bible book

Its a good book and keeps your attention. Found a few editing mistakes like repeated paragraphs, misspelled words and wrong info elsewhere. Maybe they need to find a better editor. Overall I think its a good book. Havent tested for the COMPTIA storage test yet but hopefully I pass. If not I will let you know.

This is a pretty comprehensive book but it is an absolutely snooze-fest. I prefer certification study books to have their content broken up with a few questions in between so that I know the material is getting through to me - this book doesn't have that. I personally passed the Storage+ test after reading this book but I highly recommend finding a additional study material to bring all of the concepts of storage and networking together so that you're prepared for the environment-type questions on the test.

As many other reviewers have, I also purchased this book for the purpose of passing the Storage+. I'm happy to say that I successfully passed the test on the first try with an 804. A quick note about my background, I've been in IT for 6+ years as a server admin, I have my Server+, A+, and Security+ and the only storage experience I have is setting up a small SAN in at current position. The only study materials I used were this book, the accompanying test questions and flashcards, and random practice questions I found after doing many Google searches. Since this is a review for the book, I'll try to be as thorough as possible, then I'll very briefly describe what else I used. I know there are decent reviews already on here, so I'll try not to sound too repetitive, but must say I agree with the majority of what others have already said.

In general I would recommend this book as it does a good job of explaining the theories behind Storage Management. In regards to using it to pass the Storage+ it's probably the best book you're going to find available right now. Based on my research and what I found in forums, it's one of the most interesting storage books around.

As another reviewer mentioned, it does lack a bit in the specifications department. So if you're only using this book be sure to look up things like LTO specifications, CAT cable specifications, SMF vs MMF cable specifications (OM1, OM2, etc. - this is mentioned in the book), etc. One thing I'll also say is that in the book it's mentioned that the test uses the SNIA definitions for differential incremental and cumulative incremental backups and I believe that the test does use these definitions, however the practice exams that accompany the book seem to use the mainstream definitions, which can be a bit confusing. If you have your Server+ or A+ keep those concepts in mind while studying, basic/common sense stuff like making sure to troubleshoot from the bottom up.

As far as the other things I use, I signed up for the free trail of uCertify and took the pre-assessment test which I thought was helpful. I also signed up for the PluralSight free trial, I didn't really use that, I think I listened to one lesson at most. If you don't pick up things well by reading them, I would suggest PluralSight in addition to this book. The course is done by the author and is basically just a shorter version of what's covered (at least that's what I got from what I listened to). If nothing else you can sign up for the free trial and see if it would help you.

In the end I would suggest you purchase the book. It really is handy and was essential in my success with the Storage+.

This is an excellent reference and I feel like my fundamental understanding of storage technologies is greatly improved after reading it. There were a couple of minor things that annoyed me.

- The book uses terminology before it is adequately defined and examined. For example, Chapter 3 "Storage Arrays" makes several references to RAID volumes and I just feel like the RAID chapter should have come earlier than the Storage Arrays chapter.

- There are many times where the author describes a technology and then goes on to say "All good storage arrays have this." Can you please give us a couple examples of storage arrays or vendors that do support the technology? I realize the purpose of the reference is exam preparation, but as somebody who is trying to refresh on storage ahead of a storage project or purchase, it would be nice to know Storage Array XYZ vendor has this technology in their arrays before I even have to ask the sales representatives.