Customer Reviews

Server+ Certification Study Guide

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Of the roughly 15 certification study guides (for various certifications) that I read over the last 4 months, this one is by far the worst!! This book reads like it was written by a committee and then not edited at all. The organization is atrocious, the book is riddled with typographical, grammatical and technical errors - several per page - and the technial information presented that is needed to pass the exam is incomplete. For example, the tables that list the specifications for the different SCSI standards is simply incomplete. Also, this book is a perfect example of why sophisticated desktop publishing tools do not belong in the hands of amateurs: the book is over-designed to the point that the layout and design in many places is very distracting. After having taken the exam, I seriously doubt that I could have passed it if I would have relied on this book alone.

The publisher seems to have come up with their own version of the CompTIA Server+ exam objectives. The exam objectives in this book certainly do not match the Server+ exam objectives that are published by CompTIA. Of the six names listed in the book, none of the four contributors (authors) are Server+ certified (although they all have other certifications), the technical editor is Server+ certified, the Technical reviewer is not. This lack of certification on Server+ shows, as the book contains many errors and is very light on both SCSI and RAID, both of which are big areas on concern on the Server+ exam.

CompTIA's latest certification Server+ is fastly becoming a measuring stick for server technicians. The exam is vendor neutral and the amount if information is vast but with books like this one there is a good chance of passing the exam first time around.

I like the fact that there are over 30 hands-on exercises to work with. The fact that book is laid out according to the exam objectives and that each objective is given ample coverage. Topics like installation and planning of the server, hardware like the BIOS, hard drives, motherboards and RAID with mirroring and duplexing.

Windows 2000 and Netware 5.1 are covered as is adding hardware and upgrading equipment. Other areas with coverage include SNMP, UPS, baseline setup and monitoring, backup systems and schemes, troubleshooting and disaster recovery procedures.

The book includes a self test and end-of-chapter review questions. Finally there is a cd rom included with CertTrainer, which has over 200 practice test questions, the e-book and Exam Sim. Overall a nice value.

This book is poorly organized and redundant. The book just seems to babble on and on going over the same misinformation. The organization of the book is horrible, and the visual appeal of the book is simply non-existent.

I think the book gives only cursory information regarding the Operating System aspects of the test. If you don't know the basics of Netware, Windows and Linux, you aren't going to learn them with this book. If you don't know the hardware aspect, the book contains a great deal of information, but it would help if that information were organized and accurate. I think I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to Certification books, but this one was pretty bad. If the Exam Cram had been available when I purchased this, I would have never bought this one. As it is, I wasted $50.

The practice exams provided on the CD seem to be a bit more accurate and usable than the text, but the CD is hardly worth the price paid for this book. If your method of study is to sit and run through practice tests over and over I guess this book might actually work for you. It's a typical CompTIA exam, so it's not very difficult at all, but I don't think book is going to help anyone prepare, it didn't do much of anything for me.

This book, while not perfect, does provide the information you need to pass the Server+ exams. Server+, unlike the A+, is a tough exam- you really need to be looking at a couple of resources, AND have hands-on experience.