Overview

This chapter introduces commands, utilities, and scripts used to administer UNIX systems, by contrasting them to their OpenVMS counterparts. In this chapter, we assume a UNIX system that is multiuser, supporting many users in a networked environment. The typical UNIX system is attached to other computers in corporate intranets, as well as to the Internet.

Administering systems and networks is a complex task. Quite often, vendors provide their own customized, proprietary tools and procedures for system and network installation. It is beyond the scope of this book to provide a detailed description of all the tasks that system manager needs to do. Instead, this chapter examines specific tasks that are important to anyone managing operating systems such as OpenVMS or UNIX:

The traditional method for accomplishing these tasks on UNIX is to run a variety of scripts, commands, and utilities. Many vendors have developed unified administration applications to simplify matters. For example, DIGITAL UNIX offers a graphical SysMan suite of tools that can be selected from the CDE front panel. HP-UX offers a similar tool, called the HP-UX System Administrator Manager under its HP-VUE graphical user interface. While these are a great help to a system administrator, such proprietary tools present quite different interfaces.