LearnAdmin

To use kickstart, you must:
1. Create a kickstart file.
2. Create a boot media with the kickstart file or make the kickstart file available on the network.
3. Make the installation tree available.
4. Start the kickstart installation.

Genral Installation and automatic creation of kickstart file

step 1 : Connect system to DHCP network
Step 2 : Boot your system using Redhat boot media.
Step 3 : Enter command "linux askmethod" at boot prompt and press enter.
step 4 : Follow the installation process till it asks for Installation Method.

The options for installation method incude.

Local CDROM
Hard Drive
NFS Image ( Network installation )
FTP ( Network installation )
HTTP ( Network installation )

Select your method and install accordingly.

After installation /root/anaconda-ks.cfg file is automatically created during Install.

/root/anaconda-ks.cfg can be used as a template for future installation.

It is a scripted installation process.

we can manually configure with System-Config-Kickstart

Check systax of Kickstart file with : ksvalidator

Once you are ready with Kickstart file lets start installation with Kickstart file.

for installation with kickstart we should give following command at boot prompt

linux ks= Url

Ks will queries DHCP for kickstart location
URl gets file via HTTP or FTP or NFS.

we can also give local address like

KS=floppy; ks=Cdrom or ks= hd:device:/path of the file.

Using a NFS Server

Verify that the first two lines of the file look like this or else you may be prompted for NFS ISO file location information.

install
nfs --server=192.16.1.100 --dir=/data/network-install/ISO

example : linux ks=nfs:192.168.1.100:/kickstart/ks.cfg

Run this at boot prompt with your settings for NFS ks installation

Using a Web Server

Verify that the first two lines of the file look like this or else you may be prompted for RPM base file location information.

install
url --url http://192.168.1.100/network-install/

example : linux ks=http://192.168.1.100/network-install/kickstart/ks.cfg

Run this at boot prompt with your settings for http ks installation

Comming to Kickstart file it consists of three sections

1 command section
2 packages section
3 scripts section

Note 1: Do not change the order of the entries in the kickstart configuration file.
Note 2: The IP address you assign must be on the same subnet as that of the DHCP server for kickstart to work. If the server is going to reside on a different network after the installation, then you have to run a separate script to change the IP addressing information after the installation is complete.

Redhat refrence links for Kickstart

What are Kickstart Installations ? explained by Redhat
How Do You Perform a Kickstart Installation? explained by Redhat
Creating the Kickstart File explained by Redhat
Kickstart Options explained by Redhat
Pre-installation Script explained by Redhat
Post-installation Script explained by Redhat
Making the Kickstart File Available explained by Redhat
Starting a Kickstart Installation explained by Redhat
Kickstart Configurator explained by Redhat
Installation Method explained by Redhat

