Whether you're new at it or a power user, these books will come in handy.
1. UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley:
Book Description: This book approaches system administration in a practical way and is an invaluable reference for both new administrators and experienced professionals. 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. UNIX® and Linux® System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition, reflects the current versions of these operating systems:
2. Essential System Administration, by Æleen Frisch:
Book Description: 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.
3. The Practice of System and Network Administration, by Thomas Limoncelli, Christina Hogan, Strata Chalup:
Book Description:The first edition of The Practice of System and Network Administration introduced a generation of system and network administrators to a modern IT methodology. Whether you use Linux, Unix, or Windows, this newly revised edition describes the essential practices previously handed down only from mentor to protégé. This wonderfully lucid, often funny cornucopia of information introduces beginners to advanced frameworks valuable for their entire career, yet is structured to help even the most advanced experts through difficult projects.
The book's four major sections build your knowledge with the foundational elements of system administration. These sections guide you through better techniques for upgrades and change management, catalog best practices for IT services, and explore various management topics. Chapters are divided into The Basics and The Icing. When you get the Basics right it makes every other aspect of the job easier--such as automating the right things first. The Icing sections contain all the powerful things that can be done on top of the basics to wow customers and managers.
Inside, you'll find advice on topics such as
- The key elements your networks and systems need in order to make all other services run better
- Building and running reliable, scalable services, including web, storage, email, printing, and remote access
-Creating and enforcing security policies
- Upgrading multiple hosts at one time without creating havoc
- Planning for and performing flawless scheduled maintenance windows
- Managing superior helpdesks and customer care
- Avoiding the "temporary fix" trap
- Building data centers that improve server uptime
- Designing networks for speed and reliability
- Web scaling and security issues
- Why building a backup system isn't about backups
- Monitoring what you have and predicting what you will need
- How technically oriented workers can maintain their job's technical focus (and avoid an unwanted management role)
- Technical management issues, including morale, organization building, coaching, and maintaining positive visibility
- Personal skill techniques, including secrets for getting more done each day, ethical dilemmas, managing your boss, and loving your job
- System administration salary negotiation
It's no wonder the first edition received Usenix SAGE's 2005 Outstanding Achievement Award!
This eagerly anticipated second edition updates this time-proven classic:
- Chapters reordered for easier navigation
- Thousands of updates and clarifications based on reader feedback
- Plus three entirely new chapters: Web Services, Data Storage, and Documentation
4. Pro Linux System Administration, by James Turnbull, Peter Lieverdink, Dennis Matotek
Book Description: We can all be Linux experts, provided we invest the time in learning the craft of Linux administration. Pro Linux System Administration makes it easy for small- to medium–sized businesses to enter the world of zero–cost software running on Linux and covers all the distros you might want to use, including Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. Authors, and systems infrastructure experts James Turnbull, Peter Lieverdink, and Dennis Matotek take a layered, component–based approach to open source business systems, while training system administrators as the builders of business infrastructure.
If you want to implement a SOHO or SMB Linux infrastructure, Pro Linux System Administration clearly demonstrates everything you need. You’ll find this book also provides a solid framework to move forward and expand your business and associated IT capabilities, and you’ll benefit from the expertise and experienced guidance of the authors. Pro Linux System Administration covers
- An introduction to using Linux and free and open source software to cheaply and efficiently manage your business
- A layered model that allows your infrastructure to grow with your business
- Easy and simple–to–understand instructions including configurations, examples, and extensive real–world hints and tips
What you’ll learn
- Linux architecture
- How to build, back up, and recover Linux servers
- Creating basic networks and network services with Linux
- Building and implementing Linux infrastructure and services including mail, web, databases, and file and print
- Implementing Linux security
- Understanding Linux performance and capacity planning issues
Who this book is for
This book is for small to medium–sized business owners looking to run their own IT, system administrators considering migrating to Linux, and IT systems integrators looking for an extensible Linux infrastructure management approach.
