- A -

Within NT you can set who can get to what files or directories, this controls the access to resources.

Software that allows the LAN manager to restrict use of software applications. (as apposed to Passive Control that only monitors how many software licenses are in use at a particular moment.

Account Operators can create new user accounts. They do not have the authority to assign user rights.

Account Policy options affect all users including those that already exist and any created in the future. There is no way to change these policies for a particular user or group.

Application Programming Interface, a series of hooks in a software program that allow other programs to invoke it directly without interference from the user or system administrator. A way to have software programs talking and exchange data with each other.

DOS applications each use a VDM; each has a separate memory space
Win16 applications share a VDM and a single memory space by default
Win32 applications each have a separate memory space

Increasing the Application Performance Boost to maximum on the server is used when applications slow down when large printing jobs are slowed down. This occurs when a server on your network is acting as both an application server and a print server and users are complaining that their applications slow down when large printing jobs are sent to the server.

ARC (Advanced RISC Computer) names indicate where Windows NT boot files are located. If the hardware adapter is SCSI with its BIOS disabled, the first part of the string would be "scsi," otherwise it will be "multi." The first SCSI controller is denoted by "scsi((0)" while the second SCSI controller is denoted by "scsi(1)."

scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)

The above indicates that the Windows NT boot files are located on the third partition on a SCSI disk with BIOS disabled whose Target ID is 0 on the first SCSI controller.

Multi or scsi refers to the type of controller you are using.

Multi refers to an IDE, EIDE or SCSI adapter with BIOS enabled.

SCSI refers to a SCSI adapter without the BIOS enabled (disabled). The number contained in the parentheses refers to the controller; the first one is referred to as 0.

disk is used in the first entry is SCSI and refers to the first hard disk attached to that controller.

rdisk is used when the first entry is multi and also designates which disk to use. The first disk is referred to as 0.

partition refers to which partition on that disk. Partitions are numbered starting with 1, not 0.

A backup product sold by Cheyenne Software, and one of the market leaders

NT Servers must be set up by the System Administrator in order to track who has done what. This is done by setting certain buttons ON and OFF. Companies can decide how much control they want to have, and set policies regarding the auditing of the servers. Sometimes a server is set up wrong and does not comply with these policies.

If you enable the auditing of files in the /Winnt directory of your network's PDC, only changing file data and changing the file attributes events will be audited. If writes to files are being audited, information will be collected if a user changes data in a file, changes a file's attributes, or displays a file's owner and permissions.

Changes to a file's permissions are tracked by auditing the Change Permissions event.

Changes in a file's ownership are tracked by auditing the Take Ownership event.

Deletion of a file is tracked by auditing the Delete event.

Events selected for auditing are stored in the system and security logs. These logs can be viewed from the Event Viewer utility.

Events include:
Logon and Logoff
File and Object Access
Use of User Rights
User and Group Management
Security Policy Changes
Restart, Shutdown, and System
Process Tracking

A log file that shows what was done by whom and when.

- B -

To backup the registry and user account databases on the PDC you would use the Windows NT Backup program. Only Windows NT Backup gives you the option to back up the local registry.

To backup the registry, open Windows NT Backup and check the Backup Local Registry box. To restore the registry, you must select at least one file in the Tapes window before the Restore Local Registry box is enabled. Backup Local Registry is available only if the local drive is selected.

A product sold by Seagate Software, and one of the market leaders

Data gets backed up on a regular basis from disk to tape. But if someone needs a file that was deleted accidentally it needs to be restored from tape to disk

One tape backup drive attached to the Windows NT server is the minimum hardware requirement to backup data. One tape backup drive attached to the Windows NT server can be used to backup the data on all computers in the network.

Backup Operators built-in group for Windows NT Server. Privileges are backing up files to tape and restoring files from tape when logged on locally only.

They have the right to log on to a Windows NT Server locally, shut down the server, back up files and directories on the server and restore files and directories to the server. Backup Operators group members do not have the right to manage servers remotely.

The time available for the system administrator to make a backup of all the data, usually when all the users are off the system and the data is not modified.

BDC is the Backup Domain Controller. It helps the primary domain controller. The primary domain controller copies the directory database to the backup controllers.

The BDC can authenticate users just as the PDC can. If the PDC fails, the BDC is promoted to a PDC. But if a BDC is promoted, any changes to the directory database are lost since the last time it was copied from the old PDC.

A domain can have more than one BDC.

To shut down your domain's PDC for scheduled maintenance and promote one of your domain's BDCs to be the PDC while the original PDC is unavailable:

Install Client-based Network Administration Tools on your computer and promote one of the BDCs on the domain to be the PDC using the Promote option in Server Manager.

Barratt Edwards, the creators of the ULTRABAC backup product.

Allows data to flow in two directions.

The Boot Partition contains system files (\WINNT, HAL.DLL, NTOSKRNL.EXE)

If your Windows NT Server computer contains one SCSI disk, one IDE disk and each disk contains only one primary partition, the boot partition is located on the SCSI disk and the BIOS on the SCSI disk controller is not enabled:

The correct ARC name for the boot partition that is:
scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

A connection between two networks to get all users on one network to talk to all users on the other network.

Blue Screen Of Death. It's the screen that NT shows when it crashes. It is a dump of what was in memory at the time so an analysis can be done what caused the problem.

- C -

C is a programming language that has become the standard in Client Server software architectures. C+ was developed after C, and you guessed it, C++ is the last version available. An API is an Application Programming Interface. When a software product features an API, it means it has opened up itself to communicate with other software, and can be activated by other software programs, not just the user. This is a very powerful feature when you want to integrate software products with each other and automate procedures.

A US Government set of rules that secure data safety. It's as much a series of policies that have to be in as built-in security features in the Operating system itself. An example is the fact that the server needs to be in a locked closet. If not, C2 Security is out.

For security reasons, sometimes people are able to call the office from home for telecommuting, but only via callback. The person calls a modem in the office, this notes their number and then calls them back and only that way you can log on. It controls WHO can log in and is a pretty safe way to telecommute.

Having two windows open that allow you to converse in real time over a remote hookup. You type something, they read it, they type something, you answer.

