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How to Prepare for the Denodo Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator Professional Exam

Introduction

The Denodo Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator Professional (DEN80EDUCSP) 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 8.0 Administration.

DEN80EDUCSP aims to provide organizations that use Denodo Platform 8.0 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.

If you need it, there are some examples of questions that can be found in the Exam Guide.

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 Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator exam

If you have finished the recommended Denodo Training courses to achieve the Denodo Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator, try to get some hands-on experience with Denodo Platform 8.0 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 7.0 Certified Administrator exam

If you have completed the recommended Denodo Training courses for the Denodo Platform 7.0 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 8.0.

To do that, we recommend you:

You earned a previous version of the Denodo Platform Certified Administrator

The previous versions of the Denodo Platform Certified Administrator are not compatible with the newer version of the certification program. To get the new certifications you will need to take the Denodo Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator exams.

Please check Denodo Certification F.A.Q. for additional information in this instance.

Exam Topics

In this section you can find the details of the technical topics and subject areas covered by the exam.

The Principles of Data Virtualization

In this section the examinee should demonstrate that they understand the basic concepts of data virtualization:

  • The Current Data Problem
  • Data Virtualization: The Basic Definition
  • The Principles of Data Virtualization
  • Data Virtualization Use Cases

How to prepare

This is a theoretical section that covers the basic definition, principles and use cases of data virtualization.

To start preparing for this section we recommend that you visit the Denodo Site where you can find helpful content, such as: A Data Virtualization Overview, How It Works, Benefits and Data Virtualization Solutions.

Next step is to start reviewing the Denodo Community tutorial, the introduction includes a definition of the common data problems that organizations face nowadays and how they can be solved using data virtualization.

All the content related to this section is included in the topic “Data Virtualization. Introduction” which is included in the official Denodo courses Introduction to Data Virtualization and Denodo Essentials.

Denodo Architecture and Components

This section covers the basic concepts and an overview of the Virtual DataPort Administration and Scheduler tool. The examinee should have some knowledge on the following topics:

  • Data Access Layer
    • Wrappers
    • Base Views
  • Data Integration Layer
    • Derived Views
    • How VDP works When a Query is Received
  • Data Publishing Layer
    • How to Access the Created Virtual Schema
  • Basic Concepts
    • Basic VQL
    • Data Definition
    • Primary Keys
    • Folders
    • Associations
    • Query Execution

How to prepare

This section is mainly theoretical, it is important to have a good understanding of the Virtual DataPort and Scheduler Architectures including the different layers and the basic concepts related to the Virtual Data Port.

The first step you should take is to review the official documentation that explains the General Architecture of the Virtual DataPort and Scheduler. In this section, the physical layer, logical layer and user layer are explained in detail.

The best way to start learning about the basic concepts of the Virtual DataPort is to review the first steps section of the tutorials which are available in the Denodo Community.

This section also includes the basic concepts of primary keys and associations.

These concepts are included under the topics “Virtual DataPort. Architecture”, “Scheduler. Architecture” and “Virtual Data Port. Basic Concepts” included in the official Denodo course: Denodo Essentials.

The Denodo Administrations Tools

This section covers all the options and menus that are available in the Virtual DataPort Administration Tool.

The main areas that are covered in this section are:

  • Starting Up the Virtual DataPort Server
  • Virtual DataPort Administration Tool
    • How to Start the Tool
    • Main Areas
    • Folders
    • Available Data Sources
    • Available Operations
    • Publishing Views
    • Quick Search
    • Administration Menu
    • Tools Menu
  • Scheduler Administration Tool
    • Accessing the system
    • Configuring scheduler server
    • Main sections
    • Managing projects

How to prepare

The best way to prepare for this section is by using the Virtual DataPort and Scheduler Administration tools and trying out different options. Here are the main options of the administration tools and the links to the official documentation:

In order to launch the Virtual DataPort server and the admin tool, we recommend that you read the “Start the Virtual DataPort server” section. You can find this information for the Scheduler admin tool in the “Installation and Execution” section.

All the available options of the Virtual DataPort and Scheduler administration tools are explained in the topics “Virtual DataPort Administration tool” and “Scheduler Administration tool” included in the official Denodo course Denodo Essentials.

You can also see the following videos to have more information about the administration tools:

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.

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 and Denodo Operations Management.

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 Operations Management course.

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

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 and Denodo Operations Management.

You can also find more information in the following videos:

Optimizations in Denodo

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 Operations Management course.

The Denodo Scheduler

This section is related to the Denodo Scheduler, which enables the scheduling and execution of data extraction and integration jobs, as defined in the different modules of the Denodo Platform.

How to prepare

The exam taker should review the following aspects of Scheduler:

All the information related to Scheduler is contained in the "Scheduler Administration Guide.". The best way to understand this module is to create different jobs (one of each type), executing queries, and exporting data from these queries.

All the information related to Scheduler is included in the topic “Denodo Scheduler” in the course Denodo Task Scheduling.

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 Operations Management 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 Performance Monitoring and Denodo Performance Best Practices courses under the topics “Threads and request Management”, “Resource Manager” and “Memory Management”.

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 Operations Management 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 Security Management course.

Conclusions

In this guide, we have reviewed all the sections that are part of the Denodo Platform 8.0 Certified Administrator Professional 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 using it.

After reviewing all the materials, there are some examples of questions that can be found in this link.