Comments about Microsoft Press Microsoft® Forefront™ Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Administrator's Companion:

The coverage in this book is very good. As I read through it I ended up likening it to ISA Server training kit MS Press created many years back. I thought that kit was great and I learnt a huge amount about ISA Server back then that has helped me subsequently. This companion brought back those memories.

Going through the first two parts of the book I was thinking how much this resembled some of the Windows Server 2008 resource kits I'd seen. You do need those early parts, TMG contains all the functionality of ISA and then some more, so understanding this and the background for the name change helps you position the remaining parts.

The nature of the product allowed the authors to divide the book up into convenient parts. That helps the readability overall. Once you've got through the first three parts covering the product features, the planning consideration and configuration and then the deployment, you get to the point where you can skip to the part that best suites the role you wish TMG to play. If you want to use TMG as a firewall, there is part that covers that aspect. The five main scenarios, Firewall, Proxy, Remote Access, Client Protection and Publishing all have their own section within the guide. Each section gives you an initial overview of the functionality, and then promptly goes into the implementation and configuration in detail.
As with most guides, we find details of logging, reporting and troubleshooting at the end. The TMG is no exception here, although the curious part of these sections is the inclusion of the scripting chapter. My guess is that since there is no PowerShell cmdlets for TMG, the scripting chapter was relegated to the end instead of being embedded in the other chapters. Which is a shame as scripting is a very useful; if not important skill for IT Pro's to have today.
Don't miss Appendix B either, this provides a complete breakdown of all the performance counters for TMG, with a brief guide at the end to explain how to use them.

Final Verdict.
The book is well laid out. Certainly thought has gone in there. It is also worthy of being in the Administrator's Companion series. If you plan to use TMG then , regardless of the fact the market is not swamped with books on the subject, then this Administrator's companion is well suited to the task and I'd recommend it.

Comments about Microsoft Press Microsoft® Forefront™ Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Administrator's Companion:

I recently purchased the newly released administrators companion for TMG. Up until this time I have used the TAP program, Technet and ISAServer.org for most of my TMG research. My preference for reading though is a book and this one comes in with the technical detail I need to truly master this product. It provides insightful depth, real world examples, is clearly written and organized.

Sean Friart
CISSP, CCNA, GSEC, MCSEx3, MCITP, MCTS
Lead, ITS, Infrastructure Engineer
Avanade Inc | Seattle Development Center