Principles of Network and System Administration

Burgess approaches both network and system administration from the perspective of principles and ideas which do not change on a day-to-day basis.

A great deal of attention is paid to the heuristics of system and network administration; technical and sociological issues are taken into account equally and are presented thoughtfully with an eye to teaching not what to do as a system or network administrator, but how to think about problems that arise in practice. As a result, the author keeps the reader looking forward to what comes next and how to implement what he or she has learned.

The focus is on strategic issues, how to keep systems maintainable and how to manage configuration files across an enterprise. During the 80s and most of the 90s the frontiers of system administration were about understanding what the job entailed and building tools in order to manage networks more efficiently. The next phase is about standardization of management and practice, making system administration more formal and less ad hoc, and Burgess' book is one of the first to begin to push into this area.

Preface to Second Edition.

1. Introduction.

2. System Components.

3. Networked Communities.

4. Host Management.

5. User Management

6. Models of Network and System Administration.

7. Configuration and Maintenance.

8. Diagnostics, Fault and Change Management.

9. Application Level Services.

10. Network Level Services.

11. Principles of Security.

12. Security Implications.

13. Analytical System Administration.

14. Summary and Outlook.

A. Some Useful Unix Commands.

B. Programming and Compiling.

C. Example Telnet Session.

D. Glossary.

E. Recommended Reading.

Bibliography.

Index.

MARK BURGESS is associate professor at Oslo University College, Norway, and a member of SAGE, USENIX and the IEEE. He is an internationally respected scientist both in Computer Science and the Theoretical Physics and has won various prizes for his work on Computer Immunology and GNU cfengine. He was recently awarded The SAGE 2003 Professional Contribution Award, "For groundbreaking work in systems administration theory and individual contributions to the field". Principles of Network and System Administration focuses on the general principles involved in setting up, configuring and maintaining computer communities, and provides a conceptual overview of the subject. A robust discipline of System Administration is now coming of age and both academics and industry recognize the need to formalize the problems which system administrators tackle. Amongst these challenges are the need to design a network which is logical, efficient, easy to upgrade and secure. The system administrator also needs to keep track of the ever increasing amount of information, to ensure that problems are fixed quickly, and provide a comfortable environment for users. The breadth and complexity involved in adopting and integrating ever more sophisticated technology is covered in this greatly expanded new edition.

Whilst providing practical illustrations of technical specifics through examples, Burgess steers away from the overwhelming details of specific operating systems. Trainee administrators and students alike need to understand a wealth of issues relating to heterogeneous environments before understanding the quirks of any one particular system. Moreover this book teaches good practice for working in a global community of networked machines and organizations ? which extends beyond being technically savvy to being professionally and ethically responsible.

• Broad coverage of Linux and other Unix versions, Windows, Macs and mainframes.
• Practical - supplemented with reference section containing practical recipes and advice.
• Vendor/Platform independent view of the technical, theoretical, practical and social/ethical aspects to Systems Administration.
• Strong pedagogy - end of chapter exercises plus teaching guide available from Website.

• More exercises
• Security expanded; now covers ISO 17799; fault analysis and diagnostics
• Covers Java services and Ipv6