Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide [Paperback]

Paul Watters (Author)

Book Description

Series: Administrators Guide | Publication Date: January 2002

The Solaris operating system, along with related Sun products like Java, is one of the most reliable and scalable platforms on which to build e-commerce products, and on which to support all networked services. Yet, one problem that potential users face is finding out more information about what Solaris offers. In a sense, they want to know how much technical work is involved in migrating to Solaris, and what kind of philosophy Solaris is based on.

To answer these questions, Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide covers all aspects of deploying Solaris as a network server, including both basic and advanced network services. Given newfound interest in Solaris as an enterprise network operating system, this guide is aimed squarely at supporting enterprise-level services. It's written for experienced network administrators who want an objective guide to networking with Solaris, and covers installation on both the Intel and Sparc platforms. With it, you will learn how to setup Solaris as a file server, application server, and database server.

In its coverage of advanced topics, Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide offers examples of configuration files and the installation of third-party software packages. This comprehensive book also contains more conceptual and difficult material that is absent from other Solaris reference manuals. At all points, emphasis is placed on issues like evaluating the security, scalability, and reliability of specific software packages--at the expense of providing detailed coverage of every available package.

The book covers the practical experience and new skills needed to understand the impact of new services and new software products on existing server systems. Author Paul Watters--a recognized authority on Solaris--avoids so-called "historical" services, like UUCP, which can easily fill chapters but are not commonly found in today's production environments. Indeed, he doesn't bother to provide an in-depth history of Solaris or UNIX at all, assuming that you can find this material elsewhere. Instead, the practical focus is on supporting relevant contemporary networking technologies.

Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide provides you with a third-party view that not only praises Solaris, but is critical and realistic in its assessment. This book is for experienced Solaris Administrators as well as and those looking to migrate to this operating system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul A. Watters, MAPS, M.Phil.(Cambridge),B.A.(Hons.)(Tasmania)​,B.A. (Newcastle) recently submitted his PhD thesis in computer science at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, in the topic of natural language processing, and neural networks. The software he developed as part of his doctoral thesis runs on high-end Solaris servers through the Internet using CGI. In addition, he has eight years systems management and application development experience in commercial and R&D organizations. He specializes in building e-commerce and Internet information systems, based on Java, Solaris and open standards like CORBA. He is a columnist and author for the trade journal Inside Solaris, author of Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide, lead author of the upcoming Solaris 8: The Complete Reference, published by Osborne McGraw-Hill, and Solaris E-Commerce Bible, published by IDG.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596000731
• ISBN-13: 978-0596000738
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Solaris

More About the Author

My philosophy in writing books has been strongly influenced by my college teaching experience in information technology and software engineering - clear descriptions of basic principles, philosophy and motivation for using a specific technology, and then clear examples of how to use it in practice. In a book with limited pages, it's not always possible to cover every topic, or to provide all information on a specific topic in the detail required to perform a particular task. I see the role of trade books as "breadth first, depth second" - these books provide orientation, but if you need intimate detail on a specific application, function or method, then you will almost certainly need to consult vendor documentation. For example, the Sun administration reference collection for Solaris contains many thousands of pages of detail, which can be daunting at first, but very useful in the long term.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely informative, February 28, 2002

By 

L. Spencer (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide (Paperback)

As a newcomer to Solaris, I found this book extremely informative. I found the chapters on installing and configuration was exactly what I was looking for. The configuration worksheets were great.

I would recommend this book as a great resource for any administrator looking to migrate to Solaris from another operating system or starting a Solaris network from scratch.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wrong title for this informative book, March 4, 2003

By 

Micah J. Miller "version7x" (Woodinville, Washington USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide (Paperback)

Had this book been titled "An introduction to Network Administration on Solaris" O'Reilly would have hit the nail on the head with this one.

The book takes a shallow and deep approach to most topics the average administrator might just need a clue on. The book has enough depth to get your feet wet in each topic - allowing you to know if you need to study more or call it good.

Overall, this book hits all the basics and gives a great overview of an immense topic.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Practical With Few Screenshots, March 3, 2002

By 

Jerry Anlauf (Denver CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solaris 8 Administrator's Guide (Paperback)

If there's one thing I hate about computer books it's screenshots. I mean, if I'm a UNIX admin, I know what a screen looks like right? That's why I hate those 1000+ page books - full of fluff and no detail. This book is compact, few screenshots, it has lots of good examples (like installation worksheets) and a (rarely found) discussion on sizing. Downside: no discussion on VPNs which I would have expected since firewalls and encryption are covered. Almost five stars.