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Solaris 8 Essential Reference
A New Book for a New Release John Mulligan is known for his Web site SolarisGuide.com and the first Solaris Essential Reference. This is the second edition, updated for the Solaris 8 release. The technical reviewers of the book were Solaris administrators Jeffrey Meltzer and Nojan Moshiri.
Overview In the Introduction we are told that the book emphasizes the essentials of SunOS 5.x rather than Open Windows since 'anything that can be done from a GUI can also be done from a command line.' While this old adage is true, and the command line is certainly a very powerful and standard way to use Unix, many of the recent additions to Solaris are designed to make administration easier by using GUI tools.
What's in it for me? There are three main parts to the text. There is the General Use Reference, which covers text utilities, shell scripting, process control and network clients and utilities. Part II is a Developer Reference, covering compilers/interpreters, programming utilities and debugging. Part III is the Administration and Maintenance Task Reference, with sections on startup and shutdown, user management, network administration, filesystems, security, and system configuration and tuning.
The Appendices list Solaris version changes, common startup problems and solutions, Linux compatibility, the GNU Public License, list of Web resources, signals list, and a TCP/UDP port list. The Web resources list is well organized into sites covering administration, CDE, developer resources, hardware, lists of sources, magazines, online documentation (including SolarisGuide's RTFM documentation), security, software, Solaris x86 and Solaris PPP/NAT. The resources chosen seem to be tried and tested, as those that I tried were all still at the addresses given.
The port list only covers fairly standard ports, listing them both by service and by port number. The services list includes a note next to each with recommendations like disable or log for those known to have security issues.
What's good? The security section includes information on the new Role Based Access Control (RBAC) as well as how to enable the Basic Security Module although more information on what the BSM does would've been helpful. There is a section on the LDAP utilities that come with Solaris 8 and how to use them.
What's bad? Some of the examples are spaced out over two lines awkwardly. The ftp sites given in the Security section are no longer working since the directory structure at Purdue's COAST was re-arranged as CERIAS. This is not the fault of the author or publisher; it's just the nature of the Internet to be dynamic.
There is no coverage of IP Filters or firewalls, patch analyzer, Network Cache and Accelerator, the Sun Management Center, VPNs or the extra software that comes with Solaris 8 (Oracle, StarOffice, the Palm HotSync utilities, Forte, Apache and iPlanet). The Linux compatibility section was disappointing: it consists of just one page describing the utility called lxrun that lets you run Linux binaries under Solaris x86. There is also a glaring typo on the contents page: 'Admininstration.'
Conclusion The title Solaris 8 Essential Reference is a fairly tough promise to live up to. The book is good as a Solaris reference, giving general coverage of the Solaris operating system for users, developers and administrators. However, it misses a lot of the main features of Solaris 8, which are probably the reasons most people would buy version 8 in the first place.
You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.
an O'Reilly book. I really wish Tim would make a Sun book that would be *good*
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
A good review. I bought this book a while back to prepare for an upcoming Solaris certification test I was taking, and it helped out immensely. The good measure of a good reference book isn't its width -- Its wether or not you can open it up, and follow whats being discussed almost immediately without having to skip back 2 or 3 chapters to see what the heck theyre talking about. This is a well laid out book, and makes a comfortable amount of assumptions about the level of expertise the typical reader already has, and builds on it. Theres nothing I hate more than technical references that don't address the inconsistancies in how the OS presents a particular function to the user. It makes the learning process that much easier, without simply beating the reader over the head with "Here's what you do. Forget everything else, just do it like this and dont ask any questions".
Leave that crap for the math teachers.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
Like verbs?
Bit short, isn't it ?
I've got a copy of this one, and I highly recommend it.
If you are a solaris admin, definitely keep this book on hand, it is invaluable as a reference and general guide book. It does miss a few of the new features found in solaris 8, but more then makes up for it with it's broad coverage of general knowledge.
-Marvin
I have this book and it has been helpful, however I don't know if I would call it essential. It is good reading and handy. It saved me some time once, and that makes it worth the money. As far as the negatives the reviewer points out, this calls upon the definition of "essential" instead of "complete". The author I believe tries to document the basic and common aspects of the system, not every possible use, like firewalling and clustering.
-- Solaris Central - http://w
Does it speak of how to install 8 (x86) onto a hard drive with other OS' on it?
