"Hi! I'd Like to Buy a Gross of This Book!"
Written: Jun 25 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very well written, author doesn't "talk down" to the reader.
Cons: Doesn't have enough for "different flavors" of UNIX, some topics are very general.
The Bottom Line: Excellent reading for the UNIX end-user who really doesn't care how to write shell scripts, but just wants to get their daily tasks done.
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| caradoc's Full Review: Linda Mui - What You Need to Know When You Can't F... |
I've been a full-time UNIX System Administrator for about five years now, and part-time before that.
Mostly, I manage very large systems that serve web pages for Fortune 500 companies. This means that on a daily basis, I interact with people who range from not knowing which side of the floppy disk goes "up" to people who call the CD-ROM drive a "cup holder" to people who really just want to know why the OS is holding a port open after their application has tried to close it.
With such a broad range of users to support, I often wished that there was a very simple book geared to the everyday user who logged into a UNIX box to run a query, then logged out - or even simpler tasks.
"What You Need to Know When You Can't Find Your UNIX System Administrator" is geared to those who really don't want to know everything about how and why the computer works the way it does, but just want to know why after the IT guys moved their machine from one cubicle to another they can no longer log into their X Windows session on the development server.
Chapters like "What you need to know about solving problems" and "What you need to know about logging in" cover the basics of troubleshooting a problem.
One of the best sections in Chapter 1, "What you need to know about solving problems," sums up in just a couple of paragraphs why it is more important to tell your system administrator, "When I run $APPLICATION, it generates this $ERROR. Yesterday I moved from one cubicle to another - could this have anything to do with the problem?" instead of "$APPLICATION is broken. Fix it before my report is due!"
I could easily imagine someone like my mother or father reading this book and understanding the presentation of topical yet general information. Things like "Why can't I log in?" are covered in detail, without "talking down" to the reader. Even as an experienced UNIX sysadmin, I found myself sympathizing with the users' commentaries in the sidebars of various pages.
Chapter 1: What you need to know about solving problems
UNIX administrators are not magicians. We can't read minds, nor can we tell why a server on the other side of the country is not responding (at least not until we've had time to investigate the issue. The author makes it clear that in problem solving, a good UNIX administrator is just a detective - observe the facts, come up with a theory, and then work to prove or disprove that theory while continuing to document the additional facts as they're discovered.
When you have a problem with the system, saying "It's broken" or "It doesn't work" isn't nearly as helpful as "When I come in every morning, I log in and go to this directory to run this command, but now I'm getting this error that says I don't have permission to execute that." If you can reproduce the problem on a regular basis, that's even more helpful. The more hard facts you can give to your system administrator, the better - and the harder you dig for those facts, the more likely you'll be able to solve the problem yourself instead of waiting in the help queue.
Chapter 2: What you need to know about logging in
As the author says, "If you can't log in, you can't do anything else." This may be a little different depending on the systems you use, but it's generally true. Chapter 2 details the steps of the UNIX login process, and details what the various problems could be if any particular step fails - including powering on your terminal and making sure the brightness is turned up to where the image is visible. Also included are tips to make sure you don't forget your password while simultaneously making it hard for others to guess it.
Chapter 3: What you need to know about running programs
Programs, processes, or applications - they're all names for the sets of instructions that make the computer do what you ask it to do. Sometimes, it doesn't do what you ask it to do, and Chapter 3 can help explain why. Whether it's a problem with the permissions, a piece of the program is missing, or certain environmental variables aren't set correctly, Chapter 3 has answers for most of the common problems.
Chapter 4: What you need to know about sharing files
Shared systems tend to eliminate the need for "sneakernet," or carrying disks around to your colleagues. They can also mean that you share files or information that you really didn't want to share. Chapter 4 covers a lot of things about the security measures in a UNIX enviroment, and how to use them to your advantage - or fix them if they're preventing you from working the way you need to.
Chapter 5: What you need to know about printing
Since I rarely print anything from any of my UNIX systems, there were even a few tips in this chapter that I found interesting. The author covers the entire process from translating the file, generating the output, queuing the job, and finishing out.
Chapter 6: What you need to know about space and time
I was mildly disappointed that there were no comments about Niels Bohr or Einstein, but the chapter covers how your programs and file use might affect other users on the same system. Multi-user systems mean that multiple programs run at the same time, and if your program is a "resource hog," other users might have problems getting their programs to work.
Chapter 6 talks about file systems, how to tell how much room your files are taking up, memory, system time, and other factors so that you can work/play nicely with the other users on the machine.
Chapter 7: What you need to know about everyone else
As you figure out that your program needs more resources to run, you might need to find that user whose processes are taking up all of the computer's time so you can ask them when you can run your own programs. Chapter 7 covers how to use commands like "who," "ps," and "finger" to see who's doing what.
There's even an appendix, titled "What you need to know if you need to know more" that contains reference information for locating "better" resources for particular topics.
Overall, I've been very happy with the book. I intend to leave it chained to my desk, so when my users can't find their UNIX system administrator, they'll at least have some resources available. Or maybe I should buy a gross or two, and hand them out - at $3-$4 each depending on where you buy, they're a very good value.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
caradoc
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Member: John Groseclose
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Reviews written: 182
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About Me:
System admin, technology addict, knife thrower, and dog "caregiver."
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