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Summary: Solaris 9 System Administration Training Guide
Review: Great book! Bill has done a great job breaking down each sections in chapters that can easily relate to the Solaris exam.Great study compagnion!
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Summary: For what it's worth
Review: I have not had the chance to take the exams yet, but after reviewing this book and comparing it to the other three complete study guides for solaris 9, this one is the best by far. The other three books seem to be simply study guides to help you simply pass the exams... not learn the OS. The exception is the "All in one title." This actually has some more information than this title, but in all fairness it claims to cover an additional exam. The all in one title seems to also lack practical tips for solaris (not needed for the exams, but great for when you have your own system to administer). Overall, if you are looking for a book that simply covers the exam and nothing more, go for the all in one guide. Otherwise, this is the book for you. It seems to cover all the exam topics in enough depth, but also manages to relate the information back to the real world. BTW, I have been administering SunOS networks for 7 years, so solaris although I have not worked with solaris 9 in depth yet, solaris is nothing new to me. The examples in this book are well grounded in the REAL IT world.
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Summary: Not Enough
Review: I must advice to the potential Sys Admins lookin to sit for the certification exams , that this book is certainly not Enough. Coz certain chapters Like "Backup and restore" are not extensively covered considering the scope of the exam. By all means you need another source of information.
Rating:
Summary: Not Enough
Review: I must advice to the potential Sys Admins lookin to sit for the certification exams , that this book is certainly not Enough. Coz certain chapters Like "Backup and restore" are not extensively covered considering the scope of the exam. By all means you need another source of information.
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Summary: The most tastless book I have ever read
Review: I used this book only to get the certification. I do not know other books with the same topic. But I will say this book is the most tasteless book I have ever read and it is missing many key points of the certification test. It just list hundred commands and options you can use. If you are a machine, then this book is not bad. You can just scan it in and sort it out. But as a human reader, you will not remember anything for this first 2 or 3 readings. And I do not like the tone used by the writer. It is like your boring, no fun manager just saying something meaningless to you. I have read many other books, I like the style of WROX books the best, it is like your very knowledgeable and nice co-worker sitting besides you and show you how to do things. You do not feel anything from this book, just a boring manager asks you to finish some job you hate very much. The only reason I did not change other books is that I had this book, and I do not have the extra money to buy another one. So if you have not bought this book. DoNot.
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Summary: This is a Great Training Guide!
Review: I'm a Solaris instructor and must comment on the Dalia Aziz comments who wrote that the Calkins book is full of filler. Aziz is flat out wrong-it's a great, in depth training guide. Our firm reviewed the Gibbs book because it was the first one out and we needed a Solaris 9 training guide for our students; I returned it. In short, here's our review: and here's why Gibb's book (Pub. Osborne) is several hundred pages less than the Calkins book: Gibbs has 3 sentences on managing disks with SMC, nothing on managing core dumps, nothing on Flash archives, nothing on fssnap, nothing on printers, 1 sentence on smpatch (Calkins has 7 pgs on smpatch). Gibbs devotes an entire chapter to vi and another entire chapter on basic command syntax- both are not on the exam (talk about fluff). Gibbs also includes sections on Admintool and Adminsuite when both products have been discontinued in Solaris 9. Gibbs still refers to SVM as DiskSuite and contains numerous typos. Gibbs tells the reader to use rlogin, rcp, rsh and does not even speak of the secure shell. I could go on and on about what that book missed. I gotta give Calkins credit for waiting to get it right vs. being first to market with a sub standard book. Great job Calkins- we use this book in our Solaris Admin 1 and 2 courses and our students are getting certified!! Hey Aziz, better check your reference: there's a total of 12 exam objectives not 6.
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Summary: MCSE that got his Solaris Certification
Review: I'm prevously an MCSE. I used this book to learn Solaris and to take the Part1 and 2 Sun cert. exams. I finalized my certification by taking the Solaris 9 SysAdmin Part 2 test this morning in Denver, and passed with a score of 85. I felt well prepared in all of the objectives for both exams. This book not only prepared me for the cert exam, but will remain a valuable reference on my shelf.
Rating:
Summary: MCSE that got his Solaris Certification
Review: I'm prevously an MCSE. I used this book to learn Solaris and to take the Part1 and 2 Sun cert. exams. I finalized my certification by taking the Solaris 9 SysAdmin Part 2 test this morning in Denver, and passed with a score of 85. I felt well prepared in all of the objectives for both exams. This book not only prepared me for the cert exam, but will remain a valuable reference on my shelf.
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Summary: Good for learning Solaris 9 but not for CERT. Test!!!
Review: If you think this book will prepare you for the test you are wrong. The first exam: CX-310-014 yes, it helps. But the Exam Cram is better. But the CX-310-015 does not cover enought areas to aid for the test. For example,the author does not explain setfacl, RBAC enought. There's not enought guides here. This part is really poorly written. He must get paid for filling up pages. However, if you want to be a Solaris admin, this book is a good reference. THIS book is not for test studying. Try look for the Exam Cram for Solaris 9. That book has a lot better info section for RBAC and others. My co-worker and I have read both and this is clear.
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Summary: Why take a class
Review: In short, the book covers the how to part with "step by step" instructions. There are exercises with what to type. Often when seeking help or learning, you just want to how to perform a task. And this book comes thru. Learn by doing. Not by memorizing endless forgettable facts. Questions at the end of the chapter to help reinforce the material.
So it's READ, DO, QUIZ. I've got Microsoft, Novell and Cisco Certs, but don't recall a book that provides the detail that this one provides. Give me screen captures and "step by step" instruction over endless paragraphs of mind numbing text. Good Job Bill. We appreciate the extra effort.
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