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CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook
In Detail
CentOS is a community-based enterprise class operating system and this book will provide a series of practical solutions that will not only show you how to install and maintain CentOS as a server, but also explore this well-known Linux distribution with the intention of tackling many common issues by providing some tricks of the trade in order to simplify the task of building a server.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a practical guide to installation, configuration, administration, and maintenance. This is a one-stop-shop to all things CentOS, so regardless of whether you need a mail server, web server, database server, domain server, or a file sharing platform, this book provides a comprehensive series of starting points that will give you direct access to the inner workings of this open source, community-based enterprise server.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a practical guide to the complete installation, configuration, administration, and maintenance of one of the world’s most popular community-based enterprise servers.
From installation to configuration, this book of recipes will take you on a journey to explore the inner workings of the CentOS server. Within this book you will learn how to install CentOS in a variety of settings, enhance your installation with the correct tools of the trade, and prepare your server to fulfil almost any role you could ever need.
By discovering more about time, networking, package management, system management, and security, this book will serve to show you how to get the very best from this freely available, open source server by presenting a series of solutions that will enable you to master the art of building your very own web, database, mail, domain name, and file sharing services.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a hands-on approach to installing, configuring, and managing this ever popular community-based enterprise server. By taking you from installation to customization, this book will serve all Linux professionals and enthusiasts alike by providing you with a practical guide to using CentOS as a world-class server solution that is capable of delivering your mail, web, ftp, domain, and file sharing services.
Approach
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is for those professionals, students, and enthusiasts who want a down-to-earth or hands-on approach to installing, configuring, and running a Centos 6 server. Where a new user may experience this book as a series of solutions, a more experienced user will find a basis on which you can develop your existing skills. So rest assured; there is something for everyone, and regardless of your current level of experience, if you are interested in using CentOS 6, then this is the book that offers the insight you need to move forward and master your server.
Who this book is for
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is for Linux professionals and system administrators using CentOS for their business’s server
CentOS is a community-based enterprise class operating system and this book will provide a series of practical solutions that will not only show you how to install and maintain CentOS as a server, but also explore this well-known Linux distribution with the intention of tackling many common issues by providing some tricks of the trade in order to simplify the task of building a server.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a practical guide to installation, configuration, administration, and maintenance. This is a one-stop-shop to all things CentOS, so regardless of whether you need a mail server, web server, database server, domain server, or a file sharing platform, this book provides a comprehensive series of starting points that will give you direct access to the inner workings of this open source, community-based enterprise server.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a practical guide to the complete installation, configuration, administration, and maintenance of one of the world’s most popular community-based enterprise servers.
From installation to configuration, this book of recipes will take you on a journey to explore the inner workings of the CentOS server. Within this book you will learn how to install CentOS in a variety of settings, enhance your installation with the correct tools of the trade, and prepare your server to fulfil almost any role you could ever need.
By discovering more about time, networking, package management, system management, and security, this book will serve to show you how to get the very best from this freely available, open source server by presenting a series of solutions that will enable you to master the art of building your very own web, database, mail, domain name, and file sharing services.
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is a hands-on approach to installing, configuring, and managing this ever popular community-based enterprise server. By taking you from installation to customization, this book will serve all Linux professionals and enthusiasts alike by providing you with a practical guide to using CentOS as a world-class server solution that is capable of delivering your mail, web, ftp, domain, and file sharing services.
Approach
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is for those professionals, students, and enthusiasts who want a down-to-earth or hands-on approach to installing, configuring, and running a Centos 6 server. Where a new user may experience this book as a series of solutions, a more experienced user will find a basis on which you can develop your existing skills. So rest assured; there is something for everyone, and regardless of your current level of experience, if you are interested in using CentOS 6, then this is the book that offers the insight you need to move forward and master your server.
Who this book is for
"CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook" is for Linux professionals and system administrators using CentOS for their business’s server
377 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2013
In my 12 years working with Linux I find myself constantly taking notes on the quickest way to do something in order to save myself the hassle of retracing my research steps.
