Administration Books

DNS and BIND (5th Edition)

Cricket Liu, Paul Albitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Domain Naming System (DNS) is a glorious thing. It takes familiar Internet network and machine names (like "amazon.com") and converts them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (like "208.35.218.15") that are meaningful to routers and therefore useful for identifying the machine you want to reach. What's amazing is that DNS enables someone in Germany to refer, by name, to a computer in Mongolia even if no one in Germany has ever accessed the distant machine before. It's pretty much self-configuring, too: No human effort in Germany is necessary to make the Mongolian machine reachable by name. DNS and BIND explains how DNS works better for this than any other piece of documentation, printed or otherwise. The work of Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu, now in its fourth revision, has long been considered a classic among systems administrators and network architects, particularly those with a Unix bent.

The fourth edition is mainly an update: The authors have added coverage of incremental and conditional zone transfer with BIND's new NOTIFY features, as well as of Transaction Signatures (TSIG), and DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Sections on firewalling and DNS for IPv6 addresses have been expanded. Throughout, Albitz and Liu maintain their impeccable style, combining text and illustrative listings into an educational whole. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Domain Naming System (DNS) and how it's implemented by BIND (through versions 8.2.3 and 9.1.0), how to set up BIND, how to configure MX records for mail service, parent and child domains, NOTIFY, and DNS security.

Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition

Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, Greg Kroah-Hartman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Updated to cover version 2.4.x of the Linux kernel, the second edition of Linux Device Drivers remains the best general-purpose, paper-bound guide for programmers wishing to make hardware devices work under the world's most popular open-source operating system. The authors take care to show how to write drivers that are portable--that is, that compile and run under all popular Linux platforms. That, along with the fact that they're careful to explain and illustrate concepts, makes this book very well suited to any programmer familiar with C but not with the hardware-software interface. It's worth noting that the emphasis in the title is on "device drivers" as much as "Linux." This book will make sense to you if you've never written a driver for any platform before. It helps if you have some Linux or Unix background, but even that is secondary as a prerequisite to C skill.

For a programming text--and one concerned with low-level instructions and data structures, at that--this book is remarkably rich in prose. You'll typically want to read this book straight through, more or less skipping the code samples, before sketching out your plan for the driver you need to write. Then, go back and pay closer attention to the sections on specific details you need to implement, like custom task queues. For coding-time details about specific system calls and programming techniques, count on the index to point you to the right passages. --David Wall

Topics covered: Techniques for writing hardware device drivers that run under Linux kernels 2.0.x through 2.2.x. Sections show how to manage memory, time, interrupts, ports, and other details of the hardware-software interface.

UNIX System Administration Handbook (3rd Edition)

Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent H. Hein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 98 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The third edition of Unix System Administration Handbook stands as a fantastic Unix book, perhaps one that's destined for legend. It's arguably the best general Unix book around. Don't delay in getting it, and don't spend too much time flinching at the price; it's worth it. If you work with Unix--in any of its flavors--you'll use this book, and frequently.

How, then, to begin the song of praises for the book? Let's start with its comprehensiveness. The authors--a whole passel of them, but miraculously consistent in style--deal with every subject that's central to the Unix universe. Their diligence extends even to detailed coverage of subjects (like the Domain Name System (DNS)) that many authorial squads omit. System administrators need to understand it all--it's good to see everything covered in one book. Of course, you still will need more focused texts for really complicated situations, but the coverage here will carry you a long way.

Although you probably will want to read this book cover to cover eventually, you might first look at the index, which typically will guide you to a couple of sections. First, an overview of the subject that interests you will explain what the service or feature is meant to do, what it isn't meant to do, and how (in fairly general terms) it does its job. You'll find four sections--one each on the relevant configuration facts of the four emphasized Unix variants. These sections aren't presented as explicit sequences of steps (which invariably leave the reader asking, "But, what if... " anyway), but as narratives that are interspersed with commands and configuration file listings. The approach works well, and it's made even better by the syntax summaries and conceptual diagrams that pop up now and then. --David Wall

Topics covered: Administration of Unix systems, with specific reference to Solaris 2.7, HP-UX 11.00, Red Hat Linux 6.2, and FreeBSD 3.4. Administration is a broad subject, and the authors touch on most of its aspects, including user and file operations (basic and advanced), hardware configuration, and kernel tweaking. Networking coverage includes basic connectivity, routing, server software, DNS, and security.

Python for Unix and Linux System Administration

Noah Gift, Jeremy Jones

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Python is an ideal language for solving problems, especially in Linux and Unix networks. With this pragmatic book, administrators can review various tasks that often occur in the management of these systems, and learn how Python can provide a more efficient and less painful way to handle them.

