Brian,
Please do not misunderstand Joe's comments. I am not going to attempt to
put words in Joe's mouth - he is a big boy and can take care of that
himself.
I think what Joe was trying to get across to you is that there were several
very basic things of which you were not aware. This would usually not be a
good thing. It does not have to be a bad thing, but it is not a good thing.
Generally speaking. There are a lot of 'IT Departments' full of people who
know how to format a Word Document or create a pivot table in Excel. This
does not make them Systems Administrators. This makes them Help Desk.
Usually because of their 'advanced computer skills' they are placed in the
IT Department. But they should really be in the Help Desk department.
Granted, if you work for a small company then it is often the case that the
IT Department is also the Help Desk Department.
Reading books is a good thing, but usually - as you are finding out - leaves
several things uncovered. You are correct in that most of the books are
terribly lacking in detailed information. They cover the top layer very
well. And that is important. But they usually do not go much deeper than
that. You might want to look at 'Inside Active Directory' for a really
really really good book on WIN2000 Active Directory.
And working in a test lab is very important. When I started out with Active
Directory this is what I did. Set up a test lab with two domain controllers
and two workstations. Do not even worry about Exchange for the moment. read
the posts in this newsgroup as well as in the group policy news group and
play with things in your test environment and then intentionally break
things so that you get a feel for 'this happens if that happened' type
stuff.
Also, install the Support Tools from the Service Pack CD-Media. Become
familiar with dcdiag, netdiag, repadmin, replmon, netdom and nltest. There
are several others of great help but start with these. You might also want
to go to Joe's web site and look at his tools ( adfind and oldcmp are two
very useful tools ).
Joe is one of the best in the world. Yep! In the world. Not in this state
or in this country or on this continent. In the world. When you deal with
the environments that he has you have to know everything inside and out.
Just like you know how to ride a bike and how to put food in your mouth when
it is dark ( without stabbing yourself in the lip or cheek )!
I really do not think that Joe was trying to disparage you. I have often
told people that they were a bit inexperienced and might be better off not
being the one to do what needed to be done.
As long as everything is working just fine anyone can be a Sys Admin. But
what happens when things do not?
--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24014
Microsoft Active Directory MVP
http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com