2004.03_Books-Beginning Red Hat Linux 9 and Real World Sql Server Admin with Perl.pdf

REVIEWS

Books

Book Reviews

Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl

This is aimed at the DBA who is already

running an efficient SQL server, but who

wants to be forearmed

against any future prob-

lems. It takes “real life”

scenarios and comes up

with Perl scripts to solve

the problems.

Although the assump-

tion is that it is SQL

server 7 or SQL server

2000 that is being used,

these scripts can all be

adapted easily to suit

any version of an SQL

database and should

be valid for any even-

tuality.

The aim of the book is to provide a

toolkit of around 150 Perl scripts that can

then be adapted and applied to a wide

variety of SQL server problems and give

the DBA the techniques to create a solu-

tion to whatever problem arises.

This is not a Linux specific volume,

and in fact the assumption is that some

version of Windows is being used. This

should not prove a

problem to any Linux

administrator.

It is not the most

riveting of subject

matters, but if your

job involves SQL ser-

vers, or you are an

avid Perl monger, it

could well be worth

while keeping this as

a reference on your

bookshelf, as it might

just save you a con-

siderable amount of

time when you need it most.

The book assumes some prior knowl-

edge of Perl programming, if you are

completely unfamiliar with Perl, it would

be best to read a more basic introduction

first, many examples of which are given

in the appendix of Perl resources. Having

said that, the first chapters do reiterate

the basics and concentrate on techniques

used later in the text.

Later chapters take groups of similar

problems to come up with solutions

based on actual examples. Topics cov-

ered include analyzing, comparing and

sorting databases, migrating data, secu-

rity, monitoring servers, and analyzing

log files. There are also appendices that

list useful resources and a very quick

guide to getting started with Perl that is

really meant more as a revision course

than a beginners guide.

The book as a whole could be quite

useful, though it may be worth your time

flicking through it before paying out your

money to make sure that the scenarios

used include ones which could be

adapted and applied to your own line of

work.

Linchi Shea

798 pages

Apress, 1-59059-097-X

£43.00, US$ 59.99, EUR 64.15

Beginning Red Hat Linux 9

Another day, another Red Hat guide.

This one is quite a good example of its

type: clear and informative with a three

disc version of Red Hat in the back.

Much of the free world will be using Red

Hat 9 for the foreseeable future, so a

good guide is always welcome.

This is aimed at the Linux newbie,

though it does assume some familiarity

with some sort of operating system. It

opens with a step by step guide to

installing the accompaning discs. This

aims to deal with one of the major con-

cerns of people not used to Linux – that

installation is a complicated proceedure.

Every effort is made to show how

straightforward it is, with details for all

eventualities, such as unrecognized

hardware. Later chapters deal with con-

figuring the desktop, using the Office

software, connecting to the Internet, the

shell, file systems, net-

works, advanced system

admin, Perl and security.

All the chapters are

very basic and use easy

to follow instructions. It

is assumed that the sup-

plied version of Red Hat

is being used with the

default settings such as

GNOME. It could be pos-

sible to use the book for an Office

installation as an admin, but it seems to

be aimed more at the home user.

If I were using Linux for the first time,

especially if I were using the command

line interface for the first time, I might

find an appendix of common commands

useful, but nothing of the sort is pro-

vided, instead there are only the set

examples within the text. This might be

a good text to give a

new team member in

a company that is

already running Red

Hat, or it would be a

good introduction to

anyone ready to take

the plunge into Linux

at home after running

Windows for a few

years.

Either way this would be an introduc-

tion that would leave the reader ready to

go out and work her way through some

of the more challenging texts.

Bhattacharya, De Mauro, Mamone,

Sharma, Thomas, Whiting, Gundavaram

593 pages plus 3 CDs

Wrox,0-7645-4578-4

£26.99, US$ 39.99, EUR 44.00

March 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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