Each chapter in Python for Unix and Linux System Administration presents a particular administrative issue, such as concurrency or data backup, and presents Python solutions through hands-on examples. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to develop your own set of command-line utilities with Python to tackle a wide range of problems. Discover how this language can help you:

• Read text files and extract information
• Run tasks concurrently using the threading and forking options
• Get information from one process to another using network facilities
• Create clickable GUIs to handle large and complex utilities
• Monitor large clusters of machines by interacting with SNMP programmatically
• Master the IPython Interactive Python shell to replace or augment Bash, Korn, or Z-Shell
• Integrate Cloud Computing into your infrastructure, and learn to write a Google App Engine Application
• Solve unique data backup challenges with customized scripts
• Interact with MySQL, SQLite, Oracle, Postgres, Django ORM, and SQLAlchemy

With this book, you'll learn how to package and deploy your Python applications and libraries, and write code that runs equally well on multiple Unix platforms. You'll also learn about several Python-related technologies that will make your life much easier.

Linux Cookbook

Carla Schroder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This unique and valuable collection of tips, tools, and scripts provides clear, concise, hands-on solutions that can be applied to the challenges facing anyone running a network of Linux servers from small networks to large data centers in the practical and popular problem-solution-discussion O'Reilly cookbook format. The Linux Cookbook covers everything you'd expect: backups, new users, and the like. But it also covers the non-obvious information that is often ignored in other books the time-sinks and headaches that are a real part of an administrator's job, such as: dealing with odd kinds of devices that Linux historically hasn't supported well, building multi-boot systems, and handling things like video and audio. The knowledge needed to install, deploy, and maintain Linux is not easily found, and no Linux distribution gets it just right. Scattered information can be found in a pile of man pages, texinfo files, and source code comments, but the best source of information is the experts themselves who built up a working knowledge of managing Linux systems. This cookbook's proven techniques distill years of hard-won experience into practical cut-and-paste solutions to everyday Linux dilemmas. Use just one recipe from this varied collection of real-world solutions, and the hours of tedious trial-and-error saved will more than pay for the cost of the book. But those who prefer to learn hands-on will find that this cookbook not only solves immediate problems quickly, it also cuts right to the chase pointing out potential pitfalls and illustrating tested practices that can be applied to a myriad of other situations. Whether you're responsible for a small Linux system, a huge corporate system, or a mixed Linux/Windows/MacOS network, you'll find valuable, to-the-point, practical recipes for dealing with Linux systems everyday. The Linux Cookbook is more than a time-saver; it's a sanity saver.

Mastering Unix Shell Scripting: Bash, Bourne, and Korn Shell Scripting for Programmers, System Administrators, and UNIX Gurus

Randal K. Michael

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

wide span of topics for sysadmins and programmers 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

[A review of the 2ND EDITION, where the latter was published in June 2008.]

Perhaps you are a programmer or sysadmin of a heterogeneous network of unix and linux machines. Where the unixes hail from different vendors. Think Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and the Macintosh. (Yes, the Mac runs a descendent of Mach, which is a dialect of unix.) And maybe the linux boxes have different distros. This book spans the gamut of most unixes (I include linux in this). Helping you easily write shell scripts, without taking sides over which unix or linux version is better.

The second ecumenical aspect is that it also avoids favouring any of the 3 major unix shells - Borne, Korn and bash. In some newsgroups, there has been a tedious and interminable debate about the relative virtues of these shells. While one shell might indeed be better than others for a given task, in general they have equivalent functionality. The book's evenhanded approach is one worth emulating.

Thoughtfully, the book suggests topics that might be typically useful to sysadmins, and others more suited to programmers. It is not a strict divide. But for sysadmins, you can see discussions about how to monitor disk partitions, or system load and swap space usage. These are often issues germane to your duties.

The bulk of the book is more on programmer-related topics. Much. Note that the book is largely random access, unlike a science textbook for example, which is serial access from the front. In other words, with just a minimal acquaintance with basic scripting, you can dive straight into any chapter, without reading its predecessor.

Editorial Review:

UNIX expert Randal K. Michael guides you through every detail of writing shell scripts to automate specific tasks. Each chapter begins with a typical, everyday UNIX challenge, then shows you how to take basic syntax and turn it into a shell scripting solution. Covering Bash, Bourne, and Korn shell scripting, this updated edition provides complete shell scripts plus detailed descriptions of each part. UNIX programmers and system administrators can tailor these to build tools that monitor for specific system events and situations, building solid UNIX shell scripting skills to solve real-world system administration problems.

Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two: Tips & Tools for Connecting, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting (Hacks)

William von Hagen, Brian Jones

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Today's system administrators deal with a vast number of situations, operating systems, software packages, and problems. Those who are in the know have kept their copy of Linux Server Hacks close at hand to ease their burden. And while this helps, it's not enough: any sys admin knows there are many more hacks, cool tips, and ways of solving problems than can fit in a single volume (one that mere mortals can lift, that is).

