Azure Bundle Prep for AZ-900 , AZ-103 and Az-104

Learn how virtual networks serve as the backbone of azure infrastructure, connecting virtual machines, web servers, load balancers, firewalls, network security groups, and databases within a single virtual network.

Understand how subnets divide a virtual network into smaller sections, using a school analogy to explain routes, permissions, firewalls, and network security groups that protect servers and databases.

Explore how two virtual networks in different regions connect via VNet peering. Learn how gateways, gateway subnets, and classless routing concepts enable cross-network communication.

Explore how a virtual network with subnets and load balancers enables inter-subnet and on-premises connectivity, using VPN or express route for Azure cloud integration.

Explore a two-tier vnet design with a public front-end subnet and a private back-end subnet, using two load balancers to route internet traffic to web servers and databases.

Discover how on-premise networks connect to Azure virtual networks via VPN or ExpressRoute, and implement multi-pathing with two connections to keep business traffic flowing during outages.

Explore how Azure virtual network uses web, app, and database subnets with load balancers and a gateway subnet, plus a management subnet for a jump host to securely access VMs.

Log into the Azure portal to create a virtual network and subnets, assign a block, and complete the setup in minutes.

Create a virtual network in the Azure portal, set an address space, and add subnets like healthcare and banking while following naming standards and tracking deployment via the resource group.

Explore how to configure vnet peering across virtual networks with a diagrammatic approach, creating subnets, testing connectivity between two VMs with ping and telnet, and applying firewall rules.

Learn how to create VNet peering between virtual networks step by step, including gateway transit, remote gateways, and hub-and-spoke topology, and verify the connection from both ends.

Test VNet peering in a lab by deploying two virtual machines across different VNets and configuring a network security group to allow inbound port 3389, then validate connectivity.

Connect to peered VMs using RDP, view public and private IP addresses, and verify connectivity across vnet peering via private IP testing with ping or telnet.

Install telnet on one machine and use telnet commands to test connectivity across peered vnets, verifying inbound ports on the security group for 3389.

Explain how point-to-site vpn establishes a private, encrypted link from your laptop to an Azure virtual machine in the healthcare subnet via a gateway subnet and virtual network gateway.

Create a gateway subnet and deploy a virtual network gateway to establish a point-to-site VPN with a private encrypted tunnel between your laptop and Azure resources.

Create a virtual network gateway for a point-to-site VPN in Azure, choose route-based or policy-based VPN type, and attach a public IP.

Learn to download and install the VPN client, configure a point-to-site connection to Azure resources, and verify connectivity using a private IP address.

Create virtual machines inside Azure virtual networks to enable a two-tier architecture with load balancing and databases, using marketplace images and provisioning via portal, PowerShell, or Azure Resource Manager templates.

Learn to create a Windows virtual machine in the Azure portal, choosing images and disk types (ssd, hdd), configuring size, network settings, public ip, extensions, monitoring, diagnostics, and backups.

Learn to create Linux virtual machines from Azure marketplace, choose Ubuntu or Red Hat images, and configure SSH on port 22 within a development resource group in the east region.

Discover how to manage Azure virtual machines from creation to connection, monitoring, alerts, and activity logs, while applying IAM for granular access and using CMDB assets and configuration items.

Explore configuring Azure virtual machines: network security groups, inbound/outbound rules (port 3389), disk management, security center recommendations, extensions, availability sets, Azure hybrid benefits, and automation templates.

Explore how to monitor Azure virtual machines with metrics, diagnostic settings, and alerts, including performance counters, logs, memory dumps, and automated runbooks.

Explore virtual machine troubleshooting in Azure, including boot diagnostics and password resets. Learn to assess VM health, historical events, and the impact of temporary versus persistent storage.

Learn to add a persistent extra disk to a virtual machine, configure a 1 TB VHD, store it in a storage account container, and format it in disk management.

Learn to detach a disk from a virtual machine in a lab, including accessing the disk section and saving changes, with the OS disk not detachable.

