Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Design and Implementation, Packt
Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio
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C# Online.NET Book Review
With the advent of Windows XP, most Windows PCs can take advantage of network domains. Windows Server 2003 Active Directory is an implementation of LDAP directory services by Microsoft for use in Windows environments. Using a central databse, Active Directory directory service enables you to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. Active Directory allows administrators to assign enterprise-wide policies, deploy programs to multiple computers, and apply updates to an entire organization. Active Directory networks vary from small installations of a few hundred objects to a large installations of millions of objects. Windows Server 2003 makes Active Directory simpler to manage, migrate and deploy.
This book is a well-written, easy-to-read guide to setting up Active Directory under Windows Server 2003 according to the needs of four scenarios embodied in hypothetical companies. These scenarios range from simple to quite complex.
This book is light on theory and heavy on practical advice for the network adminstrator or architect. However, it does cover the principles of good design for Active Directory. The pragmatic approach of the book is due to the extensive practical experience and know-how of the author.
One caveat, if at all possible, read this book before you set up your network.
Bottom line
Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Design and Implementation is an excellent guide to designing, optimizing, and implementing Active Directory.
Publisher's description
A unique, scenario-based approach to selecting and implementing the best Active Directory design for your environment
Understand the principles of Active Directory design
- Create new networks or evolve existing Active Directory installations
- Create the best Active Directory design for a broad range of business environments
- Implement your Active Directory designs
- Migrate and merge Active Directory structures
Written by an experienced Active Directory designer and implementor, this book walks you through the concepts of the Active Directory, and the Active Directory design issues associated with various business environments, outlining strategies, principles and best-practice for creating the design, before leading you through the implementation step-by-step.
A well thought-out Active Directory provides a solid foundation for other services which will lower support costs and allow companies to centrally manage their environment. You should look at the Active Directory as your first step in moving to a centrally managed, highly integrated IT environment that supports efficient and effective delivery of business capabilities. Once the appropriate technical infrastructure is in place, it is vital to leverage that infrastructure to create an enterprise-class application infrastructure.
If you are creating a new Active Directory network, or are migrating or merging existing installations, this is the book for you.
From the back cover
While the basics of the Active Directory are straightforward, to get the most from it requires careful planning and a thorough understanding of what can be accomplished. For any environment there are a number of core stages in the Active Directory implementation; the 3 Ds: discovery, design, and deployment. In this unique book, we take a broad range of environment types and work through these stages; suggesting an Active Directory design specific to that environment, and how to implement it; at each stage providing clear instructions so the decisions are clearly understood and the best-practice principles will be maintained throughout your system lifetime. There are many books on using, administering, or even deploying Active Directory, but this is the only book that exists to relate the crucial design aspects to your target environment, and show you to implement this design.
This book covers discovery, design and deployment stages of Active Directory implementation in the following scenarios:
- A small, single location company with fairly basic needs and a basic Windows NT 4.0 domain
- A larger company with multiple regional areas which are currently facilitated by multiple NT 4.0 domains
- A retail-type business with very different drivers and requirements from that of a standard business, based on Windows 2000 Active Directory
- Merging and restructuring the Active Directory infrastructure of two financial institutions
Who this book is for
This book is for Windows network administrators, analysts, or architects, with a grasp of the basic operations of Active Directory, and are looking for a book that goes beyond rudimentary operations. However, all of the concepts are explained from the ground up, and the book can be read by network design and administration professionals with no prior Active Directory knowledge.
About the author(s)
John Savill has been using Windows NT for eleven years since initially stumbling on it by accident while working as a VMS Systems Administrator; the hung system would not reboot when he pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del, instead it just displayed a weird dialog box, his first encounter with an NT server. After learning about NT from numerous sources including the newsgroups he started ntfaq where he placed answers to questions he saw again and again. From there he started writing articles and books on Windows NT such as the Windows NT and 2000 Answer Book which gained John the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional status. He became part of the Windows NT 5 beta team; which saw the introduction of the Active Directory. This product initially terrified him since everything he knew about domains was now redundant, and he had to start from scratch again. Once he started to investigate this new technology he came to appreciate that the effort was well worth it, there was more power available, and he looked forward to wowing customers with the new features he could implement! John has had the honor to consult as a technical architect at many of the largest institutions in the world, such as Deutsche Bank, Bank of England, Citibank, and Bank of Ireland to name but a few.
Table of Contents (abbreviated)
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Importance of a Domain
- Chapter 2: The Small Accountancy Firm
- Chapter 3: Step-By-Step Migration
- Chapter 4: The Regional Legal Firm
- Chapter 5: The Retail-Based Company
- Chapter 6: The International Financial Company
