The Practice of System and Network Administration: Volume 1, 3rd Edition

With 28 new chapters, the third edition of The Practice of System and Network Administration innovates yet again! Revised with thousands of updates and clarifications based on reader feedback, this new edition also incorporates DevOps strategies even for non-DevOps environments.

Whether you use Linux, Unix, or Windows, this new edition describes the essential practices previously handed down only from mentor to protégé. This wonderfully lucid, often funny cornucopia of information introduces beginners to advanced frameworks valuable for their entire career, yet is structured to help even experts through difficult projects.

Other books tell you what commands to type. This book teaches you the cross-platform strategies that are timeless!

• DevOps techniques: Apply DevOps principles to enterprise IT infrastructure, even in environments without developers
• Game-changing strategies: New ways to deliver results faster with less stress
• Fleet management: A comprehensive guide to managing your fleet of desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices
• Service management: How to design, launch, upgrade and migrate services
• Measurable improvement: Assess your operational effectiveness; a forty-page, pain-free assessment system you can start using today to raise the quality of all services
• Design guides: Best practices for networks, data centers, email, storage, monitoring, backups and more
• Management skills: Organization design, communication, negotiation, ethics, hiring and firing, and more

Have you ever had any of these problems?

• Have you been surprised to discover your backup tapes are blank?
• Ever spent a year launching a new service only to be told the users hate it?
• Do you have more incoming support requests than you can handle?
• Do you spend more time fixing problems than building the next awesome thing?
• Have you suffered from a botched migration of thousands of users to a new service?
• Does your company rely on a computer that, if it died, can’t be rebuilt?
• Is your network a fragile mess that breaks any time you try to improve it?
• Is there a periodic “hell month” that happens twice a year? Twelve times a year?
• Do you find out about problems when your users call you to complain?
• Does your corporate “Change Review Board” terrify you?
• Does each division of your company have their own broken way of doing things?
• Do you fear that automation will replace you, or break more than it fixes?
• Are you underpaid and overworked?

No vague “management speak” or empty platitudes. This comprehensive guide provides real solutions that prevent these problems and more!

Table of Contents

Part I: Game-Changing Strategies
Chapter 1 Climbing Out of the Hole
Chapter 2 The Small Batches Principle
Chapter 3 Pets and Cattle
Chapter 4 Infrastructure as Code

Part II: Workstation Fleet Management
Chapter 5 Workstation Architecture
Chapter 6 Workstation Hardware Strategies
Chapter 7 Workstation Software Life Cycle
Chapter 8 OS Installation Strategies
Chapter 9 Workstation Service Definition
Chapter 10 Workstation Fleet Logistics
Chapter 11 Workstation Standardization
Chapter 12 Onboarding

Part III: Servers
Chapter 13 Server Hardware Strategies
Chapter 14 Server Hardware Features
Chapter 15 Server Hardware Specifications

Part IV: Services
Chapter 16 Service Requirements
Chapter 17 Service Planning and Engineering
Chapter 18 Service Resiliency and Performance Patterns
Chapter 19 Service Launch: Fundamentals
Chapter 20 Service Launch: DevOps
Chapter 21 Service Conversions
Chapter 22 Disaster Recovery and Data Integrity

Part V: Infrastructure
Chapter 23 Network Architecture
Chapter 24 Network Operations
Chapter 25 Datacenters Overview
Chapter 26 Running a Datacenter

Part VI: Helpdesks and Support
Chapter 27 Customer Support
Chapter 28 Handling an Incident Report
Chapter 29 Debugging
Chapter 30 Fixing Things Once
Chapter 31 Documentation

Part VII: Change Processes
Chapter 32 Change Management
Chapter 33 Server Upgrades
Chapter 34 Maintenance Windows
Chapter 35 Centralization Overview
Chapter 36 Centralization Recommendations
Chapter 37 Centralizing a Service

Part VIII: Service Recommendations
Chapter 38 Service Monitoring
Chapter 39 Namespaces
Chapter 40 Nameservices
Chapter 41 Email Service
Chapter 42 Print Service
Chapter 43 Data Storage
Chapter 44 Backup and Restore
Chapter 45 Software Repositories
Chapter 46 Web Services

Part IX: Management Practices
Chapter 47 Ethics
Chapter 48 Organizational Structures
Chapter 49 Perception and Visibility
Chapter 50 Time Management
Chapter 51 Communication and Negotiation
Chapter 52 Beinga Happy SA
Chapter 53 Hiring System Administrators
Chapter 54 Firing System Administrators

Part X: Being More Awesome
Chapter 55 Operational Excellence
Chapter 56 Operational Assessments
Chapter Epilogue

Part XI: Appendices
Appendix A: What to Do When . . .
Appendix B: The Many Roles of a System Administrator