Create a Windows Server 2016 data center VM in Azure with PowerShell, setting credentials, size, image, and storage, then attach a network interface and retrieve the public IP.

Explore Azure storage accounts as durable, highly available cloud storage with regional replication, encryption, and fine-grained access control, and learn to access and migrate data via gui and PowerShell.

Explore Azure storage's four subcomponents: blobs storage, files storage, cubes, and tables, and see how object storage, backups, disaster recovery, and on premise applications leverage these storage options.

Explore blob storage as a subcomponent of a storage account for storing unstructured data, accessible via browser and APIs for distributed access, streaming, backup, disaster recovery, archiving, including VM disks.

Explore block, append, and page blobs and how each type supports streaming, logging, and random read/write for virtual hard disks.

Explore Azure file storage to create a highly available network share accessible via SMB for multiple virtual machines with read and write access, secure data in transit, scalable to petabytes.

Explore azure table storage, a storage account component that uses key-value data and json-like templates. Learn to build apps with api calls and flexible schemas that access and import data.

Explore Azure queue storage for inter-application messaging with 64 kb per message. Queues support a seven-day time-to-live, up to 200 terabytes of messages, and first-in, first-out processing.

Explore local redundant storage (lrs) as the lowest-cost azure data redundancy, replicating data synchronously three times within a single region to protect against rack failures while staying within geographic boundaries.

Learn how geo-redundant storage (GRS) replicates data to a secondary region to boost durability, with options for read-only failover or read access in the secondary region.

Zone redundant storage provides high availability by synchronously replicating data across three storage in same region, with a copy in another facility, keeping content within region for block blobs.

RA-GRS provides a read-only copy in the secondary region with a secondary endpoint; Microsoft handles failover, after which you regain read and write access, guided by last sync time GMT.

Deploy a storage account in the azure portal with general purpose v2. Enable blob storage, tables, queues, and files; configure region, replication, and security options.

Explore the storage account overview, performance metrics for blobs, files, tables, and queues, and the activity log for auditing. Learn about access control, diagnostics, and event flows with logic apps.

Create and manage blob storage containers, set private or SAS-based access, upload content, and choose block, page, or append blobs with snapshots, leases, and soft delete.

Map and manage azure file shares across Windows, Linux, and command line, enable multi-user access, upload content, tag metadata, use snapshots for disaster recovery, and cross origin resource sharing.

Explore storage account tables and queues by creating a student info table and a shopping cart queue, sending messages via connection strings, and managing content with PowerShell.

Explore Azure Storage Explorer to connect to Azure Storage, migrate on premise data to the cloud by moving blobs, files, or queues, and create tables for university employees.

Learn how Azure load balancers enable end-to-end deployment by distributing traffic. Use front-end public IPs, back-end pools, and health probes to manage web servers and databases.

Configure health probes to determine instance health and guide the load balancer to stop sending traffic to unhealthy or maintenance servers on ports like 80 or 88.

Learn a two-tier design with a front-end web tier and a back-end database tier, using public and internal load balancers on port 80 to distribute traffic in the Azure portal.

Explore how to create a public Azure load balancer, choose between basic and standard tiers, assign a static or dynamic public IP, and plan backend servers and health probes.

Configure an Azure load balancer with a public front-end IP, a back-end pool of two web servers behind an availability set, health probes on port 80, and a load-balancing rule.

Test the load balancer by accessing two web servers behind it. Observe how traffic shifts between servers based on capacity and cookie-based routing in different browsers.

Explore Azure web apps, a fully managed platform as a service that scales on demand, improves developer productivity, and ensures security and regulatory compliance for web and mobile apps.

Learn to build an Azure web app with the app service from the marketplace, configure the app name, resource group, operating system, region, pricing tier, and application insights.

Explore deploying a web app with Azure App Service, including resource groups, deployment slots, and swap deployments, plus syncing content from OneDrive.

Connect to an Azure web app using FileZilla, transfer and upload files from your computer to the site root, and verify the updated index reflects in the web app.

