Hello,
I sat for the NT Server 4.0 Exam yesterday and pass with a score of 854. Well, my thanks and appreciation first go to you BrainMasters and also all other MCSE-ers as well as the dumpers.
Most of the questions are indeed from the other dumps and it really help. This is my 3rd paper ( Windows95, Networking Essentials, Windows NT Server 4.0); halfway through. Enterprise is my next one in about a week, anyway, I will just go for it.
However, since I went through lots of dumps, I made a summary of some lookedup points which I believe can help my fellow dumpers as well as MCSE wannabees.
At this juncture, I salute you all and wish you all the best.
Should anyone has any material that might be of help for the Enterprise, kindly send some to me please. I can always trade as well with the full version of the Transcenders for all subjects except for TCP/IP, SMS etc.
Read below the collected WINDOWS NT SERVER TIPS and GIVE YOUR BRAIN A SHAMPOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WINDOWS NT 4.0 SERVER TIPS.
CSNW Needed for only NT PCs to access a NetWare Server. ( Usually Installed in NT Workstation.)
FPSNW Needed for any NetWare PCs to access a NT Server.
GSNW Needed for any Microsoft computer/clients to access a NetWare Server.
When CSNW and GSNW are installed, it is not necessary to install IPX/SPX or NWLINK, this protocol is automatically installed.
On an NT server, CSNW does not need to be installed because its already part of GSNW.
GSNW is also required to administer NetWare services. Note that clients (NT-Workstation, 95&WfW) CANNOT administer NetWare services because they do not have GSNW installed.
Client machines that use server applications like SNA and SQL rely solely on the Service Advertising Protocol. (SAP)
Printers or Plotters that connect to the UNIX machines use TCP/IP protocol.
To use RAS on a modem line when no network card is installed, the MS Loopback Adapter must be installed so that the communication protocol can bind to it. The Loopback Adapter is used as a substitute when no network adapter card is present.
Installing Ms Loopback allows the Alerter and Messenger services to start on a stand-alone system. It can also be used to generate UPS shut down messages.
Installing a new different type of keyboard different from the current one is SIMPLY to run Win NT setup.
On an NT server that has UPS attached, the services that must be installed to notify users of power outage are :
UPS
Alerter
Messenger
To use windows 3.1 on an NT network, the FULL REDIRECTOR must be used; for this permits advanced networking capabilities like logging on and full browsing capabilities.
A trusting Domain can provide file and printer access to a trusted domain.
A trusted domain provides user account information to the trusting domain.
Mandatory User profiles are saved with *.MAN while The Personal User Profiles are saved with *.USR. Unlike Mandatory user profiles, the Personal User profiles often change between logon settings.
Note that Users name are not case sensitive But passwords are Case sensitive.
The Win NT disk cache is always maintained automatically.
MAC users who want to connect and print to various printers on the AppleTalk or ETHERNET networks use the CHOOSER interface on their PCs for both PostScript and Non-PostScript printers.
In a situation where you have 2 hard disks e.g. C & D, and you want to improve pagefile performance, place a pagefile on C and another on D. Although the general rule is to keep pagefiles and system files apart.
Note that the system partition which is the partition that contains the hardware specific files needed to load WinNT server must be a FAT partition of at least 2MB on RISC based systems. The rest of the files may be placed on a NTFS partition for maximum security.
Note that you cannot under any circumstances backup the registry of a server remotely.
Note that you make a system partition redundant by implementing Disk Duplexing or Disk Mirroring.
When migrating NetWare server to NT, the only thing needed to be installed on the NT server is GSNW.
When migrating information from a NetWare server to an NT server, note that the only thing you cannot migrate is USER PASSWORDS.
If you want to merge account names from your NetWare servers into one account on your NT server, the service you need to accomplish this task is: Directory Services Manager for NetWare (DSMN)
If you want to connect a NetWare server through a RAS Server, you need to install Nwlink
You manage printer permissions from a remote win95 through the Explorer.
When you encounter excessive paging, note that you need to check: Memory:number of pages per seconds
You have excessive paging and you want to increase performance, ADD MORE RAM. If your %processor time is higher than 80%, know that you need to add more RAM to improve performance.
Log view is used in performance manager to record and save data.
Note that the PDC is optimized to perform the following tasks:
Managing a network of around 60 users ( 10 to 60 users ) balance
Managing a small network of up to 10 users-ā Minimize memory usage.
Running a SQL Server client/server application ā Maximize throughput for Network applications
Sharing an Access Databaseā Maximize throughput for Network Apps.
You use the server service to minimize memory usage when there are less than 10 users connected.
Policy files are stored in the Netlogon share.
