“I think we’re gonna need a bigger web server.” OpenBSD has a solid reputation for security and stability. It’s well known for the OpenSMTPd mail server, the LibreSSL cryptography library, and the PF packet filter. But nobody ever talks about the load balancer, or the web server. Until now. The httpd web server provides a fast, stable, secure environment for your web applications. The relayd load balancer lets you distribute Internet application load across multiple hosts. Between the two, you can slash hundreds of thousands of dollars off the cost of building, deploying, and managing applications. With Httpd and Relayd Mastery you’ll learn how to: · set up web sites · configure software to run in a chroot · run dozens or hundreds of sites on one host · dynamically reconfigure sites with Lua patterns · manage site logs · maintain free, globally-valid SSL certificates · improve performance with SSL stapling · install and maintain two-server clusters · distribute traffic between any number of hosts · stop worrying about old SSL versions and bad crypto algorithms Slash the amount of time you spend futzing with web servers. Get Httpd and Relayd Mastery today!

Sudo: You’re Doing It Wrong Unix-like operating systems use a rudimentary access control system: the root account can do anything, while other users are peasants with only minimal access. This worked fine in UNIX’s youth, but now that sysadmin responsibilities are spread among many people and applications, many people need a tiny slice of root’s power. Sudo lets you divide root’s monolithic power between the people who need it with accountability and auditability. Sudo Mastery will teach you to: · design a secure sudo policy · simplify policies with lists and aliases · manage shell environments · verify system integrity via intrusion detection · deploy a single sudo policy across your enterprise · manage sudo policies via LDAP · log and debug sudo · record and replay full sudo sessions · use authentication systems other than passwords Master sudo with Sudo Mastery!

The best-selling text on SSH, newly revised and updated! Secure Shell (SSH) lets sysadmins securely manage remote systems. It’s powerful, complicated, and confusing. Lose the confusion. SSH Mastery: OpenSSH, PuTTY, Tunnels and Keys rescues you from sifting through decades of obsolete online tutorials and quickly makes you an SSH journeyman. You’ll learn to · eliminate passwords · manage access by users, groups, addresses, and more · securely move files around your network · forward graphic displays · proxy TCP connections · build SOCKS proxies · centrally manage and distribute keys and configurations · use SSH as secure transport for other applications · build virtual private networks · create Certificate Authorities for truly large scale deployment Master Secure Shell with SSH Mastery! #ssh2e

Pluggable Authentication Modules: Threat or Menace? PAM is one of the most misunderstood parts of systems administration. Many sysadmins live with authentication problems rather than risk making them worse. PAM’s very nature makes it unlike any other Unix access control system. If you have PAM misery or PAM mysteries, you need PAM Mastery! With PAM Mastery, you’ll understand: · the different versions of PAM · the intricacies of Linux-PAM and OpenPAM · how PAM policies make decisions · how to debug PAM · the most frequently seen PAM modules · Linux-PAM extended controls and substacks · time-based one-time passwords · using SSH keys for more than SSH · password quality testing · policies from CentOS, Debian, and FreeBSD · and more! Transform PAM from a headache to an ally with PAM Mastery.

“I’m glad someone’s finally giving ed the attention it deserves.” – Ken Thompson, co-creator of Unix Let me be perfectly clear: ed is the standard Unix text editor. If you don’t know ed, you’re not a real sysadmin. Forty years after ed’s introduction, internationally acclaimed author Michael W Lucas has finally unlocked the mysteries of ed for everyone. With Ed Mastery, you too can become a proper sysadmin. Ed Mastery will help you: · understand buffers and addresses · insert, remove, and mangle text · master file management and shell escapes · comprehend regular expressions, searches, and substitutions · create high-performance scripts for transforming files You must be at least this competent to use this computer. Read Ed Mastery today!

