- Analyzing Business Requirements
- Analyzing Technical Requirements
- Designing a Directory Service Architecture
- Designing Service Locations
- Passing the Exam
- Exam Resources
Analyzing Technical Requirements
Sigh of relief, right? That business analysis stuff is for guys from Harvard. Well, not so fast. This objective, although more technical in nature, is still related to the overall well-being of the company.
This objective requires you to answer questions dealing with the company's current IT environment and where they want to go. Add AD on top of their plans...how will that change things they want to do? And this company needs help managing desktop environments (think total cost of ownership and policies).
For starters, consider the geographical makeup of the company. How many locations are involved? What type of design is already in place to organize these different sites? And what is the connection speed between these remote sites? All of these questions will help you design directory services.
Specifically, you should be aware of DNS before and after you add AD. Know what the company namespace is now, what type of DNS server it is running on, and whether the company is willing to transfer its DNS servers (read UNIX) to Windows 2000? If not, how will you integrate AD-integrated zones with these UNIX boxes?
If the company is migrating from Windows NT 4.0, will all of the domains upgrade? If not, how will 2000 and NT 4.0 communicate with each other? How will users be authenticated and allowed access to resources throughout the enterprise? Tough questions for certain; you'll need to know this type of information to pass this section of the exam.
NOTE
Study Hint: Know Windows 2000 DNS and what versions of UNIX DNS are compatible. Specifically, in relation to dynamic updates, BIND 8.12 and 8.2 work fine for SRV records and dynamic updates.