Exam AZ-103 Microsoft Azure Administrator has been updated to AZ-104

Azure Administrators are the individuals responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Microsoft Azure solutions, including major services related to compute, storage, network, and security for businesses and corporations.

Microsoft has created the Certified Azure Administrator Associate certification to verify the skills of these administrators and assign the credential to those that meet or exceed the measured criteria.

When this exam was first released, it was a two part exam, consisting of:

Exam AZ-100: Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and Deployment

Exam AZ-101: Microsoft Azure Integration and Security

Both of these exams formally retired on May 1, 2019

Exam AZ-102: Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Transition – this exam was offered in the same time period as the AZ-100 and AZ-101. It was intended only for candidates that had taken Exam 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions.

If learners had not taken Exam 533, they were not granted the certification by taking the AZ-102 exam.

While it was released, the transition exam was intended for people who had already demonstrated skills with respect to all the domain content. Basically, this exam covered the delta content between the 70-533 certification and what was covered under AZ-102.

All of the transition exams that Microsoft released over that time period (as there were titles available under other technology branches) covered net new content that wasn’t covered in enough depth prior, and content on aspects of the technology that had changed between the releases.

AZ-102 was formally retired June 30, 2019.

Just ahead of the June 30, 2019 retirement date for AZ-102, at the time when AZ-100 and AZ-101 retired in May 1, 2019, Exam AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator was released. That new exam combines the skills covered in AZ-100 and AZ-101 with the majority of the new exam coming from AZ-100.

There was no prerequisite to pass 70-533 and there was only the one exam.

The domain topics for AZ-103 were:

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%)

AZ-103 is now being replaced with Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator – it is now available (as of April 2, 2020).

AZ-104 has some changes to the domain topics as follows:

Manage Azure identities and governance (15-20%)
Implement and manage storage (10-15%)
Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (25-30%)
Configure and manage virtual networking (30-35%)
Monitor and back up Azure resources (10-15%)

AZ-103 is still available to test under as it is not expected to retire until August 31, 2020 (planned, at the time of this writing).

I have my Exam AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator Study Guide available online right now and I am working to update it to the new domain topics for AZ-104

Stay tuned…

Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 003 – ANSWERED

You are the Azure Cloud Consultant for your organization, and you have been tasked with configuring VNet Peering.

You need to review the corporate needs to have the desired connectivity across all Azure public regions, keeping all your traffic on the Microsoft Backbone.

Which of the following statements below is TRUE regarding Global VNet Peering? (Choose three)

A) You can peer across VNets only in Azure public regions with non-overlapping address spaces.
B) You can peer across VNets in any Azure public regions regardless of any overlapping address spaces.
C) You can globally peer within a given subscription.
D) You can globally peer across subscriptions.
E) You can peer virtual networks in the same region, or different regions
F) You can peer virtual networks only in the same region
G) You can peer virtual networks only in different regions

Correct answer:

A, D, and E

You can configure peering of your VNets in any Azure public regions with non-overlapping address spaces, across deployment models, as well as across subscriptions, where the virtual networks in the same region, or in different regions.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/global-vnet-peering-now-generally-available/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/create-peering-different-subscriptions

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/virtual-network-manage-peering#requirements-and-constraints

Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 003

You are the Azure Cloud Consultant for your organization, and you have been tasked with configuring VNet Peering.

You need to review the corporate needs to have the desired connectivity across all Azure public regions, keeping all your traffic on the Microsoft Backbone.

Which of the following statements below is TRUE regarding Global VNet Peering? (Choose three)

And here is the updated blog post with the answer – Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 003 – ANSWERED

Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 002 – ANSWERED

Your enterprise environment is presently using Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

You have been tasked with configuring directory synchronization with your Office 365 E5 subscription.

You need to set up support for Single Sign-on (SSO) and you want to confirm that all of the domain user names in use meet the formatting standard and will not cause any issues with the synchronization.

What should you do? (Choose the best option)

A) Make changes to the default configuration of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect sync
B) Confirm the synchronization settings in the Synchronization Rules Editor
C) Run Azure AD Connect sync with the defaults
D) Run the IdFix tool
E) Run the Synchronization Rules Editor and create a custom rule

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is (D) Run the Office 365 IdFix tool – the tool is used to search for problems in your directory and then fix the errors in the GUI.

Common errors detected by IdFix include illegal characters, duplicate entries / values, format violations, length limitations, to name a few.

While you can make changes to the default configuration in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect sync and / or run Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect sync with the default settings, neither of these options would address any potential issues that might be found where there are the formatting exceptions and where these may cause issues with the synchronization.

The Synchronization Rules Editor is used to see and change the default configuration. It is configured with the default rules and you can add custom changes to the rules, such as flow, precedence, scoping, and so on, but this will not address the issue with any potential issues that might be found where there are the formatting exceptions and where these may cause issues with the synchronization.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sync-change-the-configuration

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sync-service-manager-ui

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/how-to-connect-sync-whatis

Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 002

Your enterprise environment is presently using Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

You have been tasked with configuring directory synchronization with your Office 365 E5 subscription.

