Windows Server and MS Exchange

interview questions
1. What is DHCP? How we configure DHCP?
2. What are the ways to configure DNS & Zones?
3. What are the types of backup? Explain each?
4. What are Levels of RAID 0, 1, 5? Which one is better & why?
5. What are FMSO Roles? List them.
6. Describe the lease process of the DHCP server.
7. Disaster Recovery Plan?
8. What is scope & super scope?
9. Differences between Win 2000 Server & Advanced Server?
10. Logical Diagram of Active Directory? What is the difference between child
domain & additional domain server?
11. FTP, NNTP, SMTP, KERBEROS, DNS, DHCP, POP3 port numbers?
12. What is Kerberos? Which version is currently used by Windows? How does
Kerberos work?

Microsoft Exchange Server interview questions

1. Distribution List?
2. GAL, Routing Group, Stm files, Eseutil & ininteg - what are they used for?
3. What is MIME & MAPI?
4. List the services of Exchange Server 2000?
5. How would you recover Exchange server when the log file is corrupted?

Posted in: Networking, Windows |

36 Responses to “Windows Server and MS Exchange interview questions”

1. Masud Says:
January 24th, 2006 at 7:12 pm

On a recent interview i was asked “What is the maximum storage capacity for
Exchange standard version? What would you do if it reaches maximum
capacity?”

2. saed Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 3:43 am

1. boot process in windows nt/xp/2000/2003

2. how do you configure memory dump if c:,d:,e: & paging file is configured so
and so way?
3. backups ? which is better, why and which to use when?
4. disaster recovery plan?
 5. DHCP lease process
6. DNS zones, chronicle records what are they?
7. DHCP relay agent where to place it?
8. what is active directory compared to SAM?
9. what is GC? how many required for A Tree?
10. what is forest?
11. Group policies?
12. FSMO Roles?

3. Shri Says:
April 1st, 2006 at 6:27 am

I haved asked following question about Active directory 2000.

Can I changed password if my machince’s connectivity to DC who holds PDC

emulator role has been fails?

4. Vipin Bansal Says:

April 26th, 2006 at 7:00 am

Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition limits the database size to 16 gigabytes.

5. Mohamed Azlan Says:

May 8th, 2006 at 10:43 am

What is the diffence between SD-RAM and DD-RAM ?

6. shaik Says:
June 29th, 2006 at 2:25 am

can i change my Dc ip(dns,pref dns,gateway) while dc is working.

and can i give another ip.

(what happend if i give that ip and what happend about the replication of ther dc
when i am in suspend mode) ?

7. mohd.sameer Says:
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:30 am

i have been asked if there is set of 30 harddisk configured for raid 5 if two
harddisk failed what about data

8. Tech Says:
September 17th, 2006 at 3:40 am

i have been asked if there is set of 30 harddisk configured for raid 5 if two
harddisk failed what about data
 Tech Interviews comment by mohd.sameer

9. Raj Narayan Says:

September 23rd, 2006 at 12:51 am

Hi,
Can anybody give me the answer of the mention questions.

1.How Can i Deploy the Latest Patched in Pc through G.P. wihtout having the
Admin Right in Pc.
2.How to remove the $sharing through G.P. in 1000 PCs.
3.In Raid 5,Suppose i have 5 HDD of 10-10 GB, After configuring the Raid how
much space do i have for utilise.
4.How Can i Resolve the Svr name through Nslookup.

Thanks & Regards,

Raj Narayan

10. Debabrata Swain Says:

October 17th, 2006 at 7:49 am

What is difference between scope and superscope ?

11. Aarif Shaikh Says:

November 26th, 2006 at 10:13 am

Q) Can I changed password if my machince’s connectivity to DC who holds PDC

emulator role has been fails?
A) No You cant the password.

Q) i have been asked if there is set of 30 harddisk configured for raid 5 if two
harddisk failed what about data
A) It depends how u had configured ur RAID its only Raid5 or with with spare if
its only raid 5 then in raid5 if ur 2 nos of HDD goes then ur raid is gone.

Q) How Can i Deploy the Latest Patched in Pc through G.P. wihtout having the
Admin Right in Pc.
A) Create a batch file and place all the patches in the Netlogon, and deploy the
batch file through GP to all the pcs so the same should take affect after restarting
the pc.

