Absolute OpenBSD: Unix for the Practical Paranoid Review

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(More customer reviews)Six months ago I was happy to read Michael Lucas' "Absolute BSD," and today I'm glad I read "Absolute OpenBSD." This author knows just what to cover, and to what detail. To test the book's relevance I bought an OpenBSD 3.3 CD-ROM set and installed it, following Lucas' directions. I tried many of the procedures in the book, and found Lucas' instructions to be accurate on the whole. (Right now I'm rebuilding a system to incorporate a security patch that needs certain static binaries to be recompiled from source.)

Lucas provides the background and skills needed to get a working OpenBSD system. Although some of the most basic UNIX-type material appears by necessity in both "Absolute" books (these are both BSDs!), Lucas knows where each OS' strength lies. In his FreeBSD book, he spends more time on general purpose server services. Web, FTP, email, DNS, etc. all get their own chapters. In this OpenBSD book, Lucas devotes multiple chapters to topics that matter most to OpenBSD users -- security and packet filtering. While lots of people run Web, etc. on OpenBSD platforms, OpenBSD offers unique features in its systrace system call access control and PF packet filtering tools. Beyond these OpenBSD strengths, Lucas gives plenty of coverage to the routine yet crucial system administration tasks of adding and removing applications, and upgrading and patching the OS itself.

On the downside, some have commented on "rough editing." While the book has some typos, I didn't find them all that distracting. Beware p. 344, though -- I think "tag=OPENBSD3_2" should read "tag=OPENBSD_3_2". (This is subtle but could be important.) I also found the description of network layers in ch 8 to be perplexing. Why talk about "application, logical protocol, physical protocol, and physical layer" when no one else does? I would also have liked to have read of OpenBSD's use as a bridging firewall or as a VPN concentrator.

The bottom line is this: Michael Lucas knows what to write to help system administrators get the job done. I wish other authors did the same. I'd love to see Lucas or another "No Starch" author write "Absolute Cisco Routers," followed by "Absolute Cisco Switches." Any takers?

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This straightforward, practical, and complete guide to mastering the powerful and complex OpenBSD operating system, is for the experienced UNIX user who wants to add OpenBSD to his or her repertoire. The author assumes a knowledge of basic UNIX commands, design, and permissions. The book takes you through the intricacies of the platform and teaches how to manage your system, offering friendly explanations, background information, troubleshooting suggestions, and copious examples throughout.

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Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Almost five years ago I reviewed Absolute BSD, Michael Lucas' first book on FreeBSD. I gave that book five stars, back when several other BSD books provided competition. On the eve of 2008, I am happy to say that Michael Lucas is probably the best system administration author I've read. I am amazed that he can communicate top-notch content with a sense of humor, while not offending the reader or sounding stupid. When was the last time you could physically feel yourself getting smarter while reading a book? If you are a beginning to average FreeBSD user, Absolute FreeBSD 2nd Ed (AF2E) will deliver that sensation in spades. Even more advanced users will find plenty to enjoy.
One of the best aspects of AF2E is that it is modern and covers FreeBSD 7.x. The previous edition covered 4.x, and plenty has changed since then. I've used FreeBSD regularly since 4.1.1 (Aug 2000), and AF2E taught me a lot about my favorite OS. Michael's coverage of GEOM, NanoBSD, FreeSBIE, journaling, memory file systems, filesystems in a file, and other topics really opened my eyes. Michael delivers excellent line-by-line explanations of system output, using numbered references to guide the reader.
Another major reason I love AF2E is that it is a good system administration book that covers plenty of FreeBSD nuances. Michael shares many of his experiences running FreeBSD in production, and I always believe he is teaching the reader what he or she needs to use FreeBSD to support customers. For example, I liked the hint on p 221 about disabling hard drive write caching (hw.ata.wc=0 in /boot/loader.conf). I also liked hearing about netstat -m to see kernel memory used for networking.
The book is also very lively for a system administration title. One of my favorite lines appears on p 135:
"Ethernet has many device-like characteristics, and it's simplest for FreeBSD to treat it as a device. Leave this [kernel option alone], unless you're looking for a learning opportunity."
So far AF2E has received all positive reviews, but I'm sure there's some deficiency another reader will report. In an ideal world I would have read more on FreeBSD binary updates, especially those involving minor releases (say 6.2 to 6.3) and major releases (say 6.2 to 7.0). Those developments are too recent to have appeared in the book, but they appear in 7.0 and will provide exceptional power for many users. I think enough completely FreeBSD-specific chapters (performance tuning, /etc, and others) are present that it's easy to say this is an awesome FreeBSD book.
If you want more coverage of Pf (and found AF2E's material lacking), just buy a copy of the new title The Book of PF: A No-Nonsense Guide to the OpenBSD Firewall by Peter Hansteen. If you want more detail on installing certain applications on FreeBSD, buy Building a Server with FreeBSD 7 by Bryan Hong. Kudos to No Starch for publishing AF2E and these other BSD titles.

