Preface

This is the second edition of the highly rated CentOS Linux Server Cookbook. With the advent of CentOS 7 in mid 2014, there has been a long list of significant changes and new features to this famous operating system. To name a few, there is a new installer, suite of system management services, firewall daemon, enhanced Linux container support, and a new standard filesystem. With all these new advances in the operating system, a major part of the recipes from the CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook became obsolete or even non-functional, making an update of the book's original content essential. But this book is not just a refresher of the topics covered in the first edition: two brand new chapters have been included as well to keep up to date with the latest open source technologies as well as providing better security: operating system-level virtualization and SELinux. Finally, to make the book a more comprehensive server-administration book, another chapter about server monitoring has been included as well.

Building a server can present a challenge. It is often difficult at the best of times and frustrating at the worst of times. They can represent the biggest of problems or give you a great sense of pride and achievement. Where the word "server" can describe many things, it is the intention of this book to lift the lid and expose the inner workings of this enterprise-class computing system with the intention of enabling you to build your professional server solution of choice. CentOS is a community-based enterprise class operating system. It is available free of charge, and as a fully compatible derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it represents the first choice operating system for organizations, companies, professionals, and home users all over the world who intend to run a server. It's widely respected as a very powerful and flexible Linux distribution and regardless of whether you intend to run a web server, file server, FTP server, domain server, or a multi-role solution, it is the purpose of this book to deliver a series of turnkey solutions that will show you how quickly you can build a fully capable and comprehensive server system using the CentOS operating system. So with this in mind, you could say that this book represents more than just another introduction to yet another server-based operating system. This is a cookbook about an enterprise-class operating system that provides a step-by-step approach to making it work. So, regardless of whether you are a new or an experienced user, there is something inside these pages for everyone, as this book will become your practical guide to getting things done and a starting point to all things CentOS.