SQL Server 2008 Installation process

A Step by Step guide to installing SQL Server 2008 simply and successfully with no prior knowledge

Developers and system administrators will find this installation guide useful, as will seasoned DBAs. It will teach you the basics required for a typical, problem-free installation of SQL Server 2008, allowing you to add other components later if you wish.

Remember to install the .Net Framework 3.5

Before you start the installation, you’ll need to install the .Net 3.5 Framework. This comes pre-installed on Windows 2008 Server, but for earlier versions of Windows, you’ll need to install it first. This is a straightforward pre-requisite and is usually included as part of the SQL Server 2008 installation. However, if you don’t know how to do this, or for some reason you need to download it, check out the guide Installing .Net Framework 3.5 for SQL Server 2008.

Once this Framework in installed you can commence the installation of SQL Server 2008.

STEP 1 : Copy the installation files

First off I’d recommend you copy the entire directory structure from the SQL Server 2008 installation disc to the C: drive of the machine you are going to install it on.

Although this means you need to grab a cup of coffee whilst it’s copying, this has three advantages:

• It makes the installation process much faster than running it from CD/DVD once it gets started.
• It allows you to easily add or remove components later, without having to hunt around for the CD/DVD.
• If your media is damaged and a file won’t copy, you get to find out now, rather than halfway through the installation.

Here’s what my system looks like after the copy:

STEP 2 : Setup.exe

Double click on the setup.exe file.
After a few seconds a dialog box appears:

This will disappear from the screen and then the main installation page appears:

STEP 3 : SQL Server Installation Center

Click on the Installation hyperlink on the left hand side of the screen:

STEP 4 : SQL Server Installation Center

Click on the "New Server stand-alone installation" link on the right side of the screen:

The following dialog appears on the screen whilst the install program prepares for installation:

After a minute or so (the timing will vary according to your system), the following screen appears:

STEP 5 (optional) :

If any checks have failed, click on the Show details button or "View detailed report link" to find out the cause, correct it, then click on the Re-run button to perform the checks again.

STEP 6 : Product key

If all checks have passed, click on the OK button. After a few moments, the option to select the edition and to enter the license key (or “product key”) will appear. Note that the product key box may already be populated, depending on which edition you have. Don’t enter the product key we’ve shown here, it won’t work on your system!:

STEP 7 : License Terms

Enter the product key into the box, or choose the free edition if you're evaluating SQL Server 2008, and click on the Next button:

Click in the "I accept the license terms" check box, then click on the Next button again.

STEP 8 : Setup Support Files

The following screen appears; click on the Install button:

The following screen will appear whilst Windows Installer prepares itself for the installation. This will take a short while:

After 30 seconds or so the dialog appears again:

STEP 9 : Setup Support Rules

If all is well, the following screen appears:

Click on the Next button again.

STEP 10 : Feature Selection

Select the features you want to install.
At a minimum, the following are useful (I'd argue essential), but what you need will depend on your needs:

Click on the Next button.

STEP 11 : Instance Configuration

After a short while the following screen appears:

For most installations, keep the default settings.
Click on the Next button.

STEP 12 : Disk Space Requirements

This screen just tells you if you have sufficient disk space on the drive you’re installing to, and what’s going to be installed where.

Click on Next.

STEP 13 : Server Configuration

This step allows you to set up the service accounts that will be used to run SQL Server. If you have created Windows NT or Active Directory accounts for use with services, use these.

If not, then just to get the installation up and working, use the built-in Network Service account for all three services listed (this account does not require a password).

This allows SQL Server to start up after installation. However, it can be easily changed later to another account through the Services applet (Control Panel -> Administrator Tools -> Services):

In addition, remember to change the Startup Type to Automatic, for all three services. This automatically starts the SQL Server database engine, SQL Agent and SQL Browser services when the server is re-booted.

The first service runs the SQL Server database engines executable process. The other two services allow scheduled jobs to run after installation (and after a re-boot), and allow the SQL Server to be found by clients on the network.

