AZ-104 V2 Study Cram Notes

Introduction

• Update on AZ-104 Study Cram to reflect changes in the material.
• Links available in the description to different sections.
• Recommendations for hands-on activities and reviewing the study guide.

Preparation Tips

• Schedule the exam and use self-paced modules for all necessary knowledge.
• Utilization of the Azure 104 playlist and Azure Masterclass V2.
• Hands-on practice with Azure Portal, CLI, and where applicable, templates.
• Focus on applied skills for the administrator exam.

Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)

• Identity Provider from Microsoft: Supports cloud protocols like OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML, and WS-Fed.
• Comparing On-Prem and Cloud Identities: Active Directory Domain Services for on-prem, Entra ID for cloud.
• Graph API: REST-based interaction with services like Office 365 and Entra ID.
• Replicating Identities: Active Directory Domain Services replicate to Entra ID using Entra Connect or Entra Connect Cloud Sync.
• Tenant and Domain Setup: Custom and default domain configurations.
• User and Guest Accounts: Handling on-prem synced, cloud-created, and external guest accounts.
• Groups: Types (security, Microsoft 365), membership (assigned, dynamic), and licenses.
• Devices: Registering and joining devices to Entra ID; managing through company policies.
• Licensing: Free, P1, and P2 with identity governance add-ons.
• Self-Service Password Reset: Configuration and deployment for hybrid and cloud accounts.
• Roles and Permissions: Global Administrator and other specific roles; administrative units for granular permissions.

Azure Environments and Regions

• Different Clouds: Azure commercial, Azure Gov, China, and more.
• Regions and Availability Zones: Distributed data centers for redundancy within a region; paired regions for broader disaster recovery.
• Management Group Structure: Hierarchical structure starting from the tenant root for governance and budget tracking.
• Free Trials and Consumption-Based Pricing: Strategies to manage Azure costs effectively.

Cost Management

• Azure Cost Analysis: Tools to analyze spending and forecasts.
• Budgets and Alerts: Setting financial thresholds and notifications via Action Groups.
• Azure Hybrid Benefit and Reservations: Utilizing existing licenses and committing to long-term use for cost savings.

Resource Organization

• Subscriptions and Resource Groups: Logical organization and role-based access at different levels.
• Tags: Key-value pairs for metadata, applied at various resource levels but not inherited.

Azure Policy

• Policy Definitions and Compliance: Setting conditions and actions with audit or deny effects; initiatives for grouping policies.
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Assigning minimal necessary permissions at appropriate scopes.
• Resource Locks: Preventing unintended changes or deletions at various levels.

Networking Fundamentals

• Virtual Networks (VNets): Defined by IP address ranges, split into subnets; important for resource isolation and communication.
• Public and Private IPs: Handling external exposure carefully; using Azure Firewall, and Network Security Groups (NSGs) for security.
• Peering and Transit: Connecting VNets for resource access, using remote gateways and Gateway Transit configuration.
• Azure Virtual Network Manager: Automating network configuration and security admin rules.

Additional Networking

• NSGs and ASGs: Configuring security rules for traffic control and using tags for simpler management.
• Azure Firewall: First-party network virtual appliance for filtering traffic and managing security at scale.
• Azure DNS: Public and private DNS management, enabling internal name resolution.
• ExpressRoute and VPN: Private connectivity to Azure resources; using ExpressRoute for dedicated connections.

Load Balancing and High Availability

• Load Balancers: Azure Load Balancer for Layer 4, and Application Gateway for Layer 7 HTTP/HTTPS traffic.
• Global and Regional Load Balancing: Solutions like Azure Traffic Manager, Cross-Region Load Balancer, and Front Door for high availability across regions.

Storage Fundamentals

• Storage Accounts: Standard and premium types, general-purpose V2 commonly used.
• Blob, Files, Table, and Queue Storage: Different storage services for various data types.
• Redundancy Options: LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS for data resiliency; optional Read-Access GRS.
• Tools for Storage Management: Use of Azure Storage Explorer and AzCopy.
• Lifecycle Management: Automating tiered storage management.

Managed Disks

• Types of Managed Disks: Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, SSD V2, and Ultra Disks with varying performance characteristics.
• Disk Encryption: Using customer-managed keys with Disk Encryption Sets.
• Performance and Bursting: Choosing appropriate sizes and performance tiers for applications.

Compute Resources

• Virtual Machines (VMs): Key considerations in choosing appropriate SKUs and sizes for workloads.
• Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS): For automated scaling of VM instances based on load.
• Containers and Kubernetes: Azure Kubernetes Service for orchestrating containers. Use of Azure Container Instances for simpler deployments.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

• Azure Backup Center: Managing backups across different services; consistent policy application.
• Azure Site Recovery: Orchestrating disaster recovery for VM workloads.

Monitoring and Alerts

• Azure Monitoring: Using Azure Monitor for metrics and logs; configuring diagnostic settings.
• Alerts and Actions: Creating alert rules and configuring action groups for automated responses.
• Network Watcher: Tools for network diagnostics and topology insights.