"Many users assume that their advanced filesystem is better than UFS because they have so many features—snapshots, checksums, compression, sophisticated caching algorithms, and so on—while all UFS has ever done is muck about putting data on disk. But, conversely, UFS users believe their filesystem is better for exactly the same reasons." —Hitchhikers Guide to OpenBSD Disk management is the core of system administration. Nobody can tell you how large that database is going to grow or how many files that archive must eventually support, but for everything else there’s OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems. This guide takes you through the latest in OpenBSD storage management, including: · OpenBSD’s cross-platform storage stack · MBR, GPT, and disklabel partitions · The Unix File System · Growing, removing, and repairing filesystems · Memory file systems · The Buffer Cache · Why you need swap, and how to live with it · Coping with FAT, NTFS, EXT, and more · The Network File System · iSCSI · Software RAID · Encrypted filesystems · Encrypted installs And more! Partition yourself for success and grab OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems now.

CONFINE YOUR SOFTWARE Jails are FreeBSD’s most legendary feature: known to be powerful, tricky to master, and cloaked in decades of dubious lore. Deploying jails calls upon every sysadmin skill you have, and more—but unleashing lightweight virtualization is so worth it. FreeBSD Mastery: Jails cuts through the clutter to expose the inner mechanisms of jails and unleash their power in your service. You will: · Understand how jails achieve lightweight virtualization · Understand the base system’s jail tools and the iocage toolkit · Optimally configure jail hardware · Manage jails from the host and from within the jail · Optimize disk space usage to support hundreds or thousands of jails · Comfortably work within the limits of jails · Implement fine-grained control of jail features · Build virtual networks · Deploy hierarchical jails · Constrain jail resource usage · And more! Strip away the mystery. Read FreeBSD Mastery: Jails today! “This is the sequel to Git Commit Murder, right ?” /phk, creator of the jail system

DNS The world’s most successful distributed database—and the most naïve. The Domain Name System is one of the Internet’s oldest protocols, designed for a network without hostile users. Intruders targeting a network start by investigating their DNS. DNS Security Extensions, or DNSSEC, hardens DNS and brings it into the 21st century. Learning DNSSEC required wading through years of obsolete tutorials, dead ends, and inscrutable standards. Until now. This new edition of DNSSEC Mastery will have DNS administrators deploying DNSSEC with industry-standard software in hours instead of weeks. You will: · Understand what DNSSEC provides · Configure your servers to resist attack · Verify your environment supports modern DNS · Debug DNSSEC and the Chain of Trust · Sign your zones and attach them to the Chain of Trust · Conceal zone data with NSEC3 · Automate DNSSEC maintenance · Roll over keys to maintain integrity · Implement DNSSEC on private networks · Securely distribute security-critical information via DNS And more! DNSSEC Mastery transforms DNS from a headache to a solution.

Transport Layer Security, or TLS, makes ecommerce and online banking possible. It protects your passwords and your privacy. Let’s Encrypt transformed TLS from an expensive tool to a free one. TLS understanding and debugging is an essential sysadmin skill you must have. TLS Mastery takes you through: · How TLS works · What TLS provides, and what it doesn’t · Wrapping unencrypted connections inside TLS · Assessing TLS configurations · The Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) protocol · Using Let’s Encrypt to automatically maintain TLS certificates · Online Certificate Status Protocol · Certificate Revocation · CAA, HSTS, and Certificate Transparency · Why you shouldn’t run your own CA, and how to do it anyway · and more! Stop wandering blindly around TLS. Master the protocol with TLS Mastery!

Physics inconvenient? Change it. Then watch it try to kill you. Solve a murder in a universe without ground to stand on. Investigate inexplicable deaths a few million years after the Big Bang. Take too many breaths and never go home again. Let the antimatter trickle between your fingers, and visit five alien universes in this first Montague Portal omnibus. Contains: Forever Falls Hydrogen Sleets Drinking Heavy Water Sticky Supersaturation No More Lonesome Blue Rings