Previous | Next

Section 17 PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Objectives

This section introduces you to some resources that a professional Systems Administrator might find useful including,

various professional organisations for Systems Administrators,
some of the books and magazines that can be useful for finding more information about Systems Administration, and
some of the sources of information on the Internet that may be useful for Systems Administrators.

Systems Administration has only started to achieve some of the trappings of a profession over the last few years. Previously there were very few books and no professional organisations dedicated to Systems Administration. There are now numerous books and magazines discussing Systems Administration and related fields and there are a number of professional organisations throughout the world.

Professional Organisations

Belonging to a professional organisation can offer a number of benefits

recognition of your abilities,

a way to communicate with other people performing a similar job, and
This enables the group to share experiences and solutions. An individual can benefit from the experience of others.

a variety of side benefits.
Most professional organisations distribute newsletters that carry useful information. Many also organise annual conferences that enable professionals to gather in one place and discuss the profession (and to have some fun at the same time). Professional organisations a Systems Administrator might find interesting include

Systems Administrators Guild of Australia (SAGE-AU),
Australian UNIX Users Group (AUUG),
Australian Computer Society (ACS),
Systems Administrators Guild (SAGE),
and, Usenix.

The SAGE Groups

The early 90s saw the development throughout the world of a number of national SAGE groups in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. These groups were set up to be professional organisations for Systems Administrators.

The Australian SAGE was started in 1993 and currently has a membership of over 200 Systems Administrators. It holds an annual conference and distributes a bi-monthly newsletter.

The Australian Computer Society

The ACS is the main computing professional society in Australia servicing people from all computing disciplines. The flavour of the ACS is much more business oriented than SAGE-AU. However it does provide a number of services that can make belonging worthwhile including

various magazines,
professional development courses, and
a low cost Internet link.

The ACS is also moving towards some form of certification of computing professionals and some jobs now require ACS membership.

UNIX User Groups

There are various UNIX user groups spread throughout the world. AUUG is the Australian UNIX Users Group and provides information of all types on both UNIX and Open Systems. Usenix was one of the first UNIX user groups anywhere and is based in the United States.

The first SAGE group grew out of the Usenix Association.

Useful Books and Magazines

When a new computing person asks a technical question a common response will be RTFM. RTFM stands for read the fine (and other words starting with f) manual and implies that the person should go away and look up the documentation for the answer.

It seems like only yesterday that for a Systems Administrator RTFM meant reading the on-line man pages, some badly written manual from the vendor or maybe if lucky a newsgroup or two. Trying to find a book that explained how to use cron or how to set up NFS was a task destined to failure.

However the last couple of years has seen an explosion in the number of books and magazines available that cover Systems Administration and related fields. One of the few advantages of being an Academic is that publishers send evaluation copies of any books they have in an area in which you are teaching. The following is an annotated list of the books I have sitting on my book shelves.

This is by no means an in-depth review of every UNIX book there is. Instead it is a list of personal opinions about the books I have on hand.

There are a number of sections under which publications have been listed. Under most sections the books have been ranked in an order that represents my preference.

General Systems Administration

The main problem with many general Systems Administration books is that they are written by educators (like myself) or programmers with limited "real-life" experience in Systems Administration. Only a Systems Administrator with a number of years experience can write a really good general Systems Administration text.

1. Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, UNIX System Administration Handbook - 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall, 1995, 708 pp, ISBN 0-13-151051-7

Almost universally considered the Systems Administration bible. Covers almost every topic needed with a number of comments from the authors who are experienced Systems Administrators.

2. Aeleen Frisch, Essential System Administration, O'Reilly & Associates, 1993, 440pp, ISBN 0-937175-80-3

This book is almost an equal to the Nemeth book. It offers coverage of BSD, SYSV and XENIX with additional coverage of AIX (IBM's version of UNIX). Not as complete a Nemeth.

Now come the also rans. While one or two might be okay they are not up to the quality of the first two.

3. Dave Fiedler, Bruce Hunter, Ben Smith et al, UNIX System V Release 4 Administration 2nd edition, 1991, 436pp, ISBN 0-672-22810-6

Specific to the SVR4 version of UNIX this book has less detail in many areas than the previous two books. Students who have used this book find it easier to understand than Nemeth but once they understand find it doesn't take them as far.

