AZ-303 Azure Architecture Technologies Exam Prep

Understand how cloud computing lets you rent computing resources by the minute, pay only for what you use, compare AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and explore the Azure portal.

see how quickly you can go from the idea of a virtual machine to a running windows server in azure, provisioning network, IP address, storage, and rdp access.

Explore pay-as-you-go cloud options—from virtual machines to containers and serverless functions. Delve into rapid deployment, no contract, and services like databases, storage, networking, and machine learning.

Demonstrates quick container deployment in Azure via command line by creating a Windows IIS container from Docker Hub in four minutes, with public IP, FQDN, and production cautions and AKS.

Explore how Azure regions and geos govern data residency across public, government, and China clouds, with 60 regions, and how private and hybrid clouds with Azure Stack enable on-premises integration.

Explore Microsoft's global private fiber network and durable data centers, including Amsterdam and ocean-floor servers cooled by sea water, bypassing the public internet for high-speed intercontinental traffic.

Learn how cloud economies of scale cut costs through centralized hardware and cheap electricity, and how high availability and scalability, via replication and load balancing, drive reliable architectures.

Explore elasticity and auto scaling to meet demand, analyze failure points that affect availability and downtime, and leverage service fabric, Azure front-door service, backups, and disaster recovery.

Navigate the continuum from beginner to expert in Azure, understand why architects choose among compute, database, and storage options, and embrace hands-on exploration.

Configure and centralize diagnostics across resources within resource groups with Azure Monitor, enabling diagnostic settings, performance counters, and logs from virtual machines, web apps, and storage accounts.

Create a baseline for resources in Azure by exporting deployments as ARM templates with parameters and storing them in a template library or GitHub. Redeploy to enforce the desired state.

Create and test alerts for your resources by configuring alert rules that monitor web app stoppage, define actions like emailing admins, and store alerts as resources in the resource group.

Create and test metrics in Azure Monitor by building charts for resources such as virtual machines and app services, then pin charts to dashboards for permanent monitoring.

Create and manage action groups to automate alert responses in Azure monitoring, configuring email, SMS, voice, or function calls, Logic App, or webhook to trigger on alerts.

Learn to monitor and manage Azure costs using cost management tools, set budgets and alerts, analyze costs by scope and resource, and use Azure Advisor for cost-saving recommendations.

Explore the Azure portal and its customization options. Create and edit dashboards with tiles, and understand the need for an Azure account and hands-on labs.

Create a simple Windows Server virtual machine in the Azure portal, configuring subscription, resource group, region east us 2, and availability zone with RDP access.

Learn to deploy an Azure VM quickly, access via public IP or DNS with RDP, explore Azure Bastion for secure connectivity, and set up IIS with port considerations.

Add an inbound port 80 rule to the network security group on the network interface card to enable HTTP traffic to the IaaS VM.

Resize a virtual machine by selecting a new size, such as DS3 with four CPUs and 14 gigabytes of memory. Restart the instance for better performance and cost considerations.

Create a 256-gigabyte managed data disk, attach it to the virtual machine, and format as an NTFS e: drive; the disk can outlive the VM and is encrypted by default.

Place multiple Azure VMs in an availability set to distribute across fault and update domains, boosting reliability; regional support varies and a second VM improves the SLA.

Place virtual machines in availability zones across separate data centers within a region to boost resilience. Use a load balancer or application gateway to distribute traffic and achieve 99.99% availability.

Discover dedicated hosts in Azure—a dedicated physical server to host multiple virtual machines, with pricing options, host groups, resource groups, and availability zones.

Explore Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) that group and auto scale virtual machines based on demand, with an optional built-in load balancer and health checks.

Encrypts the operating system and temporary disk by default on Windows VMs with BitLocker, using platform-managed keys or Azure key vault for custom keys, and encrypts data disks by default.

Creating Linux virtual machines follows the same wizard as Windows but uses Linux images, SSH key authentication, port 22, cloud init, and default disk encryption via D Encrypt.

Install the Azure PowerShell az module to the latest 2.5 and learn how to run az alongside the deprecated Azure RM for compatibility.

Log into Azure with PowerShell using Connect-AzAccount, which opens a web browser for code entry and authentication. Complete login before running any commands against your Azure subscription.

Set an active Azure subscription in your PowerShell session by retrieving subscriptions with Get-AzSubscription and configuring a context with Set-AzContext to target the desired subscription.

Learn to create a virtual machine in Azure with the new-az vm command after setting up a resource group, including basic networking and ports like 80, 3389, and 443.

Start and stop an Azure virtual machine with PowerShell, specifying the resource group and VM name, and replicate portal actions from the CLI.

Automate deployments with ARM templates by downloading a template and parameters file, understanding template structure, and modifying for repeated virtual machine deployments.

Learn to read and edit ARM templates in JSON, including schema, contentVersion, parameters, variables, and resources, and understand dependencies that govern Azure deployment order for virtual machines.

Learn to deploy an Azure ARM template via PowerShell or Azure CLI from the Scripts tab, save the template to the library, and deploy into an existing resource group.

