BOOK REVIEW

The Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administrator’s Guide
Robert Williams & Mark Walla (Addison Wesley 2000)
Review by Deb Murray, Megamind, an Institute for Advanced Technology Training

The Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administrator’s Guide is appropriately named. It is the definitive reference for administrators and IT managers charged with Windows 2000 deployment and management. However, this book is also recommended to a much wider audience. Anyone needing to understand how to use Windows 2000 basic and advanced features will find this a valuable resource.

Authors Walla and Williams have written a book that uniquely addresses the needs of both novice and extremely advanced users. This is accomplished by providing a conceptual context for each topic prior to delving into no non-sense “how to” text and practical real world examples.

Competitive Windows 2000 books do an adequate job of explaining basic administrative tasks like file server management, but provide only high-level review of advanced features. The Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administrator’s Guide handles the basic functions in a clear and readable fashion and goes much further. The authors understood that as an enterprise operating system a text on Windows 2000 must cover the full range complex topics. For example, two chapters are dedicated to the theory and practical use of Active Directory. Over 300 pages are spent on security related issues including Kerberos authentication and the public key infrastructure. Likewise, enterprise networking, implementation of virtual private networks and IPSec, terminal services and IIS have been extensively reviewed. New features get particularly strong coverage, but standard operations are not overlooked such as user administration, network management, clustering and data storage management. The text is rounded out with a reference guide to common commands and an extensive glossary.

The book is written by subject matter experts. According to Microsoft’s John Ford, Group Manager of Network Solutions, "When Microsoft needed operating system interoperability experts, we turned to the authors of this book. Their expertise is now enhanced with this authoritative book.”

If you are a CIO, a new administrator or anyone in between, this is the one books that you must have one your shelf. We concur with Dan Kusnetzky, IDC Vice President of Operating Environments, that this book “will certainly be useful addition to the library of system administrators wishing to make the most of Microsoft's new operating environment.”

The Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administrator’s Guide is available at most book stores or on-line through companies like Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com .

Deb Murray is the Managing Director of Megamind, an Institute for Advanced Technology Training can be reached at dmurray@megamind.org or call 1-888-333-8649.