SQL Server DBA (Database Administration) - Interview Questions & Answers

1-How To Concatenate Two Binary Strings Together?

SQL Server 2005 allows to concatenate two binary strings into a single string with the (+) operator. The following tutorial exercise shows you some binary string concatenation examples: -- Concatenating two binary string literals SELECT 0x57656C636F6D6520746F20 + 0x46594963656E7465722E636F6D; GO 0x57656C636F6D6520746F2046594963656E7465722E636F6D -- Watch out: This is not a binary string concatenation SELECT '0x57656C636F6D6520746F20' + '0x46594963656E7465722E636F6D'; GO 0x57656C636F6D6520746F200x46594963656E7465722E636F6D -- Concatenating two binary strings SELECT CONVERT(VARBINARY(40),'Welcome to ') + CONVERT(VARBINARY(40),'GlobalGuideLine.com'); GO 0x57656C636F6D6520746F2046594963656E7465722E636F6D -- Binary strings can not be concatenated with character strings SELECT 'Welcome to ' + 0x46594963656E7465722E636F6D; GO Msg 402, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 The data types varchar and varbinary are incompatible in the add operator. 2-How To Locate and Take Substrings with CHARINDEX() and SUBSTRING() Functions? Transact-SQL is not a language designed for manipulating strings, but it does have two simple functions to locate and take substrings: CHARINDEX() and SUBSTRING(). The tutorial exercise below assumes two given strings: 'Pages: 18' and 'Words: 3240'. The objective is to calculate the number of words per page. Read the script below to see how this is done by using CHARINDEX() and SUBSTRING() functions:  DECLARE @sPages VARCHAR(40), @sWords VARCHAR(40);  SET @sPages = 'Pages: 18';  SET @sWords = 'Words: 3240';  SET @sPages = SUBSTRING(@sPages, CHARINDEX(':', @sPages)+1, 20);  SET @sWords = SUBSTRING(@sWords, CHARINDEX(':', @sWords)+1, 20);  PRINT 'Number of words per page: '  + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), CONVERT(INT, @sWords)/CONVERT(INT, @sPages));  GO  Number of words per page: 180  If you are a PHP developer, you can get this done in a much quick way. 3- How To Insert New Line Characters into Strings? If you want to break a string into multiple lines, you need to insert new line characters into the string. With some client tools like SQL Server Management Studio, it is not so easy to insert a new line character. One work around is to use the CHAR(int) function to generated new line character and other special characters with their code values: * CHAR(9) - Generates the tab character. * CHAR(10) - Generates the line feed (new line) character. * CHAR(13) - Generates the carriage return character. The tutorial examples below gives you a good example PRINT 'Welcome to '+CHAR(10)+'GlobalGuideLine.com'; PRINT CHAR(10); PRINT 'Current date and time is ' +CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE()); GO 4- What Are the Character String Functions Supported by SQL Server 2005? SQL Server 2005 supports 23 character string functions: * ASCII(char) - Returning the code value of a non-Unicode character. * CHAR(int) - Returning the non-Unicode character of a code value. * CHARINDEX(word, string, start_location) - Returning the location of the searched "word" in a string. * DIFFERENCE(string1, string2) - Returning an integer value that indicates the difference between the SOUNDEX values of two strings. * LEFT(string, length) - Returning a substring of "length" character from the left hand side. * LEN(string) - Returning the number of characters in the string. * LOWER(string) - Returning the same string with all upper case characters converted to lower case. * LTRIM(string) - Returning the same string with leading spaces removed. * NCHAR(int) - Returning the Unicode character of a code value. * PATINDEX(pattern, string) - Returning the location of the "pattern" in a string. * QUOTENAME(string, quote) - Returning the same string enclosed in "quote". * REPLICATE(string, number) - Returning the same string repeated "number" of times. * REVERSE(string) - Returning the same string with all character positions reversed. * RIGHT(string, length) - Returning a substring of "length" characters from the right hand side. * RTRIM(string) - Returning the same string with trailing spaces removed. * SOUNDEX(string) - Returning a four-character (SOUNDEX) code to evaluate the similarity of two strings. * SPACE(length) - Returning a string of "length" space characters. * STR(number, precision, scale) - Returning a string representation of a numeric value. * STUFF(string, start, length, new) - Returning the same string with one part being replaced. * SUBSTRING(string, start, length) - Returning a substring. * UNICODE(nchar) - Returning the code value of a Unicode character. * UPPER(string) - Returning the same string with all lower case characters converted to upper case. 5- How To Convert a Unicode Strings to Non-Unicode Strings? Since Unicode character set is different than code page based (non-Unicode) character set, converting Unicode strings to non-Unicode strings may result in wrong characters or missing characters. So you should avoid converting Unicode strings to non-Unicode strings. If you really want to, there are 3 ways to convert a Unicode string to a non-Unicode string: * Implicit conversion by assignment operations - When a Unicode string is assigned to a variable, a column, or a parameter of a non-Unicode string data type, SQL Server will implicitly convert the Unicode string to a non-Unicode string. * Explicit conversion using the CAST() function - A Unicode string can be explicitly converted to non-Unicode string using the CAST(Unicode_string AS VARCHAR(size)) function. * Explicit conversion using the CONVERT() function - A Unicode string can be explicitly converted to non-Unicode string using the CONVERT(VARCHAR(size), Unicdoe_string) function. Some numeric data type conversion examples are provided in the tutorial exercise below: -- Implicit conversion by an assignment operation DECLARE @regcode VARCHAR(40); SET @regcode = N'Some Unicode characters: ' + NCHAR(9733)+NCHAR(9734)+NCHAR(9792)+NCHAR(9794); SELECT @regcode; GO Some Unicode characters: ???? -- Explicit conversion by CAST() SELECT CAST(N'Some Unicode characters: ' + NCHAR(9733)+NCHAR(9734)+NCHAR(9792)+NCHAR(9794) AS VARCHAR(40)); GO Some Unicode characters: ???? -- Explicit conversion by CONVERT() SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(40), N'Some Unicode characters: ' + NCHAR(9733)+NCHAR(9734)+NCHAR(9792)+NCHAR(9794)); GO Some Unicode characters: ???? 