Operating Systems

OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems

“Many users assume that their advanced filesystem is better than UFS because they have so many features—snapshots, checksums, compression, sophisticated caching algorithms, and so on—while all UFS has ever done is muck about putting data on disk. But, conversely, UFS users believe their filesystem is better for exactly the same reasons.”
—Hitchhikers Guide to OpenBSD

Disk management is the core of system administration. Nobody can tell you how large that database is going to grow or how many files that archive must eventually support, but for everything else there’s OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems. This guide takes you through the latest in OpenBSD storage management, including:
• OpenBSD’s cross-platform storage stack
• MBR, GPT, and disklabel partitions
• The Unix File System
• Growing, removing, and repairing filesystems
• Memory file systems
• The Buffer Cache
• Why you need swap, and how to live with it
• Coping with FAT, NTFS, EXT, and more
• The Network File System
• iSCSI
• Software RAID
• Encrypted filesystems
• Encrypted installs
And more! Partition yourself for success and grab OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems now.

Grab the book from:

FreeBSD Mastery: Jails

CONFINE YOUR SOFTWARE

Jails are FreeBSD’s most legendary feature: known to be powerful, tricky to master, and cloaked in decades of dubious lore. Deploying jails calls upon every sysadmin skill you have, and more—but unleashing lightweight virtualization is so worth it.

FreeBSD Mastery: Jails cuts through the clutter to expose the inner mechanisms of jails and unleash their power in your service. You will:

• Understand how jails achieve lightweight virtualization
• Understand the base system’s jail tools and the iocage toolkit
• Optimally configure jail hardware
• Manage jails from the host and from within the jail
• Optimize disk space usage to support hundreds or thousands of jails
• Comfortably work within the limits of jails
• Implement fine-grained control of jail features
• Build virtual networks
• Deploy hierarchical jails
• Constrain jail resource usage
• And more!

Strip away the mystery. Read FreeBSD Mastery: Jails today!

“This is the sequel to Git Commit Murder, right ?”
/phk, creator of the jail system

Get the book from:

• My print bookstore
• Tilted Windmill Press, my online e-bookstore (3 formats, no DRM, non-EU because VAT)
• Gumroad (3 formats, no DRM, collects EU VAT)
• Kobo
• Barnes & Noble
• iBooks
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES
  

  Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition

  FreeBSD empowers. Absolute FreeBSD empowers absolutely.

  The critically-acclaimed FreeBSD guide, now expanded, revised, and updated!

  “When was the last time you could physically feel yourself getting smarter while reading a book? If you are a beginning to average FreeBSD user, Absolute FreeBSD 2nd Ed (AF2E) will deliver that sensation in spades. Even more advanced users will find plenty to enjoy.”
  —Richard Bejtlich, TaoSecurity founder and president

  FreeBSD is the muscle behind companies from Netflix to EMC. Any place where someone does heavy lifting on the Internet, you’ll find FreeBSD. Absolute FreeBSD brings FreeBSD’s strengths to bear on your problems.

  Any computer system is only as good as the system administrator’s knowledge. Absolute FreeBSD teaches you everything you need to know about managing FreeBSD systems, from installation, configuration, and taking the system from “just working” to “working well.” A cohesive focus on service delivery and best practice means that you can apply much of the book to other operating systems.

  ” . . . a very fine piece of work. It isn’t about how to implement BSD solutions. It’s about managing systems ‘in situ.'”
  –Peter Salus, UNIX historian, on the 1st edition

  Managers ask “Why is it slow?” “How fast is it working?” “How many users can our current hardware handle?” Sysadmins ask “Can I set up a local software package repository?” “Where is that function, anyway?” “What do I do with this crash dump?” Absolute FreeBSD, from No Starch Press, answers these and more!

  Absolute BSD taught new sysadmins how to build and manage a FreeBSD server. Absolute FreeBSD dove deep into server management, taking you beyond just making things work and into understanding why they work. This third edition of Absolute FreeBSD updated all that knowledge and covers FreeBSD’s newest features.