Do not worry about changing the collation tab, unless there is a specific requirement for anything other than the default collation sequence. Finally, click on Next.

STEP 14 : Database Engine Configuration – Account Provision

This screen allows you to set up database engine security.

Change the Authentication Mode to Mixed Mode unless you are certain you only need Windows-only authentication.

• Many third party applications rely on SQL Server logins to operate correctly, so if you are setting up a server for a third party application, rather than one developed in-house, enabling Mixed Mode authentication is a good idea.

If you pick Mixed Mode security, you must also enter a password for the sysadmin account (sa).

Enter and confirm a secure password for the sa account and keep it somewhere safe. Do not give it to any one you do not want to have access to the SQL Server.

Note that you MUST also provide a Windows NT account on the local machine as a SQL Server administrator. If you do not want Windows system administrators to be able walk up to the box and login to SQL Server, create a new, local, dummy Windows user and add this account instead. Otherwise, add in the local administrator account, or your own Windows account on the domain in which the SQL Server will reside.

STEP 15 : Database Engine Configuration – Data Directories

Click on the Data Directories tab.

Change the directories to specify which drives in your system will be used for the various types of database files.

Generally it’s advisable to put the User database directory and User log directory on separate physical drives for performance, but it will depend on how Windows has been configured and how many disk drives you have available.

If you are installing on a single drive laptop or desktop, then simply specify:

Data root directory	C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
User database directory	C:\Data
User log directory	C:\Logs
Temp DB directory	C:\TempDB
Temp Log directory	C:\TempDB
Backup directory	C:\Backups

Do not click on the FILESTREAM tab unless you know you need to change these options, as it is not generally required for most installations, but can easily be changed by using sp_configure 'filestream_access_level', ''after SQL Server has been installed. Click on Next.

STEP 16 : Error Usage Reporting

This screen simply asks if you want to send error information to Microsoft and can safely be skipped if you do not want to share any information.

Click boxes if you want to help Microsoft help you.
Click on Next again…

STEP 16 : Installation Rules

This screen simply checks if there are any processes or other installations running which will stop the installation of SQL Server 2008.

Click on Next again – you’re almost ready to install:

STEP 17 : Ready to Install

This screen summarises what you are about to install and gives you a last chance to cancel or change anything that’s wrongly configured:

Check that what’s being installed is what you want and then click on Install when you’re sure you want to start the installation process:

Installation Progress

SQL Server 2008 will now install. How long it takes depends on the speed of your machine, what load it’s under, the installation media (CD is slower) and what you’ve chosen to install.

…More Installation Progress

... and Finally
Finally, the installation will complete:

...and the following dialog box will appear:

Click on OK, the machine will NOT reboot.
The following will appear:

…followed by:

Click on the Next button again...

STEP 18 : Installation Complete

The following screen appears:

It may be worth clicking on the installation log at the top of the screen to check everything’s gone as expected. Not that this is MUCH smaller than the usual SQL Server installation log files of old.

Finally, click on the Close button. The following dialog will appear:

Click on OK – your server will NOT re-boot at this point.

The dialog box will disappear and you will be returned to the Installation Center:

Click on the Close button (the “x”) in the top right of the screen.
Finally, manually reboot your machine to complete the SQL Server 2008 installation.

Top Tips :

How to check that SQL Server 2008 has installed correctly

Here are a short number of post-installation checks which are useful to perform after re-booting your new SQL Server. You don’t have to run these, and there are other ways to check, but they are very useful for non-DBAs to be sure that the installation is basically sound and a connection can be made to the new SQL Server before handing it over to someone else.

Check 1: Has the SQL Server Service Started?

Check SQL Server 2008 has started.

Check 2: Does Management Studio Work?

Check Management Studio works by firing it up.

Click on NO when you see this dialog box:

Check 3: Can you run a basic query against the new SQL Server?

