Lots of publishers rushed their books about the CompTIA Server+ certification to market. After all, it's a new certification and certification books tend to sell well. Trevor Kay and the team at Hungry Minds have taken care to put together a high-quality book. It'll get you up to speed on everything you'll need to understand before you can pass CompTIA's Server Hardware exam (SK0-001), and it's sufficiently detailed to serve as a reference as you put your certification to use on the job. Kay's approach to his subject is to use CompTIA's published outline of test coverage as his organizational guide, then elaborate on each of its points with lots of prose and a handful of illustrations.

Like the Server+ exam itself, this book does not guarantee prompt obsolescence by going into detail about specific server makes and models. Rather, it focuses on the knowledge and practices that make up the system administrator's core skills. These include familiarity with widely used technologies like SCSI and TCP/IP, and knowledge of how to set up remote network management systems. Kay is fond of describing good practices in terms of general tasks that can easily be translated into platform-specific procedures in the machine room. Because it's a certification guide, this book includes pre- and post-tests (the latter with annotated answers) in each chapter.