I wrote this last week, if you're looking for a bit more detail..
Those who love UNIX (and UNIX-inspired operating systems) will surely
adore Linux Server Hacks by Rob Flickenger. For decades, a
mysterious sect of bearded wizards has dominated the inner sanctums of our
network infrastructures, inspiring the awe of onlookers by crafting clever
scripts and piping output in ingenious ways most of us never even thought
of. This small but marvelous book attempts to steer apprentice wizards in
the noble direction of clever system administration, with examples taken
from experience in O'Reilly's own LAMP
networks.
The book begins with a refreshing introduction (by esr)
detailing what it means to be a hacker. No, not the hax0ring w4r3z d00dz
of
frequent media attention, but the aforementioned bearded variety who
spend most of their waking effort forging uncommon techniques for solving
otherwise dull problems. Kudos to Mr. Flickenger (and O'Reilly) for not
only acknowledging the difference, but celebrating it.
As the title would indicate, the audience of this book is the
administrator in charge of a server--that is, a Linux box performing
only a couple of dedicated tasks, probably of a network-oriented
nature. Although Linux enthusiasts from the desktop realm are not part
of the intended audience, they will almost certainly pick up a thing or
two from the material anyway.
The book is organized into the following sections:
Sever Basics is a variety of general purpose tips that
don't fit into the other major categories. Some of the more interesting
items include:
Persistent daemons with init
Building complex command lines
Using xargs with tricky arguments
Effectively using sudo
Makefiles for automating administrative
tasks
I think the real magic of this chapter isn't necessarily the
tips themselves, but the creative process behind them; the author
is demonstrating a methodology for dealing with common problems by
introducing clever solutions. This will ideally inspire the reader to
deal with other problems in the same creative manner.
Revision Control. Servers with multiple administrators
may benefit from using a revision control system to handle changes to
configuration files. This section illustrates using RCS, with examples
of checking config files in and out of the system. This provides a segway
into using CVS for controlling revision of large software projects.
Backups becoming a nuisance? Approach them from a new
angle by implementing some of the tips from this chapter. Examples
including automated incremental backups over tar, rsync, and ssh;
archiving with pax; and even some very creative (if not a little scary)
ideas like piping your backups over ssh directly into cdrecord. The UNIX
philosophy is illustrated well: simple tools working well together as
an efficient solution.
The Networking chapter covers material that is no doubt
already familiar to security-conscious Linux users. However, iptables
newbies (or those transitioning from ipf or pf) will appreciate the
netfilter primer and discussion of masquerading (NAT) and TCP port
forwarding. Some tunneling and encapsulation techniques are also
detailed here.
Monitoring details the use of syslog, and a great deal more.
Networking aspects are given ample attention, without any redundant
information in respect to the previous chapter. Some simple tips are
given (like using lsof to track down elusive processes) as well as more
advanced ideas (like a short shell script to perform an IP fail-over.)
SSH tips: are you still tapping out a password every
time you hop to a new machine? If you administrate more than a few,
this can be distracting and tedious. This chapter illustra
Slashdot Mirror
[1] No, I don't work for O'Reilly. I do think their books are excellent, however, and would love to see their Safari service thrive!
Those who love UNIX (and UNIX-inspired operating systems) will surely adore Linux Server Hacks by Rob Flickenger. For decades, a mysterious sect of bearded wizards has dominated the inner sanctums of our network infrastructures, inspiring the awe of onlookers by crafting clever scripts and piping output in ingenious ways most of us never even thought of. This small but marvelous book attempts to steer apprentice wizards in the noble direction of clever system administration, with examples taken from experience in O'Reilly's own LAMP networks.
The book begins with a refreshing introduction (by esr) detailing what it means to be a hacker. No, not the hax0ring w4r3z d00dz of frequent media attention, but the aforementioned bearded variety who spend most of their waking effort forging uncommon techniques for solving otherwise dull problems. Kudos to Mr. Flickenger (and O'Reilly) for not only acknowledging the difference, but celebrating it.
As the title would indicate, the audience of this book is the administrator in charge of a server--that is, a Linux box performing only a couple of dedicated tasks, probably of a network-oriented nature. Although Linux enthusiasts from the desktop realm are not part of the intended audience, they will almost certainly pick up a thing or two from the material anyway.
The book is organized into the following sections:
I think the real magic of this chapter isn't necessarily the tips themselves, but the creative process behind them; the author is demonstrating a methodology for dealing with common problems by introducing clever solutions. This will ideally inspire the reader to deal with other problems in the same creative manner.