Servers. Please help me understand them. (lots of questions inside)

[ibex333]

I am studying for the 70-680 exam. A lot of what I am learning is just info, which, unless I was actually working with it, makes absolutely no sense to me. I need someone to explain a bunch of this to me. Thanks a lot in advance.

1)Why does anyone need a print server or a DHCP server? My home PC does all of this all by itself, for itself. Does it really take so much processing power to assign IPs and route print jobs that it actually requires a separate server?! and why does it even have to be a server? I see plenty of people that use a regular PC as a "serer" for around 4-5 computers in their household.

2)Active Directory. I hate the fancy shmancy definition that states - Active directory is a collection of protocols which provide security(Kerberos), LDAP, DNS based naming, etc...
So, in PLAIN ENGLISH, what is Active directory? Is it a collection of tools to manage users on the network? provide DNS naming, secure authentication etc? or is it something else entirely?
Is active directory just another name for PC group policy but for servers?

3)Why does a large institution with multiple PCs like a college or a business need a server? Cant all these PCs be wired via ad-hoc or some simpler method?


Again, thanks very much.

 

[seepy83]

1)Why does anyone need a print server or a DHCP server?

Because in a business setting, these things typically need to be centrally managed.

Does it really take so much processing power to assign IPs and route print jobs that it actually requires a separate server?!

Maybe. It really depends on the size of the network. Print servers have the potential to become extremely busy if you have tens of thousands of users slamming them with requests. DHCP is more than likely running a server that provides other services, like DC, DNS, RRAS/NPS, etc.

and why does it even have to be a server? I see plenty of people that use a regular PC as a "serer" for around 4-5 computers in their household.

Anything that is always on and provides a service to the network could be considered a server. Businesses use real servers because of the reliability of hardware, support contracts that are available, they're approved to run a particular O.S. or software, etc.

2)Active Directory. I hate the fancy shmancy definition that states - Active directory is a collection of protocols which provide security(Kerberos), LDAP, DNS based naming, etc...
So, in PLAIN ENGLISH, what is Active directory? Is it a collection of tools to manage users on the network? provide DNS naming, secure authentication etc? or is it something else entirely?
Is active directory just another name for PC group policy but for servers?

Plain English doesn't translate well to all of the "fancy shmancy" stuff that Enterprise networks do. You're going to need to get your hands dirty with some practical application of a Windows network to understand it...you won't necessarily "get" it by reading a book. If you want a really basic "plain english" definition, I'd say that AD is a combination of services and protocols that work together to create modern computer networks. But that really doesn't tell you anything about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of AD. Yes, AD is a collection of tools to manage users, provide DNS, secure authentication, etc. And it does also include the ability to assign policies to groups of computers or users. But that's not necessarily where it ends.

3)Why does a large institution with multiple PCs like a college or a business need a server? Cant all these PCs be wired via ad-hoc or some simpler method?

It's a need for centralized management, standardization, reliability, security, auditing, etc. You're talking about computer networks that need to stay available 24/7 or someone's head will roll...not a home network with a handful of laptops and desktops that may not even share files or printers.

 

[ViviTheMage]

1) to elaborate on seepy ... if you went to change a driver on the printer, do you want to change 1,000 computers? No, if you change it on the server, it changes it for all 1,000 connected PC's.

seepy pretty much hit the rest on the head...as lames as you can get it.

 

[xSauronx]

I am studying for the 70-680 exam.

from:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-680

About this Exam
Candidates for this exam operate in computing environments that use Microsoft Windows 7 as a desktop operating system in an enterprise environment.

I looked that up because I find it interesting that you want to take this exam, while you clearly are not familiar with a lot of the concepts of an enterprise network.

Are you a student somewhere? Because if so, and your school has MSDNAA access (even many community colleges do, to varying degrees) theres no better way to learn than to get hands on while you study.

Hell, even if you dont have MSDNAA access, but youre a student, the dreamspark program will give you access to some software depending on what else you end up wanting to study

https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

 

[MtnMan]

1)Why does anyone need a print server or a DHCP server? My home PC does all of this all by itself, for itself. Does it really take so much processing power to assign IPs and route print jobs that it actually requires a separate server?!

