[jason@sun ~]$: The Solaris junkie finds a home

I haven't been blogging or experimenting with Sun stuff for some time.  For the past four weeks or so I've been pretty busy with certification exams.

Like most things, the benefit you enjoy from the certification process is proportional to effort you invest.  With very little effort, a certification is just a piece of paper that helps you (maybe a little) in the hiring process.  I used to have this mentality regarding certs -- and this is probably why I never pursued any.

Due to the nature of my work I had some down-time between contracts.  So I decided to finally get some of those silly pieces of paper.  But as I studied for the cert exams -- maybe it was a lack of customer deadlines, who knows? -- I found that I really enjoyed the process.  Even in studying the basics, of which I thought I had a command, I learned a lot.  It was a very humbling experience, and a helpful one.  I picked up a few things that I'll probably use regularly.

Really, it's like those kungfu movies where the cocky protagonist thinks he's unstoppable, then the unassuming master flattens the young upstart with a mastery of basic techniques.  Sorry, I can equate just about everything to kungfu flicks.  Even if you think you know the basics, more training always makes you stronger.

I passed the two Solaris 10 SCSA exams, 310-200 and 310-202, by using Sun-internal web training.  Sun employees get access to lots of web-based training modules.  I think non-Sun admins can buy the same modules here:

• System Administration for the Solaris 10 Operating System Part I
• System Administration for the Solaris 10 Operating System Part II
• Advanced System Administration for the Solaris 10 Operating System on x64/x86-Based Systems

As I recall there were quite a few x86 questions.  I've spent most of my time on SPARCs, so for guys like me the x86 module was a must.

Like I said before, it's easy to fall into the "yeah, I know this already" mindset when studying these things.  But there are little gems out there that, if you're paying attention, you'll be happy you found.

My customer requested that I attend the NetApp Boot Camp (registration required for most NetApp links here -- quick and relatively painless).  This is a two-week intensive course which was great for me, since my experience is more OS-centric than storage-centric.  The instructor, Stephan Sellars, was excellent.  He's the down-to-earth-type guru that can explain the theory, and when to ditch the theory in favor of what really works.

The NCDA certification requires two exams as well; 153, and 163.  I found these to be pretty tough since they're only 40 questions and a passing grade is 80%.  The first exam covers basic storage topics like NFS, CIFS, FCP, and iSCSI, in addition to some Data ONTAP subjects.  (Data ONTAP is the Unix-based OS that runs the NetApp devices.)  The second exam covers NetApp-specific availability, backup, and recovery products.  This exam was much harder for me since it involved a lot of memorization of the NetApp tech-tree -- something with which I was not at all familiar.

I'd recommend both certifications to anyone considering them.  I'll probably take some more, myself -- maybe the SCNA next.