CompTIA Server+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam SK0-004)

As I read this "All in One" book that got excellent reviews, I realized that some of the content tested in practice exams (including the one included with this book) require some knowledge of Linux. This is ONLY covered in the labs. The labs do not work in the second chapter they are presented, Chapter 3. The author uses Powershell, in which the syntax is wrong, and he does not provide an alternative method for accomplishing the lab goals. This is in the very beginning of the labs, the setup, and it renders the entire lab portion useless. Not exactly the "complete coverage of every topic on the latest version of the exam", as touted on the back cover of the book.McGraw-Hill, the publisher, does not have an errata that covers this.I messaged the author via LinkedIn; no word yet.Additionally, Red Hat Linux is not available to users with personal email addresses, such as gmail.Beyond that, the subnetting portion is fairly useless unless you already know how to subnet. Some other areas have pretty thin coverage.This is the first "All in One" book that has disappointed, and I'll certainly give it five stars for disappointment.

Passed my Server+ cert with a score of 842 using only this book (there was a lot of prayer involved too though, lol). I really like how the book is laid out and it's simplicity. Every piece of info in the book is important, very little fat. know your stuff!on the downside, it has some typos (though not too bad), and some of the port numbers are not correct in their lists, it also does not cover UPS calculations very well.all in all though, I would definitely use this book again. It covers over 90% of what was on the exam.

I took the Server+ test after I passed the Trifecta (A+/Network+/Security+) and this was my only study resource. Given I had just done those previously about 2/3 of the material in this book was covered in those other three certifications and so there wasn't that much new material. The main stuff was on servers or network storage in much greater detail than the previous three certificates. This exam also is a bit dated now and because of that is quite easy to prep for. Out of the 2 tests for A+, Net+, Sec+, and this I felt this was the easiest CompTIA exam I have taken (I also scored the highest on this out of any one I have taken). This also has a benefit that the other three do not and that is they are not on a continuing education cycle so this certificate is lifetime certificate and never has to be renewed. Nice and easy resume booster if you already have a little IT experience. I passed the Trifecta and had less than 5 months at a help desk position before I passed this so if you are good at studying and retaining the material the hands on experience isn't as important to get this under your belt. As I previously stated this was the only study material I used for it. Comes with a CD that has like 200 practice questions on it. Not dead accurate to what is on the test but no study test is. If you know the material you will do fine on test using just this to study from.

So a few things with textbooks. I have never found such a good book since the A+ Passport for A+. I found the N and Sec+ books a complete disaster as there is really no completely reliable reference for those subjects.This book however is just right. It covered the correct depth to the subject of the Server+ but it is not to be relied on solely as a reference. Other books have been actually terrible compared to this one in not covering whole subjects you're not at all tested on. I could have knocked them a star over power supplies as this was missing in this book but you should completely grasp in preparation. There are just so many brands of junk books where they "throw" everything at the reader.With that said, you better have a really really good grasp of at least A+ and Sec+ or this exam could still eat you alive after reading this book. If you want to pass than this book's contents than you should know all of this content cold.

I solely used this book for this exam and barely passed with a 792. It does not cover every question on the exam. Sybex book version by Troy McMillan would probably be a better source to read for new folks who have not had a chance or opportunity to see a data center in detail or a server in detail for a rack mount or blade server. This McGraw Hill source is only good for Server hardware techs I believe that see this stuff daily. A lot of the paragraphs do not go into specific detail. The hands-on exercises are good for this book. Love the pre-setup instructions and line by line instructions. More pictures of real data center racks to show examples of each server role, and how many servers for that role, etc. would be good to see to get better physical understanding. Also on provided disk put files of IT documentation for each type of document used thru out its life cycle. This certification is good to get you working as a data center tech position dealing with the base level of this material, then moving on to study for your Server MCSA, VMware certs, then Cloud Administrator. Path to take would be as recommended Server+, MTA 98-365, Server 2012/2016 MSCA, Linux+, VMware VCA/VCP, then Cloud Administration.

I purchased this book after reading the positive reviews. I was not disappointed! I liked the hands-on examples -- they really help to drill in the material. There isn't a lot of fluff or filler -- the information is to the point. It covered all of the objectives thoroughly . I took my test today and passed with an 861 on the first try. I felt well prepared, and didn't get the dreadful "I'm going to fail" feeling that I usually have during these CompTIA exams. I would highly recommend this book to anyone studying for the Server + exam!

Crammed for three weeks, passed exam with higher than an 850. There were some items not covered by the book, but I either already knew the answer, or the book gave me the information I needed to make an intelligent guess. There was almost no question that I could not use what the book did cover to immediately eliminate 2 answers.

I'm sorry to say but this book is a tragedy.Too many typo and the way the author explain things....I actually wanted to meet him in person and ask him : "are u for real?"

Very accurately presented material. Did the exam in no time and passed with flying colors. The included CD has some very good exam like questions are a good way to prepare for the exam but still suggest to read the book.

Very Useful

If you prepare for any certification, the main criteria here is certainly "is it enough to pass"? A clear answer: yes, it is. I used this book as the only exam preparation and, converting CompTIA's odd point scale to a percentage value, scored a little over 97%.With this out of the way, how is the book? It is everything it says it is, I would just (a minor issue) object the standard all-in-one cover statement that this is also an on-the job reference. It is not, and that is a good thing, as it means that it does not get lost in details that are not relevant for the exam. It does e.g. not provide a million approaches to calculate UPS capacity, or details on advanced network configurations which very often contain vendor-specific details. These are not tested, and should not occupy preparation time - I would certainly like those in an on-the-job title though.The book is very readable, the tone is casual, and the author picked the items he covers versus those he left out very well. As a big bonus, the author includes equally concise and approachable lab instructions (for Windows and Linux VMs) that enable the reader to try out important concepts covered. I did not have the time to try all of those, but the ones I did worked perfectly well.The last, and very important aspect: test questions. The questions are generally great. They do not cover everything in the exam, but certainly enough to pass. They also come with detailed explanations on why an answer is correct and, in most cases, why the others are not. A little downside here is that the "Total Tester" software used is Windows-only and terribly bad (no keyboard shortcuts, no mean to save the status and continue later, graphics appear in microscopic size on high dpi displays, the review mode uses color indications that are close to invisible on a bright screen, etc.). There are also (very few) questions with wrong answers, especially one networking/CIDR question is almost comically wrong – but I assume most people going for that exam will spot it easily. Sadly, the software does not even provide a mean to report such errors. But then, other publishers that do have such a function do never correct any errors anyhow (yes, Sybex/Wiley, this is about you!).The only true issue I have is with the included PDF (and not the author's fault). Dear people at McGraw-Hill. We do have 2018 and even every free PDF tool available can create hyperlinks and a proper table of contents... Why exactly can't you? Scrolling through hundreds of pages on a tablet is painful. Change that. Please.

Very good for computer enthusiastic.