solaris 9 system administrator

Solaris 9
System
Administrator
Darrell Ambro
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page i
Solaris 9 System Administrator Exam Cram 2
Copyright © 2003 by Que Certification
All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission
from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the
use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution
has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and
author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any lia-
bility assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information
contained herein.
International Standard Book Number: 0-7897-2869-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002114425
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: December 2002
05 04 03 02 4321
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or
service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Que Certification
cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this
book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark
or service mark.
Warning and Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accu-
rate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information
provided is on an “as is” basis. The author and the publisher shall have

neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect
to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this
book or from the use of the CD or programs accompanying it.
Executive Editor
Jeff Riley
Development Editor
Ginny Bess Monroe
Managing Editor
Charlotte Clapp
Project Editor
Carol Bowers
Copy Editor
Kezia Endsley
Indexer
Heather McNeill
Proofreaders
Benjamin Berg
Juli Cook
Technical Editors
Grant Carstensen
Edgar Danielyan
Team Coordinator
Rosemary Lewis
Multimedia Developer
Dan Scherf
Page Layout
Stacey Richwine-DeRome
Graphics
Stephen Adams
Tammy Graham

Oliver L. Jackson, Jr.
Laura Robbins
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page ii
A Note from Series Editor Ed Tittel
You know better than to trust your certification preparation to just
anybody. That’s why you, and more than two million others, have
purchased an Exam Cram book. As Series Editor for the new and
improved Exam Cram2 series, I have worked with the staff at Que Certification to
ensure you won’t be disappointed. That’s why we’ve taken the world’s best-selling
certification product—a finalist for “Best Study Guide” in a CertCities reader poll
in 2002—and made it even better.
As a “Favorite Study Guide Author” finalist in a 2002 poll of
CertCities readers, I know the value of good books. You’ll be
impressed with Que Certification’s stringent review process,
which ensures the books are high-quality, relevant, and
technically accurate. Rest assured that at least a dozen industry
experts—including the panel of certification experts at
CramSession—have reviewed this material, helping us deliver an
excellent solution to your exam preparation needs.
We’ve also added a preview edition of PrepLogic’s powerful, full-featured test
engine, which is trusted by certification students throughout the world.
As a 20-year-plus veteran of the computing industry and the original creator and
editor of the Exam Cram series, I’ve brought my IT experience to bear on these
books. During my tenure at Novell from 1989 to 1994, I worked with and around
its excellent education and certification department. This experience helped push
my writing and teaching activities heavily in the certification direction. Since then,
I’ve worked on more than 70 certification-related books, and I write about
certification topics for numerous Web sites and for Certification magazine.
In 1996, while studying for various MCP exams, I became frustrated with the
huge, unwieldy study guides that were the only preparation tools available. As an

experienced IT professional and former instructor, I wanted “nothing but the facts”
necessary to prepare for the exams. From this impetus, Exam Cram emerged in
1997. It quickly became the best-selling computer book series since “…For
Dummies,” and the best-selling certification book series ever. By maintaining an
intense focus on subject matter, tracking errata and updates quickly, and following
the certification market closely, Exam Cram was able to establish the dominant
position in cert prep books.
You will not be disappointed in your decision to purchase this book. If you are,
please contact me at All suggestions, ideas, input, or constructive
criticism are welcome!
Que Certification • 201 West 103rd Street • Indianapolis, Indiana 46290
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page iii
Taking You to the Solaris 9
System Administrator Finish Line!
www.examcram.com
Solaris 9 System Administrator
Training Guide (Exams 310-014, 310-015)
Bill Calkins
ISBN 0-7897-2922-9
$49.99 US/$77.99 CAN/£36.50 Net UK
Before you walk into your local
testing center, make absolutely sure
you’re prepared to pass your exam.
In addition to the Exam Cram 2
series, consider our Training Guide
series. Que Certification’s Training
Guides have exactly what you need
to pass your exam:
•
Exam Objectives highlighted in every chapter

