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Perl for System Administration

David N. Blank-Edelman
First Edition, July 2000
ISBN: 1-56592-609-9, 446 pages

Perl for System Administration is aimed at all levels of administrators on the Unix, Windows NT, or
MacOS platforms.
Assuming only a little familiarity with Perl, it explores the pockets of administration where Perl can
be most useful, including filesystem management, useradministration, directory services, database
administration, log files, and security and network monitoring.
Perl for System Administration is for anyone who needs to use Perl for administrative tasks and
needs to hit the ground running.

Release Team[oR] 2001

Preface
How This Book Is Structured
Typographical Conventions
How to Contact Us
Acknowledgments

1

1

Introduction
1.1System Administration Is a Craft
1.2
How Perl Can Help
1.3
This Book Will Show You How
1.4
What You Need
1.5
Locating and Installing Modules
1.6
It's Not Easy Being Omnipotent
1.7
References for More Information

5

2

Filesystems
2.1
Perl to the Rescue
2.2
Filesystem Differences
2.3
Walking or Traversing the Filesystem
2.4
Walking the Filesystem Using the File::FindModule
2.5
Manipulating Disk Quotas
2.6
Querying Filesystem Usage
2.7
Module Information for This Chapter
2.8
References for More Information

13

3

User
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5

Accounts
Unix User Identity
Windows NT/2000 User Identity
Building an Account System to Manage Users
Module Information for This Chapter
References for More Information

33

4

User
4.1
4.2
4.34.4
4.5
4.6

Activity
MacOS Process Control
NT/2000 Process Control
Unix Process Control
Tracking File and Network Operations
Module Information for This Chapter
References for More Information

69

5

TCP/IP Name Services
5.1
Host Files
5.2
NIS, NIS+, and WINS
5.3
Domain Name Service (DNS)
5.4
Module Information for This Chapter
5.5
References for More Information

6Directory Services
6.1
What's a Directory?
6.2
Finger: A Simple Directory Service
6.3
The WHOIS Directory Service
6.4
LDAP: A Sophisticated Directory Service
6.5
ADSI (Active Directory Service Interfaces)
6.6
Module Information for This Chapter
6.7
References for More Information

119

7

SQL Database Administration
7.1
Interacting with an SQL Server from Perl
7.2
Usingthe DBI Framework
7.3
Using the ODBC Framework
7.4
Server Documentation
7.5
Database Logins
7.6
Monitoring Server Health
7.7
Module Information for This Chapter
7.8
References for More Information

156

94

8

Electronic Mail
8.1
Sending Mail
8.2
Common Mistakes in Sending Email
8.3
Receiving Mail
8.4
Module Information for This Chapter
8.5
References for MoreInformation

176

9

Log Files
9.1
Text Logs
9.2
Binary Log Files
9.3
Stateful and Stateless Data
9.4
Disk Space Problems
9.5
Log Analysis
9.6
Module Information for This Chapter
9.7
References for More Information

204

10 Security and Network Monitoring
10.1 Noticing Unexpected or Unauthorized Changes
10.2 Noticing Suspicious Activities
10.3 SNMP
10.4 Danger on the Wire10.5 Preventing Suspicious Activities
10.6 Module Information for This Chapter
10.7 References for More Information

235

A

The Five-Minute RCS Tutorial
A.1
References for More Information

264

B

The Ten-Minute LDAP Tutorial
B.1
LDAP Data Organization

266

C

The Eight-Minute XML Tutorial
C.1
XML Is a Markup Language
C.2
XML Is Picky
C.3
Two Key XML Terms
C.4Leftovers

270

D

The Fifteen-Minute SQL Tutorial
D.1
Creating /Deleting Databases and Tables
D.2
Inserting Data into a Table
D.3
Querying Information
D.4
Changing Table Information
D.5
Relating Tables to Each Other
D.6
SQL Stragglers

273

E

The Twenty-Minute SNMP Tutorial
E.1
SNMP in Practice

282

Colophon

292

Author’s Article - Detecting Local Filesystem...