You attempt to use shadow passwords but are unsuccessful. What characteristic of the /etc/passwd file may cause this? Choose one: a. The login command is missing. b. The username is too long. c. The password field is blank. d. The password field is prefaced by an asterick.
You create a new user account by adding the following line to your /etc/passwd file. bobm:baddog:501:501:Bob Morris:/home/bobm:/bin/bash Bob calls you and tells you that he cannot logon. You verify that he is using the correct username and password. What is the problem? Choose one: a. The UID and GID cannot be identical. b. You cannot have spaces in the line unless they are surrounded with double quotes. c. You cannot directly enter the password; rather you have to use the passwd command to assign a password to the user. d. The username is too short, it must be at least six characters long.
Which of the following tasks is not necessary when creating a new user by editing the /etc/passwd file? Choose one: a. Create a link from the user’s home directory to the shell the user will use. b. Create the user’s home directory c. Use the passwd command to assign a password to the account. d. Add the user to the specified group.
You create a new user by adding the following line to the /etc/passwd file bobm::501:501:Bob Morris:/home/bobm:/bin/bash You then create the user’s home directory and use the passwd command to set his password. However, the user calls you and says that he cannot log on. What is the problem? Choose one: a. The user did not change his password. b. bobm does not have permission to /home/bobm. c. The user did not type his username in all caps. d. You cannot leave the password field blank when creating a new user.
When using useradd to create a new user account, which of the following tasks is not done automatically. Choose one: a. Assign a UID. b. Assign a default shell. c. Create the user’s home directory. d. Define the user’s home directory.
You issue the following command useradd -m bobm But the user cannot logon. What is the problem? Choose one: a. You need to assign a password to bobm’s account using the passwd command. b. You need to create bobm’s home directory and set the appropriate permissions. c. You need to edit the /etc/passwd file and assign a shell for bobm’s account. d. The username must be at least five characters long.
You have created special configuration files that you want copied to each user’s home directories when creating new user accounts. You copy the files to /etc/skel. Which of the following commands will make this happen? Choose one: a. useradd -m username b. useradd -mk username c. useradd -k username d. useradd -Dk username
Mary has recently gotten married and wants to change her username from mstone to mknight. Which of the following commands should you run to accomplish this? Choose one: a. usermod -l mknight mstone b. usermod -l mstone mknight c. usermod -u mknight mstone d. usermod -u mstone mknight
After bob leaves the company you issue the command userdel bob. Although his entry in the /etc/passwd file has been deleted, his home directory is still there. What command could you have used to make sure that his home directory was also deleted? Choose one: a. userdel -m bob b. userdel -u bob c. userdel -l bob d. userdel -r bob
All groups are defined in the /etc/group file. Each entry contains four fields in the following order. Choose one: a. groupname, password, GID, member list b. GID, groupname, password, member list c. groupname, GID, password, member list d. GID, member list, groupname, password
You need to create a new group called sales with Bob, Mary and Joe as members. Which of the following would accomplish this? Choose one: a. Add the following line to the /etc/group file: sales:44:bob,mary,joe b. Issue the command groupadd sales. c. Issue the command groupadd -a sales bob,mary,joe d. Add the following line to the /etc/group file: sales::44:bob,mary,joe
What command is used to remove the password assigned to a group?
You changed the GID of the sales group by editing the /etc/group file. All of the members can change to the group without any problem except for Joe. He cannot even login to the system. What is the problem? Choose one: a. Joe forgot the password for the group. b. You need to add Joe to the group again. c. Joe had the original GID specified as his default group in the /etc/passwd file. d. You need to delete Joe’s account and recreate it.
You need to delete the group dataproject. Which two of the following tasks should you do first before deleting the group? A. Check the /etc/passwd file to make sure no one has this group as his default group. B. Change the members of the dataproject group to another group besides users. C. Make sure that the members listed in the /etc/group file are given new login names. D. Verify that no file or directory has this group listed as its owner. Choose one: a. A and C b. A and D c. B and C d. B and D
When you look at the /etc/group file you see the group kmem listed. Since it does not own any files and no one is using it as a default group, can you delete this group?
When looking at the /etc/passwd file, you notice that all the password fields contain ‘x’. What does this mean? Choose one: a. That the password is encrypted. b. That you are using shadow passwords. c. That all passwords are blank. d. That all passwords have expired.
In order to improve your system’s security you decide to implement shadow passwords. What command should you use?
What file contains the default environment variables when using the bash shell? Choose one: a. ~/.profile b. /bash c. /etc/profile d. ~/bash
You have created a subdirectory of your home directory containing your scripts. Since you use the bash shell, what file would you edit to put this directory on your path? Choose one: a. ~/.profile b. /etc/profile c. /etc/bash d. ~/.bash
Which of the following interprets your actions when typing at the command line for the operating system? Choose One a. Utility b. Application c. Shell d. Command
What can you type at a command line to determine which shell you are using?
You want to enter a series of commands from the command-line. What would be the quickest way to do this? Choose One a. Press enter after entering each command and its arguments b. Put them in a script and execute the script c. Separate each command with a semi-colon (;) and press enter after the last command d. Separate each command with a / and press enter after the last command
You are entering a long, complex command line and you reach the right side of your screen before you have finished typing. You want to finish typing the necessary commands but have the display wrap around to the left. Which of the following key combinations would achieve this? Choose One a. Esc, /, Enter b. /, Enter c. ctrl-d, enter d. esc, /, ctrl-d
After typing in a new command and pressing enter, you receive an error message indicating incorrect syntax. This error message originated from.. Choose one a. The shell b. The operating system c. The command d. The kernel
When typing at the command line, the default editor is the _____________ library.
You typed the following at the command line ls -al /home/ hadden. What key strokes would you enter to remove the space between the ‘/’ and ‘hadden’ without having to retype the entire line? Choose one a. Ctrl-B, Del b. Esc-b, Del c. Esc-Del, Del d. Ctrl-b, Del
You would like to temporarily change your command line editor to be vi. What command should you type to change it?
After experimenting with vi as your command line editor, you decide that you want to have vi your default editor every time you log in. What would be the appropriate way to do this? Choose one a. Change the /etc/inputrc file b. Change the /etc/profile file c. Change the ~/.inputrc file d. Change the ~/.profile file
You have to type your name and title frequently throughout the day and would like to decrease the number of key strokes you use to type this. Which one of your configuration files would you edit to bind this information to one of the function keys?
In your present working directory, you have the files maryletter memo1 MyTelephoneandAddressBook What is the fewest number of keys you can type to open the file MyTelephoneandAddressBook with vi? Choose one a. 6 b. 28 c. 25 d. 4
A variable that you can name and assign a value to is called a _____________ variable.
You have installed a new application but when you type in the command to start it you get the error message Command not found. What do you need to do to fix this problem? Choose one a. Add the directory containing the application to your path b. Specify the directory’s name whenever you run the application c. Verify that the execute permission has been applied to the command. d. Give everyone read, write and execute permission to the application’s directory.
You telnet into several of your servers simultaneously. During the day, you sometimes get confused as to which telnet session is connected to which server. Which of the following commands in your .profile file would make it obvious to which server you are attached? Choose one a. PS1=’\h: \w>’ b. PS1=’\s: \W>’ c. PS1=’\!: \t>’ d. PS1=’\a: \n>’
Which of the following environment variables determines your working directory at the completion of a successful login? Choose one a. HOME b. BASH_ENV c. PWD d. BLENDERDIR
Every time you attempt to delete a file using the rm utility, the operating system prompts you for confirmation. You know that this is not the customary behavior for the rm command. What is wrong? Choose one a. rm has been aliased as rm -i b. The version of rm installed on your system is incorrect. c. This is the normal behavior of the newest version of rm. d. There is an incorrect link on your system.
You are running out of space in your home directory. While looking for files to delete or compress you find a large file called .bash_history and delete it. A few days later, it is back and as large as before. What do you need to do to ensure that its size is smaller? Choose one a. Set the HISTFILESIZE variable to a smaller number. b. Set the HISTSIZE to a smaller number. c. Set the NOHISTFILE variable to true. d. Set the HISTAPPEND variable to true.
In order to display the last five commands you have entered using the history command, you would type ___________.
In order to display the last five commands you have entered using the fc command, you would type ___________.
You previously ran the find command to locate a particular file. You want to run that command again. What would be the quickest way to do this? Choose one a. fc -l find fc n b. history -l find history n c. Retype the command d. fc -n find
Using command substitution, how would you display the value of the present working directory? Choose one a. echo $(pwd) b. echo pwd c. $pwd d. pwd | echo
You need to search the entire directory structure to locate a specific file. How could you do this and still be able to run other commands while the find command is still searching for your file? Choose one a. find / -name filename & b. find / -name filename c. bg find / -name filename d. &find / -name filename &
In order to create a file called DirContents containing the contents of the /etc directory you would type ____________.
What would be displayed as the result of issuing the command ps ef? Choose one a. A listing of the user’s running processes formatted as a tree. b. A listing of the stopped processes c. A listing of all the running processes formatted as a tree. d. A listing of all system processes formatted as a tree.
What utility can you use to show a dynamic listing of running processes? __________
The top utility can be used to change the priority of a running process? Another utility that can also be used to change priority is ___________?
What key combination can you press to suspend a running job and place it in the background?
You issue the command jobs and receive the following output: [1]- Stopped (tty output) pine [2]+ Stopped (tty output) MyScript How would you bring the MyScript process to the foreground? Choose one: a. fg %2 b. ctrl-c c. fg MyScript d. ctrl-z
