Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Preface

For system administrators already familiar with Windows NT, becoming familiar with Windows 2000 can be an awkward process: while the GUI looks very much the same, there are subtle differences, which can easily trip you up, and a whole new set of administrative tools, some of which are obvious at first glance and some of which are bizarre.

This book is designed to be a desktop reference guide that can help advanced administrators move quickly from Windows NT to Windows 2000. It is not a series of tutorials for beginners but a tool to help experienced administrators find information quickly on concepts, tasks, tools, utilities, and commands they need to know to get the job done.

The focus here is on administration of Windows 2000-based networks. Therefore, Windows 2000 Server is emphasized, while coverage of Windows 2000 Professional is limited to how it differs from Server and how it can be installed and managed.

You won’t find every detail of Windows 2000 covered here—consider, for example, that the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit (which is the real Windows 2000 Server manual, as opposed to what’s found in online Help) is almost 8,000 pages long! So I’ve selected those topics, tasks, and tools most likely to be of help to administrators in their day-to-day system and network operations, but even then this book has ballooned to one Very Big Nut indeed!

Organization of the Book

This book is divided into two parts, as follows:

Part I

This part contains two chapters that give you the big picture behind Windows 2000 administration, and are especially useful for administrators familiar with Windows NT. The two chapters here are as follows.

Chapter 1, outlines the new features incorporated into the four flavors of Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server) and then lists my personal kudos and gripes over what I like and don’t like about the new operating system.

Chapter 2, begins by looking at how administrative tools, utilities, and features differ between Windows NT and Windows 2000 and finishes with a potpourri of suggestions and tips to help administrators make the transition to administering Windows 2000.

Part II

This part contains the real meat of the book, consisting of five chapters with topics listed in alphabetical order for easy lookup. Cross-references are included in each article to articles in different chapters in Part II: for example, the article disks in Chapter 4 refers you to the similarly titled article in Chapter 4, where specific procedures for performing administrative tasks related to disks are described. The five chapters here are as follows:

Chapter 4, provides background information on key aspects of Windows 2000 administration, as well as some shorter definitions that are cross-referenced to the longer articles in the chapter.

Chapter 4, lists various administrative tasks you can perform on Windows 2000. The tasks are organized first by concept and then by action. For example, if you want to learn how to publish a resource in Active Directory, you would look up the article Active Directory and then find the subheading Section .

Chapter 5, starts with a brief tutorial on how to create your own custom administrative tools (MMC consoles) and then moves on to cover the most important Windows 2000 administrative tools and snap-ins for the MMC.

Chapter 6, deals with other GUI tools and user-interface elements, such as the Control Panel utilities, various tools in the Accessories program group, and certain desktop icons that administrators may need to use or at least should be familiar with to get the most out of Windows 2000.

Chapter 7, lists the various commands that can be used for command-line administration of different aspects of Windows 2000.