•
Notes, Tips, Warnings, and Exam Tips advise what
to watch out for
•
Step-by-Step Exercises for “hands-on” practice
•
End-of-chapter Exercises and Exam Questions
•
Final Review with Fast Facts, Study and Exam Tips, and
another Practice Exam
•
A CD that includes PrepLogic Practice Tests for complete
evaluation of your knowledge
•
Our authors are recognized experts in the field. In most
cases, they are current or former instructors, trainers, or
consultants – they know exactly what you need to know!
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page iv
For my parents, my brother and his family, and my wife and kids.
❧
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page v

About the Author
Darrell Ambro is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff with
Lucent Technologies. He has been with Lucent and its predecessors for 25
years and has been using various forms of Unix since 1977.
During his career, Darrell has been involved in a variety of projects, sup-
porting both military and civilian organizations of the U.S. government.
These projects involved Local Area Network (LAN) design, operation,
implementation and troubleshooting, application development and systems

integration, system security and intrusion detection, database design, system
administration, system test, proposal development, acceptance test/sales sup-
port, and software maintenance.
Recently, Darrell has become involved in supporting Lucent’s corporate
computer infrastructure including its Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) oper-
ations and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) initiatives.
In addition to being a Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 2.6,
Solaris 7, Solaris 8, and Solaris 9, Darrell is also a Sun Certified Network
Administrator for Solaris 8 and Solaris 9, a Novell Certified NetWare
Engineer (CNE), a Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE), and a
WebMethods Certified Business Partner Integration Developer.
Darrell is a Third Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do under the training of
Grand Master Seung Gyoo Dong of Richmond, VA.
.
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page vi
About the Technical
Reviewers
Grant Carstensen is a Senior Unix Systems Administrator with Computer
Sciences Corporation (CSC), a major IT services company that offers a broad
range of capabilities, from consulting and systems integration to outsourcing.
He has more than 17 years combined experience across numerous IT-related
positions and skill sets. He has focused on Unix systems administration of pre-
dominantly SunOS- and Solaris-based systems over the last seven years, with
some Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) IRIX-based systems administration,
Network Engineering, and Project Management roles wedged in as well.
Additionally, over the last year an a half, his homogenous world has been sul-
lied with his conscription into providing systems administration support for
some Windows NT 4.0-based servers and Windows 2000 Professional-based
workstations alongside the Unix systems he has been supporting. Grant has
been a technical editor for the Solaris 7 System Administrator Certification

Training Guide and the Solaris 8 System Administrator Certification Training
Guide (published by New Riders Publishing).
Edgar Danielyan is a self-employed consultant, author, and editor special-
izing in Unix, security, and internetworking. He is the author of Solaris 8
Security published by New Riders Publishing in 2001 and is a Sun Certified
System and Network Administrator. He can be contacted online at
www.danielyan.com or at

00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page vii
.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Jeff Riley, Ginny Bess, and others at Que Publishing who provid-
ed guidance and assistance in the development and production of my third
book.
Thanks to my wife Lilli and my kids, Shane and Eva, for giving me the time
to get it done. I love you.

00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page viii
We Want to Hear from You!
As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commenta-
tor. We value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we
could do better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words
of wisdom you’re willing to pass our way.
As an executive editor for Que, I welcome your comments. You can email or
write me directly to let me know what you did or didn’t like about this book—
as well as what we can do to make our books better.
Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic
of this book. We do have a User Services group, however, where I will forward
specific technical questions related to the book.
When you write, please be sure to include this book’s title and author as well

as your name, email address, and phone number. I will carefully review your
comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the
book.
Email:
Mail: Jeff Riley
Executive Editor
Que Publishing
201 West 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA
For more information about this book or another Que title, visit our Web site
at www.quepublishing.com. Type the ISBN (excluding hyphens) or the title of
a book in the Search field to find the page you’re looking for.

