Rating: 
Summary: The update to Bills Solaris 7 training guide
Review: A good book if you need some help getting prepared for the Solaris 8 exam and cannot afford to go to the Sun education class. Bill does a solid job organizing the material needed for the exam.The testing software is ok, not great, but ok. If you buy the extra questions you get a whole lot of duplicates. Complaints aside, this book stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Solaris 8 admin prep books that are out there. And hey, I passed the Part 2 exam (I had passed the part 1 during the beta).
Rating: 
Summary: DEFINITELY NOT FOR CERTIFICATION
Review: After buying this book I realized I wont get certified in the next five years if I had used it for the exam. I dont know if this is a good Solaris book or not; but IT IS NOT A CERTIFICATION PREPARATION BOOK. THERE ARE SOME CHAPTERS IN THE BOOK NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE OBJECTIVES. I used the EXAM CRAM book and passed both exams in just two weeks. I dont have any sys admin experience at all.
SO STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK UNLESS U HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO KILL.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent follow up.....
Review: Bill Calkins has written another solid Training guide, to help in preparing for the Solaris 8 Sys Admin Exams. This guide is jammed packed with good solid technical information, which will go a long way in helping you prepare for that all important exams, not only is this an excellent support guide for the exams, but an excellent reference book that will stay on your desk, long after you've passed, well done Bill!
Rating:
Summary: does the job well
Review: For the purpose of studying for the Solaris 8 Administrator exams, I found this book (and accompanying CD) very helpful. I am an experienced administrator, and the format of the book allowed me to breeze past chapters and concepts I was already comfortable with and focus on those concepts that I had little or no experience with (e.g. NIS, cachefs). In those chapters I focused on, I found enough material to be comfortable answering questions on that topic in the exams. If nothing else, buy the book for the accompanying CD. It includes practice exams and study questions with a very similar feel and content to the actual exams. It also includes the entire book (which is quite thick) in PDF format, so you can read and work through the examples right on your computer. I did find many errors (some typos, some in content), but cetainly not enough to get very frustrated with the book. (And unfortunately, not any more errors than other technical books I read of similar size).
Rating:
Summary: does the job well
Review: For the purpose of studying for the Solaris 8 Administrator exams, I found this book (and accompanying CD) very helpful. I am an experienced administrator, and the format of the book allowed me to breeze past chapters and concepts I was already comfortable with and focus on those concepts that I had little or no experience with (e.g. NIS, cachefs). In those chapters I focused on, I found enough material to be comfortable answering questions on that topic in the exams. If nothing else, buy the book for the accompanying CD. It includes practice exams and study questions with a very similar feel and content to the actual exams. It also includes the entire book (which is quite thick) in PDF format, so you can read and work through the examples right on your computer. I did find many errors (some typos, some in content), but cetainly not enough to get very frustrated with the book. (And unfortunately, not any more errors than other technical books I read of similar size).
Rating:
Summary: Horrible book
Review: Full of mistakes, and contains page after page of irrelevant information cut and pasted verbatim from other online sources, or from the Solaris man pages. Some sections are so poorly explained that I'm convinced Calkins has no knowledge of the topic at all. Save your money--look elsewhere for a Solaris study guide.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but let down by numerous typos
Review: I got this book to do my Solaris Certification and think that it does this job well, but it is also a very useful Solaris system admin reference. Bill Calkins presents the subject in an easy to read well presented style, with lots of examples. The test software on the CD ROM is an excellent way to prepare for the exam and helps you to find out where you are weak so that you can concentrate on these areas. The only thing that lets this book down is the numerous printing errors. The whole index is incorrect (you can download a corrected copy in PDF format from New Riders web site) and there are many mistakes throughout the - don't the publishers bother with proof reading anymore? This annoying when you pay (...) for a book, but even more so in that you may being going into the exam with information that is not correct. This is why I have to give the book a 4 star rating and not 5. I would recommend this book, but you may want to wait until an updated version is released that corrects the errors.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing, but too much
Review: I have read this book for several days, and I have found out that, the exam guideline is totally lost. If you say it is a training guide for Solaris, I will give it 4 to 5 stars, but it is totally not a Certification guide approach. The author mixed up the Part I and II together, and I don't think there will be a lot of people will take the 2 exams at one time. So, if you only want to take the Part I, you will be totally get lost, OR, finish the entire book. Is there anything more stupid than that? If you are going to take the exam once at a time, don't buy it, it wastes your money.
Rating:
Summary: I just passed 310-012 (94%) with this book
Review: I passed 310-011 (87%) in April and just passed 310-012 (94%) using this book. The errata at the author's website was up to date and had any typos corrected. I emailed the author two times on name services and RBAC- he responded promptly both times, shared additional resources, and was very helpful. I found the CD-ROM exams to be a great self assessment tool to focus in on my weaknesses so I could go back and study those specific areas. Furthermore, the questions were right on for the real exam.
Overall, a very well-written book, lots of examples, step by steps, screen shots, etc. Very easy to read even if you are not in front of a Sun system to practice the examples. It's the best book I've found on Solaris Admin.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I passed my Admin I and II exams using this book. All of the questions on the exams were on the practice exam. If you are looking for a book to advance your career in Solaris, this is the one.
| 
