Acknowledgments

There were too many people involved in helping me with this book to list each and every one. I have, therefore, decided to formally thank those who wrote sections of this book and those who took time to review it. I'm still not sure whether it takes more time to write something or review something that has been written to ensure it is correct.

Stephen Geary

Stephen is the executive champion and sponsor of this book and played an active role in getting it published.

Stephen Geary, Director, Worldwide Linux R&D, is responsible for overseeing HP's Linux technical strategy, Linux support for HP's Integrity Servers, integrated Linux-based solutions for various markets, and HP's Open Source Program Office. Stephen also has direct responsibly in developing HP's overall Linux and Open Source strategies. Stephen has active roles with the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) and the Linux Standards Base (LSB). Steve chairs the Data Center Linux Steering Group and is a member of the Carrier Grade Steering Group for the Carrier Grade Linux effort.

Stephen has been with HP for 15 years working in various capacities tied to either HP-UX or Linux. Prior to working for HP, Stephen worked for General Motors as a Fuel Systems Engineer in Flint, Michigan. He holds two bachelor's degrees: bachelors of science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a bachelors degree in computer science from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

The Author - Marty Poniatowski

Marty has been a Solution Architect with Hewlett-Packard Company for 17 years in the New York area. He has worked with hundreds of Hewlett-Packard customers in many industries, including Internet startups, financial services, and manufacturing.

Marty has been widely published in computer-industry trade publications. He has published over 50 articles on various computer-related topics. In addition to this book, he is the author of 13 other Prentice Hall books. Marty holds an M.S. in Information Systems from Polytechnic University (Brooklyn, NY), an M.S. in Management from the University of Bridgeport (Bridgeport, CT), and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Roger Williams University (Bristol, RI).

Before joining Hewlett-Packard Marty was the manager of a design group at startup Canaan Computer Corporation. His first position was as an Electrical Design Engineer on military computer systems at United Technologies Corporation performing both integrated circuit and board-level design.

Phil Anderson

Phil assisted with many facets of publishing this book including lining up expert Linux on Integrity reviewers. This book would not have been published without Phil's involvement.

Phil has been with HP since 2001. Prior to HP, Phil's career spanned from software development to product management at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Citigroup, and an internet startup company. Since joining HP, Phil has focused on business planning and product marketing of Linux on Itanium-based HP platforms. He is currently part of the worldwide marketing team for Linux on the HP Integrity server family.

Glen Foster

Glen reviewed every chapter of this book to ensure that all the Linux on Integrity server information is correct. Glen spent a tremendous amount of time reviewing this book, and it could not have been published if it weren't for his herculean effort.

Glen came back to HP just prior to the 2002 merger vote that eventually combined Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer Corp. into the industry-leading company it is today. Before his return to HP, Glen was most recently the Director of Quality Assurance for Red Hat, Inc., and prior to that, Director of Quality Assurance for Softway Systems, Inc. Glen is now the lead of the QA department of the Linux and Open Source Lab, concentrating on Integrity hardware and firmware and making Linux distributions a safer and more cost-effective offering for HP's customers.

Elizabeth Zinkann

Elizabeth reviewed all the chapters in this book.

Elizabeth is a Contributing Editor and Review Columnist for Sys Admin Magazine, The Journal for UNIX System Administrators. Her articles have also appeared in Performance Computing, Linux Magazine, and Network Administrator. As an independent computer consultant, she has built Linux servers, maintained computers utilizing Linux, Solaris, Macintosh, and Windows environments, and taught UNIX, shell programming, and Internet essentials. In a former life, she also programmed communications features for both domestic and international databases at AT&T Network Systems.

Steven M. Wolff

Steven supplied the valuable command summaries that appear in Chapter 1.

Steven came to HP as a result of HP's acquisition of Convex in 1995. At Convex, he was a customer engineer supporting European customers mainly in Athens, Greece. After joining HP, he worked in Worldwide Technical Expert Center (WTEC) HW supporting the V-Class and then in Event Management Labs (EML) labs authoring the Superdome Level 300 Hardware course. He is currently in the Mission Critical Solution Center Organization working for the Superdome Support Team supporting North American Superdome Customers. Steven is also a HPUX Certified System Administrator.

Bill Garcia

Bill Garcia was a user of Linux several years ago, well before the operating system was popular. Bill provided me with expert assistance when writing this book, as well as access to the Integrity servers in his lab.

Bill is a Member of HP Partner Technical Services Organization, assisting Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) certify their applications on Integrity servers. In this role, Bill manages a lab with many Integrity servers and works directly with ISVs. Bill has held numerous positions in his many years with Hewlett Packard.

Ranald Adams

Ranald is a long-time Linux user and one of the first technical experts in the field to run Linux on Integrity systems and helped with the development of this book.

Ranald is a Solution Architect at Hewlett-Packard in the Microsoft Partner Organization, where he concentrates on providing Microsoft-based solutions for HP customers, primarily on HP Integrity servers. Prior to his life at Hewlett-Packard, Ranald was a Designer, Engineer, and Senior IT Manager in the Music, Entertainment, New Media and DotCom industries where he worked both sides of the fence - creating content and implementing business infrastructure to support and deliver it - using most of the major OS and hardware platforms. Ranald has been using Linux, OpenBSD, and other Open Source solutions since 1993 to solve real-world problems in the environments for which he is responsible.

Brian Allen

Brian was one of the original HP Solution Architects in the field to work with Linux on Integrity servers and provided assistance in creating this book.

Brian joined HP directly from college in 1979 as a Customer Engineer supporting large business computer customers in the Northeast. Over the years, Brian had many roles at HP including an Area Technical Support Engineer, factory-based Software Support Engineer, and Senior Technical Consultant in HP's Professional Services Organization. This range of experience is one of Brian's greatest assets that customers continue to benefit from in his current roles as a Solution Architect for HP's Corporate Financial Accounts program.

Marty Paul

Marty Paul contributed to and reviewed several chapters in this book.

Marty is a Senior System Analyst in the Engineering and Deployment Services Group of Pitney Bowes in Danbury, CT. He has worked with nearly all HP hardware, including HP Superdome systems running hard and virtual partitions. He is now testing HP Integrity servers running Linux, Windows, and HP-UX. Marty has been in the IT industry for 20 years and has supported a number of systems, including six years as an HP-UX expert.

Reviewers and Contributors

In all, there were about 25 reviewers of this book. I'm not sure what makes someone agree to review a book. You don't get the glory of a contributing author, but it is just as much work. I would like to thank the many people who devoted a substantial amount of time to reviewing this book to ensure that I included topics important to new system administrators and covered those topics accurately. In particular, I would like to thank Bradley Chapple and Adam Schwartz of HP for their review and assistance with the EFI- related material. I also want to thank Steve Stichler and his team for contributing information on MC/ServiceGuard for Linux and for reviewing the MC/ServiceGuard portion of this book.