This book highlights practical sysadmin skills, common architectures that you’ll encounter, and best practices that apply to automating and running systems at any scale, from one laptop or server to 1,000 or more. It is intended to help orient you within the discipline, and hopefully encourages you to learn more about system administration.

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!

Provides advice for system administrators on time management, covering such topics as keeping an effective calendar, eliminating time wasters, setting priorities, automating processes, and managing interruptions.

This guide provides a solid background for Linux desktop users who want to move beyond the basics of Linux, and for experienced system administrators who are looking to gain more advanced skills.

This book contains more than 65 recipes that will equip you with what you need to know to work with Windows 2016 Server. This book will help you learn how to administrate your Windows Server for optimal performance. Key Features A focussed guide to help you with the core functionalities of Windows Server 2016 Explore tasks that will help you build a datacenter from scratch using Windows Server 2016 Step-by-step instructions for common Windows Server administration duties Book Description Windows Server 2016 is an operating system designed to run on servers. It supports enterprise-level data storage, communications, management, and applications. This book contains specially selected, detailed help on core, essential administrative tasks of Windows Server 2016. This book starts by helping you to navigate the interface of Windows Server 2016, and quickly shifts gears to implementing roles that are necessarily in any Microsoft-centric datacenter. This book will also help you leverage the web services platform built into Windows Server 2016, available to anyone who runs this latest and greatest Server operating system. Further, you will also learn to compose optimal Group Policies and monitor system performance and IP address management. This book will be a handy quick-reference guide for any Windows Server administrator, providing easy to read, step-by-step instructions for many common administrative tasks that will be part of any Server Administrator’s job description as they administer their Windows Server 2016 powered servers. The material in the book has been selected from the content of Packt's Windows Server 2016 Cookbook by Jordan Krause to provide a specific focus on key Windows Server administration tasks. What you will learn Become skilled in the navigation of Windows Server 2016, and explore the technologies and options that it provides Build the infrastructure required for a successful Windows Server network Move away from those open-source web server platforms and start migrating your websites to Server 2016's Internet Information Services today Provide a centralized point for users to access applications and data by confguring Remote Desktop Services Compose optimal Group Policies Who this book is for This book is for system administrators or IT professionals who want the skills to manage and maintain the core infrastructure of a Windows Server 2016 environment. Prior experience in Windows Server 2012 R2 environments will be helpful.

The core concepts and technologies you need to administer a Windows Server OS Administering a Windows operating system (OS) can be a difficult topic to grasp, particularly if you are new to the field of IT. This full-color resource serves as an approachable introduction to understanding how to install a server, the various roles of a server, and how server performance and maintenance impacts a network. With a special focus placed on the new Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) certificate, the straightforward, easy-to-understand tone is ideal for anyone new to computer administration looking to enter the IT field. Each chapter offers a clear and concise look at the core Windows administration concepts you need to know to gain an understanding of these difficult topics. Offers a clear, no-nonsense approach to administering a Windows operating system and presents it in such a way that IT beginners will confidently comprehend the subject matter Targets the MTA 98-365 exam by covering Windows Server installation, server roles, storage, and active directory infrastructure Provides you with a solid foundation of various networking topics so that you can gain a strong understanding of Windows Server administration concepts Includes review questions and suggested labs to further enhance your learning process With this book by your side, you will be armed with the core concepts and technologies needed to administer a Windows Server operating system.

Virtualization is a skill that most IT or security pros take for granted. The sheer number of choices and requirements can be a daunting challenge to face for beginners and veterans alike. With this book, you'll learn how to build a robust, customizable virtual environments suitable for both a personal home lab, as well as a dedicated office training environment. You will learn how to: - Understand the mechanics of virtualization and how they influence the design of your lab - Build an extensive baseline lab environment on any one of five commonly used hypervisors (VMware vSphere Hypervisor, VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, Oracle Virtualbox, and Microsoft Client Hyper-V) - Harden your lab environment against VM escapes and other security threats - Configure the pfSense firewall distribution to provide security, segmentation, and network services to your virtual lab - Deploy either Snort or Suricata open-source IDS platforms in IPS mode to further enhance the flexibility, segmentation and security of your lab network - Deploy Splunk as a log management solution for your lab - Reconfigure the provided baseline lab environment to better suit your individual needs Easy to follow steps and illustrations provide detailed, comprehensive guidance as you build your custom-tailored lab. Both IT and security professionals need practice environments to better hone their craft. Learn how to build and maintain your own with Building Flexible Virtual Machine Labs

Authoritative Answers to All Your Linux Network Server Questions--Specifically for Linux Administrators Tap into Linux's impressive capabilities as a network server. Written by one of the world's leading Linux system administration experts, Linux Network Servers teaches you, step-by-step, all the standard and advanced techniques you need to know to configure and administer a full range of network services, from file and printer sharing to email and the Web. Hundreds of clear, consistent examples illustrate these techniques in detail--so you stay on track and accomplish all your goals. Coverage includes the following: Installing Linux Understanding the boot process Working with the network interface Setting up login services Using Linux name services Configuring a mail server Setting up Apache Web server Configuring network gateway services Configuring desktop configuration server Setting up file sharing Setting up printer services Securing your server Troubleshooting The Craig Hunt Linux Library The Craig Hunt Linux Library provides in-depth, advanced coverage of the key topics for Linux administrators. Topics include Samba, System Administration, DNS Server Administration, Apache, Security, and Sendmail. Each book in the series is either written by or meticulously reviewed by Craig Hunt to ensure the highest quality and most complete coverage for networking professionals working specifically in Linux environments.

Virtualization, cloud, containers, server automation, and software-defined networking are meant to simplify IT operations. But many organizations adopting these technologies have found that it only leads to a faster-growing sprawl of unmanageable systems. This is where infrastructure as code can help. With this practical guide, author Kief Morris of ThoughtWorks shows you how to effectively use principles, practices, and patterns pioneered through the DevOps movement to manage cloud age infrastructure. Ideal for system administrators, infrastructure engineers, team leads, and architects, this book demonstrates various tools, techniques, and patterns you can use to implement infrastructure as code. In three parts, you’ll learn about the platforms and tooling involved in creating and configuring infrastructure elements, patterns for using these tools, and practices for making infrastructure as code work in your environment. Examine the pitfalls that organizations fall into when adopting the new generation of infrastructure technologies Understand the capabilities and service models of dynamic infrastructure platforms Learn about tools that provide, provision, and configure core infrastructure resources Explore services and tools for managing a dynamic infrastructure Learn specific patterns and practices for provisioning servers, building server templates, and updating running servers

Media Servers for Lighting Programmers is the reference guide for lighting programmers working with media servers – the show control devices that control and manipulate video, audio, lighting, and projection content that have exploded onto the scene, becoming the industry standard for live event productions, TV, and theatre performances. This book contains all the information you need to know to work effectively with these devices, beginning with coverage of the most common video equipment a lighting programmer encounters when using a media server - including terminology and descriptions - and continuing on with more advanced topics that include patching a media server on a lighting console, setting up the lighting console for use with a media server, and accessing the features of the media server via a lighting console. The book also features a look at the newest types of digital lighting servers and products. This book contains: Never-before-published information grounded in author Vickie Claiborne’s extensive knowledge and experience Covers newest types of digital lighting servers and products including media servers, software, and LED products designed to be used with video Companion website with additional resources and links to additional articles on PLSN