Get TMG running fast with Deploying Microsoft® Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010

Microsoft Press have just released a series of three “Deployment” guides for the Forefront product range. The three guides, for Threat Management Gateway 2010, Unified Access Gateway 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server are a new concise style. These are very short guides, between 70 and 140 pages, but written with the goal of just providing the details to help you get these product deployed.

The Threat Management Gateway edition is 79 pages long, it’s divided into 3 chapters covering the features of TMG, deployment of the product and finally the deployment of Service Pack 1. Don’t let the size put you off, that was my first concern too, it packs a lot of good information into a small size. I was impressed by this, especially having looked at the much bigger TMG Administrators Companion. The guide covers the features of TMG, what they do and what business problems they solve. The chapter on deployment, takes you through the steps you need to get TMG up and running. It’s not overly detailed, but just enough to get you there.

The final chapter on Service Pack 1 covers the updates and how to install. To me it seemed odd that it was added to the end, but does give good insight into what is new.

There are a couple of things I noted of interest. There is some repetition of information between chapters 1 and 2. Also in chapter 1 there are a few places the guide points you at the TMG Admin companion for more details on certain features. This guide only covers the basic deployment and configuration, there is no details on configuration of Malware Inspection or NIS for example.

Having said all that, this is certainly an ideal guide for getting you up and running with TMG and worth looking at if you want to try out the product and do not want to wade through the bigger admin companion.