There are three preparation courses available for Solaris certification:
Solaris 9 System Administration I (SA-238)
Solaris 9 System Administration II (SA-288)
Solaris 9 Operating Environment TCP/IP Network Administration (SA-389)
Let’s examine what material is covered in each exam.
If you’re completely new to Solaris, you may benefit from taking one or more of the exams that do not lead to a specific certification test. The Fundamentals of Solaris 9 Operating Environment for System Administrators (SA-118) is one such course. It is designed to endow up and coming administrators with basic UNIX skills, including the following:
Navigating the hierarchical file system
Setting file permissions
Using the vi visual editor
Using UNIX shells
Understanding Solaris network facilities
After completing the course, students should feel confident performing the following tasks:
Change settings in configuration files
Create new directories
Create new text files and edit existing files using vi
Identify and send signals to user processes
Move around mounted file systems
Set permissions on existing files
Use a shell to execute commands
Use the Common desktop environment (CDE)
The SA-238 course aims to build a set of core skills required to administer stand-alone Solaris systems. Typically, these are the skills required to install and run a single Solaris system, including:
Management of disks, file systems, and partitions
Backup and restore techniques
User and group administration
Hardware device configuration
Process management and operations
The course lasts for five days and costs $2,495. After completing the course, newly skilled sysadmins should feel confident performing the following tasks:
Add users and groups to a system
Add new packages
Back up a system, and recover a lost file system
Change a system’s run level (init state)
Configure hardware devices
Control user and system processes
Manage system printing
Mount file systems
Patch existing packages
Recover damaged file systems using fsck
Review disk layout using format
Secure a system
Set up system-wide shell configurations
Shut down a system
Understand client/server architectures
Understand the root file system and the UNIX directory structure
Use eeprom to set boot parameters
Use file permissions to implement file security
The course consists of 17 different modules, including the following topics:
Module 1: Introduction to Solaris 9 Operating Environment Administration
Module 2: Adding Users
Module 3: System Security
Module 4: The Directory Hierarchy
Module 5: Device Configuration
Module 6: Disks, Slices, and Format
Module 7: Solaris ufs File Systems
Module 8: Mounting File Systems
Module 9: Maintaining File Systems
Module 10: Scheduled Process Control
Module 11: The Print Service
Module 12: The Boot PROM
Module 13: System Initialization of the boot process
Module 14: Installing the Solaris 9 Operating Environment on a Stand-alone System
Module 15: Installation of Software Packages
Module 16: Administration of Software Patches
Module 17: Backup and Recovery
The SA-288 course aims to build a set of core skills required to administer networked Solaris systems. Typically, these are the skills required to install and run multiple Solaris systems, and Solaris networks. The course lasts for five days and costs $2,495. After completing the course, newly skilled network admins should feel confident performing the following tasks:
Centralize home directory access using the automounter
Configure the major naming services
Installation of multiple Solaris client systems using JumpStart
Installation of Solaris server systems
Manage systems remotely
Share disks using the Network File System (NFS) protocol
Use the system log facility
Using the admintool
Volume management
The course consists of 13 different modules, including the following topics:
Module 1: The Solaris 9 Network Environment
Module 2: Network Models
Module 3: Solaris syslog
Module 4: Introduction to Virtual Disk Management
Module 5: Introduction to Swap Space and Pseudo File Systems
Module 6: Configuring the NFS Environment
Module 7: CacheFS File Systems
Module 8: Using Automount
Module 9: Naming Services Overview
Module 10: NIS Configuration
Module 11: Solstice AdminSuite
Module 12: JumpStart
Module 13: System Administration Workshop
The SA-389 course aims to build a set of core skills required to administer Solaris networks. Typically, these are the skills required to install and run networks that are based around Solaris systems. The course lasts for five days and costs $2,795. The course consists of 14 different modules, including the following topics:
Module 1: Network Models
Module 2: Introduction to Local Area Networks
Module 3: Ethernet Interface
Module 4: ARP and RARP
Module 5: Internet Layer
Module 6: Routing
Module 7: Transport Layer
Module 8 Client-Server Model
Module 9: DHCP
Module 10: Introduction to Network Management Tools
Module 11: Domain Name System
Module 12: Network Time Protocol (NTP)
Module 13: Network Troubleshooting
Module 14: IPv6