Check SQL Server works by running a simple query from Management Studio:

Enter the query shown below and hit F5 to run it:

Check 4: Is SQL Server Agent Running?

Check SQL Server Agent is running for scheduled jobs. There should be a green arrow next to the SQL Server Agent database symbol (it’s small, you might have to look hard):

Check 5: Can SQL Server be seen from the Network?

Check that the new SQL Server can be seen from another SQL Server on the same domain by running isql –L (or osql –L):

If you can’t see the new SQL Server in this list, check that the SQL Server Browser service is started on the machine where you have just installed SQL Server.

Check 6: Has the TCP/IP network protocol library been enabled on the server?

If the browser service is started but you still cannot connect to the server, click on Start ->Programs -> SQL Server 2008 -> SQL Server Configuration Manager (on the server where SQL Server’s just been installed)

The SQL Server Configuration Manager window opens.
Click on the SQL Server Network Configuration node and expand it.

In the example below, we have MSSQLSERVER (a base instance of SQL Server), and SQLEXPRESS showing as installed.
If in doubt, click on Protocols for MSSQLSERVER.

In the above screenshot, the TCP/IP network protocol library is disabled. We need to enable it in order that remote servers can talk to the newly installed SQL Server.

• A word of explanation : In most installations, Named Pipes can be ignored, unless there is a requirement for it. In virtually all environments, VIA can also be ignored as this protocol requires a special network card. Shared memory is the “local” protocol that SQL Server uses when talking to a client application on the same server as itself, for example when SQL Server Management Studio connects to it. It is usually best to leave this enabled.

You will need the TCP/IP protocol enabled if you need to connect to your new SQL Server from a remote client or another server via TCP/IP, which is what most networks use.

If it shows as DISABLED (above), double click on the TCP/IP protocol line, and the following window will appear:

Ensure that Enabled is set to Yes, and click on OK.
The following warning will appear:

Click on OK, and you will be returned to the Configuration Manager window, where TCP/IP will now be shown as enabled:

Go back to the Services applet, and re-start the MSSQLSERVER service so that the TCP/IP protocol can be used to connect to your new SQL Server.

Then try to connect to it again from a remote machine.

If you have experienced problems with the previous connectivity tests, you should now be able to repeat at least some of them successfully.

Exchange server 2007 BackEnd services functions

Exchange Services in Exchange 2007 and it’s functions
In this article you will see the description on Exchange 2007 Services which are responsible for Client Access Server, Hub Transport Server, Mailbox Server, Edge Server and Unified Messaging.
This article is purely published on the basis of event triggered from my virtual lab. Event id whatever you see in your production environment may vary compare to this however the function of each service will remain the same.
1) Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology : This service is responsible to provide the information of Active Directory Information to Exchange Server Components. This service need to be started on the client Access Server, Hub Transport Server, Mailbox Server and Unified Messaging Server. It doesn’t depend on dependency in order to start. However there are some other Exchange Services which are dependent on this service.
The following are the services which are dependent on this service are as follows:a. Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search
b. Microsoft Exchange Transport
c. Microsoft Exchange Service Host
d. Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer
e. Microsoft Exchange Replication Service
f. Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission
g. Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants
h. Microsoft Exchange File Distribution
i. Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync
j. Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update
Who is responsible to execute this service : "MSExchangeADTopologyService.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeADTopologyService.exe"

Functions:
• It will help the Exchange Server component to get the list of domain controllers, global catalogs server & Configuration Domain Controllers which needs to be used.
• It will help the Exchange Server Component to discover the following server like the server name, their roles, reachability, synchronize status, GC capable, PDC, SACL Rights, Net-logon etc which are in the site and the servers which are out of site.
Event Id : 2080 & 2081
2) Microsoft Exchange Monitoring :
This service is installed on Exchange Server Role as part of installation. This service is optional and set to manual. This service will not depend on any other service.