00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page ix
.
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page x
Contents at a Glance
Introduction xxiii
Self-Assessment xxxiv
Chapter 1 Installing and Maintaining Solaris 9 1
Chapter 2 Booting and Shutting Down the System 31
Chapter 3 User Account Administration 55
Chapter 4 System Security and File Permissions 79
Chapter 5 Controlling Processes 107
Chapter 6 File System Basics 125
Chapter 7 Disk and File System Administration 149
Chapter 8 System Backups and Restores 183
Chapter 9 Printing 203
Chapter 10 The Solaris Network Environment 219
Chapter 11 Special Disk Operations 243

Chapter 12 Advanced Access Control 259
Chapter 13 Syslog and Auditing Utilities 297
Chapter 14 Advanced Disk Management 309
Chapter 15 Network File System (NFS) 323
Chapter 16 Name Services 349
Chapter 17 Advanced Installation 373
Chapter 18 Practice Exam 1 Questions 397
Chapter 19 Practice Exam 1 Answers 413

00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xi
.
Chapter 20 Practice Exam 2 Questions 425
Chapter 21 Practice Exam 2 Answers 441
Appendix A What’s on the CD-ROM 453
Appendix B Using the PrepLogic Practice Tests, Preview
Edition Software 457
Glossary 465
Index 487
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xii

Table of Contents
Introduction xxiii
Self-Assessment xxxiv
Chapter 1
Installing and Maintaining Solaris 9 1
Introduction 2
The Solaris 9 Distribution 2
Installing Solaris 9 3
Hardware Requirements 3
Installing Solaris 9 on a New System Using Web Start 4

Upgrading an Existing Solaris System 7
Preconfiguring System Configuration Information 9
Over-the-Network Installation 10
Software Package Administration 10
Package Tools 10
The Software Installation Database 14
Package Administration Using Graphical Tools 15
Patch Administration 15
Obtaining Patches and Patch Information 15
Installing a Patch 16
Determining Installed Patches 19
Removing a Patch 20
Installing Patches Using the Solaris Management Console 21
Summary 24
Exam Prep Practice Questions 26
Need to Know More? 30
Chapter 2
Booting and Shutting Down the System 31
Introduction 32
The Boot PROM Firmware (OpenBoot) 32
Important OpenBoot Commands 33
Device Aliases 35
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xiii

xiv
Table of Contents
Viewing and Modifying NVRAM Parameters from Solaris 37
Tr oubleshooting Boot Problems 37
Emergency Keyboard Commands (SPARC Only) 38
The SPARC Boot Process 38

Kernel Modules 39
The init Program 40
System Run Levels 42
Changing the System Run Level 44
Run Control (rc) Scripts 46
Summary 48
Exam Prep Practice Questions 49
Need to Know More? 53
Chapter 3
User Account Administration 55
Introduction 56
Account Administration 56
User Accounts 56
Group Accounts 61
Password Administration 63
Administrative System Files 65
/etc/passwd 65
/etc/shadow 66
/etc/group 67
User Account Initialization Files 68
The System Profile 69
Initialization File Templates 70
Customizing the User Environment 71
Summary 72
Exam Prep Practice Questions 74
Need to Know More? 78
Chapter 4
System Security and File Permissions 79
Introduction 80
System Security 80

The Superuser (Root) Account 80
Login and Logout Procedures 82
Logging into a Solaris 9 System 82
Logging into a Remote Solaris 9 System 83
Failed Login Attempts 84
Logging Out of a Solaris 9 System 84
User Access and Administrative Information 85
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xiv

xv
Table of Contents
Identifying and Monitoring Users 85
File Permissions and Ownership 89
Standard File Permissions 90
Special Permissions 93
Changing File Ownership 95
Displaying File Permissions and Ownership 97
Summary 100
Exam Prep Practice Questions 101
Need to Know More? 105
Chapter 5
Controlling Processes 107
Introduction 108
Viewing and Terminating Processes 108
The ps Command 108
The prstat Command 110
The kill Command 111
The pgrep and pkill Commands 112
Scheduling Processes 114
The cron Command 114

The at Command 118
Summary 120
Exam Prep Practice Questions 121
Need to Know More? 124
Chapter 6
File System Basics 125
Introduction 126
Basic File Systems 126
Default Solaris 9 File Systems 127
File and Directory Concepts 127
Ty pes of Files 128
Types of Links 129
The Unix Directory Tree 129
Metacharacters 129
Directory Tree Navigation 130
Directories 132
Files 135
Solaris Pseudo-File Systems 138
Process File System (PROCFS) 139
Temporary File System (TMPFS) 140
Loopback File System (LOFS) 141
Cache File System (CACHEFS) 141
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xv

xvi
Summary 142
Exam Prep Practice Questions 143
Need to Know More? 147
Chapter 7
Disk and File System Administration 149

