Santhana Maran's Weblog Santhana Maran's Weblog

This week I completed my SysAdmin1 and SysAdmin2 Solaris 10 Certification. I joined the wave of Solaris 10 Certifcation madness that is goin on within Sun and finally cleared the 2 exams with satisfactory results. The Exam really tested the skills of solaris. What this means to me ? a lot. First time of this sort I achieved for a while. Sun Education provides lot of training resources for the employees for free. I took the opportunity to use it as much as I can and see what best I can achieve. Took all the Free Voucher opportunity provided by Sun as they gave 2 free vouchers per employee in April this year. + the study materials (details given below) So here is the approach I took to complete the certification for those who are interested. Prepared for 2 months ( 1 month per exam ). As I work mostly on Solaris 10 so some of the topics are familiar to me and did not took much time to cover those. But few (ex., Volume Manager / Jumpstart / Printers )are challenging and I know nothing about those and took time to read it via the Webbased course first and then supplemented with the below said books. I took atleast 40+ hrs of study for each certification which comes to 80 hrs in total. I had to do this mostly while I am on travel and in between projects and late hours. But made sure that to achieve the goal I studied atleast 1 hour per day and 1 hour or regular workout ( ie., If I go for jogging/running/exercise I will reward myself with 1 hour of reading for the certification). Certification is just the appreciation for the time & work that was put in. This time was worth spent considering that I am now knowledgable than what I was about 2 months ago. Still there are some grey areas which I need to work on but atleast I know the basics when someone talks about RAID , RAID 0+1. I took mostly web based training and epractise exams which is available on Sun Learning site. The below is the link was put together by some of my colleague which helped me cross the line. Employees gets free :-) Once again Thanks for Sun Learning people who provided all the resources for me to complete this certification. Hope this blog will help somebody else to achieve what I have achieved. For CX-310-200, the corresponding online training is:(Equivalent web based courses for SA-200-S10) 1. WS-2000-S10 Managing File Systems 2. WS-2001-S10 Installing Software 3. WS-2002-S10 Performing System Boot Procedures 4. WS-2003-S10 Performing User and Security Administration 5. WS-2004-S10 Managing Network Printers and System Processes 6. WS-2005-S10 Archiving and Restoring the System 7. WS-240-S10 Intermediate System Administrator for the Solaris 10 OS x64/x86 Based Systems Differences For CX-310-202 the corresponding online training is:(Equivalent web based courses for SA-202-S10) 1. WS-2020-S10 Networking Basic 2. WS-2021-S10 Virtual File Systems and Core Dump Management 3. WS-2022-S10 Storage Volume Management 4. WS-2023-S10 Access Control and System Messaging Configuration 5. WS-2024-S10 Naming Services Setup 6. WS-2025-S10 Advanced Installation Procedures 7. WS-242-S10 Advanced System Administration for the Solaris 10 )S x64/x86 Based Systems Differences Study Guides Two study guides are avaliable for online reading. One is available through the Safari Books Online and the other is through Boox24x7: 1. Solaris 10 System Adminstration Exam Prep* by Bill Calkins 2. Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 10 Study Guide* (Exams CX-310-200 and CX-310-202) by Paul Sanghera ePractice exams list is in here Exam for the Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris 10 OS, Part I WXI-S200A WXI-S200B WXI-S200C WXI-S200A/B/C - 3 practice exams Exam for Sun Certified System Admin for Solaris 10 OS, Part II WXI-S202A WXI-S202B WXI-S202C WXI-S202/A/B/C - 3 practice exams

As the title says that Abhishek's Cricket team have not won any so far. Abhishek played 2 matches so far and he got out on the first ball on one and 3rd ball on the last week match. Which is really not looking good. Despite the above the kid is taking it positively and came to me and said dad I would like to practice my batting. Which is kind of cool and did not anticipate that. Which shows that he really want to improve his game and wanted to take cricket seriously. Let us see this weekend how it goes. Will keep this blogged.

Now that Soccer season is finished for Abhishek I will continue to blog his Cricket activity. Last week is the first week of the season and their team took 27 Runs of the bat and unfortunately that was not enough and the opp team won. Abhishek got to sit out as there are 14 players in his team and 3 players have to sit out every game and unfortunately his turn was first week. Nevertheless he was not too worried about it 'cos he had his Spring fair @ his school. Which was more interesting than Cricket where he get to spend some of his pocket money and got some time to play with his mates. Y'day Abhishek had his Piano concert and done excellently well. Last year was his first and I do remember he said some butterfly flying in his tummy. Whereas this year it was much improved and no butterfiles but still some preasure and on the concert day he practiced on the hour every hour for 5 minutes. Interestingly to get his preasure off I played some PingPong with him and was happy about it. See you next week for his first stint @ cricket this season.

