Administering Microsoft’s server-oriented Windows operating systems can sometimes seem like living on the edge of river that’s prone to flooding. You ford the effluvia after each new flood, picking through the detritus for what’s worth keeping, and leaving the useless bits lying in the muck. Then, when you have everything shipshape again, the next new release comes along. System administrators find themselves grappling with new concepts and just when they’ve mastered one set of changes, another comes along and suddenly they’re scrambling once again to get up to speed.

One source of help for the beleaguered system administrator has always been the technical book market; each major operating system release has always been accompanied by books written to support it. But Jonathan Hassell, author of Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide, reflects on an interesting phenomenon: “Over the years, many of these books have become as complex, and have accumulated as much detritus, as the operating systems they explain,” he says. Bookstores are filled with 1200-plus page volumes that lead you through how things worked in the last four versions of the operating system. And Hassell’s belief is that you don’t need all that information to get your work done effectively.

“It was in this spirit that I set out to write Windows Server 2008: The Definitive Guide, he says. “I have trimmed the content of this volume to include just enough background on a subject for you to understand how different features and systems work in this version of Windows. I want you to come away from reading sections with a firm understanding of what’s happening under the hood of the system, but without the sense that you’re taking a graduate course in OS theory.” Most of all, he has written the book to be a practical guide that helps sys admins get their jobs done: “here’s how it works; here’s how to do it.”

The book offers step-by-step procedures for using all of the major components of Windows Server 2008, along with discussions on complex concepts such as Active Directory replication, DFS namespaces and replication, network access protection, the Server Core edition, Windows PowerShell, server clustering, and more. Simply put, this is the most thorough reference available for Windows Server 2008, with complete guides to:

• Installing the server in a variety of different environments
• File services and the Windows permission structure
• How the domain name system (DNS) works
• Active Directory, including its logical and physical structure, hierarchical components, scalability, and replication
• Group Policy’s structure and operation
• Managing security policy with predefined templates and customized policy plans
• Architectural improvements, new features, and daily administration of IIS 7
• Terminal Services from both the administrator’s user’s point of view
• Networking architecture including DNS, DHCP, VPN, RADIUS server, IAS, and IPSec
• Windows clustering services — applications, grouping machines, capacity and network planning, user account management
• Windows PowerShell scripting and command-line technology