Preface The MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) program is a rigorous testing and certification program for Windows 2000 system and network administrators. This book is a concise, comprehensive study guide to the areas covered on the core MCSE exams. If you're an experienced system administrator whether the experience is with Windows NT, Windows 2000, UNIX, NetWare, or another system this book will help you codify your knowledge, understand Microsoft's view of the universe, and prepare for the MCSE exams. If you are a beginner, this book should also prove useful. Of course, you'll need real- world experience that no book can provide. Depending on your needs, you may also need help from other books or classes. Nevertheless, this book will provide a useful framework for your studies. If you have already made some progress along the MCSE path, you probably have a number of MCSE-related books lining your shelves. Although this book can't replace all of them, it can remain on your desk as a handy reference to the subjects covered on the core MCSE exams. It also includes several features such as review items and practice tests that will help you prepare to take the actual exams. Contents This book covers the four core (required) exams for the Windows 2000 MCSE certification, along with three Designing exams, one of which you may choose as the fifth required exam. The two Designing exams you do not use as a core exam may be used to fulfill your elective requirements. This book includes the following sections: Chapter 1 Introduces the MCSE 2000 program, with information about the content of the exams and study tips Part I Covers Exam 70-210, Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Part II Covers Exam 70-215, Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Part III Covers Exam 70-217, Implementing and Administering a Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure Part IV Covers Exam 70-216, Implementing and Administering a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure Part V Covers Exam 70-219, Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure Part VI Covers Exam 70-221, Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure Part VII Covers Exam 70-220, Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Conventions Used in This Book Each Part within this book corresponds to a single MCSE exam and consists of five sections: Exam Overview This is a brief introduction to the exam's topic. The key aspects of the topic are listed, each broken down into two lists of objectives to help direct your preparation. The Need to Know list identifies areas you should understand in depth because they will probably be on the exam. The Need to Apply list outlines tasks you should be able to perform and should practice during your studies. The objectives in both of these lists include cross-references to the Study Guide. Study Guide This, the largest portion of each Part, is a comprehensive study guide for the areas covered on the exam. It can be read straight through or referred to for areas in which you need further study. Suggested Exercises This is a numbered list of exercises you can perform, usually with a small test network, to gain experience in the exam's subject areas. Practice Tests This section includes a comprehensive practice test to assess your knowledge of the current exam topic, along with a case study and questions that are similar to the format of the Windows 2000 MCSE exams. Highlighter's Index Here we've attempted to compile the facts within the exam's subject area that you are most likely to need another look at in other words, those you might have highlighted while reading the Study Guide. This will be useful as a final review before taking an exam. Within the "Study Guide" section, the following elements are included: On the Exam These boxed tips provide information about areas you should study for the exam. In the Real World These tips provide informative asides in cases where reality and the MCSE exams don't necessarily coincide. The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Constant width Used to indicate keyboard keys, commands, and other values to be typed literally Italic Used for URLs, email addresses, to introduce new terms, and to indicate menu and dialog box options Other MCSE Resources Depending on your current knowledge and experience, you may need resources beyond this book for your MCSE studies. The one resource all MCSE candidates should be aware of is Microsoft's Training and Certification web page: http://www.microsoft.com/train_cert/ We recommend that you refer to this page regularly during your certification progress, because changes may be announced that will affect your exam choices. A wide variety of MCSE study guides are available from other vendors, chief among them the MOC (Microsoft Official Curriculum) study guides. If you need a book for further study, choose the one that best fits your needs. Other useful resources, although not specifically for the MCSE curriculum, include the various Resource Kits published by Microsoft. These are available for Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server and go into great detail about each product. Each kit includes a CD-ROM with useful utilities, some of which are described in this book. A number of practice MCSE test programs are available. See Microsoft's web page, listed earlier, for information about one such program. See this book's web site (listed in the next section) for