Mastering Windows Server 2003
Rating:  -
Good:
-Good coverage of main topics (DHCP, DSN, AD).
-Practical perspective, examples and troubleshooting.
-A lot of information that eventually could be useful.
Bad:
-Fisically the book is too big, difficult to hold, this becomes a problem. It should be divided in two parts, the important topics and the rarely used information.
-Minasi exposition is not clear. He tries so hard to entertain the reader, and his writing lacks structure. He jumps to specific topics that extend many pages, use too many words to express simple things. Sometimes is really exasperating: "come on man, GET TO THE POINT!, don't waste my time".
-Have a lot of typos, i think because is based in the prior edition.
I think the book is too tangled to be useful for begginers, and too disperse to be helpful for experts. No doubt Minasi has profound knowledge of the product and writing skills, but needs STRUCTURE and SOBRIETY.
I rate the book three stars just because knowing nothing i made it settting a windows network with DSN,DHCP,Active directory,VPN and Terminal services. The book contains the information but the reader, not the author, is who organize it.
Rating:  -
I've been a Server OS administrator since 1991, starting with Novell 3.12. I started with OS2, Novell and then Windows NT in 1995 at the second largest retailer in the US and I've worked my way through NT 3.5 to 2003. I bought Minasi's NT 4.0 books and thought they were the greatest thing going, but I was still green and the other publishers were not up to speed. Now I own the Windows Server 2003 books Inside Out, Unleashed and Administrators Companion. I have read much of Minasi's 2003 book, but I doubt I'll buy it. I have to say that Minasi's writing style now forces serious administrators to waste a great deal of time wading through the fluff. His book is one of, if not the thickest and it's not because of the technical information. Just like his articles in magazine publications, his writing is oriented towards new or amateur administrators. I think if you have 2 of, or the 3 books I mentioned previously, you can skip Minasi's Server 2003 book. The single area where Mark has an edge over the other books is his discussion of compatibility with older, downlevel or non-MS workstation client OSes such as DOS, Mac, Workstation, etc. This same information was covered in his earlier NT 4.0 and Win2000 books, so if you have any of them, you're ok there.
Rating:  -
You know, there are times I despair at the treatment of Macintoshes in Windows-centric books. Obsolete information, badly written explanations of Mac technology, and general "macs can't do that" comments. I'll flip through Windows books at the store and shudder at the nonsense they spread about Macs.
This book is not one of those times. I got a copy of this book when it first came out, and continue to recommend it to my Windows IT friends. And I do strongly recommend they read the Mac Integration chapter, with one caveat:
Consider the pubishing date.
If you read the chapter in its entirety, you'll see the author mentions that OSX 10.2.3 is the "latest version of the Mac OS as of this writing". OSX 10.2.3 came out in December 2002. The next patch, 10.2.4, came out in February 2003. This gives me a good idea when the book was written. Now, not a lot has changed in the Windows world since early 2003 (barring R2) but on the Mac side, it's been a lifetime.
I clearly remember the 10.2 days - and struggling to get OSX to play nice with Windows. Apple was still cleaning up the code back then, and it showed. The only way to do DNS on a 10.2 server was to learn BIND (and configure UNIX files) - Apple used NetInfo for their directory (as the Minasi chapter clearly states) - it wasn't until towards the end of 10.2.x that LDAPv3 finally became usable. (And Apple officially dumped NetInfo as their primary directory in 10.3). OSX 10.2 (while much better then 10.1) was like Windows XP before SP1. A painful preview of a future promise.
For a book that talks about connecting Macs from OS 8.6 through OSX 10.2.3, the chapter is fantastic. Sure, today it's easy for me to tell 10.2 users "Man, upgrade to Tiger... you'll love it" (which is my current solution) but back then, 10.2 was the latest and greatest. As the chapter mentions, SMB access (SAMBA) was moody, erratic, and only authenticated to the server's local SAM, not to AD. Making it a mixed blessing at best. But AFP to SFM still worked great, and if you could get SFM on the Windows file server, it was much nicer then OSX's native SMB support. SMB didn't really become practical until 10.3. Under 10.4 "Tiger" it's great.
