Technical Interview Questions – Networking

• What is an IP address?
• What is a subnet mask?
• What is ARP?
• What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
• What is the ANDing process?
• What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
• Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
• What is a subnet?
• What is APIPA?
• What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas behind them)
• What is RFC 1918?
• What is CIDR?
• You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
• You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
• You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
• How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
• What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
• What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
• Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
• What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
• What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
• Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
• What is DHCPINFORM?
• Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
• What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
• What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
• How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
• What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
• DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
• DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
• Describe the process of working with an external domain name
• Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
• Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
• What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
• What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
• What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
• What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
• What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
• How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
• Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
• What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
• You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
• What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
• What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
• What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
• How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
• How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
• What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
• What is WINS and when do we use it?
• Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
• Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
• What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
• Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
• Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
• What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
• What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
• In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
• What is NAT?
• What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
• How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
• How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
• What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
• What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
• What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
• What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
• What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
• What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
• How does SSL work?
• How does IPSec work?
• How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
• What types of authentication can IPSec use?
• What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
• How do I monitor IPSec?
• Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
• What can you do with NETSH?
• How do I look at the open ports on my machine?

Technical Interview Questions – Active Directory

• What is Active Directory?
• What is LDAP?
• Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few options.
• Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?
• What is the SYSVOL folder?
• Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC
• What are application partitions? When do I use them
• How do you create a new application partition
• How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?
• What is the Global Catalog?
• How do you view all the GCs in the forest?
• Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?
• Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?
• What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?
• What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is REPADMIN?
• What are sites? What are they used for?
• What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?
• What is the KCC?
• What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?
• What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?
• What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow WAN link?
• How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? • Can I get user passwords from the AD database?
• What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?
• Name some OU design considerations.
• What is tombstone lifetime attribute?
• What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 DC in a Windows 2000 AD?
• What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 R2 DC in a Windows 2003 AD?
• How would you find all users that have not logged on since last month?
• What are the DS* commands?
• What's the difference between LDIFDE and CSVDE? Usage considerations?
• What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one fails?
• What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?
• I want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do I do?
• What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one should you NOT seize? Why?
• How do you configure a "stand-by operation master" for any of the roles?
• How do you backup AD?
• How do you restore AD?
• How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
• Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 4 months ago?
• What are GPOs?
• What is the order in which GPOs are applied?
• Name a few benefits of using GPMC.
• What are the GPC and the GPT? Where can I find them?
• What are GPO links? What special things can I do to them?
• What can I do to prevent inheritance from above?
• How can I override blocking of inheritance?
• How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few ways to do that.
• A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?
• Name a few differences in Vista GPOs
• Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.
• What are administrative templates?
• What's the difference between software publishing and assigning?
• Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?
• You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that?

