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Linux Books Media Software Book Reviews

Linux Clustering 162

Posted by timothy from the but-tell-us-how-you-really-feel dept.
SPK writes "A colleague and I recently discussed how New Riders's most highly regarded book -- Paul DuBois's MySQL -- corresponds to O'Reilly's worst dud: MySQL & mSQL. Charles Bookman's Linux Clustering does nothing to improve New Riders's reputation. The book is divided into eleven chapters, unevenly distributed among three sections: an overview of clustering for Linux, building clusters, and maintaining clusters. Four appendices provide brief information about online clustering resources, options for RedHat's 'Kickstart,' options for DHCP, and information on 'Condor ClassAd Machine Attributes.'" To find out why Krause was so displeased with this book, read on below for his review.
Linux Clustering. Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters
author Charles Bookman
pages xv + 265
publisher New Riders
rating 2/10
reviewer Steve Krause
ISBN 1578702747
summary A guide to clustering software, networking, and journaling filesystems

Bookman emphasizes a central piece of wisdom that no system administrator should ignore: redundancy. In the case of high availability clusters, parts redundancy is the name of the game, but one should not forget the human component; no administrator should be caught with only a cell phone -- keep a pager just in case. However, in a post-modern turn that might seem brilliant if it were applied in a work of fiction rather than a technical book, the author seems to apply the concept of redundancy to the text itself.

That the book began not as a book but rather as a collection of talks or presentations, or some other smaller format, is evidenced by the repetition of information between chapters and sections. Such nearly poetic repetitions also occurs within sentences and paragraphs (e.g. "nightly backups each night" on page 25).

An editor never looked at Linux Clustering; the book had two "technical reviewers" but their contributions seemingly didn't include fixing mangled syntax and strained style. On page 14 in the second paragraph a large segment of a sentence from the previous page is pasted into another sentence, resulting in a nonsensical block of text. The number of hyphenation, syntax, word choice, and subject-verb agreement errors is atrocious and makes the book difficult to read.

Some of the misinformation in the text appears to be unintentional (but ignorance is no excuse for a UNIX systems administrator); some is due to the fact that the author deals only with old (2.2) kernels (though the book came out 18 months after the 2.4 kernel release), old versions of journaling filesystems, and old distributions; and yet other misinformation is the result of misplaced attempts at humor (such as stating that GNU stands for the Gateway Naming Utility; one can only hope that this was intended to be funny). Other jokes often misfire, but do point to the intended audience (consider, for example, the section heading "Space: The Final Frontier").

In the Introduction, the author indicates that the book should be read by "Linux enthusiasts and users who want to get a Linux cluster up and running with the least amount of fuss." The organization of the book will not, however, aid this enterprise, for there is little "how to" information provided, but rather a great deal of background information on compiling kernels, various types of journaling file systems, and RedHat's Kickstart (perhaps inappropriate considering that the book specifically states that basic information will not be covered). Another section or two deal with basic networking and security. Various types of clusters are discussed, as are a few of the types of clustering software (e.g. Condor and Mosix) available.

The book, however, is clearly intended for administrators of clustering systems; a special emphasis is high-availability and load-balancing clusters. Parallel computing and the types of applications end users would wish to run receive far too little discussion.

Almost all technical books regurgitate the contents of freely available FAQs and HOWTOs to some degree, yet the good ones summarize the relevant points, make dry documentation more accessible, and give the reader some new insights. Because Bookman's Linux Clustering suffers from heinous spelling, grammar, and style errors; deals primarily with outdated software; contributes little new to the discussion; and doesn't speak to non-admins, I can only recommend that those interested in Linux clustering stick to online FAQs and HOWTOs.

You can purchase the Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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  • MySQL & mSQL (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gortbusters.org ( 637314 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:01AM (#6243684) Homepage Journal
    Sometimes I still wake up screaming from reading that!
    • Here's another vote for MySQL & mSQL as O'Reilly's worst book ever. That book singlehandedly ruined their previously stellar reputation for me.