I have been asked by several folks from Work and outside on my progress and completion. Here is the answer to it. Well, It did go good. I am happy and feel proud that I managed to complete the fun run. Sun Herald say that I have finished in 107 minutes and 29 seconds. But I would like to disagree as I have not started (back of the pack crowd until after 10:00 AM) that is 30 minutes after the start of the race. Anyway I finished @ 24237th person out of 53669. Which is a great achievement by itself for me. Did I loose weight. I think so probably 2 kilos. But trying hard to reduce more. I am motivated now and already made my mind to run next year's 1/2 marathon. Last time I ran I came somewhere around 4400 place out of 5000 something. I would like to beat that and that is my goal. I will post my pictures soon once Sun Herald releases it. On the other side my Son's Soccer . Looks like this year there is NO finals due to washed out games. They could not really find who the frontrunners are. So they will be playing 2 more games and finish it. Gordon lost to Chatswood Rangers . I have seen Abhishek playing a really good first half and nearly he had a chance to goal once. He put in his effort and unfortunately they lost 1-3. Second half Abhishek did not put in much effort as the first one. He was happy that he won the Man of the match but he felt he would have been more happy if his team would have won. He said he lost the toss and that contributed his team's loss. Hope they win the next game. I have signed him up for Under 10 Cricket for St.Ives this year. Let me see how it goes. Sure i will blog that as well.

Pretty much I am much settled with my pattern. Increased the training time from 45 to 60 min now. Crossing several hills and there comes a block. I will be going away for 2 weeks not sure If I will be able to continue my practice runs. Well let us see. On the other note on my kids soccer. Last week the match was drawn. It was an all important game. But kids are just kids they did not understand that if they win that game they will be moving on to finals. Other reason is the ground was slippery too due to the recent rain. Anyway they scored 1 and let 1. Which is not bad. But would have been happy if they have scored another one. Regarding Abhishek's play he was not impressive at all. He said the ball did not come to him. Agree 'cos their team is too good and created lot of chances to score unfortunately they fail to add one more to win the game. They did beat this team Berowra comfortably in their away game. But did not go as per coach's plan. This week they are competing against Linfield. Let us see if they can match them. Once again this is an away game for the team. I will start my motivation tonight about the all important win their team needs and see how it goes.

What a game this week Gordon 10 C had against St.Ives 10 C. It was thrilling to the wire. St.Ives scored a goal in second half immediately after that Gordon 10c equalised it. Most likely watching WorldCup soccer must have given the kids an extra skills and ammunition I guess. They fired and did not lay back as they usually do when they are down by 1 or 2. Even my shouting and yelling was higher than usual Now this is a perfect team game from Gordon 10C I have watched and lucky to be present. Definitely the team improved much more than the beginning. I was surprised Abhishek put his hand for doing the goal keeping duty and did not estiate when coach asked his team. I am happy he is coming forward to put his hand up and this shows he is getting interested in the game and wanted to be a team man. Unfortunately he couldn't stop getting the ball going behind him once. But stopped plenty and it was quite a good performance from him that I am proud of. Hope the team continues this spirit. Three cheers to Stephen. Who is their coach and have belief in them.

Fantastic week for me. So far trained 5 days consecutively. Shed few grams on my weight. In all I ran for about 3 hours and 30 minutes this week. I feel good. Introduced a hill in my run and did that for a day Went on Pacific Highway to linfield and climbed up on Werona avenue to Gordon. I see 1 heartbreak point in this run. so hope to continue this for the next 2 weeks and may be go an extra mile then after. Trying to persuade one of my family friend to join me in the run. Let me see how far I can go with him.

Three years ago I took part in City to Surf run. At that time I lived in Melbourne and now I moved to Sydney and thought about it doing it again. couple of years ago I participated in the Sydney 1/2 marthon and this year I missed it. So started my practice run y'day unfortunately for the last 3 days it is pouring in sydney and my legs did not cooperate with the weather. Y'day I started and amazed how fast I can run and completed my 5-1/2 kms in 38 min. From gordon to linfield. My goal at the end of the week 1 is to reach the same distance in 35 min just slightly increase by 3min. The run consists of bumpy hills and i am aware that there are several heartbreaks in city to surf run. So getting prepared and let me see if I can break the 1/2 marathon record . This is the first week of the 10 week practice session. I will continue to blog my progess. Hope to reduce my weight and measure the performance @ the end of race.

