Solaris 7 Administration Certification Training Guide: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
Solaris 7 Administration Certification Training Guide: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 by William Calkins
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Number of Pages:
- 550
- ISBN:
- 1578702496
- Product Group:
- book
- Publisher:
- Pearson IT Certification
- Publication Date:
- Oct. 3, 2000
- BooksForGeeks.com ID:
- 2100
If you're an experienced system administrator who needs a brush-up before the Solaris exam, the Solaris 7 Administrator Certification Training Guide is for you. Packed with lots of information and commands, it is a critical reference that will help you to a near-guaranteed pass. However if you're new to it or need a concept refresher, you may find this book short on explanations and long on specifics.
First, the good news: this book has quite possibly the deepest technical know-how of any Solaris certification book on the market. The book is crammed with tables, option switches, walkthroughs and explanations on how the various objectives work. If you need to understand the diverse aspects of the boot-up and hardware configuration process, he will walk you through it at a very granular level, showing how the OpenBoot system recognises hardware, mounts files and loads the kernel in explicit detail. If you roughly know what you're doing and need a book to help reinforce that knowledge, this wealth of technical know-how will definitely put you over the edge. The material isn't comprehensive, but it does address a large amount of what you can expect to see on the test. The Certification Training Guide definitely reinforces knowing a few of the important test topics well, rather than teaching all the topics partially.
However, the writing isn't as strong as it might be, and it focuses more on technical aspects than on overall concepts. Furthermore, often you'll find two or three pages worth of screen output on the page without any sort of annotations to point out what the important parts are, or why they're there--these two factors alone ensure that this book is meant for hardcore professionals only.
Some aspects of Certification Training Guide are disappointing from a test-taking stance: there are no questions in the book itself, only in the ExamGear CD-ROM that comes with it--which might not provide enough sample questions to truly practice. Nor does it point out the frequently tested areas or mention commonly confusing issues for certification test-takers.
Still, this is a good, solid book, written for professionals--in that function it serves admirably. --Willam Steinmetz
Reviews for Solaris 7 Administration Certification Training Guide: Pt. 1 & Pt. 2
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A Good Book generally but with one or two omissions
Rated out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2002
Overall I found this a useful book (especially the included PDF file on the CD, if it were up to me this would be mandatory for computer textbooks)
It covered most subjects in fair detail though I would have liked more information on tuning and buildng Kernels and on working with the I/O subsystems. These are 2 of the 3 things that vary so much between different Unix variants. However it's cover of OpenBoot was excellent and the coverage of NIS was good even though brief. It is an expensive book though, So if you're planning on buying it try and get your employer to pay for it. -
A complete learning resource
Rated out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2001
I would not recommend this book purely as an exam study aid, but as a guide for people who haven't been heavily exposed to Solaris, this would be ideal. The concepts are well explained, and all the content in the exam is covered. My only slight criticism is that the book goes into too much depth on certain occassions. It's a big book and there's a whole load of stuff to take in. On the up side, the CDROM with Test Questions is a VERY useful add-on and good for fining out weaknesses. Contains far more than you need for just the exam, but it's good for building understanding of the concepts, rather than just force feeding your brain with info for the exam. -
A brilliant Solaris 7 sysadmin manual & Certification Guide
Rated out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2001
My reason for adding my comments to the review section of Bill's book is to encourage those of you who are considering buying his Solaris 7 certification book (in UK) NOT to be deterred from doing so because of the negative comments by one of the reviewers here. I nearly didn't buy it (because of that) until I went to amazon.com (mostly US customers) to find out what they thought. Also, after heeding to some recommendations from mentors and other friends, I took the plunge to get it (after being a bit more encouraged) just to find out for myself.I am glad I did!! I have just installed Solaris 8 in my x86 at home and this book helped me set up my printer and I'm currently in the process of connecting my modem to my ISP. I like the way he gives definitions/explanations of technical terms, which most books I have read don't have. I have read through the first 12 chapters and find it quite informative for sysadmin starters like me. I am about to sit for the Part I and I am confident of passing. Even if I didn't, I am quite happy to have both a Solaris manual as well as a Certification guide put together - especially for the price. Just make sure you check his site for the Errata (most books have errors anyway). I am looking forward to Bill's Solaris 8.
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An excellent training guide and exam reference!!!
Rated out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2000
I don't know which book the previous reader read but it wasn't the Calkins book. I'm an MCSE and never took a Sun class. I used the book to train myself and get certified. I scored 91% on exam 1 and 78% on exam 2. I have both the Calkins book and the exam cram book. By far, the Calkins book helped me out the most. It's more of a training guide, and covers all of the topics I would have paid ... to get from Sun's two sys admin classes. The CD is worth it alone! Another nice bonus- the book is also on CD-ROM in PDF format. I look forward to a Solaris 8 version. -
The worst certification book ever
Rated out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2000
The book makes sun solaris exam too dificult to pass. It gives raw information with little or no illustrations. The commands are everywhere and definitions repeated in different sections. I think this is due to the lack of competition in this area.