You enter the command cat MyFile | sort > DirList & and the operating system displays [4] 3499 What does this mean? Choose one a. This is job number 4 and the PID of the sort command is 3499. b. This is job number 4 and the PID of the job is 3499. c. This is job number 3499 and the PID of the cat command is 4. d. This is job number 4 and the PID of the cat command is 3499.
You attempt to log out but receive an error message that you cannot. When you issue the jobs command, you see a process that is running in the background. How can you fix this so that you can logout? Choose one a. Issue the kill command with the PID of each running command of the pipeline as an argument. b. Issue the kill command with the job number as an argument. c. Issue the kill command with the PID of the last command as an argument. d. Issue the kill command without any arguments.
You have been given the job of administering a new server. It houses a database used by the sales people. This information is changed frequently and is not duplicated anywhere else. What should you do to ensure that this information is not lost? Choose one a. Create a backup strategy that includes backing up this information at least daily. b. Prepare a proposal to purchase a backup server c. Recommend that the server be made part of a cluster. d. Install an additional hard drive in the server.
When planning your backup strategy you need to consider how often you will perform a backup, how much time the backup takes and what media you will use. What other factor must you consider when planning your backup strategy? _________
Many factors are taken into account when planning a backup strategy. The one most important one is how often does the file ____________.
Which one of the following factors does not play a role in choosing the type of backup media to use? Choose one: a. How frequently a file changes b. How long you need to retain the backup c. How much data needs to be backed up d. How frequently the backed up data needs to be accessed
When you only back up one partition, this is called a ______ backup. Choose one a. Differential b. Full c. Partial d. Copy
When you back up only the files that have changed since the last backup, this is called a ______ backup. Choose one a. Partial b. Differential c. Full d. Copy
The easiest, most basic form of backing up a file is to _____ it to another location.
When is the most important time to restore a file from your backup? Choose one a. On a regular scheduled basis to verify that the data is available. b. When the system crashes. c. When a user inadvertently loses a file. d. When your boss asks to see how restoring a file works.
As a system administrator, you are instructed to backup all the users’ home directories. Which of the following commands would accomplish this? Choose one a. tar rf usersbkup home/* b. tar cf usersbkup home/* c. tar cbf usersbkup home/* d. tar rvf usersbkup home/*
What is wrong with the following command? tar cvfb / /dev/tape 20 Choose one a. You cannot use the c option with the b option. b. The correct line should be tar -cvfb / /dev/tape20. c. The arguments are not in the same order as the corresponding modifiers. d. The files to be backed up have not been specified.
You need to view the contents of the tarfile called MyBackup.tar. What command would you use? __________
After creating a backup of the users’ home directories called backup.cpio you are asked to restore a file called memo.ben. What command should you type?
You want to create a compressed backup of the users’ home directories so you issue the command gzip /home/* backup.gz but it fails. The reason that it failed is that gzip will only compress one _______ at a time.
You want to create a compressed backup of the users’ home directories. What utility should you use?
You routinely compress old log files. You now need to examine a log from two months ago. In order to view its contents without first having to decompress it, use the _________ utility.
Which two utilities can you use to set up a job to run at a specified time? Choose one: a. at and crond b. atrun and crontab c. at and crontab d. atd and crond
You have written a script called usrs to parse the passwd file and create a list of usernames. You want to have this run at 5 am tomorrow so you can see the results when you get to work. Which of the following commands will work? Choose one: a. at 5:00 wed usrs b. at 5:00 wed -b usrs c. at 5:00 wed -l usrs d. at 5:00 wed -d usrs
Several of your users have been scheduling large at jobs to run during peak load times. How can you prevent anyone from scheduling an at job? Choose one: a. delete the file /etc/at.deny b. create an empty file called /etc/at.deny c. create two empty files: /etc/at.deny and /etc/at.allow file d. create an empty file called /etc/at.allow
How can you determine who has scheduled at jobs? Choose one: a. at -l b. at -q c. at -d d. atwho
When defining a cronjob, there are five fields used to specify when the job will run. What are these fields and what is the correct order? Choose one: a. minute, hour, day of week, day of month, month b. minute, hour, month, day of month, day of week c. minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week d. hour, minute, day of month, month, day of week
You have entered the following cronjob. When will it run? 15 * * * 1,3,5 myscript Choose one: a. at 15 minutes after every hour on the 1st, 3rd and 5th of each month. b. at 1:15 am, 3:15 am, and 5:15 am every day c. at 3:00 pm on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th of each month d. at 15 minutes after every hour every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
As the system administrator you need to review Bob’s cronjobs. What command would you use? Choose one: a. crontab -lu bob b. crontab -u bob c. crontab -l d. cronq -lu bob
In order to schedule a cronjob, the first task is to create a text file containing the jobs to be run along with the time they are to run. Which of the following commands will run the script MyScript every day at 11:45 pm? Choose one: a. * 23 45 * * MyScript b. 23 45 * * * MyScript c. 45 23 * * * MyScript d. * * * 23 45 MyScript
Which daemon must be running in order to have any scheduled jobs run as scheduled? Choose one: a. crond b. atd c. atrun d. crontab
You want to ensure that your system is not overloaded with users running multiple scheduled jobs. A policy has been established that only the system administrators can create any scheduled jobs. It is your job to implement this policy. How are you going to do this? Choose one: a. create an empty file called /etc/cron.deny b. create a file called /etc/cron.allow which contains the names of those allowed to schedule jobs. c. create a file called /etc/cron.deny containing all regular usernames. d. create two empty files called /etc/cron.allow and /etc/cron.deny
You notice that your server load is exceptionally high during the hours of 10 am to 2 noon. When investigating the cause, you suspect that it may be a cron job scheduled by one of your users. What command can you use to determine if your suspicions are correct? Choose one: a. crontab -u b. crond -u c. crontab -l d. crond -l
One of your users, Bob, has created a script to reindex his database. Now he has it scheduled to run every day at 10:30 am. What command should you use to delete this job. Choose one: a. crontab -ru bob b. crontab -u bob c. crontab -du bob d. crontab -lu bob
What daemon is responsible for tracking events on your system?
What is the name and path of the default configuration file used by the syslogd daemon?
You have made changes to the /etc/syslog.conf file. Which of the following commands will cause these changes to be implemented without having to reboot your computer? Choose one: a. kill SIGHINT `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid` b. kill SIGHUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid` c. kill SIGHUP syslogd d. kill SIGHINT syslogd
Which of the following lines in your /etc/syslog.conf file will cause all critical messages to be logged to the file /var/log/critmessages? Choose one: a. *.=crit /var/log/critmessages b. *crit /var/log/critmessages c. *=crit /var/log/critmessages d. *.crit /var/log/critmessages
You wish to have all mail messages except those of type info to the /var/log/mailmessages file. Which of the following lines in your /etc/syslogd.conf file would accomplish this? Choose one: a. mail.*;mail!=info /var/log/mailmessages b. mail.*;mail.=info /var/log/mailmessages c. mail.*;mail.info /var/log/mailmessages d. mail.*;mail.!=info /var/log/mailmessages
What is the name and path of the main system log?
Which log contains information on currently logged in users? Choose one: a. /var/log/utmp b. /var/log/wtmp c. /var/log/lastlog d. /var/log/messages
You have been assigned the task of determining if there are any user accounts defined on your system that have not been used during the last three months. Which log file should you examine to determine this information? Choose one: a. /var/log/wtmp b. /var/log/lastlog c. /var/log/utmp d. /var/log/messages
You have been told to configure a method of rotating log files on your system. Which of the following factors do you not need to consider? Choose one: a. date and time of messages b. log size c. frequency of rotation d. amount of available disk space
What utility can you use to automate rotation of logs?
You wish to rotate all your logs weekly except for the /var/log/wtmp log which you wish to rotate monthly. How could you accomplish this. Choose one: a. Assign a global option to rotate all logs weekly and a local option to rotate the /var/log/wtmp log monthly. b. Assign a local option to rotate all logs weekly and a global option to rotate the /var/log/wtmp log monthly. c. Move the /var/log/wtmp log to a different directory. Run logrotate against the new location. d. Configure logrotate to not rotate the /var/log/wtmp log. Rotate it manually every month.
You have configured logrotate to rotate your logs weekly and keep them for eight weeks. You are running our of disk space. What should you do? Choose one: a. Quit using logrotate and manually save old logs to another location. b. Reconfigure logrotate to only save logs for four weeks. c. Configure logrotate to save old files to another location. d. Use the prerotate command to run a script to move the older logs to another location.
What command can you use to review boot messages?
What file defines the levels of messages written to system log files?
What account is created when you install Linux?
While logged on as a regular user, your boss calls up and wants you to create a new user account immediately. How can you do this without first having to close your work, log off and logon as root? Choose one: a. Issue the command rootlog. b. Issue the command su and type exit when finished. c. Issue the command su and type logoff when finished. d. Issue the command logon root and type exit when finished.
Which file defines all users on your system? Choose one: a. /etc/passwd b. /etc/users c. /etc/password d. /etc/user.conf
There are seven fields in the /etc/passwd file. Which of the following lists all the fields in the correct order? Choose one: a. username, UID, GID, home directory, command, comment b. username, UID, GID, comment, home directory, command c. UID, username, GID, home directory, comment, command d. username, UID, group name, GID, home directory, comment
Which of the following user names is invalid? Choose one: a. Theresa Hadden b. thadden c. TheresaH d. T.H.
In order to prevent a user from logging in, you can add a(n) ________at the beginning of the password field.
The beginning user identifier is defined in the _________ file.
Which field is used to define the user’s default shell?
Bob Armstrong, who has a username of boba, calls to tell you he forgot his password. What command should you use to reset his command?
Your company has implemented a policy that users’ passwords must be reset every ninety days. Since you have over 100 users you created a file with each username and the new password. How are you going to change the old passwords to the new ones? Choose one: a. Use the chpasswd command along with the name of the file containing the new passwords. b. Use the passwd command with the -f option and the name of the file containing the new passwords. c. Open the /etc/passwd file in a text editor and manually change each password. d. Use the passwd command with the -u option.

