Dave's Notes for Windows 2000 Server
(Exam 70-215)

by Dave Lilligren from Dave's Help Page for Win2k Certification! for Networkdesigner.net

This was a well-rounded exam in that it covered nearly all of the exam objectives listed by Microsoft.  The questions also seemed to be organized topically, which helped my brain a bit.  There were 51 questions, and I was allotted 120 minutes to complete the exam.  I needed a 660 to pass, and was able to manage a 740.

My particular exam did not appear to be adaptive, in that I was able to mark items for later review.  However, Microsoft does frequently change exam formats for quality control purposes.

Almost all questions seemed to be of a practical nature.  Most involved a scenario of some sort.  That’s why they give you so much time to answer 51 questions.  It’s a while some times just to figure out what it is they are asking!

A lot of questions can be correctly answered if you simply apply common sense to your answer selection.  For example, if they’re talking about doing an installation from a central server, then using CD’s on the local server can’t be the right answer!  If there are four possible answers, you should be able to easily dismiss at least two of them.  Then you can focus on the last two possible right answers, and hopefully make the right choice from them.  It is also conceivable that you can “guess” the right answer simply through the process of elimination!

When you study, understand the concepts and the “how to’s” of Windows 2000.  I would not necessarily recommend practice tests as your main preparation tool, simply because questions and scenarios can easily change, but the concepts do not!

You really need to understand group policy objects and how they are implemented.  Also, know the difference between local security policies (member servers) and domain security policies (domain controllers).

You may get lots of questions about disk management, especially about fault tolerance and recovering from disk failures.  Remember that Win2K is much different from NT 4.0 in this area! 

Although there shouldn’t be as many questions about unattended installations in the server exam as you’d find in the professional exam, you should something.  Remember the difference between the answer file and the udf! 

Be familiar with terminal services.  Know what’s needed to provide remote support to inexperienced users.  Know the difference between application server and remote administration.  Can only set up TS server as one.  Remote administration does not require licenses.

You will probably see some RRAS questions.  They will usually incorporate some other aspect of networking (such as DHCP or troubleshooting dial-up connections).

Know how and when to use last known good configuration.  Know how to create an emergency repair disk (must use the backup utility!).

Know where to find Device Manager (Control Panel --> System --> Hardware) and how to use it.

Be familiar with Task Manager, and how to add columns to the list processes.  Know the difference between ending an application and ending a process!

If you see a question on NetWare, and the problem is with connectivity and you know that every thing is set up properly, then the problem is definitely with the frame type!

You may see several questions on encrypting files on an NTFS partition.  If you do a tape backup, the file is still encrypted.  If you copy an encrypted file to a FAT or FAT32 partition, you lose the encryption attribute.  If you move or copy it to another folder in any NTFS partition, it will remain encrypted, regardless of the attributes of the target folder.  However, if you move an unencrypted file into an encrypted folder, it will become encrypted.  Also, encrypted files cannot be shared.

What if someone leaves the company with encrypted files behind?  Then you need to designate someone as the Recovery Agent.

Understand disk quotas and how they work.  They are not done on folders, but on disks (or volumes).  Also, there can be quotas for all users, and you can modify quotas for individual users.

Networking es muy importante!  Surprisingly, most books for Win2K server don’t cover networking and TCP/IP that much, but you probably won’t be able to pass this exam without some basic networking knowledge.  You need to know that an IP address with /16 subnet bits is the same as a 255.255.0.0 mask, and /24 means 255.255.255.0.  You need to know how to configure your default gateway for a host, and how routers work.  Make sure that the network portion of the IP address of a host or server matches the network portion of the default gateway’s address!

You need to understand the purpose of DNS (resolves host names and fully qualified domain names to IP addresses) and WINS (resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses).  Also, you need understand how DHCP works.

Good luck!
Dave

by Dave Lilligren from Dave's Help Page for Win2k Certification! for Networkdesigner.net