The Debian Administrator's Handbook is a book which covers all the topics that a Linux administrator should master, from the installation and the update of the system, up to the creation of packages and the compilation of the kernel, but also monitoring, backup and migration, without forgetting advanced topics like SELinux setup to secure services, automated installations, or virtualization with Xen, KVM or LXC.
Here are some topics covered by this book:
- Chapter 1 focuses on a non-technical presentation of the Debian project and describes its goals and organization. These aspects are important because they define a general framework that others chapters will complete with more concrete information.
- Chapters 2 and 3 provide a broad outline of the case study. At this point, novice readers can take the time to read appendix B, where they'll find a short remedial course explaining a number of basic computing notions, as well as concepts inherent to any Unix system. To get on with our real subject matter, we will quite naturally start with the installation process (chapter 4); chapters 5 and 6 will unveil basic tools that any Debian administrator will use, such as those of the APT family, which is largely responsible for the distribution's excellent reputation. These chapters are in no way reserved to professionals, since everyone is their own administrator at home.
- Chapter 7 will be an important parenthesis; it describes workflows to efficiently use documentation and to quickly gain an understanding of problems in order to solve them. The next chapters will be a more detailed tour of the system, starting with basic infrastructure and services (chapters 8 to 10) and going progressively up the stack to reach the user applications in chapter 13. Chapter 12 deals with more advanced subjects that will most directly concern administrators of large sets of computers (including servers), while chapter 14 is a brief introduction to the wider subject of computer security and gives a few keys to avoid most problems.
- Chapter 15 is for administrators who want to go further and create their own Debian packages.
The book is available both in paperback which costs $48.86 on lulu.com and electronic version (e-book). The electronic version has three document format: PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket and you can download it for FREE here.
Enjoy :)