Linux Server Hacks
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 4.32Customer Rating: 4
Summary: A great book on the subject...
Comment: This is a good book for Linux enthusiasts, and a great book for sys admins. The book covers a wide range of material, and while I'm likely to only use a fraction of the tips in the book, it is a good resource for ideas. The book covers most functions that a server is required to perform, in addition to monitoring the server itself.
The hacks are organized into sections based on the function they are related to, i.e., basics, networking, SSH, etc. The hacks in any given section vary widely, so it is nice to have a general idea where information about particular aspects can be found.
The author clearly has a good grasp of the material, and does a good job in communicating the information. This is not a book for beginners, and those who are fairly new should get more experience with Linux before attempting to read this.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: An ax worth having
Comment: I can't help myself not to begin this review with a big *thanks* to O'Reilly for choosing Linux to launch this new series.
First thing that crossed my mind after opening this tiny book, was a notion of close resemblance with another O'Reilly book that I read recently, "Unix Power Tools". Book is organized in almost identical way, short articles (anything from a page or two, to several pages) that are presented with a clear writing style, examples and efficient layout. Articles are cross-referenced in such a way that you can easily start reading the book from whatever end you wish.
The hacks that I like the most are those in chapters on Server Basics, Backups, SSH and Information Servers (BIND, Apache, MySQL, OpenSSL). If you're hardcore Linux sysadmin you'll probably appreciate hacks in other chapters too; Networking, Revision Control and Monitoring. For me, the most challenging hacks in this book are the ones that deal with tunneling (IPIP/GRE encapsulation, vtun over SSH), due to complete lack of experience on my side, otherwise I found the book well worth the price and time to read, even if you'll end up with only one or two implemented hacks in your production environment. (If I could only say this more often in my reviews :-).
Keep in mind, this is not the book that'll likely collect the dust on your bookshelf after you'll read it. Mine is always close to the Linux box that I manage (in a good company with already mentioned "Unix Power Tools").
I'm really looking forward to other books from O'Reilly Hacks series, what about 100 hacks on Oracle, MySQL, regular expressions "one liners" (with sed, awk, grep, perl...), Windows NT...
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Poor Man's VPN
Comment: The challenge: Accessing my Linux workstation at work from my Linux workstation at home.
A colleage suggested I take a look at SSH port forwarding. I did a quick read through the man page and tried a few things to no avail. As I say back in frustration I noticed a book on my shelf that had say unread for several months. A quick scan of Linux Server Hack and I had a solution that allowed me to create a sort of poor man's VPN.
Buy this book. Read it. It will pay for itself in increased productivity.