ADAPTIVE SERVER ENTERPRISE 12.5 ADMINISTRATOR ASSOCIATE CERTIFICATION: NOTICE: The 510-020 exam will expire on March 15, 2012

Certification Exam Title: Sybase Certified Adaptive Server Administrator Associate (Version 12.5)
Passing Grade: 66%
Number of Multiple Choice Questions: 56
Exam Number: 510-020
Exam Duration: 90 Minutes

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

QUESTION: How can I register for the exam?

ANSWER: In the USA or Canada, please call Prometric to register by phone 800-792-EXAM or online at: Sybase Certification Exams at Prometric.
If you are from a country other than the US or Canada, follow your normal registration procedures through your local exam center or your Prometric Regional Service Center. To find out about registration procedures for your region (select 'Sybase' from the 'Client/Program' drop-down box.)

QUESTION: How do I prepare for this exams?

ANSWER: It is recommended you work with Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5* for at least 6 months before taking the exam. If you have taken a corresponding course, it is suggested you review all of the content, especially topics that you have yet to master.

*This exam is based on the Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5 GA version, which is the first main release of ASE. Any functionality that is new or changed in later 12.5 releases (such as the ASE 12.5.0.1 interim release and later) are not included in this exam.

We also recommend preparing by:

• Spending a minimum of 40 hours thoroughly covering all topics listed in the exam study guide

• Taking the following recommended courses ( click here to view the course schedule):
  • EDB115: Fast Track to Adaptive Server Enterprise (5 Days)
  • EDB356: System and Database Administration: Adaptive Server Enterprise (5 Days)
  • EDB365: Powering Up with ASE 12.5.2 (3 Days)

• Rob Verschoor has published " The Complete Sybase ASE Quick Reference Guide", which contains a full list of ASE commands, functions and stored procedures in ASE 12.5. He also has published " Tips, Tricks & Recipes for Sybase ASE"

QUESTION: What is the format of this exam?

ANSWER: Each candidate will have one hour and thirty minutes to complete the exam which consists of 60 multiple-choice questions. The passing grade is 66% (37 questions answered correctly).

QUESTION: What are some suggestions for when I take this exam?

ANSWER: Space your time accordingly and do not spend too much time on each question. When answering a question, you'll have the opportunity to mark an answer "for review". Keep this in mind, as it will allow you to revisit your marked questions later, before finally submitting your exam.

STUDY GUIDELINES

Section 1 - ASE Overview (4 questions - 7%)

• Understand the overall ASE architecture
• Understand the purpose of each system database
• Know what each system table is used for

Section 2 - ASE New Features (3 questions - 5%)

• Understand generally, the use of the new premium features (also known as "licensable features") in ASE 12.5
• Understand what the new features in ASE 12.5 are for
• Know the new values for some system limits in ASE 12.5

• Understand how to manage ASE configuration parameters
• Understand how to install and upgrade ASE
• Understand the environment variables used by ASE

• Understand the use of file systems, raw partitions, and the dsync clause
• Know how to plan, create and manage devices and databases
• Understand capacity planning and system limits: devices, databases, segments and transaction logs
• Understand the system tables related to capacity planning
• Understand how to manage tables; understand the details of the alter table subcommands
• Understand the purposes of the last chance threshold and freespace threshold; how do you make use of them
• Know how to recreate the DDL from reading the storage-related system tables

• Describe how to manage databases and transaction logs
• Understand how to perform logical database rebuilds
• Understand how to use segments for performance and capacity planning
• Understand the purposes and uses of system- and user-defined segments

• Know how to manage the database and transaction log dumps
• Understand how dumps are processed and what types of dump and load functionality is available
• Understand dump compression
• Understand how to perform dumps and loads for standby access
• Understand how to enable up to the minute recovery
• Understand how to: backup production databases, truncate the transaction log, recover from disasters, protect the master database, and use mirroring

Section 7 - Extensible New Limits (4 questions - 7%)

• Understand the server page size
• Understand storage space requirements
• Know the size limits for ASE datatypes

Section 8 - Cache Management (4 questions - 7%)

• Understand at a high level how ASE manages memory, such as data cache(s), procedure cache sizing, and when are pages written to disk
• Understand how to configure data caches and buffer pools

• Understand ASE's password security features
• Understand how to manage passwords
• Know how to grant and revoke privileges in a granular fashion
• Understand the use of system roles
• Understand the use of user-defined roles and their precedence
• Understand the difference and precedence between groups and user-defined roles
• Understand the use of proxy authorization
• Understand, at a high level, the use of access rules

• Understand transaction Management in ASE, such as commits, rollbacks, locks, and deadlocks
• Understand how isolation levels are implemented and when to use each
• Understand implicit and explicit transactions and transaction modes
• Understand the difference between transactions and checkpoints
• Understand the transaction log and minimally logged operations
• Understand how ASE manages pages in memory

• Understand dynamic (re)configuration
• Have knowledge of which configuration parameters are static or dynamic
• Understand how dynamic (re)configuration uses memory

Section 12 - Parallel Performance Optimization (3 questions - 5%)

• Know how to keep partition statistics up-to-date
• Understand how to read and interpret columns statistics and how to keep them up to date
• Understand how to defragment tables efficiently
• Be familiar with the various table-based and index-based access methods
• Understand how to enable and utilize parallel processing

Section 13 - Locking and Concurrency (3 questions - 5%)

• Understand the different lock types and their use by T-SQL commands
• Understand how different locking schemes work and how to use them
• Understand how to diagnose lock contention
• Understand the effect of different lock types, as well as lock schemes on application concurrency
• Understand lock promotion

Section 14 - Object Resource Management (3 questions - 5%)

• Understand how to use table partitioning
• Understand criteria for table partitioning
• Understand steps involved in creating partitions
• Understand partition skew and how to rebalance a partitioned table
• Know how to keep partition statistics up-to-date