Any advice on Solaris certs?

I'm currently toying with the idea of getting an entry level Solaris cert, ie SCSAS, but I am not sure if I should just do that or go for the full blown Solaris 10 SCSA training + certification. I'm kinda hesitant on committing to the latter before having at least some professional experience.

Basically my reasons for considering these options are as follows:
1) Solaris is used extensively for infrastructure at my current workplace.
2) Solaris is used extensively in my current industry
3) Base knowledge of other areas outside the scope of my current role has allowed for much more effective communication and respect from other teams.
4) This is speculation, but I figure having that base level of knowledge would put me at the top of the heap for consideration should there be a Solaris related opening.

Given my position, would it be a good idea to go for a Solaris cert, and if so, which?
Also, any advice as how I should rearrange this into my current study track? (See sig)

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lordy

I myself have done SCSA 9, upgraded to 10, added Solaris 10 Security and Sun Cluster 3.2.

If you are aware that Solaris is a niche I think that investing in the cerification is a good move. Solaris positions are rare but so is the personal to fit them. From my experience I didn't find the Administrator exams very difficult so I don't really know if the Associate cert is worth it. If you are new to Solaris you should probably take it but if you have like 2+ years of experience I would assume that you can skip it.

Your study track looks pretty good and I don't think that you need to change it. You already have a few valuable certs and if you keep stacking them the opportunities will knock on your door. Keep it up

brownwrap

I took the Oracle SCSA exams last year before the October deadline. I did take a class and studied the exam cram books. Read the first one twice and the 2nd one once. I took a two week class, but it wasn't an Oracle certified class. Now Oracle has made it mandatory that you attend an Oracle Certified class. I passed both exams, but I didn't find it easy. Lots of stuff like containers, zones, ZFS, ACLs, and profiles that we don't use.

Zentraedi

Thanks for the replies guys!

lordy wrote: »

If you are aware that Solaris is a niche I think that investing in the cerification is a good move. Solaris positions are rare but so is the personal to fit them.

I guess it might be a niche in some industries, but at least where I am, it runs much of the core infrastructure.
Seems like other financial services institutions use it quite a bit as well. Not sure if this will change much or how soon.

lordy wrote: »

From my experience I didn't find the Administrator exams very difficult so I don't really know if the Associate cert is worth it. If you are new to Solaris you should probably take it but if you have like 2+ years of experience I would assume that you can skip it.

Yeah, I just want a quick and easy intro since it's a huge part of our environment. Plus, I didn't want to spend too much time before heading on to CCNP.

lordy wrote: »

Your study track looks pretty good and I don't think that you need to change it. You already have a few valuable certs and if you keep stacking them the opportunities will knock on your door. Keep it up

Thanks for the advice! Hopefully something will come along. I really the company and many of the people where I am, but I've really outgrown the role I'm in now.

brownwrap wrote: »

Now Oracle has made it mandatory that you attend an Oracle Certified class. I passed both exams, but I didn't find it easy. Lots of stuff like containers, zones, ZFS, ACLs, and profiles that we don't use.

Yeah, that's one thing that's difficult. Basically I'd have to take a week off of vacation time and fly to Hong Kong/Singapore or back to the States to take it English. It would be worthless if I took that class here in Japanese.

As for Solaris virtualization, that's actually a huge, core part of our service offerings...so I'd definitely want to be all over containers and zones.

Anyway, out of curiosity, how long did it take you to study for those exams? How difficult would you say they are compare to other IT certs?

N2IT

I am not an engineer or admin, however a friend of mine is a Unix/Linux admin and Network Engineer for AT&T. He only has one certifications which is a Sun Solaris not sure which version. I asked him if he felt it was worth the time and he said it taught him a lot.

Just wanted to relay that information on to you.

petedude

I seem to remember a time in the late 90s/early 00s that a lot of outfits were running Apache on Solaris for their external-facing webservers.

brownwrap

Zentraedi wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys!

