Welcome to my AZ-104 Exam Study Guide. The aim of this guide is to help prepare you and provide you with all the information you need to book and pass the AZ-104 exam, earning you the title of Microsoft Azure Administrator.
The goal of earning this certification is to prove you have the technical expertise to implement, manage and monitor an organisation’s Microsoft Azure Environment. Microsoft recommends you have at least 6 months of experience with Azure before taking this exam. I am here to say that is not the right expectation and you have come to the right place!
AZ-104 Exam Info
The AZ-104 exam is the single exam you need to pass to earn the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.
Here is the snippet from Microsoft’s exam page:
“Candidates for this exam should have subject matter expertise implementing, managing, and monitoring an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.
Responsibilities for this role include implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment, plus provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources, when needed.
An Azure administrator often serves as part of a larger team dedicated to implementing an organization’s cloud infrastructure.
A candidate for this exam should have at least six months of hands-on experience administering Azure, along with a strong understanding of core Azure services, Azure workloads, security, and governance. In addition, this role should have experience using PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure portal, and Azure Resource Manager templates.”
Skills measured in this exam
- Manage Azure identities and governance
- Implement and manage storage
- Deploy and manage Azure compute resources
- Configure and manage virtual networking
- Monitor and back up Azure resources
How hard is the AZ-104 exam?
The AZ-104 exam leads you to an associate-level certification, meaning its difficulty level is intermediate. You are expected to have some practical experience with Azure and a strong understanding of core Azure services.
My advice is that you can earn this certification with only lab experience which can be gained for free using Microsoft labs and free azure services.
How long does is take to study for the AZ-104 exam?
Approximately 22 hours of study is required to get you to a level when you may pass this exam. Of course, this is dependent on your existing knowledge and experience of using Microsoft Azure.
You should use your study time wisely and effectively. There is no “one method fits all” when it comes to studying. So when you are looking through my AZ-104 Exam Study Guide, make you try to identify which area would be most beneficial to you.
Do I need experience for the AZ-104 exam?
There are different types of experiences you may have prior to going into this exam. One person may have hands-on real-life experiences with Azure and the other may just have experience completing labs and using the free Azure credits. But in reality, it does not matter if you have any experience before going into this exam.
Yes, the exams should demonstrate your ability to work with Azure, but I think they demonstrate something more important. That is your determination and motivation to push yourself as an engineer. It shows you are focused on yourself and want to be the best possible.
And if you are looking to leverage this certification to help prospect for your first job in Azure, then the knowledge you have gained through training is perfect!
My AZ-104 exam feedback after passing
In this exam, I got 60 questions and 3 case studies, in total I was given 180 minutes to complete the exam. At the time of taking the exam, there were no labs involved, however, that could have changed, so be prepared!
The exam was quite difficult, it covered a wide range of topics spanning the entirety of the skills outline you will find below. I found the questions particularly heaving on Azure compute management, such as creating and managing VM’s, scale sets, containers and app service. As well as virtual networking, including DNS, Firewall and security rules. There really was no hiding from anyone subject, so make sure you know a little bit of everything!
As with all Azure exams, if you do not already know, the questions were in the usual format, which included: multiple choice, drag and drop, pairing items, filling in the blanks and case studies. This goes for all Azure exams, so the more familiar you are with the format of the exams the better. If this is your first exam I suggest you take a look at the Microsoft Exam Sandbox and familiarise yourself with the formatting.
AZ-104 Microsoft Docs Exam Study Guide
Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
Manage Azure AD objects
create users and groups
manage user and group properties
- Add or update a user’s profile information using Azure Active Directory
- Edit your group information using Azure Active Directory
manage device settings
perform bulk user updates
manage guest accounts
- What is guest user access in Azure Active Directory B2B?
- Manage guest access with Azure AD access reviews
- Quickstart: Add guest users to your directory in the Azure portal
configure Azure AD Join
- How to: Plan your Azure AD join implementation
- Tutorial: Configure hybrid Azure Active Directory join for managed domains
configure self-service password reset
- Plan an Azure Active Directory self-service password reset
- How it works: Azure AD self-service password reset
- Licensing requirements for Azure AD self-service password reset
Manage role-based access control (RBAC)
create a custom role
- Tutorial: Create a custom role for Azure resources using Azure PowerShell
- Tutorial: Create a custom role for Azure resources using Azure CLI
provide access to Azure resources by assigning roles
interpret access assignments
- List role assignments using Azure RBAC and the Azure portal
- Understand deny assignments for Azure resources
manage multiple directories
Manage subscriptions and governance
configure Azure policies
- What is Azure Policy?
