Network Administration Exam Cheat Sheet.

WXP includes tools for monitoring system resources:Task Manager presents a snapshot of programs and processes that are running on your computer and provides a summary of the computer's processor and memory usage.System Monitor and Performance Logs and Alerts provide detailed data about the resources used by specific components of the operating system and computer. The above utilities allow system administrator to perform the following tasks: Use Task Manager to monitor system resources. Use System Monitor to monitor system performance. Use alerts to notify a user or an administrator when certain system criteria are met or exceeded. Identify counters to monitor for optimizing performance. Objects, counters, and instances.Objects In System Monitor, objects are major components or subsystems of the computer system. They can be hardware, such as the hard disk, or software such as a process. There are a fixed number of objects in Windows XP.Instances Instances are multiples of the same object type. For example, if a system has multiple processors, the Processor object type will have multiple instances.CountersCounters gather data on different aspects of objects. For example, for the Process object, counters gather data on the processor time and the user time. Viewing Counter DataAfter you add counters, you can view the data of your counters in real time or in logs. Real time options:Histogram. Displays data in a bar chart. This view is useful for simplifying graphs with multiple counters. Report. Displays numerical data in columns. This view is useful for collecting data that you can export into a spreadsheet, such as Excel. Chart. Displays data in a line graph. This view is useful for monitoring real time data or data logged over time. Viewing Counter Data in Logs You can log the data in Performance Logs and Alerts and view the data later. There are two types of logs:Counter logs record data about hardware resources and system services based on performance over time. Counter logs are useful for tracking trends. Trace logs collect event traces that measure performance statistics associated with events such as disk.Using Alerts Use alerts to notify a user or an administrator when indications go beyond set criteria. Alerts are useful if you are not actively monitoring a particular counter but want to be notified when it exceeds or falls below a specified value so that you can investigate and determine the cause of the change. There are three tasks involved in setting an alert. They are: Select counters to track a specific system activity. Set a threshold value for that activity. Specify an action to take when the threshold is exceeded or falls below a specific value: Send a network message. Run a program. Start a log. How to Find Performance Bottlenecks The process for finding performance benchmarks can be distilled into five basic steps: Put a repeatable load on a server. Measure how system resources perform. Analyze those measurements. Modify server hardware and software to eliminate the bottlenecks.Start the process over until you have reached the ultimate performance bottleneck.Strategies for Testing and Tuning Servers To make the task of testing and tuning a server more efficient and orderly, look for bottlenecks in the following areas:CPU bottlenecks Memory bottlenecks Disk bottlenecks Network Bottlenecks. Disaster Recovery Disaster recovery is the process of restoring a computer after a computer disaster occurs so that users can log on and gain access to system resources. Ideally, disaster recovery techniques restore the damaged computers to the state they were in prior to the disaster.Backing Up and Restoring Data Windows XP includes a backup utility, called Backup, that is designed to protect data from accidental loss resulting from the failure of your hardware or storage media. Using Backup, you can: Back up files and folders. Back up system state data. Schedule a backup. Restore files and folders. Backup supports a variety of storage devices and media, including tape drives, logical drives, removable disks, and recordable CD-ROM drives. In addition, Backup includes wizards that are designed to make using the utility easy and efficient. The goal of all backup jobs is the efficient recovery of lost data, should a failure occur. A backup job is a single process of backing up data. Regularly backing up data on server and client computer hard disks prevents data loss because of disk drive failures, power outages, virus infections, and other accidents. Permissions and User Rights To successfully back up and restore data on a computer running Windows XP, you must have the appropriate permissions and user rights, as described in the following list: All users can back up their own files and folders. They can also back up files for which they have the Read permission. All users can restore files and folders for which they have the Write permission. Members of the Administrators, Backup Operators, and Server Operators groups can back up and restore all files (regardless of the assigned permissions). By default, members of these groups have the Backup Files and Directories and the Restore Files and Directories user rights. Backup provides five backup types: normal, copy, differential, incremental, and daily. Each of these backup types target specific categories of files for backup, such as files that have changed since the last backup or all files in a specific folder. Some backup types use backup markers, also known as archive attributes, which mark a file as having changed. When a file changes, an attribute or marker is set on the file, indicating that the file has changed since the last backup. When you back up the file, the