Passed snia (scsp)

UnixGuy

Details about the exam here:
SNIA - SCSP



Been preparing for over a month, but not studying continuously. I got plenty of trainings on Sun Storage, and I have pretty good hands-on experience with SAN and Backup solutions, so that was the key for me passing.

I went to the testing center today to book the exam for tomorrow, but was very tempted to take it today and get it over with, and I did.


SNIA Certified Storage Professional (SCSP S10-101) is a purely conceptual exam.Vendor-neutral Storage certification. It wasn't a diffuclt exam at all, something similar to CompTIA certifications - if you know your stuff.

I used the slides from SNIA websites, and they're more than enough.


A lot (if not most) of the questions were straight forward. Various questions about RAID levels, and backups, SAN, FC, SCSI,...etc.


If you took CompTIA Server+, then there's at least 40-50% of the material covered there. I got very similar questions in the exams that I remember seeing somewhere in the Server+ exams. Questions about incremental backups, differential backups, and RAID levels.



Different questions about protocols, SCSI, FCIP, NAS, switches, zoning...etc, and all these things. I got some questions that needed working out numbers, I think I got those wrong, because I didn't memorize how to calculate certain things such as the link speed for Fc...etc.


I recommend this exam for anyone who has some exposure to SAN/NAS/backups, this will backup your experience for sure.

astorrs

Congrats on the pass!

TechStriker

Congratulation

I am also reading this and hope to take the exam end of April.
Resources:
Storage Networks Explained, 2nd Edition
Fall 2009 SNIA Technical Tutorials

Did you take classes before or self study?
how did you find the 90 minute exam time?

UnixGuy

TechStriker wrote: »

Congratulation

I am also reading this and hope to take the exam end of April.
Resources:
Storage Networks Explained, 2nd Edition
Fall 2009 SNIA Technical Tutorials

Did you take classes before or self study?
how did you find the 90 minute exam time?

I didn't take SNIA classes, but I attended Sun Storage hardware training(s) before, that helped.

The resources you're using are more than enough...I finished the exam in 60 minutes and didn't review, it was straight forward, no need to worry


Good luck, let us know when you take it

TechStriker

Thanks, and congrats again will let you know the outcome

dadaji

Congrats.

I believe this is the entry level exam for this category.
I have an interest in Storage Area stuff but no experience. Would you recommend this for someone with no experience?
If so, what are some of the study materials you would recommend?

Thank you.

UnixGuy

thanks

well yes I recommend it, since it's all about terminology and best practices, and general overview.

There are certain books, and slides available on SNIA website. I used the slides and this book:
Amazon.com: Storage Networks Explained: Basics and Application of Fibre Channel SAN, NAS, iSCSI,InfiniBand and FCoE (9780470741436): Ulf Troppens, Rainer Erkens, Wolfgang Mueller-Friedt, Rainer Wolafka, Nils Haustein: Books


To be honest though, I recommend CompTIA Server+ more, specially if you don't have experience. CompTIA Server+ kind of contains general knowledge about both the Server and The Storage world, and there's a better documented material specially made for the exam.

When you pass Server+, you covered almost 60%+ of the material in SNIA cert anyway

PS: I don't think SNIA or Server+ will give u jobs, but they back up your knowledge and give u better theoritical understanding of a very important topics in the world of IT

Good luck

dadaji wrote: »

Congrats.

I believe this is the entry level exam for this category.
I have an interest in Storage Area stuff but no experience. Would you recommend this for someone with no experience?
If so, what are some of the study materials you would recommend?

Thank you.

petrel

Congratulations to you! I passed the JN0-303 and ST0-052 Exam! The score very surpried!
My successful path is that own a suitable Practice test for myself, this is my view.

Chris:/*

What is SNIA re-certification policy? Either I am blind or it is well hidden on their web site.

UnixGuy

Chris:/* wrote: »

What is SNIA re-certification policy? Either I am blind or it is well hidden on their web site.

I'm not aware of any re-certification policy, I think it's valid until they release new cert or something.

Chris:/*

UnixGuy wrote: »

I'm not aware of any re-certification policy, I think it's valid until they release new cert or something.

Thanks. Oh and Congrats... That was impolite.

astorrs

UnixGuy wrote: »

I'm not aware of any re-certification policy, I think it's valid until they release new cert or something.

They're valid forever unless you want to earn a higher SNIA tier certification (like SCSE, SCNA, etc) in which case it looks like they accept the last couple revisions of the exam (and they revise exams every year or two). So assume you could work through the entire track within about 3-5 years and not have to retake anything.

UnixGuy

astorrs wrote: »

They're valid forever unless you want to earn a higher SNIA tier certification (like SCSE, SCNA, etc) in which case it looks like they accept the last couple revisions of the exam (and they revise exams every year or two). So assume you could work through the entire track within about 3-5 years and not have to retake anything.

Interesting...the higher certs need vendor training or something like that, right ? I'd like to move up..

UnixGuy

Chris:/* wrote: »

Thanks. Oh and Congrats... That was impolite.

you're welcome

astorrs

UnixGuy wrote: »

Interesting...the higher certs need vendor training or something like that, right ? I'd like to move up..

Yeah it basically goes like this:



You can do the SCSE or SCSA in whatever order you choose. Not sure how easy it would be to study for these given the shortage of vendor neutral materials, I'd say books, books and more books.

