ldap

LDAP System Administration
$39.95
Although it spends a lot of time talking about OpenLDAP, the version is covers is outdated. I would also have hoped to find more information about how to choose which schema's. The email section does not mention the different attempts at standardizing a schema.

Mastering OpenLDAP: Configuring, Securing and Integrating Directory Services
$49.99
This is an excellent book if you are interested in learning the theory behind OpenLDAP. However if you are looking for a more practical guide I would suggest looking elsewhere. Aside from the differences in Linux distributions, I have found several frustrating omissions and errors that have cost me hours of research online. For example, chapter three beautifully details how to create an LDIF file, however then fails to explain where to place that file on the file system or how to load the contents of that file into the database. These questions are answered, but a dozen pages later as part of a discussion on a different topic. This made it impossible to find that info when I needed it. In Chapter four, options that should go in ldap.conf are listed as going into slapd.conf. Also the file names cacert.pem and newcert.pem are used interchangeably with no explanation, which can be confusing. Chapter four also fails to mention the openssl-perl module must be installed for the authors directions to even work in the first place. I have not gotten much farther into the text then chapter four and perhaps I'm too much of a Linux novice, but I have been disappointed by this book.

Active Directory Cookbook, 3rd Edition
$59.99
I became a fan of the series when Robbie Allen released the very first one. Since then, I've been hooked. It's amazing how the book has developed over time to become the monstrosity that it is today. It's enormous, weighing in at over 1000 pages. Though the true value is in all the "recipes" in the book, I really enjoy all the background material that each section provides.

Each topic has:
* Problem - the task you need to perform
* Solution - how to perform it
* Discussion - additional information about the topic

It's great to have a reference that succinctly defines the task and the solution without having to read gobs of pages. It's not just limited to scripting as the name may imply. Most solutions are defined for scripting (vbscript, powershell, command shell), however, often times you'll find the gui (graphical user interface) equivalent of how to achieve the task.

Laura Hunter is a great author and well-respected MVP in the Active Directory space. All of the contributing authors from the past editions are tops in their field and sources of information I have relied on in the past and will continue to do so for as long as I support Active Directory.

It's time I give up my 2nd Edition Cookbook and make room for this one on my reference shelf. Valuable book!

Deploying OpenLDAP
$39.99
check out page 67 of the book for a basic reason why this book is useless:
an entire page of a ftp session downloading openldap. huh? How is this helpful? getting the right version of BerkeleyDB and installing it, or installing and configuring OpenSSL would have been far more helpful to me.
This is another book composed mostly of cut 'n paste from the man pages, header files and varous scripts you can find with google.
Discussion on basic topics such as replication skips over key steps, examples for many issues are not provided or are hidden in the book. I use LDAP at work and I used the O'Reilly book to instal, configure and use OpenLDAP. I have yet to find a question that Deploying OpenLDAP can answer that I can't get faster with google.