marker is cleared or reset. Backup Types Backup provides five backup types: normal, copy, differential, incremental, and daily. Each of these backup types target specific categories of files for backup, such as files that have changed since the last backup or all files in a specific folder. Some backup types use backup markers, also known as archive attributes, which mark a file as having changed. When a file changes, an attribute or marker is set on the file, indicating that the file has changed since the last backup. When you back up the file, the marker is cleared or reset. Normal: All selected files and folders. Clears markers but does not look for markers. Normal Backups speed up the restore process because they are the most current backup files and do not need multiple backups to restore. Copy: All selected files and folders, neither looks for or clears markers. Differential only selected files and folders have a marker, does not clear markers. If you did two differential backups in a row on a file. And nothing changed in the file the entire file would be backed up each time. Incremental only selected files / folders. Clears markers, if you did two backups in a row and nothing changed in the file. It would not be backed up. Daily all selected files and folders that have changed during the day. Does not look for or clear the markers. Configuring File and Folder Backup When you create a backup job, you specify: The drives, folders, or files to back up. A backup destination. You can specify to back up files and folders to a file or to a tape, if a tape device is installed on your computer. A path and file name for the backup file, or a tape to use. Backup options, such as the backup type and the log file type. A description of the backup job. Whether the backup medium contains existing backup jobs. Advanced backup options, such as data verification or hardware compression. Backing Up System State Data You can use Backup to back up the system state data. If the system state data on a computer has been backed up and that same computer system fails, you can rebuild the computer with the original Windows XP compact disc and the system state data. In Windows XP Professional, the system state includes the registry, the Component Services class registration database, and system startup files. Scheduling a Backup Backup is integrated with Task Scheduler. As a result, use Backup to schedule a backup job. You should try and schedule a backup job to occur at regular intervals or during periods of relative inactivity on a network. You can schedule a backup one of two ways: during the process of creating a backup job or by using the Scheduled Jobs tab in Backup Using Disaster Recovery Tools 1) Starting a Computer by Using Advanced Startup Options Windows XP includes advanced startup options to use when troubleshooting and repairing startup problems and when connecting the computer to a debugger. These new startup options enhance your ability to diagnose and resolve driver incompatibility and startup problems in Windows XP. Note To display the advanced startup options, press F8 during the operating system selection phase of the startup process in Windows XP. Examples Last Known Good Configuration Uses the last known good configuration information in the registry to start the computer. Safe Mode Loads only the basic devices and drivers that are required to start the computer, including the mouse, keyboard, mass storage devices, base video, and the standard, default set of system services. This option also creates a log file. Safe Mode with Networking Loads only the basic devices and drivers that are required to start the computer and enable networking. This option also creates a log file. 2) Recovering a Computer by Using the Recovery Console The Recovery Console in Windows XP is a command-line console that you can start from the Windows XP Setup program. The Recovery Console is particularly useful if you need to repair a system by copying a file from a disk or compact disc to the hard drive, or if you need to reconfigure a service that is preventing a computer from starting properly. Using the Recovery Console You can use the Recovery Console to: Start and stop services. Read and write data on a local drive (including drives that are formatted with the NTFS file system). Format hard disks and display hidden system files. Installing the Recovery Console To install the Recovery Console, start a command prompt in Windows XP, change directories to the I386 folder on the Windows XP compact disc, and then run the winnt32 command with the /cmdcons switch. After you install the Recovery Console, you can access it from the Startup menu. Note You can also access the Recovery Console by using the Windows XP Setup disks or the Windows XP compact disc to start your computer, and then selecting the Recovery Console option when you are prompted to choose repair options. Recovery Console Commands When you run the Recovery Console, you can get help on the available commands by typing help at the command prompt and then pressing ENTER. Overview As a network administrator, you should set up a network-wide printing strategy that will meet the needs of users. To set up an efficient network of printers, you need to know the hardware and software requirements of network printing, how to install and configure network printers, and how to troubleshoot installation and configuration problems. Microsoft® Windows® XP helps you to perform these tasks more efficiently by providing the means to accomplish them and an easy-to-use interface. Introduction to Windows XP Printing Windows XP makes it easy for an administrator to set up network printing and configure the print resources from a central location. You can also configure client computers running Windows 95/98, or Microsoft Windows NT® version 4.0, W2K to print from the network print devices. The following list defines Windows XP printing terms: Print device. The hardware device that produces printed documents. Windows XP supports the following print devices: Local print devices. Print devices that are connected to a physical port on the print server. Network-interface