Then if you add a vendor specific cert like NCDA, EMCTA, etc you get this automatically:

UnixGuy

I was just looking at the SCSE objectives, and frankly speaking I couldn't tell the difference between the SCSE & SCSP objectives, lot of topics in common. Some of the ITIL material is included in SCSE objectives, so I might take SCSE after ITIL.

It's near impossible for me to get NCDA, EMCTA at my current, because we don't sell these products. I have Sun storage vendor certs, and might get the HDS training some time in the future, but that's it for now.

senghor

congrats!

TechStriker

Then if you add a vendor specific cert like NCDA, EMCTA, etc you get this automatically:

Interesting, thanks for the info, how many years of experience do you need to get this?

astorrs

TechStriker wrote: »

Interesting, thanks for the info, how many years of experience do you need to get this?

To be honest if you don't have the experience to go with the cert (as in 3-5 years w/ complex storage would be my minimum) it's not going to help your career.

Also it would be extremely difficult to get the vendor specific cert NCDA, EMCTA, etc) without access to paid training classes from the vendor and the ability to work on the hardware and configure most aspects of it, so it's not something you can self study easily.

UnixGuy

astorrs wrote: »

To be honest if you don't have the experience to go with the cert (as in 3-5 years w/ complex storage would be my minimum) it's not going to help your career.

Also it would be extremely difficult to get the vendor specific cert NCDA, EMCTA, etc) without access to paid training classes from the vendor and the ability to work on the hardware and configure most aspects of it, so it's not something you can self study easily.

I'd agree with that. You need to be working for a company that provides storage solutions to get this kind of exposure.

Chris:/*

UnixGuy wrote: »

I was just looking at the SCSE objectives, and frankly speaking I couldn't tell the difference between the SCSE & SCSP objectives, lot of topics in common. Some of the ITIL material is included in SCSE objectives, so I might take SCSE after ITIL.

It's near impossible for me to get NCDA, EMCTA at my current, because we don't sell these products. I have Sun storage vendor certs, and might get the HDS training some time in the future, but that's it for now.

You can also earn the EMCST:Specialist level certification which does satisfy the requirement for SNIA-E. The good news about that is that it is open to the public not just EMC's customers and partners. It is also more about proper SAN implementation and management than it is is about their products.

EMC Storage Technologist Certification (EMCST)

It is just going to be expensive because you really cannot access their free training. I hear this book is really good from others that have experience with EMC products.

Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information
ISBN-13: 978-0470294215

I have been looking into EMC certification for a while just never really seen anything about SNIA before now.

UnixGuy

I'd love an opportunity to work with EMC, Brocade, HDS, and other big SAN stuff, maybe in the future. I don't think it's difficult, all Storages are conceptually the same.

Chris:/* wrote: »

You can also earn the EMCST:Specialist level certification which does satisfy the requirement for SNIA-E. The good news about that is that it is open to the public not just EMC's customers and partners. It is also more about proper SAN implementation and management than it is is about their products.

EMC Storage Technologist Certification (EMCST)

It is just going to be expensive because you really cannot access their free training. I hear this book is really good from others that have experience with EMC products.

Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information
ISBN-13: 978-0470294215

I have been looking into EMC certification for a while just never really seen anything about SNIA before now.

astorrs

Chris:/* wrote: »

I hear this book is really good from others that have experience with EMC products.

Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information
ISBN-13: 978-0470294215

It is a great book, but only maps to the Foundations/Associate level (it's the textbook for their EMCST Associate course) so you'd have to self study for the 2 specialist exams - which would mean putting together your own reading list. And the exams while labeled "vendor neutral", use EMC products as examples throughout and you still need to know what their various products do and the components that make up each.

Chris:/*

Thank you for the information, it is unfortunate that the information presented is not the same. Oh well....

TechStriker

astorrs wrote: »

To be honest if you don't have the experience to go with the cert (as in 3-5 years w/ complex storage would be my minimum) it's not going to help your career.

Thanks for the info, my long term plan in to become SNIA-E, hopefully will pick up more experience along the line.

TechStriker

UnixGuy wrote: »

The resources you're using are more than enough...I finished the exam in 60 minutes and didn't review, it was straight forward, no need to worry


Good luck, let us know when you take it

I have been preparing this exam for a while originally planned end of April, but finally knocked it out today with 79% score.
I am happy that I have passed thanks for your encouragement, as Unx said it s a purely conceptual exam.

rogue2shadow

Well done. Keep up the momentum!

UnixGuy

TechStriker wrote: »

I have been preparing this exam for a while originally planned end of April, but finally knocked it out today with 79% score.
I am happy that I have passed thanks for your encouragement, as Unx said it s a purely conceptual exam.

I'm kinda late, but congrats

sureshkamble74

HI UnixGuy and others, I want to take "SNIA Storage Network Foundations exam (S10-101)" certification. Want to know, 1. What material to refer? Books? Request your help in this. Regards, Suresh.

UnixGuy

sureshkamble74 wrote: »

HI UnixGuy and others, I want to take "SNIA Storage Network Foundations exam (S10-101)" certification. Want to know, 1. What material to refer? Books? Request your help in this. Regards, Suresh.

I'm not sure if there's a material right now, but as I said in my post (about a year and half ago!) I used the slides from SNIA website.

sslohar@gmail.com

Hello Guys,

I am new to this thread, I have experience in DAS implementaion and now prepering for the first level of SNIA exam SCP.
Can anybody help me out regarding the exam structure, how to register for the exam , and how many days before I have to register .

thnaks in advance.......