Product Description

Whether you’re new to Active Directory (AD) or a savvy system administrator looking to brush up on your skills, Active Directory for Dummies, 2^nd Edition will steer you in the right direction! Since its original release, Microsoft’s implementation of the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) for the Windows Server line of networking software has become one of the most popular directory service products in the world. If you are involved with the design and support of Microsoft directory services and/or solutions, you really need this book!

You’ll understand the basics of AD and utilize its structures to simplify your life and secure your digital environment. You’ll discover how to exert fine-grained control over groups, assets, security, permissions, and policies on a Windows network and efficiently configure, manage, and update the network. You’ll find new and updated material on security improvements, significant user interface changes, and updates to the AD scripting engine, password policies, accidental object deletion protection, and more. You will learn how to:

• Navigate the functions and structures of AD
• Understand business and technical requirements and determine goals
• Become familiar with physical components like site links, network services, and site topology
• Manage and monitor new features, AD replication, and schema management
• Maintain AD databases
• Avoid common AD mistakes that can undermine network security

Complete with lists of the ten most important points about AD, and ten cool Web resources, and ten troubleshooting tips, Active Directory For Dummies, 2^nd Edition is your one-stop guide to setting up, working with, and making the most of Active Directory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48556 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 334 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470287200
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
Fully updated with all the exciting AD enhancements!

Design and deploy Active Directory to simplify policy and security management

This is not your dad's AD! Whether you just need to upgrade your knowledge from previous versions or you're starting fresh with Active Directory, this guide will get you rolling. Grow your AD capabilities with Domain Services, Lightweight Directory Services, Federation Services, Certificate Services, Rights Management Services, and more!

Discover how to:

• Plan the DNS namespace

• Use trees and forests

• Map the network infrastructure

• Create and enforce network policies

• Manage replication traffic

• Edit user objects

About the Author
Steve Clines, MCSE, MCT, has worked as an IT architect and engineer at EDS for over 18 years. He has worked on deployments of more than 100,000 seats for both Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server. Steve is the author of MCSE Designing a Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure For Dummies, which is a study guide for the 70-219 MCP exam. He also maintains the Confessions of an IT Geek blog at http://itgeek.steveco.net.

Marcia Loughry, MCSE and MCP+I, is a Senior Infrastructure Specialist with a large IT firm in Dallas, Texas. She is president of the Plano, Texas BackOffice User Group (PBUG) and a member of Women in Technology International. Marcia received her MCSE in NT 3.51 in 1997 and completed requirements for the NT 4.0 track in 1998.
Marcia has extensive experience working with Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 in enterprises of all sizes. She is assigned to some of her firm’s largest customers in designing NT solutions and integrating UNIX and NetWare environments with NT.

Customer Reviews

A Good, Simple Overview or Refresher
Doing Active Directory right was important to my small technology company, so I bought more than ten books on Active Directory, Windows 2000 Server, and DNS. This Dummies book I took home and planned to skim through it first, thinking it would be a nice quick introduction.

The book got mislaid, and I did not pick it up again until I was nicely up to speed with Active Directory and had done several installations. I read it anyway on a Saturday night as a quick review and was surprised at the clear style, nice organization, and adequacy of its coverage of the subject matter.

If you have just a day or two to get up to speed with this important new Microsoft technology, this book will certainly do. System administrators and architects will want a more technical treatment.

A great little book
One of my students told me about this book and brought it to class. I hadn't expected so much technical content from a Dummies book. This little book really should be the starting point for anyone interested in Active Directory.

A decent book of negligible usefulness
The fantastic complexity of Windows 2000 Active Directory almost makes the title of this book an oxymoron. Win2K presents a huge paradigm shift to network administrators, since the Active Directory is a completely new, radically different beast from what Windows NT was. Understanding AD and how it works takes patience...it isn't accidental that there are 1000+ page books out there on setting up and maintaining an AD infrastructure. This book doesn't aim to help you do specific tasks in AD, but what it does very well is explain in basic terms what AD is and does, how it it structured, and give you the frame of reference you need before you delve further in. But I'm not sure how many people need to [pay] for this book when there are other books out there that deal much more extensively in the workings of AD. The bottom line is that computer enthusiasts curious about the central feature of Win2K and newbie administrators of Win2K who have little or no experience with NT4 will find it a useful primer on AD. For anyone else, it's probably better to put the [money] toward one of the more detailed, albeit less plainspoken, AD guides.