Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 10:27:32 +1000 From: jonathan michaels <jon@caamora.com.au> To: chris@tourneyland.com, Chuck Robey <chuckr@mat.net> Cc: doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Tasks for junior documentation hackers! Message-ID: <19990925102732.A7356@caamora.com.au> In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19990923233912.0085b620@mail.9netave.net>; from chris@tourneyland.com on Thu, Sep 23, 1999 at 11:39:12PM -0500 References: <3.0.6.32.19990923224452.0088d180@mail.9netave.net> <Pine.BSF.4.10.9909232353250.312-100000@picnic.mat.net> <3.0.6.32.19990923233912.0085b620@mail.9netave.net>
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On Thu, Sep 23, 1999 at 11:39:12PM -0500, chris@tourneyland.com wrote: > >Unfortunately, the question you asked, DNS, just isn't a 20 word answer. > >Maybe if you'd asked about one tiny part of DNS, perhaps it would have > >been, but it's not. If you think this is one big conspiracy against you, > >then I *very* reluctantly would tell you that you'll really have to > >consider going back to Windows. We're not out to get you, we would like > >you to succeed, but the answers are NOT simple, else the book wouldn't be > >that fat. > > So, the book is that fat because it has to be? That doesn't really follow. > It presumes that there's no such thing as a book that's longer than it has > to be, which is of course false. It also presumes that the DNS/Bind book is > targeted for people like me who just want a small network, which I don't > believe it is - my understanding is it's an exhaustive treatment of > DNS/Bind. this particular dosen't claim to be an exhaustive treatment of either subject neither dns or bind, rather it is an introduction to the topics and substance that is required to know, understand abd be able to do relatively efficiently as a dns admin. > Now, a person running an ISP or admining a whole Class B with a > zillion subnets has to know a lot more than me. They probably need an > exhuastive book. no, they do not. > Do I? yes, you do need exactly that same book as the above mentioned class b dns admin type. > I'm not a DNS expert, but I don't really buy that what I need to know about > DNS could fill a 500 book. 50? 100? 150? Now we're talking. the fact that yo are not a dns expert is precisly why you and me and all the rest of teh arrogant wannabe "exprts" need a book three times the size of the o'riely dns&bind book. you nave made a small error in judgement, it come with the turf, and is all part of maturing as an system administrator. that being the assumption that because you are a small user, organisation, group, etc, etc ... you will need to know only a little bit about the subject. this is is plinly and demonstratably false. because of your, our, my limited experience we need all teh help we can get. why, because unix is such a wide ranging field and because of its inate diversity it has no fixed pattern of solution for any given set of curcumstance .. inshort for as many administrators that exist ther are at least two or three times as many type of solution. now come the crunch, dns is a complex database that requires much specialist massaging to get running properly and efficiently, this only comes from the prospective admin doing a lot of hard work in many different types of environments. this hard won experience can take many years to aquire, or the reading (and practiceing on ones own two to five component based tcp/ip built in a spare bedroom type of netowrk). as one become familiar with the neuances of dns one can discard the number of books and or the number of pages in those self same books ... but you can never dircard teh reams of information and experience that you have in your head this is why beginners like you and me need such big and bigger books about such seemingly simple tasks as building dns servers and running an effective and efficient bind setup where all teh machines are available all the time, notwithstanding physical hardware failure that is. > Let me put it another way . . . you wanna bet me $50 I can write up > everything a guy like me needs to know to do his own DNS serving, in 100 > pages? Now THAT sounds like fun. if yor target audience was made up from experienced dns admins then sure you could write such a book... but for the target audience you are implying to reach, id suggest that such a book would be all but owrthless, hell a book with 1000 pages mighnt be enough detail given the sliding in current educational standards ... some skill that authers and sys admins seem to have forgotten is that of reading and writing. i'd be happy to bet my next 2 or three pension cheques against your success. because the basic premise upon which you have built your argument is entrily wrong. that being the idea that beginners need to know less about setting up and running (physically) small tcp/ip networks. going back to you original premice, the class b setup of a large campus tcp/ip setup. this can be far easier and require far less maintenace than a "simple" class c based netork built around a dozen or so physical machine located in several geographically diverse areas. size in tcp/ip netowrks is mearly a matter of scale, it is nt a matter of increased complexity. ergo to your argument. once you know the basics of dns&bind (and the dsn&bind book does a reasonable job of covering most of teh basics) then you will find that netowrk complexity not size is the most daunting prospect of setup and the more experince, be it from actual builds or the reading of many many and larger and larger books in association with you own experimentations will lead to a more stable form of confidence. take note beginners need bigger books, if only to impress the people who know even less than we do .. grin. take care jonathan -- =============================================================================== Jonathan Michaels PO Box 144, Rosebery, NSW 1445 Australia ===========================================================<jon@caamora.com.au> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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