If you're a hands-on network manager seeking to understand and implement practical capacity planning on a Solaris network but you need a little help to do it, look no further.

There are four basic sections: the first deals with computer components, performance metric definitions and queueing models designed to help you understand how processes affect performance; the second deals with the structure of the Solaris operating system; the third with system performance tuning and the final section with capacity planning itself.

It begins in user-friendly fashion with a straightforward discussion designed to separate the concepts of network tuning from capacity planning and moves swiftly into the uses of basic observation and user feedback.

After that it gets rapidly into software network analysis utilities and the mathematical tools you need to crunch the numbers they provide. But it then appears to become a little episodic, even for a technical reference work.

While there's no doubt as to the value of the content it's only fair to say that Cervone's book is heavy going and poorly structured--which is a pity as he clearly knows what he's talking about.

On the plus side, if your current grasp of networking is a little light on the accounting methods you need to really understand the bottlenecks on your system, and the techniques you need to eliminate them, then this book is your route to the bottom line which even IT departments must now bow to. You will be able to demonstrate your conclusions to the bean counters and actually prove your case. --Steve Patient