This Field Guide contains everything from Installation to Scripting.

— Joe Topjian, Adminspotting.net

Active Directory Field Guide is ideal for Windows and Active Directory administrators and consultants. It contains valuable descriptions of higher-level skills, tasks, and tools, including migration, large-scale deployment, security, and disaster recovery, and provides bold, nontraditional solutions.

Author Laura E. Hunter is a Microsoft MVP, and this book is based on her real-world knowledge. It will help you save time and increase your network efficiency. Full of task-based, advanced solutions, it will also function as an indispensable reference guide.

About The Author
Laura E. Hunter is currently a senior information technology specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. She has co-authored or technically reviewed ten books on Microsoft technologies, and she has written numerous articles for TechTarget.com and Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine. For a complete list of her work experience and publications, see www.laurahcomputing.com.

Customer Reviews & Comments
The small form factor of Hunter's book is a deliberate evocation of its ideal use. For a sysadmin who needs a quick, easy to read, guide to Active Directory. Specifically, to the most common tasks that you are likely to face. Hunter explicitly avoids a comprehensive discourse, in order to give you this quick guide. Logically enough, the first chapter is on installing Active Directory itself. It is scarcely 40 pages. You should be able to absorb it in an hour or so, even with no prior background in this topic. Then the actual installation time itself doesn't seem so lengthy, from the chapter's descriptions. On an ongoing basis, Chapter 3 might be the most useful. Hunter explains the typical day to day tasks on Active Directory that you might face. Again, less than 40 pages. The book also has a chapter on large scale deployments. The advice in it seems fine. And Hunter put in the chapter to ensure that she covered this topic. I do wonder, though, about how realistically it fits into the book's goal. A large deployment strongly suggests a sysadmin who will have to devote considerable time to installing and running it. Of necessity, she will probably have to consult more comprehensive texts, given her level of responsibility. Whereas this book might be envisaged as targeting a smaller deployment, on just one or a few machines. To be sure, you should certainly get a full reference book on Active Directory, if you are going to be running it. But consider using that mostly as informational backup, and perhaps using Hunter's book as the daily guide. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)