Those of you who run networks on Windows 2000 know the benefits of using Active Directory for managing user information and permissions. You also know what a bear it can be. The newer version included with Windows Server 2003 has over 100 new and updated features to simplify deployment, but once it's in place many system administrators still find Active Directory challenging. If you're among those looking for practical hands-on support, help is here with our new Active Directory Cookbook for Windows Server 2003 & Windows 2000, a unique problem-solving guide that offers quick answers for both versions of the directory. The book contains hundreds of step-by-step solutions for both common and uncommon problems that you might encounter with Active Directory on a daily basis--including recipes to deal with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), multi-master replication, Domain Name System (DNS), Group Policy, the Active Directory Schema, and many other features. Author Robbie Allen, a Senior Systems Architect at Cisco Systems and co-author of our Active Directory tutorial, based this collection of troubleshooting recipes on his own experience, along with input from Windows administrators throughout the industry. Each recipe includes a discussion to explain how and why the solution works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations. If your company is considering an upgrade from Windows NT or 2000 to Windows Server 2003, the Active Directory Cookbook for Windows Server 2003 & Windows 2000 will help reduce the time and trouble it takes to configure and deploy Active Directory for your network. This Cookbook is also a perfect companion to Active Directory, the tutorial that experts hail as the best source for understanding Microsoft's network directory service. While Active Directory provides the big picture, Active Directory Cookbook for Windows Server 2003 & Windows 2000 gives you the quick solutions you need to cope with day-to-day dilemmas. Together, these books supply the knowledge and tools so you can get the most out of Active Directory to manage users, groups, computers, domains, organizational units, and security policies on your network.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 76 Ratings

Hmmm, lot's of pages, less content - 2008-05-20
Reviewer Rating:
Firstly a warning, this is the second edition and covers Windows 2003. There is a third edition that covers the newer OS. I bought this book by mistake and it's too big (postage would be too expensive) to return. So buy with care.

This is a big book in terms of pages but the content is less than stellar. Don't expect to find too much on designing AD in real world situations such as integration with networking topologies and devices. Nor expect to find details on integrating AD with other Microsoft technology such as SharePoint. No this cookbook is really an administrator companion, and I think it does a pretty decent job in that but not more.

In regular use on my office bookshelf - 2008-04-25
Reviewer Rating:
Very handy cookbook reference for my office bookshelf. I've used it a number of times, and it's more than paid for itself in expediting regularly-scheduled inquiries of our AD structure here at GEICO HQ.

Must Have Reference book for Admins and Developers! - 2008-03-24
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent reference if you work with AD on a regular basis either as an admin or a developer. Each "how to" offers methods for manually performing a specific task as well as (where possible) how to automate the task using code. Should be on every Windows admin/developer's desk.

Great reference, could use a little work on helping people implement in more useful ways though. - 2007-11-07
Reviewer Rating:
Overall, this is a great book for reference.

There are a number of areas where I think the book falls short - all of the scripts are very hard coded scripts that don't tell you how to do some functions that would make their scripts actually useful (like "pull the list of users with attributes from a tab-delimited file and create them" or something similar, this would make mass creation of users actually useful, instead of "create user1, user2, user3, etc..."). I think that the writers expect you to be a VB expert (or at least close to it) if you're going to actually make the vb scripts useful.

Most of the scripts are "How to use a script to do the same functions that you can already do in AD with ADUC or another MMC", but I think that the most important thing for me about the book is what it inspires me to think of doing. Things that MS doesn't necessarily expect you to do. I'm still not seeing a way to add sidHistory to an object (MS does it with another applet - there is a way...), but there are so many things in the book that just have me thinking about how you can implement changes to an environment that MS says you can't do. What they really mean is "You can't do that with the GUI tools that we provide you".

Great Book!! - 2007-07-26
Reviewer Rating:
I am so glad that this book was recommended to me by a guy I took a class on scripting from. I use this book everyday (almost). I even took it on vacation with me for light reading.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Networking
Operating Systems

Sub-Categories:
Networking > Windows
Operating Systems > Windows 2000
Windows 2000 > Active Directory
Operating Systems > Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 > Active Directory