Client-based Network Administration Tools can be installed on a Windows NT workstation, a Windows 95 workstation, a Windows for Workgroups computer or a Windows 3.11 computer. Client-based Network Administration Tools can allow a user at a workstation computer on a domain to manage many domain resources including user accounts and domain computers.

Client Service for NetWare runs on workstations to access a NetWare server directly by using the NetWare Link IPX/SPX Compatible Transport Protocol. A user account on the NetWare server and the NWLink protocol are required.

User accounts need to be placed in the NTGATEWAY group on the NetWare server if workstations are accessing the NetWare server via a gateway. Gateway Service for NetWare must be loaded onto a Windows NT server if that server is to act as a gateway to a NetWare server.

Novell has its own brand of MCSE, called Certified Novell Engineer.

Convert.exe program can be used to change a FAT partition to an NTFS partition while preserving all of the data on the partition.

The Format command can be used to change the format of a partition from FAT to NTFS but all of the data will be lost. You must restore data from backup.

If you copy a file from one folder to another folder with the same NTFS partition the file will inherit the permissions of the target folder.

When you move a file from one folder within the same NTFS partition, the file will retain its permissions.

Counters should be monitored to determine if excessive paging is occurring. Avg. Disk Sec/Transfer counter and the Pages/Sec counter equal the percentage of disk access time being devoted to paging.

% Processor Time and System Object Processor Queue Length should be monitored to determine if processor activity is excessively high on a machine running Windows NT 4.0.

Use Performance Monitor to display counters in four different ways: Chart, Alert, Log, and Report.

The activity of a system administrator in setting up a user or deleting them on an NT LAN.

A software application made by Seagate Software that is called a Report Generator. It looks at a database and can pull out all kinds of data and print it the way you want.

Setup of a piece of hardware or software.

The 4 exams that everybody needs to take that wants to be an MCSE:
Windows95, Win NT Workstation, Win NT Server and Networking Essentials.

- D -

Some files have a higher degree of confidentiality than others, e.g. payroll databases. Each file can be rated on how high the confidentiality is, and how protected it should be.

The condition of all the data on the LANbeing correct, up to date, not messed with, and fully intact

To speed up the dataflow between two computers, compression has the result that less bytes go over the line and thus it goes faster. On the other side the data gets decompressed and can then be used. This uses CPU time, but CPU is cheaper than the connect time so this makes a lot of sense.

Software applications that move data from the disk to tape or other media and back. As opposed to Data Monitoring Applications that LOOK at the data but not move it.

Some one stealing valuable information from a computer.

DES is another industry standard used in the encryption world. It is considered unbreakable and thus very secure. Data that is encrypted via DES can be sent over the internet without risk of being decoded.

DHCP allows IP addresses to be automatically assigned to your network computers. Automatically assigned TCP/IP parameters.

Parameters which can be assigned to the computer on your network are:

NetBIOS name resolution type
DNS server address
WINS server address
default gateway address

You can configure both dial-in and dial-out protocols from the Network Configuration dialog box which is accessible from the Network option in Control Panel. TCP/IP, NWLink and NetBEUI protocols support both dial-in and dial-out RAS connection.

Disk Administrator is a graphical tool for administrating disk resources. It allows you to create or delete partitions and replaces the DOS fdisk utility. You may change the drive letter assignments, change a volume label and format the partition. Disk Administrator can also create and manage various disk configurations including mirror sets, stripe sets, stripe sets with parity and volume sets.

The process of "reads, writes and deletes to a magnetic disk causes all kinds of unused small and large spaces on the disk and files are chopped up in many parts. Reading those fragmented files takes a lot longer compared to reading a file that is in one contiguous chunk on disk. File fragmentation is like a slow disk disease and needs to be cleaned up regularly.

Running the Diskperf.exe utility allows physical disk counters to be activated for use with Performance Monitor.

The DLC protocol must be installed for Windows NT to provide HP network interface print devices. You will not be able to install a printer driver if Windows NT cannot recognize the print device.

For HOST name resolution.

Floods, earthquakes, and fires have a tendency to destroy buildings and computer rooms. The system administrator needs to have a backup AWAY from the building to make sure the data is safe and that the company can recover from the disaster.

Disk Striping without parity can be implemented on FAT or NTFS partitions and requires two hard disks. It is not fault tolerant because the data cannot be recovered if one of the disks in the stripe set fails. RAID 0. Offers best read and write performance. Increases performance.

Disk Striping with parity offers better read performance than disk mirroring because the system can read from all members of the stripe set (three or more physical disks, up to 32 drives) at the same time.

Disk Striping with parity cannot contain the system or boot partitions. Fault tolerant. Stores error-checking information.

Example-Maximum amount of data stored on a stripe set with parity:

A stripe set with parity consisting of three disks. One-third of total drive capacity will be used for storing parity information. If you are using four disks and each disk has 200 MB of free disk space, the maximum amount of data that can be stored on the stripe set with parity is 600 MB.

If a stripe set with parity fails, replace the failed disk with an identical disk, select an area of free space at least as large as the partitions that are members of the stripe set, and choose Regenerate from the Fault Tolerance menu in Disk Administrator.

Same as Granular User administration.

A group of workstations and one controlling server that together form a LAN that is managed as a single unit. The server that controls the domain is called the Primary Domain Controller (PDC). It is the system that allows the users to log in and gives them permissions to do things.

The backup is the BDC - Backup Domain Controller. Go to BDC for more information.

User Manager for Domains on a domain controller, to add the user accounts of the Windows NT workstation.

Use Server Manager on a domain controller to add the computer names of the Windows NT workstation machines. Each user's workstation will also need to be configured to use the new domain. This is accomplished by double-clicking the Network icon in Control Panel and entering the domain name in the Domain Settings dialog box.

Use the Network option in Control Panel to add your domain name to each Windows NT workstation.

All the actions that relate to making sure that a whole domain is completely secure. There are a lot and most system admin's do not even know what they are!

Domains that have been set up without the proper configuration so Administrators can actually get in there and make changes.

Copying a file from one computer to another via a graphical interface. One picks up the file with the mouse and drags it over to the location where it needs to be copied to.

