Microsoft® Exchange 2000 Server Administrator's Pocket Consultant

The Pocket Consultant series has begun to earn a good name for itself, as an increasing number of system administrators discover that the books are generally of top quality and consistently long on detail. Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Administrator's Pocket Consultant fits in with its mates, providing concise but complete coverage of Microsoft's latest back-end product for workplace collaboration. The goal isn't to teach about Exchange 2000 Server or explain how it fits into an organization's computing infrastructure--instead, the goal is to document the entire server package concisely, enough to jog the memory of an administrator who needs to perform some task or be reminded of how a feature works.

In a typical section, the book takes on the intricacies of the Exchange 2000 Server data stores. After a speedy but accurate introduction to what each store is for and how it works, the book outlines recommendations (several, actually, each suited for an organization of a particular size and with specific performance requirements) for fitting databases onto disks and protecting those disks with RAID schemes. Coverage of the Exchange 2000 Server database infrastructure is detailed similarly: there's background information, for example, about the performance advantages of zeroing out deleted database pages, and steps to follow for scheduling indexing jobs. More information on customizing Outlook--the most popular client for Exchange 2000 Server--with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) would have made this book better, but it is strong as it stands. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, from the administrator's perspective
• The relationship between Exchange 2000 Server and Active Directory
• Management of users and groups
• Management of online and offline address lists
• Database design and upkeep
• Server optimization
• Message routing