4. Rebecca Thomas, Rik Farrow, UNIX Administration Guide for System V, 1989, 636pp, ISBN 0-13-942889-5

Written by two of UNIX World's (now Open Computing) columnists this book covers the pre-SVR4 version of UNIX. No real point in going anywhere near this one now. Its coverage of topics is limited.

5. Levi Reiss, Joseph Radin, UNIX System Administration Guide, Osborne McGraw Hill, 1993, 640pp, ISBN 0-07-881951-2

I don't like this book at all. It offers a gentle introduction to the art of Systems Administration that is tainted by its brevity and the apparent fact that the authors haven't done very much real UNIX Systems Administration.

One of the really annoying habits of the book is that it is littered with "meticulously crafted scripts" and "valuable source code....for adding and removing users....and performing daily system administration tasks".

No mention is made of public domain tools that perform the same tasks better and some of the scripts are horrible. For example the "adduser" script

doesn't automate tasks like getting a user id or group id,
it doesn't check if the new uid or usernames already exist,
it adds the new /etc/passwd entry by appending the information onto the end of the file, and
it uses dot files (.cshrc, .profile) that are hard wired into the script itself instead of using something like /etc/skel.

Security

1. David Curry, UNIX System Security: A Guide for Users and System Administrators, Addison-Wesley, 1992, 279pp, ISBN 0-201-56327-4

Provides a nice introduction to UNIX security and has the added advantage of having an adorable cartoon daemon character on the front cover. The most common first impression of the book is "Oh isn't that cute!"

2. Rik Farrow, UNIX System Security, Addison-Wesley, 1991, 278pp, ISBN 0-201-57030-0

Haven't had the time to look through this book so its second placing here is not indicative of its quality.

There is another UNIX security book that I don't have in my library called Practical UNIX Security by Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford (ISBN 0-937175-72-2). It is a book from O'Reilly and Associates and so should be of a high standard and reviews of the book have indicated this.

Shell Programming

1. Stephen Kochan, Patrick Wood, UNIX Shell Programming Revised Edition, Hayden Books, 490pp, ISBN 0-672-48448-X

This is my favourite and the one I recommend. An in-depth coverage of Bourne shell programming with mention of the Korn shell.

2. Lowell Jay Arthur, UNIX Shell Programming, John Wiley & Sons, 272pp, ISBN 0-471-51821-2

Takes a different approach and covers some ground that Kochan didn't including lex and a section on the UNIX System Administrator. Again I haven't had a close look at this book but on the occasions that I've used it as a reference it has sometimes come up short.

Using UNIX

The following are in no particular order as I have never done a sit down comparison of them all. The first two are more in the traditional style of UNIX books, a little terse but cover most things in detail. The last three are easier to read and understand but don't cover the area in as much detail (this is of course a generalisation).

Kaare Christian, The UNIX Operating System 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 455pp, ISBN 0-471-84781-X

S. R. Bourne, The UNIX System, Addison-Wesley, 351pp, ISBN 0-201-13791-7

A golden oldie. This is the one that the Department of Computer Science at the University of Queensland set for their UNIX text and so it was my first introduction to the world of UNIX. It was by no means a gentle introduction.

Stephen Kochan, Patrick Wood, Exploring the UNIX System, 3rd Edition, SAMS, 466pp, ISBN 0-672-48517-8

Two authors I like and the feedback I've had from students who use this book indicate that it is a good book.

Mitchell Waite, Don Martin & Stephen Prata, UNIX System V Primer 2nd edition, SAMS, 563pp, ISBN 0-672-30194-6

David Solomon, Tanya Rodrigue et al, Using UNIX, QUE, 693pp, ISBN 0-88022-519-X

George Leach, UNIX Self-Teaching Guide, John Wiley & Sons, 249pp, ISBN 0-471-57924-6

UNIX Programming

W. Richard Stevens, Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, Addison-Wesley, 1992, 744pp, ISBN 0-201-56317-7

The bible, everything and anything you needed to know about UNIX programming is in this book. If you plan to spend any time writing UNIX programs this is the book you need.

Marc Rochkind, Advanced UNIX Programming, Prentice-Hall, 1985, 265pp, ISBN 0-13-011800-1

An older, much thinner book that would have been recommended before the arrival of Stevens.

