Customer Reviews

Unix/Linux Survival Guide (Networking & Security)

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

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.

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.

Unlike a 1000+ page Unix/Linux admin guide that will take you hours to find the most basic thing, this text is easy to follow, read and find quick relevant information about the following set of topics:
- Maintenance
- Backup
- Installation
- Security
- And most importantly, "Things to check"

The topic list is not that long and why should it be? If you are a part-time administrator, or you have a couple of Linux boxes at home, such as me, you do not need to spend hours figuring out how much disk space I have available, for example, or how you configure the Linux firewall. Don't make any mistake about it, the author explains each topic very well and thoroughly, but he has chosen a set of relevant topics to cover, rather "everything under the sun" approach like other texts.

The first chapter of this book covers the basic. Not the good old "what is Unix?" topic, but a quick chapter of "things to check". In about 20 or so pages, the authors teaches you how to find out everything you wanted to know about your system. One point that is made throughout the book is automation. Writing scripts that can save you time in the long run. If you are not a script writing person, then you are in luck. Every command, every procedure, every configuration, etc, is scripted by the author, and what's great is that all the scripts are included in the CD-ROM that comes with the text. Especially when the author is talking about Maintenance of your system, these scripts become very useful. Whether you are stuck with a number of systems that you need to administrator, or you are trying to make sense out of the Linux box you just have setup at home, system Maintenance is a big concern. Much of the text is dedicated to the topic of maintenance, and rightly so, updates, upgrades, installs, or status checks occupy most of the administrator's job. Scripting to the rescue! As I mentioned, automation is the key focus of this text, and there are scripts wherever possible to ease the task an administrator.

When was the last time you came across an administration book that did not cover the topic of Security? When was the last time that you actually read that chapter? You are in luck, since this book covers security rather quickly and to the point. Much of the guess work is taken away, and short sections cover File Security, System Security and Network Security. Network security, rightfully so, is covered more thoroughly. Right of the bat, the author suggests the use of SSH, and goes on by showing you how to turn off as many ports as possible. If you have only a couple of ports that are open, your job of securing becomes simpler. Simplicity is the key here. If your job is made simply, it does not mean that you are leaving things out, and this fact is demonstrated throughout the book.
I loved this book. In a couple of hundred pages, the author has covered 99% of what administrators do on a day to day basis. That 1% I can live without! Simple, to the point, focused and easy to read - not to mention the scripts that come with the text make this book a great buy.