Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition

dvdweyer writes "This book deals with administration of UNIX (one wonders why the book doesn't bear the title "Essential UNIX Administration"), all major UNIX platforms are covered, most of them in their almost latest version when the book went to press (Linux: Red Hat 7.3 and SuSE 8.0, Solaris 8 and 9, FreeBSD 4.6, AIX 5, HP-UX 11/11i, Tru64 5.1), SCO and IRIX were dropped for this edition, FreeBSD was added. Other UNIXes (e.g. Debian Linux) are not mentioned, but this makes the book only a little bit less useful on those, with some imagination the information can be used, except for special topics (e.g. package management). This book is on system administration and not targeted on desktop users, as such it doesn't cover KDE, Gnome or any desktop application." Dvddwyer's section-by-section review continues below. Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition author AEleen Frisch pages 1176 publisher O'Reilly rating 9/10 reviewer dvdweyer ISBN 0596003439 summary a well-done standard for all who need a thorough introduction as well as a work of reference in UNIX system administration.

Content Introduction to System Administration

This chapter claims to make you think like a system administrator, I didn't feel any different after reading it, maybe I already think like one ;-). Most of it is about use of superuser privileges (su, sudo). Other parts are communicating with users (talk, wall, motd - but no mention of e-mail or phone) and GUI-based vs. command-line administration.

The Unix Way

Here starts the real stuff: files, processes and devices. A very gentle but thorough introduction to all possibilities of file and directory ownership (chmod, chown, mode strings, numeric modes), next is a description of how files map to disks. The processes are covered on a fairly abstract level, only something about various types (interactive, batch, daemon) and attributes (but no way to show them, not even an example usage of ps or top - that's left for chapter 15). The part on devices is basic, but shows the some commands to list information about devices. Last part in this chapter is about the generic UNIX filesystem layout.

Essential Administrative Tools and Techniques

Here are some of the most important commands and techniques for everyday use: man, grep, awk, find (including how to pipe). Some of the examples are fairly complicated for a novice, a basic knowledge of piping and shell usage is assumed. Next are some methods of handling files and directories (cp, mkdir, diff, rm), periodic execution (cron), logging (syslog, managing log files) and software package management (the most important commands to Linux rpm, Solaris pkg*, etc.) and manual software installation (.configure, make, make install).

Startup and Shutdown

Contains a fairly detailed description of what happens when a system boots up or shuts down. This includes all the gooey stuff about initialization files, runlevels and how to customize those. Last but not least is a short troubleshooting guide, "When the System won't boot."

TCP/IP Networking

The chapter starts with a gentle introduction to TCP/IP and related hardware and explains step-by-step a starting TCP/IP session with dumps and comments. Going on it digs deeper and explains IP addressing, subnets and even a little bit IPv6. The first hands-on part deals with network configuration (ifconfig, configuration files, DHCP, name resolution). A short troubleshooting guide (ping, arp) rounds off the chapter.

Managing Users and Groups

This part starts with a description of the essential files (/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/groups) and how to add/remove users and other aspects of user and group management. The default tools for each distribution are also mentioned. Then a whole slew of pages are dedicated to password selection, cracking and enforcing password policies (though I prefer stronger passwords than those given on page 301). The last pages give an introduction to PAM (mostly Linux) and LDAP (mostly OpenLDAP).

Security

This is indeed a very good introduction to UNIX security and its lines of defense (though I did miss "disable remote root login" and "give users no shell when they don't need it"), next are common mistakes, setuid/setgid access modes and ACLs. A short introduction to PGP/GPG and role-based access control is given. The next big part is about network security: OpenSSH, TCP Wrappers and nmap are introduced; the ubiquitous advice "disable what you don't need" is also given. Firewalls are briefly mentioned, some links to actual products e.g. ipfilter or Netfilter would have been nice. A nice checklist-style guide to hardening an UNIX system is given and the chapter concludes with managing problems and monitoring. I did miss some links to resources on the Internet and a reminder on the importance of frequent patching (Sun recently published a nice whitepaper on this topic).

Managing Network Services

This chapter builds on the foundation built in the chapter on TCP/IP, as such it covers various basic networking services and starts with name resolution via DNS, mentioning configuration and usage of the common tools (BIND, nslookup, host, dig). This is followed by a part on getting out of the local network (routed, gated), getting others on your network (DHCP) and managing (netstat, ping, traceroute, SNMP) and monitoring (tcpdump, snoop). The chapter ends with short introductions to dedicated packages (e.g. NetSaint, MRTG/RRDTool).

Electronic Mail

Next is a chapter on that other big network nuisance^W service: mail. It starts with a gentle introduction to the basics (SMTP, MX records, POP/IMAP). The part on MTAs starts with everybody's darling *cough* sendmail which is covered exhaustively. The other MTA covered is Postfix, which also receives fairly extensive coverage. The rest of the chapter covers mail processing (fetchmail, procmail), there is no mention of other MTA, MUAs, or other modern mail processing tools (e.g. against spam). Though this chapter is well done, and a nice introduction to mail in general, I would prefer to get rid of it in favor of a "mail-is-only-for-dedicated-servers" policy. A short note on how to deactivate or remove the default MTA should be included in the previous chapter (yes, I know that not everyone shares this point of view).

Filesystems and Disks

A very long chapter on filesystems and disks with tons of information on how to create, mount/unmount, repair and monitor filesystems, including some stuff about logical volume managers and RAID. Nicely indexed, it makes a good reference but is boring to read it all (I didn't :-). The last pages are a short introduction to NFS and Samba, but do not cover all the advanced aspects.

Backup and Restore

Covers the tedious taks of backup with all the different aspects: planning backup, strategies to manage the workload, what media to use, what tools are available in a standard setup (tar, cpio, dump, dd, mt, restore). Next is a coverage of the package Amanda and what to look for in commercial packages. Last but not least "restoring from scratch" is covered.

Serial Lines and Devices

Herein is all the stuff about serial devices (tty, termcap, terminfo, stty), usage of USB is covered for FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris.

Printers and the Spooling Subsystem

Contains lots on "old school" printing (BSD spooling facility: LPD, System V printing, AIX spooling facility), a short note "Print Services for UNIX" on Windows NT/2000 (works pretty well for basic usage) and on providing print services for Windows by Samba. LPRng and CUPS also get a few pages. Closeout for this chapter is font management under X, which contains a rant on how cumbersome font management is ;-).

Automating Administrative Tasks

This chapter appeals to a healthy laziness which might save some manual work. It contains some samples and introductions, the best it can do is make appetite for more. Included are: shell script (C-shell), tips for testing and debugging, Perl (including there is more than one way to do it-proof), Expect, C and the lesser known tools Cfengine, Stem. It closes with some short notes on how to create a man page for your own software.

Managing System Resources

This chapter wants to make you think a about system performance before you try to manage it. General steps are given: define, determine, formulate, design, implement, monitor and return to start ...

After the general introduction the chapter gets hands-on with monitoring - ps (it is in there after all ...) with all System V and BSD options, pstree and top are covered. The /proc filesystem is mentioned with some samples of how information can be gathered. Process limits are discussed, including how to disallow the creation of core dumps. Signaling and killing processes with kill and killall is covered next. The next chunks in this big chapter are managing CPU (nice, AIX and Solaris scheduler, cron), memory (paging, recognize memory problems), I/O (performance, disk quotas), network (netstat, some notes on DNS and NFS)

Configuring and Building Kernels

This chapter is essentially a bunch of short guides on what to look for when configuring and building a kernel, for Linux lilo is also explained.

Accounting

This is an introduction to what components are relevant for accounting, and how to enable/disable it. As such it shows what can be done with the standard tools on BSD-style accounting (sa, ac) and System V-style accounting. A few pages are dedicated to printing accounting.

Appendix: Administrative Shell Programming

This is a more thorough introduction to shell programming that could have been integrated in the chapter Automating Administrative Task. Other than that it is a solid, short reference to shell programming.

Index

Last but not least is a very concise index (50+ pages), which makes it easy to find anything that's in the book.