Trying to use SFM with 10.3 or 10.4 clients is not advisable. SMB works great, use it instead. (And the SMB commands given in the book work fine with 10.3 and 10.4) Using SFM with 10.4 does work - I've personally used it - but it does require you to download the OSX UAM from Microsoft's website, as mentioned in the chapter. Also, if you're not careful about how you configure permissions on the Windows server, it can appear as if the files are unreadable. This isn't corruption, just permissions. For these reasons, I recommend SMB for OSX 10.3 and higher.
But if you have 10.2 or older machines on the network, and upgrading isn't an option, then look at SFM.
The squabble about SFM vs. SMB aside, it was really nice to read a chapter that covered common issues with file sharing between PCs and Macs - Resource forks and file extensions are still a concern today. I still have Mac users who insist on saving files called "Project Notes 18/06/2006" unaware of how the "/" plays havoc with Windows users. Not to mention the lack of ".doc"! And I'm constantly having to explain to Windows IT people the difference between flat-file volumes (FAT32 and NTFS) and forked-file volumes (HFS+).
To say there was no homework done on this chapter is ridiculous when OSX printing discusses CUPS integration (Something that most "Mac people" don't even know about!), file sharing discusses authentication modules (The MS UAM vs. Apple Encryption vs Clear Text), and it even touches on OSX Server. Of course, OSX Server 10.2 is nothing like 10.4, so using this section for current integration is not a good idea. :)
I'm not sure what Joaquin was expecting when he read the chapter - unlike websites, hardcopy can't change past the publish date. This book was written in the 10.2 days. Applying OSX 10.1 or 10.2 advice and information to OSX 10.3 or 10.4 is not advised. But if you've got any 10.2 or older machines on the network (even *shudder* OS8.6 machines) then the chapter is great.
And the last page of the chapter was as forward thinking as possible - the chapter predicts that Apple will come up with a "snap-in of some sort" to easily integrate Apple's directory (at the time, NetInfo) with Active Directory. This was written, at the latest, in February 2003. (based on the release date of 10.2.4)... In October of 2003, Apple released 10.3, which had migrated to LDAPv3, and provided the Active Directory plugin to Directory Access. And all my schema-changing LDIF files went out the window. As predicted.
If all you care about is Macs, this book isn't for you - After all, there are hundreds of pages about Windows 2003 Server that don't even discuss Macs! (Imagine, a Windows book focused on Windows!) But the Mac chapter is an excellent overview of Mac OS 8.6-10.2 integration for Windows people. And for once, it's not a Windows book full of false Mac information. I'd rather my Windows compatriots read info about an older OS that was actually accurate then read up-to-date info about the current OS that's nothing but a pile of misinformation.
After all, most Windows people who've worked with pre-SP2 and post-SP2 XP machines (and all the fun changes there) are smart enough to realize there's probably a difference between OSX 10.2.3 and OSX 10.4.7. Or heck, OSX 10.5 which will probably be here in a month or so.
Rating: -
I'm often leery of the computer books that try to cram everything about a given technology under one cover, but Mastering Windows Server 2003 proved the exception to the rule. I bought this book along with Russel and Crawford's Windows Server 2003 Administrator Guide, and I feel that Minasi's was the better of the two. This book covers all the major tasks you will be asked to do with Windows Server 2003. Beginners should buy this book.
I've come across several random problems when dealing with my own 2003 servers, and what makes Minasi's book superior is that the answer is always there. Disk usage, IPSec, Active Directory, IIS: all these topics are covered with satisfactory depth. I knew I had a comprehensive book when I needed to change the default drive letters of my Windows machine and found the answer within. The only negatives I would give this book are the padding (with the obligatory `History of the Internet') and the physical weight of the book. It is a one-stop-shop, however, so those complaints are largely trivial.
The Windows Server 2003 Administrator's Guide by Russel and Crawford covers similar material, but Minasi gives enough information to fully apply the knowledge. Russel and Crawford were just too brief in the sections that I needed, so I would recommend Mastering Windows Server 2003 over all the others I have read. Interestingly, many of the examples in both tomes are copied almost verbatim from the Microsoft website. It may be worth your time to look there before buying.
Rating: -
This book covers an amazing body of knowledge, and explains it in a comprehensible and practical manner (although it can get repetitive at times). But because it tries to make you an expert on everything at once - from DNS to security - it falls short of what appears to be its most ambitious goal, skipping some important issues altogether.
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