Automating System Administration with Perl: Tools to Make You More Efficient

by David Blank-Edelman

Overview

If you do systems administration work of any kind, you have to deal with the growing complexity of your environment and increasing demands on your time. Automating System Administration with Perl, Second Edition, not only offers you the right tools for your job, but also suggests the best way to approach specific problems and to securely automate recurring tasks.

Updated and expanded to cover the latest operating systems, technologies, and Perl modules, this edition of the "Otter Book" will help you:

• Manage user accounts
• Monitor filesystems and processes
• Work with configuration files in important formats such as XML and YAML
• Administer databases, including MySQL, MS-SQL, and Oracle with DBI
• Work with directory services like LDAP and Active Directory
• Script email protocols and spam control
• Effectively create, handle, and analyze log files
• Administer network name and configuration services, including NIS, DNS and DHCP
• Maintain, monitor, and map network services, using technologies and tools such as SNMP, nmap, libpcap, GraphViz and RRDtool
• Improve filesystem, process, and network security

This edition includes additional appendixes to get you up to speed on technologies such as XML/XPath, LDAP, SNMP, and SQL. With this book in hand and Perl in your toolbox, you can do more with less — fewer resources, less effort, and far less hassle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596006396
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/15/2009
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	666
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

David N. Blank-Edelman is the Director of Technology at the Northeastern UniversityCollege of Computer and Information Science. He has spent the last 25 years as a system/network administrator in large multi- platform environments, including Brandeis University, Cambridge Technology Group, and the MIT Media Laboratory. He was also the program chair of the LISA 2005 conference and one of the LISA 2006 Invited Talks co-chairs.

Table of Contents

• Dedication
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Filesystems
• Chapter 3: User Accounts
• Chapter 4: User Activity
• Chapter 5: TCP/IP Name and Configuration Services
• Chapter 6: Working with Configuration Files
• Chapter 7: SQL Database Administration
• Chapter 8: Email
• Chapter 9: Directory Services
• Chapter 10: Log Files
• Chapter 11: Security
• Chapter 12: SNMP
• Chapter 13: Network Mapping and Monitoring
• Chapter 14: Experiential Learning
• The Eight-Minute XML Tutorial
• The 10-Minute XPath Tutorial
• The 10-Minute LDAP Tutorial
• The 15-Minute SQL Tutorial
• The Five-Minute RCS Tutorial
• The Two-Minute VBScript-to-Perl Tutorial
• The 20-Minute SNMP Tutorial
• Colophon