Q) In Raid 5,Suppose i have 5 HDD of 10-10 GB, After configuring the Raid how
much space do i have for utilise.
A) -1 out of the total (eg- if u r using 5 u will get only 4 because 1 goes for
parity).
 Q) How Can i Resolve the Svr name through Nslookup
A) what exactly u want to do, nslookup command will let u know through which
server u r getting routed, (eg- c:\nslookup then u will get ur domain name to
which u r getting routed. and if u want to get the name of the pc/server with the ip
address then u have to give the command c:\nbtstat -a ip xx-xx-xx-xx)

12. bart Says:

November 29th, 2006 at 12:27 am

How Can i Deploy the Latest Patched in Pc through G.P. wihtout having the
Admin Right in Pc.
A) Create a batch file and place all the patches in the Netlogon, and deploy the
batch file through GP to all the pcs so the same should take affect after restarting
the pc.

the answer to the above question is incorrect.

you cannot deploy a batch file using group policy.

you can only publish or assign msi packages or Zap files. They are the only two
valid file formats allowable when using “intellimirror”. in active directory.

13. Rehamn Shaikh Says:

January 5th, 2007 at 8:35 am

What are FMSO Roles? List them

ANS:Fsmo roles are server roles in a Forest
There are five types of FSMO roles
1-Scheema master
2-Domain naming master
3-Rid master
4-PDC Emullator
5-Infrastructure master

14. Imran Khan Says:

January 11th, 2007 at 1:13 am

What is Kerberos? Which version is currently used by Windows? How does

Kerberos work?

15. vamsi Says:

January 30th, 2007 at 8:25 am

what is the difference between 2k and 2k3?

what is the difference between dns and wins?

 what is sysprep?

what is netlogon?

16. akshaya Says:

February 2nd, 2007 at 9:07 am

how many types of server?

(2) what is hotfrix.
(3)what is the difrences btwen 2k , 2k3 and xp?
(4)how many types DNS
(5)hOW MANY TYPES NET ADDRES?
(1)WHAT IS T-VOLI.
(7) WHICH PROTOCOL USED FOR SENDING MESSAGE.
(8) TELL ME WHY WE R USEING EXCHANGE SERVER?
(9) WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF DHCP?
(10) HOW DHCP CONFIGURE?
PLEASE SEND ALL ANS I NEED YOUR HELP .

17. usha Says:

February 18th, 2007 at 2:38 am

what is hotfrix.

It is hotfix, which microsoft realese whenever there is a bug or for updation of

Operating system.
(3)what is the difrences btwen 2k , 2k3 and xp?
Xp is a client operating system it cannot act as a server, 2k domain name cannot
be renamed, no shadow copying, 2k3 domain name can be renamed, shadow
copying is possible
(4)how many types DNS
I think there are about 7 types…
(1)WHAT IS T-VOLI.
Tivoli is montiroing tool
(7) WHICH PROTOCOL USED FOR SENDING MESSAGE.
SNMP
(9) WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF DHCP?
for providing ip address dynamically

18. Varadarajam Says:

March 26th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

*** What is the difference between Win2k Server and Win2k3?

1. We can’t rename domain in Win2k,u can rename in Win2k3

2. IIS 5.0 in Win2k and IIS 6.0 in Win2k3

3. No Volume Shadow Copying in Win2k, its available in Win2k3

4. Active Directory Federation Systems in Win2k3

Like that some other security features added in Win2k3, main features are above

***WHICH PROTOCOL USED FOR SENDING MAIL?

SMTP — Simple Mail Transfer Protocal is used to Sending mails.

***TELL ME WHY WE R USEING EXCHANGE SERVER?

This is a mail server.. we can use this Server to send mails in Intranet as well as
outside.

*** What is DHCP?

To assign ip addresses automatically.

*** DHCP relay agent where to place it?

DHCP Relay agent u need to place in Software Router.

*** what is forest?

Is a collection of trees. Tree is nothing but collection domains which is having

same name space.
domain contains domain controllers..
forest — Tree — Domain –

Don’t get confused.. Understand carefully.

*** what is GC? how many required for A Tree?

Global Catalog server is a Searchable Index book. With this we can find out any
object in the Active Directory.

Also it works as logon authentication for Group memberships.

We can have each domain controller in domain or only first domain controller in a
domain..

