Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Companion

Rating:
Summary: This book has many faults
Review: After reading this book to find some information with Active Directory Connectors, I found errors that the author should have known better. For example, the book states that the Exchange ADC can only be installed on a Windows 2003 Domain Controller.... this is completely false.
It also mentions to change the LDAP port if you are running Exchange 5.5 on a Windows 2003 Domain Controller... according to Microsoft, Exchange 5.5 can not be installed on Windows 2003, much less a DC.
I could write a more accurate book than this.
Find a better book that gives more accurate information.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Introduction to Exchange
Review: As an MCSE, I gave this book 4 stars for two reasons: the CD contains a 120 day trial version of Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition, and the text provides a good overview of Exchange 2003 features suitable for MCSE test prep. I did not rate this book with 5 stars because it is presented as an "Administrator's Companion," which I felt was stretching it a bit. As a previous reviewer has stated, there are better alternatives for strictly "desk reference companions" to Exchange; however, I was pleasantly surprised by how readable the book was, given that it is a Microsoft Press publication.

For example, on page 9, the authors define policies thus: "Policies are collections of configuration settings that are applied to one or more Exchange configuration objects." The authors continue to define various policies in pretty basic terms. On page 268, the authors describe how to create a policy using step by step directions: "To create a server policy, right click the Systems Policy container, point to New, and then choose Server Policy." The instructions are also accompanied by extensive screen shots. While other reviewers found the screen shots redundant to the narrative, I feel comforted by the screen shots that match my screen when I am attempting to implement a procedure by following the text.

The book begins with an introductory chapter that provides a good review of the uses and concepts of Exchange, but is probably a waste of time for experienced users of Exchange. The following chapters include detailed instructions relevant to: planning, deployment, upgrading and migrating to 2003, functionality, security, maintenance (including disaster recovery and troubleshooting), and a fairly decent glossary. The authors also invite commentary and suggestions to their email sites: [e-mail] and [e-mail]. Both authors are MCSE and MCT certified.

I would recommend this book for those new to Exchange or preparing for the Exchange Server exam. Administrators looking for a thorough desk reference on the subject should try Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24seven, ISBN: 0782142508.



Rating:
Summary: There are better to be found
Review: I thought this book was pretty average. I know its not an exam prep book, and it certainly wasn't, but I didn't think it was much of an administrators guide either.

I found myself getting contually frustrated with the theory, and not enough practice. Buy Unleashed, or go to winstructor.com and get their videos, both are much, much better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time for an Exchange Administrator
Review: If you are an Exchange Administrator who wants to upgrade his support skills to Exchange 2003 this book is too basic. Case in point, Chapter 10 Monitoring Exchange Server 2003. "... Windows Server 2003 records many events in its own event logs."... "Windows maintains three distinct logs" (Application, Security, and System) "You will encounter five types of events in the three logs, and a unique icon identifies each event type so that you can easily disntiguish between the information entries and the error entries"

Aften times you find the author explaining the screen print of a properties page that is right below the text you are reading. News flash we see the picture, don't tell us what tabs there are and what buttons there are, tell us what they do, and when should we use them.

The font is nice and big, and the book makes a good book end for other more useful texts.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I was looking for
Review: The best thing about this book is the eval copy of Exchange 2003. The rest is architecture and concepts and not much on examples, real world senarios. Seems to me there's a lot of "Exchange can do this and can do that ..." but not much of ... "here's how u do this in Exchange". Not my cup of tea. Good reading for the geek that wants to understand how this all works ... and in time I will want to know that .. but not so good for those that want to get a good solution up and running. I'm bring it back and gonna buy MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-284): Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 ...

Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed
Review: This book helped me come up to speed in Exchange Server 2003 when I got sort of thrown into supporting it at work. It sounds like that last reviewr didn't get past the intro material. The first part of this book is all about architecture and planning. It was kind of dry and a bit more than I was ready for just learning about Exchange. But, starting with chapter 7, the book is all action. It takes you through installing, setting up recipients, storage groups, routing groups, administrative groups, and everything you need to know to get a server up and going. It has a great section on security. I get asked a lot of questions about that at work. It even talks about disaster recovery and performance tuning. The writings pretty easy to follow. They use lots of supporting pictures and step by step explanations. I just skipped the first 6 chapters and plan to come back to them after I've been using it a while.