6- What Happens When Unicode Strings Concatenate with Non-Unicode Strings? If a Unicode string NVARCHAR is concatenated with a non-Unicode string VARCHAR, SQL Server will implicitly convert the non-Unicode string to Unicode string for concatenation. DECLARE @regcode VARCHAR(40); DECLARE @unicode NVARCHAR(40); SET @regcode = 'Some Unicode characters: ' SET @unicode = NCHAR(9733)+NCHAR(9734)+NCHAR(9792) +NCHAR(9794); SELECT @regcode + @unicode; SELECT DATALENGTH(@regcode); SELECT DATALENGTH(@unicode); SELECT DATALENGTH(@regcode + @unicode); Some Unicode characters: ???? 25 8 58 Note that the non-Unicode string @regcode has been converted to a Unicode string. The number of bytes of @regcode changed from 25 to 50. With 8 bytes from @unicode, the number of bytes of the concatenated string becomes 58. 7- How To Concatenate Two Character Strings Together? Concatenating two character strings together is most commonly used string operation. SQL Server 2005 allows to concatenate two character strings into a single string with the (+) operator. The following tutorial exercise shows you some string concatenation examples: DECLARE @site VARCHAR(40); SET @site = 'GlobalGuideLine.com'; SELECT 'Welcome to '+@site; SELECT 'Current date and time is ' +CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE()); GO Welcome to GlobalGuideLine.com Current date and time is May 19 2007 5:18PM DECLARE @start INT, @end INT, @total INT; SET @start = 21; SET @end = 30; SET @total = 728; SELECT 'Search result ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),@start) + ' - ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),@end) + ' of ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),@total); GO Search result 21 - 30 of 728 8- How To Generate Random Numbers with the RAND() Function in MS SQL Server? Random numbers are very useful for generating test data, passwords, or other security related data. SQL Server 2005 offers you the random number generator function RAND in two format: * RAND(seed) - Starting a new sequence of random numbers based on the given integer "seed" and returning the first random number in FLOAT(53) from the sequence. * RAND() - Returning the next random number in FLOAT(53) from the current sequence. If there has been no current sequence, SQL Server will start a new sequence with a random "seed". Note that calling RAND(seed) with the same seed will start the same sequence and return the same number. To avoid this repeating pattern, you should always call RAND() without any seed and let the server to randomly pickup a sequence. The tutorial exercise below shows some good examples on how to generate random numbers: SELECT RAND(100), RAND(), RAND(); -- new sequence SELECT RAND(100), RAND(), RAND(); -- same sequence again SELECT RAND(), RAND(), RAND(); SELECT RAND(), RAND(), RAND(); GO 0.715436657367485 0.28463380767982 0.0131039082850364 0.715436657367485 0.28463380767982 0.0131039082850364 0.28769876521071 0.100505471175005 0.292787286982702 0.868829058415689 0.370366365964781 0.58334760467751 -- Random integer between 0 and 100 SELECT FLOOR(100*RAND()); SELECT FLOOR(100*RAND()); SELECT FLOOR(100*RAND()); SELECT FLOOR(100*RAND()); GO 68 29 20 82 9- How To Round a Numeric Value To a Specific Precision? Sometimes you need to round a numeric value to a specific precision. For example, you may want to round values in your financial statement to the precision of 1000.00. This can be done by the ROUND() function with the following syntax: ROUND(value, precision, type) value: The input value to be rounded. precision: The location of the precision digit relative to the decimal point. type: 0 - Round to nearest value; 1 - Truncate to a lower value. The tutorial exercise below gives some good examples of how to use the ROUND() function: SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, 0, 0); SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, -3, 0); SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, -4, 0); SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, 3, 0); SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, 3, 1); GO 1235.0000 1000.0000 0.0000 1234.5680 1234.5670 10- How To Convert Numeric Values to Integers in MS SQL Server? Sometimes you need to round a numeric value into an integer. SQL Server 2005 offers you a number of ways to do this: * FLOOR(value) - Returning the largest integer less than or equal to the input value. The returning data type is the same as the input value. * CEILLING(value) - Returning the smallest integer greater than or equal to the input value. The returning data type is the same as the input value. * ROUND(value, 0, 0) - Returning the integer most close to the input value. The returning data type is the same as the input value. * CAST(value AS INT) - Returning the largest integer less than or equal to the input value. The returning data type is INT. * CONVERT(INT, value) - Returning the largest integer less than or equal to the input value. The returning data type is INT. The tutorial exercise below gives some good examples of converting numeric values to integers: SELECT FLOOR(1234.5678); SELECT CEILING(1234.5678); SELECT ROUND(1234.5678, 0, 0); SELECT CAST(1234.5678 AS INT); SELECT CONVERT(INT, 1234.5678); GO 1234 1235 1235.0000 1234 1234