      Here are the books I've found most helpful on MySQL (and using MySQL with other things):

      MySQL- Paul DuBois
      MySQL and Perl for the Web- Paul DuBois
      PHP & MySQL- Welling & Thompson

    • You know, I've always thought that book got a bad rap.. it was one of the first O'Reilly books I bought (after sed and awk).

      Using it as a reference, and my knowledge of SQL, I did my first paid perl/php/mysql work while still in earnt University, and earnt close to $10,000 working from home, while studying. Having this work on my resume helped get me a $53,000/year job at age 21.

      Ok, maybe other books could have helped too, but this was 1999, and like I said, the book did me well. I keep it at work for qui

  • No good books? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bluethundr ( 562578 ) * on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:02AM (#6243692) Homepage Journal
    Why is it so tough to find a decent book on this topic? Even O'Reilly failed here [oreilly.com].

    • Re:No good books? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Gortbusters.org ( 637314 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:05AM (#6243730) Homepage Journal
      Perhaps they're not big sellers. I mean, you're not going to sell as many cluster books as you will PHP Cookbooks.

      My friend worked at a lab in Princeton modeling the inside of a reactor. He worked with a 32 node linux cluster and did all the graphics modeling using a modified version of Unreal Tournament.
      • Trust me.. The O'Reilly book isn't any good. I tried using it right when it came out for a summer internship project.

        Perhaps it's because theses authors write books about clusters but never had to build one for any particular reason.
      • My friend worked at a lab in Princeton modeling the inside of a reactor. He worked with a 32 node linux cluster and did all the graphics modeling using a modified version of Unreal Tournament.

        Sweet. So did the reactor use the shock rifle alt-fire to start up or something? ;)

        But more on topic, I think you're right about the size of the market. About how many big clusters are there out there anyway?
    • There just isn't any demand. Clustering is nice and all, but it's really just a linux gimmick. When you factor in power and staffage, it's much easier and cheaper just to get one really beastly computer than 20 old ones clustered.

      • Re:No good books? (Score:5, Informative)

        by HowlinMad ( 220943 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:21AM (#6243909) Homepage Journal
        Redundancyis the key our are missing here. If one cpu goes down ina cluster, the performance starts to suffer, but you are still up. If you one really beastly CPU goes down, you are down. That is the point o cluster. So while it may be "more" expensive, you are paying for the uptime.

        • Re:No good books? (Score:3, Informative)

          by afidel ( 530433 )
          What kind of beastly machine goes down because of a single bad cpu? Only Intel based machines and none of those are all that beastly anyways. Big Iron does not go down to a single cpu failure. Where clusters rule is when you can chunk datasets into the ram space of a cheap rackmount box (2-4GB) and you have low enough interprocess communications that using comodity ethernet won't totally pooch your performance. If you meet those two requirements then the incredibly low cost per MIPS of x86 hardware will mak

        • Re:No good books? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Usquebaugh ( 230216 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @12:25PM (#6244631)
          Bollocks,

          granularity, I'm tired of explaining this on /. but here goes.

          There are two main typesd of cluster, High Performance and High Availability.

          HPC tries to increase the power of the cluster by spreading jobs out over the whole cluster. HPC breaks the work down into blocks and farms this block out to the nodes. In the worst case a single node failure could cause the whole cluster to fail.

          HAC tries to increase the uptime of the cluster by running the same job on more than one node. If a node fails then the job on the mirror node takes over. It's worth noting that no Linux cluster has 100% HA.

          If a single node is going to fail 5% of the time what is the up time of a 100 node cluster?

          I work in the commercial not the scietific world. HPCs bore me. HACs could be a god send.

          Imagine if you will a cluster that automatically deals with node addition/subtraction. I have 1,000 users connected to this cluster using Xterms. I need more power, add more nodes. If any nodes fail the user never loses anyuptime as their work is switched to a mirrored node or nodes.

          Centralised computing rocks.
        • Um sounds like to me the above poster is who edited the book... No if someone would be kind as to translate the above posting back into english or even enGRISH!!!! Try the preview button, and try reading your comments out loud...it might just save us all a lot of "WTF is he trying to say"...

