What is a Domain and Workgroup? Highlight advtgs and disadvtgs.

Domain: A domain is a group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit with common rules and procedures. Within the Internet, domains are defined by the IP address. All devices sharing a common part of the IP address are said to be in the same domain. - www.murdoch.edu.au/cwisad/glossary.html There is no real limit to the amount of computers on a domain, it is common to see domains with over 2000 computers/devices (Nodes) in it. For networks with that many workstation, you will need enterprise level software such as SMS, Exchange etc. to effectively manage it. If you are using Windows XP as an OS... ONLY Windows XP Pro is capable of operating in a Domain environment. You can mix OS clients on a domain, you can have Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Unix all under the same domain sharing resources as needed. A domain usually costs more money to setup because there is more hardware and software required (Such as a Domain Controller and a Server Level OS) to get it configured properly. In a domain, all the machines have domain level admin accounts on the local administrator group. What this means is, you can effectively manage any and all of the computers on the domain as long as your user account is a member of the Domain Admin group. Workgroup: Workgroup computing occurs when all the individuals have computers connected to a network (a group of two or more computer systems linked together) that allows them to send e-mail to one another, share data files, and other resources such as printers. Normally, a workgroup is limited to 10 network devices/computers. Also, both Windows XP Pro and Home can function in a workgroup environment. Your typical "out of box" system is setup to be used on a workgroup. If you want, you can change the network type from workgroup to domain and viceversa. Machines setup in a Domain environment are much easier to manage than workgroups when it comes to network resources (Shared Files, Shared Printers, etc.) Since workgroup machines might have different account names, you really have to know the admin acccount for each specific machine in order to effectively manage the workgroup. What are the Different types of RAID? 1. What does RAID stand for ? In 1987, Patterson, Gibson and Katz at the University of California Berkeley, published a paper entitled "A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)" . This paper described various types of disk arrays, referred to by the acronym RAID. The basic idea of RAID was to combine multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array of disk drives which yields performance exceeding that of a Single Large Expensive Drive (SLED). Additionally, this array of drives appears to the computer as a single logical storage unit or drive. The Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of the array will be equal to the MTBF of an individual drive, divided by the number of drives in the array. Because of this, the MTBF of an array of drives would be too low for many application requirements. However, disk arrays can be made fault-tolerant by redundantly storing information in various ways. Five types of array architectures, RAID-1 through RAID-5, were defined by the Berkeley paper, each providing disk fault-tolerance and each offering different trade-offs in features and performance. In addition to these five redundant array architectures, it has become popular to refer to a non-redundant array of disk drives as a RAID-0 array. 2. Data Striping Fundamental to RAID is "striping", a method of concatenating multiple drives into one logical storage unit. Striping involves partitioning each drive's storage space into stripes which may be as small as one sector (512 bytes) or as large as several megabytes. These stripes are then interleaved round-robin, so that the combined space is composed alternately of stripes from each drive. In effect, the storage space of the drives is shuffled like a deck of cards. The type of application environment, I/O or data intensive, determines whether large or small stripes should be used.

