Pro Novell Open Enterprise Server
I recently had the chance to preview another Pro book from Apress. Just like the Pro MySQL book, Pro Novell Open Enterprise Server is packed with information.
While I could waste space and give a brief summary of each chapter, I can sum the book up like so:
Part One covers the introduction, installation, and upgrading of both Netware and SuSE. It also has chapters on the introduction to SuSE and Netware navigation. Part Two covers services such as eDirectory and other System Administration Utilities. Part Three is all about the Web Services and Part Four wraps everything up with some miscellaneous advanced features.
Overall, the book itself proved to be great resource for Open Enterprise Server. If I were to ever run an OES, I can be quiet confident that this book would give me everything I need to know. From installation to configuration to managing day-to-day activity, this book has it all. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the 775 pages (plus 25 for an index) -- I think the subject matter could have been explained in a shorter space.
If you have the feeling that there's a "however.." coming up, you're partly right. "Partly" meaning that my "however" deals with Novell itself and not this book. Pardon me for using this review as an excuse to push my opinion, but simply put, I've never understood why Novell continues to create a layered environment for the client when other Network Operating Systems can cope just fine with their native tools. Example in point: the installation of the Novell client software to the client machine. Maybe we can get some discussion going on about the pros and cons of this?
Opinions aside, I'm still sticking with my original statement that this book itself proves just fine at what it was set out to do: provide the reader with everything they need to know about running an Open Enterprise Server. I'll give this book 7 out of 10.