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Essential System Administration

By: AElig;leen Frisch
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 0596003439
ISBN-13: 9780596003432
Released: 23 Aug 2002
RRP: £38.95
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

In a hurry? Start here - By: B. Chandler, 23 Oct 2002
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 & 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 & 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 & Internet Security
Essentially Essential - By: , 14 Jan 2002
I have never bought a book with a more accurate title. I'm only half way threw reading Essential System Administration & im already wondering how i managed without it.

This book is written in a style that makes me feel more like im reading a letter that has been personallly written just for me answering alll the questions i have & giving me the wisdom that i crave.

Anyone considering a career in UNIX system administration should not be without this book.

It's not only the technical information that is so valuable, but its also the writers personal experience with users that gives an insight about how to deal with the personal problems you may face when things go wrong.

At the moment this is my favorite book & i'm sure it will be a long time till i find another book to beat this one.

If there is such a book out there then it is most likely published by O'reilly so i'll know where to look ;-)

Essential is the word - By: John P O'Connor, 04 Nov 2001
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 alll aspects of system administration necessary for smalll to medium systems & networks.

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

The structure works equallly well as an aide memoir or as a tutorial to a new topic & 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 & 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 & not on my bookshelf. It helps me out with my mixed network of Linux, Solaris, SunOS & FreeBSD.

An Excellent but somewhat dated book - By: , 14 Sep 2001
This is an excellent book that gives a good introduction to Unix System Administration in general & alll the most popular commercial flavours in particular. Our shop runs Aix, Solaris & HP-UX & 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 & 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 & to give them an idea as to where to look for more detailed documentation. I personallly have found it useful where I have to flip between different Unix variants. I know Aix well but am less familiar with Solaris & HP-UX & 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 & 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.
Showing its age...? - By: , 31 Jan 2001
This is a great book, & always the first one I turn to in the event of trouble. However, it is now nearly six years old. Probably about time for a new edition...? Someone...?