Microsoft Azure is one of the most passionate cloud assistance and it’s expanding at a remarkable rate. This fast growth has made a tremendous command for people who know how to control and manage Azure implementations. One of the most prevalent job roles associated with the Microsoft Azure platform is the Azure administrator position. The persons who are looking for some guidance to become a Microsoft Azure Administrator can start their journey from here, as we are going to discuss the most essential key points for becoming a Microsoft Azure Administrator.
The path to becoming a Microsoft Azure Administrator is to clear the Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator. However, but, knowing about the role and certification is one thing and achieving that role is another. That is to say, to help you earn the role of Azure Administrator, in this blog, we will be talking about the top methods and resources that will help you achieve your dream job role.
But, before moving, let’s understand the role of Azure Administrator.
Defining the Role of Microsoft Azure Administrator
- As per Microsoft, Azure Administrators “implement, observe, and sustain the Microsoft Azure solutions, incorporating the major services linked to computing, network, storage, and .”
- Secondly, an Azure administrator often works as part of a more comprehensive team dedicated to executing an organization’s cloud infrastructure.
- Also, azure administrators are required to manage storage applications for VM virtual hard disks, user data, database files, and application data. Therefore, Azure managers are required to discover the application of particular Microsoft devices for storage administration.
- Administrators must guarantee that the data backups are perfect for restoration when required.
- Setting up private and public cloud systems
- Selection of the cloud provides according to needs
- Executing cost-effective cloud-based systems
Talking about the Salary:
The average yearly pay for a Microsoft Azure Administrator in India is 7.0 lakhs, with a range of 3.0 lakhs to 17.9 lakhs.
Ways to Become Microsoft Azure Administrator
The most essential factor of this process is building administrative abilities and a thorough understanding of the topics. However, there’s no need to be worried. We’ll go through how to become an Azure Administrator for both beginners and experts. Possessing the appropriate skills and expertise is the most important factor. So, let’s begin!
1. Passing the Microsoft AZ-104 Exam
The Microsoft AZ-104 exam is a new approach to getting a Microsoft Azure Administrator certified. The exam is designed to assess your ability to build, administer, and monitor identity in a cloud environment as an Azure Administrator. The certification exam is a revised version with new features that have been loaded and updated. The following are some of the most notable features:
- Importance of identities
- Secondly, focus on the management of data
- New domain for backup and recovery
- Lastly moving from virtual machines to compute resources
But, the question that arises here is do I have the right skills to take the exam? Let’s find out!
2. Focus on Enhancing Skills and Knowledge
Microsoft AZ-104 exam validates your knowledge and experience in various areas. However, you must have to focus on many things while preparing for the exam. The requirements include:
- Firstly, you must have subject matter practice in implementing, maintaining, and monitoring an association’s Microsoft Azure environment.
- Seconly, you should have at least 6 months of hands-on practice managing Azure, along with a clear understanding of focus Azure workloads, security, Azure services, and governance. In expanding, this role must have proficiency using Azure CLI, Azure portal, PowerShell, and Azure Resource Manager templates.
- Lastly, it is necessary to take a more nearby look at the role-special azure administrator abilities. The skills are extremely important for assuring alignment with the position of an Azure administrator.
3. Have a good Preparation Plan
This phase is essential because how you prepare for the exam is really significant. That is to say, having the right information, study resources, and references is important for exam preparation. However, in the section below, we’ll go over methods that will assist you in better preparing for your role as an Azure Administrator.
• Getting familiar with the Exam Guide
When you first start studying, it’s critical to go over all of the exam objectives. This will provide you with a clear picture of all the different topics and abilities that you will need to master. Furthermore, examining the exam objectives can eliminate any confusion in your mind, allowing you to concentrate on your preparation. Exam objectives can help you improve your understanding of the Microsoft Azure AZ-104 exam’s modules and subtopics. The topics are:
Microsoft AZ-104 Exam has been updated in the course outline as on April 27, 2023.
