70-291 Practice Questions

On a random guess, I think D sounds correct.

Thanks Johan, this is a great idea and will be very helpful.

On the first question I think the answer is B. I remember reading in the MS Press book that if you think there are inconsistencies in the DHCP database to use the reconciliation option. Hopefully

The answer is indeed B.

Below is the explanation and some references. I'll post the next question in a next post.

Explanation: Reconciling scopes can fix inconsistencies in the DHCP database. Scope IP address lease information is stored twice in the DHCP database: in a summary list, and in a detailed list. When you reconcile the scopes, the detailed and summary list are compared to check for inconsistencies.

To reconcile the scopes, click the applicable DHCP server in the DHCP snap-in, and choose Reconcile All Scopes from the Action menu. In the Reconcile All Scopes dialog box, click Verify. If there are any inconsistencies found, they will be listed in the status window. Clicking on the displayed addresses and the Reconcile button will repair the inconsistencies. You can also do this for a single scope by selecting a scope instead of the DHCP server and then choose Reconcile from the Action menu.

The Reconcile option can also be used to recover from a corrupted database as long as the registry is still available on the system or from a backup. The DHCP server also stores scope IP address lease information in server’s local registry. If you delete the DHCP database files from the %SystemRoot%\System32\Dhcp folder, and use the Reconcile All Scopes option, it will try to regenerate the DHCP lease information based on the registry information.

Jetpack is an utility that is still included mainly for compacting and repairing older DHCP and WINS databases, i.e. for Windows NT. Jetpack operates offline, which means the DHCP service must be stopped. Windows 2000 and later can perform such actions dynamically on the DHCP database while it is online, although compacting by using Jetpack on an offline database usually has better results in terms of reclaiming space. It would however not be the first thing you should try.

Exam objectives:
- Manage DHCP databases
- Verify [DHCP] database integrity

Reference: Reconciling scopes

Reference 2: Troubleshooting DHCP servers

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Ok, here's the next one:

2. Question moved to test engine:

I think I'll just read and learn.........I

Well, it's good to know that the answer you choose is not too obviously wrong, so I appreciate your educated guess.

Yeah, I should know some of these, even if I haven't studied 2003 at all. DHCP can't change that much throughout, maybe a bit more advanced. Once I saw someone else answer B, I knew I was wrong. Without using these skills daily, I tend to forget unless I reread all over again, which I'll have to eventually, but I just dread for now.

I almost want to say D for the second one, but I'll have to look it up first.

True, the main concepts are still the same in 2003. And I agree, especially Windows features and settings are tough to retain in memory if you don't use them frequently. Therefore it's important to 'understand' the options, cause that and a bit of help (of the help files, or just looking at the setting and subsettings on the screen) makes it easier to work with different versions.

I'm going to post the answer later today/this evening, but I'll give a hint to why it isn't D. I'll do this by explaining a bit about how I write practice questions, cause it will help answering the real ones too. The challenge, for me (and exam vendors) when writing questions, is to make sure one has to actually know their stuff (which the practice and actual exam are supposed to measure in the first place) to pick the correct answer (instead of an incorrect / seemingly correct answer). Everyone who has taken a Microsoft exam, knows there's often more than one answer that seem correct. Some will even claim more than one answer is really correct and hate Microsoft for it. Although 'the other' anwer can technically be correct (ie. it could work in practice) it may not be 'the way' to approach the situation, and more importantly once you are at the test center, not the answer you need to mark to answer the exam question correctly.

In general, again this goes for exam questions in general not just mine, there are a couple of answers that are good candidates for being correct, and a couple that are just plain nonsense. Which of the good candidates is actually correct can often be found in a single sentence of the question. This means having to separate the fluff from the essential information. And once you can pick out that piece of information that changes everything and dictates the answer, the answer will actually be obvious. Another common trick is listed a seemingly correct answer that solves a sympton not the actual cause. I'm not trying to make it sound easier than it is. Knowing your stuff is of course required to make this work. But my question 2 can be rephrased into a single CompTIA-length question.

The reason another answer than D is more likely correct can be found in the first sentence: there are 1200 clients. First, instructing 1200 users to run a command on their machine is not something your manager will appreciate. Also, in most cases, though there are exceptions (i.e. the question would be really tricky if answer D said ipconfig /flushdns) the answer likely involves changing something on a server (centralized management) rather than on clients. The question states that "users are reporting problems with resolving client computer names", which indicates they have a TCP/IP connection (and they can connect to servers) but cannot resolve client computer names. So there's likely something wrong with the DNS rather than the client's IP addressing. Once I'll post the answer + explanation it will also explain why it wouldn't solve the actual cause of the problem.

A bit more than I planned on typing, but I hope it will be of help for anyone taking this and other MS exams.

