Customer Reviews

Red Hat Linux Administrator's Handbook

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book not only tells you the things you can do to adminster your Red Hat Linux box (I actually use the book for Mandrake, based on Red Hat), but it tells you the things you SHOULD do. It also tells you about all the little utilities you can use instead of having to manually edit a bunch of scripts.

For instance, I learned how to use "ntsysv" to configure services, such as httpd, to run on start up. The book also devotes 25 of its 600 pages to user management, and another 100 to Apache administration, which are vital topics if you want to run Red Hat as a web server.

If you need just one book on Red Hat Linux admistration (NOT installation), at this price, and based on reviews I've seen on other such books on this site, this book is far and away the best value.

Nuts and bolts information only. No frills, no fluff nor are there tutorials that are so unrealistic to real world applications. The author does an excellent job of getting to the point and explaining features of Red Hat 6.1 quickly and concisely. Usually, the Red Hat webpage has the answers to most questions when you can filter out the useless fluff to find the information you need. Since searching Red Hat's webpage for answers to your questions now yields more useless discussion forum questions of someone who wants to install the latest peripherials on yesterday's hardware, yesterday's kernel, and yesterday's Red Hat version 2 than meat to solve problems at hand, I bought this book to be quicker and more efficent to find the information I need to use for daily administration of the Red Hat servers I maintain at work to keep co-workers, management, and customer's happy.

Even though this book talks about the X-Windows, the author discusses how to do all features and functions in text / prompt mode which is good for those like me who do not use X windows in order to get more hard drive space and faster CPU performance. A little DOS / Unix experience is recomended and makes this book even more powewrful as a reference tool. But if you are getting started, this book, along with Red Hat's webpage and the ability to filter out fluff at Red Hat's search engine, will help you understand and work Red Hat Linux.

If your running RH7 or you already know how to move around and edit files in linux, this will be a good book.
However, I have determined that it is impossible to have "the know all" book on linux admin. The subject is just too large for one book. This book will come in useful for its purpose, administering a RH server. But to cover it all you must buy other books like The UNIX System Administration Handbook, A good Sendmail book, a good Apache Server book (I don't recommend O'Reilly's Definite Guide). You will also need a good Linux security book and some sort of command line reference book like O'Reilly's "Linux in a Nutshell".
If you are a beginner, you will need this book and eventually all the others I have mentioned, but you MUST have another book to help you along. If Coriolis ever publishes an up to date RH7 version of "Setting Up a Linux Internet Server Visual Black Book", then it would make a great pair. Even the old version of the Visual Black Book will still help the beginner just fine but it's always good to have the latest.
Linux is free but learning it will cost you. Go ahead and get the book then go get all the other books.

After reading Running Linux, I was looking for the next book to further my studies of linux and this book is a good fit. It does not cover everything, but what linux book does in a readable format. Between Running Linux, Maximum Linux Security and this book I feel the next step is to buy a book on a specific subject (i.e. sendmail, apache, etc.). Definitely a worthy foundation book for aspiring linux geeks (such as myself).

I was new to Linux and had bought several books for reference. This is by far the book I used most. Kabir took me step by step in setting up my own Linux server in my home. I now have a Linix server acting as a Windows Domain, and am getting ready to deploy a Samba server for a client in order to avoid the costs associated with Windows software. He is exceptional in explaining how to get you up and going in practically all the services offered on a server. Good job Kabir!

I was upgrading an older Red Hat installation to 7.1 and needed some quick and directed guidance to configuration files whose locations and formats have changed. This is the only book I found that spent it's time doing that and didn't waste the first 400 pages on "Why Linux is good and what this whole open source thing is about."

An unusually high signal to noise ratio.

Best of the RedHat handbook tomes. If you're not a complete beginner but just need a little shove in the right direction this is the book. Kabir strikes the right balance between full explanation and how-to, providing work-arounds and shortcuts while explaining any consequences. Kudos as well to IDG. The size of the book and typefaces are perfect; the few screenshots are clear, appropriate and do not litter every other page. Very few typos, nice overall design.

I've found this book to be a great introduction to Red Hat Linux. I've been using Linux on and off for the last few years, but I've only ever had a superficial understanding of it. This book was very useful in helping me figure out what's going on with Red Hat 7, including specifics on the boot sequence. The book also has good introductory chapters on Samba and Apache; enough to get you started at least.

Although it is claimed that this 2nd edition has been updated for RH Linux v7.0 from v6.2, it doesn't show any updates using the GUI admin improvements included with RH Linux 7.0. The limits of GUI is Xwindows using Xfree86, tacked on in Chap 14.

Most of the install processes are the typical woefully inadequate, glossed-over, dated procedures for v6 through a command line. No showing of a typical server installation which is the main subject of book, but then the author has another book for Server 7, 0-7645-4786-0

There is no showing of the version of LinuxConf working under Gnome or KDE, what is in the book is text version of LinuxConf v1.19

Most of the rest of the book is CLI based commands for admin tasks includes network, dns, email, ftp, apache, and nfs. The Appendix has a 77 pg common command reference.

I bought this book thinking about having a miniature of Red Hat Linuxer 6 Server, but the documentation not totally copied and in some topics, it is simply different what it causes confusion. Another problem is the objectivity lack that the book deserved, very bad. It is better to buy Red Hat Linux Server 6.