Book Review

A solid reference of implementation details and simple real world scenarios of the JumpStart technology from Sun.

However, enterprise class design issues such as high availability, scaling and resource requirements are not covered in detail.

This book provides thorough coverage of the JumpStart boot process and installing and configuring a JumpStart server.

Boot process details examined include supported boot protocols ( NFS, DHCP, NIS+, NIS ), the systems used during a JumpStart boot, and an illustrated guide of the boot sequence.

In depth explanations of configuration options will help advanced administrators make the most of their JumpStart deployment. Rules file, profiles file and sysidcfg files are reviewed. Begin and finish scripts are covered.

Post installation customizations are demonstrated with examples in it's own chapter.

Other issues such as system recovery, web flash, security and cloning are briefly covered.

Advice on JumpStart deployment issues such as bandwidth, scaling or high availability are not included in the scope of this book.

It was extremely interesting to learn the process on building a bootable JumpStart CD.

Personally, I thought this book provided value because it is a great single point of reference for a lot of expert advice on installing and configuring the Jumpstart technology. This book is well organized to help administrators setup and configure a JumpStart server.