Technical Interview Questions – Exchange 2003

• Tell me a bit about the capabilities of Exchange Server.
• What are the different Exchange 2003 versions?
• Name some of the main differences between Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000/2003?
• What are the major network infrastructure requirements for installing Exchange 2003?
• What is the latest Exchange 2003 Service Pack? Name a few changes in functionality in that SP.
• What are the disk considerations when installing Exchange (RAID types, locations and so on).
• You got a new HP DL380 (2U) server, dual Xeon, 4GB of RAM, 7 SAS disks, 64-bit. What do you do next to install Exchange 2003? (considering you already have AD in place)
• Why shouldn't you install Exchange on the same machine as a DC?
• Why shouldn't you install Outlook on the same machine as an Exchange server?
• Are there any other installation considerations?
• How would you prepare the AD Schema in advance before installing Exchange?
• What type or permissions do you need in order to install the first Exchange server in a forest? In a domain?
• How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
• What type of memory optimization changes could you do for Exchange 2003?
• How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if they're right?
• What are the Exchange management tools? How and where can you install them?
• What types of permissions are configurable for Exchange?
• How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes on a specific server?
• What is the Send As permission?
• What other management tools are used to manage and control Exchange 2003? Name the tools you'd use.
• What are Exchange Recipient types? Name 5.
• You created a mailbox for a user, yet the mailbox does not appear in ESM. Why?
• You wanted to change mailbox access permissions for a mailbox, yet you see the SELF permission alone on the permissions list. Why?
• What are Query Based Distribution groups?
• What type of groups would you use when configuring distribution groups in a multiple domain forest?
• Name a few configuration options for Exchange recipients.
• What's the difference between Exchange 2003 Std. and Ent. editions when related to storage options and size?
• Name a few configuration options related to mailbox stores.
• What are System Public Folders? Where would you find them?
• How would you plan and configure Public Folder redundancy?
• How can you immediately stop PF replication?
• How can you prevent PF referral across slow WAN links?
• What types of PF management tools might you use?
• What are the differences between administrative permissions and client permissions in PF?
• How can you configure PF replication from the command prompt in Exchange 2003?
• What are the message hygiene options you can use natively in Exchange 2003?
• What are the configuration options in IMF?
• What are virtual servers? When would you use more than one?
• Name some of the SMTP Virtual Server configuration options.
• What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options.
• What is a Smart Host? Where would you configure it?
• What are Routing Groups? When would you use them?
• What are the types of Connectors you can use in Exchange?
• What is the cost option in Exchange connectors?
• What is the Link State Table? How would you view it?
• How would you configure mail transfer security between 2 routing groups?
• What is the Routing Group Master? Who holds that role?
• Explain the configuration steps required to allow Exchange 2003 to send and receive email from the Internet (consider a one-site multiple server scenario).
• What is DS2MB?
• What is Forms Based Authentication?
• How would you configure OWA's settings on an Exchange server?
• What is DSACCESS?
• What are Recipient Policies?
• How would you work with multiple recipient policies?
• What is the "issue" with trying to remove email addresses added by recipient policies? How would you fix that?
• What is the RUS?
• When would you need to manually create additional RUS?
• What are Address Lists?
• How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?
• How can you create multiple GALs and allow the users to only see the one related to them?
• What is a Front End server? In what scenarios would you use one?
• What type of authentication is used on the front end servers?
• When would you use NLB?
• How would you achieve incoming mail redundancy?
• What are the 4 types of Exchange backups?
• What is the Dial-Tone server scenario?
• When would you use offline backup?
• How do you re-install Exchange on a server that has crashed but with AD intact?
• What is the dumpster?
• What are the e00xxxxx.log files?
• What is the e00.chk file?
• What is circular logging? When would you use it?
• What's the difference between online and offline defrag?
• How would you know if it is time to perform an offline defrag of your Exchange stores?
• How would you plan for, and perform the offline defrag?
• What is the eseutil command?
• What is the isinteg command?
• How would you monitor Exchange's services and performance? Name 2 or 3 options.
• Name all the client connection options in Exchange 2003.
• What is Direct Push? What are the requirements to run it?
• How would you remote wipe a PPC?
• What are the issues with connecting Outlook from a remote computer to your mailbox?
• How would you solve those issues? Name 2 or 3 methods
• What is RPC over HTTP? What are the requirements to run it?
• What is Cached Mode in OL2003/2007?
• What are the benefits and "issues" when using cached mode? How would you tackle those issues?
• What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
• What are the IPSec usage scenarios for Exchange 2003?
• How do you enable SSL on OWA?
• What are the considerations for obtaining a digital certificate for SSL on Exchange?
• Name a few 3rd-party CAs.
• What do you need to consider when using a client-type AV software on an Exchange server?
• What are the different clustering options in Exchange 2003? Which one would you choose and why.

PC Hardware

• What is FSB?
• What are Vcore and Vi/o?
• On what type of socket can you install a Pentium 4 CPU?
• What is SMP?
• Which Intel and AMD processors support SMP?
• How do LGA sockets differ from PGA and SEC?
• What is the difference between Pentium 4 and Pentium Core 2 Duo? Explain the new technology.
• How does IRQ priority works?
• What technology enables you to upgrade your computer's BIOS by simply using a software?
• What happens if you dissemble the battery located  on the Mother-Board?
• How do L1, L2, and L3 work?
• How should we install RAM on a Dual-Channel Motherboard?
• What is the advantage of serial over parallel bus?
• Is USB using serial or parallel bus? What about Firewire?
• How much power is supplied to each USB port?
• When should you change your bus-powered USB hub to a self-powered USB hub?
• What is a UPS?
• What is the difference between standby and online UPS?
• What is LBA (in Hard-Disks)?
• How many Hard Disks can you install on an E-IDE controller?
• Can you configure two hard disks to use the Master setting on the same PC?
• What is the difference between Narrow-SCSI and Wide-SCSI?
• What is SAS?
• What are the three main reasons for using RAID?
• Is RAID 0 considered to be a redundant Solution?  Why?
• How many disks can be used for RAID 1?
• How RAID 5 works?
• What is the smallest number of disks required for RAID5?
• What other types of RAID do you know?
• What are the six steps for laser printing?
• What is the difference between PCI-EX x1 and PCI-EX x16?