Most multi-user operating systems today, like NT, Unix and Netware, support overlapped disk I/O operations across multiple drives. However, in order to maximize throughput for the disk subsystem, the I/O load must be balanced across all the drives so that each drive can be kept busy as much as possible. In a multiple drive system without striping, the disk I/O load is never perfectly balanced. Some drives will contain data files which are frequently accessed and some drives will only rarely be accessed. In I/O intensive environments, performance is optimized by striping the drives in the array with stripes large enough so that each record potentially falls entirely within one stripe. This ensures that the data and I/O will be evenly distributed across the array, allowing each drive to work on a different I/O operation, and thus maximize the number of simultaneous I/O operations which can be performed by the array. In data intensive environments and single-user systems which access large records, small stripes (typically one 512-byte sector in length) can be used so that each record will span across all the drives in the array, each drive storing part of the data from the record. This causes long record accesses to be performed faster, since the data transfer occurs in parallel on multiple drives. Unfortunately, small stripes rule out multiple overlapped I/O operations, since each I/O will typically involve all drives. However, operating systems like DOS which do not allow overlapped disk I/O, will not be negatively impacted. Applications such as on-demand video/audio, medical imaging and data acquisition, which utilize long record accesses, will achieve optimum performance with small stripe arrays. A potential drawback to using small stripes is that synchronized spindle drives are required in order to keep performance from being degraded when short records are accessed. Without synchronized spindles, each drive in the array will be at different random rotational positions. Since an I/O cannot be completed until every drive has accessed its part of the record, the drive which takes the longest will determine when the I/O completes. The more drives in the array, the more the average access time for the array approaches the worst case single-drive access time. Synchronized spindles assure that every drive in the array reaches its data at the same time. The access time of the array will thus be equal to the average access time of a single drive rather than approaching the worst case access time. 3. The different RAID levels RAID-0 RAID Level 0 is not redundant, hence does not truly fit the "RAID" acronym. In level 0, data is split across drives, resulting in higher data throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in data loss. This level is commonly referred to as striping. RAID-1 RAID Level 1 provides redundancy by writing all data to two or more drives. The performance of a level 1 array tends to be faster on reads and slower on writes compared to a single drive, but if either drive fails, no data is lost. This is a good entry-level redundant system, since only two drives are required; however, since one drive is used to store a duplicate of the data, the cost per megabyte is high. This level is commonly referred to as mirroring. RAID-2 RAID Level 2, which uses Hamming error correction codes, is intended for use with drives which do not have built-in error detection. All SCSI drives support built-in error detection, so this level is of little use when using SCSI drives. RAID-3 RAID Level 3 stripes data at a byte level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. It is otherwise similar to level 4. Byte-level striping requires hardware support for efficient use. RAID-4 RAID Level 4 stripes data at a block level across several drives, with parity stored on one drive. The parity information allows recovery from the failure of any single drive. The performance of a level 4 array is very good for reads (the same as level 0). Writes, however, require that parity data be updated each time. This slows small random writes, in particular, though large writes or sequential writes are fairly fast. Because only one drive in the array stores redundant data, the cost per megabyte of a level 4 array can be fairly low. RAID-5 RAID Level 5 is similar to level 4, but distributes parity among the drives. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems, since the parity disk does not become a bottleneck. Because parity data must be skipped on each drive during reads, however, the performance for reads

tends to be considerably lower than a level 4 array. The cost per megabyte is the same as for level 4. Summary: RAID-0 is the fastest and most efficient array type but offers no fault-tolerance. RAID-1 is the array of choice for performance-critical, fault-tolerant environments. In addition, RAID-1 is the only choice for fault-tolerance if no more than two drives are desired. o RAID-2 is seldom used today since ECC is embedded in almost all modern disk drives. o RAID-3 can be used in data intensive or single-user environments which access long sequential records to speed up data transfer. However, RAID-3 does not allow multiple I/O operations to be overlapped and requires synchronized-spindle drives in order to avoid performance degradation with short records. o RAID-4 offers no advantages over RAID-5 and does not support multiple simultaneous write operations. o RAID-5 is the best choice in multi-user environments which are not write performance sensitive. However, at least three, and more typically five drives are required for RAID-5 arrays. 4. Possible aproaches to RAID 5. Hardware RAID The hardware based system manages the RAID subsystem independently from the host and presents to the host only a single disk per RAID array. This way the host doesn't have to be aware of the RAID subsystems(s). 6. The controller based hardware solution DPT's SCSI controllers are a good example for a controller based RAID solution. The intelligent contoller manages the RAID subsystem independently from the host. The advantage over an external SCSI---SCSI RAID subsystem is that the contoller is able to span the RAID subsystem over multiple SCSI channels and and by this remove the limiting factor external RAID solutions have: The transfer rate over the SCSI bus. 7. The external hardware solution (SCSI---SCSI RAID) An external RAID box moves all RAID handling "intelligence" into a contoller that is sitting in the external disk subsystem. The whole subsystem is connected to the host via a normal SCSI controller and apears to the host as a single or multiple disks. This solution has drawbacks compared to the contoller based solution: The single SCSI channel used in this solution creates a bottleneck. Newer technologies like Fiber Channel can ease this problem, especially if they allow to trunk multiple channels into a Storage Area Network. 4 SCSI drives can already completely flood a parallel SCSI bus, since the average transfer size is around 4KB and the command transfer overhead - which is even in Ultra SCSI still done asynchonously - takes most of the bus time. o Software RAID The MD driver in the Linux kernel is an example of a RAID solution that is completely hardware independent. The Linux MD driver supports currently RAID levels 0/1/4/5 + linear mode. Under Solaris you have the Solstice DiskSuite and Veritas Volume Manager which offer RAID-0/1 and 5. Adaptecs AAA-RAID controllers are another example, they have no RAID functionality whatsoever on the controller, they depend on external drivers to provide all external RAID functionality. They are basically only multiple single AHA2940 controllers which have been integrated on one card. Linux detects them as AHA2940 and treats them accordingly. Every OS needs its own special driver for this type of RAID solution, this is error prone and not very compatible. o Hardware vs. Software RAID Just like any other application, software-based arrays occupy host system memory, consume CPU cycles and are operating system dependent. By contending with other applications that are running concurrently for host CPU cycles and memory, software-based arrays degrade overall server performance. Also, unlike hardware-based arrays, the performance of a software-based array is directly dependent on server CPU performance and load. o o Except for the array functionality, hardware-based RAID schemes have very little in common with software-based implementations. Since the host CPU can execute user applications

