Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 8 Study Guide

Rating:
Summary: An Average Book
Review: I bought this book for Sun Certification. It looks and feel good but the content is a little too brief. It is a bit expensive. Doesn't cover Part II. I notice there a lot of print error. Reader need to be careful when reading the book. The way it is structure is quite confusing, it try to reduce the pages so it combine those options together. But overall, it is average, if reader have hands-on Sun SysAdmin experience and should be able to spot the print errors. But be careful when reading it. Also there is no practice exam question for whole test. Every chapter have only 10 multiple choices and 2 free answer question. Some of the objectives are briefly indicated. I pass by reading this book alone and with 2yrs of hand-ons experience.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Supplement
Review: I have taken the course at Sun learning center a year ago and didn't think about certification. My course came with the web based course also. I went over the web based course and used this book. The book did have quite a few misprints, but overall it was fine. It went throgh all of the major objectives of the test. The best use of my money was to also get the practice exam from sun. Alot of the questions were very similar to the actual test. These three methods enabled me to pass with an 89%. I wish there was an equivalent book for the System Administration 2 test.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre presentation and many typos: choose another book
Review: I own this book as well as the Syngress study guide; I would recommend the latter over this book.

First, an important point: this book ONLY COVERS EXAM I.

In comparison, the organization and presentation in this book is only mediocre, reading like a collage of assorted information or patchy reference manual rather than a cohesive study guide. Much space is devoted to rehashing the contents of the man pages, for example, rather than pointing out the few important options.

However the truly irritating thing is the lack of quality control and number of typos in the practice questions. In the first chapter alone, two questions indicate you should "choose four" correct answers when the key lists three correct answers, and another questions list of correct answers includes option "I" which does not exist. A later chapter refers to the "cfgadm" command for configuring device tables - the command is "devfsadm".

The Syngress book is easily a better choice than this, at least.

Rating:
Summary: In order to pass
Review: I passed the exam but could not have without this book. It covered virtually everything on the exam and the chapter questions were on target. It doesn't explain some things clearly, because it assumes you already know the concept; but it does offer a wealth of information on the subject. For the money, and to be sure you pass, BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!! This book along with Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 8 Study Guide (Exam 310-011 & 310-012) -- by Syngress Media Inc.
is a definite PASS on the first try!!

Rating:
Summary: Like many others note, this book is below par...
Review: One would think that a book titled "Sun Certified System Administrator Solaris 8 Study Guide" and backed with the offical Sun logo would satisfy a few basic criteria. First and foremost, it would be a Study Guide. It doesn't come close. Or that it would be a complete guide for both parts of the test. No, it only partially covers Part I.
One would expect that as an offical Sun Press book, it would cover topics on the test. It doesn't. This book is nearly worthless to anyone that does not already have extensive knowledge of the subject matter. So, what is the point of purchasing a Study Guide if it does nothing towards study of the topic given?
The testing certification subjects are pretty much covered in order when you take the actual test. They are not presented in order in the book. In fact, this book barely even discusses the topics for the test itself. It simply presents various commands and options a basic sysadmin might encounter. But, as far as the actual Solaris test is concerned, after page one, you might not even recognize the book is supposed to be a study guide for the test. It doesn't mention the test hardly at all.
One review above mentioned that there were two whole questions that were sort of like what was on the test. I repect his opinion but geez... two WHOLE questions. Sort of. On a test that has 57 questions. You get two? Actually, there are a few... but nothing like what you would expect and should get in any decent true Study guide.
All in all, save your money and buy ExamCram or something else. Heck, just buy the big honking Solaris 9 Complete Reference. This book would be excellent as a quick reference guide for a sysadmin that needs to know (quickly) the option used on a particular command. But, other than as a quick reference guide for on-the-job performance assistance, this book is quite worthless. As a Study guide, it is a miserable failure.