     * What are 10Base2, 10Base5 and 10BaseT Ethernet LANs ?
    * What is the difference between an unspecified passive open and a fully specified passive open
    * Explain the function of Transmission Control Block
    * What is a Management Information Base (MIB)
    * What is anonymous FTP and why would you use it?
    * What is a pseudo tty?
    * What is REX?
    * What does the Mount protocol do ?
    * What is External Data Representation?
    * What is the Network Time Protocol?
    * What is a DNS resource record?
    * What protocol is used by DNS name servers?
    * What is the difference between interior and exterior neighbor gateways?
    * What is the HELLO protocol used for?
    * What are the advantages and disadvantages of the three types of routing tables?
    * What is source route?
    * What is RIP (Routing Information Protocol)?
    * What is SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol)?
    * What is Proxy ARP?
    * What is OSPF?
    * What is Kerberos?
    * What is a Multi-homed Host?
    * What is NVT (Network Virtual Terminal)?
    * What is Gateway-to-Gateway protocol?
    * What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)?
    * What is autonomous system?
    * What is EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol)?
    * What is IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)?
    * What is Mail Gateway?
    * What is wide-mouth frog?
    * What are Digrams and Trigrams?
    * What is silly window syndrome?
    * What is region?
    * What is multicast routing?
    * What is traffic shaping?
    * What is packet filter?
    * What is virtual path?
    * What is virtual channel?
    * What is logical link control?
    * Why should you care about the OSI Reference Model?
    * What is the difference between routable and non- routable protocols?
    * What is MAU?
    * Explain 5-4-3 rule.
    * What is the difference between TFTP and FTP application layer protocols?
    * What is the range of addresses in the classes of internet addresses?
    * What is the minimum and maximum length of the header in the TCP segment and IP datagram?
    * What is difference between ARP and RARP?
    * What is ICMP?
    * What are the data units at different layers of the TCP / IP protocol suite?
    * What is Project 802?
    * What is Bandwidth?
    * Difference between bit rate and baud rate?
    * What is MAC address?
    * What is attenuation?
    * What is cladding?
    * What is RAID?
    * What is NETBIOS and NETBEUI?
    * What is redirector?
    * What is Beaconing?
    * What is terminal emulation, in which layer it comes?
    * What is frame relay, in which layer it comes?
    * What do you meant by “triple X” in Networks?
    * What is SAP?
    * What is subnet?
    * What is Brouter?
    * How Gateway is different from Routers?
    * What are the different type of networking / internetworking devices?
    * What is mesh network?
    * What is passive topology?
    * What are the important topologies for networks?
    * What are major types of networks and explain?
    * What is Protocol Data Unit?
    * What is difference between baseband and broadband transmission?
    * What are the possible ways of data exchange?
    * What are the types of Transmission media?
    * What are the types of Transmission media?
    * What is point-to-point protocol?
    * What are the two types of transmission technology available?
    * Difference between the communication and transmission?
    * What is a different between switch and Hub?
    * What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of DHCP?
    * What is Recovery Console?
    * What is ERD(Emergency Repair Disk)?
    * What is the difference between POP3 and IMAP Mail Server?
    * what is .ost file?
    * Whatz the difference between DNS and WINS?
    * How can we create VPN to connect to branch office of the same office.what would be the priliminary requirment?
    * Why should we care about the OSI Reference Model ? What is the main purpose for creating this osi model? why it is a layered model?
    * What is layer-3 switch?
    * What is an email client? what is differnce between email client and web mail?
    * what is the vlan ? how it is work?
    * Name three network tools used to determine where a network connectivity is lost between two sites A&B.
    * Which protocol is used for retrieving mails?
    * What is piggy backing?
    * What is the default subnet mask for an ipv6 address ?
    * What is fragmentation of a packet ?
    * What is MTU of a link ?
    * Name any field of IP header that can prevent a packet to loop infinitely ?
    * Under what situations a packet can go into infinite loop in a network ?
    * Describe a 3-way TCP/IP Handshake.