links to several third-party test software providers. Part I: Windows 2000 Professional Chapter 2. Exam Overview Windows 2000 Professional is Microsoft's entry-level version of Windows 2000 and the successor to Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Windows 2000 Professional is designed to work as a standalone workstation or as a network client. It is the same core operating system as Windows 2000 Server, but has a more restrictive license and does not include some of the more advanced features. MCSE Exam 70-210, Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, covers basic aspects of Windows 2000 in general and Windows 2000 Professional in particular. Its emphasis is on the use of Windows 2000 Professional as a network client. This is the first required MCSE exam for the Windows 2000 track and should be the first exam you take. In particular, the Windows 2000 Server exam, covered in Part II of this book, builds on the foundation of the Windows 2000 Professional curriculum. There is some overlap in Microsoft's objectives between the Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server exams; therefore, we recommend that you make at least a cursory study of Part II, before taking the Professional MCSE exam. To prepare for this chapter and the Windows 2000 Professional exam, you should have a basic familiarity with computers and with PC-compatibles in particular and have experience managing Windows 2000 Server in a small network. 2.1 Areas of Study 2.1.1 Windows 2000 Basics Need to Know Reference Basic computer and network terminology Section 3.1.1 History of Windows 2000 and other operating systems Section 3.1.2 Differences between client/server and peer-to-peer networks Section 3.1.3 Steps in the Windows 2000 boot process Section 3.1.4 Need to Apply Reference Modify BOOT.INI options Section 3.1.4.1 Log on to Windows 2000 and perform basic functions Section 3.1.5 2.1.2 Installing Windows 2000 Professional Need to Know Reference Windows 2000 Professional hardware requirements Section 3.2.1.1 Filesystems supported by Windows 2000 Section 3.2.1.2 Phases of the Windows 2000 installation Section 3.2.3 Need to Apply Reference Install Windows 2000 Professional Section 3.2.3 Check hardware compatibility before upgrading Section 3.2.4.1 Upgrade Windows 95/98 to Windows 2000 Section 3.2.4.2 Upgrade Windows NT to Windows 2000 Section 3.2.4.3 Install service packs during or after installation Section 3.2.6 2.1.3 Configuring Windows 2000 Professional Need to Know Reference Control panel applets and their purposes Section 3.3.3 Registry subtrees and their primary functions Section 3.3.4 Need to Apply Reference Use MMC to manage Windows 2000 and manage snap-ins within MMC Section 3.3.1 Schedule tasks for system maintenance Section 3.3.2 Modify settings using the Control Panel Section 3.3.3 Edit the registry Section 3.3.4.1 2.1.4 Managing Disk Storage Need to Know Reference Differences between basic and dynamic disks Section 3.4.1 Components of dynamic disks Section 3.4.2 Backup methods Section 3.4.7.1 Need to Apply Reference Partition and format basic disks Section 3.4.3.1 Create dynamic disk volumes Section 3.4.3 Convert disks and partitions from basic to dynamic storage Section 3.4.3.4 Defragment NTFS and FAT partitions Section 3.4.3.5 Set and monitor disk quotas Section 3.4.5 Encrypt and decrypt files on an NTFS volume Section 3.4.6 Back up and restore files Section 3.4.7 Schedule regular backups Section 3.4.7.3 2.1.5 Managing Network Components Need to Know Reference TCP/IP basics and IP addressing Section 3.5.1 Other common protocols supported by Windows 2000 Section 3.5.2 Basic Active Directory concepts and terminology Section 3.5.3 Need to Apply Reference Configure network protocol settings Section 3.5 Configure TCP/IP settings Section 3.5.1.3 2.1.6 Administration and Security Need to Know Reference Default Windows 2000 Professional users and groups Section 3.6.2.3 NTFS security permissions Section 3.6.4 Windows 2000 printer terminology Section 3.6.7 Need to Apply Reference Configure account policies, security options, and auditing Section 3.6.3 Share files and set permissions Section 3.6.5 Monitor use of shared files Section 3.6.6 Install printers Section 3.6.6 Configure print pools Section 3.6.7.2 Schedule and prioritize print jobs Section 3.6.7.3 Pause, resume, and delete print jobs Section 3.6.7.4 2.1.7 Optimization and Troubleshooting Need to Know Reference Common performance counter objects Section 3.7.1.1 Purpose of system, application, and security logs Section 3.7.1.2 Boot menu options and their purposes Section 3.7.2.1 Need to Apply Reference Monitor system performance Section 3.7.1.1 View error messages and audit results Section 3.7.1.2 Troubleshoot problems with the boot process Section 3.7.2 Chapter 3. Study Guide This chapter includes the following sections, which address various topics covered on the Windows 2000 Professional MCSE exam: Windows 2000 Basics Describes Windows 2000 and compares it with other Microsoft operating systems. Windows 2000's architecture and boot process are described in detail. This section also covers the basics of using Windows 2000 and the basics of networking. Installing Windows 2000 Professional Discusses the planning necessary before installing Windows 2000 Professional, installation methods, and the installation process. This section also describes methods of automating the installation. Configuring Windows 2000 Professional Introduces essential Windows 2000 management