- E -

The ERD serves as a backupup in case of an extreme emergency, such as missing or corrupt files causing Windows NT not being able to boot. It is a backup of Registry information. Keep a separate emergency repair disk for each computer and tag it with the serial number of the computer because names and locations change.

Files on the Emergency Repair Disk:
SETUP.LOG
SYSTEM._
SAM._
SECURITY._
SOFTWARE._
DEFAULT._
CONFIG.NT
AUTOEXEC.NT
NTUSER.DA_

To update the ERD information, use the hidden utility RDISK.EXE. To start RDISK, choose Start, Run and type RDISK. RDISK offers two options for administrators: Update Repair Information and Create Repair Disk.

NOTE: You cannot boot from the ERD disk.

Installation always creates the emergency directory. It is located in the winnt_root\REPAIR directory.

1) NT keeps files that log what kinds of events have taken place. People accessing files, etc.

2) NT keeps log files of all important events on the computer it runs on. There are three event log files:
Security , System and Application. Go to START, PROGRAMS, ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS, EVENT VIEWER to view the events.

If a user has not been set up well in the system, they may have the power to do all kinds of damage. This is called excessive rights and KSA can check on this and report back to the system administrator.

A file that has .exe as its extension and when clicked upon starts executing a task. Also: a Program

A database with a set of rules that are more or less a condensation of the expertise in a specific field. Trading in Stocks is an example, but also computer security.

To use a Windows NT computer as an export server using the Directory Replicator Server you may use a primary domain controller, a backup domain controller and a Windows NT member server.

A primary domain controller, a backup domain controller and a Windows NT member server can be export servers.

Windows NT workstations, Windows 95 clients and MS-DOS clients cannot be configured to be export servers.

- F -

File Allocation Table. One of the two ways data can be written to a disk under NT. Windows Workstation supports both NTFS and FAT file system. FAT allows dual-booting. FAT is less reliable than the NT File System (NTFS. Remember:
FAT - dual-boot.
NTFS - security and compression on a per file basis as well as the ability to audit file access.

An error in a certain piece of software or media can cause the system to crash or the job to fail. Fault Tolerance is built in redundancy to make sure that the system does not fail or the job completes despite the error. Mirror sets and stripe sets with parity are fault tolerant.

Windows NT Server requires the File and Print Services for NetWare add-on module to allow NetWare clients and servers to access its files and printers.

The Windows NT Server also requires the NWLink protocol to communicate with NetWare clients and servers.

To convert a NTFS partition to FAT so that it can be accessed by workstations running Windows 95, use the Format command in Disk Administrator to change the format of the partition to FAT and restore all data from tape backup.

The Format command can be used to change the format of a partition from NTFS to FAT but all of the data on the partition will be lost.

The Convert.exe program can be used to change a FAT partition to a NTFS while preserving all of the data on a partition.

FAT to NTFS: use convert.exe. Data is preserved.
NTFS to FAT: use format command and restore from backup.

If frame types other than 802.2 are being used on a network, then Manual Frame Type Detection must be enabled. Frame types belonging to each client must be added to the frame type configuration list on the NTLink IPX/SPX Properties dialog box.

802.2 frame types are the default frame types for NetWare 4.x machines.

- G -

Gateway Service for NetWare must be installed on the Windows NT server in order to communicate with a NetWare server. NWLink protocol must be installed on the Windows NT server. The Migration Tool for NetWare will only be installed on the Windows NT server once Gateway Service for NetWare is installed.

Graphics Interchange Format. An extention given to graphics files that are used a lot on the internet.

Global groups go into local groups. Only global groups can cross a trust.

NT has a special kind of user. It is called a GUEST user and unfortumately these guests have all kinds of rights they should not have. If a System Admin screws up with this, his NT server can be as insecure as can be. Not Good.

Global Protection Fault. This is an error message that appears when two software modules clash in the RAM of a windows computer, and cause an abnormal end of the session.

Hardware card that gets plugged into the PC and is hooked up to the monitor. The graphics card has on board chips that drive the picture to the PC monitor.

Up to and including NT 4.0, user management is done in an "all-or-nothing" fashion. The system administrator is the only person who can do user admin tasks. It would be good if he could farm out simple tasks to some one lower on the totem pole, like a help desk employee who can be given the (granular) permission to just reset passwords for users. (See hierarchical user administrastion.)

- H -

Hardware profiles store hardware configuration information. A separate hardware profile can be created to allow the use of a portable computer to be used at home as well as in the office. Create a network-disabled profile by choosing the Hardware Profiles tab from the System Properties in Control Panel. When a network-disable profile is used, the system will disable all network devices and services at startup.

A person or group in a company that has as its main task to solve problems of PC users. They have a HOT Line that gets all the questions.

All tasks regarding user admin are done top down by the system admin. (See granular user administration)

To establish a network home directory for an existing user's account that currently has a local home directory, you must select the Connect option on the User Enviornment Profile screen in User Manager for Domains. Select a shared drive letter and then enter the full UNC pathname of the user's new home directory. The full UNC pathname contains the server name on which the home directory resides. The domain name is not required.

The variable %HOMEPATH% will contain the user's home directory UNC pathname only after the new home directory has been established.

How to:
For each user's account, specify the full UCN pathname of each user's home directory and a shared network drive letter on the User Environment Profile screen in User Manager for Domains.

If you are in a group of people, all hooked up and RP/32 is active, you can let each student at a time take over the control of the group and do something on their screen. All the other screens are "slaved" to the student's screen at that time and can see what this student does.

See Pool Fragmentation

Hyper Text Markup Language. The language used to create webpages. Consists of relatively simple tags like <H1> This is a header </H1> at the beginning end end of a line of text and determine how that text is displayed on the browser that reads that line.

Part of the network infrastructure. Basically a box that is connected to the server with one cable on one end, and out of the other end of the box come 8 or 16 cables that go to workstations.

- I -

Internet Explorer. Microsoft's browser to surf the Internet. As opposed to Netscape which is the competing browser.

Internet Information Server.
Microsoft has built in a web server into Win NT. This is the software that server the information to the Web. The browsers send requests for pages, the server sends them back to the browser who then displays the information.

