Customer Reviews

Active Directory Cookbook, 3rd Edition

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This book is like cheating!! -- I know that is an odd way to start off a review but please let me explain. I had this new Active Directory Cookbook 3rd edition on my desk and a co-worker came and started looking through it. After about five minutes he says "man this book is like cheating".

Of course what he meant is that there are so many great recipes here and the book shows you so many different ways to complete a bunch of tasks in relation to Active Directory that you feel like you have an edge on everyone else.

Here is a perfect example: Recipe/Task 2.6 "Finding the Domains in a Forest". You may know one or two ways to do this but how about six different ways! They have examples using the GUI, ntdsutil, dsquery, adfind, VBScript, and PowerShell. Not only is it great for the task at hand but you also become very proficient with all those methods because each recipe has multiple ways to complete a task.

In addition to showing you multiple ways to complete a task there is a discussion section associated with each task so that you understand the background of the task. Anyone can type commands but understanding the commands and learning active directory is another thing this book will do for you

The last section of most recipes/tasks contains a "See Also" section which will point you to related recipes and Microsoft articles which are very helpful.

Here is a quick overview of some of the chapters, they include

* Forests/Domains and Trusts

* Domain Controllers/Global Catalogs, FSMOs,

* Searching and Manipulating Objects

* Organizational Units

* Users

* Groups

* Computer Objects

* Group Policy

* Schema

* Site Topology

* Replication

* DNS and DHCP

* Logging, Monitoring, and Quotas,

* Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance

* Application Partitions

* ADAM/ADLDS

* ADFS

* ILM

...If you are wondering the book comes in at 1060 pages - that is a lot of great info.

Laura Hunter is the author of this book and she is recognized as being one of the top Active Directory MVPs around. You may have seen her on TechNet Edge, heard her on RunAs radio, or seen her posts at Experts-Exchange and Activedir.org. She is accessible and always willing to help which is great.

Joe Richards reviewed this book. Joe is another top Active Directory MVP. Joe runs the site joeware.net and that is where you will find his tools like adfind, admod, oldcmp, and many others. So when you learn how to use these tools you will know that the creator reviewed all the recipes/entries. Joe can also be found blogging and posting to the Activedir.org list and he is also someone who will help you offline if you have a question.

I think it is clear that I've really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend that it be on the bookshelf of every person that works with Active Directory. That includes help desk techs, system admins, and engineers.

This is a newer edition to a book that we used at work. Microsoft even recommends you get this book for any Windows ADSI scripting needs. It's not for beginners but it has a large number of scripts and examples that you can follow. This newer edition also shows you Powershell scripts in edition to VB.

Highly recommended.

Every time someone asks me, "Hey joe, I need to write a script for Active Directory, what should I do?" I say, go find and buy this book.

Every time someone asks me, "Hey joe, I need to do something to Active Directory from the command line, what should I do?" I say, go find and buy this book.

If you are working with AD, go find and buy this book. I have been a technical reviewer for this book through, I think, all of its incarnations and have helped considerably in its content yet I still keep it on my bookshelf and refer to it myself on a regular basis. It may not give you the exact answer you need but it probably does, but if it doesn't, it should put you very close to the answer you need.

joe

Joe Richards Microsoft MVP Directory Services ([...])

(yes that joe...)

If you're working with Active Directory, whether it is daily administration, or developing integrated applications or customizing AD itself, this is a must-have resource.

I became a fan of the series when Robbie Allen released the very first one. Since then, I've been hooked. It's amazing how the book has developed over time to become the monstrosity that it is today. It's enormous, weighing in at over 1000 pages. Though the true value is in all the "recipes" in the book, I really enjoy all the background material that each section provides.

Each topic has:

* Problem - the task you need to perform

* Solution - how to perform it

* Discussion - additional information about the topic

It's great to have a reference that succinctly defines the task and the solution without having to read gobs of pages. It's not just limited to scripting as the name may imply. Most solutions are defined for scripting (vbscript, powershell, command shell), however, often times you'll find the gui (graphical user interface) equivalent of how to achieve the task.

Laura Hunter is a great author and well-respected MVP in the Active Directory space. All of the contributing authors from the past editions are tops in their field and sources of information I have relied on in the past and will continue to do so for as long as I support Active Directory.

It's time I give up my 2nd Edition Cookbook and make room for this one on my reference shelf. Valuable book!

The third updated edition of a 'bible' of details for administrators and developers makes for a key acquisition for any library catering to such advanced computer audiences. It packs in troubleshooting recipes based on valuable input from Windows administrators, offering solutions for various problems and including scripting technologies, details on creating domains and trusts, and discussions of how and why solutions work. A weighty, key reference for any advanced computer collection.