RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User service SNMP Simple Network Management protocol VPN Virtual Private Network L2TP Layer2 Tunneling Protocol PPTP

Point to Point Tunneling Protocol ADSI Active Directory Service Interfaces SUS Software Update Service SMS System Management Service WUS Windows Update service TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol

List of important port numbers

15 Netstat 21 FTP 23 Telnet 25 SMTP 42 WINS 53 DNS 67 Bootp 68 DHCP 80 HTTP 88 Kerberos 101 HOSTNAME 110 POP3 119 NNTP

123

NTP (Network time protocol) 139 NetBIOS 161 SNMP 180 RIS 389 LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) 443 HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) 520 RIP 79 FINGER 37 Time 3389 Terminal services 443 SSL (https) (http protocol over TLS/SSL) 220 IMAP3 3268 AD Global Catalog 3269 AD Global Catalog over SSL 500 Internet Key Exchange, IKE (IPSec) (UDP 500)

diskpart.exeThis command is used for disk management in Windows 2003. nltest /dsgetdc:domainname

replacing domainname with the name of the domain that you are trying to log on to. This command verifies that a domain controller can be located. Nltest is included in Support Tools
How to synchronize manually a client computer to a domain controller?

Windows 2000 (Win2K) and later computers in a domain should automatically synchronize time with a domain controller. But some times you may get a situation to synchronize manually. To manually synchronize time, open a command-line window, and run
Net stop w32time

Run
w32time update

Run

Net start w32time

Manually verify the synchronization between the client computer and a domain controller. Also check the System event log to ensure that the W32Time service has not logged additional error messages.
Properties What are the properties of Taskbar?

We can see two tabs namely General, Advanced What are the properties of Desktop? The tabs that are there Background Screen saver Appearance Web Effects Settings What are the properties of My computer? The tabs that are there are General Network Identification Hardware Profile Advanced
What are the properties of My Network places?

You will get one window, containing Make new connection Local Area connection Now go to the properties of Local Area Connections What are the properties of Internet Explorer?

What are the properties of a folder? What are the properties of a Drive? What are the folder options?

Double click on my computerTools folder options General View File types Offline files

What are the properties of folder?

What are the properties of file?

What are the print options do u get when you give a print in word?

What are the icons available in Control Panel?

Around 27 icons are available in control panel Accessibility options, Add/Remove Hard ware, Add/Remove Programs, Administrative tools, Automatic updates. Key board, mouse, printer, Phone and modem, Scanner and cameras, Power options

System, Display, Network and dial up connections, Internet options, folder options Date and time, Sounds and multi media, Regional settings, Users and passwords, Scheduled tasks
What are the icons that dont get delete option on the Desktop (up to 2000 O. S.)?

My Computer My Network Places Recycle Bin

Note: In Windows 2003 you can delete My computer, My network places. You can also

get back them. Right click on DesktopProperties Click on Desktop tab click on customize desktop select the appropriate check boxes.

Even in 2003 you cannot delete Recycle bin. Note: You can delete any thing (even Recycle bin) from the desktop by using registry settings in 2000/2003.
What are the properties of Recycle bin?

GeneralCheck box for Display delete confirmation dialogue box Check box for whether to move a deleted to Recycle bin or directly delete Global options (applies to all drives) Individual Partitions (for each partition there exist one partition) How to configure the DNS? Open the DNS Console Then you will find there DNSServer name Forward Lookup Zone Reverse Lookup Zone Note: If you have selected create automatically zones during the setup, then it creates the root zone and domain zone under forward lookup zone. If no zones are there under forward lookup zone first create root zone then create domain zone. How to create a zone?

k on forward lookup zonenew zone Active Directory Integrated Primary Secondary Select any one of above. Note: The option Active Directory Integrated Zone is available on when you have installed the Active Directory; if you have not installed Active Directory the option is disabled.
Note: If you want to select a Secondary zone u should have already a primary zone or

Active Directory Integrated zone. DNS Name [____________________] Give the DNS name Note: If you r creating a root zone then just type in the name box . (only dot) Then clickNext
Finish

After creating the root zone then create another zone with Domain Name Right click on Forward Lookup zone New zoneActive Directory Integrated (you can choose any one)DNS Name [___]NextFinish
Creation of zone in Reverse lookup zone Right Click on Reverse lookup zoneNew zoneType Network IdNext NameFinish

After this Right Click on zoneselect Create associate Ptr (pointer) recordNextfinish What tabs are there on properties of Domain? General Start of Authority (SOA) Named servers

WINS Zone transfers

What tabs are there on properties of sever?

Interface Forwarders Advanced Root hints Logging Monitoring

Where to create the primary, secondary, Active Directory Integrated zones?

If you want to create an Active Directory integrated zone, the server must be Domain Controller. If you want to create the Primary DNS, you can create on Domain Controller or Member server. But if create on member you could not get 4 options under the domain which are meant for Active directory. You can create Secondary zone on a Member Server or on a Domain Controller. There is no difference between them.
What are the advantages with Windows 2000 DNS? Or What are the features of Widows 2000 DNS?

Supports SRV (service) records Supports Dynamic Updates Supports IXFR (Incremental Zone Transfer) Supports security
Explain each one of the above?

In windows 2000 Domain you need to have a DNS server to find different services. The SRV records identify these services. When you enable the Dynamic updates, all the records in the zone are automatically created. As we add a computer to the domain, as we add a Domain controller to the domain the corresponding records are automatically created. I.e., you need to create a record in the DNS zone manually to identify those computers or services. When an update is made in the Master it has to be replicated to the Secondary. Previous we used to transfer the entire zone (which is called AXFR (entire zone transfer)). But with Windows 2000 domain we transfer on the records that have been modified. This is called IXFR (Incremental Zone Transfer). We get the security with Active Directory Integrated zone. We can set permission on Active Directory like who can use and who can't use the DNS. And also we have Secure Dynamic updates with Active Directory Integrated zone. By this only specified computers only can dynamically update the records in the zone.
What are the commands do we use for DNS?

Nslookup (and all interactive mode commands) Ipconfig /fulshdns Ipconfig /registerdns
Note: A best strategy of using DNS in corporate network is use two DNS servers. One is

on internal network and another one is between two firewalls. For more security keep the zone as secondary in the DNS server which is between firewalls. How we make more available our DNS? By adding more tuple servers or By windows 2000 clustering. FAQs on DNS What is the purpose of forward lookup? It resolves the Host names (Friendly Name) to IP addresses What is the purpose of Reverse lookup zone? It resolves the IP addresses to Host names What is the difference between Primary zone and Secondary zone? Primary zone has read and write permissions, where as Secondary zone has read only permission. Note: Secondary zone is used for Backup and Load balancing. How to check whether DNS is working or not? Type the command nslookup at command prompt Then it gives the DNS server name and its IP address What is Dynamic Updates in DNS? Generally we need to create a host record for newly joined computer (either client or Member server or Domain controller). If you enable dynamic Update option, then DNS it self creates associated host record for newly joined computers.
How to get Dynamic Update option? Right Click on any zone properties on General tab u will get Allow Dynamic

Updates? [_Yes/No/Secure Updates]

Note: Put always Dynamic Updates YES Note: If it is Active Directory Integrated zone you will get above three options. But if it is Primary or Secondary zone you will get only YES/NO (You wont get
secure updates) What is name Resolution?

The process of translating the name into some object or information that the name represents is called name resolution. A telephone book forms a namespace in which the names of telephone subscribers can be resolved to the phone numbers.
What is BIND? What are the ports numbers used for Kerberos, LDAP etc in DNS? Additional Material What is a zone?

A database of records is called a zone. Also called a zone of authority, a subset of the Domain Name System (DNS) namespace that is managed by a name server.
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 give the answer for my question, dont ask to contact that person or this person or dont say some thing else. Simply just answer to my question. Thats all)

What is Recursive query?

Now your DNS server requests the root level DNS server for specific IP address. Now DNS server says that I dont know but I can give the address other person who can help you in finding IP address.
What Type of Records do you find in DNS database?

Host Record Mail Exchange Record (MX record) Alias

How to convert a Domain Controller to a member server? Go to registryHkey_local_machine systemcontolset001 control

productoptions In that change product type from lanmanNt to serverNt Or Go to Registry then search for lanmanNt then change it as serverNt Is there any possibility to have two Primary DNS zones?

No, you should not have two primary DNS zones. Why because if u have two primary DNS zones some clients contacts first one, some clients contacts second one according to their configuration in TCP/IP properties. Then you will get problems. Actually Primary DNS zone means Single master. i.e., master is only one that is only one primary DNS zone. But you can have as many as Secondary zones. To overcome from above problem (i.e., single master problem) in Windows 2000 we have Active Directory Integrated zones, which are multi masters.
How to create a Secondary DNS zone?

To create a secondary zone you should have Primary DNS zone or Active Directory Integrated DNS zone. You have to follow the same procedure as same as primary DNS configuration. But at the time selection, select Secondary zone instead of primary zone. After that it asks the primary DNS zone address provide that address. Create forward lookup zone and reverse lookup zone as usual. Then, Right click on forward lookup zoneNew zone

Active Directory Integrated Primary Secondary Select Secondary zone (Note:-The option Active Directory Integrated Zone is available on when you have installed the Active Directory; if you have not installed Active Directory the option is disabled.) Then it asks for Primary DNS zone details, provide those details then click on finish. Now go to Primary or Active Directory integrated zone then right click on zone

name propertiesclick on zone transfer Tab Select allow zone Transfers Here you can see three options. To any server Only to servers listed on the Name servers tab Only to the following servers Select anyone and give the details of secondary zone (only in case of second and third option). Click on apply, thenOK
Note: In zone transfers tab you can find another option Notify, this is to automatically

notify secondary severs when the zone changes. Here also you can select appropriate options. Note: In secondary zone you cannot modify any information. Every one has read only permission. Whenever Primary DNS is in down click on change tab on general tab of properties, to change as primary, then it acts as primary, there you can write permission also.
What is the default time setting in primary zone to refresh, Retry, Expire intervals for secondary zone?

The default settings are To Refresh interval 10 minutes To Retry interval, 15 minutes To Expire after 1 day Suppose the Secondary zone is Expired then, how to solve the problem? First go to primary zone check primary zone is working or not.

IF primary zone is working then go to secondary zone, Right click on zone name select the Transfer from Master then it automatically contacts the primary DNS, if any updates are there then it takes the updates from the Primary.
How to know whether the recent changes in Primary are updated to secondary zone or not?

Compare the Serial Number on Start of Authority tab in both secondary on primary DNS zone properties. If both are same then recent updates are made to secondary zone. If not (i.e., secondary is less then primary) click on Transfer from Master How to change form Primary to Secondary or Secondary to primary or Active directory integrated to secondary or primary like that (simply one type of zone to another type of zone)? Go to the properties of the zone click on general tab, there you can find the option called Change click on it then select appropriate option. Then click on OK
How to pause the zone?

Go to properties of a zone click on General tabclick on Pause button.

What system is used before DNS to resolve this host names? How to know whether a DNS name is exist or not in the internet? CBT nuggets

Iterative query The query that has been sent to my DNS server from my computer. Recursive query The query that has been sent to other DNS servers to know the IP address of a particular server from my DNS server. When you install a Windows 2000 DNS server, you immediately get all of the records of root DNS servers. So every windows 2000 DNS server installed on Internet has pre configured with the address of root DNS servers. So every single DNS server in the Internet can get root servers.
DNS requirements: First and foremost has to support SRV records (SRV record identifies a particular

service in a particular computer) (in windows 2000 we use SRV records to identify Domain controllers, identifying Global Catalogue, etc. Second and third are not requirements but recommended. Second is Dynamic Updates Third one is IXFR (Incremental Zone Transfer) Note: Most DNS servers support AXFR (i.e., Entire zone transfer) In incremental we transfer only changes, but in AXFR we transfer whole. How does DNS server know the root domain server addresses? Every DNS server that has installed on Internet has pre configured with root DNS server addresses. Every single server can get to the root. So that only every DNS server on the Internet first contacts root DNS servers for name resolution.
Where can you find the address of root servers in the DNS server? Open the DNS console Right click on the domain name drag down to properties

click on Root hints. Here you can find different root server addresses. Note: When you install DNS service in a 2000 server operating system (still you have not configured anything on DNS server), then it starts its functionality as caching only DNS server. What is caching only DNS server? What is a forwarder? (Open DNS console Right click on Domain name Click on forwarder tab) A forwarder is server, which has more access than the present DNS server. May be our present DNS server is located in internal network and it cannot resolve the Internet names. May be it is behind a firewall or may it is using a proxy server or NAT server to get to the Internet. Then this server forwards the query to another DNS server that can resolve the Internet names.
Dynamic Host Configuration System (DHCP) What is DHCP?

How to install DHCP?

We can install DHCP by two ways 1) While installing Operating System While installing Operating System, It asks at Network Settings whether u want Typical settings or Custom Settings Select Custom SettingsSelect Network Servicesclick on Details Select DHCPclick onOK 2) Independently ProgramsSettingsControl PanelAdd/Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows ComponentsSelect the Network ServicesClick onpropertiesSelect DHCPOK (During the installation it asks for CD)
Note: When you have installed DHCP a icon will appear in Administrative Tools

(DHCP) How to uninstall DHCP? ProgramsSettingsControl PanelAdd/Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows ComponentsSelect the Network ServicesClick on propertiesDeselect DHCPOK
How to open DHCP? StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDHCP Or StartRundhcpmgmt.msc How to configure DHCP?

Open DHCP console by typing dhcpmgmt.msc at run prompt Now you will find in DHCP console DHCP Right Click on DHCPClick on Add Server Then you will get a window This server [________________] BROWSE Select the DHCP server

OK Now you will get DHCP Servername.domain.com [IP address] Note: Some time the window comes automatically with creating the Add Server. Such cases check the IP address whether it is correct or not. If it is wrong delete it and recreate it. Now you have DHCP server. Now you have to authorize the DHCP Server to provide IP addresses to the clients.
Who can authorize DHCP server in the entire domain?

An Enterprise administrator can only authorize DHCP server. No other person in the domain can authorize the DHCP server. Even if u r Administrator without enterprise administrator privileges you cant authorize the DHCP server.
Note: If it is not authorized a red symbol (down red arrow) will appear, if u authorize it

then a green up arrow will appear. How to authorize the DHCP server? Login with Enterprise administrator privileges. Right Click on Servername.Domainname.com Click on Authorize Then it will be authorized (Indication is you will get green up arrow) Now you have to create scope. Note: A scope is range of IP addresses that you want to allocate to the clients. How to create a scope? Right click on servername.Domainname.com Click on New Scope. Click on Next. Type Name [______________________] Description [_______________________] Note: Generally we give the name as Network ID. Click on Next. Start IP address [______________________] End IP address [______________________] (Provide the starting IP address and End IP address)

Click on Next Note: If you want to any exclusion you can do. Starting IP address [______________] Ending IP address [__________] Add Remove What is the default lease duration, minimum lease duration and maximum lease duration? By default any system will get 8 lease days to use IP address. Note: You can increase or decrease the Lease duration, You have assign at least minimum duration of 1 second and you can assign Maximum duration of 999 days 23 hours 59 minutes. Note: If you havent log on for 50% of the duration continuously the IP address will be released. ClickNe xt Now you will get a Window asking whether you want to configure the options (DNS, WINS, and Router etc.) You can configure the options now itself or you can authorize after completion of this. Select any one then clickNext. ClickFin ish. Note: If u have selected NO in the above window you can configure above things

anytime like below Click on server optionconfigure options Select the required ones Enter server name, IP address Click OK Now you have to activate the Scope Right click on Scope Click on Activate Note: You can reserve IP address for specific Clients. Or You can Exclude IP address (without allocation) for future purpose. The above things all are in server. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Now you have to configure Client system. Go to Client System Right click on My Network Placesdrag down to properties Right click on Local area connectiondrag down to properties select TCP/IP click on properties Now you will get one window containing TCP/IP properties In that select assign IP address automatically and select assign DNS address automatically Click on More delete the DNS suffix if anything is there. ClickOK Then the client takes IP address automatically from DHCP server. The DHCP server also provides DNS, WINS, ROUTER addresses also. Note: You must assign a static IP address for DHCP server. (Generally in real time people will assign static IP address not only for DHCP server but also for all servers. Because if you assign automatic IP Address if DHCP is down then all servers will not function properly.)
Note: The DHCP server assigns IP address to the clients. But apart from that it also

provides DNS address, default gateway, WINS address and so on, which are configured in DHCP server. What is the protocol that is used for DHCP process? Bootp Why DHCP Relay Agent is used? To extend DHCP services beyond routers (IF bootp is not installed in router) What are the commands used for DHCP? Ipconfig Ipconfig /all Ipconfig /release Ipconfig /renew
What is the process of assigning IP address by DHCP service?

