Solaris Certification

On Jun 21, 8:48 am, Chris Ridd wrote:
> There's a good table at
> though for some
> reason they list smpatch as a feature.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris

Thanks Chris,

rgds Mats

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.unix.admin, in article
<26c10cb5-0af4-4947-bffa-ca829ba80c32@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com>, Doug
Freyburger wrote:

NOTE: Posting from groups.google.com (or some web-forums) dramatically
reduces the chance of your post being seen. Find a real news server.

>jpd wrote:

>Back in 2000 I did the basic Cisco certifications. I've since
>been-there-done-that with some data center migrations, large
>WAN audits and so on. So I let the certifications lapse and
>now let my hands on experiences do the talking.

>Back in 2005 I got certified in EMC SAN work. Same deal.
>At the time declaring myself Junior in the field made good
>sense. I've since been-there-done-that with more data center
>migrations, migrations of live frame data without taking hosts
>down, doing BCV stuff, you name it. So I've let that certification
>lapse as well. Once again I will let my experience do the
>talking as I'm no loonger Junior in that sub-field either.

But where were you back then? Did you have other skills/experience
that an employer would want, or do you feel that the certifications
(or the training for the certifications) made the difference??

>> In short (to the OP), if you want to enter the market through HR, get
>> a couple of boxes, install and reinstall the system and various sets
>> of services, make up endless excercises, and toy with them until you
>> have a good feel for setting up such systems.

Agree - nothing matches having your hands dirty because you're actually
in there taking it apart, putting it back together - seeing how it all
works.

>> Then work through the book, get the cert, wave it around, and see
>> that you land a job with experienced people to learn from them. And
>> put in even more effort to *learn*.
>
>The better the moentor you find the better your progress.

Faster and further.

>Thing is, I'm happy to hire folks who aren't yet experts. Sure, I
>want to hire more SAGE Senior SysAdmins, who doesn't.

"want to hire" - you betcha! The problem we run into is that the
bean counters and pointy haired types above us don't always approve
either the funds or the position itself. Then, we've got to lower
our sights.

>But I'm happy to find a good Intermediate or a highly intelligent and
>motivated Junior and mentor them up. Export isn't needed to start
>and certifications are so close to the zero point of expertese
>they don't register.

I suspect this is true for most employers. It's certainly the reason
we work with the local universities/colleges providing intern jobs.
Some people consider this a form of slave labor (an intern position
really doesn't pay well), but it works well for the student who is
getting real experience, and for the employer who gets to see which
one is going to be the best of the crop.

Old guy

[chopped a bunch of newsgroups, probably needs a fup-to a better place]
On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:33:55 -0500,
Moe Trin wrote:
>
> Some people consider this a form of slave labor (an intern position
> really doesn't pay well), but it works well for the student who is
> getting real experience, and for the employer who gets to see which
> one is going to be the best of the crop.

A previous boss (in an entirely different field) complained that the
schools where they got their interns (whom, there, were not paid at
all) from put too much emphasis on internships. Twice a quarter out of
a three year course, or something to that tune. The student is left
to pick up ``experience'' doing unpaid work elsewhere and the school
pockets the tuitition.

Nothing wrong with getting experience, but if it is used as expensive
filler because the school can't think of more things to teach....


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

ibupro...@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> NOTE: Posting from groups.google.com (or some web-forums) dramatically
> reduces the chance of your post being seen. *Find a real news server.

Noted. Just to let you know I've long since decided that a
real NSP supplies a web viewing interface that is able to
handle kill files. Years ago I used "real news clients" and
I've since given up on them for assorted reasons.

> >Back in 2000 I did the basic Cisco certifications. *I've since
> >been-there-done-that with some data center migrations, large
> >WAN audits and so on. *So I let the certifications lapse and
> >now let my hands on experiences do the talking.
> >Back in 2005 I got certified in EMC SAN work. *Same deal.
> >At the time declaring myself Junior in the field made good
> >sense. *I've since been-there-done-that with more data center
> >migrations, migrations of live frame data without taking hosts
> >down, doing BCV stuff, you name it. *So I've let that certification
> >lapse as well. *Once again I will let my experience do the
> >talking as I'm no loonger Junior in that sub-field either.
>
> But where were you back then?