WINNT32 (Windows NT) or WINNT (Windows 3.1; DOS; Windows 95)
WINNT /B: Do not create boot disks
WINNT /OX: Create boot disks, but do not start installation
WINNT /T: drive: Specify temporary storage drive
WINNT /U: Use unattended answer file

To install Windows NT Server 4.0 on a workstation running Windows 95 that has a CD-ROM drive which is not supported by Windows NT Server 4.0:

- Boot your computer under Windows 95, change to the CD-ROM drive, use the Xcopy command to copy the \I386 folder to the hard drive, and run Winnt.exe from the hard drive.

- Or you could copy the installation files to a server, and run server-based setup from your computer.

Note: Winnt32.exe is the Windows NT setup program used on computers already running Windows NT. It cannot be used to upgrade Windows 95 to Windows NT Server.

Software that runs on multimedia machine and teaches some one how to do certain things or explains concepts. Usually includes tests to see if the trainee has understood the materials.

Software that looks at who tries to break in and reports on these attempts.

Data needs always to come from and is written to the hard disk. This is a magnetic device and much slower than the CPU and Memory, and thus by definition the bottleneck in a computer: The CPU and RAM are waiting for Input/Output data from the disk.

The combined devices that let the disk data flow to a computer. The disk, the disk controller card, and the local area network connections.

The name of a computer on an Internetwork. If you are installing a Windows NT server that will be used as a router between two network segments, 160.100.0.0 and 160.101.0.0 you will need to assign the following to the two network adapter cards:

160.100.0.1 and 160.101.0.1

The router must have two network cards - one with a valid IP address for the first segment and the second with a valid IP address for the second segment. Each card should be assigned manually rather than using a DHCP server since the IP address of one of the network cards may be the default gateway address for one of the subnets.

This is the data traffic protocol used by Novell Netware LAN's.

Independent Software Vendor. This is the famous "third party" software vendor. Microsoft is party 1, the customer is party 2, and the guys who sell the software that makes NT really work <grin> are the third party.

- J -

A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that claims to be hardware independent and can run on all platforms without the need to change anything. Used to create software for the Internet.

This is Microsoft's flavor of Java, and works slightly different. No need to go into much detail here.

- K -

The core part of NT that does the multitasking and the security work.

- L -

Local Area Network. A series of PC's hooked up together with a cable.

The Last Known Good configuration is a copy of the most recent registry settings used to successfully boot Windows NT.

If you have modified some value entries in the Registry, using the Last Known Good configuration is the best way to recover from problems caused be recently added drivers or recently modified value entries in the Registry.

Per Server License - Concurrent connections to a particular server; connections to the server cannot exceed the maximum specified in the license. An administrator can still connect after the maximum is reached.

You have a one-time chance to convert the per server license to a per seat license using the Control Panel Licensing application.

Per Seat License - Clients may use any server. Unlimited number of clients can connect to the server.

Local groups reside on the computer that controls the resource. Global groups go into local groups.

To make sure that your NT LAN is secure, you need to check those log files regularly. If you have 400 workstations that becomes impossible of course. But for security reasons, you need to audit those logs. Using a tool like LogCaster, you can make sure your audit policies stay in, and do not drop out with potentially disastrous results.

Get access to a computer or network.

As you know, you have to type your password to get in your system. If you screw this up and make typo's these are registered as, you guessed it. Login violations!

Taking the important events out of the event logs and report on those only, getting rid of the rest. (See event logs)

- M -

Programmers (hackers) writing deceptive programs that crack computer security and allow them to enter the computer system.

Microsoft Certified System Engineer

This is a simulation of the MS Exams for the MCSE course. Transcender offers very good practice exams. There are also practice exams on CDs that come with reference books on Windows NT.

Tapes and disks usually have some bad spots. Trying to write on these causes a problem and data can get lost: The magnetic media failed and you are toast as the data is not backed up.

Memory settings can be tuned to increase network responsiveness.

Balance: Managing a network of around sixty users.

Minimize Memory Used: Set a domain controler's memory setting to Minimize Memory Used if you only expect about ten network connections to be established.

Maximize Throughput for File Sharing: Select if you aticipate a large number of file sharing operations to occur.

Maximize Throughput for Network Applications: Select if the domain controller's primary function is running distributed applications that perform their own memory caching, such as SQL.

A suite of software applications for larger LAN's. SMS, a database, a mainframe connection, etc etc.

Technet is basically a very large database that you can search for technical problems and their solutions. It comes on CD's and is a godsend for people that need to fix problems with Windows machines. It is also called a Knowledge Base.

Short for Master File Table. This is the table where NTFS (the NT File System) keeps track of what data gets written where on the disk.

Management Information file, another file that SMS uses after the distribution to report if all went well or not.

Creates an exact duplicate copy in real-time. Disk mirroring requires only two physical disks and can include the system or the boot partition. Disk mirroring is fault tolerant.

In order to boot from the second side of the mirror, you must create a fault tolerance boot disk that the contains ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini. You also need ntbootdd.sys if you are using a SCSI drive without BIOS enabled and the boot.ini files needs to be changed to reference the mirror partition.

For example, if your operating system boots from the line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) \WINNT="Windows NT Server Version 4.00"

you will need to change this to:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2) \WINNT="Windows NT Server Version 4.00"

rdisk(1) is the second disk. partition(2) is the second partition on the disk.

Multi (enabled) or scsi (disabled) refers to the type of controller you are using. Multi refers to the method used to identify the path to the operating system you wish to start in the boot.ini file.

If one of the two disks in a mirror set fails, replace the failed disk with an identical disk, break the original mirror set and create a new mirror set.

Remember: You must first break the set by choosing Break Mirror from the Fault Tolerance menu. This will isolate the remaining working disk as a separate volume. You can then create a new mirror set using the remaining working disk and another replacement disk.

A server that runs an application that is crucial to get work done. If the server goes down, the company production crashes!

1) The data (usually databases) that holds the information that is "make-break" for the company. Without it the company simply dies. 2) Name of a software company in the NT space.

The Modemlog_.txt file is enabled through the Modem option in Control Panel. The dialog between the system and the modem during RAS operations is captured in the Modemlog_.txt file if you have enabled logging for the modem.

To enable logging for a modem, double-click Modems in Control Panel, select the modem, click Advanced on the Connection tab and then select the Record a Log File check box.