Introduction 150
Disk Device Names 150
Physical Device Names 150
Logical Device Names 151
Instance Names 152
The devfsadm and devfsadmd Commands 153
Determining Disk Device Names 153
Hot-Plugging and Dynamic Reconfiguration 157
Hot-Plugging SCSI Controllers and Devices 158
Disk Administration 159
The Disk Label, or VTOC 159
Partitions 159
The format Command 162
File System Administration 166
Creating UFS File Systems 166
Checking and Repairing File Systems 167
Mounting and Unmounting File Systems 169
Accessing Data on CD-ROMs and Floppy Disks 171
Monitoring File System Usage 172
Exam Prep Practice Questions 174
Need to Know More? 181
Chapter 8
System Backups and Restores 183
Introduction 184
Backup Strategies 184
Full Backups 184
Incremental Backups 184
Solaris 9 Backup Up and Restore Capabilities 186
Logical Tape Device Names 187
The mt Command 188

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands 188
UFS Snapshots 191
Recovering the root or /usr File System 192
Table of Contents
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xvi

Table of Contents
xvii
Other Backup/Restore Utilities 192
The tar Command 192
The cpio Command 193
The find Command 195
Summary 196
Exam Prep Practice Questions 197
Need to Know More? 201
Chapter 9
Printing 203
Introduction 204
LP Print Service 204
Supported Operating Systems 204
Print Models 205
The terminfo Database 205
Using admintool 206
Solaris Print Manager 206
Print Commands 206
Stopping and Starting the LP Print Service 206
Defining a Printer 207
Controlling Printer Usage 207
Defining Printer Classes 208
Printing Files (Submitting Print Requests) 208

Default Printers 209
Monitoring Print Requests 210
Canceling Print Jobs 211
Moving Print Requests to Other Printers 211
Assigning Priorities to Print Requests 211
Moving a Print Request to the Top of the Queue 212
LP Print Service Directories 212
Summary 213
Exam Prep Practice Questions 214
Need to Know More? 218
Chapter 10
The Solaris Network Environment 219
Introduction 220
Networking Models 220
The Open System Interconnection (OSI) Model 220
The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) Model 221
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xvii

Table of Contents
xviii
TCP/IP Networking 222
Features and Functions of Ethernet 223
Classes of IP Networks 224
TCP/IP Configuration Files 225
Checking Network Connectivity 226
Viewing Network Interface Configuration and Statistics 228
Open Network Computing (ONC) and the Remote Procedure
Call (RPC) Mechanism 230
TCP/IP Initialization During System Boot 233

Controlling Network Services 234
The Solaris Network Environment 234
Standalone Configuration 234
Diskless Configuration 235
AutoClient Configuration 236
Comparison of Configurations 236
Summary 237
Exam Prep Practice Questions 238
Need to Know More? 241
Chapter 11
Special Disk Operations 243
Introduction 244
Swap Space Management 244
Default Swap Space 244
Adding Additional Swap Space 245
Administering Swap Space 245
Core File Management 246
Per-Process and Global Configurations 247
Core File-Naming Convention 247
The coreadm Command 248
Crash Dump Management 250
The dumpadm Command 251
The savecore Command 252
Summary 253
Exam Prep Practice Questions 254
Need to Know More? 258
Chapter 12
Advanced Access Control 259
Introduction 260
Access Control Lists 260

Purpose of Role-Based Access Control 262
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xviii

Table of Contents
xix
The RBAC Database 263
The User Attributes Database (user_attr) 264
The Execution Profile Attributes Database (prof_attr) 266
The Authorization Attributes Database (auth_attr) 274
Security Policy Configuration File (policy.conf) 286
Managing the RBAC 287
Displaying RBAC Assignments 288
Role Management 288
RBAC Changes in a Name Service Environment 291
Summary 291
Exam Prep Practice Questions 292
Need to Know More? 296
Chapter 13
Syslog and Auditing Utilities 297
Introduction 298
The syslog Facility 298
Source Facilities 298
Priority (Severity) Levels 299
Customizing System Message Handling 299
Summary 303
Exam Prep Practice Questions 304
Need to Know More? 308
Chapter 14
Advanced Disk Management 309
Introduction 310