There are four stages in assigning IP address to a host by DHCP server.

1) DHCP discover 2) DHCP offer 3) DHCP request 4) DHCP Acknowledge

DHCP Discover:

When ever client has to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server it will broadcast a message called DHCP discover , which contains destination address 255.255.255.255 and source IP address as 0.0.0.0 and its MAC address.
DHCP offer:

The DHCP server on the network will respond to DHCP discover by sending a DHCP offer message to the client requesting an IP address. DHCP request: The client after receiving offer message will send a DHCP request message asking the DHCP server to confirm the IP address it has offered to it through DHCP offer message.
DHCP Acknowledge:

DHCP server will respond to the DHCP request message by sending acknowledge message through which it confirms the IP address to other machine. Note: You can also enable DHCP in work group for dynamic allocation of IP addresses. Configure the server operating system in work group as a DHCP then go for client in TCP/IP properties select obtain IP address automatically. Then the client gets IP address from the DHCP server. Note: You need not to configure DNS or anything.
Using APIPA

On occasion, a network PC boots up and finds that the DHCP server is not available. When this happens, the PC continues to poll for a DHCP server using different wait periods. The Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) service allows the DHCP client to automatically configure itself until the DHCP server is available and the client can be configured to the network. APIPA allows the DHCP client to assign itself an IP address in the range of 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.254.254 and a Class B subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The address range that is used by APIPA is a Class B address that Microsoft has set aside for this purpose.
General Questions What is the family of Windows 2000?

Windows 2000 Professional (Desktop Operating System) Windows 2000 Server (Server Operating System) Windows 2000 Advanced Server (Server Operating System) Windows 2000 Data center Server (Server Operating System) What is the family of Windows NT? Windows NT workstation (Desktop) Windows NT 4.0 server

(Server) Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise server (Server) What is the family of Widows 2003 family?

Windows Server 2003, Web Edition Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2003, Data center Edition
What is the Difference between Desktop and Server?

In desktop system we cannot load Active directory. In server system we can load Active directory. So that we can create a Domain in server, advanced server, Data center server. In professional there is no fault tolerance on the hard drive (i.e., disk mirroring, RAID 5). In server we have fault tolerance on the hard drive.
What is the difference between windows 2000 server and Windows 2000 advanced server, Data center server?

In Windows 2000 server we dont have Clustering, Network load balancing. Where as in Windows 2000 advanced server and in Data center server we have Clustering and Network load balancing. In 2000-Advanced server and Data center server we have more RAM and more Processors.

What are the minimum and Maximum configurations for Windows family?

Windows 2000 Operating System family

OS Name Processor RAM (min.) RAM (rec.) Free Hard disk space Supported no. of Pros. RAM

Windows 2000 Professional Pentium / 133MHz 32 MB 64 MB 650 MB 1 GB (rec.) 2

4 GB Windows 2000 Server Pentium / 133MHz 128 MB 256 MB Approx.1 GB (Rec. 2 GB) 4 4 GB Windows 2000 Advanced Server Pentium / 133MHz 128 MB 256 MB Approx 1 GB (Rec. 2 GB) 8 8 GB Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Pentium / 133MHz 128 MB 256 MB Approx 1 GB (Rec. 2 GB) 32 64 GB CPU Requirements for Windows Server 2003 Specification Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Minimum recommended CPU speed 550 MHz 550 MHz Number of CPUs supported 14 18 Minimum and Maximum RAM for Windows Server 2003 RAM Specification Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Minimum recommended RAM 256 megabytes(MB) 256 MB Maximum RAM 4 gigabytes (GB) 32 GB What are the differences between windows 2000 professional and server versions?

In professional we dont have fault tolerance (Mirroring, RAID5) where as in all server versions we have. In professional we cannot load Active Directory where as in all server versions we can. In professional and 2000 server we dont clustering and network load balancing where as in 2000 advanced server and in Data centre server we have Clustering and NLB. As you move from server to advanced server, advanced server to data centre server we get more RAM and more Processors.
What are the features of Windows 2000 professional?

Windows 2000 Professional improves the capabilities of previous versions of Windows in five main areas: ease of use, simplified management, increased hardware support, enhanced file management, and enhanced security features.
What are the features of windows 2000? What are the Operating Systems can u upgrade to Windows 2000?

We cannot upgrade window 3.1 to windows 2000. We can upgrade directly from windows 95/98/NT 3.51/NT 4.0 to Windows 2000. If we have Windows NT 3.1/NT 3.50 first we need to upgrade to Windows NT3.51 or NT 4.0 then we can upgrade to windows 2000.
What is the primary difference between a workgroup and a domain?

A workgroup is a distributed directory maintained on each computer within the workgroup. A domain is a centralized directory of resources maintained on domain controllers and presented to the user through Active Directory services.
What is a Stand-alone computer?

A computer that belongs to a workgroup, not a domain, is called a stand-alone computer. What is Domain Controller and Member server? With Windows 2000, servers in a domain can have one of two roles: Domain controllers, which contain matching copies of the user accounts and other Active Directory data in a given domain. Member servers, which belong to a domain but do not contain a copy of the Active Directory data.
Member servers running Windows 2000 Server: A member server is a server that isn't

configured as a domain controller. A member server doesn't store Directory information and can't authenticate users. Member servers provide shared resources such as shared folders or printers.
Client computers running Windows 2000 Professional: Client computers run a user's

desktop environment and allow the user to gain access to resources in the domain. Can you change the Name of a Domain Controller? You cannot change the name of a server while it is a domain controller in windows 2000 domain. Instead, you must change it to a member or stand-alone server, change the name, and finally make the server a domain controller once again.
But you can change the name of a domain controller in windows 2003 Operating System. Why do we need Multiple Domain Controllers?

If you have multiple domain controllers, it provides better support for users than having

only one. Multiple domain controllers provide automatic backup for user accounts and other Active Directory data, and they work together to support domain controller functions (such as validating logons). What is the structure and purpose of a directory service? A directory service consists of a database that stores information about network resources, such as computer and printers, and the services that make this information available to users and applications.
What is Active Directory?

Active Directory is a directory service, which stores information about network resources such as users, groups, computes, printers, and shares. Active Directory provides single point for organization, control, management.
Note: In a lay man language Active Directory is some thing like Yellow Pages. What roles does a Main Domain Controller (the first domain controller in the entire forest) will have by default?

By default it gets 5 roles. Schema Master Domain Naming Master PDC Emulator Relative Identifier (RID) Infrastructure Master (IM) Note: The above roles are called operations master roles. What are the roles an Additional Domain controller will have by default? By default you cannot get any role. But if you want to assign any role you can transfer from master. What are the roles a Child Main Domain Controller will have by default? By default it gets only three roles. PDC Emulator Relative Identifier (RID) Infrastructure Master (IM) What are the roles a Child additional Domain controller will have by default? By default it wont get any role. But if want to assign you can transfer from main child domain controller. Explain the activities of each role? 1) Schema Master: It will govern the Active Directory to all the Domain Controllers in a forest. 2) Domain Naming Master: Maintains the unique Domain Naming System in a forest to avoid duplication. 3) RID master: It assigns unique ID to every user account. (Domain + RID) 4) PDC Emulator: If PDC is upgraded to windows 2000 it will send data to BDCs on the network. (Replication of user Database) If the user password is not matching in a particular Domain, then it will contact PDC emulator of first Domain Controller (Master Domain controller) 5) Infrastructure Master: Maintains the infrastructure group proper files on the master Domain controller.

What are the roles must be on the same server?

Domain Naming Master and Global catalogue What are the roles those must not be on the same Domain Controller? Infrastructure Master and Global Catalogue Note: If you have only one domain then you wont get any problem even if you have both of them in the same server. If you have two or more domains in a forest then they shouldnt be in the same server.
What is Global Catalogue?

This is a database on one or more domain controllers. Each copy of the database contains a replica of every object in the Active Directory but with a limited number of each object's attributes. Use of Global catalogue Contains partial replica of all objects in the entire forest Contains universal groups Validates user principle names (UPN) when you are creating. This checks that any UPN exists with this name or not in the entire forest.
How to check the above roles to which server they have assigned?

Install support tools from CD Programssupport toolstoolscmd prompt (Go to the command prompt in this way only) At command prompt type netdom query fsmo What is FSMO? Flexible Single Master Operations Note: The above five roles are called FSMO roles. How to check which server is having Global Catalogue? First load support tools Run cmdldp Then you will get a window there Click on file Select connect to type the required server Then you will get some information, at the bottom you can find Global Catalogue TRUE/FALSE. If TRUE is there then it is a global catalogue server. If FALSE is there then it is not a global catalogue server.
Note: By default the Global Catalogue service is enabled in Main Domain controller.

And by default the Global Catalogue service is disabled in additional Domain Controllers. If you want to transfer Global Catalogue service from Main Domain Controller to Additional Domain Controller, then you can transfer.
How to transfer a role from on Domain Controller to another Domain controller?

Start Programs Administrative tools Active Directory sites and services Right click on Domain NameFirst connect to the required server by the option connect to. Then Right click on Domain Nameselect Operations Masters there you will get 3 roles tabs. Select the required one click on change tab OK
How to start/stop a service from command prompt?

Go to the command prompt, type Net start service name (To start a service) Net stop service name (To stop a service) Ex: net start netlogon Net stop netlogon What is a Domain controller? Domain controllers, which contain matching copies of the user accounts and other Active Directory data in a given domain. What is a Member server? Member servers, which belong to a domain but do not contain a copy of the Active Directory data. What is standalone server? A server that belongs to a workgroup, not a domain, is called a stand-alone server. What is standalone computer? A computer that belongs to a workgroup, not a domain, is called a stand-alone computer. Note: With Windows 2000, it is possible to change the role of a server back and forth from domain controller to member server (or stand-alone server), even after Setup is complete. What is a client? A client is any device, such as personal computer, printer or any other server, which requests services or resources from a server. The most common clients are workstations. What is a server? A server is a computer that provides network resources and services to workstations and other clients. What is Main Domain Controller? The first computer in the entire forest on which you have performed DCPROMO.
What is additional Domain controller? What is child domain controller? How to know whether a server is Domain Controller or not?

You can find in three ways 1) By log on dialogue box If it is a Domain Controller at Domain Names you wont get this computer option. If you get this computer option in a server Operating System that must be a Member Server. 2) By My computer Properties On Network Identification tab, the Properties button will be disabled. 3) By typing DCPROMO If it is already a Domain Controller you will uninstallation wizard for Active Directory. If it is not a Domain Controller you will get installation wizard for Active Directory. 4. You should see the share of netlog and sysvol just type netshare at the

cmd prompt 5. You should be able o see the ntds setting in the winnt directory 6. You should see the ntds folder in regedit .. Who will replicate the Password changes? PDC emulator (immediately it replicates to all the Domain Controllers)
What are the file systems we have in windows?

FAT/FAT16/FAT32/NTFS 4.0/NTFS 5.0 How to convert from FAT to NTFS? Convertdri ve /fs:ntfs What is a forest?

Collection of one or more domain trees that do not form a contiguous namespace. Forests allow organizations to group divisions that operate independently but still need to communicate with one another. All trees in a forest share common Schema, configuration partitions and Global Catalog. All trees in a give forest trust each other with two way transitive trust relations. What is a Domain? A group of computers that are part of a network and shares a common directory and security polices. In Windows 2000 a domain is a security boundary and permissions that are granted in one domain are not carried over to other domains
What is a user principle name?

[email protected] What is Fully Qualified Domain Name? Hostname.domainname.com (this is also referred as computer name) How many hard disks can you connect to a system at a time? Maximum we can connect four Hard disks (If we dont have CD ROM). What are they? Primary Master Primary Slave Secondary Master Secondary Slave Note: We cannot have two of same type at a time.
How types of disks are there in windows 2000?

Basic Disk Dynamic Disk Dynamic disk format does not work on a computer that contains more than one operating system. The only operating system that can access a hard disk using dynamic disk format is windows 2000.
What is a partition?

Disk Partition is a way of dividing your Physical Disk so that each section functions as a separate unit. A partition divides a disk into sections that function as separate units and that can be formatted for use by a file system. How many types of partitions are there?

Two types of partitions are there. Primary partition Extended partition.

What is the difference between primary and secondary partition?

A primary partition or system partition is one on which you can install the files needed to load an operating system. How many partitions can you create maximum? (Among that how many primary and how many Extended?) Maximum we can create 4 partitions in basic disk. Among that we can create maximum 1 extended partition. You can create 4 primary partitions if you do not have Extended. What is a volume? Disk volume is a way of dividing your Physical Disk so that each section functions as a separate unit. How many types of volumes are there? There are 5 types of volumes are there. Simple Spanned Striped (also called RAID 0) Mirror (Also called RAID 1) RAID 5 (Also called striped volumes with parity)
What is the difference between partition and volume?

You have limitations on number of Partitions. You dont have limitations on number of volumes. You cannot extend the size of a partition. You can extend the size of a volume.
What is active (system) partition?

The partition in which your current Operating System boot files are there. What is system volume and boot volume? The system volume is the one in which your boot files are there. Whatever partition is marked as active that partition is called system partition. The boot volume is the one in which your system files are there. Note: In Windows NT and Windows 2000 by default the system files will be copied to winnt directory and in Windows 2003 by default they are copied into Windows directory. What can you understand by seeing Logon Dialogue box? IF it is windows 2000 professional operating system, that may be standalone computer or a client in a domain. If you can see the domain name, then it is client. If not it is standalone. If it is Windows 2000 server family operating system, that may be standalone computer or member server or Domain controller. If you can see the domain name, then it is either member server or Domain controller. If not it is standalone computer. You have domain name but you dont have this computer option then it must be domain controller. You have domain name and also you have this computer option then it is member server.

1.I have a file to which the user has access, but he has no folder permission to read it. Can he access it? It is possible for a user to navigate to a file for which he does not have folder permission. This involves simply knowing the path of the file object. Even if the user cant drill down the file/folder tree using My Computer, he can still gain access to the file using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). The best way to start would be to type the full path of a file into Run window.
What are Unicast, Multicast, and Broad cast? Unicast:

Just from one computer to one computer. Multicast: Those who ever register for a particular multicast group to those only. Broadcast:To all the computers. What is BIOS? A computer's basic input/output system (BIOS) is a set of software through which the operating system (or Setup) communicates with the computer's hardware devices. What is the advantage of NTFS over FAT? You must use the NTFS file system on domain controllers. In addition, any servers that have any partition formatted with FAT or FAT32 will lack many security features. For example, on FAT or FAT32 partitions, a shared folder can be protected only by the permissions set on the share, not on individual files, and there is no software protection against local access to the partition.

