Review:Unix System Administration
Unix System Administration Handbook | |
author | Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass & Trent R. Hein |
pages | |
publisher | Prentice Hall PTR |
rating | 9/10 |
reviewer | Mike Hostetler |
ISBN | ISBN 0-14-151051-7 |
summary | Must have book for UNIX system administration |
Mike Hostetler (home) |
NOTE: I'm not going to compare this book to ORA's Armadillo Book. I haven't used it, but have glanced through it. They are very much alike. I'll let the readers compare the two in the comments section.
The Scenario
Need a guide to help set up sendmail? Want some assistance in troubleshooting your DNS config? In essence, if you want a go-to book for administrating your UNIX-like machine, then this is the book for you.
What's Bad?
I can only see two things wrong with this book, both of which are small. First of all, I have the second edition (I'm sure the first one is way out of print) which is copyrighted 1995. Needless to say, things have changed a bit. Like there is no discussion about Linux-specific things, unlike their discussions when Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, etc., are different then the norm. Also, some of the way things are done are different now. Like the book says that OSPF is a "new" TCP/IP protocal, though they do accurately predict that OSPF will become wide-spread, especially in large networks.
The second thing is even smaller. This book is written for people who administrate a large UNIX server or servers on networks. People who have their UNIX box at home will get less use out of this book then people who administrate a server in the work place. But, then again, people who aren't on a dedicated network doesn't have as many problems, or they don't have to be as careful about as many things.
What's Good?
As a quote on the back of the book says, "This is not a nice, neat book for a nice, clean world. It's a nasty book for a nasty world." The Red Book is complicated at times but it has to be - the problems it is trying to solve are complicated. This book is alway extremely practical, and no where else is practicality needed more then in system administration. They never say, "this should work" but "if that doesn't work, try this".
The authors definitely know their material, they know how to present it, and they know how to write about complex problems so Joe Admin knows how to fix them. The OS-specific sections, like, for example, when Solaris acts differently then the rest of the world, are especially good. And example config files are present when needed. And, as an added bonus, the cartoons at the beginning of each chapter are quite humorous.
So What's In It For Me?
If you want help administrating your UNIX computer, then don't hesitate - get this book.
Buy this book at Amazon and help Slashdot out.
Table of Contents
- Basic Administration
- Booting and Shutting Down
- Rootly Powers
- The Filesystem
- Controlling Processes
- Adding New Users
- Devices and Drivers
- Serial Devices
- Adding A Disk
- Periodic Processes
- Backups
- Syslog and Log Files
- Configuring the Kernel
- TCP/IP and Routing
- Network Hardware
- The Domain Name System
- The Network File System
- Sharing System Files
- SLIP and PPP
- The Internet
- Electronic Mail
- Network Management
- Security
- Usenet News
- Printing and Imaging
- Disk Space Management
- Hardware Maintenance
- Accounting
- Performance Analysis
- UUCP
- Daemons
- Policy and Politics
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