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What's In It For Me?

This book explains the really interesting aspects of Linux administration, including kernel compilation, DNS configuration, sendmail setup and establishment of firewall protection with IP chaining. In addition, "Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide" includes clear statements of what concepts are relevant, which commands to issue and what to expect in response. It's a great help in self-guided explorations. It's also worth having this book on hand for work assignments. I found complete recipes for configuring all major Internet and LAN services that take into account easy maintenance and security.

As the title says, this is a beginner's guide to administering Linux. I have several more advanced books on Linux administration, but I needed to start at a beginner's level. For example, I didn't know much about the rc scripts in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory. This book helped me to understand the basics of adding a symbolic link to the /etc/rc.d/rc3.d directory that points to the rc script in the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory. It's great for learning new Linux concepts.

What's Good?

I've read quite a few books on Linux, and this is one of the best. The size and price ($39.99) of the book make it quite a bargain. Most books of this size go for $59.99.

If you want to create a solid and secure Web site, you should find this book very helpful; it discusses the basics of Linux, along with administration concerns, security issues and principles that every system administrator should understand and follow.

The Samba chapter is pretty basic. Once you understand the elementary concepts of Samba, you probably will need to move on to a more advanced book. But if you have never worked with or administered Linux, then this book is an excellent buy.

If you are familiar with Linux or Unix and want to turn to some network services, this book is a solid introduction. While it's chiefly for beginners, the author doesn't assume that that means weenies. He has done a nice job of selecting basic tasks, and each one includes the necessary file commands, locations and basic configurations. Other books either rely on GUI utilities or take twice as many pages and go into too much detail on some sections and not enough on others. This book is just what it says, a beginner's guide to help you get started with Linux servers and/or integrate Linux into an existing Windows NT network.

The book flows well and the writer's style is great. I read the entire thing over the course of five days. After reading it and doing additional research on the Internet, I realized that the author had covered about 90 percent of what most authors are writing about when it comes to securing a single server.

"Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide" starts easy and gets quite in-depth, so if you are a rookie, you should at least have an aptitude for computers or a strong will to learn. If that is the case, this is a great reference book to use to further explore Linux.

What's Bad?

This book rates a 9 out of 10 points. First, there is no glossary. As such, the book isn't very useful for quick reference. No beginner's book of this size should be without a glossary to define acronyms and terms.

While the book contains very good information, if you run into errors in compiling your kernel, altering scripts or configuring Samba, you are going to be in trouble. The author walks readers through a cursory, idyllic example in each section, but seldom more than one. And, there is very little on troubleshooting. Some of the information is even incorrect: small omissions or typos Unix gurus would easily catch.

In some cases, the author tries to go beyond the basics. Security/firewall software, such as SATAN, COPS, etc., are included in the table of contents. However, when you get to the related pages, you will not learn anything about this software, only references to where you can get the information. It would have been better if the author included the software; security/firewall software is a hot issue these days.

What this book is, is a quick walk-through of lots of Linux networking topics. Because of this wide scope, there's not much room for depth. You should buy other books for that, and the author gives recommendations in each chapter. Readers should be able to get a pretty long way in setting up their own servers with this book. But, if things go wrong, it isn't going to tell you what to do. For example, the author tells you the ways in which the system can disable accounts because of disk quotum violations, but he doesn't tell you how to re-enable them afterwards.

The book is deficient in some other areas, too. For example, it never mentions telnet to log in. It mentions telnet to log into a POP server and how to compile SSH, but never anything directly about telnet. The author mostly assumes that readers know the basic basics.

Conclusion

You should be able to implement Linux across your network with this practical, hands-on guide. You should also be able to learn to install and administer Linux on an individual workstation or an entire network. You'll find everything you need to get up and running with any Linux distribution, including the latest version of RedHat.

The book has been updated to cover the new 2.4 kernel and has an expanded section on advanced networking. It shows you how to install and configure Linux, set up Internet services and handle single-host administration, among other things. Plus, you'll get eight pages of blueprints illustrating the differences between Linux and Windows NT or Windows 2000. If you are a professional administrator who wants to bring Linux into your network topology, a home user with multiple machines wanting to build a simple home network or if you are migrating from Windows, you need this book.

In other words, this book will show you how to:

• Install Linux in a server configuration.

• Configure GNOME, KDE, X-Windows and more.

• Understand single-host administration and manage users.

• Learn to use file systems, create partitions and configure quota settings.

• Compile the Linux kernel and unpack source code.

• Set up Internet services and learn the mechanics of FTP.

• Provide intranet services, including NFS, NIS, SAMBA, DHCP and LPD.

• Get details on advanced networking with Linux, including TCP/IP, packet filtering, cookbook firewalls, IP port forwarding and much more.