AZ-802 Microsoft Administering Windows Server Free Practice Exam Questions (2026 Updated)

Data Deduplication is a Windows Server file-and-storage feature that can only be enabled on NTFS-formatted data volumes; it cannot be enabled on the operating system (boot/system) volume, and it does not support ReFS or FAT/exFAT volumes at all. VM3 ' s volumes are C (NTFS, the operating system volume), D (NTFS, a data volume), E (ReFS), and F (exFAT). Volume C is excluded because Deduplication is never supported on the volume that hosts the operating system, even though its file system is NTFS. Volume E is excluded because Data Deduplication has no ReFS support in general-purpose deployments; ReFS uses its own separate storage-efficiency mechanisms such as block cloning, not the Deduplication feature. Volume F is excluded because exFAT is a lightweight file system with no support for Windows Server roles or features such as Deduplication, which depends on NTFS-specific metadata structures. That leaves volume D as the only NTFS data volume that is neither the boot volume nor formatted with an unsupported file system, so it is the only volume on which Data Deduplication can currently be enabled, making option C correct.

The stated problem is that when an administrator connects to VM2 ' s console through Virtual Machine Connection and disconnects without signing out, a second administrator who opens the console can silently inherit that still-signed-in session without ever supplying credentials. By default, VMConnect attaches directly to the raw console of the guest, which behaves like walking up to a physical, unlocked machine. Enhanced Session Mode changes this behavior by routing the VMConnect session over the Remote Desktop Protocol into the guest, which means every connection is treated as a new interactive Remote Desktop logon and therefore always prompts for credentials, eliminating the ability to passively inherit someone else ' s open session. Enabling Enhanced Session Mode requires both host-side and guest-side support (the guest operating system must support RDP and have the setting enabled) but is the direct, purpose-built fix for this exact console-sharing problem. The Guest Services integration component only enables basic file-copy functionality between host and guest and has no effect on console/session behavior. Credential Guard protects locally stored credentials from theft using virtualization-based security, and shielded VMs protect a VM ' s disk, state, and console from a compromised or malicious fabric administrator; neither addresses console session takeover between two legitimate administrators. Enhanced Session Mode is therefore the correct solution.

Promoting a member server to a domain controller in a specific domain requires membership in either the Enterprise Admins group (forest-wide rights) or the Domain Admins group of that target domain. Server1 is a member server in canada.contoso.com, and the requirement is to promote it to a domain controller in that same domain. Admin1 belongs to Contoso\Enterprise Admins, which has full administrative rights across every domain in the forest, including the right to install AD DS and promote a server anywhere in the forest, so Admin1 qualifies. Admin3 belongs to Canada\Domain Admins, the Domain Admins group of canada.contoso.com itself, which grants full administrative control, including domain controller promotion, within that domain, so Admin3 also qualifies. Admin2, by contrast, is a member of Contoso\Domain Admins, the Domain Admins group of the contoso.com domain; Domain Admins rights are scoped to their own domain and do not extend into a child domain such as canada.contoso.com, so Admin2 cannot promote Server1. User1 has only standard Domain Users membership and holds no administrative rights anywhere. Therefore, only Admin1 and Admin3 currently have sufficient rights, making option C correct.

Site, subnet, and site-link objects are stored in the Configuration partition, which replicates to every domain controller in the forest but is administratively owned by the forest root domain. By default, only members of Enterprise Admins and members of the Domain Admins group of the forest root domain (contoso.com in this forest) have permissions to modify objects in the Configuration container, including editing a site link ' s replication schedule. Admin1 is a member of Contoso\Enterprise Admins and therefore has forest-wide rights over the Configuration partition. Admin2 is a member of Contoso\Domain Admins; because contoso.com is the forest root domain, this group also carries default rights over the Configuration and Schema partitions. Admin3, however, is a member of Canada\Domain Admins, the Domain Admins group of the canada.contoso.com child domain, which has no inherent rights over the Configuration partition. Consequently, to change the replication schedule on all site links to 30 minutes, only Admin1 and Admin2 currently have the necessary permissions, making option C the correct answer.

Group3: Group1, Group2, Group4, and Group5 only. Group5: Group4 only.

