Rating: 
Summary: Must have for anyone working with AD
Review: A must have book for dealing with AD. I primarily bought book for some scripting help with AD, however, after seeing book, it's great whether you are using Command Line, GUI, VB, or Perl (from web site). The discussion after each topic is also very informative. So no matter what method you are using, this book will describe how to do it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth twice the price
Review: All I can say is WOW. A friend recommended this book to me, but I was a little skeptical because I didn't think I needed another AD book. I was intrigued though because I'm a big fan of the O'Reilly Cookbook format. Well I wasn't disappointed. This book has to be the most useful and practical AD book available. It is a how-to guide that not only covers the basic admin tools, but also shows how to accomplish each task with a script too! This one is going right by my monitor.I don't see how any admin regardless of experience level wouldn't be able to get their money's worth (and then some) out of this book. Keep 'um coming O'Reilly!
Rating:
Summary: Gift from the Gods
Review: As a busy admin is always hard to keep educated and also work the countless hours that come with an admin job. This book has provided me with a reference that I have already used so much that I have lost count of the times its code has been of use. I can thoroughly recommend this book due to the amount of hours it has saved me and enabled me to get home to my wife at a reasonable hour. Robbie many thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Fantabulous!!
Review: As a system administrator, i do scripting very often to improve the work efficiency in my team. This book is definitely a must to all new, intermediate and expert support/engineers and developers dealing with AD. The contents are very comprehensive which covered most of the topics you want to know about AD. The authors often add more examples in their website, corrected bugs found in the scripts and one value added i found that really amazed me was massive scripts written in different languages to cater for different users in their website. No other websites have better example than his!! This book gave me a better understanding of AD, the samples of scripts have helped me a lot and my project is almost completed now. Many thanks to the author, Robbie Allen for his advice. O'reilly books are great in general!! Well done!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent how-to instructions for Active Directory Scripters
Review: Book Review: Active Directory Cookbook for Windows ® Server 2003 and Windows ® Server 2000
Pages: 622
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; (September 2003)
ISBN: 0596004648
Rating: 9/10
Rater - Carlos Magalhaes - Active Directory Programming MVP About the author - Robbie Allen has been authoring books for quite some time now. I have been following every release. Robbie has a wonderful writing style that allows for quick and enjoyable reading. This book is no exception. Robbie has a thorough knowledge of Active Directory; he recently was awarded the MVP award from Microsoft (well done, Robbie!) and is highly respected in the Active Directory community. Hidden gems - Being a technical reviewer myself for many Active Directory and Windows Server books, very often are the technical reviewers forgotten in a book review. To Rick Kingslan, Gil Kirkpatrick, Tony Murray, Todd Myrick, Joe Richards and Kevin Sullivan: well done guys! Your efforts along with Robbie's have made this book a true gem. Audience - I am among the fortunate few that have the job title, "System Developer and System Administrator" (both a blessing and a curse!). I can however confirm that this book is well suited for both audiences. There is no constraint on which scripting language to use either. Robbie provides both VBScript and Perl examples for most of his code samples, they are easy to follow and with the additional knowledge this book provides, easy to expand on. What this book is not - This book is not an Active Directory Programming book. It does not go into the depth of detail about certain points (as it is not the objective of the book) like Active Directory Second Addition by O'Reilly does, but covers the points that are important very well. Quick Overview of Inside the book - The book is comprised of 18 chapters. (The chapter headers below are my personal abbreviations for the chapters) Chapter 1 - The stage is set.
This chapter covers the basics about what scripting languages and tools that will be used and any issues to take into consideration. Chapter 2 - Core Architecture is important!
The importance of how to create and maintain your Forests, Domains and trusts is explained in this chapter. Chapter 3 - Who Runs my Network Operating System (NOS)?
The servers that are regarded as the back bone of the network your Domain Controllers, Global Catalogs and FSMO's all important tasks that one has to do on a daily basis is covered in chapter 3. Chapter 4 - Ohh objects where are you?
To me an important advantage (and there are many more) that Windows ® 2003 and Windows ® 2000 have over the older NOS is that the searching capability is enhanced and no object can hide. Chapter 4 covers Searching and Manipulating objects. Chapter 5 - The Holding cells of objects
This chapter covers the creating and maintenance of Organizational units. Chapter 6 - And of course who could forget the users.