      • Re:No good books? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ComputerSlicer23 ( 516509 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:32AM (#6244008)
        Hmmm, that's why most serious clusters are built out of state of the are Dual Processor boards loaded with highend Xeon chips. Clusters aren't a "gimmick". There are some people who want to build one that have no use for it. How's that any different the car junkie who soups up his 1970's muscle car? It's just a gimmick. There's really no need to put a 500HP engine in it, no need to get it new paint, new tires, or a turbo, or a new dual exhaust system. It's just fun for them.

        However, there are good uses for modification of vehicles, like say air bags. I don't call air bags, gimmicks, just because I think that guys who put dual exhaust systems on a 20 year old car seem like they are wasting money to me.

        However, in terms of redundancy, your far, far better off with 10 P3 500's, then with one P4 5Ghz machine. One of the PIII's is having problems, shut if off, run the diagnostics. The P4 has problems, you shut if off, you are in deep shit.

        If I had my choice, I'd rather have a cluster of 5-10 well built, redundant machines then one machine 10 times as fast for any problem that can easily be distributed (think websites, DNS, mail servers). No, I don't want to use 10, 3 year old Dell workstations to serve up my enterprise website, but I wouldn't have any objections to 10 Dell Servers that were bleeding edge 3 years ago assuming it uses parts that are still commonly available.

        Kirby

      • Re:No good books? (Score:2, Informative)

        by malfunct ( 120790 )
        It depends on why you are using the clustering, I use NT clusters at work all the time to increase reliability of the system. It doesn't help performance one bit in my situation (and isn't meant to) but if one node of the cluster goes down all the services start up on the other node and there is next to no downtime.
      • Clustering is nice and all, but it's really just a linux gimmick. When you factor in power and staffage, it's much easier and cheaper just to get one really beastly computer than 20 old ones clustered.

        I'm sure Brin and Page would love to hear more about your unique insights into the cost-effectiveness of Linux clusters.

        http://www.internetwk.com/lead/lead060100.htm [internetwk.com]
        http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2000/press _google.html [redhat.com]
        [each link opens in new window]
      • What happens when your one beastly computer goes down?
    • I've been looking for a good how-to clustering book, but haven't found anything yet. If anyone knows of one, can you post a link?

      If anyone would like to send me on the righteous path towards clustering enlightenment, here are the details of what I have, and what I'd like to do... I haven't looked into clustering too much, so I don't really even know if this is possible.

      I have 18 Linux workstations, and 1 server. I'd like all the workstations to work together to run all the processes on them, and also ha
      • If you search on Freshmeat you can find various 'distributions' for Mosix that mean you need only stick in a CD to have the machine boot up and add itself to your cluster. At least, that's the claim.

  • Paul DuBois, MySQL (Score:5, Funny)

    by MattRog ( 527508 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:05AM (#6243732)
    Not to mention he knows *nothing* of relational theory:
    http://www.pgro.uk7.net/qu092902.htm [uk7.net]
    • I was going to respond to that comment with a clever, humorous comment, but I think that I need to go negotiate a book deal with New Riders.

      :P

    • Re:Paul DuBois, MySQL (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ppanon ( 16583 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:22AM (#6243924) Homepage Journal
      Not to mention he knows *nothing* of relational theory:

      It seems that a large majority of MySQL users also know little or nothing about relational theory. The MySQL core developers fought a long time against including support for foreign key constraints. Thus not knowing anything about relational theory may not be a drawback in writing a book about MySQL; it matches the target audience, even if it fails to educate.

  • O'Reilly's worst dud was also about Linux clusters (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frater 219 ( 1455 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:09AM (#6243762) Journal
    Here's O'Reilly's worst dud. [oreilly.com]

    How bad was it? It came with a CD-ROM that was supposed to automate the process of setting up a Beowulf cluster. None of the software on the CD-ROM worked. Running the install script printed out a message telling you to go to a Web site and download the newest beta version of the software. No such software was available ... ever. O'Reilly shortly withdrew the book ... and, reportedly at least, fired the editor who approved it for publication.

