servers

.CER Containing only the certificate.            

.PFX Containing certificate and private key.            

Active Directory (AD) Service in Windows Server that allows for easy managment of user accounts and security information.   Wikipedia         

Active Directory Functional Levels Controls which advanced features are available in the domain or forest.   TechNet         

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) (Previously: Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM)) Light-weight implementation of AD DS.   Wikipedia         

answer file Used to automate the installation process. Typically used for operating systems.            

Apache Lucene Free and open-source information retrieval software library. Written by Doug Cutting in 1999.  Website  Wikipedia       

Application Log Event log in Windows that contains information about the software running on the system. Three levels of security are: Information, Warning, and Error.            

au (.au) Top level domain for Australia.            

AuditPol.exe    Website  Wikipedia       

Authentication Mechanism Assurance (AMA) Controls access to network resources based on the type of certificate used during logon. Introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2.  TechNet         

authoritative name server Name server that gives answers in response to questions asked about names in a zone.   Wikipedia         

bcdedit Command used to control the boot manager for Windows. Example:

bcdedit /enum Lists entries in a BCD store.
bcdedit /set safeboot network Sets Windows to boot in Safe Mode with networking on next restart.
            

blade server Modular server that saves space and energy.   Wikipedia         

Boot Configuration Data Store (BCD Store) Contains all the information needed for Windows to boot.            

Bootrec.exe Toole used to repair issues with a master boot record (MBR), boot sector, or Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store.   Microsoft Support  Wikipedia       

Canonical Name (CNAME) Sometimes referred to as an alias.            

Clear-ADAccountExpiration PowerShell cmdlet used to clear the expiration date for an Active Directory account.   TechNet         

client Device that accesses a server.   Wikipedia         

Client Access Server (CAS)    TechNet         

cloud computing Off-premise pool of computer resources that can be brought up or down at will. Typically housed in a data center.    Wikipedia  Netacad       

cloud computing deployment model Four types: private, public, community, and hybrid.   Wikipedia  Netacad  IBM developerworks Blog     

Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) fixed     Wikipedia       

co (.co) A top level domain for Columbia            

com (.com) A generic top level domain for a business or industry.            

Common Name (CN)    TechNet  YouTube (Microsoft MCSA/MCSE Learning Channel)       

data center Typically a data storage and processing facility run by an in-house IT department or leased offsite.   Wikipedia  Netacad       

Data Deduplication Required steps: Ensure shared files and folders are not stored on the system volume. Must be NTFS; does not support ReFS.            

Data Recovery Agent (DRA)             

Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) Out-of-band management platform on certain Dell servers. The platform may be provided on a separate expansion card, or integrated into the main board; when integrated, the platform is referred to as iDRAC.   Wikipedia         

DFS Namespace    Website  Wikipedia       

DFS Replication    Website  Wikipedia       

DirectAccess Automatically establishes a secure bi-directional IPSec connection. Introduced with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.  Website  Wikipedia       

Disable-ADAccount PowerShell cmdlet used to disable an Active Directory account.   TechNet         

Distinguished Name (DN) (aka: LDAP Distinguished Name (DN)) Unique database name for every Active Directory (AD) object. Made up of Relative Distinguished Name (RDN).   Wikipedia  YouTube (Microsoft MCSA/MCSE Learning Channel)       

Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM)    Website  Wikipedia       

Distributed File System (DFS)      Wikipedia       

DNS caching How long a DNS server will hold a record before checking for updates. Usually determined by TTL.            

DNS Server Maps name-to-IP addresses for internal hosts. Forwards name resolution requests between servers. Stores resource records used to resolve names which contain the name, address, and type of record. Some types are: A (an end device address), NS (an authoritative name server), CNAME, MX (Mail Exchange).            

domain Collection of user accounts, computers, printers, and other objects managed in a database.   Wikipedia         

Domain Component (DC)    TechNet  YouTube (Microsoft MCSA/MCSE Learning Channel)       

Domain Controller (DC) A Windows server used to control user permissions. Sometimes referred to as an Active Directory Server.   Wikipedia         

Dynamic Access Control (DAC)             