Table of Contents
- Introducing Linux
- Installing Linux
- Linux Basics
- Users and Groups
- Startup and Services
- Networking and Firewalls
- Package Management
- Storage Management and Disaster
Recovery
- Infrastructure Services: NTP, DNS, DHCP, and SSH
- Mail Services
- Web and SQL Services
- File and Print Sharing
- Backup and Recovery
- Networking with VPNs
- Collaborative Services
- Directory Services
- Performance Monitoring and Optimisation
- Logging and Monitoring
- Configuration Management
- Virtualisation
5. Linux System Administration, by Tom Adelstein, Bill Lubanovic
Book Description: If you're an experienced system administrator looking to acquire Linux skills, or a seasoned Linux user facing a new challenge, Linux System Administration offers practical knowledge for managing a complete range of Linux systems and servers. The book summarizes the steps you need to build everything from standalone Soho hubs, web servers, and Lan servers to load-balanced clusters and servers consolidated through virtualization. Along the way, you'll learn about all of the tools you need to set up and maintain these working environments.
Linux is now a standard corporate platform with users numbering in the hundreds of millions, and there is a definite shortage of talented administrators. Linux System Administration is ideal as an introduction to Linux for Unix veterans, Mcses, and mainframe administrators, and as an advanced (and refresher) guide for existing Linux administrators who will want to jump into the middle of the book. Inside, you'll learn how to:
- Set up a stand-alone Linux server
- Install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot a Dns server using Bind
- Build an Internet server to manage sites, perform email and file transfers, and more
- Set up an email service for a small-to-medium-sized site, complete with authentication
- Install and configure Apache, Php, and MySql on a web server built from scratch
- Combine computers into a load-balanced Apache web server cluster based on the free Linux Virtual Server
- Set up local network services from distributed file systems to Dhcp services, gateway services, print services, user management and more
- Use Linux virtualization with Xen or Vmware to run multiple kernels on one piece of hardware; manage each kernel's access to processor time, devices, and memory
- Create shell scripts and adapt them for your own ne
6. Automating System Administration with Perl, by David N. Blank-Edelman
Book Description: If you do systems administration work of any kind, you have to deal with the growing complexity of your environment and increasing demands on your time. Automating System Administration with Perl, Second Edition, not only offers you the right tools for your job, but also suggests the best way to approach specific problems and to securely automate recurring tasks. Updated and expanded to cover the latest operating systems, technologies, and Perl modules, this edition of the "Otter Book" will help you:
- Manage user accounts
- Monitor filesystems and processes
- Work with configuration files in important formats such as XML and YAML
- Administer databases, including MySQL, MS-SQL, and Oracle with DBI
- Work with directory services like LDAP and Active Directory
- Script email protocols and spam control
- Effectively create, handle, and analyze log files Administer network name and configuration services, including NIS, DNS and DHCP
- Maintain, monitor, and map network services, using technologies and tools such as SNMP, nmap, libpcap, GraphViz and RRDtool
- Improve filesystem, process, and network security
This edition includes additional appendixes to get you up to speed on technologies such as XML/XPath, LDAP, SNMP, and SQL. With this book in hand and Perl in your toolbox, you can do more with less--fewer resources, less effort, and far less hassle.
