11. How do you view all the GCs in the forest?

Windows admin interview questions (includes Vista)


DSQUERY server can be used to locate global catalogs
To search the entire forest
dsquery server -forest -isgc
To locate global catalogs in your current (logon) domain
dsquery server –isgc.
To locate global catalogs in a specific domain
dsquery server -domain tech.cpandl.com -isgc
Here, you search for global catalog servers in the tech.cpandl.com domain.



You can also search for global catalog servers by site, but to do this, you must know the full site name, and cannot use wildcards. For example, if you wanted to find all the global catalog servers for Default-First-Site-Name, you would have to type
dsquery server –site Default-First-Site-Name.
The resulting output is a list of DNs for global catalogs, such as
"CN=CORPSVR02,CN=Servers,CN=Default-First-Site-
Name,CN=Sites,CN=Configuration,DC=cpandl,DC=com"

10. What is the Global Catalog?

Windows admin interview questions (includes Vista)

The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multidomain Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) forest. The global catalog is stored on domain controllers that have been designated as global catalog servers and is distributed through multimaster replication. Searches that are directed to the global catalog are faster because they do not involve referrals to different domain controllers

9. How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?

Windows admin interview questions (includes Vista)




Install Replication Monitor from Support tools, run from command line with "replmon" command, and add DC and it will show you all partitions that DC holds and all replication partners for each partition.