print devices. Print devices that are connected to a print server through the network instead of a physical port. Network-interface print devices require their own network adapters and have their own network address or they are attached to an external network adapter. Printer. The software interface between the operating system and the print device. The printer defines when and where a document will go to reach the print device (a local port, a port for a network connection, or a file). Print server. The computer on which the printers and client drivers are located. The print server receives and processes documents from client computers. You set up and share network printers that are associated with local- and network-interface print devices on the print servers. Printer driver. One or more files containing information that Windows XP requires to convert print commands into a specific printer language. This conversion makes it possible for a print device to print a document. A printer driver is specific to each print device model and the appropriate printer driver must be present on the print server. Requirements for Configuring a Network Printer At least one computer to operate as the print server. The server can run either of the following: Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2003 Advanced Server, or Windows 2003 Datacenter Server. Use one of these products when you need to support a large number of connections in addition to Macintosh, UNIX, and NetWare clients. Windows XP Professional. Use this product when the number of concurrent connections from other computers for file and print services is limited to ten, including UNIX clients. Sufficient RAM to process documents. Sufficient disk space on the print server to store documents. You must have enough disk space to ensure that Windows XP can store documents that are sent to the print server until the print server sends the documents to the print device. Guidelines for Setting Up a Network Printer Determine your organization's printing requirements. This includes the number and types of print devices that are required. In addition, consider the type of workload that each print device will handle. For example, it may not be a good idea to use a print device connected locally for network printing because it may not be able to manage the workload. Determine user's printing requirements in each department. For example, the Billing department may have larger print jobs because they print invoices continually. A larger printing workload may require more print devices. Determine the number of print servers that your network requires in order to manage the number and types of printers in the network. Determine the location of the print devices. The printed documents should be easily accessible to the users. Determine which print jobs require a high priority. Executives usually need their print jobs processed quickly. Administrators can grant high priority to the people who need it. Adding a Printer When you set up and share a print device for use on the network, you make it possible for multiple users to use the same print device. You can set up a printer for a print device that is connected directly to the print server, or you can set up a printer for a network-interface print device that is connected to the print server over the network. In larger organizations, most printers point to network-interface print devices. Adding and Sharing a Printer for a Local Print Device When you add a shared printer, you must log on as Administrator on the print server. You can then add and share a printer by using the Add Printer wizard in the Printers system folder. Adding and Sharing a Printer for a Network-Interface Print Device In larger organizations, most print devices are network-interface print devices. These print devices offer several advantages. They provide greater flexibility in where you locate your printers. In addition, network connections transfer data quicker than printer cable connections. Adding and Sharing a Printer for a Network-Interface Print Device (contd.) Create a new port starts the process of creating a new port for the print server for which the network interface print device is connected Type determindes the network protocol to use for the connection. Using the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard The following table describes the options in the wizard that you configure when you select TCP/IP as the port type. Setting Up Client Computers After you add and share a printer, you must set up client computers so that users can print their documents. Client Computers Running Windows 95 or Later, or Windows NT 4.0 Users of client computers running Windows 95 or later, or Windows NT 4.0, only have to make a connection to the shared printer. The client computer automatically downloads the appropriate printer driver, as long as there is a copy of the driver on the print server. Client Computers Running Other Microsoft Operating Systems You must manually install a printer driver on client computers running other Microsoft operating systems (such as Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or earlier, Microsoft MS-DOS®, and OS/2 clients) in order for them to print to a shared Windows XP-based printer. Client Computers Running Non-Microsoft