About the Book
Unix System Management
Primer Plus describes in detail the concepts and methodologies that govern
Unix system administration. Its focus is both analytical and task-oriented.
It covers the entire lifecycle of a system, from design to decommission,
and explores the reader's role as an administrator.
Topics not usually covered in more
specific books are covered, such as collocation facilities, user communication,
and disaster recovery. The focus of the book "how to be a system administrator,"
not "how to administer your system."
Related
Books
Primer Plus Books (Primer
Plus Books)
Table of Contents
I. STARTING FROM SCRATCH.
1. Planning Your Architecture.
Defining the Project Scope.
Classifying Your Systems.
Collecting Specifications.
Assessing Compatibility Needs.
Choosing Hardware and Software.
Evaluating Vendor Support Contracts.
2. Designing the Data Center Infrastructure.
Should You Build Your Own Data Center?
Controlling the Data Center Environment.
Choosing Raised or Fixed Flooring.
Choosing and Using Equipment Racks.
Securing Access to Your Data Center.
Power Management.
Out-of-Band Management for Maintenance
and Repair.
Emergency Remote Access.
3. Deploying Your Systems.
The Ordering Process.
Receiving Shipments.
Recording Your Deployment Procedures.
Hardware Installation.
Installing Software.
Handing Off to the Users.
II. MAINTENANCE.
4. Testing Your Systems.
The Testing Process.
Unit Testing.
Compatibility Testing.
Load Testing.
Regression Testing.
Alpha and Beta Testing.
5. Support Administration.
Matching Technical Support Infrastructure
to Business Size and Customer Needs.
Developing On-Call Procedures.
Escalation Procedures.
Managing Communications Between Varying
Levels of Expertise.
Support Tools.
Advertising Your Support Department.
6. Monitoring Services.
What Is Monitoring?
Host Monitoring.
Network Monitoring.
Service Monitoring.
Logging.
Log Management.
Log Monitoring.
Internal Versus External Monitoring.
Monitoring Applications.
7. Patches, Upgrades, and Decommissions.
Preimplementation Testing in a Sandbox
Environment.
Patching Operating Systems.
Hardware Upgrades.
Operating System Upgrades.
Firmware Upgrades.
Decommissioning Services.
8. Service Outages.
Types of Outages.
Scheduled Maintenance.
Unscheduled Outages.
Partial Service Outages.
Complete Outages and Degraded Service.
Distributed Service Outages.
Third-Party Outages.
Maintenance Windows.
Monitoring Compliance with Service
Level Agreements.
Observing Production Values.
Outage Procedures.
Root Cause Analysis.
9. Preparing for Disaster Recovery.
What Is an IT Disaster?
Power Outages.
Physical and Environmental Disasters.
Managing Data Loss.
Formulating a Disaster Recovery Plan.
Disaster Drills.
III. A WELL-OILED MACHINE.
10. Providing High Availability
in Your Unix System.
Providing High Availability.
Techniques for Providing High Availability.
Redundancy.
Failover.
Load Balancing.
Data Redundancy Using RAID.
Data Redundancy Using Split Mirrors.
Data Redundancy Using Snapshots.
Using Multiple Network Paths.
Using Server Clusters.
Location Redundancy.
High-Availability Options for Internet
Services.
11. Performance Tuning and Capacity
Planning .
Gauging CPU Performance and Capacity.
Tuning CPU Performance.
Planning for CPU Resources.
Gauging Storage Performance and Capacity.
Tuning Disk and File System Performance.
Planning for Storage Needs.
Gauging Memory Performance and Capacity.
Tuning Memory and Swap Performance.
Planning for Memory and Swap Capacity.
Gauging Network Performance and Capacity.
Tuning Network Performance.
Planning for Future Network Capacity.
12. Process Automation.
Scheduling Tools.
Automating Root Logins.
Automating File Synchronization.
Automating Local Configurations with
cfengine.
Automating Temporary Space Management.
Automating Log Maintenance.
Using logrotate as a Generic Log Rotation
Tool.
13. Implementing System Security.
Authentication, Authorization, and
Accounting.
Types of Security Used in Unix Systems.
Understanding Least Privilege.
Separation of Services.
Managing Root Accounts.
Delegating Authority.
Exploits and Attacks.
Securing Data with Encryption.
Alternative Authentication Methods.
Simple Ways to Improve Your Security.
Staying Up-to-Date Through Security
Forums.
IV. The Human Aspect .
14. Internal Communication.
Writing System Documentation.
Change Management.
Configuration Management with Revision
Control Tools.
System Activity Schedules.
Naming Conventions.
15. Interacting with Users.
Types of Users.
Communicating with Users.
Dealing with Problem Users.
Preventing User Problems.
Dealing with Remote User Problems.
16. Computing Policies and Agreements.
Acceptable Usage Policies.
User Rights and Responsibilities.
Security Policies.
Security Waivers.
Using Implicit Agreements.
V. APPENDIXES.
Appendix A: References.
Appendix B: Answers to Questions.
Index. |
