Questions for the MCIA-LEVEL-1 were updated on : Oct 04 ,2024
Mule applications need to be deployed to CloudHub so they can access on-premises database
systems. These systems store sensitive and hence tightly protected data, so are not accessible over
the internet.
What network architecture supports this requirement?
A
Explanation:
Correct answer is An Anypoint VPC connected to the on-premises network using an IPsec tunnel or
AWS DirectConnect, plus matching firewall rules in the VPC and on-premises network
IPsec Tunnel You can use an IPsec tunnel with network-to-network configuration to connect your on-
premises data centers to your Anypoint VPC. An IPsec VPN tunnel is generally the recommended
solution for VPC to on-premises connectivity, as it provides a standardized, secure way to connect.
This method also integrates well with existing IT infrastructure such as routers and appliances.
https://docs.mulesoft.com/runtime-manager/vpc-connectivity-methods-concept
* "Relocation of the database systems to a DMZ in the on-premises network, with Mule applications
deployed to the CloudHub Shared Worker Cloud connecting only to the DMZ" is not a feasible option
* "Static IP addresses for the Mule applications deployed to the CloudHub Shared Worker Cloud, plus
matching firewall rules and IP whitelisting in the on-premises network" - It is risk for sensitive data. -
Even if you whitelist the database IP on your app, your app went be able to connect to the database
so this is also not a feasible option
* "An Anypoint VPC with one Dedicated Load Balancer fronting each on-premises database system,
plus matching IP whitelisting in the load balancer and firewall rules in the VPC and on-premises
network" Adding one VPC with a DLB for each backend system also makes no sense, is way too much
work. Why would you add a LB for one system.
* Correct answer: "An Anypoint VPC connected to the on-premises network using an IPsec tunnel or
AWS DirectConnect, plus matching firewall rules in the VPC and on-premises network"
IPsec Tunnel You can use an IPsec tunnel with network-to-network configuration to connect your on-
premises data centers to your Anypoint VPC. An IPsec VPN tunnel is generally the recommended
solution for VPC to on-premises connectivity, as it provides a standardized, secure way to connect.
This method also integrates well with existing IT infrastructure such as routers and appliances.
Reference:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/runtime-manager/vpc-connectivity-methods-concept
Refer to the exhibit.
An organization deploys multiple Mule applications to the same customer -hosted Mule runtime.
Many of these Mule applications must expose an HTTPS endpoint on the same port using a server-
side certificate that rotates often.
What is the most effective way to package the HTTP Listener and package or store the server-side
certificate when deploying these Mule applications, so the disruption caused by certificate rotation is
minimized?
B
Explanation:
In this scenario, both A & C will work, but A is better as it does not require repackage to the domain
project at all.
Correct answer is Package the HTTPS Listener configuration in a Mule DOMAIN project, referencing it
from all Mule applications that need to expose an HTTPS endpoint. Store the server-side certificate
in a shared filesystem location in the Mule runtimes classpath, OUTSIDE the Mule DOMAIN or any
Mule APPLICATION.
What is Mule Domain Project?
* A Mule Domain Project is implemented to configure the resources that are shared among different
projects. These resources can be used by all the projects associated with this domain. Mule
applications can be associated with only one domain, but a domain can be associated with multiple
projects. Shared resources allow multiple development teams to work in parallel using the same set
of reusable connectors. Defining these connectors as shared resources at the domain level allows the
team to: - Expose multiple services within the domain through the same port. - Share the connection
to persistent storage. - Share services between apps through a well-defined interface. - Ensure
consistency between apps upon any changes because the configuration is only set in one place.
* Use domains Project to share the same host and port among multiple projects. You can declare the
http connector within a domain project and associate the domain project with other projects. Doing
this also allows to control thread settings, keystore configurations, time outs for all the requests
made within multiple applications. You may think that one can also achieve this by duplicating the
http connector configuration across all the applications. But, doing this may pose a nightmare if you
have to make a change and redeploy all the applications.
* If you use connector configuration in the domain and let all the applications use the new domain
instead of a default domain, you will maintain only one copy of the http connector configuration. Any
changes will require only the domain to the redeployed instead of all the applications.
