Customer Reviews

Solaris 10 System Administration Exam Prep: CX-310-200, Part I (2nd Edition) (Pt. 1)

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

 

 

If you are planning to take the 200 exam this book will help you pass the test. Unlike the book by Sanghera this goes into the depth needed to pass the test. Test requires more than just the knowledge of what commands to use but what switches are required to get the proper outcome. This book is roughly the same size as SCSA Solaris 10 book from McGraw Hill which covers the 200 and 202 exam while this book only cover the 200 exam. The wealth of knowledge that is achieved by reading this book not only allowed me to pass the exam but to increase my skills on areas that I do not normally use as a sysadmin. Now I am waiting for part II to be published.

I took a Solaris 10 Advanced System Admin class several years ago while working primarily on IBM's AIX platform.
Currently I am a contractor who has to work on Solaris, Linux and AIX. I was unable to find the books from my Solaris 10 class and purchased this book. So far it has helped me with my current position and I highly recommend the book as a useful tutorial and reference.

First off, this book covers a lot of what is on the Sun Solaris 10 System Administration part 1 exam. In fact there are many lines that are word for word out of this book ON the exam. With that said, this book is not enough. In fact I found out the hard way that this book only covers part of exam 1 while book 2 covers the rest. I went ahead and read the entire part 1 book and failed the exam by 1 point (65 out of 66 passing score). I went home very frustrated because many of the questions on the exam were not covered in this book. Then by chance I started looking through the part 2 book. The questions from the part 1 exam that I did not know were covered in the part 2 book!!!

Reading through both part 1 and part 2 books will cover all of the material on the part 1 exam. Buy both of the books in this series, and read them both. Practice what is in the books on a real machine, and go take the exam. You will pass.

This book does cover a lot and is actually quite good, however I'm rating 3 stars due to the fact that this book by itself does not cover all of the part 1 exam as advertised. I hope people read this review before they take the exam in hopes that they will not go through the same experience I had. Failing by 1 point was bad enough, then to find out the rest of the exam material was in the part 2 book was extremely aggravating.

I recently took the first test after using this book. I took 1 month to read it, have been a solaris / windows admin since 2002. You will need more than this book to pass the test, a lot more. I found the layout to be a bit frustrating at different times. Some points the author introduces a topic and states that it will be covered later and moves on. He then at other times, will state that a subject is not on the objective lists for the test, but continues to cover the topic in great detail. Most of the labs I tried to complete are incorrect, or incomplete. If you are going to use this book, make sure you are purchasing the 2nd edition or newer if there is one.

2.5 stars.

This book may have been OK a few years ago (when written), but it seems a bit lacking in some areas such as ZFS and x86. The practice exam on the included CD seems to be just a come-on to buy more practice answers from their web site. It seemed to bear little resemblance to the actual test.

I bought the book, read it and took the practice exam. I got a 78 (or thereabouts) and thought I was prepared to take the test. I got a 44 on the real test and failed. If I had unlimited time and a copy of the book to refer to, I don't think I could have passed the test.