This book cover most of the scenarios that you may want to setup a serve to do. It explains what each function does.
This is a very detailed, well written, and has helped me immensely already!! I'm just getting back into the Server world and wanted a good, solid book to facilitate that. The reviews are very accurate and I'm really enjoying getting back up to speed.
While this book makes a great reference for many of Win2k8 R2's features it is mostly an overview and lacks a bit of detail. What do I mean by this? I mean if you are looking for a book that will guide you through how to setup Remote Desktop Services with a broker server in detail this is not your book. If you are looking for a guide to troubleshoot unusual AD issues this is not your book. If you are looking for a basic reference to the many features Win2k8 R2 offers with some technical information then this is your book. I was hoping for the latter and was a bit disappointed. I would still recommend the book to those in the opposing category however.
This is the end all be all (ok maybe not) book on Server 2008 R2. I've been a Sys Admin for 10+ years and while reading and studying this book I find myself learning new concepts. Plus it seems like it would be a good book for a beginner IT guy as well. Very well written and covers a lot of topics. BUY This book!!!
I have recently converted to a Windows Server from peer-to-peer, and was looking for something that would give me guidance in setting up and maintaining the system. This book came highly recommended by an IT friend. However, it is way more advanced, even in the simple stuff, than someone who has no server background can understand. It assumes that you have some previous server maintenance and setup experience, and gets pretty deep right away. I was looking for something that would take me from ignorance to, at least, familiarity. This book is not it. Good for someone who does this for a living.
This book is fairly comprehensive and useful for experienced system managers. People who started with NT 3.11, moved into WS2K3 and then transitioned to WS2K8R2 will find it useful but beginners, viz. people who are transitioning from XP or Vista will want to look for a more introductory text. There are some essential items missing from the text, for example how to install and configure BDA to permit video capture boards to operate.
BDA does not ship with and is not officially supported by Microsoft for Server 2008R2, whereas it was supported in WS2K3. The BDA is useful and even necessary for some enterprise configurations where video capture must be supported. Media services provides some but not the essential BDA features. By installing the Windows Server 2008 DDK much of the BDA can be installed, but this is a back-door approach to what should be supported and discussed in the book. Because the DDK is the method used to create device drivers for new hardware, developers typically choose the Server platform. The book doesn't cover many aspects of system management that are of greatest importance to software developers, for example deployment and distribution of application programs and the installation of device drivers.
I purchased this book for a Server 2008 R2 Ent setup. For the most part it was a set-by-step guide on how to setup the server.
The book does a very good job about showing the steps on how to setup DNS and VPN and also go's into details on what the options mean that your clicking, however if you don't want to know about what it means that's no problem you can just read just the steps and click what it tells you and things just work.
In my opinion the book lacks on What you can do with AD after initial setup. If your looking for help with AD past install this isn't for you. The book simply tells how to setup a forest and DC, then leaves you hanging. There isn't really much AD information past setup. User account creation isn't explained well and seems like the author just simply assumed everyone knows everything about AD past setup.
There is a lot of information on IPv4 and IPv6, I was able to setup the server for both. Seeing that IPv6 will soon be used more since IPv4 addresses are running out this book would be a good option for IPv6 setup. however if you are looking for Ipv6 only, I would use this book as an alternative and find a book only on Ipv6.
overall this book had all he information needed to setup Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition. It was well worth the money as I had the Server up and running in 2 days with standard user interruptions. Figure it will take you around 12-16 hours for full setup.
I have two whole bookshelves devoted entirely to SQL Database books. The later ones all have a similar development organization. This book is a pleasant departure from the tired old introduction. The 2008 R2 database deserves this improved introduction because it signals a change in the direction that Microsoft is making for its signature database usage. Considering all the advertizing on Business Intelligence, anayletics, and data mining, the enhansed features of this new release indicate a higher level of wisdom concerning database use. So, a more comprehensive introduction is needed in this book in order for the user to understand the proper use of this database.
The book starts with the usual requirements and specifications and a short section on new features. Each section has a place to introduce the new features and how to use them properly. I wish the older books had more of these explanations, it would have saved me years of wondering. Still, this is a book intended to support large database design and many of the things covered here, like mirroring compression, Filestreaming, and encryption, are beyond the needs of small clients like mine. Other chapters, such as the use of Powershell, and spacial data types are of practical use to me and others. I have never seen such a complete coverage of a database product in one volume. In fact the 1550 printed pages, not including the index, make this one of the thickest books on the shelves. However pages 1551 to 2351 have to be included on the CD in order to finish the material. It took me several weeks to finish reading the book and I skimmed many chapters.
I develop databases and application interfaces for small systems. As the demands for data collection have increased, I have come to find that the express version maximum database size of 4GB has become too small. Even at Microsoft, which uses this version in VSTS testing, has come to find that their testing jams up at around 60 hours of testing due to this limit. I am grateful that the 2008 R2 limit is now 10GB and greatly aleviates this problem. So, I continue to find that SQL Server is my favorite databbase. OK, so I like Postgresql on Linux platforms.