Windows Server Support Interview Questions and Answers (L2) Part 1

What is the difference between Authorized DHCP and Non Authorized DHCP? 
To avoid problems in the network causing by mis-configured DHCP servers, server in windows 2000 must be validate by AD before starting service to clients. If an authorized DHCP finds any DHCP server in the network it stop serving the clients 

Difference between inter-site and intra-site replication. Protocols using for replication. 
Intra-site replication can be done between the domain controllers in the same site. Inter-site replication can be done between two different sites over WAN links
BHS (Bridge Head Servers) is responsible for initiating replication between the sites. Inter-site replication can be done B/w BHS in one site and BHS in another site.
We can use RPC over IP or SMTP as a replication protocols where as Domain partition is not possible to replicate using SMTP 

How to monitor replication 
We can user Replmon tool from support tools 

Brief explanation of RAID Levels 
Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 offer two types of disk storage: basic and dynamic. 

Basic Disk Storage
Basic storage uses normal partition tables supported by MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. A disk initialized for basic storage is called a basic disk. A basic disk contains basic volumes, such as primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Additionally, basic volumes include multidisk volumes that are created by using Windows NT 4.0 or earlier, such as volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, and stripe sets with parity. Windows XP does not support these multidisk basic volumes. Any volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, or stripe sets with parity must be backed up and deleted or converted to dynamic disks before you install Windows XP Professional. 

Dynamic Disk Storage
Dynamic storage is supported in Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk. A dynamic disk contains dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes. With dynamic storage, you can perform disk and volume management without the need to restart Windows. 

Note: Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers or on Windows XP Home Edition-based computers. 
You cannot create mirrored volumes or RAID-5 volumes on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition-based computers. However, you can use a Windows XP Professional-based computer to create a mirrored or RAID-5 volume on remote computers that are running Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, or Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, or the Standard, Enterprise and Data Center versions of Windows Server 2003.

Storage types are separate from the file system type. A basic or dynamic disk can contain any combination of FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions or volumes. 

A disk system can contain any combination of storage types. However, all volumes on the same disk must use the same storage type. 

To convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk: 

Use the Disk Management snap-in in Windows XP/2000/2003 to convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk. To do this, follow these steps: 
1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. 
2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 
3. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. You can also right-click My Computer and choose Manage if you have My Computer displayed on your desktop. 
4. In the left pane, click Disk Management. 
5. In the lower-right pane, right-click the basic disk that you want to convert, and then click Convert to Dynamic Disk. You must right-click the gray area that contains the disk title on the left side of the Details pane. 
6. Select the check box that is next to the disk that you want to convert (if it is not already selected), and then click OK. 
7. Click Details if you want to view the list of volumes in the disk. Click Convert. 
8. Click Yes when you are prompted to convert the disk, and then click OK. 

