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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. ;-)

...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.

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: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

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?

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.