What's bad

There's not much I really disliked in the book, I can recommend to anyone who needs an introduction to UNIX system administration or a general reference text. Some points are: it's not on UNIX CD Bookshelf v3.0, which is a pity for reference usage, there are almost no links to WWW sites of interest, almost all links to further information are to other O'Reilly books (granted, most of them are quite good) and sometimes I found the order in which themes are discussed slightly less than optimal for "junior administrators".

What's good

Almost everything (writing style, coverage), except those few issues mentioned in "What's bad". The very good index makes it easy to find the information that is applicable in your special situation, even with all those different UNIXes. If you are looking for a general UNIX reference and/or introduction, look no further (you might want to compare it with "The UNIX Systems Administration Handbook", and decide for yourself, note that the USAH does not cover AIX).

You can purchase Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Because...

[Black Parrot]

> one wonders why the book doesn't bear the title "Essential UNIX Administration"

Because you don't administer Windows systems, you drive them.

Re:Because...

[sirinek]

*laugh* Or the users do their own "administration".

Re:Because...

[canuckistani]

....Windows systems are not essential...

Re:Because...

[TeknoHog]

In digital-rights-managed America, Windows administers you!

Re:Because...

[Anderlan]

one wonders why the book doesn't bear the title "Essential UNIX Administration"

Because every good NT|foo Administrator is invariably always also a good Unix guru.

Re:Because...

[Junior J. Junior III]

I thought it was because no one in their right mind would consider a Windows system "essential". All the essential systems should be running on UNIX. If you can live with Windows (un)reliability, it's clearly not an "essential" system.

Re:Because...

[Marqis]

Other way around, a good Unix admin can also administer a Windows box. Put the average MSCE in front of a terminal window and he'll break the F1 key.

Re:Because...

[steveg]

It's worth noting that Ms. Frisch also wrote "Essential NT System Administration."

It wasn't as excellent as "Essential System Administration", but it's pretty good. NT admin told from the perspective of a Unix admin.

Re:Because...

[Shanep]

But the average MCSE is not a good NT administrator.

I think "every good NT|foo Administrator is invariably always also a good Unix guru" makes sense to me, since the good NT admins I've known, I would place in the top 2% of NT admins. Meaning the average is very poor and good admins (NT or Unix, they're usually the same person) are VERY hard to find.

Put the average MSCE in front of a terminal window and he'll break the F1 key.

For sure. He won't be able to get past the whole back/forward slash thing.

Unix System Administration Handbook is the one

[lgordon]

Sure, the review sounds great, but the Third Edition Unix System Administration Handbook by Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass and Hein is the book to get.

Re:Unix System Administration Handbook is the one

[Jarth]

I must differ, if that's the kind of book one thinks highly off. It's like an overview without any, even shallow, detail or insight.

Re:Unix System Administration Handbook is the one

[argel]

Sure, the review sounds great, but the Third Edition Unix System Administration Handbook by Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass and Hein is the book to get.

I have that book and quite frankly I was very disappointed with it. It might be the better book for people just starting out, but as a reference I have never gotten much use out of it. I was always able to find out more elsewhere, including Essential System Administration. Not to mention that the handbook only covers Solaris, Red Hat, HP-UX, and FreeBSD. Essential Administration covers all of those plus other Linux distros and AIX. Please tell me how, if you are running AIX, that the UNIX System Administration Handbook is the one to get???

Maybe with ESA 2nd Ed the two were comparable, but the 3rd Edtion takes things to new heights. As far as I am concerend it is now the bible of system administration.

Re:Unix System Administration Handbook is the one

[Rooktoven]

I'd say both are good, but the Nemeth Snyder book is a more fun read. (Note this has NOTHING to do with utility, only enjoyment factor.) I mean, what other book has passages like (paraphrased)

"NIS+, aka NIS on steroids who won't get sand kicked in it's face anymore..."

or "NIS+ is meant to eliminate NIS problems and introduce newer, different problems..."

or (on why to use AMD and not automount) "AMD leaps over capital T in a single bound"

or "AMD won't eat all your popcorn.."

and (sadly missing from 3rd edition) "AMD sounds more like a psychedelic drug 'Hey dude, wanna drop some AMD'..."

That said, Aileen's 2nd edition has great arcana (including a wonderful little chart on which unices are more bsd-like and which are more sys-v like) and her info is top-notch. She lectures well, also. If you have both books you have a pretty good fundamental reference set.

Re:Unix System Administration Handbook is the one

[lgordon]

It's an inside joke from "The Devil's Dictionary."

CARTESIAN, adj.
Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.

Just remember, if you think it's stupid, you mighty not be as smart as you think. You might not have gotten the joke.

9/10 ??

[Mr. Flibble]

Ok, I don't have the third edition, I have the second. It was the first Unix book I got after "Running Linux", and I would give it an 11/10. For me, it filled in all the questions that Running Linux had given me, and gave me a very solid grounding in Unix. I cannot reccomend this book enough - it is one that epitomizes what O'Reilly is good at.

So, granted I have not read the most recent version, but I cannot see how it only scored 9/10 and not 10/10.

Re:9/10 ??

[Angry White Guy]

The reviewer is saying that he is smarter than you. Hate him!

You are all diseased!

Test

[grub]

Show this book to your resident MCSE[0] and watch the deer-in-the-headlights.

[0]- Must Consult Someone Else

Re:Test

[Nintendork]

Yeah, every MCSE out there is a complete idiot that has never used other platforms. Please stop the reverse FUD.

-Lucas

Re:Test

[TheCrazyFinn]

If he's a resident MCSE, he's likely dumb. Smart MCSE's advertise their relevant certifications not their 'Minesweeper Consultant & Solitaire Engineer' badge.

Re:Test

[FLoWCTRL]

You missed the point entirely (ironically); the point was about the depth of documentation available.

Updated Classic and Production UNIX

[bytor4232]

I have the first edition of this great book. It got me started in UNIX administration in the first place almost 10 years ago. Its great to see such a classic updated. This book is quite awesome, and I usually recommend it to anyone getting started with UNIX, and always recommend it as a next stop after my intro to Unix class that we offer at our company.

Also, most of these versions of UNIX found in this book (Red Hat 7.3, SuSE 8.0) are certainly ones you would find in production as well. I am not seeing much Red Hat 8 or 9 on production servers, at least not in my market (Midwest).

Re:Updated Classic and Production UNIX

[leitz]

Same here. My edition has, I think, 4-6 different colors of highlighting from re-reading. After "Running LInux", this got me into Unix, and is one of two technical books I actually read on vacation. (The other being Cheswick and Bellovin) If you want a broad understanding of unix, get this book. Then read a book on your flavor of choice. Then go crash boxes and bring them back to life. It pays better than just doing all the time.

Re:Updated Classic and Production UNIX

[dvdweyer]

Try a Neal Stephenson book (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash) next vacation.

The problem with books....

[echucker]

.... is the time factor. RH 7.3 was the latest version when the book went to press, yet RH 9.0 just recently came out.

I see the same problem in my hobby, marine aquaria. By the time an article or book gets published in the print media, it is oftentimes out of date. Couple this with the human want for immediate gratification and interaction, and it is easy to see why net bulletin boards generate so much traffic.

Re:The problem with books....

[Angry White Guy]

I see the same problem in my hobby, marine aquaria.

I can see how computer literature can get out of date rather quickly, but if your publisher is missing evolutionary stages of fish, they're just slow!

Re:The problem with books....

[Etyenne]

.... is the time factor. RH 7.3 was the latest version when the book went to press, yet RH 9.0 just recently came out.

YMMV, but I have never encountered a RedHat > 7.3 in production. Most server I support are 7.3 and I still see quite a few 6.2 (this may change with EOLing). Lot of people are averse of using .0 release. (although one could argue that RH 9.0 is really 8.1 ...)

Re:The problem with books....

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, RH9 only came out because Slack 9 came out. They have to keep up, obviously.

Re:The problem with books....

[cowbutt]

My experience with RH8 and some of the components included in RH9 is that RH8 can probably be thought of as 8.1, whilst RH9 should be thought of as 9.0.

--

Re:The problem with books....

[Anonymous Coward]

... is the time factor. RH 7.3 was the latest version when the book went to press, yet RH 9.0 just recently came out.