Virtual File Systems 310
Advantages of Virtual Disk Management Systems 310
Concatenated Virtual Devices 311
Striped Virtual Device 311
Mirroring and Duplexing 312
RAID Configurations 312
UFS File System Logging 313
Solaris Volume Manager (SVM) 313
Volumes 314
Soft Partitions 315
State Database and Replicas 315
Hot Spare Pools 316
Disk Sets 316
Administration of SVM Objects 316
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xix

Table of Contents
xx
Summary 317
Exam Prep Practice Questions 318
Need to Know More? 321
Chapter 15
Network File System (NFS) 323
Introduction 324
The NFS Environment 324
NFS Administration 324
Sharing NFS Resources 324
Mounting NFS Resources 327
WebNFS 331
NFS Logging 332

NFS Logging Daemon 332
The /etc/default/nfslogd File 333
The /etc/nfs/nfslog.conf File 333
Enabling NFS Server Logging 334
NFS Daemons 335
The Auto File System Service 335
The /etc/auto_master File 336
Direct Maps 337
Indirect Maps 337
Running the automount Command 338
The Cache File System (CacheFS) Service 338
Configuring a Cache 339
Checking the Status of a Cache 340
Displaying Cache Statistics 341
Checking the Consistency of a Cache 341
Managing a Cache Log 342
Summary 343
Exam Prep Practice Questions 344
Need to Know More? 348
Chapter 16
Name Services 349
Introduction 350
Solaris Name Services 350
Supported Naming Services 350
The Name Service Switch 354
The Name Service Cache Daemon (NSCD) 358
The Get Entry (getent) Command 358
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xx

Table of Contents

xxi
Network Information Service (NIS) 358
NIS Components 359
Configuring NIS Servers and Clients 361
Updating and Adding NIS Maps 363
Verifying NIS Configuration 365
Network Information Service Plus (NIS+) 365
Summary 366
Exam Prep Practice Questions 367
Need to Know More? 371
Chapter 17
Advanced Installation 373
Introduction 374
Server Installation 374
Installation Phases 374
Preconfiguring System Information 375
Software Configurations 376
Over-the-Network Installation 378
Install Server 379
Boot Server 380
Adding Install Clients 381
Install/Boot Server Daemons 382
Automating Installation with JumpStart 384
JumpStart Configuration Directory 384
Validation 387
Booting the JumpStart Client 387
WebStart Flash Installation 388
Creating Flash Archives Using the flarcreate Command 388
Administering Flash Archives Using the flar Command 389
Installing WebStart Flash Archives 389

Summary 390
Exam Prep Practice Questions 391
Want to Know More? 395
Chapter 18
Practice Exam 1 397
Practice Exam Questions 397
Chapter 19
Answer Key 1 413
Answer Key Explanations 414
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xxi
.

Table of Contents
xxii
Chapter 20
Practice Exam 2 425
Practice Exam Questions 426
Chapter 21
Answer Key 2 441
Answer Key Explanations 442
Appendix A
What’s on the CD-ROM 453
Appendix B
Using the PrepLogic Practice Tests, Preview Edition Software 457
Glossary 465
Index 487
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xxii

Introduction
Welcome to Solaris 9 System Administrator Exam Cram. This book helps

you get ready to take—and pass—the two exams required to obtain the
Sun Certified System Administrator for Solaris 9 certification. In this
introduction, I talk about Sun’s certification program in general and how
the Exam Cram series can help you prepare for the Solaris 9 certification
exams.
Exam Cram books help you understand and appreciate the subjects and
materials you need to pass Solaris certification exams. The books are
aimed strictly at test preparation and review. They do not teach you every-
thing you need to know about a topic. Instead, I present and dissect the
questions and problems that you’re likely to encounter on the test.
Nevertheless, to completely prepare yourself for any Solaris test, I recom-
mend that you begin by taking the self-assessment included in this book
immediately following this introduction. This tool will help you evaluate
your knowledge base against the requirements for a Solaris 9 System
Administrator under both ideal and real circumstances.
Based on what you learn from that exercise, you might decide to begin
your studies with some classroom training or by reading one of the many
system administration guides available from Sun and third-party vendors.
I also strongly recommend that you install, configure, and fool around
with Solaris 9 and other software that you’ll be tested on, because nothing
beats hands-on experience and familiarity when it comes to understanding
the questions you’re likely to encounter on a certification test. Book learn-
ing is essential, but hands-on experience is the best teacher of all!
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xxiii

