Evi Nemeth'sUNIX System Administration Handbook is better   March 20, 2002

ISBN: 0130206016


Great Book on Philosophy and Methodology   March 14, 2002
  4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a ''must read'' for both junior and senior system administrators. This book covers a broad set of topics from printing to hiring practices to ethics, as well as wiring standards, high availability methods for data center design, and security policies and how to get those polices through to corporate senior management. The authors are experts at distributed computing, and their vast experience is very nicely related in this tome.


A non technical book on system administration   February 9, 2002
  11 out of 32 found this review helpful

I'm surprised by the reviews of this item. They almost seem to
have been written by the authors' friends. Also I don't see
why they refer negatively to Mark Burgess's great book Principles of Network and System Administration, which is a
different kettle of fish -- more scientific and less touchy
feely. I like both books, but I prefer Burgess's more direct
approach -- this book seemed to meander around all over.


A must have for any sysadmin, regardless of skill level   November 19, 2001
  26 out of 27 found this review helpful

As a UNIX sysadmin veteran, I wish this book had been around when I started out. It would have saved so many headaches as I "learned the hard way."

Though not a nitty gritty technical book, this one is a must have for every sysadmin, regardless of skill level or the technology s/he uses. For the novice admin, it offers a good big picture look at the most important "whys" of system administration. For the intermediate admin, it has great advice on how to balance fire fighting with project work that will lessen the need for the fire fighting. For the senior admin, there are gems of design wisdom and sections on how to deal with being in a managerial or team leader role. Because it's more high level, this book is even a good buy for people who manage sysadmins but are not themselves technical.

The chapters are conveniently split into the "basics" and the "icing," depending on the skill of the reader and the state of the reader's work environment. The authors back up their sound advice with real world case studies and personal experiences. Best of all, not only was it a good read cover to cover, it's organized so that the reader can come back to it as a reference later.

Kudos to Tom and Christine for writing an excellent book, one which I will certainly be recommending to my clients and colleagues!


Excellent book for Sysadmin career development   November 14, 2001
  12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I am very impressed by this book. I've been a Unix sysadmin
for more than 10 years and this is the best book I have read for
explaining and demonstrating basic and advanced principles
of system administration. And it goes beyond administration
of any particular OS or system type. You could apply this
to your work architecting, supporting, implementing or
administering any computer or network service.

I have many technical books. I do not read them all cover
to cover. But I will completely devour this one.

I work on a team of 18 (already excellent!) Unix sysadmins.
I would love to have every team member read this book --
our team would be better for it.
you may especially enjoy the section on sysadmin salary negotiations.