File and folder level security

We can do disk compression We can do disk quotas

We can encrypt files We can do remote storage

We can do dynamic volume We can mount volumes to folders

We can support Macintosh files POSIX sub system Note: When you format the operating system with NTFS then Windows NT and Windows 2000 are only the operating systems that can read the data. Note: The only reason to use FAT or FAT32 is for dual booting with previous versions windows 2000 O. S. What is NetMeeting? What is the use of NetMeeting? NetMeeting enables you to communicate with others over the Internet or your local intranet. Using NetMeeting you can:

Talk to others Use video to see others and let others see you

Share applications and documents with others Collaborate with others in shared applications

Send files to others

Draw with others in a shared Whiteboard

Send messages to others in chat What are the features will you get when you upgrade from Windows NT to Windows 2000? Active Directory includes the following features: * Simplified management of network-resource information and user information. * Group Policy, which you can use to set policies that apply across a given site, domain, or organizational unit in Active Directory. * Security and authentication features, including support for Kerberos V5, Secure Sockets Layer v3, and Transport Layer Security using X.509v3 certificates. * Directory consolidation, through which you can organize and simplify the management of users, computers, applications, and devices, and make it easier for users to find the information they need. You can take advantage of synchronization support through interfaces based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and work wit directory consolidation requirements specific to your applications. * Directory-enabled applications and infrastructure, which make it easier to configure and manage applications and other directory-enabled network components. * Scalability without complexity, a result of Active Directory scaling to millions of objects per domain and using indexing technology and advanced replication techniques to speed performance. * Use of Internet standards, including access through Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and a namespace based on the Domain Name System (DNS). * Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI), a powerful development environment. * Additional features Features Available with Upgrade of Any Server ---------------------------------------------------------------------The features in the following list are available when member servers are upgraded in a domain, regardless of whether domain servers have been upgraded. The features available when domain controllers are upgraded include not only the features in the following list, but also the features in the previous one. * Management tools: Microsoft Management Console Plug and Play Device Manager Add/Remove Hardware wizard (in Control Panel) Support for universal serial bus New Backup utility * File system support: Enhancements to the latest version of the NTFS file system include support for disk quotas, the ability to defragment directory structures, and compressed network I/O. * Application services: Win32 Driver Model DirectX 5.0 Windows Script Host * Printer protocol support: Device and protocol support allowing choices from more than 2,500 different printers. Other printing enhancements are included, for example, Internet Printing Protocol support, which allows users to print directly to a URL over an intranet or the Internet. * Scalability and availability:

Improved symmetric multiprocessor support * Security: Encrypting file system Is there any situation to use the file system FAT or FAT32? There is one situation in which you might want to choose FAT or FAT32 as your file system. If it is necessary to have a computer that will sometimes run an earlier operating system and sometimes run Windows 2000, you will need to have a FAT or FAT32 partition as the primary (or startup) partition on the hard disk.
Note: For anything other than a situation with multiple operating systems, however, the

recommended file system is NTFS. NTFS ---------------------------------------------------------------------Some of the features you can use when you choose NTFS are: * Active Directory, which you can use to view and control network resources easily. * Domains, which are part of Active Directory, and which you can use to fine-tune security options while keeping administration simple. Domain controllers require NTFS. * File encryption, which greatly enhances security. * Permissions that can be set on individual files rather than just folders. * Sparse files. These are very large files created by applications in such a way that only limited disk space is needed. That is, NTFS allocates disk space only to the portions of a file that are written to. * Remote Storage, which provides an extension to your disk space by making removable media such as tapes more accessible. * Recovery logging of disk activities, which helps you restore information quickly in the event of power failure or other system problems. * Disk quotas, which you can use to monitor and control the amount of disk space used by individual users. * Better scalability to large drives. The maximum drive size for NTFS is much greater than that for FAT, and as drive size increases, performance with NTFS doesn't degrade as it does with FAT.
Note:

It is recommended that you format the partition with NTFS rather than converting from FAT or FAT32. Formatting a partition erases all data on the partition, but a partition that is formatted with NTFS rather than converted from FAT or FAT32 will have less fragmentation and better performance.
What are the options do u get when you are shut downing?

Log off Restart

Shut down Stand by Hibernate Disconnect

Standby: Turns off your monitor and hard disks, and your computer use less

power.

A state, in which your computer consumes less electric power when it is idle, but remains available for immediate use. Typically, youd put your computer on stand by to save power instead of leaving it on for extended periods. In stand by mode, information in computer memory is not saved on your hard disk. If the computer loses power, the information in memory will be lost. This option appears only if your computer supports this feature and you have selected this option in Power Options. See Power Options overview in Help. Hibernation: Turns off your monitor and hard disk, saves everything in memory on disk, and turns off your computer. When you restart your computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. A state in which your computer saves any Windows settings that you changed, writes any information that is currently stored in memory to your hard disk, and turns off your computer. Unlike shutting down, when you restart your computer, your desktop is restored exactly as it was before hibernation. Hibernate appears only if your computer supports this feature and you have selected the Enable hibernate support option in Power Options. See Power Options overview in Help.
Disconnect

A state, in which your Terminal Services session is disconnected, but remains active on the server. When you reconnect to Terminal Services, you are returned to the same session, and everything looks exactly as it did before you disconnected. Disconnect appears only if you are connected to a Windows 2000 Server running Terminal Services. Shut down A state in which your computer saves any Windows settings that you changed and writes any information that is currently stored in memory to your hard disk. This prepares your computer to be turned off.
RestartA state in which your computer saves any Windows settings that you changed,

writes any information that is currently stored in memory to your hard disk, and then restarts your computer. Log offA state in which your computer closes all your programs, disconnects your computer from the network, and prepares your computer to be used by someone else. When connected to a Windows 2000 Server running Terminal Services, Log off closes all programs running in your Terminal Services session, disconnects your session, and returns you to your Windows desktop.
What are the setup files that are used to install windows 2000?

If you are installing from the Operating system DOS the setup file iswinnt. If you are installing from Operating system windows 95/98, Win NT, Win 2000, the setup file iswinnt32.
What is the error message do u get when you run winnt instead ofwinnt32 on 32 bit windows operating system (like Win 95/98, Win NT, and Win 2000)?

You will get the following message in DOS mode screen. Windows 2000 Setup

This program does not run on any 32-bit version of Windows. Use WINNT32.EXE instead. Setup cannot continue. Press ENTER to exit. What are the switches that are available with winnt32?

Winnt32Sets up or upgrades Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Professional. You can run the winnt32 command at a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT command prompt. winnt32 [/s:sourcepath] [/tempdrive:drive_letter] [/unattend[num]:[answer_file]] [/copydir: folder_name] [/copysource:folder_name] [/cmd:command_line] [/debug[level]:[filename]] [/udf:id[, UDF_file]] [/syspart:drive_letter] [/checkupgradeonly] [/cmdcons] [/m:folder_name] [ /makelocalsource] [/noreboot] Parameters /s:sourcepath Specifies the source location of the Windows 2000 files. To simultaneously copy files from multiple servers, specify multiple /s sources. If you use multiple /s switches, the first specified server must be available or Setup will fail. /tempdrive:drive_letter Directs Setup to place temporary files on the specified partition and to install Windows 2000 on that partition. /unattend Upgrades your previous version of Windows 2000, Windows NT 3.514.0, Windows 98, or Windows 95 in unattended Setup mode. All user settings are taken from the previous installation, so no user intervention is required during Setup. Using the /unattend switch to automate Setup affirms that you have read and accepted the End User License Agreement (EULA) for Windows 2000. Before using this switch to install Windows 2000 on behalf of an organization other than your own, you must confirm that the end user (whether an individual, or a single entity) has received, read and accepted the terms of the Windows 2000 EULA. OEMs may not specify this key on machines being sold to end users. /unattend[num]:[answer_file] Performs a fresh installation in unattended Setup mode. The answer file provides Setup with your custom specifications. Num is the number of seconds between the time that Setup finishes copying the files and when it restarts your computer. You can use num on any computer running Windows NT

or Windows 2000. Answer_file is the name of the answer file. /copydir:folder_name Creates an additional folder within the folder in which the Windows 2000 files are installed. For example, if the source folder contains a folder called Private_drivers that has modifications just for your site, you can type /copydir:Private_drivers to have Setup copy that folder to your installed Windows 2000 folder. So then the new folder location would be C:\Winnt\Private_drivers. You can use /copydir to create as many additional folders as you want. /copysource:folder_name Creates a temporary additional folder within the folder in which the Windows 2000 files are installed. For example, if the source folder contains a folder called Private_drivers that has modifications just for your site, you can type /copysource:Private_drivers to have Setup copy that folder to your installed Windows 2000 folder and use its files during Setup. So then the temporary folder location would be C:\Winnt\Private_drivers. Unlike the folders /copydir creates, /copysource folders are deleted after Setup completes. /cmd:command_line Instructs Setup to carry out a specific command before the final phase of Setup. This would occur after your computer has restarted twice and after Setup has collected the necessary configuration information, but before Setup is complete. /debug[level]:[filename] Creates a debug log at the level specified, for example, /debug4:C:\Win2000.log. The default log file is C:\ %Windir%\Winnt32.log, with the debug level set to 2. The log levels are as follows: 0severe errors, 1-errors, 2-warnings, 3-information, and 4-detailed information for debugging. Each level includes the levels below it. /udf:id[,UDB_file] indicates an identifier (id) that Setup uses to specify how a Uniqueness Database (UDB) file modifies an answer file (see the /unattend entry). The UDB overrides values in the answer file, and the identifier determines which values in the UDB file are used. For example, /udf:RAS_user,Our_company.udb overrides settings specified for the identifier RAS_user in the Our_company.udb file. If no UDB_file is specified, Setup prompts the user to insert a disk that contains the $Unique$.udb file. /syspart:drive_letter Specifies that you can copy Setup startup files to a hard disk, mark the disk as active, and then install the disk into another computer. When you start that computer, it automatically starts with the next phase of the Setup . You must always use the /tempdrive parameter with the /syspart parameter. The /syspart switch for Winnt32.exe only runs from a computer that already has Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 installed on it. It cannot be run from Windows 9x.

/checkupgradeonly Checks your computer for upgrade compatibility with Windows 2000. For Windows 95 or Windows 98 upgrades, Setup creates a report named Upgrade.txt in the Windows installation folder. For Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 upgrades, it saves the report to the Winnt32.log in the installation folder. /cmdcons Adds to the operating system selection screen a Recovery Console option for repairing a failed installation. It is only used post-Setup. /m:folder_name Specifies that Setup copies replacement files from an alternate location. Instructs Setup to look in the alternate location first and if files are present, use them instead of the files from the default location. /makelocalsource Instructs Setup to copy all installation source files to your local hard disk. Use /makelocalsource when installing from a CD to provide installation files when the CD is not available later in the installation. /noreboot Instructs Setup to not restart the computer after the file copy phase of winnt32 is completed so that you can execute another command. What is the location of hcl.txt (Hard ware compatibility list)? In Windows 2000 (either professional or any kind of server) CD, there is a folder called support. In the support folder the HCL.txt is placed. What is the location ofwinnt andwinnt32? They are located in i386 folder. Where is the location of support tools? In Windows 2000 (either professional or any kind of server) CD, there is a folder called support. In the support folder there is a sub folder called Tools How to load support tools? In the Windows 2000 CD (either professional or any kind of server), Click on support Click on tools Click on setup.exe How to load Admin Pack? In windows 2000 CD (Only server family), Click on i386 folder Click on adminpak.msi Or Go to command prompt (in server operating system only) Go towinnt /system32 directory typeadminpa k.msi or type Msiexec /i adminpak.msi Note: Adminpak.msi is not included in the professional CD. If you want to load the administrative tools in the local computer you can load. But you must have administrative permissions for the local computer to install and run Windows 2000 Administration Tools. How do you install the Windows 2000 deployment tools, such as the Setup Manager Wizard and the System Preparation tool? To install the Windows 2000 Setup Tools, display the contents of the Deploy. cab file, which is located in the Support\Tools folder on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM. Select all the files you want to extract, right-click a selected file, and then select Extract from the menu. You will be prompted for a destination, the location and name of a folder, for the extracted files.

How to create a boot floppy?

To create a boot floppy, open windows 2000 CD. Click on boot disk folder click on eithermakeboo t ormakebt32 Note: If you want to boot from MS-DOS then create floppy disk by using the command Makeboot. What is Desktop? The desktop, which is the screen that you see after you log on to Windows 2000, is one of the most important features on your computer. The desktop can containshortcuts to your most frequently usedprograms, documents, and printers.
Suppose if your CD is auto play CD. Then what is the key that is used to stop the auto play of the CD?

Hold the shift key for some time immediately after inserting the CD. What is Netware? Netware is a computer network operating system developed byNove ll. What is Network? A network is a group of computers that can communicate with each other, share resources such as hard disks and printers, and access remote hosts or other networks. The basic components of a network are:

One or more servers

Workstations Network Interface Cards

Communication media Peripheral devices (such as printers) What is network Interface card? A Network Interface Card is a circuit board installed on each computer to allow servers and workstations to communicate with each other. What are peripheral devices? Peripheral devices are computer related devices, such as local printers, disk drivers and modems. What is LAN driver? The LAN driver controls the workstations Network Interface card. A LAN driver serves as a link between an operating system of a station and the physical network parts.
Why should we logon?

Login enables the user to use the resources and services, such as files, printers and messaging, which are available in the Network. When the user Identity is authenticated and his or her rights to resources and services are determined. When the user logs out, he or she is then disconnected from all parts of the network. Drive Letters: Each workstation can assign up to 26 letters to regular drive mappings. Drive letters that are not used by local devices are available for network drives. Generally the Drive lettersA andB represents floppy disk drives andC represents the local hard disk. What do you call the right hand side portion (i.e., where the clock and other icons exist) of task bar? System Tray or Notification area What is Plug and Play?

Plug and Play hardware, which Windows 2000 automatically detects, installs, and configures. What is the command to encrypt a file from command prompt? Cipher.exe What is the minimum and maximum configuration to create a partition in NTFS? The minimum size to create a partition in NTFS is 8 MB. The maximum size to create a partition in NTFS is the disk capacity. How many ways can you install Windows 2000? 1) Insert the CD, boot from the CD, and install the O.S. (This is the best way) 2) Boot from the floppy, insert the CD, and install the O.S. 3) Install over the network or install over the Hard disk. For this you have to run the files WinNT or winnt32. Note: WinNT is used when you r installing from the operating system other than Windows NT or 2000. (I.e., DOS, windows 95/98 or any other) Winnt32 is used if you are installing from O.S. Windows NT or Windows 2000. What is WINS and what it does? WINS stands for Windows Internet Naming Service. It resolves NETBIOS names to IP addresses. WINS is used only when you need to access the NETBIOS resources. What is there in the network before wins? Initially the computers in the network used to communicate with broadcast. If there is less number of hosts, then there is no problem. But when there is more number of hosts on the network more traffic will be generated. So later they invented lmhost file (LAN Manager Host file). By this they configure the lmhost file of each computer with the entries of each computers IP address and NETBIOS name. So each computer will look into its lmhost file to resolve NETBIOS names. But configuring each computer lmhost file manually is time consuming and more difficult. Later then invented centralized lmhost file. By this they configure lmhost on one server, and tell each computer to use that lmhost file. But in this you need to configure the centralized lmhost file manually. So Microsoft introduced WINS. By this you need to install WINS on a

server in the network and configure the computers to use that WINS server. Thats all, you need not configure any thing on WINS server. The WINS server makes an entry automatically when a client is initialized to use WINS.
Note: A UNIX does not have ability to register into WINS database. But if a UNIX

server is there in network and you need to resolve it, then for this you need to configure manually the entry of that UNIX server in the WINS server. What is NETBIOS? NETBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System. It is a naming interface, it is interface by which client can connect to access the lower level of the TCP/IP model to be able to communicate and access those resources.

We share resources with the NETBIOS interface in windows NT. This means that we are using NetBIOS name to connect the client to the server. What is the length of NETBIOS name? A NETBIOS name is 16 characters long. The first fifteen characters you can use for the server name, the 16th character is an identifier for what type of service it is registering.
What is the location of lmhost file (LAN Manager Host file) in windows 2000?

Winnt/system32/drivers/etc/lmhost.sam Note: Extension represents that it is a sample file. You can create lmhost file with out that extension. What are Windows 2000 WINS enhancements when compare to the previous versions?

Better Management interface

Better clients Replication can maintain persistent connections.