Group nesting in AD DS is governed strictly by group scope, independent of whether a group is security- or distribution-type. A Domain Local group can contain user accounts, Global groups from any domain, and Universal groups from any domain, plus other Domain Local groups from its own domain only. Group3 is a Domain Local group in contoso.com, so it can accept Group1 (Universal, contoso.com), Group2 (Global, contoso.com), and Group4 and Group5 (both Global, canada.contoso.com), since Global groups from any domain are valid Domain Local members. It cannot accept Group6, because Group6 is Domain Local in canada.contoso.com, a different domain, and Domain Local groups may only nest other Domain Local groups from their own domain. That gives Group3: Group1, Group2, Group4, and Group5 only. A Global group, by contrast, can contain only user accounts and other Global groups from the same domain. Group5 is Global in canada.contoso.com, so among the remaining groups only Group4 qualifies, since it is also Global and in the same domain; Group1 (Universal), Group2 (Global but a different domain), and Group6 (Domain Local) are all excluded by scope rules. That gives Group5: Group4 only.

Set-VMProcessor -VMName VM1 -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

The requirement is to run virtual machines on VM1 itself, which means enabling nested virtualization so that VM1 (a guest VM hosted on Server2) can install Hyper-V and host its own virtual machines. Nested virtualization on Hyper-V requires the parent VM ' s virtual processor to expose the host ' s hardware virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) through to the guest. This is done with the Set-VMProcessor cmdlet using the -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions parameter set to $true, run against VM1 from the Hyper-V host (Server2): Set-VMProcessor -VMName VM1 -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true. VM1 must be turned off before this setting can be applied, and after it is applied, VM1 needs the Hyper-V role installed inside the guest before it can run its own VMs. Set-VM, Set-VMBios, Set-VMHost, and Set-VMFirmware do not control virtualization extension exposure: Set-VM manages general VM configuration such as memory and name, Set-VMHost configures host-wide settings, and Set-VMFirmware/Set-VMBios control boot and firmware settings for generation 2 and generation 1 VMs respectively. Only Set-VMProcessor with -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions satisfies the stated requirement, making it the correct first step.

Server1: Set-Item. Server4: Enable-PSRemoting.

The requirement is to manage Server4 from Server1 by using PowerShell remoting. Server4 is a workgroup computer, not a member of either AD DS domain, so the WinRM authentication that PowerShell remoting relies on cannot use Kerberos between Server1 and Server4; it must fall back to NTLM, which WinRM only permits toward hosts explicitly listed in the client ' s TrustedHosts list. On Server1, the correct action is therefore Set-Item, used as Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value " Server4 " (with -Concatenate as needed), which adds Server4 to Server1 ' s trusted hosts so an NTLM-based remoting session is permitted. On Server4, the target must first be configured to accept remote commands at all, which is done with Enable-PSRemoting; this cmdlet starts and configures the WinRM service, creates a listener, and enables the Windows Remote Management firewall rule for the current network profile, matching Server4 ' s private firewall profile. Enable-ServerManagerStandardUserRemoting only grants a non-administrator limited Server Manager access and does not establish remoting, and Start-Service alone does not create or configure a WinRM listener or firewall exception. Configuring Set-Item on Server1 and Enable-PSRemoting on Server4 together satisfies the requirement.

Statement 1: No. Statement 2: Yes. Statement 3: No.

Password-policy (Account Policy) settings inside a GPO behave differently depending on where the GPO is linked. For domain user accounts, only Account Policy settings defined in a GPO linked at the domain level (or in a fine-grained Password Settings Object) take effect; Account Policy settings in a GPO linked to an OU are ignored for domain accounts and instead apply only to the local SAM password policy of computer objects located in that OU. GPO1 (minimum length 14) is linked to OU1, where Admin1 ' s user object resides, but because it is linked to an OU rather than the domain, it has no effect on Admin1 ' s domain account password requirement. Admin1 ' s domain password is governed only by the Default Domain Policy (minimum length 10), so statement 1 is false. User1 is likewise a domain account subject only to the Default Domain Policy ' s minimum length of 10, so statement 2 is true. GPO2 (minimum length 8) is linked to the Member Servers OU, which contains Server1 as a computer object; this makes GPO2 the effective local password policy for local accounts created on Server1 (overriding the Default Domain Policy locally), not the domain policy ' s 10-character minimum. Therefore a new local account on Server1 needs only eight characters, not ten, making statement 3 false.