while the array adapter's processor simultaneously executes the array functions, the result is true hardware multi-tasking. Hardware arrays also do not occupy any host system memory, nor are they operating system dependent. Hardware arrays are also highly fault tolerant. Since the array logic is based in hardware, software is NOT required to boot. Some software arrays, however, will fail to boot if the boot drive in the array fails. For example, an array implemented in software can only be functional when the array software has been read from the disks and is memory-resident. What happens if the server can't load the array software because the disk that contains the fault tolerant software has failed? Software-based implementations commonly require a separate boot drive, which is NOT included in the array. What is NAT? Short for Network Address Translation, an Internet standard that enables a local-area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a second set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT box located where the LAN meets the Internet makes all necessary IP address translations. NAT serves three main purposes: Provides a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses Enables a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since they're used internally only, there's no possibility of conflict with IP addresses used by other companies and organizations. Allows a company to combine multiple ISDN connections into a single Internet connection. Also see dynamic NAT and static NAT.

Backup Procedures: The Different Types of Backup Related links: Backup University | Frequently Asked Questions | Whitepapers Full Backup: A Full backup is simply backing up all files on the system. Users may choose to update archive attributes if they plan on doing any of the following 2 types of partial backups. Incremental Backup: An incremental backup is a backup that backs up only the files modified since the last backup. When running an incremental backup, users need to update the archive attribute while backing up only modified files. Often the incremental backups are appended to the full backup set. The result is a tape with the changes that occurred daily. This type of backup is useful if the user wishes to have an audit trail of file usage activity on their system and will enable them to restore a specific days work without restoring any changes made since that point in time. To do a full restore for 4 days after a full backup they must restore the full backup and all 4 data sets after it. Unlike the next type of backup. Differential Backup: A differential backup is a cumulative backup of changes made since the last full backup. It backs up modified files only but does not update the archive attribute. The list of files grows each day until the next full backup is performed clearing the archive attributes. This enables the user to restore all files changed since the last full backup in one pass. These backups can be appended to the full as well, but they will have to keep in mind that each set can contain a different version of a file if that file changes daily. The data sets will always be at least as big as the previous differential (if no changes were made) and will continue to grow as files change. Once a files archive attribute is set it will be backed up each day until after the full backup resets it's attribute bit. What is TCP/IP?

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, the suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts on the Internet. TCP/IP uses several protocols, the two main ones being TCP and IP. TCP/IP is built into the UNIX operating system and is used by the Internet, making it the de facto standard for transmitting data over networks. Even network operating systems that have their own protocols, such as Netware, also support TCP/IP. Defining a Cluster in Windows 2000 A cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to run a common set of applications and provide the image of a single system to the client and application. The computers are physically connected by cables and programmatically connected by cluster software. These connections allow computers to use failover and load balancing, which is not possible with a stand-alone computer. Windows 2000 clustering technology provides high availability, scalability, and manageability: High availability. The cluster is designed to avoid a single point of failure. Applications can be distributed over more than one computer, achieving a degree of parallelism and failure recovery, and providing more availability. Scalability. You can increase the cluster's computing power by adding more processors or computers. Manageability. The cluster appears as a single-system image to end users, applications, and the network, while providing a single point of control to administrators. This single point of control can be remote.

