Solaris Certification

Hello ,
I am trying to get self study certfication in Administration Solaris
10. But Hardly I can get courses . Can I have some advices about
getting pass the exam using self study approach.
(internet resources , good books ......)
Thanks
Ehab

happytoday wrote:
>
> I am trying to get self study certfication in Administration Solaris
> 10.

A standard comment about getting most certifications in
the IT industry - Doing it equals declaring yourself Junior.
If you're currently Novice that's good. If you're currently
Intermediate/Advanced that's bad. Consider that I have
over the years taken certification in Cisco and EMC to
show that i'm familiar with these side fields of SysAdmin.
I didn't mind declaring myself junior in those subfields.

> But Hardly I can get courses . Can I have some advices about
> getting pass the exam using self study approach.
> (internet resources , good books ......)

I've never had trouble finding Solaris cert books when walking
through big book stores. Look for Solaris 9 and you'll find
all sorts of them.

> A standard comment about getting most certifications in
> the IT industry - Doing it equals declaring yourself Junior.
> If you're currently Novice that's good. *If you're currently
> Intermediate/Advanced that's bad. *Consider that I have
> over the years taken certification in Cisco and EMC to
> show that i'm familiar with these side fields of SysAdmin.
> I didn't mind declaring myself junior in those subfields.

I'm not sure I agree with that assessment. Certification is
demonstration of a minimum skill level. It's also a requirement for
many jobs. It does you no good to be an "expert" in your field if an
HR department won't even schedule an interview with you because you
lack a basic certification.

In article
<858fbf49-f466-490c-b4a5-c3be2c058e90@d77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
ITguy wrote:

> > A standard comment about getting most certifications in
> > the IT industry - Doing it equals declaring yourself Junior.
> > If you're currently Novice that's good. *If you're currently
> > Intermediate/Advanced that's bad. *Consider that I have
> > over the years taken certification in Cisco and EMC to
> > show that i'm familiar with these side fields of SysAdmin.
> > I didn't mind declaring myself junior in those subfields.
>
> I'm not sure I agree with that assessment. Certification is
> demonstration of a minimum skill level. It's also a requirement for
> many jobs. It does you no good to be an "expert" in your field if an
> HR department won't even schedule an interview with you because you
> lack a basic certification.

If the HR department is screen Solaris people based on if they've passed
a certification exam or not, you need to hire without their
interference. Here in Silcon Valley, a client who works for SUN told me
that customers were complaining that experienced sysadmins were hard to
find.

Most of the "certified Solaris admins" I've talked to _were_ really
junior having gotten their experience in training rather than in the
trenches. And they weren't very good at solving problems, a key
requirement for being a UNIX sysadmin (but probably not so much for a
Billyware admin).

--
DeeDee, don't press that button! DeeDee! NO! Dee...
[I filter all Goggle Groups posts, so any reply may be automatically by ignored]

In article ,
Michael Vilain writes:
> In article
> <858fbf49-f466-490c-b4a5-c3be2c058e90@d77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
> ITguy wrote:
>
>> > A standard comment about getting most certifications in
>> > the IT industry - Doing it equals declaring yourself Junior.
>> > If you're currently Novice that's good. *If you're currently
>> > Intermediate/Advanced that's bad. *Consider that I have
>> > over the years taken certification in Cisco and EMC to
>> > show that i'm familiar with these side fields of SysAdmin.
>> > I didn't mind declaring myself junior in those subfields.
>>
>> I'm not sure I agree with that assessment. Certification is
>> demonstration of a minimum skill level. It's also a requirement for
>> many jobs. It does you no good to be an "expert" in your field if an
>> HR department won't even schedule an interview with you because you
>> lack a basic certification.
>
> If the HR department is screen Solaris people based on if they've passed
> a certification exam or not, you need to hire without their
> interference. Here in Silcon Valley, a client who works for SUN told me
> that customers were complaining that experienced sysadmins were hard to
> find.
>
> Most of the "certified Solaris admins" I've talked to _were_ really
> junior having gotten their experience in training rather than in the
> trenches. And they weren't very good at solving problems, a key
> requirement for being a UNIX sysadmin (but probably not so much for a
> Billyware admin).
>

It really all depends on who you want to impress. Certificates
impress HR-types and middle-management, but are otherwise
meaningless. What the mean is that somebody has read "the book"
and can regurgitate on command but is probably incapable of
critical thought when it comes time to solve problems.

But, since HR and middle-management usually have the last word
in such situations, does it really *hurt* to take the time to
get that otherwise meaningless piece of paper?