7. The Visible Ops Handbook, by Kevin Behr, Gene Kim, George Spafford
Book Description: The Core of Visible Ops Visible Ops is a methodology designed to jumpstart implementation of controls and process improvement in IT organizations needing to increase service levels, security, and auditability while managing costs. Visible Ops is comprised of four prescriptive and self-fueling steps that take an organization from any starting point to a continually improving process. Making ITIL Actionable Although the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a wealth of best practices, it lacks prescriptive guidance: What do you implement first, and how do you do it? Moreover, the ITIL books remain relatively expensive to distribute. Other information, publicly available from a variety of sources, is too general and vague to effectively aid organizations that need to start or enhance process improvement efforts. The Visible Ops booklet provides a prescriptive roadmap for organizations beginning or continuing their IT process improvement journey. Why Do You Need Visible Ops? The Visible Ops methodology was developed because there was not a satisfactory answer to the question: “I believe in the need for IT process improvement, but where do I start?” Since 2000, Gene Kim and Kevin Behr have met with hundreds of IT organizations and identified eight high-performing IT organizations with the highest service levels, best security, and best efficiencies. For years, they studied these high-performing organizations to figure out the secrets to their success. Visible Ops codifies how these organizations achieved their transformation from good to great, showing how interested organizations can replicate the key processes of these high-performing organizations in just four steps: 1. Stabilize Patient, Modify First Response – Almost 80% of outages are self-inflicted. The first step is to control risky changes and reduce MTTR by addressing how changes are managed and how problems are resolved. 2. Catch and Release, Find Fragile Artifacts – Often, infrastructure exists that cannot be repeatedly replicated. In this step, we inventory assets, configurations and services, to identify those with the lowest change success rates, highest MTTR and highest business downtime costs. 3. Establish Repeatable Build Library – The highest return on investment is implementing effective release management processes. This step creates repeatable builds for the most critical assets and services, to make it “cheaper to rebuild than to repair.” 4. Enable Continuous Improvement – The previous steps have progressively built a closed-loop between the Release, Control and Resolution processes. This step implements metrics to allow continuous improvement of all of these process areas, to best ensure that business objectives are met.
8. Automating Linux and Unix System Administration, by Nathan Campi, Kirk Bauer
Book Description: Whether you need a network of ten Linux PCs and a server or a data center with a few thousand UNIX nodes, you need to know how to automate much of the installation, configuration, and standard system administration.
Build your network once using cfengine, and the network build will work, without user intervention, on any hardware you prefer. Automating Linux and Unix System Administration, Second Edition is unique in its focus on how to make the system administrator’s job easier and more efficient: instead of just managing the system administrator’s time, the book explains the technology to automate repetitive tasks and the methodology to automate successfully.
- Both new and seasoned professionals will profit from industry–leading insights into the automation process.
- System administrators will attain a thorough grasp of cfengine, kickstart, and shell scripting for automation.
- After reading all chapters and following all exercises in this book, the reader will be able to set up anything from a Linux data center to a small office network.
What you’ll learn
See how to make changes on many UNIX and Linux hosts at once in a reliable and repeatable manner.
- Learn how to automate things correctly so you only have to do it once, by leveraging the authors’ experience in setting up small, medium, and large networks.
- Set up a Linux data center or a network correctly.
- Explore handling real–world environments where not all hosts are configured alike via a case study of a fictional new data center build-out.
- Examine real–world examples for core infrastructure services (DNS, mail, monitoring, log analysis, security, cfengine, imaging) to build on in your environment.
- Understand core system administration best practices, which are a key part of how cfengine and automations deployments are outlined in the book.
- Learn how to make changes reversible, repeatable, and correct the first time through interaction with product/application stakeholders (programmers, product managers, customers, etc.).
Who this book is for
This book is for Linux system administrators who want to learn about the software and methodology to automate repetitive tasks—regardless of network or data center size—in one place. System managers will also find it much easier to think about network technology and automation projects if they read this book. This book is also for anyone who is interested in repeatable and secure infrastructure.
9. Python for Unix and Linux System Administration, by Noah Gift, Jeremy Jones
Book Description: Python is an ideal language for solving problems, especially in Linux and Unix networks. With this pragmatic book, administrators can review various tasks that often occur in the management of these systems, and learn how Python can provide a more efficient and less painful way to handle them. Each chapter in Python for Unix and Linux System Administration presents a particular administrative issue, such as concurrency or data backup, and presents Python solutions through hands-on examples. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to develop your own set of command-line utilities with Python to tackle a wide range of problems. Discover how this language can help you: Read text files and extract information Run tasks concurrently using the threading and forking options Get information from one process to another using network facilities Create clickable Guis to handle large and complex utilities Monitor large clusters of machines by interacting with Snmp programmatically Master the Ipython Interactive Python shell to replace or augment Bash, Korn, or Z-Shell Integrate Cloud Computing into your infrastructure, and learn to write a Google App Engine Application Solve unique data backup challenges with customized scripts Interact with MySql, Sqlite, Oracle, Postgres, Django Orm, and Sqlalchemy With this book, you'll learn how to package and deploy your Python applications and libraries, and write code that runs equally well on multiple Unix platforms. You'll also learn about several Python-related technologies that will make your life much easier.