There are a few things left out in database books that still bother me. Many database people say that databases exist to support software applications and don't run in a vacuum. This book is entirely about the database and its included tool set. It won't help you learn how to access an application role from a program. And something that I found out the hard way is that Visual Studio doesn't recognize 2008 R2 databases in its Server screens. It does recognize the 2008 databases however. There is a lot of chatter on the internet about this problem, but I suppose Microsoft will provide a Visual Studio upgrade to solve the problem. So, be aware, you will have to figure out how to design the interface into your C# or Visual Basic program without the aid of this convenient service. That means you will have to understand the connection string design thouroughly. Oh, and don't forget to provide an application role on the database side to recognize your application's attempts to connect to it!
One last thing that is neglected in these comprehensive database books, how to automatically and programmatically create and configure the database at the beginning. If you are building only one copy of your database, manual design and configuration with SQL Manager should serve you well. If you are designing an installable application, as I am, you will have to know how to get your application to talk to Powershell SMOs or use sqlcmd through a scripting interface with C# to build the database automatically. Take note Microsoft, manual scripts should become forbidden to do this on servers soon. This means that you will have to go to CodeProject or the internet to get hints on how to get "there" from "here". But once you do, you will have the final picture on how to create and manage a well designed and useful database. Happy reading until Microsoft delivers SQL Server 2012.
In the past, I have used the Mark Minasi "Mastering" series of books for general reference material on the various Windows Server versions (going back to NT4). This is the first "Unleashed" book I have picked up, and it has been every bit as good as any of the "Mastering" books. I will honestly say that I was a bit concerned with a book having five different authors. However, there is no difference in the quality of the material that I could find, as well as the clarity of the information presented.
As previously indicated in other reviews, the section on migrating from previous versions of Active Directory to 2008 R2 is excellent. The book covers a lot of Active Directory material overall, and provides good real-world examples that apply to both large and small site designs. The only thing that was missing was some expanded coverage of the Active Directory Administrative Center, which is a great tool for new admins (and can make common tasks much easier for the more experienced).
There is also plenty of coverage of material new to 2008 R2, including DNSSEC and Remote Desktop Services. The sections on IIS and Hyper-V are rather short, and if you are planning on relying heavily on either one, you are going to need additional materials. I'd love to see some expansion on these sections if they do future editions of the book. The Active Directory coverage, along with the sections on security options (at the server, domain, and network levels) and system management are all far more comprehensive, and this book is probably the only reference you will need.
Each chapter in the book concludes with a "Best Practices" section which serves as a terrific set of guidelines and general overview. Even if you only plan on using certain parts of the book, reading through each of the "Best Practices" could prove invaluable to your overall knowledge of Windows Server 2008 R2.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed is a superior, comprehensive reference book making it a true must have for every system administrator. First, the book itself is huge, totaling 1680 pages. I also appreciate the hardcover and obvious quality; I know my investment will last for years.
The content is even more amazing. It didn't find one subject not explored. Where other books only touch on certain topics, such as direct access, this reference book dives into each topic in great detail. Additionally I found all the material to be current and accurate. Unleashed gives some highly detailed coverage to migration, so if you are looking to migrate your 2k or 2003 servers, you will want to read the first few chapters at minimum.
Due to the large size, you will also probably want to select the chapters that apply to your specific environment and focus on those. One thing nice about this book is it does permit the reader to skip around among the chapters. Like I said, it is an impressive book and for the price, you are not going to find a book with a higher quality of content.
I'm glad I bought this book, we just completed our migration to Active Directory 2008 R2 (as well as Exchange 2010) this weekend using this book (and the Exchange Server 2010 Unleashed book) and by mid-day Saturday here, we are successfully done and heading home!
We used this Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed book in our planning process to get our Active Directory (2003 native mode) environment upgraded to 2008 R2. We wanted to take advantage of fine grain password policies as well as some of the new group policy functions. We knew that we needed need to go to AD 2008 R2 for our Exchange 2010 upgrade, we could have left AD on 2003 Native Mode, but we had the opportunity to buy new hardware, so we slipped into our Exchange migration budget funds to cover new servers for our AD migration as well.
The migration went smoothly, no problems at all, and in fact it went smoother than we ever anticipated. Very pleased with this book and the guidance it provided us!
As usual we are always expected to know the new stuff and support it but no one wants to ever pay for training so what to do? I did a lot of scouring for a good server 08R2 book and it was slim pickings. Most books were out of date (R1) or simply geared toward studying for a test which does me little good in defining an AD upgrade road map and figuring out what to define for app server standards. I finally found this on amazon and relying on reviews and the TOC i opted to get it. Its a fantastic resource but huge so expect to be doing some serious reading. What I loved is that right off they talk about what is new in R2. This is a big help. Lets get features out of the way immediately. The rest of the book is structured logically but is easy to jump around in since life does not follow a table of contents. I strongly recommed this if you support windows servers in a real world environment. If you are looking to take an MCSE test, then stick to the exam cram for those since this will be way over kill for you more than likely. A+ to the authors.
These books are getting bigger and bigger every year. This one is great that it's hardcover, at over 1500 pages, I've had soft cover books fall apart on me quickly. This book on Windows 2008 R2 covers everything, from DirectAcces (GREAT coverage!!!) to migrating to Windows 2008 R2 to Remote Desktop Services to Clustering and more. I haven't gotten through the entire book yet, but what I've jumped to so far has been solid!
Product Details :
Hardcover: 1680 pages
Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (January 17, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 067233092X
ISBN-13: 978-0672330926
Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 2.4 x 9.2 inches
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