Unix System Administration Handbook 3RD Edition

“As this book shows, Linux systems are just as functional, secure, and reliable as their proprietary counterparts. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of thousands of Linux developers, Linux is more ready than ever for deployment at the front lines of the real world. The authors of this book know that terrain well, and I am happy to leave you in their most capable hands.”

–Linus Torvalds

 

“This book is where I turn first when I have system administration questions. It is truly a wonderful resource and always within reach of my terminal.”

–W. Richard Stevens, author of numerous books on UNIX and TCP/IP

 

“This is a comprehensive guide to the care and feeding of UNIX systems. The authors present the facts along with seasoned advice and numerous real-world examples. Their perspective on the variations among systems is valuable for anyone who runs a heterogeneous computing facility.”

–Pat Parseghian, Transmeta

 

“We noticed your book on the staff -recommendations shelf at our local bookstore: ‘Very clear, a masterful interpretation of the subject.’ We were most impressed, until we noticed that the same staff member had also recommended Aunt Bea's Mayberry Cookbook.”

–Shannon Bloomstran, history teacher  

The twentieth anniversary edition of the world’s best-selling UNIX system administration book has been made even more invaluable by adding coverage of the leading Linux distributions: Ubuntu, RHEL, and openSUSE. System administrators looking to efficiently solve technical problems and maximize reliability and performance in production environments can now turn to UNIX® and Linux® System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition, which has been systematically updated to reflect today’s most important enterprise Linux and UNIX distributions and most valuable administrative tools.

Drawing on decades of experience, the authors share clear, well-founded advice on constructing robust, production-grade systems and networks that can be easily maintained, monitored, and controlled. You’ll find detailed, up-to-date best practices advice and important new coverage of virtualization, cloud computing, security management, web load balancing and scalability, LDAP/Active Directory integration, modern web scripting languages, Spacewalk, DTrace, eco-friendly IT management, and much more. It reflects the latest versions of all these distributions: 

• Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®
• Ubuntu® Linux
• openSUSE
• Oracle Solaris
• OpenSolaris
• AIX
• HP-UX

Sharing war stories and hard-won insights, the authors capture the behavior of UNIX and Linux systems in the real world, not just in ideal environments. They explain complex tasks in detail, with illustrations from actual production environments, and provide brand-new “Top 20 lists” of system administration rules, power-saving tips, and more. 

“As an author, editor, and publisher, I never paid much attention to the competition–except in a few cases. This is one of those cases. The UNIX System Administration Handbook is one of the few books we ever measured ourselves against.”   

–From the Foreword by Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media

 

“This book is fun and functional as a desktop reference. If you use UNIX and Linux systems, you need this book in your short-reach library. It covers a bit of the systems’ history but doesn’t bloviate. It’s just straightfoward information delivered in colorful and memorable fashion.”  

–Jason A. Nunnelley

“This is a comprehensive guide to the care and feeding of UNIX and Linux systems. The authors present the facts along with seasoned advice and real-world examples. Their perspective on the variations among systems is valuable for anyone who runs a heterogeneous computing facility.”  

–Pat Parseghian

The twentieth anniversary edition of the world’s best-selling UNIX system administration book has been made even better by adding coverage of the leading Linux distributions: Ubuntu, openSUSE, and RHEL.  

This book approaches system administration in a practical way and is an invaluable reference for both new administrators and experienced professionals. It details best practices for every facet of system administration, including storage management, network design and administration, email, web hosting, scripting, software configuration management, performance analysis, Windows interoperability, virtualization, DNS, security, management of IT service organizations, and much more. UNIX® and Linux® System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition, reflects the current versions of these operating systems:

Ubuntu® Linux

openSUSE® Linux

Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

Oracle America® Solaris™ (formerly Sun Solaris)

HP HP-UX®

IBM AIX®

Evi Nemeth has retired from the Computer Science faculty at the University of Colorado. She is currently exploring the Pacific on her 40-foot sailboat named Wonderland. Garth Snyder has worked at NeXT and Sun and holds a BS in Engineering from Swarthmore College and an MD and an MBA from the University of Rochester. Trent R. Hein is the co-founder of Applied Trust, a company that provides IT infrastructure consulting services. Trent holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. Ben Whaley is the Director of Enterprise Architecture at Applied Trust. Ben earned a BS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. He is an expert in storage management, virtualization, and web infrastructure.'

Acknowledgments

Section One: Basic Administration

Chapter 1: Where to Start

Chapter 2: Scripting and the Shell

Chapter 3: Booting and Shutting Down

Chapter 4: Access Control and Rootly Powers

Chapter 5: Controlling Processes

Chapter 6: The Filesystem

Chapter 7: Adding New Users

Chapter 8: Storage

Chapter 9: Periodic Processes

Chapter 10: Backups

Chapter 11: Syslog and Log Files

Chapter 12: Software Installation and Management

Section Two: Networking

Chapter 13: TCP/IP Networking

Chapter 14: Routing

Chapter 15: Network Hardware

Chapter 16: DNS: The Domain Name System

Chapter 17: The Network File System

Chapter 18: Sharing System Files

Chapter 19: Electronic Mail

Chapter 20: Network Management and Debugging

Chapter 21: Security

Chapter 22: Web Hosting

Section Three: Bunch O’ Stuff

Chapter 23: Virtualization

Chapter 24: The X Window System

Chapter 25: Printing

Chapter 26: Data Center Basics

Chapter 27: Green It

Chapter 28: Performance Analysis

Chapter 29: Cooperating with Windows

Chapter 30: Serial Devices and Terminals

Chapter 31: Drivers and the Kernel

Chapter 32: Management, Policy, and Politics

Index

About the Authors

About the Contributors