Warning: After you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, local access to the dynamic disk is limited to Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. Additionally, after you convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk, the dynamic volumes cannot be changed back to partitions. You must first delete all dynamic volumes on the disk and then convert the dynamic disk back to a basic disk. If you want to keep your data, you must first back up the data or move it to another volume. 

Dynamic Storage Terms
A volume is a storage unit made from free space on one or more disks. It can be formatted with a file system and assigned a drive letter. Volumes on dynamic disks can have any of the following layouts: simple, spanned, mirrored, striped, or RAID-5. 
A simple volume uses free space from a single disk. It can be a single region on a disk or consist of multiple, concatenated regions. A simple volume can be extended within the same disk or onto additional disks. If a simple volume is extended across multiple disks, it becomes a spanned volume. 
A spanned volume is created from free disk space that is linked together from multiple disks. You can extend a spanned volume onto a maximum of 32 disks. A spanned volume cannot be mirrored and is not fault-tolerant. 
A striped volume is a volume whose data is interleaved across two or more physical disks. The data on this type of volume is allocated alternately and evenly to each of the physical disks. A striped volume cannot be mirrored or extended and is not fault-tolerant. Striping is also known as RAID-0. 
A mirrored volume is a fault-tolerant volume whose data is duplicated on two physical disks. All of the data on one volume is copied to another disk to provide data redundancy. If one of the disks fails, the data can still be accessed from the remaining disk. A mirrored volume cannot be extended. Mirroring is also known as RAID-1. 
A RAID-5 volume is a fault-tolerant volume whose data is striped across an array of three or more disks. Parity (a calculated value that can be used to reconstruct data after a failure) is also striped across the disk array. If a physical disk fails, the portion of the RAID-5 volume that was on that failed disk can be re-created from the remaining data and the parity. A RAID-5 volume cannot be mirrored or extended. 
The system volume contains the hardware-specific files that are needed to load Windows (for example, Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com). The system volume can be, but does not have to be, the same as the boot volume. 
The boot volume contains the Windows operating system files that are located in the %Systemroot% and %Systemroot%\System32 folders. The boot volume can be, but does not have to be, the same as the system volume. 

RAID 0 – Striping

RAID 1- Mirroring (minimum 2 HDD required)

RAID 5 – Striping With Parity (Minimum 3 HDD required)

RAID levels 1 and 5 only gives redundancy 

What are the different backup strategies are available 

Normal Backup
Incremental Backup
Differential Backup
Daily Backup
Copy Backup 

What is a global catalog 
Global catalog is a role, which maintains Indexes about objects. It contains full information of the objects in its own domain and partial information of the objects in other domains. Universal Group membership information will be stored in global catalog servers and replicate to all GC’s in the forest. 

What is Active Directory and what is the use of it 
Active directory is a directory service, which maintains the relation ship between resources and enabling them to work together. Because of AD hierarchal structure windows 2000 is more scalable, reliable. Active directory is derived from X.500 standards where information is stored is hierarchal tree like structure. Active directory depends on two Internet standards one is DNS and other is LDAP. Information in Active directory can be queried by using LDAP protocol 

What is the physical and logical structure of AD? 
Active directory physical structure is a hierarchal structure which fallows Forests—Trees—Domains—Child Domains—Grand Child—etc

Active directory is logically divided into 3 partitions 

1.Configuration partition 2. Schema Partition 3. Domain partition 4. Application Partition (only in windows 2003 not available in windows 2000)

Out of these Configuration, Schema partitions can be replicated between the domain controllers in the in the entire forest. Where as Domain partition can be replicated between the domain controllers in the same domain 

What is the process of user authentication (Kerberos V5) in windows 2000? 
After giving logon credentials an encryption key will be generated which is used to encrypt the time stamp of the client machine. User name and encrypted timestamp information will be provided to domain controller for authentication. Then Domain controller based on the password information stored in AD for that user it decrypts the encrypted time stamp information. If produces time stamp matches to its time stamp. It will provide logon session key and Ticket granting ticket to client in an encryption format. Again client decrypts and if produced time stamp information is matching then it will use logon session key to logon to the domain. Ticket granting ticket will be used to generate service granting ticket when accessing network resources 

What are the port numbers for Kerberos, LDAP and Global Catalog? 

Kerberos – 88, LDAP – 389, Global Catalog – 3268 

What is the use of LDAP (X.500 standard?) 

