Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Unleashed [Paperback]

Michael Noel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0672329190 | ISBN-13: 978-0672329197 | Edition: 1

ISA Server 2006 is a robust application layer firewall that provides organizations with the ability to secure critical business infrastructure from the exploits and threats of the modern computing world. ISA’s ability to act as an edge firewall, a Virtual Private Networking solution, a reverse proxy server, or a content caching device give it unprecedented flexibility and position it as a valuable security tool for many types of organizations.

 

ISA Server 2006 Unleashed provides insight into the inner workings of the product, as well as providing best-practice advice on design and implementation concepts for ISA. In addition to detailing commonly requested topics such as securing Outlook Web Access, deploying ISA in a firewall DMZ, and monitoring ISA traffic, this book provides up-to-date information about the new enhancements made to the 2006 version of the product. The author draws upon his experience deploying and managing enterprise ISA environments to present real-world scenarios, outline tips and tricks, and provide step-by-step guides to securing infrastructure using ISA.

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Noel has been involved in the computer industry for nearly two decades and has significant real-world experience helping organizations realize business value from information technology infrastructure. Michael has authored or co-authored several best-selling industry books, translated into 7 languages, with a total worldwide circulation of more than 150,000 copies. Significant titles include ISA Server 2004 Unleashed, SharePoint 2007 Unleashed, Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed, and the upcoming Windows Server 2008 Unleashed. Currently a Partner at Convergent Computing in the San Francisco Bay area, Michael’s writings and worldwide public speaking experience leverage his real-world expertise designing, deploying, and administering IT infrastructure for his clients.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

It is rare to run into that one product that impresses technical audiences in the way that ISA Server has managed to. As I prepared to write this book, what surprised me was not ISA's ability to wow and charm Microsoft-centric environments, but its ability to impress the Microsoft-skeptic crowds as well. These are the ones who have been skeptical of anything coming out of Redmond with "Security" in its title—for good reason in many cases. So, from its release, ISA faced a seemingly insurmountable uphill battle for acceptance, which makes its success even more impressive.

I have had the luxury of working closely with several of the best technologies Microsoft has produced: Active Directory, SharePoint, Exchange, and SQL Server. It therefore takes a powerful product for me to be impressed, and ISA Server 2006, and its closely related predecessor, ISA Server 2004, really has done that. ISA functionality is broad, with VPN, reverse-proxy, firewall, content-caching, and protocol- filtering capabilities. Marketing slogans are one thing, but this product really does live up to its billing. I have deployed, administered, and tested ISA Server at organizations of many sizes and functions, from city governments to banks to law firms to technology firms, and have had great success with the product. The breadth and depth of functionality that ISA provides makes my job designing security for these types of environments that much easier.

This book is the result of my experience and the experiences of my colleagues at Convergent Computing in working with ISA Server Standard and Enterprise versions, in the beta stages and in deployment. I wrote this book to be topical, so that you can easily browse to a particular section and follow easy-to-understand step-by-step scenarios. In addition, if you are looking for a good overview on ISA, the book can be read in sequence to give you a good solid understanding of the higher levels of security and functionality ISA can provide.

The Target Audience of This Book

This book is geared toward information technology professionals who have moderate to high levels of exposure to firewall, security, and network technologies. It is ideal for those administrators who need a good in-depth knowledge of how ISA works and how it can be used to perform common tasks. In addition, this book is ideal for security administrators who are looking to deploy ISA as an additional layer of security in an existing environment, particularly for securing Outlook Web Access, websites, and other internal services.

The Organization of This Book

This book is divided into four parts, as follows:

• Part I: Designing, Exploring, and Understanding ISA Server 2006—This section covers the basics of ISA Server 2006, including an overview of the technology, a walkthrough of the tools and features, and specific installation steps. In addition, design scenarios for ISA deployment are presented and analyzed, and migration steps from ISA 2000 are given.

