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The Practice of System and Network Administration
Though not a nitty gritty technical book, this volume is a must have for every professional sysadmin, regardless of skill level or the technology she uses. The book focuses on the methods used by successful system administrators to build, support, and grow their networks. For the novice admin, it offers a good big-picture look at the most important "whys" of system administration. For the intermediate admin, it has great advice on how to balance fire fighting with project work that will help strengthen the infrastructure and lead to less emergency handling. For the senior admin, there are gems of design wisdom and sections on how to deal with being in a managerial or team leader role. Because it's more high level, this book is even a good buy for people who manage sysadmins but are not themselves technical.
What's Covered
The book is broken down into four major parts, The Principles, The Processes, The Practices, and Management. The chapters in each section are conveniently split into the "basics," the "icing" (things to concentrate on after all of the basics have been accomplished), and some exercises at the end to help the reader apply the covered information to her own situation. The authors back up their sound advice with many case studies and, often tragically humorous, war stories that really drive home the salient points. The BOFHs among us will certainly love some of the follies that the book recounts.
The Principles
This chapter deals with fundamental issues sysadmins encounter and how to define a site-wide infrastructure. The topics range from desktop and server setup, to security, debugging, and ethics. Of particular interest to me were the latter three. I was hoping that the security section would give a bit more detail about a layered security approach as part of the policy. The authors offered good pointers on developing a site security policy without going into specifics, though. The debugging section was spot on, and something that even your help desk people should read. Instead of the hit-or-miss technique that so many inexperienced people use to diagnose problems, this gave a thorough outline of how to methodically determine and fix a problem. In light of the current Enron fiasco, the ethics section was quite timely. How do you do the right thing (or even determine what that is) and then not get stuck as the scapegoat? Though they're not lawyers, Limoncelli and Hogan offer some sound advice and quote from the SAGE Code of Ethics.
The Processes
This section entails how to create the framework for making successful changes to your infrastructure. Topic highlights include change management and revision control, server upgrades, maintenance windows, and service conversions. Change management is one of the most perilously neglected portions of the system administration field today. How should changes be made to the systems so that they are as seamless as possible? Who changed what, when? How do you get back to a known state? My one nit is that I would have liked to see a bit more about automation (rsync, cfengine, et al) discussed in this chapter, especially in dealing with upgrades and service conversions.
The Practices
The authors choose a few important services to discuss in detail here:
- The helpdesk
- Customer care
- Data centers
- Networks
- Email service
- Print service
- Data recovery
- Remote access
- Software depots
- Service monitoring
These topics were well covered, but the one omission from this section was web service (and possibly a section on Usenet, though that's waning in popularity these days). The namesapces chapter from the Principles section would have also flowed better as part of a DNS chapter in this section. One especially amusing story in the monitoring chapter describes an alarm system in a machine room calling the on-duty sysadmin in the wee hours of the morning to tell him, in a sultry female voice, I'm hot. I'm wet. Too bad his wife answers and thinks it's a prank call when it's really a broken HVAC system!
Management
This section covers how to best deal with the human side of system administration and really explores how people can actually like their jobs instead of just slogging through them every day. There's some outstanding advice on how to deal with difficult situations (time management, difficult people, professional development, keeping people motivated and managing them well, etc). This is also the first book that I know of that includes salary negotiating tips for sysadmins. The management section could almost stand alone as a book geared towards the particular problems that many sysadmins experience.
Other bits
Unlike most other books, the introduction and the appendices are also very worthwhile reads. The introduction covers the three fundamental things that ever site should already be doing: using a ticketing system, handling quick requests right, and starting every host in a known state. The first two appendices cover the various hats that sysadmins wear and "what to do when..." situations. The latter is extremely valuable, and is also available from the book's web site.
In all, this book receives an enthusiastic thumbs up!"
You can purchase The Practice of System and Network Administration from bn.com. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.
Sysadmin Talk is a forum for sysadmins.
Still a small community since its relatively new, but it has potential.
