WHAT ARE FUNCTIONAL LEVELS DESIGNED TO DO?
Functional levels determine the available Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain or forest capabilities. They also determine which Windows Server operating systems you can run on domain controllers in the domain or forest. However, functional levels do not affect which operating systems you can run on workstations and member servers that are joined to the domain or forest.
What are the DNS requirements to install active directory?
When you install Active Directory on a member server, the member server is promoted to a domain controller. Active Directory uses DNS as the location mechanism for domain controllers, enabling computers on the network to obtain IP addresses of domain controllers.
During the installation of Active Directory, the service (SRV) and address (A) resource records are dynamically registered in DNS, which are necessary for the successful functionality of the domain controller locator (Locator) mechanism.

What are trust relationships and how are they used?
In the Windows NT domain model, domains had to be bound together through trust relationships simply because the SAM databases used in those domains could not be joined. What this meant was that where a domain trusted another Windows NT domain, the members of the domain could access network resources located in the other domain. Defining trust relationships between domains eliminates the need for an Administrator to configure user accounts in multiple domains.
What are the FSMO role defaults, how many there are and how the roles are used and/or transferred?
Certain domain and enterprise-wide operations that are not well suited to multi-master updates must be performed on a single domain controller in the domain or in the forest. The purpose of having a single-master owner is to define a well-known target for critical operations and to prevent the introduction of conflicts or latency that could be created by multi-master updates. Having a single-operation master means that the relevant FSMO role owner must be online, discoverable, and available on the network by computers needing to perform FSMO dependent operations.

When the Active Directory Installation Wizard (Dcpromo.exe) creates the first domain in a new forest, the wizard adds five FSMO roles. A forest with one domain has five roles. The Active Directory Installation Wizard adds three domain-wide roles on the first domain controller in each additional domain in the forest. In addition, infrastructure master roles exist for each application partition. This includes the default domain and the forest-wide DNS application partitions that are created on Windows Server 2003 and on later domain controllers. The operations masters and their scope are shown in the following table. FSMO Role | Scope | Function and availability requirements | Schema Master | Enterprise | * Used to introduce manual and programmatic schema updates, and this includes those updates that are added by Windows ADPREP /FORESTPREP, by Microsoft Exchange, and by other applications that use Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). * Must be online when schema updates are performed. | Domain Naming Master | Enterprise | * Used to add and to remove domains and application partitions to and from the forest. * Must be online when domains and application partitions in a forest are added or removed. | Primary Domain Controller | Domain | * Receives password updates when passwords are changed for the computer and for user accounts that are on replica domain controllers. * Consulted by replica domain controllers that service authentication requests that have mismatched passwords. * Default target domain controller for Group Policy updates. * Target domain controller for legacy applications that perform writable operations and for some admin tools. * Must be online and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. | RID | Domain | * Allocates active and standby RID pools to replica domain controllers in the same domain. * Must be online for newly promoted domain controllers to obtain a local RID pool that is required to advertise or when existing domain controllers have to update their current or standby RID pool allocation. | Infrastructure Master | Domain

Application partition | * Updates cross-domain references and phantoms from the global catalog. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:248047 Phantoms, tombstones and the infrastructure master * A separate infrastructure master is created for each application partition including the default forest-wide and domain-wide application partitions created by Windows Server 2003 and later domain controllers.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 ADPREP /RODCPREP command targets the infrastrucutre master role for default DNS application in the forest root domain. The DN path for this role holder is CN=Infrastructure,DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=<forest root domain>,DC=<top level domain> and CN=Infrastructure,DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=<forest root domain>,DC=<top level domain>. |

What is a USN (update sequence number) and how is it used?
Update Sequence Number, or USN, is a type of identifier for controlling directory replication in Microsoft BackOffice products such as Microsoft Exchange Server and in Microsoft Windows 2000.