I guess it might be a niche in some industries, but at least where I am, it runs much of the core infrastructure.
Seems like other financial services institutions use it quite a bit as well. Not sure if this will change much or how soon.

Yeah, I just want a quick and easy intro since it's a huge part of our environment. Plus, I didn't want to spend too much time before heading on to CCNP.

Thanks for the advice! Hopefully something will come along. I really the company and many of the people where I am, but I've really outgrown the role I'm in now.

Yeah, that's one thing that's difficult. Basically I'd have to take a week off of vacation time and fly to Hong Kong/Singapore or back to the States to take it English. It would be worthless if I took that class here in Japanese.

As for Solaris virtualization, that's actually a huge, core part of our service offerings...so I'd definitely want to be all over containers and zones.

Anyway, out of curiosity, how long did it take you to study for those exams? How difficult would you say they are compare to other IT certs?

I thought it was difficult. I studied for months, watch videos, read the Exam Cram books, took a two eek class. No one else in our group went to such lengths. There were four of us who had to get certified. One crammed by read the Exam Cram books, and passed in the 60 percent range. The second end up passing, but failed each test once, at $300 a pop that's not fun. So that cost him $1200 in test fees for the two tests. The third failed twice and was let go. I took each test once, scored high 70ties and a 95%, but I invested a whole lot more than anyone else.

UnixGuy

I say go for Solaris SCSA training and certifications. But why Solaris 10? go for Solaris 11 certification. If you learn Solaris 11, you can manage Solaris 10 and Solaris 9..and any Solaris for that matter.

I recommend the training of SCSA because you will learn a lot, and since you work in a place where you can get hands-on experience, then I say this is an opportunity for you.

Solaris is doing well, specially after Oracle/SUN acquisition, expect to see more Oracle DB running on Solaris.

As for your study plans, I personally think it is too much:
ITIL-F 2011->70-659->EMCISA->Linux+->SCSAS->CCNP->CCDP->CCSA->RHSCA->RHCVA

1) ITIL Foundation is not a problem, you can study and pass it at anytime.

2) As for the rest of the certifications, if you are planning to take Red Hat exams, then go straight to RHCSA (skip Linux+). Red Hat certifications hold more value than CompTIA, so Linux+ is kind of redundant. For RHCVA you really need to be working with Red Hat virtualization solutions to master this. You can study, but how useful is it going to be? and the exam is really difficult so be careful. Tackle RHCE later as it's more general, but the rest of Red Hat certs just very specialized IMHO.

3) Solaris SCSA needs focus, and a lot of practice. You need to practice a lot. It will take time.

4) Cisco: you need to be working with Cisco products to master CCNP/CCDP. Does your job involve RedHat, Solaris, and CISCO together?

I recommend you focus on one technology, work on it, and try to get hands-on experience (2+ yrs), then think of other certs.

Just my two cents

Zentraedi

UnixGuy wrote: »

I say go for Solaris SCSA training and certifications. But why Solaris 10? go for Solaris 11 certification. If you learn Solaris 11, you can manage Solaris 10 and Solaris 9..and any Solaris for that matter.

I recommend the training of SCSA because you will learn a lot, and since you work in a place where you can get hands-on experience, then I say this is an opportunity for you.

OK, that sounds great. I just wasn't sure if I'd be better to focus on Solaris 10 for now. Our organization moves kinda slow and is just in the middle of Windows 7 and Outlook 2007 migrations. While 10 is deployed, I know there is quite a bit of 9 and no current roadmap for 11.

UnixGuy wrote: »

Solaris is doing well, specially after Oracle/SUN acquisition, expect to see more Oracle DB running on Solaris.

Really? Our local Unix team seems to be unhappy with things since Oracle took over.

