Friday, April 11, 2014

Virtualization Jobs- Better to learn more than one hypervisor

These days job requirements for the post of Virtualization admin/engineer are very demanding and after Cloud boom, companies have already started looking for cloud Architect/admin/engineers with DevOps experience. Reason! they want to make a move from static hypervisor environment to dynamic cloud environment or you can say, they want reduce the CAPEX and increase OPEX. So here i am sharing one great post from Joe Sanchez's blog

http://www.vminstall.com/how-to-hack-your-resume/

a really recommend reading above post..

Announcement: VCAP-DCA exam Upgraded

Recently VMware Education upgraded the blueprint of VCAP-DCA exam to ESXi ver 5.5. this is a big step towards aggressively  keeping the certification realm challenging and current with production release. So the employer can have certified admin/engineer before deploying ESXi 5.5 and also there is a huge feature difference between 5.0 and 5.5.

You can download the blueprint from below link
http://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCAP_Blueprints/VCAP5-DCA-Exam-Blueprint-v3_0.pdf

More update on this can be read on below link
http://sostechblog.com/2014/04/07/vcap5-dca-update-for-vsphere-5-5/

Happy weekend..TGIF

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

revisiting Ubuntu LTS Beta release

Remembering old days (not much old, just two years back), when i use to wait for Ubuntu distros, for unleashing new features and new additions. Here, i'm sharing my articles link below:-

http://www.opensourceforu.com/2010/11/ubuntu-1010-maverick-review/

http://www.opensourceforu.com/2011/06/ubuntu-11-04-natty-narwhal-review/

http://www.opensourceforu.com/2011/11/ubuntu-11-10-oneiric-ocelot-review/

So, when i got the news that ubuntu 14.04 LTS Beta 2, i thought of testing it and reviving old days.






VCAP5-DCD objective-Capacity Planning

One of the objective in VCAP5-DCD is Capacity planning. this is the most important building block for implementing right virtualization infrastructure.

Below is link to one of the free e-learning course from mylearn.vmware.com

https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=46564


Another great tool for Capacity planning from VMware is available at below link

Another great blog post about capacity planning from vmfocus.com


a new thread on one of the forum site "your daily VMware Quiz" for preping VCAP-DCD


Friday, March 28, 2014

Internet links of interest

Sharing some interesting links

1)Active directory and failover clustering. Nice article to know about Failover clustering relation with AD
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2014/03/24/failover-clustering-and-active-directory-integration.aspx

2)NIC teaming support for iSCSI on windows 2012
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/03/18/is-nic-teaming-in-windows-server-2012-supported-for-iscsi-or-not-supported-for-iscsi-that-is-the-question.aspx

3)Managing Native Multipathing Plugin(NMP)- very good exam question for VCAP5-DCA
http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/resources/35-esxserver/364-managing-nmp-changing-the-default-psp-for-a-satp-change-from-fixed-to-round-robin

4)VMware now supports more and more application with every release. so here is the link to check, whether your favorite business app is supported
http://www.vmguru.nl/wordpress/2014/03/supported-business-applications-on-the-vmware-platform/

5)New version of VMware Log insight is released-with improvements
http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/2607-Log-Insight-2.0-Beta-Is-Available.html

6)Experience Sharing Article about vCenter upgrade
http://blog.mwpreston.net/2014/03/27/the-ol-vsphere-upgrade-aint-what-she-used-to-be/

7)How VMware tools for Linux Evolved
http://planetvm.net/blog/?p=2621

8)Another Great Post from Wahl network blog about LACP
http://wahlnetwork.com/2014/03/25/avoid-lacp-iscsi-port-binding-multi-nic-vmotion/

9)Subscribe to Micro Nuggets, to get your daily dose of Technology
http://www.cbtnuggets.com/lander/micronuggets

10)New Book released on- Network Diagram using Visio
Download Sample chapter from below Link
https://leanpub.com/network-diagrams-with-visio

See..ya! happy Weekend.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Job interviews and salary negotiation

Current job scenario in india is very bad! IBM india, Thomson reuters, NTT Data, Netapp and so many companies are laying off people these days in Bangalore. But, still i suggest everyone should keep their hopes high and keep searching for new job.

Using Computer Based Tutorials for cracking Interview, but for doing your job perfectly you require hadns-on experience, otherwise you'll end-up screwing production environment.

Sometimes you'll end-up succeeding that server issue..


Sharing Some Interesting Job related articles

1)Negotiating Salary Before Second Round of Interview
http://lifehacker.com/negotiate-your-desired-salary-before-the-second-intervi-1552145678

2)How to not Loose a new Job (awesome read)
http://www.atlredline.com/5-ways-to-lose-a-job-while-accepting-your-job-offer-1550419406

And if you haven't updated your resume yet, please do it now.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

ESXi Host inventory Script-PowerCli

# Setup array with hosts
$vcenters = @(
    "vcenter1.prod.local",
   "vcenter2.prod.local",
   "vcenter3.prod.local",
   "vcenter4.prod.local"
);

$table = New-Object system.Data.DataTable "Results"
$col1 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn EncName,([string])
$col2 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Blade,([string])
#$col3 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Cluster,([string])
$table.columns.add($col1)
$table.columns.add($col2)
#$table.columns.add($col3)
# Store your U&P
$user = "your_admin"
$password = "YourSecret"

function GetInfo(){
foreach($vcenter in $vcenters) {
#lets check and see if we're already connected somewhere
disconnect-viserver -confirm:$false > $NULL 2>&1
# Connect
$SERVER = Connect-VIServer -Server $vcenter -User $user -Password $password > $NULL 2>&1
$ESX = @(get-vmhost| Select Name, ConnectionState, @{N="Cluster";E={Get-Cluster -VMHost $_}}, Version, $global:DefaultVIServer| Sort-Object Name)
foreach ($es in $esx)
{
$row = $table.NewRow()
  $row.EncName = ($es.Name).Remove(7,17)
  $row.Blade = ($es.Name).Substring(8,2)
  #$row.Cluster= (Get-Cluster -vm $vm.Name)
  $table.Rows.Add($row)
}
$table | Format-Table
$ESX | Format-Table -AutoSize
}
}
getinfo
disconnect-viserver -confirm:$false > $NULL 2>&1

Looking back again on Windows troubleshooting

While i was busy studying and working with vmware environment, there is not much windows server troubleshooting time i get. so thought of brushing-up windows troubleshooting skills, as it is also a plus for It admins.

I already have a collection of some RSS feeds and blog links-related to windows troubleshooting.

Sharing the info today with everyone..

1)Advanced Windows troubleshooting and debugging blog

2)Ask Premier Field Engineer blog

3)How to geek blogs Sysinternal tool usage series

4)Windows ConfigMgr 2012 DRS troubleshooting (don't get confused with VMware abbreviation)

Be Social..


Monday, March 24, 2014

Next Target is Pursuing VCAP5-DCD

after successful completion of  VCAP5-DCA, i starting preparing for VCAP5-DCD examination. The Blueprint mentions that there are around 100 questions of various types. this exam is also considered as a tough exam.. let's see what happens. i'm planning to give it during August'14 (VMworld 2014), during that period VMware Education offers 75 % discounts on exams, which results in less burden on pocket.

So, for preparing for exam below URL's is going to help me..
1) vBrownBag VDCD5 video resources-Nick Marshall indexed it very well.

2)Another Blog, which is going to help me is 

3)Another good resource which is not going to help me, but might be in future it will help, when i get my hands-on Nutanix (i love nutanix)

Friday, March 21, 2014

VCAP5-DCA Successfully completed

Today i'm really excited to successfully complete VCAP5-DCA and Now Heading towards my next target VCAP5-DCD...



Thursday, March 20, 2014

Internet links of interest

Hi Folks,

Sharing with you some of the "internet links of interest".