Choose the right version for your web application platform in application settings, selecting .NET, PHP, Python, or Java versions to ensure compatibility.

Explore authentication and authorization in Azure App Services, including social providers and Azure Active Directory authentication, with a live walkthrough of creating an app and enforcing login.

Learn to use Application Insights to troubleshoot web apps with stats on fail requests, response times, availability, dependencies, and both server and client side issues, plus Microsoft troubleshooting guides.

Configure azure web app backups with a storage account and blob, set schedule and retention, and enable keeping at least one backup. Learn restore from app backups, storage, or snapshot.

Map your custom domain to your Azure app service, verify ownership with a DNS CNAME record, and enable TLS for secure traffic during DNS propagation.

Configure custom ssl settings by importing or uploading certificates from providers, bind them to the site, and manage client side certificate options for secure certificate usage.

Connect your web app to on-premises data via hybrid connections and enable VNet integration for private connectivity, while using Azure content delivery network for global caching and IP restrictions.

Run scripts in Azure App Service web jobs to operate with your web, API, or mobile apps. Upload a script, choose continuous or single-instance execution, and schedule it with cron.

Discover how Azure web app push notifications target a specific user on a device, using a web API to register and deliver messages to mobile apps and websites.

Learn how to add a MySQL database to a web app using Azure web app, enable backend storage, save configurations, and access data export and import, queries, and transaction logs.

Explore Azure web apps options such as properties, locks, and automations to view hosting IP addresses, set deployment credentials, enforce read-only access, and generate a template to redeploy configurations.

Discover how app service plans manage web servers, monitor CPU and memory usage, host multiple apps, scale up or out, and configure storage, alerts, and health checks.

Explore Azure web apps development tools, including console access, advanced tools, performance testing, resource explorer, extensions, and the app service editor to diagnose, extend, and deploy web applications.

Understand how mobile apps use a front end linked to a database, with Azure app services, easy tables or SQL databases, and APIs to connect cloud and on premise apps.

Monitor azure web apps with alerts and diagnostic logs for cpu utilization, memory, traffic, and network; configure storage retention and review log streams for troubleshooting.

Explore Azure Traffic Manager, a global routing service that connects multiple endpoints to reduce latency and improve availability by directing users to the nearest healthy web app and performing failover.

Explore Azure traffic manager routing methods, including priority, weighted, performance, and geographic, and learn how each directs traffic to primary, backup, or secondary endpoints to optimize latency.

understand weighted routing with traffic manager, distributing traffic by weights such as 70/30 or 50/50 to suit web app capacity and performance.

Discover how Azure traffic manager routes traffic between two web apps across regions using location and DNS entries, with health checks, retries, and a configurable timeout for outages and blips.

Explore performance-based routing with Azure traffic manager, directing users to the closest endpoint—East Asia or Central U.S.—based on geographic location.

Direct users to region-specific endpoints using geographic routing in traffic manager based on their DNS query origin, enabling data sovereignty, localization, and regional traffic insights.

Create two web apps named replication one and replication two in East Asia and central U.S., behind a traffic manager, and configure routing to direct traffic to correct replication endpoints.

Create a traffic manager profile in the Azure portal, select geographic routing, and map endpoints to two web apps in different locations.

Set up Azure Traffic Manager profiles by configuring geographic routing, DNS name, health probes, and real-time latency heat maps across Azure, external, and nested endpoints.

Configure and test Azure Traffic Manager across multiple endpoints, verify routing to the nearest location via DNS, and demonstrate replication between East Asia and Central US.

Explore Azure's fully managed relational database as a service with automatic performance tuning, extensive monitoring, and geo-replication for high availability and security.

Secure Azure school databases by enforcing TLS in transit encryption and transparent data encryption at rest, implement firewall rules, and use AD or SQL authentication with auditing and threat detection.

Explore database platform continuum from on-premises physical servers and virtual machines to cloud infrastructure service and platform service with Azure, comparing cost, administration, and responsibilities.

