IBM Instana Observability Administrator - Professional study plan

Map the Instana agent deployment topologies (static agent per host, containerized agent via DaemonSet, agent on Kubernetes nodes, z/OS and Power hosts) and write a one-paragraph decision rule for choosing each

Install a self-hosted Instana backend or connect to a trial tenant, then deploy one host agent on Linux and confirm the host appears in the Infrastructure view

Configure agent repository keys and package sources for at least two OS families, and document the exact install and uninstall commands for each

Perform a controlled agent upgrade on the lab host by pinning a target version, then roll back to the previous version and record what the agent logs show at each step

Deploy the containerized agent as a DaemonSet on a Kubernetes cluster and verify node and pod visibility in Instana

Configure agent-side proxy and TLS settings so the agent reaches the backend through a restricted network path

Tune agent resource limits and update strategy so upgrades do not evict production workloads

Diagnose one deliberately broken agent-to-backend connection by reading the agent log and status endpoint, then fix it

Enable and disable individual sensors in the agent configuration file and observe the effect on collected metrics and traces

Write at least five dynamic focus queries that scope infrastructure and application data by tag, zone, and custom tag

Create custom tags and payload extraction rules so a business attribute appears on both metrics and traces

Explain how dynamic focus queries are reused inside alerts, dashboards, and application definitions

Configure host-level monitoring for CPU, memory, disk, and network and confirm each metric is being collected on the lab host

Deploy a containerized workload and verify container and pod metrics, including Kubernetes and Docker sensor output

Build an infrastructure dashboard that groups hosts by zone or tag and exposes the top resource consumers

Identify and silence one noisy or low-value host sensor that inflates data volume without adding insight

Instrument a sample application so it reports traces to Instana and confirm services appear in the Application view

Configure an application definition with boundary and service filters so the right services roll up into one application

Trace a single request end to end, identify the slowest span, and record the call path across at least three services

Configure a custom service endpoint or synthetic check and confirm it registers as expected

Create alert rules for at least three signal types: infrastructure metric, application error rate, and trace latency

Configure alert channels for email and one webhook or chat integration, and verify a test notification is delivered

Define an alert grouping and maintenance window so a planned change does not page the on-call engineer

Route alerts to different teams using alert channel scoping and confirm each team receives only its own events

Create roles with least-privilege permissions and assign them to two teams, then verify a restricted user cannot see out-of-scope data

Configure single sign-on with a test identity provider and confirm group-to-team mapping works on login

Configure data retention settings for metrics and traces and explain the tradeoff between retention length and storage cost

Apply a data-scrubbing or privacy rule that masks a sensitive payload field and verify the masked value in a trace

Run the platform health checks and agent status diagnostics, and interpret each result against a known-good baseline

Collect a support diagnostic bundle from an agent and describe what it contains and when to attach it to a case

Rehearse a full agent upgrade across the lab hosts using the week 1 runbook and time the procedure

Complete a timed mixed-domain practice set and review every missed item against the relevant domain notes