    Want more details? Here you go. [everything2.com] Waiting for this book, and then discovering slowly just how awful it was, set back a clustering project at my workplace by several months, by the way.

  • O'Reilly's Worst Failure (Score:3, Informative)

    by s.d. ( 33767 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:12AM (#6243812)

    In my mind, this is simple -- I have never read a worse O'Reilly book than Building Linux Clusters [oreilly.com]. There is a reason that ORA pulled this book out of print after only 6 months, and haven't even bothered to try to fix it and reprint a new edition. It was basically a commercial for the company the author ran, it read as if it hadn't been edited (spelling and grammar mistakes everywhere, included pictures were of the wrong thing that the text referred to), and the code included was so buggy it wouldn't work at all without a lot of fixing.

    This was the first book on Linux Clustering I read, and I was hugely disappointed

  • O'Reily's Msql and Mysql (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:16AM (#6243849) Homepage
    Uh.. what was wrong with MySQL and msql? I mean, it wasn't the most incredibly intensely mind-opening technical book i've ever read, but it wasn't useless, either. Far as i could tell the first couple chapters introduced you to SQL pretty well (which isn't exactly difficult, but they didn't really flub it), which you would never read more than once, and the rest was just various bits of random somewhat-disorganized reference material, sample sql, and sample database code in a few languages. It wasn't really any more useful than it would have been to have a printed and bound book that just contained the mysql manual, the dbi perldoc, and the manpage for the c database library.. and now that i'm used to mysql i just use the online manual [mysql.com].. and i will probably never dig my copy of the book out of the bottom of my closet never again.. but i don't really think i'm -sorry- i bought it.

    And of course, it's been a long time since i first read the book, but i don't remember it being unpleasant. Why all the disdain?
    • I agree. In fact, I often still use it as a reference. Granted, I'm not a university-trained RDBMS expert. Perhaps that wasn't the target audience. As far as I'm concerned, they could have left out mSql entirely (shudder... my first big DB project ever ran on mSql. I eventually converted it to Mysql.) but I guess it makes sense to include it as Mysql grew out of it.

      • Y'all seem to have missed the new edition, "Managing and Using MySQL". Buy a copy, lay the two side-by-side, and tell us which one is more useful. My bet is you'll become enlightened as to how poorly organized and unfocussed the first book is.
        • Er, I'll still have it, I still use it. I didn't think it was a terrible book, although I've always known it wasn't brilliant. Still, I've ended up using it actually quite a bit. The new book is better, no question. But if you have to lay the two side-by-side, well, that just means the first one isn't *that* bad. It would be nice if there was an authoritative resource for computer book reviews, some place the really tried to give the low-down and had a dependable, objective reputation ...
          • I didn't have to lay them side by side. As far as I can tell, most people here didn't. But apparently some people have a harder time recognizing the problems, and for them I recommend laying side by side to acheive enlightenment. One could argue that the inability to recognize the difference lies with the observer.... :-)
    • I have to agree with the parent here. MySQL and MSQL is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the same caliber as any other O'Reilly book that I own or have read. If I had paid full price for my copy, I would probably have been disappointed. As someone who doesn't work professionally with MySQL and will probably never need the level of impressive knowledge and coolness that comes from most of the "in a Nutshell" books, however, it's not a particularly offensive read. Yes, it's probably less useful tha

    • Re:O'Reily's Msql and Mysql (Score:5, Informative)

      by irix ( 22687 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @01:06PM (#6245195) Journal

      I own maybe 30 O'Reilly Titles and "MySQL and mSQL" is easily the worst one of the bunch. Here's my take as to why.

      I came from an Oracle background (i.e. already understood SQL, relational databases, etc.) and I was interested in 2 things; how to administer a MySQL database and how to do simple access from PHP/Perl.

