Best Unix Administration

Their perspective on the variations among systems is valuable for anyone who runs a heterogeneous computing facility.”. 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. 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. Trent holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"There's a reason this book receives glowing reviews, and it doesn't have much to do with what's in it. I am so accustomed to really miserable, overly verbose tech writing by people who are clearly not good writers that finding this book blew me away. - The writing style assumes you are busy and treats your time as valuable. In this book is practical wisdom and tested/tried techniques to get you started on most things you will do as an admin."
"They cover the main topics, the differences in major releases, and show you exactly where to go for more detailed information, if needed. And a great sense of humour throughout, like the LESS guy dumping the MORE coffin into the sea on the cover of the book. If you bought both the Unix and Linux versions of the 3rd, it could hurt a bit to spend another $XX for this edition, but it is worth it."
"I love this book to use for reference and also to read cover to cover."
"This is generally a very comprehensive book on Unix, Linux and System Administration practices."
"To be honest, I did forget quite a few stuff I have learned over the last two years like setting up a samba server or doing remote backups since I really didn't have the means at home to review, study, and drill into my head all of that stuff over and over again. From sshing, kernel drivers, software installation, basic tcp/ip networking, DNS, to setting up a mail server."
"I am in IT and would recommend this book to my colleagues or someone just getting into IT."
"The book should have given hands on examples instead of only the options for the various commands."

“This edition is for those whose systems live in the cloud or in virtualized data centers; those whose administrative work largely takes the form of automation and configuration source code; those who collaborate closely with developers, network engineers, compliance officers, and all the other worker bees who inhabit the modern hive.”. The authors—world-class, hands-on technologists—offer indispensable new coverage of cloud platforms, the DevOps philosophy, continuous deployment, containerization, monitoring, and many other essential topics. Whatever your role in running systems and networks built on UNIX or Linux, this conversational, well-written ¿guide will improve your efficiency and help solve your knottiest problems. Trent holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. Dan Mackin’s (@dan_mackin) long-standing passion for technology inspired him to get a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As a FreeBSD user, I was thrilled to see the system included in the coverage, however I was disappointed with several glaring omissions. The inclusion of FreeBSD without proper coverage of its features may actually make the system look worse than if it hadn't been included at all, as readers ignorant of the system assume that the omission of coverage implies the lack of a feature."
"A summary of changes I noticed compared to the previous editions: - Boot chapter describes systemd. - Scripting chapter dropped Perl and added Ruby and GIT. - Much more on sudo (for example, explains how to configure sudo without password). - Syslog chapter now includes rsyslog. - Web hosting chapter added Nginx and HAProxy. Completely new chapters: - Configuration Management (Ansible and Salt). - Containers (Docker). - Continuous Integration and Delivery (DevOps, Jenkins). - Cloud Computing (AWS). DNS, E-mail, Networking and NFS chapters didn't change. Backups chapter has gone away! Tapes as transportable media and tape libraries are not going to die and will always be in use."
"As a few other people have pointed out, this book has dropped the Unix operating systems from previous editions - but in my opinion they've double downed on the more modern computing concepts for Linux operating systems, namely; Monitoring, Virtualization, Containerization, Configuration Management, Cloud Computing and Continuous Integration."
"I purchased the Kindle edition of this book."
"Excellent, comprehensive, and up-to-date."
"Many tech books can be PAINFULLY dry, and this does a good job of keeping highly technical information easy to read."
"The content of the book is great and easy to grok, it's one of a kind that I've found so far, but it is marred by what seems to be a kindle fire issue."

