Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin

The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam is the final step towards the completion of the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin certification. The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam evaluates a candidate’s knowledge and skills to manage various components of Splunk on a daily basis, including the health of the Splunk installation. Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin is a required prerequisite to the Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect and Splunk Certified Developer certification tracks.

The job role of Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin

A Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin manages various components of Splunk Enterprise on a daily basis, including license management, indexers and search heads, configuration, monitoring, and getting data into Splunk. This certification demonstrates an individual’s ability to support the day-to-day administration and health of a Splunk Enterprise environment.

Learning Path 

All candidates seeking Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect or Splunk Certified Developer must complete the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin as a prerequisite certification.

Exam Details 

The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam is the final step towards the completion of the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin certification. This upper-level certification exam is a 57-minute exam. Talking about the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin questions, this is a 56-question assessment. Candidates can expect an additional 3 minutes to review the exam agreement, for a total seat time of 60 minutes. It is recommended that candidates for this certification complete the lecture, hands-on labs, and quizzes that are part of the Splunk Enterprise System Administration and Splunk Enterprise Data Administration courses in order to be prepared for the certification exam.

Exam Delivery Options

The Splunk certification exams can be taken in either of the following ways-

• Firstly, In-person at a Pearson Test Center.
• Or at home via online proctoring

How to Register the Splunk Exam?

The Splunk exam can be registered by following the steps-

• First-time registrants need to connect your Splunk account to the Pearson VUE platform.
• Additionally, you will have to submit complete, accurate contact information to testing partner Pearson VUE.
• Then you need to wait for Authorization to Test email from Pearson View for two days from your form submission.
• Subsequently, create an account with Pearson VUE.
• Further, you need to schedule an exam appointment. Your Pearson VUE Home screen provides a full list of exams for which you are eligible. Click through the verification screens and proceed to Schedule this Exam, followed by Proceed to Scheduling.
• Further, you need to verify exam appointment details and confirm contact information. Agree to policies (please read carefully). Enter payment information (or Voucher code, if applicable). Submit Order.
• Lastly, you will receive a registration confirmation email from Pearson VUE.  

Course Outline: Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin

The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin is divided into the following fields. You should go through the full course outline to successfully pass the exam. However, the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin study guide provides the following exam objectives:

Splunk Admin Basics 5% 

• Identify Splunk components (Splunk Reference: Components of a Splunk Enterprise deployment)

License Management 5%

• Identify license types (Splunk Documentation: Types of Splunk software licenses)
• Understand license violations (Splunk Documentation: license violation)

Splunk Configuration Files 5%

• Describe the Splunk configuration directory structure (Splunk Documentation: Configuration file directories)
• Understand configuration layering (Splunk Documentation: About configuration files in ITSI)
• Understand configuration precedence (Splunk Documentation: Configuration file precedence)
• Use btool to examine configuration settings (Splunk Documentation: Use btool to troubleshoot configurations)

Splunk Indexes 10%

• Describe index structure (Splunk Documentation: Indexes, indexers, and indexer clusters)
• List types of index buckets (Splunk Documentation: Buckets and indexer clusters)
• Check index data integrity (Splunk Documentation: Manage data integrity)
• Describe indexes.conf options (Splunk Documentation: indexes.conf)
• Describe the fishbucket (Splunk Documentation: fishbucket)
• Apply a data retention policy (Splunk Documentation: Set retention policy)

Splunk User Management 5%

• Describe user roles in Splunk (Splunk Documentation: About roles)
• Create a custom role (Splunk Documentation: Create and manage roles with Splunk Web)
• Add Splunk users (Splunk Documentation: Configure users with Splunk Web)

Splunk Authentication Management 5%

• Integrate Splunk with LDAP (Splunk Documentation: Configure LDAP with Splunk Web)
• List other user authentication options (Splunk Documentation: Users, roles, and authentication)
• Describe the steps to enable Multifactor Authentication in Splunk (Splunk Documentation: About multifactor authentication with RSA Authentication Manager)

Getting Data In 5%

• Describe the basic settings for an input (Splunk Documentation: Modify input settings)
• List Splunk forwarder types (Splunk Documentation: Types of forwarders)
• Configure the forwarder (Splunk Documentation: Configure the universal forwarder)
• Add an input to UF using CLI (Splunk Documentation: How to forward data to Splunk Enterprise)

Distributed Search 10%

• Describe how distributed search works (Splunk Documentation: distributed search)
• Explain the roles of the search head and search peers (Splunk Documentation: search head)
• Configure a distributed search group (Splunk Documentation: Create distributed search groups)
• List search head scaling options (Splunk Documentation: Search head clustering architecture)

Getting Data In – Staging 5%

• List the three phases of the Splunk Indexing process (Splunk Documentation: How indexing works)
• List Splunk input options (Splunk Reference: add a list input to a splunk Dashboard)

