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How to Prepare for the Denodo Platform 7.0 Certified Administrator Exam

The Denodo Platform 7.0 Certified Administrator (DEN70EDUCS) exam is intended for IT administrators who deploy, manage, and monitor Denodo-based solutions. The exam tests for a high level of skill in Denodo Platform 7.0 Administration.

DEN70EDUCS aims to provide organizations that use Denodo Platform 7.0 with a means of identifying suitably qualified staff to administer and operate Denodo deployments.

Denodo recognizes that not all the people interested in Denodo Certification have the same experience.

Contents of the exam

This exam covers the following technical topics and subject areas:

Preparing for the Certification Exam

Based on your previous experience with the Denodo Platform, use this guide to help plan and prepare for Denodo Certifications.

You don’t have any experience with the Denodo Platform

As you know, certification exams are hard. Preparation is critical to pass. Before taking the exam, we recommend you:

You have taken the recommended Denodo Training courses for the Denodo 7.0 Certified Administrator exam

If you have finished the recommended Denodo Training courses to achieve the Denodo 7.0 Certified Administrator, try to get some hands-on experience with Denodo Platform 7.0 before doing the certification exam.

If you already have experience installing and configuring the Denodo Platform, updating the Denodo Platform, managing users and roles, configuring advanced deployment parameters, setting auditing processes, and configuring caching, then you are ready to do the Certification exam.

You have taken the recommended Denodo Training courses for Denodo Platform 6.0 Certified Administrator exam

If you have completed the recommended Denodo Training courses for the Denodo Platform 6.0 Certified Administrator exam, we recommend the following additional courses and resources to ensure you are well-versed in the latest version of the Denodo Platform 7.0.

To do that, we recommend you:

You earned a Denodo 6.0 Certification

The Denodo 6.0 certifications are not compatible with the newer version of the certification program. To get the new certifications you will need to take the Denodo 7.0 certification exams.

Please check Denodo Certification FAQ for additional information in this instance.

Conclusions

In this guide, we have all the sections that are part of the Denodo Platform 7.0 Certified Administrator exam with details and links to the official documentation. As we have indicated in different sections, the best way to understand the Denodo Platform and to acquire practical experience is creating and configuring the different parts that we have explained in every section.

After reviewing all these materials, there are more resources and some example of questions that can be found in the exam guide.

Installing and Updating the Denodo Platform

This section contains all the information relating to the Denodo Control Center including installing and updating the Denodo Platform.

How to prepare

Firstly, you should try installing and updating the Denodo Platform for yourself. We also recommend that you review all the options available in the Denodo Control Center.

The Denodo Platform Installation Guide contains all the information relating to installing  and updating the Denodo Platform. The main areas that this section covers are:

You can find further detailed explanations under the following topics: “Defining a Deployment Configuration”, “Installation & Licenses Overview”, “Installation”, “Denodo Platform Folder Distribution”, “Denodo Control Center”, “Installation in Cluster” and “Installation of Denodo Updates” which are included in the official Denodo courses: Denodo Platform Installation & Operation.

Also, you can complete the Denodo Platform tutorials, Data Virtualization Basics, to know how to install the Denodo Platform. Also, you can follow the Installation Guide  to have more information about how to install the Denodo Platform and know all their configuration.

You can also find more information in the following videos:

Based on the Denodo Express, you can find more information here.

Denodo Platform Configuration

This section includes all the topics related to the configuration of the Virtual DataPort. A Denodo Administrator should be able to understand the distribution of the views, the server configuration and best practices. Additionally, a Denodo Administrator should have a good understanding of the backup process.

How to prepare

This section is very important from a configuration point of view. The examinee should be familiar with all the options related to the configuration of the server. These are the main sections related to server administration:

Additional topics related to configuration of the server are:

  • Folder Distribution: How to structure the created elements in the Virtual DataPort Administration tool.
  • VCS Integration: How to configure VCS integration in a Virtual DataPort server.  
  • Backup: How to backup the Denodo installation.

The examinee should be familiar with best practices related to administration. To learn more on the subject,  review Denodo Admin and Development Best Practices.

You can find further detailed explanations under the following topics: “Denodo Platform Control Center”, “Virtual DataPort Server Configuration” and “Denodo Web Tools Configuration” which are included in the official Denodo courses: Denodo Platform Installation & Operation and Denodo Platform Server Administrator.