The Microsoft AZ-104 exam topics include:
Module 1: Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
1.1 Manage Azure AD objects
- Create users and groups (Microsoft Documentation: Add or delete users using Azure Active Directory)
- Manage licenses in Azure AD (Microsoft Documentation: Assign or remove licenses in the Azure Active Directory portal)
- Create administrative units (Microsoft Documentation: Administrative units in Azure Active Directory)
- Manage User and Group Properties (Microsoft Documentation: Update user’s profile information in Azure Active Directory)
- Manage device settings and device identity (Microsoft Documentation: Manage device identities using the Azure portal)
- Perform bulk user updates (Microsoft Documentation: Active Directory Bulk User Modification)
- Manage guest accounts (Microsoft Documentation: Quickstart: Add guest users to your directory in the Azure portal)
- Configure self-service password reset (Microsoft Documentation: Tutorial: Enable users to unlock their account or reset passwords using Azure Active Directory self-service password reset)
1.2 Manage access control
- Create custom role-based access control (RBAC) and Azure AD roles (Microsoft Documentation: Azure custom roles)
- Provide access to Azure resources by assigning roles at different scopes (Microsoft Documentation: Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal)
- Interpret access assignments (Microsoft Documentation: Role-based Access Control/Deny Assignments)
1.3 Manage Azure subscriptions and governance
- Configuring and managing Azure policies (Microsoft Documentation: Create and manage policies to enforce compliance)
- Configuring resource locks (Microsoft Documentation: Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes)
- Apply and manage tags on resources (Microsoft Documentation: Use tags to organize your Azure resources and management hierarchy)
- Managing resource groups (Microsoft Documentation: Move resources to a new resource group or subscription)
- Managing subscriptions (Microsoft Documentation: Organize and manage multiple Azure subscriptions)
- Manage costs by using alerts, budgets, and recommendations (Microsoft Documentation: Use cost alerts to monitor usage and spending)
- Configuring management groups (Microsoft Documentation: Create management groups for resource organization and management)
Module 2: Implement and manage storage (15-20%)
2.1 Configure access to storage
- Configure network access to storage accounts (Microsoft Documentation: Configure Azure Storage firewalls and virtual networks)
- Create and configure storage accounts (Microsoft Documentation: Create an Azure Storage account)
- Generate shared access signature tokens (Microsoft Documentation: Grant limited access to Azure Storage resources using shared access signatures (SAS) )
- Configure stored access policies
- Manage access keys (Microsoft Documentation: Manage storage account access keys)
- Configure Azure AD Authentication for a storage account (Microsoft Documentation: Acquire a token from Azure AD for authorizing requests from a client application)
- Configure storage encryption (Microsoft Documentation: Azure encryption overview)
2.2 Manage data in Azure storage accounts
- Create import and export jobs (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Import/Export service)
- Manage data by using Azure Storage Explorer and AzCopy (Microsoft Documentation: Get started with AzCopy)
- Implement Azure Storage redundancy (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Storage redundancy)
- Configure object replication (Microsoft Documentation: Configure object replication for block blobs)
2.3 Configure Azure files and Azure blob storage
- Create an Azure file share (Microsoft Documentation: Create an Azure file share)
- Configure Azure blob storage (Microsoft Documentation: Upload, download, and list blobs with the Azure portal)
- Configure storage tiers (Microsoft Documentation: Hot, Cool, and Archive access tiers for blob data)
- Configure blob lifecycle management (Microsoft Documentation: Configure a lifecycle management policy)
Module 3: Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (20-25%)
3.1 Automate deployment of resources by using templates
- Modify an ARM template (Microsoft Documentation: Create and deploy ARM templates by using the Azure portal)
- Deploy a template
- Save a deployment as an ARM template (Microsoft Documentation: Use Azure portal to export a template)
- Deploy virtual machine (VM) extensions (Microsoft Documentation: Azure virtual machine extensions and features)
3.2 Create and configure VMs
- Create a VM (Microsoft Documentation: Create a Windows virtual machine)
- Manage images by using the Azure Compute Gallery (Microsoft Documentation: Store and share resources in an Azure Compute Gallery)
- Configure Azure Disk Encryption (Microsoft Documentation: Create and encrypt a Windows virtual machine with the Azure portal)
- Move VMs from one resource group to another (Microsoft Documentation: Move a Windows VM to another Azure subscription or resource group)
- Manage VM sizes (Microsoft Documentation: Sizes for virtual machines in Azure)
- Add data disks (Microsoft Documentation: Attach a managed data disk to a Windows VM by using the Azure portal)
- Configure VM network settings (Microsoft Documentation: Configure the network for your virtual machines)
- Configure VM availability options (Microsoft Documentation: Availability options for Azure Virtual Machines)
- Deploy and configure VM scale sets (Microsoft Documentation: Create a virtual machine scale set in the Azure portal)
3.3 Create and configure containers