The problem with operating systems is they change versions so much. Seriously though, I really doubt there's much difference between RH 7.3 and RH 9.0. I don't know why O'Reilly doesn't do a book on Debian GNU/Linux. They could come out with one for Debian Woody and it'd be relevent for years to come. :-)

Re:The problem with books....

[archen]

I just installed RH 7.3 in another machine today. Why not 8 or 9? I tried 8 on two servers and I had so many problems with it that I went back to 7.3 . RH9 is still too new and it'll be a while before it passes the testing phase. Truthfully I doubt I'll put enough faith in a RH release for production use until it gains at least a .1

Re:The problem with books....

[dvdweyer]

Most of it will not be very much out-of-date in two or three years. This book does not focus on version-specific stuff, for the parts that differ, there's always the man-page, Google or a helpful coworker.

Re:The problem with books....

[Rooktoven]

they try, anyway ;-) </blatant>

uhhh

[kewsh]

How old is the guy that wrote this review? Im not usually one to flame or troll on here but this review sounds like a middle school book report.

Re:uhhh

[NonSequor]

The same could be said of anything CmdrTaco has written that's longer than a paragraph. I have nothing against the guy, but perhaps journalism (of a sort any way) is not the best field for him.

Alright!

[fireboy1919]

No one's ever written a System Administration guide that you should pay for! Now we can stop blowing our money on books with new information in them and buy ones like this!

Re:Alright!

[frodo from middle ea]

I completely agree. I remember reading all these when installing my RH5.x, It was too long but well worth the efforts.

plus it gave me added edge even when working on HP/UX and Solaris boxes at work

Name goof...

[hephaistos]

The submitter's name is dvdweyer, not "Dvddwyer"...

Dissagree

[katie223]

No, I dissagree. Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition is an excellent book, As is the one by Nemeth/Snyder et all. Both do a superb job of showing you what you need in the Unix world. I'd recommend that you get both, actually, as each has its strong and week points.

However both do a very cursory overview of security measures, if you ask me. While both are great for an administration standpont (and that's their goal, of course) much more is needed on the security front.

I'd suggest getting a copy of Hacking Linux Exposed (good for all Unix operating systems) and Building Secure Servers with Linux (more Linux specific, but still has some good any-unix tips and tricks.) These will help round out your administration bookshelf.

Re:Dissagree

[Anonymous Coward]

as each has its strong and week points.

If a single point takes seven days, I would consider that a weak point.

Re:Dissagree

[carlos_benj]

So was that a 'Diss' or did you 'agree'?

Re:Dissagree

[bluethundr]

Is there any much diff worth noting between The Unix System Administration Handbook and the The Linux Administration Handbook both by Nemeth and Snyder? I notice that the latter is a bit cheaper. Of course Gnu's Not Unix, but they are so similar couldn't one sub for the other?

Re:Dissagree

[dvdweyer]

AIX coverage is only in ESA, not in USAH. Other than that: take a look at both and decide which style of writing you like better ...

Someone may beat me to it, but

[ralico]

No SCO:

all major UNIX platforms are covered...SCO and IRIX were dropped for this edition,

Hehe

Re:Someone may beat me to it, but

[Angry White Guy]

And IRIX was dropped because IRIX admins are billions of years old and speak in tongues not known to this world.
I wonder why BSD unix was covered? Anyone that runs *BSD knows all anyways. You don't believe me, just ask one.

Re:Someone may beat me to it, but

[TheCrazyFinn]

You're obviously not on freebsd-questions.

Plenty of folks who could use this book rather badly.

Re:Someone may beat me to it, but

[Surak]

And IRIX was dropped because IRIX admins are billions of years old and speak in tongues not known to this world. I wonder why BSD unix was covered? Anyone that runs *BSD knows all anyways. You don't believe me, just ask one.

Hey, sonny! I admin a few IRIX boxes and I'm only a few hundred million years old! Young whippersnappers!

Re:Uh

[stevejsmith]

Ya know what sure as hell ain't UNIX? GNU. I think to make the point clear they should rename it "GSAHAU"--GSAHAU Sure As Hell Ain't UNIX. And it would be so fun to pronounce. Gah-saw-how.

Here's another review of the book

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an in-depth review of the book...

http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200301/esa3.html

questions

[frodo from middle ea]

Not to start any flames war or anything

But a question to all unix system administrators out there .

Do you see the need of GUI based admin tools as available in windows for unix boxes ? When i say unix boxes i mean servers not desktops.

because even if i am a linux desktop user, i hardly feel the need for a GUI admin tool for configuring my system

I can easily do most of the config using a xterm + bash + vi.

So how many of you find it easy to configure a system using GUI than CLI ?

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

From a perspective of a windows admin who tried to test *BSD and Linux servers... GUIs are essential for convinient and comfortable switching. After being frustrated with *NIX way of administrating (I'm not claiming that it is inferior, just very very different) I know that I wont be trying those systems again untill more effort is placed to make administrating easy (GUIs being essential to easy administration, IMHO).

Re:questions

[TheRaven64]

First of all, I need to qualify this by saying that I have never tried to remote admin a windows box. The only windows box I use is my home desktop. I have seen the windows remote desktop tool workign over a LAN, and am informed that it is usable over a modem, but can not comment on this directly.

In my spare time, I admin a small network of machines for the my university's computer society. Sometimes, I tweak things when I'm in the room, but most of the time things need changing when I'm at home, so remote access to admin tools is important to me.

I have a 1Mbit Internet connection, so in theory I should have no problems with remote X sessions for graphical configuration. In practice this is only true of apps that use motif or similar, anything that uses gtk or qt is a pain to use over anything < 10Mbit. My first comment about graphical admin tools under Linux then is that they should be graphically simple.

Another thing I find with Linux graphical config tools is that they rarely give you the power of editing the config file. The only graphical tool I think I've ever actually used (as opposed to firing up, saying yuck and going back to the terminal) is the printconf-gui tool, since it was a quick and simple way of setting up the room's printer. Beyond that it's bash and vim all the way (from whatever terminal I happen to have, and no I'm not hard-core enough to use vi if I have the option of vim).

On my windows box, the situation is completely the reverse. All my configuration is done from MMC (Microsoft managment console), and on a single machine I prefer this. The options are layed out in a logical structure (which is not to say that they aren't under Linux, where tab completion and guesswork from /etc/ can find the config file I'm looking for 80% of the time). It requires almost no effort to use, which is what I want on my home PC.

I think my point is that I don't really care whether the config is graphical or textual, as long as it's logical, and can be accessed remotely. If there were a powerful remote admin tool for Linux that I could use over a 1Mbit (shared) connection, I might use it. On the other hand firing up an X server is more effort than ssh, so I might not.

I certainly wouldn't trust a sysadmin who could only use such tools. If they speed up the way you work, then great, but a sysadmin has to know how to fix things when it all goes wrong (and X fails to start, for example).

Re:questions

[TheCrazyFinn]

if you're going to do remote graphical administration, MS's RDP is best of breed. X performs well for one or two non-graphically intensive apps over a WAN, but Remote Desktop is the top performer for multiple apps. VNC sucks wet dog farts.

Of course, I admin via SSH when possible, as it is usable at 2400bps and above.

Re:questions

[clarkc3]

initial configuring and most things I find the CLI easier. One big exception for me though is Veritas Volume Manager for setting up RAID. I can do it with the command line - but I still like the GUI better (shows history of things you've done, status of mulitple jobs, etc)

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

vxtask list

Re:questions

[mario]

I have used both methods until now, on one side ssh for unix-based servers and the terminal services client for W2K boxes.

I will never again want to work wihout ssh, fortunately it's only one W2K box and about 20 linux servers.

One situation that happened about 4 or 5 times, that may explain what makes ssh so great:

I've been at my girlfriends home, she owns a 56k-modem and Windows 98. my mobile rings, something wrong with a web application, that should be fixed immediately...

download putty, dial in, work.

if that had been a W2K box, I either had to drive to the company (very nice idea) or install terminal services on Win98 via 56k modem (ok, only joking) or tell our customer that something stupid happened and fix it the next morning...

I personally do not need any GUI tool for administration. it takes longer to start, is not as flexible, needs a certain environment...

ah, your question: yes, I do prefer CLI.