And finally, you can complete the following Denodo Platform tutorials in order to practice with the Denodo Platform configuration:

Administration Best Practices

This is a practical section related to administration best practices.

How to prepare

As well as the official documentation, candidates should review knowledge base articles related to best practices. The article Denodo Admin and Development Best Practices also contains relevant information for this section.

Information related to the cache database is included in the topic “Administration Best Practices” in the Denodo Platform Server Administrator course.

You can watch the following videos to get some practice with the Denodo Platform configuration:

  • Load Balancing Virtual DataPort Cluster with HAProxy

Denodo Platform Backup and restore

This section includes all the topics that a Denodo Administrator should have a good understanding of the backup process.

How to prepare

This section is very important from a configuration point of view. The examinee should be familiar with all the options related to the configuration of the server. These are the main sections related to backup and restore:

  • Backup: How to backup the Denodo installation.

You can find further detailed explanations under the following topic: “Backup and Restore” which are included in the official Denodo courses: Denodo Platform Installation & Operation and Denodo Platform Server Administrator.

You can also find more information in the following videos:

Denodo Platform Cache

Virtual DataPort incorporates a system called a “cache module,” which can store a local copy of the data retrieved from data sources in a JDBC database. The questions in this section relate to information about how to configure, load, and perform maintenance on the cache module.

How to prepare

The configuration of the cache database is done in the Server Administration menu, the examinee should understand:

To understand the cache module, we recommend that you enable the cache and change the configuration, understanding the results in every case.

Information related to the cache database is included in the topic “Cache Configuration” in the Denodo Platform Server Administrator course.

Promotion Between Environments

A Denodo Administrator should know how to do a promotion between environments, for example production, staging/QA, development and more.

How to prepare

You need to be familiar with the import/export scripts that Denodo provides as well as working with VCS. You should also understand how to do the promotion between environments.

To prepare for this section, please review the following sections:

This section is included in the topics “Promotion Between Environments”, “Version Control System Configuration” and “Solution Manager. Promotion management” of the Denodo Platform Server Administrator official course.

You can also find more information in the following videos:

Resource Management

The goal of this section is to make you aware of the state of your Virtual DataPort server in real-time in order to be able to detect malfunctions as soon as possible, and take the appropriate action to solve it. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to have a good knowledge of Denodo applications.

How to prepare

This section covers the following areas:

We recommend that you monitor the denodo platform using both configuration. You can find more information about monitoring in these articles: Auditing User Access in Virtual DataPort,  Denodo Load Testing with Apache JMeter, Denodo Monitor as a Linux Service, How to monitor the number of times a VDP server is restarted and How to see the status of the cache using JMX

  • The Diagnostic and Monitoring Tool is a web tool that provides two main features:

    • Monitoring: it displays real-time information of one or more Virtual DataPort servers.

    • Diagnostic: it processes log files generated by Virtual DataPort servers and the Denodo Monitor to help diagnosing past problems.
  • The Resource Manager allows you to classify sessions into groups based on the attributes of the session, and to allocate resources to those groups in a way that optimizes resources utilization for your application environment.

All these applications and concepts are included in the Denodo Platform Server Administrator course, under the topics “Threads and request Management”, “Resource Manager” and “Memory Management”.

Issues Troubleshooting and Logs

This is an important section for administration, you should be able to understand the logs and how to resolve issues.

How to prepare

To be able to handle any potential issues that arise when using the Denodo Platform, an administrator should understand the following:

All information related to troubleshooting is included in the topic “Error Analysis” of the Denodo Platform Server Administrator.

Databases and access rights

This section of this exam is related to database management, user management, and roles.

How to prepare

The Virtual DataPort includes advanced security options, the most important of which are:

All this information is available in the sections entitled “Data Sources. LDAP”, “Database Management”, “User and Role Management” and “Advanced Privileges” in the Denodo Platform Server Administrator course.

To help you to understand how it works and help you by practising with the Denodo users and roles, you can see the following videos:

Security in Denodo

The final section of this exam is related to security, for example, database management, publishing data services, SSL / TLS, Kerberos and other security mechanisms.

How to prepare

The Virtual DataPort includes advanced security options, the most important of which are:

To understand more about security, you can check Denodo Security Overview and Kerberos Configuration and Troubleshooting.

All this information is available in the section entitled “Security Overview”, “SSL - TLS”, “Kerberos authentication” and “Other security mechanisms (SAML, OAuth, ...)” in the Denodo Platform Server Administrator course.