In the specific sub-fields of nethead and SANhead I was in
those respective years about the level of SAGE Junior as
documented in the booklet.

> Did you have other skills/experience
> that an employer would want, or do you feel that the certifications
> (or the training for the certifications) made the difference??

I've exceeded the level of SAGE Senior as documented in
the booklet since approximately the time the scale was
designed in the first place in the mid 1990s. Heck, I've
taken positions specifically to be able to get one more
check-off from the list in the booklet. For over a decade I
haven't been able to find a job that was able to get me more
than one additional check-off. There are very few left and I
don't ever expect to need a higher level of security clearance
than the one I held back in 2000 so at least one I doubt I'll
ever be able to check. I started in SysAdmin in 1981 so I
have had plenty of time in field to build up my skills and
manage to get nearly all of the check-offs. Supercomputers,
production data centers, engineering groups, CAD/CAM,
modem banks, you name it I've had the time in field to be
able to go for it and do it.

I didn't need the certifications for anything but non-monetary
"praise in public" stuff at those times. They got me at-a-boy
recognition by bunches of peers. Thing is, I was well aware
that any IT certification is a declaration of being SAGE Junior
in that part of the field. I was SAGE Junior in nethead at the
time I took my Cisco certs in 2000. I was SAGE Junior in
SANhead back in 2005 (hmmm, if I looked it up on my old
resume it was probably 2004) when I took my EMC cert. I
don't have a problem with being what I see as accurate about
my skills like that.

The deal with SysAdmin is it's master of all trades, jack of
none. Whatever is the major app at your place, learn it inside
and out. If your group is merged with the networking folks,
learn networking from layer 1 up on every technology around.
SAN group same deal. Database group same deal (I'm at
an Oracle focused company lately).

My history with certs isn't the same as a new Novice looking
to use a cert to get declared Junior to break into the field. I
entered at a time there were no certs. Or is my situation
applicable? I got a Cisco cert then immediately started
doing the nethead parts of data center migrations, WAN
audits, you name it, until my experience exceeded Junior
and the cert no longer mattered. I got an EMC cert then
immediately got added into the on-call cycle of the SAN team
and started doing zoning, allocation, SRDF planning, you
name it, until my exeprience exceeded Junior and the cert
no longer mattered.

This is how my experience with certs applies to folks new
to the SysAdmin field in general - I was working in a related
subfield because I'd taken what job I could get. Then I used
my certs to be able to transfer to a different subfield and
start working in it. Certs don't help much if you're a chef
trying to break into SysAdmin, but they work just fine if
you're an operator or developer trying to break into SysAdmin,
or an other-OS SysAdmin trying to break into UNIX SysAdmin.

> Agree - nothing matches having your hands dirty because you're actually
> in there taking it apart, putting it back together - seeing how it all
> works.

Right. Starting point - Get a job in as closely related a field
as you can (I started as a developer) then work transfers
using certs whenever they will help.

> >The better the moentor you find the better your progress.
>
> Faster and further.

This can not be stressed enough. Good mentoring beats
certification hands down. Good mentors have contacts among
their other skills. And being good, former colleagues remember
and respect that mentor.

> >Thing is, I'm happy to hire folks who aren't yet experts. *Sure, I
> >want to hire more SAGE Senior SysAdmins, who doesn't.
>
> "want to hire" - you betcha! *The problem we run into is that the
> bean counters and pointy haired types above us don't always approve
> either the funds or the position itself. Then, we've got to lower
> our sights.
>
> >But I'm happy to find a good Intermediate or a highly intelligent and
> >motivated Junior and mentor them up. *Expert isn't needed to start
> >and certifications are so close to the zero point of expertese
> >they don't register.
>
> I suspect this is true for most employers. It's certainly the reason
> we work with the local universities/colleges providing intern jobs.
> Some people consider this a form of slave labor (an intern position
> really doesn't pay well), but it works well for the student who is
> getting real experience, and for the employer who gets to see which
> one is going to be the best of the crop.

I started as an intern lo these many years ago. We used
bearskins and stone knives. Core memory even.

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.unix.admin, in article
,
Doug Freyburger wrote:

NOTE: Posting from groups.google.com (or some web-forums) dramatically
reduces the chance of your post being seen. Find a real news server.

