Windows 2000 Active Directory

Are you an Active Directory Administrator? If you are, this book is for you. Authors Joe Richards, Robbie Allen and Alistair Lowe-Norris, have written an outstanding 3rd edition of a book that shows you how to deploy a scalable and reliable Active Directory (AD) infrastructure. Richards, Allen and Lowe-Norris, begin by reviewing the evolution of the Microsoft NOS and some of the major features and benefits of AD. Then, they provide a high-level look at how objects are stored in AD and explain some of the internal structures and concepts that it relies on. The authors continue by reviewing the predefined Naming Contexts within AD, what it contained within each, and the purpose of Application Partitions. In addition, they give information on how the blueprints for each object and each object's attributes are stored in AD. The authors also detail how the actual replication process for data takes place between domain controllers. Then, the authors describe the importance of the Domain Name System and what it is used for within AD. Next, they give you a detailed introduction to the capabilities of both user profiles and Group Policy Objects. Next, the authors introduce the steps and techniques involved in properly preparing a design that reduces the number of domains and increases administrative control through the use of Organizational Units. Then, they show you how to design a representation of your physical infrastructure within AD to gain very fine-grained control over intrasite and intersite replication. The authors continue to explain how Group Policy Objects function in AD and how you can properly design an AD structure to make the most effective use of these functions. In addition, they describe how you can design effective security for all areas of your AD, in terms of both access to objects and their properties. In addition, they cover procedures for extending the classes and attributes in the AD schema. The authors also describe how you can back up and restore AD down to the object level or the entire directory. Then, the authors outline how you can upgrade your existing AD infrastructure to Windows Server 2003. Next, they outline the process to upgrade your existing AD to Windows Server 2003 R2. Then, they give you very basic guidelines on areas to think about when conducting a Windows NT 4.0 migration. The authors continue by covering some important AD--related issues when implementing Microsoft Exchange. In addition, they introduce AD Application Mode (ADAM), now included with Windows Server 2003 R2, along with information on some of the upgrades from the RTW version of ADAM. Finally, the authors start off by providing some background information on the .NET Framework and then dive into several examples using the System.DirectoryServices namespace with VB.NET. As you can see from the preceding, this excellent book describes AD in depth. If you want a book that lays bare the design and management of an enterprise or departmental AD, y

Like a lot of other O'Reilly books, this one should really cost twice as much. Packed full of helpful information and not afraid to reveal Windows 2000's weakpoints, this book will pay for itself a hundred times over. In addition to being up-to-date, you'll get some information in this book that you'll be hard-pressed to find in any other places. The most obvious example of this is the extensive coverage given to the Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI).O'Reilly's Active Directory book should be made mandatory reading for anyone before deploying Windows 2000 and Active Directory. Put this one on your short list of "Must Reads" for W2K.

This book is an excellent resource on Active Directory. The clear explanation of Data Replication is worth the price alone. Also, the information provided seems to sync up well with the W2k Server Resource Kit - a claim other W2k books I have purchased cannot make.

This is a truly excellent book. Written by the person who headed up the largest Windows 2000 deployment (in Europe) to date, it not only covers the 'What' of Active Directory, but the 'How' and 'Why'. This includes not only the technical aspects of Active Directory but also the operational and business aspects that are all too rarely addressed in this kind of book,but that absolutely have to be dealt with if any kind of ROI is to be realised from this technology.If that isn't enough, the last part of the book shows how to roll your own scripts for adding users, querying the Active Directory etc.. Or as I prefer to think of it, repetitive tasks that you don't really want to go near the gui for. I have this book down as having 585 pages of solid fact, no filler, all examples kept short and focussing on the point in question.This is an example of how technical books should be written - lots of hard fact with unambigous examples in a well-written style. If you have to go near Windows 2000 & the Active Directory (and I suspect one or two people may be in this position) then buy this book.