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Open Source Network Administration covers a number of open source tools designed to aid in managing computers and TCP/IP networks. The tools discussed in this book are all free and all top-quality tools that have earned their place in any system administrator's arsenal of administration and debugging tools. Included in this book are:
This book also discusses more basic debugging tools such as ping, traceroute, tcpdump and others. Finally, Kretchmar provides some pointers on building your own tools using bash, perl, sed and awk.
Kretchmar is a network engineer for MIT and has gotten a lot of practical experience in managing large networks and unruly hosts. In this book, he imparts a large amount of that experience in over 200 quick-reading, no nonsense pages. He tells you what a tool can do, how to get it and build it and provides examples of some typical uses. While beginning network administrators will feel comforted that he takes enough time to explain the tools he talks about, experienced ones can safely jump right to his equally well explained configuration examples without missing anything crucial.
This book read so quickly and was so straightforward that it really inspired me to fix up some areas of my network monitoring that I knew were lacking but wouldn't be bothered to fix. Particularly, his chapter on Oak motivated me to implement an instant messaging infrastructure (like one he mentions using at MIT) to receive event notices quickly and without dependence on e-mail. While it's no bible (my staple, the Unix System Administration Handbook, is over 800 pages), this book provides a great start on quite a few great tools - many of which I plan to investigate soon.
I was a bit puzzled at his inclusion of instructions for building each tool when most of them are simply ./configure; make; make install. Only one of the tools seemed to actually merit building instructions. At least you can't say he isn't thorough.
I give this book four and one-half stars (out of five) simply because it really made me realize how easy it is to configure a lot of automation that I've been wanting. I find that the cover price of U.S. $44.99 strikes me as a bit high in the market, but it is significantly discounted at most online book stores. I still have to recommend The Unix System Administration Handbook first, however. It is more expensive, but contains much more scope and detail than this book. Those who have digested USAH, though, should consider picking this book up from your favorite e-tailer.
About the reviewer:
Josh Malone, has been a Unix Systems and Network Administrator for a company in Charlottesville, VA for three years. He attended Virginia Tech for four years in the Bradley Dept. Of Electrical and Computer Engineering before setting out to make his fame and fortune in the world of Unix Administration. While at Tech, he was a member and officer in the VT L/UUG and is now an active member in the CHUUG.