reviews/linux_comp_sysadmin.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page title="Linux Companion for System Administrators" keywords="">
<item>
<p>Author: Jochen Hein</p>
<p>ISBN: <isbn>0-201-67525-0</isbn></p>
<p>Publisher: Addison-Wesley</p>
<p>Reviewed by: Roger Burton-West</p>
</item><item>
<p>
Linux Companion for System Administrators (second edition): Jochen Hein,
Addison-Wesley, 0-201-67525-0, 574pp (softcover)
</p><p>
The Linux Companion is positioned, according to the back cover, for
"anyone who wants to get more out of their Linux box"; and "will help
the experienced Linux user attain a more efficient level of system
administration". However, in practice it seems to be aimed much more at
the beginning Linux user; in general, only one way of performing any
given task is covered in detail, with only the briefest mention of
alternatives that might be more effective in particular situations.
</p><p>
The book opens with a quick review of Linux distributions, mentioning
only the positive points of each. It continues with a chapter on the
layout of files on a Linux system (with side notes on RAID, deletion of
temporary files, and man page categories); these are all things with
which the experienced Linux user will already be familiar, but which
could well be useful to a novice. Next is an analysis of the Linux boot
process, with notes on LILO configuration as well as a brief discussion
of other boot loaders.
</p><p>
After this, there is no particularly clear progression of topics; this
is a book to be used as a reference for a particular situation, not to
be read through. There are chapters on the X window system, backups,
Emacs (which the author favours), localisation, text processing tools,
emulators, shell use, and then a slew of network-related material. Much
of this is at a very introductory level - "this is what a domain name
is", "this is what inetd does", and so on. While this is adequate for
normal configuration and operation, it does not give sufficient
information to be of use when troubleshooting. There are also some
surprising omissions: Emacs gets a substantial chapter, but vi is barely
mentioned. The programming tools chapter quite reasonably advocates the
use of a revision control system for all changing files, configuration
files as well as program code; but it goes into detail only on the
workings of rcs, rather than the very much more common cvs.
</p><p>
The networking chapters are the meat of the book. After an introductory
section (Ethernet cabling, how IP addresses work and how to configure
interfaces), a series of chapters deals with network protocols in broad
groups. Telnet is mentioned and deprecated in favour of ssh; however,
the r tools (rsh, rcp and so on) are covered in some detail with little
mention of the major security risks they carry with them. Similarly, NFS
is described, but while the drawbacks of attempting file locking are
described, no mention is made of the many problems of privacy and
security that NFS introduces. The only anonymous ftp server described in
detail is wu-ftpd, again with no mention of its security problems (or
the existence of sftp). NetWare support and Samba are touched on very
briefly, both client- and server-side; DNS is mentioned in more detail
(bind8 only), but again does not mention precautions such as chroot use.
(One wonders how many Linux administrators will need to run DNS servers,
compared with web or email servers - which are not mentioned at all in
this book.)
</p><p>
Overall, this book tries to do too much: while being agnostic as to
distribution, it attempts to give an introduction to all the standard
Linux programs and services. This is not achieved, due to the lack of
comment on web services and some others (smtp, ntp, openssl for https
and other services, ssh extensions); meanwhile, the attempt to do so
means that even in this substantial volume very little coverage can be
given to each section. The information starts with the basics and rarely
gets beyond this level; this would be a reasonable book to accompany a
system installation guide for a new Linux user, but it is certainly not
for "the experienced Linux user".
</p><p>
The first edition of this book was published in 1996, when Linux was
much less widely-known than it is now and security was perhaps less of a
concern. This unfortunately shows; there is very little mention of the
security implication of running particular services, and no suggestion
(odd in a book for system administrators) that the system needs to be
kept up to date with bug-fixes.
</p><p>
The book was written in German, and while the translation is good, it is
stilted at times; however, this does not detract from the value of the
book, nor does it render technical points unclear.
</p><p>
In summary, this book would find its place on a novice user's shelves;
it would be supplemented by a security guidebook and introductions to
firewall, web and email server configuration. For the more experienced
user, it could serve as an introduction to some of the less well-known
functions of a standard Linux system, but it will not be of assistance
in areas with which the user is already familiar.