>ibupro...@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote:

>Noted. Just to let you know I've long since decided that a
>real NSP supplies a web viewing interface that is able to
>handle kill files. Years ago I used "real news clients" and
>I've since given up on them for assorted reasons.

That note is auto-included in any response to a post via
groups.google.com or several specific web-forum to Usenet gateways.
There are enough people killfiling such posts that it can make a
difference.

>> Did you have other skills/experience that an employer would want, or
>> do you feel that the certifications (or the training for the
>> certifications) made the difference??
>
>I've exceeded the level of SAGE Senior as documented in
>the booklet since approximately the time the scale was
>designed in the first place in the mid 1990s. Heck, I've
>taken positions specifically to be able to get one more
>check-off from the list in the booklet.

OK

>I didn't need the certifications for anything but non-monetary
>"praise in public" stuff at those times. They got me at-a-boy
>recognition by bunches of peers.

That's more the answer I was looking for.

>My history with certs isn't the same as a new Novice looking
>to use a cert to get declared Junior to break into the field. I
>entered at a time there were no certs. Or is my situation
>applicable? I got a Cisco cert then immediately started
>doing the nethead parts of data center migrations, WAN
>audits, you name it, until my experience exceeded Junior
>and the cert no longer mattered. I got an EMC cert then
>immediately got added into the on-call cycle of the SAN team
>and started doing zoning, allocation, SRDF planning, you
>name it, until my exeprience exceeded Junior and the cert
>no longer mattered.

So if I read this correctly, you feel that the certifications
are worth the equivalent of minimum exposure to a specific field,
and once you start working in that field, the value of the
certificate soon no longer matters.

>This is how my experience with certs applies to folks new
>to the SysAdmin field in general - I was working in a related
>subfield because I'd taken what job I could get. Then I used
>my certs to be able to transfer to a different subfield and
>start working in it. Certs don't help much if you're a chef
>trying to break into SysAdmin, but they work just fine if
>you're an operator or developer trying to break into SysAdmin,
>or an other-OS SysAdmin trying to break into UNIX SysAdmin.

Beyond certification, this is also true of even several years
of book learning as part of a CS degree. You've also got to get
those hands dirty. Some time ago, I interviews someone who had
done ~3 years, and had gotten several certs along the way. His
failure was not have any experience to speak of - something as
simple as CIDR was lost (he was still Class-ful) on him.

>> Agree - nothing matches having your hands dirty because you're
>> actually in there taking it apart, putting it back together -
>> seeing how it all works.
>
>Right. Starting point - Get a job in as closely related a field
>as you can (I started as a developer) then work transfers
>using certs whenever they will help.

I'll go further, and state that getting a set or three of the
CDs/DVD to allow you to install Solaris (or *BSD, or even the
more fundamental variants of Linux) on one or more systems at
home, and be able to poke around it is also important. I interviewed
an intern candidate recently, and during the interview, she mentioned
using Linux at home (something that wasn't in her resume - probably
rightly so). I thought - "oh, boy - another icon-clicker" but asked a
few leading questions (expecting blank looks for answers). I was
pleasantly surprised when she was able to answer with little
hesitation (we're networking, so it was stuff like explaining the
output of /sbin/ifconfig, why a host route is chosen over a network
route, network masks, DNS record types, and so on). We grabbed her on
the spot, and she's even coming back for the summer. If a position
opens up, I'll be happy to hire her full time. Why? "Dirty hands!"

>>>The better the moentor you find the better your progress.
>>
>> Faster and further.
>
>This can not be stressed enough. Good mentoring beats
>certification hands down. Good mentors have contacts among
>their other skills. And being good, former colleagues remember
>and respect that mentor.

VERY true. And this comes in even more handy when the job market is
tight. "Networking" has another meaning besides passing packets over
the wires or similar.