Rating:
Summary: Preferred "Solaris 8 Exam Cram" if only one study guide
Review: Peter Gregory's Sun Press title provides very good coverage of the material on the part 1 exam. It does not, however, address part 2, so I had to find a second resource, Ambro's "Solaris 8 System Administrator Exam Cram", to study for the second part. I found Ambro's book also served as a very good study guide, and given that it addresses both parts 1 and 2, I would have to recommend it first if you only have the time or money for one reference.

Rating:
Summary: Preferred "Solaris 8 Exam Cram" if only one study guide
Review: This book is a frustrating one to review, partly because the author did a credible job with 98% of the effort needed to write a good study guide, but failed with the final 2%. I might also note I just passed the first exam for the SCSA, and this book was helpful to that end. But I would feel sorry for anyone who relied on it to learn the Solaris operating system: the proof-reading and editing of this book were just not up to par. The author is a respected member of the Unix community and certainly knows his material. But, because of sloppy editing and inattention to detail, the reader will come across truly amazing facts. Just one example occurs in the section pertaining to cpio. There the reader will learn that,

"cpio performs three functions; they are:

1. Copy in. cpio creates an archive. ...

2. Copy out. cpio reads from an archive. ..."

As anyone familiar with this venerable Unix command knows, the copy out mode creates a cpio archive: the author has the meanings of copy in and copy out reversed. Later in the discussion he corrects his error, but the net effect is one of confusion to the reader. A second example is one could charitably be ascribed to a typo, except that it is repeated numerous times throughout the discussion: the book notes the role played by the vi configuration command "set showmodes". vi has no such command- the correct option is "showmode". A minor point perhaps, but indicative of the manner in which this book has been proofread and edited.

The discussion of shells is quite cursory- probably acceptable given the book's purpose as a study guide, given that Sun, in its infinite wisdom, considers the vi command to be much more important than an understanding of shells when bestowing the SCSA certification. But author discusses only three shells: the Bourne, Korn, and C-Shell. Solaris 8 also comes with the tcsh and zsh shells, which the book fails to mention. In the book's defense, it may be that these shells are not addressed in the certification objectives.

The author spends a considerable amount of ink- and risks drawing undue reader attention to- information lifted from man pages, particularly the more obscure options used on various commands. Now as one who prefers reading from a book than from a screen, I find it useful to have some of these options documented in printed text. But the author makes unsufficient effort to distinguish important options and those rarely used. Despite what one might hear to the contrary, my certification test, at least, did not cover the rarely used options. Much of this is material that a reader whose goal is to pass the certification test could dispense with, even though it could be useful a reference material.

A final gripe- one that could easily have been corrected- appeared repeatedly thoughout this book. The organization follows a well-trod path of describing a command, then giving examples of the command in action, followed by a discussion of the examples. The examples were generally well-chosen, while the discussion frequently follows the format: "the first example illustrates ... the seconds shows ... the third ...". Except by the times you have several examples, the reader may scratch his head wondering which examples pertains to the part of the discussion he is currently reading, particularly if he is reviewing the material. I suppose it would have been extra work to have made it easy for the reader to readily identify which example corresponded to a particular portion of the discussion.

This reviewer also used the Syngress/Osborne book in his test preparation. It had far fewer of the irritating flaws, with less filler than this book. Moveover, the Syngress book has much more in the way of visual aids that make reading a book easier on the eye, and does a better job of pointing out things that are likely to trip up someone taking the cert test. The Syngress book also covers both SCSA exams, making it a better value in this reviewer's opinion. That said, this book does cover the material needed to pass the first of the Sun SCSA certification tests. If you read and absorb what is in this book, you should have no difficulty passing the exam. But the Syngress book is a better choice.