You can start using domains in only three steps:
1) Create a Mule Domain project
2) Create the global connector configurations which needs to be shared across the applications inside
the Mule Domain project
3) Modify the value of domain in mule-deploy.properties file of the applications
Use a certificate defined in already deployed Mule domain Configure the certificate in the domain so
that the API proxy HTTPS Listener references it, and then deploy the secure API proxy to the target
Runtime Fabric, or on-premises target. (CloudHub is not supported with this approach because it
does not support Mule domains.)
An API client is implemented as a Mule application that includes an HTTP Request operation using a
default configuration. The HTTP Request operation invokes an external API that follows standard
HTTP status code conventions, which causes the HTTP Request operation to return a 4xx status code.
What is a possible cause of this status code response?
D
Explanation:
Correct choice is: "The external API reported an error with the HTTP request that was received from
the outbound HTTP Request operation of the Mule application"
Understanding HTTP 4XX Client Error Response Codes : A 4XX Error is an error that arises in cases
where there is a problem with the users request, and not with the server.
Such cases usually arise when a users access to a webpage is restricted, the user misspells the URL,
or when a webpage is nonexistent or removed from the publics view.
In short, it is an error that occurs because of a mismatch between what a user is trying to access, and
its availability to the user either because the user does not have the right to access it, or because
what the user is trying to access simply does not exist. Some of the examples of 4XX errors are
400 Bad Request The server could not understand the request due to invalid syntax. 401
Unauthorized Although the HTTP standard specifies "unauthorized", semantically this response
means "unauthenticated". That is, the client must authenticate itself to get the requested response.
403 Forbidden The client does not have access rights to the content; that is, it is unauthorized, so the
server is refusing to give the requested resource. Unlike 401, the client's identity is known to the
server. 404 Not Found The server can not find the requested resource. In the browser, this means the
URL is not recognized. In an API, this can also mean that the endpoint is valid but the resource itself
does not exist. Servers may also send this response instead of 403 to hide the existence of a resource
from an unauthorized client. This response code is probably the most famous one due to its frequent
occurrence on the web. 405 Method Not Allowed The request method is known by the server but
has been disabled and cannot be used. For example, an API may forbid DELETE-ing a resource. The
two mandatory methods, GET and HEAD, must never be disabled and should not return this error
code. 406 Not Acceptable This response is sent when the web server, after performing server-driven
content negotiation, doesn't find any content that conforms to the criteria given by the user agent.
The external API reported that the API implementation has moved to a different external endpoint
cannot be the correct answer as in this situation 301 Moved Permanently The URL of the requested
resource has been changed permanently. The new URL is given in the response. ----------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Lay man's
term the scenario would be: API CLIENT > MuleSoft API - HTTP request Hey, API.. process this
> External API API CLIENT < MuleSoft API - http response "I'm sorry Client.. something is wrong
with that request" < (4XX) External API
An XA transaction Is being configured that involves a JMS connector listening for Incoming JMS
messages. What is the meaning of the timeout attribute of the XA transaction, and what happens
after the timeout expires?
C
Explanation:
* Setting a transaction timeout for the Bitronix transaction manager
Set the transaction timeout either
In wrapper.conf
In CloudHub in the Properties tab of the Mule application deployment
The default is 60 secs. It is defined as
mule.bitronix.transactiontimeout = 120
* This property defines the timeout for each transaction created for this manager.
If the transaction has not terminated before the timeout expires it will be automatically rolled
back.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Info around Transaction Management:
Bitronix is available as the XA transaction manager for Mule applications
To use Bitronix, declare it as a global configuration element in the Mule application
<bti:transaction-manager />
Each Mule runtime can have only one instance of a Bitronix transaction manager, which is
shared by all Mule applications
For customer-hosted deployments, define the XA transaction manager in a Mule domain
Then share this global element among all Mule applications in the Mule runtime
Refer to the exhibit.
A Mule 4 application has a parent flow that breaks up a JSON array payload into 200 separate items,
then sends each item one at a time inside an Async scope to a VM queue.
A second flow to process orders has a VM Listener on the same VM queue. The rest of this flow
processes each received item by writing the item to a database.
This Mule application is deployed to four CloudHub workers with persistent queues enabled.
What message processing guarantees are provided by the VM queue and the CloudHub workers, and
how are VM messages routed among the CloudHub workers for each invocation of the parent flow
under normal operating conditions where all the CloudHub workers remain online?
B
Explanation:
Correct answer is EACH item VM message is processed AT LEAST ONCE by ONE ARBITRARY CloudHub
worker. Each of the four CloudHub workers can be expected to process some item VM messages In
Cloudhub, each persistent VM queue is listened on by every CloudHub worker - But each message is
read and processed at least once by only one CloudHub worker and the duplicate processing is
possible - If the CloudHub worker fails , the message can be read by another worker to prevent loss
of messages and this can lead to duplicate processing - By default , every CloudHub worker's VM
Listener
receives
different
messages
from
VM
Queue
Referenece:
https://dzone.com/articles/deploying-mulesoft-application-on-1-worker-vs-mult
Refer to the exhibit.
An organization uses a 2-node Mute runtime cluster to host one stateless API implementation. The
API is accessed over HTTPS through a load balancer that uses round-robin for load distribution.
Two additional nodes have been added to the cluster and the load balancer has been configured to
recognize the new nodes with no other change to the load balancer.
What average performance change is guaranteed to happen, assuming all cluster nodes are fully
operational?
D
An integration Mule application is deployed to a customer-hosted multi-node Mule 4 runtime duster.
The Mule application uses a Listener operation of a JMS connector to receive incoming messages
from a JMS queue.
How are the messages consumed by the Mule application?
C
Explanation:
Correct answer is Depending on the Listener operation configuration, either all messages are
consumed by ONLY the primary cluster node or else EACH message is consumed by ANY ONE cluster
node
For applications running in clusters, you have to keep in mind the concept of primary node and how
the connector will behave. When running in a cluster, the JMS listener default behavior will be to
receive messages only in the primary node, no matter what kind of destination you are consuming
from. In case of consuming messages from a Queue, youll want to change this configuration to
receive messages in all the nodes of the cluster, not just the primary.
This can be done with the primaryNodeOnly parameter:
<jms:listener config-ref="config" destination="${inputQueue}" primaryNodeOnly="false"/>
An Integration Mule application is being designed to synchronize customer data between two
systems. One system is an IBM Mainframe and the other system is a Salesforce Marketing Cloud
(CRM) instance. Both systems have been deployed in their typical configurations, and are to be
invoked using the native protocols provided by Salesforce and IBM.
What interface technologies are the most straightforward and appropriate to use in this Mute
application to interact with these systems, assuming that Anypoint Connectors exist that implement
these interface technologies?
C
Explanation:
Correct answer is IBM: CICS CRM: SOAP
* Within Anypoint Exchange, MuleSoft offers the IBM CICS connector. Anypoint Connector for IBM
CICS Transaction Gateway (IBM CTG Connector) provides integration with back-end CICS apps using
the CICS Transaction Gateway.
* Anypoint Connector for Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Marketing Cloud Connector) enables you to
connect to the Marketing Cloud API web services (now known as the Marketing Cloud API), which is
also known as the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This connector exposes convenient operations via
SOAP for exploiting the capabilities of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
What is required before an API implemented using the components of Anypoint Platform can be
managed and governed (by applying API policies) on Anypoint Platform?
C
Explanation:
Context of the question is about managing and governing mule applications deployed on Anypoint
platform.
Anypoint API Manager (API Manager) is a component of Anypoint Platform that enables you to
manage, govern, and secure APIs. It leverages the runtime capabilities of API Gateway and Anypoint
Service Mesh, both of which enforce policies, collect and track analytics data, manage proxies,
provide encryption and authentication, and manage applications.
Prerequisite of managing an API is that the API must be published to Anypoint Exchange. Hence the
correct option in C
Mule Ref Doc :
https://docs.mulesoft.com/api-manager/2.x/getting-started-proxy
Reference:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/api-manager/2.x/api-auto-discovery-new-concept
Refer to the exhibit.