The RAS security protocols are:Password Authenticated Protocol (PAP) Clear Text, CHAP, MS-CHAP.
Named pipes are supported under PPP clients to access NT server using RAS.
If you have a Win95 client that is using 3rd party PPP that only supports DES, and you want to provide highest level of security, you need to require Encrypted Authentication. (MS-CHAP)
You assign IP address dynamically to RAS users either through the RAS server or by using DHCP.
LMHosts Used to map IP address to NetBIOS names.
Hosts Used to map IP address to hosts names.
Install SNMP on each server if you want to monitor TCP/IP from workstation.
If you want the NT server in a LAN network with 2 segments to be able to route messages between the 2 segments and if TCP/IP is used as the sole protocol, then you must ENABLE IP ROUTING.
If you want to automate connecting ISP who uses PPP, you must create a Login script to be run after dialing.
In a NON-ROUTED network with static IP addressing, you only need to configure the subnet mask and NOT default gateway because it is NON-ROUTED.
Know that the DHCP server can supply clients with the followings:
(a) Default Gateway, (b) IP Address, (c) Subnet Mask, (d) DNS Server and (e) WINS Server.
If you have an increased broadcast on your TCP/IP network, to reduce the amount
of traffic, Install a WINS Server.
If you are upgrading a WinNT 3.51 to WinNT 4.0, Do the followings:
Boot the machine with NT 4 setup disk and install NT 4.0 into the NT 3.51 directory. OR
Start NT 3.51 and use Winnt32.exe to install NT 4.0 into the NT 3.51 directory.
You can as well run Winnt32.exe from command prompt.
Note that you need the followings for automated installation of WinNT:
Unattended.txt, (b) Sysdiff and (c) UDF.
Know it COLD that the volume set :
Can combine areas from an IDE, SCSI, and EIDE drivers
The boot partition cannot be part of the volume set.
When volume set is implemented, MS-DOS and Win95 computers will not be able to see the volume sets.
Before you can upgrade an OS/2 PC with HPFS to NT, you must convert the
HPFS to NTFS.
If you want to change NT PC back to MS-DOS only, just Run sys.com and then Remove NT files.
Note that SYSDIFF is used for Automated application installation.
If you are installing NT Server, and your non-SCSI CD-ROM is not detected, Run installation against and select S to specify detection of additional devices.
Note that the default desktop profile is stored in : \\winnt_root\profiles\administrator\desktop
When your boot.ini is corrupt or missing, the error message you get is : NTOSKRNL.EXE is corrupt or missing.
Win 16 applications in NT run on a VDM ( Virtual Dos Machine)
Note that the smallest unit handled by Scheduler is PROCESS
The program you use to read *.dmp files is Dumpexam.exe
Understand that NT doesnt support Plug and Play
Know that the UPS devices are attached to a serial port.
Strip set doesnt provide fault tolerance
But strip set with parity provides fault tolerance
A strip set (with or without parity) can only be as large as the smallest free partition, which will be part of the strip set.
The biggest partition which you could create with a stripe set is 512MB
The minimum number of disks needed for a strip set with parity is 3 and maximum is 32.
Strip set (Disk striping) provides the fastest read/write performance because it can read multiple disks at a time.
Strip set with parity (Disk Striping with parity) is slower because it has to write the parity information, but its still faster than mirror set and volume set.
Mirror set (Disk Mirroring) is slow due to redundancy factor of writing the same information to two drives at once.
Volume set can only read/write one drive at a time.
Note that to recover from drive failure with disk mirroring:
Install a new drive
Boot the system into NT
Run Disk Administrator
Break mirror from the Fault Tolerance menu
Then reestablish the mirror- This however will be done automatically.
To recover from drive failure with disk striping with parity:
Install the new drive
Boot the system into NT
Run Disk Administrator
Then Choose Regenerate option.
To recover from multiple drive failure with disk striping with parity:
Install new drives
Boot the system into NT
Restore the system backup from tape.
The file level security governs local user file and folder security on NTFS partitions only. This is applied through the Security tab of the resources properties.
RAS can use the following protocols: SLIP, PPP and RAS (used by Win3.x and Win NT 3.x clients.
RAS supports call back security to either the calling number or to a specified non-changing numbers.
RAS for NT 4.0 supports multilink
Multilink is the use of more than one modem to achieve higher transmission speed
Multilink cannot be use with call back security unless there are two or more ISDN modems
RAS uses NetBEUI as default protocol; but also uses TCP/IP and IPX/SPX.
When you want to utilize Winsock interface over RAS, then use TCP/IP
To speed up NetBIOS resolution on RAS clients, put an LMHOSTS file on each client locally.
