Reviews for Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 10 Study Guide (Exams CX-310-200 & CX-310-202) (Certification Press)

1. Good, but by no means comprehensive...

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   
   I'll keep this reasonably short. The material which is covered is patchy to say the least. User and Security administration are covered well, but there is no mention of umask or access control lists (ACLs). Differences in naming conventions for disks on SPARC and x86 systems are sketchy and could really use some more explanation. The Processes Management section covers pkill, ps, pgrep and prstat well enough but misses off coverage of other commands which are frequently examined upon (such as ptree).
   
   I'd say this book is good for a coverage of the core of the material, but if you want a comprehensive coverage of the material (and trust me, you do) go for the Calkins book. If your budget will allow get both, and use them in tandem.
   
   A note of warning (for both books really). Please don't imaging the questions supplied by the book are anything close to as difficult as the real ones. They are the same format (ie, multiple choice with 4 or 5 options) but that is where the similarities end. Even Suns own practice questions fall short, though these are more representative.

2. Important stuff missing

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, June 12rd, 2008

   I think the exam must have been updated since this book last was as there's key topics missing from the book. The books also pretty long winded and only includes a practise exam for part one. The practise questions are also much easier than the real exam ones.
   
   To me it tries to be both a study guide for the 2 exams and an introduction to Solaris and hence fails on both counts.

3. Passed the Exams!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12nd, 2006

   This is a rock solid book. I passed both the exams after preparing from this book, and also preparing from the practice exams that come with this book. The Errata for the book is already available. There is a link in the Amazon Connect feature in the Product Description page for this book on Amazon.com, that you can click on to download the Errata.
   I found this book focussed on the exam objectives and still there is a perfect flow in the presentation. It is a self contained to-the-point book: all the concepts are clearly defined. Perfect for a beginner as well. I do not agree with the criticism that Solaris 10 features are not covered. They are covered all through the book as the exam objectives require.
   Most of the criticism of this book on this page has the same tone and message and promotes the competitor book. That makes me think that it is just a Propaganda for the other book (possibly by one person). I don't care if other book is good or bad; but I do beleive from my experience that this book is excellent and I recommend it to all: people who want to take the exam and also people who just want to learn the basics of Soalris 10 System Administration.

4. Don't base your study solely on this book!!

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2006

   Its worth noting that the positive reviews of this book are from people who have yet to sit the exam. I did my study for 310-200 based on this book and I too was very pleased with it and felt very confident.

   I started to feel uneasy when I read davidkirkby's review which questioned whether the book went into enough depth. As a result I went off and did alot of independant study. This saved me in the exam.

   This book gives you a false sense of security. As davidkirkby says, Bill Calkins book goes into alot more depth and seems much closer to what the exam requires.

   To give three examples, the subjects of SMF, printer administration and x86 booting were not covered in enough depth. I could quote three or four commands which came up in my exam and are not mentioned anyware in the book