What should you do? (Choose the best option)

A) Make changes to the default configuration of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Connect sync
B) Confirm the synchronization settings in the Synchronization Rules Editor
C) Run Azure AD Connect sync with the defaults
D) Run the IdFix tool
E) Run the Synchronization Rules Editor and create a custom rule

And here is the updated blog post with the answer – Azure Certification Question of the Day (QOTD) – AZ-103 002 – ANSWERED

Certification QOTD – AZ-103 001 – ANSWERED

QUESTION 1 – ANSWERED

You’re running your environment in Azure and you review the following resources

Resource Group – rgmain001

Storage Account – samain001

Azure File Sync – afs001

samain001 contains a file share called IMAGES that contains 1,000 image files.

You need to synchronize the files in Azure to an on-premises Windows server named IMGSYS001.

Which three actions should you perform? Each correct answer presents part of the solution.

A) Mount the current Blob storage in state as a file system

B) Transfer data with the AzCopy

C) Create a sync group and a cloud endpoint

D) Register IMGSYS001
E) Install the Azure File Sync agent on IMGSYS001

Correct answer:

C, D, E

Step 1 (E): Install the Azure File Sync agent on IMGSYS001 – The Azure File Sync agent is a downloadable package that enables Windows Server to be synced with an Azure file share

Step 2 (D): Register IMGSYS001.

Register Windows Server with Storage Sync Service – establishes a trust relationship between your physical server (or cluster) and the Storage Sync Service.

Step 3 (C): Create a sync group and a cloud endpoint – defines the sync topology for a set of files. Endpoints within a sync group are kept in sync with each other. A sync group must contain one cloud endpoint, which represents an Azure file share and one or more server endpoints. A server endpoint represents a path on registered server.

AzCopy is a command-line utility designed for copying data to/from Microsoft Azure Blob, File, and Table storage, using simple commands designed for optimal performance. You can copy data between a file system and a storage account, or between storage accounts but it is not the best answer to fully synchronize files in Azure to an on-premises server.

You can mount Blob storage as a file system with blobfuse, but this is only available through the Linux file system. Blobfuse is a virtual file system driver for Azure Blob storage.

Certification QOTD – AZ-103 001

We are kicking off the Certification Question of the Day [QOTD] with a question for Exam AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator.

Passing this exam will grant you the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.

Here is your question – remember, tomorrow I will provide the answer to the question, so be sure to come back.

AZ-103 001

You’re running your environment in Azure and you review the following resources

Resource Group – rgmain001
Storage Account – samain001
Azure File Sync – afs001

samain001 contains a file share called IMAGES that contains 1,000 image files.

You need to synchronize the files in Azure to an on-premises server named IMGSYS001.

Which three actions should you perform? Each correct answer presents part of the solution.

A) Mount the current Blob storage in state as a file system
B) Transfer data with the AzCopy
C) Create a sync group and a cloud endpoint
D) Register IMGSYS001
E) Install the Azure File Sync agent on IMGSYS001

And here is the updated blog post with the answer – Certification QOTD – AZ-103 001 – ANSWERED

So I decided to restart my blog and host it on Azure…

So as I alluded to the other day, I kick started a blog again (yes I know… how quaint and 1990s of me).

I’ve contributed probably to over a dozen different blogs over the years and then have separately run a dozen or so of my own. It’s always varying degrees of fun and frustration depending on which end of the spectrum you are at a given point of time.

So with my current focus on Azure Technical Training with Microsoft (and we’re hiring by the way, all over the world, if you’re interested) I figured I might as well take running a blog a little further and run the entire thing on Azure.

Azure offers many different options for creating your own personal blog and one of them is a free option if you’re going to be very light on the use and traffic. This is a great option if it’s more for just “fun” as a hobby or creative outlet.

Eventually, if you’re marginally successful picking up a following, you’ll need to step up and pay for some of the services.

To get started, you’ll go to the Azure Portal to access your subscription.

On your homepage or via the dashboard, you can go to the search bar and type in WordPress as a simple way to get started.

Once you select that option from the Azure Marketplace, you’ll arrive at the APP configuration page.

You’ll give your site a unique address (has to be globally unique) – whatever name you give it will be the default Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) that you’ll use to reach the site (unless you’re going to register a different name).

You’ll set the subscription you’ll use in the next drop down box and then choose to either use an existing Resource Group or Create a new one

Next, you’ll choose a Database provider; you can select Azure Database for MySQL (which is designed for production environment and will scale to meet demand) or the cheaper option of MySQL in App.

Because I want to try to do this just as a hobby and for fun, I am going with everything I can (at least for now) that is inexpensive or free; with that, I’ll use MySQL in-app.

Next, I’ll choose my App Service Plan and the location and I’ll accept the defaults for Application Insights.

I will also choose the F1 Pricing tier as that is free for 60 minutes a day worth of compute.

(You can view all the tiers and what each one offers and costs HERE.)

Once that’s done, I’ll select CREATE, which will run the validation and deploy the app.

So that’s how I set mine all up… let’s see how we’re doing with that free service over the past three days the site’s been up by reviewing the output on the OVERVIEW dashboard and the APPLICATION INSIGHTS page for the information it supplies.

So we can see the results of the past hour on the OVERVIEW page above, but let’s dig in some on the past three days to see how well that F1 Pricing tier has served the new page.

So far, so good – 240 requests, all serviced (no failures), and the worst latency isn’t really all that bad at the peak of 200.85ms.

I can also see from my QUOTA view that I have a fair amount of room to grow still under this free plan.

Guess my next task is to try to drive a little more traffic to the blog 😉