Taking the Exam

Sun offers the following three certifications for Solaris OS:

1. Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris Operating System.

2. Sun Certified Network Administrator for the Solaris Operating System.

3. Sun Certified Security Administrator for the Solaris Operating System.

This book prepares you for the Sun Certified System Administrator certification, which is also a prerequisite for taking the exam for the Sun Certified Network Administrator certification. To get the certification, you must pass both exams:

CX-310-200 and CX-310-202. The details about these exams are listed in the following table:

Exam Detail	CX-310-200	CX-310-202
Prerequisite	None	CX-310-200
Exam type	Multiple choice, including drag and drop	Multiple choice, including drag and drop
Total number of questions	59	61
Pass score	61%	62%
Maximum time allowed	90 minutes	90 minutes
Price (may vary by country, and also if you have discount coupons)	$150.00	$150.00

The question types are multiple choice and may include drag and drop. In most of the questions, you are asked to select the correct answers out of multiple answers presented for a question. The number of correct answers is given. Pay attention to the Exhibit button if it appears in a question. You click it to get the required information for the question. An exhibit usually contains a command, the output from a command, or both. The question, in this case, will test your understanding of the command and the output. While preparing for the exam, it is important to become familiar with the options (at least the most commonly used options) and output of a each command included in the exam objectives.

For the latest information on the exam, you can visit the following Web site: http://www.suned.sun.com.

Following are the main steps in the process of taking the exam:

1. First, you should purchase an exam voucher from your local Sun Education Services Office. You can also purchase the voucher online by going to http://suned.sun.com/US/certification/register/index.html.

2. The exams are conducted by Prometric all across the world, and you need to schedule your exam with them. After you have purchased the exam voucher, contact an authorized Prometric Testing Center near you. You can get the information regarding this from the Web site http://www.prometric.com.

3. Reach the testing center 15 minutes before the test start time, and be prepared to show two forms of ID, one of which must be a photo ID.

4. After you finish the test, the computer screen will display the exam result, that is, if you have passed or not. You will also receive a printed copy of the detailed results.

5. Within a month or so after you pass the second exam, you will receive your certificate from SUN in the mail.

Best wishes for the exams; go get 'em!

Exam Readiness Checklist Exam CX-310-200 Exam Objective		Chapter #
1.1	Explain the Solaris 10 OS installation and upgrade options for CD/DVD, including how to provide Minimal Installations for SPARC, x64, and x86-based systems.	2
1.2	Perform an OS installation from CD / DVD for SPARC, x64, and x86-based systems.
2.1	Explain the Solaris 10 OS directory hierarchy, including root subdirectories, file components, and file types, and create and remove hard and symbolic links.	4
2.2	Explain disk architecture including the UFS file system capabilities and naming conventions for devices for SPARC, x64, and x86-based systems.	5
2.3	Use the prtconf and format commands to list devices, explain critical issues of the /etc/path_to_inst file, and reconfigure devices by performing a reconfiguration boot or using the devfsadm command for SPARC, x64, and x86-based systems.
2.4	Given a scenario, partition a disk correctly using the appropriate files, commands, and options, and manage disk labels using SMI and EFI labels as they relate to disk sets.
2.5	Explain the Solaris 10 OS file system, including disk-based, distributed, devfs, and memory file systems related to SMF, and create a new UFS file system using options for < 1Tbyte and > 1Tbyte file systems.	4
2.6	Given a scenario, check and resolve Solaris 10 OS file system inconsistencies using fsck, and monitor file system usage using the command line (df, du, and quot commands).
2.7	Perform mounts and unmounts on a Solaris 10 OS file system, and use volume management to access mounted diskettes and CD-ROMs, restrict access, troubleshoot volume management problems, and explain access methods without volume management.	5
2.8	Perform Solaris 10 OS package administration using command-line interface commands and manage software patches for the Solaris OS, including preparing for patch administration and installing and removing patches using the patchadd and patchrm commands.	2
3.1	Given a scenario, explain boot PROM fundamentals, including OpenBoot Architecture Standard, boot PROM, NVRAM, POST, Abort Sequence, and displaying POST to serial port for SPARC.	3
3.2	Given a scenario, explain the BIOS settings for booting, abort sequence, and displaying POST, including BIOS configuration for x64 and x86-based system.
3.3	Execute basic boot PROM commands for a SPARC system.
3.4	Use the Xorg configuration files or kdmconfig utility to configure the keyboard, display, and mouse devices for an x64 and x86 based system.
3.5	Perform system boot and shutdown procedures, including identifying the system's boot device, creating and removing custom device aliases, viewing and changing NVRAM parameters, and interrupting an unresponsive system.
3.6	Explain the Service Management Facility and the phases of the boot process.
3.7	Use SMF or legacy commands and scripts to control both the boot and shutdown procedures.
4.1	Explain and perform Solaria 10 OS user administration, and manage user accounts and initialization files.	6
4.2	Monitor system access by using appropriate commands.	7
4.3	Perform system security by switching users on a system, and by becoming root and monitoring su attempts.
4.4	Control system security through restricting ftp access and using /etc/hosts.equiv and $HOME/ .rhosts files, and SSH fundamentals.
4.5	Restrict access to data in files through the use of group membership, ownership, and special file permissions.
5.1	Configure and administer Solaris 10 OS print services, including client and server configuration, starting and stopping the LP print service, specifying a destination printer, and using the LP print service.	8
5.2	Control system processes by viewing the processes, clearing frozen processes, and scheduling automatic one-time and recurring execution of commands using the command line
6.1	Given a scenario, develop a strategy for scheduled backups, and backup an unmounted file system using the appropriate commands.	9
6.2	Perform Solaris 10 OS file system restores using the appropriate commands, including restoring a regular file system, the /usr file system, the /(root) file system, and performing interactive and incremental restores for SPARC, x64, and x86 based systems.
6.3	Backup a mounted file system by creating a UFS snapshot and performing a backup of the snapshot file.
6.4	Restore data from a UFS snapshot and delete the UFS snapshot.

