AZ-104Free Study Guide

Microsoft Azure Administrator AZ-104The Complete Beginner's Guide

Complete AZ-104 Azure Administrator study guide — identity, storage, compute, networking, and monitoring for Azure admins.

168 chapters
~70 hours total read
Free — no signup required

How to use this guide

This guide works best as a loop: read a chapter, test yourself with practice questions, look up unfamiliar terms in the glossary, then move to the next chapter.

① Read a chapter② Answer practice questions③ Review missed answers④ Repeat
Study Chapters

168 chapters covering every exam objective. Each chapter includes key concepts, exam tips, common traps, comparison tables, and a 5-question quiz at the end.

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Practice Questions

Free timed and untimed practice with instant feedback and full explanations. Pick 10–120 questions per session. Filter by domain to drill your weak areas.

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Glossary

Every AZ-104term defined and searchable. Use it when a chapter mentions a concept you haven't seen before or want a quick refresher on.

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Exam Overview

Exam blueprint, domain weights, passing score, duration, cost, and registration links. Start here if you're new to this certification.

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Implement and Manage Virtual Networking (15–20%)

41 chapters

Domain overview
1

VPN Gateway and ExpressRoute

Objective 4.4 · Networking

12m
25

Azure Virtual Networks and Subnets

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
26

Network Security Groups (NSG)

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
27

VNet Peering and Global VNet Peering

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
28

Azure Load Balancer

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
29

Azure Application Gateway and WAF

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
30

Azure DNS and Private DNS Zones

Objective 4.3 · Networking

25m
31

Azure Firewall

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
32

Azure Bastion

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
115

User-Defined Routes (UDR) and Route Tables

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
116

Service Endpoints vs Private Endpoints

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
117

Azure Private Link Service

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
118

Application Security Groups (ASG)

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
119

Service Tags in NSG Rules

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
120

Cross-Subscription and Cross-Region VNet Peering

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
121

Subnet Delegation in Azure

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
122

IPv6 in Azure Virtual Networks

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
123

Azure NAT Gateway

Objective 4.1 · Networking

25m
124

Azure Front Door and CDN Profiles

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
125

Azure Traffic Manager Routing Methods

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
126

Azure CDN Profiles and Rules Engine

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
127

Public IP Address SKUs and Allocation Methods

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
128

Public IP Address Prefixes

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
129

Load Balancer Frontend, Backend, and Health Probe Rules

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
130

Application Gateway v2 Autoscaling

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
131

Application Gateway Ingress Controller for AKS

Objective 4.2 · Networking

25m
132

Azure DDoS Protection Standard

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
133

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Policies

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
134

Azure Firewall Premium Features

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
135

Azure Firewall Policy and Rule Collections

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
136

Azure Route Server

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
137

ExpressRoute Global Reach and FastPath

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
138

VPN Gateway BGP Configuration

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
139

Point-to-Site VPN Gateway

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
140

Azure Virtual WAN

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
141

Hub-and-Spoke Network Topology on Azure

Objective 4.4 · Networking

25m
142

Network Virtual Appliances (NVA)

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
143

Just-in-Time VM Access

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
144

Azure DNS Private Resolver

Objective 4.3 · Networking

25m
145

Azure Bastion Standard vs Developer SKU

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m
146

Azure Connection Monitor v2

Objective 4.5 · Networking

25m

Manage Azure Identities and Governance (15–20%)

35 chapters

Domain overview
2

Dynamic Membership Groups

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
3

Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
4

Managed Identities for Azure Resources

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
7

Microsoft Entra ID Users and Groups

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
8

Azure RBAC Role Assignments

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
9

Azure AD Connect and Hybrid Identity

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
10

Azure Policy and Initiatives

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
11

Management Groups and Subscriptions

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
12

Resource Locks and Tag Governance

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
13

Azure Blueprints for Compliance

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
39

MFA and Passwordless Authentication in Entra

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
40

External Identities and B2B Collaboration

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
41

Access Reviews in Entra ID

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
42

Entitlement Management and Access Packages

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
43

Azure AD Application Proxy

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
44

Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR)

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
45

Azure AD Domain Services (AADDS)

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
46

Custom Domains in Entra ID

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
47

Administrative Units in Entra

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
48

App Registrations and Service Principals

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
49

Named Locations and Conditional Access Policies

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
50

Token Lifetime and Session Control Policies

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
51

Identity Protection Risk Policies

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
52

Custom RBAC Role Definitions

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
53

Cross-Tenant Synchronization

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
54

Emergency Access Break-Glass Accounts

Objective 1.1 · Identity Governance

25m
55

Resource Tagging Strategy and Enforcement

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
56

Azure Cost Management and Budgets

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
57

Azure Lighthouse for Multi-Tenant Management

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
58

Azure Arc for Servers

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
59

Subscription Transfer and Resource Move Operations

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
60

Azure Policy Remediation Tasks

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
61

Azure Compliance Dashboard and Regulatory Standards

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
62

Deny Assignments and Resource Locks Deep Dive

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m
63

Well-Architected Framework: Governance Pillar

Objective 1.2 · Identity Governance

25m

Implement and Manage Storage (15–20%)

24 chapters

Domain overview
5

Customer-Managed Keys (CMK) for Storage Encryption

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
14

Azure Storage Accounts

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
15

Azure Files and Azure File Sync

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
16

Securing Azure Storage (SAS, Keys, Firewall)