Microsoft-based Operating Systems

• What is the difference between a workgroup and a domain?
• What are the major advantages of working in a domain model?
• What types of operating system installation methods do you know?
• What is an answer file?
• How would you create an answer file for Windows  XP? How would you create one for Windows Vista?
• How do you perform an unattended installation on Windows XP?
• What is Sysprep?
• How do you use Sysprep?
• What is the major difference between Newsid and Sysprep?
• What is the function of the pagefile.sys file?
• What is the function of the hiberfil.sys file?
• What is the Registry?
• How can you edit the Registry? Name at least 3 ways of doing that.
• What should you do if you receive a message stating: "The following file is missing or corrupt: 'WINDOWS'SYSTEM32'CONFIG'SYSTEM"?
• How would you repair an unsuccessful driver update?
• When should you use each of the fallowing tools: System Restore, LKGC and Recovery Console?
• How do you set different print priority for different users?
• How can you reset user's passwords if you don't know his current password?
• What's the difference between changing a user's password and resetting it?
• You want to grant a user the right to perform backups – should you add him to the administrators group?
• What is MMC?
• What is gpedit.msc?
• How would you use the MMC to manage other servers on your network?
• You set a local policy for your Stand-alone XP Professional – would the local policy effects the administrators group?
• What new in the Windows Vista Local Policy?
• What is the difference between User Privileges and User Permissions?
• What is Safe Mode?
• Which logs can be found in Event Viewer?
• What is msconfig? On which OS can it be found?
• Can you upgrade XP Home Edition to Server 2003?
• Which permission will you grant a user for a folder he need to be able to create and delete files in, if you do not want him to be able to change permissions for the folder?
• What is the difference between clearing the "allow" permission and checking the "deny"?

Networking

• What is a NIC?
• What is a MAC Address?
• When would you use a crosslink cable?
• What are the main advantages and disadvantages of Fiber-Optic-based networks?
• What is the difference between a Hub and a Switch?
• On which OSI layer can a router be found?
• What is CSMA/CD?
• What is multicast?
• What is Broadcast?
• What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
• Describe some of the settings that are added by TCP and by UDP to the packet's header.
• What are TCP Ports? Name a few.
• What is a TCP Session?
• What three elements make up a socket?
• What will happen if you leave the default gateway information empty while manually configuring TCP/IP?
• What will happen if you execute the following command: "arp –d *"?
• What is ICMP?
• When would you use the ping command with the "-t" switch?
• What command-line tool would help you discover for which port numbers your computer is listening?
• What is APIPA? How would you recognize it?
• What is a Cyclic Redundancy Check?
• What would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP settings for the computer that you are sitting at?
• What command would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP address of the remote computer?
• What is the W Value for class B?
• What is the Net ID of an IP Address of 18.9.25.3 with Subnet Mask of 255.0.0.0?
• What is CIDR?
• What is 255.255.255.255 used for?
• What is the maximum number of hosts for a Class B Network?
• What is the (default) class type of 195.152.12.1?
• What is the subnet mask for 10.0.10.1/17?
• What is the result when changing from a subnet mask of 255.255.224.0 to a subnet mask of 255.255.240.0?
• How can you access a shared folder from a remote computer? Name at least 3 methods.

