MCSA Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is Active Directory? What is its purpose?

Ans – It is a directory service that represents many servers operating as a set of services and processes. It is developed by Microsoft for the Windows domain network.

The main purpose of an active directory is that many organizations depend on Active Directory to maintain proper order in arranging that is file servers, users, computers and many more.

2. Tell the functions of the Virtual disc.

Ans –Virtual disc is a disk image file format for storing the entire contents of a computer’s hard drive. It can be stored in any location accessible to the physical host.

3. Define Windows Server Backup.

Ans – It is a feature released for Windows 2008 that provides several solutions for backing up the data on your computer in case of a system failure or any other issue. Windows Server Backup can back up a few files to a whole server. The server backup is accessible through command lines and a management console.

4. What is DAC?

Ans – Dynamic Access Control (DAC) is a data governance tool in Windows Server 2012 that allows the administrators to control access settings. It uses centralized policies to permit administrators to review who has access to individual files.

5. Define Direct Access.

Ans – When Direct Access enables, the users access the websites, applications and internal network file shares securely without the need to connect to a virtual private network (VPN). Every time a Direct Access-enabled computer connects to the Internet, even if this happens before the user logs on. Direct Access sets up bi-directional connectivity with an internal network.

6. What is DNS?

Ans – It is defined as a name resolution service. Domain Name Service helps the users to access Internet resources such as E-mail servers and web servers. DNS is a protocol that is used for communication from IP to name.

7. How many queries does DNS have?

Ans – There are mainly three types of queries that DNS have and those are:
1. Recursive query
2. Iterative query
3. Non-recursive query

8. Define forest in MCSA.

Ans – A forest is a group of one or more effective window trees. A forest can also be named as a long tree which is used to allocate a plan to work and global catalogue servers.

9. What do you understand by Domain Controller?

Ans – The domain controller is used to verify customers to many networks and bring a set of objects that involved the Active Directory.

10. Define INODE.

Ans – INODE is a pointer to a block on the disk. It is a unique number allocated to a file in UNIX OS.

11. What is DHCP?

Ans – It stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. DHCP is a network server that automatically provides and assigns IP addresses, default gateways and other network parameters to client devices.

12. Define Group Policy.

Ans – It is a Microsoft Windows NT feature that is also called a family of OS. It manages the work setting of computer accounts and user accounts. Group Policy offers the central configuration management of OS, users’ settings and applications in an Active Directory setting.

13. Explain Hyper-v.

Ans – Hyper-V is Microsoft’s virtualization tool that is used to create different multiple virtual machines on a single physical server. It also minimizes the cost of hardware and increases efficiency.

14. Explain the different roles in Windows Server.

Ans –
i. Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS)
ii. Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS)
iii. DHCP Server
iv. DNS Server
v. Web Server
vi. File and Storage Services
vii. Hyper-V
viii. Network Policy and Access Services (NAP)
ix. Remote Access
x. Remote Desktop Services
xi. Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
xii. Windows Server Update Services

15. What is WDS?

Ans – It stands for Windows Deployment Services. It is a server role that gives administrators the ability to deploy Windows operating systems remotely.

16. What is KCC used for?

Ans – It stands for Knowledge Consistency Checker. It is a Windows Server 2003 component that automatically generates and maintains the intra-site and inter-site replication topology.

17. Define RAID.

Ans – Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) was first introduced by David A. Petterson and Garth Gibson at the University of California at Berkeley in 1998. The basic idea behind RAID is to combine multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array to accomplish performance.

18. What is Active Directory Federation Service?

Ans – Active Directory Federation Service is a single sign-on service which provides authentication for the users who want to access applications outside the forest. We use the active directory federation service when we want to provide access to users from other organizations without the need to create their accounts in our directory.

19. What is SYSVOL folder?

Ans – SYSVOL folder is a set of files and folders that is stored on the local hard disk of each domain controller in a domain.

20. Where is the AD database held?

Ans – AD database is held in %systemroot%/ntds. All Files that control the AD structure are:

i. ntds.dit
ii. edb.log
iii. res1.log
iv. res2.log
v. edn.chk