Supports automatic partner discovery Integrates with DNS and DHCP

Supports burst mode handling What is the port used for Terminal Services? 3389 How to know 3389 is working or not? Netstat -a (Displays all connections and listening of ports) What are the different sub net classes are there? Class A Addresses 1-126.x.x.x Class B Addresses 128-191.x.x.x

Class C Addresses 192-223.x.x.x Class D Addresses 224-239.x.x.x Class E Addresses 240-254.x.x.x What are the features and benefits of windows 2000 professional? W i n d o w s 2 0 0 0 p r o f e s s i o n a l u p g r a d e o f W i n d o w s N T w o r k s t a t i o n . S o w e

i s

a n

have the base code of Windows NT rather than Windows 95/98. So you get the security and stability of Windows NT. But from Windows 2000 we get some of the features of 95/98. Specifically Plug and Play, Device manager.
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a u t o m a t i c a l l y . p a c k a g e . s y n c h r o n i z a t i o n I n t e r n e t K e r b e r o s E F S p r i n t i n g V 5 p r o t o c o l f i l e

p r o t o c o l . t e c h n o l o g y . ( E n c r y p t i n g p r o t o c o l . f o r l o g
s m a r t c a r d .

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And many more Note: Suppose you have a computer in remote location. In that you have multiple operating systems. You want to restart it from here with a specific operating system. Then go to Properties of My computer Advanced tab settings At this place set default operating system as required operating system. Then restart the computer.
Note: In windows 2000 if you want to update objects immediately we use secedit /refreshpolicy refresh_machine and another one. In windows 2003 the alternate command for this isgpupdate, type this command at run prompt then it updates

automatically. How can you know that Active directory is installed properly?

It will create a folder calledsysvol under c:\windows. With in the sysvol folder you should have four folders, namely Domain, staging, sysvol, staging area. Apart form this you should have NTDS folder (In c:\windows) containing ntds.dit file and four log files.
How can you see the post screen when the system started? When the system starts press theBrea k key. Then it post screen is stopped there only, to continue pressEnter. When a user logs on the start up options will be loaded. How to stop them? (The notification area icons)

When a user types user name and password, and presses enter immediately hold down Shift key. Then the above things will not be loaded. What are the features of Active directory? See the benefits of Active directory document in this folder. 1.What is the range of addresses in the classes of internet addresses? Class A 0.0.0.0 127.255.255.255 Class B 128.0.0.0

191.255.255.255 Class C 192.0.0.0 223.255.255.255 Class D 224.0.0.0 239.255.255.255 Class E 240.0.0.0 254.255.255.255 Note: Class A, Class B, Class C are used to assign IP addresses. Class D is used for Multicasting. Class E is reserved for the future (Experimental). What is hot swapping? Replacing the hard disks other than active disk, when the computers on.
What commands do you need to execute before upgrading to windows 2000 to windows 2003? Before upgrading to windows 2000 to windows 2003 insert the CD of windows 2003 then open 1386 folder, then at command prompt type the following commands. Adprep /forestprep Adprep /domainprep (i. e., f:\1386(2003)>adprep /forestprep and f:\1386(2003)>adprep /domainprep) If you are upgrading entire forest type the adprep /forestprep at root domain. If you are upgrading only a domain then type the adprep /domainprep at root domain. Note: You have to type the above commands on the server which has IM role. Then only you have to upgrade your systems. How to take backup?

StartProgramsAccessoriesSystem tools backup click on backup tab There you can select the required one. The system state backup includes the following files

Boot files

Com+ class registration database Registry If the system is domain controller then apart from above files it takes backup of the following files also.

Active directory Sys vol Note: If you want to restore the system state backup on a domain controller you have to

restart the computer in Directory Services restore mode, because you are restoring Active Directory when it is in active. If you want to restore Active Directory it should not be in active. If you restart the computer in Directory services restore mode the Active directory is not in active, so you can restore the Active directory. You can restore Active Directory in two ways Authoritative restore Non Authoritative restore Non Authoritative restore Restart the computer Press F8 to select Directory services restore mode Start ProgramsAccessories system tools Backup Click on restore tab Select the restore file Click on restore now Restart the computer
Authoritative Restore mode

Restart the computer Press F8 to select Directory services restore mode Start ProgramsAccessories system tools Backup Click on restore tab Select the restore file Click on restore now Open command prompt Type ntdsutil Type authoritative restore
Note: Here you can restore authoritatively entire database or a particular OU. But you

cannot restore a particular object. Type restore sub tree distinguished name of OU Ex: research is a OU under yahoo.com, then you have to type distinguished name like ou=research, dc=yahoo, dc=com What are the logical components of Active Directory? Organizational Units Domains Trees Forests What are the physical components of Active Directory? Sites Domain Controllers Global Catalogue
Who can create site level Group Policy?

Enterprise Admin Who can create Domain lever Group Policy? Domain Admin Who can create Organization Unit lever Group Policy? Domain Admin Who can create Local Group Policy? Local Administrator or Domain Administrator What is the hierarchy of Group Policy? Local policy Site Policy

Domain Policy OU Policy Sub OU Policy (If any are there) Explain about Active Directory database. The information stored in the Active Directory is called Active Directory database. The information stored in the Active Directory (i. e., Active directory database) on every domain controller in the forest is partitioned into three categories. They are

Domain Partition Configuration Partition

Schema Partition Domain Partition The domain partition contains all of the objects in the directory for a domain. Domain data in each domain is replicated to every domain controller in that domain, but not beyond its domain.
Configuration Partition Schema Partition

The schema partition contains all object types and their attributes that can be created in Active Directory. This data is common to all domain controllers in the domain tree or forest, and is replicated by Active Directory to all the domain controllers in the forest.
What is Global Catalogue?

The global catalogue holds a partial replica of domain data directory partitions for all domains in the forest. By default, the partial set of attributes stored in the global catalog includes those attributes most frequently used in search operations, because one of the primary functions of the global catalogue is to support clients querying the directory.
Explain about different groups in Active directory.

There are two types of groups are the in Active directory. Security group Distributed group
What is the protocol that is used for security in Windows 2000?

Kerberos V5 How many can you open Task Manager? One can open Task Manager in three ways

1)StartRunTaskmgrok 2)Right click on Task barSelect Task manager 3)Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE click on Task Manager 4) Press CTRL+ Shift + ESC (short cut key) How many ways do you have to determine whether a computer is Domain Controller or not?

There are several ways to determine 1)On log on Windows dialogue box see whether the log on field has this computer option or not. If it contains only domain names then it is a Domain Controller, if it contains this computer option then it is either Work station or Member server. 2)Start RunType netdom query fsmo The computer names that have been listed there are Domain Controller. 3)Search forNTDS andSy svol folder in system directory, if they are there then it is a Domain Controller. 4)StartRunRegedit32Search forNTDS folder in HKEY_LOCALMACHINE If you find that one then it is a Domain Controller. 5)Start ProgramsAdministrative tools Active Directory Users and Computers Click on Domain Controller OU the names that are listed there are the names of the domain controllers. 6)In 2000 you cannot change the name of the Domain Controller so Right click on My computerPropertiesNetwork Identification ThereChange button is grayed out.
Sub Netting Class C sub netting

IP address 198.100.98.0 Decimal mask 255.255.255.224 Convert 224 into binary 11100000(2) Maximum no. of combinations = 2n (Wheren is number of masked bits) Note: Masked bit = 1, UN masked bit= 0. Maximum number of subnets 2n-2 Maximum number of hosts/subnet 2m-2 (Wherem is number of unmasked bits) Now 224(10) = 11100000(2) Maximum no. of combinations = 2n =23 = 8 Maximum no. of subnets =2n-2 = 23-2 = 6 Maximum no. of hosts/subnet=2m -2 =25 -2 = 30 Available combinations 0 000 (This is not used for assigning IP address) 1 001 2 010 3 0 11 4 100 5 101 6 11 0 7 111

(This is not used for assigning IP address) Octant contains 8 bits, presently we have 3 bits (Remaining 5 bits are zeros) 00100000 = 32 01000000 = 64 01100000 = 96 10000000 = 128 10100000 = 160 11000000 = 192 Therefore modified subnets are 255.255.255.32 255.255.255.64 255.255.255.96 255.255.255.128 255.255.255.160 255.255.255.192 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.32 First IP address 198.100.98.33 Subnet mask 255.255.255.32 Second IP address 198.100.98.34 Subnet mask 255.255.255.32 Third IP address 198.100.98.35 Subnet mask 255.255.255.32 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.36 Subnet mask 255.255.255.32 Last IP address 198.100.98.63 Subnet mask 255.255.255.32 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.64 First IP address 198.100.98.64 Subnet mask 255.255.255.64

Second IP address 198.100.98.65 Subnet mask 255.255.255.64 Third IP address 198.100.98.66 Subnet mask 255.255.255.64 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.67 Subnet mask 255.255.255.64 Last IP address 198.100.98.95 Subnet mask 255.255.255.64 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.96 First IP address 198.100.98.64 Subnet mask 255.255.255.96 Second IP address 198.100.98.65 Subnet mask 255.255.255.96 Third IP address 198.100.98.66 Subnet mask 255.255.255.96 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.67 Subnet mask 255.255.255.96 Last IP address 198.100.98.95 Subnet mask 255.255.255.96 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.128 First IP address 198.100.98.64 Subnet mask 255.255.255.128 Second IP address 198.100.98.65 Subnet mask 255.255.255.128 Third IP address 198.100.98.66 Subnet mask 255.255.255.128 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.67 Subnet mask

255.255.255.128 Last IP address 198.100.98.95 Subnet mask 255.255.255.128 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.160 First IP address 198.100.98.64 Subnet mask 255.255.255.160 Second IP address 198.100.98.65 Subnet mask 255.255.255.160 Third IP address 198.100.98.66 Subnet mask 255.255.255.160 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.67 Subnet mask 255.255.255.160 Last IP address 198.100.98.95 Subnet mask 255.255.255.160 IP addressing for subnet 255.255.255.192 First IP address 198.100.98.64 Subnet mask 255.255.255.192 Second IP address 198.100.98.65 Subnet mask 255.255.255.192 Third IP address 198.100.98.66 Subnet mask 255.255.255.192 Fourth IP address 198.100.98.67 Subnet mask 255.255.255.192 Last IP address 198.100.98.95 Subnet mask 255.255.255.192 Another Example: 200.150.80.0 255.255.255.192 192(10) 11000000(2)

Class B Sub netting

Example: IP address 140.80.1.0 Subnet mask 255.255.240.0 240(10) 11110000(2) Heren=4 (Because 148.80.1.0 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000) m= 12 (Because 148.80.1.0 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000) Maximum no. of combinations 2n = 24 = 16 Max no. of subnets 2n-2 = 14 Max no. of hosts/subnet
2 m - 2 = 2 12- 2 = 4 0 9 6 - 2 = 4 0 9 4 Number of combinations (16)

00000000 =0 (This is not used for assigning IP address) 00010000 = 16 00100000 = 32 00110000 = 48 01000000 = 64 01010000 = 80 01100000 = 96 01110000 = 112 10000000 = 128 11100000 = 224 11110000 = 240 (This is not used for assigning IP address) Modified subnets are 255.255.16.0 255.255.32.0 255.255.48.0 255.255.64.0 255.255.80.0 255.255.96.0 255.255.224.0
IP addressing for modified subnets:

255.255.16.0 Subnet

IP address 140.80.16.1 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 IP address 140.80.16.254 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 And IP address 140.80.17.1 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 IP address 140.80.17.254 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 And IP address 140.80.18.1 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 IP address 140.80.18.254 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 And IP address 140.80.19.1 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 IP address 140.80.19.254 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 And IP address 140.80.20.1 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 IP address 140.80.20.254 Subnet mask 255.255.16.0 And 21, 22, 23, 24 up to 31. 255.255.32.0 Subnet IP address 140.80.32.1

Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 IP address 140.80.32.254 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 And IP address 140.80.33.1 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 IP address 140.80.33.254 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 And IP address 140.80.34.1 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 IP address 140.80.34.254 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 And IP address 140.80.35.1 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 IP address 140.80.35.254 Subnet mask 255.255.32.0 And 36, 37, 38, 39 up to 48. Next subnets are 64, 80, and 96, up to 224.

Diagnostic Utilities a) PING b) finger c) hostname d) Nslookup e) ipconfig f) Netstat g) NBTStat h) Route i) Tracer j) ARP PING:

Verifies that TCP/IP is configured and another host is available. FINGER: Retrieves system information from a remote computer that supports TCP/IP finger services HOSTNAME: It displays the host name. NSLOOKUP: Examines Entries in the DNS database, which pertains to a particular host or domain NETSTAT: Displays protocol statistics and the current state of TCP/IP concepts. NBTSTAT: Checks the state of current NetBIOS over TCP/IP connections, updates LMhosts cache or determines your registered name or scope ID. Route: Views or modifies the local routing table. TRACERT Verifies the route from the local host to remote host ARP Displays a cache of local resolved IP address to MAC address What is Dedicated Line? Any telecommunications line that is continuously available for the subscriber with little or no latency. Dedicated lines are also referred to as leased lines. Note: The other one is the Dial up line.
What is Dial up line?

Any telecommunications link that is serviced by a modem. Dial-up lines are ordinary phone lines used for voice communication, while dedicated or leased lines are digital lines with dedicated circuits. Dial-up lines are generally much less expensive to use, but they have less available bandwidth. What is FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)? Hostname.Domain.com Give an Example for FQDN? For example, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) barney.northwind.microsoft.com can be broken down as follows:

Host name: barney Third-level domain: north wind (stands for North wind Traders Ltd., a fictitious Microsoft subsidiary)

Second-level domain: Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation) Top-level domain: com (commercial domain) The root domain has a null label and is not expressed in the FQDN
How to know port 3389 (Terminal services) is working or not? netstat -a (Displays all connections and listening of ports)

What is a host?

Any device on a TCP/IP network that has an IP address. Example includes severs, clients, network interface print devices, routers. How is the host identified in the network? By a TCP/IP address. What is a Host name? An alias given to a computer on TCP/IP network to identify it on the network. Host names are friendlier way to TCP/IP hosts than IP address. A host name can contain A-Z, 0-9, ., -, characters.
What is Logon Credentials?

The information authenticate a user, generally consisting of User Name Password Domain Name
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 (doubt). How many ports are there? There are 65535 ports are there. Note: The ports 0-1023 are called well known ports and all other ports are called Dynamic or private ports (i.e., 1024-65535) How to do quick shutdown/restart? Press Ctrl +Alt +Del, on the dialogue box you canshutdown button. While pressingshutdow n button holdCTRL key What is native mode and what is mixed mode? If some of your domain controller are Windows NT in the windows 2000 domain, that is called mixed mode. If you want to compatible with NT domain controller in windows 2000 domain you should be in mixed mode.

If all of your domain controllers are windows 2000 then you can change mixed mode to native mode. After changing to native mode you will some extra functionality to secure your windows 2000 domain.
Ex: On user account properties, click on dial-in tab then you can see some extra options. How to change mixed mode to native mode? Start Programs Administrative tools Active directory users and computers Right click on Domain Drag down to properties onGeneral tab click onChange modebutton Click Yes Note: By default windows 2000 will be loaded in mixed mode. You can change windows

2000 from mixed mode to native mode, but once if you change mixed mode to native mode you cannot change from native mode to mixed mode. Note: When you are formatting the disk, if you set the block size as default, windows

2000/XP/2003 divides the partition into 4 KB blocks. When you are creating a file or folder it allocates space to that file or folder in multiples of 4 KB. When you create a new file first time it allocates 4 KB, after 4 KB is filled up it allocates another 4 KB size, it goes on like this until the disk space is completed.
Note: With windows 2000 advanced server and data centre server we can NLB cluster 2

to 32 servers. It supports clustering up to 2 nodes. Note: With disk quotas we can track the usage of disk space for each user. We can limit each user to use certain amount of space. What is latency? The required time for all updates to be completed throughout all domain controllers on the network domain or forest. What is convergence? The state at which all domain controllers have the same replica contents of the Active Directory database. How to force KCC to generate connection object immediately without delay? Type the command repadmin /kcc. This command forces the KCC to generate connection object immediately without any delay. What are the file names that we cannot create in Windows operating system? The file names that cannot be created in Windows operating system are
C o n P r n L p t 1 , C o m 1 ,

L p t 2 , c o m 2

L p t 3 , c o m 3 ,

L p t 4 , c o m 4 ,

. . ,

L p t 9

c o m 5 , . . ,

c o m 9
N u l A u x Note: The file name clock$ cannot be created in DOS 6.22 or earlier versions of DOS. What is QoS?