Explore Azure PaaS vs IaaS for database provisioning, showing Azure SQL Database as a managed PaaS with built-in features, contrasted with SQL Server on a VM offering full control.

Explore Azure SQL PaaS capabilities with automatic threat detection and self-tuning. Learn how dynamic data masking, query store, and index advisor protect data, optimize performance, and support compliant migrations.

Discover how Azure automatically backs up databases, enables a point-in-time restore, and supports geographical redundancy with a default seven-day retention adjustable to thirty-five days, at an added cost.

Build Azure SQL databases in the cloud by creating a database, selecting a server, and choosing blank or sample data; learn to use elastic pools to share resources.

Enable inbound connections by configuring the set server firewall, whitelisting your IP or a range, and enabling networking with a virtual network for access via Eskil management studio and Excel.

Connect to the university database on a virtual machine with SQL Management Studio by entering the server name and credentials to query Adventure Works tables.

Learn how to connect Microsoft Excel to Azure SQL databases, select databases and tables, and view data while exploring firewall rules and port access for secure connections.

Export your database content to a blob storage container using the export button, selecting database, storage account, and container to create a backup file.

Import a database from bacpac files in blob storage by selecting the storage account, container, and backup file, then configure name, collation, and credentials to create the new database.

Verify the state of Azure SQL DB export and import in a lab, review the log of operations, and observe two databases on the same server after import.

Copy Azure SQL DB to the same or a different server to create a point-in-time snapshot for restores, with credential management via Azure AD and UI, PowerShell, or Azure CLI.

Verify azure sql db copy operation by inspecting the server for a second copy, then confirm identical table sets via query editor and login, ensuring copy success and ongoing monitoring.

Monitor Azure SQL databases by configuring dashboards, adding and customizing metrics and charts, exporting data, and using insights to troubleshoot performance and costs.

Explore vertical scaling of Azure SQL by configuring options such as elastic, basic, standard, or premium and adjust memory; learn about core purchasing options and geographic replication.

Activate geo replication for Azure SQL to maintain a read-only secondary database in a different region, ensuring disaster-tolerant failover if the east coast data center goes down.

Learn how to perform a geo-replication failover by promoting the central U.S. secondary to primary when the East U.S. primary fails, with potential data loss and a brief downtime.

Verify failover by confirming replication from central us as primary to east coast as secondary, ensuring a quick switch and data movement between sites.

Learn to configure SQL connection strings and ODBC connections for applications, copy and paste a sample code, and adjust credentials and attributes for secure database access.

Learn to synchronize a hub database with multiple member databases using a hub-and-spoke data sync topology, with metadata and logs stored, across Azure and on-premise resources in the same region.

Learn how to sync Azure SQL DB with other databases by configuring a hub and members, including on-premises and Azure, choosing sync direction and conflict resolution, and setting automatic frequency.

Configure hub and member databases for synchronized Azure SQL data, selecting hub, credentials, and 1-to-1 mappings to Azure SQL Server and university databases, with optional on-premises connectivity.

Synchronize hub and member databases in Azure, selecting specific tables and columns with granular options, then monitor initial and delta sync via a dashboard.

Learn how dynamic data masking limits sensitive data exposure by applying customizable masking rules to database fields such as credit cards and phone numbers, balancing privacy with troubleshooting.

Explore Azure advanced threat protection, a unified security suite for Azure SQL that classifies sensitive data, mitigates database vulnerabilities, and detects anomalies through discovery, vulnerability assessment, and threat detection.

Enable data discovery and classification in ATP to discover, label, and protect sensitive data in Azure databases, classifying tables and columns as confidential or highly confidential.

Configures vulnerability assessment for Azure SQL, showing how to enable scans and generate reports. Reports are stored in a storage account container and emailed to security teams for auditing.

Detect anomalous and suspicious database activities, including public access patterns and injection attempts, to trigger security alerts, identify vulnerabilities, and use Azure Security Center to investigate, mitigate, and escalate threats.

