This book is outstanding. Most books on Unix Administration start from the beginning, the beauty of this one is that it doesn't. This is a more advanced book designed for veteran administrators, or administrators looking for a move be junior administrator status to senior admin.

Bauer talks about the fundamentals behind automation, including state of mind and approach to automating different tasks. On top of that, he has great real-world examples that I am sure he has implemented on his servers. The book covers several topics and does it well. My favorite sections are the package management sections and the building RPMs sections. I have used those two throughout my time as a Unix Administrator in a large shop.

Each topic is covered in adequate depth, with enough information to get you started and working though solving problems. The book certainly is not a complete resource on monitoring, SSH, or backups or user management. Bauer makes the assumption that you have some background (maybe not much, but some) with all of these concepts.

When I meet good Unix Administrators who want to become great, I recommend this book. This is the type of book that will be looked periodically as a reference guide, after its initial reading.

Most of the book is about Cfengine, so if you're only looking at automating tasks on 1-3 servers, you may end up using only 1/3 of the book. But I must say the content is relevant and well written.

I see that most of the reviewers didn't like this as much as I did. That may be because they are home users or have small networks - I think this is very useful for the admins of larger systems (though it may not be useful for VERY large systems).

Or it may be that the subject matter is too dry. Sure, this can be a boring subject, but isn't that the point? System administration is often boring, and particularly so if you haven't automated it. Making global changes isn't exciting, but it is something some of us have to do now and then.

I'm surprised that it averages two stars - I think it is better than that. When I first get a technical book, I flip to a few random pages - I'm looking to see if I find things I didn't already know and if things are well explained. I found a LOT of things I was not previously aware of and I thought the coverage was thorough.

I agree that it has a strong Linux slant, but I don't see that as a problem - most of what this book suggests could be translated to any system.

If you do *ANY* Unix/Linux system administration (from just maintaining your own desktop machine on up to the big-time), and automating some (or most) aspects of UNIX/Linux system administration sounds at all interesting to you, then stop wasting your time reading this review, and *IMMEDIATELY* go purchase this book! Really!

OK. If you are still reading, then either you don't do *any* UNIX/Linux system administration (in which case: Why *are* you reading this?), or you aren't quite sold. Let me tell you: This book is among a truly rare breed---just bursting with quality and value! (This book is an absolute *steal*; its a bargain at twice the price!) I'm a bit of a Linux and Perl book nut; I have so many O'Reilly books on my bookshelf that I have a better selection than my local Borders! AULA's publisher is a new one for me, but I think that they got an author---and a book---that O'Reilly would *kill* for!

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure: I'm not a professional Sys-Ad, but I do administer my own small network of Linux machines that I use in my technical business. Oh, and I'd never heard of Kirk Bauer before reading this book (although I did know about a quality piece of open-source software called LogWatch---I just didn't know that Kirk Bauer was its author too).

Automating UNIX and Linux Administration (AULA) is a genuinely *outstanding* UNIX/Linux system-administration book! I have read, re-read, and re-re-read *most* of the book! AULA is truly worth its weight in platinum! It is a rare and wonderful thing to start reading a computer/technical book and realize that it is of monumental significance, something that you *know* will be of enormous value! A "_this_changes_everything_" moment! In my personal programming library, AULA occupies prime real estate---and I would say that it shares the "WOW" factor with only a few of my other favorites:

Linux Administration Handbook
Evi Nemeth, et al., 2002, Prentice Hall PTR

Linux Server Hacks
Rob Flickenger, 2003, O'Reilly

Linux Shell Scripting with Bash
Ken O. Burtch, 2004 Sams Publishing (Developers Library)

And of value to Perl hackers:

Perl for System Administration
David N. Blank-Edelman, 2000, O'Reilly

Perl Cookbook
Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington, 2000, O'Reilly

If Kirk Bauer ever publishes any other materials on Linux administration, I'll buy them on the basis of the title (and his name) alone---I have no need for any more information! This is clearly a guy who *knows* what valuable information is, and has the technical savvy to save you years (decades?) of trial-and-error experience. AULA is packed with unique insight and a source of information that cannot be found anywhere else! Do yourself a *big* favor---buy this book now!

This is a good book for everyone that want to go a little bit deeper in the Linux Adminstration. In Linux distributions we often find differents solutions to address the same problem. The book can save hours deciding between using solution A or B. It include and overview of the most often used solutions with the pro and cons in some cases. For example: NFS, AFS, Coda and others.

All the time the author has the security in mind and this is important for people trying to set boxes on the Internet.

If you have a UNIX background that not used for a long time (10 years or so) and you need to go into the Linux server administration. This book certainly will save you a lot of time and will give you the bases to go deeper in the topics that are more important to you.

If the above if not your case, I think the book is still a worth too. I will help to understand the pitfalls in Linux administrations a bit deeper.

At least, but no less important, I found the book easy to read.