{"id":1764,"date":"2010-04-19T23:06:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T23:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2010-04-19T23:08:31","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T23:08:31","slug":"book-review-complete-guide-to-windows-server-2008-john-savill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/04\/book-review-complete-guide-to-windows-server-2008-john-savill.htm","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Complete Guide to Windows Server 2008, John Savill"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of years back, I was invited out to the Microsoft Campus in Redmond to learn about Windows Server 2008<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a fantastic week – not just because it was my first trip to Redmond but also because I met so many great people – many of whose work\u00c2\u00a0I had been reading in books, magazines and on the ‘net for years.\u00c2\u00a0 One example was John Savill<\/a>, who, at the time, was working on a book… a rather big book as it turns out – and his publishers sent me a copy to review.<\/p>\n

It’s taken me some time (I did plan to use it for my MCSE to MCITP:EA upgrade in 2008<\/a>) but here’s what I found when I read John Savill’s Complete Guide to Windows Server 2008<\/a>, published by Addison Wesley.<\/p>\n

At over 1700 pages, this is not a lightweight read.\u00c2\u00a0 Having said that, it’s title of “complete guide” is pretty accurate – going right back to a history of Windows (although using the abbreviation of WNT for Windows NT is not something I’ve seen anywhere else, and was somewhat confusing).\u00c2\u00a0 Although the book is written in a style that makes it very readable, it’s size means that it’s not something that can easily be read in bed, or on the train, or anywhere really – and that means it’s most use as a reference book (a digital copy is available to purchasers of the hardback edition, but only for 45 days… not really much use for a book this size).<\/p>\n

But what a reference book it is!\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve read many texts on deploying Windows and none have ever taken me through a network trace of a PXE boot, removing the need to press F12, or the structure of the XML that describes a Windows image.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, we now have tools like the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit but John explores Windows Deployment Services (and the Windows Automated Installation Kit) in great detail – just the sort of detail I would need if I was an administrator looking to discover how Windows works and how to make it work for me.\u00c2\u00a0 These are just a few highlights though from one example of the 24 chapters (plus how to quick reference and index) – indeed I’ll list them here to show the breadth of coverage for this book:<\/p>\n