10. Linux Firewalls, by Michael Rash
Book Description: System administrators need to stay ahead of new security vulnerabilities that leave their networks exposed every day. A firewall and an intrusion detection systems (IDS) are two important weapons in that fight, enabling you to proactively deny access and monitor network traffic for signs of an attack.
Linux Firewalls discusses the technical details of the iptables firewall and the Netfilter framework that are built into the Linux kernel, and it explains how they provide strong filtering, Network Address Translation (NAT), state tracking, and application layer inspection capabilities that rival many commercial tools. You'll learn how to deploy iptables as an IDS with psad and fwsnort and how to build a strong, passive authentication layer around iptables with fwknop.
Concrete examples illustrate concepts such as firewall log analysis and policies, passive network authentication and authorisation, exploit packet traces, Snort ruleset emulation, and more with coverage of these topics:
- Passive network authentication and OS fingerprinting
- iptables log analysis and policies
- Application layer attack detection with the iptables string match extension
- Building an iptables ruleset that emulates a Snort ruleset
- Port knocking vs. Single Packet Authorization (SPA)
- Tools for visualising iptables logs
Perl and C code snippets offer practical examples that will help you to maximize your deployment of Linux firewalls. If you're responsible for keeping a network secure, you'll find Linux Firewalls invaluable in your attempt to understand attacks and use iptables-along with psad and fwsnort-to detect and even prevent compromises.
Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill
System administration is one of the most essential task of Linux. You realise the operating system's true power only after you gain command over this aspect. There are some books that are especially useful for this purpose. These 10 books may not be free, but they have been praised by many Linux power users. |
1. UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Ben Whaley:
Book Description: This book approaches system administration in a practical way and is an invaluable reference for both new administrators and experienced professionals. 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. UNIX® and Linux® System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition, reflects the current versions of these operating systems:
2. Essential System Administration, by Æleen Frisch:
Book Description: 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.
3. The Practice of System and Network Administration, by Thomas Limoncelli, Christina Hogan, Strata Chalup:
Book Description:The first edition of The Practice of System and Network Administration introduced a generation of system and network administrators to a modern IT methodology. Whether you use Linux, Unix, or Windows, this newly revised edition describes the essential practices previously handed down only from mentor to protégé. This wonderfully lucid, often funny cornucopia of information introduces beginners to advanced frameworks valuable for their entire career, yet is structured to help even the most advanced experts through difficult projects.
The book's four major sections build your knowledge with the foundational elements of system administration. These sections guide you through better techniques for upgrades and change management, catalog best practices for IT services, and explore various management topics. Chapters are divided into The Basics and The Icing. When you get the Basics right it makes every other aspect of the job easier--such as automating the right things first. The Icing sections contain all the powerful things that can be done on top of the basics to wow customers and managers.
Inside, you'll find advice on topics such as
- The key elements your networks and systems need in order to make all other services run better
- Building and running reliable, scalable services, including web, storage, email, printing, and remote access
-Creating and enforcing security policies
- Upgrading multiple hosts at one time without creating havoc
- Planning for and performing flawless scheduled maintenance windows
- Managing superior helpdesks and customer care
- Avoiding the "temporary fix" trap
- Building data centers that improve server uptime
- Designing networks for speed and reliability
- Web scaling and security issues
- Why building a backup system isn't about backups
- Monitoring what you have and predicting what you will need
- How technically oriented workers can maintain their job's technical focus (and avoid an unwanted management role)
- Technical management issues, including morale, organization building, coaching, and maintaining positive visibility
- Personal skill techniques, including secrets for getting more done each day, ethical dilemmas, managing your boss, and loving your job
- System administration salary negotiation
It's no wonder the first edition received Usenix SAGE's 2005 Outstanding Achievement Award!