Installing and authorizing a DHCP server in an Active Directory-integrated environment requires two distinct sets of rights: local Administrators group membership on Server3 to install the DHCP Server role itself, and Enterprise Admins group membership to authorize that server in AD DS, because DHCP server authorization is stored as a forest-wide object under CN=NetServices,CN=Services,CN=Configuration and only Enterprise Admins can create or modify objects there by default. Admin1 is a member of Contoso\Enterprise Admins, which grants exactly this forest-wide right and also carries local administrative rights on every domain-joined computer in the forest, including Server3, so Admin1 can both install the role and authorize the server, fully satisfying the requirement on his own. Admin2, a member of only Contoso\Domain Admins, has full administrative rights over contoso.com and its member computers, but Domain Admins does not carry the right to authorize a DHCP server in the forest-wide NetServices container, so Admin2 cannot complete authorization even though he can install the role. Admin3, a member of Canada\Domain Admins, has administrative rights limited to the canada.contoso.com domain and likewise lacks the Enterprise Admins-only authorization right needed here, since Server3 and the DHCP authorization object both fall outside that domain ' s scope of control. Because only Admin1 holds both the local administrative rights needed to install the DHCP Server role on Server3 and the Enterprise Admins membership needed to authorize it in AD DS, Admin1 only is correct.

A Windows Server failover cluster requires a distinct IP address for each individual cluster node ' s network adapter, plus one additional IP address for the cluster ' s own network name resource -- the cluster access point that clients and management tools use to address the cluster as a single logical entity rather than any one specific node. Cluster3 will contain two physical nodes, Node1 and Node2, so at minimum one IP address is required for Node1 ' s network adapter and one for Node2 ' s network adapter. Beyond those two node-level addresses, the cluster core resource itself (the cluster name object and its associated IP address resource) requires one more address so that the cluster can be addressed and managed as a whole and so that any highly available roles hosted on the cluster (such as the file share role planned for Cluster3) can obtain the network identity they need to fail over between nodes. Adding these together -- one for Node1, one for Node2, and one for the cluster ' s own network name -- yields a minimum of three IP addresses required for Cluster3 ' s node and cluster roles. Fewer than three would leave either a node or the cluster itself without a usable network identity, and while additional IP addresses may be consumed by highly available roles later added to the cluster, three is the baseline minimum for the node and cluster roles themselves.

1. Add a disk resource to the cluster. 2. Create a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV). 3. Put the disk in maintenance mode. 4. Enable BitLocker on the volume. 5. Update the BitLockerProtectorInfo property of the volume.

BitLocker can only be enabled on a Cluster Shared Volume disk while that disk is taken offline to cluster I/O, so the CSV must exist and be placed into maintenance mode before encryption can be applied. The supported sequence begins by adding the disk resource to the cluster and converting it into a Cluster Shared Volume, since BitLocker-on-CSV support requires the disk to already be a CSV rather than a plain cluster disk. The disk is then put into maintenance mode, which takes it offline to the other cluster nodes so it can be safely encrypted without a node attempting to access it mid-operation. With the CSV disk offline in maintenance mode, BitLocker is enabled on the volume. Finally, the volume ' s BitLockerProtectorInfo property is updated so that Failover Clustering registers the unlock protector, allowing the volume to automatically unlock on every cluster node once maintenance mode ends and the CSV is brought back online. Performing these steps out of order either fails outright -- BitLocker cannot be enabled on a CSV disk that is still online and actively used by the cluster -- or leaves the other cluster nodes unable to bring the encrypted volume back online afterward, since they would lack the registered unlock protector. Therefore, the correct order is: add the disk resource, create the CSV, put the disk in maintenance mode, enable BitLocker, and update BitLockerProtectorInfo.

To enable WebApp1 to handle requests for the website: Add a custom domain name. To point client connections to WebApp1: Modify a DNS record.

