Rating: 
Summary: An Overview, not a how to guide
Review: If you are thinking of buying this book as a "How to Setup Win2k Server" manual, think again.The authors do a very good job in demystifing Active directory, and kind of gloss over everything else. Is AD an important part of Win2k? Do bears live in the woods? Yes it is important, but you still have to deal with TCP/IP and security too. Fortunately for the publishers, and us, you can also buy a Win2K stup book, Security book, etc, etc. Which one do you need?
Rating: 
Summary: New ideas to old technology
Review: It's amazing how we're back to the old technology such as the Centralized computing model, NDS... I mean active directory and who could forget the Sherwood Forest. This book is a must read for starting a Windows 2000 implimentation. The minds that were gathered together for this book are industries leaders from the forefront of NT networking. New to the scene and just under the cover is a bright mind from Citrix Systems, Jay Tomlin. His small contribution was clearly evident by his concise technical overview. I expect to see more out of him in the future and hopefully on topics related to Citrix enterprise technologies.
Rating:
Summary: New ideas to old technology
Review: It's amazing how we're back to the old technology such as the Centralized computing model, NDS... I mean active directory and who could forget the Sherwood Forest. This book is a must read for starting a Windows 2000 implimentation. The minds that were gathered together for this book are industries leaders from the forefront of NT networking. New to the scene and just under the cover is a bright mind from Citrix Systems, Jay Tomlin. His small contribution was clearly evident by his concise technical overview. I expect to see more out of him in the future and hopefully on topics related to Citrix enterprise technologies.
Rating: 
Summary: A must have handbook written by NT Engineers for NT Engineer
Review: Migrating to Windows 2000 Server The Windows 2000 Server System Administration Handbook is written by a team of Windows NT professionals, each with many years of real world experience. Authors include Paul Shields (MCSE) Erik Sojka (MCSE), Ralph Crump (MCSE, CCNA) and Martin Weiss (MCSE). Our goal was to create a book that we would use ourselves in our day-to-day jobs. Windows 2000 Server provides an abundance of added features and enhancements that will benefit the IT foundation of your organization. Considering the many added features, as well as the radical structural change largely due to Active Directory, just figuring out where to start in the migration process can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Windows 2000 was designed to operate with earlier versions of Windows NT. Operating in such a mixed environment will not provide you with the complete set of benefits and functionality that Windows 2000 provides; however, this interoperability provides administrators with the flexibility to perform upgrades to servers in increments and to implement certain Windows 2000 services. Organizations will still gain many of the performance and other benefits provided by Windows 2000 Server by performing such an incremental upgrade; in fact, Microsoft recommends that this is how organizations should migrate to Windows 2000. Microsoft also offers a licensed version of software by Mission Critical Software Inc., which allows you to easily migrate your current NT Server domains to Windows 2000, using the Domain Migrator. Many organizations will need to run NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 in parallel rather than making the move all at once. The Domain Migrator tool provides support for running both operating systems concurrently, and it also provides rollback capabilities. The Domain Migrator will ease the migration by providing wizards that present a logical path to migration, modeling capabilities that allow you to see what your directory structure will look like, and "prune and graft" technologies that help you reduce the number of domains in your network. Microsoft has also met the needs of those operating with the widely used Novell NetWare by introducing a new Directory Service Migration Tool, which helps migrate NetWare Domain Services (NDS), as well as the older NetWare binderies. The migration tool migrates the NetWare data into an offline database, which then allows the administrator to adjust the account information before actually saving it to Active Directory. Sean Wallbridge, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT, MCP+I
Rating:
Summary: Right on Target
Review: My company has been serving as a beta site for Win2k, and I have been overseeing the insatllation and testing. I've been very pleased with with the quality and content of this book, mainly because the authors have really gotten under the hood of Windows, and they're able to clearly articulate what they found. I'm sure I'll be relying on this book even more when Windows hits the streets next month.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: This book has everything you need to know. It's accurate, detailed, good combination of explanation and step by step.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: This book has some very good information, but, does not convey information adequate to supply a system administrator with the information necessary to run a network. It appears that that was the intent of the book, and I think the writers missed the mark. As examples, the backup utility is described. Unfortunately, the creation and maintenance of media pools is not discussed. One cannot use backup effectively (maybe not at all) unless the media pools and media are created and managed in advance of performing a backup. As a second example, the group policy discussion tempts you about creating an install package for software but never shows you how. This book will be one that I will use after exhausting other more reliable sources of information when I want an alternative view of Windows 2000 Server architecture and administration. Not a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: This book has some very good information, but, does not convey information adequate to supply a system administrator with the information necessary to run a network. It appears that that was the intent of the book, and I think the writers missed the mark. As examples, the backup utility is described. Unfortunately, the creation and maintenance of media pools is not discussed. One cannot use backup effectively (maybe not at all) unless the media pools and media are created and managed in advance of performing a backup. As a second example, the group policy discussion tempts you about creating an install package for software but never shows you how. This book will be one that I will use after exhausting other more reliable sources of information when I want an alternative view of Windows 2000 Server architecture and administration. Not a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: I thought it was excellent for experienced NT admins
Review: This is a lot of material for one book to cover well, but they have done a good job. I will help if you are already familiar with NT 4, especially in the area of permissions, since it assumes a certain amount of knowledge. Microsoft is really forcing MMC down your throat with 2000, so you need to read this book at a minimum to figure out what services have been moved under MMC.
Rating:
Summary: You'll need this if you plan on Installing 2000 Server
Review: This is an excellent overall handbook on installing and configuring 2000 server. There plenty on Active Directory, especially in how to transition the NT file/folder structure. Also provided a much better understanding of groups/accounts/user policies than the beta doc on these subjects. Definitely recommend.
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