Preface

This book is part of a multibook set describing system and network administration for the Solaris^(TM) operating environment and the SunOS^(TM) system software. This book describes how to monitor and improve the performance of your system, how to use the accounting packages that are available with SunOS system software, and how to maintain a secure system. It assumes that you have already installed SunOS software on your systems. This book is intended as a guide for maintaining both client and server systems.

How to Use This Book

Each chapter in this book is divided into three major sections:

• The About section
• The Instructions section
• The Reference section (where applicable)

The About section explains all the background and concepts you need to perform a particular task.

The Instructions section presents the steps you follow to complete various tasks.

The Reference section provides any charts, tables, and other reference material you may need to consult when performing tasks.

You can read the whole chapter or go directly to the type of information you need.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for administrators or users responsible for one or more systems. Some basic knowledge of the UNIX^(R) operating system and text editing is expected, although experience administering systems is not assumed. The book can be used by both beginning and experienced system administrators.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized as follows:

Part I--Security These chapters describe how to maintain security for your system, including protecting your system, files, data, and network.

Chapter 1, "Introduction to Security Administration," gives an overview of security administration.

Chapter 2, "Securing System Access," describes how to secure a system from unauthorized users.

Chapter 3, "Securing Files and Data," describes how to secure your files and the data contained in files.

Chapter 4, "Securing the Network," describes how to secure the hosts connected on a network.

Chapter 5, "Monitoring and Controlling Security Using ASET," describes how to use the Automated Security Enhancement Tool (ASET), an automated tool for performing many common security checks.

Part II--Performance and Accounting These chapters describe how to maintain and monitor the performance of your system, and describe the available accounting tools.

Chapter 6, "Introduction to Performance," gives an overview of managing performance.

Chapter 7, "Managing Processes," describes how to look at and change the priority of processes on the system.

Chapter 8, "Monitoring Performance," describes the tools that allow you to monitor system activity.

Chapter 9, "A Guide to Network Performance," describes the tools that allow you to monitor network performance.

Chapter 10, "Setting Up and Maintaining Accounting," describes setting up the accounting utility and maintaining the resulting files.

Appendix A, "Tuning Kernel Parameters," lists and describes the kernel parameters that you can change.

Appendix B, "The Scheduler," describes the process scheduler and how it works.

Appendix C, "Error Messages," lists and describes error messages produced by the accounting and ASET tools.

Related Books

In addition to this book, the following books offer valuable information:

Managing NFS and NIS, by Hal Stern, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Practical Unix Security, by Garfinkel and Spafford, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

System Performance Tuning, by Mike Loukides, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

What Typographic Changes and Symbols Mean

The following table describes the type changes and symbols used in this book.

Table P-1

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. system% You have mail.
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	system%su Password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.
Code samples are included in boxes and may display the following: C shell prompt........system%
	Superuser prompt, C shell	system#
	Bourne and Korn shell prompt	$
	Superuser prompt, Bourne and Korn shells	#

In addition, the following convention is used in this book:

command(n) refers to the section in the SunOS Reference Manual in which the command is described. For example, chown(1M) refers to the chown command in Section 1M of the Reference Manual. Most system administration-related commands are described in Section 1M.