You can troubleshoot RAS problems using the Modemlog .txt file in the %Systemroot% directory.

Being able to "barge in" on what a user is doing on their computer. This can be done with and without the user knowing that this is occurring. Usually done for training purposes.

Being able to have different passwords for different modules of the software. The deeper and more confidential it gets, the more passwords you would need to access.

Being able to perform multiple tasks at the same time. Built in feature of Win NT.

- N -

Something (usually a piece of software) that comes with NT in the box. Part of NT.

NT has a backup utility built-in, and this is called the native backup. It is relatively simple. That is why most customers buy a third-party backup solution.

This is an abbreviation for the Microsoft Network Driver Interface Specification. If a software product is NDIS compatible it will work with NT and most of the leading NIC's in the industry.

This is data that has been saved to a slower device like a tape drive, but still can be called and loaded, usually it takes a minute or so to get to it. (See on-line and off-line data.

The names of the computers in a Microsoft Local Area Network

CSNW - Client redirector.

GSNW - Two components: client services and gateway services.
Gateway Component allows NT Clients to access NetWare resources through the NT Server. After enabling a Windows NT gateway to a NetWare resource you must also map a Windows NT server drive letter to the shared NetWare resource.

FPNW - Installed on NT Server and causes the NT Server to appear to be a NetWare server.

DSNW - Allows for administration of NetWare servers as part of NT Directory Services.

NWLink - If installed without GSNW, allows the NT client to run applications located on a NetWare Server.

Novell 3.x- user - Password change setpass
Novell 4.x - NDS - Password change Alt+Ctrl=Del

The person responsible for keeping the LAN up and running.

The measure of the amount of data you can pump through a network without getting errors.

In order to start an over-the-network installation of Windows 95, you need to create a Network Installation Startup Disk using Network Client Administrator on the Windows NT Server.

The disk contains the files needed to enable a client to connect to the network and access the installation files on the server.

All the hardware in place to get data from the workstations to the server and back.

A hardware card that you plug into a PC. The card hooks up to your local area network.

The server in a network stores all the information on its disks. The other nodes in the network are waiting for that data that has to travel through one Network Interface Card (NIC) That is the network I/O bottleneck!

The Network Monitor Agent configures your network adapter to run promiscuous mode. This allows your network adapter to read all frames passed over the network and redirect these frames to the operating system.

To use network performance counters in Performance Monitor, the Network Monitor Agent must be installed on your server.

If you have a big network, everybody is broadcasting to that net causing a lot of traffic. If you break the net in logical segments, there is less traffic and better performance.

Not all data can be paged out to disk. Some of it needs to stay in RAM and cannot be paged, hence the nonpaged memory pool. (See Paged Pool, Working Sets, Virtual Memory, and Pool fragmentation)

A hard disk can be split up in partitions. This is to make the disk more manageable. Some partitions are set up with the NT files system, (NTFS). Others are set up with the old DOS File Allocation Table ( FAT). Well, NTFS is secure and complies with C2-security. DOS on the contrary does not and is very much non secure. It leaks from all sides as a matter of fact.

The Network Management software that is currently still in use a lot but is being replaced by Microsoft's NT rapidly. Many large sites still have a lot of Netware in house

A Service is a program that runs on the NT server in the background. It's not an application. It usually fires up at boot time and sits there patiently waiting until some other program needs it's services for some task. That is why they are called "services".

NT File System. This is the file system that comes with NT and is much more reliable, modern and robust than the old DOS compatible FAT (see FAT). NTFS is C2-compliant and is used a lot in government.

To configure a Windows NT Server on your domain as a gate way to a NetWare server:

Create a group called NTGATEWAY on the NetWare server, assign permissions to this group, and add a user account to NTGATEWAY that has access to the NetWare resources that you want to share.

The NWLink protocol must be installed on the Windows NT server in order for the Windows NT Server to communicate with the NetWare server. In order to avoid maintaining user accounts on two types of servers, Gateway Service for NetWare and the NWLink protocol must be installed onhe Windows NT Server.

NT Media Services. The part of NT that is built for Microsoft by Highground Systems. It will be part of Win NT 5.0

A native NT application that allows the system administrator to create and manage user accounts, groups, and securities at the domain level.

You can rename an existing account. This is better than copying an existing account because the original account's description and file permissions are retained.

From User Manager for Domains, rename account, instruct new employee to change password to the account when he logs on for the first time.

A null modem is essentially an RS-232C cable It is used to connect two computers together via their COM ports in lieu of a modem.

Valid ways to use a null modem:
- To attach a workstation to two networks that are not physically connected.

- To test a RAS server locally.

- To allow a workstation without a network adapter card to access a domain.

"N" here means "any number", so this can be 2-way, 3-way, 4-way etc.

- O -

A Database that complies with the industry standard that was set as the ODBC specification.

This is data saved to tape or CD-Rom that is not available on-line and needs to be manually mounted. (See On-line and Near-line data)

Object Linking and Embedding. A way to have software products work together and for instance embed a graph into a word processing document. Kind of a live link between two applications.

This is data that is immediately available, without any waiting time, normally straight from a disk. (See near-line and off-line data).

On-Site means the data is in the same building as the computers.

When a backup fails, the sysadmin needs to make a backup during production hours outside of the normal backup window. This is called an out-of-band backup and is a major hassle.

- P -

The actual process of writing data from RAM to the pagefile on disk (See Paging File)

Data that is not immediately necessary in RAM gets flushed to this file on the hard drive. (See PageFault and Paged Pool). The paging file should not be placed across a stripe set with parity.

If the paging file on your Windows NT server computer has expanded beyond its specified initial size the following are likely to occur:

- The disk containing the paging file will become fragmented.
- Applications will take longer to start.

To improve performance if excessive paging is occurring on your server:

- Add more physical memory
- Distribute the paging file(s) across a number of disks
- Move the paging file off the disk that contains the Windows NT system files.

The percentage of elapsed time a processor spends executing a non-idle thread is measured by the % Processor Time.

The number of processes contributing to the processor's usage can be found by examining the System Object Processor Queue Length counter.

The Usage Peak (bytes) and % Usage counters are used to determine if the paging file size is approaching its maximum.