1. What is the requirement for Citrix server installation?

2. What is Datastore

3. What is Data Collector?

4. What is LHC?

5. What is Client Lock Down?

6. What is Printer terminology in Citrix?

7. How to use datastore for database

8. What is the difference between all citrix versions?

9. What are different load evaluators are available in Citrix

10. How to implement Policies in Citrix

11. What you will check when any user is not able to launch citrix application.

12. What is IMA?

13. What is ICA and what is the advantage of ICA

14. What is Speed Screen?

15. What is the query command in citrix?

16. What are the different ports used in Citrix

17. How the licensing works in Citrix and difference in Citrix Licensing version wise

18. What are the consoles available to manage citrix server

19. What is Web Interface or Nfuse?

20. What is citrix secure / access gateway and how its work

21. What are the differences between Win2K and 2K3 Terminal server.

22. What is the difference between 2k & 2k3 terminal server licensing

23. What is SBC?

24. What is Printer driver replication and mapping?

25. How to recover when Datastore failing

26. How to recover when IMA failing

27. What is the requirement of Installation Manager and what kind of extension its support.

28. What are the parameters of Resource Manager?

I've just been asked to provide a list of questions that an interviewer can ask a candidate about Citrix. A couple come to mind like:
Default ICA port
Command to put the server into install mode
Purpose of the Data Store
Purpose of the Data Collector

How to change the ica port.
How to change the xml service port.
The ports for server-to-server communication and cmc ports.

- purpose of zones
- moving servers to other zone
- preferences of zone DCs (most, preferred...)
- licensing issues (server + connection lics)
- load balancing definition and elementary "workflow"
- IMA service used for what
- ICA, IMA Ports 1494, 2512, 2513 for CMC, SSL 443
- components needed for web connectivity (IIS, Nfuse, SG/MSAM)
- troubleshooting using eventlog
- why is ICA that much faster than RDP ? Technological differences

How they would bring new sites online

How web interface and CSG work

The process when users connect using these products to launch their apps.

Tell them about your setup and ask them how you could improve it

What they know about Terminal Services

Asked about the TS license server

What are the differences between the Win2k license server and Win2k3?

Differences in GPO's between the 2 OS's

How they troubleshoot citrix issues

What sites do they use?

Normal:
- Why does a new desktop get a "dial-up or network problems." when the OS is win2k pro, or XP pro.
- Why does the spooler service sometimes crash, after staring a print job?
- How much ssl certificates, do I need to setup a CSG configuration?
- Why does single sign on not work, when using NFuse or WI?
- Can you describe your best hardware configuration for a 35 to 40 user server?

Hardcore:
- How do you fight latency, and when is it needed? (Ping times)
- How does the raid controller need to be set on a terminal server?
- Why does my CSG connection not work, while using a 56 bits version cert?
- How do you configure a Cisco router TCP/IP stack for optimal citrix traffic?

Purpose of Zones.
Zone is subset of Farm and is designed so that we could use Farm as a unit. Zone has server members and one of them is ZDC (Zone Data Collectors) in each zone. These ZDCs communicate between zones. Zones are very help full in controlling traffic.
Preferences of zone DCs
This is done so that user accessing an application is directed to least busy server. To get detail on this please refer to Citrix administrative guide 4.0.

Ica port: 1494
I think to change install mode
>change user\install
>change user\execute

Default ICA port is a common question to ask in the interview: 1494. Apart from this, should be ready with all Port details which is related to the citrix environment.
Normally whenever we install the device on the OS, we use the "Change user /Install" and after finishing the installation task we need to execute from the mode to use "change user /execute".
Purpose of the datastore to store all the information related to the published application. This is the one very crucial part of the citrix.
Data Collector is nothing but it keeps the information about the published application, user’s session, Zones etc.

