This is the book I used to learn UNIX System Administration.

---

Product Description

This is a guide for Unix system administration, covering all the fundamental and essential tasks required to run such divergent Unix systems as AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, Tru64 and more. It provides a clear guide to the real-world issues that anyone responsible for a Unix system faces daily. This edition has been fully updated for all the latest operating systems. It has been revised and expanded to consider the current system administrative topics that administrators need most. The book covers: DHCP, USB devices, the latest automation tools, SNMP and network management, LDAP, PAM, and recent security tools and techniques. It discusses the underlying higher-level concepts, but it also provides the details of the procedures needed to carry them out. It is not organized around the features of the Unix operating system, but around the various facets of a system administrator's job. It describes all the usual administrative tools that Unix provides, but it also shows how to use them intelligently and efficiently.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #341779 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1176 pages

Michael Tiemann, Red Hat July 2002
A true example of what great technical writing can be, and the standard that O'Reilly sets as a publisher.

StudioB.com, October 8, 2002
I'm delighted to say it's already earned a place on my 'most-used' pile.

WebReference.com, Oct 3, 2002
This is the definitive guide for system administrators.

---

Customer Reviews

In a hurry? Start here
This book has been recommended for beginners. That is true. You don't have to wade through a bunch of theory to get to the meat of administration.
The same is true for experienced administrators. This book will point you in the direction to go when you are using the real manuals.
Take some time and slowdown to try some of the examples. Then when you need them you will have already mastered that section.
I have several other books now and know a lot of what is in this one. However I would feel naked if this was not reachable.
A complementary book would be Practical Unix and Internet Security

An Excellent but somewhat dated book
This is an excellent book that gives a good introduction to Unix System Administration in general and all the most popular commercial flavours in particular. Our shop runs Aix, Solaris and HP-UX and we have several copies of this useful book lying around. It has 2 valuable points in it's favour. It's goes into sufficient detail and is a light enough read to provide a great starting point to train a new sysadmin to the point where they can start doing useful work and to give them an idea as to where to look for more detailed documentation. I personally have found it useful where I have to flip between different Unix variants. I know Aix well but am less familiar with Solaris and HP-UX and this book is full of useful clues on where to start so I can figure the rest out for myself. It's only downside is that it IS now rather old and definitely could do with a revision. It would be very useful if it was included on one of the O'Reilly CD books as well once updated.

Essential is the word
If you are performing any level of system administration on any varient of Unix then this is a great book to have on your desk. It covers just about all aspects of system administration necessary for small to medium systems and networks.

Each topic is dealt with first by an approachable description of what is going on, a discussion of the differences between different systems and some examples of commands or configuration files together with a discussion of what each example is doing and how it does it. It really is an easy way to work out what you need to do on your own system.

The structure works equally well as an aide memoir or as a tutorial to a new topic and this is backed up by an effective index which seems to guide me to the right part of the book much more reliably than is the case in many computing texts.

Although the book, even in its second edition, is now several years old, it is still relevant. The basics if the task do not change and, even if the task in hand has changed a little, reading and understanding the section in the book will leave you well placed to sort out minor variations which is not something that you would get from just plugging away at the man pages.

The main thing that is missing as a result of this is coverage of completely new material, don't expect to find anything about IPv6 or running a webserver for example. That is not such a big problem though as if you are dealing with these issues, you will almost certainly need books on those subjects as well as a general admin book.

For me, it is simple, this is a book that lives on my desk and not on my bookshelf. It helps me out with my mixed network of Linux, Solaris, SunOS and FreeBSD.