UnixGuy wrote: »

As for your study plans, I personally think it is too much:
ITIL-F 2011->70-659->EMCISA->Linux+->SCSAS->CCNP->CCDP->CCSA->RHSCA->RHCVA

That's just a long term roadmap. Ideally, I'd like work my way up to virtualization/storage admin.
The main reason I have so many certs and so many on my roadmap is because I'm an external and my outsourcing company is a Cisco/Microsoft partner looking to maintain/upgrade partnership status.

UnixGuy wrote: »

1) ITIL Foundation is not a problem, you can study and pass it at anytime.

This is what I'm working on right now. Don't think it'll take too long. Still, I honestly think that this knowledge and use of these terms/models is quite important and gets noticed more where I work.
Explain a situation in excruciating techincial terms--> management panics and wants to run away
Explain a situation in ITIL terms--> Big smiles all around and more/easier approvals

UnixGuy wrote: »

2) As for the rest of the certifications, if you are planning to take Red Hat exams, then go straight to RHCSA (skip Linux+). Red Hat certifications hold more value than CompTIA, so Linux+ is kind of redundant. For RHCVA you really need to be working with Red Hat virtualization solutions to master this. You can study, but how useful is it going to be? and the exam is really difficult so be careful. Tackle RHCE later as it's more general, but the rest of Red Hat certs just very specialized IMHO.

The RHEL stuff was sort of a long term thing. On the Unix side of things, we're really just a SLES/Solaris shop. External systems like Market Data or Bank of Japan might use Redhat, but our shop doesn't really manage that. Still, it seems like having a Redhat cert might provide more mobility in case I get an offer elsewhere.

UnixGuy wrote: »

3) Solaris SCSA needs focus, and a lot of practice. You need to practice a lot. It will take time.

Now that makes me wonder whether I should even bother witht the cert now. I'm not actually on the Unix team and really wouldn't get the professional practice until I joined that group.

UnixGuy wrote: »

4) Cisco: you need to be working with Cisco products to master CCNP/CCDP. Does your job involve RedHat, Solaris, and CISCO together?

The original discussion I had when first hired by my outsourcing company was for me to eventually get some Cisco UCS certs and become a storage/virtualizationg guy.
For the place where I work now, in order to be a storage admin, you need to know both Linux(SLES) and Solaris. Now that storage infrastructure is pretty much all EMC/Cisco based. That's where the Cisco stuff comes into play. Plus CCNP is a pre-req for some of that UCS stuff that I'd really like to pursue.

UnixGuy wrote: »

I recommend you focus on one technology, work on it, and try to get hands-on experience (2+ yrs), then think of other certs.

Then I'm just caught in a chicken and egg scenario. I'd love to move to another team and almost everything that I've "learned" at this job is just internal systems/procedures. Seems like just having the knowledge from my certs so far has really impressed the other teams and let me get things done faster since I'm speaking their language and can point to technical issues on their end.

UnixGuy

Zentraedi wrote: »

OK, that sounds great. I just wasn't sure if I'd be better to focus on Solaris 10 for now. Our organization moves kinda slow and is just in the middle of Windows 7 and Outlook 2007 migrations. While 10 is deployed, I know there is quite a bit of 9 and no current roadmap for 11.

Really? Our local Unix team seems to be unhappy with things since Oracle took over.

People are always unhappy with change, but from sales perspective, Oracle DB will be running on Solaris more in the future..

Zentraedi wrote: »

That's just a long term roadmap. Ideally, I'd like work my way up to virtualization/storage admin.

Now that makes me wonder whether I should even bother witht the cert now. I'm not actually on the Unix team and really wouldn't get the professional practice until I joined that group.

Learning Solaris and getting certified is an opportunity to get into Storage/Virtualization domains. It will give you a chance to get hands-on on other technologies, so it's a great starting point.

Whether you choose to start with Cisco CCNP/CCDP or Red Hat ...any field will take time and need practice, and since you have a Solaris team, then I recommend you go with Solaris.

All the paths are great, and you can't go wrong with any path you choose, just make sure you follow up with hands-on experience after getting certified.

antielvis

I took my Solaris certification way back in 1999 & never renewed it. That said, UNIX will probably always exist & many of the masters are now heading toward retirement. There are few people who are following the UNIX path & while there aren't many job postings there are even fewer candidates.