</p>
</item>
</page>
reviews/linux_comp_sysadmin.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page title="Linux Companion for System Administrators" keywords="">
<item>
<p>Author: Jochen Hein</p>
<p>ISBN: <isbn>0-201-67525-0</isbn></p>
<p>Publisher: Addison-Wesley</p>
<p>Reviewed by: Roger Burton-West</p>
</item><item>
<p>
Linux Companion for System Administrators (second edition): Jochen Hein,
Addison-Wesley, 0-201-67525-0, 574pp (softcover)
</p><p>
The Linux Companion is positioned, according to the back cover, for
"anyone who wants to get more out of their Linux box"; and "will help
the experienced Linux user attain a more efficient level of system
administration". However, in practice it seems to be aimed much more at
the beginning Linux user; in general, only one way of performing any
given task is covered in detail, with only the briefest mention of
alternatives that might be more effective in particular situations.
</p><p>
The book opens with a quick review of Linux distributions, mentioning
only the positive points of each. It continues with a chapter on the
layout of files on a Linux system (with side notes on RAID, deletion of
temporary files, and man page categories); these are all things with
which the experienced Linux user will already be familiar, but which
could well be useful to a novice. Next is an analysis of the Linux boot
process, with notes on LILO configuration as well as a brief discussion
of other boot loaders.
</p><p>
After this, there is no particularly clear progression of topics; this
is a book to be used as a reference for a particular situation, not to
be read through. There are chapters on the X window system, backups,
Emacs (which the author favours), localisation, text processing tools,
emulators, shell use, and then a slew of network-related material. Much
of this is at a very introductory level - "this is what a domain name
is", "this is what inetd does", and so on. While this is adequate for
normal configuration and operation, it does not give sufficient
information to be of use when troubleshooting. There are also some
surprising omissions: Emacs gets a substantial chapter, but vi is barely
mentioned. The programming tools chapter quite reasonably advocates the
use of a revision control system for all changing files, configuration
files as well as program code; but it goes into detail only on the
workings of rcs, rather than the very much more common cvs.
</p><p>
The networking chapters are the meat of the book. After an introductory
section (Ethernet cabling, how IP addresses work and how to configure
interfaces), a series of chapters deals with network protocols in broad
groups. Telnet is mentioned and deprecated in favour of ssh; however,
the r tools (rsh, rcp and so on) are covered in some detail with little
mention of the major security risks they carry with them. Similarly, NFS
is described, but while the drawbacks of attempting file locking are
described, no mention is made of the many problems of privacy and
security that NFS introduces. The only anonymous ftp server described in
detail is wu-ftpd, again with no mention of its security problems (or
the existence of sftp). NetWare support and Samba are touched on very
briefly, both client- and server-side; DNS is mentioned in more detail
(bind8 only), but again does not mention precautions such as chroot use.
(One wonders how many Linux administrators will need to run DNS servers,
compared with web or email servers - which are not mentioned at all in
this book.)
</p><p>
Overall, this book tries to do too much: while being agnostic as to
distribution, it attempts to give an introduction to all the standard
Linux programs and services. This is not achieved, due to the lack of
comment on web services and some others (smtp, ntp, openssl for https
and other services, ssh extensions); meanwhile, the attempt to do so
means that even in this substantial volume very little coverage can be
given to each section. The information starts with the basics and rarely
gets beyond this level; this would be a reasonable book to accompany a
system installation guide for a new Linux user, but it is certainly not
for "the experienced Linux user".
</p><p>
The first edition of this book was published in 1996, when Linux was
much less widely-known than it is now and security was perhaps less of a
concern. This unfortunately shows; there is very little mention of the
security implication of running particular services, and no suggestion
(odd in a book for system administrators) that the system needs to be
kept up to date with bug-fixes.
</p><p>
The book was written in German, and while the translation is good, it is
stilted at times; however, this does not detract from the value of the
book, nor does it render technical points unclear.
</p><p>
In summary, this book would find its place on a novice user's shelves;
it would be supplemented by a security guidebook and introductions to
firewall, web and email server configuration. For the more experienced
user, it could serve as an introduction to some of the less well-known
functions of a standard Linux system, but it will not be of assistance
in areas with which the user is already familiar.
</p>
</item>
</page>