Design and Deployment of Microsoft's Active Directory
O'Reilly Releases "Active Directory, Third Edition"
Sebastopol, CA--Since its introduction in Windows 2000, Microsoft's Active
Directory has improved the way organizations share network resources such
as users, groups, computers, printers, applications, and files. "Having a
single source for this information makes it more accessible and easier to
manage," notes Robbie Allen, co-author of the highly acclaimed "Active
Directory," now available in its third edition (O'Reilly, US $49.99). "To
accomplish this, however, requires a significant amount of knowledge on
topics such as LDAP, Kerberos, DNS, multi-master replication, group
policies, and data partitioning, to name a few."
In other words, Active Directory is still a major headache for network and
system administrators who have to design, implement, and support it.
Allen's book, co-written with industry experts Joe Richards and Alistair
G. Lowe-Norris, offers a clear and detailed introduction that not only
guides administrators through the maze of technologies, but also helps
them understand the big picture.
"Our book describes Active Directory in depth, but not in the traditional
way of going through the graphical user interface screen by screen," Allen
explains. "Instead, the book sets out to tell administrators how to
design, manage, and maintain a small, medium, or enterprise Active
Directory infrastructure that's both scalable and reliable."
Many industry authorities consider this book to be the definitive resource
for implementing Active Directory. Allen, Richards, and Lowe-Norris have
revised the new edition of "Active Directory" significantly to describe
features that have been updated or added in Windows Server 2003 R2,
including coverage of programmatic interfaces available to manage them.
Three additional chapters explain new features and concepts such as Active
Directory Application Mode (ADAM), and scripting for common user and group
tasks for Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003.
"Once information has been added to Active Directory, it can be made
available for use throughout the entire network to as many or as few
people as an administrator likes," Allen points out. "The structure of the
information can match the structure of the organization, and users can
query Active Directory to find the location of a printer or the email
address of a colleague. Administrators can delegate control and management
of the data however they see fit."
While Microsoft's documentation serves as an important reference, any
administrator who deals with Active Directory will find this book to be a
valuable resource, whether he or she manages a single server or works for
a global multinational with thousands of servers. To that end, "Active
Directory" is divided into three sections:
-Part I introduces in general terms how Active Directory works, giving
readers a thorough grounding in its concepts, such as Active Directory
replication, the schema, application partitions, group policies, and
interaction with DNS.
-Part II covers the issues around properly designing the directory
infrastructure, including designing the namespace, creating a site
topology, designing group policies for locking down client settings,
auditing, permissions, backup and recovery, and a look at Microsoft's
future direction with Directory Services.
-Part III is all about managing Active Directory via automation with
Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI), ActiveX Data Objects (ADO),
and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Readers learn how to create
and manipulate users, groups, printers, and other objects in their
everyday management of Active Directory.
"Administrators who want a book that lays bare the design and management
of an enterprise or departmental Active Directory need look no further,"
Allen says. "Even if they have a previous edition of the book, they'll
find this third edition to be full of updates and corrections and a worthy
addition to their 'good' bookshelf: the bookshelf next to their PC with
the books they really read that are all dog-eared with soda drink spills
and pizza grease on them."
Additional Resources:
Chapter 11, "Active Directory Security: Permissions and Auditing," is
available online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actdir3/chapter/index.html
For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bios, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actdir3/
For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596101732.jpg
Active Directory, Third Edition
Joe Richards, Robbie Allen, and Alistair G. Lowe-Norris
ISBN: 0-596-10173-2, 800 pages, $49.99 US, $69.99 CA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
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