Now the time has come for a guide on how to succeed in the Azure Administrator Associate exam

I managed to succeed this one on Ignite 2019 where the possibility to do exams the whole week free! There was though based on the amount of attendees a limit of one (1) per person.

Skills measured:

• Manage Azure subscriptions and resources (15-20%)
• Implement and manage storage (15-20%)
• Deploy and manage virtual machines (VMs) (15-20%)
• Configure and manage virtual networks (30-35%)
• Manage identities (15-20%)

As you might see on the cert page there is a transition now happening and as the content have changed quite a bit there is a good idea to do the AZ-104 instead to be future proof!

Learning resources:

I used some different resources for preparing me, I have already the 70-533 in the bagage so I did have some understanding of the administrator exams..

First of all the Microsoft learn have a learning path that covers a great deal of the required skills.

Secondly I used a book from Packt written by Sjoukje Zaal that was very good and got me even more prepared.

The book goes through the different skills required in a structured way and helps in the learning process.

What you learn from the book:

• Configure Azure subscription policies and manage resource groups
• Monitor activity log by using Log Analytics
• Modify and deploy Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
• Protect your data with Azure Site Recovery
• Learn how to manage identities in Azure
• Monitor and troubleshoot virtual network connectivity
• Manage Azure Active Directory Connect, password sync, and password writeback

Good luck in your preparations and hope you will be as successful as me!

Last year I took the exams AZ-900, AZ-103 and AZ-301 and wanted to give you an insight into how I studied and what you need to do to have a successful shot at the exams.

AZ – 900

In this first post I will go through the resources for AZ-900. The exam page on Microsoft Learn takes you to the exam registration and also a detailed list on what you need to know!

Skills measured

• Understand cloud concepts (15-20%)
• Understand core Azure services (30-35%)
• Understand security, privacy, compliance, and trust (25-30%)
• Understand Azure pricing and support (20-25%)

Resources:

I used two different resources for preparing for the exam. That being said I have been working with Azure for some years so maybe if you are new to the Microsoft cloud you might need to do some more studying!

First I used Openedx but their AZ-900 course have been closed down. Microsoft Partner site have an alternative that you can utilize, it is a virtual course that is recorded. Secondly I used Microsoft Learn that has a learning path that is really good!

• AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
• Microsoft Learn: Azure Fundamentals learning path

Good luck on your Azure adventure!

There is a new preview of a Azure Portal App that lets you use the Azure Portal without any other browser available, this is a great thing if you have a Windows Server as your main go-to jumpbox that you do things in and as we know it is by default not possible to run Edge browser in Windows Server and you are stuck with Internet Explorer and that alone makes you go bananas and also that browser is some serious legacy thingy.

First you go to https://preview.portal.azure.com/app/Download

once downloaded and installed you can then sign into your azure account to start utilizing the app and manage your cloud resources

As you can see it is like any other browser experience of the Azure portal and you can of course also start an cloud shell.

Of course the option to install chrome or firefox also works as an alternative, although some companies have restrictions on third party software being installed within their server environments…