Dynamic Memory Feature in Microsoft Hyper-V that let virtual machines use more physical memory than assigned. Introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).  TechNet         

failover capabilities The ability of a device to switch from a non-functioning module, service or device, to a functioning one with little or no break in service.   Netacad         

File Classification Infrastructure (FCI)             

File Server Resource Manager (FSRM)             

forest Complete collection of Active Directory (AD).   Website  Wikipedia       

Free Network Attached Storage (FreeNAS) FreeBSD designed for NAS use bundled in a web GUI.   Wikipedia  Website  FreeBSD Forums     

FTP Server Serves files over FTP.   Wikipedia  Ubuntu Documentation       

Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) An address that identifies the hostname, domain, and top-level domain of a device.   Wikipedia         

Get-ADUser PowerShell cmdlet used to get information about one or more Active Directory users.   TechNet         

Global Catalog Server (GCS) (Global Catalog GC) Type of domain controller that stores the objects from all domains in the forest.   TechNet (What Is the Global Catalog?)  TechNet (Domain Controller Roles)       

Group Policy Controls what a user can do on a computer. Part of Active Directory.   Wikipedia         

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)    TechNet         

hardware-assisted virtualization Intel VT-x or AMD-V   Wikipedia         

heartbeats Packets sent between NLB cluster nodes.   Website  Wikipedia       

hot swap Allows a piece of hardware to be removed without powering down the device.   Wikipedia         

HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) Out-of-band management used with HP servers.   Website  Wikipedia       

Hyper-V Native hypervisor that runs in Windows.   Wikipedia         

Hypervisor Two types;

type 1 hypervisor Runs directly (bare-metal) on hardware in place of an OS to run guest hosts.
type 2 hypervisor Runs on top of the host OS.
   Wikipedia         

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)    Wikipedia         

Internet Information Server (IIS)    Wikipedia         

Internet Information Services (IIS)    Wikipedia         

Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) Protocol that allows automated discovery, management and configuration of iSCSI and Fibre Channel devices (using iFCP gateways) on a TCP/IP network.   Wikipedia         

IP Address Management (IPAM) Tracks IP aDDRESSES IN A NETWORK.   tECH nET  Wikipedia       

jp (.jp) Top level domain for Japan.            

Knowledge Consistency Checker (KCC)      Wikipedia       

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) (TCP and UDP port 389) Open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services.   Wikipedia  Ubuntu Documentation       

Line Print Terminal (LPT)    Wikipedia         

Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) Solution stack.   Wikipedia  Ubuntu Community       

litigation hold (LH)    Website  Wikipedia       

Live Migration             

Logical Unit Number (LUN) 64 bit address for a drive. Used by SCSI.            

Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM)    Wikipedia         

Microsoft SQL Server A RDBMS from Microsoft   Wikipedia  Website       

Minimal Server Interface    TechNet blog         

mirroring Multiple drives have the same information across them for redundancy.   Wikipedia         

Move-VM PowerShell cmdlet used to move a virtual machine to a new Hyper-V host.   TechNet         

Move-VMStorage PowerShell cmdlet used to move a virtual machine   TechNet         

Name Server (NS)    Wikipedia         

nano server    Website  Wikipedia       

nested virtualization Running a virtual machine inside another virtual machine.   Wikipedia  Microsoft Developer Network (Nested Virtualization)       

net share Command used to manage shared resources.   TechNet         

Network Attached Storage (NAS) Essentially an easily set up file server.   Wikipedia         

Network File System (NFS) Distributed file system that allows access to files over a network in a similar manner to accessing a local file. Developed by Sun Microsystems. First defined in RFC 1094 March 1989.  Wikipedia  RFC 1094  Netacad     

New-NetIPAddress PowerShell cmdlet used to add a new IP address.   TechNet         

New-NetRoute PowerShell cmdlet used to add an "A" route to the routing table.   TechNet         

