AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification

Lesson 1 • Cloud Computing Core Concepts

Covers IaaS, PaaS, SaaS models and shared responsibility. Provides the conceptual baseline required for every subsequent Azure service decision.

Lesson 2 • Azure Portal and CLI Navigation

Introduces the Azure portal, Azure CLI, and PowerShell as management interfaces. Builds hands-on fluency needed for all lab exercises ahead.

Lesson 3 • Azure Account and Subscription Structure

Explains management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups. Students learn how billing and governance boundaries are organized in Azure.

Lesson 1 • Multi-Factor Authentication and Conditional Access

Configures MFA methods and Conditional Access policies to enforce context-aware authentication. Directly reduces identity-based attack surface.

Lesson 2 • Role-Based Access Control

Teaches built-in and custom RBAC roles, scope levels, and assignment. Students apply least-privilege access to subscriptions, resource groups, and resources.

Lesson 3 • Hybrid Identity and Azure AD Connect

Explains synchronization of on-premises identities to Azure AD. Students configure sync options and understand federation scenarios.

Lesson 4 • Azure Active Directory Essentials

Covers Azure AD tenants, users, groups, and licences. Establishes identity as the control plane for all Azure resource access.

Lesson 1 • Azure Policy Authoring and Assignment

Covers policy definitions, initiatives, and assignment scopes. Students enforce resource configuration standards and audit non-compliant resources.

Lesson 2 • Cost Management and Budgets

Uses Azure Cost Management to analyse spending and set budget alerts. Students optimise resource costs and forecast future expenditure.

Lesson 3 • Azure Blueprints and Landing Zones

Packages policies, roles, and templates into repeatable environment definitions. Students deploy consistent, compliant landing zones at scale.

Lesson 1 • Virtual Network Design and Subnetting

Covers VNet address spaces, subnet planning, and IP allocation. Students design non-overlapping network topologies that support future growth.

Lesson 2 • Azure DNS and Name Resolution

Configures public and private DNS zones for Azure resources. Students resolve names across VNets and integrate with on-premises DNS.

Lesson 3 • VNet Peering and Routing

Establishes connectivity between VNets using peering and custom route tables. Students control traffic flow across network boundaries.

Lesson 4 • Load Balancing and Traffic Management

Compares Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, and Traffic Manager. Students select and configure the right service for each traffic pattern.

Lesson 1 • Azure VPN Gateway Configuration

Deploys site-to-site and point-to-site VPN connections using VPN Gateway. Students configure IKE policies, shared keys, and gateway SKUs.

Lesson 2 • Azure Bastion and Private Endpoints

Eliminates public VM exposure using Azure Bastion and secures PaaS access via Private Endpoints. Students remove attack surface from management paths.

Lesson 3 • Azure Firewall and Network Virtual Appliances

Deploys Azure Firewall for centralised traffic inspection and threat intelligence. Students compare managed firewall services with third-party NVAs.

Lesson 1 • Virtual Machine Deployment and Configuration

Covers VM sizes, images, disks, and extensions for initial deployment. Students provision VMs via portal, CLI, and ARM templates.

Lesson 2 • VM Storage and Disk Management

Manages managed disks, snapshots, and disk encryption for VMs. Students optimize disk performance tiers and implement data protection.

Lesson 3 • Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Deploys and autoscales identical VM instances using VMSS. Students configure scaling rules, health probes, and rolling upgrade policies.

Lesson 4 • VM Availability and Resilience

Configures availability sets, zones, and maintenance controls to meet SLA targets. Students design VM deployments that survive hardware and zone failures.

Lesson 1 • Azure File Sync and Storage Migration

Extends on-premises file servers to Azure using Azure File Sync. Students plan and execute storage migrations with minimal downtime.

Lesson 2 • Blob, File, Queue, and Table Storage

Explains each storage service's use case, structure, and configuration. Students match workload requirements to the correct storage service.

Lesson 3 • Azure Backup and Recovery Services

Configures Recovery Services vaults, backup policies, and restore operations. Students protect VMs, files, and databases with compliant retention schedules.

Lesson 4 • Azure Storage Account Configuration

Covers storage account kinds, performance tiers, and replication options. Students select the right configuration for cost, durability, and access patterns.

Lesson 1 • Application Insights and Distributed Tracing

Instruments applications with Application Insights for performance and failure monitoring. Students trace requests across distributed services and set availability tests.

Lesson 2 • Log Analytics and KQL Queries

Ingests diagnostic logs into Log Analytics workspaces and queries them with KQL. Students extract actionable insights from structured and unstructured log data.

Lesson 3 • Azure Monitor and Metrics

Collects platform metrics and configures metric alerts for Azure resources. Students build dashboards that surface real-time resource health.

Lesson 4 • Azure Alerts and Action Groups

Designs alert rules across metric, log, and activity log signal types. Students route notifications and automated responses through action groups.