Good on Abhishek. He had a very good game last week. Previous week he took on the opponents and was lucky enough not to get his Red card. He won the tackle of the match award. But i was not happy with it. This week Abhishek won another award for running around the park. He put in his heart and played good enough to earn 2 points for himself. His team beat the the division's best team Northsydney Bears with 1 nill. Finaly a much needed break came this week hope they redisplay their winning habit next week.

Finally found some time to blog the Soccer match report for Abhishek for Round 3 to 6. They are finally tasting some defeat. They Won Round 4 and lost the last 2 rounds. The kids play'd fantastic on the Round 6. But unfortunately they couldn't get the ball pass the goal post. Abhishek played an unusual spot on Round 6 as a Goal keeper and let the ball pass him. He saved couple of times. But the time ran out as it was a short game than the usual 50 min one. Hope they group together forthcoming week. I could see Abhishek improving and running a lot nowadays. Hope to see him more active and not dooze during the came. Back to my escalations.

This week Abhishek played against All women's team ( Mt. Kolah). I must say the opposition's goal keeper is fanatastic and she stopped like 3 to 4 goals getting passed her. The result is 2-nil in Gordon 10C favor. All the folks played very well. Abhishek got 2 penalty due to tripping the opposition player on his mad run. 1 of which was obvious and another one was accident. He started to run around and enjoy the game. I have never seen him like this before and he is improving a lot. He played forward and his favourite defence and got involved in fantastic team goal which got passed between four players he was the third one to pass it to his stricker. Quite interesting. His swimming season came to end this week and what a relief for me. My Sunday morning is back. This weekend there is no play and it is a Easter break. He is all hooked up to visit Easter show this weekend and stated that he is planning to buy Kidszone showbag for $6 worth $80 what a bargain ? Until I open the bag not sure if it will be a real bargain. For him it is. Let me share once he have it.

My son Abhishek Maran played his first soccer game this season on April Fools day for Gordon Soccer Club U10 C His team won the starting game 2 to 1 against Kissing Point U10c. Abhishek played in 3 position this game as Goal keeper, Forward and Left Midfield. He enjoyed in all 3 spots and he did saved 2 goals. Unfortunately he did not keep up his position as Forward and Midfield and was running everywhere. When I asked him he said that he is the one there to gaurd everything. I think he should start listening to his coach and stick to his position. Reminded him and let us see if he can stick to the plan. Not sure where he will be playing next game but for this one I took my dad who is visiting us and he enjoyed the game. Dad looked very stressfull and I have seen him that way even while watching cricket on TV. I will blog to check the progress of Abhishek's soccer. He challenged me if he get a goal this season if I can buy him a Xbox 360. I would like to see him make that goal and that will be a big confidence booster for him as well as parents like me who just take their children just to see how successfull they are. I am more happy that he is playing Soccer but anything above is a bonus to me . He had a good Cricket season this year http://www.gordonjuniorcricket.com/www/153/1001165/displayarticle/1093542%2ehtml Let us see how he perform next game.

Example of hightouch. Sun Professional Service build custom solutions to highend customers on top of Java System products. After the Solution goes on live @ customer deployment they hand it over to Product Technical Support with in Sun Support who has highly code capable engineers who maintain these custom Sun PS written code instead of Customer. If anything within this code goes wrong for no apparent reason after the Sun PS warranty period customer is left on his own to troubleshoot the custom written application. Simple reason to go wrong ? Customer did something to their infrastructure and the custom code no more works or works but not as it is expected to be. Now the customer have an option to buy with their support contract a Hightouch solution. Where Product Technical Support Enggineering within Sun have the knowledge and get the knowledge transfer from Sun PS when they deliver such custom written code to customer. This solution will be maintained for customer by Sun for a period of time and this can be extended customer willing for whatever time period they want. Want to know more on this type of solution please do contact your Sun Representative and they can link you up with the Product Technical Support Managers locally in your geography. Will add more on this topic as I am currently involved in one such project and helping a Local customer in Australia which contains a large deployment of Sun Java System products.

Took my first step in creating my log today. After going thru other bloggers contribution. Thought why not ? and I am here.