Enable auditing to track database activities, store logs in Azure storage, and configure retention, reports, and dashboards for detecting anomalies and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Discover how transparent data encryption protects data at rest in Azure databases with real-time encryption of data, backups, and logs, using a database encryption key protected by a key vault.

Discover how on-premises Active Directory evolves into Azure Active Directory, compare native AD with Azure AD, and learn about synchronization, risk design, and security features for AZ-900 to AZ-104.

Explore Active Directory as the centralized repository for users, groups, computers, and organizational units, managed by domain controllers, group policy, and forest, domain, and sites structure for authentication across applications.

Explore Azure Active Directory, a cloud-based multi-tenant directory that provides identity and access management, single sign-on to thousands of cloud apps, and on-premises synchronization with Active Directory.

Explore how on premise Active Directory across multiple regions synchronizes with Azure Radie to enable single sign on for cloud apps like Office, sales force, and Dropbox.

Explore Azure Active Directory editions, compare free vs premium features, note free edition limits like password reset and multi-factor authentication, and review audience synchronization and identity protection.

Explore the Azure Active Directory dashboard to view domain names, authentication statistics, and quick links to create users, groups, or enterprise applications, and learn on-premise to cloud user synchronization.

Create a global admin in Azure Active Directory by adding a new user, assign global admin privileges, and enforce password change on first login.

Explore auditing of Azure AD objects by reviewing sign-in events, user and group changes, and credential updates, with details like request IDs, IP addresses, devices, and timestamps for investigations.

Audit Azure AD objects by exporting event data, downloading logs, and streaming events to a storage account; configure diagnostics, set retention per governance, and visualize with Power BI.

Explore how AD Connect synchronizes on-premise users to create identity across cloud apps like Office 365, Dynamics, Salesforce, and Dropbox, and examine password hash sync, write-back, and delete prevention.

Explore AD Connect filtering to limit which objects synchronize to Azure, using granular rules based on domains and specific attributes, preventing a big bang sync on about 25,000 objects.

Discover the AD Connect password writeback feature, which synchronizes on-premises password hashes to the cloud, enabling cloud resets and syncing changes back to on-premise Active Directory to apply on-prem policies.

Explore how Azure AD Connect password hash sync mirrors on-prem passwords to Azure, enabling sign-in to SaaS apps with a single password and reducing helpdesk costs.

Learn how the AD Connect prevent accidental deletes feature protects against unintended deletions by capping exports at 500 objects, sending email alerts, and displaying status in the synchronization service manager.

Explore the Azure AD Connect device writeback feature, which strengthens security by granting access only to trusted devices and enabling register and writeback to optimize Active Directory.

The AD Connect automatic upgrade feature keeps binaries up to date by deploying latest releases to member servers, with default enabled and a toggle to adjust behavior.

Synchronize on-premise user accounts to Azure AD using the AD Connect tool, downloaded from the official site after temporarily disabling the server's security policy on a domain controller.

Install AD Connect using express settings on a member server to synchronize on-premises users to Azure AD using global and enterprise admin credentials; wait 10–15 minutes for users to appear.

Verify AD sync between on-premise and azure ad by checking the user console, confirming which accounts—via the on-premise data synchronization tool service account—have synchronized.

Identify and manage the on-premises directory synchronization service account, tied to the domain controller, with a non-expiring password and a restricted directory synchronization role.

Explains how multi-factor authentication protects logins by combining two or more factors, detailing five factors: something you know, something you have, something you are, location, and what you do.

Demonstrates enabling multifactor authentication for users in Azure AD, selecting MFA methods (phone, app, form), and validating sign-ins with enterprise applications access and portal branding.

Discover how to implement company branding in enterprise apps by configuring banner logos, background images, sign-in pages, user hints, and legal disclaimers to display the enterprise identity.

Publish enterprise applications from the Microsoft enterprise applications gallery using the console. Add new applications, select from categorized gallery options such as Dropbox for business, and publish to users.