Configuring Forwarders 5%

• Configure Forwarders (Splunk Documentation: How to forward data to Splunk Enterprise)
• Identify additional Forwarder options (Splunk Documentation: Configure forwarding with outputs.conf)

Forwarder Management 10%

• Explain the use of Deployment Management (Splunk Documentation: Deployment server architecture)
• Describe Splunk Deployment Server (Splunk Documentation: Set up a deployment server and create a server class)
• Manage forwarders using deployment apps (Splunk Documentation: Create deployment apps)
• Configure deployment clients (Splunk Documentation: Configure deployment clients)
• Configure client groups (Splunk Documentation: deployment client)
• Monitor forwarder management activities (Splunk Documentation: Forwarder management)

Monitor Inputs 5%

• Create file and directory monitor inputs (Splunk Documentation: Monitor files and directories with Splunk Web)
• Use optional settings for monitor inputs (Splunk Documentation: Monitor files and directories with inputs.conf)
• Deploy a remote monitor input (Splunk Documentation: inputs.conf)

Network and Scripted Inputs 5%

• Create a network (TCP and UDP) inputs (Splunk Documentation: Configure inputs using TCP or UDP)
• Describe optional settings for network inputs (Splunk Documentation: inputs.conf)
• Create a basic scripted input (Splunk Documentation: Setting up a scripted input)

Agentless Inputs 5%

• Identify Windows input types and uses (Splunk Documentation: Monitor Windows host information)
• Describe HTTP Event Collector (Splunk Documentation: Set up and use HTTP Event Collector in Splunk Web)

Fine-Tuning Inputs 5%

• Understand the default processing that occurs during input phase (Splunk Documentation: How data moves through Splunk deployments: The data pipeline)
• Configure input phase options, such as sourcetype fine-tuning and character set encoding

Parsing Phase and Data 5%

• Understand the default processing that occurs during parsing (Splunk Documentation: How data moves through Splunk deployments: The data pipeline)
• Optimize and configure event line breaking (Splunk Documentation: Configure event line breaking)
• Explain how timestamps and time zones are extracted or assigned to events (Splunk Documentation: How time zones are processed by the Splunk platform)
• Use Data Preview to validate event creation during the parsing phase (Splunk Documentation: Splunk Enterprise Data Administration)

Manipulating Raw Data 5%

• Explain how data transformations are defined and invoked (Splunk Documentation: Use the Field transformations page)
• Use transformations with props.conf and transforms.conf to: (Splunk Documentation: transforms.conf)
• Use SEDCMD to modify raw data (Splunk Documentation: Anonymize data)

Exam Retake Policy

If you are not able to pass the exam on the first attempt Splunk offers you to take the exam again. You must wait 7 days to retake the exam. You will not be permitted to retake any exam they have previously passed unless directly related to a recertification requirement approved by Splunk. The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam cost for re-taking is $125 USD.

Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin FAQ

Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Interview Questions

Now, Let us look at some Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Interview Questions and see what types and patterns can be expected.

Certification Validity

The certification is valid for a period of 3 years.

Preparatory Guide for Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin

The preparation steps which are essential in order to successfully pass the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam are:

Step 1- Official Website 

Visiting the Splunk official website is an imperative step while preparing for the exam like Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin. The official site offers a lot of good information and resources which are very helpful in preparing for the exam. The resources such as study guides, sample papers, whitepapers, documentation, faqs, etc. The candidate can find all such important things on the official page. 

Documentations

Blogs 

Step 2 – Download the Official Guide

The first and foremost step is to download the official guide. This guide can be downloaded from the Splunk official website. The Official Guide will provide you detailed information about the exam topics and course. Using this you can create a Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin blueprint for your exam and this is very essential. Moreover, it’s advised to familiarise yourself with the exam topics before commencing with the preparations. Therefore you need to download the official Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin study guide to have clarity about the exam course.

Step 3 – Go for Training Course

Training is a must while preparing. Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin training courses provide hands-on experience and practical knowledge about the exam. Such understanding is necessary while preparing for the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam.

Splunk offers the following fundamental courses to aid your preparation journey-

Splunk Enterprise System Administration

Splunk Enterprise Data Administration

Step 4- Books and Guides 

The next step in the preparatory guide should be books and study guides. The candidate needs to find those books which are enriched with information. Finding a good Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin exam book may be a difficult task, but in order to gather knowledge and skills, the candidate has to find, read, and understand.

Step 5- Join a Study Group 

Joining a group study will also be beneficial for the candidate. It will encourage them to do more hard work. Also, studying in the group will help them to stay connected with the other people who are on the same pathway as them. Also, the discussion of such study groups will benefit the students in their exams. So practice, discuss and successfully become a Splunk Enterprise Certified Administrator. 

Step 6- Practice Test 

Practice tests are the one which ensures the candidate about their preparation. The practice test will help the candidates to acknowledge their weak areas so that they can work on them. There are many Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin questions for practice tests available on the internet nowadays, so the candidate can choose which they want. Testprep training also offers a practice test.

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