Welcome to our AZ-800 Study Guide! This is for the AZ-800 Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure exam, the follow on from the infamous MCSA server exams that were let go by Microsoft! In this AZ-800 study guide, I hope to prepare you for this new exam and help you take the AZ 800 for free. By passing the AZ-800 and AZ-801 you will become a Microsoft Certified Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate! The exam is released for beta takers in December 2021 so you have plenty of time to get prepared. Early adopters of the exam have the option to take the Exam for free with a Microsoft Certification voucher from one of their skills challengers or get an 80% discount by being one of the first 300 to take the exam.
Page Contents
- About the AZ-800 Exam
- My AZ-800 Exam Feedback
- AZ-800 Study Guide
- Deploy and manage Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in onpremises and cloud environments (30–35%)
- Manage Windows Servers and workloads in a hybrid environment (10–15%)
- Manage virtual machines and containers (15–20%)
- Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure (15–20%)
- Manage storage and file services (15–20%)
- How to take the AZ-800 Exam for Free
About The AZ-800 Exam
Exam AZ-800: Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure (beta)
Candidates for this exam administer core Windows Server workloads using on-premises, hybrid, and cloud technologies. These professionals should have expertise in implementing and managing on-premises and hybrid solutions, such as identity, management, compute, networking, and storage. They use administrative tools and technologies, such as Windows Admin Center, PowerShell, Azure Arc, and IaaS virtual machine administration.
A candidate for this exam should have extensive experience working with Windows Server operating systems.
This exam is part 1 of the criteria to becoming a Microsoft Certified Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate, below you can see the path that you will need to take to achieve this certification.
My AZ-800 Exam Feedback
I completed this exam in early December 2021 and felt very confident about passing after I completed my study following the Microsoft documentation links below.
The exam totalled 120 minutes and I had 54 questions to complete. It included all the usual question formats such as; drag and drop, multiple choice, pairing the answers and case studies.
I have a complete post on my AZ-800 Feedback Here.
AZ-800 Study Guide
Study Material for this Exam
Simply click on each subject line to take you to the relevant training material of our AZ-800 Study Guide!
Deploy and manage Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in onpremises and cloud environments (30–35%)
This section is all about deploying, configuring and administering both Active Directory on-premise in your traditional Windows Server environment and Azure Active Directory Domain Services which is in the Azure Cloud. You will also need to have a good understanding of the hybrid topology in between which connects your traditional Active Directory Domain Service and Azure ADDS. By following the link below and completing the reading along with some hands-on experience you should be well on your way to building confidence with the topologies.
Deploy and manage AD DS domain controllers
- deploy and manage domain controllers on-premises
- deploy and manage domain controllers in Azure
- deploy Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODCs)
- troubleshoot flexible single master operations (FSMO) roles
Configure and manage multi-site, multi-domain, and multi-forest environments
- configure and manage forest and domain trusts
- configure and manage AD DS sites
- configure and manage AD DS replication
Create and manage AD DS security principals
- create and manage AD DS users and groups
- manage users and groups in multi-domain and multi-forest scenarios
- implement group managed service accounts (gMSAs)
- Join Windows Servers to AD DS, Azure AD DS, and Azure AD
Implement and manage hybrid identities
- implement Azure AD Connect
- manage Azure AD Connect Synchronization
- implement Azure AD Connect cloud sync
- integrate Azure AD, AD DS, and Azure AD DS
- manage Azure AD DS
- manage Azure AD Connect Health
- manage authentication in on-premises and hybrid environments
- configure and manage AD DS passwords
Manage Windows Server by using domain-based Group Policies
Manage Windows Servers and workloads in a hybrid environment (10– 15%)
This section is all about managing and maintaining your Windows Servers both on-premise and in the Azure cloud. You will also need to know about managing on-premise servers through Azure and various hybrid scenarios. Covered below is everything you need to understand and expand on to apply to scenarios you may be given in the exam. The exam will cover the Windows Admin Centre, Desired State Configuration, some PowerShell and everything on managing a maintaining your hybrid workloads.
