DHCP Server provides

 

• · Default gateway address
• · Domain Name
• · Service server addresses
• · WINS server addresses
• · NETBIOS name resolution type

 

Slow Logon windows domain

 

1. Check the DNS settings

2. Check the logon scripts

3. Check the event viewer for any errors, especially GPO’s errors that could be causing delay.

 

Difference between BASIC and DYNAMIC DISK

 

• · Essential difference

Basic Disks use a Partition Table to manage all partitions on the basic disk.

Dynamic Disks use a hidden LDM database to manage all volumes on the dynamic disk.

• · Support for each Windows

Basic Disks is supported by all Windows and include MSDOS, Win95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/

2008/Vista/Windows 7.

Dynamic Disks is supported by Win2000/XP/2003/2008/Vista and Windows 7, but isn’t supported by MSDOS,

Win95/98/Me/NT and Windows XP Home Edition.

• · Change capacity for partitions

Basic Disks once create a partition, you cannot change its capacity, unless use third-party tools.

Dynamic Disks without restarting system expand the capacity of volumes, and don’t loss of data.

• · Disk space limited

Basic Disks, the maximum capacity of a partition (volume) can be limited to 2TB.

Dynamic Disks can well handle the large partition of more than 2TB.

• · The number of partitions

Basic Disks, at most can have 4 the primary partition, and usually the best is 3 primary partitions and 1

extended partition.

Dynamic Disks, you can create unlimited number of partitions.

• · Volumes type

Basic Disks only can create any primary or logical partition.

Dynamic Disks can create simple volume, spanned volume, striped volume, mirrored volume and RAID-5

volume.

• · Mutual convertibility

Basic Disks can easily convert to a dynamic disk without any losing-data. Do not even need to restart the

computer during the conversion.

Dynamic Disks convert to a basic disk, which need to delete all volumes on the dynamic disk, unless use thirdparty tools such as Dynamic Disk Converter.

• · Installation operating system

Basic Disks, any operating system can be installed to a basic disk.

Dynamic Disks, for the moment, all operating system can’t be installed to a dynamic disk.

Similarity

• · Supported file systems

Basic Disks and Dynamic Disks all support FAT, FAT32 and NTFS file systems. May be in individual

operating systems, can not directly create a FAT32 dynamic volume, but after creating a NTFS dynamic

volume, you could re-format it as FAT32.

• · Have a partition table

Dynamic Disks have a partition table too, but this partition table is not the same as one of Basic Disk. Its

main function is to let Windows and Other Partition Manager can know the disk is a dynamic disk

instead of an empty disk.

• · Label and Drive Letter

On Basic Disks and Dynamic Disks, you can set label and assign drive letter for all volumes or partitions

such as “system (C:)”.

• · Adjust partition size for Vista and later OS

Both Basic Disks and Dynamic Disks, you can extend and shrink the partitions (volumes) size, but don’t

move its location for any partitions in Vista/2008 and Windows 7.

• · Convert file system from FAT to NTFS

If your partitions (volumes) are a FAT file system, you could convert FAT (FAT32) to NTFS by using

“convert C: /FS: NTFS” in command line.

 

Server Slow performance Issue

 

1. Troubleshoot recently added software

2. Identify and troubleshoot any malware or virus

3. Run disk cleanup

4. Upgrade memory to improve slow performance

5. Locate startup problems using “msconfig”

6. Defrag HDD

7. Remove unused programs

8. Disconnect unused network connections

 

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 faulttolerant.

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.

 

Active Directory – Types of Event Logs?

 When you use Event Viewer, the event logs are separated into three logs, as follows:

• Application Log: Contains events logged by applications or programs such as Exchange or IIS that are

running on the computer. The developer of an application decides which events to record.

• System Log: Contains events logged by the subsystems and components of the domain controller. For example, if a disk driver has problems or fails, it records the events in the System Log. You can use this log to determine the general availability and uptime of the domain controller.

• Security Log: Records security events, such as when a user successfully logs on or attempts to log on. This log also records events that relate to file access. For example, an event is recorded when a file is created, opened, or deleted. By default, the Security Log can only be seen by systems administrators.

Others: Directory Services, File Replication Services, DNS service, Internet Explorer..

• Directory service log: Contains the events that are generated by AD on the domain controller. You can use this log to monitor activity or investigate any directory problems. By default, the directory records all critical error events.

• DNS server log: Contains the events generated by the DNS service installed on your domain controller. For example, when the DNS service starts or stops, it writes a corresponding event message to this log. More critical DNS events are also logged for example, if the service starts but cannot locate initializing data, such as zones or other startup information stored in the domain controller‘s registry or AD. The DNS log exists only if the DNS service is running on the server. The DNS service typically runs on only a few domain controllers in the forest.

• FRS log: Contains events generated by file replication on the domain controller. FRS is a replication engine used to replicate files among different computers simultaneously. AD uses this service to replicate Group Policy files among domain controllers.

 

AD replicates information in 2 ways

 

Intra site (within site): KCC automatically generates a topology for replication among domain controller. The default time delay is 15min.

Inter site (site to site / between site): site must be manually connected by creating site links. Site link represent network connections and allow replication to occur.

How Replication works?

Replication occurs over standard network protocols, uses change tracking information to prevent unnecessary replication and uses linked value replication to improve efficiency.