Exam AZ-801: Configuring Windows Server Hybrid Advanced Services

The Microsoft AZ-801 exam is for candidates who can configure advanced Windows Server services on-premises, in hybrid environments, and in the cloud. These experts should be able to implement and manage on-premises and hybrid solutions, as well as conduct activities like security, migration, monitoring, high availability, troubleshooting, and disaster recovery. Windows Admin Center, PowerShell, Azure Arc, Azure Automation Update Management, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Azure Security Center, Azure Migrate, and Azure Monitor are some of the administrative tools and technologies they employ.

Knowledge requirement for the exam

Candidates taking the exam should have advanced skills and experience in working with Windows Server operating systems. They must have knowledge of setting up and controlling Windows Server on-premises, hybrid, and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform workloads.

Note: AZ-801 exam will be offered in December 2021.

Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate major tasks:

Candidates will be responsible for integrating Windows Server deployments with Azure services as well as managing Windows Server in on-premises networks. Candidates for this position must be able to manage and maintain Windows Server IaaS workloads on Azure in order to migrate and deploy workloads to Azure. Additionally, they must communicate with enterprise architects, Microsoft 365 administrators, Azure administrators, and network engineers.

In order to become Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate, candidates shave to pass both AZ-800 and AZ-801 exams.

Exam AZ-801: Configuring Windows Server Hybrid Advanced Services Interview Questions

Microsoft AZ-801 Exam Details

Microsoft Azure AZ-801 exam consists of 40-60 questions. The Microsoft Azure AZ-801 questions can be scenario-based single answer questions, multiple-choice questions, arrange in the correct sequence type questions, drag & drop questions, mark review, drag, and drop type questions. However, in order to pass the exam, a candidate must have a score of 700 or higher. Furthermore, the Microsoft AZ-801 exam costs $165 USD and is only available in English.

Microsoft AZ-801 Exam Course Outline

Microsoft provides a course outline for the AZ-801 exam covering the major sections to help in better preparation. This include:

Topic 1: Secure Windows Server on-premises and hybrid infrastructures (25–30%)

Secure Windows Server operating system

• configure and manage exploit protection (Microsoft Documentation: Enable exploit protection)
• configure and manage Windows Defender Application Control (Microsoft Documentation: Windows Defender Application Control management with Configuration Manager)
• configuring and manage Windows Defender for Servers
• configure and manage Windows Defender Credential Guard (Microsoft Documentation: Manage Windows Defender Credential Guard)
• configure SmartScreen (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender SmartScreen)
• implement operating system security by using Group Policies (Microsoft Documentation: Security policy settings)

Secure a hybrid Active Directory infrastructure

• configure password policies (Microsoft Documentation: Password policy recommendations)
• enable password block lists (Microsoft Documentation: Configure custom banned passwords for Azure Active Directory password protection)
• manage protected users (Microsoft Documentation: Protected Users Security Group)
• manage account security on a RODC (Microsoft Documentation: Read-Only DCs and the Active Directory Schema)
• harden domain controllers
• configure authentication policies silos (Microsoft Documentation: Authentication Policies and Authentication Policy Silos)
• restrict access to domain controllers (Microsoft Documentation: Securing Domain Controllers Against Attack)
• configure account security (Microsoft Documentation: What are security defaults?)
• manage AD built-in administrative groups (Microsoft Documentation: Active Directory Security Groups)
• manage AD delegation (Microsoft Documentation: Delegating Administration by Using OU Objects)
• implement and manage Microsoft Defender for Identity (Microsoft Documentation: What is Microsoft Defender for Identity?)