QoS stands for Quality of Service. With QoS we can reserve bandwidth to certain applications. What is NAT?

NAT stands for Network Address Translation. It is a device between the Internet (i.e., public network) and our private network. On one NIC card it has valid Internet address; on the other NIC it has our private (internal) network address. NAT is a device that translates one valid public IP address to more tuple internal

private address. We load Windows 2000 RRAS (Routing and Remote Access service) service into this Windows 2000 server and we turn in to a router. Now we add NAT protocol, so now onwards our internal clients sends their traffic through this router to the internet, when it passing through this NAT server it stripes off the internal network IP address and assigns a valid public IP address. So goes out and communicates with that valid public IP address, comes back in the NAT server stripes off the public IP address and replaces private IP address, sends the traffic back to that particular client. For client perspective they dont know any thing except they are surfing internet. We load RRAS in to windows 2000 server; we turn this server as router. Now we add NAT protocol, so that now on our clients can send traffic to internet through this router , as it passes through the NAT server this server stripes off the internal IP address and replaces with a valid public IP address. Then it goes to the internet surf the internet when it comes back through the NAT server, now NAT server stripes off the valid public IP address and replaces it with its internal IP address sends the traffic to that particular client.
How to go to the NAT options? Start Programs Administrative tools RRAS IP routing NAT Note: Windows 2000 NAT can acts as a DHCP server. So it is possible to give IP address

with our NAT server. When you are doing this make sure that you dont have DHCP server in your network. If you have less clients (5 or 6) then there is no harm assigning IP address through NAT, but if your network is big then best is to use DHCP. How to enable DHCP service through NAT? Start Programs Administrative tools RRAS IP routing Right click on NAT go to properties Click on Address assignment Select the optionautom atical ly assign IP address by using DHCP Note: If dont want to use your NAT server to assign IP addresses clear the check box. Note: NAT server contains at least two NIC, because one for internal IP address and another one for external (Public IP). How to add public IP address pools to our NAT server? Start Programs Administrative tools RRAS IP routing click on NAT on Right hand side you see network cards click on external NIC (which has a valid public IP)Click on Address pool tab Click on add button Give the pool of IP addresses.
Note: By default there is no access to the internal devices on the NAT network to out side

clients. By default out side clients cannot access any thing in our Nat network. What are the limitations of Windows 2000 NAT? S u p p o r t s o n l y T C P / I P There is no support for IPX or other protocol. No support for:
S N M P L D A P C o m

( s o

w e f o r

c a n n o t o u r

d o

S N M P d e v i c e s )

m o n i t o r i n g /

N A T

D c o m V 5

K e r b e r o s

 R P C I P S e c Note: Windows 2000 NAT doesnt allow L2TP traffic, it allows only PPTP traffic. What is proxy?

NAT server helps the client to access Internet, where as proxy server does every thing for client. When a request comes from the client the proxy server surfs the internet and caches the results to its local disk, sends that result to the client. With proxy we have performance improvement, because results are cached to the local hard disk. With proxy we have security, because only one system in the internal network communicating with the Internet. Rather than allowing clients to access internet by changing IP address, the proxy server does all the surfing for clients and caches to its local disk and gives to the clients. How to install proxy server 2.0 on windows 2000? There is a patch to install proxy on windows 2000. It doesnt install natively on windows 2000. You have to install along with the windows 2000 patch. You can download this patch from Microsoft website. Or you can get this in windows proxy CD. Go to Proxy folder Click on windows proxy update click on the patch file Go through the wizard. This patch file invokes the proxy installation. To configure the proxy settings Start ProgramsMicrosoft proxy server Microsoft management console we get MMC for Internet Information Service, because our proxy server is incorporated with in IIS service. With proxy we have two types of caching. Active caching Passive caching
How to set proxy setting to the clients? Right click Internet explorer Click on connections Click on LAN settings Click use proxy server type the IP address of the proxy server and port that we are using What are the features of Microsoft proxy 2.0?

Active / Passive caching User level control IP filters Access logs Access to the internet for IPX clients What we get with RRAS? We will get with RRAS the ability to create a fully functional router with our windows 2000 server. We will get quite a bit of Remote connectivity functionality. It also can support clients dialing in through phone lines, or through the internet through a virtual private network.
What IAS does for us?

Internet Authentication server gives us RADIUS server. RADIUS stands for Remote Authentication Dial in User Server, RADIUS is an industry standard. Note: an IP address is assigned to every device that you want access on the network, and each have unique IP address. A client, server, every interface of router, printer and all

devices on the network should have an IP address to communicate in the network. Note: In classC address we have 254 clients for each subnet. In classB address we have approximately 65,534 hosts per subnet. In classA address we have millions of hosts per subnet. Numbers can range from 0-255, but x.x.x.0 is used for identifying network and x.x.x.255 is used for broadcasting, so we use the numbers from 1-254. Note: The portion between two firewalls is called screened subnet, in corporate network we call it as DMZ (De Militarized zone) Who is responsible to assign Public IP address? The responsible organization to assign IP address isIntetNIC (Internet Network Information Centre). This organization assigns public IP address to all individuals or organizations. But you can take IP address from ISPs (Internet Service Providers), because ISPs buys a pool IP addresses fromInterNIC and then sells to others. Note:Tr a c r t command traces the root (path) for which we are connecting. Pathping is combination of tracert and ping. It displays path and some other information. Note:When DNS stops you will see the event ID is 2. When DNS starts you will see the event ID is 3. When GC is enabled you will see the event ID 1119 on that particular server. When time synchronization enabled you can see event IDs 35 and 37.
How to increase or decrease tomb stone interval?

By default tomb stone interval is 60 days. You can increase or decrease the tomb stone interval. You can decrease till 2 days. You can increase as much as you want. To decrease tomb stone interval we use ADSI edit. With windows 2000 we have the advantage being able to configure our Windows 2000 server with RRAS service, and turn our windows 2000 server into a router. What are the functionalities of RRAS?
S u p p o r t s S u p p o r t s I P

I P

I P X

r o u t i n g i n t e r f a c e t y p e s

n u m e r o u s w i t h

f i l t e r s a c t i v e d i r e c t o r y s t a n d a r d r o u t i n g

I n t e g r a t e s S u p p o r t s

p r o t o c o l s

RIP version 1 or version 2 (Routing information protocol)

OSPF

IGMP ( Internet Group Management Protocol) This is for multicasting. Ex: Video conference sent to more people at a time.
What are Unicast, Multicast, and Broad cast? Unicast:

Just from one computer to one computer. Multicast:

Those who ever register for a particular multicast group to those only. Broadcast:To all the computers. Note: with RIP version 1 we cannot do CIDR /VLSM. To transfer the route table to the all routers RIP version 1 uses broad cast. With RIP version 2 we can do CIDR. To transfer the route table to all routers RIP version 2 uses multicast. Also with version 2 we have password authentication to transfer router table.
What is VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. By using public media we are establishing a private secure connection. To communicate through VPN we use PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) or L2TP (Layer2 Tunneling Protocol). Most cases we use L2TP because this is more secure. The only one case that we use PPTP is only when we are trying to use VPN through a NAT server, another reason to use is if dont have windows clients that have capability to establish L2TP VPN connection.
RADIUS RADIUS stands for Remote Authentication Dial in User Service. It is used to

authenticate remote users. Instead of authenticating users at individual RAS server, we pass a request to central server (RADIUS server), and let the authentication happen there. All RAS servers pass authentication requests to this central server (RADIUS server) that is doing the authentication. It is authenticating users based on Active Directory. It is also doing reporting, so it is doing .accounting and authentication. With RADIUS authentication will takes place at a central location. Now there is no need to maintain a local database of users for each RAS server. When ever authentication needed RAS server forwards query to RADIUS server. Accounting means we keep tracking who is connected, how long, why they failed to connect etc., the information is all centralized here. By centralizing accountability and authentication we are doing our RAS servers as dumb devices. So when RAS server fails then there is no need to worry about the 100 or 1000 accounts we manually created on the RAS server, so that we can authenticate. All you need to do is swap out this device with another and configure it to pass the authentication to RADIUS server.
Note: Terminology wise the central server is RADIUS server. Clients for RADIUS are

RAS servers. How to configure RADIUS client? RADIUS client is nothing but RAS server. In windows 2000 it is RRAS server. Go to RRAS server Start Programs Administrative tools RRAS Right click the server drag down to the properties click on security Select
Authentication provider as RADIUS server Select Accounting provideras

RADIUS server Click onconfigure (at Authentication as well as at Accounting) Add the server that is going to act as a RADIUS server hit OK Restart RRAS service.
How to create a RADIUS server?

To make server as a RADIUS server we install Internet Authentication Service. Start Settings Control panel Add/Remove programs Add/Remove windows components Select Network services click on details Select Internet Authentication service Click on OK Now you can open IAS MMC. Start Programs Administrative tools Internet Authentication Service Right click oncl ient Add new client give the names of RAS servers Select the appropriate options click finish
Note: One of thing you have to do is Register Internet Authentication service in Active

Directory. Administrative tools Internet Authentication service Right click at the root select Register service in Active Directory Now our IAS can access Active Directory so that it can authenticate users by using Active Directory our Active Directory database.
Note: Put your RAS server close to the clients. Put your RADIUS server close to the

Active Directory database. Tell me how to upgrade from 2000 to 2003? Actually it is one month procedure. I will brief you important things. Perform adprep /forestprep on the domain controller which has schema role. This is one time operation per forest. Perform adprep /domainprep on the domain controller which has IM role (You have to this in the domain for which you want up gradation) This is one time operation per domain. Now the following things are common to all domain controllers which you are upgrading from 2000 to 2003.
R e m o v e

a d m i n i s t r a t i v e t o o l s c o m m a n d a n y b y h o t E n d

t o o l s

a n d

s u p p o r t
R u n

t h e

w i n n t 3 2 . e x e f i x e s , i f t h e r e o r a r e

/ c h e c k u p g r a d e
I n s t a l l

o n l y . M i c r o s o f t ,

a n y

s u g g e s t e d

s u g g e s t e d

market administrator (if they have any own applications) T h e n u p g r a d e b y r u n n i n g t h e c o m m a n d w i n n t 3 2 . e x e f r o m w i n d o w s 2 0 0 0 3 C D ROM How do you take back ups? On Monday we will take Normal backup. Then we follow Incremental backup till Friday Note: For incremental backup more no. of tapes are required. For differential backup much space is required on the tape, but we need only two tapes to restore the data. How to know the MAC address of a Network interface card?

First type thePing IP address (IP address of the Network interface card for which you want to know the MAC address) Then it caches the MAC address. Now type Arp a This command shows the cached MAC address of that particular NIC.
Note: If you install DCPROMO in member server then it will become Domain

Controller, if you uninstall DCPROMO in Domain Controller then it will become Member server, if you are uninstalling DCPROMO on last domain controller then it will become standalone server. Note: Always file size is less than or equal to file size on disk except when file compressed. If file is compressed file size greater than file size on disk. The data replicated between domain controllers is calleddata and also called naming context. Once a domain controller has been established only changes are replicated. The replication path that Active Directory data travels through an enterprise is called the replication topology. The change will be replicated to all domain controllers in the site with in 15 minutes since there can only be three hops. Note: Each domain controller keeps a list of other known domain controllers and the last USN received from each controller. What is propagation dampening? This is used to prevent unnecessary replication by preventing updates from being sent to the servers that are sent already. To prevent this domain controller usesup-tovectornu mbers. In windows 2000 SYSVOL share is used to authenticate users. The sysvol share includes group policies information which is replicated to all local domain controllers. File replication service (FRS) is used to replicate sysvol share. The Active Directory users and computers tool is used to change the file replication service schedule. The DNS IP address and computer name is stored in Active Directory for Active Directory integrated DNS zones and replicated to all local domain controllers. DNS information is not replicated to domain controllers outside the domain.
What is the protocol that is used to replicate data?

Normally Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is used to replicate data and is always used for intrasite replication since it is required to support the FRS. RPC depends on IP (Internet Protocol) for transport.
SMTP may be used for replication between sites, where each site is separate

domain, because SMTP cant replicate the domain partition. Clustering: This is supported by only Windows 2000 advanced server and datacenter server. Cluster makes several computers appear as one to applications and clients. It supports clustering up to 2 nodes. You can cluster 2 to 32 servers. The cluster service must be installed to implement clustering.
Note: FAT16 supports partitions up to 4 GB in Windows 2000. FAT32 supports partitions up to 32 GB in Windows 2000. NTFS

supports partitions 7 MB to 2 TB. When you are formatting a partition, I f y o u e n t e r t h e s i z e l e s s G B , o n f i l e s y s t e m d i a l o g u e y o u c a n s e e F A T , FAT32, and NTFS. t h a n b o x 4

 I f

y o u e n t e r t h e b e t w e e 3 2 G B , o n f i l e s y s t e m d i y o u c a n see FAT32, and NTFS. I f y o u e n t e r t h e s i z e m G B , o n f i l e s y s t e m d i a l o y o u c a n s e e only NTFS. Note: You cannot compress or encrypt folders on FAT partition. Internet Information Service (IIS) This is used to host web sites. First install the IIS service. How to install IIS?

n 4 G B a l o g u e o r e g u e

a n d b o x 3 2

t h a n b o x

Start Settings Control panel add/remove programs Add/remove Windows components Select Application server Select Internet Information Service Click OK
How to open IIS?

Start Programs Administrative tools IIS Or Start Run type inetmgr.exe click OK
How to host a website? Start Programs Administrative tools IIS Right click on web sites Select New Select website Click Next give description of the web site Enter the IP address to use web site, enter the port number (by default port 80) Enter the path for home directory Select Read, Run Scripts, andBrow se Click finish Note: If you want you can change the port number, but generally we dont change the

port number. If you have changed the port number, then when typing URL you have to type the port number followed by the URL. Ex:www.google.co m:83 If you havent typed any thing by default it takes the port number as80.
OSI Layers & Functions Layer Protocol Responsibility

Application FTP, HTTP, Telnet, DNS, TFTP, POP3, SMTP, News Provides network services to the end users Presentation PCT, TIFF, JPEG, MIDI, MPEG Session NFS, SQL, RPC, X Windows Transport TCP, UDP Network IP, IPX, ICMP, ARP, RIP, OSPF, IGRP, EIGRP, IPSec Data-Link PPP, PPTP, L2TP, HDLC, Frame relay Physical WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service) What is WINS and what it does? WINS stands for Windows Internet Naming Service. It resolves NETBIOS names to IP addresses. WINS is used only when you need to access the NETBIOS resources. What is NetBIOS? NetBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System. It is naming interface by which client can access network resources. It manages data transfer between nodes on a network.
What is NETBIOS?

NETBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System. It is a naming interface, it is interface by which client can connect to access the lower level of the TCP/IP model to be able to communicate and access those resources. We share resources with the NETBIOS interface in Windows NT. This means that we are using NetBIOS name to connect the client to the server. What is the length of NETBIOS name? A NETBIOS name is 16 characters long. The first fifteen characters you can use for the server name, the 16th character is an identifier for what type of service it is registering. Note: Computer names are not the only names that are registered as a NetBIOS names, a domain name can be registered as NetBIOS name, any service on the network can be registered as the NetBIOS names, for example messenger service. Note: Communication in the network happen IP address to IP address, ultimately MAC address to MAC address. What is there in the network before WINS? Initially the computers in the network used to communicate with broadcast. If there is less number of hosts, then there is no problem. But when there is more number of hosts on the network more traffic will be generated. So later they invented lmhost file (LAN Manager Host file). By this they configure the lmhost file of each computer with the entries of each computers IP address and NETBIOS name. So each computer will look into its lmhost file to resolve NETBIOS names. But configuring each computer lmhost file manually is time consuming and more difficult. Later then invented centralized lmhost file. By this they configure lmhost on one server, and configure each computer to use that lmhost file. But in this you need to configure the centralized lmhost file manually. So Microsoft introduced WINS. By this you need to install WINS on a server in the network and configure the computers to use that WINS server. Thats all, you need not configure any thing on WINS server. The WINS server makes an entry automatically when a client is initialized to use WINS.
Note: A UNIX does not have ability to register into WINS database. But if a UNIX

server is there in network and you need to resolve it, then for this you need to configure manually the entry of that UNIX server in the WINS server. What is the location of lmhost file (LAN Manager Host file) in windows 2000? Winnt/system32/drivers/etc/lmhost.sam Note: Extension represents that it is a sample file. You can create lmhost file with out that extension. What are Windows 2000 WINS enhancements when compare to the previous versions?

