The AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator training course is designed to equip IT professionals with the skills to manage Azure subscriptions, secure identities, administer the infrastructure, and configure virtual networking. Participants will learn how to use Azure Monitor, Azure Storage, Azure VMs, and Azure AD among other components. This course prepares individuals for the Microsoft Azure Administrator certification, focusing on practical, real-world skills required for managing Azure environments effectively.
Microsoft AZ 104 Azure Administrator Intermediate-Level Questions
1. What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform provided by Microsoft that offers a variety of services including computing, analytics, storage, and networking.
2. What is the Azure Portal?
The Azure Portal is a web-based application that allows users to access and manage Azure services through a graphical user interface (GUI).
3. What is Azure Resource Manager (ARM)?
Azure Resource Manager is the deployment and management service for Azure. It provides a consistent management layer for resources in Azure, allowing you to deploy, manage, and monitor resources as a group.
4. What is a Virtual Machine (VM) in Azure?
A Virtual Machine (VM) in Azure is a software emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications. VMs in Azure provide flexibility and scalability for running various workloads in the cloud.
5. What is a Virtual Network (VNet) in Azure?
A Virtual Network (VNet) in Azure is a logically isolated network within the Azure cloud where you can deploy Azure resources. It provides connectivity between Azure resources and to on-premises networks.
6. What is Azure Storage?
Azure Storage is a cloud storage solution provided by Microsoft Azure, offering scalable, durable, and highly available storage for data objects, files, tables, and queues.
7. What is Azure Active Directory (AAD)?
Azure Active Directory is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service. It provides authentication and authorization services for users and resources in Azure.
8. What is Azure Blob Storage?
Azure Blob Storage is a service for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data. It is optimized for storing and accessing data over the internet.
9. What is Azure SQL Database?
Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to deploy, manage, and scale SQL databases in the cloud with high availability and security.
10. What is Azure App Service?
Azure App Service is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering in Azure that enables you to build, deploy, and scale web applications and APIs.
11. What is Azure Load Balancer?
Azure Load Balancer is a Layer 4 (TCP, UDP) load balancer service that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple virtual machines to ensure high availability and reliability of applications.
12. What is Azure Traffic Manager?
Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer service that routes incoming requests to the most appropriate endpoint based on a set of configured routing methods and rules.
13. What is Azure Backup?
Azure Backup is a cloud-based backup service that provides data protection for Azure virtual machines, on-premises servers, and Azure SQL databases.
14. What is Azure Site Recovery?
Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery service that allows you to replicate and failover virtual machines and physical servers to Azure in the event of a datacenter outage or disaster.
15. What is Azure Monitor?
Azure Monitor is a service for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry data generated by Azure resources. It provides insights into the performance and health of your applications and infrastructure.
16. What is Azure Key Vault?
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service that securely stores and manages sensitive information such as keys, secrets, and certificates. It helps safeguard cryptographic keys and other secrets used by cloud applications and services.
17. What is Azure Active Directory B2B?
Azure Active Directory Business-to-Business (Azure AD B2B) is a feature of Azure AD that allows organizations to securely share their applications and resources with external users.
18. What is Azure Active Directory B2C?
Azure Active Directory Business-to-Consumer (Azure AD B2C) is a feature of Azure AD that enables organizations to provide secure access to their applications for customers or consumers.
19. What is Azure Functions?
Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that enables you to run event-driven code in the cloud without having to manage infrastructure. It allows you to execute code in response to events such as HTTP requests, timer triggers, or message queue events.
20. What is Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps is a suite of development tools and services provided by Microsoft Azure for software development, collaboration, and project management. It includes features such as version control, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), and agile planning.