Identify and remediate Windows Server security issues by using Azure services

• monitor on-premises servers and Azure IaaS VMs by using Sentinel
• identify and remediate security issues on-premises servers and Azure IaaS VMs by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Security best practices for IaaS workloads in Azure)

Secure Windows Server networking

• manage Windows Defender Firewall (Microsoft Documentation: Best practices for configuring Windows Defender Firewall)
• implement domain isolation(Microsoft Documentation: Domain Isolation Policy Design)
• implement connection security rules (Microsoft Documentation: Configure the Rules to Require Encryption)

Secure Windows Server storage

• manage Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) (Microsoft Documentation: BitLocker)
• manage and recover encrypted volumes (Microsoft Documentation: Back up and restore encrypted Azure virtual machines)
• enable storage encryption by using Azure Disk Encryption (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of managed disk encryption options)
• manage disk encryption keys for IaaS virtual machines

Topic 2: Implement and manage Windows Server high availability (10–15%)

Implement a Windows Server failover cluster

• implement a failover cluster on-premises, hybrid, or cloud-only (Microsoft Documentation: Connecting Windows Server to Azure hybrid services)
• create a Windows failover cluster (Microsoft Documentation: Create a failover cluster)
• stretch cluster across datacenter or Azure regions (Microsoft Documentation: Stretched clusters overview)
• configure storage for failover clustering (Microsoft Documentation: Create a failover cluster)
• modify quorum options (Microsoft Documentation: Configure and manage quorum)
• configure network adapters for failover clustering (Microsoft Documentation: Create a failover cluster)
• configuring cluster workload options
• configure cluster sets (Microsoft Documentation: Deploy a cluster set)
• configure Scale-Out File Servers (Microsoft Documentation: Scale-Out File Server for application data overview)
• create an Azure witness (Microsoft Documentation: Deploy a Cloud Witness for a Failover Cluster)
• configure a floating IP address for the cluster (Microsoft Documentation: Guest clustering in a virtual network)
• implement load balancing for the failover cluster (Microsoft Documentation: Configure Azure Load Balancer for an FCI VNN)

Manage failover clustering

• implement cluster-aware updating (Microsoft Documentation: Cluster-Aware Updating overview)
• recover a failed cluster node (Microsoft Documentation: Recover from failover cluster instance failure)
• upgrade a node to Windows Server 2022 (Microsoft Documentation: Install, upgrade, or migrate to Windows Server)
• failover workloads between nodes (Microsoft Documentation: Use Cluster Shared Volumes in a failover cluster)
• install Windows updates on cluster nodes
• manage failover clusters using Windows Admin Center (Microsoft Documentation: Manage Failover Clusters with Windows Admin Center)

Implement and manage Storage Spaces Direct

• create a failover cluster using Storage Spaces Direct (Microsoft Documentation: Storage Spaces Direct overview)
• upgrade a Storage Spaces Direct node (Microsoft Documentation: Upgrade a Storage Spaces Direct cluster to Windows Server 2019)
• implement networking for Storage Spaces Direct (Microsoft Documentation: Deploy Storage Spaces Direct)
• configure Storage Spaces Direct (Microsoft Documentation: Deploy Storage Spaces Direct)

Topic 3: Implement disaster recovery (10–15%)

Manage backup and recovery for Windows Server

• back up and restore files and folders to Azure Recovery Services vault (Microsoft Documentation: Recover files from Azure virtual machine backup)
• install and manage Azure Backup Server (Microsoft Documentation: Install and upgrade Azure Backup Server)
• back up and recover using Azure Backup Server
• manage backups in Azure Recovery Services vault (Microsoft Documentation: Create and configure a Recovery Services vault)
• create a backup policy (Microsoft Documentation: Manage Azure VM backups with Azure Backup service)
• configure backup for Azure Virtual Machines using the built-in backup agent (Microsoft Documentation: Back up an Azure VM from the VM settings)
• recover a VM using temporary snapshots (Microsoft Documentation: How to restore Azure VM data in Azure portal)
• recover VMs to new Azure Virtual Machines
• restore a VM

Implement disaster recovery by using Azure Site Recovery

• configure Azure Site Recovery networking (Microsoft Documentation: About networking in Azure VM disaster recovery)
• configuring Site Recovery for on-premises VMs (Microsoft Documentation: Set up disaster recovery to Azure for on-premises VMware VMs – Classic)
• configure a recovery plan (Microsoft Documentation: Create and customize recovery plans)
• configure Site Recovery for Azure VMs (Microsoft Documentation: Set up disaster recovery to a secondary Azure region for an Azure VM)
• implement VM replication to a secondary datacenter or Azure region
• configure Azure Site Recovery policies (Microsoft Documentation: Set up disaster recovery for Azure VMs)