LDAP is a directory access protocol, which is used to exchange directory information from server to clients or from server to servers 

What are the problems that are generally come across DHCP? 
Scope is full with IP addresses no IP’s available for new machines
If scope options are not configured properly eg default gateway 
Incorrect creation of scopes etc 

What is the role responsible for time synchronization? 
PDC Emulator is responsible for time synchronization. Time synchronization is important because Kerberos authentication depends on time stamp information

What is TTL & how to set TTL time in DNS? 
TTL is Time to Live setting used for the amount of time that the record should remain in cache when name resolution happened.

We can set TTL in SOA (start of authority record) of DNS 

How to take DNS and WINS, DHCP backup 
%System root%/system32/dns
%System root%/system32/WINS
%System root%/system32/DHCP 

What is recovery console 
Recovery console is a utility used to recover the system when it is not booting properly or not at all booting. We can perform fallowing operations from recovery console

We can copy, rename, or replace operating system files and folders
Enable or disable service or device startup the next time that start computer
Repair the file system boot sector or the Master Boot Record
Create and format partitions on drives 

What is DFS & its usage 

DFS is a distributed file system used to provide common environment for users to access files and folders even when they are shared in different servers physically.
There are two types of DFS domain DFS and Stand alone DFS. We cannot provide redundancy for stand alone DFS in case of failure. Domain DFS is used in a domain environment which can be accessed by /domain name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name). Stand alone DFS can be used in workgroup environment which can be accessed through /server name/root1 (root 1 is DFS root name). Both the cases we need to create DFS root ( Which appears like a shared folder for end users) and DFS links ( A logical link which is pointing to the server where the folder is physically shared)

The maximum number of Dfs roots per server is 1. 
The maximum numbers of Dfs root replicas are 31.
The maximum number of Dfs roots per domain is unlimited. 
The maximum number of Dfs links or shared folders in a Dfs root is 1,000 

What is RIS and what are its requirements 
RIS is a remote installation service, which is used to install operation system remotely.

Client requirements
PXE DHCP-based boot ROM version 1.00 or later NIC, or a network adapter that is supported by the RIS boot disk.
Should meet minimum operating system requirements
Software Requirements
Below network services must be active on RIS server or any server in the network
Domain Name System (DNS Service)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
Active directory “Directory” service 

How many root replicas can be created in DFS? 
31 

What is the difference between Domain DFS and Standalone DFS? 
Refer question 17. 

High Level 

Can we establish trust relationship between two forests? 

In Windows 2000 it is not possible. In Windows 2003 it is possible 

What is FSMO Roles 

Flexible single master operation (FSMO) roles are 
Domain Naming Master
Schema Master
PDC Emulator
Infrastructure Master
RID Master 

Brief all the FSMO Roles 
Windows 2000/2003 Multi-Master Model

A multi-master enabled database, such as the Active Directory, provides the flexibility of allowing changes to occur at any DC in the enterprise, but it also introduces the possibility of conflicts that can potentially lead to problems once the data is replicated to the rest of the enterprise. One way Windows 2000/2003 deals with conflicting updates is by having a conflict resolution algorithm handle discrepancies in values by resolving to the DC to which changes were written last (that is, "the last writer wins"), while discarding the changes in all other DCs. Although this resolution method may be acceptable in some cases, there are times when conflicts are just too difficult to resolve using the "last writer wins" approach. In such cases, it is best to prevent the conflict from occurring rather than to try to resolve it after the fact. 
For certain types of changes, Windows 2000/2003 incorporates methods to prevent conflicting Active Directory updates from occurring. 
Windows 2000/2003 Single-Master Model
To prevent conflicting updates in Windows 2000/2003, the Active Directory performs updates to certain objects in a single-master fashion. 

In a single-master model, only one DC in the entire directory is allowed to process updates. This is similar to the role given to a primary domain controller (PDC) in earlier versions of Windows (such as Microsoft Windows NT 4.0), in which the PDC is responsible for processing all updates in a given domain. 

In a forest, there are five FSMO roles that are assigned to one or more domain controllers. The five FSMO roles are: 

Schema Master: 

The schema master domain controller controls all updates and modifications to the schema. Once the Schema update is complete, it is replicated from the schema master to all other DCs in the directory. To update the schema of a forest, you must have access to the schema master. There can be only one schema master in the whole forest. 
Domain naming master: 

The domain naming master domain controller controls the addition or removal of domains in the forest. This DC is the only one that can add or remove a domain from the directory. It can also add or remove cross references to domains in external directories. There can be only one domain naming master in the whole forest. 

Infrastructure Master: 

When an object in one domain is referenced by another object in another domain, it represents the reference by the GUID, the SID (for references to security principals), and the DN of the object being referenced. The infrastructure FSMO role holder is the DC responsible for updating an object's SID and distinguished name in a cross-domain object reference. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the infrastructure master in each domain. 

