Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Administrator's Companion Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Like the last guy said, this book is fairly basic. I haven't read the Beta docs, so I can't say if this is just a rehash of the initial white papers. But really...I can't remember a single MS book that's ever been 50-layers below the surface like many experienced Admins want. There's no way you could cover **everything** about SMS/SCCM in one volume.
Provided he/she has a good working knowledge of (a) AD (b) PKI and (c) SMS2003, I'd bet a mid-level Admin could deploy SCCM based on what he/she gets from this book.
Right now, we are in the middle of migrating a (very large) SMS infrastructure over to SCCM. I've found this book to be an invaluable resource. But lets face it - a good SMS/SCCM admin knows where to go if he/she is facing a weighty problem. The depth and breadth of SMS is just that....deep and broad. I honestly can't think of another MS application aside from AD that can do more.
Want to know MS best-practice for designing your upcoming SCCM-infrastructure, plan an SMS-SCCM migration, how to leverage DCM or Software Metering, etc...? Well, here's your book.
Want to figure out how to troubleshoot SMS/SCCM-related WMI issues, troubleshoot your Management Point, trick out your MOF to start collecting DIMM bank info, figure out why you are getting all those SQL errors after making said MOF change? Well, that's where the internet comes in. MYITforum or the Blogcast Repository in particular. Like I said, SMS/SCCM is a very deep and broad application. No one book is going to tell you how to do **everything**.
Steve and team did a good job here painting the 30,000FT view and giving perspective on all the new features. Like I said, its been an invaluable resource.

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Windows Server 2008 Unleashed Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I went to the Windows 2008 launch event and got excited about migrating our company to Windows 2008, but wanted to get a third party book to help me better understand the REAL features, functions, and experiences of the product (rather than Microsoft's rendition of it). I jumped on Amazon and searched for a book, and this Windows 2008 Unleashed book was already rated with a couple 5-stars, so I bought it. I just got it last week.
At first, I was a little overwhelmed as the book is almost 2-inches thick and hard bound (definitely worth the cost for the shear volume and amount of paper it took to print this book)! I read the introduction chapter and got a lot more comfortable with Windows 2008 as the author provided a really good comparison of Windows 2008 to Windows 2003 (which I already know pretty well). The intro chapter also gave me links to different parts of the book that helped me organize the way I was going to review the text of the book (I prioritized chapters in the book based on my interests, which was outlined and highlighted very well in the first chapter).
I was most interested some of the new things I've heard about Windows 2008 such as the security stuff, Windows virtualization, terminal services, and Active Directory Federation. I flipped to each of the chapters that covered these topics, and I found the content very easy to follow. Each chapter started off with an overview of the topic (like an introduction of the concepts) and then as I got further into the chapter, it got more into the details on how to implement the technologies, and it had notes and tips throughout the chapters that made it obvious to me the authors have worked with Windows 2008 for a long time and provided great guidance!
After reading about 5 chapters, I then focused on what it would take to implement and migrate to Windows 2008 and flipped to the chapters on installation and on migration. Those chapters also were VERY well structured and helped walk me through what was involved. I was greatly relieved to read that the migration process from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 wasn't that complicated. And while I have only been fiddling with Windows 2008 for about a week in the lab here at the company I work for (which is a pretty extensive lab with over 30 servers mirroring a portion of our production environment), I've gone from being overwhelmed to pleasantly relieved that our migration to Windows 2008 will be well planned, staged, and executed thanks to the content of this book!
I am grateful to the authors of this book! I just bought the books on Exchange 2007, SharePoint 2007, and Windows Vista written by the same authors (Rand Morimoto and Michael Noel) as I think their writing style and the value of the content is wonderful!
B

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