Within the pages of the CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook I found many of the tips and tricks already listed and better explained than I ever could have come up with.
This book has great foundational knowledge that acts as a simple launch pad that quickly builds to some more obscure and interesting topics. My personal favorite is the initial introduction and implementation of fail2ban. That is an utility that I have intended to delve into for some time, so I was quite pleased to find it listed in the table of contents, and I was even more pleased to with the recipe.
If you want to get off the ground with CentOS, or if you want a quick reference this cook book does indeed deliver.
I am definitely keeping this book in ready reach.
Within the pages of the CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook I found many of the tips and tricks already listed and better explained than I ever could have come up with.
This book has great foundational knowledge that acts as a simple launch pad that quickly builds to some more obscure and interesting topics. My personal favorite is the initial introduction and implementation of fail2ban. That is an utility that I have intended to delve into for some time, so I was quite pleased to find it listed in the table of contents, and I was even more pleased to with the recipe.
If you want to get off the ground with CentOS, or if you want a quick reference this cook book does indeed deliver.
I am definitely keeping this book in ready reach.
May 23, 2013
In short:
An easy, comprehensive guide to setting up your very first server when you need one. Simple, efficient command line stuff for the things you need (installing, configuring, data bases, webserver etc.).
I got it from:
Packt publishing
I got a digital copy of the book at a pretty good time, since I was playing around with CentOS 6 anyways. Well not exactly playing either, we use 6.2 at work now for three servers and 20+ clients.
I have some 10+ years of experience from using UNIX/Linux systems at home and at work, so a lot of the book was pretty obvious to me.
However there are things I have not done before, especially regarding servers, and there's always more to learn about the things I have done before so I mostly used the book as a reference, skimming through the TOC and picking out the subjects I was interested in rather than reading the book from cover to cover. But then that's what a cookbook is, right?
The book tries to be a practical approach to server building and management and it does do just that. Topics are covered one by one and you will be getting your hands dirty very fast, not a whole lot of philosophy in this one, there's the install, basic setup and off you go. Clearly it was designed to produce working, usable results, no pages are wasted in matters of opinion. There's plenty of ideological crusading for and against everything in the net, the real benefit of these kinds of guides is results based on experience and facts, not opinions or matters of taste. It's of no use for you getting endless flamewars about security or different programming languages in your search results when what you need is a working webserver!
Newbies should have an easy time achieving results with this book in an orderly matter, googling for answers often works but does not give you a solid overall understanding or a consistent approach to the multitude of things it takes to set up and administer complete server. I highly recommend using a book like this to get started if you are not very familiar with running Linux on servers.
Overall the book is over 300 pages, but those pages go fast. In fact I would have condensed the information a bit more myself, I found it a bit too basic for my level of getting around with UNIX/Linux in general to be reminded about the need of having an installed system and a text editor in order to edit a configuration file for example. But hey that's just what I prefer at the level I'm at in my learning.
I still like this clear approach of the book. There's always a huge wealth of information available on just about everything, you really need someone to pick out the basics for you to get started efficiently.
I used a few of the trics straight off the book and applied them to my CentOS servers.
Some of the topics covered I had already done by trial-and-error or just previous knowledge before obtaining the book, having it around already last year when I started building our servers and clients would definitely have saved me some time with the things I did not have in my head or had not done before.
I'm not going to touch the issue of security or rate this book's usability on the subject (meaning hardening your server against intrusions or DDOS attacks etc.) since that's not a concern for me in the environment I use, but the feeling I got is that when you set up something rather quickly it's not going to be very bulletproof. There is a chapter about securing your server but I just skipped that part for now since my servers are not connected to any external networks.
Would I have been happy paying for the book in full instead of just finding the answers from the Internet? Personal use at home? I don't think so. Professionally at work? Yes, it would easily have paid for itself in time saved.
Pros:
++ Fast results, it does not inundate you with hours of boredom before you get to actually use something
+ The layout and overall structure is consistent and easy to approach, if not the most compact.
