I consider 3 books essential reading for system administration. "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Nemeth & Snyder, "Essential System Administra

I consider 3 books essential reading for system administration. "UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook" by Nemeth & Snyder, "Essential System Administration" by Aeleen Frisch and "TCP/IP Guide" by Kozierok. Yes, they're quite old but the expertise of these authors can't really be dated. Craig Hunt's "TCP/IP Network Administration" (2002) is also still worth reading. As The Cloud becomes the only system new devs come into contact with genuine system administrators are likely to decline in numbers but may become that much more valuable as specialists.