Home > Consumer Reviews > Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003 Administrator's Companion (Administrators Companion)

There is no question that if you need to implement or administer SMS, this is a must own. The book covers everything needed to plan and configure your back-end environment, as well as to setup a good administrative model for IT support, application management and end-users control and deployment. This title will also serve as an excellent day to day resource long after you have implemented SMS.

Although I completely recommend this title, I found that this book isn't enough completely on it's own to truly cover all the ins and outs of SMS 2003. Microsoft provides two free downloads which I recommend you read and use in conjunction with this title; "Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide" and "Operations Guide" (The SMS 2003 Microsoft website also has many other resources for administration).

This book is easy to read. However, if you are wanting a book that has everything to get up and running on SMS 2003, this book is lacking. Make sure to read the product's release notes. If you have access to Microsoft TechNet and Microsoft's website, you will need it to do some homework. The Advanced Security model in SMS 2003 is definitely far different from previous versions of SMS. The book does not go into any of this in detail. I recommend this book, but make sure you collect up the other information I have mentioned.

The SMS 2003 Admin Companion is the best guide to SMS 2003 available. The author doesn't miss a thing and lays out the management applicaton in a logical manner. SMS 2003 is a huge application with a huge learning curve, and this book helps get you up-to-speed in as little time as possible.

This book goes into excellent detail about nearly every aspect of SMS 2003 and also tries to show the reader many of the pitfalls in deploying this huge program. The author is very thorough in explaining almost every aspect of deployment and management - there are lots of screen shots and excellent detail about the options.

This book fails in only two areas: 1). it is frequently aimed at deployment rather than administration (it is, after all, an ADMINISTRATOR'S Companion), and 2). it is too short. Regardless of those two factors, it is an excellent companion once your deployment is complete.

If you are just starting - or evaluating - SMS 2003 for your environment, read the whole book before you start. The author wrote with a well-organized structure, but (like many computer books) he focused on the "meat and potatoes" in chunks. This book is what I call 'thick reading' and can only be read in short and focused time chunks.

Regardless of that, no software program tome can be all-inclusive, but if you are looking for a fairly comprehensive SMS 2003 guide, money spent here is well worth it!

This book is wriiten with the expectation that you have working experience with SMS.