How Update Sequence Number (USN) Works
As an example, we will consider how update sequence numbers (USNs) are used in directory replication between Windows 2000 domain controllers. When an object is changed in Active Directory, that change must be replicated to all other domain controllers. To do this, Active Directory assigns a USN to each changed object, incrementing the values with time. Each domain controller uses a table to keep track of its own current USN and the highest USN it has received from each of the other domain controllers on the network.

How are timestamps used?
A timestamp is the current time of an event that is recorded by a computer. Through mechanisms such as the Network Time Protocol ( NTP ), a computer maintains accurate current time, calibrated to minute fractions of a second. Such precision makes it possible for networked computers and applications to communicate effectively. The timestamp mechanism is used for a wide variety of synchronization purposes, such as assigning a sequence order for a multi-event transaction so that if a failure occurs the transaction can be voided. Another way that a timestamp is used is to record time in relation to a particular starting point.
What are version IDs used for?
The version ID is different that the Object ID. An object's Object ID will never change, even if you modify the object. It allows you and the MicroStrategy software to uniquely identify different objects inside of a Project.

The Version ID is an ID that identifies the state of an object at a point in time. It is a randomly generated GUID that has no meaning other than in the database and for cross checking caches, used in Object Manager comparisons, etc. The Version ID will change anytime you Save the object, even if you did not make any changes. This also applies to saving the object's properties - like short description, long description, etc. As long as the Version IDs match, then it can be safely assumed that the object has not been modified.
What is the difference between physical and logical structure and how are they defined in active directory?

How does replication work?
Within a site, intrasite replication between domain controllers uses remote procedure calls (RPCs) by means of a dynamically allocated port number. This replication takes place automatically every five minutes. Domain controllers within a site exchange update information in a ring fashion, from one domain controller to another. This ring topology is established by a periodically running process called the Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC) and ensures a minimum of two replication paths between each pair of domain controllers and a maximum replication hop count of three hops to support efficient replication and fault tolerance.
Between sites, intersite replication can use RPCs if the local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) connection supports them or some other method such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail messages. Intersite replication uses a compressed format for more efficient use of slow WAN links and is easier to schedule and manage than intrasite replication.

How do you use the replication protocols?

Which protocol should only be used over slow link?
At lower speed links (2400 through 9600 bps) only one LAN protocol should be used. IP, IPX, and NetBEUI can run simultaneously with RAS. All three protocols are supported at all speeds and can be activated; however, using all three protocols at the same time at low speeds is not recommended. One protocol will remain active, but the others may fail. The RAS connection will remain, but only the most robust protocol will continue to operate.
What is a PDC and when it is used?
By default, DSAccess or ADAccess chooses the primary domain controller (PDC) emulator operations master role computer to handle requests in Microsoft Exchange. This action may result in poor performance if other non-Exchange programs are making heavy use of the PDC emulator.
What is the difference between authentication and authorization?
These two concepts seem altogether similar but there iswide range of difference. Authentication is verifying the identity of a user and authorization is process where we check does this identity have access rights to the system. In short we can say the following authentication is the process of obtaining some sort of credentialsfrom the users and using those credentials to verify the user’s identity. Authorization is the process of allowing an authenticated user access to resources. Authentication is alwaysprecedes to Authorization; even if your application lets anonymous users connect and use the application, it still authenticates them as being anonymous.
What are the difference between the global, universal, and domain local groups? Group scope | Group can include as members… | Group can be assigned permissions in… | Group scope can be converted to… | Universal | * Accounts from any domain within the forest in which this Universal Group resides * Global groups from any domain within the forest in which this Universal Group resides * Universal groups from any domain within the forest in which this Universal Group resides | Any domain or forest | * Domain local * Global (as long as no other universal groups exist as members) | Global | * Accounts from the same domain as the parent global group * Global groups from the same domain as the parent global group | Member permissions can be assigned in any domain | Universal (as long as it is not a member of any other global groups) | Domain local | * Accounts from any domain * Global groups from any domain * Universal groups from any domain * Domain local groups but only from the same domain as the parent domain local group | Member permissions can be assigned only within the same domain as the parent domain local group | Universal (as long as no other domain local groups exist as members) |