Protect virtual machines by using Hyper-V replicas

• configure Hyper-V hosts for replication
• manage Hyper-V replica servers (Microsoft Documentation: Set up Hyper-V Replica)
• configure VM replication (Microsoft Documentation: Set up Hyper-V Replica)
• perform a failover (Microsoft Documentation: Create a failover cluster)

Topic 4: Migrate servers and workloads (20–25%)

Migrate on-premises storage to on-premises servers or Azure

• transfer data and share
• cut over to a new server by using Storage Migration Service (Microsoft Documentation: Storage Migration Service overview)
• use Storage Migration Service to migrate to Azure VMs (Microsoft Documentation: Use Storage Migration Service to migrate a server)
• migrate to Azure file shares (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate to Azure file shares)

Migrate on-premises servers to Azure

• deploy and configure Azure Migrate appliance (Microsoft Documentation: Set up an appliance for servers in a VMware environment)
• migrate VM workloads to Azure IaaS (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate VMware VMs to Azure (agentless))
• migrate physical workloads to Azure IaaS (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate machines as physical servers to Azure)
• migrating by using Azure Migrate

Migrate workloads from previous versions to Windows Server 2022

• migrating IIS (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate a Web Site from IIS 6.0 to IIS 7 or above)
• migrate Hyper-V hosts (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate Hyper-V VMs to Azure)
• migrate RDS host servers (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate your Remote Desktop Services deployment to Windows Server 2016)
• migrating DHCP (Microsoft Documentation: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP))
• migrating print servers

Migrate IIS workloads to Azure

• migrate IIS workloads to Azure Web Apps (Microsoft Documentation: Migrate an on-premises web application to Azure App Service)
• migrating IIS workloads to containers

Migrate an AD DS infrastructure to Windows Server 2022 AD DS

• migrating AD DS objects, including users, groups and Group Policies, using AD Migration Tool (Microsoft Documentation: Administer Group Policy in an Azure Active Directory Domain Services managed domain)
• migrate to a new Active Directory forest (Microsoft Documentation: Support information for ADMT and PES)
• upgrade an existing forest (Microsoft Documentation: Upgrade Domain Controllers to Windows Server 2016)

Topic 5: Monitor and troubleshoot Windows Server environments (20–25%)

Monitor Windows Server by using Windows Server tools and Azure services

• monitor Windows Server by using Performance Monitor (Microsoft Documentation: Set up Performance Counters in Windows Performance Monitor)
• create and configure Data Collector Sets (Microsoft Documentation: Creating a Data Collector for Business Central Performance Counters)
• monitor servers and configure alerts by using Windows Admin Center (Microsoft Documentation: Monitor servers and configure alerts with Azure Monitor from Windows Admin Center)
• monitor by using System Insights (Microsoft Documentation: System Insights overview)
• manage event logs (Microsoft Documentation: Collect Windows event log data sources with Log Analytics agent)
• deploy Azure Monitor Agents
• collect performance counters to Azure (Microsoft Documentation: Collect Windows and Linux performance data sources with Log Analytics agent)
• create alerts (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of alerts in Microsoft Azure)
• monitor Azure VMs by using Azure diagnostics extension (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Diagnostics extension overview)
• monitor Azure VMs performance by using VM insights (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of VM insights)

Troubleshoot Windows Server on-premises and hybrid networking

• troubleshooting hybrid network connectivity (Microsoft Documentation: Azure App Service Hybrid Connections)
• troubleshooting on-premises connectivity (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot on-premises network connections)

