Linux System Administration

Microsoft's introduction of XP also introduced outrageous Microsoft user agreements I could never accept. Furthermore I was sick of Windows security issues, viruses, instability, and software conflicts. The GNU/Linux FREE as in freedom philosophy made sense to me, so I chose Linux FREEdom over Mac's wanna-be a monopoly world. A copy of Mandrake Linux sat on my shelf awaiting a Linux guru to help me install it, until late one night when Windows irrevocably crashed in the middle of a project I had to finish before bed. In a panic I installed Linux (along with a broad suite of apps) on an old hard drive I had, recovered my files from the Windows drive, and was working on my project again within 45 minutes. That was more than two years ago and I never looked back. I have a fast, stable, secure, virus free operating system with more and better apps than I could afford with Windows.However, until a month ago, when I bought a copy of Linux System Administration, I could only use Linux as if it was Windows or Mac. The full power of GNU/Linux is accessible through the shell command line, and this power was beyond my grasp. It wasn't that I hadn't tried. I bough half a dozen books about Linux in order to learn how to access and use this power. But the books I bought, though highly recommended, all required prerequisite knowledge I lacked, had no logical explanation, or they were too simplistic. Nor have I been able to find anyone to hold my hand through the process of learning the real power of Linux. Linux System Administration is exactly the book I needed. Linux System Administration is not in any way dumbed down. It is simply very good at introducing and explaining Linux. This is not a beginner's book inadequate to provide any real understanding. It is a solid book suitable for use by a Linux system administratior that a beginner can begin with. Linux System Administration is empowering me to be the system administrator of my computer and LAN (and more if I want to or need to). Linux System Administration is making available to me the FREEdom, control, and power that GNU/Linux is all about.I also recommend Linux In A Nutshell, and Linux Cookbook. Running Linux, recommended by "Linux Journal" (along with Linux System Administration and Linux In A Nutshell), had been beyond me, but maybe after I fully assimilate Linux System Administration I'll be able to make use of it.

Linux System Administration does a great job of covering a vast amount of Linux topics with just the right amount of detail for most users. This book appeals to a wide variety of readers, it is written in way that doesn't scare off newbies, but manages to have enough meat for experienced Linux users. The great thing about this book is it spends a fair amount of time explaining how to do things on a variety of distros.Parts of the book that stand out in my mind are the chapters dealing with kernel recompilation, scripting and security. The kernel recompilation chapter is by far the best material I've seen on the subject to date, it almost makes kernel recompilation sound too easy. The security chapter is good starting point for sysadmins that are new to Linux. The book also provides a nice little introduction to scripting, although if your going to be a Linux sysadmin, the Orielly books on bash and perl are a must.There were very few things that I didn't like about this book. One thing that stands out in my mind is the author's insistence on using paper journal books for logging system changes. With the proper backup procedures in place, a web based system log is a much more efficient way of keeping tracking of changes. Overall, the book is must read for anyone new to Linux and is also a good pickup for seasoned Linux users. I've been recommending this book over Running Linux as of late, since the Oreilly offering is showing its age.

This is the perfect book for someone who has a general understanding of Linux, but wants to know more about config files, the boot process and needs answers to questions that the sys-admin type of person has. This is definitely for someone who wants to know the core of Linux and how to do tasks in a more 'UNIX' kind of way. So when you boot up a company server, and discover that there's no X installed, you can accomplish what you need via the command-prompt. What I don't like about typical 'bible' or 'unlimited' types of Linux books is that they cover system configuration via the KDE or Gnome - which is totally useless if you're using one but not the other - or if you're not using either at all.This is an excellent book. It's well-written, so it's easy to follow for someone fairly new to Linux, but it's not patronizing. Best of all, it doesn't spend time on creating web pages, playing games or editing images - instead it focuses on what you'll really need, like compiling the kernel, troubleshooting a boot problem, user management, package installation and management, etc.

I have been working with Linux for about 2 years now and have a number of books on Linux administration. I have had this book for a couple of weeks now and I'm totally impressed with it. There are so many explanations of commands which are so clear and concise I'm envious of the new users who will cut their teeth with this book. The sections on scripting seem to have a lot of information on scripting that I've actually used and had to dig out of man or books on scripting. It's just not fair:-). I can hear new users saying "Learning Linux just wasn't that hard". But hey there was a lot of information in here that was useful to me also. Using tar to archive files remotely, cpio, explanations on getty, mgetty, serial port communication along with the basics. Well enough said "This is just a good book". Did I mention the discussion of xinetd?

One of my Unix lab professors once said that Unix was so vast that one lifetime is not enough to really get to master all aspects of it. After reading several Unix/Linux books, this operating system still remained somewhat of a mystery.Thanks to the authors of this book, I can really say that I'm well on my way to a decent level of proficiency. No question, this book is of the highest quality. The material is presented and explained in such a way, you get a sense that the authors truly possess a profound understanding of the SA and Linux fields. The book tries to be distribution neutral by covering Redhat linux (vesion 6 to 7) and dishing out to other distributions (especially Debian) when things are done differently.Unlike other books that are recipe oriented or adaptations of technical documents, this is a true SA book because it helps you gain control of your Linux system.