UNIX System Administration Handbook, Third Edition

UNIX System Administration Handbook, Third Edition

by Scott Seebass, Garth Snyder, Evi Nemeth, Trent R. Hein
Released August 2000
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780137002740

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Book description

Now covers Red Hat Linux!

Written by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, and Trent R. Hein with Adam Boggs, Rob Braun, Ned McClain, Dan Crawl, Lynda McGinley, and Todd Miller

"This is not a nice, neat book for a nice, clean world. It's a nasty book for a nasty world. This is a book for the rest of us."
–Eric Allman and Marshall Kirk McKusick

"I am pleased to welcome Linux to the UNIX System Administration Handbook!"
–Linus Torvalds, Transmeta

"This book is most welcome!"
–Dennis Ritchie, AT&T Bell Laboratories

This new edition of the world's most comprehensive guide to UNIX system administration is an ideal tutorial for those new to administration and an invaluable reference for experienced professionals. The third edition has been expanded to include "direct from the frontlines" coverage of Red Hat Linux. UNIX System Administration Handbook describes every aspect of system administration–from basic topics to UNIX esoterica–and provides explicit coverage of four popular UNIX systems:

This book stresses a practical approach to system administration. It's packed with war stories and pragmatic advice, not just theory and watered-down restatements of the manuals. Difficult subjects such as sendmail, kernel building, and DNS configuration are tackled head-on. Examples are provided for all four versions of UNIX and are drawn from real-life systems–warts and all.