I've tried to install 8 10/00 onto my UDMA drive with Linux residing at hda2 and a blank partition where hda1 should be. It chokes, nothing I've tried yet works, besides having the whole drive completely zeroed out. SCO Unixware 7.1.1 is the same deal.
I see different challenges of getting various OS' to install in the presence of another partition, but none seem to be as stuborn as these two. OS/2 Warp4 and NT 4 are easier, and stuff like Linux, the free BSD's, QNX and BeOS are dead easy.
Seems strange, are they trying to dominate a machine or is the installed simply brain dead?
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
especially regarding the new features you'd a book updated for Solaris 8 to cover.
Did anyone else understand what he was trying to say?
Is your company running tools written by ma
There is also a glaring typo on the contents page: 'Admininstration.'
I thought so. GWB must have contributed his smarts to this one...
They've been losing market share to NT for years already, and now even comitted UNIX houses are switching from Solaris to Linux. Just look at the recent decision by SIAC to switch their mission-critical systems from Solaris to Linux. A combination of slow, overpriced hardware and an inability to compete on the software front has done them in. Even with the Java strategy, they have little hope of survival.
Why would anyone buy a Sun? Historically, they have offered excellent workstation-class machines. Now, their best single and dual processor ultrasparc based workstations are easily outclassed in every way by much cheaper boxes based on Intel and AMD processors. Performance that was once reserved for the most affluent corporate power users can now be found on the desk of the lowly janitor or student. The only place that Sun still distinguishes itself is in the large enterprise server with many processors and multiple layers of redundancy. Even there, solutions based on x86-64 and ia64 are arriving, and promise to offer all the same features at a much lower price.
On the software side, Sun makes an OS that is noted as being slow but scalable. With fast PC's, scalability on a single system is becoming less of a concern. Also, Windows 2000 already has many of the scalability features, and Linux is closing the gap quickly. Even five years ago, it made perfect sense to buy a Sun workstation for a developer. Now Linux fills that position, and a Sun machine is a waste of money. How long can it be before the same is true of high end workstations, clusters, and even enterprise big iron? IBM is putting their massive resources behind mainframe Linux. With Sun's proven inability to compete with Linux in any market that it has entered, they should be very afraid.
Sun's one bright spot is Java. With the massive adoption of J2EE for the middle tier in web infrastructure it is a powerful reminder of what Sun once was, and what they still can do when they get it right. Still, further analysis shows that Java is not a trump card for Sun. Far more than Solaris, two other operating systems are positioning themselves as "the best platform for Java." One is MacOS X, another proprietary UNIX by a more innovative vendor. The other threat to Sun is once again from Linux. With the failure of Java to catch on to the desktop, and the failure in the embedded market, Sun will have great difficulty leveraging Java to improve their financial situation.
The future does not look bright for Sun. Facing cheap hardware from Intel and AMD, and software competition from Linux and Microsoft, they have utterly failed to put together a competitive offering. With the failure of their Java technology to improve the outlook, they have all but curled up and died.
Even Slashdot wants to hide some things
The book is no good until you apply patches:
.. yeah.
106542-12
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104234-04
107555-10
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103423-08
Um
"Old man yells at systemd"
The only way for Sun to survive the competitive threat from cheap PCs and Linux is to charge a fee for J2EE. BEA Systems is a $6 billion dollar company built on the backs of Sun's Java enterprise library specifications. They merely implemented J2EE based on Sun's specifications. Sun did not make a nickel from this. The only way for Sun to recoup the costs is to start charging major $$$ for Java. It will happen sooner than later. Java is not Open Source, afterall.
I have a Sun Blade 100 at home and I really love Solaris.
These categories are especially apt for solaris books. First are the ones that are rushed to press, full of screen shots and man pages (Sams, Que, etc). Of these books in my library, I've found them most useful for holding up monitors. However, they can't be completely disreguarded. Sometimes it's nice to read a large man page on paper (csh, cvs, etc). Thus, IMHO, these two inch thick volumes should look *great* to the eye and be easy to read and STAY OPEN sitting on a desk. Alas, most of these books don't fit their niche. Their main assest is that they are cheap and first to market. I've also noticed that these books age quicker than milk left out on blacktop on a hot summers day. At least these books are made by using the product. There was a great thread about "Solaris 8: The Complete Reference" in comp.unix.solaris recently that shows both sides (and expresses what a waste of time and money the book was for me).
