Solaris 7 System Administrator Exam Cram (Exam: 310-009, 310-010) [Paperback]

Darrell L. Ambro (Author)

Book Description

Series: Exam Cram (Coriolis Books) | Publication Date: February 23, 2000

Includes all exam objectives covered in the two Solaris exams (310-009 and 310-010) required to become a Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 7. Currently, there are no other certification titles on the market covering both Solaris 7 tests. Features unique editorial content that serves as an ideal complement to other training materials in a concise format, highlighting the most important features of the exam.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're caught up on Solaris concepts and are looking for an in-depth laundry list of commands, the Exam Cram Solaris 7 System Administrator: Exam 310-009 and Exam 310-010 is an ideal book for you--every command you'll need to know for the test is documented in good, concise detail. But if you're casting about for other books because the system administration guides have left you cold, you may be in trouble.

As usual, the Exam Cram is a supplementary book, not a primary book--it's meant as a brush-up course for applicants who have the rudimentary concepts down and are looking to solidify and expand their understanding. This particular Cram half succeeds; as a refresher course on the galaxies of terse and oft-cryptic Unix commands, it's thorough and clear, tabulating the many flags and switches with admirable detail.

Each major command is given at least one or two pages, and each of the switches for those commands have an explanatory sentence or two. Exam tips that warn of mistakes and popular misconceptions are scattered throughout the arrays of commands. Considering that much of the SCSA exam is actually about remembering which commands do what, it's a valid approach--and one strength of this book is that it does know you're preparing for a test. The Solaris Cram helpfully points out critical-pass topics, like printing, and tells you which objectives traditionally don't come up on the exam, like Solstice AdminSuite. By focusing your knowledge, it helps you study more efficiently.

But the Achilles' heel of this book is the presentation of concepts. If you understand Unix internal functions and boot processes, you'll sail through without a hitch--but if you're buying this book because you're unclear on exactly how Absolute Mode additions factor into access permissions, you're likely to be more lost than when you started.

It's not that the writing is necessarily bad... it just makes no effort to remove technical jargon when defining concepts, and winds up sounding like a computer manual. There is nothing incorrect about defining simple concepts like mirrored disks as "the technique of copying data being written to an online device to another offline device ... [which] provides real-time backup of data that can be brought online to replace the original device in the event that the original device fails"--but certainly there are simpler and clearer ways to explain it. And it is representative of the writing style, with more complex topics being presented via even more dense technobabble.

Unix gurus who like that sort of thing will no doubt find this a benefit, but people struggling to understand exactly how the Physical, Logical, and Instance device names differ may wind up wandering in the woods.

The sample exams are plentiful--not only is there a 5- to 10-question exam at the end of each of the 22 chapters, but there's also a separate 80-question sample exam for each of the tests. Thankfully, Coriolis has added "fill-in-the-blank" questions to supplement its usual multiple-choice questions. (Since fill-in questions are a part of the exam, it would have been a major gaffe not to have them.)

The quizzes have the same strengths and weaknesses of the book; nearly every question deals with which commands are used when, without addressing troubleshooting or process interpretation at all. The chapter-end questions also tend to be fairly simple, but by no means are they free rides. A glossary of terms, a separate glossary for commands, and a listing of configuration file locations fill out the book.

The "Need To Know More?" section, usually full of good suggestions for outside readings in other Exam Crams, is uncommonly bare. In this case, the suggested books are nearly always (and only) the official Solaris Administration guides. Admittedly, there's not a lot out on Solaris 7 right now, but hearing for quite literally the 17th time that reading System Administration Guide, Volume I, is your only other option if you don't understand what's presented here... well, it gets wearisome.

Essentially, this is a fine book aimed at a narrow market. If you're simply looking to hone your knowledge of Solaris commands so that you can pass the exam, you'll find this a vital tool. --William Steinmetz

About the Author

Darrell Ambro (Greensboro, NC) works for Lucent Technologies leading the technical teams and participating in the design, development, and deployment of networked computer and communications systems for the U.S. Government. He has served as a technical lead for an ongoing project with the U.S. Army using Solaris. Lucent has continued to support more than 80 of these systems worldwide as part of the initiative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 536 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group Books; 1st edition (February 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576105474
• ISBN-13: 978-1576105474
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,934,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I passed my exam!, March 3, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solaris 7 System Administrator Exam Cram (Exam: 310-009, 310-010) (Paperback)

I passed exam one of two, but this book is not all I used. The book is pretty thorough, but you need 2 other things: real world practice of the concepts in the book (I just used and x86 box), AND exam prep software. I got mine from Mindtopia, there might be others. Hard test. Worth it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's enough to pass exam!, April 20, 2000

By 

Ruslan Moskalenko - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solaris 7 System Administrator Exam Cram (Exam: 310-009, 310-010) (Paperback)

I passed both exams using only this book! My two tests included 81+94 questions and this book has answers on all of them except probably one or two. Sun exams have low passing score ( 70-75% ) and I think it's possible to answer about 80% using only this book for preparation. But if you want to answer >90% it could be very difficult task because some questions are very tricky (like command flags, CDE filenames) and you have to have extremely strong real work background to answer them.

Moral is simple. If you want just pass exams - this book is right for you!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the only study material you need, May 4, 2000

By 

DHickman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Solaris 7 System Administrator Exam Cram (Exam: 310-009, 310-010) (Paperback)

I bought two Solaris study guides - This one and The Solaris Admin. Certification Training Guides by Calkins. With BOTH books, I passed the exams.

The editorial review is quite accurate for this book- it's an EXAM CRAM. I wish the editorial review was there before I bought it. Because I only have a few years of Solaris experience, the information it assumed I knew, I did not know. Lots of technical jargon that I wonder if the author even knew.

Only half of the 506 pgs seem to be actual study material, the rest is info on where to get more information and questions on the chapters. Why not put the questions on CD-ROM and save some trees? (The learnsolaris .com website the author recommended was a good supplement).

I think this book is priced right for the material, but don't use this guide as your only reference before taking the exam. Because I don't have 12 yrs of experience, I like the format of Calkins' Study guides better. They provide more detail and background info to help me learn the topics (and the tests were on CD-ROM!).