Some people plan to become administrators. The rest of us are thrust into it: we are Webmasters, hobbyists, or just the default "technical people" on staff who are expected to keep things running. After some stumbling around repeating the same steps over and over again (and occasionally paying the price when we forget one), we realize that we must automate these tasks, or suffer endless frustration. Thus enters Perl.

The Perl programming language lets you write quick yet powerful scripts for automating many administrative tasks. It's modular, it's powerful, and it's perfect for managing systems and services on many platforms.

Perl for System Administration is aimed at all levels of administrators—from hobbyists to card-carrying SAGE members— sysadmins on multi-platform sites. Written for several different platforms (Unix, Windows NT, and MacOS), it leads you through the pockets of administration where Perl can be most useful for sites large and small, including:

* Filesystem management
* User administration with a dash of XML
* DNS and other network name services
* Database administration using DBI and ODBC
* Directory services and frameworks like LDAP and ADSI
* Using email for system administration
* Working with log files of all kinds
* Security and network monitoring including SNMP

Each chapter concentrates on a single administrative area, discusses the possible pitfalls, and then shows how Perl comes to the rescue. Along the way we encounter interesting Perl features and tricks, with many extended examples and complete programs. You can simply use the scripts included in the book as written or with minimaladaptation. But it's likely you'll also get a taste of what Perl can do, and start extending those scripts for tasks that we haven't dreamed of.

Perl for System Adminstration doesn't attempt to teach the Perl language, but it is an excellent introduction to the power and flexibility of Perl, and whets your appetite to learn more. It's for anyone who needs to use Perl for system administration and needs to hit the ground running.