Cons:
- There really are very many pages and skipping through them takes a bit of work when you are just hunting for those few commands anyway
- I would have appreciated the use of colours for some items instead of gray simple graphics, it could help a lot in finding specific things in the book (and should not cost any extra in printing costs since most people will be reading the electronic copy anyway?)
An easy, comprehensive guide to setting up your very first server when you need one. Simple, efficient command line stuff for the things you need (installing, configuring, data bases, webserver etc.).
I got it from:
Packt publishing
I got a digital copy of the book at a pretty good time, since I was playing around with CentOS 6 anyways. Well not exactly playing either, we use 6.2 at work now for three servers and 20+ clients.
I have some 10+ years of experience from using UNIX/Linux systems at home and at work, so a lot of the book was pretty obvious to me.
However there are things I have not done before, especially regarding servers, and there's always more to learn about the things I have done before so I mostly used the book as a reference, skimming through the TOC and picking out the subjects I was interested in rather than reading the book from cover to cover. But then that's what a cookbook is, right?
The book tries to be a practical approach to server building and management and it does do just that. Topics are covered one by one and you will be getting your hands dirty very fast, not a whole lot of philosophy in this one, there's the install, basic setup and off you go. Clearly it was designed to produce working, usable results, no pages are wasted in matters of opinion. There's plenty of ideological crusading for and against everything in the net, the real benefit of these kinds of guides is results based on experience and facts, not opinions or matters of taste. It's of no use for you getting endless flamewars about security or different programming languages in your search results when what you need is a working webserver!
Newbies should have an easy time achieving results with this book in an orderly matter, googling for answers often works but does not give you a solid overall understanding or a consistent approach to the multitude of things it takes to set up and administer complete server. I highly recommend using a book like this to get started if you are not very familiar with running Linux on servers.
Overall the book is over 300 pages, but those pages go fast. In fact I would have condensed the information a bit more myself, I found it a bit too basic for my level of getting around with UNIX/Linux in general to be reminded about the need of having an installed system and a text editor in order to edit a configuration file for example. But hey that's just what I prefer at the level I'm at in my learning.
I still like this clear approach of the book. There's always a huge wealth of information available on just about everything, you really need someone to pick out the basics for you to get started efficiently.
I used a few of the trics straight off the book and applied them to my CentOS servers.
Some of the topics covered I had already done by trial-and-error or just previous knowledge before obtaining the book, having it around already last year when I started building our servers and clients would definitely have saved me some time with the things I did not have in my head or had not done before.
I'm not going to touch the issue of security or rate this book's usability on the subject (meaning hardening your server against intrusions or DDOS attacks etc.) since that's not a concern for me in the environment I use, but the feeling I got is that when you set up something rather quickly it's not going to be very bulletproof. There is a chapter about securing your server but I just skipped that part for now since my servers are not connected to any external networks.
Would I have been happy paying for the book in full instead of just finding the answers from the Internet? Personal use at home? I don't think so. Professionally at work? Yes, it would easily have paid for itself in time saved.
Pros:
++ Fast results, it does not inundate you with hours of boredom before you get to actually use something
+ The layout and overall structure is consistent and easy to approach, if not the most compact.
Cons:
- There really are very many pages and skipping through them takes a bit of work when you are just hunting for those few commands anyway
- I would have appreciated the use of colours for some items instead of gray simple graphics, it could help a lot in finding specific things in the book (and should not cost any extra in printing costs since most people will be reading the electronic copy anyway?)
June 6, 2013
http://www.packtpub.com/centos-6-linu...
OH YEAH! Another book review, and one on one of my favorite Linux distributions too!
Pakt Pub contacted me to do a review on their new CentOS 6 book, and boy was I excited at the chance. First of all, I generally like Pakt Pub‘s books, and second I really dig CentOS! Even better is this is all about using CentOS as a server, and I just happen to use quite a lot of CentOS as my preferred home server platform. And why, you may ask? Well, it very closely mirrors another enterprise level Linux that I use heavily in my professional environment. It’s good stuff.