This eagerly anticipated second edition updates this time-proven classic:
- Chapters reordered for easier navigation
- Thousands of updates and clarifications based on reader feedback
- Plus three entirely new chapters: Web Services, Data Storage, and Documentation
4. Pro Linux System Administration, by James Turnbull, Peter Lieverdink, Dennis Matotek
Book Description: We can all be Linux experts, provided we invest the time in learning the craft of Linux administration. Pro Linux System Administration makes it easy for small- to medium–sized businesses to enter the world of zero–cost software running on Linux and covers all the distros you might want to use, including Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. Authors, and systems infrastructure experts James Turnbull, Peter Lieverdink, and Dennis Matotek take a layered, component–based approach to open source business systems, while training system administrators as the builders of business infrastructure.
If you want to implement a SOHO or SMB Linux infrastructure, Pro Linux System Administration clearly demonstrates everything you need. You’ll find this book also provides a solid framework to move forward and expand your business and associated IT capabilities, and you’ll benefit from the expertise and experienced guidance of the authors. Pro Linux System Administration covers
- An introduction to using Linux and free and open source software to cheaply and efficiently manage your business
- A layered model that allows your infrastructure to grow with your business
- Easy and simple–to–understand instructions including configurations, examples, and extensive real–world hints and tips
What you’ll learn
- Linux architecture
- How to build, back up, and recover Linux servers
- Creating basic networks and network services with Linux
- Building and implementing Linux infrastructure and services including mail, web, databases, and file and print
- Implementing Linux security
- Understanding Linux performance and capacity planning issues
Who this book is for
This book is for small to medium–sized business owners looking to run their own IT, system administrators considering migrating to Linux, and IT systems integrators looking for an extensible Linux infrastructure management approach.
Table of Contents
- Introducing Linux
- Installing Linux
- Linux Basics
- Users and Groups
- Startup and Services
- Networking and Firewalls
- Package Management
- Storage Management and Disaster
Recovery
- Infrastructure Services: NTP, DNS, DHCP, and SSH
- Mail Services
- Web and SQL Services
- File and Print Sharing
- Backup and Recovery
- Networking with VPNs
- Collaborative Services
- Directory Services
- Performance Monitoring and Optimisation
- Logging and Monitoring
- Configuration Management
- Virtualisation
5. Linux System Administration, by Tom Adelstein, Bill Lubanovic
Book Description: If you're an experienced system administrator looking to acquire Linux skills, or a seasoned Linux user facing a new challenge, Linux System Administration offers practical knowledge for managing a complete range of Linux systems and servers. The book summarizes the steps you need to build everything from standalone Soho hubs, web servers, and Lan servers to load-balanced clusters and servers consolidated through virtualization. Along the way, you'll learn about all of the tools you need to set up and maintain these working environments.