Nginx open source HTTP server.   Nginx Wiki         

NT LAN Manager (NTLM) Suite of Microsoft security protocols intended to provide authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users. The NTLM protocol suite is implemented in a Security Support Provider, which combines the LAN Manager authentication protocol, NTLMv1, NTLMv2 and NTLM2 Session protocols in a single package. Whether these protocols are used or can be used on a system is governed by Group Policy settings, for which different versions of Windows have different default settings. NTLM passwords are considered weak because they can be brute-forced very easily with modern hardware. Successor to the authentication protocol in Microsoft LAN Manager (LANMAN).  Wikipedia         

N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) Allows multiple Fiber Channel N_Port IDs to share a single N_Port.   Wikipedia         

object Resources (e.g., printers) or security principals   Wikipedia         

OpenStack Open source cloud platform.   Wikipedia  Website  YouTube     

Organizational Unit (OU) Container of objects within a domain.   Wikipedia  TechNet  YouTube (Microsoft MCSA/MCSE Learning Channel)     

Platform as a Service (PaaS) Allows a developer to quickly get software running on the internet without needing to worry about hosting it. Heroku is an example PaaS.   Wikipedia  Netacad       

Pooled VM Form of VM with RDS.            

Printer Driver Isolation Runs printer drivers in a separate process from the print spooler.   MSDN         

RAID 0    Website  Wikipedia       

RAID 1 An exact copy (or mirror) of two or more drives. For optimal performance, the drives should be identical in model and capacity.   Wikipedia         

RAID 10    Website  Wikipedia       

RAID 5    Website  Wikipedia       

RAID 6    Website  Wikipedia       

Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC)      Wikipedia       

ReadyBoost Caching feature built into Windows Vista and later. Uses ReadyBoost-capable flash memory for better performance in random disk reads. Requires a drive between 256 MB and 32 GB, 1ms access time, 2.5 MBs 4 KB random read, and 1.75 MBs 512 KB random writes.   Wikipedia         

Redircmp.exe Redirects the default container for newly created computers to a specified, target organizational unit (OU) so that newly created computer objects are created in the specific target OU instead of in CN=Computers. Example: redircmp ou=newcomputerou,dc=domainname,dc=com   TechNet         

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) (formerly: Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) Configuration of multiple disks for redundancy (mirroring/parity) and sometimes performance (striping with RAID 0). Term "RAID" was invented by David Patterson, Garth A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987.  Wikipedia         

Relative Distinguished Name (RDN)    Wikipedia  YouTube (Microsoft MCSA/MCSE Learning Channel)       

Remote Desktop Services (RDS)    Wikipedia         

Remote Installation Services (RIS)    TechNet  Wikipedia       

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)             

Resilient File System (ReFS)  Released with Windows Server 2012 August 1, 2012.  Wikipedia         

Samba A file type of file server.   Samba documentation  Ubuntu documentation       

SC.exe    TechNet         

schema Defines attributes for all Active Directory (AD) objects.   Wikipedia         

Security Identifier (SID) Unique value of variable length used to identify a trustee.   MSDN  Wikipedia       

server A host used to serve information to other clients.            

Server Core Stripped-down version of Windows server managed from the command line. First released in Windows Server 2008.    Wikipedia       

Server Message Block (SMB) Application-layer protocol mainly used for providing shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. Primarily used in Windows networks.   Wikipedia         

services.msc Services in Windows.            

Set-ADAccountExpiration PowerShell cmdlet used to set the expiration time of a user, computer, or service account.   TechNet         

Set-ADUser PowerShell cmdlet used to modify an Active Directory user.   TechNet         

Set-NetIPAddress PowerShell cmdlet used to change an IP address.   TechNet         

Set-VHD PowerShell cmdlet used to modify a virtual hard disk.   TechNet         

Set-VM PowerShell cmdlet used to configure a virtual machine.   Website         

SICM    Website  Wikipedia       

Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) Network interface that allows the isolation of the PCI Express resources for manageability and performance reasons.   Wikipedia         

site Physical collection of Active Directory (AD) objects defined by subnet.   Wikipedia         

SMB 2.0 (aka: SMB2) Introduced with Windows Vista in 2007.  Wikipedia         

SMB 3.0 (previously named SMB 2.2) Introduced with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.  Wikipedia         

SMB 3.0.2 Allowed SMB1 to be optionally disabled for increased security. Introduced with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.  Wikipedia         