“This edition is for those whose systems live in the cloud or in virtualized data centers; those whose administrative work largely takes the form of automation and configuration source code; those who collaborate closely with developers, network engineers, compliance officers, and all the other worker bees who inhabit the modern hive.”. The authors—world-class, hands-on technologists—offer indispensable new coverage of cloud platforms, the DevOps philosophy, continuous deployment, containerization, monitoring, and many other essential topics. Whatever your role in running systems and networks built on UNIX or Linux, this conversational, well-written ¿guide will improve your efficiency and help solve your knottiest problems. Trent holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. Dan Mackin's (@dan_mackin) long-standing passion for technology inspired him to get a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As a FreeBSD user, I was thrilled to see the system included in the coverage, however I was disappointed with several glaring omissions. The inclusion of FreeBSD without proper coverage of its features may actually make the system look worse than if it hadn't been included at all, as readers ignorant of the system assume that the omission of coverage implies the lack of a feature."
"A summary of changes I noticed compared to the previous editions: - Boot chapter describes systemd. - Scripting chapter dropped Perl and added Ruby and GIT. - Much more on sudo (for example, explains how to configure sudo without password). - Syslog chapter now includes rsyslog. - Web hosting chapter added Nginx and HAProxy. Completely new chapters: - Configuration Management (Ansible and Salt). - Containers (Docker). - Continuous Integration and Delivery (DevOps, Jenkins). - Cloud Computing (AWS). DNS, E-mail, Networking and NFS chapters didn't change. Backups chapter has gone away! Tapes as transportable media and tape libraries are not going to die and will always be in use."
"As a few other people have pointed out, this book has dropped the Unix operating systems from previous editions - but in my opinion they've double downed on the more modern computing concepts for Linux operating systems, namely; Monitoring, Virtualization, Containerization, Configuration Management, Cloud Computing and Continuous Integration."
"I purchased the Kindle edition of this book."
"Excellent, comprehensive, and up-to-date."
"Many tech books can be PAINFULLY dry, and this does a good job of keeping highly technical information easy to read."
"The content of the book is great and easy to grok, it's one of a kind that I've found so far, but it is marred by what seems to be a kindle fire issue."
Best Linux Programming

The Linux Programming Interface (TLPI) is the definitive guide to the Linux and UNIX programming interface—the interface employed by nearly every application that runs on a Linux or UNIX system. Michael Kerrisk has been using and programming UNIX systems for more than 20 years, and has taught many week-long courses on UNIX system programming.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I can't imagine the work done in writing such a massive book, but I appreciate it."
"If your serious about developing AAA Linux applications this is an excellent guide."
"The images are all broken on the Kindle version."
""The Linux Programming Interface" is a very comprehensive book targeted at programmers and is concerned with teaching the system calls and library functions provided by the Linux operating system."
"This book is pretty amazing in explaining complex subjects in Linux programming."
"I purchased this book to use on my job as a part time programmer working from home on scientific applications in a Linux environment."
"It's a great reference, better than googling!"
"This is a thorough, well-organized, lucidly written treatment of the somewhat arcane world of programming in the Linux environment."
Best AIX Operating System

Essential System Administration: Tools and Techniques for Linux and Unix Administration, 3rd Edition
Essential System Administration ,3rd Edition is the definitive 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 describes all the usual administrative tools that Unix provides, but it also shows how to use them intelligently and efficiently.Whether you use a standalone Unix system, routinely provide administrative support for a larger shared system, or just want an understanding of basic administrative functions, Essential System Administration is for you. She has written eight books, including Essential System Administration (now in its third edition), Essential Windows NT System Administration and the Windows 2000 Desktop Reference (all from O'Reilly Media, Inc.) and Exploring Chemistry with Electronic Structure Methods (Gaussian, Inc.).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Read this for things you don't see in other text."
"If you just install Ubuntu, Suse or Mepis from a cd on some retired winders box you might not ever "administrate" your system, but you could if you knew how."
"I'll keep this short and to the point, since the numerous other reviews already speak to what this book has to offer: It's not cheap, but it is worth every penny."
"This book is still surprisingly valuable many years after its first publication."
"It's not the kind of book you're going to read from cover to cover, and I may never look at 600 of its 1100+ pages, but I still consider it a required book on my shelf, and I refer to it a 2-3 times a month."
"As a veteran software developer who has found himself suddenly in a system administrator role for multiple Solaris and Red Hat systems, this book has been my salvation."
"Yet another bible from the Lords of Linux!"
"Way more information that I needed but it was also very informative."
Best Device Drivers

