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.

Table of Contents

Part I Game-Changing Strategies

Chapter 1 Climbing Out of the Hole

Chapter 2 The Small Batches Principle

Chapter 3 Pets and Cattle

Chapter 4 Infrastructure as Code

Part II Workstation Fleet Management

Chapter 5 Workstation Architecture

Chapter 6 Workstation Hardware Strategies

Chapter 7 Workstation Software Life Cycle

Chapter 8 OS Installation Strategies

Chapter 9 Workstation Service Definition

Chapter 10 Workstation Fleet Logistics

Chapter 11 Workstation Standardization

Chapter 12 Onboarding

Part III Servers

Chapter 13 Server Hardware Strategies

Chapter 14 Server Hardware Features

Chapter 15 Server Hardware Specifications

Part IV Services

Chapter 16 Service Requirements

Chapter 17 Service Planning and Engineering

Chapter 18 Service Resiliency and Performance Patterns

Chapter 19 Service Launch: Fundamentals

Chapter 20 Service Launch: DevOps

Chapter 21 Service Conversions

Chapter 22 Disaster Recovery and Data Integrity

Part V Infrastructure

Chapter 23 Network Architecture

Chapter 24 Network Operations

Chapter 25 Datacenters Overview

Chapter 26 Running a Datacenter

Part VI Helpdesks and Support

Chapter 27 Customer Support

Chapter 28 Handling an Incident Report

Chapter 29 Debugging

Chapter 30 Fixing Things Once

Chapter 31 Documentation

Part VII Change Processes

Chapter 32 Change Management

Chapter 33 Server Upgrades

Chapter 34 Maintenance Windows

Chapter 35 Centralization Overview

Chapter 36 Centralization Recommendations

Chapter 37 Centralizing a Service

Part VIII Service Recommendations

Chapter 38 Service Monitoring

Chapter 39 Namespaces

Chapter 40 Nameservices

Chapter 41 Email Service

Chapter 42 Print Service

Chapter 43 Data Storage

Chapter 44 Backup and Restore

Chapter 45 Software Repositories

Chapter 46 Web Services

Part IX Management Practices

Chapter 47 Ethics

Chapter 48 Organizational Structures

Chapter 49 Perception and Visibility

Chapter 50 Time Management

Chapter 51 Communication and Negotiation

Chapter 52 Being a Happy SA

Chapter 53 Hiring System Administrators

Chapter 54 Firing System Administrators

Part X Being More Awesome

Chapter 55 Operational Excellence

Chapter 56 Operational Assessments

Epilogue

Part XI Appendices

Appendix A What to Do When ...

Appendix B The Many Roles of a System Administrator

About the Authors

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.