CCSA R81.20 vs. CCSA R82

[Timothy_Hall]

The Check Point Security Administrator course available from Check Point ATCs worldwide has been updated from version R81.20 to R82.  Although the CCSA R82 exam is not yet available, I thought it would be helpful to outline the changes made to the CCSA class following the update to R82.  The reasons for doing so are twofold:

1) For those who attended the CCSA R81.20 course but wish to challenge the latest CCSA R82 exam.  If new topics were added in the R82 version, you'll definitely need to bone up on them, and if certain topics were removed, there is no need to study those.

2) As ATCs make the transition, there will be a period when both versions of the CCSA course will be available.   Hopefully, this content will allow the attendee to make an informed decision about which one they want to attend.

First off, I've reviewed all the CCSA R82 content, and at least 95% (if not 100%) of the content in CCSA R82 will apply to version R81.20 and earlier.  At this introductory level covered by CCSA, the new features of R82 are not really in play.  Here are the differences:

1) HTTPS Inspection Lecture & Lab coverage was added back into CCSA R82 (transferred from CCSE)

2) Identity Awareness Lecture & Lab coverage was added back into CCSA R82 (transferred from CCSE)

3) New coverage of the installation and configuration of the Identity Collector agent software (including lab work) is now present

4) A ClusterXL HA gateway cluster is present once again in the lab environment, and the basics of working with it are covered

5) Initial imaging of A-SMS is no longer performed in the labs, nor is the setup and configuration of the gateway cluster, or use of the First-Time Wizard.  The student hits the ground running with a working environment in CCSA R82.  This setup/imaging content has been moved to the new Check Point Deployment Administrator R82 course.  

6) The Maintenance chapter content covering snapshots/backups/Hardware Health Monitoring/CPUSE has been moved to Check Point Deployment Administrator R82.  

7) Coverage of IPSec Site-to-Site VPNs has been removed from CCSA R82, and will be part of a new upcoming course dedicated to VPNs.

8) Manual NAT coverage has been removed; only Automatic NAT setup is still covered.

9) The full chapter on Licensing & Service Contracts has been removed; some light lab work verifying the presence of proper licenses and contracts is all that remains in CCSA R82.

Other ATC instructors, feel free to let me know if I've missed anything.  Thanks!

[the_rock]

Excellent tip, Tim.

[Don_Paterson]

Just going to leave this here since the R82 exams were released yesterday, and it may be convenient for a future reader here.

https://community.checkpoint.com/t5/Training-and-Certification/New-CCSA-amp-CCSE-exams-Exam-Prep-Gui...

"

We are excited to announce the release of a the new R82 CCSA and CCSE exams!

• 156-215.82 – Check Point Certified Security Administrator – R82 (CCSA)

• 156-315.82 - Check Point Certified Security Expert – R82 (CCSE)

• 156-609 - Check Point Certified Security Administrator R82 - Practice

• 156-610 - Check Point Certified Security Expert R82 – Practice

Additionally, to assist in preparing for the new CCSA and CCSE exams, we are releasing a free Exam Prep Guide for each exam!

• CCSA Exam Prep Guide
• CCSE Exam Prep Guide

The Exam Prep Guides are not a substitute to the class course documentation, but  will assist the candidate to:

• Understand the exam details (prerequisites, number of questions, etc.)
• Ensure their Pearson VUE and User Center email accounts are aligned
• Know how to schedule the exam and choose a delivery option
• Outline each module of the exam
• Provide next steps after exam completion

"