Good stuff! I think the answer to the second one is A. I say this because the clients are all Win XP so they support Dynamic Updates. I am not sure if the DNS settings on the DHCP server are retained when you restore a backup of the DHCP server though, so I am not completely convinced, but it is my best guess

Johan, you have totally kicked me into gear now...I actually want to understand this stuff again. Without daily use, it got so boring, I stopped reading my books, and my lab has dust on it. I'm going to start up again, just so I can make more logical guesses, if not also for the bonus of completing an exam, and MCSA finally. Now I just need a new HD, and I should good to go. I'm also trying to crosstrain a bit with some Dell server stuff at my work. I just work on hardware though almost everyday, so I never see software stuff in real life.

i'll go with E.
i don't think it's A because the clients should register themselves in DNS, thus whether the DHCP is authorized (credentials) to update the DNS database or not should be irrelevant.

oh, and both questions have a "Reconciling All Scopes" option, should be "Reconcile All Scopes".

Cool, I'm glad you guys are finding it useful and motivating. That in turn motivates me as well.

The answer to question 2 is indeed answer A.

TeKniques wrote:

I am not sure if the DNS settings on the DHCP server are retained when you restore a backup of the DHCP server though

That is exactly the key issue here.

Explanation: The DNS dynamic update credentials (user name, domain, and password), which you can configure by clicking Credentials on the Advanced tab of the DHCP server properties, are used by the DHCP server to register the clients in DNS. These credentials are not included in any back method. So if you restore the DHCP database, you must reconfigure the credentials for the server.

Exam objectives:
Troubleshoot DHCP.
- Diagnose and resolve issues related to DHCP authorization.
- Diagnose and resolve issues related to configuration of DHCP server and scope options.

Reference: Restoring server data

Reference 2: Configure DNS dynamic update credentials

_omni_ wrote:

i'll go with E.
i don't think it's A because the clients should register themselves in DNS, thus whether the DHCP is authorized (credentials) to update the DNS database or not should be irrelevant.

Good point, however, E is not really an existing option. The DNS database contains the names to IP address mappings but does not contain DHCP related info such as the lease times, hence synchronizing a DHCP database with the information from a DNS database would be of no real use (while vice versa would) and would not solve any resolution problems. By the way, the clients only update their A records and explicitely request the DHCP server to update the PTR records. Regardless, it's not a real-world option. But again, good point, I can improve the scenario by changing "resolving client computer names" into "resolving IP addresses to client computer names", without changing the actual question+explanation, I'll come up with something else that will improve it, maybe add some NT 4 or 98 clients.

In regards to the comments in my previous post, the actual question is: "What should you do after restoring the DHCP database to allow DHCP to update DNS again?" the rest is fluff.

oh, and both questions have a "Reconciling All Scopes" option, should be "Reconcile All Scopes".

Thanks for spotting that too.

I'll post the next one later today, maybe tomorrow. Need to draw a diagram first.

Here's question number 3:

Question moved to test engine:

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I'll post the answer+explanation tomorrow. I realize this one is probably a bit easy, I have a similar one that is more tricky and combined with this one should cover most of the essential information for the exam regarding this particular exam objective.

Well I am 2 for 2 so I might as well keep going. I hope you don't mind if I try to answer these as you post them. Since I am preparing for this exam myself at the moment, it helps keep the info fresh in my mind.

For this one I will go with D. I guess I am confused about A (is this scenario even possible?). But I don't think it's B because the DHCP server is most likely already authorized. C doesn't make sense because the clients should be already set to that since they obtained an APIPA address. And E makes no sense because if you do that then no communication will exist at all between the computers in subnet B.

I will wait eagerly to read the answer and explanation tomorrow. Thanks again Johan.

TeKniques wrote:

I hope you don't mind if I try to answer these as you post them.

On the contrary.

definately D.
the DHCP Relay Agent will forward DHCP Discover packets to the server, which will enable the clients to obtain the correct IP address.

i'm not sure i've ever heard of a "forwarding only DHCP server".

Goog job guys, the answer is indeed D. I'm glad the forwarding-only DHCP server at least had some of my desired effect.

Explanation question 3: Broadcast traffic such as DHCP messages, is not forwarded by a router. Windows Server 2003 includes a DHCP Relay Agent as a routing protocol component in the Routing and Remote Access service. Enabling a DHCP Relay Agent on the RRAS server will allow DHCP messages from subnet B to be forwarded (relayed) to the DHCP server on subnet A. The DHCP Relay Agent will act as an intermediate between the DHCP server in subnet A and the DHCP clients in subnet B. The DHCP Relay Agent intercepts DHCP messages and transmits them in IP packets addressed to the DHCP. Because they are being sent in regular IP packets instead of DHCP broadcasts, the router (RRAS server) will forward them.

After enabling the DHCP Relay Agent and entering the IP address of the DHCP server to which you want to forward DHCP traffic, you need to bind it to the appropriate interface, in this case the RRAS server’s interface that connects to subnet B.