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FreeBSD—the powerful, flexible, and free Unix-like operating system—is the preferred server for many enterprises. But it can be even trickier to use than either Unix or Linux, and harder still to master.

Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition is your complete guide to FreeBSD, written by FreeBSD committer Michael W. Lucas. Lucas considers this completely revised and rewritten second edition of his landmark work to be his best work ever; a true product of his love for FreeBSD and the support of the FreeBSD community. Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition covers installation, networking, security, network services, system performance, kernel tweaking, filesystems, SMP, upgrading, crash debugging, and much more, including coverage of how to:

Use advanced security features like packet filtering, virtual machines, and host-based intrusion detection
Build custom live FreeBSD CDs and bootable flash
Manage network services and filesystems
Use DNS and set up email, IMAP, web, and FTP services for both servers and clients
Monitor your system with performance-testing and troubleshooting tools
Run diskless systems
Manage schedulers, remap shared libraries, and optimize your system for your hardware and your workload
Build custom network appliances with embedded FreeBSD
Implement redundant disks, even without special hardware
Integrate FreeBSD-specific SNMP into your network management system.

Whether you're just getting started with FreeBSD or you've been using it for years, you'll find this book to be the definitive guide to FreeBSD that you've been waiting for.

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Zenoss Core 3.x Network and System Monitoring Review

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(More customer reviews)System monitoring is a hot topic if you are trying to deliver a stable environment for your users or clients. There are many options out there that are capable of letting administrators know when a system is down or at risk for example Solarwinds is one of the popular monitoring applications today. But there are some new names in the ring and this time they come from the open source community so there is a free version for all to use, this is Zenoss Core a robust community driven snmp application. I just finished reading the new technical book on the latest version of Zenoss Core put out by Packetpub to see how well it does to get you running your own Zenoss Core server.
To follow along with the book Zenoss offers a downloadable VMware appliance with the application already installed and it comes for Windows, Linux and OS X. I downloaded the OS X appliance so I could have a sandbox to play with while reading the book, I would highly recommend this so you are able to get used to the user interface.
If you are thinking about installing Zenoss or already using it, this book is a must have to bridge the gap in documentation. I found the book had all the information I needed to help get my environment up and running and it was easy to follow. There are also more advanced topics covered such as ZenPack add ons. ZenPacks are one of Zenoss's most exciting feature, they are community derived and shared through the Zenoss website. You will find thousands of ZenPacks which are completely customized to monitor very specific devices, a couple of examples would be apache web servers, asterisk voip servers, and pretty much any server-based application or device else you can think of. Users create a ZenPacks then upload to share with the community, this is a great use of the open source community to help us all make sure our servers have the highest uptime.
Overall I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a snmp application since Zenoss Core is an open source application and has the best price tag of all, free. Before starting to look at expensive snmp systems do yourself a favor and read this book to see how well Zenoss does with monitoring servers.

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The book starts by covering installation and configuration, before moving on to administration and dashboard usage. It contains step-by-step instructions for setting up and using a working, capable Zenoss system. This book is written primarily for network and systems administrators who are monitoring their IT assets with Zenoss Core or who plan to monitor them. In reality, this book will benefit anyone, regardless of job title, who recognizes the importance of proactively monitoring the servers, routers, computers, websites, and devices that connect companies to customers.

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Mastering Windows Server 2003, Upgrade Edition for SP1 and R2 Review

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(More customer reviews)I've 10 years in the biz, have read many books, attended many seminars. No one comes close to Mark. His Mastering Windows 2003 book is about as complete as it gets for Windows 2003 and the SP1/R2 book continues the trend. It's certainly not your typical geek fare and it's not MS marketing material. Mark tells you what MS have to say and importantly how it really works and should be configured, all with a sense of humour. I'm looking forward to the Vista security book. Be sure to also check out Mark's web forum and the Mastering W2003 book (this SP1/R2 book only covers the new features).

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Get the In-depth coverage of SP1 and R2 you've been waiting for from one of the world's leading Windows authorities. Picking up where Mastering Windows Server 2003 left off, expert Mark Minasi (winner of CertCities.com Reader's Choice Award for Favorite Technical Author for the 4th year in a row!) and his co-authors return with a much-anticipated Upgrade Edition that delivers exactly the information you need. Their clear, hands-on instruction thoroughly covers features and changes that have been largely undocumented in the marketplace -- from SP1's critical security enhancements to R2's new management/administration tools, enhanced print controls, and more. If you manage, maintain, or depend on Windows Server 2003, this is the book you've been waiting for!
Coverage includes:
Getting and installing SP1 Hiding folders from prying eyes with ABE De-worming Windows? with Data Execution Prevention (DEP) Solving SP1/R2 incompatibilities Stopping spyware and locking up ports Stopping mobile thieves by blocking USB memory sticks Upgrading to R2 and getting to know its GUI Understanding R2's new Print Management Console Controlling folder usage with quotas and more Integrating Unix and Windows Working with Active Directory Coverage Focused Specifically on Critical SP1 and R2 Updates

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