Active Directory Field Guide
Book Review

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club June 2005 General Overview Active Directory Field Guide is ideal for Windows and Active Directory administrators and consultants. It contains valuable descriptions of higher-level skills, tasks, and tools, including migration, large-scale deployment, security, and disaster recovery, and provides bold, nontraditional solutions. Author Laura E. Hunter is a Microsoft MVP, and this book is based on her real-world knowledge. It will help you save time and increase your network efficiency. Full of task-based, advanced solutions, it will also function as an indispensable reference guide. This book is a super guide to installing, securing, and troubleshooting Active Directory, whether for a new installation or an existing network. The material is grouped into a useful order to take you from installing a brand new AD infrastructure all the way through managing large-scale deployments and migrations. Along the way, you will learn about day-to-day tasks, like user and group administration, Group Policy, and securing your Active Directory servers and clients. You can read this guide from cover to cover, or just flip directly to the information that you need. At the end of each chapter, the author has also included references to other works, both online and in print, for when you decide to dig even deeper into a subject. Table of Contents This book's nine (9) chapters include the following: Ch 1 - Installing Active Directory Ch 2 - Integrating the Network Infrastructure Ch 3 - Daily Administration Ch 4 - Deploying Group Policy Ch 5 - Active Directory Security Ch 6 - Managing Large-Scale Deployments Ch 7 - Active Directory Migrations Ch 8 - Disaster Recovery Ch 9 - Scripting and Schem(a)ing Author Laura E. Hunter About the Author Laura E. Hunter is currently a senior information technology specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. She has co-authored or technically reviewed ten books on Microsoft technologies, and she has written numerous articles for www.techtarget.com and Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine. For a complete list of her work experience and publications, see www.laurahcomputing.com. You can also reach her at laurahcomputing@gmail.com ISBN 1-59059-492-4 Price $34.99 Features 352 pages; acknowledgements; introduction; note tips; figures; tables; index Targeted Customers This book is aimed at computer network administrators or consultants who are interested in a guide to Active Directory that is less intense than the many other 1,000+ page works on Active Directory. The author's aim is to provide a "quick-start guide" for networking professionals who need to deploy and maintain Microsoft's flexible, but occasionally infuriating directory service and who do not want to sift through a monstrous volume that contains more filler than actual useful information. About Apress Apress a publishing company devoted to meeting the needs of programmers and IT professionals. Apress' unique approach to computer book publishing grew out of conversations between Dan Appleman and Gary Cornell, Apress' founders, who believe that too many programming books are of such low quality that they are a complete waste of time. Computer professionals need quality books that are not just rehashes of documentation. Apress acquires manuscripts of the highest quality by attracting the best authors and technical experts that the world has to offer. Apress makes authors partners in the publishing process. Apress doesn't impose a "house style" on their authors and does not make them conform to a series that straightjacket's them. Apress also makes sure that authors are treated equitably. Their contract is open for all to see and has no hidden clauses in the fine print. But, the concept doesn't stop there. 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