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MS-NT Operating System Information: 1999
NT 4.0 Server

Exam Resources

NT Server 4.0 in the Enterprise and NT Server 4.0

These two exams, NT Server 4 in the Enterprise (70-68) and NT Server 4 (70-67) are two of the 4 core exams towards the MCSE. Taking the exams together is probably your best bet. As always, if you have any comments, suggestions or otherwise please email us at: webmaster@s-w-r.com

What you should concentrate on studying for the exams.
NT Setup Winnt.exe is used for the regular Windows NT setup, or an installation through DOS or Windows 95.
It Can also be used to create the setup disks by running WINNT /OX. Winnt32.exe is used to upgrade from another version of Windows NT.
To upgrade from a member server to a BDC or PDC, NT Server must be reinstalled.
To downgrade from a PDC or BDC to a member server, NT Server must be reinstalled.
To change a PDC to a BDC, or a BDC to a PDC, you must promote a BDC to a PDC in the Server Manager.

Fault Tolerance

Disk Striping Divides data into 64k blocks and spreads it equally among all disks in the array and needs a minimum of two hard disks.
Disk Mirroring Duplicates a partition on another physical disk.
Disk Duplexing Duplicates a partition on another physical disk which is connected to another Hard Drive Controller.
Disk Striping with parity Distributes data and parity information across all disks in the array. The data and the and parity information are arranged so they are always on separate disks. A parity stripe block exists for each row accross the disk. The parity stripe is used for disk reconstruction in case of a failed disk. Supports a minimum of three disks and a maximum of thirty-two disks. Volume Set Merges numerous partitions into one drive mapping. Drives are read one at a time.

System and boot partitions cannot be part of a stripe or volume set, but can be a part of disk mirroring and duplexing partitions.
Speed factors - Disk striping will provide the fastest read/write performance as it can read multiple disks at a time.
Disk striping with parity is slower, as it has to write the parity information, but is still faster than disk mirroring and volume set.
Disk mirroring is slow due to the redundancy factor of writing the same information to two drives at once. Volume set can only read/write one drive at a time.
To recover from drive failure with disk mirroring, you must install the new drive, boot the system into NT, run disk administrator, break the mirror and then recreate the mirror. To recover from drive failure with disk striping with parity, you must install the new drive, boot the system into NT, run disk administrator, and choose the Regenerate option. To recover from multiple drive failure with disk striping with parity, you must install the new drives, boot the system into NT, and restore the system backup from tape.

NTFS vs. FAT
FAT - Files and directories on a FAT partition only contain the standard attributes of Volume, Read-Only, System and Hidden. - Cannot set local security access on a FAT volume. - Can convert the partition to NTFS by running convert.exe - A FAT partition can be defragmented by booting with a DOS diskette and running defrag.exe - File moved from a FAT partition to an NTFS partition retain their attributes and long-filename.
NTFS
NTFS partitions contain the standard attributes, as well as security desciptors basing file access from user-level security. - Can set local security access on an NTFS volume. - Partition cannot be converted to FAT. The partition must be deleted and recreated as a FAT partition. - NTFS partitions cannot be defragmented. To defragment an NTFS partition, it must be formatted and restored from backup. - Files moved from an NTFS partition to a FAT partition do not retain their attributes or security descriptors, but will retain their long filenames.

Domains

  • Workgroup - recommended for networks containing under 20 users.
    Users in this type of network administer all shares and methods of access on their personal computers.
  • Single Domain - No trust relationships are involved in this domain model. Network administration and management is all controlled from a central location. Can contain up to 40,000 user accounts, but is usually recommended for 20-500 users.
  • Single Master Domain - Master domain is trusted by one or several single domains. The master domain provides central administration. Can contain up to 40,000 user accounts, and is usually recommended for 500-10,000 users.
  • Muliple Master Domain - Several master domains are setup with complete trusts between each of them, and all single domains are setup to trust the master domains. Is usually recommended for more than 10,000 users.
  • Complete Trust Domain - All domains in this model have complete trusts setup with each other. You must remember how trusts work for the test.

    • Domain A trusts Domain B. Domain A is trusting Domain B to access Domain A's resources. Domain A is the trusting domain and Domain B is the trusted domain.

    Groups

    Global groups - General domain grouping used to access resources in its own domain. Can access resources in other domains by being a member of another domains local group.
    Local groups - Group used for local domain access to resources. Global groups from other domains go into these groups for resource access across domains.
  • Backup Operators - Group designated for members to backup and restore computers from tape.
  • Backup Operators can only backup and restore from tape when logged in locally to the computer.
  • Account Operators - Group designated for members to manage user and group accounts.
  • Server Operators - Group designated for members to manage resources, but cannot manage user accounts.
  • Replicator - Group designated for NT computers to perform directory replication.

    • Computer Name Resolution

  • DNS (Domain Name Services) - Used to resolve DNS host name to an IP address
    • .
  • WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service) - Used to resolve NetBIOS computer name to an IP address.
  • HOSTS - File which contains mappings between DNS host names and their IP addresses.
  • LMHOSTS - File which contains mappings between NetBIOS computer names and their IP addresses.
  • WINS Proxy - Picks up b-node broadcast sent by a non-WINS enabled computer for NetBIOS computer name resolution, and forwards the request to a WINS server.
  • WINS server replies to the WINS proxy, which then relays the reply to the PC. Is enabled by editting the registry.

    • Virtual Memory

    Virtual memory can be controlled in the System properties under the Performance tab. The paging file size can be in/decreased here, and even distributed across multiple drives. The recommended initial paging file size equals the amount of RAM in the system plus 12mb.