Technical Interview Questions - Exchange Server 2007/2010

• What are the Exchange 2007/2010 server roles?
• What are the benefits of using roles, vs. the way Exchange 2000/2003 worked?
• What are the Exchange 2003 equivalents of the various Exchange 2007/2010 roles?
• Name the system prerequisites for installing Exchange 2007/2010 in your existing Active Directory forest.
• You have an Exchange 5.5 organization and finally decided to move forward and upgrade to Exchange 2007/2010. What's your next obvious step?
• You're looking to install Exchange 2007/2010 and Outlook on the same machine. Should you do that? Why?
• Where does Exchange store its configuration settings?
• How do you prepare the AD for Exchange 2007/2010? Name 2 methods.
• What permissions do you need to prepare the AD for Exchange 2007/2010?
• How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
• In the installation folder root you see setup.com and setup.exe. Which would you use and when?
• How would you easily install all the Windows Server 2008/R2 roles and features required for Exchange 2007/2010?
• How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if they're right?
• .....
• What is the latest Exchange 2007 Service Pack? Name a few changes in functionality in that SP.
• Looking to install Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. What SP version do you need? And for R2?
• What's a Rollup Update? What's the latest RU for Exchange 2007/2010?
• How can you easily integrate a RU in the Exchange 2007/2010 installation media?
• Name a few reasons for using 64-bit hardware and OS version for Exchange 2007/2010.
• Exchange 2007 came in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Name a couple of reasons for ever needing the 32-bit version.
• ....
• Wanting to manage Exchange 2007/2010 from a remote computer, name a few of your management options.
• Name a few changes that were made in Exchange 2003 Management Console (EMC) when compared to Exchange 2003 System Manager (ESM).
• What's PowerShell and why do we care?
• Name one major benefit of PowerShell v2 over V1.
• What are the different Exchange Recipient types?
• What are resource mailboxes? When would you use them?
• What are Dynamic Distribution groups?
  What type of groups would you use when configuring distribution groups in a multiple domain forest?
• How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes in your organization?
• How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes on a specific Exchange server?
• Describe the differences in the permission model between Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2010.
• ....
• What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2007 stores work?
• What's the difference between the Enterprise and Standard editions of Exchange in relation with the number and size of the stores on the server?
• What are the major changes in the way Exchange 2010 stores work? Name some of the changes in comparison with Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007.
• What's the major difference in store high availability in Exchange 2007?
• What's the major difference in store high availability in Exchange 2010?
• What is the GAL?
• When would you decide to create more than one GAL?
• How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?
• What is the OAB? When is it used?
• What are the OAB distribution options?
• You are at a client's location, and you see no Public Folders on any of the Mailbox servers. How can that be?
• You don't have any Public Folder, but now you've got a bunch of laptop users that use Outlook 2003. What issues would you see? How would you fix these issues?
• .....
• In Exchange 2007, what are the minimum requirements for implementing a high availability topology, in relation to the server roles and server numbers?
• In Exchange 2010, what are the minimum requirements for implementing a high availability topology, in relation to the server roles and server numbers?
• Describe the concept behind Log Shipping.
• What's the difference between LCR, CCR and SCR?
• What's SCC?
• You've installed Exchange 2007 RTM and are looking to enable SCR but cannot find the option to do so in the EMC or in PS. Why?
• Describe DAG in Exchange 2010.
• Considering DAGs in Exchange 2010, why does Microsoft claim that you can run "Raidless"?
• Would you run "Raidless" even when implementing DAGs in Exchange 2010? Why?
