Daniel Petri’s MCSE & System Administrator Interview Questions – Part 7 – Windows Server 2008 R2 TS/RDS

his is a part 7 of my MCSE and System Administrator job interview sample questions. See previous parts at:

Like previous parts, this article set is targeted at both the interviewer (who needs a pool of valid questions they can ask) and to the candidate (who wants a pool of sample questions they can prepare for). Needless to say, both MUST know what they’re talking about. Also, although I consider these questions as a thorough verbal test for the candidate’s knowledge, in most cases, when he or she passes this phase, I will also ask them to perform an actual hands-on lab based on my written exercises. I might also include these in a future part of this session.

I have deliberately left out the answers to these questions. I want YOU to research them and take the time to actually learn these topics, if you don’t know them already.
Most sub topics start off with relatively easy questions where the candidate is supposed to demonstrate their knowledge on that topic. A few sentences will be enough to show their (lack of) knowledge on the topic.
As always, your comments and feedback are more than welcome. Use the “Comment” form below to send them in. If you’re using this interview question sample in your own environment please drop me a line telling me how it works for you. Also, placing a link to my site and giving me credit for my work is expected.
Please note that for the ease of writing this document, I used TS/RDS in most places, however since RDS is the new name of TS in Windows Server 2008 R2, I sometimes used it instead of the “full name”.

Technical Interview Questions – Windows Server 2008/R2 TS/RDS

  • What is presentation virtualization?
  • Describe the benefits of using TS/RDS.
  • Describe the drawbacks of using TS/RDS.
  • Describe the main TS role services in Windows Server 2008.
  • Describe the main RDS role services in Windows Server 2008 R2.
  • What are the major changes between the Windows Server 2008 TS and the Windows Server 2008 R2 RDS roles in relation to Windows Server 2003 TS.
  • What is the TS/RDS Session Host?
  • What are the benefits of using 64-bit hardware and OS vs. using the 32-bit version?
  • Describe your experience in using TS/RDS.
  • How can you configure TS/RDS session limits? Describe a couple of methods.
  • What is GPO Loopback Processing?
  • How do you standardize user profiles and settings across a TS/RDS farm?
  • What are the major drawbacks of using Roaming User Profiles?
  • Working with Outlook on TS/RDS, what can you tell me about using cached modes?
  • How do you install applications on a TS/RDS Session Host? Describe a couple of methods.
  • What are the TS/RDS command line management tools?
  • How would you achieve high availability with RD Session Hosts?
  • What is “Virtual Machine Redirection” and when would it be used?
  • Talk about TS/RDS licensing.
  • Is there any difference in RDS licensing in Windows Server 2008 R2?
  • What is the licensing grace period?
  • Where would you install the RD Licensing server? Talk about small implementation and large implementation scenarios.
  • What is RDS RemoteApp?
  • Describe the benefits of using RDS RemoteApp.
  • How do you publish a RemoteApp?
  • What’s the difference between using .RDP files and .MSI files when publishing a RemoteApp to the users’ desktops?
  • In Windows 7, it’s possible to use RemoteApp in conjunction with RDS Web Access in a different manner. Can you describe this process?
  • Needing to control which users get access to which RemoteApp. How can you do that?
  • Describe the way RemoteApps integrate with the Windows desktop.
  • Besides RemoteApp, what other ways or software lifecycle management solutions are you aware of?
  • Talk about digital signatures and their relevance to RemoteApp publishing.
  • What is RDS Web Access?
  • Describe the benefits of using RDS Web Access.
  • Talk about the implementation scenarios of RDS Web Access.
  • Describe the process of securing RDS Web Access.
  • How would you publish an RDS Web Access site?
  • Can you use Web Access with other Microsoft-based solutions? Name a few.
  • What’s the alternative for using RDS Web Access?
  • Talk about digital signatures in relation to RDS Web Access.
  • How can you control who has access to the RDS Web Access website?
  • What would you do in order to publish RemoteApps from multiple RD Session Hosts through one RD Web Access server?
  • What would you do in order to publish RemoteApps from multiple RD Session Hosts through one RD Web Access server?
  • What’s RDS Gateway?
  • What are the main usage scenarios for RDS Gateway?
  • What are RAPs?
  • What are CAPs?
  • Describe the process of securing RDS Gateway.
  • Talk about digital signatures in relation to RDS Gateway.
  • What type of RD clients can be used with RD Gateway?
  • What is the RD Session Broker?
  • What was the original role of the RD Session Broker, and what where the names this role used in previous versions of Terminal Services?
  • When would you need to implement a RD Session Broker?
  • Talk about RD Session Broker and VDI.
  • Talk about the entire process of using all RDS components along with RS Session Broker.
  • How would you achieve high availability with RD Session Brokers?


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