I found this book particularly reminiscent of a few books I studied from to get my RedHat certs. There is a good bit of material in there – most things that a budging server administrator would want to know how to do, and it is formatted in a “recipe” format, which makes it fairly easy for readers to piece mail through if they are looking to do something specific in a hurry. I really like that kind of format because, lets face it, most of us have precious little time these days and reading line by line though technical materials is not usually high on our lists of things to spend our time on. Thankfully, as I said before, it’s easy to get to pertinent info here, and the writing is not really too dry or overly technical to begin with.
The book starts right out where it should by helping you not only download CentOS (for free of course), but also gives you example and instruction on several different installation methods. This is particularly useful for more advanced users because there are significant time savers to be had by using minimal and text method installs that most Linux books leave out. From there we are off to recipes for basic configuration changes like changing SELinux, IP addresses, time zone settings and the like. This is followed by a bunch of basic administrative info like using cron, starting services, package management and helping to secure your environment, before really focusing on what I like to refer to as the big 5 applications: Samba, Bind, MySQL, Mail and Apache. These are all covered in their own chapters, giving them plenty of room to address common specific topics and options. The only thing I found at all out of place is the last chapter which deals with FTP. I might be a little jilted here but it has been my experience that ftp usage is being deprecated in most places. But for those of you who do actually use it, this book covers setting up and using VSFTP, which can be daunting to get going without a little well written help, which this chapter *does* provide.
All in all, I find this a well written book covering what most system admins would really be looking for info on. In fact, this is one I really wish they had sent me in a paper edition so I could more easily loan it around to friends and coworkers whom, I am sure would find it helpful! At only $25.50 for the digital edition it would be silly for anyone new or unfamiliar with CentOS not to grab a copy before diving in. It will surely save you some time and aggravation and provide you with a good reference for future service additions and changes. It gets a nice thumbs up from me!
http://www.packtpub.com/centos-6-linu...
OH YEAH! Another book review, and one on one of my favorite Linux distributions too!
Pakt Pub contacted me to do a review on their new CentOS 6 book, and boy was I excited at the chance. First of all, I generally like Pakt Pub‘s books, and second I really dig CentOS! Even better is this is all about using CentOS as a server, and I just happen to use quite a lot of CentOS as my preferred home server platform. And why, you may ask? Well, it very closely mirrors another enterprise level Linux that I use heavily in my professional environment. It’s good stuff.
I found this book particularly reminiscent of a few books I studied from to get my RedHat certs. There is a good bit of material in there – most things that a budging server administrator would want to know how to do, and it is formatted in a “recipe” format, which makes it fairly easy for readers to piece mail through if they are looking to do something specific in a hurry. I really like that kind of format because, lets face it, most of us have precious little time these days and reading line by line though technical materials is not usually high on our lists of things to spend our time on. Thankfully, as I said before, it’s easy to get to pertinent info here, and the writing is not really too dry or overly technical to begin with.
The book starts right out where it should by helping you not only download CentOS (for free of course), but also gives you example and instruction on several different installation methods. This is particularly useful for more advanced users because there are significant time savers to be had by using minimal and text method installs that most Linux books leave out. From there we are off to recipes for basic configuration changes like changing SELinux, IP addresses, time zone settings and the like. This is followed by a bunch of basic administrative info like using cron, starting services, package management and helping to secure your environment, before really focusing on what I like to refer to as the big 5 applications: Samba, Bind, MySQL, Mail and Apache. These are all covered in their own chapters, giving them plenty of room to address common specific topics and options. The only thing I found at all out of place is the last chapter which deals with FTP. I might be a little jilted here but it has been my experience that ftp usage is being deprecated in most places. But for those of you who do actually use it, this book covers setting up and using VSFTP, which can be daunting to get going without a little well written help, which this chapter *does* provide.
All in all, I find this a well written book covering what most system admins would really be looking for info on. In fact, this is one I really wish they had sent me in a paper edition so I could more easily loan it around to friends and coworkers whom, I am sure would find it helpful! At only $25.50 for the digital edition it would be silly for anyone new or unfamiliar with CentOS not to grab a copy before diving in. It will surely save you some time and aggravation and provide you with a good reference for future service additions and changes. It gets a nice thumbs up from me!
http://www.packtpub.com/centos-6-linu...