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
17

AzCopy and Storage Explorer

Objective 2.4 · Storage

25m
64

Storage Redundancy: LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS Compared

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
65

Blob Versioning and Soft Delete

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
66

Azure Blob Object Replication

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
67

Blob Lifecycle Management Policies

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
68

Immutable Blob Storage: Legal Hold and Time-Based Retention

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
69

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
70

Azure Import/Export Service and Data Box

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
71

Azure NetApp Files

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
72

Premium File Shares and NFS

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
73

Azure Queue and Table Storage

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m
74

Storage Account Failover and RA-GZRS

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
75

Private Endpoints for Azure Storage

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
76

SAS Token Types: Account, Service, User Delegation

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
77

Storage Firewall and Virtual Network Rules

Objective 2.3 · Storage

25m
78

Blob Storage Events with Event Grid

Objective 2.4 · Storage

25m
79

Azure File Share Backup via Recovery Vault

Objective 2.4 · Storage

25m
80

Managing Blob Access Tiers at Scale

Objective 2.4 · Storage

25m
167

Azure Blob Storage Access Tiers

Objective 2.1 · Storage

25m
168

Static Website Hosting on Azure Blob

Objective 2.2 · Storage

25m

Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Resources (20–25%)

42 chapters

Domain overview
6

Generalizing and Capturing VM Images

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
18

Azure Virtual Machine Deployment

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
19

VM Availability Sets and Zones

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
20

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
21

Azure App Service Plans and Web Apps

Objective 3.2 · Compute

25m
22

Azure Container Instances and AKS Basics

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
23

Azure Functions for Administrators

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
24

ARM Templates and Bicep

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m
81

VM Extensions: Custom Script, DSC, Diagnostics

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
82

Azure Managed Disk Types: HDD, SSD, Premium, Ultra

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
83

Disk Snapshots and Custom VM Images

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
84

Azure Compute Gallery and Image Versioning

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
85

Azure Spot VMs and Eviction Policy

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
86

Reserved Instances and Savings Plans

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
87

VM Boot Diagnostics and Serial Console

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
88

Azure Disk Encryption: BitLocker and dm-crypt

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
89

Azure Dedicated Hosts

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
90

Proximity Placement Groups

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
91

Linux VMs on Azure: cloud-init and Extensions

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
92

VM Run Command and Invoke Script

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
93

Ephemeral OS Disks for VMs and AKS

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
94

Azure Update Management Center

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
95

Azure Automanage for VMs

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
96

Azure Batch for HPC Workloads

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
97

Azure VMware Solution (AVS)

Objective 3.1 · Compute

25m
98

App Service Deployment Slots and Swapping

Objective 3.2 · Compute

25m
99

App Service Autoscaling Rules

Objective 3.2 · Compute

25m
100

App Service Custom Domains and TLS Certificates

Objective 3.2 · Compute

25m
101

App Service VNet Integration

Objective 3.2 · Compute

25m
102

Azure Container Registry (ACR)

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
103

AKS Node Pools and Cluster Upgrades

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
104

AKS Networking: Azure CNI vs Kubenet

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
105

AKS Scaling: HPA, KEDA, Cluster Autoscaler

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
106

AKS RBAC and Workload Identity

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
107

AKS Monitoring: Container Insights and Prometheus

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
108

Azure Container Apps vs AKS vs ACI

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
109

Azure Logic Apps Workflows

Objective 3.3 · Compute

25m
110

Bicep and ARM Template Advanced Patterns

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m
111

Azure Template Specs

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m
112

Azure Deployment Stacks

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m
113

What-If Analysis for ARM Deployments

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m
114

Azure Resource Graph Queries

Objective 3.4 · Compute

25m

Monitor and Maintain Azure Resources (10–15%)

26 chapters

Domain overview
33

Azure Monitor and Log Analytics

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
34

Azure Alerts and Action Groups

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
35

Azure Backup and Recovery Services Vault

Objective 5.2 · Monitoring

25m
36

Azure Site Recovery

Objective 5.2 · Monitoring

25m
37

Cost Management and Billing Analysis

Objective 5.3 · Monitoring

25m
38

Azure Network Watcher

Objective 5.4 · Monitoring

25m
147

Log Analytics Workspace Design and Data Retention

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
148

KQL Queries for Azure Monitoring

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
149

Azure Monitor Workbooks

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
150

Azure Dashboards and Shared Dashboards

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
151

Azure Metrics Explorer

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
152

Diagnostic Settings and Log Routing

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
153

Activity Log and Change History

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
154

Resource Health and Azure Service Health

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
155

Azure Advisor Recommendations

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
156

Change Tracking and Inventory

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
157

Azure Automation Runbooks

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
158

Azure Arc Monitoring for Hybrid VMs

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
159

Container Insights for AKS

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
160

VM Insights and Dependency Agent

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
161

Log Alerts vs Metric Alerts vs Activity Log Alerts

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
162

Autoscale Profiles and Schedule Rules

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
163

Data Collection Rules (DCR) and Azure Monitor Agent

Objective 5.1 · Monitoring

25m
164

Azure Site Recovery Monitoring and Reporting

Objective 5.2 · Monitoring

25m
165

Cost Alerts and Budget Thresholds

Objective 5.3 · Monitoring

25m
166

Application Change Analysis

Objective 5.4 · Monitoring

25m

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AZ-104 Practice Questions