Data in RAM that can be written to disk if needed to make space for other data that needs to go into RAM. (See Non-Paged pool, and Pool Fragmentation)

Boot Partition contains system files (\WINNT, HAL.DLL, NTOSKRNL.EXE)
System partition contains files used in boot process (NTBOOTDD.SYS, NTLDR,BOOT.INI, BOOTSECT.DOS, NTDETECT.COM

When you choose the Delete command, an error message will occur. You cannot delete system partitions nor can you delete any part of a partition set without deleting the entire set.

Software that simply shows the LAN manager who is using what software when. As opposed to Active control that allows a system manager to restrict the use of some or all software applications.

A piece of software that looks at some one's password and tries to break it by guessing using brute force and/or highly sophisticated artificial intelligence. Passwords like "snoopy" are easy to crack, but a password like "accelR8" is much harder.

People not keeping security policy in, e.g. leaving post-its with passwords lying around.

Passwords may be easy to guess or hard to guess. The harder to guess, the better the password strength.

PDC is your Primary Domain Controller. It contains the master copy of the directory database. It contains information on user accounts on the domain. There can be only one primary domain controller per domain and the primary domain controller must be the first machine installed.

To promote your domain's BDC (Backup Domain Controller) to PDC (Primary Domain Controller), install Client-based Network Administration Tools on your computer and promote one of the BDCs on the domain to be the PDC using the Promote option in Server Manager.

Package Definition File. SMS makes a package of the software that needs to be distributed before it gets sent. The PDF describes how the package is put together.

This is a Microsoft piece of software that prepares the trainee for the MCSE exams. Have a look at it!

Provides a graphical display of information about a wide variety of system performance factors. Located in the Administrative Tools menu.

A Performance Monitor Alert can be generated from a server suspected of having a performance problem or from any other machine on the network that can view that server's performance counters.

To use network performance counters in Performance Monitor, the Network Monitor Agent must be installed on your server.

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) allows Performance Monitor to use TCP/IP-related counters.

Useful Categories:
Processor, Memory, PagingFile, PhysicalDisk, LogicalDisk and Process.

Performance Monitor Views:
Chart - displays a graph of the value of the specified counters over time.

Alert - Allows you to define maximum and minimum values for counters and alerts you if a counter exceeds boundaries.

Only one user, machine or group can be selected for a network alert. Sending a network message to two users on the domain who are not in the same group would not receive the alert.

Log - Creates a log file with information from the selected counters. The log file can be loaded into Performance Monitor later and viewed using the Chart or Report options.

Report - Generates a printable report based on the counters.

When optimizing the server service, select:
Balance for less than 10 connections.
Maximize for 10 to 64 client connections.
File applications if the computer primarily provides storage for files such as home directories.
Network applications when processing occurs on the server such as with a SQL server.

Average Disk Queue Length counter should be used to determine how many system requests are waiting for disk access.

The % Time counter will indicate the load on a disk drive. It should not be used on systems containing RAID devices because the % Disk Time counter can contain values greater than 100%, thus distorting the actual percentage of non-idle time for disks contained in the RAID device.

% Processor Time counter: The percentage of elapsed time a processor spends executing a non-idle thread is measured by the % Processor Time counter.

System Object Processor Queue Length: The number of processes contributing to the processor's usage can be found by examining the System Object Processor Queue Length.

The Usage Peak (bytes) and % Usage counters are used to determine if the paging file size is approaching its maxium.

If a file is copied from an NTFS partition to a FAT partition on a Windows NT Server computer, the permissions for the file will be lost, but the long filename will be retained.

You cannot assign local permission for a file or a folder on a FAT partition. Under Windows NT and Windows 95, the FAT file system can support long filenames.

The actual amount of RAM in your system (See Virtual Memory)

Blocks of data get written to and deleted from these NT memory pools at high speeds. Not all blocks are the same size. This high speed process of "reads and deletes" fragments the pools, you could compare it to disk fragmentation, but it is not the same. (See Paged Pool, Non-Paged Pool, Working Set, Virtual Memory)

POSIX stands for Portable Operating System Interface. It was proposed by the IEEE to increase portability of applications for various flavors of UNIX.

Point to Point Protocol. It's a dialup connection from a personal computer (PC) to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). PPP is used to transport all the data from the ISP to the local PC

Print jobs sent to the printer during the day when printer is set up to be available only during off hours will be stored in the print spooler.

You must edit the Registry to change the location of the spool file. \HKEY_LOCLA_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Printer\Printers is the correct key to edit to the change the location of the spool file.

Promiscuous mode allows your network adapter to read all frames passed over the network and redirect these frames to the operating system. Collect network-related data in Performance Monitor such as % Network Utilization, Total Frames Received/Second or Broadcast Frames Received/Second.

Your network adapter card must be configured to run in promiscuous mode. When the Network Monitor agent is started, your network adapter is automatically configured to run in promiscuous mode.

You would configure the network adapter card in your server to run in promiscuous mode if you are checking to see if a bridge or router is flooded or if you are establishing a baseline of broadcast frames received per second.

TCP/IP - A routable protocol that is the basis for communication on the Internet.

NWLink IP/SPX Compatible Transport - Microsoft's rendation of Novell's prorietary IPX/SPX protocol suite.

NetBEUI - A very fast but non-routable protocol used on Microsoft networks. Not suitable for Local Area Networks (LANs).

TCP/IP, NetBEUI, NWLink can be configured as dial-in and dial-out for RAS connections.

- Q -

Queue

 

Documents or Jobs lines up waiting to be printed or processed. In NT, every printer has a queue and you can user Print Manager to view and manage the queue.

- R -

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, but generally understood as built-in redundancy so that errors are caught before they happen. RAID comes in flavors, RAID 1, 2 , 3 and 5. Each is implemented in a slightly different way.

RAID 0 - Striping (NOT Fault tolerant)

RAID 1 - Mirroring or Duplexing (Fault tolerant)System and boot files can be placed on a mirrored partition.

RAID 5 - Striping with Parity (Fault tolerant)

Windows NT has a module called Remote Access Services. It allows people to call in via a remote phone line and work on the server as if they were on the LAN.

