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Foundations for Windows Administration
You can’t run without first learning to walk. Similarly, you can’t become an excellent Windows administrator without the right foundations. Even if you already have some field experience, our Foundations sessions will help take you back to the basics. This track will cement core skills for Windows and network administration, give you a firm basis on which to build higher-level skills, improve administrative techniques, and solidify your resume. Far more than just “beginner stuff,” the Foundations track deeply addresses core tasks and technologies such as DNS, Terminal Services, Active Directory, installation and more. You’ll learn how all of these parts fit together within products like Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to employ these techniques to be a more successful administrator.
Active Directory Administration, Part 1
12:30 – 2:00pm
Bruce Rougeau
It’s impossible to be a great system administrator unless you have a deep and thorough knowledge of Active Directory. This session will begin by introducing all the key buzzwords for AD and exploring the options for building an AD infrastructure. Then, it will cover all the ways to add users: the graphical console, Ldifde, Csvde and VBScript. The session wouldn’t be complete without a complete look of the variety of AD groups and the different combinations for effectively using groups to manage permissions in a complex environment.
Active Directory Administration, Part 2
2:15 – 3:45pm
Bruce Rougeau
Group Policy is the very heart and soul of Windows network configuration management. Every administrator needs to understand exactly how Group Policy works in order to be effective. This session will explore the essentials of Group Policy, explain where you can apply it, and why there are two parts to every Group Policy. Then, we’ll explore the application of Group Policy by demystifying the often-confusing Loopback processing, Enforced, Block Inheritance and Group Policy permissions. Next, we’ll see how to deploy software with Group Policy, contrasting Published and Assigned Applications. We’ll finish up by using tools like Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) and GPResult to verify the Group Policy settings being applied to client and server computers.
System Recovery: The Good, the Bad, the Lifesaving
4:00 – 5:30pm
Bruce Rougeau
Your server just crashed and it won’t boot because the registry is corrupted. What do you do? If this hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s only a matter of time. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so we’ll start by covering the core techniques for effectively backing up different types of servers. You’ll also get the pound of cure, learning a variety of techniques for restoring servers, including Safe Mode, Recovery Console, Automatic System Restore and even good old Windows Backup. Last but not least, we’ll look at why you might want to explore a system state by restoring it to an alternate location—and how to pull that off.
Vista Administration Essentials
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Rougeau
Is Vista coming to your environment? Is it already there? Still trying to figure out answers to key questions about Vista deployment? Since Vista is nearly a complete rewrite of Windows, there are several things you’ll need to be aware of to ensure a successful implementation. We’ll help you work through decisions like which version to choose, hardware concerns, application compatibility, user training and data migration. We’ll even help you develop a deployment strategy. Finally, we’ll cover important and misunderstood new features like User Account Control (UAC), Windows Firewall, Disk Manager, event logs and more.
Managing Vista with Group Policy
2:30 – 4:00pm
Derek Melber
Do you want more control over your Vista desktops? Of course you do. PolicyMaker is the right solution to gain that control. It will solve those nagging little issues you thought were never going to be resolved. It can even resolve issues you didn’t know you had. With drive mappings, printer mappings, power option control, file transfer, folder control, and so on, PolicyMaker technology will give you the ultimate degree of control over desktops. It can even eliminate that nasty logon script that many of you have come to hate.
Terminal Services Concepts and Administration
4:15 – 5:45pm
Bruce Rougeau
Terminal Services is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Whether it’s Remote Desktop or Terminal Services, the technical architecture has the same building blocks. This session will explore all the components of a “thin client” computing environment and how to make the most of it. We’ll cover licensing for the Windows 2000 and 2003 Terminal Services servers, and how to configure access, which promises to be an eye-opener. Last but not least, we’ll look at Terminal Services Manager, Terminal Services-related Group Policy settings, and Terminal Services configuration tools. You’ll be the all-powerful one by knowing and controlling what’s going on in your environment.
Security Basics: Windows Vista, Server Roles, and Security Templates
8:30 – 10:00am
Bruce Rougeau
Why is security so difficult to manage? There’s no one-size-fits-all-solution. Security varies from server to server and OS to OS. In this session, we’ll look at a variety of server configurations and which security settings are appropriate for each. This will help you secure servers more intelligently based on their function. We’ll look at Windows Vista, its controversial User Account Control, and how Vista security has been redesigned from the ground up. We’ll wrap up with security templates, which are becoming a more important way for you to consistently manage and audit security settings.
IIS Essentials and Administration
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Rougeau
Like it or not, every administrator needs to know how to manage Internet Information Services (IIS) in Windows Server 2003, whether you’re managing public Web sites, intranet Web applications, or even just supporting an application that uses the Web server. IIS has a number of underlying issues that can compromise security and reliability if you’re not careful, so we’ll look at techniques like limiting the base install, securing IIS, and adding functionality by enabling ActiveX and WebDAV. We’ll take that knowledge and look at Windows Software Update Services (WSUS), a key IIS-based application, and show how IIS provides the power behind this Microsoft patch management solution.
