Exam AZ-600: Configuring Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub

Configuring and Operating a Hybrid Cloud with Microsoft Azure Stack Hub (AZ-600) exam is designed for individuals who are in the role of Azure administrators or Azure Stack Hub operators. They are responsible for:

• Firstly, providing cloud services to end-users or customers from within their own datacenter using Azure Stack Hub.
• Secondly, planning, deploying, packaging, updating, and maintaining the Azure Stack Hub infrastructure. 
• Thirdly, offering hybrid cloud resources and managing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). 
• Next, serving as part of a larger team dedicated to cloud-based management and security or hybrid environments as part of an end-to-end infrastructure. 

However, passing this exam will help candidates to become Microsoft Certified: Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate.

Knowledge Requirement for Microsoft AZ-600 Exam

For AZ-600 exam:

• Firstly, candidates must have experience in managing and operating Azure Stack Hub environments. And, a good knowledge understanding of Azure, virtualization, networking, and identity management. 
• Secondly, they must know about the Azure Stack Hub process for enabling DevOps processes and the hybrid development model.

Learning Objectives

Microsoft provides candidates access to its learning objectives provided for the certification exams. These AZ-600 exam objectives help candidates to understand the concepts in a step by step format. However, the objectives include four main sections that includes:

• Firstly, providing services
• Secondly, implementing data center integration
• Thirdly, managing identity and access
• Lastly, managing infrastructure

Microsoft AZ-600 Exam Details

Microsoft Azure AZ-600 exam consists of 40-60 questions. The Microsoft Azure AZ-600 questions format can include scenario-based single answer questions, multiple-choice questions, arrange in the correct sequence type questions, drag & drop questions, mark review, drag, and drop type of questions. However, talking about the exam passing score, a candidate has to score a minimum of 700 or more. Further, the Microsoft AZ-600 exam cost is $165 USD and can be given in only the English language.

Scheduling Exam

Microsoft Azure AZ-600 exam measures the ability to perform tasks like implementing data center integration, managing identity and access and infrastructure. However, for scheduling the exam, candidates can log in to their Microsoft account and fill in the details. 

Microsoft AZ-600 Exam Course Outline

Microsoft provides a course outline for the AZ-600 exam covering the major sections to help in better preparation. This include:

Microsoft AZ-600 Exam Course Outline was updated on July 29, 2022.

1. Plan and deploy Azure Stack Hub (30—35%)

Plan an Azure Stack Hub deployment

• Recommend a deployment model for a specific scenario (Microsoft Documentation: Understand deployment models and the state of your resources)
• Recommend a name resolution strategy (Microsoft Documentation: Name resolution for resources in Azure virtual networks)
• Define fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and region name (Microsoft Documentation: Configure a fully qualified domain name in Exchange Server)
• Recommend a public and internal IP strategy (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Virtual Network concepts and best practices)
• Define static routes or Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configuration (Microsoft Documentation: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP))
• Recommend a datacenter firewall integration strategy (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Stack Hub firewall integration)
• Choose between Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) (Microsoft Documentation: Deploying Active Directory Federation Services in Azure, federation with Azure AD)
• Validate identity provider and network by using the Azure Stack Hub Readiness Checker tool (Microsoft Documentation: Validate Azure identity)
• Select a billing model

Plan and implement infrastructure certificates for Azure Stack Hub

• Choose between an Enterprise certificate authority (CA) and a public certificate (Microsoft Documentation: Certification Authority Guidance)
• Prepare certificates for Azure Stack Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Prepare Azure Stack Hub PKI certificates for deployment or rotation)
• Import certificates (Microsoft Documentation: Import-Certificate)
• Export PFX files (Microsoft Documentation: Personal Information Exchange (.pfx) Files, Export-PfxCertificate)
• Prepare folder structure
• Validate certificates by using the Azure Stack Hub Readiness Checker tool (Microsoft Documentation: Validate Azure Stack Hub PKI certificates, Azure Stack Hub Readiness Checker tool)
• Rotate secrets for certificates (Microsoft Documentation: Rotate secrets in Azure Stack Hub)

