Splunk Achitect Cert - passed!

Just a "I passed" post for the Splunk architect certification. I think the term "architect" is excessive. It's more a hands on admin test. You're not really building anything complex enough to need the term "architect". Big fan of Splunk so glad to have this one done even if it's not a main stream cert.

Study Materials -
The entire stack of Splunk classes (employeer paid)
Splunk Conf last year (ditto)
Docs and free download of the software
Splunk Conf Video library (free online)

Experience -
~4 years
2 years as an admin
2 more as a user

Testing Experience -
Exactly my kind of test. Hands on, real servers, build it up and troubleshoot it. You get a handful of AWS boxes to build out and have a proctor ask for help. Over all took me about 10 hours to complete. I probably could have have done it faster but started obsessing on doing it "my way". It was all open book stuff. But no way you could pass without hands on time. Bash scripting skills are as much on trial as your Splunk skills.

A very positive experience, but VERY pricey. Unless you're company is paying for this I can't see this cert being worth your time.

So next up for me?
Some sort entry level developer cert, CIW still around? Maybe Microsoft HTML/JS classes. Not sure yet. Looking to modernize my web development skills for the rest of the year. I think my HTML 3.2 and Jscript skills are starting to show their age.

Then perhaps renewing all my Cisco certs once the new CCNA has enough material out.

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Comments

cyberguypr

Congrats! Glad to see more Splunk activity around here. Very good skill set to have nowadays. Still way better than the power user cert I took which was boring as hell.

Daniel333

I would actually say that Power User exam was harder than this. Just because things were abstract and multiple choice. I have a much easier time with hands on personally. Had the same expreince on the old ROUTE, SWITCH and TSHOOT exams for the CCNP. I got a near PERFECT on the tshoot while I nearly failed my route and switch exams. Something about multiple choice gets me.

But yes, lots of Splunk demand out there now. A dice search shows about 2000 jobs asking for Splunk skills in my area .

DoubleNNs

Oh man are the Splunk certs expensive. Awesome opportunity having an employer willing to pay for it. Congrats on the pass!

I'm a "Splunk admin" at my current position, but don't find it all too enjoyable

. Have you used some of the competing open source alternatives, such as ELK or Graylog? How would you compare them to Splunk, in terms of enjoyment working with the tech, ease/simplicity, and demand?

636-555-3226

Splunk admins make a ton of money around me since everybody wants one and nobody knows how to do it. esp. in the consultant market if you're into that thing. go market yourself and make some big bucks.

Lexluethar

Congrats, we were looking at splunk last fall for monitoring.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

DoubleNNs

-- Deleted post of complaining about how Splunk is used at my current job in order not to detract from OP's acheivement lol --

Congrats once again Daniel333!

dustervoice

congrats ...well done

gncsmith

Congrats!

lsud00d

Congrats @Daniel333!! That's a great accomplishment. When my resume was available online via Dice, CareerBuilder, etc, most of the specialization hits were for Splunk. And, business is only going to get bigger as big data becomes the standard.

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass! Would you mind sharing some of the costs on the training and cert attempt? Splunk is huge on our cyberanalytics team and I've been thinking of trying to move to that team from where I'm at and I'd like to see if it's feasible for pursuing it myself. Feel free to PM if that works better.

coffeeluvr

Congratulations on the pass!!

wes allen

Congrats - I am a huge Splunk fan and think it is one of the very best IT / IT security tools out there. Crazy powerful once you get into it, we have been doing some "long tail" analysis with it lately, and it really works well for that.

I have done a couple of the classes and they were pretty cool. No tests / certs though.

Daniel333

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Congrats on the pass! Would you mind sharing some of the costs on the training and cert attempt? Splunk is huge on our cyberanalytics team and I've been thinking of trying to move to that team from where I'm at and I'd like to see if it's feasible for pursuing it myself. Feel free to PM if that works better.

Costs? It's crazy.

Admin bootcamp seems to go for about $4k, plus another $1k to take the test. So minimum $5k. Again, this test won't make or break your career or compensation. Splunk education doesn't seem to be about creating more quality admins as much as it's a profit center for them. A coworker whom took all these classes with me put it this way "these classes could have twice the hands on time, and half the cost and I would still think it's a waste of money" Overall over, I would say if your company can afford Splunk then the training should be an easy sell to add on training plans to your purchase.

DoubleNNs wrote: »

Oh man are the Splunk certs expensive. Awesome opportunity having an employer willing to pay for it. Congrats on the pass!

I'm a "Splunk admin" at my current position, but don't find it all too enjoyable . Have you used some of the competing open source alternatives, such as ELK or Graylog? How would you compare them to Splunk, in terms of enjoyment working with the tech, ease/simplicity, and demand?

I love Splunk personally. I couldn't imagine doing anything without it now. We have alternatives around the company. But always seems to come back to Splunk.

jumboking

Hi Daniel,

Congratulations!

I have around 2 years of hands on experience on Splunk. My exam is planned for next week so have some questions:

- Does it require to build Index or Search Head clusters?
- Is the scripting only required for installing Universal Forwarder? or other components as well? Can we manually deploy other components?
- Are there complex dashboards to be created?
- Any particular thing you found challenging in the exam?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Regards,
JK

Daniel333

Update -
Just received my Architect II certification from Splunk as well. Not 100% a fan of Splunk term "architect" but is what it is. Involved taking and passing two more classes. One in Troubleshooting and another one in cluster management. Was quite easy, but VERY expensive. I could never have afforded this. Grateful the company paid.

josephandre

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Congrats on the pass! Would you mind sharing some of the costs on the training and cert attempt? Splunk is huge on our cyberanalytics team and I've been thinking of trying to move to that team from where I'm at and I'd like to see if it's feasible for pursuing it myself. Feel free to PM if that works better.

you seem to be considering, or about to take every cert someone mentions lol