Course Description

What Is IBM Security QRadar Corporate Training All About?

IBM Security QRadar is a widely adopted SIEM platform that enables organisations to detect, investigate, and respond to security threats by analysing events and network flows in a centralised system. It plays a crucial role in security operations by correlating data from multiple sources and generating actionable offenses.

This QRadar SIEM corporate training program is designed to help enterprise security teams build a strong foundation in QRadar architecture, data ingestion pipelines, correlation logic, and investigation workflows. The training focuses on how events and flows move through the platform, how internal services interact, and how offenses are generated from correlated security activity.

Participants gain hands-on exposure to QRadar’s core components, user interface, ingestion health, correlation engine behaviour, and analytical capabilities—equipping teams to operate QRadar confidently in real SOC environments.

Our Faculty

The training is delivered by industry practitioners with extensive experience in SOC operations and enterprise QRadar deployments. Trainers bring practical exposure to real-world security incidents, SIEM tuning challenges, and operational troubleshooting scenarios.

Each module is supported by guided labs that reinforce learning through hands-on interaction with QRadar services, pipelines, rules, and analytical tools. This practical-first approach ensures teams not only understand QRadar concepts but can also apply them effectively in live security operations.

Why Should You Choose ExcelR for the IBM QRadar Certification Course?

Organisations rely on QRadar to manage high volumes of security data while maintaining accuracy and performance. ExcelR’s approach focuses on building operational clarity rather than surface-level tool usage.

Through this program, teams gain structured exposure to correlation rules, offense lifecycle behaviour, analyst workflows, and tuning best practices. The training includes focused coverage on QRadar offense management training, helping SOC teams investigate incidents efficiently while reducing noise and false positives.

For enterprises looking to upskill their security teams systematically, ExcelR offers IBM QRadar certification training for teams that aligns learning outcomes with real operational responsibilities.

Support

ExcelR is known for its strong post-training support model that helps organisations reinforce learning outcomes after the sessions conclude. Teams can apply concepts learned during training to live environments with continued mentor guidance.

Support is available through email, chat, and phone for assistance related to learning access, trainer interaction, and program coordination. This ensures organisations derive long-term value from their IBM QRadar certification training for teams beyond the classroom experience.

Customised IBM QRadar Training for Corporate Requirements

The training can be customised to align with specific organisational security goals, SOC maturity levels, and deployment architectures. Factors such as team size, shift-based operations, and existing QRadar configurations are considered while designing the program.

This flexibility allows enterprises to adapt the QRadar SIEM corporate training program to focus on areas such as ingestion health, correlation tuning, AQL-based investigations, or operational troubleshooting. ExcelR's experience delivering IBM Security QRadar corporate training to multiple enterprises reflects its ability to meet diverse corporate security requirements.

Who Can Take This IBM QRadar Course?

SOC Analysts and Senior SOC Analysts
Security Engineers and Blue Team Members
Incident Response and Threat Monitoring Teams
SIEM Administrators managing QRadar environments
IT Security and Cybersecurity Professionals

Prerequisites

Basic understanding of networking concepts
Familiarity with security events and log data
General awareness of SOC operations
Prior SIEM exposure is helpful but not mandatory

Course Curriculum

Foundations & Core Architecture

Introduction to SIEM – role in security operations

Overview of QRadar – capabilities, deployment scenarios
QRadar Core Components
Console
Event Processor
Flow Processor (FP) (event processing)
Data Nodes – Ariel storage + search roles
App Node – tomcat (UI), accumulator (search indexing)
Event Collector (EC) – ariel_proxy / dispatcher, flow-related services
Core correlation

QRadar Architecture & Data Pipeline

High-level data path: log sources → EC → EP/FP → Ariel → correlation → offenses
Mapping to internal services from the Core sheet
Navigating the QRadar User Interface – Overview
Console layout, menus, and dashboards
High-level intro to: Offenses, Log Activity, Network Activity, Reports, Assets

Lab 1 – Platform & Services Walkthrough

Log in to QRadar
Identify core components & services (Console, EC, EP, FP, App Node, Data Nodes)
Use CLI to check key services (hostcontext, ecs-ec, ecs-ep, tomcat)