RAS supports up to 256 modems.
RAS may be either a PPP server or a PPP client; RAS can be only a SLIP client and not a SLIP server.

Authentication methods are Clear Text, Encrypted, or MS-CHAP.

Callback only calls one phone number; multilink does not work with callback.

Set permissions on certain keys in the Registry. REFEDT32 does not let you search for values.

Search for values.

The Registry in NT is basically a database that keeps all the info about the user, his apps, his permissions, the LAN and the hardware they are running. In the registry are a whole bunch of security related settings as well.

This utility allows you to manage the RAS services, displays a list of servers on the network running the RAS service, whether the service is currently running and the numbers of ports in use.

Remote Access Admin Menu Options:
Server - The Communication Ports option allows you to define the serial ports or internal modens used for the RAS service. You can also manage a different domain or server.

Users - The Permissions option displays a list of users of the server or domain. Select the Grant dialin permission to user option to enable the RAS access for that user. All users are disabled by default. The Active Users option from the Users menu displays a list of currently connected users.

Use Remote Access Admin to allow remote access from various workstations by setting the remote access permissions to Set by Caller.

View - The Refresh option redisplays the list of servers and connections with the latest information.

Options - Low Speed Connection options sets the utility to update the display only when you use the Refresh option. This simplifies access over a slow connection such as a RAS connection.

Being able to determine problems by routing event log messages over a WAN or the &lsquo;Net.

To create a roaming profile for a user, the user's profile must first be copied from their workstation to a shared network path.

Select the profile entry on a user's machine from the User Profiles tab in the System option in the Control Panel, choosing Copy To and supplying the full UNC name to the server on which the profile will reside.
The User Profile Path field on the User Environment Profile dialog box should then be set to the full UNC pathname of the copied user profile.

1) A connection between two networks that allows to filter which users talk to whom on the other side, making the traffic less and performance degradation less.2) A hardware device that routes traffic between networks. Ask Tech Support to show you our own router that hooks us up to the &lsquo;Net. Routers are mostly used to hook people up to the &lsquo;Net. (See Bridge)

- S -

Means it can expand without running into some unknown performance ceiling or bottleneck.

When you log into a computer, you need a password. Sometimes you can create a script that logs in for you, fires up the right application, loads the right data and opens up a specific file for you. This is nice and handy and fast. All good and well, but now your password sits in that script and can be found by some one, and this is a liability.

Configures settings for SCSI adapters. The Drivers tab allows you to configure additional SCSI controllers.

Example:
Windows NT Server computer contains one SCSI and one IDE disk. Each disk contains one and only one primary partition. The boot partition is located on the SCSI disk. The BIOS on the controller is not enabled.

scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

scsi - number after "scsi" is the cardinal number of the hardware adapter card and starts from 0.

disk is the SCSI bus number and starts from (0)

rdisk is the cardinal number of the disk and will always be 0 for SCSI controllers.

partition is the cardinal number of the partition and starts from 1

NT has a series of measures to prevent a system against accidental or intentional loss. This is usually in the form of user restrictions. These restrictions are generally via passwords and can be assigned at both superficial and deeper levels.

This is what KSA produces and an example is attached to this checksheet.

The event log files that are created and that keep all events regarding security.(See event log)

The complete status regarding all security issues on a local area network.

Environment subsystems (POSIX, OS/2, Win32, DOs, WOW)
Request services from kernel mode components.

Server Manager manages alerts, services, and shared folders and even sends messages to connected users. Server Manager enables the network administrator to assess resource usage on computers running Windows NT. It allows the administrator to view a listing of the current connected users and shared resources available on the network.

You can install Server Manager on any computer running Windows NT Workstation or Windows 95/98 by installing the client-based administration tools. Server Manager allows a user to create new shares on remote computers.

Server Operators do not have the ability to create new user accounts.

Serial Line Internet Protocol. It's a way to hook up a PC to the internet via a serial cable like a phone line. It's getting older and is not so much in use any more. Simple; TCP/IP only; UNIX servers

Simple Network Management Protocol. This is a series of industry agreement on how to report on the status of network devices and to report errors that are occurring.

If your software can generate SNMP traps, it can integrate with other network management software that also uses SNMP. A Trap is pretty much like an alert in the SNMP "language"

A software product that provides one particular function, like a word processor or a database.

A part of a software application.

You do not buy software, you license the right to use it. The software stays the property of the developer.

Stealing software by making unauthorized copies.

A set of software packages bundled together, like a word processor, spreadsheet and database. E.g Office97

A large scale Microsoft database product, part of the BackOffice Suite.

Physical storage devices, libraries, and the media that holds the data.

A discipline of monitoring and managing "physical storage" of data of a whole network. This ensures that the data is available and if you do the management right, saves a lot of time. "Physical storage" is data written to magnetic disk., optical disk, tapes, CD's, or combinations of these in automated tape libraries.

Stripe sets with parity are created from the Fault Tolerance menu in Disk Administrator. To create a stripe set with parity, select at least three partitions of equal size on separate drives and choose Create Stripe Set with Parity from the Fault Tolerance menu.

A stripe set with parity cannot include the system or boot partition. A stripe set with parity is referred to as RAID Level 5. After creating a stripe set you must choose a file system and format the new drive before using it. Stripe Set with Parity can be implementd on FAT or NTFS partitions.

If a stripe set with parity fails, replace the failed disk with an identical disk, select an area of free space at least as large as the partitions that are members of the stripe set, and choose Regenerate from the Fault Tolerance menu in Disk Administrator.

Disk striping without parity is not a fault tolerant system. Select two or more partitions on separate drives. The partitions must be the same size. Choose Create Stripe Set from the Partition menu.

SYSDIFF /snap: Create snapshot
SYSDIFF /diff: Create difference file
SYSDIFF /apply: Apply difference file to computer
SYSDIFF /inf: Create INF file based on difference file
SYSDIFF /dump: Create report of difference file contents.

The Windows NT Server system log contains events related to drivers or services which fail to start or encounter a fatal error while executing. The system log can be examined using Event Viewer. Severe system errors, fatal errors or blue screen of death errors are also written to the Memory.dmp file on the server.

