So you want to be a Juniper / JUNOS guru? Well, you’re going to need some solid experience gained through numerous hours in the CLI, but in the mean time, here are some of the best books to get you started:

The classic O’Reilly JUNOS reference, a must for every network engineer’s desk, novice and expert alike.

It is hard to be a real Juniper Guru without knowing at least something (if not a lot) about NetScreen firewalls. I know; ScreenOS is not JunOS, but it is a flexible and powerful firewall OS that will be around for years to come – and even if you don’t use it professionally, who doesn’t want (or already have) a GT at home to play with?

This is how I learned JUNOS and it is still a great reference; both as a study guide for the JNCIS-M test and as a Juniper / JUNOS primer. The bad news is that it is out of print. The good news is that you can download it (for free) from Juniper.

OK, I am cheating a bit – this book is not dspecifically on Juniper or JUNOS but it was written by members of Juniper Networks’ security engineering team and it is a great book. Since Juniper is known for their great security products and engineers – it makes sense that a true Juniper Guru would have read this book.

A great new book from Juniper and O’Reilly (published Aug 2009). JUNOS High Availability combines a practical, common-sense approach with a wealth of command and configuration examples, providing an invaluable reference that belongs on every network manager’s desk (make sure you take a peek at the back cover).

       
As Juniper moves from dominating the Internet core into enterprise networks, knowing JUNOS is becoming a much more widespread need. If you are planning on getting a Juniper ER (Enterprise Routing) certification, you should plan on reading these books. If you plan on bringing Juniper (and therefor JUNOS) into your enterprise network, you should plan on reading these books. Basically, if you work on or manage an enterprise network; you should probably plan on needing these books in your personal library.

Here we get back to the reason that Juniper is such a dominant force in modern networking – MPLS. This second edition published in 2008 is the most comprehensive and up to date tomb of MPLS knowledge that I have been able to find. Of course MPLS is not specific to Juniper or JUNOS, but we all know – if you are running MPLS, you really should be doing it on those blue routers.

Although this book is not available to purchase quite yet, I had to include it. I received the honor and pleasure of reading a proof of this book as it was sent off to the copy editors and I can tell you that it is a fabulous resource on network management (aka operations). Network Mergers and Migrations provides an original approach to IP and MPLS instruction that is right on target. When combined with the depth of technical information and case studies contained within, the result is an irreplaceable resource for any network engineer.