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. Essential System Administration provides a clear, concise, practical guide to the real-world issues that anyone responsible for a Unix system faces daily. The new edition of this indispensable reference has been fully updated for all the latest operating systems. Even more importantly, it has been extensively revised and expanded to consider the current system administrative topics that administrators need most. Essential System Administration,3rd Edition covers: DHCP, USB devices, the latest automation tools, SNMP and network management, LDAP, PAM, and recent security tools and techniques. Essential System Administration is comprehensive. But what has made this book the guide system administrators turn to over and over again is not just the sheer volume of valuable information it provides, but the clear, useful way the information is presented. It discusses the underlying higher-level concepts, but it also provides the details of the procedures needed to carry them out. It is not organized around the features of the Unix operating system, but around the various facets of a system administrator's job. 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. This comprehensive and invaluable book combines the author's years of practical experience with technical expertise to help you manage Unix systems as productively and painlessly as possible.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 77 Ratings

A little dated.... - 2008-07-17
Reviewer Rating:
The first thing to understand is that my 3 star rating isn't for the book itself, but for the edition. This book is well written and contains many good principles, but the material is dated and could use some touching up. For example, the network monitoring section still covers NetSaint.

I bought and read this book prior to starting my first job as a system administrator. I learned a bit, but as I wasn't a rank beginner, it wasn't really all that much. Besides the fact that the material is dated, I found the multi-vendor approach to be somewhat detrimental. As I was going to work for a Debian-based shop, the material for the commercial versions of Unix did me no good, resulting in what is essentially, wasted space.

For someone who is brand new to unix and is going to be thrown to the wolves as a system administrator, this book would be worth reading, and given that target audience, this is an excellent book. But if you're already somewhat familiar with the concepts of running and managing a unix based system, your time and money are better spent on other products

Best Buy ever - 2009-02-27
Reviewer Rating:
I'm fairly new to Unix but have been using Linux for 2 to 3 years and have to say that from my extensive collection of Unix/Linux books this one stands tall above the others.
This is a big book and is crammed with relevent and timely information, easy to read but concise and to the point. Lots of good examples are used to explain the topics and it has saved my life more than once. To put it simply you will not regret buying this book.

Good Book... - 2008-09-29
Reviewer Rating:
Good Book if you have to live in a multiple OS environment. If you don't get the solution at least you know what to do next.

There is a confused creature by the name of "Old Book Worm" who has been throwing light into some of my reviews. I wonder whether he/she is a street-person? Seems to me that he/she is frustrated, divorced, semi-educated (with deplorable knowledge of history), overweight and, I am afraid, is a mad old coot. Looks he/she is a member of Aryan Brotherhood or Motherhood or whatever of the same ilk and portfolio. Had his/her reviews been hilarious or made fun of me I wouldn't have bothered to reply, but this is a replay of intense racism that is supposed to have waned in USA. Wonder if this creature had been a part of a conspiracy to murder Obama. Really, Amazon should review into the kind of riff-raff they would allow to express their stupidities in a public forum. Pathetic!

Great Overview - 2007-05-08
Reviewer Rating:
Used this book as a starter for Unix, already armed with basic knowledge and concepts this book helped me better understand the inner workings of UNIX.

Handy for the mixed-platform sysadmin - 2007-01-24
Reviewer Rating:
I spend most of my time administering linux systems, but also the occasional Solaris machine. Having this book is great for times like when I just can't remember the equivalent Solaris command for examining a print queue. 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. The information in it is consistently clear and accurate.

I recently bought this as a gift for a college graduate who was embarking on a sysadmin career, and it was very well-received.

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Operating Systems > UNIX
UNIX > Administration
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