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

> GUI based admin tools

I've seen books whose entire "system administration" section consisted of screencaps of KDE and GNOME tools -- very depressing...

> easily do most of the config using a xterm + bash + vi.

That (_mutatis mutandis_ ) is the best way to do most of _everything_ IMO.

I don't use KDE, but I do use Konsole (I like those multiple sessions -- I believe GNOME has a "multi-terminal" available as well).

I've usually got a couple of xterms open; Konsole (toolbars, menu, scrollbars OFF) with 4-6 shell (bash) sessions running...

File manager (when I need one): mc in a Konsole.

Browser (most of the time): lynx or links in Konsole.

MUA: mutt in Konsole.

Text editor: The Hessling Editor can be compiled with PDCurses, so it _looks_ console-ish, but is actually a native X11 app.

Window manager: doesn't matter much, as long as you can set it up so's you touch the mouse as little as possible... (I started with WindowMaker, never bothered to change).

Icons: disable 'em, or replace with something quakerish -- _I_ know the plain brown tile is for xterm, _you_ don't need to! ;-)

When I _need_ a graphical browser, Konq 3.1 does just fine.

Konsole, Konqueror... I consider myself quite indebted to the KDE team for these fine tools, but they can _keep_ their "environment"... ;-)

As for the admin tools, I've seen the purty pictures in the nice big books...

WRT books: if you can afford it, get _both_ Frisch and Nemeth/Snyder.

Security: haven't seen a better one than Bob Toxen's _Real World Linux Security_.

If you're new to Unix/Linux, Das's _Your UNIX: The Ultimate Guide_ is _superb_ (very pricey, unfortunately).

A few books I'll never throw out:

Running Linux -- Welsh, et al.
The UNIX Operating System -- Christian & Richter
UNIX for the Impatient -- Abrahams & Larson
UNIX Power Tools -- Peek, et al.

Mark Sobell (various titles: seem to be more or less the same book...) and Michael Kofler (_Linux: Configuration, Installation, Use_) have their points.

You don't need much more -- most of the rest of my 'puter bookshelf is related to languages, hardware, or particular tools.

(OK, here are some _fun_ Unix books:

Life with Unix -- Libes & Ressler
A Quarter Century of UNIX -- Salus
UNIX Complete -- [the orange Sybex thingy; basically this is the Kelly-Bootle book -- I forget the original title])

"Unleash" these (in 24 hours/7 days/21 days...) and you won't stay a "dummy" for long!

(Standard disclaimer and all that, natch).

[Q: don't you ever look at a movie clip?

A: Sometimes. But, I use mplayer-without-the-GUI!

Q: I've heard you use the "Linux colors" schema in Konsole. You have syntax highlighting in your text editor!

A: It's all true! I'm more decadent than Oscar Wilde!]

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

From a perspective of a windows admin who tried to test *BSD and Linux servers... GUIs are essential for convinient and comfortable switching. After being frustrated with *NIX way of administrating (I'm not claiming that it is inferior, just very very different) I know that I wont be trying those systems again untill more effort is placed to make administrating easy (GUIs being essential to easy administration, IMHO).

That's just 'cuz you're a lazy-ass 'tard who's too lazy to crack open an O'Reilly book. You are a waste of human flesh. If you had more love of technology than Judge Judy and Brady Bunch re-runs, you might actually get somewhere in life. Loser.

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this question was rather well answered in one of texts I read which said something like "If you are running an X-client with a screen-saver, you don't have to look hard to figure out ways to optimize your system." This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest drawbacks of windows systems, which 'require' a pseudo-X-client at all times.

Re:questions

[dogfart]

VNC sucks wet dog farts

Sounds good to me!

Re:questions

[nbvb]

I agree with the 2.x series of VxVM .... when the vxva GUI was around --- that thing ROCKED.

Now with VxVM 3.x.... the gui BLOWS. It's awful.

Terribly awful.

Hell, on some of my servers, I *CAN'T* run it ... it just spinlocks into the ground because I have too many disks (16 Sun A5200's fully loaded with 22 disks each on a single E10k domain) ......

Yuck. VxVM + Perl really work well together .......

vxassist is your friend :)

--DM

Re:questions

[Anonymous Coward]

vxassist? jesus why don't you be lamer and use vxdiskadm

vxvol, sd, dg, disk, vxmake and vxresize are the only way to fly

Re:questions

[nbvb]

It's easier to script vxassist ....

Get a grip

[tkg]

Reviews posted on slashdot don't necessarily go through the same review and editing process that the print media uses. Neither are the reviewers necessarily professional writers. They may, however, be subject matter experts, which would make their observations of some interest.

Re:Get a grip

[Anonymous Coward]

Not if their "observations" consist of brief synopses on each chapter. Sadly, this review is par for the course here on Slashdot.

OSX

[dubstop]

all major UNIX platforms are covered

Except for the most widely distributed UNIX platform.

Re:OSX

[Billly Gates]

The book is for administrators with Unix servers. OSX even though apple sells Xserve boxes is really a client or workstation OS.

OSX is quite different from the way it does things and the way other unix's does things. For example Unix does not come with netinfo and administrators are required to know which files to edit in /etc to accomplish various tasks. Shell scripting is also big with traditional unixies. In macOSX the control panel is used to configure most things and its gui oriented vs text oriented like traditional unixies are. That does not mean you can not use standard text to accomplish taks like in regular Unix. It just means the apple engineers made it act and feel like a macintosh and not a unix os.

Re:OSX

[TheRaven64]

I think that if you need a book to tell you how to use MacOS then you probably shouldn't be a sysadmin...

Re:OSX

[Mikey-San]

Um.

Not only can your BSD flat files be used in OS X, but you can shell-script the system to hell and back all you like.

Want to use the BSD configuration files (e.g., /etc/hosts)? Turn them on with Directory Access, in "/Applications/Utilities".

Want to script xyz task to run once a week at midnight?

$ sudo vi /etc/crontab

And go for it.

Mac OS X is as much of a hardcore Unix as you want it to be, even though there's a pretty UI on the surface.

For clarificatin, netinfo DOES come with Unix ... But only one flavor of it. ;-)

Re:OSX

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry ... Being anal, I wanted to apologize for the typo there.

Clarification.

Clarification.

Clarification.

I should have paid attention in typing class!

Re:OSX

[Anonymous Coward]

Could you remind me again, how do I indicate to the topographical sort routine that if possible, I'd like the startup script to run later than sooner.

Re:OSX

[the_rev_matt]

You'd be hard pressed to convince me that OS X (which I love dearly) has a higher installed base than Solaris/SunOS (yes, the huge gov't agency I'm at still runs SunOS). There are a LOT of older systems still out there running older versions of OSs. People still run Amiga for the love of Ernest Borgnine!

Re:OSX

[King_TJ]

Umm... I understand the point you're trying to make, but actually - there's a *lot* to learn about what really goes on "behind the scenes" in the OS X environment.

It's not an issue of knowing "how to use MacOS" in this case... It's an issue of knowing all the inner workings well enough to feel comfortable being a sysadmin of a box running it.

Most OS X users probably have no idea how printing actually takes place, for example. People who dug into the OS deeply enough put together the (extremely nice and useful!) GIMP-Print and Ghostscript ESP packages for it so you can print to MANY more printers than were natively supported. I'd sure like to see the average MacOS user explain off the top of his/her head how you'd go about modifying the existing print engine to add CUPS printing like that.

Re:OSX

[Phroggy]

The book is for administrators with Unix servers. OSX even though apple sells Xserve boxes is really a client or workstation OS.

Mac OS X Server is a server OS, not a desktop OS. Of course, you can run it on your desktop, and the regular client/workstation version of Mac OS X comes with Apache and Sendmail and Samba pre-installed.

However, I agree that not very many people use Mac OS X Server yet, compared to other UNIX flavors, and the point of OSX Server is really the proprietary GUI stuff on top, which is unique to OSX Server.

Re:OSX

[axxackall]

Each I ask Apple support about CLI in MacOSx they answer me that "Apple doesn't support CLI and if you will use it Apple is not responsible for any consequenses. Please use GUI for purposes of system administration."