In a situation where there is no standard in place for accessing RAS server system, and if security is concerned, then the most secure type of authentication is Allow Any Authentication Including Clear Text
If there is broadcast traffic on your TCP/IP network, then install a WINS server.
The Services in the Control Panel on the print server is used to stop a spooler service in case of printing problem.
Know that the HP LaserJet Printer uses DLC protocol.
You use the Server Manager on the PDC to view the role of all PCs in a domain.
PPP on an NT server supports the following:
Named Pipes
Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
Winsock API applications using TCP/IP and IPX
If the paging file on your WinNT server has expanded beyond its specified initial size, then:
The disk containing the paging file will be more Fragmented.
Application will take longer to start.
BUT this has NO direct effect on the amount of RAM available to the application
If you accidentally delete a user account on the BDC, it has to be recreated from the scratch whether or not synchronization has occurred with the PDC.
Binding order is always to be done on Workstations.
NetWare 3.x clients that need access to files on an NT server need FPSNW and NWLINK installed.
CSNW and NWLINK is required for NT Workstations that require access to a NetWare servers.
GSNW is required for NT servers to connect to NetWare servers.
You demote a BDC by reinstalling NT Server
If you did not receive a UPS warning message and your PC shuts down, then know that the UPS Interface Voltage for the power failure signal is set incorrectly.
The counters you need to monitor to determine if excessive paging is occurring on you NT PC are Avg. Disk Sec/Transfer and Pages/Sec.
The Usage Peak (bytes) and %Usage counters are used to determine if the paging file size is approaching its maximum.
If a user belongs to a group and he/she has No Access permission, for the user to access resources in other groups which he might have Full Access or other permission, the user account where he has No Access permission must be deleted so that he can access resources from other groups with other permissions in place.
RAS AutoDial :
Maps network addresses to RAS phonebook entries
It is automatically enabled when you start your computer and automatically create a network connection.
It requires at least one TAPI dialing location.
If during Installation, Setup failed to recognize your 2nd SCSI hard drive:
Press S to specify additional devices during installation.
Finish installation, then specify the 2nd SCSI hard drive in Control Panel.
The servers that can serve as export servers are PDC, BDC and NT member server. ( Directory Replication Service) NOT NT Workstations, NOT Win95, and NOT MD-DOS.
To change the spool file location, to a new hard disk, just edit the registry and/or use the Advanced Property sheet for the print server.
If you want to redirect documents from a faulty print device to another print device, Add a local port to the faulty printer and type the UNC name of another printer in the Port Name dialog box. You may also need to remove the original port to ensure the documents print to the redirected port.
PPTP provides security and offers lower administrative costs, lower transmission costs, and lower hardware costs than others. It is best useful when configuring RAS to allow users access Internet while still providing security.
System or Boot partition cannot be part of a volume set or a stripe set (with or without parity). Only Mirror sets can include system or boot partition.
To recreate new setup disks, run Winnt.exe from the installation CDROM.
To re-enable a user account that expired, enter a future date in the End Of field/date in the account information window or select Never option.
To increase the initial paging file size, select Change on the performance tab in the system properties dialog box in the Control Panel.
Paging file CANNOT be placed on a partition with stripe set with parity, but on a system partition that may be containing mirror sets, volume sets, and strip sets without parity.
In a situation whereby you are using Win95, and you want to use WinNT server tools for 95, You want to control the permissions of files and directories on an NTFS drive on the network, Then use the Windows Explorer.
The Average Disk Queue Length counter should be used to determine how many system requests are waiting for disk access
The % Disk Time counter will indicate the load on a disk drive, BUT not toe be used on a system containing RAID devices
Know that NTFS file compression reduces the disk space required for file storage.
NTFS also supports automatic compression of files and folders. Compression can be performed on individual files and folders and even entire drives.
For performance reasons, compression is not supported on NTFS partitions with cluster sizes greater than 4KB.
Know that the compression attribute of a file is different from a folder in the following ways:
If the compression attribute is set for a file, it indicates that the file is compressed.
If the compression attribute is set for a folder, it indicates that any new files placed in the folder will be compressed automatically.
There are two ways to compress or uncompress a folder or file in NT.
Windows NT Explorer
Compact.exe from the command prompt.
If a file is copied from one folder to another, the compression setting for the file change to that of the target folder; but the file inherits the compression settings of the target folder. The same thing goes for permissions.
When a file is moved from one folder to another on the same NTFS partition, the file retain its compression settings, whether or not the target folder is compressed. The same thing goes for permissions.
When a file is moved from between two NTFS partitions, (just as with permissions), the file inherits the compression settings from the target folder. This is so because a move between partitions is actually a copy-and-delete operation.
Know that Volume sets increase disk space, BUT doesnt improve performance
Volume sets are created by combining from 2 to 32 areas of unformatted free space on one or more physical drives.