The second type of books are the ones produced by or in association with the producer of the software. Think M$ press, Oracle Press and the God-aweful Janice Winsor books on Solaris. These seem to be produced by asking people about the product and then writing down their answers. Thus, you never seem to get the best answer to questions, but you get the correct answer for the Sun, or Cisco or Oracle point of view. This is vitial for the lame certification tests out there. The correct answer isn't the right answer, it's the Cisco right answer. Thus, the best books from this group are the test prep books. These books (which can be even bigger than the first category) are also useful for reference material that you may need once a month or so. I use these books as book-ends for the books I actually read and use.
Third, as you may have guessed, are the *good* books that you actually read, use and learn from. I am always impressed with the readabilty and content of O'Reilly books. There have been so few bad books from them. It also seems their books age quite well. An impressive feat for their market. Text books also end up in their category. Most texts are bad and overpriced. However, with time, the diamonds start to show from adison-wesley (tcp/ip books) and prentice-hall (unix systems administrator's handbook - THE must read for solaris and all unix).
The point of this rant is to look for the third type of books that you may *like* to read and that will age well. Try going to a college book store and look around; they have great book ideas there. Of course, you would NEVER buy anything there (try a local used bookstore or allbookstores.com). I am currently reading those type two books, and I can say that "Solaris Internals: Core Kernel Architecture" seems to be a good book so far. It's certianly better than most of "reference" books out there.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
With cheap PCs and free OSes - what differentiates Sun? Nothing. Even Java runs faster on x86 hardware than Solaris. I can see no reason why someone would want to use expensive hardware from Sun instead of cheap commodity PCs.
I have been trying to post articles on Slashdot for a month now, but they are insistant on publishing other articles. I just posted an article on Quantum Computing. I think you will all enjoy it quite a bit. For those of you who do not know what Quantum computing is, the article explains it quite well. Here is the link . You can post comments on the article below it. Please tell me what you think.
shutdown -r now
here's your shout. SHOUT !!
Linux is good too. They are the best. Solaris and Linux are an awesome combination. That is what is great about this industry; you can choose one of two great operating systems - either Solaris, or Linux. If you have the inclination - run both!
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Yeah - especially after you apply the 2 dozen java patches to the operating system.
"workstations are easily outclassed in every way by much cheaper boxes based on Intel and AMD processors" Well that is not really True. Ultra Systems (With the exception of the SunBlades 100 and the Cheap netra's) have more chache (2x-16x) then a Intel or AMD system, wich makes those memory intensive apps fly. Also Ultra Systems have a wider bus then PCs do. Memory IO on a SUN system is a lot better then on PCs.
You also forgot to mention Solaris 8 stability. I found that Solaris 8 runs solid on a Sparc system. A Lot more stable then Linux is. This is due to the fact that Solaris is built around the archecture. While Linux is build to try to work with a bunch of different arcectures which makes it naturally more prone to errors.
Also you get what you paied for In my experence Sun Equiptment is build very solid compared to Dells or other PCs. Steel Frames, Fans that that dont die all the time, The expantion cards insert smothly and they click in place quicly. A lot of the cost in the Sun equiptment is just the fact that they are using higher quiality parts then PCs.
The "Solaris Internals: Core Kernel Architecture" book you mentioned is good due to the authors. Both Jim Mauro and Richard McDougall are senior engineers at Sun. They are not outside people, like Janice Winsor.
Janice Winsor did get one Solaris book right though. "Solaris 8 - System Administrator's Reference". But that's solely because the book is a collection of man pages. ;)
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Well, the sooner you put your lips around my cock
the sooner we can get started.
Cheers,
Timothy
SLOW-LARIS IS DEAD
Dead as SpanishInquistion's sex life.
{ahem} I believe you mean... reboot -- -r
/usr/sbin) drvconfig, devlinks, disks, ports, tapes, audlinks & /usr/ucb/ucblinks. -- no reboot (Take that Win2k!)
