Managing NFS and NIS

by Mike Eisler, Ricardo Labiaga, Hal Stern

Book Overview

A modern computer system that's not part of a network is even more of an anomaly today than it was when we published the first edition of this book in 1991. But however widespread networks have become, managing a network and getting it to perform well can still be a problem. Managing NFS and NIS, in a new edition based on Solaris 8, is a guide to two tools that are absolutely essential to distributed computing environments: the Network Filesystem...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565925106
• ISBN13: 9781565925106
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 510 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A note from one of the co-authors

Hello, My name is Mike Eisler, and I am one of theco-authors of Managing NFS and NIS, Second Edition.I'm writing this note to offer additional informationto potential readers.At the time I submitted this note, most of the customer reviews for this book referred to the first edition. One of the reviews states that the book is focused on NFS version 2 over UDP and the old style automounter.Actually, you'll find the second edition of our bookis more modern. New topics in the second editioninclude NFS version 3, NFS over TCP, modern autofs-based automounters, Kerberos V5 authentication for NFS, NFS Access Control Lists (ACLs), and client side fail over.Another difference is that first edition of this book used SunOS 4.x as a reference for examples. The second edition uses Solaris 8.The second edition provides information you won't find in NFS product documentation, such as using tools like etherealto debug NFS problems. This book will give you the benefit ofinsights from people who probably wrote some of the code for your clients and servers. You may find (and I hope) that it will save you the trouble reporting a problem toyour vendor's customer support line.Thank you for considering our book.

NFS, NIS and automounter, a great combonation!

Anyone who has ever administered a network of at least 3-4 servers (if not more) will find individually updating accounts, software and such to be a burden. I found myself in this situation not too long ago, and then I picked up this book, and found the answers I was looking for.Most Unix admins have heard of NFS and NIS but might not have considered using them together. This book gives a very thorough discussion each topic, how to set it up, how to deal with advanced issues, and how to troubleshoot. Admins will really develop an appreciation for how useful these tools can be, especially when used together.Though LDAP is gaining prominence, a network utilizing NIS, NFS, and automounter is still a very nice network to administer. Even just learning NFS/automounter is time well spent because it is a service not likely to go away. I really felt this this book was worth the time and money because it really helps the intermediate to advanced admin better gain control of the network (instead of the network controlling him :). Definintely give this book a try. Enjoy!

The standard for NFS/NIS

O'Reilly puts out so many well written books and the quality of the authors is usually the highest, and this book is no exception. Both of these subjects are covered in more than enough detail for anyone need to setup NFS, NIS, or both. It is written in such a way that you son't have to read straight through, but can use it as a reference for the information you need. I would recommend this book for anyone neededing a decent to thorough understanding of this topic.

Excellent! Helps both beginners and experienced

Does not leave out essential information. Gives useful examples where needed. Though not a beginner to Unix, I was not very familiar with NIS and NFS. I was very pleased to find a Unix book that gave me all I wanted to know in an understandable format. This is not always the case with the O'reilly books.

Valuable tool for UNIX systems administrators

I was formerly the UNIX Systems Administrator of large company where we had several variants of the UNIX operating system employed. We had a very robust NIS and NFS environment with hundreds of NFS mount points and a dozen or more NIS maps. The text and examples of this book enabled me to better maintain and update our environment. The practical guidelines for NIS map and application building provided concise information that was easily implemented. In the area of NFS administration, the book provided valuable performance and tuning information, as well as diagnostic information to determine where problems could lie. Additionally, I enjoyed the sections on Networking Fundamentals and NFS Design and operation. These were a nice refresher for knowledge previously attained. While no one book can give all the answers to real world problems, this one at least shows practical application whereby a professional can apply the fundamentals to solve their own problems. Overall, as a UNIX systems administrator, I found this book to be a "MUST HAVE" item for the professionals' bookshelf.