Better Management interface Better clients

Replication can maintain persistent connections. Supports automatic partner discovery

Integrates with DNS and DHCP Supports burst mode handling Note: Windows 2000 doesnt use WINS for its naming structure. Windows 2000 uses DNS for its naming structure. The only time that you need WINS in Windows 2000 environment is when you want resolve NETBIOS based resources such as NT file server. In native Windows 2000 environment there is no need to use WINS.
How to install WINS?

Start Settings Control Panel Add/remove programs Add/remove Windows components Select Network Services Select WINS Click next insert the Windows 2000 CD click OK click on finish This is all you have to do in WINS server. Now go to each and every client and configure them to use WINS server.
How to configure a client to use WINS server? Go to the client computer Open TCP/IP properties dialogue box Click on Advanced button Click on WINS tab give the IP address of WINS server click

OK How to open WINS?

Start Programs Administrative tools WINS Or Start Run winsmgmt.msc

How to see records in WINS database? Open WINS MMC Right click on Active Registration Select either find by owneror find by name Provide appropriate details Then you can see records in

WINS database. How to configure an entry manually in WINS? Open WINS MMC Click on Active Registration Right click on right hand side Select new static entryEnter the NETBIOS name and IP address Click OK Note: You can configure as many as WINS servers as you want on the network. No matter that which client is using which WINS server, but all WINS server should be configured to replicate the data with each other. How to configure the WINS servers to replicate database with other WINS servers on the network? Open WINS MMC Right click on Replication partners Select New replication partner Give the IP address of the other WINS server click OK Note: By default WINS makes its replications partners as push/pull replication partners. Note: Group policies wont apply for Windows 95/98 clients. First create a shared folder and put installation files on that shared folder.
What is the program that is used to create .msi files when .msi files are not available?

Wininstall How to deploy software using Group Policy? Open the Group Policy Object Here you have two places to set deployment of software, one is software settings under computer configuration and another one is software settingsunder user configuration to set a package for either user or computer right click on appropriate software installation Select New Select package Select the .msi file or .zap file of an application Select eitherassign orpublish Click OK. Perform the above procedure for each application that you want to deploy through Group Policy. What is the different between deploying applications per computer or per user basis? If you deploy applications per computer that applications will be deployed to that computer when the computer has started. If you deploy applications per user basis then applications will be deployed when a users logs on.

For computers you can onlyassign packages. For users you canassign orpublish packages. What isassign of a application to a computer? For computer we can only assign, we cannot publish. For computersassign means when the computer starts that time only those applications will be installed. For assigning applications to the computers we have to have.m si files.
What is difference between assign and publish of a package to a user?

When we assign an application

Icons are placed (in start menu or on desktop), but application will be installed on demand. i.e., when you click on the icon then only application will be installed. Or application will be installed when you are trying corresponding document. Or go to Add/Remove programs add corresponding package. When we publish an application

Application will be installed when you are trying corresponding document. Or go to Add/Remove programs add corresponding package. Note: With assign we install a package in 3 ways where as with publish we can install in 2 ways. Toassign a package you have to have a.m si file. Topublish a package you have to have either.m si files or. zap files Note:Wi t h assign you will get the more functionality than publish. So when it is possible forassign, chooseassign only. Note: When ever you have a .msi file then only you can repair or upgrade that application. With .zap you cannot do them. How to install published applications through Add/Remove programs? Start Settings Control panel Add/Remove programs Click on Add New programs Click on required application Click on add button. How to upgrade an existing application in software installation folder of GPO? How to apply service packs to an existing application in software installation folder of GPO? How to delete a application from software installation folder of GPO? How to set minimum password length through Group Policy? Open GPO Click on Computer configuration Windows settings Security settings Account policies Password policies select minimum password length give the number click OK What do we call the area between two firewalls? The area between two firewalls is called DMZ (De Militarized Zone) or Screened subnet. Note: Depending on the situation, Windows 2000 can be licensed in a per-seat or perserver mode. Per-server can be changed to Per-Seat once. Per-seat is a permanent choice. When licensing Windows 2000 Server, Client Access Licenses (CALs) must also be purchased for the number of clients that will be accessing the server, regardless of the desktop operating system that is installed on the clients.
Note: For Disk Management in Windows 2003 you can use command line tool diskpart.exe (New feature in Windows 2003). For more details type diskpart.exe at command prompt and then type ?.

Note:Foreig nSecurity Princ ipals Container for security principals from trusted external domains. Administrators should not manually change the contents of this container.

Note: By default Search doesnt display hidden files. i.e., you are searching for a file which hashidden attribute, even though it is exists your search doesnt display it. Note: By default search doesnt displays hidden files. But if you want to search hidden

files also you can search by modifying the following key in registry. Mycomputer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CUR RENTVERSION\EXPLORER\ Here you can search hidden attribute. Click on this and change value from0 to1. File and folder Attributes: Write Users can copy and paste new files and folders and users can change folder attributes. However, users cannot open or browse the folder unless you grant the Read permission. Read Users can see the names of files and subfolders in a folder and view folder attributes, ownership, and permissions. Users can open and view files, but they cannot change files or add new files. List Folder Contents Users can see the names of files and subfolders in the folder. However, users cannot open files to view their contents. Read & Execute Users have the same rights as those assigned through the Read permission, as well as the ability to traverse folders. Traverse folders rights allow a user to reach files and folders located in subdirectories, even if the user does not have permission to access portions of the directory path.
What is the work FRS (File Replication Service?

It is used to replicate both the contents of the SYSVOL share between domain controllers and the contents of Distributed File System (DFS) replicas. What are the contents of SYSVOL folder? SYSVOL includes the actual SYSVOL file share, the NETLOGON file share, all Windows 9x and Windows NT System Policies, and all Win2K and later Group Policy Objects (GPOs). SYSVOL also contains all user and computer logon and logoff (and startup and shutdown) scripts. By default, SYSVOL is stored in C:\Windows\Sysvol, exists on all domain controllers, and should be identical on each domain controller in a domain.
What is Distinguished Name (DN)?

The DN identifies the domain that holds the object, as well as it provides complete path through the container hierarchy by which the object is reached. A typical DN is as follows. CN=someone, CN=Users, DC=Microsoft, DC=com.
What is Relatively Distinguished Name (RDN)?

The RDN is part of the name that is an attribute of the object it self. In the above example The RDN of thesomeo ne user object is CN=someone. The RDN of the parent object is CN=Users.
Note: The replication happen for every 5 minutes. Because if replication happen

immediately for each modification there will more traffic, so it replicates modifications collectively that are done during default interval. How do determine the Operating system type that you are working on? Right click on My computer Select properties on general tab you can see operating system type and version. ADSI edit: When you open ADSI edit you can see 3 database partitions, i.e.,domain partition, configuration partition, and schema partition. Under this you can see CN, and Distinguished names of different objects. How to cluster two computers?

First go to one of the computer that is going to cluster. Start Programs Administrative tools Cluster administrator You will getopen connection to cluster dialogue box (if you wont get this dialogue box, then click on file click on open connection) Select Create new cluster Go through the wizard. Then go to the 2nd computer Start Programs Administrative tools Cluster administrator You will getopen connection to cluster dialogue box (if you wont get this dialogue box, then click on file click on open connection) Select Add a node to the cluster Go through the wizard. Note:In 2003 Cluster administrator installed by default. In 2000 Cluster administrator installed when Cluster service component is installed. How to install cluster service component? Start Settings Control panel Add/remove programs Add/remove windows components Select Cluster services Click ok Note: By using cluster Administrator you can configure, control, manage and monitor clusters. Note: Clustering is only supported with Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition, Windows 2000 Advanced server and Data center server. A cluster consists of at least two connected physical computers, or nodes, and a shared storage device, such as RAID-5 disk set channel. The cluster provides a redundant hardware solution. Because services can run on one or both of the nodes in the cluster, users can connect to either node in the same way that they would connect to a stand-alone server; thereby providing greater user availability.
What is failover?

Cluster service monitors the services on all nodes. If a node fails, Cluster service restarts or moves the services on the failed node to a functional node. This process is calledfai lover. The ability to use multiple servers at all times reduces system costs while increasing reliability, because you do not have to dedicate servers for disaster recovery. When the failed node is restored, the resources may be returned to the original node. This process is calledfailba ck Failover and failback in a cluster can be performed manually by the people who maintain the cluster or can occur automatically when there is an unplanned hardware or application failure.
What is active/active clustering and active/passive clustering?

Active/active clustering describes clustering when both members of the cluster are online and able to accept user service requests. This is different from active/passive clustering where only one member of a cluster provides service to users at a time. Active/passive is the preferred recommended cluster configuration. In an active/passive cluster, the cluster includes at least onepassive node and one or moreact ive nodes. A node is active if it runs an instance of an Exchange virtual server (EVS). A node is passive if it does not run an instance of EVS (Exchange Virtual Server)

or any other application. A passive node is ready to take over the tasks of an active node whenever a failover occurs on any active node. Whether a node is active or passive may change over the lifetime of a node. After a failover, the passive node which now runs the failed-over EVS is an active node and the original node became

a passive node. In an active/passive cluster, the active node is actively handling requests while the passive node is standing by waiting for another node to fail. Similar to active/passive clustering, in active/active clustering, when one node fails or is taken offline, the other node in the cluster takes over for the failed node. However, because the failover causes the other node to take on additional processing operations, the overall performance of your Exchange cluster may be reduced. Note: Microsoft recommends active/passive cluster configurations over active/active configurations. Active/active clusters have more limitations than active/passive clusters. Active/active clusters have a limit of 1,900 concurrent connections to a node hosting EVSs, and they are only supported on two nodes. Note: Windows 2000 Advanced server supports 2 nodes clustering. Windows 2000 Data center server supports 4 nodes clustering. Windows 2003 Enterprise and Data center supports 8 nodes clustering.
Features of Active Directory:
Table 1. Features Enabled or Enhanced by Active Directory
Feature Enabled by Active Directory Enhanced by Active Directory IntelliMirror Remote OS Installation Services (RIS) Delegation of Administration

Multimaster Replication Global Catalog Active Directory Sites Kerberos Authentication

Domain Trusts Quality of Service (QOS) File Replication Service (FRS) Group Policy

Security Groups Domain Name System (DNS) Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Routing and Remote Access Service Virtual Private Network (VPN) IP Security (IP sec) Telephony API (TAPI)

File Services Distributed File System (DFS) Encrypting File System (EFS)

Print Services Internet Information Services (IIS) Smart Cards Terminal Services Microsoft Certificate Server Services for NetWare Search Assistant Message Queuing Services Exchange 2000

Kerberos Authentication
Kerberos is the Internet standard security protocol for handling authentication of users or system identity.

Kerberos allows UNIX clients and servers to have Active Directory accounts and obtain authentication from a domain controller.

Services can impersonate users allowing middle-tier service to authenticate to a back-end data server on behalf of the user.

Scripts

Scripts are used to run commands automatically when a user logging on. Generally in small organizations scripts are used to map drives automatically. How to create a Script? Open note pad. Write the script. Save it as *.bat file in net logon folder. Then go to the user properties for whom you want to run that particular script Click on profile type the file name in the logon script box. (Just type the file name, no need to give path of the file) Click OK. Example of a script for mapping drives. Open a note pad file. Type the following information (with in the lines) as it is. Net use p:\\liveserver\ common Net use x:\\liveserver\pd ata Save it as *.bat in net logon folder. Note: The contents of a script file are nothing but command those we use at command

prompt. A user can run these commands when he logs on and can get same functionality. But running all these commands at each log on will be difficult. So to automatically run all these commands at command prompt when ever a user logs on, we use scripts.
Note: The location of the net logon folder is My network places Entire Network Microsoft Windows Network Click on Domain name Click on Server name Select NET LOGON folder. Note:Actua ll y NET LOGON is not a folder but it is share name of the folder %systemroot%\sysvol\sysvol\domainname.com\scripts. So there is no folder called NET LOGON in the server but it is share namescripts folder. So when you save a script file it will be saved in theScript folder Note: You have store scripts in Scripts folder. So when Sysvol is replicated to all Domain

controllers in the domain these scripts are also replicated. Note:In Sysvol folder policies and Scripts are stored in respective sub folders. Suppose you have deleted Active Directory Users and Computers from Administrative tools, how to restore it? Start Programs Right click on Administrative tools Select All Users Right click in the window drag down toN ew Select short cut click on Browse My computer C:\Windows\System32 Selectdsa.m sc Click OK Give the name as
Active Directory Users and Computers Click OK. Note: You can add all snap ins in Administrative tools like this only. Note: The same procedure applied for any thing to place in start menu, just right click on

the parent folder select open all users, and create a short cut there, thats all. How to dismount a volume through command line? The command to dismount a volume through command prompt is fsutil volume dismount <volume pathname> How can I quickly find all the listening or open ports on my computer? Usually, if you want to see all the used and listening ports on your computer, you'd use the NETSTAT command. Open Command Prompt and type: C:\WINDOWS>netstat -an |find /i "listening" This command displays all listening ports. C:\netstat -an |find /i "listening" > c:\openports.txt This command redirects the output to a file openport.txt in C drive. C:\netstat -an |find /i "listening" > c:\openports.txt This command is used to see what ports your computer actually communicates with.
Note: Suppose you have some roles on a domain controller. With out transferring the

roles to other domain controller you have demoted the domain controller to a member server by the commanddcpromo . Then what will happen? When you demote a domain controller which has roles by the commanddcprom o, during the demotion the roles will be transferred to the nearest domain controller. What is the location of device manager? Right click on My computer drag down toproperties Click onhardwa re tab Click on device manager Or Start programs Administrative tools computer management device manager Or Start Run typecomp mgmt .m sc
Where do you get windows 2000 professional resource kit?

You get Windows 2000 professional resource kit along with Microsofttechnet subscription.

Note: If you want to know complete information about system hardware, software and everything regarding system use the command winmsd.exe. Note: Disk quotas cannot be applied to groups in Windows 2000/2003.

You can apply disk quotas to groups in Unix. Windows Server 2003 When you first logon to a new installation of W2k3 the default desktop is blank apart from the Recycle bin. All the rest of the icons are moved to the start menu. You can readjust the desktop to the old Windows 2000 style by the following way. Right click on Taskbar Select Properties Click onStart tab SelectClassic Right click on Start menu Select Properties Select Classic Start menu
What is Manage your Server Wizard?