• Would you run "Backup-less" even when implementing DAGs in Exchange 2010? Why?
• How do you enable LCR?
• Why does Microsoft suggest using NTFS mount points when using LCR?
• What Exchange edition version do you need for LCR? What Windows edition version do you need for LCR?
• How do you recover from a store corruption when using LCR? Name the procedures you would use.
• What are streaming backups?
• What are VSS backups?
• How would you backup Exchange 2007/2010 on a Windows Server 2008/R2 machine without using 3rd-party tools?
• What's a Brick-Level backup?
• What backup solutions are you familiar with in Exchange 2007/2010?
• What's a Recovery Storage Group? How do you work with one?
• Can you use Exmerge in Exchange 2007/2010? Why?
• How do you export a mailbox content in Exchange 2007/2010?
• What's a Dial Tone recovery?
• What built-in tool do you have to allow you to manage Exchange store recoveries?
• What's the difference between online and offline defrag?
• In Exchange 2010, is there any change in the way online and offline defrags are used (or should be used)?
• What is Eseutil?
• What is Isinteg?
• Name a few scenarios for using both tools?
• What are the major considerations for using these tools?
• ...
• Where does Exchange 2007/2010 get its routing topology from?
• What protocol is used for the Mailbox to HT transport?
• How would you achieve incoming mail redundancy?
• Name all the client connection options in Exchange 2007/2010.
• What happened to OMA?
• Name some of the major changes in OWA in relation to Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003? And in relation to Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007?
• What's the ECP in Exchange 2010 OWA?
• A user opens an OWA session from an external computer. Which role does that user connect to?
• What are the major changes in Outlook 2010 in relation to Exchange 2010, when compared to Outlook 2007/Exchange 2007?
• What's a mailbox move request in Exchange 2010?
• What is Online Mailbox Move in Exchange 2010?
• Describe the issues you're facing when attempting to obtain a digital certificate for Exchange 2007.
• What's one of the changes that was made to the digital certificate request process in Exchange 2010 in relation to Exchange 2007?
• What are SAN certificates?
• Name a few commercial CAs you could use to obtain digital certificates.
• What is Cached Mode in Outlook 2007/2010?
  What are the benefits and "issues" when using cached mode? How would you tackle those issues?
  What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
• What is Outlook Anywhere?
• Describe the method for enabling Outlook Anywhere.
• You've just bought a new Internet domain name, and are looking to set up an Exchange organization to receive e-mail for that domain. Name ALL the steps you would need to take in order to successfully be able to work with that domain name.
• You've installed Exchange 2007/2010 and now you need to be able to send e-mail externally (to the Internet). What do you need to do?
• What's Accepted Domains?
• Where in EMC would you look to configure Send Connectors?
• What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options.
• What's a Smart Host? When would you use it?
• Wanting to configure a Send Connector to the world, what address would you use?
• What are Receive Connectors?
• In Exchange 2007/2010, what's the major issue blocking you from receiving e-mail from the world, considering you've enabled the right port(s) on the firewall, and properly configured MX records for your domain(s)?
• What's the difference between the "Client" and the "Default" Receive Connectors?
• You're looking to troubleshoot e-mail delivery issues. Name 4 options/tools/logs that are built into Exchange 2007/2010 that can help you in your task.
• ...
• You're looking to enable Anti-Spam features on Exchange. Which role would you use to do so?
• Let's say you're wanting to use Anti-Spam features on the HT role. You're looking to enable these features but cannot find them. What do you need to do?
• Where does Edge role store its settings?
• You have a need to enable high-availability and load balancing on your Edge role. How do you achieve that?
• What's Edge synchronization?
• What's Edge subscription?
• How do you enable Edge subscription?
• What's the default replication interval for Edge sync?
• What ports do you need to open between the DMZ holding the Edge role and your internal network?