I think after such answers I barely can consider MacOSx as Unix. No need to mention that all Unix books are useless for MacOSx users.

P.S. My friends are porting source code between Linux, Unix and MacOSx. They told me that from the source code compatibility prospective Linux is Unix, however MacOSx is not.

Re:OSX

[Anonymous Coward]

An odd sort of point, but for the most part you don't ADMIN OSX, you USE OSX.

Re:OSX

[realdpk]

And from a source-porting standpoint I can tell you that Linux is more its own beast than *BSD/SunOS/HPUX/Solaris etc. I have not programmed for MacOSX, but as it is based on FreeBSD, it is probably not all that dissimilar, except for the GUI components.

Anyways, Linux has a lot of its own isms. A whole slew of programs rely on headers located in /usr/include/linux, for example, rather than the more "standard" locations like /usr/include/sys.

Re:OSX

[Anonymous Coward]

And what does that have to do with the fact that you don't know the difference between "your" and "you're"? You do go to school, right?

Why was SCO dropped

[Billly Gates]

We all know according to their lawsuit paperwork, SCO is a leader in the Enterprise market. After all everyone just copies their work because its such high caliber that all the other unixies are just catching up.

Re:Why was SCO dropped

[Anonymous Coward]

Not joking here but there are alot more Irix and SCO installations around then Digital Unix. Why is this still covered?

FreeBSD is not dieing and is gaining marketshare. I say its number 2 or 3 behind Linux and Solaris.

Because

[Quixote]

> one wonders why the book doesn't bear the title "Essential UNIX Administration"

Because there already is a Windows Admin book targetted to that audience.

Re:Because

[Billly Gates]

I was going to ask if its more then 5 or 6 pages but then I clicked on the link.

For real dummies a 100 page book is required just to figure out how to dial into their isp and log onto the net.

Re:Because

[ggwood]

Very funny, but what is more scary is Windows 2000 Registry for Dummies. This book must keep more Windows Admins employed than I can imagine...

Does it cover ...

[DogIsMyCoprocessor]

the one tip that is the sum of all my sysadmin knowledge?

Never unalias rm

Learned that one the hard way ...

Re:Does it cover ...

[jo42]

Funny, that is the first thing I do when setting up a profile under RedHat Bloatware. That and cp and vi.

Linux is dead.

Re:Does it cover ...

[swordgeek]

Unalias? To unalias something, you have to alias it first. I've never seen a Unix with rm, cp, or mv aliased out of the box.

If you need to alias these commands, you're probably typing too fast and thinking too little.

Re:Does it cover ...

[stefanlasiewski]

Unix with rm

RedHat 7 & 8 aliases 'rm' to 'rm -i'.

Most places I've worked alias rm to something else. My favorite is the 'move things to the ./.gone directory, and purge the directory later on. It's saved me a hundred times.

Re:Does it cover ...

[Phroggy]

Funny, Slackware doesn't alias it, nor do most other UNIX flavors as far as I know. If you get used to relying on "rm" being aliased to "rm -i", you may find yourself in trouble if you switch to a non-RedHat system.

Maybe it's just me, but although RedHat looks like a pretty nice desktop OS for newbies, I wouldn't put it on a server.

Re:Does it cover ...

[jmt9581]

What he's actually referring to aliasing rm to 'rm -i' in root's .login or .profile, because root can delete almost anything on a system it's designed to save people who are typing too fast and thinking too little.

Re:Does it cover ...

[swordgeek]

Heh. Yes, I know. I was being doubly facetious Firstly, Redhat isn't (technically, and possibly in other ways) Unix. Secondly, aliasing rm to 'rm -i' for sysadmin accounts has long been generally accepted as a Bad Thing! It drives me NUTS to see RedHat (and others) setting up root aliases out of the box. It's Wrong, Bad, and Dangerous.

I don't know of any admins I respect who allow root to have rm, cp, or mv aliased. None.

But that's just my curmudgeonly old-fashioned opinion. :-)

Re:Does it cover ...

[stefanlasiewski]

Firstly, Redhat isn't (technically, and possibly in other ways) Unix.

So I was having a similar discussion the other night. Why is RedHat, or Linux, any less Unixy then Solaris or HP-UX?

Unix was an OS written years ago by AT&T. The copyright is now owned by SCO. So doesn't that mean that Linux, Solaris and HP-UX are all equally NOT Unix?

Essential UNIX System Administration, 4rd Edition

[Znonymous Coward]

0. Replace legacy UNIX systems with Linux.
1. ???
2. Profit!!!1

Re:Offensive editorial comments

[Anonymous Coward]

If your students are that easily discourgaged its not the job for them.

Sysadmin' requires nerves of steel.

where to buy

[jdunlevy]

Sure,

You can purchase Essential System Administration, 3rd Edition from bn.com

It's cheaper, though, from amazon.com ($38.47 v. bn.com's $43.96).

If you're in Canada, chapters.indigo.ca has it for $54.56 Canadian (CAD) -- under $38 US.

Re:where to buy

[questionlp]

Or even cheaper yet at bookpool.com ($33.50):

http://www.bookpool.com/.x/3r6edajq4n/sm/059600343 9

Of course, you have to pay shipping (or add something else to make the total >= $40 and get free shipping from them).

Re:where to buy

[Anonymous Coward]

And when you buy it from amazon.com you can give them more money to enforce retarded-ass patents!

Re:where to buy

[carlos_benj]

I usually go to addall.com to find the best prices. Under $30.00US here.

Packing my bookshelf

[wytcld]

I was just packing up to move my office, and looking at all the mostly-redundant Unix and Linux administration books, and realizing that although I have more than two dozen on different aspects, I open maybe one or two of them once or twice a year. Everything else it's just easier to pursue online. I'm a believer that the book format has real advantages, particularly when fresh to a subject area. When I take up some totally new technology again, I'll buy a half-dozen books on it again. Maybe. If the online resources aren't there yet.

As for what flavor of Linux to cover, I've run Slackware, Red Hat, Mandrake and Debian in production environments ... and any place I have the choice these days I prefer Gentoo. It's better laid out. It's more current. It better optimizes for the hardware. Or if I just want to give someone a slick workstation in a hurry, Knoppix (yeah, it's Debian-based, but it's way ahead of it too).

The reason KDE and Gnome et all aren't included..

[Nathan Ramella]

They're not essential to administration! :)

-n

Re:Uh

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, damn GNU software making platforms interroperable, and consistent. Who the hell's idea was that anyway, the bastard!!

The Practice of System and Network Administration

[Corvus]

In the category of "essential" books for whatever we are calling sysadmins these days, we must includeThe Practice of System and Network Administration. 'Nuff said.

Linux isnt UNIX

[Eudial]

Linux isnt UNIX. It does not have permission to be called UNIX. Not even UNIX clone. UNIX relative *might* just pass.

Re:Linux isnt UNIX

[RicoX9]

True - but the word "UNIX" has become genericized to a great degree. Guess this wouldn't be /. if people weren't nitpicking.

For general purposes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...

--Rico

Re:Linux isnt UNIX

[Anonymous Coward]

For general purposes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... ...then it won't be very popular in Detroit.

Re:Linux isnt UNIX

[Anonymous Coward]

boooooooo

Re:Linux isnt UNIX

[Anonymous Coward]

> Linux isnt UNIX. It does not have permission to be called UNIX. Not even UNIX clone. UNIX relative *might* just pass.

Why not "Unix clone"? What Unixish things cannot be done in Linux?

Re:Linux isnt UNIX

[Eudial]

Even if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck & quacks like a duck - it hasnt paid the duck-license.

I admin both Unix and Windows systems.

[BoomerSooner]

My experience is ssh beats the hell out of terminal services. It requires less bandwidth, it's secure, it's quick and you can do anything needed without a GUI in Unix. Windows has crap all over the place. It takes about 3 times as long to harden a new Windows Server as it does a comparable (services) Unix box.

Granted I only admin Linux and Solaris so I cannot speak to AIX/HPUX/IRIX/*BSD/... I'm sure they are quite similar. If you want to see good Unix GUI tools go look at the OS X Server Tools. Very cool.

Re:I admin both Unix and Windows systems.

