Solaris 8 – Administrator’s Guide is a book written by Paul Watters, and published by O’Reilly. The book is all about how to create and administer networks using Solaris 8. The book, published in January, is current even for Solaris 9, mostly because not many changes to the way Solaris works have been made in the new version of the OS.The book will begin by explaining what a network is, and from which services and hardware it consists. While that would be already common ground for most of the OSNews readers, others will still find information that did not know before. The second part is getting more in-depth about networks, but this time it describes how Solaris “sees” networks and how you can architect a network that will work well with Sun’s popular server operating sytem.
The later chapters vary, with information on how to install Solaris on both x86 and SPARC, to network configuration, naming services, file serving, data management, Apache and PostgreSQL configuration, Samba, and the book concludes with an informative chapter about Security on Solaris.
There is a free sample chapter available, Chapter 4, Network Configuration.
I liked the fact that Java-specific products are mentioned and explained, like, how to run servlets with Apache, however, I find dissapointing the fact that there is no mention of Oracle (while there is for PostgreSQL), no mention of Sun’s own web server, while there is no information on how to administer X11 clients on a network. Also, there is no information on clustering.
Overall, this is one of the must-have books for any Solaris administrator, or for other Unix admins who want to migrate to Solaris. This book is definately not for newbies. However, this book alone won’t be enough for a complete and professional network-building and security affirmation. The subjet of Unix administration is huge, and it will surely require more books in addition to this one.
Overall: 8 / 10
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>>>The book, published in January, is current even for Solaris 9, mostly because not many changes to the way Solaris works have been made in the new version of the OS.<<<
Then why upgrade? Use Solaris 8 for X86!
Solaris books have this annoying habit of saying very little in a lot of pages. They cover the stuff that I can figure aou for myself, and gloss right over the stuff that I could use some help with. The only admin utility that any of them cover is admintool, which doesn’t help much when you SSH in to work on a remote box!
From what I’ve seen, this book is no exception. It’s too basic. Is there really a need for this? Any desktop Solaris user who isn’t already supported by an administrative staff is probably a geek already.
I’m second for that.
“admintool” is for sissies.
Judging by the chapter about netwrok configuration
it really sucks – I would definitely give it much lower than 8/10. Of course, it’s must have for Solaris sysadmin – to put it on the shelf where everyone can see it, especially boss.
“touch /reconfigure ; init 6” – hammer-like solution.
I wanted to change from static IP to DHCP and it took quite a few keystrokes (and I couldn’t avoid reboot) and this chapter doesn’t cover it at all, although I consider it a basic task.
It’s not a bad book. I really think it was mostly geared for a
MS or Linux weenie (not that Linux == weenie) that scammed a Solaris job. Light on the difficult stuff, lots of basics.
About fluff: most O’Reilly books are good about fluff, but this several useless files included. For example, I know what /etc/services looks like, I don’t need a copy “as an example” on paper.
I guess I’m just wating for O’Reilly’s Advanced Solaris 8 book.
Matt
I really think it was mostly geared for a MS or Linux weenie (not that Linux == weenie) that scammed a Solaris job. Light on the difficult stuff, lots of basics.
I think you have a good point there, Matt. When I started off in IS, I was already accustomed to working with professionals who really knew their stuff. And for the first few years, that’s pretty much how it was — I felt that there was a ton of things to be learned from more senior co-workers. But recently it seems like I meet more IS “professionals” who are total BS artists. I suppose that the IT bubble that preceeded the dot-bomb created a gold-rush syndrome that pulled all kinds of wannabes out of the woodwork. And those wannabes couldn’t very well show up to work with a stack of “Dummies” books!
The sad and ironic consequence is that jobs that once were highly respected are now almost unskilled labor. Good people are leaving the field in disgust, rather than put up with the back-stabbing pretenders. When I run the numbers, I can’t understand how management can justify $50K/yr employees who spend millions on turnkey systems (because they don’t have the skills to build their own) vs. $75K/yr employees who actually save money on software. No wonder stock prices continue to tumble!