SCSA Oracle

What's everyones opinion about the Oracle Certified Professional Solaris 10 System Administrator certification, is this something that would be a good move toward? I was thinking about transitioning over from Windows to Solaris.

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brownwrap

fredlwal wrote: »

What's everyones opinion about the Oracle Certified Professional Solaris 10 System Administrator certification, is this something that would be a good move toward? I was thinking about transitioning over from Windows to Solaris.

I inially purchased materials for Linux+ certification, then I was told at work, we might be required to become Solaris certified. There doen't seem to be a lot of material geared specifically towards this cert. I have the two Exam prep books, and bought the video from LinuxCBT, that 70 hours of training, which I have just started watching. I prefer classroom training, but these videos are pretty good and you can follow along if you have a Solaris machine setup. I'm still looking for materials though.

UnixGuy

Solaris 11 will be released anytime this year, so you might wanna wait. However, there are rumors that training will be mandatory to be certified.

yes there aren't any sufficient third party material, so your best bet is the official training material by Sun/Oracle.

This certificate is good, a great learning experience if you want to work with Solaris or Unix in general. But experience is more valuable here, generally speaking.

varelg

After picking up my LPIC-1 I decided to go for scsa myself. I am glad that some others also consider similar move. As it is, there are 2 books on the two exams and one of them is actually two-part. Oracle also offers CD's for training for these 2 exams.
However, if they make classroom training mandatory for this cert, I'll have to reconsider.
If Solaris 11 Express is any indication of what to expect in the upcoming Sol 11, it isn't going to be THAT revolutionary different from Sol 10 so some prep and lab won't hurt.
I really hope they don't make the classroom training mandatory. That would really be dissapointing. Solaris is a great system to work on.

brownwrap

varelg wrote: »

After picking up my LPIC-1 I decided to go for scsa myself. I am glad that some others also consider similar move. As it is, there are 2 books on the two exams and one of them is actually two-part. Oracle also offers CD's for training for these 2 exams.
However, if they make classroom training mandatory for this cert, I'll have to reconsider.
If Solaris 11 Express is any indication of what to expect in the upcoming Sol 11, it isn't going to be THAT revolutionary different from Sol 10 so some prep and lab won't hurt.
I really hope they don't make the classroom training mandatory. That would really be dissapointing. Solaris is a great system to work on.

I don't understand what Oracle is doing with Solaris, but I don't seem to be alone. Making it mandatory for class instruction would put it out of reach for me. More incentive to get it now.

I have the two books, put out by Exam Prep and written by Bill Calkins. Solaris 10 Administration parts I and II for tests CX-310-200 and CX-310-202. I am in the middle of learning a bunch of stuff, so I hope I can fit this in.

sidsanders

oracle is going after $$$ in my view. they will claim by making a class mandatory, it will prevent paper certified folks (something similar to that). still, having a class under your belt doesnt eliminate folks passing a test and still not understanding what they are doing.

UnixGuy

just make sure that the books include all the new topics (like ZFS for example). They keep changing the objectives..

varelg wrote: »

After picking up my LPIC-1 I decided to go for scsa myself. I am glad that some others also consider similar move. As it is, there are 2 books on the two exams and one of them is actually two-part. Oracle also offers CD's for training for these 2 exams.
However, if they make classroom training mandatory for this cert, I'll have to reconsider.
If Solaris 11 Express is any indication of what to expect in the upcoming Sol 11, it isn't going to be THAT revolutionary different from Sol 10 so some prep and lab won't hurt.
I really hope they don't make the classroom training mandatory. That would really be dissapointing. Solaris is a great system to work on.

brownwrap

UnixGuy wrote: »

just make sure that the books include all the new topics (like ZFS for example). They keep changing the objectives..

Volume II of the two books I have, has a chapter on ZFS and a chapter on Zones. Plus the video I purchased has both as well. For ZFS I bought a USB drive and created four 'partitions' to try ZFS. That was on OpenSolaris though. It didn't support mirroring at the time.

UnixGuy

brownwrap wrote: »

Volume II of the two books I have, has a chapter on ZFS and a chapter on Zones. Plus the video I purchased has both as well. For ZFS I bought a USB drive and created four 'partitions' to try ZFS. That was on OpenSolaris though. It didn't support mirroring at the time.

Good stuff, when I took the exam they added topics like My Sun connections or something, just keep checking the objectives regularly.

good luck, and keep us posted

fredlwal

Thanks for all your help with good information.

varelg

unfortunately, starting august 11 oracle will require class attendance as a prerequisite for SCSA. According to this forum post on the official oracle forum: OTN Discussion Forums : Clarification Request on New Solaris ...
So the time to start preparing for scsa is yesterday.
Awesome! :frawn:
Edit: It's August 1st, not 11th, my bad. So I guess we should consider the timely manner in which candidates are notified of the change.

UnixGuy

varelg wrote: »

unfortunately, starting august 11 oracle will require class attendance as a prerequisite for SCSA. According to this forum post on the official oracle forum: OTN Discussion Forums : Clarification Request on New Solaris ...
So the time to start preparing for scsa is yesterday.
Awesome! :frawn:
Edit: It's August 1st, not 11th, my bad. So I guess we should consider the timely manner in which candidates are notified of the change.

wow !

so I guess I'll start studying for Solaris Security & get certified before August 1st. True, the time to start preparing was yesterday

varelg

But! UnixGuy, if you pass that exam before August 1st, not only will you avoid mandatory classes for Solaris 10 version, you will avoid classes when you'll have to upgrade to that cert for Solaris 11. Or at least that is true for scsa for Sol 10...
Which topic(s) was/were your biggest hurdle(s) when you sat the SCSA exams UnixGuy?

UnixGuy

varelg wrote: »

But! UnixGuy, if you pass that exam before August 1st, not only will you avoid mandatory classes for Solaris 10 version, you will avoid classes when you'll have to upgrade to that cert for Solaris 11. Or at least that is true for scsa for Sol 10...
Which topic(s) was/were your biggest hurdle(s) when you sat the SCSA exams UnixGuy?

you are right ! that's why I'll start studying for the security exam very soon !

I don't really remember the topics that I didn't but I guess they were the topics I didn't use a lot like RBAC, flash installation(that's not in the exam anymore),..etc.

wawrzyn

I have done several MS exams in and kept doing them until last year - but having changed my job now I'm more on linux/unix side of things. I have just passed first Solaris 10 administration exam last week, planning to go for the other one very soon.
I have used two Bill Calkins books, they are sufficient to pass (I think). I could use more practice questions as there were only 60 with each book. Make sure you read several chapters from the second one before the first exam, as the exams have changed a bit (ZFS, networking - in the first part).
I had hands-on experience too, I have access to few M4000's but mainly used x86 VM.
I obviously wanted to do it before changes in August, and also I treat it as the warm-up before RHCE that I'm planning to take in May (RH300 fast track course booked in last week of May).
Best regards,