1)VCAP-DCD - 8 weeks series
After Mwpreston.com's 8-weeks VCAP-DCA, now is a time to follow tomverhaeg.nl's 8 weeks VCAP-DCD series.
http://tomverhaeg.nl/8-weeks-of-vcap-dcd/

2)Do you like vCheck reports from vSphere infra? and Hyper-V admins are also looking for some such goodness from their Hyper-V infra? then checkout this entire Ben Armstrong's Series and  powershell script
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2014/03/17/my-daily-hyper-v-status-email-part-1-of-5.aspx

3)Another Hyper-V and Storage series of Articles to follow is
http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/storage-and-hyper-v-part-7-actual-performance/

4)If you're also planning to upgrade from Thick vCenter to VCSA and ESXi 5.1 to 5.5 and looking for some steps and procedures to stay away from upgrade troubles then look out below link
http://lonesysadmin.net/2014/03/17/upgrading-vmware-vcenter-server-appliance-5-5-windows-vcenter-5-1/

5)Really great comparison sheet from Gartner about object storage
http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1R78PJ9&ct=140226&st=sb

6)Want to Virtualize Active Directory, then your wait is over, follow this series for in-depth knowledge on Virtualizing AD.
http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2014/03/17/virtualization-safe-r-active-directory-in-vmware-environments-part-1.aspx

7)Freeware--yes, newest freeware on the block is OneNote 2013 from M$..
http://www.howtogeek.com/185075/microsoft-onenote-is-now-available-for-free-on-all-systems/

8)Free Visio Stencils from Veeam for VMWARE and HYPER-V
http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-stencils.html

9)Cool MS VDI starter kit released for everyone..
http://blogs.technet.com/b/privatecloud/archive/2014/03/19/introducing-virtual-desktop-infrastructure-starter-kit-vdi-sk-preview-part-1.aspx


See..ya

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Linux Command line operation Auditing script

Hi, do you want to log all linux operation in a file for auditing purpose..Yeah

then look below for script

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z "$1" ];
then
        echo "Please input Operation ID !"
        exit
fi

LOGDIR=/LOCATION for SAVING LOG/operation_log_svr/`date +%d`/`date +%m`/`date +%Y`
OPID=$1
echo "Start log for ${OPID} "
echo "Store log at ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}"

test -d ${LOGDIR}         || mkdir -m 2775 ${LOGDIR}
test -d ${LOGDIR}/${OPID} || mkdir -m 2775 ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}

if [ -d ${LOGDIR}/${OPID} ];
then
        while [ -f ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/log.`date +%d%m%Y-%H%M%S` ]
        do
                sleep 1
        done
        script -a ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/log.`date +%d%m%Y-%H%M%S`
        echo "Your log at"
        echo "${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/"
        ls -l     ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/
        echo "================Target List=================="
        for _log in `ls ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/`;do egrep "^Connection to " ${LOGDIR}/${OPID}/${_log};done |sort
else
        echo "Directory not ready !"
        exit
fi

Thursday, March 13, 2014

vSAN GA, ESXi 5.5 U1, PowerCli 5.5 R2 and So many things...

This past week was full of announcements from VMware.

Finally vSAN is GA'ed (Generally Available), after so long community Beta testing and pricing is also announced.

ESXi 5.5 Update 1 with other supporting softwares (vCenter & VCSA) is also released with bugfixes and available for download.

In the meantime, PowerCLI 5.5 R2 also released with many new cmdlets, checkout the release details at below URL:-
http://www.virtu-al.net/2014/03/13/powercli-5-5-r2-released/

Free e-Learning for vCAC App services 6.0 from VMware Education at below URL:-
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=215748

If you want to update your Home Lab/Standalone ESXi to ESXi 5.5 U1, below are the URLs for seeking Help

http://www.tinkertry.com/download-vsphere-5-5-u-1-lab/

http://www.v-front.de/2014/03/issue-after-upgrading-your-vcenter-55.html

One Good Article for Easing your Day-To-Day Tasks

http://www.50mu.net/2014/03/12/how-to-translate-windows-disk-ids-to-storage-arrays-luns/

Another Article on IPv6 Architecture for VMware

http://www.edge-cloud.net/2014/03/architecture-design-vsphere-ipv6/


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Monday, March 10, 2014

VCP-Level certifications now comes with expiry

As you (now) know, that VCP-level certification need to be renewed every two year or move to next level (VCAP), to keep it new. After hearing this news, i had mixed emotions on this.
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=46667&ui=www_cert


If you have mixed emotions too, share in comments..thanks



Friday, March 7, 2014

Basic Tasks GUI PowerCLi script

This script was created for delegating day-to-day tasks to Junior Vmware Admins.-

copy/paste this code and save as .ps1


#Generated Form Function
function GenerateForm {
########################################################################
# Code Generated By: SAPIEN Technologies PrimalForms (Community Edition) v1.0.10.0
# Generated On: 6/20/2013 10:16 AM
# Generated By: ts-harshavardh.gupta
########################################################################

#region Import the Assemblies
[reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("System.Drawing") | Out-Null
[reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("System.Windows.Forms") | Out-Null
#endregion

#region Generated Form Objects
$form1 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
$label3 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$tgt_datastore = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$disconnect_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$eagerzero_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$pvscsi_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$bootdelay_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$IOPS_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$label2 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$tgt_vm = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$Login_btn = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button
$vCenter_txt = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.TextBox
$label1 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label
$InitialFormWindowState = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState
#endregion Generated Form Objects

#----------------------------------------------
#Generated Event Script Blocks
#----------------------------------------------
#Provide Custom Code for events specified in PrimalForms.
$disconnect_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here
#Disconnect from vCenter server
Disconnect-VIServer -Confirm:$false

#Close Form
$form1.close()
}

$IOPS_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here NOW WORKING
$DiskLimitIOPerSecond = 500
# $DiskLimitIOPerSecond = -1 # Unlimited

$vm = Get-VM -Name $tgt_vm.text
$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vm.ExtensionData.Config.Hardware.Device |
 where {$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VirtualDisk]} | %{
  $dev = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
  $dev.Operation = "edit"
  $dev.Device = $_
  $dev.Device.StorageIOAllocation.Limit = $DiskLimitIOPerSecond
  $spec.DeviceChange += $dev
}
$vm.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM_Task($spec)
}

$Login_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here NOW WORKING
if ((Get-PSSnapin "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null) {
Add-PSSnapin "VMware.VimAutomation.Core"
}

#Connect to vCenter
Connect-VIServer $vCenter_txt.Text
}

$handler_label1_Click=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here

}

$eagerzero_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here

}

$bootdelay_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here NOW WORKING
$vm = Get-VM -Name $tgt_vm.text
$BootDelay = 10000
$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$spec.BootOptions = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineBootOptions
$spec.BootOptions.BootDelay = $BootDelay
$vm.Extensiondata.ReconfigVM_Task($spec)
}

$pvscsi_btn_OnClick=
{
#TODO: Place custom script here
#Change scsi to paravirtualized NOW WORKING
$vm = Get-VM -Name $tgt_vm.text
$scsiController = Get-HardDisk -VM $vm | Select -First 1 | Get-ScsiController
Set-ScsiController -ScsiController $scsiController -Type ParaVirtual
}

$OnLoadForm_StateCorrection=
{#Correct the initial state of the form to prevent the .Net maximized form issue
$form1.WindowState = $InitialFormWindowState
}

#----------------------------------------------
#region Generated Form Code
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 204
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 529
$form1.ClientSize = $System_Drawing_Size
$form1.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0
$form1.Name = "form1"
$form1.Text = "Basic Tasks"

$label3.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 26
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 173
$label3.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$label3.Name = "label3"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 88
$label3.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$label3.TabIndex = 11
$label3.Text = "Datastore Name"

$form1.Controls.Add($label3)

$tgt_datastore.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0
$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 114
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 174
$tgt_datastore.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$tgt_datastore.Name = "tgt_datastore"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 153
$tgt_datastore.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$tgt_datastore.TabIndex = 10

$form1.Controls.Add($tgt_datastore)


$disconnect_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 405
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 12
$disconnect_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$disconnect_btn.Name = "disconnect_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 21
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 118
$disconnect_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$disconnect_btn.TabIndex = 9
$disconnect_btn.Text = "Disconnect"
$disconnect_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$disconnect_btn.add_Click($disconnect_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($disconnect_btn)


$eagerzero_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 289
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 171
$eagerzero_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$eagerzero_btn.Name = "eagerzero_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 25
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 83
$eagerzero_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$eagerzero_btn.TabIndex = 8
$eagerzero_btn.Text = "Eager Zeroed"
$eagerzero_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$eagerzero_btn.add_Click($eagerzero_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($eagerzero_btn)


$pvscsi_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 285
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 131
$pvscsi_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$pvscsi_btn.Name = "pvscsi_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 27
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 88
$pvscsi_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$pvscsi_btn.TabIndex = 7
$pvscsi_btn.Text = "PV SCSI"
$pvscsi_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$pvscsi_btn.add_Click($pvscsi_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($pvscsi_btn)


$bootdelay_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 285
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 93
$bootdelay_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$bootdelay_btn.Name = "bootdelay_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 23
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 88
$bootdelay_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$bootdelay_btn.TabIndex = 6
$bootdelay_btn.Text = "Boot Delay"
$bootdelay_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$bootdelay_btn.add_Click($bootdelay_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($bootdelay_btn)


$IOPS_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 285
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 56
$IOPS_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$IOPS_btn.Name = "IOPS_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 88
$IOPS_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$IOPS_btn.TabIndex = 5
$IOPS_btn.Text = "Limit IOPS"
$IOPS_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$IOPS_btn.add_Click($IOPS_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($IOPS_btn)

$label2.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 25
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 56
$label2.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$label2.Name = "label2"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 81
$label2.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$label2.TabIndex = 4
$label2.Text = "VM Name"

$form1.Controls.Add($label2)

$tgt_vm.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0
$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 106
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 56
$tgt_vm.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$tgt_vm.Name = "tgt_vm"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 159
$tgt_vm.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$tgt_vm.TabIndex = 3

$form1.Controls.Add($tgt_vm)


$Login_btn.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 285
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 13
$Login_btn.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$Login_btn.Name = "Login_btn"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 89
$Login_btn.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$Login_btn.TabIndex = 2
$Login_btn.Text = "Login"
$Login_btn.UseVisualStyleBackColor = $True
$Login_btn.add_Click($Login_btn_OnClick)