When you first logon to the Windows 2003 you will get Manage Your Server Wizard. A host of configuration and management tools have been brought together in the Manage Your Server Wizard. It also includes the ability to configure a profile called a server

role. There are 11 roles. (What are they?) The roles are

File server

Print server Application server (IIS, ASP.NET)

Mail Server (POP3, SMTP) Terminal Server

Remote Access/ VPN server Domain Controller (Active Directory)

DNS Server DHCP server

Streaming Media Server WINS server There is a role called application server but this provides IIS, ASP.NET and Web development functionality only and should only be selected if these are required.
How to add a role to a server? Click on start menu Choose Manage Your Server Click on Add or Remove Role Icon Highlight the role you wish to Add Click Next Note: When adding a role, depending upon your choice, you may be prompted to provide

additional information to configure the role. You may be also prompted for the W2K3 CD if additional files are required. You can remove a role from the server using this Wizard. Click on start menu Choose Manage Your Server Click on Add or Remove Role Icon Highlight the role you wish to Add Click Next By this if a role has not been added, it can be added. If it has already been added, you can remove it.
Note: If the role you want to add or remove is not listed in Manage Your server Wizard, go to Add/Remove Programs. Note: You can change the computer name by using Manage Your server Wizard, you can also add it to aWo r k g ro u p orDomai n. Remote Administration (formerly Terminal Services in Administration Mode)

Remote Administration is now installed by default, you do not need to install Terminal Services separately as this is now solely for user Terminal Sessions. It will need to be

enabled and access granted to the appropriate users. Administrator has access by default but you must have a password set or otherwise you will not be able to logon. Remote Administation can be configured by Right Click on My computer Select properties click on Remote tab
Adding/Removing Users to Remote Administration

Click on the Select Remote user button click on Add/Remove button If adding either enter the full user name (Domain\username) or select Advanced and search for the user locally or in a domain.
Volume Shadow copy (Currently Not Recommended)

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) was specifically designed to provide point in time snapshots of volumes and eliminated problems with backups of open files. It can also provide recovery of files for end users or Administrators without having to do a restore from backup. The shadow copy process works on a schedule and is not recommended to be done more than once per hour. The default schedule is twice a day. In order for the copy to work you will need to set aside a certain amount of space on the same or another volume. Users can access the previous versions of the files through Explorer. If they have Windows 2000 then they will require the installation of a software to enable the Explorer options.
Note: In Windows 2003 you can add upto 32 servers can work in a NLB.

In Windows 2003 you can add upto 8 server to participate in a cluster. Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM)

Microsoft Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) provides resource management and enables the allocation of resources, including processor and memory resources, among multiple applications. It has uses in enabling consolidaion of applications but ensuring they are given the resources they require to run on a single server.
Note: WSRM only runs on Windows server 2003 Enterprise and Datacenter Editions.

WSRM allows administrators to control CPU and memory resource allocation to applications, services, and processors. This feature can be used to manage multiple applications on a single computer or multiple users on a computer that runs Microsoft Terminal Services. The WSRM architecture also allows administrators to manage resources on multiple systems. WSRM provides GUI as well as command line interfaces for resource management.
What is the location of the event log files in the system? The location of event viewer log files is %systemroot%\system32\config\ . Here all

event log files i.e., application log, security log, system log etc will be stored. What are the switches that are available withrepadmi n?
Repadmin /showrepl Shows replication status Repadmin /failcache Show recent failed cached replication events. Repadmin /syncall

Synchronizes replication to all domain controllers in entire

forest. If you want to synchronize to only one domain controller type the FQDN of the domain controller followed by the repadmin /syncall. Nltest Replmon Adsiedit.msc How to associate a existing subnet object with a site? Associating existing subnet with a site under the following conditions. W h e n y o u a r e r e m o v i n g t h e s i t e w h i c h t h e s u b n e t w a s a s s o c i a t e d . W h e n y o u h a v e t e m p o r a r i l y a s s o c i a t e d t h e s u b n e t w i t h a d i f f e r e n t s i t e a n d w a n t to associate it with its permanent site. Required credentials : Enterprise Admins To associate an existing subnet object with a site Start Programs Administrative tools Active Directory Sites and Services Click onsites Click onsubnet container Right click on the subnet with which you want to associate the site and click onproperties On thesite box click the site with which you want to associate the subnet, clickok.

t o

How to change the delay of initial Notification of an Intrasite Replication partner? Or How to change the default replication interval between domain controller with in a site?

The default Replication interval between the Domain controllers with in a site is 5 minutes (300 seconds). To change the interval follow the below steps Log in as Domain Administrator Start Run Regedt32.exe Navigate to
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlset\services\NTDS\ Click on Parameters Double click on Replication notify pause after modify (secs) In thebase box, click decimal In the value data box, type the number of seconds for the delayClick OK How to change the Garbage Collection Period?

The Garbage collection period determines how often expired tombstones are removed from the directory database. This period is governed by an attribute value on the Directory services object in the configuration container. The default value is 12 (hours). Decrease the period to perform garbage collection more frequently. Increase the period to perform garbage collection less frequently. Log in Enterprise Admin Start Programs Support tools Tools ADSI Edit ExpandConfiguration container Expand CN= Configuration E x p a n d CN = Services Expand CN =Windows NT Right Click CN=Directory Service click onproperties ClickGarbagecollperiod clickSet ClickOK How to change the Priority for DNS SRV Records in the Registry? To prevent Clients from sending all requests to a single domain controller, the domain controllers are assigned a priority value. Client always send requests to the domain controller that has the lowest priority value. If more than one domain controller has the same value, The clients randomly choose from the group of domain controllers with the same value. If no domain controllers with the lowest priority value are available, then the clients send requests to the domain controller with the next highest priority. A domain Controllers priority value is stored in registry. When the domain controller starts, the Net Logon service registers domain controller, the priority value is registered with the rest of its DNS information. When a client uses DNS to discover a domain controller, the priority for a given domain controller is returned to the client with the rest of the DNS

information. The client uses the priority values to help determine to which domain controller to send requests. The value is stored in theLdapSrvPr iority registry entry. The default value is0 and it can be range from0 through65535. Note: A lower value entered forLdapSrvPr iority indicates a higher priority. A domain controller with anLdapSrvPrior ity setting of 100 has a lower priority than a domain controller with a setting of 10. Therefore, client attempts to use the domain controller with the setting of 100 first.
To change priority for DNS SRV records in the registry Log on as Domain Admin Start Run Regedit HKLM\SYSTEM| CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters ClickEdit ClickNew Click DWORD value For the New value name, type LdapSrvPriority Click Enter Double click the value name that just you typed to open the Edit DWORD Value dialogue box Enter a value from 0 through 65535. The default value is 0 Choose Decimal as the Baseoption Cli ck OK Close the Registry editor. How to change the Weight for DNS Records in the Registry?

To increase client requests sent to other domain controllers relative to a particular domain controller, adjust the weight of the particular domain controller to a lower value than the others. All domain controllers starts with a default weight setting of 100 and can be configured for any value from 0 through 65535, with a data type of decimal. When you adjust the weight, consider it as a ratio of the weight of this domain controller to the weight of the other domain controllers. Because the default for the other domain controller is 100, the number you enter for weight is divided by 100 to establish the ratio. For example, if you specify a weight of 60, the ratio to the other domain controller is 60/100. The reduces to 3/5, so you can expect clients to be referred to other domain controller 5 times for every 3 times they get referred to the domain controller you are adjusting.
To change weight for DNS SRV records in the registry Log on As domain Admin Start Run regedit

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters Clickedit ClickNew Click DWORD Value For the new value name, typeLdapSrvWeight C l i c k E n te r Do u b l e c l ic k o n t h e v a l u e n a m e y o u ju s t ty p e d t o o p e n t h e E d i t DWORD Value dialogue box Enter a Value from 0 through 65535, the default value is 100. ChooseDecimal as theBase option ClickOK Close Registry editor. How to check Directory Database Integrity?

Prior to performing any other troubleshooting procedures relative to a suspected database problem, or immediately following offline defragmentation, perform a database integrity check. Restart the domain controller in Directory Services Restore Mode Open command prompt TypeNtdsutil, press enter Typefiles, press Enter typeintegr ity, press enter. Note the status that is reported when the integrity check is completed. I f t h e i n t e g r i t y c h e c k c o m p l e t e s s u c c e s s f u l l y , t y p e q a n d p r e s s E n t e r t o r e t u r n t o thentdsutil prompt. Then go for semantic database analysis. I f t h e i n t e g r i t y c h e c k r e p o r t s e r r o r s , p e r f o r m d i r e c t o r y d a t a b a s e r e c o v e r y . Semantic Database Checkup: Atntdsutil prompt type Semantic database analysis, press enter At theSema ntic checker: prompt type verbose on, and then press Enter at the semantic checker: prompt typeGo and then pressenter Complete the Database Integrity check as follows: I f n o e r r o r s a r e d e t e c t e d i n t h e s t a t u s a t t h e e n d o f t h e p r o c e d u r e , t y p e q u i t a g a i n to close Ntdsutil.exe, and then restart in normal mode. I f S y m a n t i c D a t a b a s e a n a l y s i s r e p o r t s r e c o v e r a b l e e r r o r s , t h e n p e r f o r m semantic database analysis with fixup. If errors are not recoverable, then either restore the domain controller from backup or rebuild the domain controller. How to do metadata clean up? If you give the new domain controller the same name as the failed computer, then you need perform only the first procedure to clean up metadata, which removes the NTDS settings object of the failed domain controller. If you will give the new domain controller a different name, then you need to perform all three procedures.: Clean up metadata, remove failed server object from the site and remove the computer object from the domain controller container. Log on as Enterprise admin Open command prompt Typentdsutil Type
metadata cleanup At the metadata cleanup: prompt type connect to the server servername, Whereservername is the name of the domain controller (any functional

domain controller in the same domain) from which you plan to clean up the metadata of the failed domain controller, press Enter Typequit and press Enter to return to the metadata cleanup: prompt. Type Select operation target and press Enter Type List domains and press Enter, this list the all domains in the forest with a number associated

with each. Type select domainnum b e r, wherenumber is the number corresponding to the domain in which he failed server was located, press Enter Type list sites, press enter Type select sitenum ber, wherenumber is the number of the site in which the domain controller was a member, press enter Type list servers in site press Enter Type Select servernum b e r, and then press Enter wherenum ber refers to the domain controller to be removed. Typequit press Enter, the metadata cleanup menu is displayed. Type remove selected server press Enter. At this point, Active Directory confirms that the domain controller was removed successfully. If you receive an error that the object could not be found, Active Directory might have already removed from the domain controller. Typequit, and press Enter until you return to the command prompt. If a new domain controller receives a different name than the failed domain controller, perform the following additional steps.
Note: Do not perform the additional steps if the computer will have the same name as the

failed computer,. Ensure that the hardware failure was not the cause of the problem. If the faulty hardware is not changed, then restoring through reinstallation might not help. To remove the failed server object from the sites In the Active Directory sites and services, Expand the appropriate site Delete the server object associated with the failed domain controller. To remove the failed server object from the domain controllers container In Active Directory users and computers, expand the domain controllers container Delete the computer object associated with the failed domain controller. How to view the list of preferred list of Bridgehead servers? To see all servers that have been selected as preferred bridgehead servers in a forest, you can view thebridg eheadserverlist BL attribute on the IP container object. Log in Domain Admin Open ADSI edit Expand Configuration container ExpandCN=Configuration,DC=ForestRootDomainName,CN=Sites, andC N =In t erSite Trasports. Right Click on CN=IP and then click properties In the Select a property to view box, clickbridg eheadServerListBL.

TheVa lues box displays the distinguished name for each server object that is currently selected as a preferred bridgehead server in the forest. If the value is <not set>, no preferred bridgehead servers are currently selected.
How to view replication metadata of an object?

Replication metadata identifies the history of attributes that have been replicated for a specified object. Use this procedure to identify time, dates, and Update Sequence Numbers (USNs) of attribute replications, as well as the domain controller on which replication originated.
To view replication metadata of an object

Log in as Domain Admin Open command prompt and type the following command press enter. Repadmin /showmeta distinguishedName serverName /u:DomainName\Username /pw:* Where:
D i s t i n g u i s e d n a m e i s t h e L D A P d i s t i n g u i s h e d n a m e o a n o b j e c t t h a t e x i s t s o n ServerName. D o m a i n N a m e i s t h e d o m a i n o f S e r v e r N a m e U s e r n a m e i s t h e n a m e o f a n a d m i n i s t r a t i v e a c c o u n t i n t h a t d o m a i n . Note: If you are logged on as an administrator in the domain of the destination domain controller, omit the/u: and /pw: switches. How to verify the Existence of the Operations Master? Or How do you verify whether Operations Masters working properly or not?

This test verifies that the operations masters are located and that they are online and responding. Dcdiag /s:domaincontroller /test:knowsofroleholders Dcdiag /s:domaincontroller /test:fsmocheck
How to verify that Windows Time Service is Synchronizing Time?

To verify use the following commands. Net stop w32time W32tm once test Net start w32time
How to verify Successful Replication to a Domain Controller?

Use Repadmin.exe to verify success of Replication to a specific domain controller. Run the /showreps command on the domain controller that receives replication (the destination domain controller). In the output under INBOUND NEIGHBORS, Repadmin.exe shows the LDAP distinguished name of each directory partition for which inbound directory replication has been attempted, the site and name of the source domain controller, and whether it succeeded or not, as follows.
L a s t

a t t e m p t @ Y Y Y Y - M M - D D H H : M M . S S w a s s u c c e s s f u l . L a s t a t t e m p t @ [ N e v e r } w a s s u c c e s s f u l . To verify successful replication to a domain controller Use the following command Repadmin /showreps ServerName /u:domainName\Username /pw:* Where servername is the name of the destination domain controller.
How to verify Replication is Functioning?

To check if replication is working, use the following command Dcdiag /test:replications To verify that the proper permissions are set for replication, use the following command. Dcdiag /test:netlogons
How to verify Network connectivity?

To verify network connectivity first ping to the self IP address, and then ping to the default gateway, and then ping to the remote computer. To verify that the routers on the way to the destination are functioning correctly. Use the
pathpingcommand. Pathping <IP address> What is the switch that is used to restart in Directory service Restore mode in boot.ini file?

Use the following switch along with the path. /safeboot:dsrepair (I hope this switch is available in Windows 2003 only) Suppose ipconfig /registerdns command is not working. What could be the problem? The dhcp client service might be stopped. So go to the services.msc and enable the dhcp client service. What are the functional levels we have in Windows 2003? There are 2 types of functional levels in Windows 2003. F o r e s t F u n c t i o n a l L e v e l D o m a i n F u n c t i o n a l L e v e l What is forest functional level in Windows 2003?

The functional level of Active Directory forest that has one or more domain controllers running Windows server 2003. The functional level of a forest can be raised to enable new Active Directory features that will apply to every domain controller in the forest. There are 3 forest functional level.
Windows 2000 (Supports NT, 2000, 2003 domain controllers) Windows server 2003 interim (supports only NT, 2003 domain controllers) Windows server 2003

(Supports only 2003 family domain controllers) Note: When you raise the functional level to windows server 2003 interim or windows server 2003 you will get advanced forest wide Active Directory features.
What is domain functional level in Windows 2003?

The functional level of Active Directory domain that has one or more domain controllers running Windows server 2003. The functional level of a domain can be raised to enable new Active Directory features that will apply to that domain only. There are 4 domain functional level.
Windows 2000 mixed (supports NT, 2000, 2003 domain controllers) Windows 2000 native (supports 2000, 2003 domain controllers only) Windows server 2003 interim (supports NT, 2003 domain controllers only) Windows server 2003 (Supports only 2003 domain controllers) Note: When you raise the domain functional level you will get additional features. Note: By default domain operates at the Windows 2000 mixed mode functional level. How to raise forest functional level in Windows 2003?

Start Programs Administrative tools Active Directory Domains and Trusts Right click on the Active Directory Domains and Trusts Select Raise Forest functional level Select the required forest functional level click OK Note: To perform this you must be member of Domain Admin group (in the forest root domain) or the Enterprise admin group. How to raise domain functional level in Windows 2003?

Start Programs Administrative tools Active Directory Users and computes Right click on the domain name Select Raise domain functional level Select the appropriate domain level clickOK
Note: If the functional level is windows server 2003 then you will get all the features that

are available with 2003. When Windows NT or Windows 2000 domain controllers are included in your domain or forest with domain controller running Windows server 2003, Active Directory features are limited.
Note: Once if you raise the domain or forest functional level you cannot revert back. Advantages of different functional levels: When ever you are in Windows 2000 mixed mode the advantage is you can use

Windows NT, 2000, 2003 domain controllers. The limitations are

you cannot create universal groups You cannot nest groups

You cannot convert groups (i.e., conversion between security groups and

distribution groups) some additional dial in features will be disabled you cannot rename the domain controller. SID history disabled.