Who is responsible to execute this service : “Microsoft.Exchange.Monitoring.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Monitoring.exe"
Functions:
Provides a remote procedure call (RPC) server that can be used to invoke diagnostic cmdlets. This service does not have any dependencies.
Event ID : 700 & 701
3) Microsoft Exchange File Distribution Service :
This service is responsible for distribution offline address book and custom unified messaging prompts. This is a required service for client Access Server & Unified Messaging Server. It is dependent on Workstation & Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service.

Who is responsible to execute this service: MSExchangeFDS.exe

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeFDS.exe"
Functions:This will help the client access server to give the synchronization status of OAB like it will give the details OAB is synchronized successfully or not. And the name of the OAB.
Event Id: 1008
4) Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 :
This service will get installed on Client Access Server Role. It is an optional which is set to manual. Service name for this service is MsExchangeIMAP4. This service is dependent on Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service.

Who is responsible for this service : "Microsoft.Exchange.Imap4Service.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\ClientAccess\PopImap\Microsoft.Exchange.Imap4Service.exe"

Functions:
It provides the IMAP4 access to IMAP4 Client.

Event Id: 2080 (First this service will information about GC DC, synchronize status, PDC, SACL Rights etc from Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology
Event Id: 1000 (This will provide the status of IMAP4 service whether it is getting start)
Event Id : 1001 (Final status of the IMAP4 Service)
5) Microsoft Exchange POP3 : This service will get installed on Client Access Server Role. It is an optional which is set to manual. Service name for this service is MsExchangePOP3. This service is dependent on Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service.

Who is responsible for this service : "Microsoft.Exchange.Pop3Service.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "Server\ClientAccess\PopImap\Microsoft.Exchange.Pop3Service.exe"

Functions:
It provides the POP3 access to POP3 Client.

Event Id: 1000 (This will provide the status of POP3 service whether it is getting start)
Event Id : 1001 (Final status of the POP3 Service)
6) Microsoft Exchange Service Host : This service will get installed on Client Access Server & Mailbox Server. It is a required service which needs to be started and running all the time. This service is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service”.

Who is responsible for this service : "Microsoft.Exchange.ServiceHost.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.ServiceHost.exe"
Functions:This service will get the information about GC, DC and synchronization & online status of the AD Servers from Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service
It will initially check the server role which is installed on the server where it is running like if you have installed MBX, CAS & HUB on the same server it will give the status of all the server role and if you have just installed CAS it will give only CAS Server role installed information.
If it is just a cas server role then it will load RPC over https autoconfig dll i.e Microsoft.Exchange.RPCOverHTTPAutoconfig.dll and for Mailbox Server : Microsoft.Exchange.SystemAttendantMailboxServicelet.dll

Event Id : 2080, 2003, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2001 & 2004
7) Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync :
This service is installed on the Hub Server. It is a required service which needs to be started and running all the time. It is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service”.

Who is responsible for this service : " Microsoft.Exchange.EdgeSyncSvc.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\Microsoft.Exchange.EdgeSyncSvc.exe"

Functions:
This service will help the hub server to get synchronized with Edge Server by connecting to ADAM instance on the Edge Server through LDAP.
Event ID : 1059
8) Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update : This service is installed on Hub Server & Edge Server. It is an optional service. In Hub Server, this service is dependent on “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service” and in Edge Server, this service is dependent on “Microsoft Exchange ADAM".

Who is responsible for this service : "Microsoft.Exchange.AntispamUpdateSvc.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\Microsoft.Exchange.AntispamUpdateSvc.exe"
Functions:
It is used to automatically download anti-spam filter updates from Microsoft Updates.
Before it initialize the service it will contact the AD topology service for getting the information of AD Servers if it is a hub server and if it is edge server it will contact ADAM for getting the access information.
Event ID : 1000
9) Microsoft Exchange Transport : This service is installed on Hub Transport Server and Edge Transport Server. This service is dependent on “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service” for Hub Server & In Edge Server “Microsoft Exchange ADAM.

