Principles of Network and System Administration

Edited 11/22/02.I bought this over a year ago and was not impressed, initially. However, I am re-reading it in light of new responsibilities, and I'm changing my opinion, slightly.First of all, if you are a serious system administrator, you should own, read, and work to the principles outlined in this book.With that said, there were two items that I felt detracted from the presentation.First was, there was much text devoted to particular operating systems (both *nix and Windows). Whether you're dealing with Linux, Unix, or BeOS, it's the principles that matter, not the implementation.The second was that cfEngine, a systems configuration engine, was used to demonstrate the principles. This works on Unix - and again, detracted from the overall presentation of the "Principles" in the title I bought it for.So, bottom line, the book is worth a read. Spend some time working to understand and apply the principles in your environment. If you can implement some of the specifics of the author's techniques, that's all the better.11/10/02 update: "The Practice of System and Network Administration" is in. Short verdict, it's worth the money.

This work is a good one on the non-technical side of system adminsitration. It does not deal with stuff like HOW to install a system, but the WHYs, such as WHY you want to properly document your installations.This sort of work has been needed for a long time, since "The Keys to Successful Unix System Management" went out of print. However, this work may be a bit too academic for many admins. They might find the recent "Practice of System and Network Administration" to be a bit better. If you can afford both, do so.

Peter Salus, Login - June 2000 Another winner! I keep Nemeth et al. and AEleen Frisch at hand for referencing the systems admin tasks we all need to do. Burgess' fine book is something ``completely different.'' It is a well-articulated introduction to a corpus of guiding principles for systems administrators. And as we live in a world of heterogeneity, Burgess ``covers'' Unix, Unix-like, DOS, Windows, Mac, Amiga, and NT systems. Burgess says that he wants to express a sound and logical way to approach networked systems. While I can find nits (that's a reviewers job, isn't it?), I consider this an important book. More and more talk of certification can only lead to a body of knowledge and a set of tenets that are 'required.' I think that Burgess will become part of the required reading for future (and current) systems administrators.