Want to find out just about everything you can script for the user object? Then this chapter is for you. Chapter 7 - How do I herd my users?
People live in communities (like Tony Murray's ActiveDir.org or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adsianddirectoryservices) and active directory caters for these groupings by allowing users to create (no prizes) Groups. Chapter 7 covers creating and maintaining groups. Chapter 8 - Computers
Chapter 8 is for you if you need to create and maintain your computer objects. Chapter 9 - Rules, Rules, Rules!
And of course if you have ever managed a group of objects you have to apply some rules. Create and maintain your Groups Policy Objects with this chapter. Chapter 10 - The big boss
With every wonderful creation there has to be a boss or in this case a backbone. This chapter is very important, covering important points to remember about your Active Directory Schema. Chapter 11 - How do I build my site?
Network topology can be tricky. Use the scripts in this chapter to help you find out more about your sites. Chapter 12 - Hey why don't I have that object on my directory partition?
Replication is such an important part of Active Directory. One of the most neglected areas with Active Directory. Chapter 12 provides some invaluable scripts. Chapter 13 - Nice to meet you but who are you?
Domain Naming System (DNS), imagine we had to live in a world where there where no names. Ever wondered how to modify DNS server configurations using a script? Chapter 13 has your answer. Chapter 14 - Are you really who you say you are?
This chapter can not be missed, with the internet pretending to be what it is not, this chapter covering Security and Authentication is a must. Chapter 15 - "You network is as good as your auditing"
A famous person once said, "You won't know what's wrong until you ask". Dive into the world of logging, monitoring, auditing and setting quotas with this chapter. Chapter 16 - Bang, now what?
How many times have I been called in to "fix" a very sick Active Directory installation and I find out backups have not been working for months! Please take time and read this chapter, the scripts and advice on Backing up, Recovering , important DIT maintenance and watching those deleted objects can save people like me hours of work. Chapter 17 - I know about Domain Partitions but what are Application Partitions?
If you do not know what an application partition is or does, chapter 17 is for you! Chapter 18 - But I use the .net Framework
This chapter is dedicated in explaining how to use the different technologies and programming languages with Active Directory. My Verdict A wonderful book for overworked Administrators that really don't have the time to go through the learning curve of scripting, the book provides the code snippets there ready to use. And if you don't feel like typing them out here is the download link for the entire source code for the whole book. http://www.rallenhome.com/books/adcookbook/code.html Robbie, well done, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent how-to instructions for Active Directory Scripters
Review: Book Review: Active Directory Cookbook for Windows ® Server 2003 and Windows ® Server 2000
Pages: 622
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; (September 2003)
ISBN: 0596004648
Rating: 9/10
Rater - Carlos Magalhaes - Active Directory Programming MVP About the author - Robbie Allen has been authoring books for quite some time now. I have been following every release. Robbie has a wonderful writing style that allows for quick and enjoyable reading. This book is no exception. Robbie has a thorough knowledge of Active Directory; he recently was awarded the MVP award from Microsoft (well done, Robbie!) and is highly respected in the Active Directory community. Hidden gems - Being a technical reviewer myself for many Active Directory and Windows Server books, very often are the technical reviewers forgotten in a book review. To Rick Kingslan, Gil Kirkpatrick, Tony Murray, Todd Myrick, Joe Richards and Kevin Sullivan: well done guys! Your efforts along with Robbie's have made this book a true gem. Audience - I am among the fortunate few that have the job title, "System Developer and System Administrator" (both a blessing and a curse!). I can however confirm that this book is well suited for both audiences. There is no constraint on which scripting language to use either. Robbie provides both VBScript and Perl examples for most of his code samples, they are easy to follow and with the additional knowledge this book provides, easy to expand on. What this book is not - This book is not an Active Directory Programming book. It does not go into the depth of detail about certain points (as it is not the objective of the book) like Active Directory Second Addition by O'Reilly does, but covers the points that are important very well. Quick Overview of Inside the book - The book is comprised of 18 chapters. (The chapter headers below are my personal abbreviations for the chapters) Chapter 1 - The stage is set.
This chapter covers the basics about what scripting languages and tools that will be used and any issues to take into consideration. Chapter 2 - Core Architecture is important!