Who is responsible for this  service : " MSExchangeTransport.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeTransport.exe"

Functions:It is responsible for mailflow.
It will give the SMTP Server information and transport stack.
This will even load the transport rule collection, configuration update for transport, content filter in another word Filtering components.
Event ID : 1000, 102, 16022, 4002, 7004, 1001, 2000, 300, 301, 302 & 17010
10) Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search :
 This service is installed on the Hub Server, Edge Server and Mailbox Server Role. This is an optional service set to manual only on Edge Server. This service is dependent on “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service” on Mailbox and Hub Server. For Edge Server it is dependent on “Microsoft Exchange ADAM”

Who is responsible to start this service : " MSExchangeTransportLogSearch.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeTransportLogSearch.exe"
Functions:
Message Tracking logs are generated.
Transport logs searching.
Event id : 7001 & 7002
11) Microsoft Exchange Information Store :
This service is installed on Mailbox Server Role. It is a required service which needs to be running all the time. It is dependent upon eventlog, NT LM Security Support Provider, RPC, Server & Workstation.

Who is responsible for this service : "store.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\store.exe"
Functions:
It is main core for Mailbox server, it manage the exchange server database
It is responsible to initialize OLEDB
The Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Exchange exposes data stored in a Microsoft Exchange Web Store in tabular form. This data can be queried using an SQL-like language that is similar to the SQL subset supported by the OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Indexing Service
It is responsible to initialize calendaring agent
It is responsible to  mount the database
12) Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission Service :
This service is installed on Mailbox Server Role. It is a required service which needs to be running all the time. It is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service”

Who is responsible for this service: “MSExchangeMailSubmission.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeMailSubmission.exe"
Functions:
When the message is sent by users, the mail will first move to outbox folder in outlook and then move to sent items, that means it is delivering the message. This is the service who is responsible to send mail from Mailbox Server to Hub Server.
Event Id : 1000
13) Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants : This service is installed on Mailbox Server Role. It is a required service which needs to be running all the time. It is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service”

Who is responsible for this service : “MSExchangeMailboxAssistants.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\MSExchangeMailboxAssistants.exe"

Functions:It is responsible to initiate the function for Resource Booking, Out of Office, Calendaring and Managed Folder Assistants.
Event Id : 1004 and 1001
14) Microsoft Exchange Replication Service : This service is installed on Mailbox Server Role. It is a required service which needs to be running all the time. It is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Service”

Who is responsible for this service : “Microsoft.Exchange.Cluster.ReplayService.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Cluster.ReplayService.exe"

Functions:It is responsible for log shipping where the LCR and CCR is enabled
Event id: 2018, 2001 & 2133
15) Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer :
 This service is installed on the mailbox server. It is an optional service which is dependent upon “Microsoft Exchange Active Directory topology Service” and “Microsoft Search”

Who is responsible for this service : " Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch.exe"
Path from it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\Microsoft.Exchange.Search.ExSearch.exe"

Functions:It is responsible to provide the indexing information to “Microsoft Search (Exchange Server) service.
Event id: 0 & 1003
16) Microsoft Search (Exchange Server) :
 This service is installed on Mailbox Server role. It is an optional service which is dependent upon “Remote procedure call (RPC) service”.

Who is responsible for this service : msftesql.exe
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\msftesql.exe"
Functions: It create full-text indexes on content and properties of structured and semi-structured data to allow fast linguistic searches on the exchange data.
Event id: 1003
17) Microsoft Exchange System Attendant : This service is installed on Mailbox Server. It is a require service which needs to be running all the time. This service is dependent up on Event Log, NT LM Security Provider, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Server and workstation

