Administering Windows Server 2012 Professional Standards & Competencies 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A Windows Server 2012 administrator needs to delegate control of a specific OU to a junior technician. Which tool is used to assign granular Active Directory administrative permissions without granting full domain admin rights?
- Active Directory Users and Computers Delegation of Control Wizard (Correct answer)
- Local Security Policy
- Group Policy Management Console
- Server Manager Role Assignment
Correct answer: Active Directory Users and Computers Delegation of Control Wizard
The Delegation of Control Wizard in ADUC allows administrators to assign specific AD permissions to users or groups over targeted OUs.
Question 2: When documenting a Windows Server 2012 environment, which built-in tool generates an HTML system information report including hardware, software, and configuration details?
- msinfo32.exe (Correct answer)
- systeminfo.exe
- dcdiag.exe
- winmsd.exe
Correct answer: msinfo32.exe
msinfo32.exe (System Information) produces a comprehensive report of hardware resources, components, and software environment that can be exported.
Question 3: A change management policy requires all server modifications be tested in a staging environment first. Which Windows Server 2012 feature best supports this by allowing administrators to roll back OS changes?
- Volume Shadow Copy Service snapshots
- Hyper-V checkpoints (Correct answer)
- Windows Server Backup
- System Restore
Correct answer: Hyper-V checkpoints
Hyper-V checkpoints capture the complete state of a virtual machine, enabling administrators to revert to a pre-change state during testing.
Question 4: An administrator is following the principle of least privilege when configuring service accounts. What is the recommended approach for Windows Server 2012 service accounts?
- Use a Managed Service Account (MSA) or Group Managed Service Account (gMSA) (Correct answer)
- Use the built-in Administrator account for all services
- Create a single shared domain account for all services
- Use the SYSTEM account for all Windows services
Correct answer: Use a Managed Service Account (MSA) or Group Managed Service Account (gMSA)
MSAs and gMSAs are designed for service accounts, providing automatic password management and limiting permissions to only what the service needs.
Question 5: During a post-incident review, the team discovers a configuration change caused a server outage. Which professional practice would have most likely prevented this?
- Implementing a formal change control process with rollback procedures (Correct answer)
- Disabling Windows Update to prevent automatic changes
- Granting all admins full local administrator rights
- Using only command-line tools for all configuration changes
Correct answer: Implementing a formal change control process with rollback procedures
A formal change control process requires documentation, approval, testing, and rollback plans before any production changes are made.
Question 6: A Windows Server 2012 administrator must ensure compliance with a security audit requiring proof that only authorized users accessed sensitive file shares. Which feature provides this evidence?
- Object Access Auditing configured in Group Policy (Correct answer)
- NTFS permissions report from File Server Resource Manager
- Performance Monitor data collector sets
- Windows Firewall connection logs
Correct answer: Object Access Auditing configured in Group Policy
Object Access Auditing, enabled via Group Policy and configured on individual files/folders, records successful and failed access attempts in the Security event log.
Question 7: When a Windows Server 2012 administrator is asked to implement server hardening, which action aligns with security baseline best practices?
- Disabling unused roles, features, and services (Correct answer)
- Enabling Remote Desktop for all users by default
- Setting all accounts to never expire passwords
- Installing all available software features for future use
Correct answer: Disabling unused roles, features, and services
Reducing the attack surface by disabling unnecessary roles, features, and services is a core principle of server hardening and security baselines.
Administering Windows Server 2012 Professional Standards & Competencies 2
A Windows Server 2012 administrator needs to delegate control of a specific OU to a junior technician.
Which tool is used to assign granular Active Directory administrative permissions without granting full domain admin rights?