- Configure sizing and scaling for Azure Container Instances (Microsoft Documentation: Set scaling rules in Azure Container Apps)
- Configure container groups for Azure Container Instances (Microsoft Documentation: Container groups in Azure Container Instances)
- Create and Configure Azure Container Apps
- Configure storage for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (Microsoft Documentation: Storage options for applications in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS))
- Configure scaling for AKS (Microsoft Documentation: Automatically scale a cluster to meet application demands)
- Configure network connections for AKS (Microsoft Documentation: Network concepts for applications in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS))
- Upgrade an AKS cluster (Microsoft Documentation: Upgrade an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster)
3.4 Create and configure Azure App Service
- Create an App Service plan (Microsoft Documentation: Manage an App Service plan in Azure)
- Configure scaling settings in an App Service plan (Microsoft Documentation: Scale up an app in Azure App Service)
- Create an App Service (Microsoft Documentation: App Service overview)
- Secure an App Service (Microsoft Documentation: Security in Azure App Service)
- Configure custom domain names (Microsoft Documentation: Add your custom domain name using the Azure Active Directory portal)
- Configure a backup for an App Service (Microsoft Documentation: Back up and restore your app in Azure App Service)
- Configuring networking settings (Microsoft Documentation: Configuring the Network)
- Configure deployment settings
Module 4: Configure and manage virtual networking (20-25%)
4.1 Configure virtual networks
- Create and configure virtual networks and subnets (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Virtual Network)
- Create and configure virtual network peering (Microsoft Documentation: Virtual network peering)
- Configure private and public IP addresses (Microsoft Documentation: Private IP addresses)
- Configure user-defined network routes (Microsoft Documentation: Virtual network traffic routing)
- Configure Azure DNS (Microsoft Documentation: Azure DNS)
4.2 Configure secure access to virtual networks
- Create and configure network security groups (NSGs) and application security groups (ASGs) (Microsoft Documentation: Network security groups)
- Evaluate effective security rules (Microsoft Documentation: Effective security rules view in Azure Network Watcher)
- Implement Azure Bastion (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Bastion)
- Configure service endpoints
- Configure private endpoints (Microsoft Documentation: private endpoint)
4.3 Configure load balancing
- Configure Azure Application Gateway (Microsoft Documentation: Application Gateway configuration overview)
- Configure an internal or public load balancer (Microsoft Documentation: Create an internal load balancer)
- Troubleshoot load balancing (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot Azure Load Balancer)
4.4 Monitor virtual networking
- Monitor on-premises connectivity (Microsoft Documentation: Monitor network connectivity by using Connection Monitor)
- Configure and use Azure Monitor for networks (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Monitor Network Insights)
- Use Azure Network Watcher (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Network Watcher)
- Troubleshoot external networking
- Troubleshoot virtual network connectivity (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshooting connectivity problems between Azure VMs)
Module 5: Monitor and Maintain Azure resources (10-15%)
5.1 Monitor resources by using Azure Monitor
- Configure and interpret metrics (Microsoft Documentation: Metrics in Azure Monitor)
- Configure Azure Monitor Log (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Monitor Logs overview)
- Query and analyze logs (Microsoft Documentation: Get started with log queries in Azure Monitor)
- Set up alerts and actions (Microsoft Documentation: Create, view, and manage metric alerts using Azure Monitor)
- Configure monitoring of VMs, storage accounts, and networks by using VM insights (Microsoft Documentation: VM insights)
5.2 Implement backup and recovery
- Create an Azure Recovery Services vault (Microsoft Documentation: Create and configure a Recovery Services vault)
- Create Azure backup vault (Microsoft Documentation: Backup vaults overview)
- Create and configure backup policy
- Perform backup and restore operations by using Azure Backup (Microsoft Documentation: restore Azure VM data in Azure portal)
- Configure Azure Site Recovery for Azure resources (Microsoft Documentation: Azure to Azure disaster recovery architecture)
- Perform failover to a secondary region by using Azure Site Recovery (Microsoft Documentation: Failover Azure VMs to a secondary region)
- Configure and review backup reports (Microsoft Documentation: Configure Azure Backup reports)
• Understanding concepts using the Microsoft Learning Paths
Microsoft serves the Exam AZ-104 learning paths, the aspirant must visit the authentic site of Microsoft. The candidate can get all reasonable knowledge on the site. Also, they will obtain different Learning Resources: Microsoft Azure Administrator learning pathways and documentation. Also, one can reach the guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator approved site of Microsoft. The learning paths for the AZ-104 exam are as follow:
- Prerequisites for Azure administrators:
- Understand the basic Azure concepts you’ll need to know as an Azure administrator.
