Microsoft BackOffice 4.5 Resource Kit

Plan, install, maintain, and optimize the latest versions of Microsoft SQL Server™, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Systems Management Server, and Microsoft SNA Server with expertise from those who know the technology best—the Microsoft BackOffice® product teams. This Resource Kit packs four powerhouse references—more than 3,000 pages of detailed technical drill-down plus exclusive tools and utilities on CD—all designed to help maximize the productivity of your enterprise systems, reduce support costs, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).Four volumes of authoritative BackOffice drill-down, straight from the source:MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 7.0 RESOURCE GUIDE• Version 7.0 architecture and components• Pre-deployment planning—mobile applications, online analytical processing, and legacy applications• Migration and upgrade considerations• Index tuning• Performing replication and data warehousing with SQL Server 7.0MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER 5.5 RESOURCE GUIDE• Planning and installing Microsoft Exchange Server• Running in a clustered environment• System maintenance and performance monitoring• Configuring security• Messaging operations and collaboration applicationsMICROSOFT SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT SERVER 2.O RESOURCE GUIDE• Advance planning strategies to design and test SMS site hierarchies in your organization• Troubleshooting SMS components and processes• Replacing SMS 1.2 Program Group Control (PGC) applications with SMS 2.0 shared applications on servers• Creating and customizing IDMIF files and NOIDMIF files• Configuring remote SMS Administrator consolesMICROSOFT SNA SERVER 4.0 RESOURCE GUIDE• Performance test tools for OLE DB, COMTI, and 3270• Troubleshooting and disaster recovery• Deployment models for your SNA Server network• Integrating network and mainframe security• Web-to-host integration for easier client installation

Microsoft BackOffice 4.5 Resource Kit, to the hardcore BackOffice administrator, is a CD-ROM in a really heavy box. (Yes, this kit ships with two CD-ROMs, but one of them is just the 120-day evaluation version of Microsoft SQL Server 7.) The one key CD-ROM contains utilities for Exchange Server 5.5, SNA Server 4, Systems Management Server 2, and SQL Server 7. Some examples include a better Mailbox Cleanup Agent for Exchange and an inventory synchronizer for SMS.

The utilities CD-ROM comes boxed with four books, each documenting a particular BackOffice suite member rather comprehensively. (You'll find these books about as good as most other publishers' comprehensive offerings on the programs.) The books provide lots of reference material, including full documentation of command-line interfaces and error codes. There also are some tuning and troubleshooting hints, while the SQL book includes a lot of information on migrating legacy databases to Microsoft's product.

Is this Resource Kit worth the money? If you need the software, absolutely, though Microsoft really ought to sell à la carte Resource Kits for each of the four BackOffice elements in addition to this suite pack. The BackOffice programs are usually so critical to the enterprises that use them that an administrator wouldn't want to risk lacking a key utility during a crisis. --David Wall