Technical Interview Questions - Windows Server 2008/R2 Active Directory

• What is Active Directory?
• What is LDAP?
• Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?
• Talk about all the AD-related roles in Windows Server 2008/R2.
• What are the new Domain and Forest Functional Levels in Windows Server 2008/R2?
• What is the SYSVOL folder?
• What are the AD naming contexts (partitions)s and replication issues for each NC?
• What are application partitions?
• What applications or services use AD application partitions? Name a couple.
• How do you create a new application partition?
• What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?
• What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow WAN link?
• ...
• How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?
• What is the Global Catalog?
• How do you view all the GCs in the forest?
• Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?
• Talk about GCs and Universal Groups.
• Describe the time synchronization mechanism in AD.
• What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is REPADMIN?
• What is DCDIAG? When would you use it?
• ...
• What are sites? What are they used for?
• What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?
• What is the KCC?
• What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?
• Talk about sites and GCs.
• Talk about sites and Exchange Server 2007/2010.
• ...
• What is GPO?
• Describe the way GPO is applied throughout the domain.
• What can you do to prevent inheritance from above?
• How can you override blocking of inheritance?
• Name some of the major changes in GPO in Windows Server 2008.
• What are ADM files? What replaced them in Windows Server 2008?
• What's the GPO repository? How do you use it?
• What are GPO Preferences?
• Which client OSs can use GPO Preferences?
• What are GPO Templates?
• What are WMI Filters?
• What is the concept behind GPO Filtering?
• How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few ways to do that.
• A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?
• You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that?
• What are the major changes in AD in Windows Server 2008?
• What are the major changes in AD in Windows Server 2008 R2?
• What is the AD Recycle Bin? How do you use it?
• What is tombstone lifetime attribute?
• What are AD Snapshots? How do you use them?
• What is Offline Domain Join? How do you use it?
• What are Fine-Grained Passwords? How do you use them?
• Talk about Restartable Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008/R2. What is this feature good for?
• What are the changes in auditing in Windows Server 2008/R2?
• How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later?
• Can I get user passwords from the AD database?
• What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?
• Talk about PowerShell and AD.
• ...
• How do you backup AD?
• How do you restore AD?
• Talk about Windows Backup and AD backups.
• How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
• Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 7 months ago?
• What's NTDSUTIL? When do you use it?
• ...
• What are RODCs?
• What are the major benefits of using RODCs?
• How do you install an RODC?
• Talk about RODCs and passwords.
• What is Read Only DNS?
• What happens when a remote site with an RODC loses connectivity to the main site?
• ...
• Talk about Server Core and AD.
• How do you promote a Server Core to DC?
• ...
• What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one fails?
• How can you tell who holds each FSMO role? Name a 2-3 of methods.
• What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?
• You want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do you need to do?
• What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one should you NOT seize? Why?

Technical Interview Questions - Windows Server 2008/R2 TS/RDS

• What is presentation virtualization?
• Describe the benefits of using TS/RDS.
• Describe the drawbacks of using TS/RDS.
• Describe the main TS role services in Windows Server 2008.
• Describe the main RDS role services in Windows Server 2008 R2.
• What are the major changes between the Windows Server 2008 TS and the Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS roles in relation to Windows Server 2003 TS.
• ...
• What is the TS/RDS Session Host?
• What are the benefits of using 64-bit hardware and OS vs. using the 32-bit version?
• Describe your experience in using TS/RDS.
• How can you configure TS/RDS session limits? Describe a couple of methods.
• What is GPO Loopback Processing?
• How do you standardize user profiles and settings across a TS/RDS farm?
• What are the major drawbacks of using Roaming User Profiles?
• Working with Outlook on TS/RDS, what can you tell me about using cached modes?
• How do you install applications on a TS/RDS Session Host? Describe a couple of methods.
• What are the TS/RDS command line management tools?
• How would you achieve high availability with RD Session Hosts?
• What is "Virtual Machine Redirection" and when would it be used?
• Talk about TS/RDS licensing.
• Is there any difference in RDS licensing in Windows Server 2008 R2?
• What is the licensing grace period?
• Where would you install the RD Licensing server? Talk about small implementation and large implementation scenarios.
• What is RDS RemoteApp?
• Describe the benefits of using RDS RemoteApp.
• How do you publish a RemoteApp?
• What's the difference between using .RDP files and .MSI files when publishing a RemoteApp to the users' desktops?
• In Windows 7, it's possible to use RemoteApp in conjunction with RDS Web Access in a different manner. Can you describe this process?
• Needing to control which users get access to which RemoteApp. How can you do that?
• Describe the way RemoteApps integrate with the Windows desktop.
• Besides RemoteApp, what other ways or software lifecycle management solutions are you aware of?
• Talk about digital signatures and their relevance to RemoteApp publishing.
• What is RDS Web Access?
• Describe the benefits of using RDS Web Access.
• Talk about the implementation scenarios of RDS Web Access.
• Describe the process of securing RDS Web Access.
• How would you publish an RDS Web Access site?
• Can you use Web Access with other Microsoft-based solutions? Name a few.
• What's the alternative for using RDS Web Access?
• Talk about digital signatures in relation to RDS Web Access.
• How can you control who has access to the RDS Web Access website?
• What would you do in order to publish RemoteApps from multiple RD Session Hosts through one RD Web Access server?
• What would you do in order to publish RemoteApps from multiple RD Session Hosts through one RD Web Access server?
• ...
• What's RDS Gateway?
• What are the main usage scenarios for RDS Gateway?
• What are RAPs?
• What are CAPs?
• Describe the process of securing RDS Gateway.
• Talk about digital signatures in relation to RDS Gateway.
• What type of RD clients can be used with RD Gateway?
• What is the RD Session Broker?
• What was the original role of the RD Session Broker, and what where the names this role used in previous versions of Terminal Services?
• When would you need to implement a RD Session Broker?
• Talk about RD Session Broker and VDI.
• Talk about the entire process of using all RDS components along with RS Session Broker.
• How would you achieve high availability with RD Session Brokers?