What are requirements for Microsoft complex passwords?
The security setting determines whether passwords must meet complexity requirements. Complexity requirements are enforced when passwords are changed or created.
If this policy is enabled, passwords must meet the following minimum requirements when they are changed or created: * Passwords must not contain the user's entire samAccountName (Account Name) value or entire display Name (Full Name) value. Both checks are not case sensitive: * The samAccountName is checked in its entirety only to determine whether it is part of the password. If the samAccountName is less than three characters long, this check is skipped. * The display Name is parsed for delimiters: commas, periods, dashes or hyphens, underscores, spaces, pound signs, and tabs. If any of these delimiters are found, the displayName is split and all parsed sections (tokens) are confirmed not to be included in the password. Tokens that are less than three characters in length are ignored, and substrings of the tokens are not checked. For example, the name "Erin M. Hagens" is split into three tokens: "Erin," "M," and "Hagens." Because the second token is only one character long, it is ignored. Therefore, this user could not have a password that included either "erin" or "hagens" as a substring anywhere in the password. * Passwords must contain characters from three of the following five categories: * Uppercase characters of European languages (A through Z, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters) * Lowercase characters of European languages (a through z, sharp-s, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters) * Base 10 digits (0 through 9) * Non alphanumeric characters: ~!@#$%^&*_-+=`|\(){}[]:;"'<>,.?/ * Any Unicode character that is categorized as an alphabetic character but is not uppercase or lowercase. This includes Unicode characters from Asian languages.

How do you use the run as command and what is it good for testing?
Allows a user to run specific tools and programs with different permissions than the user's current logon provides.
Runas is a command-line tool that is built into Windows Vista. To use run as at the command line, open a command prompt, type run as with the appropriate parameters, and then press ENTER.
In the user interface for Windows Vista, the Run as… command has been changed to Run as administrator. However, you should rarely have to use the Run as administrator command because Windows Vista will automatically prompt you for an administrator password when it is needed.

How do you delegate authority and what are the advantages of using it?
Delegation has multiple effects since not only the one delegating benefits, even the staff and the company. The one delegating reduces his workload and can focus his efforts and energy into something that needs his/her skills more. The manager delegating is giving himself more time to analyze business trends, anticipate issues, plan and be in tuned with the vision of the company. These are just some of the aspects worth of every manager's focus to be effective as a leader.

Delegation is a very powerful staff motivator. It raises their self-esteem and confidence. It makes them feel involved, that their views and voices are heard, and they are making a difference in their workplaces. It develops in them new skills, which in the long-run, adds value to the company.

No matter how good a person is, nothing beats the spirit of teamwork. Working with others to achieve an aim has been a proven way to succeed. We just have to know how to do it the right way.
What an OU is and how it is used?
OUs let an administrator group computers and users so as to apply a common policy to them. OUs give a hierarchical structure, and when properly designed can ease administration.
What are the suggested practices for creating an OU structure?
Create OUs within a domain and delegate administrative control for specific OUs to particular users or groups. Your OU structure might be affected by requirements to delegate administrative authority. logical structure involves defining the structure of and relationships between the forests, domains, and organizational units that you plan to deploy.
How to use dsadd and dsmove?
The Dsadd commands Command | Description | Dsadd computer | Adds a single computer to the directory | Dsadd contact | Adds a single contact to the directory | Dsadd group | Adds a single group to the directory | Dsadd ou | Adds a single organizational unit to the directory | Dsadd user | Adds a single user to the directory | Dsadd quota | Adds a quota specification to a directory partition | | | | |

Dsmove is a versatile command that serves two functions: It lets you move an object from one location to another in Active Directory and allows you to rename an object without moving it. Dsmove is capable of doing both because, when you rename an object in Active Directory, you're really moving the object from its current distinguished name to a new distinguished name, since the distinguished name actually consists of a common name and a location.