Routing and Remote Access Concepts and Administration
2:30 – 4:00pm
Bruce Rougeau
Microsoft will never put Cisco out of business. A Windows server can, however, provide many remote access functions through the Routing and Remote Access (RRAS) subsystem. This session will show you how to configure and troubleshoot RRAS. We’ll cover static and dynamic routing and how to look at the route table on each Windows system. We’ll discuss two tunneling protocols -- IPSec and L2TP -- and show you how to configure the Microsoft VPN client for remote access.
Remote Access Policies and Network Monitoring
4:15 – 5:45pm
Bruce Rougeau
Remote access policies have nothing to do with Active Directory, but they’re still important. This session will discuss using remote access policies, as well as the industry-standard RADIUS protocol, for controlling access to Windows’ Routing and Remote Access Services. It will look at the ins and outs of configuring and establishing a Remote Access connection. It will also dig under the hood with Microsoft Network Monitor to see all kinds of network traffic—including how to capture passwords being passed across the network in clear text. You can’t help but become a real network troubleshooter once you “see” network protocols in action, spot errant behavior and determine the cause.
TCP/IP Essentials: The Heart of the Network
8:30 – 10:00am
Bruce Rougeau
IPv6 is here and networking isn’t getting any easier. You’ll need a rock-solid foundation in the industry-standard OSI networking model, and how it applies to the networking gear in your environment in order to survive. You don’t use IPv6 yet? Think again: New versions of Windows configure and use it automatically. We’ll look at more common IPv4 deployments in our discussion, and consider techniques for configuring and troubleshooting TCP/IP with both static and dynamic configurations. We’ll look at Windows’ DHCP Server and learn to use scopes, reservations and options to configure a robust TCP/IP-based network. We’ll also use Network Monitor to see DHCP in action, and to troubleshoot the DHCP discovery process.
DNS Essentials: Your Network's Phonebook
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Rougeau
Accessing computers using their names would be impossible without DNS. This session will cover all the unique terms and concepts used in DNS management and show you how DNS is truly universal when it comes to name resolution. We’ll look at the complexity of DNS (why do you think some large companies have administrators who do nothing but DNS?), and how to expand the DNS namespace using delegation and stub zones. We’ll explain how to properly configure both forward and reverse lookup zones, and how to make them more secure and reliable by integrating them with Active Directory. We’ll look at Windows’ Dynamic DNS system, and how to secure that. You’ll gain a complete understanding of DNS in a Microsoft world, and be ready to make major DNS improvements when you get home.
Windows PowerShell From the Very Beginning
1:00 – 2:30pm
Don Jones
Interested in learning about the future of Windows administration? Want to start using it today? Windows PowerShell MVP and guru Don Jones introduces you to the fundamentals of Windows PowerShell through a series of practical examples. No programming, scripting, or any other experience is required! You’ll learn what PowerShell is, how it works, and see several examples of real-world administration tasks performed from this all-new, super-flexible command-line interface.
DiskManagement: How, What, When, and Why
2:45 – 4:15pm
Bruce Rougeau
Every time you setup a workstation or server, you must decide what it the best way to configure and allocate disk space. This session will contrast how hardware Raid varies from software Raid 0. We will look at the Microsoft offering and see how it has gotten better in Vista. This session will be a great time to refresh your understanding of RAID and how to recover from various types of disk errors. This session will also cover Microsoft’s quota management and various Microsoft tools like DiskPart.
The Logon Script Cookbook
8:30 – 10:00am
Jeffery Hicks
Want to build powerful logon scripts, but don’t have the bandwidth to learn a scripting language? Never fear, Redmond magazine’s Mr. Roboto is here with easy-to-assemble script snippets that map drives, map printers, check for group membership and more. By simply connecting these simple pieces, you’ll be able to build effective logon scripts that accomplish the most commonly-used logon scripting tasks in no time flat. You’ll even learn when logon scripts aren’t the right answer, with a quick look at commonly-performed functions you can handle more easily with other technologies like Group Policy objects (GPOs).
Digital Identity: The Fundamentals of Certificate Management
10:15 – 11:45am
Bruce Rougeau
Are you indeed who you say you are? In the world of technology, only a digital certificate can tell for sure. Every network needs certificates, whether it’s for encryption, identification or secure communications. This session will show you Microsoft’s built-in Windows-based solution for creating a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). We’ll look at how encryption and signatures differ, and whether you should opt for an internal PKI or rely on certificates purchased from a commercial Certification Authority (CA). If you decide to go internal, you’re in luck. We’ll look at different options for building a PKI, and how you can greatly enhance a PKI by integrating it into Active Directory.
