Unix/Linux Survival Guide (Networking & Security) [Paperback]

Erik M. Keller (Author)

Book Description

Series: Networking & Security | Publication Date: September 27, 2005

All Unix/Linux systems, regardless of manufacturer, have inherent similarities for administrators. The Unix/Linux Survival Guide details these similarities and teaches SysAdmins how to tackle jobs on all systems. Mixing administrator knowledge and best practices, the book walks admins step-by-step through installing, setting up, and configuring a new system. It also teaches them learn how to administer systems they didn't set up originally. Intended as a quick and dirty reference for administrators to use in their daily work, the book contains numerous hints on where to look and what to look for to get a Unix/Linux system up to speed and running smoothly. Admins will also learn preventive maintenance techniques to extract and evaluate baseline data and create a warning system that allows them to react to problems before users even notice. Daily task checklists are provided, and other key topics such as backup, security, and documentation are covered in detail. This book provides the knowledge, skill set, techniques, and approach needed to quickly administer a wide range of *NIX systems.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erik M. Keller (Munich, Germany) is a freelance consultant and trainer. He has over 18 years of experience on Unix/Linux as an administrator, consultant, DBA, trainer, and developer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (September 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584504331
• ISBN-13: 978-1584504337
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,193,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Unix > Administration

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as useful, May 20, 2008

By 

H. Le (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unix/Linux Survival Guide (Networking & Security) (Paperback)

Topics have been truncated. Limited example. I was expecting a lot more from this book. I think this book is over rated.

5.0 out of 5 stars The reference to have if you administer multiple *NIX systems, December 14, 2005

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unix/Linux Survival Guide (Networking & Security) (Paperback)

Solaris, Unix, Aix, Linux, and other variations of *NIX systems have more in common than they do differences when it comes to system administration. The primary goal of this book is to provide a administrative resource that is as useful to the AIX administrator as it is to the Linux administrator. The book starts with a chapter on what you should do if you end up working on a *NIX system that you did not install. It provides both information and specific items to check in order to document and understand exactly how it is set up. From there the book moves to basic scripts that can be used to automate administration. The rest of the book covers such items as baselining, maintenance, backup, new system setup, test system creation, and secure systems. Chapter 5 is particularly useful as the author discusses the boot process and init states of the various flavors of *NIX. If you are used to one particular *NIX system and end up administering another one you will want this book at hand just because it spells out some of the differences as well as the similarities and this could prevent a major mistake (such as switching to init 5 on a Solaris system which shuts it down when you are trying to initiate a graphical interface which is what it would do on a Linux system). The Unix/Linux Survival Guide is highly recommended to anyone who has to work on multiple versions of *NIX or is used to one version and needs to understand how to administer another one.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Handy Guide of What You Really Need to Know, November 3, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unix/Linux Survival Guide (Networking & Security) (Paperback)

At only 320 pages, this is one of the smaller Unix/Linux book you're likely to get. That's because it has left out an awful lot of the details about things that you aren't likely to use. The author, writing from a couple of decades of experience, looks at the things that you'll need to do from the beginning. Then if you have special needs, there's probably a specialized manual available on just that special feature.

The first chapter of the book includes something that I've never seen before but which is an excellent idea. This chapter tells you what do do first if you inherit a system that is running already. What is it that you want to know about the system? Are there changes you want to make? Be carefull here that you don't do something with will confuse the system, *NIX allows a lot of alternative ways to do things. And unfortunately, did the previous administrator leave it secure enough? Maybe he ignored security back when the world was a more friendly place.

After that, the discussion goes into what you need to administer a system. It talks about executables, scripts, maintenance and backups, security, log files, things like that. This book does not cover Apache, MySQL and all the other programs that come with the normal Linux distribution. This is on administration, and it does a very good job of that without having to wade through a thousand or more pages.

The CD that comes with the book contains copies of all the scripts used in the book, a handy little set of tools that will ease your administration task.