Zamfir Alexandru said
A great book, with a completely different approach to SBS and SMB specific technology. Fun and entertaining also.
Robert MacKenzie said
Harry Brelsford's Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint is something that all IT professionals should have in their arsenal. This book helps you set a plan to follow for all SBS installations that will make troubleshooting any installation vastly easier. The book walks you through the installation process from setting up the IP addresses range, to user profiles, data quotas, remote web workplace, Exchange, OWA, SharePoint, and SQL Server. One of the standout chapters is Chapter 13: Monitoring Small Business Server, which explains creating custom alerts and, as Harry calls it, the "Poor Man's Managed Services." I can't wait for Harry's upcoming book, Small Business Server 2008 Advanced, as the first book has peaked my interest for more advanced information. But Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint is definitely the place to start your understanding of SBS 08.
Robert MacKenzie
Owner, RMCompufix
New York City
P. John said
Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint (Harry Brelsford's SMB)
Where, oh where to start! ( the same way Harry has started his book....)
This book is an absolute rip-off! After paying US$60, you would expect the book to have good stuff, not fluff. It is just full of screen shots and absolutely useless pages and pictures. There is even a section of 24 pages titled "SMB and SBS 2008 Photo Essay"(right in the middle of the book) contains just photos of people and oh, a picture of a cake. I am not kidding! Why would I pay my money to look at 24 pages of photos of some unknown people? At least they could have saved some trees by not printing those pages.
Then there is this 3-page long user list of "SPRINGERS". WHY?
Do yourself a favour - don't fall for the 4.5 star rating (that is exactly what happened to me). Go and buy the book "Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed" by Eriq Neale. Gem of a book, written and contributed by some of the best people in the SBS community.
The author didn't have any idea who is the intended audience for this book. That's what happens when you rush the book into publishing with filler pages and stuff..... Have a look at the review written by J. Robertson.
It is a real shame this kind of books get 4 to 5 star rating which in turn fool other innocent buyers.
J. Robertson said
A reasonably tech-savvy guy on a very small budget, I'm planning to set up a server for my partnership medical practice, which is mired in the mid 20th century as far as IT is concerned. Since this book is self-described as a step-by-step guide, my hopes were that it would avoid unreferenced acronyms and jargon, and proceed from the simple to the more complex. It falls short.
Examples:
1. When describing the initial installation, the book isn't clear about setting up the server admin account. On page 3-36, it tells the user to use "the Jonathan Paul entry in Table 2-2." There is no such entry in Table 2-2. Someone configuring a server for the very first time who is simply copying by rote the authors' instructions doesn't know at this point whether this is because "Jonathan Paul" is a fictitious person rather than the real administrator (the next page in the text suggests this might be the intent) or whether the book editor just screwed up. Because the authors advise particular caution when setting up the administrator account, such lack of clarity is anxiety provoking, as is the "tip" that follows, to wit: "by default Windows Server 2008 now disable[s] the default administrator 500 account. (One can discover at the MS website why the default administrator used to have a "relative ID" of 500, but not in this book).
3. The book advises the reader to obtain blank network "setup sheets" from the SMB Nation website. So far as I could tell, no such templates are available on that website.
4. The book sometimes assumes virtually no knowledge on the part of the reader (advising him to be sure he has a compatible mouse, keyboard, and monitor), but at other times leaps to unreferenced acronyms as above, or insufficient explanations. For example, there's a fairly clear explanation of why the the author recommends having the server dispense private IPs in the range of 192.168.40.xxx, but not why the proposed range spans from 0/24 (after all, SBS supports up to 75 clients).
5. Some of the book is out of date. Microsoft no longer offers Windows Live OneCare, but its use is recommended frequently (it's possible the authors weren't aware of Microsoft's business decision to discontinue this product at the time they completed the book, of course).
6. There's no discussion of wireless networks or whether there are any issues when incorporating a wireless router for 802.11b/g/n clients into a network domain controlled by an SBS server.
In some places the intended audience for this book is described as the SBS consultant; in other places, it's suggested that the book is intended for people such as I. There's lots of valuable information here, at least for me, but I think an editor attuned to making certain that jargon is either referenced or explained could have improved the book's clarity considerably.
Mark said
If you are self-deploying SBS and do not have a consultant, then this is the book for you. If your SBS consultant is recommending this book to another SBS consultant, consider getting another SBS consultant. (I only mention this as I saw a 5-star comment that said this is "a must for SBS consultants". If your consultant needs this book, fire him and do it yourself!)
The authors do a good job of explaining SBS 2008 for those people totally unfamiliar to SBS, especially SBS 2008.
There are, however, some chapters that are of little or no value---such as the 24-page "photo essay". (To the authors, have you heard of Flickr or MySpace? These photos should be there and save some trees!)
An especially weak chapter is the one describing "standard security in SBS 2008". This chapter is all "fluf" and no substance, and could be replaced with the idea of "put your network behind a firewall/router that is easy to configure". If you purchase this book, perhaps you should seek another resource explaining firewalls and routers that work with SBS 2008.
The rest of the book is almost a 5-star book.
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