SMB 3.1.1  Introduced with Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.  Wikipedia         

SMB1 (deprecated, aka: Common Internet File System (CIFS))   Wikipedia         

snapshot Quick point-in-time backup of critical virtual machine files used to restore the VM back to that point.   Wikipedia         

Software as a Service (SaaS) (aka: cloudware) Software that is delivered form the web or "cloud". Gives access to applications through a subscription. Microsoft Office 356, Dropbox, and Google Docs are all examples of SaaS.    Wikipedia         

subnet Physical segment in a Active Directory TCP/IP network.   Website  Wikipedia       

super-server Type of daemon on UNIX.   Wikipedia         

syslog (UDP port 514) Standard for a separate central log server on UNIX-like systems. Levels include:

0 Emergency Most severe error condition, which render the system unusable
1 Alert Requires immediate attention
2 Critical Less-severe condition. Should be addressed to prevent service interruption.
3 Error Error condition with the system that do not render the system unusable.
4 Warning Notification that specific operations failed to complete successfully.
5 Notification Non-error notification that alerts an administrator of state changes.
6 Informational Detailed information about the normal operation of a system.
7 Debugging Highly detailed information (i.e. info on individual packets) typically used for troubleshooting.
   Wikipedia  YouTube       

syslog facility level Default is local7            

System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) Tool from Microsoft used for Windows deployment. Can modify an image before committing the final clone.   TechNet  Wikipedia  Netacad     

TFTP server Stores information that can be retrieved easily. Often used for device recovery.            

trustee    Website  Wikipedia       

Unit Identification Light (UID) Helps physically identify an individual server.   HP Community         

Unlock-ADAccount PowerShell cmdlet used to unlock an Active Directory account.   TechNet         

Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)             

Virtual Interface Card (VIC)             

Virtual Machine (VM)    Wikipedia  Ubuntu Community Help Wiki       

Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) Clustered file system from VMware.   VMwaere Documentation  Wikipedia       

Virtual Private Server (VPS)    Wikipedia         

virtual Receive-Side Scaling (vRSS)    TechNet  Wikipedia       

Virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN)             

VirtualBox A type 2 hypervisor. Initially developed by Innotek GmbH. Acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008. Later acquired by Oracle in 2010.  Website  Wikipedia       

Virtualization Technology (VT-x)      Website       

VMWare    Wikipedia  Website       

VMWare ESX  Originated as an abbreviation of Elastic Sky X. In September 2004, the replacement for ESX was internally called VMvisor, but later changed to ESXi (as the "i" in ESXi stood for "integrated").  Wikipedia         

VMWare ESXi Enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware.   Wikipedia         

VMware vSphere Web Client Management tool for vSphere components.   Website  Wikipedia  vSphere Web Client Support Video     

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) (aka: Volume Snapshot Service)     Wikipedia       

Windows Acceptance Kit (WAK)             

Windows Assessment Deployment Kit (ADK)             

Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)    Website         

Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe)  Introduced with Windows Vista.  MSDN  Wikipedia       

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) Server must be a member of an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain. Requires DHCP and DNS. Server roll in Windows Server used to set up new computers or push out a new image. Must have a NTFS partition to store images.   Wikipedia  TechNet       

Windows operating system loader (Winload.exe) Invoked by the Windows Boot Manager. Uses the path specified by BOOTMGR. Introduced with Windows Vista.  MSDN  Wikipedia       

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)  Released February 9, 2011  Wikipedia         

Windows Server Backup  Replaced NTbackup.exe.  TechNet         

Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) Windows server 2012 supports 64 physical cluster nodes.   TechNet         

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) (HTTP port 8530 or HTTPS port 8531)   TechNet  TechNet  Wikipedia     

Windows System Image Manager (SIM) Recommended way to create an answer file. Can also check answer files. Part of the Windows Assessment Deployment Kit (ADK).            

Workgroup Microsoft's name for a peer-to-peer Windows network.   Wikipedia         

Xen Hypervisor for Linux, BSD, and OpenSolaris. First released in 2003.  Wikipedia  Website  Xen Wiki