Get Thin: Earn Your CCEA
- Exam 910: Resource Management Services Certification
- Exam 920: Installation Management Services
- Exam 930: Security and SecureICA
- Exam 940: Load Balancing and Program Neighborhood
- Exam 950: NFuse Administration
- Classroom or Self-Paced Learning?
- Additional Resources
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Do you ever dream about Citrix solutions? Are you looking for an opportunity to separate yourself from the MCSE crowd? Have you already earned your Citrix Certified Administrator credential? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider striving toward the Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) title.
So what is Citrix, and why should you want to be certified in it? Citrix is the industry leader in utilizing a thin-client product. In a nutshell, Citrix allows users from practically any desktop platform to connect to a Citrix server and run an application. The application and processing is done on the server; only the keystrokes, mouse clicks, and screen updates travel the network.
How does this relate to your career? Well, as a Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator, you'll be running the show with Citrix servers, growth planning, and load balancing. This certification proves your knowledge and your worth in working with Citrix Metaframe XP, Metaframe, WinFrame, and Citrix management products. Next, it's not as crowded in the Citrix world: There are roughly 500 Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrators as of August 2001--which means there's plenty of room at the top. And, unlike another four-letter credentials, the path to earn your title is pretty straightforward.
So, how do you earn the CCEA? You have to first have your CCA title. (I wrote a recent column on the CCA exam, and you can find it here). After the CCA, you have to pass four of seven possible exams. Put a footnote next to "seven exams" because right now only five of the possible seven are actually available. Two exams (911 and 921, which cover MetaFrame Xpe Advanced Management) are not ready as of this writing.
Interested? Great. Let's take a look at each of the five available exams and see if they're for you--or vice versa. Remember, to qualify for the CCEA title, you must first earn your Citrix Certified Administrator title.
Exam 910: Resource Management Services Certification
This exam requires that you answer 40 questions within 60 minutes (or 90 minutes if you're outside North America). You have to score a 67, which equates to 27 correctly answered questions. And just like Jeopardy--no partial credit for any questions.
So what's on the exam? For starters, you'll need to know all about installing and configuring Resource Management Services (RMS)--there's a shock because that's the exam title.
Specifically, you will need experience in server threshold, alarms, and data and graphs in relation to RMS. A CCEA will need to be able to set options under different server circumstances, configure data collection, and set process filters. The exam also covers application profiles, user profiles, billings, and raw data counters.
Sample Question: Franklin is an Administrator for a large insurance company in Tampa, Florida. He wants to install RMS on a network server, but is uncertain of the features RMS will provide. What services can Franklin do in relation to RMS? Choose all that apply:
Franklin can monitor system resources.
Franklin can track application usage.
Franklin can edit the properties of any published application.
Franklin can generate reports on users' resource utilization.
Answer: A, B, D
How to Prepare: Citrix offers (surprise, surprise) training related to each of these exams. This exam is covered in the Citrix course CTX-401 Citrix Resource Management Services.