Currently we have a mixed PS4.0 and XP farm as we are in the process of migrating our XP servers to PS4.

Our current DataStore is a SQL2000 database on a W2K server (call it SQL1) which has daily Full backups and more frequent transaction log backups.

Although we have 96 hours should our DataStore go down, I think it would be prudent to have a warm spare 'ready to go' ... just in case.

So what is the best way to do this?

I'm thinking the following as there have been posts about NOT using SQL Backups and Restores.

1)... Build another W2K server with SQL2000 on - call it SQL2 with exactly the same login IDs etc as the original.
2)... Create a blank DB on SQL2 called exactly the same name as the one on SQL1 - call it XPDB
2)... At one of the servers (preferably a Data Collector though any Citrix server will do), take a copy of the mf20.dsn and amend the current DB Server (SQL1) entries to the newly built server name (SQL2) and save it as SQL.DSN in the same directory.
3)... Run the following command:
dsmaint migrate /srcdsn:"%ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\MF20.dsn" /srcuser: /srcpwd: /dstdsn:"%ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Independent Management Architecture\SQL.DSN" /dstuser: /dstpwd:.

This should move the server from the original DB (SQL1) to the new DB (SQL2).

Then it is a case of exporting all the apps from the SQL1 and importing them into SQL2 and ensuring that any changes made on SQL1 are done to SQL2 via the moved Server.

1)... Will the above work?
2)... Is there a much easier way?
3)... As it is a mixed PS4 and XP farm should I do the DSMAINT MIGRATE on a PS4 server?

Running Presentation Server 4.5 R02 and Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.1.2. When running Acrobat as a seamless window from web access, the application immediately closes. When running Distiller in this way, it says:

ACROTRAY.EXE - DLL Initialization Failed.
The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down.

It then closes. Both Acrobat and Distiller work perfectly when run from the desktop. The problem seems to only occur when it is a seamless published application.

This problem appears to be fairly widespread as I have seen many other posts referring to the same issue. The workaround is to first open another non-Adobe application and then open Acrobat or Distiller and everything is fine.

Workarounds are better than nothing but, a fix would be best. Patches up to and including PSE450R02W2k3001 have not resolved the problem.

Is there a fix for this problem and, if not, is Citrix going to address it in the near future?

I am currently having an issue where my roaming profiles are growing larger than I think they should, and most of this is coming from the NTUSER.DAT file. Due to the size increase, my Windows 2000 server registries fill up and the server throws a "Registry full, please increase registry size and try again" error message when users try and open programs. This is crippling us because servers who usually get 40-44 sessions per box are now only getting 26-31 users per box. I already have my max registry size set to 250Mb and my swap file set to 3000Mb. If I increase the max registry size more than 250Mb, it defaults back to around 190Mb so even fewer users can get on the system.

I have investigated and found that most of my users have multiple BACKUP OF EXCHANGE entries in the Windows Messaging Subsystem of their NTUSER.DAT (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\). Some instances of this are as high as 777 key entries, with multiple sub keys, each with multiple DWORD and BINARY values. A basic example is:

-Windows Messaging Subsystem
-Profiles
-BACKUP OF Exchange
-BACKUP 10 OF Exchange
-BACKUP 100 OF Exchange
-BACKUP 101 OF Exchange
-BACKUP 102 OF Exchange
- (etc. etc.)

Now, in their TS roaming profile, We also get multiple BACKUP OF Exchange.FAV and Exchange~23.srs type files. These are also in series like the keys in the NTUSER.DAT file. These can add up to over 2Mb per user profile.

a) Question, what may be causing this?

b) Question, how may I correct it?

c) Question, how may I get rid of both the NTUSER.DAT entries and TS Roaming Profile files safely?

My only solution so far is to contact each user individually and reset their profile from scratch and make them start over with their customizing. This knocks them down from as high as 75Mb profiles with 18Mb NTUSER.DAT files to 1Mb profiles with 600Kb NTUSER.DAT files.

We are using MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3 on six HP Proliant ML350 G3 servers with dual 2.8 GHz Xeon processors (multithread turned off in BIOS) and 2 GB RAM.

Our workstations are 77% XP, 3% 2000, 20% Windows 98 (soon to be XP by middle of Feb/06).

Ans: If you want to prevent the automatic generation of the backup keys, you have to add a option to your *.prf file, that include the outlook profile configuration.

Here the solution:
BackupProfile=No
Add this line under the [general] section.

We have recently formatted one of our Citrix Servers. After that the keyboard mapping is not working in this particular server.
We have a logon script which will dictate the keyboard mapping for the users.
When the users login to other citrix servers there is no issues. But for this server the keyboard mapping is not working.
Any specific settings that need to be done. I checked the Regional setting its same with other servers.

What version of the client is being used and what operating system?

I think it was the metaframe, but was the user max changed from 25 to 15? If not metaframe (then I apologize for posting in the wrong section) what product was it if anyone knows?

Hi, I already post in PS 4.5 section. But I forgot to mention that there is also the limitation cause by the number of TS License and Citrix license that you own.

Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4
Citrix Metaframe XPe 1.0 Service Pack 4 Feature Release 3
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4
Win32 Client 8.0.24737

We have a published seamless app that in turn is able to launch IE6 as a separate seamless window within the same session.
Users are able to drag and drop from the main app window to the IE window. This is working fine when dragging direct from one window to the other. However, our users need to be able to maximise the main app window, and then reactivate the other window during the drag by hovering over the taskbar button for the second window until it comes to the front. As the windows are both seamless, this is obviously the local client taskbar.

This element is not currently working - is it supported? No matter how long the user hovers over the taskbar button, the corresponding window is never activated.

Anyone ever get this to work? I have the exact same issue with a customer I am working at. They can drag and drop between applications when they are not running maximised. But when dragging to the windows toolbar the mouse pointer changes to the restricted icon to show that it's not possible.

