The Admin Library

[Steve Simmons]

In article <490 at nitrex.UUCP> leyser at nitrex.UUCP (Jeff Leyser) writes:
>   So there you are, the best darn administrator your boss has ever seen.
>   What books are sitting on, above, or near your desk?  What makes up the
>   "definative" Sys. Admin. library?

Time to post this again . . .

This is an irregular repost of my list of generally available documentation
on administering UNIX systems.  If someone is already doing this as a
general service, you have my apologies for treading on your toes.  If
not, I'll happily take up the task of keeper of the list and will
re-post it regularly to c.u.admin and c.u.large.

Editiorial opinions and reviews are my own unless otherwise noted.

Last update: Sat Oct 27 10:48:11 EDT 1990

Papers:

The USENIX Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conferences
are held annually.  Their proceedings are available from the USENIX
Association, 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 215, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA.
Available proceedings are:

   LISA IV (1990, Colorado Springs, CO)	$15.00 Usenix members
					$18.00 Nonmembers
   LISA III (1989, Austin, TX)		$13.00 (same price both)
   LISA II (1988, Monterey, CA)		$ 8.00 (same price both)
   LISA I (1987, Philadelphia, PA)	$ 4.00 (same price both)

The papers are of varying quality, but there are definate jewels in each
proceedings.  An excellent sourcebook for freely available tools, too.



Books:

Books are listed with title, author, date of publication, ISBN number,
and length.  I don't give prices, as they change over time.  Any
bookstore can order this books by ISBN number.  Reviews are my own
capsules based on actually reading the book and/or other reviewers.
Any publishers who want to send me books for review, please do.  I
also gladly accept reviews from independant sources.  Try to keep it
to 30 lines or less.


"UNIX For Super-Users" by Eric Foxley.  Addison-Wesley, 1985, ISBN
0-201-14228-7.  213 pp.  Still in print as of Oct 1, 1990.  Some
good basics, now somewhat dated.  The first book written on the topic.

"UNIX Administration Guide For System V", by Rebecca Thomas and
Rik Farrow.  Prentice-Hall, 1989, ISBN 0-13-942889-5.  636 pp.
*The* book to have if you've got System V.  Particularly good for
standalone systems.  May be tedious for the experienced UNIX user
or admin.  Very little on networking, see Nemeth/Snyder/Seebass.

"UNIX System Administration Handbook", by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder
and Scott Seebass.  Prentice-Hall, 1989, ISBM 0-13-933441.  591 pp.
*The* book to have if you've got BSD or derivatives (Sun, Mt. Xinu,
Sequent, etc).  Requires more expertise to read, but pretty well
done.  Covers much broader scope than Thomas/Farrow, but that's
BSD vs SysV.


Other Useful Docs:

These are available in the system administration archives at the
University of Michigan.  They are available for anonymous ftp from
terminator.cc.umich.edu in ~ftp/unix/sysadmin/how-to.  The following
descriptions are excerpted from the ReadMe file from that directory:

tcp-ip-admin.doc.Z & tcp-ip-admin.ps.Z:
  "Introduction to Administration of an Internet-based Local Network" by
Charles Hedrick of Rutgers University.  To quote from the cover sheet,
"This  is an introduction for people who intend to set up or administer
a network based on the Internet networking protocols (TCP/IP)."  A nice
overview.  Available in two forms, doc.Z is suitable for dumb printers
while ps.Z is PostScript.  Written in 1988.

tcp-ip-intro.doc.Z & tcp-ip-intro.ps.Z:
  "Introduction to the Internet Protocols", also by Charles Hedrick
of Rutgers.  From the cover sheet, "This is an introduction to the
Internet networking protocols (TCP/IP).  It includes a summary of the
facilities available and brief descriptions of the major protocols in
the family."  28 pages.  Available in two forms, doc.Z is suitable for
dumb printers while ps.Z is PostScript.  Written in 1987.

setup-ftp.Z:
  How to set up your site to allow anonymous FTP safely.  Taken from
the Sun-Nets mailing list, it contains a good list of actions that must
be taken and recommends (as do I) that you read the manual.  Compiled
by Claude P. Cantin (CLAUDE.P.CANTIN at NRC.CA) from advice given on the
sun-nets mailing list.  Written Feb 12, 1990.

kolstad.sendmail.Z
  How to do a sendmail config file.  The same article published in Rob
Kolstad's 'Daemons and Dragons' column in UNIX REVIEW, very kindly
released with permission from Miller-Freeman, written 1990.  A good
set of advice on doing your sendmail.cf file.

sendmail-tutorial.txt.Z
  Originally posted to net.wizards in 1985.  Comments on this from
Eliot Lear <lear at NET.BIO.NET>:
	The following was written by Dr. Charles Hedrick of Rutgers
   University sometime in 1985.  Please read it with the understanding
   that rule numbers are nothing more than function names.  For further
   reference, I suggest the Sun Tutorial on Sendmail in their manuals.
		-eliot

The archive is always interested in new documents and contributions.
Please send inquiries to me, Steve Simmons, scs at lokkur.dexter.mi.us
or scs at iti.org.