However, I'd argue that one of the most important sun commands are "eeprom" and such. If you're not spending much money, the boot prom is the main advantage of having a sun system. Of course, if you have the cash for a big system, Sun's scalability is the reason to buy. Slowaris can get really good with the SMP, and I'd love to try out those sunfire systems; unix acting like a mainframe. Oh, and lest I forget the other *really* important commands; how to soft reboot (this will pretty much update everything except the kernel - useful for hotswapping)... killer feature. Oh, and one other note, use SEPP (from the people who brought you MRTG!) or some other concurrent software control system for that java muck. You'll be much happier in the long run.
Soft reboot commands: (in
Sometimes silence is the most beautiful sound
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
Huh!?! I just took the time to say the Author of those books did not do a good job! Excuse me for not pointing out that the author of the aformentioned books is Janice Winsor. Those books are in category two -- NOT good. They are not cheap, and nor are they good. They'd make a better use soaking up coffee spills. I just said that books made in association with the product producer weren't all that hot, and were only good for (perhaps) passing the test. You might have missed that fact when you were typing in that the books were published by Sun. Oh wait, maybe I don't know these books and they are published by the egyptian sun god -- na, probably not.
:)
The Janice Windsor books are only good if you can't do "man man | lp" As the Eistein quote goes, "the only infinite things are the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the former" -- Anonymous Coward; Walk the plank!! And someone tell Janice I want my money back!
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
If you operate a Solaris box for fun or profit...
Arrg! why on earth would you run a Solaris box for fun! We all know that we run Linux for fun.
room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
(they always break you eventually)
and this should not be marked as "Informative" not "Funny": Solaris by Stanislav Lem (1961)
You can't handle the truth.
I own Linux Essential Reference by Ed Petron, also published by New Riders. The book is mostly man pages with a little clarity added to them, and a few detailed tables on complicated commands. I'm not sure what Solaris 8's book is like, but "chain books" like these tend to follow the same format. So if you already understand manpages pretty well, you don't need one of these books from what I've gathered.
everyone does not have to get so defensive when
another os is mentioned. there are places
where linux excels, there are places where solaris
excels. yes, its true! deal with it, if you
dont have anything more appropriate to add to
the discussion--try posting under another story.
I know my Linux-box reasonably well, and although I was able to use the ultra-10 I have (with Solaris 8) ok, I knew there are lots of things that would make life easier. Unfortunately, the book was bit light on details. There were useful stuff in there (some of which may have been available on Linux too), but all in all it just left a stale taste.
The specific problems I had with the book that I can remember were:
Scp fixes this nicely, too, but at least book should definitely warn about using ftp for file transfer (minus public ftp-sites with anon. login), so that people wouldn't have mistaken feel of safety ("it asks for password... how can it be totally insecure?")
I still have the book nearby, and occasionally do reference it. It's not completely useless... But I think it doesn't really live up to its title. Anyone have any suggestions for a better book?
I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
If the Internet bust has taught us anything - mindshare is completely worthless if you don't have products to sell. How is Sun making any money off of Java? It is not a revenue creator - quite the contrary - it loses money for Sun. They will be forced to charge for J2EE and its JVMs sooner or later.
Sounds to me like a lame attempt to get some recognition for your website by posting off-topic in the forums. If /. didn't post the story, they probably didn't find it interesting or informative.
/. But you might know that if your member # wasn't greater than the national debt.
I'm quite surte that if your articles were worthy of appearing here, they would be suggested by someone who doesn't have the domain name in his e-mail addy.
Then there's the fact that Quantum computing has been beaten to death over the years by
If you would like to submit to a site that doesn't care how bogus a link is, try the search engines. If you want to whore yourself on slashdot, post on-topic. If the topic does not lend itself to your post, people reading that post will probably not be interested, and more than likely quite annoyed. I know that I will be skeptical of any links to designtechnica in the future, and I hopefully will never visit your site.
~Hammy
no way.
The most usefull Solaris command is...
# uadmin 2 1
Probably the worst O'Reilly book published.
That, and the "Perl for System Admin" book.
2 horrible books.
> Facing cheap hardware from Intel and AMD
Who wants to run their business on *cheap* hardware? Cheap hardware is great for Linux weenies to play with in their bedrooms but I don't want my insurance details stored on it.
That is an interesting thread. I wouldn't put 'perl for admins' in that category though; I really liked that book quite a bit, and use it often (not as much at the cookbook though). I will admit that I gave away my MySQL book. Personally, I've also avoided the bat book out of pure fear.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you