Windows Server Infrastructure - Basics

Question: What is an Organizational Unit (OU) and why would you create additional OUs?
Show Answer
An OU is an object in a domain that you can use to store user objects, computer objects, group objects, and other AD DS objects. You typically create additional OUs when you want to delegate control to a specific group or link a Group Policy Object to the OU.


Question: What are the five flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles and where do they exist?
Show Answer
FSMO roles are special roles within a forest and domain. There are two FSMO roles at the forest level: Schema Master and Domain Naming Master. There are three FSMO roles at the domain level: RID Master, Infrastructure Master, and PDC Emulator.

Question: What is a trust relationship and which type of trust relationship is used to improve user logon times between two domains in a forest?
Show Answer
Trust relationships are authentication pipelines between different domains. Shortcut trusts can be used to improve user logon times between two domains in an Active Directory forest.


Question: Which optional AD DS feature enables you to quickly restore objects that have been deleted?
Show Answer
The Active Directory Recycle Bin, an optional feature of AD DS, provides a simplified process for restoring deleted objects.

Question: What is Server Core and what are some advantages of using it?
Show Answer
Server Core is the default Windows Server installation option. Server Core does not have a graphical user interface. Server Core installs fewer components so fewer updates are required. Server Core removes unneeded files so disk space and memory requirements are less. Lastly, fewer files and components means less opportunity for security threats.

Question: Which feature can you use to define different password policies and account lockout settings in a domain?
Show Answer
Fine-grained password policies let you specify different password policies and account lockout policies for different groups of users. For example, executives, administrators, service accounts, or regular users.

Question: Aziz has reported he is unable to sign in to the domain. The error message is, “The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.” What is likely the problem and how should you fix it?
Show Answer
Most likely the problem is a broken secure channel. You can use Active Directory Users and Computers or PowerShell to reset the computer account and rejoin the computer to the domain.

Question: What is the global catalog and when is it used?
Show Answer
The global catalog is a central directory of every object in the forest. The global catalog is commonly used to provide Exchange email account information and a user’s Universal group memberships.

Question: What is the global catalog and when is it used?
Show Answer
The global catalog is a central directory of every object in the forest. The global catalog is commonly used to provide Exchange email account information and a user’s Universal group memberships.

Question: What is an AD DS site and when should you consider creating a site?
Show Answer
An AD DS site represents the physical structure, or topology, of your network. There are several reasons to consider creating additional sites such as: number of users at a location, slow links between locations, service localization, and AD DS database replication.


Question: When should you use an authoritative restore?
Show Answer
An authoritative restore is necessary when a known good copy of AD DS has been restored that contains objects that must override the existing state of other objects in the AD DS database.

Question: How are Group Policy settings and a Group Policy preferences different?
Show Answer
Group policy settings and group policy preferences are different. Preferences are not enforced, can reapply automatically, and can use item-level targeting.

Windows Server Infrastructure - Basics

Question: What is an Organizational Unit (OU) and why would you create additional OUs?
Show Answer
An OU is an object in a domain that you can use to store user objects, computer objects, group objects, and other AD DS objects. You typically create additional OUs when you want to delegate control to a specific group or link a Group Policy Object to the OU.


Question: What are the five flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles and where do they exist?
Show Answer
FSMO roles are special roles within a forest and domain. There are two FSMO roles at the forest level: Schema Master and Domain Naming Master. There are three FSMO roles at the domain level: RID Master, Infrastructure Master, and PDC Emulator.

Question: What is a trust relationship and which type of trust relationship is used to improve user logon times between two domains in a forest?
Show Answer
Trust relationships are authentication pipelines between different domains. Shortcut trusts can be used to improve user logon times between two domains in an Active Directory forest.


Question: Which optional AD DS feature enables you to quickly restore objects that have been deleted?
Show Answer
The Active Directory Recycle Bin, an optional feature of AD DS, provides a simplified process for restoring deleted objects.

Question: What is Server Core and what are some advantages of using it?
Show Answer
Server Core is the default Windows Server installation option. Server Core does not have a graphical user interface. Server Core installs fewer components so fewer updates are required. Server Core removes unneeded files so disk space and memory requirements are less. Lastly, fewer files and components means less opportunity for security threats.

Question: Which feature can you use to define different password policies and account lockout settings in a domain?
Show Answer
Fine-grained password policies let you specify different password policies and account lockout policies for different groups of users. For example, executives, administrators, service accounts, or regular users.

Question: Aziz has reported he is unable to sign in to the domain. The error message is, “The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.” What is likely the problem and how should you fix it?
Show Answer
Most likely the problem is a broken secure channel. You can use Active Directory Users and Computers or PowerShell to reset the computer account and rejoin the computer to the domain.

