Customer Reviews

Solaris Solutions for System Administrators: Time-Saving Tips, Techniques, and Workarounds, Second Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Understand Unix and want to dig deeper into Solaris Admin? Then this is the book for you. I love this book--it is my new bible and I study it every chance I get. Well written. I had been using Unix for a long time but was weak in Sys Admin. Partly because I didn't have a good reference. Without a knowledge of the boot process, diaganostic tools, I felt I had a major weakness in this area. I looked around for a book that would fill this need and was very happy to find this book. I especially liked the chapter on setting up an Internet site.

I listed the index below, since it's one thing I like to read before purchasing a book. Hope this helps you make your decision.

The Index:

1. Making Smart Decisions About File Systems

2. Planning Backups and Restores

3. Booting and Hardward Diagnotics

4. Configuring Run States

5. Installing and Patching your Solaris System

6. Exloring Jumpstart

7. Setting up Name Services

8. Network Information Services NIS+ and NIS

9. Monitoring your Environment

10. Understanding File Systems--So that's what those are!

11. Automate everything..Well almost!

12. Keeping your Solaris Systems Secure

13. Implementing High Availability: Eliminating Single Points of Failure

14. Maintaining your Sun Hardware

15. Peripheral Vision: Understanding and Configuring Other Hardware

16. The E10000 (Starfire)--Not Just a Big Unix Box

17. Running an Internet Site

18. Coexisiting with the Evil Empire (Windows)

I thoroughly recommend this book! It is perfect for anyone who works with Solaris, Unix, or Sun hardware. There are tidbits for everyone. For me, I found the chapter on the E10K the most interesting. Since I only work with the lower enterprise machines, I was fascinated by the descriptions of what administering and working with 10K's were like. As for technical details, I'd probably look through other books. (Manuals from Sun would work.) This book gives a lot of general guidance on how systems should be run and what administrators should concern themselves with (i.e. security issues- tcp wrappers, tripwire, etc.). They definitely know what they are talking about. As for who should read it... Well, I think most System Admins should read it for learning what path they should take to make life easier. As for other people, it's a good reference on what professional admins should be doing.

As a mid-level member (6 yrs. experience)of a team that combines over 45 yrs. experience we found this book to be unique in that it's informative for both the rookies on the team and the senior members. Chapters 6 and 11, on JumpStart and Automation were awesome. The Diagnostic, and Backup and restore stuff as well... This book is useful to push the boundries of what we're doing and also as a reference book, and a get-acquinted book. Very well rounded.

Having limited development and no unix administration background I was thrown into the fire at a major Health Care Company with another rookie and one mid-level Unix dev/admin type. We hustled to the store and bought four different books. 'Solaris Solution for System Administrators' won out and became the administrative Bible for our project. Covering and providing answers for virtually every scenario we encountered!

After returning the other three books and picking up a second copy of this one we're ( ) richer and at the endgame of a very successful project, with a solid foundation to administrate going forward!

This review says it all!

"A systems administrator's position typically encompasses two major areas: system installation and maintenance. Installation may only be required (depending on the specific situation) when a system is changed or upgraded. Maintenance includes everything else from daily routine tasks such as monitoring disk space, through shell programming and documentation, to backup and recovery. Additionally, today's systems administrators may also become network administrators, Webmasters, and security experts. Each operating system employs a unique set of procedures and most administrators utilize their own mixture of techniques and shortcuts for similar tasks. In Solaris Solutions for System Administrators, authors Sandra Henry-Stocker and Evan R. Marks provide essential information about the tasks, concepts, and corresponding implementations required for a Solaris system administrator. The topics are separated into four major parts: Setting Up Your Solaris Infrastructure, Managing Your Systems, Looking After Your Hardware, and Surviving in the Real World. The first section is also the most comprehensive, as the authors illustrate how to customize a manageable network. They define what a manageable network is in the introduction:

"A manageable network is not one that runs flawlessly, but one in which there is time and capacity enough to resolve each problem without major disruption." [Page 1]

Beginning with that realistic goal, Henry-Stocker and Marks detail the Solaris infrastructure through the following eight chapters: Making Smart Decisions about File Systems, Planning Backups and Restores, Booting and Hardware Diagnostics, Configuring Run States, Installing and Patching Your Solaris System, Exploiting JumpStart, Setting Up Name Services, and Network Information Services: NIS+ and NIS. These chapters not only discuss the elementary Solaris configuration, but also describe the basic tenets of networking design.