[Anonymous Coward]

Granted I only admin Linux and Solaris so I cannot speak to AIX/HPUX/IRIX/*BSD/... I'm sure they are quite similar.

I do them all, and you're right. There are a lot of fiddly differences in the specifics of how these systems are configured, but the principles are the same, just as they are between different
Linux distributions.

Re:I admin both Unix and Windows systems.

[Anonymous Coward]

Granted I only admin Linux and Solaris so I cannot speak to AIX/HPUX/IRIX/*BSD/... I'm sure they are quite similar

I do them all and I think you're wrong. There are fundamental differences in those OSes that make the blanket approach in Linux not feasible. We have a dedicated specialist for each OS variant with a backup consultant contract in place in case he/she gets sick or a better job ;)

Re:I admin both Unix and Windows systems.

[Jackdan]

"Granted I only admin Linux and Solaris so I cannot speak to AIX/HPUX/IRIX/*BSD/... I'm sure they are quite similar. If you want to see good Unix GUI tools go look at the OS X Server Tools [apple.com]. Very cool."

I don't have any commercial experience with *BSD, but I run a few home servers, and openBSD is pretty much secure out of the box...real great OS for servers

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

My big problems with most Systems Admin books...

[tenchiken]

Is that they ignore a large part and parcel of being a administrator. The Ethics and Legal portion of being a admin is oft ignored, and no book outside of USAH focuses almost at all on this issue.

OS X

[tmark]

It is revealing that OS X is evidently not covered in this book, especially since in many ways it is so different from other Unixes and since there are many reasons to expect that OS X users would *need* such a book.

Re:OS X

[feldsteins]

It is revealing that OS X is evidently not covered in this book

What do you think it reveals? Could it be that the authors didn't see as much a market for the book in OS X admin circles, either because not enough folks are using X Server or because there's already enough books on the subject. Or something else?

is so different from other Unixes

I'm not expert enough to speak with final authority on it, perhaps, but it sure seems like the difference between RedHat Linux and FreeBSD is greater than that between FreeBSD and OS X. Or am I missing something here?

Re:OS X

[TheCrazyFinn]

If you turn on the BSD files, OSX is nearly identical to FreeBSD. If you don't, it's closest to NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP, and really would require it's own book. NetInfo is a whole other world.

Re:OS X

[Phroggy]

Mac OS X Server's strength is its proprietary GUI administration tools, which are not available on other platforms. You can also use it mostly like FreeBSD, for anything Apple doesn't include.

What's different between FreeBSD and RedHat, that you think might be the same between FreeBSD and Mac OS X Server?

Re:OS X

[feldsteins]

What's different between FreeBSD and RedHat, that you think might be the same between FreeBSD and Mac OS X Server?

Well, I would have thought that there was plenty in common between OS X and FreeBSD, seeing as OS X actually incorporates an entire BSD Unix under the hood. Plenty more in common that between either of them and any Linux distro. I mean nobody would say that RedHat was more like FreeBSD than Mac OS X was. Or, as I asked before, am I missing something?

Re:OS X

[Phroggy]

You didn't answer my question. ;-)

Re:OS X

[Build6]

There are also plenty of differences between FreeBSD and OS X. for example, OS X will default use an LDAP-like (netinfo) system for maintaining user accounts/passwords etc., that originated from it's shared NeXT roots (I guess you can call OS X the unholy offspring of... well never mind). No amount of editing /etc files would work, for example, if what you wanted to change if you didn't know about netinfo (well unless you're in single user mode when the system would look there). Quite a lot of system "arrangements" are different, as well, you'll be tripped up by the filesystem if you weren't aware that default Mac filesystem (HFS+) is case *aware* but not case-sensitive, or that several of the directories you're familiar with/expect are actually symlinks (/etc is actually --> /private/etc) and if you're not careful with your scripting (assuming you're not doing anything trivial/simple) you can screw up something bigtime (I'm talking personal experience here :-).

Pffff ...

[Etyenne]

Though this chapter is well done, and a nice introduction to mail in general, I would prefer to get rid of it in favor of a "mail-is-only-for-dedicated-servers" policy. A short note on how to deactivate or remove the default MTA should be included in the previous chapter (yes, I know that not everyone shares this point of view).

This made me jump on my chair ! How are you suppose to read alert sent by email, backup report, cron errors, etc ? You login to each and every one of your Unix server every morning to check root's mailbox ?

As far as I am concerned, a working MTA is an essential part of any self-respecting Unix system. At the very least, a good sysadmining book should tell you how to configure a smarthost and make sure your MTA is not an open relay.

Re:Pffff ...

[lemox]

You don't need to have your MTA actually listening on a port for it to send mail - only to receive it. For some MTAs, it doesn't even have to be running.

Re:Pffff ...

[Phroggy]

As far as I am concerned, a working MTA is an essential part of any self-respecting Unix system.

Wow, no kidding. I don't want port 25 open, but if cron tries to send mail to root and it doesn't forward to me, that's a problem.

Re:Pffff ...

[Etyenne]

That's my point : no need to remove/disable it, just to configure it properly.

Why it is called Essential System Administration.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the beliefs and practices presented in the book can apply to more than just UNIX.
The first few chapters in my (second edition) book speak about skills that go beyond just UNIX.

There is a core skillset that makes up a good administrator independent of the OS/Systems he/she takes care of.

Stick that in your pipe and suckle on it for a while...

Or bookpool.com $33.50 Re:where to buy

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.bookpool.com

cheers

Re:Uh

[cscx]

Well to the ignorant that consider this Flamebait, I'll have you know that the 'GNU' in Debian GNU/Linux stands for "GNU's Not Unix." Surely any half-wit on Slashdot knows that. Leave it to me to point out the obvious.

Re:Essential UNIX System Administration, 4rd Editi

[glwtta]

Isn't that just:

1. Replace legacy UNIX systems with Linux.
2. Profit!!!

If we are talking about "legacy" systems, anyway.

Previous Edition Kicks Ass

[avdi]

I have the previous edition, and it's IMO one of the classics of UNIX use, up there with UNIX Power Tools. In fact, it's the perfect SysAdmin complement to the more user-oriented Power Tools. It's readable, professional, and it manages to be detailed enough to be used as a reference while still accessible enough to introduce a relative UNIX newbie to the underlying concepts of UNIX. Highly recommended.

...is the one for Cheezy Illustrations, perhaps?

[SonOfFlubber]

The text of 'Unix System Administration Handbook' is OK, but it takes the prize for having the CHEEZIEST illustrations in a technical book. I don't know who Tyler Stevens is, but the cartoons gives one the impression they were done by somebody's airhead girlfiend. Cranberry Bogs indeed!!!

Too bad they dropped IRIX...

[Mipmap]

...because you can pick up old SGI systems on E-bay very cheaply. Anyone new to UNIX can pick up an Indy for $50-$100, and their a great introduction to UNIX, with their cool cases and graphics capabilities (admittedly dated now).

Just do a search on E-bay for "sgi indy" or "sgi indigo" - own a piece of UNIX computing history.

Disclaimer: No I am not an E-bay seller, but I did pick up an Iris, Indy, Indigo, and Indigo^2 in the past few months, and the highest I paid was I believe $70 for the Indigo^2.

Uhh...

[Maxamoto]

This title is misleading. Essential Systems Administration would require a basic understanding of the Win32 platform, seeing as how it powers more computers and businesses than any other platform. Essential *nix Systems Administration would have been more accurate. Details, details...

Bless You

[MoronBob]

"Gah-saw-how" Gazuntite!

MSCEs would love books like this...

[aquarian]

...unfortunately, they don't exist for Windows. In my experience, what really separates Linux/Unix from Windows is that the latter is so well documented at the deeper, more advanced levels. Windows documentation is limited to which buttons to push to do simple stuff, things which are self-explanitory anyway. There is plenty of advanced knowledge to be had, but it isn't published. It comes only from years of experience with Windows systems, plus having rubbed elbows with developers who have access to Windows' underpinnings. The worst thing with Windows documentation is that there is nothing on best practices, no "cookbook" type books, etc. Windows administrators and MCSEs would often love to be better, but there's no way to get there. Linux/Unix people, OTOH, have a huge amount and variety of information at their disposal, and can teach themselves to fairly high levels of competence. And what the books don't teach, the community is willing to offer.

