Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect

The Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect exam is the final step towards the completion of the Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect certification. The Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect exam evaluates a candidate’s knowledge and skills in Splunk Deployment Methodology and best practices for planning, data collection, and sizing, managing, and troubleshooting a standard with indexer and search head clustering. 

The job role of Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect

A Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect has a thorough understanding of Splunk Deployment Methodology and best practices for planning, data collection, and sizing for a distributed deployment and is able to manage and troubleshoot a standard distributed deployment with indexer and search head clustering. This certification demonstrates an individual’s ability to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot complex Splunk Enterprise environments.

Exam Details 

The Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect exam is the final step towards the completion of the Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect certification. This highly technical certification exam is an 87-minute exam. Talking about the Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect questions, this is an 85-question assessment. Candidates can expect an additional 3 minutes to review the exam agreement, for a total seat time of 90 minutes. Candidates for this certification must complete the lecture, hands-on labs, and quizzes that are part of the Architecting Splunk Enterprise Deployments, Troubleshooting Splunk Enterprise, and Splunk Enterprise Cluster Administration courses, as well as the Splunk Enterprise Deployment Practical Lab in order to be eligible 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.  

Check out the Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect Interview Questions to prepare for your interview.

Course Outline: Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect

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

Introduction

• Describe a deployment plan (Splunk Documentation: Plan a deployment)
• Define the deployment process (Splunk Documentation: Deployment Guide)

Project Requirements

• Identify critical information about the environment, volume, users, and requirements (Splunk Documentation: Architecting Splunk Enterprise Deployments)
• Apply checklists and resources to aid in collecting requirements

Infrastructure Planning: Index Design 

• Understand design and size indexes (Splunk Documentation: SPLUNK VALIDATED ARCHITECTURES)
• Estimate non-smart store-related storage requirements (Splunk Documentation: SmartStore system requirements)
• Identify relevant apps (Splunk Documentation: Review your apps and add-ons)

Infrastructure Planning: Resource Planning

• List of sizing considerations (Splunk Reference: Splunk Sizing Made Easy)
• Identify disk storage requirements (Splunk Documentation: Estimate your storage requirements)
• Define hardware requirements for various Splunk components (Splunk Documentation: System requirements for use of Splunk Enterprise on-premises)
• Describe ES considerations for sizing and topology
• Describe ITSI considerations for sizing and topology (Splunk Documentation: module performance and sizing guidelines)
• Describe security, privacy, and integrity measures (Splunk Documentation: Manage data integrity)

Clustering Overview

• Identify non-smart store-related storage and disk usage requirements (Splunk Documentation: SmartStore)
• Identify search head clustering requirements (Splunk Documentation: Deploy a search head cluster)

Forwarder and Deployment Best Practices

• Identify best practices for forwarder tier design (Splunk Documentation: Forwarder deployment topologies)
• Understand configuration management for all Splunk components, using Splunk deployment tools (Splunk Documentation: Components of a Splunk Enterprise deployment)

Performance Monitoring and Tuning

• Use limits.conf to improve performance (Splunk Documentation: limits.conf)
• Use indexes.conf to manage bucket size (Splunk Documentation: indexes.conf)
• Tune props.conf (Splunk Documentation: props.conf)
• Improve search performance (Splunk Documentation: optimization)

Splunk Troubleshooting Methods and Tools

• Splunk diagnostic resources and tools (Splunk Documentation: Generate a diagnostic file)

Clarifying the Problem

• Identify Splunk’s internal log files (Splunk Documentation: What Splunk software logs about itself)
• Identify Splunk’s internal indexes (Splunk Documentation: Managing Indexes)

Licensing and Crash Problems 

• License issues (Splunk Documentation: license violation)
• Crash issues (Splunk Documentation: Report the last error and total crashes)

Configuration Problems 

• Input issues (Splunk Documentation: Troubleshoot the input process)

Search Problems

• Search issues (Splunk Documentation: I can’t find my data!)
• Job inspector (Splunk Documentation: Search Job Inspector)

Deployment Problems

• Forwarding issues (Splunk Documentation: Known issues)
• Deployment server issues (Splunk Documentation: Deployment issues)

Large-scale Splunk Deployment Overview

• Identify Splunk server roles in clusters (Splunk Documentation: Which instance should host the console?)
• License Master configuration in a clustered environment (Splunk Documentation: Configure a license master)

Single-site Indexer Cluster

• Splunk single-site indexer cluster configuration (Splunk Documentation: single-site indexer cluster)

Multisite Indexer Cluster

• Splunk multisite indexer cluster overview (Splunk Documentation: multisite indexer cluster)
• Multisite indexer cluster configuration (Splunk Documentation: Multisite indexer cluster deployment)
• Cluster migration and upgrade considerations (Splunk Documentation: Upgrade an indexer cluster)

Indexer Cluster Management and Administration

• Indexer cluster storage utilization options (Splunk Documentation: Configure index storage)
• Peer offline and decommission (Splunk Documentation: Take a peer offline)
• Master app bundles (Splunk Documentation: Update common peer configurations and apps)
• Monitoring Console for indexer cluster environment (Splunk Documentation: Use the monitoring console to view indexer cluster status)

Search Head Cluster

• Splunk search head cluster overview (Splunk Documentation: About search head clustering)
• Search head cluster configuration (Splunk Documentation: Configure the search head cluster)

Search Head Cluster Management and Administration 

• Search head cluster deployer (Splunk Documentation: Use the deployer to distribute apps and configuration updates)
• Captaincy transfer (Splunk Documentation: Control captaincy)
• Search head member addition and decommissioning (Splunk Documentation: Remove a cluster member)

KV Store Collection and Lookup Management

• KV Store collection in Splunk clusters (Splunk Documentation: KV Store collections)

Exam Retake Policy

If you are not able to pass the exam in 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 re-take can be taken by paying a fee of $125 USD.

Visit: Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect FAQ

Certification Validity

The certification is valid for a period of 3 years.

Preparatory Guide for Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect

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

Official Website 

Visiting the official website is an imperative step while preparing for the exam like Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect. 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 guide, sample papers, whitepapers, documentation, faqs, etc. The candidate can find all such important things on the official page. 

Documentations

Blogs 

Refer to 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. It acts as a blueprint for your exam and is very essential. Moreover, it’s advised to familiarise yourself with the exam topics before commencing with the preparations. Therefore you need to download to the official guide for Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect exam to have clarity about the exam course.

Go for Training Course

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

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

Architecting Splunk Enterprise Deployments

Troubleshooting Splunk Enterprise

Splunk Enterprise Cluster Administration

Splunk Enterprise Deployment Practical Lab

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 Architect exam book may be a difficult task, but in order to gather knowledge and skills, the candidate has to find, read, and understand.

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 Architect. 

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 Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect practice exam tests available on the internet nowadays, so the candidate can choose which they want. Testprep training also offers a Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect free practice test.

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