Active Directory For Dummies,   ISBN:9780470287200

Customer Rating: 

When Microsoft took an elegant simple schema from UNIX and redesigned it into a convoluted might mare called "Active Directory" it was time for this book. Turns out that "Active Directory" is not active or a directory; who would have guessed? Well this book starts you off with correcting concepts and even lets you know that with the new terminology that the definition of "domain" has been changed.

A lot of time Dummies books are too busy being cute; this one however is so packed with helpful information that it does not have time to be cute. This book takes you from ground zero to up and running while helping avoid common pit falls.

Customer Rating: 

This was a "why not?" read.

I was surprised to find it a decent introduction to Active Directory. It mainly deals with the background information as it attempts to explain what is Active Directory.

This is not really an AD management book. If you are looking for a "How to" book, this book will not serve your needs. The information is rather basic at best.

There is discussion about the AD schema which might bore a few people but it is useful if you want to get a feel for the guts of AD. I might add; I really haven't had much of a need to dive into the schema as of yet. Had one instance of extending the schema but that was about it.

One thing that is lightly discussed is AD's use of DNS. Many problems tend to be DNS related and it's not discussed much.

There are dated chapters such as upgrading from NT 3.5 or 4.0 and it talks about why you should use AD. These can be skipped.

The chapter on troubleshooting is pretty basic and not really of much use.

The chapter containing links is old. Some no longer work and some have changed due to company renames, etc.

Overall, it's not a book to get a feel for AD. It is becoming dated especially with 2008 being out. But as a cheap introduction it's pretty good.

Customer Rating: 

So far the book is right on and helpful as far as giving the back gorund of the AD system.
Book showed up ontime and was good price.

Customer Rating: 

For those that need such an aid, a dummy helper, quick book, etc in such a subject as this, it is irreplacable.

Customer Rating: 

You have no need to worry all the unknown terms, alien language, confusing words that you might have found in the other books. Here, you will get simple explanations about every term used around Active Directory. It's a good one.. I like it =)