Windows 2000 System Administration Handbook
Authors: Will Willis, David Watts, Tillman Strahan
Venue:  (2000)

From the Book:PREFACE: PrefaceWelcome to the Windows 2000 Systems Administration Training Course. As IT professionals, we have watched Windows 2000 slowly mature from a very rough NT5 beta 1 to a robust, polished Windows 2000 released product. As authors, we have attempted to bring you a collection of the topics most relevant to systems administration while adding insight from our own personal experiences implementing and administering Windows 2000 throughout the lengthy beta period, up to and including the final release. We hope that you will find this multimedia training course useful as you study and develop your Windows 2000 system administration skills.Windows 2000, which initially was to be called Windows NT 5.0, is the newest upgrade in Microsoft's NT line of business operating systems. Windows NT was originally launched in 1993 as Windows NT 3.1. Microsoft chose to number it 3.1 rather than 1.0 to capitalize on the name recognition of its consumer Windows product line. At that time, Windows 3.1 was the current version of Windows and ran on top of DOS.Windows NT 3.1 was upgraded to 3.5 and later to 3.51, while retaining the older "Program Manager" GUI (graphical user interface). After five service packs, Windows NT 3.51 was showing its age, and, in 1996, Microsoft released Windows NT 4.0. NT4 was essentially 3.51, updated to use the Windows 95 "Explorer" style GUI. Although there were a few new features in NT4, notably Microsoft DNS Server, the basic product was largely the same. Any administrator who had worked with NT 3.51 and knew the Explorer GUI could sit down at an NT4 console and instantly administer the system. Technology has changedrapidlysince 1996, when NT4 was released, and making NT keep up with newer technologies has been difficult for both Microsoft and for third-party developers. To keep up with the times and push the NT line of operating systems ahead, Microsoft has dramatically revamped NT4 into what is now Windows 2000, finally released in February 2000. The AudienceThe audience for this book is twofold. Topics are explained in sufficient detail to satisfy readers without prior experience in Windows NT systems administration, yet will help Windows NT administrators leverage their existing knowledge to get up to speed quickly on the new features and techniques of Windows 2000. Throughout the book, we often point out changes between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and show the new ways to do the old familiar tasks. The ContentsIt is important to note that the authors of this book are all IT professionals with extensive experience in Windows NT systems administration. While brainstorming for this book, the idea came up to present the material in a way that would provide the best benefit not only to someone reading this book for educational purposes, but also for the real-world systems administrator who needs a reference while on the job. To that end, we've taken care to add tips and insight from our own real-world systems administration experiences and have arranged the topics to cover the common tasks of a Windows 2000 systems administrator. The arrangement of subjects in this book is broken down into sections as follows:Introduction to Windows 2000 Systems AdministrationIn this section, we provide an overview of Windows 2000 basics, starting with discussing the different versions of the Windows 2000 operating system. Although the vast majority of this book relates to Windows 2000 Server, you will learn about the Windows 2000 Professional, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server products, as well, and how they differ from each other. Chapter 1 discusses the different versions of Windows 2000 and how they relate to their Windows NT 4.0 counterparts.We also discuss new Windows 2000 terminology, such as Microsoft Management Console (MMC), Active Directory, domain trees, and forests. Windows NT 4.0 systems administrators will appreciate the quick overview, as well as the new features section that follows the terminology. Readers who are new to the world of Windows NT technology (Windows 2000 is built on NT technology) will gain an insight into some of the topics ahead of them in the book.Windows 2000 Systems Administration BasicsWith the introductory material out of the way, we dive headfirst into Windows 2000, beginning with installing the operating system. Once the OS is installed, we move on to basic systems administration concepts, such as using the Control Panel, Registry, and MMC snap-ins. We finish this section with a discussion of the boot process as it relates to systems administration and troubleshooting.Windows 2000 Active DirectoryActive Directory is probably the most visible and most talked-about new feature of Windows 2000, and we devote an entire section to it. We start with an introduction that explains what Active Directory is and what it does, then we move into a discussion of the structure of Active Directory, which includes terminology, concepts, and planning issues. With a foundation built, we install Active Directory and learn about the issues surrounding single-domain environments versus multidomain environments. We finish the section on Active Directory by learning how to administer it. Windows 2000 User and Group ManagementOne of the more common tasks of a systems administrator is user and group management; thus, we devote an entire section to it. Initially, we discuss the basics of user accounts, from the type of accounts available in Windows 2000 to creating and defining options for user accounts. We then learn how to administer user accounts through user profiles, how to make changes to user accounts, and about home directories for user accounts.With an understanding of user accounts, we expand into groups, which are collections of user accounts, other groups, and/or computers. We discuss groups from the systems administrator's perspective, including strategies for using groups and how to implement groups. We then look at using Group Policy to administer security on a Windows 2000 network. Windows 2000 Data ManagementServer management is another important topic for systems administrators, and we cover it in this section. We start with a discussion of managing server hard disks with Windows 2000 utilities and features and learn about the NTFS file system and its benefits for server file management. Next we learn about shared folders, because one of the most basic functions of a server is to serve files. Once we understand how shared folders work and how to manage them, we expand on that to administer data storage, including NTFS compression, disk quotas, and disk defragmenting.No discussion of systems administration would be complete without backup and restoring data from servers and planning for disaster recovery. We discuss these subjects and provide insight into fault tolerance issues and best practices for protecting Enterprise data.Windows 2000 Networking BasicsUp to this point of the book, we have focused primarily on single server administration and functions that take place within a server. In this section we expand our focus into the networking environment as it relates to Windows 2000. We discuss network protocols supported by Windows 2000, with a focus on TCP/IP, the protocol of choice for most networking environments and the required protocol for many Windows 2000 features such as Active Directory. You will learn about TCP/IP topics such as DHCP, WINS, DNS, and how to implement and administer them on a Windows 2000 network. Windows 2000 SecuritySecurity is another important topic for systems administration, and we discuss auditing access to network resources and monitoring network resource usage. This is done from the systems administrator viewpoint, including designing policies for auditing and monitoring, why it should be done in the first place, and managing security logs. We learn how to view currently used resources and how to disconnect users from resources when necessary.Windows 2000 PrintingNetwork printing is another common function of a Windows 2000 network, so we devote a section to it. We introduce printing concepts and learn how to create and share printers, and how to administer printers and print queues. Systems administration issues, such as driver files, client and server configuration, and print pools, are discussed.Windows 2000 Administration PracticesWe finish the book with a general section on systems administration best practices. Some of the topics are about systems administration, in general, rather than being Windows 2000-specific, but all are relevant to the real world administrator. We discuss issues related to documentation, restoring workstations and servers to original configurations, and general administration practices, such as driver management and issues related to when your organization moves from one location to another and you have to move your systems.ConclusionAfter much discussion back and forth, we feel like we have come up with a structure for this training course that will allow the beginning systems administrator to build knowledge throughout the book as later topics build on the foundation laid by previous topics, while allowing the experienced systems administrator to find topics of interest quickly. We hope that you find this training course valuable as you study Windows 2000 systems administration and learn to apply that knowledge in the real world.