Publish the Dropbox for business app to users synchronized from on premise, review app registrations, owners, and permissions, and grant access by adding users or groups in enterprise applications.

Publish enterprise applications like Dropbox to users, verify access with a test account in private mode, and learn how to publish custom web apps beyond the marketplace.

Add your organization's custom domain to Azure Active Directory; the default domain cannot be changed or deleted. Verify DNS records (TXT or MX) at your registrar and wait for propagation.

Explore how conditional access in Azure Active Directory enables automated access decisions to cloud apps, balancing security and productivity across sign-in risk, location, device, and client app considerations.

Demonstrates configuring a conditional access policy in Azure AD to allow Alice to log in only from the United States, with MFA and device requirements.

Explore conditional access auditing and risky sign-ins in Azure Active Directory, review risk events and IP-based detections, and manage resolutions or whitelisting to protect tenants.

Learn how to protect resources and maintain operations by applying business continuity and disaster recovery concepts, the continuity of operations plan, and recovery time objectives in Azure.

Learn how Azure Site Recovery maintains business continuity by replicating workloads and virtual machines across regions, enabling failover during outages and seamless failback, with backup to Azure storage.

Understand Azure Site Recovery architecture, including VM replica in the Central US target region, Site Recovery extension Mobility Service, outbound connectivity, and port 20000 firewall considerations for replication.

Initiate a failover to create virtual machines in the target resource group with a target virtual network and subnet, plus an availability set, then select a recovery point.

Explore azure site recovery features for replication, failover, and failback from a single portal, protecting azure and on-premises workloads with tests, recovery plans, and automation runbooks.

Set up an Azure Site Recovery vault in a different region from your virtual machines to enable failover, while backups stay in the same region.

Learn how to configure Azure site recovery prerequisites, select on-premises and Azure sources, and set up replication for VMs across regions and resource groups.

Enable replication from azure east coast to azure west coast, then monitor items and health as status appears, with 15 minutes to show and up to an hour to complete.

Monitor replication status as it moves from initialising to synchronizing data across the east and west coasts. Note the zero percent synchronization and use the health graph for disaster recovery.

Assess the replication health in Azure Site Recovery, review the recovery point objective of four minutes and a four-hour replication cycle, and plan a simulated failover to verify DR readiness.

Trigger failover, choose recovery point options (latest point, lowest rpo, or custom point), and verify workloads replicate from east to west, appearing in the west coast.

Verify failover by examining the virtual machine in the correct resource group and region, review storage account replication and recovery settings, and explore configuring backups for machines.

Install the azure replication agent on the source server to enable replication to the storage account, and install the site recovery mobility service agent on the target to handle synchronization.

Explore Azure backups as a cloud-based service that protects and restores data across cloud and on premises, replacing traditional tape-based solutions with secure, cost-effective, agile backup components.

Explore how azure backup automates storage management across hybrid environments, with pay as you use cloud storage, app-consistent backups, replication options, encryption, and long-term retention.

Navigate to the getting started backups section, choose your workload, install the on-premises backup agent, download vault credentials, and register the server to back up files, folders, or Hyper-V VMs.

Register and launch the recovery services agent, access the Azure backup console, and schedule file and folder backups with exclusions, retention policies, and multiple daily backup options.

Explore as your backup agent dashboard to identify protected items, select a recovery point, mount the backup as a drive, and restore individual files or volumes via Azure Site Recovery.

Discover how to restore data using mount points by accessing cloud backups, locating deleted content, and copying files back to their original folders to recover intellectual property.

Verify data restoration by restoring individual components from backups, demonstrating selective recovery that safeguards data integrity.

Verify backup and site recovery activities from the GUI and reporting, review completed and in-progress jobs, and configure alerts and Power BI reports to monitor recovery time objectives.

Learn to clean up the lab by stopping synchronization and backups, disabling applications, and removing replicated and backup items, including deleting the Azure Site Recovery vault.