Author: John Policelli
Publisher: Sams, 2009
Pages: 528
ISBN: 978-0672330452
Aimed at:
Rating: 4
Pros: Highly practical
Cons: Lacks overview
Reviewed by: Harry Fairhead

Written by an IT consultant who is a Microsoft MVP for Directory Services this volume, which is flagged as being a How-To book, contains nearly 250  procedures for planning, installing, customizing, and managing Active Directory Domain Services.

The version of Active Directory introduced in Windows Server 2008 contains the most significant changes since AD was first introduced and this up-to-date reflects the latest developments.

This is a highy practical book. It has step-by-step instructions that are illustrated with a great many screen dumps. It is rather like having someone show you exactly what to do.

The titlles of chapters 2 through 13 give a good idea of how it can help you:

• Prepare for Active Directory Domain Services installation
• Install and uninstall Active Directory Domain Services
• Manage trusts and functional levels
  Manage Operations Master Roles and Global Catalog Servers
• Manage sites and replication
• Manage the Active Domain Services schema
• Manage Active Directory Domain Services data
• Manage Group Policy
• Manage password replication policies
• Manage fine-grained password and account lockout policies
• Manage Active Directory Domain Services back up and recovery
• Manage Active Directory Domain Services auditing

Each chapter has several recipes to follow to acheive specific tasks - and the options appear to be pretty comprehensive.

If you are a new or infrequent user of Active Directory and don't want to become an expert in your own right having this set of guidelines available might be just the help you need.