The second section, Managing Your Systems, features: Monitoring Your Environment, Understanding File Systems - So That's What Those Are!, Automating Everything...Well, Almost!, Keeping Your Solaris Systems Secure, and Implementing High Availability: Eliminating Single Points of Failure. This section reviews the factors that affect system performance and demonstrates how to customize the data for your individual setup, whether through a commercial package or Solaris utilities. The authors document the locations of log files and other pertinent information, discuss scripting choices, security alternatives, and high-availability theory and practices. The following section, Looking After Your Hardware, analyzes Maintaining Your Sun Hardware, Peripheral Vision: Understanding and Configuring Other Hardware, and the E10000 (Starfire) - Not Just A Big UNIX Box! Henry-Stocker and Marks discuss problems that can interrupt service, how to configure printers and modems, and procedures for Sun's E10000 computer.

The concluding section, Surviving in the Real World, examines Running an Internet Site and Coexisting with the Evil Empire. Running an Internet Site explores the additional concerns that accompany Internet access, including the dangers of TCP/IP, the Internet's popularity and corresponding growth, and the ever present threat of hackers. The authors also describe firewalls, packets, protocols, DNS and email configuration, Sendmail, and ftp services. The title of the last chapter (Coexisting with the Evil Empire) alludes to Microsoft Windows, specifically Windows NT. Through a variety of tools available online, the authors demonstrate how to successfully access the computers from a remote location without too much difficulty. Henry-Stocker and Marks also provide additional information through Appendix A) Index of Useful Web Sites, Appendix B) NIS+ Resources and Notes, a Glossary, and Bibliography and Recommended Reading.

Solaris Solutions for System Administrators is an outstanding book, filled with useful techniques, examples, tips, figures, and definitions. The authors demonstrate a relaxed writing style, which is easily understood and often humorous. The text also reflects Henry-Stocker's and Marks's extensive and thorough knowledge of the Solaris environment. Every Solaris administrator needs this extraordinary reference book and anyone interested in Solaris and administration will appreciate its coverage."

Finally they made a propper Solaris admin book, but of course not from Sun. It deals with nearly every topic (even shortly with NIS+, which all other authors avoid,), has a practical approach and realy talks about real life problems and there solutions. Lately I had some printer problems which the book helped me to solve, and this is unusal. I cannot propperly explain why the book is good, but from admin to admin I'd just say, it's the best book so far about this topic.

The title describes this book perfectly. It is another brief and to the point book that covers a lot of material. I hate it when authors / publishers try to publish phone books of endless bla bla to get it to sell, but this one is only around 500 pages. It goes over many of the basic but essential 'solutions' such as POP servers, SECURITY, backups and restores, DNS, permissions, etc. It's not the end all be all book for Solaris, but it's pretty good. I gave it 5 stars because of the content and the price.

Great book that goes straight to the point but not for beginners with no knowledge of unix. Some sections could use a little more examples, but otherwise a super book.

Keep one on your shelf!

This book is amazing as its not a rehash of points you need to know about to pass the Solaris Certified Sys Admin exam. Instead this is a true to life list of common issues/solutions a REAL sys admin would face in day to day work. The basics of hardware is fantastic and I wish I had this info at the start of my career. Webflash/jumpstart.. fantastic and now part of my server environment. NIS ... fantastic...... DYnAMIC RECONFIGURATION! VOLUME MANAGEMENT!!! This is a True System Adminstrator's Book. Note this won't help you pass to SCSA as if you need to read up on the format of the /etc/passwd file then this book is not for you.


If you are interviewing for a Solaris admin job... get this book!!! Forget any of the exam cram or study guides for the SCSA as its all BS.

A+!!!!

I've been a Solaris systems administrator for more than 5 years and thought I knew a lot, but reading the second edition of this book has given me more insights than any other book on the subject. It is well written and very practical. I feel as if the authors have given me the benefit of their combined years of working with Solaris. Highly recommended!