I’ve been reading this book for quite some time now—something like a year.

Not because it’s bad—it’s actually one of the best books I’ve ever read on systems administration. It covers everything you need to know to do the job right from a professional level. You can learn about the technical details for a particular tape drive, server, or desktop operating system anywhere; this book covers the big picture. How to set policies, how to plan for changes, how to deal with problems, how to deal with users and managers. Tom (and Christine Hogan, who isn’t mentioned here on the allconsuming page as I write this entry) know what it means to have the power and responsibility of a system administrator, and provide the tools you need to use that power safely and efficiently and handle your responsibilities ethically.

One of the best things about the book is its inclusion of many short anecdotes that illustrate a point that the authors are making. The stories bring things down from the possibly lofty-seeming policy level to the ‘tween-the-racks level of a working sysadmin.

Oh, yeah, why I haven’t finished it—I made the mistake of thinking I could read it at work. As an SA, of course, interruptions occur continuously, so I’ve actually only gotten to read it in the rest room, while I’m getting my hair cut, and during a few other unlikely situations. During a desk clearing, the book ended up on a shelf, “temporarily”, and I forgot about it as new problems, projects, and books came in and had to be dealt with.

(I've finished reading it since writing this review -- it's definitely the best book on the subject.) ( )

if you're a sysadmin, you should own this book. And read it, cover to cover.

That is all. ( )

This book is basically a best-practice manual for systems administration. It's extremely well written, covering both technical and policy issues with examples and short case studies throughout. One really nice feature is that each chapter is broken down into "The Basics" (what you need to do to get something working), and "The Icing" (additional things you can do to be a cut above the rest).

One day I will make time to read this book cover to cover, but in the meantime it's an excellent reference - especially when attempting to communicate with management on sysadmin issues . ( )