ACA System Administration & Configuration 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Appian, what is the role of a 'System Administrator' group versus an 'Application Administrator'?
- System Admins manage the entire Appian platform; Application Admins manage only specific applications (Correct answer)
- System Admins can only read configuration; Application Admins can modify it
- They have identical permissions but different naming conventions
- System Admins manage infrastructure; Application Admins manage database schemas
Correct answer: System Admins manage the entire Appian platform; Application Admins manage only specific applications
System Administrators have full platform access including server config, while Application Administrators are scoped to manage specific Appian applications.
Question 2: What must an Appian administrator do after installing a plugin (plug-in) on a production server?
- Restart the Appian application server to load the new plugin (Correct answer)
- Redeploy all applications that use the plugin
- Clear the browser cache on all user machines
- Run a database migration script to register the plugin
Correct answer: Restart the Appian application server to load the new plugin
Appian plugins are deployed as JARs and typically require a server restart to load the new Java classes into the application server runtime.
Question 3: Which Appian Administration Console section allows configuration of single sign-on (SSO) with an external identity provider?
- Authentication settings (Correct answer)
- Data Server settings
- Plugin Manager
- Process Engine settings
Correct answer: Authentication settings
The Authentication settings in the Administration Console is where administrators configure SAML or OpenID Connect SSO with external identity providers.
Question 4: What is the purpose of the Appian 'Application Server' log files for an administrator?
- To diagnose errors, exceptions, and performance issues at the JVM and application layer (Correct answer)
- To store process instance execution history for reporting
- To log all user interface actions for compliance auditing
- To record database query execution plans for optimization
Correct answer: To diagnose errors, exceptions, and performance issues at the JVM and application layer
Appian application server logs capture JVM-level errors, integration failures, and performance warnings that help admins diagnose platform issues.
Question 5: How does Appian's high availability (HA) architecture primarily achieve redundancy?
- By deploying multiple application server nodes behind a load balancer sharing the same database and process engine (Correct answer)
- By running parallel databases that each serve a separate application server
- By caching all process data in browser local storage as a fallback
- By automatically switching to a cloud backup every 30 minutes
Correct answer: By deploying multiple application server nodes behind a load balancer sharing the same database and process engine
Appian HA uses a cluster of application nodes load-balanced at the network layer, all connected to a shared database and distributed process engine.
Question 6: What should an Appian administrator check first when users report slow form load times?
- Appian Health Dashboard for process engine queue depth and slow expression evaluations (Correct answer)
- Browser developer tools for JavaScript errors on the user's machine
- DNS resolution times for the Appian server hostname
- The number of active Appian licenses in use
Correct answer: Appian Health Dashboard for process engine queue depth and slow expression evaluations
The Health Dashboard provides visibility into process engine performance, query execution times, and expression evaluation bottlenecks causing slowness.
ACA System Administration & Configuration 2
In Appian, what is the role of a 'System Administrator' group versus an 'Application Administrator'?