Learn how Docker simplifies dependency management and deployment workflow for your applications Start working with Docker images, containers, and command line tools Use practical techniques to deploy and test Docker-based Linux containers in production Debug containers by understanding their composition and internal processes Deploy production containers at scale inside your data center or cloud environment Explore advanced Docker topics, including deployment tools, networking, orchestration, security, and configuration. He has spoken about subjects like alerting fatigue and hardware automation at various meet-ups and technical conferences, including Velocity.Sean spent most of his youth living overseas, and exploring what life has to offer, including graduating from the Ringling Brother & Barnum & Bailey Clown College, completing 2 summer internships with the US Central Intelligence Agency, and building the very first web site in the state of Alaska.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"But after reading the book (almost every chapter and paragraph), I like the book and think this is very well written."
"Not a bad overview at all."
"Great book about container/Docker concepts and implementation."
"Wonderfully opinionated guidebook for Docker that will carry you to production."
"Good intermediate, we'll rounded book."
"I was expecting more out of this book."
"Just like the title says, this is a quick intro to Docker."
"Overall, I while I believe that the details of the book are well considered, there is a lot of context missing that makes the material more difficult to understand than it should be. The first step is to set up proper access in Amazon's IAM, and the authors provide a JSON snippet that will do so. The authors could broaden their audience and increase clarity with very little extra work, but they have to step back and read what they have written assuming that the reader doesn't know everything that they do. Another example occurs just two pages later, when they show output from requesting details about a container instance within an AWS cluster. When assembling technical reviewers it can be tempting for authors to surround themselves with subject matter experts, but it is also important to find some way to look at the material from the perspective of the target audience. Someone should have been approaching the manuscript from the point of view of a reader at the low end of the experience scale, and I don't see any reason to think that this happened."
Best Unix DNS & Bind

What DNS does, how it works, and when you need to use it How to find your own place in the Internet's namespace Setting up name servers Using MX records to route mail Configuring hosts to use DNS name servers Subdividing domains (parenting) Securing your name server: restricting who can query your server, preventing unauthorized zone transfers, avoiding bogus servers, etc. Cricket was hostmaster@hp.com for over three years, and then joined HP's Professional Services Organization to co-found HP's Internet Consulting Program.Cricket left HP in 1997 to form Acme Byte & Wire, a DNS consulting and training company, with his friend Matt Larson. Since then Paul has worked on various HP products during his 19 year career: HP JetDirect software, HP OfficeJet fax firmware, HPPhoto web site, and HP Photosmart Premier software.Paul and his wife Katherine live in San Diego California with their two cats, Gracie and Tiffany.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Given how easy it is to screw your environment to the floor by messing up these files, you really need this book if you manage bind."
"That is not to say that this book is all inclusive, no book can contain every piece of knowledge you need/desire, especially on such a complex topic."
"The fifth edition (not sure about the others) even covers, albeit a little too briefly, how to deal with reverse lookup zones with subnet masks that do not fall on octet boundaries."
"Excellent book."
"This book had an example that was easy to follow."
"I debated between purchasing from Amazon or DRM Free from the publisher but went with Amazon because of how easy it is to read kindle store books from any IP device these days."
"While I have long had a rudimentary understanding, the nuances of networking remained a mystery until I found this book."
Best Unix Shell

But whether you are a newcomer or a Unix power user, you'll find yourself thumbing through the goldmine of information in the new edition of Unix Power Tools to add to your store of knowledge. The book includes articles abstracted from other O'Reilly books, new information that highlights program tricks and gotchas, tips posted to the Net over the years, and other accumulated wisdom.Affectionately referred to by readers as "the" Unix book, UNIX Power Tools provides access to information every Unix user is going to need to know. This detail-filled book distinguishes itself from other guides for Unix gurus with its organizational structure (it's a series of articles that can be absorbed sequentially or individually) and carefully designed and executed index. Topics covered: How to work efficiently, elegantly, and creatively with the Unix tool suite, as well as (to a lesser extent) with Perl and Python scripts.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Articles are logically organized in chapters so you can read the book from cover to cover if you wish."
"Back in 1995 I started working at a client and all the UNIX guys had this book on their desk."
"This book is a good reference for some one who knows Linux, it is a collection of articles on how to do things."
"A great refresher/reference and learning tool."
"This book is a "keeper!""
"Came in on time and new condition, as advertised."
"Great reference book for someone new to unix, but familiar with general programming."