$form1.Controls.Add($Login_btn)

$vCenter_txt.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0
$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 106
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 14
$vCenter_txt.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$vCenter_txt.Name = "vCenter_txt"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 20
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 162
$vCenter_txt.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$vCenter_txt.TabIndex = 1

$form1.Controls.Add($vCenter_txt)

$label1.DataBindings.DefaultDataSourceUpdateMode = 0

$System_Drawing_Point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$System_Drawing_Point.X = 26
$System_Drawing_Point.Y = 18
$label1.Location = $System_Drawing_Point
$label1.Name = "label1"
$System_Drawing_Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size
$System_Drawing_Size.Height = 16
$System_Drawing_Size.Width = 88
$label1.Size = $System_Drawing_Size
$label1.TabIndex = 0
$label1.Text = "vCenter Server"
$label1.add_Click($handler_label1_Click)

$form1.Controls.Add($label1)

#endregion Generated Form Code

#Save the initial state of the form
$InitialFormWindowState = $form1.WindowState
#Init the OnLoad event to correct the initial state of the form
$form1.add_Load($OnLoadForm_StateCorrection)
#Show the Form
$form1.ShowDialog()| Out-Null

} #End Function

#Call the Function
GenerateForm

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

VMware 2nd Shot Trouble Saga-now ended

As you're aware from my previous blog post, that i'm facing trouble booking exam using 2nd shot voucher code. Complaint reported on feb 26 and i haven't received even a simple acknowledgement from Pearson VUE customer care. Yesterday and today i followed-up with them regarding this issue and there simple answer was "we're following-up with concerned department". IMHO, there is no coordination between VMware Education and Pearson VUE on VMware Advanced certification, because vmware sends the result to candidate, but doesn't update the same to Testing Organisation. After receiving my result, i cross-checked pearson's site for exam result status, it is not changed till date, still saying 'Taken'. which clears everything that and answers all my queries regarding this voucher issue. For this voucher to work, my status must reflect as 'Failed', which is not the case. Very clever VMware education for keeping my result so confidential. However, i got a reply from Pearson Customer care executive on my mail, for the record. in case this matter won't get solved within defined time-period, i can approach VMware/Pearson for compensation, because i took the exam with this belief in my mind that 2nd shot is there to save my *ss. It is like life/accidental insurance policy. Let's see what will happen, i will follow-up again and share the news, that i'm the first person in india to utilize VMware's 2nd shot exam offer (write on comments, if someone else took the title). in the mean time i'm preparing for the vcap exam and found some more useful links.

ESXCLI 5.0
http://paulgrevink.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/mindmapping-the-esxcli-command/

ESXCLI 5.1
http://www.virten.net/2013/03/esxcli-command-mindmap/

UPDATE:- today morning i received a phone call from Pearson vue representative from California and they provided me a different voucher code for booking exam as the advertised code 'ADV103' is not working at all, i don't want to get into technicalities but i'm happy now after receiving and booking the exam. My advice to people in india who are thinking of availing the 2nd shot offer, please call pearson vue support mentioned in my previous post and ask for complaint number and send your result.pdf to them.

Monday, March 3, 2014

VCAP5-DCA Mock Exam Experience

On Sunday i took Mock VCAP5-DCA Lab exam, hosted by Joshua Andrews @sostechblog.com fame.

I requested Joshua using twitter for accessing 'Test Track', this was my first acquaintance with Joshua and he responded very quickly, he is really nice person and very helpful. Supporting VMware community in such a way is really awesome because not everyone has a nice lab and experience in setting-up such troubleshooting scenarios. I really like those tricky scenarios from Joshua, some are really mind-storming. Another thing that i wanted to mention is about 'Test Track' project, which is hosted in VMworld consecutively for some time by Joshua. But, not everyone can experience it firsthand by visiting vmworld (even my company doesn't sponsor me for vmworld 2014).

I want request Joshua and other respective vmware community members for Convincing VMware Education or VMware HOL to host such labs for students/professionals for practicing/troubleshooting such scenario for achieving certification and career advancement.

The Test Track Details can be found out at http://sostechblog.com/2014/02/10/vcap-test-track-connection-information/

Another Great VCAP5-DCA scenario resource is available at http://www.seancrookston.com/blog/2010/10/29/vcap-dca-mock-lab-q1/ there are almost 10 scenarios prepared by Sean.

By doing mind-storming with such scenarios will prepare you for VCAP5-DCA in no time.

Have a happy training.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Redhat VM Inventory PowerCli Script

Here i'm sharing one of the PowerCli script for Inventorying Redhat VMs in my VM environment. use connect-viserver with vcenter and then run this script.

if ( $args.length -ne 1)
{
   echo "Usage: .\rhelinventory.ps1 [filename.csv]"
   echo "Example: .\rhelinventory.ps1 report101.csv"
   exit
}

$table = New-Object system.Data.DataTable "Results"
$col1 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Name,([string])
$col2 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn OS,([string])
$col3 = New-Object system.Data.DataColumn Cluster,([string])
$table.columns.add($col1)
$table.columns.add($col2)
$table.columns.add($col3)

Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Config.GuestFullName -Filter @{"Config.Template" = "false";"Config.GuestId"="rhel*"}| Select-Object @{n="ConfigdGuestFullName"; e={$_.Config.GuestFullName}} | Group-Object -NoElement ConfigdGuestFullName | Sort-Object Name | Format-Table -AutoSize

"Be Patient While Script is running.."

$vms=Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine -Property Name, Config.GuestId -Filter @{"Config.Template" = "false" ; "Config.GuestId" = "rhel*"}|Select Name, @{n="ConfigdGuestId"; e={$_.Config.GuestId}}

foreach ($vm in $vms)
{
$row = $table.NewRow()
  $row.Name = $vm.Name
  $row.OS = $vm.ConfigdGuestId
  $row.Cluster= (Get-Cluster -vm $vm.Name)
  $table.Rows.Add($row)
}

$table | Format-Table

$table | Export-Csv -path $args[0]

Be Social.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

VM/VMX tweaks, View config tool, securing VMware infra and SSh automation

Back to learning/examination mode for cracking the Heavyweight VCAP5-DCA exam in 2nd Attempt. But still have some time lurking over the internet for Virtualization related posts. while browsing through feedly, this particular article caught-up my attention Cheating Could Lead to Better Creativity,i also agreed on this point after reading this article and i recommend this to everyone.

Sharing some of the interesting links for both you and I.

1)VM/VMX Tweaks for disabling "removable hardware icon"-using GPO, Powercli or Manual Editing.
http://www.v-front.de/2014/02/various-ways-to-address-safely-remove.html

http://uszaim.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/script-to-edit-vmx-file-disabling-the-hotaddhotplug-capability-in-esxi/

2)Securing Virtual infrastructure from Attacks and outside threats-very valuable info
http://vsphere-land.com/news/the-importance-of-securing-your-virtual-world.html

3)Automating SSH login locally or through vCenter Client using Plugin and Putty Suite
http://www.virten.net/2014/02/howto-esxi-ssh-public-key-authentication/

http://www.vmdude.fr/en/news-en/sshautoconnect-vcenter-plugin/

4)VMware Labs released a new tool - Horizon View configuration tool
http://labs.vmware.com/flings/horizon-view-configuration-tool

http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/horizonview/VMware_Horizon_View_Configuration_Tool_v1.0_Quick_Start_Guide.pdf

5)Bonus- vSphere Network troubleshooting mindmap
https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9876

Be Social and spread the knowledge.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

VCAP5-DCA failed first attempt, Preparing for 2nd shot

Today i got result (Failed :-( ) from vmware education for VCAP5-DCA exam, taken on 13 Feb 2014, i was preparing for this exam secretly and i was very curious about this exam. i've been reading VCAP-DCA exam takers review/feedback and became more determined towards experiencing this exam myself. Then i thought of improvising VMware 2nd shot exam offer (which valid between Oct'13 till 31 Mar 2014), So, if i failed in my first attempt, i'm still good to go for free 2nd attempt before 31st March 2014. but, take my word this exam is really tough and requires good practical knowledge of deploying/managing/troubleshooting VMware Infrastructures. this exam checks each and everything related to VMware (ESXi, Auto Deploy, Image profile, esxCli, vMA, PowerCLI etc.) list is endless and if you check the blueprint (req. mylearn login) you'll find around 300 things to master before sitting for the exam and i bet, even experienced people will get some gotcha's in this exam. In my opinion every IT exam should be like this (drag & drop, multiple choice, true/false are now old fashioned and easy to crack). but i really respect VMware Education people to come-up with such a great concept for recognizing true VMware Data Center Administration. However my exam experience was really good (yes, there was lag in Lab) but no other issues at all. i got 4 hours 30 minutes (extra 30 min. for non-english country) to complete 26 questions with mixed difficulty and during this period you can't take any break (if you take break for loo or anything, you will loose precious time). Be prepared for holding your hunger, nature call or addiction (smoking, coffee etc.) for 4 hour 30 min. Another thing that need to keep in mind is exam is completely based on ESXi 5.0, so if you're working on ESXi 5.1 or higher, forget that knowledge while preparing/giving this Exam. After hearing my experience, one of my colleague also booked the exam for experiencing the thrilling experience (troubleshooting/configuration marathon). Also Don't take any energy drinks (Gatorade, Monster or Red bull) for passing this exam you don't require wings. Jokes apart, yesterday i started my endeavour to unleash the 2nd shot offer, because getting a perfect time slot for exam is very hard and this particular exam is available on very few Pearson VUE centers (in Bangalore, only 2 centers). Logged into www.pearsonvue.com/vmware selected VCAP5-DCA from list of my pre-approved exams (yes, you need to get prior approval from VMware Education for sitting in advanced level exams) and selected 2 designated center, selected date/time slot available and proceed to checkout. when i inputed the Voucher code for 2nd shot offer "ADV103", website thrown an error.
After getting this error, only option left for is to report the same to Pearson VUE customer care "0008004401837 or +852 3077 4923 from (9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. AEST ) Monday to Friday" and got reference number and emailed them with my Failed result pdf file as attachment  to pvapcustomerservice [at] pearson.com, there SLA for such issues is 2-3 days, now waiting for there reply/resolution. 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Watchout these spaces on the internet