Operating Systems To enable users of client computers running nonMicrosoft operating systems to print, you must manually install the printer driver on the client computer, and the print server must have the protocols used by the client computers and the appropriate client additional services installed. Macintosh included with win server 2003 but not installed. UNIX included with WIN 2003 server but not installed. Netware Not included with WIN server 2003. Configuring a Network Printer After you set up and share a printer for use on the network, user and organization printing needs may change and require you to configure printer settings so that your printing resources better fit these needs. There are three common configuration changes. You can share an additional printer if your printing load increases: You can create a printer pool so that the printer automatically distributes print jobs to the first available print device and users do not have to search for an available printer. You can set priorities between printers so that critical documents always print before noncritical documents. Sharing an Existing Printer When you share a printer on the print server: You must assign the printer a share name, which appears in My Network Places. You can choose to publish the printer in Active Directory if you are a member of an Active Directory network so that users can search for the printer. You can add additional printer drivers for client computers running Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0, on different hardware platforms. Setting Up a Printer Pool A printer pool consists of one printer that is connected to multiple print devices through multiple ports on a print server. Characteristics of a Printer Pool When you create a printer pool, users can print documents without having to determine which print device is available because the printer checks for an available port. A printer pool has the following advantages: In a network with a high volume of printing, it decreases the time that documents wait on the print server. It simplifies administration because you can administer multiple print devices from a single printer. Setting Printer Priorities Set priorities between printers to prioritize documents that print to the same print device. To do this, create multiple printers pointing to the same print device. This allows users to send critical documents to a high priority printer and noncritical documents to a lower priority printer. To set priorities between printers, perform the following tasks: Point two or more printers to the same print device (the same port). The port can be either a physical port on the print server or a port that points to a networkinterface print device. Set a different priority for each printer that is connected to the print device, and then have different groups of users print to different printers. You can also have users send high priority documents to the printer with higher priority and low priority documents to the printer with lower priority. Notice that in the preceding illustration, User1 sends documents to a printer with the lowest priority of 1, while User2 sends documents to a printer with the highest priority of 99. In this example, User2's documents will print before User1's documents. Assigning printer permissions (contd.) By default, administrators on a server, and print operators and server operators on a domain controller have the Manage Printer permission. The Everyone group has the Print permission, and the owner of a document has the Manage Documents permission. Internet Printing A new feature in Windows XP is Internet printing, the capability to print to printers on the Internet using a Web browser. By using Internet printing, you can submit print jobs to any printer on the Internet provided you have the printer's URL and the appropriate permissions. Requirements for Printing using a Web Browser Before Internet printing can be operational and a print server can process print jobs that contain URLs, the printer must be shared and the following must occur: The print server must be a computer running Windows XP and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or later must be installed on the client computer to connect to a printer by using a Web browser. A First Look at the Registry The Windows XP Registry is the central repository of configuration information for your installed hardware and software. When you use the Control Panel applets to make changes in your system configuration, when you make changes using the Computer Management Console, those changes are almost always stored in the Registry. By far the most powerful tools in the Windows XP arsenal are the Registry Editors. The use of RegEdit and its sibling, RegEdt32.exe can help you find a configuration setting, troubleshoot problems, and make technical changes in Windows XP, as well as in applications that use the Registry to store preferences. RegEdit's big brother, RegEdit32, has features that RegEdit does not, but both tools have their uses. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Contains the associations between applications and file types (i.e., .XLS files belong to Microsoft Excel), OLE Registry information, and file-class associations HKEY_CURRENT_USER Contains the user profile for the individual who is currently logged on. It also contains environment variables, desktop settings, application preferences, network connections, and printer information. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Contains information about the local computer system. Settings for hardware and operating system features such as bus type, system, memory, device drivers etc. HKEY_USERS Contains all the actively loaded user profiles. This includes the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and the default Admins profile. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG Contains the configuration information for the current hardware profile. Windows XP Registry Sub-trees Each sub-tree within the Registry holds individual keys. A key might contain subkeys, or it might actually hold data. Subkeys can, in turn, hold additional subkeys. You expand and navigate in the left pane of Regedit much like you do in the Windows Explorer. When you select a key or subkey in the left pane, its contents -- or value entry -- is displayed in the right -- or details – pane. Example, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, and then navigate to Hardware, Description, Central Processor, and then 0. This particular key holds