Exam Readiness Checklist Exam CX-310-202 Exam Objective		Chapter #
1.1	Control and monitor network interfaces including MAC addresses, IP addresses, network packets, and configure the IPv4 interfaces at boot time.	10
1.2	Explain the client-server model and enable/disable server processes.
2.1	Explain virtual memory concepts and given a scenario, configure, and manage swap space.	12
2.2	Manage crash dumps and core file behaviors.
2.3	Explain NFS fundamentals, and configure and manage the NFS server and client including daemons, files, and commands.
2.4	Troubleshoot various NFS errors.
2.5	Explain and manage AutoFS and use automount maps (master, direct, and indirect) to configure automounting.
3.1	Analyze and explain RAID (0, 1, 5) and SVM concepts (logical volumes, soft partitions, state databases, hot spares, and hot spare pools).	13
3.2	Create the state database, build a mirror, and unmirror the root file system.
4.1	Configure role-based access control (RBAC) including assigning rights profiles, roles, and authorizations to users.	14
4.2	Analyze RBAC configuration file summaries and manage RBAC using the command line.
4.3	Explain syslog function fundamentals, and configure and manage the /etc/syslog.conf file and syslog messaging.
5.1	Explain naming services (DNS, NIS, NIS+, and LDAP) and the naming service switch file (database sources, status codes, and actions).	11
5.2	Configure, stop and start the Name Service Cache Daemon (nscd) and retrieve naming service information using the getent command.
5.3	Configure naming service clients during install, configure the DNS client, and set up the LDAP client (client authentication, client profiles, proxy accounts, and LDAP configurations) after installation.
5.4	Explain NIS and NIS security including NIS namespace information, domains, processes, securenets, and password.adjunct.
5.5	Configure the NIS domain: build and update NIS maps, manage the NIS master and slave server, configure the NIS client, and troubleshoot NIS for server and client failure messages.
6.1	Explain consolidation issues, features of Solaris zones, and decipher between the different zone concepts including zone types, daemons, networking, command scope, and given a scenario, create a Solaris zone.	15
6.2	Given a zone configuration scenario, identify zone components and zonecfg resource parameters, allocate file system space, use the zonecfg command, describe the interactive configuration of a zone, and view the zone configuration file.
6.3	Given a scenario, use the zoneadm command to view, install, boot, halt, reboot, and delete a zone.
6.4	Explain custom JumpStart configuration including the boot, identification, configuration, and installation services.
6.5	Configure a JumpStart including implementing a JumpStart server, editing the sysidcfg, rules and profile files, and establishing JumpStart software alternatives (setup, establishing alternatives, troubleshooting, and resolving problems).
6.6	Explain flash, create and manipulate the flash archive, and use it for installation.
6.7	Given a PXE installation scenario, identify requirements and install methods, configure both the install and DHCP server, and boot the x86 client.