Manage Azure Stack Hub registration and billing

• Recommend a registration model (Microsoft Documentation: Register Azure Stack Hub with Azure)
• Register in a connected environment
• Register in a disconnected environment (Microsoft Documentation: Disconnected Environment)
• Validate Azure Stack Hub registration (Microsoft Documentation: Validate Azure registration)
• Refresh Azure Stack Hub registration (Microsoft Documentation: Manage Azure Stack Hub registration)
• Set up usage data reporting (Microsoft Documentation: Report Azure Stack Hub usage data to Azure)
• View and retrieve usage data by using the usage API (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Consumption API overview)
• Manage usage and billing in multitenant and cloud solution provider (CSP) scenarios (Microsoft Documentation: Manage usage and billing for Azure Stack Hub as a Cloud Solution Provider)

Set up management environment

• Obtain and connect to Azure Resource Manager endpoints (Microsoft Documentation: Connect to Azure Resource Manager on your Azure Stack Edge device)
• Download and deploy Operator Access Workstation (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Stack Hub Operator Access Workstation)
• Install PowerShell modules for Azure Stack Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Install PowerShell Az module for Azure Stack Hub)
• Enable Azure CLI for Azure Stack Hub users (Microsoft Documentation: Install Azure CLI on Azure Stack Hub)
• Download and deploy Azure Stack PowerShell tools (Microsoft Documentation: Download Azure Stack Hub tools from GitHub)
• Add relevant environment based on a scenario (Microsoft Documentation: Create and target an environment)
• Enable the Emergency VM Access Service (EVA) (Microsoft Documentation: Emergency VM access (EVA) – Public preview)

2. Provide Services (20—25%)

Manage Azure Stack Hub Marketplace

• Populate Azure Stack Hub Marketplace from a connected environment (Microsoft Documentation: Download Marketplace items to Azure Stack Hub)
• populate Azure Stack Hub Marketplace in a disconnected environment (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Stack Hub Marketplace, Downloading the Marketplace items to Azure Stack Hub)
• create a custom Azure Stack Hub Marketplace item (Microsoft Documentation: Process to create and publish a custom Azure Stack Hub Marketplace item)
• manage lifecycle for Azure Stack Hub Marketplace items (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Marketplace items available for Azure Stack Hub)
• Create an ARM template (Microsoft Documentation: ARM templates)

Offer the Azure App Services resource provider

• plan an App Services resource provider deployment (Microsoft Documentation: Plan App Service server roles in Azure Stack Hub)
• deploy an App Services resource provider (Microsoft Documentation: Deploying App Service in Azure Stack Hub)
• update an App Services resource provider (Microsoft Documentation: Update Azure App Service on Azure Stack Hub)
• scale roles based on capacity requirements (Microsoft Documentation: Capacity planning for App Service server roles in Azure Stack Hub)
• rotate App Services secrets and certificates (Microsoft Documentation: Rotate App Service on Azure Stack Hub secrets and certificates)
• manage worker tiers (Microsoft Documentation: Add workers and infrastructure in Azure App Service on Azure Stack Hub)
• Back up App Service resource provider, including SQL databases, file server share, and secrets (Microsoft Documentation: Back up App Service on Azure Stack Hub)

Offer the Azure Event Hubs resource provider

• plan an Event Hubs resource provider deployment (Microsoft Documentation: Capacity planning for Event Hubs on Azure Stack Hub, What is Event Hubs on Azure Stack Hub?)
• deploy an Event Hubs resource provider (Microsoft Documentation: Offer an Event Hubs resource provider for Azure Stack Hub)
• update an Event Hubs resource provider (Microsoft Documentation: Update an Azure Stack Hub resource provider)
• rotate Event Hubs secrets and certificates (Microsoft Documentation: Rotate secrets for Event Hubs on Azure Stack Hub)