Bob Melson
Happily retired sysadmin
--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable
reason so few engage in it. -- Henry Ford

happytoday wrote:
> Hello ,
> I am trying to get self study certfication in Administration Solaris
> 10. But Hardly I can get courses . Can I have some advices about
> getting pass the exam using self study approach.
> (internet resources , good books ......)
> Thanks
> Ehab

There is no substitute for experience!

Buy two or more old Sun machines. Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 workstations can
be bought on e-Bay for under $100 US. You will need at least two in
order to configure and use the networking capabilities of the O/S.

Download Solaris 10, burn CDs and install Solaris.

Get a book, or two, or three. Try to do all the things the books
discuss. When you have found all the errors in the books you have, you
will be ready to sit for the examination!

"happytoday" wrote in message news:ec4b0c54-5b75-4fed-9cf9-b751e6978b2e-at-e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hello ,
> I am trying to get self study certfication in Administration Solaris
> 10. But Hardly I can get courses . Can I have some advices about
> getting pass the exam using self study approach.
> (internet resources , good books ......)

First, remember that Solaris 10 is significantly different from
Solaris 9 and earlier versions.

Bill Calkins' Exam Prep book is often recommended. It assumes
you know almost nothing about the subject and explains everything.
It includes a cd with a practice exam.
There is some sample content online at
http://www.informit.com/store/produc...sbn=0789734613
Remember to check the errata at
http://unixed.com/certification/Sola..._10_errata.htm


Go to docs.sun.com and look for Solaris 10, system administrator
collection. Currently it is at
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/47.16
but that could change.

In particular, look at System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
and System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration, although
you may as well download the lot while you are there (remember to
rename the downloaded files to something meaningful).

Then practise a lot. Ideally you will have a dedicated machine but
you can run Solaris inside a vmware virtual machine and I believe
there is even a live cd version available.

When you come to take the exam, check the pass mark and work
out how many answers you can afford to get wrong. This can help
you feel confident about moving on to the next question rather than
getting stuck on a hard question. (You can go back at the end.)

Before you book an exam, check Sun's web site to make sure
the requirements have not changed (that caught me out once!) and
do any free practice exams or assessments that are on the site.
Make sure you buy the exam for the right country!

--
John.

Having just completed my SCSA for Solaris10 after having worked as a
Solaris administrator for the last three years (out of 13 years in IT)
I can honestly say that unless you enjoy learning by Rote, i'd get
some experience under your belt before taking the exams.

Basically, they do pretty much nothing but test your ability to
regurgitate information, the multiple choice exam should really be
abolished in favour of lab-based examinations like RedHat or Cisco
but, it may either:

a) get your foot in the door
b) give you an advantage over an equally skilled candidate without one

At the most basic level, at least it shows initiative and a desire to
learn.

I configured a lab for myself on my home PC using what was Innoteks
Virtualbox software, now owned an re-branded as Sun xVM. Its available
under GPL, you can download it and install it for free. I got myself a
copy of Bill Calkins Exam Prep Guide for Solaris 10 (in the process of
being updated and r-issued) and some exam prep questions from his site
www.unixed.com. I went through the book, practised all skills required
until I knew them well, took the mock exams until I was bored, bored,
bored. I must say that my skills have improived, but only because I
was touching on stuff that I never had to use in my day to day work
such as printing and NIS. I suppose it also helps you cement your
knowledge.

Again, there is no substitute for real-world experience and peoples
perception of your skills, image, charm, whatever as opposed to the
reality of your true self and competences is what may get you ahead.
People might also flame for this, but If I were you i'd perhaps look
at the RHCE certification instead. I have the study guide in front of
me, and it does seem to cover skills that are in more demand in the
real world such as apache, squid, sendmail, dns, samba. I've also
found there is more demand for people with Linux skills, and there are
more opportunities (read jobs) out there for junior administrators.

Sun really need to get their act together to compete with Linux on
many levels, certification being one of them.

HTH

>On Jun 20, 2:24 am, "John L" wrote:
> First, remember that Solaris 10 is significantly different from
> Solaris 9 and earlier versions.

rockie questian,
in what way are they significantly different ?
(just the short version ...)

Rgds,
Mat

On 2008-06-21 13:36:40 +0100, fanell-at-kth.se said:

>> On Jun 20, 2:24 am, "John L" wrote:
>> First, remember that Solaris 10 is significantly different from
>> Solaris 9 and earlier versions.
>
> rockie questian,
> in what way are they significantly different ?
> (just the short version ...)

There's a good table at
though for some
reason they list smpatch as a feature.

Cheers,

Chris