Which is why we created Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two, a second collection of incredibly useful tips and tricks for finding and using dozens of open source tools you can apply to solve your sys admin problems. The power and flexibility of Linux and Open Source means that there is an astounding amount of great software out there waiting to be applied to your sys admin problems -- if only you knew about it and had enough information to get started. Hence, Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two.

This handy reference offers 100 completely new server management tips and techniques designed to improve your productivity and sharpen your administrative skills. Each hack represents a clever way to accomplish a specific task, saving you countless hours of searching for the right answer. No more sifting through man pages, HOWTO websites, or source code comments -- the only resource you need is right here. And you don't have to be a system administrator with hundreds of boxen to get something useful from this book as many of the hacks apply equally well to a single system or a home network.

Compiled by experts, these hacks not only give you the step-by-step instructions necessary to implement the software, but they also provide the context to truly enable you to learn the technology. Topics include:

• Authentication
• Remote GUI connectivity
• Storage management
• File sharing and synchronizing resources
• Security/lockdown instruction
• Log files and monitoring
• Troubleshooting
• System rescue, recovery, and repair

Whether they help you recover lost data, collect information from distributed clients, or synchronize administrative environments, the solutions found in Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two will simplify your life as a system administrator.

Practical Unix & Internet Security, 3rd Edition

Simson Garfinkel, Gene Spafford, Alan Schwartz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The world's most business-critical transactions run on Unix machines, which means the machines running those transactions attract evildoers. Furthermore, a lot of those machines have Internet connections, which means it's always possible that some nefarious remote user will find a way in. The third edition of Practical Unix & Internet Security contains--to an even greater extent than its favorably reputed ancestors--an enormous amount of accumulated wisdom about how to protect Internet-connected Unix machines from intrusion and other forms of attack. This book is fat with practical advice on specific defensive measures (to defeat known attacks) and generally wise policies (to head off as-yet-undiscovered ones).

The authors' approach to Unix security is holistic and clever; they devote as much space to security philosophy as to advice about closing TCP ports and disabling unnecessary services. They also recognize that lots of Unix machines are development platforms, and make many recommendations to consider as you design software. It's rare that you read a page in this carefully compiled book that does not impart some obscure nugget of knowledge, or remind you to implement some important policy. Plus, the authors have a style that reminds their readers that computing is supposed to be about intellectual exercise and fun, an attitude that's absent from too much of the information technology industry lately. Read this book if you use any flavor of Unix in any mission-critical situation. --David Wall

Topics covered: Security risks (and ways to limit them) under Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD. Coverage ranges from responsible system administration (including selection of usernames and logins) to intrusion detection, break-in forensics, and log analysis.

TCP/IP Network Administration (3rd Edition; O'Reilly Networking)

Craig Hunt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Best TCP/IP Book Hands Down! 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

As with all of O'Reilly's books, this one is technically accurate and fundamentally sound.

It does not teach TCP/IP from a simplistic approach--telling you only what you need to know and leaving you begging for more. It lays a ground work based upon the actual theory of these protocols and how they were developed and the thinking that was involved in their creation.

From there, it takes you step by step through the layers of the protocols and presents everything that most people would need to know--even more than they would need to know.

Especially enlightening were the chapters on IPv6--the next generation of the IP protocol, and the chapter covering subnetting.

Overall, if you need the one book to explain TCP/IP and the "ins-and-outs" of these networking protocols, look no further.

This book has all you'll need.

Editorial Review:

This book will be indispensable to Unix system administrators. It describes how to set up and administer a network of Unix systems using the TCP/IP protocols, taking a thoroughly practical approach. Topics covered include basic system configuration, routing, common network applications, and many others.

Automating UNIX and Linux Administration (The Expert's Voice)

Kirk Bauer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The recommended audience is shown as "Intermediate-Advanced" and I would agree with that 100%…Administrators of larger networks will find this (book) relevant to their work.

— Anthony Lawrence, http://aplawrence.com

Wouldnt you like to automate the tedious daily tasks of system administration? Automating UNIX and Linux Administration will show you how, by exploring existing tools and offering real-world examples. Although some of the book is Linux-specific, most of the information applies to any UNIX system, including material on automating tasks across multiple variants of UNIX. Author Kirk Bauer briefly overviews tools and technologiesand assumes preliminary knowledge about editing a configuration file or mounting a file system.

The techniques, methods, and tools in this book will help you manage a single systembut will prove especially powerful across multiple systems. No matter if the systems are desktops, servers, or Beowulf clustersall of them will benefit from this automation. And managing five to five thousand systems will become a simpler task!