Offer services

• create and manage quotas (Microsoft Documentation: What are Quota types in Azure Stack Hub?)
• create and manage plans (Microsoft Documentation: Process of creating a plan in Azure Stack Hub)
• creating and managing offers (Microsoft Documentation: Create an offer in Azure Stack Hub)
• create and manage user subscriptions (Microsoft Documentation: Create subscriptions in Azure Stack Hub)
• change user subscription owner (Microsoft Documentation: Change the billing owner for an Azure Stack Hub user subscription)

3. Manage Infrastructure (40—45%)

Manage identity and access

• Assign users and groups in Azure Stack Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Manage access to resources in Azure Stack Hub with role-based access control)
• Grant an app access to resources (Microsoft Documentation: Use the portal to create an Azure AD application and service principal that can access resources)
• Define a custom role in Azure AD for delegating Azure Stack Hub management tasks to users (Microsoft Documentation: Create a custom role for Azure Stack Hub registration)
• Register a tenant directory with Azure Stack Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Register Azure Stack Hub with Azure)
• Update a tenant directory (Microsoft Documentation: Set up a tenant)
• Unregister a tenant directory (Microsoft Documentation: Clean up resources and delete the tenant)

Manage and maintain system health

• Monitor system health by using the administrator portal (Microsoft Documentation: How to check Microsoft 365 service health)
• Monitor system health by using PowerShell (Microsoft Documentation: Manage system health on Azure Stack Hub)
• monitor system health by using the REST API (Microsoft Documentation: Integrate external monitoring solution with Azure Stack Hub)
• Respond to and manage alerts (Microsoft Documentation: Manage and respond to security alerts in Microsoft Defender for Cloud)
• Validate health and system status by using Test-AzureStack (Microsoft Documentation: Validate Azure Stack Hub system state)
• Monitor Azure Stack Hub infrastructure certificates (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Monitor on Azure Stack Hub)
• Collect diagnostic logs on demand by using the administrator portal (Microsoft Documentation: Diagnostic log collection)
• Collect diagnostic logs on demand by using the privileged endpoint (Microsoft Documentation: Send Azure Stack Hub diagnostic logs by using the privileged endpoint (PEP))
• Configure automatic diagnostic log collection (Microsoft Documentation: Diagnostic log collection)
• Configure syslog forwarding for Azure Stack Hub infrastructure (Microsoft Documentation: Integrate Azure Stack Hub with monitoring solutions using syslog forwarding)

Plan and configure business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR)

• Retrieve BitLocker recovery keys (Microsoft Documentation: BitLocker recovery guide)
• Recommend a BCDR strategy (Microsoft Documentation: Build high availability into your BCDR strategy)
• Recommend a solution for tenant backups
• Choose a method for infrastructure backups (Microsoft Documentation: Backup cloud and on-premises workloads to cloud)
• configure storage target for infrastructure backups (Microsoft Documentation: Protect VMs deployed on Azure Stack Hub, Set up backup for storage accounts)
• configuring certificates for infrastructure backups (Microsoft Documentation: Infrastructure Backup Service best practices, Infrastructure Backup Service reference)
• configure the frequency and retention policy for infrastructure backups (Microsoft Documentation: Setting retention period, Protection policies)
• Test backup and restore of infrastructure by using Azure Stack Development Kit (Microsoft Documentation: Recover data in Azure Stack Hub with the Infrastructure Backup Service)
• Enable backup by using PowerShell (Microsoft Documentation: Back up a virtual machine in Azure with PowerShell)
• Validate success status of backup (Microsoft Documentation: Monitor the health of your backups using Azure Backup Metrics)