Note: The Infrastructure Master (IM) role should be held by a domain controller that is not a Global Catalog server (GC). If the Infrastructure Master runs on a Global Catalog server it will stop updating object information because it does not contain any references to objects that it does not hold. This is because a Global Catalog server holds a partial replica of every object in the forest. As a result, cross-domain object references in that domain will not be updated and a warning to that effect will be logged on that DC's event log. If all the domain controllers in a domain also host the global catalog, all the domain controllers have the current data, and it is not important which domain controller holds the infrastructure master role. 

Relative ID (RID) Master: 

The RID master is responsible for processing RID pool requests from all domain controllers in a particular domain. When a DC creates a security principal object such as a user or group, it attaches a unique Security ID (SID) to the object. This SID consists of a domain SID (the same for all SIDs created in a domain), and a relative ID (RID) that is unique for each security principal SID created in a domain. Each DC in a domain is allocated a pool of RIDs that it is allowed to assign to the security principals it creates. When a DC's allocated RID pool falls below a threshold, that DC issues a request for additional RIDs to the domain's RID master. The domain RID master responds to the request by retrieving RIDs from the domain's unallocated RID pool and assigns them to the pool of the requesting DC. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the RID master in the domain. 

PDC Emulator: 

The PDC emulator is necessary to synchronize time in an enterprise. Windows 2000/2003 includes the W32Time (Windows Time) time service that is required by the Kerberos authentication protocol. All Windows 2000/2003-based computers within an enterprise use a common time. The purpose of the time service is to ensure that the Windows Time service uses a hierarchical relationship that controls authority and does not permit loops to ensure appropriate common time usage. 

The PDC emulator of a domain is authoritative for the domain. The PDC emulator at the root of the forest becomes authoritative for the enterprise, and should be configured to gather the time from an external source. All PDC FSMO role holders follow the hierarchy of domains in the selection of their in-bound time partner. 
In a Windows 2000/2003 domain, the PDC emulator role holder retains the following functions: 
Password changes performed by other DCs in the domain are replicated preferentially to the PDC emulator. 
Authentication failures that occur at a given DC in a domain because of an incorrect password are forwarded to the PDC emulator before a bad password failure message is reported to the user. 

Account lockout is processed on the PDC emulator. 

Editing or creation of Group Policy Objects (GPO) is always done from the GPO copy found in the PDC Emulator's SYSVOL share, unless configured not to do so by the administrator. 

The PDC emulator performs all of the functionality that a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server-based PDC or earlier PDC performs for Windows NT 4.0-based or earlier clients. 

This part of the PDC emulator role becomes unnecessary when all workstations, member servers, and domain controllers that are running Windows NT 4.0 or earlier are all upgraded to Windows 2000/2003. The PDC emulator still performs the other functions as described in a Windows 2000/2003 environment. 

At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC emulator master in each domain in the forest. 

Exchange server 2003/2007/2010 Interview Questions With Answers part 2

What is Exchange Server 2007?
Microsoft Exchange Server  2007 is the next version of Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Exchange is the industry’s leading e-mail, calendaring, and unified messaging server. The release of Exchange Server 2007 is closely aligned with the 2007 Microsoft Office release. Together, these products deliver a best-in-class enterprise messaging and collaboration solution.

What is new in Exchange Server 2007?
Exchange 2007 provides built-in protection to keep the e-mail system up and running and protected from outside threats and lets employees work more productively from wherever they are by using a variety of clients. These clients include Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, and mobile devices. Exchange Server 2007 makes it easier for IT departments to deliver these new capabilities to their organizations by making the messaging environment easier to manage and more cost-efficient. For more information about Exchange Server 2007.

How does Exchange Server 2007 integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007? 
Outlook 2007 provides the most complete e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks functionality available in an e-mail client that is compatible with Exchange. When Outlook 2007 is used with Exchange Server 2007, users benefit from the new Scheduling Assistant that automates time-consuming meeting and resource scheduling, the ability to plan and customize out-of-office communications, and managed e-mail folders that facilitate compliance with internal and regulatory policies. Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 also combine to enhance security by offering features that are easy to use and let users confidently send and receive sensitive business communications through e-mail. By enabling the Autodiscover service, you can reduce the complexity of client configuration and reduce administrative costs that are associated with troubleshooting connectivity issues for users.

