Active Directory, Second Edition [Paperback]

Alistair G. Lowe-Norris (Author), Robbie Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596004664 | ISBN-13: 978-0596004668 | Publication Date: April 1, 2003 | Edition: 2nd

When Microsoft introduced Windows 2000, the most important change was the inclusion of Active Directory. With many great benefits, it continues to be a huge headache for network and system administrators to design, implement and support. The first edition of this book, O'Reilly's best-selling Windows 2000 Active Directory, eased their pain considerably. Now titled Active Directory, 2nd Edition, this book provides system and network administrators, IT professionals, technical project managers, and programmers with a clear, detailed look at Active Directory for both Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.

The upgraded Active Directory that ships with Windows Server 2003 has over 100 new and enhanced features and once again, O'Reilly has the answers to puzzling questions. While Microsoft's documentation serves as an important reference, Active Directory, 2nd Edition is a guide to help the curious (and weary) understand the big picture. In addition to the technical details for implementing Active Directory, several new and significantly enhanced chapters describe the numerous features that have been updated or added in Windows Server 2003 along with coverage of new programmatic interfaces that are available to manage it. After reading the book you will be familiar with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), multi-master replication, Domain Name System (DNS), Group Policy, and the Active Directory Schema, among many other topics.

Authors Robbie Allen and Alistair G. Lowe-Norris are experienced veterans with real-world experience. Robbie is a Senior Systems Architect in the Advanced Services Technology Group at Cisco Systems. He was instrumental in the deployment and automation of Active Directory, DNS and DHCP at Cisco, and is now working on network automation tools. Alistair is an enterprise program manager for Microsoft U.K. and previously worked for Leicester University as the project manager and technical lead of the Rapid Deployment Program for Windows 2000.

Active Directory, 2nd Edition will guide you through the maze of concepts, design issues and scripting options enabling you to get the most out of your deployment.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Windows 2000 Active Directory is a notably authoritative and engaging guide to the Microsoft Active Directory (AD) for any administrator or developer making the move to the new Windows and this powerful directory standard.

Articulate and technically astute, the author comes across as a trusted advisor, providing an expert's view of designing the layout of your company's Active Directory schema. In realistic terms, he shows you how AD can coexist with Unix directories. The book not only provides a collection of screen shots (though there are hands-on tutorials for specific tasks) but also a nicely in-depth tour of what Internet directories are and what advantages Active Directory offers. Case studies on sample domains and organization units (OUs) for sample companies, including a model global corporation, will help you cope with the design of even the most complex directories. Hints for limiting "domains" and favoring the more flexible "organizational units" (OUs) will also help you think in Windows 2000 terms.

Later sections of the book delve into Active Directory Services Interface (ASDI) scripting using Windows Script Host (WSH), Visual Basic, and even ASPs for browser-based administration. The tips and sample scripts for a variety of common administrative tasks, such as adding new users, changing passwords, and the like, assume very little programming background. This focus on the practical side of administration rounds out an extremely useful and technically savvy guide to Windows 2000 that can definitely simplify the life of any administrator, manager, or developer upgrading to the latest Windows. --Richard Dragan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Robbie Allen is a Senior Systems Architect in the Advanced Services Technology Group at Cisco Systems. He was instrumental in the deployment and automation of Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP at Cisco. Robbie enjoys working on the Unix and Windows platforms, especially when Perl is installed. He is a firm believer that all system administrators should be proficient in at least one scripting language and most of his writings preach the benefits of automation. Robbie has a web site at www.rallenhome.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 752 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596004664
• ISBN-13: 978-0596004668
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Coverage of Key Technology, February 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Windows 2000 Active Directory (Paperback)

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,<consultantbabble intensity="religious fervour">but that absolutely have to be dealt with if any kind of ROI is to be realised from this technology</consultantbabble>.

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.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Half-decent combo book on AD and scripting, August 8, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Active Directory, Second Edition (Paperback)

Update: I finished reading the book and though I still basically feel the same about the AD part, I have found that the scripting part is not too bad *IF* you have some prior scripting/programming experience (which I do), particularly with VB or VBS (which I do). Some of the scripts I have been able to modify and use in my job as a sys admin. Now, overall, I will bump my rating up from 2 stars to 3 stars. $31.47 with free shipping is not a bad deal for a half-decent book on AD with the bonus of several hundred pages on scripting. I guess you cant have your cake and eat it too  either you get a full-fledged AD book and a separate scripting book or you get this one and it does a half-decent job covering both topics. Additionally, the author, Robbie Allen, does respond to questions via e-mail in a prompt manner.
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First off, this book is not for beginners. Do not buy this book if you have no experience with or knowledge of Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Active Directory. That said, here is my review:

I'm more than 2/3 done reading this book and so far I cannot recommend it. The book is not practical enough for a real sys admin to use. For example, the section on sites mentions site transitivity a few times, but no where in that section could I find any instructions on how to actually activate or deactivate that feature. After researching the issue myself, I found that all there is to that is a simple check box. Also, the sections on replication, GCs, and DNS needs more "meat."

A few of the examples used in the book are just totally absurd and there are numerous little typographical errors throughout. Also, the ordering of the chapters are counterintuitive and some topics, such as GPOs, are covered in different, non-sequential, chapters of the book (the author does explain why that was done).

Right now I am finishing up the scripting section and have found numerous inconsistencies with the sample code and the references to it. In one example, the author states that the code will update phone numbers while the code is actually updating (or attempts to update) pager numbers. Contrary to the author's statement that you don't need previous programming experience to learn scripting with this book, some of the examples involve functions and other programming techniques that are way too advanced for novice scripters.

Conclusion:
If you want a practical book on AD, then get one geared towards MCSE certification - probably from Sybex. I even found the old Exam Cram book on AD to be rather useful and informative. I think the main goal of this book was to help the reader design an AD infrastructure, but it failed at that, as there was not enough "meat" in the book to cover that, and some of the examples were too absurd. The only part of the book that I did like was its decent explanation of AD object and attribute classes.

As for the scripting part, it's mediocre thus far. I've been supplementing that with the very well written and easy to follow Windows 2000 Scripting Guide, (...).

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent in depth info! Not for the newbie., August 5, 2001

By 

Christopher M. Buechler (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows 2000 Active Directory (Paperback)

I have to agree with the majority of the reviewers that this is a wonderful book. A must read for serious 2000 Admins.

In response to the previous two bad reviews...

To the one who thought it was too technical. The reading would be hard to get through if you didn't have a solid background in Microsoft networking and Windows 2000 Server. If you don't know what a domain is, this book is not for you. If you don't understand what objects are, this book is not for you. Explaining that stuff would be a waste of time for the targeted audience. This book is not "Active Directory for Dummies" if such a thing even exists. This book assumes, as it should, that you have the base knowledge required to understand the depths of AD. I already had my 2000 MCSE before I even picked up this one. (For AD basics to intermediate skills, I used the Osborne book Windows 2000 Directory Services Administration. Another great book! **EDIT 7/24/02** Amazon has the title of this book mistyped as "Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure". A couple of people have e-mailed me about having problems finding the book. The direct link is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/007212380X/)

This is not a beginner's manual. This is an in depth approach to AD, and does a wonderful job.

As for the one who said the book was based on RC 3. There were some changes from RC3 to the release version of Active Directory. However, this book has had at least 3 reprints with updates, and this has been mostly corrected in the version I have, dated November 2000 (I believe this is the most recent reprint)... That is a VERY short list for a techinical book.

If you're clueless when it comes to Microsoft networking and the basics of Windows 2000, don't pick this one up. If you know Microsoft networking and Windows 2000, this book is a MUST READ!!