Delinea Secret Server study plan
Delinea Secret Server · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Secret Server Fundamentals and Vaulting
Map the Secret Server architecture in your own words: web/app nodes, database, distributed engine, and how a secret request travels end to end.
Define the core object model precisely: secret, template, field, folder, user, group, role, and permission, and state how each relates to the others.
Walk through secret creation and check-in/check-out behavior, noting what changes on each action and what is logged.
Compare secret templates and launchers at a conceptual level, and list three scenarios where template choice changes access behavior.
Your checkpoint
A one-page architecture and object-model diagram with a 300-word written walkthrough of a single secret request from user click to audit record.
Secret Server Fundamentals and Vaulting
Configure a working local lab instance (or documented sandbox) and create at least five secrets from different templates.
Trace how inheritance flows from folder to secret, and demonstrate one setting that a child can and cannot override.
Explain the role of the distributed engine and identify which tasks can be delegated to it versus handled by the app node.
List the vaulting-relevant settings that affect encryption, key rotation, and secret retrieval, and describe the impact of each.
Your checkpoint
A lab log with screenshots-free written steps showing five secrets created, one inheritance override demonstrated, and a table of engine-delegated versus app-node tasks.
Secret Management, Folders, and Permissions
Design a folder hierarchy for a realistic org with three departments and shared service accounts, and justify each level.
Build a permission matrix mapping roles to actions (view, edit, owner, approve) for at least four personas.
Configure group-based access so that no permission is granted to an individual user, and verify the effective access for two users.
Explain how secret-level permissions interact with folder permissions and identify the failure mode that causes over-exposure.
Your checkpoint
A permission matrix spreadsheet plus a written justification of the folder hierarchy covering at least four personas and two shared-account scenarios.
Secret Management, Folders, and Permissions
Set up a secret approval workflow and walk a request through request, approve, retrieve, and expire states.
Configure access requests with time-bound checkout and document what happens when the window lapses.
Compare role-based and group-based assignment for a rotating on-call team and pick one with a stated rationale.
Identify three common misconfigurations that silently widen access, and write the check that detects each.
Your checkpoint
An end-to-end approval workflow writeup with a state diagram and a detection checklist for three access-widening misconfigurations.
Session Management and Privileged Access
Describe how session recording, keystroke logging, and session playback differ, and what each captures.
Configure a session-launch policy for RDP and SSH and note which settings are enforced at launch versus at connect.
Explain proxy versus direct connection modes and identify the tradeoffs for a segmented network.
Map how session activity ties back to a specific user, secret, and target host in the audit trail.
Your checkpoint
A session-management configuration guide covering RDP and SSH launch policies, connection modes, and the audit linkage from session to user and secret.
Session Management and Privileged Access & Administration, Reporting, and Auditing
Configure at least two session policies with different recording and approval requirements, and document the difference in behavior.
Build a report or filtered view showing privileged sessions in the last seven days, and interpret the result.
Trace one recorded session from launch to playback and note every audit event generated along the way.
List the retention and storage considerations for session recordings and state how they affect an audit response.
Your checkpoint
A session-to-audit trace for one recorded session listing every event in order, plus a seven-day privileged-session report with a short interpretation.
Administration, Reporting, and Auditing
Configure audit logging and identify which events are captured by default versus which require explicit enablement.
Design a reporting cadence for secret access, failed retrievals, and permission changes, and specify the audience for each.
Explain how to investigate a suspected credential misuse using audit data, and list the queries or filters you would run.
Document a backup, export, and retention approach for audit data that supports an external review.
Your checkpoint
An audit and reporting runbook covering three report types, an investigation procedure with concrete filters, and a retention/export plan.
Secret Server Fundamentals and Vaulting & Secret Management, Folders, and Permissions & Session Management and Privileged Access & Administration, Reporting, and Auditing
Re-derive the object model and permission inheritance from memory and correct any gaps against your week 1-4 notes.
Complete a timed mixed-domain practice set and categorize every miss by domain and root cause.
Re-teach the three weakest subtopics in writing, each in under 150 words, without consulting notes.
Assemble a one-page pre-exam cheat sheet of decision rules, not definitions.
Your checkpoint
A scored practice-set review log with every miss categorized by domain and cause, plus a one-page decision-rule cheat sheet.
Milestones
Week 2: Can explain the full secret request path and object model from memory, and has five lab secrets created across templates.
Week 4: Permission matrix and folder hierarchy are complete, and one approval workflow has been walked end to end through all states.
Week 6: Two session policies configured, one recorded session traced to its audit events, and a seven-day privileged-session report produced.
Week 8: Practice-set score reviewed with every miss categorized by domain and root cause, and cheat sheet limited to decision rules.