*** DNS zones, chronicle records what are they?

In Windows 2000 there are mainly 3 zones

Standard Primary — zone information writes in Txt file
Standard Secondary — copy of Primary
Active Directory Integrated– Information stores in Active Directory

in win2k3 one more zone is added that is Stub zone

–Stub is like secondary but it contains only copy of SOA records, copy of NS
records, copy of A records for that zone. No copy of MX, SRV records etc.,
With this Stub zone DNS traffic will be low

*** FSMO Roles?

Flexible Single Master Operation Roles

1. Domain Naming Master — Forest Wide Roles

2. Schema Master — Forest Wide Roles
3. RID Master — Domain Wide Roles
4. PDC Emulator — Domain Wide Roles
5. Infrastructure Master — Domain Wide Roles

RID Master — It assigns RID and SID to the newly created object like Users and
computers. If RID master is down (u can create security objects upto RID pools
are avialable in DCs) else u can’t create any object one its down

PDC emulator : It works as a PDC to any NT Bdcs in your environment

It works as Time Server (to maintain same time in your network)

It works to change the passwords, lockout etc.,

Infrastructure Master: This works when we are renaming any group member ship
object this role takes care.

Domain Naming Master : Adding / Changing / Deleting any Domain in a forest it

takes care

Schema Master : It maintains structure of the Active Directory in a forest.

*** FTP, NNTP, SMTP, KERBEROS, DNS, DHCP, POP3 port numbers?

FTP : 20, 21
(20 is for controlling, 21 is Transmitting)

NNTP : 119

SMTP : 25
 Kerberos : 88

DNS : 53

DHCP : 67, 68

Pop3 : 110

*** What is Kerberos? Which version is currently used by Windows? How does
Kerberos work?

Kerberos is the user uthentication used in Win2000 and Win2003 Active

Directory servers

Kerberos version in 5.0

Port is : 88

Its more secure and encrypted than NTLM (NT authentication)

19. Sunit Suri Says:

May 21st, 2007 at 11:03 am

What is the new major feature introduced in Exchange 2003, which was not
included in Exchange 2000?

How can you recover a deleted mail box ?

what is the use of ESUtil.exe ?

What are the port Numbers for pop3, imap, smtp port, smtp over ssl, pop3 over
ssl, imap over ssl ?

Difference between Exchance 2003 and 2007?

what is RPC over Http ?

What is required for using RPC over Https with MS Outlook ?

If you have deleted the user, after you recreated the same user. How you will give
the access of previous mail box ?

What are the prequisite for installation of Exchange Server ?

What is the use of NNTP with exchange ?

 If NNTP service get stoped, what features of exchange will be effected ?

Which protocol is used for Public Folder ?

How will take backup of Active Directory ?

What are the content of System State backup ?

there r more…. i’ll update soon…….

20. Harish P Says:

June 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pm

Describe the lease process of the DHCP server.

Ans : A DHCP lease is the amount of time that the DHCP server grants to the
DHCP client permission to use a particular IP address. A typical server allows its
administrator to set the lease time.

21. Harish P Says:

June 1st, 2007 at 3:43 pm

7. Disaster Recovery Plan?

Ans: Deals with the restoration of computer system with all attendent software
and connections to full functionality under a variety of damaging or interfering
external condtions.

22. shan Says:

June 22nd, 2007 at 9:57 am

Which protocol is used for Public Folder ?

ANS: SMTP

What is the use of NNTP with exchange ?

ANS: This protocol is used the news group in exchange.

23. shan Says:

June 22nd, 2007 at 10:11 am

How will take backup of Active Directory ?

Ans: Take the system state data backup. This will backup the active directory
database. Microsoft recomend only Full backup of system state database
 What are the content of System State backup ?

The cotents are

Boot fles,system files
Active directory (if its done on DC)
Sysvol folder(if it done on DC)
Cerficate service ( on a CA server)
Cluster database ( on a clsture server)
registry
Performance couter configuration inormation
Coponet services class registration database

24. shan Says:

June 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm

What are the prequisite for installation of Exchange Server ?