Troubleshoot Windows Server virtual machines in Azure

• troubleshooting deployment failures (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot common Azure deployment errors with Azure Resource Manager)
• troubleshoot booting failures (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot Windows VM OS boot failure)
• troubleshooting VM performance issues (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot Azure virtual machine performance on Linux or Windows)
• troubleshoot VM extension issues (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot Azure Backup failure: Issues with the agent or extension)
• troubleshooting disk encryption issues (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Disk Encryption troubleshooting guide)
• troubleshoot storage (Microsoft Documentation: Monitor, diagnose, and troubleshoot Microsoft Azure Storage)
• troubleshooting VM connection issues

Troubleshoot Active Directory

• restore objects from AD recycle bin (Microsoft Documentation: Advanced AD DS Management Using Active Directory Administrative Center)
• recover Active Directory database using Directory Services Restore Mode (Microsoft Documentation: Restoring an Active Directory Server)
• recover SYSVOL (Microsoft Documentation: How to rebuild the SYSVOL tree and its content in a domain)
• troubleshoot Active Directory replication (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshooting Active Directory Replication Problems)
• troubleshooting hybrid authentication issues (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot hybrid Azure AD-joined devices)
• troubleshoot on-premises Active Directory (Microsoft Documentation: Troubleshoot object synchronization with Azure AD Connect sync)

For More: Check Exam AZ-801 FAQs

Exam Policies

Exam policies for Microsoft Certification contain all exam-related facts and information, as well as exam-giving methods. Certain rules must be followed during exam time or at testing sites according to these exam policies. Among them are the following:

Exam retake policy

Candidates who fail the exam for the first time must wait 24 hours before retaking the exam, according to this rule. They can reschedule the exam on the certification dashboard during this period. If this occurs a second time, they may be required to wait at least 14 days before taking the exam again. Between the third and fourth attempts, as well as the fourth and fifth attempts, a 14-day waiting time is imposed. Candidates, on the other hand, can only take any exam five times each year. Furthermore, the 12-month timeframe begins with the first try.

Exam reschedule and the cancellation policy

If applicants cancel their exams within 24 hours of the planned appointment, Microsoft will temporarily waive the reschedule and cancellation fees. However, if you reschedule or cancel an appointment at least 6 working days ahead of time, there will be no charge. A fee will be charged if a candidate cancels or reschedules a test within 5 business days of the scheduled exam time. Finally, if a candidate fails to show up for an exam appointment or fails to reschedule for at least 24 hours, the full exam money is forfeited.

Study Guide for Microsoft AZ-801

Exam objectives

Candidates must be familiar with the exam objectives in order to get a strong start on the Microsoft AZ-801 exam preparation. The exam objectives for the Microsoft AZ-801 exam cover crucial subjects that will help you understand the major portions. So, go over the exam guide to learn more about the topics and to improve your preparation.

Microsoft Learning Platform

Microsoft provides access to learning platforms with a variety of tools to assist exam preparation. To prepare for the AZ-801 exam, visit the Microsoft official website to learn everything you need to know about the exam. Additionally, candidates will benefit from this in terms of better learning subjects and passing the exam.

Microsoft Docs

Microsoft documentation is a knowledge base that contains in-depth information about the exam concepts covered in the AZ-801 exam. Furthermore, you may learn about the various scales of different Azure services by consulting Microsoft documentation. This is made up of modules that will help you learn a lot about the various services and concepts included in the exam.

Online Study Groups

Candidates can benefit from online study groups when preparing for exams. Joining study groups, in other words, will allow you to stay in touch with experts and professionals who are already on this path. You can also use this group to discuss your test-related question or issue, as well as take the AZ-801 exam study notes.

Practice Tests

It is crucial to take practice examinations for improving your preparation. You will learn about your weak and strong areas by assessing yourself with Microsoft AZ-801 practice tests. Furthermore, you will be able to improve your answering skills, which will allow you to save a significant amount of time during the exam. Taking the AZ-801 exam practice tests after completing a full topic and then taking the mock exams is the wise way to go. This will also help you revise effectively. So, go online and search for the greatest practice exam tests to prepare for the Microsoft AZ-801 certification exam.

Get yourself certified by preparing and passing Microsoft AZ-800 and AZ-801 exams now!