If you're like me, then you definitely keep an eye on blogosphere or internet for technological updates (i'm not talking about new android phone launch). Recently i was reading technet blog, MS technet blog to be precise (i follow Microsoft technology as well), Hyper-V is gaining too much momentum, that is the reason i'm also taking hyper-v version 3 seriously. If you're completely stuck with VMware, you can follow Mike laverick's blog http://www.mikelaverick.com/category/microsoft/ , his blog posts are very interesting  and detailed without Partiallity and another blog which recommed is aidan finn's blog http://www.aidanfinn.com/.

if you want to take plunge into vmware powercli, you can watch out below link from alan renouf's blog for introductory video and forthcoming videos.
http://www.virtu-al.net/2014/02/24/introduction-powercli/

If you like above mentioned blogs and don't forget to cast your vote for "favorite vmware & virtualization blog" http://vsphere-land.com/news/voting-now-open-for-the-2014-top-vmware-virtualization-blogs.html

Top 20 issue reported on vcenter 5.5 (if you implemented in you're production env.)
http://blogs.vmware.com/kb/2014/02/top-20-vcenter-server-5-5-issues.html

http://cormachogan.com/2014/02/25/a-list-of-esxcli-storage-commands-you-cant-live-without/
As you can easily understand from Link above, keep it near you all the time.

have a nice day..

Saturday, February 22, 2014

74-409 Passed

I'm very happy to announce that i successfully passed the exam 74-409, which some people consider tough.
but in my opinion, i would say, my experience was mixed, though some questions are tricky and some are really basic. i  will start from the beginning..As you know i booked my exam on 22 feb 2014, 10 AM. i reached the prometric center at 9:25AM , because 30 min is  required for student on-boarding and prometric center was not open, i called the prometric center phone number, no one picking up. Then i visit prometric website and searched for customer care number, but prometric customer care is available Mon-Fri only, but still you can report a complaint by visiting below URL and clicking on 'register a complaint' link.
https://www.prometric.com/en-us/contact-us/Pages/default.aspx
then i registered my complaint and waited for their return call, but no luck and later at around 10:06 AM, Prometric Center Admin came and opened the center and when i asked him about late opening, he started quarreling with me that every body is Human Being and have some commitments that is the reason he was late and asked me to get photocopy of both identity proofs, i told him that i have given so many exams in prometric and pearson but never took photocopy of my identity proofs. i shown him the rules and regulation for the same from below URL. https://www.prometric.com/en-us/for-test-takers/prepare-for-test-day/frequently-asked-questions/pages/testing-center-regulations.aspx then i thought what is the point in fighting over such issue and calmly went for photocopy. after all this hassle my exam started at around 11:15 AM and when it started i was shocked with only 45 questions and 2 hours. although while booking this free exam allotted time duration was 3 hours 15 min. don't know whether for india they reduced the time and questions or the exam is like that only. please confirm me if that's true for everyone. Some questions were really tricky because this exam is focused towards Hyper-V 2012 R2, but some questions require hyper-v 2008 R2 knowledge as well and don't forget to read DPM, Service Manger, Operation manger and Global Monitor etc. However this exam is free for some time (till vouchers last) and i recommend everyone to take the exam and score good marks (Passing score 700) or if you're not able to score, still you will get good exam experience.

i'm thankful to below bloggers and Microsoft MVA for Invaluable training and resources for helping me prepare for the exam.

1) Study Guide/Blue print from msandbu.wordpress.com
http://msandbu.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/study-resources-74-409-server-virtualization-with-windows-server-hyper-v-and-system-center/

2)Tabular format study guide from bjornhouben.wordpress.com
http://bjornhouben.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/microsoft-preparing-for-free-exam-74-409-server-virtualization-with-windows-server-hyper-v-and-system-center/

3) Canada IT Pro Blog
http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/tags/from+the+ground+up/default.aspx

4)Hyper-V Networking Primer
http://blogs.technet.com/b/cedward/archive/2014/02/22/hyper-v-2012-r2-network-architectures-series-part-1-of-7-introduction.aspx

good luck guys for your upcoming exams..




Friday, February 21, 2014

VCP-Cloud certification Blueprint updated

Recently, VMware Education updated the long holded VCP-Cloud(VCPC550) certification Blueprint. As Per VMware Education website, VCP-Cloud exam will be based on vCAC 5.2 and vCloud Director 5.5.

For downloading Updated blueprint follow the below link:-
https://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCP_Blueprints/VCP-Cloud-Exam-Blueprint-v3_0.pdf

older version of exam is also available i.e. VCPC510 (I passed this exam already and upgraded to VCP-Cloud).

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Free Ebooks available and Discount offers from Packt

Go Grab this book..if you want to learn Network virtualization in Windows world.
Below is the description of book chapters, book is divided into 6 chapter's and is available in three downloadable formats. so hurry-up.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2014/02/19/free-ebook-microsoft-system-center-building-a-virtualized-network-solution.aspx

Direct link to download page.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/nymetro/archive/2014/02/19/new-free-ebook-microsoft-system-center-building-a-virtualized-network-solution.aspx

Another good news is 'PacktPub' is also giving heavy discount "Offer of a Lifetime" on ebooks, so grab your favorite VMware titles and Microsoft titles.

http://www.packtpub.com/books/all?utm_source=inr_pricing&utm_medium=homepageblock&utm_campaign=allbooks

Exam prep is going on very well, i will share my exam experience on the same day.. served fresh.


Monday, February 17, 2014

Progress on Projects At Hand

Progress on Projects at hand-this post is for self evaluation of projects progress, i'm making on bi-weekly basis.

Python Learning Project- Stuck at 57%  :-(
Hyper-V Learning - Steady progress- video tutorial finished, reading material also finished, working on Mock exams -5 days left

That's it, Too much work this week also, and assigned with taking telephonic interviews of  Windows/Linux candidates-sometimes it's very interesting job.

with all this tight schedule i still try to catch-up on my feedly RSS reader for some interesting articles, which i will share with you guys.

1)Compendium for VCAP-DCA exam prep
http://sostechblog.com/2014/02/10/vcap5-dca-links/

2)Wanna Prep for VCAP-DCA Lab yourself-here is the definitive guide for you
http://sostechblog.com/2014/02/07/vcap-test-track-lab-on-a-lap/

3)Awesome Tool from HP for VMware admin-
Detailed coverage of HP one View tool and Follow-up from @wahlnetwork
http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Converged-Infrastructure/Finally-an-integrated-tool-based-on-how-I-work/ba-p/154413

Demo Video-http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/products/infrastructure-management/index.aspx?demo=demos&jumpid=sc_r186_ww/en/led/tsg/HPOneView-social-demos#.UwI2gfmSzij
Follow-up
http://wahlnetwork.com/2014/02/14/hp-oneview/

4)Deep-Dive on VNX and Cisco ASA from thinkahead.com
http://www.thinkahead.com/deep-dive-vnx-pool-design/
http://www.thinkahead.com/cisco-asa-clustering-changing-shape-network-security/

5)Cmdlet 'get-esxcli' usage in PowerCli-good read for powercli enthusiast
http://www.virten.net/2014/02/howto-use-esxcli-in-powercli/

6)"Server for NFS" tweak in windows 2012
http://blogs.technet.com/b/sfu/archive/2014/02/17/read-write-buffer-size-on-windows-2012-for-server-for-nfs.aspx

7)Storage performance optimization  with vBrownbags
http://professionalvmware.com/2014/02/vbrownbag-follow-up-conquering-storage-performance-w-vishal-misra-and-jonathan-klick/
You can sign up for the #vBrownBag at ProfessionalVMware.com.

8)How to Earn money by becoming writer/blogger-Excellent Read for those who want to make career in writing.
http://lifehacker.com/how-i-make-a-living-as-a-writer-and-you-can-too-1525380428

9)VMware VCAP-DCA exam command-line cheat sheet from ivobeerens.nl
https://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/1760890-63894/VMware%20VCAP-DCA%20exam%20command-line%20cheat%20sheet%20v1.0.pdf

10)Tweaks for VPXD.cfg- some are still applicable for newer versions of vCenter server
http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2010/03/13/vpxd-cfg-advanced-configuration/

Have a nice day..