Two Types of Clusters in Windows 2000 In the Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server operating systems, Microsoft introduces two clustering technologies that can be used independently or in combination, providing organizations with a complete set of clustered solutions that can be selected based on the requirements of a given application or service. Windows clustering technologies include: Cluster service. This service is intended primarily to provide failover support for applications such as databases, messaging systems, and file/print services. Cluster service supports 2-node failover clusters in Windows 2000 Advanced Server and 4-node clusters in Datacenter Server. Cluster service is ideal for ensuring the availability of critical line-ofbusiness and other back-end systems, such as Microsoft Exchange Server or a Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 database acting as a data store for an e-commerce Web site. Network Load Balancing (NLB). This service load balances incoming IP (Internet Protocol) traffic across clusters of up to 32 nodes. Network Load Balancing enhances both the availability and scalability of Internet server-based programs such as Web servers, streaming media servers, and Terminal Services. By acting as the load balancing infrastructure and providing control information to management applications built on top of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Network Load Balancing can seamlessly integrate into existing Web server farm infrastructures. Network Load Balancing will also serve as an ideal load balancing architecture for use with the Microsoft release of the upcoming Application Center in distributed Web farm environments.

Network Related Questions. What is hub? A. A concentrator that joins multiple clients by means of a single link to the rest of the LAN. A hub has several ports to which clients are connected directly, and one or more ports that can be used to connect the hub to the backbone or to other active network components. A hub functions as a multiport repeater; signals received on any port are immediately retransmitted to all other ports of the hub. Hubs function at the physical layer of the OSI Reference Model

What is switch? A. In networking, a switch is a small device that joins multiple computers together at a low-level network protocol layer. Technically, network switches operate at Layer Two (Data Link Layer) of the OSI model. Difference Between Hub Switch? A. . Technically speaking, hubs operate using a broadcast model and switches operate using a virtual circuit model. When four computers are connected to a hub, for example, and two of those computers communicate with each other, hubs simply pass through all network traffic to each of the four computers. Switches, on the other hand, are capable of determining the destination of each individual traffic element (such as an Ethernet frame) and selectively forwarding data to the one computer that actually needs it. By generating less network traffic in delivering messages, a switch performs better than a hub on busy networks. What is Router? A. A device that determines the next network point to which a data packet should be forwarded enroute toward its destination. The router is connected to at least two networks and determines which way to send each data packet based on its current understanding of the state of the networks it is connected to. Routers create or maintain a table of the available routes and use this information to determine the best route for a given data packet.. What is Network Bridge? A. A bridge device filters data traffic at a network boundary. Bridges reduce the amount of traffic on a LAN by dividing it into two segments. Bridges operate at the data link layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model. Bridges inspect incoming traffic and decide whether to forward or discard it. An Ethernet bridge, for example, inspects each incoming Ethernet frame - including the source and destination MAC addresses, and sometimes the frame size - in making individual forwarding decisions. Bridges serve a similar function as switches, that also operate at Layer 2. Traditional bridges, though, support one network boundary, whereas switches usually offer four or more hardware ports. Switches are sometimes called "multi-port bridges" for this reason. What is Mac Address? A. The MAC address is a number used by network adapters to uniquely identify themselves on a LAN. MAC addresses are 12-digit hexadecimal numbers. MAC addresses work at the data link layer of OSI and map to IP addresses through an address resolution port. What is subnet ? A. A subnet is a logical grouping of connected network devices. When a subnet is properly implemented, both the performance and security of networks can be improved. OR A portion of a network that shares a common address component. On TCP/IP networks, subnets

are defined as all devices whose IP addresses have the same prefix. For example, all devices with IP addresses that start with 100.100.100. would be part of the same subnet. Dividing a network into subnets is useful for both security and performance reasons. IP networks are divided using a subnet mask. What is TCP/IP ? A. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a combined set of protocols that performs the transfer of data between two computers. TCP monitors and ensures correct transfer of data. IP receives the data from TCP, breaks it up into packets, and ships it off to a network within the

Internet. TCP/IP is also used as a name for a protocol suite that incorporates these functions and others Mother Board Related Question What is Bus? A. ) A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to personal computers, the term bus usually refers to internal bus. This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory. There's also an expansion bus that enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory. All buses consist of two parts -- an address bus and a data bus. The data bus transfers actual data whereas the address bus transfers information about where the data should go. The size of a bus, known as its width, is important because it determines how much data can be transmitted at one time. For example, a 16-bit bus can transmit 16 bits of data, whereas a 32-bit bus can transmit 32 bits of data. Every bus has a clock speed measured in MHz. A fast bus allows data to be transferred faster, which makes applications run faster. On PCs, the old ISA bus is being replaced by faster buses such as PCI. Nearly all PCs made today include a local bus for data that requires especially fast transfer speeds, such as video data. The local bus is a high-speed pathway that connects directly to the processor. Several different types of buses are used on Apple Macintosh computers. Older Macs use a bus called NuBus, but newer ones use PCI.