Linux is now a standard corporate platform with users numbering in the hundreds of millions, and there is a definite shortage of talented administrators. Linux System Administration is ideal as an introduction to Linux for Unix veterans, Mcses, and mainframe administrators, and as an advanced (and refresher) guide for existing Linux administrators who will want to jump into the middle of the book. Inside, you'll learn how to:
- Set up a stand-alone Linux server
- Install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot a Dns server using Bind
- Build an Internet server to manage sites, perform email and file transfers, and more
- Set up an email service for a small-to-medium-sized site, complete with authentication
- Install and configure Apache, Php, and MySql on a web server built from scratch
- Combine computers into a load-balanced Apache web server cluster based on the free Linux Virtual Server
- Set up local network services from distributed file systems to Dhcp services, gateway services, print services, user management and more
- Use Linux virtualization with Xen or Vmware to run multiple kernels on one piece of hardware; manage each kernel's access to processor time, devices, and memory
- Create shell scripts and adapt them for your own ne
6. Automating System Administration with Perl, by David N. Blank-Edelman
Book Description: If you do systems administration work of any kind, you have to deal with the growing complexity of your environment and increasing demands on your time. Automating System Administration with Perl, Second Edition, not only offers you the right tools for your job, but also suggests the best way to approach specific problems and to securely automate recurring tasks. Updated and expanded to cover the latest operating systems, technologies, and Perl modules, this edition of the "Otter Book" will help you:
- Manage user accounts
- Monitor filesystems and processes
- Work with configuration files in important formats such as XML and YAML
- Administer databases, including MySQL, MS-SQL, and Oracle with DBI
- Work with directory services like LDAP and Active Directory
- Script email protocols and spam control
- Effectively create, handle, and analyze log files Administer network name and configuration services, including NIS, DNS and DHCP
- Maintain, monitor, and map network services, using technologies and tools such as SNMP, nmap, libpcap, GraphViz and RRDtool
- Improve filesystem, process, and network security
This edition includes additional appendixes to get you up to speed on technologies such as XML/XPath, LDAP, SNMP, and SQL. With this book in hand and Perl in your toolbox, you can do more with less--fewer resources, less effort, and far less hassle.
7. The Visible Ops Handbook, by Kevin Behr, Gene Kim, George Spafford
Book Description: The Core of Visible Ops Visible Ops is a methodology designed to jumpstart implementation of controls and process improvement in IT organizations needing to increase service levels, security, and auditability while managing costs. Visible Ops is comprised of four prescriptive and self-fueling steps that take an organization from any starting point to a continually improving process. Making ITIL Actionable Although the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a wealth of best practices, it lacks prescriptive guidance: What do you implement first, and how do you do it? Moreover, the ITIL books remain relatively expensive to distribute. Other information, publicly available from a variety of sources, is too general and vague to effectively aid organizations that need to start or enhance process improvement efforts. The Visible Ops booklet provides a prescriptive roadmap for organizations beginning or continuing their IT process improvement journey. Why Do You Need Visible Ops? The Visible Ops methodology was developed because there was not a satisfactory answer to the question: “I believe in the need for IT process improvement, but where do I start?” Since 2000, Gene Kim and Kevin Behr have met with hundreds of IT organizations and identified eight high-performing IT organizations with the highest service levels, best security, and best efficiencies. For years, they studied these high-performing organizations to figure out the secrets to their success. Visible Ops codifies how these organizations achieved their transformation from good to great, showing how interested organizations can replicate the key processes of these high-performing organizations in just four steps: 1. Stabilize Patient, Modify First Response – Almost 80% of outages are self-inflicted. The first step is to control risky changes and reduce MTTR by addressing how changes are managed and how problems are resolved. 2. Catch and Release, Find Fragile Artifacts – Often, infrastructure exists that cannot be repeatedly replicated. In this step, we inventory assets, configurations and services, to identify those with the lowest change success rates, highest MTTR and highest business downtime costs. 3. Establish Repeatable Build Library – The highest return on investment is implementing effective release management processes. This step creates repeatable builds for the most critical assets and services, to make it “cheaper to rebuild than to repair.” 4. Enable Continuous Improvement – The previous steps have progressively built a closed-loop between the Release, Control and Resolution processes. This step implements metrics to allow continuous improvement of all of these process areas, to best ensure that business objectives are met.
8. Automating Linux and Unix System Administration, by Nathan Campi, Kirk Bauer
Book Description: Whether you need a network of ten Linux PCs and a server or a data center with a few thousand UNIX nodes, you need to know how to automate much of the installation, configuration, and standard system administration.
Build your network once using cfengine, and the network build will work, without user intervention, on any hardware you prefer. Automating Linux and Unix System Administration, Second Edition is unique in its focus on how to make the system administrator’s job easier and more efficient: instead of just managing the system administrator’s time, the book explains the technology to automate repetitive tasks and the methodology to automate successfully.