About cable modems

Unlike traditional modems, which convert analog and digital signals to exchange data over a telephone line, cable modems use Internet protocol to transmit data over a cable television line.

About digital subscriber lines

Digital subscriber lines, such as ADSL or DSL, are high-speed Internet connections offered by an Internet service provider (ISP). You operate as though you are on a network and are assigned an IP address.

About ISDN lines

Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) are digital telephone services that can transmit digital and voice data at much faster speeds than traditional modems. What is Automated System Recovery? Windows server 2003 has some tools to assist the administrator in safeguarding the system against failure. One such tools is the Automated System Recovery (ASR) set that should be created after installing the server, after major changes are made and also schedule at a regular interval.
How to create an ASR set?

Logon as administrator or backup operator start Run ntbackup.exe Select

Automated System Recovery How to Recovering from a system failure with the ASR set?

Insert the original operating system Installation CD into CD drive Restart your computer boot from CD Press F6 when prompted for Automated System Recovery Insert the Floppy disks of ASR How to redirect output of a command to a text file from command prompt? To redirect output of a command to a text file use the following syntax, Commandname > filename.txt What is the command that is used to display and modify security permissions of a folder? The command isxcacls.exe. What is teaming? Teaming is the concept of combing two or more LAN cards for more speed. Forn number of LAN cards there will be only one IP address. By teaming you can increase speed. For example if you are teaming 5 LAN cards of 100 MBPS now your network speed is 500 MBPS.
Note: You can assign one IP address to n number of LAN cards and at the same you can assignn number of IP addresses to LAN card

dddd

diskpart.exeThis command is used for disk management in Windows 2003. nltest /dsgetdc:domainname

replacing domainname with the name of the domain that you are trying to log on to. This command verifies that a domain controller can be located. Nltest is included in Support Tools
How to synchronize manually a client computer to a domain controller?

Windows 2000 (Win2K) and later computers in a domain should automatically synchronize time with a domain controller. But some times you may get a situation to synchronize manually. To manually synchronize time, open a command-line window, and run
Net stop w32time

Run Run

w32time update Net start w32time

Manually verify the synchronization between the client computer and a domain controller. Also check the System event log to ensure that the W32Time service has not logged additional error messages.
Properties What are the properties of Taskbar?

We can see two tabs namely General, Advanced What are the properties of Desktop? The tabs that are there Background Screen saver Appearance

Web Effects Settings What are the properties of My computer? The tabs that are there are General Network Identification Hardware Profile Advanced
What are the properties of My Network places?

You will get one window, containing Make new connection Local Area connection Now go to the properties of Local Area Connections What are the properties of Internet Explorer?

What are the properties of a folder? What are the properties of a Drive? What are the folder options?

Double click on my computerTools folder options General View File types Offline files What are the properties of folder?

What are the properties of file?

What are the print options do u get when you give a print in word?

What are the icons available in Control Panel?

Around 27 icons are available in control panel Accessibility options, Add/Remove Hard ware, Add/Remove Programs, Administrative tools, Automatic updates. Key board, mouse, printer, Phone and modem, Scanner and cameras, Power options

System, Display, Network and dial up connections, Internet options, folder options Date and time, Sounds and multi media, Regional settings, Users and passwords, Scheduled tasks
What are the icons that dont get delete option on the Desktop (up to 2000 O. S.)?

My Computer My Network Places Recycle Bin

Note: In Windows 2003 you can delete My computer, My network places. You can also

get back them. Right click on DesktopProperties Click on Desktop tab click on customize desktop select the appropriate check boxes. Even in 2003 you cannot delete Recycle bin.

Note: You can delete any thing (even Recycle bin) from the desktop by using registry settings in 2000/2003.
What are the properties of Recycle bin?

GeneralCheck box for Display delete confirmation dialogue box Check box for whether to move a deleted to Recycle bin or directly delete Global options (applies to all drives) Individual Partitions (for each partition there exist one partition) How to configure the DNS? Open the DNS Console Then you will find there DNSServer name Forward Lookup Zone Reverse Lookup Zone Note: If you have selected create automatically zones during the setup, then it creates the root zone and domain zone under forward lookup zone. If no zones are there under forward lookup zone first create root zone then create domain zone. How to create a zone? Right click on forward lookup zonenew zone Active Directory Integrated Primary Secondary Select any one of above. Note: The option Active Directory Integrated Zone is available on when you have installed the Active Directory; if you have not installed Active Directory the option is disabled

Note: If you want to select a Secondary zone u should have already a primary zone or

Active Directory Integrated zone. DNS Name [____________________] Give the DNS name Note: If you r creating a root zone then just type in the name box . (only dot) Then clickNext
Finish

After creating the root zone then create another zone with Domain Name Right click on Forward Lookup zone New zoneActive Directory Integrated (you can choose any one)DNS Name [___]NextFinish
Creation of zone in Reverse lookup zone Right Click on Reverse lookup zoneNew zoneType Network IdNext NameFinish

After this Right Click on zoneselect Create associate Ptr (pointer) recordNextfinish What tabs are there on properties of Domain? General Start of Authority (SOA) Named servers

WINS Zone transfers

What tabs are there on properties of sever?

Interface Forwarders Advanced Root hints Logging Monitoring

Where to create the primary, secondary, Active Directory Integrated zones?

If you want to create an Active Directory integrated zone, the server must be Domain Controller. If you want to create the Primary DNS, you can create on Domain Controller or Member server. But if create on member you could not get 4 options under the domain which are meant for Active directory. You can create Secondary zone on a Member Server or on a Domain Controller. There is no difference between them.
What are the advantages with Windows 2000 DNS? Or What are the features of Widows 2000 DNS?

Nslookup (and all interavtive mode vommands) Ipvonfig /fulshdns Ipvonfig /registerdns
Note: A best strategy of using DNS in vorporate network is use two DNS servers. One is

on internal network and another one is between two firewalls. For more sevurity keep the zone as sevondary in the DNS server whivh is between firewalls. How we make more available our DNS? /y adding more tuple servers or By windows 2000 vlustering. FAQs on DNS What is the purpose of forward lookup? It resolves the Host names (Friendly Name) to IP addresses What is the purpose of Reverse lookup zone? It resolves the IP addresses to Host names
What is the difference between Primary zone and Secondary zone?

Primary zone has read and write permissions, where as Sevondary zone has read only permission. Note: Sevondary zone is used for /avkup and Load balanving. How to check whether DNS is working or not? Type the vommand nslookup at vommand prompt Then it gives the DNS server name and its IP address What is Dynamic Updates in DNS? Generally we need to vreate a host revord for newly joined vomputer (either vlient or Member server or Domain vontroller). If you enable dynamic Update option, then DNS it self vreates assoviated host revord for newly joined vomputers.
How to get Dynamic Update option? Right Clivk on any zone properties on General tab u will get Allow Dynamic

Updates? [_Yes/No/Sevure Updates]

Note: Put always Dynamic Updates YES Note: If it is Avtive Direvtory Integrated zone you will get above three options.

(i. e., iterative query is nothing but give the answer for my question, dont ask to contact that person or this person or dont say some thing else. Simply just answer to my question. Thats all)
What is Recursive query?

Now your DNS server requests the root level DNS server for specific IP address. Now DNS server says that I dont know but I can give the address other person who can help you in finding IP address.
What Type of Records do you find in DNS database?

Host Record Mail Exchange Record (MX record) Alias

How to convert a Domain Controller to a member server? Go to registryHkey_local_machine systemcontolset001 control

productoptions In that change product type from lanmanNt to serverNt Or Go to Registry then search for lanmanNt then change it as serverNt Is there any possibility to have two Primary DNS zones?

No, you should not have two primary DNS zones. Why because if u have two primary DNS zones some clients contacts first one, some clients contacts second one according to their configuration in TCP/IP properties. Then you will get problems. Actually Primary DNS zone means Single master. i.e., master is only one that is only one primary DNS zone. But you can have as many as Secondary zones. To overcome from above problem (i.e., single master problem) in Windows 2000 we have Active Directory Integrated zones, which are multi masters.
How to create a Secondary DNS zone?

To create a secondary zone you should have Primary DNS zone or Active Directory Integrated DNS zone. You have to follow the same procedure as same as primary DNS configuration. But at the time selection, select Secondary zone instead of primary zone. After that it asks the primary DNS zone address provide that address. Create forward lookup zone and reverse lookup zone as usual. Then, Right click on forward lookup zoneNew zone

Active Directory Integrated Primary Secondary Select Secondary zone (Note:-The option Active Directory Integrated Zone is available on when you have

installed the Active Directory; if you have not installed Active Directory the option is disabled.) Then it asks for Primary DNS zone details, provide those details then click on finish. Now go to Primary or Active Directory integrated zone then right click on zone name propertiesclick on zone transfer Tab Select allow zone Transfers Here you can see three options. To any server Only to servers listed on the Name servers tab Only to the following servers Select anyone and give the details of secondary zone (only in case of second and third option). Click on apply, thenOK
Note: In zone transfers tab you can find another option Notify, this is to automatically

notify secondary severs when the zone changes. Here also you can select appropriate options. Note: In secondary zone you cannot modify any information. Every one has read only permission. Whenever Primary DNS is in down click on change tab on general tab of properties, to change as primary, then it acts as primary, there you can write permission also.
What is the default time setting in primary zone to refresh, Retry, Expire intervals for secondary zone?

The default settings are To Refresh interval 10 minutes To Retry interval, 15 minutes To Expire after 1 day Suppose the Secondary zone is Expired then, how to solve the problem? First go to primary zone check primary zone is working or not

IF primary zone is working then go to secondary zone, Right click on zone name select the Transfer from Master then it automatically contacts the primary DNS, if any updates are there then it takes the updates from the Primary.
How to know whether the recent changes in Primary are updated to secondary zone or not?

Compare the Serial Number on Start of Authority tab in both secondary on primary DNS zone properties. If both are same then recent updates are made to secondary zone. If not (i.e., secondary is less then primary) click on Transfer from Master How to change form Primary to Secondary or Secondary to primary or Active directory integrated to secondary or primary like that (simply one type of zone to another type of zone)?

Go to the properties of the zone click on general tab, there you can find the option called Change click on it then select appropriate option. Then click on OK
How to pause the zone?

Go to properties of a zone click on General tabclick on Pause button.

What system is used before DNS to resolve this host names? How to know whether a DNS name is exist or not in the internet? CBT nuggets

Iterative query The query that has been sent to my DNS server from my computer. Recursive query The query that has been sent to other DNS servers to know the IP address of a particular server from my DNS server. When you install a Windows 2000 DNS server, you immediately get all of the records of root DNS servers. So every windows 2000 DNS server installed on Internet has pre configured with the address of root DNS servers. So every single DNS server in the Internet can get root servers.
DNS requirements: First and foremost has to support SRV records (SRV record identifies a particular

service in a particular computer) (in windows 2000 we use SRV records to identify Domain controllers, identifying Global Catalogue, etc

How to install DHCP?

We can install DHCP by two ways 1) While installing Operating System While installing Operating System, It asks at Network Settings whether u want Typical settings or Custom Settings Select Custom SettingsSelect Network Servicesclick on Details Select DHCPclick onOK 2) Independently ProgramsSettingsControl PanelAdd/Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows ComponentsSelect the Network ServicesClick onpropertiesSelect DHCPOK (During the installation it asks for CD)
Note: When you have installed DHCP a icon will appear in Administrative Tools

(DHCP)

OK Now you will get DHCP Servername.domain.com [IP address] Note: Some time the window comes automatically with creating the Add Server. Such cases check the IP address whether it is correct or not. If it is wrong delete it and recreate it. Now you have DHCP server. Now you have to authorize the DHCP Server to provide IP addresses to the clients.
Who can authorize DHCP server in the entire domain?

An Enterprise administrator can only authorize DHCP server. No other person in the domain can authorize the DHCP server. Even if u r Administrator without enterprise administrator privileges you cant authorize the DHCP server.
Note: If it is not authorized a red symbol (down red arrow) will appear, if u authorize it

then a green up arrow will appear. How to authorize the DHCP server? Login with Enterprise administrator privileges. Right Click on Servername.Domainname.com Click on Authorize Then it will be authorized (Indication is you will get green up arrow) Now you have to create scope. Note: A scope is range of IP addresses that you want to allocate to the clients. How to create a scope? Right click on servername.Domainname.com Click on New Scope. Click on Next. Type Name [______________________] Description [_______________________] Note: Generally we give the name as Network ID. Click on Next. Start IP address [______________________] End IP address [______________________] (Provide the starting IP address and End IP address

How to uninstall DHCP?

ProgramsSettingsControl PanelAdd/Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows ComponentsSelect the Network ServicesClick on propertiesDeselect DHCPOK
How to open DHCP? StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDHCP Or StartRundhcpmgmt.msc How to configure DHCP?

Open DHCP console by typing dhcpmgmt.msc at run prompt Now you will find in DHCP console DHCP Right Click on DHCPClick on Add Server Then you will get a window This server [________________] BROWSE Select the DHCP server

Click on Next Note: If you want to any exclusion you can do. Starting IP address [______________] Ending IP address [__________] Add Remove What is the default lease duration, minimum lease duration and maximum lease duration? By default any system will get 8 lease days to use IP address. Note: You can increase or decrease the Lease duration, You have assign at least minimum duration of 1 second and you can assign Maximum duration of 999 days 23 hours 59 minutes. Note: If you havent log on for 50% of the duration continuously the IP address will be released. ClickNe xt Now you will get a Window asking whether you want to configure the options (DNS, WINS, and Router etc.) You can configure the options now itself or you can authorize after completion of this. Select any one then clickNext. ClickFin ish. Note: If u have selected NO in the above window you can configure above things anytime like below Click on server optionconfigure options Select the required ones Enter server name, IP address Click OK Now you have to activate the Scope Right click on Scope Click on Activate Note: You can reserve IP address for specific Clients. Or You can Exclude IP address (without allocation) for future purpose. The above things all are in server. Now you have to configure Client system. Go to Client System Right click on My Network Placesdrag down to properties Right click on Local

area connectiondrag down to properties select TCP/IP click on properties Now you will get one window containing TCP/IP properties In that select assign IP address automatically and select assign DNS address automatically Click on More delete the DNS suffix if anything is there. ClickOK Then the client takes IP address automatically from DHCP server. The DHCP server also provides DNS, WINS, ROUTER addresses also. Note: You must assign a static IP address for DHCP server. (Generally in real time people will assign static IP address not only for DHCP server but also for all servers. Because if you assign automatic IP Address if DHCP is down then all servers will not function properly.)
Note: The DHCP server assigns IP address to the clients. But apart from that it also

provides DNS address, default gateway, WINS address and so on, which are configured in DHCP server. What is the protocol that is used for DHCP process? Bootp Why DHCP Relay Agent is used? To extend DHCP services beyond routers (IF bootp is not installed in router) What are the commands used for DHCP? Ipconfig Ipconfig /all Ipconfig /release Ipconfig /renew

General Questions What is the family of Windows 2000?

Windows 2000 Professional (Desktop Operating System) Windows 2000 Server (Server Operating System) Windows 2000 Advanced Server (Server Operating System) Windows 2000 Data center Server (Server Operating System) What is the family of Windows NT? Windows NT workstation (Desktop) Windows NT 4.0 server (Server) Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise server (Server) What is the family of Widows 2003 family?

 Windows Server 2003, Web Edition Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Windows Server 2003, Data center Edition
What is the Difference between Desktop and Server?

In desktop system we cannot load Active directory. In server system we can load Active directory. So that we can create a Domain in server, advanced server, Data center server. In professional there is no fault tolerance on the hard drive (i.e., disk mirroring, RAID 5). In server we have fault tolerance on the hard drive.
What is the difference between windows 2000 server and Windows 2000 advanced server, Data center server?

In Windows 2000 server we dont have Clustering, Network load balancing. Where as in Windows 2000 advanced server and in Data center server we have Clustering and Network load balancing. In 2000-Advanced server and Data center server we have more RAM and more Processors.