"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

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Foreword
  5. Foreword to the Second Edition
  6. Foreword to the First Edition
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Basic Administration
    1. Chapter 1 Where to Start
      1. Suggested background
      2. The sordid history of UNIX
      3. Example UNIX systems
      4. Notation and typographical conventions
      5. How to use your manuals
      6. Essential tasks of the system administrator
      7. How to find files on the Internet
      8. System administration under duress
      9. Recommended reading
    2. Chapter 2 Booting and Shutting Down
      1. Bootstrapping
      2. Booting PCs
      3. Booting in single-user mode
      4. Startup scripts
      5. Rebooting and shutting down
    3. Chapter 3 Rootly Powers
      1. Ownership of files and processes
      2. The superuser
      3. Choosing a root password
      4. Becoming root
      5. Other pseudo-users
    4. Chapter 4 Controlling Processes
      1. Components of a process
      2. The life cycle of a process
      3. Signals
      4. kill: send signals
      5. Process states
      6. nice and renice: influence scheduling priority
      7. ps: monitor processes
      8. top: monitor processes even better
      9. Runaway processes
    5. Chapter 5 The Filesystem
      1. Pathnames
      2. Mounting and unmounting filesystems
      3. The organization of the file tree
      4. File types
      5. File attributes
    6. Chapter 6 Adding New Users
      1. The /etc/passwd file
      2. The FreeBSD /etc/master.passwd file
      3. The FreeBSD /etc/login.conf file
      4. The Solaris and Red Hat /etc/shadow file
      5. The /etc/group file
      6. Adding users
      7. Removing users
      8. Disabling logins
      9. Vendor-supplied account management utilities
    7. Chapter 7 Serial Devices
      1. Serial standards
      2. Alternative connectors
      3. Hard and soft carrier
      4. Hardware flow control
      5. Cable length
      6. Serial device files
      7. Software configuration for serial devices
      8. Configuration of hardwired terminals
      9. Special characters and the terminal driver
      10. stty: set terminal options
      11. tset: set options automatically
      12. How to unwedge a terminal
      13. Modems
      14. Debugging a serial line
      15. Other common I/O ports
    8. Chapter 8 Adding a Disk
      1. Disk interfaces
      2. Disk geometry
      3. An overview of the disk installation procedure
      4. fsck: check and repair filesystems
      5. Vendor specifics
    9. Chapter 9 Periodic Processes
      1. cron: schedule commands
      2. The format of crontab files
      3. Crontab management
      4. Some common uses for cron
      5. Vendor specifics
    10. Chapter 10 Backups
      1. Motherhood and apple pie
      2. Backup devices and media
      3. Setting up an incremental backup regime
      4. Restoring from dumps
      5. Dumping and restoring for upgrades
      6. Using other archiving programs
      7. Using multiple files on a single tape
      8. Amanda
      9. Commercial backup products
      10. Recommended reading
    11. Chapter 11 Syslog and Log Files
      1. Logging policies
      2. Finding log files
      3. Files NOT to manage
      4. Vendor specifics
      5. Syslog: the system event logger
      6. Condensing log files to useful information
    12. Chapter 12 Drivers and the Kernel
      1. Kernel types
      2. Why configure the kernel?
      3. Configuring a Solaris kernel
      4. Building an HP-UX kernel
      5. Configuring a Linux kernel
      6. Building a FreeBSD kernel
      7. Creating a BSD configuration file
      8. Adding device drivers
      9. Device files
      10. Naming conventions for devices
      11. Loadable kernel modules
      12. Recommended reading
  10. Networking
    1. Chapter 13 TCP/IP Networking
      1. TCP/IP and the Internet
      2. Networking road map
      3. Packets and encapsulation
      4. IP addresses: the gory details
      5. Routing
      6. ARP: The address resolution protocol
      7. DHCP: the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
      8. PPP: the Point-to-Point Protocol
      9. Security issues
      10. Addition of machines to a network
      11. Vendor-specific network configuration
      12. Solaris network configuration
      13. HP-UX network configuration
      14. Network configuration for Red Hat
      15. Network configuration for FreeBSD
      16. Recommended reading
    2. Chapter 14 Routing
      1. Packet forwarding: a closer look
      2. Routing daemons and routing protocols
      3. Protocols on parade
      4. routed: RIP yourself a new hole
      5. gated: a better routing daemon
      6. Vendor specifics
      7. Routing strategy selection criteria
      8. Cisco routers
      9. Recommended reading
    3. Chapter 15 Network Hardware
      1. LAN, WAN, or MAN?
      2. Ethernet: the common LAN
      3. FDDI: the disappointing and expensive LAN
      4. ATM: the promised (but sorely defeated) LAN
      5. Frame relay: the sacrificial WAN
      6. ISDN: the indigenous WAN
      7. DSL: the people’s WAN
      8. Where is the network going?
      9. Network testing and debugging
      10. Building wiring
      11. Network design issues
      12. Management issues
      13. Recommended vendors
      14. Recommended reading
    4. Chapter 16 The Domain Name System
      1. DNS for the impatient: adding a new machine
      2. The history of DNS
      3. Who needs DNS?
      4. What’s new in DNS
      5. The DNS namespace
      6. The BIND software
      7. How DNS works
      8. BIND client issues
      9. BIND server configuration
      10. BIND configuration examples
      11. The DNS database
      12. Updating zone files
      13. Security issues
      14. Testing and debugging
      15. Loose ends
      16. Vendor specifics
      17. Recommended reading
    5. Chapter 17 The Network File System
      1. General information about NFS
      2. Server-side NFS
      3. Client-side NFS
      4. nfsstat: dump NFS statistics
      5. Dedicated NFS file servers
      6. Automatic mounting
      7. automount: the original automounter
      8. amd: a more sophisticated automounter
      9. Recommended reading
    6. Chapter 18 Sharing System Files
      1. What to share
      2. Copying files around
      3. NIS: the Network Information Service
      4. NIS+: son of NIS
      5. LDAP: the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
    7. Chapter 19 Electronic Mail
      1. Mail systems
      2. The anatomy of a mail message
      3. Mail philosophy
      4. Mail aliases
      5. sendmail: ringmaster of the electronic mail circus
      6. sendmail configuration
      7. Basic sendmail configuration primitives
      8. Fancier sendmail configuration primitives
      9. Configuration file examples
      10. Spam-related features in sendmail
      11. Security and sendmail
      12. sendmail statistics, testing, and debugging
      13. The Postfix mail system
      14. Recommended reading
    8. Chapter 20 Network Management and Debugging
      1. Troubleshooting a network
      2. ping: check to see if a host is alive
      3. traceroute: trace IP packets
      4. netstat: get tons o’ network statistics
      5. Packet sniffers
      6. Network management protocols
      7. SNMP: the Simple Network Management Protocol
      8. SNMP agents
      9. Network management applications
      10. Recommended reading
    9. Chapter 21 Security
      1. Seven common-sense rules of security
      2. How security is compromised
      3. Security problems in the /etc/passwd file
      4. Setuid programs
      5. Important file permissions
      6. Miscellaneous security issues
      7. Security power tools
      8. Cryptographic security tools
      9. Firewalls
      10. Sources of security information
      11. What to do when your site has been attacked
      12. Recommended reading
    10. Chapter 22 Web Hosting and Internet Servers
      1. Web hosting
      2. Web hosting basics
      3. HTTP server installation
      4. Virtual interfaces
      5. Caching and proxy servers
      6. Anonymous FTP server setup
      7. Usenet news
  11. Bunch O’ Stuff
    1. Chapter 23 Printing
      1. Mini-glossary of printing terms
      2. Types of printers
      3. BSD printing
      4. System V printing
      5. Adding a printer
      6. LPRng
      7. Debugging printing problems
      8. Common printing software
      9. Printer philosophy
    2. Chapter 24 Maintenance and Environment
      1. Maintenance basics
      2. Maintenance contracts
      3. Board-handling lore
      4. Monitors
      5. Memory modules
      6. Preventive maintenance
      7. Environment
      8. Power
      9. Racks
      10. Tools
    3. Chapter 25 Performance Analysis
      1. What you can do to improve performance
      2. Factors that affect performance
      3. System performance checkup
      4. Help! My system just got really slow!
      5. Recommended reading
    4. Chapter 26 Cooperating with Windows
      1. File and print sharing
      2. Secure terminal emulation with SSH
      3. X Windows emulators
      4. PC mail clients
      5. PC backups
      6. Dual booting
      7. Running Windows applications under UNIX
      8. PC hardware tips
    5. Chapter 27 Policy and Politics
      1. Policy and procedure
      2. Legal issues
      3. Sysadmin surveys
      4. Scope of service
      5. Trouble-reporting systems
      6. Managing management
      7. Hiring, firing, and training
      8. War stories and ethics
      9. Localization and upgrades
      10. Local documentation
      11. Procurement
      12. Decommissioning hardware
      13. Software patents
      14. Organizations, conferences, and other resources
      15. Standards
      16. Sample documents
      17. Recommended reading
    6. Chapter 28 Daemons
      1. init: the primordial process
      2. cron: schedule commands
      3. inetd: manage daemons
      4. System daemons
      5. Printing daemons
      6. NFS daemons
      7. NIS daemons
      8. Internet daemons
      9. Time synchronization daemons
      10. Booting and configuration daemons
  12. Colophon
  13. About the Authors
  14. Index

Product information

  • Title: UNIX System Administration Handbook, Third Edition
  • Author(s): Scott Seebass, Garth Snyder, Evi Nemeth, Trent R. Hein
  • Release date: August 2000
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780137002740