Friday, February 14, 2014

Exclusive Valentine's Day Post

This post is exclusively dedicated to IT Engineers/Administrators who are dedicatedly working and resolving server related issues..on the eve of Valentine's Day..TGIF

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Internet Links of Interest

Todays day was very hectic for me and if tomorrow will be the same, i'm gonna declare this week as hectic week of the month. So much tasks at hand, dexterity at it's fullest level, but still got some pending work for FRY day. But don't worry, i hope your friday will be like TGIF+Valentine Fever for some. Mine Valentine days are already gone, but still i celebrate it with my Production Cluster and FC-SAN, hehehe.

Here are some catchy links that i was able to collect for sharing with you guys..

1) Free Ebooks-anyone wants free M$ ebooks- Powershell Best Practices is my Favorite.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2014/02/11/12-free-ebooks-on-windows-server-2012-r2-windows-8-1-system-center-2012-r2-windows-azure-and-more.aspx#.Uvy0nPmSzig

2)Making your Hyper-V infrastructure more robust and secure.
http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/7-keys-to-hyper-v-security/

Great write-up and really good tips to make your environment safe from prying-eyes..keep off NSA..

3)Linux Primer from HTG- Rsync and IPtables.
http://www.howtogeek.com/175008/the-non-beginners-guide-to-syncing-data-with-rsync/

http://www.howtogeek.com/177621/the-beginners-guide-to-iptables-the-linux-firewall/

4)Storage Migration nightmares..take this URL before sleep.
http://timsvirtualworld.com/2014/02/speeding-up-lun-snapshot-imports-resignaturing/

5)Awesome New avataar of my favorite Reporting tool -vCheck

http://www.virtu-al.net/vcheck-pluginsheaders/vcheck/

6)Book Launch- New Book "Vmware vSphere Resource Management Essentials"
http://www.packtpub.com/vmware-vsphere-resource-management-essentials/book

Hope above mentioned Links will ease your work...Njoy


Monday, February 10, 2014

FAIQ-Microsoft Hyper-V Interview Questions

Microsoft Hyper-V is also giving neck-to-neck competition to VMware and corporate's are rapidly adopting dual hypervisor strategies, that is the reason to start learning another hypervisor. being bi-lingual will help you in standing-out from the crowd.

1.What is virtualization (in general)?
Ans.

2.What are the 4 major virtualization areas?
Ans.

3.Describe the major benefits of Server Virtualization.
Ans.

4.What is the difference between hosted virtualization and hypervisor-based virtualization?
Ans.

5.What's the idea behind Type 1 and Type 2 methods of virtualization?
Ans.

6.Talk briefly about the history of Microsoft-based virtualization products.
Ans.

7.What is Hyper-V?
Ans.

8.Name a few competitive products that can be compared (even roughly) with Hyper-V.
Ans.

9.What are the major differences between Hyper-V RTM and Hyper-V R2? Name some of the major differences.
Ans.

10.What are the hardware requirements for Hyper-V?
Ans.

11.How many logical CPUs does Hyper-V R2 support?
Ans.

12.How much RAM can be assigned to VMs in Hyper-V R2?
Ans.

13.What's Microsoft Hyper-V Server?
Ans.

14.Describe the process of installing Hyper-V from scratch on a brand new machine.
Ans.

15.What types of network connections does Hyper-V allow?
Ans.

16.When building a new Hyper-V host, what would your networking considerations be?
Ans.

17.Why is it important to leave one physical NIC for the host OS?
Ans.

18.Talk about MAC address ranges and potential issues with Hyper-V RTM. How was this solved in R2?
Ans.

19.What are the different virtual disk options in Hyper-V?
Ans.

20.When considering performance, what type 0f virtual disk would you use?
Ans.

21.What are pass-through disks?
Ans.

22.Talk about hot adding and hot removing disks in Hyper-V R2.
Ans.

23.What are VM snapshots?
Ans.

24.Talk about performance considerations and other "issues" with VM snapshots.
Ans.

25.What's the difference between applying, deleting and reverting to snapshots?
Ans.

26.Describe the process of creating a new VM from scratch.
Ans.

27.Where does Hyper-V place the files and settings for VMs, by default? How do you change that?
Ans.

28.What are synthetic drivers?
Ans.

29.What are emulated drivers?
Ans.

30.When creating a new VM that'll run Windows Server 2008, what type of NIC would you create?
Ans.

31.Following the previous question, what type of NIC would you create for a WIN PE-based VM? Why?
Ans.

32.Migrating a Windows Server 2003 VM from Virtual Server 2005, what type of NIC would you need to use?
Ans.

33.Creating a new VM, what type of disk controller would you need to use for the VM's system disk?
Ans.

34.What are Integration Components?
Ans.

35.Talk about certain issues with hosting DCs virtually.
Ans.

36.What are "Enlightened Partitions"?
Ans.

37.What OSs are supported on Hyper-V?
Ans.

38.What types of backups can you use for VMs?
Ans.

39.Talk about performing backups of VMs and VSS.
Ans.

40.How do you export a VM? Mention a couple of methods.
Ans.

41.Talk about domain membership considerations for Hyper-V hosts.
Ans.

42.Where can you manage Hyper-V hosts from?
Ans.

43.What is RSAT?
Ans.

44.How would you manage Hyper-V from a Windows 7-based machine?
Ans.

45.Talk about permission issues in regards of managing Hyper-V hosts.
Ans.

46.What is AZMAN?
Ans. AzMan (Authorization Manager) was the tool of choice for managing specific virtual machine functions (Shut Down, etc.). AzMan was deprecated in 2012 and no longer works for Hyper-V Server 2012 R2. The MMC console and the XML file for Hyper-V are still there, but they won’t control Hyper-V Server 2012 R2. If you’re using 2012 or earlier and want to work with AzMan, this is the document that you want. I would recommend not getting too attached, since AzMan has reached the end of the road.

47.Talk about the licensing benefits of Hyper-V under the various editions of Windows Server 2008.
Ans.

48.Wanting to create a failover cluster on 2 Hyper-V nodes in Windows Server 2008 R2, what edition of Windows would you prefer? Why?
Ans.

49.Talk about Hyper-V-based high availability.
Ans.

50.What's Quick Migration?
Ans.

51.What's Live Migration?
Ans.

52.Talk about downtime issues with Quick Migration vs. Live Migration.
Ans.

53.Talk about the steps needed to be taken in order to setup a Live Migration setup.
Ans.

54.What is CSV?
Ans.

55.Can you create a Live Migration setup without CSV? Explain.
Ans.

56.Mention a few methods for initiating a Live Migration movement of VMs between one host and another.
Ans.

57.How do you monitor the performance of your VMs?
Ans.

58.How do you know how much memory a specific VM uses?
Ans.

59.How do you know what's the I/O used on a Hyper-V host?
Ans.
60.How do you monitor the bandwidth used by a specific VM?
Ans.

61.Talk about SCVMM, SCOM, SCCM and Hyper-V.
Ans.

62.Talk about WMI and Hyper-V.
Ans.

However, I was able to accumulate only 62 questions, but Hyper-V is not at all limited to above questionnaire. It is so vast and ever expanding, so please take above set of interview questions as an example ONLY and don't limit your knowledge to above mentioned questions. 

While creating today's blog entry, I got acquainted with a site www.techiebird.com, this site is great and focuses only on interview preparation, and it is not at all limited to Windows platform, but also caters virtualization, linux, network, SQL and Exchange.Disclaimer- Don't held me responsible, if you fail any Hyper-V interview, after reading above questions. Also, refer Microsoft Technical Documentation for updated and correct information.


Thursday, February 6, 2014

FAIQ-Windows/Active Directory Interview Questions

As promised yesterday, here is the first lot of Questions.

1. What are fine grained policies in Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. Fine Grained Policies help administrators to specify different sets of policies for different users or groups. In earlier versions of Windows, operating systems only allowed administrators to assign group policies on Site, Domain or Organizational Unit level. With the release of Windows Server 2008 RTM/R2, feature of fine grained policies is introduced which allows administrators to assign policies on per-user or per-group basis.

2. Name the two built-in GPOs that arc by default created when AD DS is installed.
Ans. The two built-in GPOs are Default Domain Policy and Default Domain Controller Policy.

3. What is the difference between Default Domain Policy and Default Domain Controller Policy?
Ans. Default Domain Policy is applied throughout the domain and is effective on every object and organizational unit that a domain contains. On the other hand, Default Domain Controller Policy is linked only to Domain Controllers organizational unit and is applicable to all domain controllers that reside in that OU.

4. What are the two ways of deploying software through group policies?
Ans. Two ways to deploy software applications through group policies are:
a) Assigned (Computer Configuration and User Configuration): In this type of deployment applications automatically get installed as soon as computer starts or user logs on.
b) Published (User Configuration): In this deployment type users must manually install available applications by going to Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel of client computers.

5. What is the difference between assigning an application and publishing an application in Group Policy?
Ans. While deploying software applications through group policies, when the deployment type is set as assigned, applications automatically get installed as soon as the computers start or the users log on. On the other hand when the deployment type is set as published, users must go to Control Panel and must manually install the applications before they can use them.