Re:MSCEs would love books like this...

[steveg]

Mark me redundant if you like, since I mentioned this in another thread, but...

Ms. Frisch has a Windows book called "Essential NT System Administration". It is not as large or complete as this one, but it is still a book I would recommend for starting NT admins.

Re:MSCEs would love books like this...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can blame the lack of documentation, but the plain fact is that most MCSEs don't own, or haven't even heard of, the Resource Kit, which literally is the F* Manual.

about time!

[DuckWing]

I have the 2nd Edition of this faithful book and it's about stinking time the 3rd edition came out. hrm, another trip to the bookstore I go...

Absolutely!!!

[FreeLinux]

I would think that by now people would have gotten a clue about this but, obviously many still don't get it.

It has been proven repeatedly that a graphical interface is a very important, no essential, part of ease of use. Graphical administration tools make it easier to administer, whatever.

This does not mean that CLI based administration and conf files should be eliminated. To the contrary. For administrators who are familiar with a particular operation the CLI will always be faster but, what about the stuff that they are not as familiar with?

Let's look at a few examples. Let's say that you regularly administer your mail server. It uses Qmail and you have become a wizard capable of blasting out commands like a machine gun. That's great but, now let's suppose that you change jobs and the new mail server is Sendmail. You must admit that you will be less efficient and perhaps even totally lost when trying to administer this new system. You could do as most have to do, dig out the man pages and start reading. But, it will be a while before you can do even rudimentary tasks. Now if there were a graphical tool you could likely figure out what you need to do with a few clicks, after all you already know all about managing mail you are just unfamiliar with this new package. With the graphical tool your learning curve is reduced to near zero and you are immediately productive.

The same is true for almost any service as there are usually many different packages for any given service. It is very possible or even probable that sooner or later you will be presented with one that you are unfamiliar with. Suppose you are a consultant. You go from one network to the other several times in a day. One uses MySQL the next Oracle and the next PostgreSQL. Some use Postfix while others use Sendmail or Qmail. One uses Samba and the next uses NFS.

Now, of course there are going to be a few arrogant people that say that if you aren't intimately familiar with every aspect of a system you shouldn't be touching it but, the reality is that it is not possible to be intimately familiar with every aspect of every system and every package. Sooner or later you WILL encounter a package that you are clueless about and it will take hours/days/weeks for you to get up to speed on it. But, if it has a good graphical interface you can be productive immediately.

And this brings up another point. The graphical interfaces need to be first good and secondly, they need to be integrated or cohesive. Having a separate crappy interface for every app or service, while better than none at all, is not a lot better. There are many common services that should be managed from a single cohesive administration GUI. Good examples of this are Novell's NWAdmin or Console1(yuck!), Microsoft's MMC and to a lesser extent Linux's Webmin.

GUI's are good. But don't panic, I'm not saying you have to abandon the CLI.

Re:Absolutely!!!

[AKnightCowboy]

Let's say that you regularly administer your mail server. It uses Qmail and you have become a wizard capable of blasting out commands like a machine gun. That's great but, now let's suppose that you change jobs and the new mail server is Sendmail. You must admit that you will be less efficient and perhaps even totally lost when trying to administer this new system.

I disagree. As the new administrator of the system you would have an obligation to tell your management how much Sendmail sucks ass and then convert it to Qmail or Postfix, both of which do a much better job than sendmail.

Re:Absolutely!!!

[swordgeek]

Hmm. I disagree on a few points.

"Having a separate crappy interface for every app or service, while better than none at all, is not a lot better."

NOOOOOOOOO!!!

Regardless of your opinion of good GUIs vs. CLI, a bad GUI is MUCH worse than a CLI. Command Line is likely a more obtuse but more direct path into the bit you want to administer. If you put a bad GUI on it, then you're just BEGGING to mess things up.

This brings up a second point: "if you aren't intimately familiar with every aspect of a system you shouldn't be touching it." Go ahead, call me arrogant--if you are an ADMINISTRATOR, then you absolutely MUST understand it. In those rare cases where you have to fix something ASAP that you don't know well, then a GUI is a handy set of training wheels--use them as sparingly as possible, and get rid of them as quickly as possible.

If you understand the product, then use the GUI or the command line or whatever makes you feel happy. If not, get studying.

"With the graphical tool your learning curve is reduced to near zero and you are immediately productive."

This is a tempting but flawed idea. Your learning curve for changing the product is reduced to near zero (which, mind you, depends heavily on the complexity of the program--ever seen the FW1 GUI? :-). Your learning curve for the product itself hasn't changed one bit. If anything, the fact that you can change it around might _extend_ the ramp-up time for actually leraning the product well, and that's not good.

Fundamentally, GUIs are different for the user than they are for the admin. As an admin, you are required to know the product you are dealing with, because the consequences of not doing your job correctly can mess up other people. Users are free to mess themselves up by using any product (with user privileges) they want, without understanding it.

I don't object to GUIs, but I don't view them as a clear-cut Good Thing. They have their place for admins, but make sure you know what you're doing with them.

Re:Absolutely!!!

[FreeLinux]

depends heavily on the complexity of the program--ever seen the FW1 GUI?

Yes, I do Firewall 1 quite often and it is more fuel for the fire. As someone who is very familiar with firewalls and works with many of them a CLI only firewall is an annoyance, to be sure.

Have you used Netscreen, SonicWall, Pix, Raptor, Guardian, IPTables etc? Working with Firewal 1 and a few other big names makes me rather well informed on firewalls and how they should be configured, IMHO. But, with the plethora of firewalls on the market it is likely that I/You will encounter a firewall that you have never touched before, possibly never heard of. Are you going to be a total loser, like the post above and tell them how their firewall sucks and that they should replace it with a $50,000US firewall of your choosing, when all they asked you to do was forward a port to a new server, or are you going to forward the port?

Chances are you are going to forward the port. Further chances are that since you haven't even heard of this brand of firewall before you will not know how to make that happen without a lot of effort researching and reading. Where as if it has a GUI interface you can quickly and easily forward the necessary port and verify the integrity of the configuration. That's because with the CLI the commands will be different.
eg.
nat add eth2:8888 192.168.1.15:80
or something completely different, it all depends on the firewall. You could waste time figuring out what command and syntax to use for that particular instance or, with a GUI tool, you could quickly forward the port because you already know what you need to do. Finding the different vocabulary that a particular vendor has chosen is infinitely easier with the GUI.

Now granted, if you were to be managing that particular box for any length of time, it would behoove you to learn the commands specific to that box. This would probably make managing it in the future quicker by use of the command line and there are probably scripts that you could write to automate common tasks. But, the GUI is still an important tool for management.

Re:Absolutely!!!

[swordgeek]

First of all, my FW1 comment was misinterpreted, possibly my own fault there. All I meant was that the FW1 GUI is a LONG ways from a 'zero learning curve.' The first while I spent with it after playing with small Linux-based firewalls was utterly shocking--this was a BIG product, and no GUI would make it straightforward on first glance.

Regardless, what you say makes sense--but I still have to ask why you're you are getting asked (and presumably paid) to do network administration on a product you don't know. MOST of the time (certainly not all, but most) that I've seen something like that happen, it's because an admin oversold themself to a customer or employee, and then had to scramble to catch up.

...Mastering Windows 2000 Server...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mastering Windows 2000 Server is about as close as you can get to that. It's a fairly good book, just REALLY long (about 1400 pages or so). It covers alot of quirks that most books don't touch, but you can really only learn your way around administering Windows systems through experience "in the field".

On that note...I'm an MCSA, MCP, and various other acronyms, and deal with Windows systems on a daily basis.

I flipped through part of Essential System Admin. 3rd Ed. while at B&N one day, it reminds me of the Unix System Administration Handbook (aka: USAH) which I happen to own. I'd say both of those are excellent for learning UNIX administration. I'd go so far as to say that anyone getting into network / systems administration should read USAH.

i wish

[clarkc3]

not everything runs in linux though

wish it did, but sybase 11.9.2 is the newest version that runs linux (like 5 years old), and we need to run 12.5 for where I work. dont even bring up mysql to replace it arguement - it has no trigger/view/stored proc/powerbuilder support

Re:i wish

[Znonymous Coward]

I'm not much of a database person, but if your vendor hasn't ported the latest version to Linux, it's their own fault. Or maybe they like have you locked into proprietary software functions.