- Manage identities and governance in Azure:
- Understsnd the process of managing Azure Active Directory objects, role-based access control (RBAC), subscriptions, and governance in Azure.
- Implement and manage storage in Azure:
- Understand the process of managing storage accounts, data in Azure Storage, and Azure File and Blob storage.
- Deploy and manage Azure compute resources:
- Understand the process of deploying and configuring virtual machines, containers, and Web Apps in Azure.
- Configure and manage virtual networks for Azure administrators:
- Understand the process of configuring and managing Azure network capabilities like connectivity services, application protection, application delivery, and network monitoring services.
- Monitor and back up Azure resources:
- Understand the process of monitoring resources by using Azure Monitor and implement backup and recover in Azure.
• Resolve your doubts using the Microsoft Documentation
Microsoft Documentations are necessary learning support while presenting for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub. The candidates will receive documentation on all topics correlating to the exam. This step is very essential in order to become a Microsoft Azure Administrator.
- Using the Azure Import/Export service to export the data from Azure Blob storage
- Working the Azure Import/Export service to import data to the Azure Blob Storage
- Get started with Storage Explorer, etc.
• Acquire hands-on skills using the Instructor-led training
Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator training contributions that Microsoft impersonates itself are presented on their website. The instructor-led training is necessary to support in order to provide for an exam. Moreover, the candidate can recognize the instructor-led training on the page of the exam on the Microsoft website. The following is the training plan proposed by Microsoft for the AZ-104 exam:
This course teaches IT Professionals the process of managing their Azure subscriptions, securing identities, administering the infrastructure, configuring virtual networking, connecting Azure and on-premises sites, managing network traffic, implementing storage solutions, creating and scaling virtual machines, implementing web apps and containers, back up and share data, and monitor your solution.
Azure Administration for AWS SysOps
This two-day training is for AWS Sysops administrators who want to learn about the differences between AWS and Azure, as well as how Azure is managed. Azure Administration, Azure Networking, Azure Compute, Azure Storage, and Azure Governance are the primary themes of the workshops. This session includes a lecture, practical activities, and a discussion/review. Further, during the workshop, you will create an end-to-end architecture that shows the course’s core features.
• Take Reference from Online Tutorials
Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Online Tutorial improves your knowledge and produces a pitch understanding of the exam theories. Additionally, they also incorporate exam details and methods. Nevertheless, these online tutorials give and in-depth information connected with the examination.
• Become part of Study Groups
The candidate needs to get and compete in education. So, we are suggesting you hop some studies clubs where everyone can study the approaches with the people that have the equal goal. This will influence the applicant completely in their preparation. Further, joining online forums is a great idea to boost your preparation process as they help you meet different people who are on the same road as you. Moreover, they provide you the advantage to ask your queries immediately and receive a response in a prompt manner. Online forums are generally headed by industry experts or certified professionals.
• Evaluate with Practice Test
The most important action is to halt hands-on practice tests. The Microsoft AZ-104 Practice tests are the one that ensures the claimant about their learning. There are many practice tests achievable on the internet now, the candidate can choose whichever they need. The practice test is helpful in implementing the Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator. Moreover, it will improve your answering skills as well which will result in saving a lot of time. And, the best way to start doing AZ-104 practice tests is after completing one full topic as this will provide a good revision. Lastly, just make sure to study well and crack the exam. So, Start Preparing Immediately!
Final Words
Above, we discussed every element of Microsoft Azure Administrator, including its features, benefits, and how to get started as a developer. This position will put your knowledge, skill, and ability to do a range of tasks to the test. To put it another way, if you want to improve your preparation, you must concentrate on all of the critical areas. Make a study timetable and pattern based on the material you’ve been given, and then start the preparation process step by step.