      Now go and pick that book and try and find that information. The description of the MySQL security model is muddled and confusing. No good details on how to do backup and restore. The examples for using PHP/Perl are horrible. The book has several chapters of filler.

      A year or two later I bought the New Riders title mentioned in the writeup. It is a massive improvement over "MySQL and mSQL" - read them side by side and you'll see.

      One thing that book taught me - just because it is a publisher you trust, don't assume the book will be good. Read it or read a review first!

      • I own maybe 30 O'Reilly Titles and "MySQL and mSQL" is easily the worst one of the bunch.

        Ah, so you don't have "Linux Network Administration", then? Otherwise known as "10% of the information of TCP/IP Network Administration for 90% of the price".

        TWW

        • The quality of O'Reilly's titles varies more than that of any publisher in the business. I blame this on a laid-back attitude combined with a hero-worship of the Larger-Than-Life Geeks they like to features as authors.

          They must have pretty good editors, because they do avoid the mistakes most computer publishers make, like sloppy revisions that leaves Windows 95 material in a book on Windows NT. And they seem to have put a lot of work into their publication workflow [oreilly.com]. But it's pretty obvious that nobody at

      • The book was not really aimed at you. It was aimed at open source programmers and hackers getting their first taste of database development.

        I think the book was great for that audience.

        No book is for everyone. In the end, you can only judge it by its success communicating to its intended audience.

        Fortunately, with Managing and Using MySQL, we did tackle the needs of people with dba backgrounds and dba needs.

        • The book was not really aimed at you. It was aimed at open source programmers and hackers getting their first taste of database development.

          Ok, I can buy that. Like I said, my bad for not reading the book first or reading a review. I just wanted a book on MySQL and I automatically grabbed the O'Reilly title.

          I'm not a DBA, just a programmer that is familiar with databases. I guess for a more "advanced" user MySQL and mSQL is just not a good book might be a fairer statement.

  • So...what books DO you all recommend? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SailFly ( 560133 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:20AM (#6243893) Homepage
    For somebody who wants to learn about Linux clusters. I've played with Mosix and was impressed. What are good books and sources to learn about Linux Clusters?

    • I think the best thing to do would be download some of the open source tools that are out there and build a small one.

      Some of the more popular that are used in the bio-sciences are.

      http://www.platform.com/ (demo only, but most powerful)
      http://www.openpbs.com/ (open source)
      http://gridengine.sunsource.net/ (open source)

      All these run on linux.

      jpc

  • Other stinkers from O'Reilly (Score:3, Informative)

    by talexb ( 223672 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:24AM (#6243941) Homepage Journal
    I have to add that 'Apache: The Definitive Guide (Second Edition)' was pretty horrible as well. Like the MySQL book, it was heavy on re-hashing available information and light on useful information like a dash of theory or a hint of how the authors used it to solve a particular problem.

    And I hate it when O'Reilly comes out with a bad book, because generally their books are great.
  • Why buy one prebuilt, of course....

  • OK, so who's got a GOOD book on this topic? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Elias Israel ( 182882 ) <eli@promanage-inc.com> on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:26AM (#6243957)
    I hate to turn this into an Ask Slashdot, but truth is I could really use a good book on Linux clustering, especially if it covers:

    1. Clustering (not just replicating) MySQL databases.
    2. Network attached storage.
    3. Load balancing and failover.
    4. Probably six other things I'm not thinking of right now.

    Anyone got any suggestions?

    • Re: mysql replication and high availability howto (Score:4, Informative)

      by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) * on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:51AM (#6244201) Homepage Journal
      O'Reilly's Linux Hacks has one of the best explanations I've seen for setting up mysql replication. Load balancing and failover area are topics in their own right, but the Linux High Availability HOWTO [ibiblio.org] is a good place to start. In general, the ibiblio site has been a helpful source.

    • Re:OK, so who's got a GOOD book on this topic? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ashpool7 ( 18172 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @12:53PM (#6244994) Homepage Journal
      I wrote up a paper for my employer a while ago about most of those topics. The sad truth is that a comprehensive guide is not available, and most of the solutions are proprietary. However, there are a few bright lights.

