Book review: Linux Administration Handbook
by Christopher Smith
Written by the same set of authors who brought you the Unix Systems Administration Handbook (USAH), the Linux Administration Handbook (LAH) provides a detail-rich, Linux-centric approach to system management. It limits its focus to the 5 most commonly installed distributions in the market today.
These distributions are:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
- Fedora Core 5
- Debian Etch
- Ubuntu “Dapper Drake”
- SuSE Enterprise Linux
With this in mind, the LAH does not dissapoint in its level of detail on how to accomplish basic and intermediate systems administration tasks for each of the various flavors of Linux covered. The examples provided within the text are concise and well explained. However, this book truly shines in the
experiences of its authors. As Linux administrators themselves, the authors relate not just how to do something but also _why_ .
One good example of this is a detailed treatment of the ps command within the text and comparing situations when running `ps -aux` versus `ps -lax` is more or less valuable. Another is its treatment of the /proc file system, and where to go for information in the case of a hung process or other related issues. Other sections of the book that were extremely useful was the Linux-centric coverage of software RAID and the elements of the TCP/IP stack that differ between Linux and other *NIX variants.
No book, however, is perfect. Weighing in at almost 1000 pages and carrying a pricetag of $50.00/US, I was a bit annoyed to see some replication in content between the USAH and the LAH. Obviously, some of that is to be expected given that a large component of Linux is open source tools that are freely available for use with other types of *NIX. As an example, the USAH contains almost 100 pages of DNS/BIND configuration information. The LAH contains similarly sized and scoped content (with tailoring to a Linux-centric environment).
The same is true for the Sendmail and MTA sections of both texts. I would have rather seen this material limited or removed to create a smaller text with a smaller price tag since this is already covered in a book that most serious UNIX admins have already. (If you don’t have one, consider going out and purchasing it. Seriously).
All in all, the LAH is a very well written and easy to follow treatment of Linux-centric systems administration. If you work with other *NIX variants alongside Linux, consider picking up the USAH in addition for full coverage.
Happy reading!
January 15th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Mr Smith,
I am trying to setup my computer and my niece’s computer with an O/S program that will be capable of music, video, game and graphics download. I am a mechanical engineering student and my niece is a dental hygenist and both are looking for something that would meet our requirements. Particularly myself since I would be looking something that will support my engineering designs and projects to include video clips among other things. Your explanation of the book makes it sound promising, but I am still in the beginner stage of Linux. Please advise. Thanks.
January 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I had been a self learned Linux Sys Admin, and then I had been training Sys Admins around Asia for some time. All over my period of my practice till now USAH/LSAH is the book I’d recommend to Sys Admins in first place.
I had always mentioned and known the series of this book as red, yellow, purple, green book. I am glad to know the new color.
I am eager to get my copy and I am sure this will be the best of the series so far, like every new edition all these years.
See also http://www.admin.com
February 7th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I’m one of the authors of this book. Thank you for the kind review.
I’d like to address Christopher’s comments regarding the duplication of content between Linux Administration Handbook and our other book, UNIX System Administration Handbook. Just to be clear, LAH IS a Linux-specific edition of USAH. That’s the explicit intention, and I’m sorry if anyone has been led to believe otherwise. The page count of the book has only a modest influence on the sticker price, so I hope that readers won’t begrudge any cross-coverage on that basis.
Our goal was to make each of these books as complete as possible, so that the majority of readers need buy only one edition or the other. The alternative would be to force readers to buy two books just to get the coverage that’s currently included in LAH alone. (Besides, if LAH were not a stand-alone book, how would you know which parts of USAH to rely on and which to ignore? Every line of LAH has been fact-checked against current Linux systems–even the parts that LAH shares with USAH.)
Rather than maintaining two overlapping books, we’d prefer to be producing a single book for the universal world of UNIX and Linux. Unfortunately, the ever-broadening divergence among the variants of UNIX and Linux has rendered that approach impractical.
February 9th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Garth–
Thank you for checking in. Your points make perfect sense. I guess as an owner of both already (for historical reasons), there are some points of coverage that are more complete and more detailed in the USAH versus the LAH which is where I was coming from. Both texts (as I mentioned) are excellent independent resources.
All the best,
CMS
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