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Open Source Network Administration

Posted by timothy on from the tools-to-do-stuff dept.

For a sysadmin, putting "MIT Network Operations" on a resume must feel pretty satisfying. James Kretchmar got the job, and now has written the book. ALecs writes with his review of Kretchmar'sOpen Source Network Administration, below. Open Source Network Administration author James M. Kretchmar pages 220 publisher Prentice Hall (PTR) rating 9 reviewer Joshua Malone ISBN 0130462101 summary A brief tutotrial on using several open source packages to monitor and administer system networks Open Source Network Administration covers a number of open source tools designed to aid in managing computers and TCP/IP networks. The tools discussed in this book are all free, and are all top-quality tools that have earned their place in any system administrator's arsenal of administration and debugging tools. Included in this book are:
  • SNMP (a protocol for managing network devices and hosts)
  • MRTG (the Multi Router Traffic Grapher - a bandwidth utilization meter)
  • Neo (a network device administration tool that speaks SNMP)
  • Oak (a syslog watcher and digester)
  • Nagios (an active network/host monitoring tool)
  • Flow Tools (tools for processing Cisco NetFlow data)

This book also discusses more basic debugging tools such as ping, traceroute, tcpdump and others. Finally, Kretchmar provides some pointers on building your own tools using bash, perl, sed and awk.

Kretchmar is a network engineer for MIT and has gotten a lot of practical experience in managing large networks and unruly hosts. In this book, he imparts a large amount of that experience in over 200 quick-reading, no-nonsense pages. He tells you what a tool can do, how to get it and build it and provides examples of some typical uses. While beginning network administrators will feel comforted that he takes enough time to explain the tools he talks about, experienced ones can safely jump right to his equally well-explained configuration examples without missing anything crucial.

This book read so quickly and was so straightforward that it really inspired me to fix up some areas of my network monitoring that I knew were lacking, but hadn't bothered to fix. In particular, his chapter on Oak motivated me to implement an instant messaging infrastructure (like one he mentions using at MIT) to receive event notices quickly and without dependence on e-mail. While it's no bible (my staple, the Unix System Administration Handbook, is over 800 pages), this book provides a great start on quite a few great tools - many of which I plan to investigate soon.

I was a bit puzzled at his inclusion of instructions for building each tool when most of them are simply ./configure; make; make install. Only one of the tools seemed to actually merit building instructions. At least you can't say he isn't thorough.

I give this book nine stars (out of ten) simply because it really made me realize how easy it is to configure a lot of automation that Ive been wanting. The cover price of U.S. $44.99 strikes me as a bit high in the market, but it is significantly discounted at most online book stores. I still have to recommend The Unix System Administration Handbook first, however. It is more expensive, but contains much more scope and detail than this book. Those who have digested USAH, though, should consider picking this book up from your favorite e-tailer.

You can purchase Open Source Network Administration from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page. Reviewer, Virginia Tech alum and CHUUG member Josh Malone has been a Unix Systems and Network Administrator in Charlottesville, VA for three years.

11 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. MIT so great why ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why is it so great to put MIT on your resume? I can think of a 100 different place I would rather at before the MIT NOC. Seriously what does MIT do at their NOC that makes it so special. Hell I could use those tools at home on my linksys router, save the Cisco Netflow stuff.

    1. Re:MIT so great why ? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Unless, of course, you are too busy managing other things and need someone to help you.

      That is a secretarial or junior level position. And in that case, the IT manager himself probably wouldn't be the final say. When a employer doesn't want to hire anyone too smart, you'll note that the IT manager (or perhaps HR rep) is the only person you talk to.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  2. Really.. by cft · · Score: 0, Interesting

    One would have thought that open source would make books redundant since we have manual ("man") pages, info pages and quick online help through mailing lists or irc..

    Also another issue is that by the time the book is printed, it's already several versions behind and is so really a waste to make. I don't understand why they keep this up.

  3. Understatement. by Chris_Stankowitz · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Kretchmar is a network engineer for MIT and has gotten a lot of practical experience in managing large networks and unruly hosts.

    I'd say, we all know how MIT loves its pranks/hacks. This has to be one intersting and challenging job. Someone should publish a book (or just a website) on the pranks/hacks that happens on their network. For the most part the other pranks are all well documented, bu I'd love to see what these kids cook up for the New Admin.

    1. Re:Understatement. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      http://hacks.mit.edu/

  4. Why is EVERY book reviewed as great on slashdot??? by adambehnke · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Honestly, Im not being an idiot. There is no way every book out there is a 9/10, excellent, or whatever. Let's take a look:

    Last book review, 9/10

    Book before that, rated Excellent

    Before that, two thumbs up

    Oh, MY GOD, an 8!

    What gives? Can we get an unbiased review, please?

  5. bestbookbuys.com by iosphere · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I usually pull up bestbookbuys.com to see about the best prices. This book shows up for $23.90 at half.com...

  6. Oak? Where? by Vrallis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, I dug around a bit and couldn't find any references to an Oak syslog watcher outside of info about this book. Does anyone have any info about this utility?

    Or, better yet, a good recommendation for something to cull through a couple 100k or so syslog entries a day?

  7. OSS alternative to Group Policy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    A Windows fan told me that Group Policy in Windows is a great way to administer a big network (ensuring patching, etc.) and that is why he prefers Microsoft, because there are no similar open source tool.

    Does anyone know an OSS alternative to Group Policy with an equivalent feature set?

  8. Re:What with Longhorn in a couple years by Random+BedHead+Ed · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Microsoft has released a lot of crap software, but in this case if Microsoft is working on a product that won't be out for three years, it probably WILL be good, so the comment that the open source community has to keep OSS better than Windows is quite valid.

    Consider:

    • Microsoft has significantly increased their development staff. By thoustands of developers. My interpretation of this is that they know very well they weren't much good at this before, and that they've been lucky. And now that they actually have to compete with something for a change, they need more people and a better development process.
    • The usual baloney about a database-driven filesystem looks like it's actually real this time. WinFS could be a major feature, since most idiot computer users don't comprehend storage. I know - I do desktop support. An intuitive way to find information is much needed by many less-skilled users. This could be a killer app, and OSS developers should probably try to match it, and beat it, prior to 2006.
    • Longhorn looks nicer than XP.
    • Supposedly M$ has hired former UNIX developers to improve the command line. So the pitiful DOSlike Windows CLI shell might actually be worth using, connecting to remotely, etc.

    OSS developers should recognize Longhorn for what it is: Microsoft trying to be competetive for the first time in years. Don't expect another crap OS from them.

  9. Location of the tools by Maddog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you want to take a looksie at the tools, head over to the ktools software page @ http://web.mit.edu/ktools/ Looks like he wrote these himself.