Technical Interview Questions - Windows Server 2008/R2 Hyper-V and Virtualization

• What is virtualization (in general)?
• What are the 4 major virtualization areas?
• Describe the major benefits of Server Virtualization.
• What is the difference between hosted virtualization and hypervisor-based virtualization?
• What's the idea behind Type 1 and Type 2 methods of virtualization?
• Talk briefly about the history of Microsoft-based virtualization products.
• What is Hyper-V?
• Name a few competitive products that can be compared (even roughly) with Hyper-V.
• What are the major differences between Hyper-V RTM and Hyper-V R2? Name some of the major differences.
• What are the hardware requirements for Hyper-V?
• How many logical CPUs does Hyper-V R2 support?
• How much RAM can be assigned to VMs in Hyper-V R2?
• What's Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
• Describe the process of installing Hyper-V from scratch on a brand new Dell R710 machine.
• ...
• What types of network connections does Hyper-V allow?
• When building a new Hyper-V host, what would your networking considerations be?
• Why is it important to leave one physical NIC for the host OS?
• Talk about MAC address ranges and potential issues with Hyper-V RTM. How was this solved in R2?
• ...
• What are the different virtual disk options in Hyper-V?
• When considering performance, what type 0f virtual disk would you use?
• What are pass-through disks?
• Talk about hot adding and hot removing disks in Hyper-V R2.
• What are VM snapshots?
• Talk about performance considerations and other "issues" with VM snapshots.
• What's the difference between applying, deleting and reverting to snapshots?
• ...
• Describe the process of creating a new VM from scratch.
• Where does Hyper-V place the files and settings for VMs, by default? How do you change that?
• What are synthetic drivers?
• What are emulated drivers?
• When creating a new VM that'll run Windows Server 2008, what type of NIC would you create?
• Following the previous question, what type of NIC would you create for a WIN PE-based VM? Why?
• Migrating a Windows Server 2003 VM from Virtual Server 2005, what type of NIC would you need to use?
• Creating a new VM, what type of disk controller would you need to use for the VM's system disk?
• ...
• What are Integration Components?
• Talk about certain issues with hosting DCs virtually.
• What are "Enlightened Partitions"?
• What OSs are supported on Hyper-V?
• What types of backups can you use for VMs?
• Talk about performing backups of VMs and VSS.
• How do you export a VM? Mention a couple of methods.
• ...
• Talk about domain membership considerations for Hyper-V hosts.
• Where can you manage Hyper-V hosts from?
• What is RSAT?
• How would you manage Hyper-V from a Windows 7-based machine?
• Talk about permission issues in regards of managing Hyper-V hosts.
• What is AZMAN?
• ...
• Talk about the licensing benefits of Hyper-V under the various editions of Windows Server 2008.
• Wanting to create a failover cluster on 2 Hyper-V nodes in Windows Server 2008 R2, what edition of Windows would you prefer? Why?
• ...
• Talk about Hyper-V-based high availability.
• What's Quick Migration?
• What's Live Migration?
• Talk about downtime issues with Quick Migration vs. Live Migration.
• Talk about the steps needed to be taken in order to setup a Live Migration setup.
• What is CSV?
• Can you create a Live Migration setup without CSV? Explain.
• Mention a few methods for initiating a Live Migration movement of VMs between one host and another.
• ...
• How do you monitor the performance of your VMs?
• How do you know how much memory a specific VM uses?
• How do you know what's the I/O used on a Hyper-V host?
• How do you monitor the bandwidth used by a specific VM?
• Talk about SCVMM, SCOM, SCCM and Hyper-V.
• Talk about WMI and Hyper-V.