Introduction
xxiv
The Sun Certified System
Administrator for Solaris 9
Certification

The certification program currently includes two separate tests. A brief
description of each test follows:
➤ Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris 9 Operating Environment,
Part I (Exam 310-014)—The first exam (Part 1) covers basic system
administration. Knowledge tested includes installing the operating sys-
tem, software package administration, patches, the boot process, system
security and file permissions, account administration, disk and file sys-
tem management, backup, and recovery.
➤ Sun Certified System Administrator for the Solaris 9 Operating Environment,
Part II (Exam 310-015)—The second exam (Part 2) covers advanced
topics and several add-on software packages that are used to enhance
system administration capabilities. Knowledge tested includes the Solaris
9 network environment and network clients; device administration; vir-
tual disk management systems; Network File System (NFS), along with
automounting; naming services such as DNS, NIS, and NIS+; along
with automated installation using JumpStart.
To become a certified system administrator, an individual must pass both
exams. You must pass the Part I exam before you can take the Part II exam.
This order is preferred anyway, because the knowledge tested builds from
the first exam to the second.
It’s not uncommon for the entire process to take a year or so, and many indi-
viduals find that they must take a test more than once to pass. The primary
goal of the Exam Cram series is to make it possible, given proper study and
preparation, to pass both of the exams on the first try.
Because certification is associated with a particular version of the Solaris
operating system, there is no requirement to recertify. However, once a
Solaris version becomes obsolete, being certified on that version will have lit-
tle value. It would be in your best interest to work on the certification for the
next version of Solaris.
In the past, Sun has used the certification requirements and test objectives

from the previous version as a starting point for the next version. Therefore,
once you’re certified on a version of Solaris, you should be very familiar with
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xxiv

Introduction
xxv
most of the test objectives for certification in the next version of Solaris. I
estimate that about 15 to 20% of the test objectives changed between Solaris
8 and Solaris 9.
The best place to keep tabs on Sun’s certification program is on the Sun Web
site. The current URL for Sun’s System Administrator program is
Sun’s certifica-
tion Web site changes frequently, so if this URL doesn’t work, try using the
Search tool on Sun’s site (www.sun.com) with either “certification” or the
quoted phrase “certified system administrator” as the search string. This will
help you find the latest and most accurate information about the company’s
certification programs.
Taking a Certification Exam
Alas, testing is not free. You’ll be charged $150 for each test you take,
whether you pass or fail. In the United States and Canada, tests are admin-
istered by Sylvan Prometric.
First, you must purchase an examination voucher from Sun Educational
Services. In the U.S., they can be contacted at 1-800-422-8020. This
requires the use of a credit card. The voucher can be used for up to one year
from the date of purchase.
Next, contact Sylvan Prometric to register for the exam. In the U.S., their
number is 1-800-795-3926. You can also use the Sylvan Web site
(www.2test.com).
To schedule an exam, call at least one day in advance. To cancel or resched-
ule an exam, you must call at least one day before the scheduled test time (or

you may be charged the $150 fee). When calling Sylvan Prometric, please
have the following information ready for the telesales staffer who handles
your call:
➤ Your name, organization, mailing address, and social security number.
➤ The name of the exam you want to take.
➤ The number of the Sun voucher. (This information may not be needed,
because the Sylvan Prometric staffer may already have it.)
An appointment confirmation will be sent to you by mail if you register more
than five days before an exam, or will be sent by fax if there are fewer than
five days before the exam. A Candidate Agreement letter, which you must
sign to take the examination, will also be provided.
00 8699 fm/intro/assess 11/19/02 10:09 AM Page xxv