Andrew Oram, Steve Talbott, Managing Projects with make, O'Reilly & Associates, 1991, 149pp, ISBN 0-937175-90-0

A very useful little book that explains the make utility.

David Curry, Using C on the UNIX System, O'Reilly & Associates, 1991, 231pp, ISBN 0-937175-23-4

Another useful book in the O'Reilly Nutshell range but Stevens offers more in-depth coverage.

John Valley, UNIX Programmer's Reference, QUE, 1991, 826pp, ISBN 0-88022-536-X

Operating Systems Internals

Maurice Bach, The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Prentice-Hall, 1986, 471pp, ISBN 0-13-201757-1

Most consider this book the bible of the internal structure of UNIX. It covers much of the functionality of the kernel with good explanations and easy to follow pseudo code. Even though its age starts to show in places it is still a good book. It is based on the System V Release 2 version of UNIX

Berny Goodheart, James Cox, The Magic Garden Explained: The Internals of UNIX System V Release 4, Prentice Hall, 1994, ISBN 0-13-098138-9

A book that is quickly replacing the Bach book. It is essential if you are working with SVR4 versions of UNIX and want to know how the internals work.

The third book in the world of the internals of the UNIX operating system covers another version of UNIX (BSD 4.3). I don't have a copy but here are the details.

Samuel Leffler, Marshall McKusick, Michael Karels, John Quarterman, The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System, Addison-Wesley.

Network Programming

Bill Rieken, Lyle Weiman, Adventures in UNIX Network Applications Programming, John Wiley & Sons, 1992, 446pp, ISBN 0-471-52858-7

A good book that provides some easy to understand explanation of the concepts involved.

Richard Stevens (author of Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment) also has a book in the network programming field. My copy is on loan at the moment so I can't supply the details. However like his programming text this book is considered by many to be the book of UNIX network programming.

Magazines

The magazines are not ranked in any sort of order and do not include those magazines supplied by the various professional organisations like AUUG, SAGE-AU (the SAGE-AU newsletter in particular is a wonderful publication with a particularly talented editor :) ) and Usenix.

Open Computing

A bit like the Byte magazine for UNIX and open computing. Doesn't provide much in-depth technical knowledge, more a collection of helpful hints, product reviews and news.

Sys Admin

A technical journal for UNIX Systems Administrators. Includes articles that explain in detail technical areas of Systems Administration. The only one of its type to my knowledge.

Information Sources on the Network

The nature of the Internet means that it provides a variety of information sources that are useful to Systems Administrators. This section serves to list some of them. It assumes that you are familiar with basic Internet concepts and will not explain them.

A connection to the Internet can be justified solely by the advantage it provides to a Systems Administrator. As a source of timely, cheap and expert opinion and advice nothing can beat "the net".

Newsgroups

There are numerous newsgroups set up to serve Systems Administrators in general and Systems Administrators of particular machines. Table 17.1 lists some of the more obvious.

Newsgroup		Purpose

comp.org.usenix		Discussions related to the Usenix association
aus.org.sage		SAGE-AU discussion and announcements
comp.UNIX.admin		discussion about generic UNIX administration
comp.sources.unix	postings of source code to various UNIX utilities and programs
comp.security.unix	discussion about security and UNIX
comp.os.linux.*		a range of newsgroups about the Linux operating system
comp.os.*		various newsgroups discussing most operating systems

	Table 17.1. Useful Newsgroups.

Vendor Information

Most vendors and software publishers now have a presence on the net. Microsoft, Novel and Sun are all on the net. They can be reached at Internet addresses using the format company.com.

For example:

	Microsoft has ftp and WWW servers (as does Sun and Novell) at
	ftp.microsoft.com  www.microsoft.com

The network servers of these various companies are often the quickest and easiest method to discover information about

the companies' products and plans, and
Most companies will place press releases and product information onto their network servers.
any patches and bug fixes.
Any slight updates or fixes to a companies products are usually available from their network servers.

Conclusion

Systems Administration is a fulfilling, active and growing profession that is changing in tune with the technology. It is important to keep up to date and in touch with what is going on in the industry if you are not to become an anachronism.

Todays Systems Administrator can now choose from a wide array of books, magazines, professional organisations and the Internet to provide the necessary information to achieve this.