  You’ll learn:

  • How to best install FreeBSD to meet your needs
  • Which filesystem to use in your environment
  • How to back up and restore critical data
  • When and how to tweak the kernel, and when not to
  • Network configuration, from activating interfaces to selecting congestion control algorithms
  • Managing both UFS and ZFS, as well as FreeBSD’s other important filesystems
  • FreeBSD’s software packaging system, including how to build your own package repository
  • How and when to upgrade
  • How to build your own FreeBSD
  • Advanced security features like blacklistd and packet filtering
  • Monitoring and Adjusting Performance
  • Container-style virtualization with jails
  • Diskless systems
  • Panic management and bug reporting

  New readers will still get the solid introduction they need, but fans of the earlier editions will expand their skills still further.

  All in the inimitable style that has made Lucas’ system administration books so popular.

  Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:

• No Starch Press offers a print/ebook combo Use the coupon code ILUVMICHAEL to get 30% off on and put a few extra bucks in my pocket!
• from my print bookstore
• Kobo
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES
  

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  FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS

  by Allan Jude and Michael W Lucas

  Also see FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS

  ZFS improves everything about systems administration. Once you peek under the hood, though, ZFS’ bewildering array of knobs and tunables can overwhelm anyone. ZFS experts can make their servers zing—and now you can, too, with FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS.

  This small book teaches you to:

  • Use boot environments to make the riskiest sysadmin tasks boring
  • Delegate filesystem privileges to users
  • Containerize ZFS datasets with jails
  • Quickly and efficiently replicate data between machines
  • split layers off of mirrors
  • optimize ZFS block storage
  • handle large storage arrays
  • select caching strategies to improve performance
  • manage next-generation storage hardware
  • identify and remove bottlenecks
  • build screaming fast database storage
  • dive deep into pools, metaslabs, and more!

  Whether you manage a single small server or international datacenters, simplify your storage with FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS.

  Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:

• my print bookstore
• Tilted Windmill Press, my on-line bookstore (3 formats, 0 DRM, non-EU because VAT) – also part of the FreeBSD Storage Mastery bundle
• Gumroad (3 formats, no DRM, collects VAT for EU customers)
• Kobo
• iBooks
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES
  

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  FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems

  Filesystems for every need!

  FreeBSD includes many special-purpose filesystems. FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems takes you through these filesystems, helping you solve problems you didn’t know you have. These filesystems underlie everything from application servers to jails.

  “a joy and treasure to read” — NixCraft

  With Specialty Filesystems you’ll learn to manage:

  • removable media
  • MSDOS and Linux filesystems
  • CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray disks
  • devfs
  • process filesystems
  • the file descriptor filesystem
  • the POSIX message queue filesystem
  • union mounts
  • null mounts
  • both memory filesystems, and when to use each
  • NFS versions 2, 3, and 4
  • iSCSI targets and initiators
  • the Common Internet File System
  • networked disk redundancy with geom_gate and HAST
  • high availability storage with HAST and iSCSI
  • NFSv4 Access Control Lists
  • User Space Filesystems
  • FreeBSD’s Solaris-compatible automounter

  System administrators of any expertise level will expand their FreeBSD mastery with FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems.

  “I’m a fan of his books… he presents them in a way that makes them much more understandable. He has the right mix of humor and information.” — Sunday Morning Linux Review

  (BSD Daemon copyright 1988 Marshall Kirk McKusick.)

  Normally I don’t care if you buy the print or ebook version, but the cover art of this book wraps all the way around to the back cover. In my unbiased opinion, it’s fairly spectacular.

  Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:

• my print bookstore
• my own ebookstore, Tilted Windmill Press (3 formats, 0 DRM)
• Gumroad (PDF, epub, mobi, no DRM, collects VAT for EU customers)
• Kobo
• iTunes
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES
  

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  FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS

  Data Storage for the 21st Century and Beyond!
  By Michael W Lucas and Allan Jude

  (Also see FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS, by Jude and Lucas)

  ZFS, the fast, flexible, self-healing filesystem, revolutionized data storage. Leveraging ZFS changes everything about managing FreeBSD systems.

  “Thanks for making ZFS knowable by everyone” — Matt Ahrens, ZFS co-creator

  “Thanks for doing this… now I don’t have to” — Jeff Bonwick, ZFS co-creator

  With FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS, you’ll learn to:

  • select hardware for ZFS systems
  • arrange your storage for optimal performance
  • configure datasets that match your enterprise’s needs
  • repair and monitor storage pools
  • expand your storage
  • use compression to enhance performance
  • determine if deduplication is right for your data
  • understand how copy-on-write changes everything
  • snapshot filesystems
  • automatically rotate snapshots
  • clone filesystems
  • optimize how ZFS uses and manages space
  • customize FreeBSD ZFS installs

  Whether you’re a long-term FreeBSD administrator or a new user, FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS will help you simplify storage.

