This major revision of the best-selling and single most comprehensive guide to UNIX system administration is ideal as both an introductory tutorial for those new to system administration AND a day-to-day reference for ?power administrators.? Practical and hands-on in approach, it covers every aspect of system administration ? from basic topics to UNIX esoterica ? and provides explicit instructions for dealing with the six most popular versions of UNIX. Covers topics such as The Filesystem; Controlling Processes; Serial Devices; Periodic Processes; Backups; Syslog and Log Files; Configuring the Kernel; TCP/IP and Routing; The Domain Name System; The Network File System; Sharing System Files; SLIP and PPP; The Internet; Security; Printing and Imaging; Disk Space Management; Accounting; and UUCP. Includes CD ROM with source code, sample programs, and other tools and utilities helpful to UNIX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION For system administrators and users of the UNIX operating system. ISBN of first edition: 0-13-933441-6.
This was one of the first Unix Admin books out there. It was a great resource at a time when only the Usenet and white books where the only source of learning and verifying knowledge. It is written in such a fun way, I sat down a read it one weekend while skiing. Well, after my legs gave out for the day.
If you have the slightest interest in Unix system administration, you NEED this book... it will either equip you for the job or make you consider a new line of work. This book is by far the best book out there for general UNIX system adminstration. The third edition is even better than the second. Whereas the second edition sometimes got bogged down in trying to mention too many different UNIX flavors, this new addition just concentrates on four main ones (HP-UX, Solaris, Red Hat Linux, and BSD). An excellent decision because it nows has great details and specifics about the four types. An excellent reference and it's entertaining to read too! Highly recommended. I only regret that the author Evi Nemeth is disappeared en route between New Zealand and Australia on her 40-foot sailboat Wonderland.
All in all it is not a bad reference for day-to-day sysadmin work, however you will still need the fundamental knowledge of operating systems that you might get from a decent book or university course on the subject if you want to do a good job. Also I was somewhat disappointed by the coverage, or lack thereof of clusters and the VxVM volume manager and Solaris metadevices. While I do love being cutting edge those two are still pretty widely used and ZFS has a number of issues that need to be resolved in my personal opinion.
Fine; it's likely quite dated now but back when I was wearing an onion on my belt and admining refrigerator-sized Unix systems with hundreds of concurrent users, this 2nd edition of the guide was an exceptional reference, not just for the technical value, but because it was so readable. Evi Nemeth's death was a great loss.
This is the best book that I have found for all around *nix administration. Its a bit worn and out of date but I haven't had a need to get a more recent addition (I don't do much *nix admin anymore). It is one of my few technical books that I am happy to leave on my shelf.