What are the different editions of Exchange Server 2007?
Exchange Server 2007 is offered in two server editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. Exchange Server 2007 Standard Edition is designed to meet the messaging and collaboration needs of small and medium organizations. It may also be appropriate for specific server roles or branch offices. Exchange Server 2007 Enterprise Edition, designed for large enterprise organizations, enables the creation of multiple storage groups and databases. For more information about Exchange Server 2007 editions and Client Access Licenses

How can I upgrade my current Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 environment?
When you upgrade to Exchange Server 2007, you cannot perform an in-place server upgrade on an existing Exchange server. Instead, you must install a new Exchange 2007 server into the existing organization, and then move the required data to the new Exchange server. Exchange Server 2007 supports mixed environments that include Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange Server 2003, or both. This allows for an easier and more gradual transition. For more information about how to plan and deploy Exchange Server 2007

Should I map my current routing groups to my current Active Directory sites?
Exchange 2007 is based on Active Directory sites. If your current Microsoft Exchange environment maps as closely as possible to Active Directory sites, your interoperability and migration story will be easier. Additionally, the recommended upgrade path is to upgrade all the Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 servers in a single routing group before you upgrade the next routing group. This lets you fully decommission a routing group as you upgrade and reduces the complexity of your current routing topology. Mapping the Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003 routing groups to the Exchange 2007 physical topology also makes it easier to plan for an upgrade to Exchange 2007 because the two environments are similarly organized and generally correlate to Active Directory sites.

Exchange server 2003/2007/2010 Interview Questions With Answers part 1

What are the pre requisites to install Exchange Server 2007?

1. Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
2. Microsoft ASP .Net
3. World Wide Web Service
4. MMC 3.0
5. Windows power shell
6. SMTP & NNTP service should not be installed

2. What’s the order to install Exchange Server 2007 Roles in a exchange Server 2003 organization?

1. Client Access Server Role
2. Hub Transport Server Role
3. Mailbox Server Role
4. Unified Messaging Server role

3. What are the versions available in Exchange Server 2007?

There are two types of Exchange Server 2007 version release

• · 64 bit – for production environment
• · 32 bit – only for non-production environment

4. What are the Operating system requirements to install Exchange Server 2007?

Exchange Server 2007 can be installed on

• · Windows Server 2003 SP2 64-bit,
• · Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 64-bit or
• · Windows Server 2008 64-bit

5. What are the Active directory requirements to install Exchange Server 2007?

1. Domain functional level at least windows server 2000 native or higher
2. Schema Master must be run on windows 2003 server with sp1
3. At least one Domain Controller, in each domain with windows server 2003 sp1
4. At least one global catalog server in Active Directory Site which hosts exchange Server 2007
5. 4:1 ratio of Exchange processor to global catalog server processors

6. What are the hardware requirements to install Exchange Server 2007?

• Processor – 64 bit processor
• RAM – 2 GB + 5 MB per Mailbox
• Disk Space – At least 1.2 GB on the drive on which you install Exchange
• - 200 MB of available disk space on the system drive
• File Format – NTFS

7. What are the Software requirements to install Exchange Server 2007?

Following are the software prerequisites to install Exchange Server 2007

1. Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
2. IIS
3. WWW
4. MMC 3.0
5. Microsoft Windows Power Shell

8. What is Transition in Exchange Server 2007?

Transition is the scenario in which you upgrade an existing Exchange organization to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. To perform the transition, you must move data from the existing Exchange servers to new Exchange 2007 servers. For example, when upgrading from an Exchange Server 2003 or Exchange 2000 Server organization to an Exchange 2007 organization, you perform a transition

When transitioning to Exchange 2007, you cannot perform an in-place server upgrade on an existing Exchange server. Instead, you must install a new Exchange 2007 server into the existing organization, and then move data to the new Exchange 2007 server.

9. What is Migration in Exchange Server 2007?

Migration is the scenario in which you upgrade to Exchange 2007 by migrating data from a non-Exchange messaging system to Exchange 2007 or from an existing Exchange organization to a completely new Exchange organization, without retaining any of the Exchange configuration data in the first organization. For example, when merging with another company, you can perform a migration. In this scenario, you move mailboxes and data to the other company’s Exchange organization, without retaining any of the configuration data from your existing Exchange organization. Another example is when upgrading from Lotus Notes to Exchange 2007, you perform a migration. In this scenario, you must move mailboxes and data to the new Exchange 2007 organization, without retaining any of the data from the Lotus Notes organization.

The migration process includes installing a completely new Exchange 2007 organization, and then migrating mailboxes from the old messaging system to the new Exchange 2007 messaging system, using various tools for migration.

10. Is it possible to do in place upgrade from Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007?

No in-place upgrade on existing Exchange server organization. Install new Exchange Server 2007 server into existing organization, and move data to new server.

