1.   
Explain three main features of Active Directory?

Active Directory
enables single sign on to access resources on the network such as desktops,
shared files, printers etc. Active Directory provides advanced security for the
entire network and network resources. Active Directory is more scalable and
flexible for administration.

2.   
What do you mean by Active Directory functional levels? How does
it help an organization’s network functionality?

Functional levels
help the coexistence of Active Directory versions such as, Windows NT, Windows
2000 Server, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The functional level
of a domain or forest controls which advanced features are available in the
domain or forest. Although lowest functional levels help to coexist with legacy
Active Directory, it will disable some of the new features of Active Directory.
But if you are setting up a new Active Directory environment with latest
version of Windows Server and AD, you can set to the highest functional level,
thus all the new AD functionality will be enabled. 

3.   
What are the Domain and Forest functional levels of Windows Server
2003 AD?

Windows Server 2003
Domain Functional Levels: Windows 2000 mixed (Default), Windows 2000 native,
Windows Server 2003 interim, and Windows Server 2003.

Forest Functional Levels: Windows 2000 (default), Windows Server 2003 interim,
Windows Server. 

4.   
What are the Domain and Forest functional levels of Windows Server
2008 AD?

Windows Server 2008
Domain Functional Levels: Windows 2000 Native, Windows Server 2003, Windows
Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2.

Forest Functional Levels: Windows 2000, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server
2008 R2. 

5.   
How to add additional Domain Controller in a remote site with
slower WAN link?

It is possible to
take a backup copy of existing Domain Controller, and restore it in Windows
Server machine in the remote locations with slower WAN link.

6.   
How do we install Active Directory in Windows 7 Computer?

Active Directory is
designed for Server Operating System, and it cannot be installed on Windows 7.

7.   
What are the prerequisites to install Active Directory in a
Server?

Windows Server
Operating System. Free hard disk space with NTFS partition. Administrator's
privilege on the computer. Network connection with IP address, Subnet Mask,
Gateway and DNS address. A DNS server, that can be installed along with first
Domain Controller. Windows Server intallation CD or i386 folder.

8.   
What is FSMO role? (Or what are Single Master Operations /
Flexible Single Master Operations / Operations Master Role / SMO / OMR?)

Flexible
Single-Master Operation (FSMO) roles,manage an aspect of the domain or forest,
to prevent conflicts, which are handled by Single domain controllers in domain
or forest. The tasks which are not suited to multi-master replication, There
are 5 FSMO roles, and Schema Master and Domain naming master roles are handled
by a single domain controller in a forest, and PDC, RID master and
Infrastructure master roles are handled by a single domain controller in each
domain.

9.   
Explain Infrastructure Master Role. What will be the impact if DC
with Infrastructure Master Role goes down?

Infrastructure master
role is a domain-specific role and its purpose is to ensure that cross-domain
object references are correctly handled. For example, if you add a user from
one domain to a security group from a different domain, the Infrastructure Master
makes sure this is done properly.Intrastrcuture master does not have any
functions to do in a single domain environment. If the Domain controller with
Infrastructure master role goes down in a single domain environment, there will
be no impact at all. Whereas, in a complex environment with multiple domains,
it may impact creation and modification of groups and group authentication.

10.  What are the two
forest specific FSMO roles?

Schema Master role
and Domain Naming Master role.

11.  Which FSMO role
directly impacting the consistency of Group Policy?

PDC Emulator

12.  I want to promote a
new additional Domain Controller in an existing domain. Which are the groups I
should be a member of?

You should be a
member of Enterprise Admins group or the Domain Admins group. Also you should
be member of local Administrators group of the member server which you are
going to promote as additional Domain Controller.

13.  Tell me one easiest
way to check all the 5 FSMO roles.

Use netdom query
/domain:YourDomain FSMO command. It will list all the FSMO role handling domain
controllers.

14.  Can I configure two
RID masters in a domain?

No, there should be
only one Domain Controller handling RID master role in a Domain.

15.  Can I configure two
Infrastructure Master Role in a forest? If yes, please explain.

There should be only
one Domain Controller handling Infrastructure master role in a domain. Hence if
you have two domains in a forest, you can configure two Infrastructure masters,
one in each domain.

16.  What will be the
impact on the network if Domain Controller with PDC Emulator crashes?

If PDC emulator
crashes, there will be immediate impact on the environment. User authentication
will fail as password changes won’t get effected, and there will be frequent
account lock out issues. Network time synchronization will be impacted. It will
also impact DFS consistency and Group policy replication as well.

17.  What are the physical
components of Active Directory?

Domain controllers
and Sites. Domain controllers are physical computers which are running Windows
Server operating system and Active Directory data base. Sites are a network
segment based on geographical location and which contains multiple domain
controllers in each site.

18.  What are the logical
components of Active Directory?

Domains,
Organizational Units, trees and forests are logical components of Active
Directory.

19.  What are the Active
Directory Partitions? (Or what are Active Directory Naming Contexts? Or what is
AD NC?)

Active Directory
database is divided into different partitions such as Schema partition, Domain
partition, and Configuration partition. Apart from these partitions, we can
create Application partition based on the requirement.

20.  What is group
nesting?

Adding one group as a
member of another group is called 'group nesting'. This will help for easy
administration and reduced replication traffic.