The pre requsite are

IIS
SMTP
WWW service
NNTP
.NET Framework
ASP.NET
Then run Forestprep
The run domainprep

25. Brian Says:

June 25th, 2007 at 9:44 am

bart said,
How Can i Deploy the Latest Patched in Pc through G.P. wihtout having the
Admin Right in Pc.
A) Create a batch file and place all the patches in the Netlogon, and deploy the
batch file through GP to all the pcs so the same should take affect after restarting
the pc.

the answer to the above question is incorrect.

you cannot deploy a batch file using group policy.

you can only publish or assign msi packages or Zap files. They are the only two
valid file formats allowable when using “intellimirror”. in active directory.
 Actually you are incorrect as well. If you create a script and assign it to the
STARTUP script in a GPO applied to the COMPUTER and not the USER, then it
runs as a local administrator on the computer.

26. Shahnawaz Mulla Says:

September 12th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

Where is active directory stored?

27. Khan Says:

October 1st, 2007 at 12:45 am

What is difference between scope and superscope ?

Scope in dhcp, where u can specify a range of IP Address which will be leased to
the dhcp clients.
Superscope is the combination of multiple scopes.

28. Khan Says:

October 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am

Describe the lease process of the DHCP server.

DHCP Server leases the IP addresses to the clients as follows :

DORA
D (Discover) : DHCP Client sends a broadcast packets to identify the dhcp server,
this packet will contain the source MAC.
O (Offer) : Once the packet is recieved by the DHCP server, the server will send
the packet containing Source IP and Source MAC.
R (Request) : Client will now contact the DHCP server directly and request for
the IP address.
A (Acknowledge) : DHCP server will send an ack packet which contains the IP
address.
The default lease period is 8 days.

29. Khan Says:

October 1st, 2007 at 1:02 am

What is the new major feature introduced in Exchange 2003, which was not
included in Exchange 2000?

1) RPC over HTTPS.

2) Volume Shadow Copy for backup.
3) Super upgrade tools like ExDeploy.
4) Improved security, including all those of IIS v 6.0.

Pl let me know if u still find more differnces.

30. Khan Says:
October 1st, 2007 at 1:19 am

What are the port Numbers for pop3, imap, smtp port, smtp over ssl, pop3 over
ssl, imap over ssl ?

POP3 : 110
Standard IMAP4 : 143
SMTP : 25
pop3 over ssl : 992
imap over ssl : 993

31. Khan Says:

October 1st, 2007 at 1:32 am

What are the prequisite for installation of Exchange Server 2003?

* IIS
* SMTP services
* NNTP services
* ASP.NET
* www services
* .net framework

32. Josh Says:

November 28th, 2007 at 11:10 am

What is a smarthost?

A Exchange server is having bandwidth issues, explain how you would look at
fixing the issue?

33. Jitendra Singh Thakur Says:

December 8th, 2007 at 10:41 am

What is Blue Screen Error? and when it comes?

What is clean Booting?
What is warm and cold booting?
Difference between clean Boot and safe mode?

34. Anthony Says:

December 19th, 2007 at 7:06 am

What is warm and cold booting?

ans:A warm boot, accomplished by pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL key

combination, restarts the computer through the INT19h ROM BIOS routine. This
 warm-boot procedure usually does not go through the complete boot process;
generally, it skips the power-on self test (POST) to save time. In addition, a warm
boot frequently fails to reset all adapters in the computer’s adapter slots.

If you use the Reset button to cold boot the computer, it generally restarts the boot
process, including the POST. However, this procedure does not necessarily
discontinue power to the motherboard. If the power is not interrupted, the cold
boot may fail to reset all adapters in the computer’s adapter slots.

if u want any other clarification let me know

35. MANIRASU.R Says:

January 4th, 2008 at 5:18 am

Differents between server 2k and 2k3

advandags inserver 2k3
1.domain renname.
2.domain controller rename
3.multi user propertis selet
4.administrator deleted and rename
5.IP v6 supported
6.Default APIPA
7.maximum group option disable
8.task manager extra two options.
9.security purpose (shutdow time and restart time ask question)
10.forest trust
11.IIS v6
12.shadow copy

36. Mahmood Says:

January 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

About the new features in Exchange 2003:

1.Updated Outlook Web Access.

2.Updated VSAPI (Virus Scanning Application Programming Interface)

but in Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise, there are Specific Features which :

1.Eight-node Clustering using the Windows Clustering service in Windows

Server (Ent.&Datacenter)

2.Multiple storage groups.

3.X.400 connectors which supports both TCP/IP and X.25.

Contact me if you need more in details.