Many books cover isolated aspects of distributed enterprises, such as email or single sign-on authentication. Others address the overall concepts behind distributed systems. This book makes the unique contribution of detailing the process of downloading and installing every piece of open-source software required to build a complete distributed enterprise. With Linux and OpenAFS as the foundation, Gehrke and Milicchio build an open, fault-tolerant, secure set of distributed services that provide true enterprise-grade computing. This platform would seem to be the perfect solution for cooperating researchers and other geographically dispersed groups that do not want to invest in the standard Windows or Unix server-based solutions.

The book has 17 chapters, divided into three sections: “Core Services,” “Pushing the Core Services,” and “Applications.” “Core Services” starts with obtaining Debian Linux, and continues through setting up network time services, authenticating with Kerberos, creating directory access via lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP), setting up OpenAFS, and configuring Samba. The second section adds dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) services, Web services via Apache, email, Internet news, database services via PostgreSQL, the Mailman mailing list manager, Horde groupware, ILIAS e-learning software, and calendar management. Finally, the “Applications” section covers configuration of clients (Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows), clustering, and collaborative development. Note that all services are built on redundant server processes and encrypted communication channels.

Gehrke and Milicchio are proud of the fact that this book describes a running system, so most steps are illustrated with screen captures of the command line. Each chapter ends with practice exercises that lead the reader to further study without muddying the presentation of installation and configuration details. The Italian authors occasionally create some nonstandard grammatical constructions that sound odd to my ear (“To set properly a WebDAV ACL may not be easy for users,” on page 234).

Overall, this is a great open-source reference work that all serious system architects and administrators should add to their bookshelves.