August 5, 2013
I was recently sent a review copy of the CentOS 6 Linux Cookbook by Jonathan Hobson, published by Packt Publishing. The overview on the website describes the book as:
"Delivering comprehensive insight into CentOS server with a series of starting points that show you how to build, configure, maintain and deploy the latest edition of one of the world’s most popular community based enterprise servers.
"Providing beginners and more experienced individuals alike with the opportunity to enhance their knowledge by delivering instant access to a library of recipes that addresses all aspects of CentOS server and put you in control.
"Giving you immediate access to a thriving knowledge base that illustrates just how quickly you can master CentOS server with a whole host of tricks of the trade thrown in for good measure."
I think that's a pretty good description of what the book offers. For the lazy reader, my one liner review is: "If you run your own CentOS servers, this is a really useful book full of real-world recipes for common problems. Recommended!"
For those still reading, here's my full review...
I've been running and maintaining Windows servers for years. Now that servers are relatively cheap, I've been interested in using Linux as the OS, but have always been concerned that I didn't know enough about it to feel confident that if I set up a server it would be secure (within reason) and stable. I've read countless posts on how to set up a webserver running on CentOS, but they always seemed to be part of the puzzle and not a complete guide. This is where the CentOS 6 Linux Cookbook comes in.
The book consists of several recipes (or short guides if you prefer) to setting up your server to perform common roles. I wanted to go for a Linux / Apache / MySQL (no PHP) stack and there are recipes for setting up and securing Apache and MySQL.
Where the book was particularly useful for me, was to introduce to me ways to secure the server, such as DenyHosts and Fail2Ban as well as changing the default SSH port and configuring the firewall via IPTables. In the past I've always just logged into Linux boxes as the root user - I knew this was bad, but didn't have the knowledge of setting up groups and users. The book has given me the confidence to set up the server properly.
Although I really like this book, it isn't perfect. Some of the examples have minor typos which are a bit confusing to people like me that aren't used to working with Linux day-in, day-out. Some examples are; ntpq–p should be ntpq –p (note the missing space); and service syslog restart should be service rsyslog restart (note the missing 'r').
I figured these out quite easily, but one that did confuse me was:
passwd your_password_here
which should have been
passwd your_username_here
which then results in a prompt for you to enter a password.
These aren't major failings of the book and five minutes of Googling yielded the answers, it's just a bit confusing!
I didn't try all the recipes as I didn't need them, but all the ones I used worked as written. At 374 pages, there is obviously a limited to how much can be covered and this is reflected in the recipe for setting up a mail server, which is not suitable for use on a publicly accessible server, but I think that's fair enough as setting up a full blown mail server is a pretty big topic.
"Delivering comprehensive insight into CentOS server with a series of starting points that show you how to build, configure, maintain and deploy the latest edition of one of the world’s most popular community based enterprise servers.
"Providing beginners and more experienced individuals alike with the opportunity to enhance their knowledge by delivering instant access to a library of recipes that addresses all aspects of CentOS server and put you in control.
"Giving you immediate access to a thriving knowledge base that illustrates just how quickly you can master CentOS server with a whole host of tricks of the trade thrown in for good measure."
I think that's a pretty good description of what the book offers. For the lazy reader, my one liner review is: "If you run your own CentOS servers, this is a really useful book full of real-world recipes for common problems. Recommended!"
For those still reading, here's my full review...
I've been running and maintaining Windows servers for years. Now that servers are relatively cheap, I've been interested in using Linux as the OS, but have always been concerned that I didn't know enough about it to feel confident that if I set up a server it would be secure (within reason) and stable. I've read countless posts on how to set up a webserver running on CentOS, but they always seemed to be part of the puzzle and not a complete guide. This is where the CentOS 6 Linux Cookbook comes in.