- Both new and seasoned professionals will profit from industry–leading insights into the automation process.
- System administrators will attain a thorough grasp of cfengine, kickstart, and shell scripting for automation.
- After reading all chapters and following all exercises in this book, the reader will be able to set up anything from a Linux data center to a small office network.
What you’ll learn
See how to make changes on many UNIX and Linux hosts at once in a reliable and repeatable manner.
- Learn how to automate things correctly so you only have to do it once, by leveraging the authors’ experience in setting up small, medium, and large networks.
- Set up a Linux data center or a network correctly.
- Explore handling real–world environments where not all hosts are configured alike via a case study of a fictional new data center build-out.
- Examine real–world examples for core infrastructure services (DNS, mail, monitoring, log analysis, security, cfengine, imaging) to build on in your environment.
- Understand core system administration best practices, which are a key part of how cfengine and automations deployments are outlined in the book.
- Learn how to make changes reversible, repeatable, and correct the first time through interaction with product/application stakeholders (programmers, product managers, customers, etc.).
Who this book is for
This book is for Linux system administrators who want to learn about the software and methodology to automate repetitive tasks—regardless of network or data center size—in one place. System managers will also find it much easier to think about network technology and automation projects if they read this book. This book is also for anyone who is interested in repeatable and secure infrastructure.
9. Python for Unix and Linux System Administration, by Noah Gift, Jeremy Jones
Book Description: Python is an ideal language for solving problems, especially in Linux and Unix networks. With this pragmatic book, administrators can review various tasks that often occur in the management of these systems, and learn how Python can provide a more efficient and less painful way to handle them. Each chapter in Python for Unix and Linux System Administration presents a particular administrative issue, such as concurrency or data backup, and presents Python solutions through hands-on examples. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to develop your own set of command-line utilities with Python to tackle a wide range of problems. Discover how this language can help you: Read text files and extract information Run tasks concurrently using the threading and forking options Get information from one process to another using network facilities Create clickable Guis to handle large and complex utilities Monitor large clusters of machines by interacting with Snmp programmatically Master the Ipython Interactive Python shell to replace or augment Bash, Korn, or Z-Shell Integrate Cloud Computing into your infrastructure, and learn to write a Google App Engine Application Solve unique data backup challenges with customized scripts Interact with MySql, Sqlite, Oracle, Postgres, Django Orm, and Sqlalchemy With this book, you'll learn how to package and deploy your Python applications and libraries, and write code that runs equally well on multiple Unix platforms. You'll also learn about several Python-related technologies that will make your life much easier.
10. Linux Firewalls, by Michael Rash
Book Description: System administrators need to stay ahead of new security vulnerabilities that leave their networks exposed every day. A firewall and an intrusion detection systems (IDS) are two important weapons in that fight, enabling you to proactively deny access and monitor network traffic for signs of an attack.
Linux Firewalls discusses the technical details of the iptables firewall and the Netfilter framework that are built into the Linux kernel, and it explains how they provide strong filtering, Network Address Translation (NAT), state tracking, and application layer inspection capabilities that rival many commercial tools. You'll learn how to deploy iptables as an IDS with psad and fwsnort and how to build a strong, passive authentication layer around iptables with fwknop.
Concrete examples illustrate concepts such as firewall log analysis and policies, passive network authentication and authorisation, exploit packet traces, Snort ruleset emulation, and more with coverage of these topics:
- Passive network authentication and OS fingerprinting
- iptables log analysis and policies
- Application layer attack detection with the iptables string match extension
- Building an iptables ruleset that emulates a Snort ruleset
- Port knocking vs. Single Packet Authorization (SPA)
- Tools for visualising iptables logs
Perl and C code snippets offer practical examples that will help you to maximize your deployment of Linux firewalls. If you're responsible for keeping a network secure, you'll find Linux Firewalls invaluable in your attempt to understand attacks and use iptables-along with psad and fwsnort-to detect and even prevent compromises.
Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill
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