Our company (a _large_ plastics company) has been able to convince our software vendors to port their applications to Linux or "pay the price".

Good luck.

Re:i wish

[glwtta]

Not trying to suggest any replacements or anything, but just for the record, PostgreSQL has trigger/view/stored proc support (among other things), can't say I know anything about powerbuilder, though. MySQL is just not the OS database engine. (though it is nice for what it does, I use both of the above alongside oracle).

Oh, and I do realize that no sane person would through out a working system and replace it with something else just because it's linux/os/free/cool/whatever, just you know, spreading the word ;)

Insider info

[Chagatai]

I was actually one of the reviewers of this edition of the book and my name is on page xxii (CP). I found that AEleen is one sharp person concerning Unix systems administration. While reviewing the book the other reviewers and I would find some slight errors here or there and she was more than happy to try to incorporate this knowledge, along with any other knowledge about new tools we have into the book.

I keep this book on my desk, not just because my name is in it and I got a free copy, but because it allows me to check a variety of commands across different operating systems easily. My expertise is AIX with Linux and HP/UX right behind, and when I have unfortunate occasions working with Solaris, I can easily find what I am looking for in this book. It won't go totally in-depth into niche products or commands like LPARs or MC/ServiceGuard, but it will put me on the right path. I only have eight books on my desk that serve as good references, and this is one that I find myself reaching for when I get in a jam.

And yes, I believe AEleen called this book "Essential System Administration" rather than "Essential Unix Administration" because no one performs "system administration" on a Windows server-a book for that topic would be known as "Essential System Rebooting".

Re:Insider info

[Anonymous Coward]

There more to Windows than rebooting, you can always retry, restart or reinstall.

Re:Insider info

[ellem]

Saying you're a Windows System Administrator is like saying you're a Flight Simulator Pilot.

(Guess what I do for a living!)

Re:Insider info

[demon]

She actually wrote a completely separate title, "Essential Windows NT System Administration". I think that speaks volumes about what a different animal sysadmining on Windows "servers" is - all these disparate UNIX and UNIX-like platforms can be covered in one (good, big) tome, but Windows needs a separate text altogether.

Re:questions (GUI tools in Unix for admin?)

[King_TJ]

Actually, I *sometimes* find a GUI tool very useful for Unix administration - but typically only for specific tasks.

For one example, setting the date/time on a box that's not connected to the Internet. (If it is, then obviously, the best bet is to have it synch with an Internet time server.) In Unix, I don't find it very intuitive or enjoyable trying to get the proper time and date entered from a command line tool.

More often, I find I really like the full-screen tools developed to run from a command line, but which provide more user-friendly alternatives to staight command line commands. (For file management, Midnight Commander is teriffic! Fast, efficient, and saves a lot of typing. For initial configuration of X, it's nice having a tool more flexible and friendly than just xf86config, especially when you need 3D support working with a more difficult to configure video board. RedHat's little "sndsetup" utility makes it a breeze to get a Soundblaster type audio card going. The list goes on, but you get the idea.....)

Existential System Administraton

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what I thought it was when I read the headline.

Re:My big problems with most Systems Admin books..

[King_TJ]

Mmm.... you may have a point, but personally, I'd just as soon they save that for a seperate publication.

The "ethics" of system administration doesn't seem to be very clear-cut anyway. Much is a matter of opinion, as I quickly saw when I worked in corporate systems administration.

Take something as seemingly simple as to whether some of our engineering staff should be allowed/able to install game software on their laptops and play it during their lunch hour. A couple of admins said "Sure! We won't support it if you have problems with it, but we're not here to police what you can and can't do on your lunch hour. If you're computer-savvy enough to install it properly, what's the harm?" A couple others in our dept. said "Absolutely not! It risks destabilizing the environment, and who knows how much network traffic they might chew up playing online games. We need to proactively delete any such software found on systems attached to our LAN!"

GREAT BOOK!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

We use this book for a UNIX class I'm taking right now at my university. It's great. I've learned so much from it. I think the nicest thing about it is that it shows you how to do things in 5 different flavors of unix. My class focuses on Solaris, but as I'm going along I read the Linux and FreeBSD sections too, I've learned so much from this book. It's a great reference to have. I've pretty much read the entire book and I advice anyone who doensen't own this book and is interested in any form of *nix to go out and buy it NOW. You will learn a lot. And if you're already expereienced with *nix, then it would be be great to have as a reference. Sorry for sounding like an advertisement, but this truly is a great book.

Because it's a trademark?

[mr_zorg]

Perhaps it's not called Essential UNIX Administration because UNIX is a trademark? And this book is about a generic class of operating systems, not one specifically?

CLI for Win2k

[Isaac-Lew]

There are command line tools available for administering W2K servers. I can't recall if they are a seperate package or if they come with W2K (it's been a while since I've had to do remote admin on W2k).

FreeBSD was added?

[Sevn]

News flash. FreeBSD has been covered in this book
since the beginning if my memory serves me right,
and the author is a pretty big fan.

Re:FreeBSD was added?

[mink]

2nd edition makes no mention of FreeBSD.

Re:FreeBSD was added?

[Sevn]

I'll stop short of rattling off page numbers
(holding second edition right now). It's obvious
you've never read the book.

Re:FreeBSD was added?

[mink]

Funny I do own the book.
It seems your so caught up in your pet OS that you can only argue with insults. It's obvious you havent read the book ;-)
I suggest you read it, because your memory does not serve you right (to use your words).

Before making that post I went to the Preface in the copy of the 2nd edition that I own. It says "OS Versions Covered" an in it no mention of FreeBSD. Now The book does cover BSD style stuff. It does not specifically cover FreeBSD and as I recall thats what the original poster said was added to the latest version.

Please Enlighten me with the page numbers where like AIX, Linux, Sunos, IRIX, Solaris, SCO, Digital Unix, and HP-UX; you think Free BSD is covered specifically.
It's sad a post as factually wrong as yours was modded as informative. The Author may be a big FreeBSD Fan, but at least that dosent get int he way of creating a good book for everyone else.

Cute web page you have there.

Re:FreeBSD was added?

[Sevn]

Ok, I stand corrected.

It amazes me that I can quote chapter and verse
from the book, but my mind did a mental
s/BSD/FREEBSD/g. Probably because it's one of
the best books to read to learn the "UNIX Way"
of doing things, and FreeBSD is the "UNIX Way"
to do things. Damn you forcing me to actually
dig the book out and face the shame of my
mistake.

I didn't insult you. Suggesting you read the
book was not insulting. Had I used profanity,
or said something negative about your lineage,
that would have been insulting. Read the post
again and imagine the smarmy, conversation level
voice that it was supposed to represent instead
of some loud obnoxious thing.

It is amusing that my post got modded up, but
that's par for course here and most places.
In fact, this will be my first post with my
shiny new excellent karma rating and +1. My
completely bogus post helped in it's own way.
I think it has something to do with having
a lot of originating posts, and not quite as many
"Re:" posts.

I stole the homepage from somewhere. It's good
for a few laughs. It's not politically correct
to pick on republicans anymore (referencing
the title of the page) but oh well. People are
waving flags so hard right now they forgot how
to question authority.

I'm very sorry I was mistaken. I shall endeavor
to do better. When you've recommended the same
book to countless junior admins to learn FreeBSD
the right way, you get silly ideas in your head.

Re:FreeBSD was added?

[mink]

On the bright side, now when you reccomend it, it does have specific coverage. As you have been sending people to it, they clearly have gotten what was needed out of it before 3rd edition, yes?

I found your suggestion I had clearly not read the book an insult, as I had just spent a tough week using it as a referance on some issues for my work. Not a detail I would expect you would know. But it got under my skin.

Developer laments: What Killed FreeBSD

[Anonymous Coward]

The End of FreeBSD

[ note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]

When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.

Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.

FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.

It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.

So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.

Discussion

I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.

From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.

There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.

Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.

Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?

Shouts

To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.

To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's w