For an Azure App Service web app to accept and correctly serve requests addressed to https://www.fabrikam.com rather than only its default *.azurewebsites.net hostname, the custom domain www.fabrikam.com must be added and bound to WebApp1 -- this is the specific configuration step that makes the app recognize and handle that custom hostname at all. Creating a deployment slot supports staged rollout and swap scenarios and does nothing to bind a custom domain, and creating a private endpoint provides private, VNet-restricted connectivity rather than public custom-domain handling, so neither accomplishes the stated goal. Once WEB1 and WEB2 are decommissioned per the migration plan, client traffic that currently resolves to those on-premises-facing web servers must instead be directed to WebApp1; since DNS is what resolves the www.fabrikam.com name to a specific endpoint, the DNS record for that hostname must be modified (typically to a CNAME record pointing at WebApp1 ' s default hostname, together with the domain-verification TXT record Azure requires before it will accept the custom domain binding). Azure Front Door and Azure Traffic Manager are global routing and load-balancing services meant for multi-region or multi-endpoint failover scenarios and are unnecessary complexity for redirecting a single custom domain to a single web app, and adding HTTP redirect rules on WEB1/WEB2 is not a viable option once those servers have been decommissioned. Therefore, adding a custom domain name to WebApp1 and then modifying the DNS record are the two required actions.

Enforce the security policy: Microsoft Defender Application Control. Manage the policy settings: Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) is the platform feature that enforces which applications are authorized to install or run on a Windows Server, directly meeting the stated requirement that only authorized applications can be installed or run on the servers in the forest. Microsoft Defender Application Guard isolates untrusted browsing sessions in a container and Microsoft Defender Credential Guard protects credential material from theft -- neither controls which applications are permitted to execute. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an endpoint detection-and-response platform that detects and responds to threats rather than enforcing a whitelist of permitted applications. Because the servers described are on-premises, domain-joined machines rather than Intune-managed, Microsoft Entra-joined devices, the WDAC policy settings here must be managed through Group Policy Objects distributed via AD DS, not through Intune. Configuration profiles in Microsoft Intune and compliance policies in Microsoft Intune are both cloud-management mechanisms that apply only to devices enrolled in and managed by Intune, which these on-premises, domain-joined servers are not. Therefore, WDAC is the enforcing service and Group Policy Objects are the correct management mechanism for these on-premises servers.

Microsoft Defender for Identity is the Microsoft Sentinel data connector purpose-built to monitor on-premises Active Directory domain controllers and surface exactly the insecure-protocol activity described in the requirement, including authentication attempts and sign-ins that rely on legacy or unsigned protocols such as NTLMv1, SMBv1, and unsigned LDAP binds. It does this by analyzing domain controller network traffic and Windows Events directly on the DCs, which is exactly where this insecure-protocol usage originates. The Threat Intelligence - TAXII connector ingests external threat-intelligence indicator feeds (IP addresses, file hashes, domains) from TAXII-compliant sources and has nothing to do with monitoring authentication protocol usage on domain controllers. The Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID) connector reports on cloud sign-in and audit log events for the Entra tenant, not on legacy protocol usage against on-premises AD DS domain controllers. Microsoft Defender for Cloud focuses on cloud resource security posture management and workload protection rather than detecting legacy authentication protocol usage against on-premises domain controllers. Therefore, connecting Microsoft Defender for Identity to Microsoft Sentinel is the correct connector to identify connections to the domain controllers that use insecure protocols.

DHCP1: Export-DhcpServer, Remove-DhcpServerInDC. DHCP2: Add-DhcpServerInDC, Import-DhcpServer.

Migrating a DHCP server ' s configuration together with its existing leases and reservations by PowerShell follows an export/unauthorize-then-authorize/import pattern across the two servers. On the source server, DHCP1, Export-DhcpServer captures the existing scopes, options, leases, and reservations into a migration file, which is what allows the existing leases and reservations to actually carry over to the replacement server. Remove-DhcpServerInDC is then run on DHCP1 to unauthorize it in Active Directory, which is what prevents DHCP1 from continuing to service client requests once DHCP2 is brought online, satisfying that specific migration requirement. On the target server, DHCP2, Add-DhcpServerInDC authorizes the new server in AD DS so it is permitted to lease addresses on the network, and Import-DhcpServer then applies the configuration file exported from DHCP1, causing DHCP2 to hand out the same address ranges as DHCP1 along with the existing leases and reservations that were captured during export. Add-DhcpServerv4Scope and Remove-DhcpServerv4Scope only create or delete an individual scope ' s address range and do not export, import, or preserve any existing lease or reservation data, so neither is part of this migration sequence. Therefore, DHCP1 requires Export-DhcpServer and Remove-DhcpServerInDC, while DHCP2 requires Add-DhcpServerInDC and Import-DhcpServer.