Old guy

On Jun 24, 6:44*am, ibupro...@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Jun 2008, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.unix.admin, in article
> ,
>
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> NOTE: Posting from groups.google.com (or some web-forums) dramatically
> reduces the chance of your post being seen. *Find a real news server.
>
> >ibupro...@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote:
> >Noted. *Just to let you know I've long since decided that a
> >real NSP supplies a web viewing interface that is able to
> >handle kill files. *Years ago I used "real news clients" and
> >I've since given up on them for assorted reasons.
>
> That note is auto-included in any response to a post via
> groups.google.com or several specific web-forum to Usenet gateways.
> There are enough people killfiling such posts that it can make a
> difference.
>
> >> Did you have other skills/experience that an employer would want, or
> >> do you feel that the certifications (or the training for the
> >> certifications) made the difference??
>
> >I've exceeded the level of SAGE Senior as documented in
> >the booklet since approximately the time the scale was
> >designed in the first place in the mid 1990s. *Heck, I've
> >taken positions specifically to be able to get one more
> >check-off from the list in the booklet.
>
> OK
>
> >I didn't need the certifications for anything but non-monetary
> >"praise in public" stuff at those times. *They got me at-a-boy
> >recognition by bunches of peers.
>
> That's more the answer I was looking for.
>
> >My history with certs isn't the same as a new Novice looking
> >to use a cert to get declared Junior to break into the field. *I
> >entered at a time there were no certs. *Or is my situation
> >applicable? *I got a Cisco cert then immediately started
> >doing the nethead parts of data center migrations, WAN
> >audits, you name it, until my experience exceeded Junior
> >and the cert no longer mattered. *I got an EMC cert then
> >immediately got added into the on-call cycle of the SAN team
> >and started doing zoning, allocation, SRDF planning, you
> >name it, until my exeprience exceeded Junior and the cert
> >no longer mattered.
>
> So if I read this correctly, you feel that the certifications
> are worth the equivalent of minimum exposure to a specific field,
> and once you start working in that field, the value of the
> certificate soon no longer matters.
>
> >This is how my experience with certs applies to folks new
> >to the SysAdmin field in general - I was working in a related
> >subfield because I'd taken what job I could get. *Then I used
> >my certs to be able to transfer to a different subfield and
> >start working in it. *Certs don't help much if you're a chef
> >trying to break into SysAdmin, but they work just fine if
> >you're an operator or developer trying to break into SysAdmin,
> >or an other-OS SysAdmin trying to break into UNIX SysAdmin.
>
> Beyond certification, this is also true of even several years
> of book learning as part of a CS degree. You've also got to get
> those hands dirty. Some time ago, I interviews someone who had
> done ~3 years, and had gotten several certs along the way. His
> failure was not have any experience to speak of - something as
> simple as CIDR was lost (he was still Class-ful) on him.
>
> >> Agree - nothing matches having your hands dirty because you're
> >> actually in there taking it apart, putting it back together -
> >> seeing how it all works.
>
> >Right. *Starting point - Get a job in as closely related a field
> >as you can (I started as a developer) then work transfers
> >using certs whenever they will help.
>
> I'll go further, and state that getting a set or three of the
> CDs/DVD to allow you to install Solaris (or *BSD, or even the
> more fundamental variants of Linux) on one or more systems at
> home, and be able to poke around it is also important. I interviewed
> an intern candidate recently, and during the interview, she mentioned
> using Linux at home (something that wasn't in her resume - probably
> rightly so). I thought - "oh, boy - another icon-clicker" but asked a
> few leading questions (expecting blank looks for answers). *I was
> pleasantly surprised when she was able to answer with little
> hesitation (we're networking, so it was stuff like explaining the
> output of /sbin/ifconfig, why a host route is chosen over a network
> route, network masks, DNS record types, and so on). We grabbed her on
> the spot, and she's even coming back for the summer. If a position
> opens up, I'll be happy to hire her full time. Why? *"Dirty hands!"
>
> >>>The better the moentor you find the better your progress.
>
> >> Faster and further.
>
> >This can not be stressed enough. *Good mentoring beats
> >certification hands down. *Good mentors have contacts among
> >their other skills. *And being good, former colleagues remember
> >and respect that mentor.
>
> VERY true. And this comes in even more handy when the job market is
> tight. "Networking" has another meaning besides passing packets over
> the wires or similar.
>
> * * * * Old guy

Hello,
Back to that conversation I have some questions not to waste your
times but their answers are vital to me to start the certification
self study.
1-What are there pre-exams in Sun before passing that exam Solaris10
Administration ?
2-What are the list of the most important books that I should buy ?
Please describe as possible as you can.
3-What are the books that I can buy them new ones ? and what can I buy
used ones ? Which has press and publishing errors ?
4-what are the optimum machines I have to buy them used to have full
practical practise ?