The book consists of several recipes (or short guides if you prefer) to setting up your server to perform common roles. I wanted to go for a Linux / Apache / MySQL (no PHP) stack and there are recipes for setting up and securing Apache and MySQL.
Where the book was particularly useful for me, was to introduce to me ways to secure the server, such as DenyHosts and Fail2Ban as well as changing the default SSH port and configuring the firewall via IPTables. In the past I've always just logged into Linux boxes as the root user - I knew this was bad, but didn't have the knowledge of setting up groups and users. The book has given me the confidence to set up the server properly.
Although I really like this book, it isn't perfect. Some of the examples have minor typos which are a bit confusing to people like me that aren't used to working with Linux day-in, day-out. Some examples are; ntpq–p should be ntpq –p (note the missing space); and service syslog restart should be service rsyslog restart (note the missing 'r').
I figured these out quite easily, but one that did confuse me was:
passwd your_password_here
which should have been
passwd your_username_here
which then results in a prompt for you to enter a password.
These aren't major failings of the book and five minutes of Googling yielded the answers, it's just a bit confusing!
I didn't try all the recipes as I didn't need them, but all the ones I used worked as written. At 374 pages, there is obviously a limited to how much can be covered and this is reflected in the recipe for setting up a mail server, which is not suitable for use on a publicly accessible server, but I think that's fair enough as setting up a full blown mail server is a pretty big topic.
July 11, 2013
I have been lucky enough to get my hands on this book at the right time, just a few weeks prior my RHCE course and exam. I have spent a fair bit of time on Chapter 9 - Mail Services and Chapter 10 - Apache CGI/SSL, areas in which I was pretty shaky prior the exam. I believe this book has actually helped me to understand these areas better & pass the exam.
It is well sectioned and each time I thought "hmm this isn't there", I came to the "There's more" section at the end of chapter only to find what I was looking for!
It's funny how everyone says "just Google it", unfortunately often it is quite difficult to get up to date and correct information about a whole topic - in one place. This great book accomplishes that for me and I would recommend it especially to all beginner to intermediate Linux users, who want to understand the whole topic thoroughly. Highly suggested to all aspiring RHCSA & RHCE students as this book pretty much covers all the RHCSA/RHCE topics even in more detail than the Red Hat courses themselves.
Centos 6 Linux Server Cookbook
It is well sectioned and each time I thought "hmm this isn't there", I came to the "There's more" section at the end of chapter only to find what I was looking for!
It's funny how everyone says "just Google it", unfortunately often it is quite difficult to get up to date and correct information about a whole topic - in one place. This great book accomplishes that for me and I would recommend it especially to all beginner to intermediate Linux users, who want to understand the whole topic thoroughly. Highly suggested to all aspiring RHCSA & RHCE students as this book pretty much covers all the RHCSA/RHCE topics even in more detail than the Red Hat courses themselves.
Centos 6 Linux Server Cookbook
December 15, 2014
http://www.packtpub.com/centos-6-linu...
This book is certainly one of the valuable resources available and CentOS is one of my favorite Linux distributions, too!
As a Linux server administrator, one would want to know how to do, and you can study the following info in the book: installation, basic configuration, services, package management and helping to secure your Linux server environment,etc. Besides, the book guides you how to build a Samba, Bind, MySQL, Mail, Apache and FTP Servers. This book addressed the 6 common specific topics and options, many of the tips and tricks listed in the book are the most valuable resources for our system administrators.
I really recommend this book as a study guide to my colleagues and friends. It covers nearly everything one should know to become a real Linux system administrator.
This book is certainly one of the valuable resources available and CentOS is one of my favorite Linux distributions, too!
As a Linux server administrator, one would want to know how to do, and you can study the following info in the book: installation, basic configuration, services, package management and helping to secure your Linux server environment,etc. Besides, the book guides you how to build a Samba, Bind, MySQL, Mail, Apache and FTP Servers. This book addressed the 6 common specific topics and options, many of the tips and tricks listed in the book are the most valuable resources for our system administrators.
I really recommend this book as a study guide to my colleagues and friends. It covers nearly everything one should know to become a real Linux system administrator.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews