Parallels lost track of my certifications some month ago ! No drama — it gave me a good excuse to retake all three in one shot and give you an honest take on what these exams are actually worth. Spoiler: more interesting than I expected.
Three levels, three angles. Here’s what you need to know before you start.
Sales Professional (SP) — Yes, engineers should take this too
The SP is the commercial certification. And no, that’s not a reason to skip it if you’re an engineer. Understanding how RAS is sold, how deal registration works, why a customer would choose SPLA over a subscription — that’s context that changes the way you architect and advise.
What the exam actually tests:
- Licensing models: Concurrent Users vs Named Users vs SPLA — and more importantly, when each model makes sense
- Deal registration thresholds by geography (NAM, EMEA, APAC don’t play by the same rules)
- Partner margins by tier — up to 15% on subscription deals for Silver and above
- SPLA minimum (10 licenses), subscription minimum (50 in NAM, 15 in EMEA/APAC)
- Positioning against Citrix and Horizon — not the religious war, the factual argument
My take: The exam is accessible but there are a few traps around the numbers. Geographic deal registration thresholds and license minimums look similar enough to get confused under pressure. Take five minutes to write them down before you start.
The SP doesn’t make you a sales rep. It gives you the vocabulary to talk on equal footing with business teams — and to defend your architecture decisions in front of a CFO.
Technical Professional (TP) — The foundation. Not optional.
The TP covers RAS architecture end to end. It’s the densest exam in terms of surface area — and that’s by design, because it’s meant to be the foundation for everything else.
What the exam actually tests:
- Farm/Sites architecture: what gets replicated, what stays local, Primary Broker vs secondaries, Licensing Site designation
- Secure Gateway & HALB: forwarding mode, SSL offloading, direct connection — and why the CB doesn’t encrypt client traffic (that’s the SG’s job)
- Publishing: host pools, access filters (MAC address, Secure Gateway used), Client Policies and what users can or cannot override
- Authentication: native MFA TOTP + email OTP, SAML, email-based auto-discovery, Themes and their role in MFA routing
- FSLogix from RAS: the four deployment methods (manual, internet download, network share, push from the CB)
- Universal Printing: universal driver, dynamic printer mapping, what works in HTML5 and what doesn’t (USB direct, native multi-monitor — out)
- Native clients: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS — and the IGEL case, which goes through HTML5, not a native RAS client
- Let’s Encrypt: native integration, port 80 required for HTTP domain validation, automatic renewal
My take: If you’ve deployed a few RAS environments, most questions will feel obvious. But there are subtleties that trip up even experienced profiles — especially around the Primary Broker (emails, reporting, licensing sync: Primary-only), and the distinction between what the SG does versus what the CB does.
The TP is the exam where you realize you knew things without knowing you knew them. And sometimes the other way around.
Technical Professional Advanced (TPA) — This is where it gets serious
The TPA is the architect’s exam. Not for people who read the docs — for people who’ve had cold sweats at 11pm over a SAML deployment that refused to cooperate, or who’ve designed a multi-site environment for 4,000 users with absurd network constraints.
What the exam actually tests:
- SAML SSO: required components (Enrollment Server, SAML 2.0 IDP, Enrollment Agent + Smartcard Logon PKI templates), the paradoxical role of the NLAUser (member of Remote Desktop Users, but RDP logon explicitly denied), and why the Enrollment Agent doesn’t need to be a local admin on RDSH hosts
- Multi-tenant: Tenant Broker, join mechanisms via invitation hash or shared secret — and what doesn’t work as a join mechanism (domain admin credentials, SSL certificate)
- Multi-site: what gets replicated automatically and what doesn’t (linked pools stay manual), recommended limit of 5,000 CCU per site
- AVD & Azure costs: RDP Shortpath (direct UDP transport), demand-based auto-scaling, automatic storage tier downgrade on powered-off VMs — and what RAS does not do (Linked Clones on Azure, VM size recommendations)
- VDI templates: Sysprep (full generalization, new SIDs, local account removal) vs RASPrep (faster, fewer reboots, no account removal)
- Thin clients: IGEL OS 12 and its App Portal (update the RAS client without reflashing firmware), Dell Wyse ThinOS (DHCP option 188 for SG IP, wnos.ini for config)
- REST API & Web Client API: JSON payload with credentials and resource info, shared RBAC with the console
- Client deployment:
SHAREDDEVICE=1— imports connection settings without storing credentials (essential on kiosk machines)
My take: This is the most honest exam of the three. It doesn’t test whether you memorized slides — it tests whether you understood why things work the way they do. The NLAUser is the best example: if you’ve never set it up yourself, the paradoxical logic of that account will catch you off guard.
The TPA probably won’t teach you anything new if you’ve already architected a complex RAS deployment. But it will give you a framework to verify you haven’t missed anything.
Bottom line: right order, right expectations
| Cert | Who it’s for | Real difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| SP | Everyone around RAS (not just sales) | Medium — the numbers are the only real traps |
| TP | Every engineer who touches RAS | Medium-high — broad functional coverage |
| TPA | Architects and senior engineers | High — requires real field experience |
The e-learning modules cover the essentials, but don’t rely on them alone for the TPA. Complement with the official documentation and — above all — your own lab experience. The TPA questions aren’t tricky out of malice: they’re tricky because they test scenarios you only encounter if you’ve actually had your hands in the engine.
Good luck.
