Sebastopol, CA?In 1998, when author Robbie Allen first became involved with the Microsoft Windows 2000 Joint Development Program, there was little data available on Active Directory. In the following months, and even after the release of Windows 2000, there were still very few books or white papers available to help early adopters, and much of the information that had been published was inaccurate or misleading. This was soon followed by an explosion of information on Active Directory, with more than fifty books on the subject, numerous white papers, countless Active Directory sites, extensive information in the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support Center, and spiffed-up, accurate information on MSDN. So with all this data available in the form of published books, white papers, web sites, and even from within the operating system, why would anyone need yet another book on Active Directory?
According to Allen and coauthor Laura E. Hunter, their new book, l>
Active Directory Cookbook (Second Edition, O?Reilly, US $49.99) serves a unique and almost universally necessary purpose. ?On one occasion, I was thumbing through the Perl Cookbook looking for help with an automation script that I was writing for Active Directory,? Allen recalls. ?It just so happened that there was a recipe that addressed the specific task I was trying to perform.? In Cookbook parlance, a recipe provides instructions on how to solve a particular problem. Considering that Active Directory is such a task-oriented environment, Allen and Hunter thought that the Cookbook approach might be a very good format for their book.
?After a little research, we found there were books (often multiple) on nearly every facet of Active Directory, including introductory books, design guides, books that focused on migration, programming books, and reference books,? Allen and Hunter explain. ?The one type of book that we didn?t see was a task-oriented ?how-to? book, which is exactly what the Cookbook format provides.?
For developers seeking practical hands-on support, the Active Directory Cookbook takes a problem-solving approach that offers quick answers. Updated for Window Server 2003 SP1 and R2 versions, the Cookbook contains hundreds of step-by-step solutions for both common and uncommon problems that developers are likely to encounter with Active Directory on a daily basis. The book includes recipes to deal with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), ADAM, multi-master replication, Domain Name System (DNS), Group Policy, the Active Directory Schema, and many other features.
Authors Allen and Hunter have based this collection of troubleshooting recipes on their own experience, along with input from Windows administrators. The book provides solutions to more than 300 problems commonly encountered when deploying, administering, and automating Active Directory to manage users in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.
The Active Directory Cookbook is a perfect companion to Active Directory, Third Edition, the tutorial that experts hail as the best source for understanding Microsoft?s directory service. While the latter provides the big picture, the Cookbook offers quick solutions to cope with day-to-day dilemmas. Together, these books supply the knowledge and tools needed to get the most out of Active Directory.
Additional Resources:
- Chapter 8, ?Computers?
- More information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and samples
- A cover graphic in JPEG format
Active Directory Cookbook, Second Edition
Robbie Allen and Laura E. Hunter
ISBN: 0-596-10202-X, 962 pages, $49.99 US
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