One of the backend systems invoked by an API implementation enforces rate limits on the number of
requests a particular client can make. Both the backend system and the API implementation are
deployed to several non-production environments in addition to production.
Rate limiting of the backend system applies to all non-production environments. The production
environment, however, does NOT have any rate limiting.
What is the most effective approach to conduct performance tests of the API implementation in a
staging (non-production) environment?
A
Explanation:
Correct answer is Create a mocking service that replicates the backend systems production
performance characteristics. Then configure the API implementation to use the mocking service and
conduct the performance tests
* MUnit is for only Unit and integration testing for APIs and Mule apps. Not for performance Testing,
even if it has the ability to Mock the backend.
* Bypassing the backend invocation defeats the whole purpose of performance testing. Hence it is
not a valid answer.
* Scaled down performance tests cant be relied upon as performance of API's is not linear against
load.
An API has been unit tested and is ready for integration testing. The API is governed by a Client ID
Enforcement policy in all environments.
What must the testing team do before they can start integration testing the API in the Staging
environment?
B
Explanation:
* It's mentioned that the API is governed by a Client ID Enforcement policy in all environments.
* Client ID Enforcement policy allows only authorized applications to access the deployed API
implementation.
* Each authorized application is configured with credentials: client_id and client_secret.
* At runtime, authorized applications provide the credentials with each request to the API
implementation.
MuleSoft
Reference:
https://docs.mulesoft.com/api-manager/2.x/policy-mule3-client-id-based-
policies
What requires configuration of both a key store and a trust store for an HTTP Listener?
A
A retailer is designing a data exchange interface to be used by its suppliers. The interface must
support secure communication over the public internet. The interface must also work with a wide
variety of programming languages and IT systems used by suppliers.
What are suitable interface technologies for this data exchange that are secure, cross-platform, and
internet friendly, assuming that Anypoint Connectors exist for these interface technologies?
D
Explanation:
* As per definition of API by Mulesoft , it is Application Programming Interface using HTTP-based
protocols. Non-HTTP-based programmatic interfaces are not APIs.
* HTTP-based programmatic interfaces are APIs even if they dont use REST or JSON. Hence
implementation based on Java RMI, CORBA/IIOP, raw TCP/IP interfaces are not API's as they are not
using HTTP.
* One more thing to note is FTP was not built to be secure. It is generally considered to be an
insecure protocol because it relies on clear-text usernames and passwords for authentication and
does not use encryption.
* Data sent via FTP is vulnerable to sniffing, spoofing, and brute force attacks, among other basic
attack methods.
Considering the above points only correct option is
-XML over ActiveMQ
- XML over SFTP
- XML/REST over HTTPS
An organization currently uses a multi-node Mule runtime deployment model within their
datacenter, so each Mule runtime hosts several Mule applications. The organization is planning to
transition to a deployment model based on Docker containers in a Kubernetes cluster. The
organization has already created a standard Docker image containing a Mule runtime and all required
dependencies (including a JVM), but excluding the Mule application itself.
What is an expected outcome of this transition to container-based Mule application deployments?
A
Explanation:
* Organization can continue using existing load balancer even if backend application changes are
there. So option A is ruled out.
* As Mule runtime is within their datacenter, this model is RTF and not PCE. So option C is ruled out.
Mule runtime deployment model within their datacenter, so each Mule runtime hosts several Mule
applications -- This mean PCE or Hybird not RTF - Also mentioned in Question is that - Mule runtime
is hosting several Mule Application, so that also rules out RTF and as for hosting multiple Application
it will have Domain project which need redesign to make it microservice architecture
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Correct Answer: Required redesign of Mule applications to follow microservice
Explanation:architecture principles
A team would like to create a project skeleton that developers can use as a starting point when
creating API Implementations with Anypoint Studio. This skeleton should help drive consistent use of
best practices within the team.
What type of Anypoint Exchange artifact(s) should be added to Anypoint Exchange to publish the
project skeleton?
D