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInqu iry.asp?isbn=0201702711
Not trying to whore karma, but I do think it's silly to have to go through that stupid bfast link.
Nemeth, Evi and Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein. UNIX System Administration Handbook, Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2001. ISBN 0-13-020601-6.
Definitely worth picking up a copy.
Amazon charges full price ($49.95), bookpool has it for 20% off ($39.95).
it's not going to stop until you wise up, no it's not going to stop. so just give up.
Get it at Bookpool for $39.95....seems to be the best price out there.
1 702711
http://www.bookpool.com/.x/k9wrskqsu1/ss/1?qs=020
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I downloaded the PDF of appendix B off their web site. It looks pretty dry but towards the end they started inserting jokes. I hope the whole book is this funny!
Having worked as an NT sys admin for 5 years now, I have to totally agree with you. Most of the administrators in the NT world are not professionals and completely lack the skills necessary to run a large network.
Why is this? My guess is that it comes from the boom in NT/2000 as a NOS over the last 8 years. Figure that in the early 90's there was no such think as a Windows system administrator, and now there are several hundred thousand. Many have little experience in a professional network environment (unless they came from the Unix or Netware world). Most are desktop support personel who were promoted from one Windows platform (3.x/9x) to another (NT/2000). I'm sorry, but the skills needed to troubleshoot an office installation don't translate into those needed in designing an enterprise directory structure. Of course, Microsoft only made matters worse by then certifying any joker that could pick up a book.
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She may be just as beautiful as she is smart. And dating some rich lawyer who wears starched white shirts, drives a Boxster and thinks her Geek-like tendencies are "cute."
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/338/
It gets a resounding thumbs up over there as well - I'm a first year Computer Science degree student at the moment but I'm sorely tempted to get it anyway, it looks like this one isn't going to get outdated any time soon.
It probably doesn't.
The best advice anyone ever gave me in regards to handling the BWI-types is this:
Know ahead of time what your boss is going to ask of you, and be knowledgable enough to offer alternatives.
Most sysadmins that I've dealt with have been a little too quick to instantly condemn the BWI as being an ignorant prick, when you really can't blame the guy for being such (well, maybe you can blame him for being a prick). Usually, these people honestly have no idea what kind of burden they're going to be putting on you, your coworkers, and your network. And most SA's will respond accordingly, leveraging exorbiatant costs or technical jargon against the BWI's ideas. This is ALWAYS the wrong way to approach the situation.
The best way to sort the affairs of these BWI's, then, is to give them an alternative. Most of the sysadmins that i described above usually had no clue as to what kind of work these BWI's were trying to get done, and thus had no clue as to solving the problem in a more effective manner. That's where the above advice comes in. Get to know the BWI and his (or his department's/division's/group's) work. Figure out how to solve the problem WITHOUT simply saying "that's impossible" or "do you know what kind of problems that's gonna cause?". There's always more than one way to skin a cat - and a good SA is the guy who knows a few of them.
Yes. It has a section titled, "How to manage your boss".
The entire book isn't on-line, but parts of it are on www.everythingsysadmin.com and more will be in the future. Some of the chapters are based on papers that were published at the LISA conference, so you can read them there. However, they've been expanded and edited for inclusion in the book.
You can get the book direct from the publisher for $32.49 at: http://vig.pearsoned.com/store/product/1,3498,stor e-3941_isbn-0201702711,00.html AND it is in stock, unlike bookpool.
It's only once and awhile that such a book comes out that can be ranted about. This book truly is the "camel" of System Administration. I work with both Linux and NT, and the book is applicable to both.
The "Evard's Life Cycle" diagram is essential. I'm surprised I never saw it sooner. Also the first three points are absolute truth.
1) Use a trouble-ticket system
2) Manage quick requests right
3) Start every new host in a known state
I worked at a computer service company for years, and they did none of these three things. They're losing employees left and right because they can't manage the work effectively.
Bottom line - buy the book.
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Even cheaper than bookpool...
r e-3941_isbn-0201702711,00.html
http://vig.pearsoned.com/store/product/1,3498,sto
$32.49