Search

Search Tips

Managing NFS and NIS, Second Edition

By Hal Stern, Mike Eisler, Ricardo Labiaga
July 2001
Pages: 510
ISBN 10: 1-56592-510-6 | ISBN 13: 9781565925106
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)

Description

This long-awaited new edition of a classic, now updated for NFS Version 3 and based on Solaris 8, shows how to set up and manage a network filesystem installation. Managing NFS and NIS is the only practical book devoted entirely to NFS and the distributed database NIS; it's a "must-have" for anyone interested in Unix networking.
Full Description

---

---

Featured customer reviews

Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition Review,  March 13 2007
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

I find the material on NIS absolutely key and very nicely presented. It really is the NIS reference manual. It was a very helpful read when designing an large NIS environment with shared maps between several NIS domains.



Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition Review,  May 01 2003
Submitted by R. Cooley   [Respond | View]

This book is an incredibly tedious read. The author mentions an issue in very superficial detail in passing (but that would be a page worth) about 5 times. Each time, giving a little more info, and revealing that some things in the previous mention were actually wrong.

What makes this book so hard to read is the writing style. It's like being bombarded by trivialites of the subject. Maybe the author could have make this book 1/3rd as long, and cover the same material.

One thing I'd like to mention, is that this book, although published in 2001, does NOT cover NIS+ for some mysterous and unexplained reason. That means this book will not tell you anything about NIS encryption, hierarchies, or any of the other advanced features NIS doesn't have.

As another indication of the verbosity of the book, the first 50+ pages are dedicated to NIS, which is perhaps the most simple network protocol in use. Learing VI takes longer.

What bothers me the most, is that this is a subject I am seriously interested in. I really want to learn more about NFS, but no ammount of interest would keep your mind from wondering while trying to read this book. This review may seem harsh, but I can assure you, it is completely deserved. I've read numerous technical books before, but this is the first that I really cannot convince myself to continue reading, despite my interest.


Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition Review,  March 09 2003
Submitted by Akram   [Respond | View]

Managing NFS and NIS

Read all reviews

---

Media reviews "It's still pretty much true to say that, at a great many sites at least, its NFS and NIS that remain the glue holding together a diverse and vast collection of computers. Yet they also remain something of a 'gruesome twosome' to the majority of users, and delving into this box of worms and making sense of it all is often thought to be a nigh on impossible task. This is where this O'Reilly classic, 'Managing NFS and NIS' comes in, focusing on the way both NFS and NIS work and how to use them to solve problems in a distributed computing environment...a comprehensive and practical sequel to the essential first edition."
--Davey Winder, PC Pro, Jan 2002

"This is one of the most useful books I have read in several years as a system administrator. The manuals provided by computer manufacturers will usually provide the bare minimum of information necessary to administrate the networking aspects of a Unix system, but learning anything beyond this is usually system administrator folk lore or black art. This is one of the few places I have seen all the spells and incantations necessary to manage NFS and NIS written down in one place, and in terms that the average administrator can understand.
Starting with basic networking fundamentals, this book quickly progresses through explaining the NIS (formerly Yellow Pages) system, how to manage systems using NIS, and how to build simple applications with NIS. The balance of the book covers administration of NFS, and how to debug various networking problems.
I found the sections on debugging and network tuning to be particularly helpful, as these are topics that are usually given short shrift in manufacturers' documentation. I have used this book a number of times to help me debug problems with NFS and to improve the performance of the systems I administrate. I have probably used it more in the last six months than any other reference book I have.
I recommend this book highly, and believe it is one of the must-have system administrator manuals. Four stars."
--Steve Hanson, UNIX User, March 1992

"NFS (Network File System) provides, for Unix systems and those connected to them, very basic file and print server functions. NIS (Network Information Services, formerly called the 'Yellow Pages'--a name which remains in the initial 'yp' of most of the related programs) is an extension and related system handling files which deal with system and user information. NIS tells NFS about systems and connections, and can also provide general information on users. Originally developed by Sun Microsystems, both applications are now widely licensed, and provide fundamental sharing of resources on top of TCP/IP, in a fashion similar to microcomputer network operating systems.
The book provides information on the fundamentals of networking, and then covers the operation, management and applications of NIS. NFS administration and operation complete the basics. Specialized topics such as diskless clients, network security and mail services are covered, as are diagnostic tools, debugging problems, performance tuning, the Automounter and PC/NFS."
--Copyright Rob Slade 1994, Author of Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses

Read all reviews

• 
  

---

• Table of Contents
• Index
• Sample Chapter
• Colophon
• Register Your Book
• View/Submit Errata
• View/Submit Review