I couldn't get past your first question. I'm really concerned that you want to take this exam, and yet don't even recognize the basic functions within your own network. (There is a DHCP server as one of the basic functions of your router)

Assuming you can remember enough of what you read in books and get through the exam, then what? What do you believe you would actually be able to do, real world, real problems, real challenges? I suspect virtually nothing. You would be a "paper tiger" someone that can pass a test, but have zero real world skills.

 

[Emulex]

lease reservations are very important with dhcp/ad/dns.

i reserve the MAC address for hp printer (so it stays on the same ip), the printer asks for dhcp and it fills the dns/wins table. keep all the printers together in the same ip range.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

lease reservations are very important with dhcp/ad/dns.

i reserve the MAC address for hp printer (so it stays on the same ip), the printer asks for dhcp and it fills the dns/wins table. keep all the printers together in the same ip range.

Why not just start the DHCP range at .51 or .101 and give the printers static IPs?

 

[imagoon]

Why not just start the DHCP range at .51 or .101 and give the printers static IPs?

Because if something changes, I now have to walk to 50 printers to change say... DNS. What was a 2 minute change in the DHCP scope is now a 3 day project.

--EDIT-- I have had to move printers twice in 5 years. Once was when we got 'absorbed' by the mothership. (IE 192.168.x.x > 10.x.x.x IE smaller local set up going in to a multinational network and to move them off the main network because a) I was running out of IP space in the existing /24 b) one of the printers running embedded xp one day took on a new resident virus that was using the printer itself to attack other hosts.

The first time I had to wander the building finding all the printers and changing the IP's. At that point I just printed the config page and plugged them in to DHCP and created reservations (and documented port #'s at that point). That was a week of my life that was wasted.

The second time I just migrated the reservations to the new DHCP segment, flipped the vlan in the switches, did a shut / no shut and all 50 some printers moved over in about 2 minutes.

Couple of ACL's now block the printers from having direct access to the rest of the network. Basically the printer server can reach them and that is about it.

 

[Zargon]

i was thinking troll thread till I remember this thread



/facepalm

 

[Ghiddy]

Why not just start the DHCP range at .51 or .101 and give the printers static IPs?

The answer is because it's better to keep things centralized. What you say accomplishes the same thing, but the first way has the advantage that all the printers can just be left at what is usually their default configuration (to pull an IP from the network's DHCP server). The static mapping of NIC's to static IP's is kept in one place (on the DHCP server, usually a network router).

This way if you want to change things around you don't have to visit each device/printer to update static IP's. This also touches on the OP's questions about why servers are needed for things like this. Servers allow centralized management of all types of things within a network.

In a home network having dedicated servers is sometimes not necessary. OP is sort of confusing two different definitions of "server". Server can be a dedicated, usually powerful machine with enterprise class hardware that is always on, and running software that provides services for other devices on a network. The other definition of server is just any device that provides services for other computers on a network. Your router acts as a DHCP server, and provides firewall services for your network. Some routers can even act as a print server too, and also as a network file server (they have USB ports that can plug into printers or USB based external hard drives). Then any device on the network can use the printer or external USB drive hooked up to that router.

This makes things easier because you don't have to physically hook up the USB drive to each computer every time you want to use it. I have multiple desktops, multiple laptops at home, and my girlfriend also comes over with her laptop. All those PC's/laptops can write to a USB drive hooked up to the router, and print to the printer hooked up to the router without having to physically connect to the USB drive or printer. OP, technically I could hook up the USB drive to one of the desktops and use that PC as a file server, but that means that machine has to be on whenever another PC wants to use the drive. All the PC's would also have to be configured to see and talk to each other which is also sadly still a pain to accomplish. I don't necessarily want my gf to join my homegroup, or to join my work laptop to my home's homegroup in order to connect to a home PC that acts as a file or print server just to access a USB drive or printer.