Reviews for Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 8 Study Guide (Exam 310-011 & 310-012)

1. Overall excellent but a couple of issues with accuracy

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2003

   I have just taken the SA2 exam and passed it with a fairly high mark. I have to say that this is largely down to the excellent way that this book has been put together.

   I have to put my hands up here and say that I have also done the official SA courses run by Sun and do have some (admittedly limited) experience with sysadmin work in a large environment.

   That having been, said this book is largely responsible for my passing both exams as the information in the book was clearly laid out by technical authors with real world experience. The only two grumbles I have are that the CD is largely useless as the questions are in some cases misleading due to giving you wrong answers and in some of the later chapters in the SA2 section, the authors start to contradict themselves. The quality of the information in the chapters' of both sections of the book is largely dependant on that chapter's author and as a whole the later chapters can be frustrating if you know that what you are reading is wrong.

   As long as you mix this with something like Sun's official SA guides, then you should find that you have comprehensive coverage of the SA exam topics

2. Not impressed

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2003

   Having read the other reviewers remarks on the book i eagerly bought the book.
   The format of the book is well laid out with useful real world scenarios and examples.
   However..the book omits large sections of the exam objectives i.e. printers and some commands arent mentioned at all.
   I luckily managed to pick up on this early enough to seek information from elswhere (sought the official Sun Adaministrator pdfs).
   In summary if you use this book soley for your revision you will be severely disadvantaged unless you are a seasoned administrator or know the content of the book very well (to make up for objectives not covered).

3. Great book - useless CD

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2002

   The book itself is great and has a really clear approach to most of the subject areas you are likely to get in the SCSA part one and part two exams. There are also many other hints and tips included which are useful in your every day adminstration of Solaris systems.

   However the CD is total rubbish. If you sit the exam practice exam and get a surprisingly low score, you will probably find that it's because there are some wrong answers in there and some answers which fail to match the question asked.

   One example of this was a question that asked "Which of the following is NOT a potential reason for the rmdir command failing", yet the supposed correct answer were all the reasons why it WOULD fail. Then there's an absurd question about moving blocks of text in vi, that suggests the correct way to do it is to yank a block of text, paste it and then delete the original block. My answer that you simply 'dd' the block and paste it elsewhere was marked wrong on the basis that the block is deleted and therefore nothing can be pasted. This is WRONG. In the Vi editor with Solaris 2.6. 7 and 8, 'dd' deletes the text AND copies it to a buffer.

   I could go through all the incorrect answers, but if the creators of the CD couldn't be bothered to check their work properly, I can't be bothered to list all their mistakes. What is infuriating is that in all the time since this book has been pulished, there are no updates that correct these questions.

   This spoils what would otherwise be an excellent book (hence the 4 stars) as there's then no realistic way to prepare yourself for the real exam.

4. Obligatory companion to course notes

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2002

   This book is all you need to pass the Sol 8 SA exams in addition to (and possibly even without) the course notes and a machine to practice on. I was extremely impressed with the content which was arranged in a very logical fashion to aid study. The electronic copy of the book was great for sneaky studying at work without having to lug the book around, and the practice questions and exams were great preparation for the real exams. Very, very good. I had no trouble with the exams using this book.

5. Very good, buy it ... but it is missing several 'bits'

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, December 12rd, 2001

   I must agree that the book is good. Very easy to read. Chapters make good study modules. I was very impressed.
   BUT there are several 'bits' that are tested in the exam which are not mentioned at all.

   Before reading the book I attempted a few practise exams, my results were okay, but not brilliant. After reading the book and doing the practise questions at the end of each chapter, my results were better .... but I found that I had to use other sources of information to fill in the gaps between 'better' and satisfactory.

   Basically I'd recommend the book, due to it's reasonable coverage of the objectives, and easy reading. But I'd be aware that the contents of the book might not give you enough information to pass unless you are an experienced Solaris administrator.