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Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit
The following report compares books using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine).
Rating: 4.17/5 from 18 reviews Deployment Planning Guide is OKScale model of Microsoft market share.This set of books is enormous. The sheer quantity of information that Microsoft has made available through this kit is almost overwhelming. If there is anything that you want to know about Windows 2000 server (regular, advanced and datacenter) you WILL find it here. An outstanding reference for system administrators and would be MCSA/MCSEs, this kit gives you incredible detail about the key features of Active Directory, Windows 2000 DNS, and migration planning. The only major draw back to the kit is its haphazard cross-referencing between the books within the set. Expect to do a lot of book switching and index checking. Some of the books also expect that you have read the Windows Help file on your server. This set has made a giant leap in readability. The clean layout and clear writing style keeps you attentive without loading "fluff" into its explanations. For Microsoft gurus, this is a must-have reference!I hate the size of this Resource Kit, the biggest ResKit published by Microsoft so far. But the material more than justifies its size - every thing you need to know about the Windows 2000 platform and Active Directory is in here. I keep coming back to this one from time to time to refer to a lot of stuff that I would've otherwise overlooked. If you hate the idea of carrying or shelving this ResKit, the whole thing's available on the CD as well. I prefer to read long artciles/topics on paper - the CD servers as a Field Reference. Has plenty of tools too - some of them available for free on the Microsoft web site. This Resource Kit is the best investment in a Microsoft Press book i've ever made. Bharat Suneja | ||||||||||||||||||||
The Deployment Planning Guide reflects Microsoft's understanding that Windows 2000 must be implemented with thorough planning to achieve the potential it has for supporting an enterprise environment. This volume is a Project Manager's dream. Nearly every planning base has been covered here from identifying the appropriate composition of various teams to task sequencing to checklist templates. The material is so well organized for guiding an implementation project that I am surprised it was not released with a Microsoft Project file and instructions to just add your own dates and stir.
The Deployment Planning Guide provides a useful survey of many of the features of Windows 2000. Even after a week of MOC training and reading through the two volumes associated with that class I learned some new things from the Planning Guide about how Win2K works. For people who need to gain an understanding of what the options are and how all the pieces fit together this is an excellent read.
For the most part the Planning Guide is clearly and accurately written. A few times terms seemed to be misapplied and the results were confusing. Repetition became annoying as the reader was referred to Server Help or the Unattend.doc on the installation CD for more information too frequently. Chapters 13 and 25 repeat the same material, once to describe automating server installations and then again to describe automating client installations. These problems reflect an obvious effort to make each section self contained but even so the volume is quite readable as an overview of Windows 2000 networking.
Check back in about 30 days for my review of the 1500 page Distributed Systems Guide!