Who is responsible for this service : " mad.exe"
Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin\mad.exe"
Functions:
It is responsible to initialize the AD Server access detail i.e DSACCESS.dll
It is responsible to initialize the IIS access details i.e DSProxy.dll
It is responsible to initialize ABV_DG.Dll for generating OAB.
It is responsible to initialize madfb.dll for Free Busy Information and in the background it will start the Microsoft Exchange Free Busy Publishing Service
It will generate OAB, oabgen.dll
It manage NSPI Proxy listen port on transport Rpc/HTTP is being overridden by registry setting System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters\Rpc/HTTP NSPI Port. NSPI Proxy will listen on port 6004 on this transport.
Note : Many of the responsible of SA is almost same like we had in Exchange 2003. This service will perform all the above actions if you have public folder store and older outlook version i.e mixed environment. It is not necessary all the service will process the information but it will start the function on Mailbox Server for older version.
Event Id : 1000, 9007, 2068, 9006, 9008, 9013, 9012, 9242, 9410, 9411, 8192, 9316, 9014, 9091, 9070 & 9028
18) Microsoft Exchange ADAM :This service is installed on Edge Server. It is a required service which needs to be running all the time and it is dependent on Com+ Event System

Who is responsible for this service : dsamain.exe
Path from where it is executed : C:\WINDOWS\ADAM\dsamain.exe

Functions:
It will store the Configuration partition information of Active Directory.
It will also store the recipient mailbox data information.
Event id :100
19) Microsoft Exchange Credential Service :
This service is installed on Edge Server. It is required service which should be running all the time and it is dependent on Microsoft Exchange ADAM.

Who is responsible for this service : "EdgeCredentialSvc.exe"

Path from where it is executed : "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin\EdgeCredentialSvc.exe"

Functions:
It keeps the track of any credential changes on ADAM.
It will update the credential changes on Edge Transport.
20) Microsoft Exchange Speech Engine : This service is installed on Unified Messaging Server. This is a required service which needs to running all the time and the dependent for this service is  “Windows Management Instrumentation Service”.
Functions:
Provides speech processing services for Unified Messaging.
21) Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging :
This service is installed on Unified Messaging Server. This is a required service which needs to running all the time and this service is dependent upon Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology service and the Microsoft Exchange Speech Engine service.”
Functions:
Provides Unified Messaging features, such as the storing of inbound faxes and voice mail messages in a user's mailbox, and access to that mailbox via Outlook Voice Access.