  Master ZFS with FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS

  “ZFS Mastery covers what everyone using or administering these filesystems needs to know to work with them every day. It’s fascinating to see how the system is used, having seen how it is implemented.” George V. Neville-Neil author of Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System

  Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:

  • direct from my print bookstore
  • direct from my ebookstore
  • Gumroad (PDF, mobi, epub, no DRM, for EU customers)
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Kobo
  • iBooks
  • FreeBSD Mall
  • Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES

   

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  FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials

  FreeBSD is one of the oldest and most featureful open-source Unix-like operating systems. FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials takes you on a deep dive into FreeBSD’s disk management systems.

  “If you’re a FreeBSD (or Linux, or Unix) sysadmin, then you need this book.” — Slashdot, on FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials

  You’ll learn about:

• identifying your storage hardware
• the Common Access Method
• GEOM–FreeBSD’s powerful and flexible stackable storage system
• GUID Partition Tables, the modern disk partitioning standard
• MBR/disklabel partitioning, used by older and embedded systems
• avoiding common partitioning errors
• aligning partitions to the physical disk, for peak performance
• the high-performance Unix File System
• tuning UFS to fit your environment and load
• Two ways to journal filesystems, and when to use each
• The GELI and GBDE disk encryption systems, and when to use each
• Software-based disk mirroring, striping, RAID-5 and RAID-10.
• Custom FreeBSD installsAnd more!Don’t just configure your storage. Understand it. Get FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials today!Read FMSE Chapter 10: SMART right now.Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:
• my print bookstore
• Tilted Windmill Press, my private label. PDF, epub, mobi, DRM-free. (Open to non-EU customers because of VAT, sorry!)
• Gumroad – PDF, epub, mobi, DRM-free.
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• iBooks
• Powell’s
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES(BSD Daemon copyright 1988 Marshall Kirk McKusick.)
  

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  Absolute OpenBSD, 2nd Edition

  OpenBSD is the world’s most secure networked operating system, in wide use by Internet Service Providers, corporations, and embedded systems manufacturers. The original Absolute OpenBSD was the go-to work on this operating system, earning praise for a decade after its release.

  The best-selling standard work on OpenBSD, fully revised and expanded!

  The first copy of Absolute OpenBSD off the press was auctioned off to support the OpenBSD Foundation.

  This new edition is fully rewritten and contains the latest details about key OpenBSD features such as the PF packet filter, network VLANs and trunks, packaged software, building your own releases, diskless installs, and more, more, more.

  Absolute OpenBSD goes into depth on the features that set OpenBSD apart from the crowd of free UNIX-like operating systems. It reaches beyond explaining what to type, and instead takes the reader into why things work that way.

  Get the print or DRM-free ebook from:

• No Starch Press bundles BOTH the physical book and the ebook (in several DRM-free formats). Use coupon code ILUVMICHAEL for a special Official Book Web Site Discount of 30%. Not only does this cost you a little less, but a wee bit more of your money goes to support the author’s bad habits. (Online orders are handled by No Starch Press.)
• B&N.
• iTunes
• Kobo
• Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES Praise for the First Edition:
  

  This is an excellent book for users and system administrators who want to migrate to the OpenBSD operating system.” — ACM Computing Reviews

  “[This] is a well-written book that hits its market squarely on target. Those new to OpenBSD will appreciate the comprehensive approach that takes them from concept to functional execution. Existing and advanced users will benefit from the discussion of OpenBSD- specific topics such as the security features and pf administration.” –Slashdot

  “My current favorite is Absolute OpenBSD: Unix for the Practical Paranoid by Michael W. Lucas from No Starch Press. Anyone should be able to read this book, download OpenBSD, and get it running as quickly as possible.” — Infoworld, December 29, 2006

  “I recommend Absolute OpenBSD to all programmers and administrators working with the OpenBSD operating system (OS), or considering it.” — Dr. Dobbs

  ‘Six months ago I was happy to read Michael Lucas’ “Absolute BSD,” and today I’m glad I read “Absolute OpenBSD.” This author knows just what to cover, and to what detail.’ –TaoSecurity