11.  What are the transition options available in Exchange Server 2007

We can make transition in following options

Single forest to single forest – you have an existing single forest Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 topology, you can transition to a single forest Exchange 2007 organization

Single forest to cross forest – If you have an existing single forest Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 topology, you can transition to a cross-forest Exchange 2007 topology

Cross forest to cross forest – If you have an existing cross-forest Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 topology with Exchange servers and mailboxes in each forest, you can transition to an Exchange 2007 cross-forest topology.

Resource forest to resource forest -

Single forest to resource forest -

12. What are the considerations for Exchange Server 2007 to co exists with Exchange server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003?

• Exchange Organization in Exchange Native Mode· Exchange Server 2007 routing group (DWBGZMFD01QNBJR) is created only for coexisting with earlier versions of Exchange.
• Routing Group Connector is required between Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 (created during setup).
• Exchange Server 2003 computers cannot interoperate with the Unified Messaging server role. Exchange 2003 mailboxes cannot be Unified Messaging–enabled.
• Exchange 2003 Front-ends cannot talk to Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Server Roles.
• No in-place upgrade on existing Exchange server. Install new Exchange Server 2007 server into existing organization, and move data to new server

13. Will Front End server talk to Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server in an Exchange organization having both exchange 2003 and exchange Server 2007?

Exchange Server 2003 Front-end server cannot talk to Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox Server Roles

14. What is the status of routing group connector in co existed of Exchange Server 2003 and 2007?

Exchange Organization in Exchange Native Mode· Exchange Server 2007 routing group (DWBGZMFD01QNBJR) is created only for coexisting with earlier versions of Exchange.

Routing Group Connector is required between Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 (created during setup).

15. Which service should not be installed in Exchange Server 2007 installation?

SMTP and NNTP service should not be installed

16. What are the Exchange Server editions available?

There are two types of Exchange Server 2007 editions available

1. Standard Edition
2. Enterprise Edition

17. What is the difference between standard and Enterprise Edition?

Exchange 2007 functions	Standard Edition	Enterprise Edition
Number of Data Stores Supported	5 includes Mailbox/Public Folder	50 combination of both
Clustering support	No	Yes
OS Support	Windows 2003 64 bit	Windows 2003 64 bit

18. What to do if exchange Server 5.5 in your organization in order to upgrade to Exchange Server 2007?

You cannot upgrade an existing Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 organization to Exchange Server 2007. You must first migrate from the Exchange Server 5.5 organization to an Exchange Server 2003 or an Exchange 2000 Server organization. Then you can transition the Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2000 organization to Exchange 2007. 

19. What are the Planning considerations for Client Access Server Role?

The Client Access server role supports the Outlook Web Access, Outlook Anywhere, and Exchange ActiveSync client applications, in addition to the POP3 and IMAP4 protocols. The Client Access server role also hosts several key services, such as the Auto discover service and Exchange Web Services.

In order to have better client access functionality we have to perform a Planning consideration on Exchange Active Sync. Outlook web Access, outlook anywhere, POP3 and IMAP4 protocols and also securing client access

20. What are the Planning Considerations of Hub Transport Server Role?

Hub Transport server role is a required role in a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 organization that provides routing within a single organizational network by using the Active Directory directory service site. Hub Transport server role installed handles all mail flow inside the organization, apply transport rules, apply journal rules, and deliver messages to recipients’ mailboxes

We have to perform a Planning Consideration on

• Topology for mail flow inside and outside the Exchange organization
• Server capacity – determine how to perform performance monitor
• Security – includes delegation of administrative roles and verification that IP connections are only enabled from authorized servers
• Transport Features – determine the transport features that you will enable at the Hub Transport server and how they will be configured

21. What are the Planning Considerations of Mailbox Server Role?

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Mailbox server role hosts mailbox databases and provides e-mail storage and advanced scheduling services for Microsoft Office Outlook users The Mailbox server role can also host a public folder database, which provides a foundation for workflow, document sharing, and other forms of collaboration

We have to perform a planning consideration on

• Sizing the database,
• Planning for public folder,
• Co hosting with other server roles and
• Planning for clustered Mailbox server

22. What are the Planning Considerations for Edge Transport Server Role?

Exchange Server 2007 Edge Transport server role is designed to provide improved antivirus and anti-spam protection for the Exchange organization. Computers that have the Edge Transport server role also apply policies to messages in transport between organizations. The Edge Transport server role is deployed in an organization’s perimeter network.

• Edge Transport Should not be included in Active Directory
• Should be installed in a Standalone Server
• Edge Transport Should not be Part of the domain
• ADAM Should be Installed
• Pre requisites .Net framework , Windows Management Shell, MMC