The only downfall with UNIX is that it's all "big iron" so you're always going to be working at the enterprise level. It means if you want to live outside of a major city, it gets pretty tough. It's some good money though.

epicdean

I would also like to get this certification in the future.Do you have to go through the class to get this certification now or can I self study.

UnixGuy

epicdean wrote: »

I would also like to get this certification in the future.Do you have to go through the class to get this certification now or can I self study.

I think attending a class room training is mandatory now

Zentraedi

One problem that I'm seeing on prepping for the Solaris 10 vs 11 is that there really isn't much structured learning material available.

Should I just buy the books for Solaris 10 and supplement that with documents from Oracle's site?
What would really be the best way to learn the 11 material and prep for the exam?

varelg

Zentraedi wrote: »

One problem that I'm seeing on prepping for the Solaris 10 vs 11 is that there really isn't much structured learning material available.

Should I just buy the books for Solaris 10 and supplement that with documents from Oracle's site?
What would really be the best way to learn the 11 material and prep for the exam?

UnixGuy just gave an important clue, the required classes (and their classes are pricey), so Zentraedi don't expect any third- party docs that are up to date with the current iteration of Solaris. There's simply no motivation for non- Oracle Press writers to cover it anymore. Hobbyists (OpenSolaris) are out of luck too, Oracle decided to limit their ties with the OpenSolaris project that is in a need of a serious update- at least as far as hardware support is concerned.
The best way to prep for the exam is to download the ISO from Oracle and build your own tutorials based on the docs available. Then, find an employer that will sponsor you through the classes and the exams (two are required).
If you are that much interested in *nix, I think going after LPIC-1 and RHCSA would be much more realistic goals than Solaris cert.

brownwrap

While it is a requirement to attend an Oracle class, as I stated also, it doesn't necessarily have to be both classes on administration. The last time I looked, there was a list of classes that qualified, but the cheapest was still around 2K. That was why I finished mine before their self-imposed deadline.

UnixGuy

I checked the certification requirements for you:
Oracle Solaris 11 Certification: Raising The Bar

it seems that you need to take training from an approved list (Either Oracle University, Sun Educational partner,..etc).

The training is expensive, but if you can convince your employer to pay for it, then the material you will be given in the training is invaluable and enough to pass the exams. Since your company uses Solaris, I think you can ask your manager for a training.

If you search Amazon, you will find 2 commercial books from Oracle university. I haven't read them yet, but you can check customers reviews.

Zentraedi

UnixGuy wrote: »

I checked the certification requirements for you:
Oracle Solaris 11 Certification: Raising The Bar

it seems that you need to take training from an approved list (Either Oracle University, Sun Educational partner,..etc).

The training is expensive, but if you can convince your employer to pay for it, then the material you will be given in the training is invaluable and enough to pass the exams. Since your company uses Solaris, I think you can ask your manager for a training.

If you search Amazon, you will find 2 commercial books from Oracle university. I haven't read them yet, but you can check customers reviews.

Thanks for the link. I had actually been considering plans to fly to the US for the Solaris 11 class at the end of Q2.
Cost of the course isn't really an issue, just finding the time and flying half way around the world is...

As far as getting compensation time/money for the training, that's probably not going to happen. I'm an onsite external employee at the place where I work and I'm not on the Unix team. Solaris certs aren't on the approved list from the company I'm currently contracted with either.

With the course material, I really question whether that is enough. When I did my VMware certifications, the course gave a good overview, but really wasn't enough to pass the exam. What I had to do was a lot of labbing and going through their whitepapers/administration manuals (about a few thousand pages).

What I'm wondering is: How good is Oracle's online documentation for Solaris 11? Do they have admin guides that are as good as VMware's sets? Do they have a good online Knowledge Base? The Microsoft Knowledge Base comes to mind being so comprehensive, but would Oracle have anything that approaches even a fraction of that?

