Books, other resources for new Rails VPS sysadmin

Rails
1

Hello!

Since Virtual Private Server seems to be the only way to run Rails
apps without problems, so in the future I will need to become a Linux
sysadmin.

I plan on using debian (as per Ezra’s instructions in <http://
brainspl.at/pages/perfect_vps>).

Rails VPS sysadmin is not the same as general Linux sysadmin, since
only webserver, db and email are of interest (and of course all Rails
stuff). So probably general Linux sysadmin books/resources are too
much for me. Or not? Tell me…

Are there any books (I am not cheapskate, I buy lots of books) or any
other (maybe online?) documentation or resources that would be useful
to a new Rails VPS sysadmin? I didn’t do any professional sysadmin
work, though I did development on/for Unix with vi/make and am
familiar with Unix (old bsd/sysv, next, and currently macosx). And I
am in the ‘vi’ camp, not ‘emacs’ :slight_smile:

Thanks for any info,

izidor

2

On Apr 27, 2006, at 1:46 AM, Izidor J. wrote:

only webserver, db and email are of interest (and of course all

Thanks for any info,

izidor

Hey Izidor-

There is a great site for learning about debian:  http://www.debian-

administration.org/ You can learn a lot of stuff there. And while
running a vps like I setup in that tutorial is easy, it never hurts
to learn a little more about linux sysadmin stuff. The most annoying
part ot take care of is by far the email server. So much so that its
worth it to me to farm out email services to a dedicated email host.
Other then that admining rails and a webserver and database is not
that hard.

Watch for my book which will answer most of your questions. I am

pushing for beta release before railsconf.

Cheers-
-Ezra

3

2006/4/27, Izidor J. [email protected]:

Are there any books (I am not cheapskate, I buy lots of books) or any
other (maybe online?) documentation or resources that would be useful
to a new Rails VPS sysadmin? I didn’t do any professional sysadmin
work, though I did development on/for Unix with vi/make and am
familiar with Unix (old bsd/sysv, next, and currently macosx). And I
am in the ‘vi’ camp, not ‘emacs’ :slight_smile:

There’s also the perfect Debian Sarge setup available at:

Bye !

4

A general-purpose system administration book applicable to your VPS’s OS
is appropriate. You will be administering a webserver, a database
server, some sort of mail agents (SMTP and probably POP/IMAP), startup
and shutdown scripts, language interpreters at least for Ruby, some
add-on packages and libraries your app will inevitably use, and your
OS’s package management tool. You will also be monitoring disk space and
memory usage and looking for runaway processes. You’ll be examining
logs, moving files around, checking and setting permissions, adding and
modifying users and groups, and installing and using various other tools
and protocols to log into your system securely and perform file
transfers (ssh, Subversion, etc.). Also, maybe most importantly, you’re
going to be checking and maintaining the security of all these things.

If you’re not pretty comfortable with doing most of this from a command
line already, a good book on Linux system administration, preferably
with specific coverage of your type of Linux, is a very good idea.
DBeyond that, depending on your comfort level with things like MySQL
administration (especially assigning privileges) and advanced Apache
configuration, the online docs for things like that might be enough that
you won’t need other print books.

Izidor J. wrote:

Hello!

Since Virtual Private Server seems to be the only way to run Rails
apps without problems, so in the future I will need to become a Linux
sysadmin.

I plan on using debian (as per Ezra’s instructions in <http://
brainspl.at/pages/perfect_vps>).

Rails VPS sysadmin is not the same as general Linux sysadmin, since
only webserver, db and email are of interest (and of course all Rails
stuff). So probably general Linux sysadmin books/resources are too
much for me. Or not? Tell me…

Are there any books (I am not cheapskate, I buy lots of books) or any
other (maybe online?) documentation or resources that would be useful
to a new Rails VPS sysadmin? I didn’t do any professional sysadmin
work, though I did development on/for Unix with vi/make and am
familiar with Unix (old bsd/sysv, next, and currently macosx). And I
am in the ‘vi’ camp, not ‘emacs’ :slight_smile:

Thanks for any info,

izidor