Must Read Books for SysAdmins

Paul Vilcu
MEM.Zone
Published in
4 min readOct 20, 2017

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Information

A plethora of information is available to us at any time, the only problem is sorting out that information and remaining with the essentials and the things of interest to us. Having read some good books and some bad ones aswell I thought it might come in handy for any of you who are either a Windows or Unix SysAdmin or someone who just want’s to start now on a IT path to take a look over these selected books.

I will try to catalogue them per category. The links are affiliate links for amazon.

General SysAdmin Books

  • Must Read Books for every sysadmin no matter the specialization field! These will help you create a pattern of how to approach work and different situations and how the flow of it all works.
Time Management for System Administrators
The Practice of System and Network Administration

Windows Admins

  • Powershell — When it comes to Windows Administration, you will most definitely want to start with Powershell skills. Here are my picks in this order to get you started on the right track and then you can advance to debugging, dsc, configuration … etc with powershell.
Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches
Windows PowerShell in Action, Second Edition
PowerShell in Depth
  • Servers. On the server side of books I can only recommend 2 books from specific publications. They are the holy graal due to them being very in-depth and covering all aspects. Off-course you can pick the OS version of choice. I will be linking the latest one.
Mastering Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2016 Unleashed
  • Active Directory — should also a part of every Windows SysAdmin knowledge-base since 99% of the Server side has to do with integration to AD in some way. You can go very in-depth with AD if you like but for starters I would recommend the following.
Learn Active Directory Management in a Month of Lunches
  • Debugging — Another essential part of a good sysadmin is debugging and finding out where the problem lies and how to solve it. In this field there is one book that is very technical and provides all you need to get into advanced debugging.
Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools (2nd Edition)

Unix Admins

  • Bash/Python — As with Windows with Powershell, so is the case with Linux and Bash/Python. Bash is objectively a terrible programming language but every sysadmin needs to know Bash. The upside is that you have Python which has much better support for string manipulation, a vast library of modules and system infrastructure than Bash.
Beginning the Linux Command Line
Fundamentals of Python: From First Programs through Data Structures
  • Linux OS — There is only 2 books that gives you the complete package from 0 to 100%.
UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook
Essential System Administration

Mentionable notice books:

If you want to have a very good foundation of how operating system works from bit level up (and trust me it’s a very good knowledge to have), I would definitely recommend this book:

Modern Operating Systems

For the upcoming storm that is Cloud:

The Practice of Cloud System Administration

For in-depth Python learning:

Fluent Python

For System Center Configuration Manager admins:

Mastering System Center Configuration Manager
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

For setting up a SCCM Laboratory so you can try the features:

System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager: Mastering the Fundamentals

Very nice read:

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

Network related:

Network Warrior: Everything You Need to Know That Wasn’t on the CCNA Exam

Free Online Resources

These are a bonus, free to sign, online slack work areas. They are heavily populated and you can get help for free from other people.

Powershell Slack:

Windows Admins Slack:

That’s it, these are my suggestions that I hope you enjoyed or will enjoy in the future. Happy reading !

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