This practical reference guide offers hundreds of useful tasks for managing Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, Microsoft's latest server. These concise, on-the-job solutions to common problems are certain to save you many hours of time searching through Microsoft documentation. Topics include files, event logs, security, DHCP, DNS, backup/restore, and more.
From my admittedly biased viewpoint, system administrators don't get enough credit. The system administration profession doesn't get the same kind of respect as the law or medical communities, even though system administrators are constantly asked to diagnosis highly technical problems and perform intricate surgery on both hardware and software issues. And sometimes there may even be lives at stake! OK, perhaps I'm over-dramatizing the situation, but my point is that system administrators are the unsung heroes of the IT revolution and don't get the recognition they deserve.
There are thousands of programs, tools, commands, screens, scripts, buttons, tabs, applets, menus, and settings that system administrators need to know about and understand to do their job. And it has only been in the past couple of years that Microsoft's documentation has actually been more of a help than a hindrance. But it still isn't enough. What Windows system administrators really need is quick and easy ways to find what they need to get the job done.
There are plenty of books that go into all sorts of detail about the theory behind a particular technology or application, but what if you don't need that? What if you know the theory but just can't (or don't want to) remember the exact command-line or graphical sequence to configure an application? Or perhaps you need some barebones code to help automate a task. There are very few books that cut through the fluff and provide only the essentials for getting the job done. This book is intended to do just that. This book also provides added value by describing exactly when a task can come in handy and listing additional pointers for more information.
Based on my own experience, hours of research, and years of hanging out on newsgroups and mailing lists, I've compiled over 300 recipes that should answer many of the "How do I..." questions one could pose about Windows Server. And just as in the Perl community where the Perl Cookbook was a latecomer that sells well even today, I believe the Windows Server Cookbook will also be a great addition to any Windows system administrator's library.
