This is the most disappointing book I have ever gotten from O'Reilly. Even though this book claims to be targeted at experienced administrators it contains page upon page of filler that are usually the resultant output of some command that any UNIX administrator should be familiar with. e.g. see pp 75-76 and the listing of DNS root servers. The book glosses over important details of Solaris installation and configuration. Many important configuration files and useful commands are only mentioned in passing and are not explained or omitted entirely.
Power management needs to be covered in more detail.
There is no mention of the file /etc/defaultrouter and /etc/notrouter is mentioned only in passing.
The Solaris package management tools are discussed but there is no mention of what is perhaps their most important use, installing recommended patches from SUN's website.
The section on printer administration is inadequate for dealing with today's network connected printers.
The description of the sendmail.cf file contains an error in the definition of the C command as being a "Complex macro" the author should be directed to read the bat book chapter 32 Class Macros. Additionally there is little discussion of the simple modifications that can be made to a stock sendmail.cf file to make it useful for production. These would include setting sendmail's idea of the hostname, masquerading, using a relay host, and enabling or disabling mail submission.
There is only a brief mention in passing of the automounter and no mention of how to configure map files for the automounter in the chapter on file serving.
Credit should be given for the mention of the need to use secure shell instead of telnet, but again it's a case of not enough information about the specifics of configuring ssh for Solaris. Again in the section on disabling IP ports, the examples given are for ports that any UNIX sysadmin who's been conscious for the last ten years should know about. But no mention is made of the ports that are unique to Solaris.
My recommendation to any UNIX sysadmin who is newly responsible for a Solaris8 system is to get several other O'Reilly books that cover the specific areas that they're interested in and to be patient with and learn to search the provided Answerbook for Solaris specific information. In particular sendmail by Bryan Costales, with Eric Allman, TCP/IP Network Administration by Craig Hunt, Essential System Administration by Æleen Frisch, DNS and BIND by Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu and the SANS document Solaris Security Step By Step
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