.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
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
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.
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 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. |
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
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
nested virtualization Running a virtual machine inside another virtual machine. Wikipedia Microsoft Developer Network (Nested Virtualization)
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 1 An exact copy (or mirror) of two or more drives. For optimal performance, the drives should be identical in model and capacity. 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
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. |
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.
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 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 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 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