- Quickstart: Create a policy assignment to identify non-compliant resources
- Tutorial: Create and manage policies to enforce compliance
configure resource locks
apply tags
create and manage resource groups
- Manage Azure Resource Manager resource groups by using the Azure portal
- Manage Azure resource groups by using Azure PowerShell
move resources
remove RGs
manage subscriptions
configure Cost Management
configure management groups
- Create management groups for resource organization and management
- Manage your resources with management groups
Implement and manage storage (10-15%)
Manage storage accounts
configure network access to storage accounts
create and configure storage accounts
- Storage account overview
- Create an Azure Storage account
- Upgrade to a general-purpose v2 storage account
generate shared access signature
- Delegate access with a shared access signature
- Grant limited access to Azure Storage resources using shared access signatures (SAS)
manage access keys
implement Azure storage replication
configure Azure AD Authentication for a storage account
Manage data in Azure Storage
export from Azure job
import into Azure job
install and use Azure Storage Explorer
copy data by using AZCopy
Configure Azure files and Azure blob storage
create an Azure file share
create and configure Azure File Sync service
- Planning for an Azure File Sync deployment
- Tutorial: Extend Windows file servers with Azure File Sync
configure Azure blob storage
configure storage tiers for Azure blobs
Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25-30%)
Configure VMs for high availability and scalability
configure high availability
- Availability options for virtual machines in Azure
- Manage the availability of Windows virtual machines in Azure
deploy and configure scale sets
Automate deployment and configuration of VMs
modify Azure Resource Manager (ARM) template
- Extend Azure Resource Manager template functionality
- Azure Resource Manager templates overview
- Tutorial: Create and deploy your first Azure Resource Manager template
configure VHD template
deploy from template
save a deployment as an ARM template
automate configuration management by using custom script extensions
- Custom Script Extension for Windows
- Use the Azure Custom Script Extension Version 2 with Linux virtual machines
Create and configure VMs
configure Azure Disk Encryption
move VMs from one resource group to another
manage VM sizes
add data discs
- Attach a managed data disk to a Windows VM by using the Azure portal
- Attach a data disk to a Windows VM with PowerShell
configure networking
- Common PowerShell commands for Azure Virtual Networks
- How to open ports to a virtual machine with the Azure portal
- Create and manage a Windows virtual machine that has multiple NICs
redeploy VMs
Create and configure containers
create and configure Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Quickstart: Deploy an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using the Azure portal
create and configure Azure Container Instances (ACI)
- What is Azure Container Instances?
- Quickstart: Deploy a container instance in Azure using the Azure portal
- Quickstart: Deploy a container instance in Azure using the Azure CLI
Create and configure Web Apps
create and configure App Service
create and configure App Service Plans
Configure and manage virtual networking (30-35%)
Implement and manage virtual networking
create and configure VNET peering
- Virtual network peering overview
- Azure Virtual Network frequently asked questions (FAQ) VNet Peering
- Tutorial: Connect virtual networks with virtual network peering using the Azure portal
- Create a virtual network peering – different deployment models, same subscription
- Create, change, or delete a virtual network peering
configure private and public IP addresses, network routes, network interface, subnets, and virtual network
- What is Azure Virtual Network?
- Quickstart: Create a virtual network using the Azure portal
- Virtual network traffic routing
- Networking limits
- Create, change, or delete a public IP address
- Add, change, or remove IP addresses for an Azure network interface
- Associate a public IP address to a virtual machine
- Subnet extension
- Virtual network traffic routing
- Add network interfaces to or remove network interfaces from virtual machines
Configure name resolution
configure Azure DNS
- What is Azure DNS?
- What is Azure Private DNS?
- Quickstart: Create an Azure DNS zone and record using the Azure portal
- Azure DNS FAQ
configure custom DNS settings
- Name resolution for resources in Azure virtual networks
- Use Azure DNS to provide custom domain settings for an Azure service
configure a private or public DNS zone
- Tutorial: Host your domain in Azure DNS
- Quickstart: Create an Azure private DNS zone using the Azure portal
Secure access to virtual networks
create security rules
associate an NSG to a subnet or network interface
evaluate effective security rules
deploy and configure Azure Firewall
deploy and configure Azure Bastion Service
Configure load balancing
configure Application Gateway
configure an internal load balancer
configure load balancing rules
configure a public load balancer
troubleshoot load balancing
Monitor and troubleshoot virtual networking
monitor on-premises connectivity
use Network Performance Monitor
use Network Watcher
troubleshoot external networking
troubleshoot virtual network connectivity
Integrate an on-premises network with an Azure virtual network
create and configure Azure VPN Gateway
create and configure VPNs
configure ExpressRoute
configure Azure Virtual WAN
Monitor and back up Azure resources (10-15%)
Monitor resources by using Azure Monitor
configure and interpret metrics
configure Log Analytics
query and analyze logs
set up alerts and actions
- Create, view, and manage metric alerts using Azure Monitor
- Metric Alerts with Dynamic Thresholds in Azure Monitor
- Create Metric Alerts for Logs in Azure Monitor
configure Application Insights
Implement backup and recovery
configure and review backup reports
perform backup and restore operations by using Azure Backup
create a Recovery Services Vault
use soft delete to recover Azure VMs
create and configure backup policy
perform site-to-site recovery by using Azure Site Recovery
Microsoft Learn self-paced learning paths
Microsoft learn is one of the best places for you to study for the AZ-104 exam. They consist of self-path modules which cover the entirety of the skills outline, listed above.
How to take the AZ-104 Exam for Free
Microsoft always provides many incentives for people to learn their products. And probably the biggest one of all is offering users to take their exams for free. However, it is not always obvious how you can do just that.
Take a look at my post on How to get Free Microsoft Exams Certifications. I cover all of the known methods that you can legitimately get access to free Exam vouchers and heavy discounts on all the popular exams, including the AZ-104 exam.
Summary
Thank you for taking the time to read my AZ-104 exam study guide. I hope this will aid you to book and passing the AZ-104 exam, earning your the title of Microsoft Certificate: Azure Administrator Associate.
For additional study resources and content check out my post detailing all my favourite Azure exam study resources here:
Complete Azure training and online learning guide
If you are looking to renew your Azure certification, check out my certification renewal exam feedback.
