[kwlug-disc] To those who have to support Windows

[unsolicited]

Oksana Goertzen wrote, On 02/24/2009 10:36 AM:
> This post is a bit off topic - but I'm assuming there are others who 
> have to
> support Windows.  I wanted to write to the list because I know Linux folk
> love to know the ins and outs of how things work and you'd be my best
> resource.  :)
> 
> I'm looking for some book recommendations on supporting and configuring
> Windows AD, policies and printing, as well as something on SCCM and
> SCOM.

For AD, do you want the official way, the real way, or the credential way?

- I have the 'Microsoft Official Course', '2279B', 'Planning, 
Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active 
Directory Infrastructure' book you're welcome to borrow if you like. I 
can bring Monday.

My two rules of thumbs for AD, FWIW:
- like most everything else these days, think of AD as an object. With
properties and methods and so on and so forth. AD is YAO, Yet Another
Object. LDAP is a similar but distinct, overlapping, object. We no
longer learn tools these days, we learn about the specifics of an
object. Unfortunately, we thus end up learning about the object
flavour of the month. And, OS upgrades mean they are moving targets.

- change it as little as possible. Accept defaults to the greatest
extent possible - fight to not make that change. Or you'll enter
another bottomless pit of maintenance. After all, we all document
every change to AD we make, right, and make sure everyone knows,
understands, and agrees, with those changes? After all, MS couldn't
possibly be providing a moving target with overlapping and interleaved
functionality that is so poorly documented that nobody is really sure
of just what all a change might be impacting, right? (It's rather hard
to create an AD test environment that adequately exercises changes,
so, since every change usually affects the entire enterprise, you know
the phone is going to ring when you make a change. What you don't know
is how many calls, or how fast. e.g. From the guy who only comes in
once a month, at midnight, and who now can't do their work.)