AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator study guide

Exam Overview

The AZ-104 certification validates your skills as a Microsoft Azure Administrator. It is intended for IT professionals who manage cloud services spanning storage, security, networking, and compute capabilities within the Azure ecosystem. Earning this credential proves you can implement, manage, and monitor identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment.

Exam Domains

• Manage Azure identities and governance
• Implement and manage storage
• Deploy and manage Azure compute resources
• Implement and manage virtual networking
• Monitor and maintain Azure resources

Key Concepts & Common Difficulties

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) vs. Azure Policy: Candidates often confuse these governance tools. Remember RBAC controls who can do what, while Azure Policy controls what* resources can do or exist during deployment.

• Virtual Network Peering and Routing: Transitive routing is not natively supported in Azure VNet peering. Candidates fail to realize they must deploy routing appliances like Azure Firewall or NVA to enable spoke-to-spoke communication in a hub-and-spoke topology.
• Azure AD Connect and Sync Errors: Synchronizing on-premises Active Directory with Azure AD frequently trips up candidates. Focus on understanding the difference between password hash synchronization, pass-through authentication, and troubleshooting sync scope errors.
• Storage Tiers and Lifecycle Management: Switching between Hot, Cool, and Archive tiers causes confusion regarding billing and rehydration times. Understand that rehydrating from Archive takes hours and incurs early deletion penalties if the minimum days are not met.
• App Service Plan vs. App Service: Many struggle to separate the compute resource (the Plan) from the application resource. Grasp that the App Service Plan dictates pricing tier, region, and OS, while the App Service is merely the web app running on that plan.

Study Strategy

• Solidify Prerequisites: Ensure you have a strong grasp of general IT concepts, including DNS, DHCP, AD, and networking, before diving into Azure-specific administration.
• Follow the Domain Order: Study in the sequence of the official exam domains: start with Identity and Governance, move to Storage, then Compute, followed by Networking, and finally Monitoring.
• Leverage Microsoft Learn: Use the official free learning paths tailored specifically for AZ-104. They provide interactive sandbox environments for hands-on practice without upfront costs.
• Build a Lab Environment: Deploy VNets, VMs, and storage accounts yourself. Practical experience is non-negotiable; reading alone will not prepare you for the scenario-based questions.
• Take Practice Exams: Use reputable practice tests to assess your readiness. Review every incorrect answer deeply to understand the underlying Azure logic, not just memorize the solution.
• Master the Portal and CLI: Be comfortable executing tasks in both the Azure Portal and the Azure CLI or PowerShell. The exam tests your ability to identify the correct commands and portal navigation paths.