Question: What is the global catalog and when is it used?
Show Answer
The global catalog is a central directory of every object in the forest. The global catalog is commonly used to provide Exchange email account information and a user’s Universal group memberships.

Question: What is the global catalog and when is it used?
Show Answer
The global catalog is a central directory of every object in the forest. The global catalog is commonly used to provide Exchange email account information and a user’s Universal group memberships.

Question: What is an AD DS site and when should you consider creating a site?
Show Answer
An AD DS site represents the physical structure, or topology, of your network. There are several reasons to consider creating additional sites such as: number of users at a location, slow links between locations, service localization, and AD DS database replication.

 
Question: When should you use an authoritative restore?
Show Answer
An authoritative restore is necessary when a known good copy of AD DS has been restored that contains objects that must override the existing state of other objects in the AD DS database.

Question: How are Group Policy settings and a Group Policy preferences different?
Show Answer
Group policy settings and group policy preferences are different. Preferences are not enforced, can reapply automatically, and can use item-level targeting.

Windows Server: Advantage of Server Core

Advantages of Server Core

• There are fewer features so fewer software updates are required. This means less downtime, less administrative overhead, and reduced restart requirements.
• By removing files that are not needed disk space and memory requirements are reduced. This means when virtualized you can deploy more servers on the same host.
• Since fewer files are installed there is less opportunity for security threats. Also, without a GUI, it limits a local user’s ability to interact with it.

PowerShell - Switch Between Server Core and GUI

Switching Between Server Core and the GUI

In this Try It you will practice using Windows PowerShell to switch between Server Core and Server with GUI.

1. Login to LON-SVR1 as Adatum\Administrator with password Pa$$w0rd.
2. At a PowerShell prompt type: Get-WindowsFeature. Try to begin using the Tab key to autocomplete commands.
3. Review the User Interfaces and Infrastructure option. Notice the Server-Gui-Shell and Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra features are installed. This is a Server with GUI computer.
4. To remove the GUI features type: Uninstall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
5. Wait for the features to be uninstalled and restart the server: Restart-Computer [It can take between 10 to 15 minutes to complete this.]
6. Login to LON-SVR1 as Administrator with the password Pa$$w0rd.
7. You are now presented with only a command window. This is a Server Core machine.
8. Type powershell. The PS prompt appears.
9. To change to the Server with GUI option type: Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
10. Notice the Warning message that you must restart this computer to finish the installation process.
11. After rebooting verify Server Manager is available.

Experiment as you like with adding only the Minimal Server Interface (Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra) feature. This feature provides an alternative feature set between Server Core and Server with GUI.

Switch Server Core and Server with a GUI

Switching between Server Core and Server with a GUI

How you administer your servers can depend on whether you have Server Core or Server with GUI installed. But, it is easy to switch between the two with Windows PowerShell.

Reasons to switch between Server Core and Server with a GUI

There are several scenarios where you might want to switch between administration modes.

• You need to troubleshoot or make changes that are not possible at a command prompt or with the remote GUI.
• You are not comfortable with the command line tools or prefer to use the Server Manager tools for configuring a server.
• You have finished configuring the server with the GUI and now will only make minor changes which can be made remotely.
• You would like to reduce the number of files and image size of the server.

Switching Between Server Core and the GUI

In this Try It you will practice using Windows PowerShell to switch between Server Core and Server with GUI.

1. Login to your domain as Administrator with password Pa$$w0rd.
2. At a PowerShell prompt type: Get-WindowsFeature. Try to begin using the Tab key to autocomplete commands.
3. Review the User Interfaces and Infrastructure option. Notice the Server-Gui-Shell and Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra features are installed. This is a Server with GUI computer.
4. To remove the GUI features type: Uninstall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
5. Wait for the features to be uninstalled and restart the server: Restart-Computer [It can take between 10 to 15 minutes to complete this.]
6. Login to SERVER as Administrator with the password Pa$$w0rd.
7. You are now presented with only a command window. This is a Server Core machine.
8. Type powershell. The PS prompt appears.
9. To change to the Server with GUI option type: Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell, Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra
10. Notice the Warning message that you must restart this computer to finish the installation process.
11. After rebooting verify Server Manager is available.

Experiment as you like with adding only the Minimal Server Interface (Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra) feature. This feature provides an alternative feature set between Server Core and Server with GUI.

Windows Server: Advantage of Server Core

Advantages of Server Core

• There are fewer features so fewer software updates are required. This means less downtime, less administrative overhead, and reduced restart requirements.
• By removing files that are not needed disk space and memory requirements are reduced. This means when virtualized you can deploy more servers on the same host.
• Since fewer files are installed there is less opportunity for security threats. Also, without a GUI, it limits a local user’s ability to interact with it.