Thanks for you cp-operation.
Ehab

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
> In article ,
> "Richard B. Gilbert" writes:
>> The machines I purchased came with SMALL disks or NO disks. Be prepared
>> to buy and install disks of 20 GB or larger. The Ultra 5 and 10 use
>> EIDE disks.
>>
>> I don't believe 20 GB disks are made any longer and the smallest
>> available new are 40 GB. 80 GB disks are available for about $10 US
>> more than 40 GB drives. The largest usable disk is 127 GB.
>> You can install a disk larger than 127 GB but you will only be able to
>> use the first 127 GB.
>
> I vaguely recall it's a bit worse than that. The size you see is
> the disk size modulo 127GB, i.e. if you put 140GB drive in, you'll
> see 13GB :-(
>

This is the first I've heard of such a thing and I've been following
this newsgroup for about four years now. In any case, 40 and 80 GB
drives are available and either will work just fine!

Anyone who needs more can put a SCSI HBA in the box and use as many as
fifteen external disks if the HBA supports that many. Seven are for
sure and should be enough for most people.

On 06 Aug 2008 23:34:57 GMT,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
>
> I vaguely recall it's a bit worse than that. The size you see is
> the disk size modulo 127GB, i.e. if you put 140GB drive in, you'll
> see 13GB :-(

Uh, I have a 200GB disk in my U5 and I didn't see those problems with
it, except that the (P)ATA33 interface is *cough* a tad slow. Admittedly
it's currently sitting in a corner because FreeBSD 7.0 didn't want to
play ball[1], so what solaris makes of it I can't say. I could dust off
the old copy of sol10 I have sitting around and see what that does, if
anyone's interested.

I'm told one could try and stick a SATA PCI card in it, which could
speed things up a bit. Might need a macintosh version (ie one with
openboot support) instead of the regular pc version if you want to boot
from it, or maybe that won't work at all. I don't know. If anyone
tries, it'd be nice to hear if it works or not.


[1] Something funky with the ATA drivers. 5.* didn't have that problem.

--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

On 07 Aug 2008 08:02:13 GMT,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
> The openboot prom in the Ultra 5/10 will recognise some LSI logic
> SCSI controllers and boot from them (without requiring openboot
> firmware). Probably need to look for old ones though. These give
> you quite a performance boost over the embedded PATA.

Nice if you have those lying around, and matching SCSI disks. For me
this isn't a server, but a play-develop-tinker-learn box that could use
a speed boost but doesn't come with a budget. Getting a SATA disk is
cheaper, quieter, and probably more performant for this purpose[1].

So I'd still like to hear about SATA experiences with ultra fives. :-)


[1] Note the _for this purpose bit_: For other applications I'd indeed
prefer SCSI -- and get the budget to go with it.

--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

On Aug 7, 11:23*am, jpd wrote:
> On 07 Aug 2008 08:02:13 GMT,
>
> Andrew Gabriel wrote:
> > The openboot prom in the Ultra 5/10 will recognise some LSI logic
> > SCSI controllers and boot from them (without requiring openboot
> > firmware). Probably need to look for old ones though. These give
> > you quite a performance boost over the embedded PATA.
>
> Nice if you have those lying around, and matching SCSI disks. For me
> this isn't a server, but a play-develop-tinker-learn box that could use
> a speed boost but doesn't come with a budget. Getting a SATA disk is
> cheaper, quieter, and probably more performant for this purpose[1].
>
> So I'd still like to hear about SATA experiences with ultra fives. :-)
>
> [1] Note the _for this purpose bit_: For other applications I'd indeed
> * * prefer SCSI -- and get the budget to go with it.
>
> --
> * j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
> * This message was originally posted on Usenet in plain text.
> * Any other representation, additions, or changes do not have my
> * consent and may be a violation of international copyright law.

Again Sorry for repeating the question :
What are the less error books that I can buy ??