Rating:
Summary: Useful- but Seriously Flawed
Review: This book is a frustrating one to review, partly because the author did a credible job with 98% of the effort needed to write a good study guide, but failed with the final 2%. I might also note I just passed the first exam for the SCSA, and this book was helpful to that end. But I would feel sorry for anyone who relied on it to learn the Solaris operating system: the proof-reading and editing of this book were just not up to par. The author is a respected member of the Unix community and certainly knows his material. But, because of sloppy editing and inattention to detail, the reader will come across truly amazing facts. Just one example occurs in the section pertaining to cpio. There the reader will learn that,

"cpio performs three functions; they are:

1. Copy in. cpio creates an archive. ...

2. Copy out. cpio reads from an archive. ..."

As anyone familiar with this venerable Unix command knows, the copy out mode creates a cpio archive: the author has the meanings of copy in and copy out reversed. Later in the discussion he corrects his error, but the net effect is one of confusion to the reader. A second example is one could charitably be ascribed to a typo, except that it is repeated numerous times throughout the discussion: the book notes the role played by the vi configuration command "set showmodes". vi has no such command- the correct option is "showmode". A minor point perhaps, but indicative of the manner in which this book has been proofread and edited.

The discussion of shells is quite cursory- probably acceptable given the book's purpose as a study guide, given that Sun, in its infinite wisdom, considers the vi command to be much more important than an understanding of shells when bestowing the SCSA certification. But author discusses only three shells: the Bourne, Korn, and C-Shell. Solaris 8 also comes with the tcsh and zsh shells, which the book fails to mention. In the book's defense, it may be that these shells are not addressed in the certification objectives.

The author spends a considerable amount of ink- and risks drawing undue reader attention to- information lifted from man pages, particularly the more obscure options used on various commands. Now as one who prefers reading from a book than from a screen, I find it useful to have some of these options documented in printed text. But the author makes unsufficient effort to distinguish important options and those rarely used. Despite what one might hear to the contrary, my certification test, at least, did not cover the rarely used options. Much of this is material that a reader whose goal is to pass the certification test could dispense with, even though it could be useful a reference material.

A final gripe- one that could easily have been corrected- appeared repeatedly thoughout this book. The organization follows a well-trod path of describing a command, then giving examples of the command in action, followed by a discussion of the examples. The examples were generally well-chosen, while the discussion frequently follows the format: "the first example illustrates ... the seconds shows ... the third ...". Except by the times you have several examples, the reader may scratch his head wondering which examples pertains to the part of the discussion he is currently reading, particularly if he is reviewing the material. I suppose it would have been extra work to have made it easy for the reader to readily identify which example corresponded to a particular portion of the discussion.

This reviewer also used the Syngress/Osborne book in his test preparation. It had far fewer of the irritating flaws, with less filler than this book. Moveover, the Syngress book has much more in the way of visual aids that make reading a book easier on the eye, and does a better job of pointing out things that are likely to trip up someone taking the cert test. The Syngress book also covers both SCSA exams, making it a better value in this reviewer's opinion. That said, this book does cover the material needed to pass the first of the Sun SCSA certification tests. If you read and absorb what is in this book, you should have no difficulty passing the exam. But the Syngress book is a better choice.

Rating:
Summary: Below-Average Sun Microsystems Press Publication
Review: While the book did cover the necessary objectives as published by Sun Microsystems at time of printing for Solaris 8 (SunOS5.8), the title is misleading. Upon reading the title, the audience is led to think that the text reviews material covered by both Parts I and II of the Sun Certified System Administrator (SCSA) exam, and that is simply not so. The publication covers only Part I.

In addition, it does so with some notable errors, misprints, and typographical errors. The review and editing of the text before publication must have been done with very cursory effort.

In summary, money on a study guide for studying up on the material for the SunOS5.8 exams would be better spent on another publication. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Peter H. Gregory, but this book simply does not live up to his reputation nor Sun's endorsement of this volume as the official study guide.

(By the way, the latest objectives for the exam, Parts I and II, are always available for review at:

suned.sun.com/US/certification/solaris/solaris_exam_objectives.html.)