6. What command is used to add client computers to a specific DHCP User Class?
Ans. IPCONFIG /SetClassID is the command that administrators must use on all client computers to add them to a specific DHCP User Class.

7. Which command line utility is used to administer Windows SharePoint Services?
Ans. Stsadm.exe is the command line utility that is used to administer Windows SharePoint Services (WSS).

8. What is Windows PowerShell?
Ans. Windows PowerShell was introduced with the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 RTM and is now carried forward to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Windows PowerShell provides CLI or Command Line Interface in which users and administrators can run commands. Moreover Windows PowerShell is a scripting platform which administrators can use to create and execute scripts to automate administrative tasks.

9. What are Starter GPOs?
Ans. A Starter GPO contains Administrative templates. Starter GPOs can be configured with the settings which administrators want to preconfigure while creating Group Policy Objects (GPOs). When administrators create GPOs they must configure every created GPO right from the scratch and some GPOs must have identical settings to be configured. Without Starter GPOs this would have been a tedious task. Starter GPOs allow administrators to configure identical settings just once and then the Starter GPOs can be called while creating GPOs.

10. Being an Administrator of DATACORP.COM you have configured a GPO named Desktop Lock that has following settings:
a) Remove Add or Remove Programs
b) Restrict Access to Control Panel
c) Prevent changing desktop wallpaper
You want to link it to an OU named Datacorp Users which also contains a child OU named Executives. What will you do to prevent Executives OU from inheriting settings from DesktopLock GPO?
Ans. A Parent Organizational Unit (OU) can contain multiple Child OUs. By default, when a GPO is linked to a parent OU its child OUs automatically inherit the settings. To prevent the settings from being inherited by child OUs, inheritance on child OUs must be blocked by the administrators manually.

11. You are an administrator at DATACORP.COM. For security reasons, you want that users cannot plug any USB or removable devices to the computers. What appropriate action you should take to do so?
Ans. A separate GPO in which removable and plug and play devices are restricted must be created and linked to the domain using Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). Furthermore, this GPO must be enforced by right clicking on the GPO and clicking Enforced option so that even if some OUs have been configured to block inheritance, this group policy setting still becomes applicable on them.

12. In which condition you are required to configure Loopback Policy Processing?
Ans. When an Organizational Unit (OU) is linked to the Group Policy Object (GPO) that has been configured with both User Configuration and Computer Configuration and administrators want that if a particular computer is shared in public places, such as reception area, only Computer Configuration takes precedence irrespective of the user account that logs on to the computer. In such cases Loopback Policy Processing is used which enforces Computer Configuration of the GPO to be applied on the publicly shared computer.

13. You want to install Microsoft Word 2007 on all your client computers in the network. How would you accomplish the task with least administrative overhead?
Ans. Installing MS Office package on every client computer individually would be a tedious task. In such case administrators must use Group Policies to deploy the package domain wide. They can choose either Published or Assigned mode to accomplish the task.

14. Why do we need to configure Disk Quota?
Ans. In complex production environments many times administrators configure roaming user pro-files and they configure user files to be saved on a centrally located file server. In order to re-strict and limit users from occupying large disk spaces, administrators mostly configure Disk Quotas so that users can only utilize the hard disk spaces that administrators manually assign to them.

15. What is the difference between Hard Quota and Soft Quota?
Ans. When administrators assign disk quotas they can choose any one of the two available options. They can either restrict users from saving files on the quota enabled volumes if they exceed their quota limits or they can allow users to continue saving their files even if their quota limits exceed, but with warning messages. When administrators restrict users from saving files on quota enabled volume this is known as Hard Quota and when users are allowed to save files even if the quota limit expires this is known as Soft Quota.

16. What is a Witness Disk?
Ans. Witness Disks are the shared volumes that contain copies of cluster configuration databases. In Windows Server 2003, Witness Disks were known as Quorum Disks. These disks are connected as a central storage media for the servers that participate as members of the cluster.

17. Which editions of Windows Sever 2008 R2 support failover clustering?
Ans. Only Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 support  Failover clustering.

18. What is Volume Shadow Copy?
Ans. Volume Shadow Copy is a feature integrated in Microsoft Windows operating systems that allows administrators to capture snapshots of the data which can be restored in case actual data is lost. Administrators must manually enable Volume Shadow Copy feature for each volume individually.

19. What is Bare Metal restore?
Ans. Bare Metal Restore is a technique through which administrators can restore all backed up data in a fresh machine that has no Operating System or software installed.

20. What is the command line tool used to performing an Active Directory authoritative restore?
Ans. Ntdsutil command is used to perform authoritative restore.

21. How can you perform a Non-Authoritative Restore?
Ans. Non-Authoritative Restore can be performed by navigating Windows Server backup console or by typing Wbadmin.exe on command line.

22. What is the main benefit of restoring Active Directory using Installation from Media (IFM) process?
Ans. With the help of Installation from Media (IFM) process, when an Active Directory is restored on a Windows Server 2008 R2 computer from a backup, it remarkably reduces administrator's overhead which they would otherwise have to face if they had to install Active Directory Domain Services on a bare metal machine and wait for replication to get all configuration and settings.

23. As an administrator of DATACORP.COM you need to create 200 domain user accounts. How will you complete the task with least administrative overhead?
Ans. As an administrator I shall create PowerShell or VBScripts to automate user creation task. In order to accomplish this, I will create a .ps1 file that will contain command to create user accounts. Once the file is created I will call it in PowerShell interface by using

24. Which command is used to manage SYSVOL replication when Forest Functional Level is Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. DFSRadmin.exe command is used to manage SYSVOL replication in Windows Server 2008  R2 when Forest Functional Level is raised to Windows Server 2008 R2. DFSR is also used during Active Directory replication. In legacy versions of Windows Network Operating Systems, File Replication Services (FRS) was used.

25. Which command-line utility is used to perform initial configuration of WDS (Windows Deployment Services) Server in Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. Wdsutil is the command-line utility through which we can configure WDS (Windows Deployment Services) Server.

26. Which command is used to enable Active Directory Recycle Bin feature in Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. We can type the following command in Windows Powershell module:
Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity <ADOptionalFeature> -Scope <ADOptionalFeatureScope> -Target <ADEntity>.
For ex-, if we want to enable Active Directory Recycle bin for mydomain.com domain, we should type:
Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity 'CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=contoso,DC=com' -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet -Target 'contoso.com'

27. What does OOBE command do?
Ans. When Windows Server 2008 R2 is installed, the very first window that appears on the screen is Initial Configuration Tasks. After administrators have configured their servers with appropriate settings they can disable the initialization of this window at every start up. However if because of any reason they still want to access this window they can type in Out-Of-Box Experience (OOBE) command in the search box or Run command box to initiate it.

28. Which command line tool is used to troubleshoot DNS server?
Ans. Nslookup command is used to troubleshoot DNS server from command line.

29. Through which command we can convert a Security Policy into a Group Policy Object (GPO)?
Ans. Scwcmd.exe transform command converts a Security Policy into a GPO.

30. Which command is used to update Group Policy settings on a client computer?
Ans. Gpupdate.exe or gpupdate /force command can be executed in the elevated command prompt on the client computer.

31. Which command is used to manage DNS server from command line?
Ans. Dnscmd command can be used to manage DNS server from command line utility.

32. Which command is used to renew an IP address assigned by DHCP server?
Ans. In order to renew dynamic IP address assigned by DHCP server ipconfig /renew command must be executed from the elevated command prompt.

33. Which command you must use to deploy Read Only Domain Controller (RODC)?
Ans. Although deployment of Read Only Domain Controller (RODC) can be made simpler through GUI, adprep /rodcprep command can be used to create RODC through command line interface.

34. Why do we initiate ipconfig /flushdns command?
Ans. It clears DNS cache from the client computers.

35. What is Global Names Zone?
Ans. GlobalNames Zone is a new feature introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 which allows single label (NetBIOS) name resolution. This feature is introduced to replace WINS, hence completely eliminating its requirement.

36. Name the scopes available for DNS Zone replication in Active Directory infrastructure.
Ans. There are four scopes where DNS Zones can be replicated in Active Directory infrastructure: a) To all DNS servers in the Active Directory Forest b) To all DNS servers in the Active Directory Domain c) To all domain controllers in an Active Directory Domain d) To all domain controllers specified in the scope of the following application directory partition (Custom list required)

37. What are Name Servers?
Ans. Name Server is a dedicated computer that is responsible to resolve DNS queries initiated by client computers. Sometimes DNS server is also referred as Name Server.

38. What is the use of LMhosts file?
Ans. Lmhost file is used to resolve NetBIOS names to their respective IP addresses. IP addresses must be manually specified in the Lmhost file.

39. Why should you configure alternate DNS server address?
Ans. In medium or large-scale industries administrators mostly deploy multiple DNS servers so that if one server fails entire network does not get affected because of lack of name resolution system. In such scenarios administrators specify preferred and alternate DNS server addresses to the client computers so that if because of any reason preferred DNS server fails to resolve the query, the query can be sent to the alternate DNS server for name resolution.

