Automating Linux and Unix System Administration, Second Edition »

Kirk Bauer has been involved in computer programming since 1985. He has been using and administering UNIX systems since 1994. Although his personal favorite UNIX variant is Linux, he has administered and developed on everything from FreeBSD to Solaris, AIX, and HP–UX. He is the author of various open source solutions such as Logwatch.

Kirk has been involved with software development and system/network administration since his first year at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has done work for the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and DHL. In 2000, Kirk was one of the founders and the chief technology officer of TogetherWeb, which was purchased in 2003 by Proficient Systems. Kirk is now a systems engineer with F5 Networks.

Kirk graduated from Georgia Tech in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and is currently pursuing his MBA at Arizona State University. He lives in Peoria, Arizona, with his two dogs, and is looking forward to getting married to his lovely fiancé, Rachel.

Nathan Campi is a UNIX and Linux system administrator by trade, currently working as a UNIX operations manager in San Francisco. His system administration experience is almost entirely with companies with large–scale web operations based on open source software. In his copious free time, he enjoys jogging, watching spaghetti westerns, experimenting with Linux systems, and spending time with his family.

This is the second edition of a title that succeeded before its time—this second edition comes at a timely juncture for Linux administrators and will become a key reference.

If Linux administrators want to build a small or medium-sized network or datacenter, this is the book to show them how to do it by automating the build process. Linux datacenters have multiplied over the last 5 years and literally thousands of Linux system administrators on all 5 continents need this information.

Ch. 1 Introducing the Basics of Automation 1

Ch. 2 Applying Practical Automation 19

Ch. 3 Using SSH to Automate System Administration Securely 27

Ch. 4 Configuring Systems with cfengine 49

Ch. 5 Bootstrapping a New Infrastructure 79

Ch. 6 Setting Up Automated Installation 101

Ch. 7 Automating a New System Infrastructure 161

Ch. 8 Deploying Your First Application 213

Ch. 9 Generating Reports and Analyzing Logs 253

Ch. 10 Monitoring 273

Ch. 11 Infrastructure Enhancement 321

Ch. 12 Improving System Security 353

App. A Introducing the Basic Tools 375

App. B Writing cfengine Modules 395

Index 401