• Part II: Deploying ISA Server 2006—This section covers the deployment of ISA technologies, discussing multiple common scenarios for which ISA is often used. Discussion surrounding ISA firewall, content caching, reverse proxy, and Enterprise version deployment is discussed, and step-by-step deployment guides are illustrated. In addition, detailed analysis of Virtual Private Network support, including both client and site-to-site VPN, is covered.

• Part III: Securing Servers and Services with ISA Server 2006—Part III focuses on the specifics of securing protocols and services using the built-in HTTP, FTP, RPC, and other filters in ISA Server 2006. Specific instructions on how to use ISA to secure Microsoft Exchange Outlook Web Access (OWA), including the common scenario of deploying ISA within the DMZ of an existing firewall, are outlined in depth. In addition, securing techniques for SharePoint sites, web servers, Outlook MAPI traffic, and other common scenarios are explained.

• Part IV: Supporting an ISA Server 2006 Infrastructure—The nuts and bolts of administering, maintaining, and monitoring an ISA Server 2006 environment are explained in this section, with particular emphasis on the day-to-day tasks that are needed for the "care and feeding" of ISA. Critical tasks that are often overlooked, such as automating ISA Server Configuration backups and documenting ISA Server rules, are presented and analyzed. Throughout this section, tips and tricks to keep ISA well maintained and working properly are outlined.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following conventions are used in this book:

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Caution - Cautions alert you to common pitfalls that you should avoid.

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Tip - Tips are used to highlight shortcuts, convenient techniques, or tools that can make a task easier. Tips also provide recommendations on best practices you should follow.

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Note - Notes provide additional background information about a topic being described, beyond what is given in the chapter text. Often, notes are used to provide references to places where you can find more information about a particular topic.

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Sidebar - A sidebar provides a deeper discussion or additional background to help illuminate a topic.

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If you are like many out there recently tasked with an ISA project or simply looking for ways to bring security to the next level, this book is for you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it and working with the product.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (December 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672329190
• ISBN-13: 978-0672329197
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #790,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missing the Mark, December 16, 2007

By 

Mark S. Myers "PC Load-Letter?" (Oswego, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Unleashed (Paperback)

Considering this book was months late, I would have thought that it would have covered the protection and configuration of Microsoft messaging product Exchange 2007. Alas, it only covers Exchange 2003. Exchange 2007 RTM has been out for a year, so the absence of Exchange 2007 security and reverse proxy - and the lack of support of mobile device (ActiveSync) security makes this book unacceptable to me. My experience with ISA 2006 is to combine it with other applications. Messaging applications and collaboration applications are the biggest type of applications ISA protects. So coverage of these types of products is mandatory. Yes, it covers ISA 2006 itself well, but as more companies deploy SharePoint 2007 and Exchange 2007, this book is outdated immediately the day it was published because of it's lack of 2007 coverage. Since this will likely be the only third-party book published covering ISA 2006, by itself it is a disappointment. If you are new to the ISA product, then this book will give you the basics. If you are looking to truly dive deep into protecting complex applications such as Exchange 2007, pass on this one. Dedicate your research to Microsoft TechNet and blogs on the treatment of ISA and the products you are protecting and you'll do much better.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty useless, May 29, 2008

By 

Justin M. James "J.Ja" (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Unleashed (Paperback)

This book is well done but useless. It is a combination advertisement for ISA, screenshots of all of the wizards in the application, and summaries of the "Getting Started..." portions of the ISA help files. It took me about 1 hour of working with ISA to get familiarized with it to cover ever topic that this book covers. It has *nothing* to help you if things don't work exactly as expected. Don't spend money on this book unless you are completely unknowledgable about firewalls, routing, VPNs, etc.

3.0 out of 5 stars ISA Server Review from Oliver Blanco, June 25, 2011

By 

Oliver Blanco Dominguez (Mexico, DF) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft ISA Server 2006 Unleashed (Paperback)

The book includes good content, however the author needed to create more visual material. If you want to apply all concepts, install a virtual enviroment using VMWare Workstation 6.5/7.