40. What are the DNS zone transfer options available in the Zone Transfers tab in Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. There are three options available in the Zone Transfers tab.
a) To any server
b) Only to servers listed on the Name Server Tab
c) Only to the following servers (Custom list of DNS server must be specified).

41. What is the newly added feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 which allows client computers to verify the authenticity of the DNS record?
Ans. DNSSEC is the feature which checks the integrity of DNS query responses through public key technologies.

42. What is the use of cache.dns file and where it is found?
Ans. Cache.dns file stores DNS cache which is used by DNS server to resolve names over intemet. It contains the list of available internet root servers. It can be located in %systemroot%\system32 DNS directory.

43. What is BIND in DNS?
Ans. Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) is a means of transferring zone data that is used by UNIX based operating systems because they do not use fast transfer format. When Windows based computers perform zone transfer to UNIX based operating systems BIND is used. This option is enabled by default.

44. What is the difference between Forward Lookup and Reverse Lookup Zone?
Ans. Forward lookup zone is configured to resolve Fully Qualified Domain Names to IP addresses whereas Reverse lookup zone is configured to resolve IP addresses to Fully Qualified Domain Names.

45. In which condition can we store a DNS zone in Active Directory?
Ans. In any active directory oriented network infrastructure when an active directory domain controller also plays a role of DNS server, by default DNS database is stored in Active Directory database. This default DNS configuration is known as DNS integrated zone.

46. What is the difference between basic disk and dynamic disk?
Ans. One of the major differences between basic disks and dynamic disks is that dynamic disks can be used to implement Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAIDs) and are mostly used in production environments whereas normal disk types are mostly used in home environments. When an operating system is installed on a hard disk drive by default it is set as a basic disk. Administrators must manually convert basic disks to dynamic disks.

47. What is the difference between Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Direct Attached Storage (DAS)?
Ans. Network Attached Storage devices are those that are not directly connected to the computers and are centrally located and connected to the network. In such cases data is backed up and stored on these devices as per the schedule which remarkably reduces administrators' overhead that they would otherwise have to face if the devices were connected locally. These devices are helpful when there are multiple file servers and domain controllers in the network. Direct Attached Storage devices are the ones that are directly connected to the computers and backups are stored on them. These devices are useful when there is only one or maximum two file servers or domain controllers in a network.

48. What do you understand by Network Load Balancing Cluster?
Ans. Network Load Balancing or NLB is a cluster configuration that allows administrators to equally balance the load of traffic among all the members in a cluster. With the help of NLB, queries are distributed among the servers of a cluster on round robin basis. For example if there are three servers in a cluster namely A, B and C first query will be sent to server A. second to server B and third to server C. When the cluster receives fourth query it will be sent to server A and so on.

49. What is SMB?
Ans. Server Message Block or SMB is a protocol that is used to provide access to the shared resources located at the file servers. Sometimes SMB is also known as Common Internet File System or CIFS. SMB is an application layer protocol.

50. Why offline files are important?
Ans. Offline files are important if an organization has multiple users who work on part time basis and their job includes working from homes as well. In such cases administrators configure off-line files so that these mobile users can save cached copies of the files on their local machines on which they can work even when they are not connected to the office network

51. What are RAID volumes?
Ans. RAID volumes arc the hard disk drives that are logically bundled together to work as a single entity so as to provide fault tolerance and additional storage capacity. In order to implement RAIDs, hard disks must be converted to dynamic disk types.

52. What is Network File System (NFS)?
Ans. Network File System (NFS) is a protocol used to access shared resources efficiently. When any object or resource is accessed from a remote location, because of NFS the operating system looks at the remote entities as local objects or resources stored on a local storage media.

53. What is Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV)?
Ans. Cluster Shared Volumes is a feature which is introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 and is used in conjunction with Hyper-V. With the help of this feature administrators can access multiple virtual hard disk files from all cluster nodes simultaneously. 

54. What is dynamic routing?
Ans. When entries in routing table are managed through protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP) or Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) the process is known as dynamic routing. When dynamic routing is configured, routers automatically choose best path to forward packets to their destinations.

55. What do you understand by NAT?
Ans. Network Address Translation or NAT is the process through which, in most cases, a single public IP address is shared among multiple computers on a local area network that have been assigned with the private IP addresses by the administrators.

56. What is OSI reference model?
Ans. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model was first developed by the International Standard Organizations in early 1980's. It was designed to allow communication between two computers efficiently and in a secure way. The OSI reference model defines the process of how data should be transferred between two networking devices of different vendors. According to OSI reference model, data that is transferred between two computers or networking devices is manipulated on all its seven layers accordingly.

57. How many layers does OSI reference model contain?
Ans. OSI reference model has seven layers in all, namely:
a) Physical Layer
b) Data Link Layer
c) Network Layer
d) Transport Layer
e) Session Layer
f) Presentation Layer
g) Application Layer

58. What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
Ans. TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol and is connection oriented which means that it verifies if the destination computer is connected before it starts sending the packets. UDP or User Datagram Protocol on the other hand is connectionless protocol that sends packets to the destination computer without checking the connection state.

59. How many layers does TCP/IP Protocol Stack contain?
Ans. TCP/IP Protocol Stack contains lout layers, namely Application, Transport, Internet and Network

60. Routers function at which layer of OSI reference model?
Ans. Since routers mostly deal with IP addresses, they function at third layer of OSI reference model.

61. What are routing protocols?
Ans. Routing protocols are the protocols that help routers communicate with each other and share their routing tables.

62. What are port numbers?
Ans. Port numbers are the logical gates identified by numeric characters. These logical gates are used when a computer receives or sends information. Because of port numbers computers accept or deny the packets depending on the configuration in the firewalls or routers. For example if an administrator has blocked port number 23 on a router, it cannot accept telnet requests whatsoever.

63. Name the types of wireless topologies.
Ans. There are two wireless topologies that can be used while establishing WLAN infrastructure, namely Ad-hoc and Infrastructure.

64. What do you understand by the term VLAN?
Ans.VLAN or Virtual LAN is a term and configuration mostly used in Cisco platforms. With the help of VLAN, a managed LAN switch is divided into multiple logical switches. Technically every LAN port of a switch has its own broadcast domain. VLANS are mostly configured in large production environment and where multiple subnets are deployed by the administrators.

65. What is the difference between network and subnet?
Ans. Network can be considered a container for single or multiple subnets of different IP address ranges whereas a subnet is a part of a network that has a specific IP address range. For example a network may have an IP address 192.168.0.0/26 and 192.168.0.0. 192.168.0.63/26 is a subnet in the network.

66. What is the major difference between Tracert and Pathping command?
Ans. Tracert is a tool that is used to determine the route of the packets. It only gives the information about the routers (hops) through which the packet passes to reach its destination. On the other hand, Pathping not only traces the route but also shows the time taken by the packets sent to each hop (router), hence checking the connection state as well. It gives complete information about the number of packets which are dropped and also about the packets that successfully reached their destinations.

67. What is the difference between Multicast and Broadcast?
Ans. Multicast is the process in which a message is transmitted to a group or set of computers whereas in Broadcast the message is transmitted to all computers.

68. Which protocol does IPv4 use to resolve broadcast addresses into Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of NICs?
Ans. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to resolve broadcast addresses into MAC addresses.

69. You want to promote one of your Windows Server 2008 R2 machine as a Domain Controller. Which command you will type to do so?
Ans. You can initiate this process by adding the Active Directory Domain Services server role to the server and then you can execute DCPromo command. Alternatively you can type DCPROMO.EXE command directly in the Run command box to kick start AD DS installation wizard.

70. Which command would you use to add or remove roles in Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core?
Ans. Ocsetup.exe command is used to add or remove roles in Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core Edition except for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), which is added by using Dcpromo.exe command.

71. You are the Administrator of a company named DATACORP.COM. It contains Windows Server 2008 R2 promoted as a Domain Controller and configured as Global Catalog (GC) which also holds all five operation master roles. You have also deployed another Domain Controller in your domain. However, it is not configured as GC. What Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) Role should you transfer to the non-GC domain controller?
Ans. Infrastructure Master Role must be transferred to the non-GC domain controller. This step is mandatory because if Infrastructure Master and Global Catalog remain on the same server, Infrastructure Master would not update NTDS.dit file when GC updates itself. This role transfer step is not necessary if there is only one Domain Controller in the network.

72. What are the pre-requisites to add a computer to the domain?
Ans. A computer must have physical connection to the network, it must have IP address and appropriate DNS address assigned to it, user who wishes to add the computer to a domain must have administrative privileges on the local computer and must have any domain user account credentials for domain authentication while adding. 

73. What is pre-staging? 
Ans. Pre-staging means a computer account is manually created in a domain before the client computer is actually added to it. This helps administrators place computer accounts in the desired OU and apply appropriate group policies on them. 