      Eddie: Load Balancing Software
      http://eddie.sourceforge.net/

      Linux Virtual Server Project: Clustering Tools
      http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/

      OpenAFS: Efficient Distributed Storage
      http://www.openafs.org/

      Load-balancing and failover are tough nuts. You can do some stupid things like Round Robin DNS or Rotary NAT, but to be actual balancing, you need a balancer box. You can either make your own (using proprietary software or the stuff above) or buy a piece of hardware to do the job for you. I've heard Cisco makes some good ones.

      NAS units usually operate using CIFS, AFP, or NFS, all of which are pretty lame options for a modern cluster. SANs are pretty cool, but you need some big-ass hardware to support them. Personally, I'm working on an OpenAFS cluster, which is pretty easy if you look into the capabilites of the software. Coda is another option of which I'm not using because it doesn't play as well with Windows.

      As for clustering MySQL: If you read the Slashdot interview log they had a couple days ago, you'd see that the setup here is a master writer that replicates to a couple of reader databases. This is about as effective as it gets with MySQL. If you need higher power, I've read that commercial versions of Postgres support clustering/synchronization. More powerful than that and you're into Oracle territory.

  • Unevenly distributed? (Score:5, Funny)

    by sczimme ( 603413 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:36AM (#6244055)

    From the review:

    The book is divided into eleven chapters, unevenly distributed among three sections:

    That's good news: I would hate to read a fractional chapter.

  • mSQL (Score:2)

    by sporty ( 27564 )
    I know mSQL had a release in Jan past.. but does anyone know the merits of using mSQL vs MySQL? We all have pounded the MySQL vs Postgres vs Uber-commercial (oracle, ms-sql, sybase) to death.
    • mSQL is small and fast. Doesn't do anything except manage tables. Very simple. I find it useful for quicky projects that need a database.

      And if something works with mSQL, it is pretty certain that it will run with anything else.

      Anyway, its off-topic, but I hope it helps.
      If you need socket bindings for mSQL, email me at
      fred_weigel at h o t m a i l dot c o m.

      Ratboy
    • I wasn't aware mSQL was still under development. In any rate, I couldn't see using mSQL when there are better solutions that you are probably already using.

  • I agree (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:39AM (#6244084)
    that book is very poorly written. Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux is a much better book.

  • New Riders (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:51AM (#6244191)
    There *ARE* some good New Riders [newriders.com] books - it's just that they tend to deal with digital art:

    "Digital Texturing and Painting"
    "Digital Lighting & Rendering"

    New Rider's focus is more on the artist / animator / illustrator side of things - and at that they excel (the above two are those I'm most familar with, and they are excellent).

    I'm sure they'll gradually improve their hardcore technical books, but it's stupid to dismiss "all" their books as being bad. Just like O'Reilly has a reputation in some circles for being overly dry and out of date - *some* people find their books useful.
    • No sh*t. I own both, well thumbed. VERY good refs. Birns book on lighting and rendering is plain awesome. They also publish George Maestri's classic works on character animation. (in fact, based on the two books above I was very suprised to see that their computer books sucked so much.) Reading Birn's book let me do this [stratacafe.com] which was at least an order of magnitude better than anything i'd done before...
    • I have "Digital Texturing and Painting," and can also vouch for it. It is an excellent book. The first few chapters are useful for any visual artist, regardless of whether she will be doing CG or not.

  • Don't assume... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xonker ( 29382 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @12:02PM (#6244298) Homepage Journal
    the book had two "technical reviewers" but their contributions seemingly didn't include fixing mangled syntax and strained style.

    When you see a book in print, don't assume that the suggestions of the technical editors/reviewers have been heeded. The author basically has final say over the content of the book -- meaning that a tech reviewer/editor can be completely ignored no matter how much they complain about the content of the book or how much it doesn't address what it should.

    And, the tech reviewers/editors are explicitly asked not to try to fix grammar and so forth -- that's supposed to be the job of a different editor.