The importance of how to create and maintain your Forests, Domains and trusts is explained in this chapter. Chapter 3 - Who Runs my Network Operating System (NOS)?
The servers that are regarded as the back bone of the network your Domain Controllers, Global Catalogs and FSMO's all important tasks that one has to do on a daily basis is covered in chapter 3. Chapter 4 - Ohh objects where are you?
To me an important advantage (and there are many more) that Windows ® 2003 and Windows ® 2000 have over the older NOS is that the searching capability is enhanced and no object can hide. Chapter 4 covers Searching and Manipulating objects. Chapter 5 - The Holding cells of objects
This chapter covers the creating and maintenance of Organizational units. Chapter 6 - And of course who could forget the users.
Want to find out just about everything you can script for the user object? Then this chapter is for you. Chapter 7 - How do I herd my users?
People live in communities (like Tony Murray's ActiveDir.org or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adsianddirectoryservices) and active directory caters for these groupings by allowing users to create (no prizes) Groups. Chapter 7 covers creating and maintaining groups. Chapter 8 - Computers
Chapter 8 is for you if you need to create and maintain your computer objects. Chapter 9 - Rules, Rules, Rules!
And of course if you have ever managed a group of objects you have to apply some rules. Create and maintain your Groups Policy Objects with this chapter. Chapter 10 - The big boss
With every wonderful creation there has to be a boss or in this case a backbone. This chapter is very important, covering important points to remember about your Active Directory Schema. Chapter 11 - How do I build my site?
Network topology can be tricky. Use the scripts in this chapter to help you find out more about your sites. Chapter 12 - Hey why don't I have that object on my directory partition?
Replication is such an important part of Active Directory. One of the most neglected areas with Active Directory. Chapter 12 provides some invaluable scripts. Chapter 13 - Nice to meet you but who are you?
Domain Naming System (DNS), imagine we had to live in a world where there where no names. Ever wondered how to modify DNS server configurations using a script? Chapter 13 has your answer. Chapter 14 - Are you really who you say you are?
This chapter can not be missed, with the internet pretending to be what it is not, this chapter covering Security and Authentication is a must. Chapter 15 - "You network is as good as your auditing"
A famous person once said, "You won't know what's wrong until you ask". Dive into the world of logging, monitoring, auditing and setting quotas with this chapter. Chapter 16 - Bang, now what?
How many times have I been called in to "fix" a very sick Active Directory installation and I find out backups have not been working for months! Please take time and read this chapter, the scripts and advice on Backing up, Recovering , important DIT maintenance and watching those deleted objects can save people like me hours of work. Chapter 17 - I know about Domain Partitions but what are Application Partitions?
If you do not know what an application partition is or does, chapter 17 is for you! Chapter 18 - But I use the .net Framework
This chapter is dedicated in explaining how to use the different technologies and programming languages with Active Directory. My Verdict A wonderful book for overworked Administrators that really don't have the time to go through the learning curve of scripting, the book provides the code snippets there ready to use. And if you don't feel like typing them out here is the download link for the entire source code for the whole book. http://www.rallenhome.com/books/adcookbook/code.html Robbie, well done, this is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Day to Day Operations
Review: Dear Rallen, Last month I bought your ADCookbook for a store in Singapore. I find it very useful in my day to day work. This book is great. It is my quick reference guide. Thanks
Gunasekaran
Rating:
Summary: Buy this now
Review: Do you have to manage more than a few computers that are part of an Active Directory domain? If so, buy this book. One script will immediately pay for the cost of this book. Ever have to rename a computer? Sick of walking over to the workstation and logging in? Wouldn't you much rather just run a script and have everything work? There's so much here that it's just not possible to describe all the tedious headaches that this book will save you. AWESOME! Thanks, Robbie!!!
Rating:
Summary: WOW! This is the book to buy!
Review: Even if you can't afford eat for a few days, buy this book! I use this book as a reference just about everyday. Our admin scripts and admin sites have gone from 2 tools to 30 within a month. I now have more time to do fun projects instead of stupid repetitive tasks. I have 2 six foot bookshelves full of crappy books. This book is one of only three on my desk and it is always open. Thanks Robbie!
Rating:
Summary: Right on the mark
Review: Exceptional book covering AD. Concise and to the point on matters relating to my everyday experiences with AD and how to make scripting with AD work for me as an Administrator. Bravo!
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