Learn how to view and verify ARM template deployments in a resource group, download the template with parameters and scripts, and track deployment status for virtual machines and other resources.

Redeploy the same ARM template to a resource group; existing resources are detected and skipped, enabling desired state configuration to prevent configuration drift, with changes made by updating the template.

Discover automating Azure resources with PowerShell and CLI beyond ARM templates, using Azure Docs PowerShell samples for Cosmos DB and other services.

Create and manage an Azure automation account to run PowerShell scripts with runbooks, import gallery scripts, publish, and schedule recurring or one-time jobs.

Discover Azure Bicep as a simpler abstraction over ARM templates that compiles to ARM JSON. See how parameters, variables, and modules improve readability and deployment of Azure resources.

Learn to create and manage Azure storage accounts for file storage and VM back ends, choosing general-purpose v2, selecting region and replication, and applying hot or cool access.

Configure storage accounts behind virtual networks and firewalls to restrict access and apply network security. Choose public or private endpoints, enforce ssl, and use templates to deploy consistent configurations.

Discover how to manage Azure storage access with primary and secondary keys, and secure, limited access using Shared Access Signatures (SAS) including permissions, expiry, and IP filters.

Learn to manage azure storage accounts with storage explorer, create containers, configure access (private or anonymous) and firewalls/virtual networks, and choose blob types with rest api or Azure AD authentication.

Upgrade from locally redundant storage to geo redundant storage to replicate data across region pairs, enabling primary and secondary failover and emergency access via read access endpoints.

Assign storage access with RBAC to control who can read blob data, using role assignments scoped to the storage account, and rely on Azure AD to enforce permissions that expire.

Discover Azure storage access tiers—hot, cool, archive, and premium—and how each tier affects storage and access costs, minimum retention like 30 days, and rehydration considerations.

Grant storage account access using Azure AD RBAC, assigning blob data contributor to a guest user or managed identities, and revoke by regenerating keys.

Configure Azure virtual networks with CIDR ranges and subnets, focusing on VNet-to-VNet connections and VNet peering, including IPv6 and bastion subnet considerations.

Modify an ARM template to deploy a second VNet in the same resource group, updating the IP address range and subnet, and verify deployment success for both VNets.

Enable vnet-to-vnet communication by deploying a virtual network gateway that encrypts traffic between two virtual networks in same region, including a gateway subnet and public IPs, with a 45-minute deployment.

Set up a site-to-site connection between two virtual networks by linking gateways, naming the connection, using a shared key, and noting gateway and data transfer costs.

VNet peering connects two virtual networks without a device or subnet gateway, allowing optional one-way or two-way traffic, with forwarded traffic and gateway transit considerations and data transfer costs.

Azure advisor analyzes your usage to surface security, cost, performance, and reliability recommendations, with a security tab showing updates and a quick fix remediation for secure transfer and MFA.

Explore how to monitor Azure resource performance—from app service to storage and key vault—using resource-specific metrics, real-time log streams, and diagnostics settings, plus Log Analytics workspace basics.

Create a log analytics workspace to centralize log data for Azure Monitor, enable diagnostics for Azure resources and on-premises data via System Center Operations Manager, and run queries against data.

Connect a virtual machine to a Log Analytics workspace, enable data collection from Windows event logs and performance counters, and use Azure Monitor with Kusto queries for performance insights.

Enable guest level monitoring on a Windows VM to collect CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics into a storage account, surfacing event logs and crash dumps with alerts.

Azure Active Directory acts as an identity as a service, authenticating users, apps, and devices. It issues signed tokens with claims via SAML and WS Federation for secure authentication.

Discover how Azure Active Directory boosts security with a centralized administration and industry-standard authentication system featuring multifactor authentication, conditional access, and single sign-on across apps and Azure services.

Assign a custom domain name to your tenant, verify ownership with a DNS TXT record at your domain registrar, and switch to the verified domain once confirmed.

Assign a security administrator using role-based access control, then enable identity protection policies with premium features and multifactor authentication to safeguard privileged Azure AD and Office 365 accounts.

Azure AD identity protection automates detection of user risk and sign-in risk, applying policy-based blocks or password changes. It enforces mfa registration and provides reports and notifications.

Enable self-service password reset for non-admin users in Azure Active Directory, letting them reset passwords via email or SMS or mobile app notifications with registered phone numbers and periodic reconfirmation.

Create Azure AD conditional access policies to require multifactor authentication for all admin users across all cloud apps, using sign-in risk, user risk, and device or app requirements.

Shows configuring multifactor authentication (MFA) with conditional access, managing authentication methods for users like Sally, and enforcing MFA for selected users or all users, including legacy portal steps.

Explore multifactor authentication settings, including account lockout after failed MFA attempts, manual user blocks, and fraud alerts that let users report suspicious logins, with optional notifications and hardware tokens.

Invite external guests to your Azure AD B2B tenant by email, who accept to become guest users with access to applications and roles, while remaining not part of your domain.