    Also... I'm surprised to see a review of this book popping up now, it was published about a year ago.
    • The author basically has final say over the content of the book -- meaning that a tech reviewer/editor can be completely ignored no matter how much they complain about the content of the book or how much it doesn't address what it should.
      If there's a single techincal book publisher out there that operates in this way, I'd be surprised to see them in business for long. That's like me giving you a business loan so you can staff your company with hamsters.
      • There are several, actually. I've worked with a few of them. New Riders is much better than a lot of them, but the fact remains that the author is usually free to ignore advice from the tech editors/reviewers -- and they often do.

        Tech publishing is pretty slipshod with some of the major publishers. Their project editors and acquisitions editors aren't experts in the field, so they have no way of knowing whether the author knows what they're talking about or not. The authors sometimes recommend their own te

  • From the review: (but ignorance is no excuse for a UNIX systems administrator)

    That's right. Also,

    Ignorance is no excuse for the law.

  • Having the occasional less-than-glowing review on slashdot can be refreshing change of pace. But I feel that they are unnecessary. Letting these books lie in fallow obscurity is perhaps a better strategy especially when there are so many other books that need publicity. One problem with reviews of technical books is that they depend on the technical proficiency of the reviewer. What may seem bland and uninteresting to this reviewer may seem interesting to someone totally unfamiliar with the topic or someon

  • Imagine... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Daverd ( 641119 ) on Thursday June 19, 2003 @12:28PM (#6244684) Homepage
    Imagine a Beowulf clust-- oh wait.
  • I saw the title for this review and was happy. Just this morning I was talking to my director about clustering, something I've wanted to toy with for some time so I was hoping for a good review. As has been pointed out, good books on clustering are hard, if not impossible to find. Oh well, back to the howto's for me.

    On the funny side, my director started the conversation with "have you ever heard of a Beowulf Cluster"? He didn't understand why I couldn't stop laughing. I obviously spend waaaaaay to muc

  • "O'Reilly's worst dud: MySQL & mSQL" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by presroi ( 657709 ) <neubau@presroi.de> on Thursday June 19, 2003 @12:47PM (#6244928) Homepage
    The topic reads: "O'Reilly's worst dud: MySQL & mSQL"

    MySQL&mSQL was my first O'Reilly book, back in my old days in school. I spend many nights reading it and many classes trying out the things I read.

    I still like it although it has become completely outdated now (at least my edition).

    Maybe I should have a look at the /. archive. What was so bad about this book?
    • Just for fair disclaimer, I am one of the authors and I naturally do not think it is one of "O'Reilly's worst duds".

      In actuality, the book got a very good /. review. In fact, reviews on it tended to be fairly schizo. People either loved the book or they did not like it at all. I think this reflects partly the fact that we tried to deal with MySQL and mSQL together (a mistake, though it does reflect that at the time the market is was in transition from mSQL to MySQL) and that the book was aimed at MySQL pr

  • Their PostgreSQL book is incomparably worse. The first edition is essentially useless.
  • Q) What do you call the computer lab of a group of open source monks?

    ---

    A) A linux cloister.

    chaos-five

  • There is no good linux cluster book... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dargaud ( 518470 ) * <slashdot2@nOSpaM.gdargaud.net> on Thursday June 19, 2003 @11:17PM (#6250762) Homepage
    When setting up my 24 processor cluster, I did read a lot of book reviews [gdargaud.net], but no one was satisfied by the 11 books I found. This is probably because clustering is a very dynamic medium, where patches are experimental, software is used only by a few groups, and once stability is reached, no one wants to touch anything anymore !!!

    So I read online, whatever I found that was up to date and settled on the satisfying OpenMosix [sourceforge.net] and... it works ! :-)

  • If you only want to have some servers giving redundant services, like web or mail, this is quite straightforward to configure and use.

    Pen [siag.nu], a load balancer for "simple" tcp based protocols such as http or smtp. It allows several servers to appear as one to the outside and automatically detects servers that are down and distributes clients among the available servers. This gives high availability and scalable performance.

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