Data Ingestion – Events, Flows & Engine Pipelines

Event vs Flow Data – definitions, differences, relevance
Log Sources & Protocol Parsers (from Engine sheet)
Types of log sources (network, endpoint, authentication, cloud)
Protocol parsers and DSMs
Relationship between DSMs, protocol parsers, and normalisation
Configuring Log Sources – Event Log Collection
Syslog, Windows Event Logs, JDBC & API-based collection
Event Collector roles (ecs-ec, dispatcher, ariel_proxy)
Flow Data & Flow Processing
Flow sources & role of Flow Processor / nva_service (from Core sheet)
QRadar Network Insights (QNI) – deep packet inspection, flow enrichment
EPS/FPS Processing Pipeline (from Engine + Health Checks sheets)
End-to-end EPS/FPS flow through EC/EP/FP
Queueing & buffering behaviour
Impact of tuning on performance
Ingestion Health & Deployment Health (from Health Checks sheet)
System health/service checks via CLI
Deployment management and high-level validation
Basic EPS/FPS tuning & storage awareness

Lab 2 – Ingestion & Pipeline Validation

Onboard a new log source and a test flow source
Verify events/flows in Log Activity & Network Activity
Observe EPS/FPS, check basic service and deployment health via CLI

Rules, Correlation & Offense Management

Custom Rules & Building Blocks – Rule Engine Overview
Rule tests, responses, building block usage
Correlation engine internals (from Engine sheet)
Tuning Rules & Best Practices
Reducing false positives and noise
Performance impact of complex rules
Offense Drill-Down Panel (from UI sheet)
Offense drill-down panel: structure and navigation
Viewing contributing events, flows, assets, and timeline
Linking to Log Activity / Network Activity
Log Activity Tab – Analyst View (from UI sheet)
Log Activity tab specifics: filters, views, columns
Raw vs normalised event view
Using context menus for quick pivots
Network Activity Tab – Analyst View (from UI sheet)
Network Activity tab: flows, directions, ports, applications
Using flow views to investigate lateral movement/data exfil
Offense Lifecycle & OffenseManager Behaviour
Offense lifecycle: creation, updates, closure
Suppression & aggregation basics
Relationship between correlation rules and OffenseManager service

Lab 3 – Detection to Offense Workflow

Create/simple adjust correlation rule
Generate test traffic to trigger the rule
Investigate the resulting offense using:
Offense drill-down panel
Log Activity & Network Activity tabs

Search, AQL, Ariel Internals, Reporting & Extensions

AQL Console Usage (from UI sheet)
Ariel Query Language (AQL) console usage:
Running queries on event & flow tables
Syntax and query structure
AQL Functions & Advanced Queries (from UI sheet)
Functions: select UTF8(payload), GROUP BY, LAST, aggregation functions
Time filtering, filtering by log source, username, IP
Using AQL for threat hunting and incident investigation
Search & Query with AQL – Real-Time vs Historical
Optimising queries for performance and accuracy
Reports & Dashboards
Creating and customising reports
Dashboards for SOC operations and management views
Asset Management & QRadar Extensions
Asset discovery and enrichment
App Framework: extensions, Use Case Manager, apps for TI, reporting

Lab 4 – AQL, Ariel & Reporting

Build AQL queries using UTF8, GROUP BY, LAST
Compare query performance on different filters
Build and schedule a report based on AQL results

Administration, Patching, Health Checks & Troubleshooting

Patch & Fix Pack Installation Flow (from Admin sheet)
Patch & fix pack installation flow
Full deploy vs incremental deploy
Storage Management (from Admin + Health Checks sheets)
Disk monitoring & cleanup procedures
Managing /store growth
Storage section of system health checks
Backup, Snapshot & Recovery
Certificate & Trust Management
Certificate management commands
Certificate trust chain issues breaking ingestion
Validating and repairing TLS/SSL connectivity to log sources
System health/service checks (CLI validation), deployment health, performance tuning
Advanced Troubleshooting – Pipeline & Services
Operations & HA
Ingestion & offense issues
Replication failure of /store between sites
Restoration failure scenarios and recovery approaches
EPS/FPS tuning and impact on performance
Pipeline & parsing debugging techniques