Microsoft's piece of software for large NT sites that allows distribution of software applications, remote control and makes an inventory of all software and hardware in a (big) LAN. Part of the Microsoft Backoffice Suite

System partition contains files used in boot process (NTBOOTDD.SYS, NTLDR, BOOT.INI, BOOTSECT.DOS, NTDETECT.COM

In each NT Server is a database with all the settings for that machine. These are software settings, hardware settings, network parameters, pretty much everything that is variable for a particular machine is housed in the registry. You can have a look BUT DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING: Go to START, RUN, type REGEDIT and enter, Click on HKEY Local Machine, Software, ODBC , ODBCINST, and you will find a bunch of databases that all ODBC compliant.

A more advanced version of a HUB. It is a box that workstations hook up with.(See Hub)

Real time monitoring of who is doing what on your LAN.

- T -

The tape drive (compare to a cassette recorder) is the device that writes the data to the tape. Like all mechanical devices, they get dirty and sometimes fail to write. You are in trouble!

A device that holds a series of backup tape cassettes. They can be written to or read from. This is an excellent example of "near-line" data.

Transaction Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. The protocol that has come up as the winner and is used on the Internet for data packet traffic.
Routable
Used for UNIX and the Interent
Main protocols: TCP (connection-oriented); UDP (connectionless)
IP address consists of network address and node address
Bytes for network address: 1 (Class A); 2 (Class B); 3 (Class C)
First octet: 1-126 (Class A); 128-191 (Class B); 192-223 (Class C)

Working from home. You've got a PC hooked up to the Net and via the Net you are hooked up to the Office. RAS in NT allows you to do this, but has a few holes so that management is cumbersome.

This is also a small box that has usually 8 ports. 8 terminals can be hooked up to this server and this allows them to communicate with the LAN.

Transcender Corp is a third party vendor that creates test exams so you can prepare yourself for these tests. Many of the questions and answers are close to the actual Microsoft exams. They say that when you pass the Transcender exams, you will also pass the MCSE ones or your money back.

Network traffic travels in data packets. To redistribute means to balance the traffic load between more NIC's. To reroute means that all packets are moved to another NIC.

Creating a graph that shows how things are looking on a long term basis, either past or future

Between two Domains a trust relationship can be set up. This simply means that if you are logged in on one domain, and the PDC has checked you out, the other domain will trust the PDC of the first domain having done it's job and you can get straight to work instead of having to log in for the second time on the other domain.

- U -

Answer file: Contains answers to installation prompts
Uniqueness database file (UDF): Contains specific exceptions for one or more computers.

A new release (or version) of a piece of software that is generally understood to be an error correction release and does not contain new functionality. (as opposed to Upgrade) Updates usually are numbered by a change in the digit after the decimal: V1.1 to V1.2

To upgrade the operating system on your computer from Windows NT Server 3.51 to Windows NT Server 4.0: run Winnt32.exe and install Windows NT Server 4.0 in the \Wintt35 directory. All settings will be preserved.

A new release (or version) of a piece of software that contains new functionality. (as opposed to Update) Upgrades usually are numbered by a change in the digit before the decimal: V1.0 to V2.0

If you want to upgrade the server and preserve all previous settings, you must install Windows NT Server in the same directory as the previous version.

Example: run Winnt32.exe and install Windows NT 4.0 in the \Winnt35 directory.

UPS stands for Uninterruptable Power Supply. These devices can be hooked up to the NT server and the server can see how well they are doing and if they have been activated or not. It is good to know that the UPS has started, because that means there is no power, and you'd better slow down the server to prevent data loss. If there is no warning message you may have set the UPS Interface Voltage for power failure signal incorrectly.

How much of what particular software application is used at what point in the day or week.

A listing of rights, privileges, passwords, group memberships, NT interface settings, and so forth that basically are the total of a user's existence on an NT domain. All these settings are called the user properties. All these are managed with the NT User Manager for Domains

To create home directories for each user's account, specify the full UNC pathname of each user's home directory and a shared network drive letter on the User Environment Profile screen in the User Manager for Domains.

A native NT application that allows the system administrator to create and manage user accounts, groups, and securities at the domain level.

User Manager for Domains:
You can rename an existing account. This is better than copying an existing account because the original account's description and file permissions are retained.

To rename account:
From User Manager for Domains, rename account, instruct new employee to change password to the account when he logs on for the first time.

One can specify in NT, what a User can do on the LAN and what they cannot do via Account Restrictions.

Enables you to add a user profile path, a logon script name, and a home directory path to the user's enviornment profile. A user profile is the entire collection of configuration data that applies to a specific user.

The user's profile subdirectory consists of an ntuser.dat file containing Registry information, a transaction log file called ntuser.dat.log (provides fault tolerance for ntuser.dat), and a series of folders containing other items such as shortcuts and application-specific profile data.

On an NT LAN each user is given permissions to open and execute files in certain directories. Groups of users can also be given there permissions. Sometimes a groups spans more than one Domain. This needs to be kept under control or else security lapses can occur.

- V -

Small destructive computer programs that screw up the computer's disk or memory, or cause other damage.

The amount of RAM each application 'perceives'. (This is 4Gig split in half, 2Gig for the app, 2Gig for the system areas) See Physical Memory.

A NIC made up out of several actual hardware NIC's but is seen by NT as if it was one fast NIC.

- W -

WINS

 

Windows Internet Name Service. This is a software component that can be added to TCP/IP which automates the assignment of Netbios names to IP addresses.

To backup the registry and user account databases on the PDC you would use the Windows NT Backup program. Only Windows NT Backup gives you the option to back up the local registry.

To backup the registry, open Windows NT Backup and check the Backup Local Registry box. To restore the registry, you must select at least one file in the Tapes window before the Restore Local Registry box is enabled. Backup Local Registry is available only if the local drive is selected.

Windows NT upgrade

New install

Windows Sockets provides a standard interface for application programs than can run under TCP/IP on a Windows NT system. API is installed on a machine when TCP/IP is installed. If the PPP settings for TCP/IP are not properly configured RAS clients cannot access an application. Applications using Windows Sockets cannot be run under NetBEUI alone.

The data in RAM a program works with at a certain moment, this is dynamic, it shrinks and expands based on system resources.