74. How many types of Operation Master Roles are there in a forest? 
Ans. There are five Operation Master Roles in an Active Directory forest and are divided in two main categories. 
a) Forest Wide Roles: 
i) Schema Master: Schema Master is responsible for the changes that are made to the schema of the forest. 
ii)Domain Naming Master: Domain Naming Master is responsible for adding or removing domains in the forest. It also checks if any domain name already exists in the forest while creating a new domain. 
b) Domain Wide Roles: 
i) PDC Emulator: Primary Domain Controller (PDC) Emulator is responsible for password updates, time synchronization and manages Group Policy updates within a Domain. 
ii) RID Master: RID (Relative ID) Master is responsible for issuing Security Identifiers (SIDs) for the objects in the domain. SIDs are issued by RID Master in the lot of 500. 
iii) Infrastructure Master: Infrastructure Master maintains the records of modifications of the groups or users of other domains in the forest. 

75. How many types of Active Directory partitions are there? 
Ans. Active Directory has four partitions namely: 
a) Domain Partition: Contains information about all the domain objects including Users, Groups, Published Folders, etc. 
b) Schema Partition: It maintains records for all attributes of all object classes forest wide. 
c) Application Directory Partition: Creates and manages active directory replication topologies it also maintains records for DNS replication scopes. 
d) Configuration Partition: Maintains and manages the logical structure of the forests. Logical structure may include structures of domains, etc. Configuration partition also contains information about physical structure such as subnets, sites, etc. 

76. In which case you should enable Universal Group Membership Caching (UGMC) in a site? 
Ans. When a domain or forest is expanded at distant geographical locations multiple sites are created and configured accordingly. It is recommended that Global Catalog server must be present in every site but sometimes if the two branches are connected to each other via slow WAN link, synchronization between two Global Catalog servers consumes a decent amount of time and Internet bandwidth. To avoid such situations Universal Group Membership Caching should be enabled on the servers located at branch offices which can then cache the information of Global Catalog server present in the main branch. 

77. How many Forest Functional Levels does Windows Server 2008 R2 have? 
Ans. Windows Server 2008 R2 has four Forest Functional Levels as written below: 
a) Windows 2000: This FFL must be configured on Windows Server 2008 R2 if the forest contains Domain Controllers that run Windows 2000 Servers, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. 
b) Windows Server 2003: This FFL must be configured if Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controller is to be installed in the forest that already has domain controllers that run Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. 
c) Windows Server 2008: This FFL can be configured when the forest has existing Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers. 
d) Windows Server 2008 R2: This FFL can be used if the forest has existing Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers only. This can also be configured if administrators plan to use Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems only for future expansions. 

78. Which Operation Master role is responsible for time synchronization and password changing? 
Ans. PDC Emulator is the Operation Master Role in Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory infrastructure that is responsible for time synchronization and password changes. 

77. What do you understand by the term Certificate Revocation? 
Ans.Certificate Revocation is when a certificate is either expired or is revoked manually by the ad. ministrators because of inappropriate acts initiated by the users. When a certificate is revoked its information is updated in Certificate Revocation List or CRL. 

78. What is the function of Infrastructure Master Role? 
Ans. Infrastructure Master regularly communicates with Global Catalog server on the network and updates itself with the latest partial information of the objects located in other domains. If there are multiple domain controllers present in a network, server holding Infrastructure Master role must not be the same computer that is also a Global Catalog server. 

79. What is symmetric encryption? 
Ans. Symmetric encryption is the encryption method where same encryption key is used to encrypt and decrypt data. 

80. What is Asymmetric encryption? 
Ans. Asymmetric encryption is the process of encryption where a key pair is used to encrypt or decrypt data. In asymmetric encryption type public and private keys are used for encryption and decryption and information encrypted using public key can only be decrypted using the corresponding private key and vice versa. 

81. What do you understand by single sign on (SSO)? 
Ans. Single Sign On or SSO is a feature that administrators use to allow users to access objects on different domains or forests without providing credentials every time they access them. Active Directory Federation Services or ADFS must be installed to configure SSO. Example may include some sites that also allow users to logon using Facebook credentials. 

82. What do you understand by Network Device Enrollment Service (NDES)? 
Ans. Network Device Enrollment Service is a service through which Routers and Switches can also be a part of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). It uses a protocol known as Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) developed by Cisco which helps devices and users to auto-enroll digital certificates for authentication purposes. 

83. What is the difference between trusted domain and trusting domain? 
Ans. A trusting domain is the one that allows users from trusted domains to access its objects whereas trusted domains are the ones users of which are allowed to access the objects that reside in trusting domains. By default two-way trust is automatically established between the two domains that reside in a single Active Directory forest. 

84. What is a pre-shared key? 
Ans. Pre-shared key is a numeric and alphanumeric key combination that is stored in clear text (unencrypted format) and is used to pair or authenticate two devices before actual communication takes place between them. In most production environments use of pre-shared key is not at all recommended however it can be used for testing purposes. 

85. What is Integrated Windows Authentication? 
Ans. Integrated Windows Authentication is a process through which Microsoft products use Windows user accounts to allow access to the users. Integrated Windows Authentication is mostly used in IIS where credentials of active directory user accounts are used. 

86. What are bridgehead servers? 
Ans. A Bridgehead server is a dedicated domain controller in every site that communicates with the bridgehead server of other site for active directory replication. 

87. What is the function of Key Recovery Agent (KRA)? 
Ans. While encrypting files or folders encryption keys are used. Encryption keys are also used to decrypt files or folders when users need access to them. If because of any reason encryption keys are lost encrypted files or folders become permanently inaccessible. To avoid these situations Key Recovery Agents or KRAs are configured which are capable of recovering the lost encryption keys. 

88. What is Client Certificate Authentication method? 
Ans. Client Certificate Authentication is a method that enables Web-based Client computers to verify themselves on the Web servers. In this method client computers are authenticated by the Web server through the security certificate installed on them. Certificates are issued to the client computers either by local or third-party trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs), e.g. VeriSign.

89. What is Selective Authentication?
Ans. Selective Authentication is the feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 which, when enabled, allows administrators to specify which user accounts are authorized to access shared resources from other forests while establishing trust relationships between them.

90. What is a trust?
Ans. In an active directory forest, trust is when two domains or forests allow users from other domains or forests to access their objects. In an active directory forest, if there are multiple domains, a two-way trust is automatically established between the domains. If an organization has multiple forests, administrators must manually establish trusts between them.

91. What are the prerequisites for deploying AD FS (Active Directory Federation Services)?
Ans. Each participating active directory forest must have the following prerequisites for deploying AD FS:
a) Domain Controller = 1
b) Member server hosting internal AD FS = 1
c) Member server hosting AD FS proxy server = 1
d) Microsoft SQL Server 2005 = 1

92. What is the use of Active Directory Recycle Bin in Windows Server 2008 R2?
Ans. Active Directory Recycle Bin is the new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2. It allows administrators to recover Active Directory objects when they are deleted accidentally.

93. What is Distinguished Name?
Ans. Distinguished Name is a combination of strings and attributes, mainly used by LDAP for recognizing LDAP objects. It is a sequence of Relative Distinguished Names (RDN), which is separated by commas. An e.g. of Distinguished Name is DN = CN=John,OU=Sales,DC=Abc,DC=Com where CN=John, OU=Sales, DC=Abc and DC=Com are individual RDNs for above DN.

94. What is Auto Enrollment?
Ans. Auto Enrollment is a process by which computers and users automatically enroll themselves for certificates and smart cards. Auto Enrollment can be configured through group policy.

95. What are the two types of Replication Transport Protocols in Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in?
Ans. Directory Service Remote Procedure Call (DS-RPC): DS- RPC is used for Intrasite and Intersite Replication and it appears as IP subcontainer under Inter-Site Transports container in Active Directory Sites and Services snap-in. InterSite Messaging-Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (ISM-SMTP): ISM-SMTP is used for intersite messaging.

96. What is a Global Catalog Server?
Ans. A Global Catalog Server contains partial information and/or replica of every active directory object in every domain in a forest.

97. What is the function of Schema Master?
Ans. Schema Master Role is responsible for the changes in schema in a Forest. It controls and maintains all modification and updates to the schema. An example may be the additional attribute for e-mail address that becomes available once Exchange Server is installed in an Active Directory forest.

98. Which protocol is used by AD LDS?
Ans. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is used by AD LDS that works on port TCP 389. 

99. What is UPN suffix?
Ans. User Principal Name or UPN Suffix is an alternate suffix that can be added to a domain user name. If there are multiple domains and domain trees in an active directory forest, a user account may have a lengthy UPN suffix, for example usernamekarootdomain.childdomain.com. With the help of alternate UPN suffix it can be usemarne@aiternateupnsufa.com. This makes it simpler for users to type their credentials.

100. What is the difference between local users and domain users?
Ans. In any computer when user accounts are stored and authenticated from the local Security Accounts Manager or SAM file they are known as local user accounts. On the other hand when the account credentials are sent to the domain controllers for authentication, such type of user accounts are known as domain user accounts.

However, I was able to accumulate only 100 questions, but Windows/AD is not at all limited to above questionnaire. It is so vast and ever expanding, so please take above set of interview questions as an example ONLY and don't limit your knowledge to above mentioned questions. 

Disclaimer- Don't held me responsible, if you fail any Windows/AD interview, after reading above questions. Also, refer Microsoft Technical Documentation for updated and correct information.