Also, I took look at Amazon, but could only find one Solaris 11 book, and even that won't be released until Sept 22.
Amazon.com: Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration The Complete Reference (9780071790420): Michael Jang, Harry Foxwell: Books

What I was thinking is to supplement that course with Oracle's online materials and the following:
Oracle Solaris 10 System Virtualization Essentials

Solaris® Troubleshooting Handbook: Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning Hints for Solaris® 10 and OpenSolaris®

Solaris Internals: Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris Kernel Architecture (2nd Edition)

Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials

Solaris™ Performance and Tools: DTrace and MDB Techniques for Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris

Solaris 10 Security Essentials

Solaris 10 ZFS Essentials

UnixGuy

Zentraedi wrote: »

Thanks for the link. I had actually been considering plans to fly to the US for the Solaris 11 class at the end of Q2.
Cost of the course isn't really an issue, just finding the time and flying half way around the world is...

As far as getting compensation time/money for the training, that's probably not going to happen. I'm an onsite external employee at the place where I work and I'm not on the Unix team. Solaris certs aren't on the approved list from the company I'm currently contracted with either.

With the course material, I really question whether that is enough. When I did my VMware certifications, the course gave a good overview, but really wasn't enough to pass the exam. What I had to do was a lot of labbing and going through their whitepapers/administration manuals (about a few thousand pages).

What I'm wondering is: How good is Oracle's online documentation for Solaris 11? Do they have admin guides that are as good as VMware's sets? Do they have a good online Knowledge Base? The Microsoft Knowledge Base comes to mind being so comprehensive, but would Oracle have anything that approaches even a fraction of that?

Also, I took look at Amazon, but could only find one Solaris 11 book, and even that won't be released until Sept 22.
Amazon.com: Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration The Complete Reference (9780071790420): Michael Jang, Harry Foxwell: Books

What I was thinking is to supplement that course with Oracle's online materials and the following:
Oracle Solaris 10 System Virtualization Essentials

Solaris® Troubleshooting Handbook: Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning Hints for Solaris® 10 and OpenSolaris®

Solaris Internals: Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris Kernel Architecture (2nd Edition)

Solaris 10 System Administration Essentials

Solaris™ Performance and Tools: DTrace and MDB Techniques for Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris

Solaris 10 Security Essentials

Solaris 10 ZFS Essentials

If you can afford the training then this is good news! I'm sure you can find training in Japan, you don't have to go to the US. Just search Oracle University in Japan.

I'm a certified SUN/Oracle Instructor for Solaris and I can assure you that the official training material is the BEST material out there for Solaris 10 (I didn't see Solaris 11 material yet). It is enough to pass the exam for sure, and it's a good material for administrators. Better than Bill Calkins book and betteer than any other commercial book for that matter.

Now regarding the books you posted, they're all great books, I have them all. But they're not useful for studying for the exam. These are specialized books that you can read after you pass the exam or if you want to learn about a specific topic like dtrace for example.

Good luck

Zentraedi

Thanks!

Well, I checked here in Japan and it looks like they're not doing Solaris 11 training yet.
Even then, the Solaris 10 training is all in Japanese. Doing that would be a PITA. It's easy to take all the terms from E->J, but J->E is just ridiculous.

Looks like for now, I'll be playing around with Solaris 11 in some VMs and going over Oracle's docs.

UnixGuy

Zentraedi wrote: »

Thanks!

Well, I checked here in Japan and it looks like they're not doing Solaris 11 training yet.
Even then, the Solaris 10 training is all in Japanese. Doing that would be a PITA. It's easy to take all the terms from E->J, but J->E is just ridiculous.

Looks like for now, I'll be playing around with Solaris 11 in some VMs and going over Oracle's docs.

That would be a good idea. If you managed to find Solaris 10 material you can play with that. I don't think there're a lot of difference specially for part 1 of the exam

Good luck