Using PS4.5 and 10.200 clients.

I am coming into a new environment and they have XPa Servers and PS4 servers. They are all in the same farm so:
1. How do I tell what type of Farm it is?
2. Can XPa servers run in a PS4.0 farm?
3. Can XPa servers run in a PS4.5 farm?

I think I've read that a XPa server can't be upgraded to PS4.5 and can't run in a 4.5 farm.

You have a mixed farm. You can tell what the individual servers are by looking at the server properties in the CMC.

You can have XPa servers and PS4.0 in the same farm, but you need to consider the license implications as they are licensed differently. If users connect to both XPa and PS4.0 servers for different published applications then they will be using 2 licenses. One from the XPa servers and the other from the citrix licensing server that they introduced from PS3.0.

I wouldn't recommend running a mixed farm for anything other than as part of a migration.

Check out the PS4.5 administration guide if you want to do an upgrade check out the following:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX112223

Page 78. If you are migrating from earlier than PS3.0 then you have to migrate to a new farm and retain no settings. Also you can't do an inpalce upgrade to 4.5 from PS4.0 unless your OS is Windows 2003.

I have several TS servers, W2K with SP4, all running Metaframe 1.8 FR3. All of a sudden I am getting a machine here and there that is getting the following error:-

Metaframe Presentation Server connection interrupted.
Attempting to reconnect...

Network or dial-up problems are preventing communication with the Citrix MetaFrame server.

One machine in particular has been using citrix for well over 2yrs now, and all of a sudden this happened. The machines that have this problem are running a variety of OS, all Windows mind you, and most of them are either running ICA client 8, or 8.1.

We're finding it only seems to affect clients on Windows XP and it appears to be licensing related.

We have resolved the problem for most users (including all support staff) by restarting the terminal services licensing manager service on the appropriate domain controller however this is still leaving (we think) 2 users who are still receiving this error.

All the citrix servers were shut down last night, while they were down I rebooted the domain controller that controls the terminal services licensing and then brought the citrix servers up, with the data collector first and then the other 4. However the problem still remains.

I have the same problem-- all are W2K SP4 server farms-- this is occurring in 2 separate locations with nothing to do with each other. It is as if it is firewall related, since internal LAN ICA sessions run fine; but when anybody comes from the outside, they get this message.

I have the same problem-- all are W2K SP4 server farms-- this is occurring in 2 separate locations with nothing to do with each other. It is as if it is firewall related, since internal LAN ICA sessions run fine; but when anybody comes from the outside, they get this message.

Had this issue - turned out the license had expired on ICA app, once updated this worked fine

I had this issue seems there is something to do with the HardwareID in windows xp SP2. I deleted the HardwareID from the registry on the client computers and they worked fine.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->Software->Microsoft->MSLicensing->HardwareID

Deleted file HardwareID in registry also, but sill am facing same problem.

Well after much research on my problem. It turned out to be the MS terminal licenses. My boxes were pointed to the wrong MS Term server.

We had the same problem thanks to you all we had it solved, it was Windows Terminal server licenses we forgot to activate it we did and things are great now

I deleted the reg key mentioned and it all works now!

But...anyone know WHY it happened? I can see it something to do with TS Licensing, but what? Only 2 users so far out of 100 got this problem, everyone else is ok.

Anyone know how to retrieve an application limits via script? (allow 1 instance & max instances per user)
I can't seem to find anything.

I can retrieve app name, users, groups etc just not instance limits.
Try this one:

List Applications and Limits.

Anyone know where I can get hold of a CD for Citrix XPE 1.0 FR3 SP3?
Upgrading is not a possibility for me, but we need to rebuild a server, and the disk is gone.

You didn't mention which OS you are running but you can look in ftp://ftp.citrix.com/metaXP and check the Win2K and Win2K3 folders.

Post other interview questions and answers in the comments

/etc/sudoers (main configuration file)

usernames/group servername = (usernames command can be run as) command

Groups are the same as user groups and are differentiated from regular users by a % at the beginning. The Linux user group “users” would be represented by %users.
You can have multiple usernames per line separated by commas.
Multiple commands also can be separated by commas. Spaces are considered part of the command.
The keyword ALL can mean all usernames, groups, commands and servers.
If you run out of space on a line, you can end it with a back slash (\) and continue on the next line.
sudo assumes that the sudoers file will be used network wide, and therefore offers the option to specify the names of servers which will be using it.
In most cases, the file is used by only one server and the keyword ALL suffices for the server name.
The NOPASSWD keyword provides access without prompting for your password.

Granting All Access to Specific Users

Grant admin1 and admin2 full access to all privileged commands, with this sudoers entry.

admin1,admin2 ALL=(ALL) ALL

Granting Access To Specific Users To Specific Files

teamlead1, %Project ALL= /sbin/, /usr/sbin

This entry allows user teamlead1 and all the members of the group Project to gain access to all the program files in the /sbin and /usr/sbin directories

Granting Access to Specific Files as Another User

sudo -u entry allows allows you to execute a command as if you were another user, but first you have to be granted this privilege in the sudoers file.