Perform node and system-wide operations

• Add nodes (Microsoft Documentation: Add scale unit nodes in Azure Stack Hub)
• Manage storage capacity by reclaiming space or rebalancing (Microsoft Documentation: Manage storage capacity for Azure Stack Hub)
• Add IP pools (Microsoft Documentation: Create an Azure Batch pool with specified public IP addresses)
• Stop and start Azure Stack Hub (Microsoft Documentation: Start and stop Azure Stack Hub)
• Perform node operations, including start, stop, resume, repair, drain, and shutdown (Microsoft Documentation: Scale unit node actions in Azure Stack Hub – Ruggedized)
• Configure Time Server (NTP) (Microsoft Documentation: Windows Time service tools and settings)
• Configure syslog server (Microsoft Documentation: Collect Syslog data sources with Log Analytics agent)
• Configure DNS server (Microsoft Documentation: DNS Server)
• Update Azure Stack Hub, including scheduling, deploying, monitoring, and troubleshooting (Microsoft Documentation: Manage updates in Azure Stack Hub)
• Update Azure AD home directory (Microsoft Documentation: Add or update a user’s profile information using Azure Active Directory)

Configure and use privileged endpoints

• Connect to a privileged endpoint (Microsoft Documentation: Use the privileged endpoint in Azure Stack Hub)
• Configure the cloud admin user role (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD built-in roles)
• Unlock a support session (Microsoft Documentation: Unlock-SupportSession)
• Close the session on the privileged endpoint (Microsoft Documentation: Close-PrivilegedEndpoint)

For Queries: Check Microsoft AZ-600 Exam FAQs

Exam Policies

Microsoft Certification exam policies provide all the exam-related details and information with exam giving procedures. These exam policies have certain rules that need to be followed during the exam time or at testing centers. Some of them include:

Exam retake policy

This states that candidate’s failing the exam for the first time must wait 24 hours before retaking the exam. During this time, they can go onto the certification dashboard and reschedule the exam. If this happens for the second time then, they may have to wait for at least 14 days before retaking the exam. Likewise, this 14-day waiting period is also imposed between the third and fourth attempts and fourth and fifth attempts. However, candidates can only give any exam five times a year. And, the 12 month period starts from the very first attempt.

Exam reschedule and the cancellation policy

Microsoft will be temporarily waiving the reschedule and cancellation fee if candidates cancel their exams within 24 hours before the scheduled appointment. However, for rescheduling or canceling an appointment no charge will be applied at least 6 business days prior to your appointment. But, if a candidates cancel or reschedule an exam within 5 business days of your registered exam time then, a fee will be applied. Lastly, if a candidate failed to show up for an exam appointment or forgot to reschedule an appointment at least 24 hours then they can forfeit your entire exam fee.

Preparation Guide for Microsoft Azure AZ-600 Exam

Exam objectives

For having a good start for the Microsoft AZ-600 exam preparation, candidates must have familiarity with the exam objectives. The Microsoft AZ-600 exam objectives cover four important topics that will provide understanding in the major sections. So, check out the exam guide for getting topics and to prepare better.

Microsoft Learning Platform

Microsoft gives access to learning platforms covering various resources that will help in exam preparation. For the AZ-600 exam preparation, go through the Microsoft official website to get all the necessary information about the AZ-600 exam. Furthermore, this also provides advantages to the candidates for better understanding the concepts and in passing the exam.

Microsoft Docs

Microsoft documentation is the knowledge source that provides detailed information about the AZ-600 exam concepts. Moreover, using Microsoft Documentation, you will get to know the different scales of different Azure services. This consists of modules that will help you gain a lot of knowledge about the different services and concepts used according to the exam.

Online Study Groups

Online study groups can provide benefits to candidates during the exam preparation. That is to say, joining the study groups will help you to stay connected with the experts and professionals who are already on this pathway. Moreover, you can start discussing your query or the issue related to the exam in this group and take the AZ-600 exam study notes.

Practice Tests

Practice tests are important for having better preparation. By assessing yourself with Microsoft AZ-600 practice tests, you will know about your weak and strong areas. Moreover, you will be able to improve your answering skills that as a result will save a lot of time during the exam. The smart way to take the AZ-600 exam practice tests is after completing a full topic and then try the mock tests. This will also make your revision strong. So, find the best practice exam tests and get yourself prepared for the Microsoft AZ-600 certification exam.

Start preparing for Microsoft AZ-600 Exam Now!