Essential WIndows NT System Administration

If you've perused the shelves at your local bookstore recently,you've probably noticed the large number of Windows NT books available. After awhile, the titles start to look the same. To navigate through them, you mightlook for a particular author you trust and enjoy or a particular publisher. Ilook for O'Reilly and Associates books. Initially, the company published onlyUNIX-oriented material, but now it's moving into the NT arena. AEleen Frisch'sEssential Windows NT System Administration is one of O'Reilly's NTbooks, but the book has strong ties to UNIX. Essential Information AboutWindows NT Tools for UNIX Administrators is a more appropriate title becausethe book provides a UNIX feel for NT functions. According to the author, thebook can help NT administrators manage NT systems as productively as possible.However, the title is misleading because Essential Windows NT focuses onthe tools available for NT rather than on NT systems administration.

A large portion of the book focuses on explaining how to write Perl andother scripts to automate common tasks, such as requiring users to change theirpassword or reporting users' disk usage. The rest of the book covers the startup and shutdown of an NT system, automation of systems administration, processmanagement, files and directories, print services, security, and performanceoptimization. The book doesn't discuss these topics in a particular order or insufficient detail to benefit experienced NT administrators.

The book has several assets. For example, if you are familiar with Perl (orwant to learn about the language), you will benefit from Essential WindowsNT's many usable scripts. Frisch also describes some important tools thatare available (e.g., Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Resource Kit andMicrosoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Resource Kit) and how you canmaximize the benefits they provide. Essential Windows NT includes listsof important commands and tools. For UNIX users, Appendix A contains a list ofUNIX commands and their NT counterparts, Appendix B includes a list of resourcekit tools, and Appendix C contains helpful NT commands and scripting languageconstructs.

However, Essential Windows NT doesn't provide all the essentials.In the section about extending NTFS volumes, Frisch doesn't mention that youcan't extend a volume containing NT system files. The book also contains severalerrors. For example, when Frisch discusses the differences between NTWorkstation and NT Server, she claims NT Server can support as many as 32processors. However, out of the box, NT Server supports only 4 processors, andNT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition supports 8 processors. To support as many as32 processors on NT, you must purchase custom solutions.

If you're a UNIX administrator facing the task of administering an NTsystem, this book might help you. If you're an experienced NT administrator,this book might teach you a few new tricks. (I found Appendix A's UNIX-to-NTcommand comparison particularly informative.) Even if you're a first-time NTuser with no UNIX experience, you might find the book interesting. More in-depthbooks are available. But, when clients who are UNIX experts say to me, "Thisis how I performed a function in UNIX; how do I do it on NT?" I'll have ahandy reference to provide an answer.