tools, such as Microsoft Management Console and the Control Panel. This section also describes configuration tasks for hardware devices, power management, and mobile systems. Managing Disk Storage Discusses the possible disk configurations, how to implement and manage them, and disk management tools. Disk compression, disk quotas, encryption, and backup methods are also covered. Managing Network Components Discusses the network protocols, services, and other components used with Windows 2000, including methods of remote access and the basics of the Active Directory. Administration and Security Describes how to manage users, groups, policies, and other aspects of Windows 2000 access control and security. This section also discusses file sharing, printer management, and network auditing. Optimization and Troubleshooting [...]... operating system, and applications 3.2 Installing Windows 2000 Professional Windows 2000' s installation process is largely automated and relatively simple and includes a number of improvements over previous versions of Windows NT This section examines the Windows 2000 installation process, from simple installations to large-scale automated installations 3.2.1 Planning the Installation Before installing... Extensions are snap-ins that can add functionality to existing snap-ins For example, the Shared Folders snap -in has an optional extension called Send Console Message On the Exam MMC was first available as part of the Windows NT Option Pack for NT 4.0 and was used to configure IIS 4.0 features Windows 2000 adds MMC consoles for typical workstation and server management tasks To manage the snap-ins included in. .. is an ASCII text file that includes the information that the installation program would normally prompt for during installation An example answer file is included on the Windows NT CD-ROM as UNATTEND.TXT On the Exam Although the unattended installation answer file can have any valid filename, questions in the Windows 2000 Professional exam may refer to this file as UNATTEND.TXT The answer file includes... years, ranging from DOS to Windows 2000 These are summarized in Table 3-1 , and the latest ones are described in the following sections On the Exam For the most part, Microsoft's operating systems are backward compatible Windows 2000 can run 32-bit (Windows 95/98/Me) Windows applications, 16bit (Windows 3.1x) applications, and DOS applications However, there may be incompatibilities with programs that... or file-based installations The setup process consists of a brief text-mode phase, after which the GUI components of Windows 2000 load and the Setup Wizard completes the installation The steps involved in each phase are described in the following sections On the Exam If you are creating a temporary copy of the Windows 2000 installation files or a network share, all of the files you need are in the \I386... as a clean install) 3 The Windows 2000 Professional license agreement is displayed Press F8 to accept the agreement and continue; press Esc to abort the installation 4 Select a partition for the installation You can press C to create a new partition or D to delete an existing partition 5 The setup program scans the installation partition for errors or formats if a new partition was created Installation... most of these updates were integrated into Windows Me Windows 2000 improves on Windows NT 4.0 with some features similar to Windows 98, including Plug and Play and support for the Advanced Power Management (APM) and Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) power-management standards Windows 2000 supports multiprocessing with up to two processors Windows 2000 also adds support for the Active... specifies the path to the installation files 3.2.5.1 Setup Manager The Setup Manager utility provides an alternative to manually creating the answer file This utility prompts you for various installation options and then creates an answer file that can be used for an automated installation The Setup Manager utility is located in the Deploy.cab archive in the \Support\Tools directory of the Windows 2000. .. Filesystem (EFS) Windows 2000 also supports the FAT32 filesystem that originated in Windows 98 On the Exam For the Windows 2000 Professional MCSE exam, you should be familiar with the new features of Windows 2000 and the differences between Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server 3.1.2.5 Windows 2000 Server As with Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server improves on Windows 2000 Professional with support... Plug and Play A Microsoft specification for hardware devices and operating systems that support automatic hardware configuration, preventing the need for manual assignment of IRQs, I/O addresses, and other settings Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000 support Plug and Play Preemptive multitasking A system for allowing multiple applications to execute at the same time in an operating . 2000 and the basics of networking. Installing Windows 2000 Professional Discusses the planning necessary before installing Windows 2000 Professional, installation methods, and the installation. the exams and study tips Part I Covers Exam 7 0-2 10, Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Part II Covers Exam 7 0-2 15, Installing, Configuring, and. 16-bit Windows, and 32-bit Windows applications. Windows 95 and 98 are popular for standalone desktop machines and as network clients for Windows NT or other networks. A built -in peer-to-peer