When implementing volume sets, keep the followings in mind:
NT boot and system partitions cannot reside in a volume set.
Volume set does not provide any fault tolerance
Data is written to one member of the set at a time until no space remains on that member.
Portion of disk space used in a volume set for other purposes cannot be reclaimed without losing the entire volume set and all data stored on it.
Win95 and MS-DOS cannot access volume set.
Know that volume set require a single hard disk
Stripe set require at least two hard drives and up to 32 hard physical drives. Data is written evenly across all physical disks, one row at a time. NT writes these stripe sets in 64KB units.
Know that stripe set can improve I/O performance.
Volume set is supported by NT workstation and Server while stripe set is supported by only NT Server.
NT supports MSDOS-based applications in an NT Virtual Dos Machines (NTVDM) NTVDM uses the VDD to operate.
An NTVDM can also support Win16 applications in an emulated Win16 on Win32 (WOW) environment.
Rebooting to MSDOS in NT is not necessary as in Win95
Each MSDOS-based application has its own NTVDM and each NTVDM has its own single thread and address space. So a failure of one NTVDM doesnt affect the other.
Ntvdm.exe runs in kernel mode and provides MD-DOS emulation and manages NTVDM
Note that the Ntio.sys is an equivalent of the MS-DOS Io.sys.
The Ntdos.sys is an equivalent of Msdos.sys, the MS-DOS kernel.
Note that the 16-bit Windows3.x VxD are not supported under WOW.
A local group resides in NT Workstation to grant access permissions to resources on the Workstation.
The OLE and the file association information are stored in the registry under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
If a RAS user gets disconnected when connecting, make sure the user has dial-in
permission in User Manager for Domains.
The default interval for the amount of time an export directory must be stable before import servers can replicate its files is 2 minutes.
If two users are connected to the same printer on the network, and one can print, and the other not, then the one that cannot print is running out of hard drive space for spooling.
If MSDOS applications cannot print, then install the printer driver locally for the MSDOS PC.
If a user presses CTRL+ALT+DEL, and sees his name as the last person who logged in, to prevent this, Change the settings in the System Policy Editor.
Note that RAS server supports 256 simultaneous connections.
The VMM swaps data in RAM to/fro the disk.
Winmsd.exe shows the PC hardware and the OS data in the NT Registry.
The NT utility that provides data about the current processes is the Task Manager. It can also be used to prioritize apps and processes, and view system performance data.
To install DUN, at least 2MB is needed either on the server or on the client.
LPQ is the command used to check the status of a print job on a Unix-based print service.
LPR is used to submit a print job to a Unix-based print service.
The preferred method of modifying the registry is to use the Control Panel.
Ipconfig/all displays the configurations of IP addresses, DHCP, and WINS.
PPP is installed (Default) when NT is installed on RISC-based PCs
On an Intel-based NT PC, the default protocol installed is TCP/IP
Deferred Printing allows a job to be spooled to the print queue even if the printer is not currently
available.
Event Viewer, security logā shows audited information stored when auditing is enabled.
Event viewer, System logā shows when a dependency service failed to start during the boot process.
To disable the One or more services failed . Message at start up, enable the Network, Disabled Hardware Profile check box under the Network tab in the Original Configuration properties dialog box.
Note that changes to SCSI adapter drivers require a restart in order for the changes to take effect, while changes to the Tape drive doesnt.
Use the User Manager for Domains to create and edit the user profiles.
Know that the MSDOS and the win3.1 clients cannot use the user profiles.
If the server (PDC) that stores the mandatory user profiles is unavailable, then the user cannot logon.
In order to slow down replications of accounts, the variable you need to change in the registry is : Increase Pulse or Decrease Pulse concurrency.
RAS authentication method for DES is MS-CHAP
Apart from Administrators, anyone with FULL CONTROL, and SPECIAL PERMISSIONS can take ownership of files.
Know that you can assign IP addresses to RAS users either through the RAS server or by DHCP server.
Boot disk is created (formatted) using NT and NOT Dos.
To create a setup disks, the disks are formatted in DOS and not in NT.
Only NT Domain controllers, member servers and NT workstations can act as an import PCs. NOT Windows 95. And WinfWkg.
SPAB = Server, Print, Account and Backup Operators can all log on locally to NT server. ONLY NOT Administrator account.
The Device.log reside in \WINNT_root\System32\RAS.
You move a workstation from one domain to the other through CP-Network-Identification.
You need to choose AppleTalk in order to use a MAC printer.
Peace, Love and unity in diversity and resounding success to you all the Dumpers and the MCSE!!!! Wannabees.
Yemi
The Netherlands.