Midwest Book Review said
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.
D. Siddiqui said
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.
Mike Kline said
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.
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