This feature can be convenient for programmers who sometimes need to kill processes related to projects they are working on. For example, programmer user1 is on the team developing a financial package that runs a program called thread1 as user accounts. From time to time the application fails, requiring “user1” to stop it with the /bin/kill, /usr/bin/kill or /usr/bin/pkill commands but only as user “accountsmanager”. The sudoers entry would look like this:

user1 ALL=(accountsmanager) /bin/kill, /usr/bin/kill, /usr/bin/pkill

User user1 is allowed to stop the thread1 process with this command:

[user1@learnadmin user1]# sudo -u accountsmanager pkill thread1

Virtual chip-set : Intel 440BX-based motherboard with NS338 SIO chip

Virtual BIOS : PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6

User & group administration
Configuring Linux Networking
Installing and configuring Linux Operating system
Basic Operating System Concepts
Basic experience in Shell Scripts.
Knowledge on apache server
Knowledge on FTP,SSH,SSL,Telnet & xinetd
Knowledge about File system hierarchy
Basic Network Troubleshooting
Installing & configuring Linux Software
Monitoring Server Performance
Configuring Linux Software RAID
Expanding Linux Partitions with LVM
Network Based Linux Installation like NFS, HTTP & FTP
In-depth knowledge on Linux operating system
Experience in shell and Perl scripting
Kernel compilation and fine tuning.
Configuring Linux Firewalls Using iptables
Configuring & Managing Disk Usage With Quotas
Knowledge on TCP/IP
File system Management
Expertise in managing and configuring various services like DNS, NIS, NFS, APACHE, FTP, DHCP & SAMBA
Knowledge on High Availability and Clustering.
High Level of Troubleshooting skills

VMware HA protects against unplanned physical server failure by providing a way to automatically
restart virtual machines upon physical host failure. This need to restart a virtual machine
in the event of a physical host failure means that some downtime—generally less than three
minutes—is incurred. VMware FT goes even further and eliminates any downtime in the event of
a physical host failure

Fault tolarance uses vLockstep technology

VMware FT maintains a mirrored secondary VM on a separate physical host that is kept in lockstep with the primary VM

Everything that occurs on the primary (protected) VM also occurs simultaneously on the secondary (mirrored) VM, so that if the physical host on which the primary VM is running fails, the secondary VM can
immediately step in and take over without any loss of connectivity. VMware FT will also automatically
re-create the secondary (mirrored) VM on another host if the physical host on which the
secondary VM is running fails

If, the hosts running both the primary and secondary VMs failed then
VMware HA will reboot the primary VM on another available server, and VMware
FT will automatically create a new secondary VM. Again, this ensures protection for the primary
VM at all times.
VMware FT can work in conjunction with VMotion, but it cannot work with DRS, so DRS must
be manually disabled on VMs that are protected with VMware FT.

HA protects against unplanned physical server failure by providing a way to automatically
restart virtual machines upon physical host failure

if physical problem to server occurs then only that server will be down
but on virtual server many servers are effected so answer to this is HA

virtual machine migration that occurs when an ESX/ESXi
host that is part of an HA-enabled cluster experiences failure.

configure VMware HA to monitor virtual machines and restart them
automatically if they fail to respond to an internal heartbeat

VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler provide automatic distribution of resource utilization across multiple ESX/ESXi hosts that are configured in a cluster

DRS attempts to place each virtual machine on the host that is best suited to run
that virtual machine at that time.(intelligent placement)

three servers have been configured in an ESX/ESXi cluster with DRS enabled.When one of those servers begins to experience a high contention for CPU utilization, DRS uses an internal algorithm to determine which virtual
machine(s) will experience the greatest performance boost by being moved to another server with
less CPU contention.

VMotion, also known as live migration, is a feature of
ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server that allows a running virtual machine to be moved from one physical
host to another physical host without having to power off the virtual machine.This migration
between two physical hosts occurs with no downtime and with no loss of network connectivity to
the virtual machine.

Storage VMotion moves the storage for a
running virtual machine between datastores. Much like VMotion, Storage VMotion works without
downtime to the virtual machine

VMware vSphere Client is aWindows-based application that allows you tomanage ESX/ESXi
hosts, either directly or through a vCenter Server

You can install the vSphere Client by browsing
to the URL of an ESX/ESXi host or vCenter Server and selecting the appropriate installation link

The vSphere Client manages an individual ESX/ESXi host by authenticating with an
account local to that host; however, it manages an entire enterprise by authenticating to a
vCenter Server using a Windows account.

vCenter Update Manager is a plug-in for vCenter Server that helps users keep their ESX/ESXi
hosts and select virtual machines patched with the latest updates

Scans to identify systems that are not compliant with the latest updates
User-defined rules for identifying out-of-date systems
Automated installation of patches for ESX/ESXi hosts
Full integration with other vSphere features
Support for patching Windows and Linux operating systems
Support for patching select Windows applications inside virtual machines

centralized management utility for all ESX/ESXi hosts and their respective virtual machines

its like windows active directory no exactly the same

vCenter Server is a Windows-based (vCenter Server for Linux is also there),
database-driven application that allows IT administrators to deploy, manage, monitor, automate,
and secure a virtual infrastructure in an almost effortless fashion

The back-end database
(Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle) that vCenter Server uses stores all the data about the hosts and
virtual machines.

Editions of VMware vCenter Server
-------------------------------------------
vCenter Server Essentials (small office)
vCenter Server Standard (all features)
vCenter Server Foundation (same as standard but limited to managingn three ESX/ESXi hosts.)

virtual machines with multiple virtual processors

VMware Virtual SMP allows virtual machines to be created with two or four processors.

By default root user is not allowed to login ESX using SSH or SCP

Steps to allow root user login ( IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO LOGIN AS ROOT )

1. Goto ESX server console

2. login as normal User

3. SU as root ( su root )

4. cd /etc/ssh

5. then ls -l

6. sshd_config file is present there ( that is the file we should modify )

7. then vi sshd_config

8. PermitRootLogin no ( by default , so change that to yes )

9. PermitRootLogin yes ( save and exit)

10. Restart service sshd daemon

11. /sbin/service sshd restart

12. reconnect and try to login as root ( hmm !!! it works !! )

Generally Physical hard disks are used as storage devices.

these physical devices are directly mapped and data is stored on those physical addresses directly.

but when it comes to storage virtualization

SAN etc are used and the storage destination is Logical (or virtual)

storage mapping is done with logical objects

benefits of storage virtualization

Less cost

easy administration (include backup etc)

easy migration of data

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How to give Sudo access to administrators and special users

Virtual hardware used in Vsphere for Virtual machines

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what is VMware Fault Tolerance

what is VMware High Availability

what is VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler

what is VMware VMotion and Storage VMotion

what is VMware vSphere Client

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what is VMware vCenter Server ?

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Enable root user login ESX using SSH or Via SCP

What is Storage Virtualization ?

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