Customer Reviews

Sun Certified Security Administrator for Solaris 9 & 10 Study Guide (Certification Press)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Took sun solaris 10 security exam today, the exam is very heavy on containers (Global vs non global, how to configure BART in global environment and will it flow down to non global), how to perform patching in global and non global environment, what is easiest way to setup 20 containers inside the same machine, definitions of key terms in Kerberos, what does kerberos each component do (drag and drop) and SFM and ipsec and ip filters syntax to block dns lookup. How to update the system automatically and what commands to use for automatic updating choose all correct commands . The textbook only covers 30% of the solaris 10 test only.

First off, a little about me to give this review context. I have been working in the industry as a *nix administrator with a heavy concentration on Sun products for the last 12 years. For the last year and a half, I have been working on my organization's Solaris 10 baseline as one of the lead designers and the technical security architect for the baseline. Basically that means I have spent the last 18 months or so looking into security issues and building a common baseline that meets our needs within the Solaris 10 paradigm.

I took and passed the exam a few days ago using this book as a resource and offer the following observations about it:

When I purchase a book for certification preparation, I expect two things. First I expect it to be relevant to the exam in question, and second I expect it to have a life after the exam as a desk reference. The most excellent Calkins book for Solaris 10 System Administration is a great example of what I am talking about.

This book does neither of those things. The first half is a primer on the basic principles of IT security. As such, it does a passable job. That's half of the book spent on information that is easily obtainable from any number of sources.

The second half, which is semi-technical in nature, covers a portion of the testable topics, leaving out some of the most important security features introduced in Solaris 10. What is covered is done from the pre-Solaris 10 perspective and is largely useless for someone attempting to learn practical Solaris 10 security. The book would be much better advertised if it removed Solaris 10 from the title. Although I don't think the material that is covered is done on enough of a technical basis for Solaris 9 security certification either.

Basically if you are looking for a Solaris 9 security primer, that explains the overall concept of some of the Solaris 9 OS security features, this may be an acceptable book.

The only reason I passed the exam is because I have been working on security related projects on Solaris 10 for some time. Nothing beats practical experience. If you are looking for technical information about Solaris 10 security features, check out Glenn Brunette's web blog and presentations which are all locatable via google. He has some great work out there in the public domain talking about this subject.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I find this book quite useless. I am a system administrator with more than 8 years experience on the Sun platform.

First off, it nowhere makes clear what features are specific to Solaris 10 and what is already available on Solaris 9. As the exam is only on Solaris 9, this seems a strange choice. On the other hand, I have not really found anything specific for Solaris 10 at all, so perhaps you should ignore the title and just assume it is a Solaris 9-only book.

Whenever it tries to explain new Solaris-specific things (like the SEAM model, RBAC, Secure RPC etc.) it never manages to give me a sound feeling about how it works. It talks about it very high-level, and then goes right into settings up things without going into the all-important intermediate level: how Sun implements it, what are the commands and configuration files, where can I find additional information, why does it work, etc.

Perhaps if you memorize the book completely, you will get a good exam score. But you will hardly have learned anything worthwhile.

I work as a Sun system administrator (8yrs+) currently have Sun System Admin and Network Admin certs. I have a Sun Blade 150 running Solaris 10 at home. So I am not new to Solaris systems.

This book is clearly intended to teach a test only. It has virtually no useful information for day to day system administration. I have tried several times find anything useful in the books and have given up. For example SMF is covered only to the extent to explain the acronym no details of how to use it are given. Try to find anything on SMC and same coverage. Most details a working sysad will need are not covered in any detail.

This is one book I wish I could get a refund for. About the only thing it is useful for is starting fires or wrapping fish.

Don't waste your money!

I've consulted for many authors and technically reviewed several books for major publishers and magazines. I found this book to be among the most technically sound as well as a nicely designed Solaris 9/10 security reference and study guide. It was very easy to follow and although Part 1 may be boring to hands-on folks, Parts 2 through 6 will more than make up for that. There are tons of excellent Q&A that are almost identical to what I found on the exam (referring to v9 here) and the book is definitely an all-in-one tool. It should be enough to pass the exam(s), but don't discount the real-world uses. You can lock down your Solaris box on so many levels using a step-by-step approach. Highly recommended.

This is a very good study guide for the Sun Certified Security Administrator for Solaris Certification. However you will also need and should have some hand on experience with the OS. Don't worry though you can download the OS free at Sun for both SPARC and Intel platforms.

The book guides you well through the testing objectives and I particularly liked the security attacks coverage (i.e. detecting and securing against Trojans and back doors) and file and system resources protections (i.e. RBAC implementation). I thought the crypto coverage was weak but I didn't take points off because it does cover enough to pass the exam topic. I would have liked to see more real uses of it though.

Overall this is the best study guide I found and I have the course material. Yes, you can also use this book as a nice onsite reference as it does contain many hands on scenarios but you should combine it with the S9 or S10 Reference Guide for completeness in the work place.

This book is intended to be used by the person with 6 to 12 months experience administering security in a Solaris OS. This practical experience, combined with studying the material in this book will enable him (or her) to pass the Sun Certified Security Administrator examination.

The book is organized with every chapter having defined objectives that are needed to pass the test. Particular points are emphasized as needed, and practice exercises are designed to give experience in critical areas. A series of two minute drills at the end of each chapter serve as a checklist of the critical points. Finally, detailed questions enable you to prove your understanding of the material.

The CD-ROM included with this book contains interactive study tools and numerous online stury material, including web-based ePractice exams and the Sun Career Accelerator Packages.