Answer A is incorrect because there is no such thing as a forwarding-only DHCP Server.

Answer B is incorrect because you don’t need to authorize a DHCP server separately for different subnets.

The clients in subnet B should be configured to use automatic IP addressing (as a DHCP client) as mentioned in answer C, but since they received an APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) address (from the 169.254.0.0 network) we can assume they computers are already configured to obtain an IP address automatically.

Answer E, disabling Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) for the computers in subnet B will not solve anything either.

Exam objectives: Manage DHCP Relay Agent.

Reference: Configure the DHCP Relay Agent

Reference 2: DHCP Relay Agent

I'll post a new one later today. There's still a lot of DHCP related exam objectives, and I'm somewhat following the order those:
www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-291.asp
but I'll try to throw in a couple of others first.

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I decided to continue with DHCP for while, as it makes things a it easier for me to stay on the same topic. When I'm writing one question+explanation I already have another one on the same topic in mind, so I'll just keep going and eventually go from DHCP to DNS, and basically follow the domains listed in the exam objectives. Anyway, here's the next one:

4. Question moved to test engine:

Well, I got the last one correct, even it was answered before I read it, so maybe I can get two. I'll say D is correct. The other answers don't make sense, but I could be wrong again.

The 'choose all that apply' indicates you need to pick more than one answer. The second one can be determined based on the other. And dont' worry about being wrong, that goes for those who are not posting answers too.

C + E.

arp -a ipaddress will give you the client's MAC addy, which you will use to create the reservation.
and the reservation will ensure that the client always receives the same IP.

A = does that even work?
B = the command escapes me...
D = excluding the address will ensure the client doesn't get it. unless you configure it statically, but that's not an option here.

I should read a bit more slowly......

Indeed _omni_, that's exactly it.

I'm going to post another one for today, so here's the answer plus full explanation for question 4:

Answer: C, E

Explanation:

The arp -a clientipaddress will display the MAC address of the remote client. For this MAC address, you should add a reservation in DHCP. In other words, you reserve an IP address for a particular MAC address.

Excluding addresses from a DHCP range is more appropriate if you want to exclude a range of addresses, possibly to be issued by another DHCP server. It prevents the DHCP server from issuing a range of addresses, but does not reserve them for particular clients or computers, hence would require you to configure a static address on the client. The latter would work, but it is preferred to make a DHCP reservation so you don’t have to make changes to the local client and retain the control centrally at the DHCP server.

Answer A is incorrect because you cannot use ipconfig to determine the addressing information of a remote computer. B is incorrect because netstat does not display the MAC address. Nbtstat -a clientname is another valid method to determine the MAC address of the remote computer.

Exam objectives:
Manage DHCP.
- Manage reservations and reserved clients.

Reference: Using client reservations

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One more about DHCP, moving on to DNS with the next.

5. Question moved to test engine:

eldywan

I think the answer is C. Those activities sound like events that the audit log would record. I don't think either A or D would capture that info. And network monitor is more useful for analyzing info directly to/from a specific computer.

Btw, Johan, thanks for your efforts in writing these tech notes +explanations. They're quite helpful.

Jiggsaww

these questions and others have really helped me throught out my cert career.......thumbs up 2 the webmaster for this great technical forum.....:)

i will also go for C.

D - system monitor is realtime, and the idea is to log a full week of activity.
A - nah...
B - that would hardly be efficient.

Yes, answer C indeed.

Explanation+answer question 5:

The DHCP audit logging allows you to log all the required information in text files in a comma-delimited format that can be easily imported in Excel or other software to create reports for your manager.

DHCP audit logging can be enabled on the General tab of the DHCP server properties. DHCP audit logs are stored by default at %windir%\System32\Dhcp, you can change this path on the Advanced tab. The files are stored as DhcpSrvLog-Day, where ‘Day’ is the three letters for the day of the week, e.g. DhcpSrvLog-Fri.

Click the references below for more information about what exactly is logged in the DHCP audit log files.

The System event log will contain much of the same information as the DHCP audit log, but turning these into reports is less efficient, and possibly requires changes to the settings of the entire System log to maintain a full week of information.

Apart from not being an efficient method to get the results, using Network Monitor does not guarantee it will actually be able to log all events. The System Monitor can log performance, such as lease activity, but will not log the requested information.

Exam objective: Examine the system event log and DHCP server audit log files to find related events.

Reference: Audit logging

Reference 2: Analyzing server log files

The next one, which I'll post today, will be about DNS.

Question number 6 fresh from my screen to yours. If you think it's long, don't worry, so's the explanation.

6. Question moved to test engine:

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DNS is a favorite topic of Microsoft on many of their exams, and since they have some good new features in 2003, you can expect to get a lot of DNS scenario questions on the 291 exam. We'll stay on the DNS exam objectives for the next several days.