Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Ed

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Author: William R. Stanek
Format: Paperback, 720 pages
Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd edition (December 16, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0735627118
ISBN-13: 978-0735627116

by James Pyles

The first edition of this tome, published a scant two years ago (which admittedly, is an eon in the world of technology), generally got good reviews and the reason for the Second Edition is obvious: Windows Server 2008 R2. A "pocket consultant" book is by definition, a portable guide that you can use on the fly as you encounter issues and questions regarding Windows Server 2008. 720 pages may or may not seem like much, but it won't comfortably fit into your hip pocket as you walk, or sometimes crawl, around your server room. It will however, fit handily next to your keyboard as you're doing much of your work remoting in to your servers, though.

Windows Server 2008 R2 does come with a few more goodies than plain old vanilla Windows Server 2008, so it'll be worth your while to update your library with Stanek's latest documentation, particularly since many of R2's core components were built off of Windows 7 rather than Windows Vista. The good news then, is if you know a great deal about Windows 7, you can leverage that knowledge in administering R2. The bad news is that won't be enough...but you already knew that, didn't you?

The benefit of this second edition isn't that it contains new and revolutionary information that can't be located any place else. Anyone who can use Google or Bing can find a plethora of tutorials and other R2 related data on the web. The chief benefit is having all that knowledge located in one place, with a handy table of contents and index available. Veteran Technet users are aware that while Microsoft's documentation can be quite good, there's a trade off in having to search for and locate exactly what you're looking for. Sure, there's no guarantee that Stanek's book has everything, but based on the first edition and Stanek's history as a technical author, you aren't taking much of a risk by purchasing this book.

If you already administer Microsoft server systems and you are familiar with the book's first edition, you probably agree with my assessment. If you don't but are looking to establish or expand your technical career in the direction of Windows Server 2008 administration, Stanek's book is a good tool to add to your kit.

There really aren't any books that provide "one stop shopping". While this book is good, it won't do everything for you. Be prepared to add other print resources to your library as well as continuing to work Technet and your search engine hard, at least at times, to find the answers you seek. However, it would be a mistake to think that life will be any easier administering Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 without using this book as a reference guide. If you are familiar with Windows Server 2008 but not R2, the first three chapters are worth the price of the book to you.

I don't like giving a five-star rating to a book as a general rule because I don't believe any book can be perfect. On the other hand, I really can't find anything about Windows Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Ed that I can criticize. Pick up a copy. You can't go wrong.