Exchange server 2007 interview Questions

1. Tell me a bit about the capabilities of Exchange Server.
2. What are the different Exchange 2003 versions?
3. What’s the main differences between Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000/2003?
4. What are the major network infrastructure for installing Exchange 2003?
5. What is the latest Exchange 2003 Service Pack? Name a few changes in functionality in that SP.
6. What are the disk considerations when installing Exchange (RAID types, locations and so on).
7. You got a new HP DL380 (2U) server, dual Xeon, 4GB of RAM, 7 SAS disks, 64-bit. What do you do next to install Exchange 2003? (you have AD in place)
8. Why not install Exchange on the same machine as a DC?
9. Are there any other installation considerations?
10. How would you prepare the AD Schema in advance before installing Exchange?
11. What type or permissions do you need in order to install the first Exchange server in a forest? In a domain?
12. How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
13. What type of memory optimization changes could you do for Exchange 2003?
14. How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if they’re right?
15. What are the Exchange management tools? How and where can you install them?
16. What types of permissions are configurable for Exchange?
17. How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes on a specific server?
18. What is the Send As permission?
19. What other management tools are used to manage and control Exchange 2003? Name the tools you’d use.
20. What are Exchange Recipient types? Name 5.
21. You created a mailbox for a user, yet the mailbox does not appear in ESM. Why?
22. You wanted to change mailbox access permissions for a mailbox, yet you see the SELF permission alone on the permissions list. Why?
23. What are Query Based Distribution groups?
24. What type of groups would you use when configuring distribution groups in a multiple domain forest?
25. Name a few configuration options for Exchange recipients.
26. What’s the difference between Exchange 2003 Std. and Ent. editions when related to storage options and size?
27. Name a few configuration options related to mailbox stores.
28. What are System Public Folders? Where would you find them?
29. How would you plan and configure Public Folder redundancy?
30. How can you immediately stop PF replication?
31. How can you prevent PF referral across slow WAN links?
32. What types of PF management tools might you use?
33. What are the differences between administrative permissions and client permissions in PF?
34. How can you configure PF replication from the command prompt in Exchange 2003?
35. What are the message hygiene options you can use natively in Exchange 2003?
36. What are the configuration options in IMF?
37. What are virtual servers? When would you use more than one?
38. Name some of the SMTP Virtual Server configuration options.
39. What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options.
40. What is a Smart Host? Where would you configure it?
41. What are Routing Groups? When would you use them?
42. What are the types of Connectors you can use in Exchange?
43. What is the cost option in Exchange connectors?
44. What is the Link State Table? How would you view it?
45. How would you configure mail transfer security between 2 routing groups?
46. What is the Routing Group Master? Who holds that role?
47. Explain the configuration steps required to allow Exchange 2003 to send and receive email from the Internet (consider a one-site multiple server scenario).
48. What is DS2MB?
49. What is Forms Based Authentication?
50. How would you configure OWA’s settings on an Exchange server?
51. What is DSACCESS?
52. What are Recipient Policies?
53. How would you work with multiple recipient policies?
54. What is the “issue” with trying to remove email addresses added by recipient policies? How would you fix that?
55. What is the RUS?
56. When would you need to manually create additional RUS?
57. What are Address Lists?
58. How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?
59. How can you create multiple GALs and allow the users to only see the one related to them?
60. What is a Front End server? In what scenarios would you use one?
61. What type of authentication is used on the front end servers?
62. When would you use NLB?
63. How would you achieve incoming mail redundancy?
64. What are the 4 types of Exchange backups?
65. What is the Dial-Tone server scenario?
66. When would you use offline backup?
67. How do you re-install Exchange on a server that has crashed but with AD intact?
68. What is the dumpster?
69. What are the e00xxxxx.log files?
70. What is the e00.chk file?
71. What is circular logging? When would you use it?
72. What’s the difference between online and offline defrag?
73. How would you know if it is time to perform an offline defrag of your Exchange stores?
74. How would you plan for, and perform the offline defrag?
75. What is the eseutil command?
76. What is the isinteg command?
77. How would you monitor Exchange’s services and performance? Name 2 or 3 options.
78. Name all the client connection options in Exchange 2003.
79. What is Direct Push? What are the requirements to run it?
80. How would you remote wipe a PPC?
81. What are the issues with connecting Outlook from a remote computer to your mailbox?
82. How would you solve those issues? Name 2 or 3 methods
83. What is RPC over HTTP? What are the requirements to run it?
84. What is Cached Mode in OL2003/2007?
85. What are the benefits and “issues” when using cached mode? How would you tackle those issues?
86. What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
87. What are the IPSec usage scenarios for Exchange 2003?
88. How do you enable SSL on OWA?
89. What are the considerations for obtaining a digital certificate for SSL on Exchange?
90. Name a few 3rd-party CAs.
91. What do you need to consider when using a client-type AV software on an Exchange server?
92. What are the different clustering options in Exchange 2003? Which one would you choose and
93. Distribution List?
94. GAL, Routing Group, Stm files, Eseutil & ininteg - what are they used for?
95. What is MIME & MAPI?
96. List the services of Exchange Server 2000?
97. How would you recover Exchange server when the log file is corrupted?
98. What is latest service pack Exchange 2003?
99. What is latest service pack Exchange 2000?
100. What is the name of Exchange Databases?
101. How many databases in Standard Exchange version
102. How many databases in Enterprise Exchange version
103. What is Storage Group?
104. What is mail store?
105. Explain Exchange transaction logs
106. What is default size for Transaction logs?
107. Why exchange is using transaction logs? Why not to write to data directly to the Exchange database?
108. How exchange database gets defragmented?
109. What is white space, and how can it be reclaimed?
110. What time online maintenance runs by default in Exchange?
111. What event log exchange logs after online defragmentation