For example, the folks at O'Reilly Publishing still think I write about networks. So they sent me along this:

"ESSENTIAL SNMP"--HELP FOR SYSTEM AND NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS

Sebastopol, CA--Among the unrecognized acts of heroism routinely performed by system and network administrators, wrestling with SNMP is not the least significant. The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) provides its users with a "simple" set of operations that allows monitoring and remote management of network devices such as routers, switches and servers. In spite of its name, SNMP is not especially simple to learn. "Essential SNMP" by Douglas R. Mauro and Kevin J. Schmidt (O'Reilly, US $39.95) is one of the first books on the subject to provide a practical introduction for system and network administrators along with the technical background on how to use it effectively.

As coauthor Mauro explains, "SNMP is a shared protocol that devices, machines, and people can use to talk with each other. Every day, more and more devices in/out of the datacenter are SNMP compatible. This includes, but is definitely not limited to, systems {Sun, HP, IBM, etc), network devices such as routers, hubs, and switches, and software (Oracle, SAP, SunMC)." He continues, "I wanted to give system and network administrators a book that they could use to learn SNMP. There are a lot of books on the subject, but none that are aimed at the practicing network or system administrator."

Coauthor Schmidt adds, "There currently is no book like this one on the market. This book provides the reader with a very practical treatment of SNMP. As the Internet grows and grows, more people are going to need to know how to use SNMP to manage routers, servers, switches, etc."

SNMP is an Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks. Since it was developed in 1988, SNMP has become the de facto standard for Internet work management. Because it is a simple solution requiring little code to implement, vendors can easily build SNMP agents into their products. As the authors explain, SNMP usually is associated with managing routers, but it's important to understand that it can be used to manage many types of devices. SNMP can be used to manage Unix systems, Windows systems, printers, modem racks, power supplies, and more. Any device running software that allows the retrieval of SNMP information can be managed. And, as Mauro says, "There are so many admins out there that are surrounded by SNMP but don't know what it is or how to use it. This book will give them the knowledge!"

This new book starts with the basics of SNMP and how it works, then provides numerous practical examples of how use it. The book covers OIDs, MIBs, community strings, traps, and other technical elements, but the main focus is on practical network administration: how to configure SNMP agents and network management stations, how to use SNMP to retrieve and modify variables on network devices, how to configure management software to react to traps sent by managed devices, and more. It explores both commercial and open source packages, including HP's OpenView, Castle Rock's SNMPc, the Net-SNMP tools, Simon Leinen's Perl SNMP support, and MRTG. Administrators will come away with ideas for writing scripts to help them manage their networks, create managed objects, and extend the operation of SNMP agents. In addition to SNMPv1 and v2, the book covers SNMPv3, which has just started to appear in commercial products as of this printing.

"Essential SNMP" was written for system and network administrators who could benefit from using SNMP to manage their equipment but who have little or no experience with SNMP or SNMP applications. According to the authors, almost any network, no matter how small, can benefit from using SNMP.

Chapter 2, "A Closer Look at SNMP," is available free online at: http://oreilly.com/catalog/esnmp/chapter/ch02.html

For more information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples, see: http://oreilly.com/catalog/esnmp/

Essential SNMP
By Douglas R. Mauro & Kevin J. Schmidt
July 2001
ISBN 0-596-00020-0, 313 pages, $39.95 (US)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938

I suppose this is O'Reilly's way of letting me know that dead-tree publishing is still an option, even if online publishing has eaten its lunch recently.

My pal, Kim Kent at Brodeur Worldwide, the people who promote IBM Software's efforts, makes sure that I don't miss a trick.

Hi Rod,

IBM recently released the details of its second-quarter financial performance. IBM's Data Management Solutions business division grew by 19 percent turning in its 15th consecutive quarter of growth in the highly competitive software data business market. At a time when so many IT companies are losing ground, and competitors like Oracle are experiencing no growth, IBM's data management business is building momentum in areas we've identified as key strategic priorities for the future.

IBM's DB2 database is experiencing the fastest growth in the industry. According to the 2000 Gartner Dataquest database market share report, DB2 moved into second place in the Unix space and is growing two times faster than Oracle in Canada, Europe and Japan in the distributed environment -- a reflection of IBM's investment in the rapidly growing UNIX and Windows markets -- a market IBM just entered some five years ago. In 2000, DB2 on distributed, on Unix and NT platforms grew 73%, 3 times faster than the industry growth rate, and more than three times faster than Oracle.

Today, IBM is well positioned for continued growth in 2001 thanks to its world class innovative technology and continued customer and partner momentum. According to Gartner, a shift is occurring in the database marketplace within the past eight months. More customers are moving to DB2 from Oracle based on pricing, ISV relationships and broad platform support. Since 1998, when Oracle first launched its application server efforts, leading application developers such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Ariba, i2, JD Edwards and Vignette abandoned Oracle and formed strategic alliances with IBM.

What's more, in the second quarter, IBM completed its $1 billion acquisition of the database assets of Informix Corporation, doubling the size of IBM's distributed database business, the single largest middleware opportunity today. At sites around the world, IBM is welcoming nearly 2,500 skilled data employees from Informix to its team of some 4,000 professionals, while accelerating plans to market and sell an expanded data management product portfolio to an enormous customer base. This positions IBM for further growth in 2001.

Regards,
Kim

I really wasn't sure whether Kim should be sending that one to me or Larry Ellison.

Then there's my pal John, who always make sure I get humorous or slightly offbeat IT related articles. My latest fave was the one he sent me about the UK researcher who found this fungus down in Belize that eats the aluminum off of CDs. It even concludes with a group from Philips, completely straight-faced that this fungus is an anomaly caused by the extreme tropical weather conditions in Belize and that people should not worry about it affecting their CDs elsewhere. You've just got to love an item like that one.

And occassionally, I'll get a quick note from Darhl Stultz, who used to write the IT/MIS column for About.com. Note the "used to." Yeah, him, too. Luckily, he still has his Day Job. So he and the missus are off to France on holiday. I'm sure they're having a great time.

Most of the writer's mailing lists I'm on are chockers with stories about glum writers and editors trying to network at cocktail parties. It's lean time for online writers right now -- unless you want to write about lean times.

So I've been defining myself more as regular journalist lately. I've even followed the advice of one editor and started pitching my stuff to dead-tree publications again. They are still around, after all.