Server administrators can be prevented from configuring Windows Defender Firewall rules by defining firewall policy centrally in a Group Policy Object and linking it to the servers ' organizational unit(s); domain-based GPO firewall policy overrides any local, administrator-configured Windows Defender Firewall rules on the domain-joined servers, since Group Policy-delivered firewall settings take precedence over local policy. Adaptive network hardening in Microsoft Defender for Cloud only generates recommendations to tighten network security group (NSG) rules protecting Azure resources -- it has no visibility into or control over host-based Windows Defender Firewall configuration on on-premises servers. A network security group (NSG) in Sub1 filters traffic at the Azure virtual network boundary and has no bearing on the on-premises Chicago office servers described in the scenario. An Azure Firewall policy governs the centrally managed Azure Firewall network virtual appliance, not the host-based Windows Defender Firewall running locally on each on-premises server. Because the servers in question are on-premises and domain-joined, only a Group Policy Object can centrally enforce and lock down their local Windows Defender Firewall configuration, preventing server administrators from modifying the rules directly on each machine. Therefore, configuring a GPO is the correct way to reduce this security risk.

Storage Migration Service is purpose-built to inventory the data, security descriptors, and both share-level and NTFS-level permissions on a source file server such as Fileserver1, transfer that data to a destination server such as Fileserver2, and then perform a cutover that reassigns the source server ' s network identity -- its computer name and IP address -- to the destination server. That cutover step is precisely what allows the existing \\Fileserver1\Data UNC path, already relied upon by the Chicago office application, to continue working unchanged after the migration, since client requests to that path transparently resolve to Fileserver2 once it has taken on Fileserver1 ' s identity. The Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit and Windows Server Migration Tools are older, largely superseded utilities that can move some file server settings but do not provide this automated inventory-transfer-and-cutover workflow, and neither preserves the source server ' s identity on the destination the way Storage Migration Service does, meaning the UNC path would need to be manually updated or redirected. File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) is a quota, file-screening, and storage-reporting feature entirely unrelated to migrating data between servers. Therefore, Storage Migration Service is the correct tool to perform this migration while preserving the existing UNC path.

On Cluster1: Import the Azure Migrate appliance. In Azure: Create an Azure Migrate project.

APP3 and APP4 run as virtual machines on the on-premises Cluster1 Hyper-V failover cluster, so migrating them to Azure uses the Azure Migrate: Server Migration workflow for Hyper-V. That workflow requires an Azure Migrate project to first be created in Azure, since the project is the container that organizes the migration effort, tracks discovered and assessed machines, and holds the configuration for the subsequent discovery and replication work. On the Cluster1 side, the Azure Migrate appliance -- a purpose-built VM or OVA image supplied by Azure Migrate specifically for Hyper-V environments -- must be imported (deployed) onto the Hyper-V host or cluster, where it discovers the VMs running there and orchestrates their replication into Azure. Configuring an Azure Network Adapter, creating a Point-to-Site VPN connection to Vnet1, installing the Azure File Sync agent, and installing the Windows Server Migration Tools are all unrelated actions that do not perform Hyper-V VM discovery or replication for an Azure Migrate project. Similarly, creating a premium block blob storage account, a private endpoint, or a VPN gateway in Azure are not the resource that Azure Migrate itself requires to begin a migration project -- an Azure Migrate project is. Therefore, importing the Azure Migrate appliance onto Cluster1 and creating an Azure Migrate project in Azure are the two required preparatory actions.

In a Windows Defender Firewall connection security rule, ' request ' authentication is opportunistic: the computer attempts IPsec authentication but falls back to unauthenticated communication if the peer cannot negotiate it, so a host whose outbound setting is ' request ' (Server1) can always reach any peer, authenticated or not, including Server4, which has no connection security rule at all. ' Require ' authentication, by contrast, only succeeds when the peer is capable of responding to the IKE negotiation at all, regardless of whether that peer ' s own policy is set to request or require; it fails outright against a peer with no IPsec policy configured. Server1 ' s rule requests authentication both ways, so it can reach Server2, Server3, and Server4 without restriction. Server2 requires authentication for outbound connections, so its outbound traffic succeeds against Server1 and Server3 (both of which support IPsec negotiation) but is blocked toward Server4, which has no rule to negotiate with, making ' Server1 and Server3 only ' the correct outcome for Server2.