I’m happy to announce the release of my new book, “Oracle ™ Solaris 11 System Administration.” The book officially arrived June 21, 2013 but some warehouses are still waiting to receive their stock. Most should have it by July 1. I have it available now at the UnixEd bookstore.
This is my 10th Solaris book. I started working on this book in early 2012 shortly after Solaris 11/11 was released. As with my previous books, I take my time to do it right. I’m the only author, no co-authors. I do this to maintain consistency in the writing style and to avoid organizational issues. Other publishers take the fast track and hire multiple authors to create a book to get it to market first. In my opinion, we have enough of those books and the inconsistencies drive me nuts.
I thought I was finished with this book last fall and then Solaris 11.1 was released during Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Solaris 11.1 was the first major release of Solaris 11, and as many of you are aware, the first release typically has many changes. Therefore, I put off releasing the book until I could update it to Solaris 11.1. I’m glad I waited. Currently, this is the only book that covers Solaris 11.1. Throughout the book, I’ll explain the differences from Solaris 11/11.
Unlike my previous Solaris books, this book is a complete reference rather than a certification study guide. If you want to use it to prep for the exam, it covers all of the topics in depth, it just doesn’t have the end of chapter questions and the exam review, which I feel is just a lot of fluff. In addition, the exams change too often to make that material very useful after the first exam update. I’ve published exam preps in the past but, not everyone wants to take the exam. Many want a book that introduces a topic and takes the reader through everything the System Administrator should know about that topic, including step-by-step examples. That was my intention with this book. My previous books were published under Que, this book is through Prentice Hall. I chose Prentice Hall because I have always been impressed with their technical books and their full line of Solaris references. Prentice Hall has a great reputation in the Solaris community. Most of the Solaris books on my shelf are from Prentice Hall.
As many of you know me, I work on the Solaris certification exams with Oracle. As a Solaris Subject Matter Expert, I have helped create the OCA (1Z0-821) and OCP (1Z0-822 and 1Z0-820) exams. I know what you need to pass the test, so please just read the book, study it and you will have no problem passing the OCA. In fact, this book covers many topics on the OCP exam such as configuring virtual networks, managing system resources, configuring zones, and managing IPS. My second book (still in the works) will cover more advanced topics such as using the Automated Installer to install multiple hosts, Solaris Auditing, and System Performance Monitoring and Tuning.
If you plan to take the exam, checkout my previous blog entry titled “Oracle Solaris 11 Certification Study Tips.”
Take a look inside the book, you’ll find the table of contents and full description here. This link also points you to other resources associated with this book including a discussion forum. Review the table of contents and feel free to ask me questions. Enjoy the book, keep it close by, and may the material in this book help you better your skills, enhance your career, and achieve your goals.
My Best Regards,
Bill Calkins
Bill, I just cracked this book open and just from the ToC I can tell this is a very thorough work. I had no idea it covered 11.1, which, as you pointed out, is a LOT different from 11/11. I noticed your Advanced follow-up work to this was tentatively slated for this winter but it appears to have slipped to next June? Is this true? Why the delay? Just curious, got plenty to keep me occupied for now, thanks!
I just got too busy to do the Advanced book. It’s a looooong mundane process putting a book together. Plus, I sort of wanted see how well the first book goes. This is my first time with Prentice Hall and I want to see how they do with it too.
Hi Bill,
It appears there are two covers for this book but the ISBNs are the same, can you confirm? On some sites, I’m seeing the cover stating “Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration” and other sites I’m seeing “Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration Fundamentals”. Can you please explain why the difference.
Thanks..
The original preproduction cover stated “Fundamentals”, but after I got into it, it was certainly not fundamental book so we dropped that from the title. Review the TOC for the topics, they begin at the fundamental level, but also get quite advanced. You are seeing the prerelease image and the website you are visiting just hasn’t updated it with the released version. View the correct version at my site.
Bill, do you have an exact date for when the Solaris 11 Advanced Sys Admin book will be released at Amazon? Much thanks,
Robert M. Koretsky
No, sorry, I do not. I don’t typically get a date until the book is complete and it’s not that far yet. I’m sort of on hold waiting to see the final version of 11.2 which is slated for April 29.
Hi,
Do you plan to update and release second edition of the Oracle® Solaris 11 System Administration book because of Solaris 11.2 release ?
Kind regards,
Ivan
No plans for an update at this time. Not a lot of changes in Solaris 11.2 that will affect the material in this book. I think I’ll cover the new 11.2 features in the Advanced book. To answer the next question I see coming…not sure when the Advanced book will be released.
Hi Bill,
I have ordered Solaris 11 System admin book,Can you please explain what is the main differences between solaris 11 and advacned solaris 11 admin book?
thanks,
sreenivas pallerla
The current Solaris 11 System admin book covers 80% of what a Solaris sys admin needs to know. Sort of an Intro-intermediate level book. The advanced book will go more into detail on setting up an AI server, setting up an LDAP server, Advanced Security topics, Advanced System monitoring and Tuning techniques. Another major difference….as of this writing, the Advance book hasn’t been published yet.
Who would choose to carry a big book like this in a bag? Any chance for a pdf-version?
The decision on whether to publish an E-book or PDF is the publisher’s (Prentice Hall’s) decision. They provide an E-Book. One reason publishers are not providing PDFs; they are too easy to pirate on many of the sharing sites. In the past, my books always came with a PDF on a CD-ROM. Then, the PDFs started showing up everywhere. I guess we can blame the pirate’s for this inconvenience.
This book is really not that thick/heavy. It’s 690 pages, but the paper used is very light weight yet durable. The overall book is less than 1″ thick.
WoW! Seems Amazon has updated the date/Year on the Advanced book to be 2016, Is That Year correct now?
Loved the first book BTW…..
Bill,
Any plans to release ExamGear practice exams for Solaris 11 OCA ? Currently, it appears the ExamGear practice exams available from unixed are for Solaris 10 only.
Thanks ..
Yes- I’m building them now. My goal is to have them ready in a couple of weeks.