Practice of System and Network Administration, The

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!

Auteur

Thomas A. Limoncelli is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and system administrator with more than twenty years of experience at companies like Google, Bell Labs, and StackOverflow.com.

Christina J. Hogan has more than twenty years of experience in system administration and network engineering, from Silicon Valley to Italy and Switzerland. She has a master's degree in computer science, a doctorate in aeronautical engineering, and has been part of a Formula 1 racing team.

Strata R. Chalup has more than twenty-five years of experience in Silicon Valley, focusing on IT strategy, best-practices, and scalable infrastructures at firms that include Apple, Sun, Cisco, McAfee, and Palm.

Contenu

Preface xxxix

Acknowledgments xlvii

About the Authors li

Part I: Game-Changing Strategies 1

Chapter 1: Climbing Out of the Hole 3

1.1 Organizing WIP 5

1.2 Eliminating Time Sinkholes 12

1.3 DevOps 16

1.4 DevOps Without Devs 16

1.5 Bottlenecks 18

1.6 Getting Started 20

1.7 Summary 21

Exercises 22

Chapter 2: The Small Batches Principle 23

2.1 The Carpenter Analogy 23

2.2 Fixing Hell Month 24

2.3 Improving Emergency Failovers 26

2.4 Launching Early and Often 29

2.5 Summary 34

Exercises 34

Chapter 3: Pets and Cattle 37

3.1 The Pets and Cattle Analogy 37

3.2 Scaling 39

3.3 Desktops as Cattle 40

3.4 Server Hardware as Cattle 41

3.5 Pets Store State 43

3.6 Isolating State 44

3.7 Generic Processes 47

3.8 Moving Variations to the End 51

3.9 Automation 53

3.10 Summary 53

Exercises 54

Chapter 4: Infrastructure as Code 55

4.1 Programmable Infrastructure 56

4.2 Tracking Changes 57

4.3 Benefits of Infrastructure as Code 59

4.4 Principles of Infrastructure as Code 62

4.5 Configuration Management Tools 63

4.6 Example Infrastructure as Code Systems 67

4.7 Bringing Infrastructure as Code to Your Organization 71

4.8 Infrastructure as Code for Enhanced Collaboration 72

4.9 Downsides to Infrastructure as Code 73

4.10 Automation Myths 74

4.11 Summary 75

Exercises 76

Part II: Workstation Fleet Management 77

Chapter 5: Workstation Architecture 79

5.1 Fungibility 80

5.2 Hardware 82

5.3 Operating System 82

5.4 Network Configuration 84

5.5 Accounts and Authorization 86

5.6 Data Storage 89

5.7 OS Updates 93

5.8 Security 94

5.9 Logging 97

5.10 Summary 98

Exercises 99

Chapter 6: Workstation Hardware Strategies 101

6.1 Physical Workstations 101

6.2 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 105

6.3 Bring Your Own Device 110

6.4 Summary 113

Exercises 114

Chapter 7: Workstation Software Life Cycle 117

7.1 Life of a Machine 117

7.2 OS Installation 120

7.3 OS Configuration 120

7.4 Updating the System Software and Applications 123

7.5 Rolling Out Changes . . . Carefully 128

7.6 Disposal 130

7.7 Summary 134

Exercises 135

Chapter 8: OS Installation Strategies 137

8.1 Consistency Is More Important Than Perfection 138

8.2 Installation Strategies 142

8.3 Test-Driven Configuration Development 147

8.4 Automating in Steps 148

8.5 When Not to Automate 152

8.6 Vendor Support of OS Installation 152

8.7 Should You Trust the Vendor's Installation? 154

8.8 Summary 154

Exercises 155

Chapter 9: Workstation Service Definition 157

9.1 Basic Service Definition 157

9.2 Refresh Cycles 161

9.3 Tiered Support Levels 165

9.4 Workstations as a Managed Service 168

9.5 Summary 170

Exercises 171

Chapter 10: Workstation Fleet Logistics 173

10.1 What Employees See 173

10.2 What Employees Don't See 174

10.3 Configuration Management Database 183

10.4 Small-Scale Fleet Logistics 186

10.5 Summary 188

Exercises 188

Chapter 11: Workstation Standardization 191

11.1 Involving Customers Early 192

11.2 Releasing Early and Iterating 193

11.3 Having a Transition Interval (Overlap) 193

11.4 Ratcheting 194

11.5 Setting a Cut-Off Date 195

11.6 Adapting for Your Corporate Culture 195

11.7 Leveraging the Path of Least Resistance 196

11.8 Summary 198

Exercises 199

Chapter 12: Onboarding 201

12.1 Making a Good First Impression 201

12.2 IT Responsibilities 203

12.3 Five Keys to Successful Onboarding 203

12.4 Cadence Changes 212

12.5 Case Studies 212

12.6 Summary 216

Exercises 217

Part III: Servers 219

Chapter 13: Server Hardware Strategies 221

13.1 All Eggs in One Basket 222

13.2 Beautiful Snowflakes 224

13.3 Buy in Bulk, Allocate Fractions 228

13.4 Grid Computing 235

13.5 Blade Servers 237

13.6 Cloud-Based Compute Services 238

13.7 Server Appliances 241

13.8 Hybrid Strategies 242

13.9 Summary 243

Exercises 244

Chapter 14: Server Hardware Features 245

14.1 Workstations Versus Servers 246

14.2 Server Reliability 249

14.3 Remotely Managing Servers 254

14.4 Separate Administrative Networks 257

14.5 Maintenance Contracts and Spare Parts 258

14.6 Selecting Vendors with Server Experience 261

14.7 Summary 263

Exercises 263

Chapter 15: Server Hardware Specifications 265

15.1 Models and Product Lines 266

15.2 …