Manage Windows Servers in a hybrid environment
- deploy a Windows Admin Center gateway server
- configure a target machine for Windows Admin Center
- configure PowerShell Remoting
- configure CredSSP or Kerberos delegation for second hop remoting
- configure JEA for PowerShell Remoting
Manage Windows Servers and workloads by using Azure services
- manage Windows Servers by using Azure Arc
- assign Azure Policy Guest Configuration
- deploy Azure services using Azure Virtual Machine extensions on non-Azure machines
- manage updates for Windows machines
- integrate Windows Servers with Log Analytics
- integrate Windows Servers with Azure Security Center
- manage IaaS virtual machines (VMs) in Azure that run Windows Server
- implement Azure Automation for hybrid workloads
- create runbooks to automate tasks on target VMs
- implement DSC to prevent configuration drift in IaaS machines
Manage virtual machines and containers (15–20%)
Covered here is everything you need to know for the AZ-800 exam on managing, maintaining and adjusting your virtual machines and contrainers that are both on-premise and in the Azure Cloud. It is important to focus on your on-premise knowledge of Hyper-V also as it will be heavily covered in the exam. Make sure you check up on any new features of Hyper-V which could be related to Azure in any way.
Manage Hyper-V and guest virtual machines
- enable VM enhanced session mode
- manage VM using PowerShell Remoting, PowerShell Direct, and HVC.exe
- configure nested virtualization
- configure VM memory
- configure Integration Services
- configure Discrete Device Assignment
- configure VM Resource Groups
- configure VM CPU Groups
- configure hypervisor scheduling types
- manage VM Checkpoints
- implement high availability for virtual machines
- manage VHD and VHDX files
- configure Hyper-V network adapter
- configure NIC teaming
- configure Hyper-V switch
Create and manage containers
- create Windows Server container images
- manage Windows Server container images
- configure Container networking
- manage container instances
Manage Azure Virtual Machines that run Windows Server
Implement and manage an on-premises and hybrid networking infrastructure (15–20%)
Networking is the glue that connects all your resources both on premise and in the Azure Cloud. It is important that you understand how your on-premise infrastructure can connect to the Azure cloud. Other technologies your should become farely fluent with is IP Address Management (IPAM), DNS Sec, Hyper-V networking and Azure networking (which is not traditionally the same as you on premise environment).
Implement on-premises and hybrid name resolution
- integrate DNS with AD DS
- create and manage zones and records
- configure DNS forwarding/conditional forwarding
- integrate Windows Server DNS with Azure DNS private zones
- implement DNSSEC
Manage IP addressing in on-premises and hybrid scenarios
- implement and manage IPAM
- implement and configure the DHCP server role (on-premises only)
- resolve IP address issues in hybrid environments
- create and manage scopes
- create and manage IP reservations
- implement DHCP high availability
Implement on-premises and hybrid network connectivity
- implement and manage the Remote Access role
- implement and manage Azure Network Adapter
- implement and manage Azure Extended Network
- implement and manage Network Policy Server role
- implement Web Application Proxy
- implement Azure Relay
- implement site-to-site virtual private network (VPN)
- implement Azure Virtual WAN
- implement Azure AD Application Proxy
Manage storage and file services (15–20%)
The last section of the exam brief is about managing data and your users access to data. More specifically you should confident with your knowledge of Hyper-V and Azure disk types and limits, Azure Files and how this can be utilised in your hybrid environment and technologies such as FSRM and DFS.
Configure and manage Azure File Sync
- create Azure File Sync service
- create sync groups
- create cloud endpoints
- register servers
- create server endpoints
- configure cloud tiering
- monitor File Sync
- migrate DFS to Azure File Sync
Configure and manage Windows Server file shares
- configure Windows Server file share access
- configure file screens
- configure File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) quotas
- configure BranchCache
- implement and configure Distributed File System (DFS)
Configure Windows Server storage
Hopefully the direct links above for each subject within the AZ-800: Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure skills outline has been helpful. Not only is there the above you can learn from, here are some further great links to help you each your Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate certification:
The Implement a Windows Server hybrid cloud infrastructure Microsoft learning path!
How to take the AZ-800 Microsoft Exam for Free
I have lots of content over on my How to get Free Microsoft Exam Certifications post so make sure you click the link were I detail how you can take the exam for free which can be done at a local test centre or in the comfort of your own home (I always take them from home!).
Thank you for reading my AZ-800 Study Guide
Thank you for reading my AZ-800 Study Guide! This exam is typically for those who work closely with Azure architects and Microsoft 365 administrators in your organisation. You should be working often with Windows Server hybrid technologies and have extensive knowledge with on-premise Windows Server operating systems. But do not let that put you off! Whether you are just getting into Windows Server administration or the cloud, this exam is still the right path for you! Anyone can pass with the right training.
For additional study resources make sure you check out our Complete Azure Training and Online Learning Guide.