identifying information about the CPU in your computer, including the vendor and model. A Registry key's value entry has three parts: The first part is the name of the subkey; the second is the subkey's data type; and third is the subkey's actual value, as you can see by the three columns displayed in the details pane. There are five data types REG_BINARY Raw binary data that will typically be displayed in hexadecimal notation, making it difficult for you to read REG_DWORD A four-byte long number that will be displayed in either binary, hexadecimal, or decimal format. This data type is often used for device drivers and services. REG_EXPAND_SZ An expandable data string that holds a variable which will be replaced when it is called by an application REG_MUTLI_SZ Hives The Registry data is split up into a number of files that are called hives. Not all of the Registry is stored in hives. Hives are those Registry keys that are permanent components of the Registry, not the dynamic parts, such as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Hardware, which is built only when Windows XP boots Most of the hives are stored in the c:\winnt\System32\Config folder. For each user profile, there is also a hive in the c:\winnt\Profiles\username directory with the name Ntuser.dat. Each hive corresponds to a particular segment of the Registry, and is also made up of a number of associated files, each with the same main filename but having a different extension. A multiple string that usually holds a list of values which will be in a human-readable form, rather than being in binary or hexadecimal notation. The values will be separated by a NULL character. REG_SZ A text string, which will be in a human-readable form If the file has no extension, it is a copy of the hive. If the file has a .log extension, it is a transaction log showing changes to keys and value entries in the hive. The Software, SAM, Security, System, and .Default hives also have .sav files. These are copies of the hive created at the end of the text mode stage of the Windows XP setup. Therefore, they should have file dates corresponding to the date you installed or upgraded Windows XP. One hive -- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System -- plays such a critical role that an extra backup is created This backup is created with the filename System.alt. (The other hives do not have .alt files.) The Registry contains a list that shows which file goes with which hive. You can find it in the registry at the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\hivelist. There is also a list that shows the hive files for each user profile. It is located in the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList Compreg is a tool with which you can compare two local or remote Registry keys and highlight the differences. It is a 32-bit, command-line utility that should also work with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, and Windows XP Registries. It does not write to the Registry. compreg key1 key2 {options} Search for options by compreg /? Compreg can be a useful tool if you are trying to determine why two computers are behaving differently. If the computers are connected to a network, you could compare relevant portions of the Registry to see if there are differences in the settings. Exporting and Importing registry keys.You can export a branch of the Registry, or the entire Registry, to a text file that can be opened in an editor such as Notepad or WordPad. You might want to do this so that you could search for values or perform some involved editing (to take advantage of the advanced editing tools in WordPad, such as Search and Replace), or to import some of the exported data into another Registry file.One reason you might want to export a Registry branch is so that you can import the branch -- or a portion of the branch -- into another Registry file. This is a lot of trouble to go to for a simple registry setting or key. If you only had to change one value, it would certainly be easier to use RegEdit to edit the value. Some changes are a lot more complex, however, and it might be easier to import a branch of the Registry than to manually make all the changes.Default Registry ActionsAs we emphasized earlier, making mistakes with the Registry can do very bad things to your computer. If you start working with .REG files, you don't want to mistakenly import the file when you open it. One way to safeguard against inadvertently doing so is to make sure that the default action for .REG files is to edit them and not open them.Changing WXP OwnershipWhen you install Windows XP, or when you boot a Windows XP computer for the first time, you are asked for the owner's name and a company name. If you are using the Registry Editor, click Help > About, and you will see these pieces of information in the Help box. This information is stored in the Registry, and you can change it!