Essential System Administration

Dedication; Preface; The Unix Universe; Audience; Organization; Conventions Used in This Book; Comments and Questions; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction to System Administration; 1.1 Thinking About System Administration; 1.2 Becoming Superuser; 1.3 Communicating with Users; 1.4 About Menus and GUIs; 1.5 Where Does the Time Go?; Chapter 2: The Unix Way; 2.1 Files; 2.2 Processes; 2.3 Devices; Chapter 3: Essential AdministrativeTools and Techniques; 3.1 Getting the Most from Common Commands; 3.2 Essential Administrative Techniques; Chapter 4: Startup and Shutdown; 4.1 About the Unix Boot Process; 4.2 Initialization Files and Boot Scripts; 4.3 Shutting Down a Unix System; 4.4 Troubleshooting: Handling Crashes and Boot Failures; Chapter 5: TCP/IP Networking; 5.1 Understanding TCP/IP Networking; 5.2 Adding a New Network Host; 5.3 Network Testing and Troubleshooting; Chapter 6: Managing Users and Groups; 6.1 Unix Users and Groups; 6.2 Managing User Accounts; 6.3 Administrative Tools for Managing User Accounts; 6.4 Administering User Passwords; 6.5 User Authentication with PAM; 6.6 LDAP: Using a Directory Service for User Authentication; Chapter 7: Security; 7.1 Prelude: What's Wrong with This Picture?; 7.2 Thinking About Security; 7.3 User Authentication Revisited; 7.4 Protecting Files and the Filesystem; 7.5 Role-Based Access Control; 7.6 Network Security; 7.7 Hardening Unix Systems; 7.8 Detecting Problems; Chapter 8: Managing Network Services; 8.1 Managing DNS Servers; 8.2 Routing Daemons; 8.3 Configuring a DHCP Server; 8.4 Time Synchronization with NTP; 8.5 Managing Network Daemons under AIX; 8.6 Monitoring the Network; Chapter 9: Electronic Mail; 9.1 About Electronic Mail; 9.2 Configuring User Mail Programs; 9.3 Configuring Access Agents; 9.4 Configuring the Transport Agent; 9.5 Retrieving Mail Messages; 9.6 Mail Filtering with procmail; 9.7 A Few Final Tools; Chapter 10: Filesystems and Disks; 10.1 Filesystem Types; 10.2 Managing Filesystems; 10.3 From Disks to Filesystems; 10.4 Sharing Filesystems; Chapter 11: Backup and Restore; 11.1 Planning for Disasters and Everyday Needs; 11.2 Backup Media; 11.3 Backing Up Files and Filesystems; 11.4 Restoring Files from Backups; 11.5 Making Table of Contents Files; 11.6 Network Backup Systems; 11.7 Backing Up and Restoring the System Filesystems; Chapter 12: Serial Lines and Devices; 12.1 About Serial Lines; 12.2 Specifying Terminal Characteristics; 12.3 Adding a New Serial Device; 12.4 Troubleshooting Terminal Problems; 12.5 Controlling Access to Serial Lines; 12.6 HP-UX and Tru64 Terminal Line Attributes; 12.7 The HylaFAX Fax Service; 12.8 USB Devices; Chapter 13: Printers and the Spooling Subsystem; 13.1 The BSD Spooling Facility; 13.2 System V Printing; 13.3 The AIX Spooling Facility; 13.4 Troubleshooting Printers; 13.5 Sharing Printers with Windows Systems; 13.6 LPRng; 13.7 CUPS; 13.8 Font Management Under X; Chapter 14: Automating Administrative Tasks; 14.1 Creating Effective Shell Scripts; 14.2 Perl: An Alternate Administrative Language; 14.3 Expect: Automating Interactive Programs; 14.4 When Only C Will Do; 14.5 Automating Complex Configuration Tasks with Cfengine; 14.6 Stem: Simplified Creation of Client-Server Applications; 14.7 Adding Local man Pages; Chapter 15: Managing System Resources; 15.1 Thinking About System Performance; 15.2 Monitoring and Controlling Processes; 15.3 Managing CPU Resources; 15.4 Managing Memory; 15.5 Disk I/O Performance Issues; 15.6 Monitoring and Managing Disk Space Usage; 15.7 Network Performance; Chapter 16: Configuring and Building Kernels; 16.1 FreeBSD and Tru64; 16.2 HP-UX; 16.3 Linux; 16.4 Solaris; 16.5 AIX System Parameters; Chapter 17: Accounting; 17.1 Standard Accounting Files; 17.2 BSD-Style Accounting: FreeBSD, Linux, and AIX; 17.3 System V-Style Accounting: AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris; 17.4 Printing Accounting; Chapter 18: The Profession of System Administration; 18.1 SAGE: The System Administrators Guild; 18.2 Administrative Virtues; Appendix A: Administrative Shell Programming; A.1 Basic Syntax; A.2 The if Statement; A.3 Other Control Structures; A.4 Getting Input: The read Command; A.5 Other Useful Commands; A.6 Shell Functions; Colophon;