    Netware
    NWLink (IPX/SPX) is the protocol used by NT to allow Netware systems to access its resources. Gateway Services for Netware can be implemented on your NT Server to provide a MS client system to access your Netware server by using the NT Server as a gateway. You must have a group account setup on the Netware server called NTGATEWAY. A user account must also be setup with proper rights and put in the NTGATEWAY group in order to have access.
    If you decide to convert a Netware server to an NT Server, you will first need to implement the Gateway Services for Netware on the NT Server. Once the conversion has completed, you will need to make sure all Netware workstations have had the Microsoft (SMB) redirector installed on their systems to access the NT Server.
    Make sure to remember that the frame types for the NWLink protocol must match the computer that the Server is trying to connect with. Unmatching frame types will cause connectivity problems between the two systems.

    Server Stop Errors

    In the System Properties Shutdown tab, there are options to configure where you would like the Server stop errors to be written. The errors are written to a .dmp file which is readable by the program dumpexam.exe

    Profiles

    Profiles are the user settings which are loaded when a user logs in. They can contain desktop and start menu preferences. These files can be located either locally or on a server which has been mapped in the User Manager.

    NTUser.dat and *.dat files are the typical, user-configurable profiles used. NTUser.man and *.man files are read-only, so the user can configure their desktop, etc. however, the *.man file will not be updated. When the user logs in again, it will restore the original profile. You may copy profiles using the menu located under System Properties.

    Printers

    NT Server 4.0 has the option to maintain drivers for different operating systems on the server. Each operating system uses different drivers. For example, NT 3.51 systems cannot use NT 4.0 printer drivers. If the system which is trying to connect to the printer off of the server does not have drivers for the printer, or if they are out of date, then the server will automatically install the updated drivers.
    Print Pooling - Courtesy of Rick Buser (rbuser@superlink.net)we have this definition of print pooling (thanks Rick):
    "Print Pooling is the method whereby you can create one "printer", as NT calls it, and actually have it refer to several of the exact models of "print devices". That way, NT can route print jobs for that "printer" to a print device that's currently free.
    Example: Say you have 4 HPLaserJet print devices...exactly the same configuration. You create one "printer" --we'll call it HPLaserJet-- that users will see and send jobs to, but create a printer pool for this "printer" by assigning the 4 print devices to different ports. People send their print jobs to the "printer" they see in NT, but NT routes the job to an open "print device" in the "printer pool".
    The Sybex NT Server Study Guide simply defines it this way:

    "Printing Pool:
    A number of print devices controlled by the same printer. The printer directs the print job to an available print device in the pool.""
    Availability - This option allows you to specify which hours the printer can be printed to. Priority - This option specifies which virtual printer should print first if other virtual printers are trying to print to the same physical printer at the same time. Priorities range from 1 - 99 with 1 being the lowest and 99 the highest.
    You can change the directory containing the print spooler in the advanced server properties for the printer.
    To remedy a stalled spooler, you will need to stop and restart the spoler services in the Server Manager.

    Emergency Repair

    To create an Emergency Repair diskette, you can choose to do so either during the installation of NT Server, or you can run rdisk.exe
    To use the Emergency Repair diskette, you will need to boot the server with the NT installation boot diskettes, and choose to repair your NT Server with the Emergency Repair disk that was created.

    RAS (Remote Access Services)

    RAS is capable of using the following connection protocols: SLIP, PPP, and RAS. RAS uses NetBEUI as the defualt network protocol, but can also use TCP/IP and IPX/SPX. TCP/IP will need to be used if you are using programs that utilize the Windows Sockets (Winsock) interface over the RAS services. There are a few different options you can set in RAS for encryption settings. Allow any authentication including clear text - This will allow RAS to use a number of password authentication protocols including the Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) which uses a plain-text password authentication. This option is useful if you have a number of different types of RAS clients, or to support third-party RAS clients.

    Require encrypted authentication
    This option will support any authentication used by RAS except PAP. Require Microsoft encrypted authentication - This option will only make use of Microsoft's CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol). All Microsoft operating systems use MS-CHAP by default.
    Require data encryption - This option will enable the encryption of all data sent to and from the RAS server.
    RAS will write to a log file which can be used for troubleshooting RAS services. In order to enable RAS to write to the log, you have to enable it in the Registry.

    Browser Services

    All NT Servers have browser services available. The Master browser will maintain a browse list which contains a list of all workstations, servers and domains on the network. There can be only one master browser per subnet.
    The PDC will always be the domain master browser. All BDC'S will be backup domain master browsers and are capable of becoming domain master browsers in the event of a PDC failure. All member servers are capable of becoming master browers or backup browsers.
    You can disable the ability of a server to become a master browser by making the proper changes in the registry.

    Domain Synchronization

    The registry contains settings which set the time between synchronizations of domain controllers. Sometimes this can cause much traffic. In order to reduce traffic, increase the value of the Pulse setting in the registry of the PDC, and decrease the value of the PulseConcurrency setting in the registry of the PDC.

    Links http://walden.mo.net/~rpraib/nts.htm http://www.saluki.com/mcse/nts40.htm http://www.saluki.com/mcse/nts40ent.htm

    Support
    System Wide Resource will provide a wide range of support services for the pacific NW this year. In addition to last year's broad NT & MS Windows systems support, S-W-R will be providing services such as...

    System Wide Resources looks forward to the chance to small & Medium businesses for the upcoming year.

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    This page last revised: April, 1999
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