Microsoft AZ 104 Azure Administrator Advance-Level Questions
1. How do you automate Azure tasks, and what tools do you use?
Automation in Azure can be achieved using Azure Automation and PowerShell scripts. Azure Automation allows for the creation of runbooks for deployment, monitoring, and management tasks, which improves efficiency and reduces the possibility of human error. PowerShell scripts can be used to automate repetitive tasks and configurations. Additionally, the Azure CLI can be utilized for scripting commands to manage Azure resources.
2. Explain the process of integrating Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) with on-premises Active Directory.
Integrating Azure AD with on-premises Active Directory is typically achieved using Azure AD Connect. This tool synchronizes identity data between the on-premises directory and Azure AD, enabling common identities for users across cloud and on-premises resources. The process involves installing Azure AD Connect on a server, configuring the synchronization options, such as password hash synchronization or pass-through authentication, and managing synchronization cycles to ensure data consistency.
3. What strategies would you recommend for disaster recovery in Azure?
For disaster recovery in Azure, a combination of Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backup should be considered. Azure Site Recovery facilitates business continuity by replicating workloads from a primary site to a secondary location. Azure Backup provides data backup services for virtual machines, SQL databases, and other resources. Establishing recovery services vaults, setting up replication policies, and conducting regular drills to ensure the effectiveness of recovery plans are essential parts of the strategy.
4. Can you describe a scenario where you optimized Azure costs? What measures did you take?
Cost optimization in Azure can be addressed by analyzing and understanding usage and spending patterns through Azure Cost Management tools. Measures might include resizing underutilized virtual machines, deallocating unused resources, using reserved instances for predictable workloads, and employing Azure’s auto-scale feature to adjust resources dynamically based on demand. Regularly reviewing service advisories and recommendations from Azure Advisor also helps in identifying opportunities for reducing expenses.
5. Discuss the key considerations when configuring Azure virtual networking.
When configuring Azure virtual networking, it's crucial to consider the network topology, including the arrangement of subnets, address spaces, and network security groups (NSGs). Proper planning of the Virtual Network peering connections for seamless connectivity between different Azure regions or subscriptions is essential. Additionally, understanding the integration with on-premises networks through Azure VPN Gateway or ExpressRoute for hybrid configurations is necessary for a robust network setup.
6. What are Azure Policies and how do you apply them?
Azure Policies are a set of rules that enforce and control the properties of resources to ensure compliance with corporate standards and service level agreements. These policies can be applied across resource groups, subscriptions, or even management groups. Implementing Azure Policies involves defining the compliance requirements, creating policy definitions, assigning these policies at the appropriate scope, and continuously monitoring compliance through Azure Policy compliance reports.
7. Explain how you handle identity and access management in Azure.
Identity and access management in Azure revolves around Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for user authentication and authorization. Key tasks include setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA), creating role-based access controls (RBAC), and managing conditional access policies. These measures ensure that only authorized users can access specific resources under defined conditions, thereby enhancing the security posture of Azure environments.
8.Describe how you would use Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics to improve infrastructure monitoring.
Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics can be integrated to provide comprehensive monitoring solutions. Azure Monitor collects and analyzes performance metrics and logs from various Azure resources, while Azure Log Analytics processes and aggregates these logs for more complex queries and data insights. By setting up alerts, dashboards, and visualizations, one can proactively manage the health, performance, and availability of Azure services and applications.
9. What is your approach to managing updates and patches for Azure VMs?
Managing updates and patches for Azure VMs can be effectively handled using Azure Update Management. This service provides patch management for both Windows and Linux VMs in Azure, on-premises, and other cloud environments. It allows scheduling of updates, assessment of update compliance, and deployment of specific updates as required, thereby ensuring that the virtual machines are secure and up to date.
10. How do you ensure the security of data in Azure Storage?
Ensuring data security in Azure Storage involves implementing multiple layers of security, such as securing the data at rest with encryption, using Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) for data and Azure Disk Encryption for VM disks. Access to the data can be controlled using Shared Access Signatures (SAS) and proper RBAC settings. Additionally, using advanced threat protection can help detect and respond to potential security threats to the storage accounts.